Adelaide Hervieu nee Calipé

Adelaide/Adelaine Hervieu nee Calipe probably came to Canvey Island in the early 1920s. Very little is known about her life, where she was born or her marriage and children. Her grave was recently unearthed in St Katherine’s Churchyard and we have been piecing together the little we can find with the help of Ray Woodberry.

According to the inscription on the side of her grave  which is in French, she is the Aunt of Casimir Calipe who was a jeweller living in London. The inscription reads in English as ‘This stone was erected by Cassimir and Aimee Calipe for our dear Aunt Adelaide Hervieu nee Calipe died 17th June 1929. She was 95 when she died.

Adelaide was living at Villa de Roses in Mornington Crescent at the time of her death and Casimir and his wife Amiee were registered there in the 1929-1934 Electoral Registers. In 1922 Amiee Calipe can be found buying land in what was the Standerwick Park Estate and there are plans for bungalows on the island in the Sunken Marsh area during 1926 according to papers at the Essex Record Office.

We have not been able to find a marriage for Adelaide but we suspect she is part of Captain Gregson’s family.

Captain Gregson married Rita Patard in 1920. Rita was born Rita Hervieu in Guernsey in 1902 to Jaques and Amy Hervieu. The family name changed at some point to Patard we know this because Jaques (as John) and Amy, who lived briefly at ‘Holly Avay’, Norman Road on Canvey in the early 20s before emigrating to New Zealand with three of their children in 1923, were also using the name Patard at this time.

For two families with the name of Hervieu to be on Canvey at that time and not to be connected would in my opinion be very unlikely.

We have contact with the Gregson family who are currently looking through Captain Gregson’s papers. More information may be forthcoming.

If anyone can add to the information we have so far please make a comment below.

UPDATE: Casimir died in 1934 and his probate records state he still had property on Canvey Island at ‘Villa des Roses’, no street name, although he died at his London abode. His wife Aimee can be found in the 1939 Register at Billericay at a property of the same name. She died in 1945 and her probate records state she lived at a property again of the same name but this time in Station Road, Pitsea.