Ethel Tallent / Leskovych (1908 - 1973)

Ethel Audrey Tallent is one of the “outlayers:” not a direct ancestor.  Her mother was a Watson – which is why she is included.  I was going to write a story about her mother, but seeing that my mother actually met Ethel, I’ve decided to write instead about Ethel.

Ethel Audrey Tallent, was born 15 April 1908, with the birth being registered in Hendon, Middlesex.  Hendon is 11 km northeast of London, and has been part of Greater London since 1965.  She had one sibling: an older brother named Robert Alfred Watson Tallent, who was born on 14 May 1903 in Lowestoft.  Her parents were Ellen (nee Watson) and Robert Tallent.

Ethel’s mother Ellen, or Nellie as she was known, was born on 13 July 1868.  She

married Robert Tallent in 1902 in Lowestoft, when she was 34 (and he was 35). Ellen had her first child the following year.  It may be common to have children in your late 30s at the beginning of the 21^st Century but was unusual a century before.  Ellen was about to turn 40 when Ethel was born!  Robert Tallent, Ethel’s father died in late 1912, when Ethel was four years old. 

Ethel and her brother, Robert, grew up in London with their mother, Ellen; Ethel spent her whole life in the London district. Ellen Tallent died when Ethel was 33.  At that time Ellen was living in Ipswich, Suffolk.  Ipswich is about 70 km from Lowestoft, and was where Ethel’s brother, Robert Tallent, lived with his wife and three children. 

Ethel corresponded with the Australian branch of the Watson family: exchanging letters with her cousin’s daughter, Clara Woolley, who was two years older than her.  They had a lot in common – well, they had two main things in common – they both married at about the age of 42 and they both had no children!  Ethel married Fidor Leskovych in 1950.  Fidor Leskovych, a Ukranian, had been forcibly moved to Germany as a farm labourer during World War II, and had sought refuge in Britain immediately after the war.

In 1965 Helen and Gary Hilton visited Ethel and Fidor at their home in Carbone Hill, Hatfield, Herforshire: about 30 km north of London. Fortunately they took a photo of the event!

Ethel Audrey Leskovych died in 1973, she was 64. 

Relationship to SNR = cousin of Great-great-grandmother