Rosina Beatrice LINTOTT (later ASHTON) (1897-1930)

Rosina Beatrice Lintott (1897-1930), known as Rosie, was the fiancée of George Sladden from 1915-1919.

Rosie Lintott was born in Hampstead, London, in 1897, the second of three children of George Edward Lintott, a mechanical engineer, and his wife, Fanny (née Ives).  She was baptised at Lancing, Sussex (where her maternal grandparents lived), on 7th August 1898.

On 1901 the Lintotts were living at 159A Hencourt Road Court, Hampstead.  Rosie’s father died in March 1906 at Hendon when she was eight years old.  The following year, Rosie’s mother married again to Edward William Wilkinson, a fishmonger.  Rosie became half-sister to Edward (c1906), Fanny (1908), Lorna (1913) and James Frank (1915).

By 1911 they were living at 8 Whitchurch Lane, Little Stanmore, Middlesex, in 1911.  On leaving school, Rosie worked as a telephone operator. 

In November 1915 Rosie, who was just 18 at the time, became engaged to George Sladden (who was nearly 12 years her senior).  They had met at Watford through her uncle, John William Lintott, who was a colleague of George’s in the Civil Service Rifles.  They had known each other for over a year by the time they became engaged, but the family did not know about Rosie’s existence until George broke the surprise news in a letter of 27th November 1915.  Not all of the family was approving.  Rosie was just a month or two older than Juliet, George’s youngest sister.

In June 1916 Rosie moved to a new job with Machin & Kingsley, who had an import and export trade in cotton and various fancy goods.  Rosie undertook ledger work and was in charge of the petty cash and the stationery stores.

In March 1918, Rosie and her sister, Alice, plus two friends, moved into a flat in Highgate.  The Lintott girls did not get on with their step-father so were keen to move out.

George returned to England from France at the end of October 1918.  It seems that the couple broke off their engagement early in 1919.  They were certainly still together as at November 1918 as Mela Brown Constable speculated whether Rosie and George would be married before herself and Cyril, although Kathleen had got the impression that there was no hurry for them to get married.

Rosie’s mother died in January 1919, aged only 45, which was possibly about the time the engagement ended.  On 10th April 1919, Rosie, then living at 19 Waverley Road, South Woodford, E18, enrolled with the Women’s Royal Air Force, being employed as a general clerk at 4 Henrietta Street at 31/6 per week.  She gave her 16-year-old brother, George Edward Lintott (Jock), still living at Whitchurch Lane, as next of kin.

By the end of 1919, Rosie had met and married someone else:  Joseph Ronald Ashton, a cabinet maker.  They had two children, Ronald Anthony (1921) and Beryl P (1923), and lived at 1 Hamilton Road, Ilford, Essex.

On 25th June 1927, Rosie and her husband and two children left London on "Osterley", a steamship of the Orient Line, bound for Australia.  In 1928 they were living at Aldergrove, Newstead Terrace, Brisbane, Queensland.

But Rosie was not to enjoy her new life for long.  Three years after arriving in Australia, Rosie died on 25th August 1930 in Brisbane.  She was buried at Lutwyche Cemetery, Brisbane.  Her widowed husband later remarried; he died in Brisbane on 6th February 1968 and was also buried at Lutwyche Cemetery.