Ethel Mary Leonora JAPP (née TYRRELL) (1870-1955)

Ethel Mary Leonora Japp, née Tyrrell (1870-1955), was the employer of Mela Brown Constable when she worked in her household from 1913-1914 as governess to her younger children.

Ethel Tyrrell was born on 26th April 1870 at Dover, Kent, the elder of two children of William James Tyrrell and his wife, Edith Mary Leonora (née Raikes).  Her younger sister, Sophia, died aged nine months, leaving Edith an only child.  When Ethel was three, her father also died.

Ethel’s mother married again in 1880 to Andrew Webster Morrice, metal broker and commission agent who was a widower with five sons.  Mother and daughter went to live with him at his home in Oxton.  Soon, three half-siblings came along to add to the five step-siblings.

In 1891, Ethel married Francis Vivian Japp, a shipbroker, in Birkenhead.  At the time of the 1891 census, they were staying at the Hotel Metropole, Brighton, so possibly they were on their honeymoon.

Ethel and Francis had one son and five daughters:  William Neville (1892-1915), Margaret Leonora (1894-1945), Constance Ethel (1897-1987), Nancy Tyrrell (1899-1979), Hester Mary (1901-1991) and Eve (1906-1981).  They lived firstly in Liverpool, then Heswall in Cheshire, then Oxton in Cheshire, before moving to London in the early years of the 20th century where they lived at The Nest, 7 Vanburgh Park, Blackheath, London. 

Francis died in 1919.  Ethel then lived in various places in the London area, until moving to live with her youngest daughter, Eve, and her family at Avon Leys, Tiddington Road, Stratford on Avon.  Ethel died there on 24th January 1955, aged 84.