Martha Elizabeth WILSON (née CRISP) (c1852-1930)

Martha Elizabeth Wilson, née Crisp (c1852-1930), was the step-mother of Jessie Wall, the aunt of Mela Brown Constable (fiancée of Cyril Sladden).

Martha Crisp was born about 1852, the daughter of Frederick Crisp.  She married widower Joseph William Wilson on 15th April 1885 in the Church of Scotland, Bombay.  She had not children of her own but became step-mother to Joseph’s 17-year-old daughter, Jessie.  Joseph died in 1905 at Dehra Dun. 

Martha remained living at Dehra Dun.  She lived at Dehra Dun in the cold months and went to Mussoorie in the hot weather.  Dehra Dun was at the foot of the mountain road leading to Mussoorie.

In 1917, Martha’s step-granddaughter, Maud Wall, planned to go out to India to stay with her grandmother, if she could get a passport.  Mela, too, had hopes of trying to get to India in 1917 where she hoped she might meet up with Cyril.  If she was unable to meet up with her friends, she hoped to be able to stay, too, with Maud’s grandmother.  In a letter begun on 6th April 1917, she said:  “She is Aunt Jessie’s step-mother really but the only mother she remembers.”  In the end, Mela never did get to travel to India as a passport was denied.

Martha died at Ashton Lodge, Old Surrey Road, Dehra Dun on 28th March 1930.