Annie Gwendoline BUTLER (née WINTER) (1878-?)

Annie Gwendoline Butler, née Winter (1878-?), known as Gwen, was the wife of Charlie Butler who was the nephew of Eugénie Sladden. 

Gwen was born in Kensington in 1878, the youngest of five children of Charles Albert Winter, JP, of 2 Airlie Gardens, Kensington.  She was educated at a boarding school on St Michael’s Road, Holdenhurst, Bournemouth, Dorset, where she was with her sister, Pearl, at the time of the 1891 census.

Gwen married Charles Rupert Butler on 31^st October 1900 at St Mary Abbot’s Church, Kensington.  A newspaper report of the time described it as a fashionable wedding with no fewer than eight bridesmaids.  After the wedding, the couple left for a Continental honeymoon tour.

At the time of the 1901 census, Gwen and Charlie were living at 7 Sloane Gardens, Chelsea.  They had one son and one daughter:  Iris Gwendoline (1901-1983) and Charles Desmond Norcott (1904-1976).  In 1911, Gwen was living at 13 Park Crescent, London, with her two children and eight servants, with Charlie away from home.

Charlie died suddenly of a heart attack at the Savoy Court Hotel, London, on 19^th March 1915.  Gwen was with him at the time.  She is referred to as “his poor widow” in a letter of 29^th March 1915 by her mother-in-law, Fanny Butler.  A letter of 2^nd April 1915 by Fanny’s sister, Polly Robinson, reveals that Fanny went to stay with her daughter-in-law for a couple of days, and accompanied her to the funeral at Windlesham Church.

It is not known what happened to Annie after Charlie’s death, but newspaper reports of August 1915 reveal that New Place, Sunningdale, where Charlie had been listed as a private resident, was put up for sale, together with all its contents.