| We don't know if Thomas William or Emma Jane were present at the wedding as neither signed as witnesses to the marriage and neither for that matter did Alice's:parents,
James Gander had died in Southwark only 4 years previously and it is highly likely that Henry Robert had known his grandfather quite well.
We don't know of any children resulting after the marriage but we know of one son, also named Henry (or Harry as he was known) who was born some 18 months before the marriage on 24 June 1886 in Bermondsey.
Sadly Harry's birth certificate which would give fuller details and genealogical confirmation, cannot be traced despite extensive searches (see Part 6.5). Its absence also raises questions as to who Harry's parents really were, although as Harry himself later acknowledged Henry Robert and Alice Gander as his parents we are "left" having to accept this in the absence of proof to the contrary.
At time of marriage Henry Robert was living at 151 Abbey Street, Bermondsey, and Alice Louisa at 131 Thurlow Street, Bermondsey. Neither were living there at the time of the 1881 census.
Henry Robert and Alice Louisa have both been traced in the 1891 census as occupying one room at 52 Ernest Street, Bermondsey. Henry was a Carman but incorrectly shown as born in Bermondsey (should have been 'Whitechapel'), and Alice shown as born in Kennington, Surrey (part of Lambeth). Most disappointingly, no sign of a 5 year old Harry! Either this is another pointer towards Harry having been informally adopted later on by Henry Robert and Alice - or he was sleeping elsewhere with other relatives on the night of the census. | |
enry
Robert possibly worked with his father or his uncle James Henry.
It's just possible that he could also have worked at one time
with his grandfather James Gander. On his son's marriage in
1909 Henry Robert was still described as a carman; however on his
death he was described as 'of 67 Tabard Street, Southwark, Hawker'.
Quite what sort of Hawker is not clear. It could have meant he sold
goods direct to people at home asa door-to-door salesman, or it
could have meant he had a market stall (a 'Bermondsey Barra'
Boy'?). It's quite possible also he may have had an accident
whilst working as a carman or perhaps suffered ill-health following
unemployment or prolonged bouts of it. 
