Surname originally transcribed as 'Brayed'.
Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert.
Charlotte Olive Boyed was born in 1885, in Whangaroa, Northland, one of the children of American Francis Edward Boyd and New Zealand-born Charlotte nee Hayes.
On 5 November 1900 at the Wesleyan Church, Kaeo, with the consent of the bride’s mother, Charlotte married 28-year-old contractor John George Leslie, Bachelor, also from Kaeo. John was born in 1872 Waiaua, Northland, son of Irishman, William Day Leslie and wife Cecelia Stephenson.
Charlotte Olive and John had one child:
- Valentine Philip (1901–1985)
By 1911, Charlotte Olive was living in Vincent Street, Auckland and John was still in Kaeo working as a bush contractor. In August 1915, she married quarryman Ernest Wadsworth at the Registrar’s Office in Hamilton. Olive stated that she was a widow, and both had resided in Hamilton for the requisite three days. Unfortunately, Charlotte Olive was still married to John Leslie. John applied for a divorce on the grounds of desertion in May 1916. He stated,
Two months after the marriage, petitioner, who was a bushman, returned from work late at night, and found another man in the house with his wife…. When petitioner moved for a divorce, respondent wrote stating that she had been living with another man for six years, and expressed surprise that desertion was the only ground on which he had made application for the dissolution of the marriage.
In December 1916, John Leslie enlisted in the Army, although he was 44 years old, and was sent to Belgium. John was killed in action on 12 October 1917 at Passchendaele. His brother James Francis was killed on the same day, in the same battle. In John’s will worth 700 pounds, he left his estate for the maintenance, education or advancement of his son Valentine.
Ernest Wadsworth served in the Tunnelling Company in WW1, a good use of a miner and quarryman. Charlotte Olive probably did not know her ex-husband had been killed in action, as when she re-married Ernest Wadsworth in 1919 at the Registrar’s Office in Auckland, she declared she was a divorcee. Charlotte Olive and Ernest lived at various addresses in central Auckland where Ernest worked as a carrier, labourer, and including a stint in 1943 as the Rangitoto island caretaker. Ernest also served in WW2.
Charlotte died aged 74 years in 1956 in Auckland and was buried in the Waikumete Cemetery. Ernest died in 1966 aged 78 and was buried in the Soldiers Burial Division of Waikumete Cemetery.
Sources
- Intentions to Marry 1900
- Intentions to Marry Hamilton 1915
- PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16241, 29 May 1916, Page 5
- Archway probate John, military file John, military file Ernest
- Findagrave
- Historical BDMs
- Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)