Herbert had enlisted in the Royal Marines on 11 November 1880, and was stationed at Deal Barracks on the 1881 census. In 1886 Herbert bought himself out of the Marines and in 1888 he married Ellen Louisa Medcalf, who had been working as a barmaid at the Mason’s Arms in Bow Common Lane, in the parish church of St Leonards in Bromley by Bow. On their marriage certificate it states that he was a labourer. Ellen’s father, William Medcalf, was a ‘brewhouse keeper’, and possibly the landlord of the Masons Arms, but he came originally from Hundon in Suffolk, where Hannah (nee Rogers), Herbert’s mother, had also grown up.

They must have lived for a while at Upton Park, Essex, as their first
child, Herbert was born there in 1890. On the 1891 census, Herbert, Ellen
and Herbert jr, were living at 12 Chiltern Road, Bromley-by-Bow and Herbert
had obtained the position of working as an engine driver at the gas works,
which he was to hold for many years. This job was, in fact, working for the
Gas, Light and Coke Company, which he did until he retired.

On the same census we discover that Herbert’s parents, Thomas 3rd and Hannah had taken the position as Housekeeper and farm Bailiff for a wealthy gentleman, called William Sherborne, at his residence, called Fawn’s Manor, in Bedfont (where Heathrow airport is now). Their youngest son, Charles was also working there as a stable lad. Thomas’s brother, George Brown Washbourn, and his family were also in Bedfornt by this time, possibly working for the same estate, but certainly worshipping in the same church

Herbert sr lived all the rest of his life at 23 Fairfoot Road, Bow, with his unmarried daughter, Elsie, who also worked for the Post Office and his son Alfie and wife Rosie. On William and Harriet’s marriage certificate, his occupation is described as ‘gas worker’. He died on 17th November 1937 aged 74 and is buried in Woodgrange Park Cemetry.