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​​From details compiled by ADA WALTERS (1984)

WILLIAM WALLACE (b.1792, Shurdington, Glos) married MARY (ANN?) HARDING (Badgeworth, Glos., November 18, 1822), by banns, witnessed by JOHN & MARY Wallace. Eight children -

ISAAC (baptised June 1, 1823)
HANNAH (baptised February 6, 1825)
JOHN (baptised February 4, 1827)
WILLIAM (baptised May 3, 1829)
SARAH (baptised October 9, 1831)
ANN (baptised May 16, 1834)
MATILDA (baptised October 2, 1838)
SAMUEL (baptised July 3, 1845).

JOHN WALLACE married HANNAH SCONE April 8, 1856. Two children - 
JOHN WILLIAM (baptised November 1, 1857)
MARY JANE (baptised March 1, 1861).

JOHN WILLIAM WALLACE married RHODA BEEDLE (or Beedel) on February 11, 1879. At the time of Rhoda's marriage her father, John, was a blacksmith. Five children - WILLIAM THOMAS JOHN (died 1942 age 63) - married KATE LABBETT of Exeter .
RHODA JANE (c.18??) married GEORGE COTTON of Kemerton
MINNIE (18??) - married EDWARD JEENES of Cheltenham
FREDERICK (18??) - married MINNIE LOVERIDGE of Sidford, Devon
NELLIE (18??) - never married ??

William and Kate Wallace were both killed at their flat over the offices of the Pearl Assurance Company at Nos.14-16 High Street, Exeter in the 'Baedeker' air raid on May 4th, 1942. No remains were found. Click HERE to read more about the German Baedeker raids and HERE to see list of Exeter air raid casualties.

A Private HARRY WALLACE (2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment), KIA age 39 is mentioned on the Cheltenham Great War Roll of Honour.​

BELOW: The house in Church Street, Starcross, where Aunt Min lived and which we used to visit when on family holidays in Devon into the 1960s. Seen in a sad and dilapidated state shortly before redevelopment. John  Emerson

CREATED A BARON . . .
SAMUEL WALLACE (b.1845) married Ann ????, date unknown. They had a son, George (baptised July 12, 1881 who married Joyce ????, again date unknown. Their son, GEORGE DOUGLAS WALLACE (b. April 18, 1906) rose to prominence through his political career, being made a Baron - LORD WALLACE of COSLANY - in 1975. He died in 2003, his passing recorded in the obituary columns of the daily newspapers.

Obituary - Daily Telegraph, November 15, 2003
Lord Wallace of Coslany, who died on Tuesday aged 97, was, as George Wallace, elected Labour MP for Chislehurst in the general election of 1945; he lost in 1950 and then had to wait 14 years before being re-elected to the House for a further decade. A diligent, mild-mannered man, Wallace campaigned for social justice, particularly on matters close to his heart such as saving allotments from encroachment by property developers. He was a junior whip from 1947 to 1950. The highlight of this time, he later recalled, was a dinner for Aneurin Bevan to celebrate the launch of the National Health Service - 'the only time in my life I have felt tiddly'.

After losing Chislehurst, Wallace devoted himself to local politics, serving as a Kent county councillor from 1952 to 1957, while attempting to return to the House. He stood in the 1951, 1955 and 1959 general elections before finally winning Norwich North in 1964. Back in the Commons, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Herbert Bowden, Lord President of the Council and Commonwealth Secretary. He was a member of the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen from 1970 to 1974, and proved such a loyal member of his party that he was rewarded with a peerage when he retired after a decade. A cellarman's son, George Douglas Wallace was born at Cheltenham Spa on April 18 1906 and educated at the Central School, Cheltenham, before becoming office boy in a meat company. On moving to Kent, he was elected to Chislehurst and Sidcup urban district council in 1937. He took a particular interest in the council's social services and the upkeep of its parks and gardens, becoming an expert amateur gardener and a President of the London Society of Residential Gardeners.

Wallace served in the RAF from 1941 to 1945, eventually as a sergeant with 11 Group Fighter Command. The combination of his Service background and love of gardening later led to his being appointed as one of the two party political representatives on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1970. He particularly treasured the Commission's annual Gardeners' Service in St George's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, for representatives of British gardeners employed on cemeteries abroad. Afterwards he would entertain them and their families to lunch and take them on a tour of the Houses of Parliament. Wallace was roused to a rare burst of anger in the Upper House when a Thatcherite think-tank listed the Commission as a quango deserving of abolition or privatisation. He pointed out that representatives of every Commonwealth country and the Armed Forces were officially represented on it, and that non-official - unpaid - appointments such as his were made by Royal Warrant, signed by the Queen. Nothing more was heard of the idea.

In the Lords Wallace was a Lord-in-Waiting and Government Whip from 1977 to 1979. He continued in the Opposition Whips' office until 1984, and was a front-bench spokesman on social issues. A staunch supporter of women's rights, Wallace said in a Lords debate on the role of women in society in 1979 that he could not accept the 'back to the sink' philosophy advocated by some peers. 'Women now have equal opportunities, many have brains like men, some a darned sight more,' he declared. He supported demands for their right to work on oil rigs, saying: 'Life on them is tough, but so are women.' Wallace opposed the withdrawal of the pound note and nicknamed the pound coin 'a Maggie, because it is hard, has rough edges, tended to be a nuisance and pretended to be a sovereign'. In 1980 he successfully campaigned for extra money for chiropody on the NHS for the elderly and disabled; and he helped to defeat a government attempt to introduce means-testing for assistance to the disabled. He married Vera Randall in 1932; they had a son and a daughter.







​LEFT: Aunt Nell with Walt (Walter Biggs) at Bath. Fred Biggs' Ford Zephyr Zodiac four-door saloon was produced between 1954-56 and would have cost around £850 pounds when new. In the front by Walt is Fred's son David. E R Cotton

We later knew Minnie as 'Aunt Min' who lived in Starcross, and Nellie as 'Aunt Nell' when she was living in Bath. 
AUNT MIN had two daughters - ADA MINNIE, who married CLIFFORD WALTERS ('Cliff') of Bridestowe - and CICELY JOAN ('Cis') who married CHARLES PINKHAM ('Charlie') of Holcombe, between Teignmouth and Dawlish. We used to visit Cliff and Ada at (??) when on holiday in Devon. 
​AUNT NELL had a son, FREDERICK, who married JOYCE KERSLAKE of Dawlish. They lived in Uppingham (Rutland) for a while before moving to Bath (Bitton Court, Park Hill ??). In 1961 Aunt Nell was living at 21 Cumberland House, Norfolk Crescent, Bath - went on the train with Gran and Uncle Ted to visit her, changing trains at Mangotsfield Junction and arriving in Bath at Green Park station. Both stations are long closed, Green Park is now a Sainsbury's supermarket, but Cumberland House is still there, a few streets away. Fred was a hairdresser in Bath. They lived at Widcombe Crescent, Bath, and had two children, JOHN and ANITA ('Nita').

RIGHT: Aunt Nell with grandson John Wallace in the garden of 105 Naunton Crescent in the late 1950s. E R Cotton

BELOW: Believed to be Fred and Minnie Wallace with Aunt Nell (seated) and Aunt Min (standing). Photographer unknown

BELOW RIGHT: Fred Wallace's book of Common Prayer, dated 1871 and inscribed 'For reading Collects'. John Emerson

RHODA JANE ('MAUD') WALLACE was confirmed on December 2, 1895, at St. James' church, Mount Pleasant Road, Exeter. A family bible is dated October 19, 1902, six months before Rhoda married GEORGE COTTON, of Kemerton, Glos., on February 2, 1903. The marriage was witnessed by Minnie Wallace and F Barnett. Residence at the time of their marriage was 13 Naunton Park Terrace, Cheltenham. 

RIGHT: St James' church where Rhoda was confirmed was built in the modern Gothic style, and consecrated on November 26, 1836. It was destroyed in the Baedeker raids on Exeter in May 1942. Copyright unknown

BELOW: George and Rhoda Cotton taking a stroll in Torquay, September 1941. The annotation on the back of the photo reads 'Torquay Sept 1941, ages Dad 69, Mam 62 '. Photo by Remington, Torquay

BELOW RIGHT: ​Rhoda Jane in the garden of 105 Naunton Crescent in the mid-1950s. E R Cotton

Wallaces in Cheltenham, c.1961
Fras Jas.   30 Victoria Place
Geo.          2 Spenser Road, St. Marks
Geo. R.      1 Brown Close
Gerald B.   19 Windsor Street
Jn.            53 Upper Park Street
Jn W.        Carfrae, Battledown Approach
Mrs.          5 Belmore Place
Mrs.          Churchill Flats, All Saints Road
Mrs. A. B.  Owl's Barn, Leckhampton Hill
Mrs. L.      4 Crawley, Wellington Square
Patrick     20 Victoria Square
Wm. Jn.    394 Swindon Road

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