▶Date of birth: 11 February 1877    Place of birth: Cheltenham

▶Father: John James Bendy    Mother: Elizabeth Piff

▶Spouse(s): (unmarried)    Date(s) of marriage:     Place(s) of marriage:

▶Occupation: School nurse, Midwife & School Attendance Officer, State Insurance Inspectress

▶Lifestory: Agnes Edith Bendy was born in Cheltenham in 1877, the youngest child of coachman John James Bendy and his wife Elizabeth (née Piff), a greengrocer. At the time of the 1881 census she lived with her parents and family at 1 Painswick Parade in Cheltenham. By 1891 the family lived at Cresswell House, Prestbury, and by this time Agnes, aged fourteen, as employed as a dressmaker’s apprentice.

Her religious convictions remined strong throughout her life, and in 1894 she is presumably the “Miss A. Bendy” singing with the Hatherley and Reddings Band of Hope; she also participated in several other religious musical entertainments.

After 1897 she and a friend, Winifred Otter, set up in business on their own as milliners and dressmakers, at South Cambray House and then at 3 Cambray. In April 1898 they moved their business to 27 Manchester Street in Cheltenham (and where unsuccessfully challenged in court when they registered as voters for this district).

At first the millinery business paid well, though they had no capital, but by 1900 they were in debt to the sum of around £115 to creditors, and plunged into bankruptcy, despite their parents offering the creditors five shillings in the pound.

With the millinery business gone, they then set up a fruit and greengrocery business, doubtless helped by Agnes’s mother, formerly a greengrocer, but this business lasted only a short while and in 1901 both Agnes and Winifred worked at the same house in Chelsea, Agnes as a Secretary and Winifred as a Lady’s Maid.

Soon Agnes returned to Cheltenham, where she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her brother Arthur at the Wesley Chapel.

By now she was thinking ahead, and in 1909 entered a new profession, taking a poorly paid post as School Nurse at the Gloucester Road school, with a salary of £45 a year. On 30 October 1909 she qualified as a midwife, after taking the Central Midwives Board examination, and in early 1910 qualified as a Women Health Visitor. That year (and until at least 1913) she lived at 16 Northfield Terrace as a registered midwife. By 1911 she was a School Attendance Officer.

Her career progressed, and by 1915 she was an Inspectress under the National Insurance Act for South-West Gloucestershire, and in this capacity gave evidence to a Cheltenham magistrates’ court that a local laundry sought to avoid paying for insurance stamps for its employees.

A devout Christian, in 1916, during WW1, Agnes wrote three letters to the Chairman of the County Military Appeal Tribunal, F. Hyett, in support of a conscientious objector named Arthur Constance (these letters are held by the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub, ref. D570/3/1); by this time she lived at The Reddings in Cheltenham.

In 1917 she had accumulated enough money that she could pay off her remaining debts (with 4% interest), and her bankruptcy was annulled, and in 1926 the tables were turned when she sued the tenant of her late father’s property in The Reddings for arrears of rent.

She was still alive at the time of the 1939 national register, living in Gloucester Road, Cheltenham, as a State Insurance Inspectress and Sick Visitor.

She died in 1940, aged sixty-two and unmarried, when she lived at Overdale, 308 Gloucester Road, Cheltenham; according to her will she owned at least two properties and left an estate of just over £1,850.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  (born in Cheltenham)     Moved from Pittville to: Chelsea (1901) and 5 Ashley Hill, Bristol (1915)

▶Date of death: 4 January 1940     Place of death: Overdale, 308 Gloucester Road, Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:     Place of burial:

▶Notes:   ID: 13101

Contributor(s): David Drinkwater/John Simpson