TILLEY
with roots in Somerset, England
family
the
Edith Lilian Tilley
Born in 1872, Lilian was the eldest of 11 children to Thomas and Annie Tilley who were farmers from Cross, Somerset. At the moment not too much is known about Lilian's life. She never married, became a teacher and was still living at home in the 1901 census. There is a big jump to 8 May 1943 when her death is recorded in a list of English people who have died in Linz, Austria. Her cause of death is given as "Schlagenfall", a stroke. In her will she leaves her effects to her brother, Wilfred George, and to Herbert Rugg House, who interestingly was married to her sister Soie who had died in 1933 and then was married to another sister, Lottie, who died in 1937.
At nine, the 1881 census reveals Lilian is boarding at a school in Cheddar, Somerset.
Lilian (centre) with her father Thomas Tilley and her sisters Lottie and Bessie who married Henry William Cockle on 22 August 1918.
The 1891 census shows Lilian has already started out on her chosen profession as teacher.
As a 29-year-old, Lilian is one of three daughters living at home in the 1901 census.
While the Austrian list showed Lilian’s date of death as 8 May, her probate indicates it as the 1st. A discrepancy in the Probate announcement is in the detail that she lived in Linz Vienna, two cities that are 115 miles apart.
A list of English people who had died in Linz, Austria, included Lilian on 8 May 1943.