EDWARDS, Henry Charles
Henry Charles Edwards was born at Woodbridge, Suffolk on 27 February 1841 and baptised at St Mary's Church, Woodbridge on 16 April 1841, son of Henry Edwards (1815-1874) and his wife Eliza née Flatt (1813-1854), who married at Saxmundham, Suffolk on 25 February 1840. Henry married at Saxmundham, Suffolk on 19 August 1868 Sarah Jane Freeman (27 December 1839-6 September 1898) and in 1871, a 30-year-old coal, corn & wine merchant, living at The Maltings, Cumberland Street, Woodbridge with his 31-year-old wife Sarah and 1 year old son, Henry John, but had a further four children before his wife's death in 1898 including Edward Charles Edwards. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1875-1876 and exhibited two pictures 'Home' and 'His Wife-His Wife no More' and he also exhibited at the Woodbridge Industrial & Art Exhibition at the Lecture Hall, Woodbridge in April 1887, an oil 'Lowestoft Harbour'. Henry married secondly at Islington, London on 22 November 1900, Sally Gwyn Dewing and in 1901, Henry was a 60 year old corn & wine merchant & maltster, living at 6 Warren Hill, Woodbridge with his 53-year-old wife Sally, born at Leiston Hall, Suffolk and his two unmarried daughters, Evelyn Mary, born 16 August 1872 and Sarah Mabel, born 1 March 1874, and ten years later was still living at Warren Hill, but with just one servant. A retired Honorary Major in the 1st Volunteer Battalion Suffolk Regiment, Henry Charles Edwards died at 5 & 6 Warren Hill, Woodbridge on 23 April 1921 and his wife, who was baptised on 31 August 1847, and was living at Newton Abbot, Devon, which was the home of her son Edward Charles, when she died at Asheldon Nursing Home, Torquay on 24 August 1940.
At the 1887 exhibition at Woodbridge Henry Charles Edwards also had on display a watercolour 'Outpost Duty' copy by H. J. Edwards. This was his eldest son Henry John Edwards (1869-1923), who in 1891 was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge.