Rev James Young Becher
(1814-1897)
(Rev) JAMES YOUNG BECHER BA, the 5th child, was born 15th August 1814 at Fort William, Bengal. He was educated at Sherborne School and left in 1833 but
he left his name and initials behind etched onto his classroom desk which have miraculously survived and appear in the upper left of the photo. He was admitted to Worcester College, Oxford University and matriculated 5th December 1833 aged 19 and gaining his BA in 1837. He became a Deacon 1838 and a Priest 1839. He sailed for India on the Plantagenet on the 9th July 1840 and was appointed Assistant Chaplain at Meerut 12th February 1840; Nusserabad 1845; Penang 1846; Calcutta 1850; Ghazepore 1850 where he was appointed Chaplain; Kussowlie 1851; Cuttack 1853; Kussowlie 1857. He retired 9th January 1859. In 1853, according to Augusta Emily Becher's Reminiscences, he fell very ill and was ordered to the Cape for respite leaving his wife and newly born son (Clement) behind. He arrived with his three children in the 'Hotspur' in March 1853 and left for Calcutta in the 'Sutlej' in Oct 1854. In 1856 he was Chaplain at Cuttack. In 1857 he was appointed Chaplain at Kussowlie for two years and was Acting Garrison Chaplain, St Helier, Channel Islands 1862-5 and afterwards Curate of Studley, Trowbridge, Wiltshire from 1866-72 by which time he and the family were living at 20 Norland Square, Notting Hill, London.
He married, firstly, Mary Read on 10th January 1839 at All Saints Church, Chicklade, Wiltshire. She was born 15th October 1816 at Midsomer Norton the 3rd daughter of Rev William Read of Stone Easton, Somerset and Martha and died 26th April 1884 at Notting Hill, London and was buried at St Michael’s, Monkton Combe, near Bath.
He married, secondly, Emma Mortimer Bathurst, née Brutton, the widow of Rev Walter S. Bathurst, on 3rd October 1885 at St Mark's, Notting Hill, London. She was born 26th December 1837 at Exeter the daughter of John Brutton R.M.L.I. and Eleanor. He had retired by 1891 and they lived with his 13 and 14 year old step-daughters at 22 Arundel Gardens, Notting Hill where he died on 11th November 1897 and was buried at St Michael’s, Monkton Combe, near Bath. After James Young's death she married thirdly Sir John Spiers Baker of Bath on 16th April 1901 at St Peters, Bayswater and became a widow yet again on 10th April 1913 and she died 9th May 1923 at Camberwell, Surrey.
There were five children:
1. Alice Mary Becher was born 31st December 1843 at Meerut, India and died there 19th December 1844.
2. Captain Herbert Evan Becher was born 9th December 1844 at Meerut, India and entered Victoria College for the second term of 1859. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst as a Gentleman Cadet and in due course became an Ensign with the 2nd Battalion 20th (East Devonshire) Regiment on 17th March 1863 without purchase and on 2th July that year the regiment embarked for India; he also served in China. In 1866 his regiment was posted to the Southern Cape and on 8th June 1867 he was promoted to Lieutenant. While he was in the Southern Cape District he came to hear about diamonds being found the first of which was found near Hopetown on the Orange River in 1867. He retired on 3rd September 1870 in Natal to give himself the freedom to head to the diamond fields to do some digging.
Getting there was far from easy, it involved a 700 mile trek on horseback across the Karoo, difficult harsh hot barren country. Another very early pioneer was Cecil John Rhodes (then only 18 years old) but his horse gave up forcing him to walk most of the way there. Many others had made their way to the diamond fields though the great rush had yet to begin. Some had also left their various regiments including Captain Loftus John “Paddy” Rolleston (of the Royal Sherwood Foresters who became Instructor to the Volunteer Corps, Natal when his regiment was posted there; he quit his regiment in 1869) and Major John Gregory Gurney (Paymaster of the Cape Mounted Rifles) who was a member of the banking dynasty Overend & Gurney.
In 1870, Herbert Evan Becher was one of the few to make a lucky strike. As the author A.F. Williams recounts in his 1948 book 'Some Dreams Come True':
'Once, when he was a member of Capt Loftus Rolleston's party (including Major Gurney), he found a very fine diamond of over forty carats while he was digging at Klipdrift before the discovery of the Dry Mines (in 1871). Realising the diamond was of great value he decided that he would take it to Cape Town and that he would make the 700 mile journey by horseback. The diamond caused no little excitement and was in finally sold to Charles Manuel. Through this transaction he established a great friendship not only with Charles Manuel but also with John X. Merriman (the son of the Dean of Grahamstown). Merriman became so interested in Becher's stories of the river diggings that he shortly afterwards (in 1872) entered into partnership with him under the title of Merriman and Becher, Diamond Merchants, Kimberley.'
A notice appeared in the Natal Witness newspaper of 23rd February 1872 announcing a DIAMOND FIELDS RACE MEETING. The race meeting of the Diamond Fields will be held near Colesberg, Kopje, commencing on the 14th May, 1872. Programmes will be forwarded to all parts of the Colony, Natal, and Free State, immediately. HERBERT BECHER, Acting Secretary.
In September 1874 his friend John Xavier Merriman got married in Cape Town and about the same time 'Captain Herbert Becher decided to marry, and it was not long before they both arrived back with their pretty young brides.'
Getting there was far from easy, it involved a 700 mile trek on horseback across the Karoo, difficult harsh hot barren country. Another very early pioneer was Cecil John Rhodes (then only 18 years old) but his horse gave up forcing him to walk most of the way there. Many others had made their way to the diamond fields though the great rush had yet to begin. Some had also left their various regiments including Captain Loftus John “Paddy” Rolleston (of the Royal Sherwood Foresters who became Instructor to the Volunteer Corps, Natal when his regiment was posted there; he quit his regiment in 1869) and Major John Gregory Gurney (Paymaster of the Cape Mounted Rifles) who was a member of the banking dynasty Overend & Gurney.
In 1870, Herbert Evan Becher was one of the few to make a lucky strike. As the author A.F. Williams recounts in his 1948 book 'Some Dreams Come True':
'Once, when he was a member of Capt Loftus Rolleston's party (including Major Gurney), he found a very fine diamond of over forty carats while he was digging at Klipdrift before the discovery of the Dry Mines (in 1871). Realising the diamond was of great value he decided that he would take it to Cape Town and that he would make the 700 mile journey by horseback. The diamond caused no little excitement and was in finally sold to Charles Manuel. Through this transaction he established a great friendship not only with Charles Manuel but also with John X. Merriman (the son of the Dean of Grahamstown). Merriman became so interested in Becher's stories of the river diggings that he shortly afterwards (in 1872) entered into partnership with him under the title of Merriman and Becher, Diamond Merchants, Kimberley.'
A notice appeared in the Natal Witness newspaper of 23rd February 1872 announcing a DIAMOND FIELDS RACE MEETING. The race meeting of the Diamond Fields will be held near Colesberg, Kopje, commencing on the 14th May, 1872. Programmes will be forwarded to all parts of the Colony, Natal, and Free State, immediately. HERBERT BECHER, Acting Secretary.
In September 1874 his friend John Xavier Merriman got married in Cape Town and about the same time 'Captain Herbert Becher decided to marry, and it was not long before they both arrived back with their pretty young brides.'
He married Marianne Katherine Louisa Chiappini at Barkley West,Northern Cape. She was born in 1850 at Cradock, Transvaal, Cape Colony the daughter of Lorenzo Scott Chiappini and Elizabeth Fichat.
At some stage he returned to England for by the time of the 1881 Census he was a Diamond Broker with the firm of Alfred G. Biden of 107 Hatton Garden and Warnford Court and living at Nelson Villa, Kingston Road, Kingston-on Thames, Surrey. Staying with him and his wife was his nephew, Charles Bones, who had been born in the Cape Colony, South Africa.
The 1885 Electoral Roll shows him living at 32 Perham Road, Fulham and between 1890 and 1892 he was living at Hill House, Wimbledon with his wife and four children. It is not known exactly when he and his family returned to South Africa but they arrived back at Southampton on 15th September 1893 having sailed on the Goth from Cape Town.
He is pictured above sitting second from the right immediately in front of the tall person with a white hat. He was one of 63 other “Reformers” who were arrested in Johannesburg and indicted in court at Pretoria in 1896 and jailed there. The four leaders were originally sentenced to death but after a series of petitions their sentence was commuted to fifteen years imprisonment and banishment for life from the State. The remaining fifty-six prisoners were eventually freed after paying £25,000 each and a written abstention from further “political intrigue” or risk banishment as well.
On 17th January 1896 Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, a South African politician, wrote from Johannesburg to his wife recalling memories about some of the people on the Reform Committee and their time in prison. He mentions that the last account he heard of Captains Thomas Mein and Becher “is that they are great at playing marbles to pass the time. One visitor says he saw the last round of a tournament being played – (Henry Charles) Hull and Becher, in pyjamas, were playing off the final. This made me so envious and made me feel so lonely that I was all for giving up at once.”
On 29th June 1896 he and his wife and 3 daughters (Miss E, Miss M and Miss N) and their Governess, Miss Cretin, 23, arrived at Southampton having sailed from the Cape on the SS Gaul. His occupation was given as “Speculator”. In the 1901 England Census the family were living at 33 Chelsea Villas, Kensington with his wife and two of his daughters but by 1904 they had moved to 33 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London.
In 1905, he and his wife sent a joint cheque as a wedding present for Miss Eudora Adeline Mary Braine and Leonard Harvey Combe. She was the second child of his younger sister, Adeline Mary, nee Becher, and Charles Frederick Braine.
Herbert Evan Becher died on 2nd January 1908 at the Royal Hotel, Potchefstroom, South Africa. He left a Will in which he left everything to his wife. In 1913, having returned to South Africa, his wife sailed alone from Durban to Southampton on the Dunluce Castle arriving on 22nd April 1913. She died on 20th August 1930 in Johannesburg and was then of 9 Derby Road, Bertrams in the city.
There were four children:
a. Ethel Mary Becher who was born on 30th May 1875 at Kensington, London. She married Walter Ashlin Cutforth, a Brewer, on 18th July 1903 at St Peter's, Bayswater, London. He was born in 1875 at Sutterton, Lincolnshire the son of Walter Cutforth and Edith and died in 1906 at Reigate. She was present at her mother’s death in South Africa in 1908. It is not known for certain when or where she died.
b. Maude Louisa Chiappini Becher was born in 1877 at New Malden, Surrey. She married, firstly, Edward Ernest Richards on 24th December 1898 at Kensington, London. He was born 3rd December 1865 at Andover, Hants the son of Rev Henry Manning Richards and Charlotte Ridding. Maude and Edward went to Perth, Western Australia about 1899 and had two daughters who were left in his custody. They were divorced in 1909 on the grounds of her adultery with Brownlow Francis Gordon North, pictured left, whom she married, secondly, on 27th March the same year in Thanet, Kent.
He was born 4th May 1869 at 1 Earl's Court Road, London, the son of Charles Augustus North and Rachel Elizabeth Grant. He attended Haileybury 1882-1887; he was a gifted sportsman at school, playing in the cricket XI and the rugby XV. He was also in the first racquets pair. He moved to Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1901 after having spent time in Grenada in 1894 and was appointed Electoral Registrar of Bunbury, WA, on 1st November 1902 but later 'gave the job up in favour of yachting, dog fancying, philandering, and playing fugues and fantasies on a golden flute.' He returned to England in 1908.
NAUGHTY MRS NORTH and BROWNLOW the Biter, who was Bit.
On 18th June 1911, the Sunday Times, Perth, reported on a case in the Divorce Court in which Brownlow Francis Gordon North asked for a divorce from his wife Maud Louisa, one David Neave being mentioned as co-re. Mr North, the younger brother of the celebrated 'Piggy' Brownlow, met the lady from whom he desired to be separated in 1908, she being then a Mrs Richards, and in consequence of an ultra-tender relationship being established between the two, Mr Richards divorced his wife. Mrs Richards then went to England with Brownlow, and on the decree nisi being declared absolute, the pair were married on 27th March, 1909. Shortly afterwards Brownlow found it necessary to return to W.A. to see after the sale of his furniture, and in his absence the volatile wife formed other ties with the said David Neave. Petitioner received a letter from his wife that she had become fast friends with Neave, and had decided to live with him; that he regarded her as much as his wife as though they had been married, and that she was expecting to become a happy mother.
Brownlow joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a private and went out to France in September 1915. While an acting Lance Corporal with 13 Field Ambulance, 5 Division, he was in charge of directing bearers at a relay post when he was mortally wounded on 9th October and died of his wounds on 12t October 1917 and was buried at the Godewaersvelde British Cemetery, Northern France. There was at least one son who died in 2003.
She married, thirdly, David Senior Neave, photo left, in 1912 at St Thomas, Devon. He was born in Kelvingrove, Glasgow c.1877 the son of Henry Bremner Neave, a Solicitor, and Grace Fullarton Hamilton and was a highly regarded Water Colour Artist and was an official artist of WW1 and exhibited frequently at the Goupil Gallery, the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. They are in the 1911 Census where she is his Housekeeper with her newly born son. On 27th March 1948 she (as Mrs M.L.C. Neave) sailed alone from London to Cape Town on the City of Exeter. The home address she gave then was Woodgate Hall Road, Cheltenham and she declared her future abode would be in South Africa. He died in 1950 at Cuckfield, Sussex. She lived at Twickenham in the mid-1950s and early 1960s and it is not known when or where she died. There were two children: 1. Captain David Peter Bremner Neave, 1911-2003. 2. Rachel Elizabeth Neave, 1912-1994.
c. Ida Joanna Fichat Becher was born 17th October 1883 at Fulham, London. She married, firstly, George Herbert Busby 26th November 1908 at Doornfontein, South Africa. He was born 3rd October 1875 at Sydney, Australia the youngest son of the Hon. William Busby and Catherine Ann, née Woore, then of 29, Bramham Gardens, Earl's Court, London. He was educated at Repton School, Derbyshire 1890-1893 and Jesus College, Cambridge in 1895 and served in the South African War with the Western Australia Contingent. He died 24th June 1940 at Kingston on Thames, Surrey. There was at least one child: Peter Herbert Woore Busby was born 13th January 1913 at Rooiberg Tin Mines, Rustenburg, SA where his father was then a Merchant. He married firstly, Joan Margaret Nest, nee Stockwood on 12th May 1943 at St Mark's, Alexandria, Egypt. At the time of his marriage he was a Lieutenant in the South African Air Force in Alexandria. She was born 1920 the daughter of Col. Illtyd Henry Stockwood and Katherine Forbes Taylor and was an officer in the WRNS. At some point they split up and he married, secondly,
Sheelah Cant, nee Pearce, on 18th March 1946 at Krugersdorp who died 4th November 1979 at Johannesburg. It is not known when he died. They had one child.
Ida married, secondly, Capt Douglas Erskine Cochrane on 2nd December 1925 at Johannesburg. He was born 18th January 1885 in Brighton the son of Arthur Henry Douglas Erskine and Maria Josephine Cleg Killick, and was Acting District Commissioner at Serenli, Jubaland Province, Kenya and later a farm manager in South Africa. He died 4th November 1950 at Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, South Africa. Ida died in 1953.
d. Nora Wright Becher was born 9th January 1890 at Wimbledon, London. As reported in The Times of 11th June 1912 she married Noel Henry Monro on 8th June 1912 at St Augustine's, Johannesburg. He was born 18th November 1887 at Marylebone, London the son of Henry Theodore Munro of Oak Croft, East Grinstead and Constance Heale. Soon after their marriage they went out to South Africa where in 1913 he was a Surveyor at the Rooiberg Tin Mines, Rustenburg. They later divorced and he remarried. On 8th February 1925 she left Cape Town on the Dunhill Castle for London; on the ship's manifest her permanent residence was given as South Africa. She died in 1960 in Johannesburg. He died 1973 at Wallingford, Berkshire. They had two children.
a. Ethel Mary Becher who was born on 30th May 1875 at Kensington, London. She married Walter Ashlin Cutforth, a Brewer, on 18th July 1903 at St Peter's, Bayswater, London. He was born in 1875 at Sutterton, Lincolnshire the son of Walter Cutforth and Edith and died in 1906 at Reigate. She was present at her mother’s death in South Africa in 1908. It is not known for certain when or where she died.
b. Maude Louisa Chiappini Becher was born in 1877 at New Malden, Surrey. She married, firstly, Edward Ernest Richards on 24th December 1898 at Kensington, London. He was born 3rd December 1865 at Andover, Hants the son of Rev Henry Manning Richards and Charlotte Ridding. Maude and Edward went to Perth, Western Australia about 1899 and had two daughters who were left in his custody. They were divorced in 1909 on the grounds of her adultery with Brownlow Francis Gordon North, pictured left, whom she married, secondly, on 27th March the same year in Thanet, Kent.
He was born 4th May 1869 at 1 Earl's Court Road, London, the son of Charles Augustus North and Rachel Elizabeth Grant. He attended Haileybury 1882-1887; he was a gifted sportsman at school, playing in the cricket XI and the rugby XV. He was also in the first racquets pair. He moved to Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1901 after having spent time in Grenada in 1894 and was appointed Electoral Registrar of Bunbury, WA, on 1st November 1902 but later 'gave the job up in favour of yachting, dog fancying, philandering, and playing fugues and fantasies on a golden flute.' He returned to England in 1908.
NAUGHTY MRS NORTH and BROWNLOW the Biter, who was Bit.
On 18th June 1911, the Sunday Times, Perth, reported on a case in the Divorce Court in which Brownlow Francis Gordon North asked for a divorce from his wife Maud Louisa, one David Neave being mentioned as co-re. Mr North, the younger brother of the celebrated 'Piggy' Brownlow, met the lady from whom he desired to be separated in 1908, she being then a Mrs Richards, and in consequence of an ultra-tender relationship being established between the two, Mr Richards divorced his wife. Mrs Richards then went to England with Brownlow, and on the decree nisi being declared absolute, the pair were married on 27th March, 1909. Shortly afterwards Brownlow found it necessary to return to W.A. to see after the sale of his furniture, and in his absence the volatile wife formed other ties with the said David Neave. Petitioner received a letter from his wife that she had become fast friends with Neave, and had decided to live with him; that he regarded her as much as his wife as though they had been married, and that she was expecting to become a happy mother.
Brownlow joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a private and went out to France in September 1915. While an acting Lance Corporal with 13 Field Ambulance, 5 Division, he was in charge of directing bearers at a relay post when he was mortally wounded on 9th October and died of his wounds on 12t October 1917 and was buried at the Godewaersvelde British Cemetery, Northern France. There was at least one son who died in 2003.
She married, thirdly, David Senior Neave, photo left, in 1912 at St Thomas, Devon. He was born in Kelvingrove, Glasgow c.1877 the son of Henry Bremner Neave, a Solicitor, and Grace Fullarton Hamilton and was a highly regarded Water Colour Artist and was an official artist of WW1 and exhibited frequently at the Goupil Gallery, the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. They are in the 1911 Census where she is his Housekeeper with her newly born son. On 27th March 1948 she (as Mrs M.L.C. Neave) sailed alone from London to Cape Town on the City of Exeter. The home address she gave then was Woodgate Hall Road, Cheltenham and she declared her future abode would be in South Africa. He died in 1950 at Cuckfield, Sussex. She lived at Twickenham in the mid-1950s and early 1960s and it is not known when or where she died. There were two children: 1. Captain David Peter Bremner Neave, 1911-2003. 2. Rachel Elizabeth Neave, 1912-1994.
c. Ida Joanna Fichat Becher was born 17th October 1883 at Fulham, London. She married, firstly, George Herbert Busby 26th November 1908 at Doornfontein, South Africa. He was born 3rd October 1875 at Sydney, Australia the youngest son of the Hon. William Busby and Catherine Ann, née Woore, then of 29, Bramham Gardens, Earl's Court, London. He was educated at Repton School, Derbyshire 1890-1893 and Jesus College, Cambridge in 1895 and served in the South African War with the Western Australia Contingent. He died 24th June 1940 at Kingston on Thames, Surrey. There was at least one child: Peter Herbert Woore Busby was born 13th January 1913 at Rooiberg Tin Mines, Rustenburg, SA where his father was then a Merchant. He married firstly, Joan Margaret Nest, nee Stockwood on 12th May 1943 at St Mark's, Alexandria, Egypt. At the time of his marriage he was a Lieutenant in the South African Air Force in Alexandria. She was born 1920 the daughter of Col. Illtyd Henry Stockwood and Katherine Forbes Taylor and was an officer in the WRNS. At some point they split up and he married, secondly,
Sheelah Cant, nee Pearce, on 18th March 1946 at Krugersdorp who died 4th November 1979 at Johannesburg. It is not known when he died. They had one child.
Ida married, secondly, Capt Douglas Erskine Cochrane on 2nd December 1925 at Johannesburg. He was born 18th January 1885 in Brighton the son of Arthur Henry Douglas Erskine and Maria Josephine Cleg Killick, and was Acting District Commissioner at Serenli, Jubaland Province, Kenya and later a farm manager in South Africa. He died 4th November 1950 at Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, South Africa. Ida died in 1953.
d. Nora Wright Becher was born 9th January 1890 at Wimbledon, London. As reported in The Times of 11th June 1912 she married Noel Henry Monro on 8th June 1912 at St Augustine's, Johannesburg. He was born 18th November 1887 at Marylebone, London the son of Henry Theodore Munro of Oak Croft, East Grinstead and Constance Heale. Soon after their marriage they went out to South Africa where in 1913 he was a Surveyor at the Rooiberg Tin Mines, Rustenburg. They later divorced and he remarried. On 8th February 1925 she left Cape Town on the Dunhill Castle for London; on the ship's manifest her permanent residence was given as South Africa. She died in 1960 in Johannesburg. He died 1973 at Wallingford, Berkshire. They had two children.
The remaining children of Herbert Evan Becher and his wife:
3. Kate Stanley Becher was born 4th July 1848 Prince of Wales Island, Bengal and died 10th August 1865 at Bath, Somerset.
4. Adeline Mary Becher pictured left, was born 20th October 1849 Prince of Wales Island, Bengal.
3. Kate Stanley Becher was born 4th July 1848 Prince of Wales Island, Bengal and died 10th August 1865 at Bath, Somerset.
4. Adeline Mary Becher pictured left, was born 20th October 1849 Prince of Wales Island, Bengal.
She married Charles Frederick Braine on 9th April 1874 at St MIchael's and All Saints, North Kensington. He was born 1850 in Taunton the 4th child of Charles Joseph Braine of Caterham and Eudora Marriott and was a Tea Planter in central Ceylon and died at Colombo in 1896 and was buried at Dikuya. His obituary, in part, states that: We regret to announce the death of this gentleman, who after a long illness, succumbed this morning to the effects of malaria, contracted in Kurunegalia, aggravated by the results of a fall from his horse. Her obituafy, in part, records that: The late Mrs C. F. Braine, whose death at the Albert Hospital, London, we recorded yesterday, was, for a good many years, a well-known resident of Nuwara Eliya, and will be greatly missed by a host of friends and the United Club. They had two sons and tree daughters.
5. Clement 'Clem' James Becher was born 22nd June 1852 at Kussowlie, Bengal. As his father was very ill and had been ordered to the Cape to recover his health, his aunt, Augusta Emily Becher (née Prinsep) took him in to care for him. He sailed back to England with his parents for in the 1861 Census he is at home with them at St Helier, Jersey.
ATTEMPTED 'ASSASSINATION' AT COLWICK
At Nottingham County Hall, yesterday, a gardener named Jonathon Munk was charged with stabbing a young gentleman, named Clement James Becher, at Colwick. Mr Becher, who is "reading" for the University, is staying with the rector of Colwisk, and on Saturday night, while crossing Colwick Park to go to the rectory, a man came out of the fence, according to his statement, and stabbed him in the arm below the elbow with a knife. It turned out in court, however, that the prisoner could not be identified, and that singular t say the knife, while having passed through the cloth of the coat sleeve and the shirt into the flesh, had not penetrated the lining of the coat. It was proved that Mr Becher had a knife in his possession, and the Bench suspecting that he made the wound himself, from some cause to be hereafter explained, discharged the prisoner, and charged him (Mr Becher) with misdemeanour. The case was adjourned, Mr Becher being admitted to bail. It is believed that Mr Becher had a desire to leave the rectory, and committed the offence as the excuse for being allowed to go away. (Sheffield and Rotherham Independent 22nd February 1872.) He emigrated to America in 1876.
He married Lucy Lee Read on 20th December 1897 in Denver, Colorado. She was born on 6th October 1862 in Texas as was her mother, her father was born in England according to the 1900 US Census which shows Clement and Lucy living at Lower Running Creek, Elbert, Colorado. In the 1910 US Federal Census they are living at Washoe, Nevada where he is recorded as doing odd labouring jobs.
By 1912 he had joined the Socialist Party in Nevada and lived at the junction of Nineteenth and “I” Street, Sparks, Nevada and in November that year stood for election to the State Assembly. In 1914, as James Becher, a member of the Socialist Party, stood for election as a Justice of the Peace in Sparks, Nevada. In the 1930 US Census he and Lucy are living at New River, Churchill, Nevada which is presumably where he died on 13th July 1933. There appears to have been no children and nothing more is known about his life. His wife died on 19th arch 1934 and was buried at Churchill Cemetery, Fallon. Nevada.