Biography

Family background

Stephen Spaven was born in Sand Hutton, Yorkshire, on the 16th September 1900, the son of Richard Spaven and his wife, Margaret Agnes Spaven. By 1911, the family, Richard and Margaret Agnes, and their four children, Arthur William Spaven, Kate Olive Spaven, Thomas Percy Spaven an Stephen Spaven were living at Sand Hutton. Richard was described as a house carpenter, while Arthur was a chauffeur and Thomas and Stephen were at school.

A further 10 ten years later, Stephen was living at with his brother-in-law's family, John and Kate Chilton. Stephen was described as being of private means, but this may simply mean he was between jobs.

On the 17th March 1927, Stephen Spaven, the living at 18 Oxford Street, Saltburn by the Sea, a 26 year old gardener, married Amelia Atkin, a 23 year old domestic servant, at the parish church of Maske in Cleveland.

In the early 1930s Stephen and Amelia made their home at 3 Marske Mill Terrace, Saltburn and they appear on the electoral rolls at that address until 1933. At that point we mainly lose track of them. However, an intriguing record in the electoral rolls for Upper Helmsley in 1938 and 1939 records a Stephenson Spaven and Amelia Spaven living there in those years - we do not know whether these are the same people.

At the time of the 1939 National Registration, at the start of World War 2, Stephen and Amelia were living in Flaxton, Yorkshire with Stephen's widowed father, Richard, and their own three children. Stephen was by this time a private head gardener. He was also listed as a member of the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) unit.

Service record

Stephen Spaven appears on the 1945 Service electoral roll for Collingham and Linton, so we know that he did serve in the war. His address is given as either The Cottage, Westwood Lodge, Northgate Lane, Linton, or as The Lodge, Westwood. So far we have not traced his service record, and do not know any details of his service. Amelia also appears, on the main electoral roll, listed at the same address.

After the war

Stephen and Amelia returned to Linton and we find electoral roll records for them at Westwood Lodge until about 1961. We believe that Stephen Spaven died in 1995.

Biography last updated 26 June 2025 13:19:39.