Birth: October-December 1862 Margate, Kent, UK
Father: William Richard Gill 1832-1874
Mother: Charlotte Maria (Marie) Town 1836-1863
Christening: 10 May 1863 St John the Baptist, Margate, Kent, UK
Marriage: October-December 1881 Thanet, Kent, UK
Wife: Emily Elizabeth Osborn 1859-1914
Death: 2 December 1897 Off Nayland Rock, Margate, Kent, UK
None known
Birth of William Richard Gill in FreeBMD in October-December 1862 in Thanet (2a 661).
Entry in Ancestry England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 for William Richard Gill baptised on 10 May 1863 at St. John the Baptist, Margate, Kent, parents William Richard and Charlotte Maria Gill. His brother John Henry and sister Mary Ann Maria were baptised at the same time.
His mother died in July-September 1863 and his father married Martha Jane Woodward in January-March 1866.
In the 1871 census as William H (sic - in the index, original could be R) Gill aged 9, born in Margate, Kent, and living with his grandparents (William and Jane Gill) and his sister (Mary Ann) at 44 Dane Hill, Margate St John, Kent. Another family lived at the same address. There is no record of a William H Gill born in Thanet.
In the 1881 census as William Gill aged 22, born in Margate, Kent, single, and an Able Seaman on Acastus, a coasting schooner of Faversham 1?9 tons in Victoria Dock, Hartlepool, Durham together with the master, mate and two ordinary seamen all from Whitstable and a boy from London.
Marriage of William Richard Gill and Emily Elizabeth Osborn in FreeBMD in October-December 1881 in Thanet (2a 1611).
In the 1891 census as William L (sic - in the index, R on the original) Gill aged 29, born in Margate, Kent, and a fisherman living with his wife (Emily E) in one room at 4 Belgrave ?, Margate, Kent. Another family lived at the same address.
Death of William Richard Gill in FreeBMD in October-December 1897 aged 36 in Thanet (2a 535).
Two entries in Ancestry Public Member Trees for William H Gill born in Margate, Kent in 1862, parents William Richard and Charlotte Maria Gill in one, and William and Martha Jane Gill in the other, and his death in December 1897 at Margate, Kent.
William Richard Gill was one of nine of the crew of the surfboat Friend to All Nations which was capsized by two large waves on the morning of 2 December 1897 just off the Nayland Rock while attempting to reach the Persian Empire which had collided with the Carlisle City in Margate Bay. Only four of the crew survived. The Friend of All Nations did not sink however, and returned to service, but was lost under tow in 1898, was recovered in Great Yarmouth, repaired but eventually broken up. The Friend of All Nations was a double-headed whale boat, 32 feet long and, in the broadest part, only 5ft 3 inches wide, just enough to seat two rowers side by side. It was built at Cowes in 1878 at a cost of £400 raised by local boatmen and the public. The crew had lifebelts but could not wear them while rowing. The boat was run as a co-operative, owned by some 120 boatmen who had to satisfy the management committee as to their competency and who paid a small subscription to entitle them to use the boat and to receive a payment from any salvage. The first thirteen men who arrived at the boat after an alarm would form the crew and were the ones who decided whether it was safe to go out. The most competent man present was chosen coxswain and was responsible for the boat. There is a large amount of information on the internet such as Emptages of Thanet, Crew Members and their familes, Waymarking, and Kent History Forum.
William Richard Gill was the brother of Sarah Jane Gill, wife of my great grandfather, George William Payne.
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