Julia Maria Besford was born early in 1875 at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the daughter of Henry John Besford and Georgiana Besford (née Page). An elder brother, Henry John, had died as a baby in 1873.

By 1881 the family had moved to Lowestoft, where the census recorded Julia living with her parents. Her mother died in 1885, when Julia was about ten.

In 1901 the census recorded Julia at Lowestoft as Julia Smith, a married woman of 26 born at Yarmouth, with her daughter Florence, aged four, and her son Arnott, a baby. In 1911 she was living at 8 Cumberland Place, Whapload Road, Lowestoft, with her husband Arnott Smith, a smacksman [a fisherman on a sailing trawler], and their children Flora, 14, and Arnott, 10. They had then been married for 16 years.

Arnott Herbert Smith was born at Westleton, Suffolk, in 1872, the son of Robert and Hannah Smith. He was a deck hand on the Lowestoft sailing trawler Young Bert (LT 454) when she was sunk by the German submarine UC-63 in the North Sea on 30th July 1917. He was 45, and he is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.

The births of Julia’s children were registered at Mutford, the district that covered Lowestoft, under the surname Besford, each with a third name beginning with S:

Hilda does not appear with the family in 1901 or 1911. We have not found a record of Julia and Arnott’s marriage, or of Julia’s death. Please get in touch if you can help.