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| Is this Mercedes? |
By 1911 the family had moved to England and were living in
Railway Street, Chatham, Kent. Anthony
Tiber's occupation was described as 'Manager'.
The family moved to the Portsmouth area where Anthony B. Tiber died in
1930. Mercedes and her mother were
living in Victoria Grove, Portsmouth in 1939.
Mercedes died in 1988 - her death was registered in Petersfield,
Hampshire. (Source: Find my Past)
During the First World War Louis served in the Northumberland Fusiliers (after the war he joined the RAF) and Mercedes joined a local Voluntary Aid Detachment as a clerk. She worked in a laboratory in Higham and then at Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Kent.
Mercedes’ WW1 photo album came into the possession of Mick Halliday and he picks up
the story: “About 27 years ago I was
given a photo album that my aunt rescued from a nursing home, it was to be
disposed of, as the owner had died some years previous. My aunt gave me the
album as she considered it too nice to be placed on the bonfire with the rest
of the deceased’s belongings. I don’t believe the person was ever married or
had any close family.
The album showed pictures from the First World War and just
after, and was the record of VAD nurses from Kent. The person in question and
owner of the album was called, Mercedes Isabel Tiber and she was born in 1898
in Gibraltar.
I have studied the album on many occasions and still do not
know which one is Mercedes. I think she moved to Portsmouth/Southsea area in
the 1920’s (possibly Victoria Grove, then Outram Rd). She was still living in
Southsea in 1976 and died in 1988 at West Meon.
The album contains 236 photographs, mainly of Kent, but
there are some of Southsea, Chichester and Gosport and some of Portsmouth
Dockyard. I have researched it over the years and something in the back of my
mind seems to think Mercedes was a violin or music teacher when she lived in
Southsea, unfortunately I can’t remember why I think this, (possibly from a
Kelly’s Directory). There are some amazing photos in the album, especially of
wounded First World War Soldiers
I applied to the Red Cross for information and found out she
worked in the Laboratory at Higham and Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Kent.
Before moving to Portsmouth, Mercedes worked at the Fort
Pitt Military Hospital, which in itself has great historic significance because
Florence Nightingale started a medical school there which later moved to
Netley. The building used to house Fort Pitt Military Hospital became a school
in 1921.”
Mick Halliday posted many of the photographs from Mercedes' album on Debbie Cameron’s Facebook Page Remembering Women on
the Home Front WW!. If anyone knows anything about Mercedes and her family please get in touch.
