Julia (Jude) Rolfe

Julia was born in Wickham in 1888 and nothing is known about her until 1918 when she marries Alfred Colmer, a veteran of the first world war, in Hartley Wintney registration district (as Farnborough came under Hartley Wintney I'm sure that the marriage took place in Farnborough where the family appear to have lived). 


In December 1925 Julia arrived in Southampton from South Africa, where she and her husband  were living. Accompanying Julia to England were her sister Flossie and young nephew Maurice. They had obviously come to visit the family. Early the following year the Colmers emigrated to the United States from Cape Town, living for a while in North Hillside Avenue in Chatham, New Jersey. It wasn't long before they travelled, yet again, to visit Flossie in South Africa calling in at London on their way back. They arrived in the UK on the 4th August aboard the SS Dunluce Castle and by the 28th August they were boarding the RMS Mauretania for their journey back to the United States. 

RMS Mauretania

I've no idea how enjoyable their trip on the Mauretania was but they were not welcomed with open arms on their arrival in New York. They were detained by the Immigrant Inspector as "aliens held for special inquiry". The reason for detention appeared to be that they were considered "LPC" or those who were likely to be a burden on the public purse - LPC standing for Likely Public Charge and "PH" which appears to denote a physical handicap. They were two of the luckier ones and after only 30 minutes of interrogation they were allowed entry in to "the land of the free"!

By 1930 they were renting a house in Livingston, New Jersey where Alfred worked as a carpenter and joiner in the building trade. That year they decided to return to the UK on board the Mauretania and gave their intended address as 6 Alhambra Road, Southsea.


By the 1940's they were living in St John's Wood in London.