Truby, Mrs G

Singer

Collection date: Sept 1923

Area: Oxfordshire

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Mrs G Truby at Headington Union workhouse (1840-1932): age 83, 4 songs (FT4971ff) on 12 Sept 1923: Another instance of the woman being addressed by her husband’s initial. The singer was in fact Mrs Martha Truby, wife of George Truby. She has the distinction of being the very last performer that Sharp interviewed over his 20 years of collecting:

Martha Smith was born in Kidlington in the October qr 1840 (ref 16-79), eldest of 6 children of William Smith, agricultural labourer, and his wife Harriot. She married George Truby in the April qr 1863. They had 10 children and lived in Summertown in North Oxford. George was a labourer and a gardener. Their address in 1901 was 299 Banbury Road (ref RG13/1380 f114 p7). Husband George died in 1913 but Martha lived on till January qr 1932 (Headington 3a 1696) aged 91.