JEROMES AND RUBICKS ARE LINKED
 


At the outbreak of the war Willie Rubick was arrested because he had a foreign sounding name and was taken to Southampton. He was vouched for by friends in Aldershot and soon returned to find "RUBICK IS A TRAITOR" written on his shop window.

On 5th December 1915 my great grandfather Frederick Ernest decided to visit his son, my grandfather Frederick Edgar who was stationed at Alresford. He took the train to Alton and as there was no bus at the time he walked to Alresford. "It did him no good at all", as the telegram to his son said two days later, "Father dangerously ill. Get leave and come home." My great grandfather died the same day. The telegram is in the album in the Museum.

In 1917 my grandfather had become a signals sergeant and was patrolling on horseback in the Southern part of Ireland. At the end of the war my grandfather, because of his calvary background, obtained a commission in th 2/10 Royal Scots and went out with the ill conceived expeditionary force to Russia to help the White Russians. See the album and separate display in the Museum in the shop.

My grandfather and grandmother had met through their fathers. Willie had known Frederick since he was a little boy, so in a way Eunice and Frederick were childhood sweethearts. In 1917 they had become engaged and when he returned from Russia they married. The Jeromes and Rubicks had become linked.


 


In 1919 Mr Willie Rubick bought the Ayling Estate comprising Ayling House and Coach house and all the land going down Ayling Lane from the top on the right to the bottom,and also the land which is now Rowhills and Stovolds Way.

 

 

Ayling House had been built in the early 19th century and was known as a Parcel of Land called Hickett, owned by the Crondall 100 as far back as 1751. The Bell Tower which can still be seen on Ayling House was used as a clock by the workers in the fields and was rung to call the farm hands in to let them know that Wellington had been victorious at Waterloo. The bell was also rung at the birth of a Jerome and it rang for the last time in 1960 on the birth of my cousin Sally.

Mr Rubick never lived in the house but his daughter Eunice and his son-in-law moved in and occupied one half whilst an army captain rented the other half.

My grandfather returned to work for Mr Sumpster until 1923 when the lease for the shop at 7 Wellington street known as Woodruff's became available. Mr Rubick helped my grandfather purchase the lease from Mr Woodruff who had become ill. Edgar Jerome's opened March 10th 1923.
The premises of the shop now standing were built in 1860 by John and Edward Chiddell and passed to their neice in 1891. The earliest receipt we have is dated 1899. In 1915 Mr Woodruff was paying Miss Ellen Chiddell £90 per annum rent.

The only initial problem my grandfather had when he took over the shop in 1923 was evicting some "ladies of ill repute" who had taken up residence on the 3rd floor with a convenient back entrance from the yard behind the shop. Eunice worked with her husband in the shop.

 

  
 
   
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