Wiggs & Glover families

Joan Thomas was the eldest daughter of William Frank Wiggs (known as Will) and May Lucy Wiggs, née Glover.

Scroll down to see picture galleries and information on:

William Frank Wiggs (Grandad)

May Lucy Glover (Nan)

Cycling & camping (club rides and certificates)

Marriage & children (Nan & Grandad with Joan, Lucy & Sheila)

Wiggs family (Will’s parents & siblings)

Glover family (Nan’s parents & siblings)

Other galleries – to be added

Click on the photos in each gallery for larger images.

William Wiggs (Grandad)

William Frank Wiggs – known as Will – was born in 1900, the seventh of the nine children of Henry March Wiggs and his wife Mary Harriet Wiggs (nee Clark).

As a young boy, Grandad went to the Peckham Wesleyan school. As he got older, he became a keen cyclist (like several of his brothers and sisters), winning various club medals during his twenties. He also became an agnostic, a committed socialist and a lifelong vegetarian.

The Wiggs family lived in Trafalgar Square, Peckham, next door to the Glover family. Nan (May Glover) was also a keen cyclist.

At the time of their wedding, Grandad’s occupation was listed as instrument maker and by the start of the Second World War he was working for engineering firm J Stone & Co in Deptford. He worked for the company until his retirement in 1965, by which time he had been in charge of the firm’s instrument standards room for many years.

May Lucy Glover (Nan)

Nan (centre) with Fred front and Ada (right)

May Lucy Glover was born on 25th May 1908 at 64 East Street, Newington South, Southwark. She was the daughter of Frederick James Glover and Ada Eliza Glover (nee Chilcott) and had an older brother called Fred and a younger brother called George.

There are no records for where Nan lived during most of her childhood but by 1930 she was living with Ada at 5 Trafalgar Square, Peckham – next door to her future husband William Wiggs.

Before she married, Nan worked in a retail warehouse. Like Grandad she was a keen cyclist and took part in many club events – both solo and with Grandad on a tandem (see below).

Cycling & camping

Club cycling weekend near Alfriston in Sussex – about 1922

Before they got married, both Nan and Grandad were keen cyclists – competing in time trials and other events, as well as going away on club camping trips.

Grandad competed in events held by various cycling clubs in the Kent and London area – including the Bath Road, Southern Roads, South East Road and Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Clubs.

He won medals for various time trial events – a 1924 bronze medal from the Bath Road club was for riding 154 miles in 12 hours, while by 1928 a medal from the Southern Road Club shows he was up 198 miles in 12 hours.

Among the events Nan took part in were a 12-hour time trial run by the Rosslyn Ladies club in 1929. This was only the second ever event of its type held on British roads as women cyclists were still regarded by some as quite scandalous in the 1920s!

(I wrote an article about their cycling achievements for the blog on my Pedal Portugal website in January 2021.)

Nan and Grandad continued to be active club members for much of their lives. After their three daughters left home they mainly rode a tandem.

In 1957 – when Grandad was 56 and Nan 49 – the West Kent District Association of the Cyclists’ Touring Club presented them with a book of cycling sketches by artist Frank Patterson as a special prize for “very noteworthy performances” in five events held as part of the association’s 1957 ‘Tourist Reliability Trials’.

These were: 250 miles in 24 hours, 140 miles in 12 hours, 100 miles in eight hours, 50 miles in four hours, and 25 miles ‘rough stuff’ in 3.5 hours. A certificate in the book said the award was “made by a group of members of the District Association in token of their admiration for a very fine series of rides”.

Marriage & children