Adolf and Dorothea Wise

A cabinet card showing the grave of Adolf William Wise and his wife Dorothea Matilda Wise in Chingford Mount Cemetery, Essex, which opened in May 1884. The headstone also commemorates their infant daughter Alice Victoria Wise, who died at Brougham Road in Dalston on 1 June 1872 at the age of 2 years and 10 months and was buried in the City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery (called Bow Cemetery by locals) on 8 June 1872.

According to the 1881 census, Adolf William Wise was a ‘Cabinet Maker.’ He was born at Baden in Germany in or about 1838. His wife Dorothea was born in Bavaria in or about 1848. At the time of the census, the couple were living at 123 Wilmott Street in Bethnal Green with their children Augusta (10), Adolf William (8) and Arthur William (5). The children were all born in Shoreditch.

Adolph William Wise died, aged 50, on 15 October 1888.

In 1891 Dorothea was a widow ‘living on [her] own means’ with her two sons in Valentine Road, Hackney. In 1901 she was living with a young boarder at 32 Grange Road, Ilford.

Dorothea Matilda Wise died, aged 55, on 11 August 1903.

The cemetery’s records show that the original owner of the grave was Mrs Dorothea Wise. In December 1903 ownership was transferred to her son Adolf William Wise, and then in August 1907 to his younger brother Arthur William Wise. A new headstone was installed on 30 September 1907.

An inked inscription verso in a 20th-century hand reads: ‘Grandpa Wise’s sister’s grave / Chingford Mount Cemetery.’

Photographer unidentified.