Charles Kerridge

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Original information:
Charles Kerridge (19) was a house servant. No further information available.

Readers’ response:
This individual is recorded in the photograph as “T. Kerridge’’. He is described in another Canterbury photograph as “E. Kerridge, pilgrim on the Randolph’’. He was given the name “Chas’’ on the Randolph’s passenger list.

According to a family member, despite the variety of first-name initials this is George Kerridge. Why he appears on the passenger list as “Chas Kerridge’’, why his age is given as 19 when he was 24 when the ship sailed, and why his occupation is given as “house servant’’ when his occupation was apparently more likely to be a rustic one, is a mystery to the family.

Some family researchers have queried whether George and Chas are the same man. One who thinks it was George assumes a clerical error in 1850, adding the following to support that George Kerridge was on the Randolph: family tradition has it that George was on the First Four Ships; “George Kerridge’’ is included in a list in the Christchurch Star of December 1894 of people who came out on the First Four Ships; “Kerridge, George Alive, Hanmer Street, Linwood’’ is among the names of Randolph passengers published by the Canterbury Old Colonists’ Committee on October 30, 1900; he appears in this 1900 photo; and “Geo. Kerridge’’ appears in the Canterbury Association Timebook at the Alexander Turnbull Library for work done January 6-10, 1851.

Another family member says there is no record of where George came from and that he was not on the Randolph, arguing that the differences between the age, name and occupation of the person listed on the passenger list and George Kerridge are just too great. ¹

It seems that from the information gathered, George Kerridge is the “T. Kerridge’’ in the photo and there was a clerical error in 1850.

George was a 24-year-old single man from Suffolk when he joined the Randolph. His father, also George, was a Suffolk farmer. George was initially housed at the Canterbury Association’s barracks at Lyttelton and he was employed by the Association. In 1852-1853 he was a policeman at Lyttelton, and by 1856 he was a labourer at Papanui.

George Kerridge married Susan Searle on September 27, 1855, at Christchurch (St Michael’s). Susan, a domestic servant from Devon, had arrived on the Laubuan in August 1851, along with her sister Sophia and brother-in-law Thomas Smith. The Kerridges settled in Avonside, and had a close relationship with the family of John and Emily Dudley at Broome Farm.

From the early 1870s, George Kerridge was described as a gardener of Hanmer Street, and he died at No. 10 on July 13, 1907.

George and Susan had three daughters and five sons. One daughter died in infancy and another as a teenager. The third daughter, Edith Emily, and the sons had families. Their best-known grandson was Sir Robert Kerridge, who created the Kerridge-Odeon cinema chain. ²

Footnotes:
1. Julie Hocken, unpublished family history
2. Terry Stock, unpublished family history