The Historical Biography of Edward (Teddie) James 
          TUTTLE. 

          Edward James was the youngest son of Edward Robert and 
          Georgiana Tuttle (nee Wright)  . He was born on 3rd 
          February 1895 
          He was born in a rented house in Mattishall,East 
          Dereham,Norfolk, which to this day is still referred to 
          as "Tuttle's Corner".                       
          His father was a farm labourer and probably earning 
          less than £1 per week in wages so they were by no means 
          a wealthy family although they would have had the 
          facilities for growing their own food and having eggs 
          from their own chickens etc.
          They were  Primitive Methodists and a deeply religious 
          family,Edward Robert was known to regularly walk over 
          thirty miles on a Sunday to preach as a lay preacher
          in the tiny village chapels at Carbrook and 
          Winfarthing.Georgiana had probably established 
          Primitive Methodism in the family as up until their 
          marriage the Tuttle family had been Church of 
          England.

          Teddie was born in the reign of a fading Victoria
          and the Marquis of Salisbury was head of a conservative 
          government.
          He was the youngest of seven children, there had been 
          eight but Edward Park had died of bronchitis at the age 
          of one year in 1882. His other brothers and sister 
          were Arthur b.1882 Edward Park b.1884 Robert 
          b.1886  Gladys Marion b.1888 Ernest William (my 
          grandfather) b.1890 and Mildred May b. 1892.     

          He would have been two years old when England and the 
          Commonwealth were celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of 
          Queen Victoria in 1897, the following year a red 
          postage stamp had been issued stating: "We hold a 
          vaster Empire than has ever been".
          There would have been sadness at this time in the 
          family as Robert, who was twelve, died of sugar 
          diabetes.

          At the age of four he would have started school, round 
          about the time of the Boer War. He went to school in 
          Mattishall, a small country school the average 
          attendance being 140 pupils in 1900. There was 
          compulsory school attendance up to the age of ten and 
          was not raised until 1918 to the age of 14,although if 
          for some reason he had registered too few attendances 
          then he would have had to stay until he was 13.
          There is no doubt that he would have walked to school 
          as it was not far away and also the cost of a bicycle
          at that time was £10 or ten weeks wages!
           

          Life at home would have been very basic. There was no 
          running water, no electricity the rent would have been 
          about 35p per week ,candles were 35p for three pounds 
          and a good pair of working boots would have cost  £1,a 
          whole weeks wages.Income tax was 5 1/2d to 6din the £1.
          Between 1900 and 1905, the years that Teddie was at 
          school, the papers would have been telling a very 
          different story of the world outside the little country 
          village of Mattishall:
          Slavery was abolished in Nigeria, The first petrol 
          motor-cycles appeared in Britain, the Boar War ended 
          and in 1902 Balfour became Prime Minister of Great 
          Britain. Kipling wrote the 'Just-So'stories,Conon Doyle 
          The Hound of the Baskervilles and Beatrix Potter -Peter 
          Rabbit. The first radio message was heard over the 
          Atlantic and Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Womens 
          Social and Political Union. The Rolls Royce Company was 
          founded.Motor buses appeared in London and 
          Picasso,Cezanne and Matisse were painting future 
          masterpieces.

          When Teddie left school at the age of about ten he went 
          to work for Mr.Neave who was a grocer. He had a 
          shop in the little village of Mattishall and sold just 
          about everything that was needed to sustain life in a 
          small village. Mr. Neave was the owner of the house 
          that the Tuttles lived in so it is very likely that 
          they are one and the same person. 
          It appears that once a week Mr. Neave would fill up his 
          horse and cart with every imaginable food and household 
          item and visit the outlying tiny scattered villages and 
          Teddie would go with him to help him sell his wares.
          Teddie it seems was a very friendly and good-looking 
          young boy who would regularly call in at a friend in
          Welborne and partake of some of her mothers shortbread.        
          The friend,Jessie Matthews, remembers clearly that the 
          horse often wore  a hat with its ears sticking out!

          Mary Barham-Johnson was born in the same year as Teddie 
          and is still very active, knew of the family. She 
          remembers: "There were two cottages in a lane east of 
          this farm where lived old Mrs Bunn and Mrs Mendham and 
          next door I saw a new born baby (the first I had ever 
          seen). We used to take soup in cans to these people, 
          and also to Mrs.Tuttle who was bed-ridden at the little 
          farm on Norwich Road at the bottom of school lane.
          She could remember old Mrs Tuttle and going to see her 
          in a tiny stuffy bedroom and noticed that there was no 
          fireplace and the ventilator had been pasted over! She 
          could not remember any children. She was not allowed to 
          mix with the local village children for fear of 
          headlice! ( She was the Rectors daughter).

          She tells also of a murder in Welborne in 1907.Jimmy 
          Green had been stalking her father with a gun a shot
          was heard and they all thought that the rector had               
      been killed but infact it appears that a poor Mrs Smalls  
       who had been "picking  stones",was found dead in a field 
          and Jimmy Green dead in a ditch.

          In April 1914 Teddie was the best man at his sister 
          Millies wedding, it was a very special wedding as the 
          heading in the newspaper cutting was:
          MOTOR WEDDING.....the bridal pair motored to the 
          chapel...................... Mr.Edward Tuttle was best 
          man.On entering the chapel the organist (Mrs.King) 
          played "The voice that breathed o'er Eden"......

          The years between 1906 and 1914 had also been quite 
          exciting. Colour  photography had been invented,The 
          Olympic games were held in London,Campbell - Bannerman 
          resigned and was succeeded by Asquith.Louis Bleriot 
          crossed the channel in an areoplane.Edward V11 
          died and George V was crowned ,plastics were 
          invented.The Old Age Pension, National Insurance and 
          the  first steps of the modern welfare state were 
          started. There were Suffragette riots in 
          Whitehall.Scott reached the South Pole only to find 
          that Amundsen had beaten him to it. The Titanic sank 
          with the loss of 1513 lives. In 1914 Archduke Ferdinand 
          of Austria and his wife were assassinated,Austria 
          declared war on Russia and then France.Britain declared 
          war on Germany.