This collection of family records was made by Frederic Harold Vince (1881-1982), the fourth of the six children of Edward Archer Vince (1848-1917) and Catherine Ann Vince (née Youngman, 1845-1929).
Although material was destroyed at various times (notably during a house move in 1918, and in 1930, following his mother's death), Frederic Harold Vince retained an extensive collection of documents bearing on his family’s history from the mid-19th century to his death in 1982. Most of the material was generated between 1900 and 1982. Much of the earlier material, including albums of family photographs and books relating to the First World War, is annotated in his own hand.
F H Vince was born in Wealdstone, in the London Borough of Harrow, in 1881. He grew up in Charmouth, Dorset, where his father ran the Supply Stores, was a leading member of the local Congregational Church and supported the Liberal Party. He attended Keyford School in Frome. After working as a traveller for a Birmingham grocery firm (R L & J L Lodge) from 1898 to 1901, he ran The Stores in Crondall, Hants, with his brother Wilfred, from 1901 to 1906. In that year, he left to join Stimpson and Lock, a recently established Watford firm of Auctioneers and Estate Agents, buying out Mr Stimpson and becoming a partner in Stimpson, Lock and Vince in 1909. He enlisted in 1914 on the outbreak of WW1, was eventually commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in June 1917, and saw action at Pilckem Ridge, Ypres, Passchendaele and Cambrai. In 1922, he married the recently widowed Mrs Florence (Flodge) Eliza Swain (née Smith, 1895-1979) and they had three daughters, Margaret June (b. 1923), Audrey Rae (1924-1985) and Judith Ann Laeta (b.1934). During WW2, he served in the Home Guard, becoming an Independent Council Member for the King’s Ward, Watford, in 1942. He served as Mayor of Watford in the year 1949-50, in which year he was elected an Alderman. He continued in his business, civic and charitable activities well into his 90s and died, a local celebrity and centenarian, in 1982.