Mary Collingwood

My great-great-grand-aunt Mary Collingwood was born in Ainstable, Cumberland. She was the illegitimate daughter of Eliza Collingwood, whose husband Thomas had died 13 years previously.

Mary was the last member of the family to live in Ainstable. She was the Postmistress in the village, and died without ever marrying or having children in 1949.

When her nephew Harry Collingwood Mitton was killed in action in 1916 in WW1, she commissioned a stone mason to carve his name into the church wall in Ainstable. The stone mason carved “Henry” instead of “Harry” and Mary refused to pay him.