An Ilett Reunion
Photo of Elizabeth Jane Patterson (nee Ilett) and Elizabeth Ilett (Wife of Edward Ilett) taken at the reunion in about 1923/4.

Elizabeth Jane Ilett was born at Hounsdown, Eling, Hampshire in 1854. She had a younger brother Edward Ilett who was born on Christmas Day in 1857. In October 1859 their mother Susannah Ilett (nee Milligan) died. Life was hard in the New Forest in those days. Her father was an agricultural labourer and it is believed the family had a small holding in the Hounsdown area though exactly where is not known. The children were put to work in the fields and apparently their father was not the most kindly person. So as soon as they were old enough the children left home. Elizabeth Jane went to London (probably in the mid 1870s) and went into service and lost contact with her brother. She heard that he had caught a boat from Southampton and gone to the Channel Islands.

In the due process of time Elizabeth Jane married Robert William Patterson (1 Sep 1878 at St Johns Church. Ealing) and had a family. After the First World War her son George retired from the army after doing 21 years service and with his family moved in with his mother Elizabeth Jane at 41 Williams Road, Ealing, Middlesex.

In about 1923 some neighbours (the Palombos who ran a confectioner's shop in Williams Road, Ealing) were going on a visit to the Channel Islands and George Patterson, asked them to keep an eye out for anyone called Ilett. As it happened at that very time there was in the local Jersey newspaper an account of a marriage involving an Ilett (Mabel Maud Ilett to Elie John Bisson on 2 Aug 1923 at St Andrew's Church).

The neighbour brought the newspaper home and George Patterson made contact with the Ilett family in Jersey which proved to be the family of Elizabeth Jane's brother Edward Ilett who was still alive. George Patterson immediately went on a visit to Jersey to meet Edward Ilett and his family. The arrangement was that Edward Ilett would meet the boat and wear a white carnation. George Patterson was later reputed to have said that the carnation was unnecessary as there was such a strong family likeness he recognised him immediately. Shortly afterwards Elizabeth Jane went out to Jersey with her grand daughter Lily (George's daughter) and was reunited with her brother after approximately 50 years.

The two families have remained in contact ever since.