Benjamin Tompson Soppit and Ida Lily Hepworth

St Nicholas Church, Durweston, Dorset

Benjamin Tompson Soppit (b. 13 Nov 1884 in Bromley, Kent), son of John Soppit and Louisa Tompson, married Ida Lily Hepworth (b. 16 Sep 1891 in Exeter), daughter of Vincent Hepworth and Mary Ann (Annie) Rogers, at St Mary Major, Exeter, on 2 Jul 1913. Ida Lily Hepworth gave her residence as 3 Cathedral Yard, Exeter (now the address of Al Farid restaurant). Witnesses were Annie Adams (Ida's mother who remarried in 1908), H W (Henry Wood) Adams, her step-father, and John Soppit, presumably Benjamin's father.

The Church of St Mary Major, Exeter, formerly Exeter Minster, stood in Exeter Cathedral Yard, between the west front of the cathedral and next to The Three Gables, the building which now houses Al Farid restaurant. Having been rebuilt several times, St Mary Major was demolished in 1971.

In 1911, Ida Hepworth was a Hospital Nurse at The Croydon Borough Hospital for Infectious Diseases (Waddon Hospital). The Hospital was extended in 1911 to include two isolation pavilions and a Nurses' Home.

Benjamin and Ida had two children: 

1. John Vincent Soppit b. 15 Jul 1914 S Quarter in YORK Vol 09D Page 27
2. Ida Louisa Soppit b. 1916 M Quarter in PLYMPTON ST. MARY Volume 05B Page 293

In March 1916 Benjamin Tompson Soppit M2/115307 was serving with the Royal Army Service Corps in Salonica [Thessaloniki] on the Macedonian front. He ultimately achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant and Adjutant. 

In 1939, Benjamin and Ida were living at 46 Cambridge Drive, Lee, Lewisham.

Final resting place of Benjamin Tompson and Ida Lily Soppit

They later moved to 43 Barrack Row, Durweston, near to their daughter. 

Benjamin Tompson Soppit died on 28 Jan 1969, aged 85. Ida Lily Soppit died on 3 Jun 1995, at the age of 103 years 9 months (DOR Q2/1995 in NORTH DORSET (4301) Reg 54 Entry Number 140). They're buried together in the churchyard at St Nicholas Church, Durweston, Dorset. 

The inscription reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

BENJAMIN TOMPSON SOPPIT

WHO FELL ASLEEP 

28th JAN 1969

Faithful in all things

ALSO OF HIS WIFE

IDA LILY

3rd June 1995

In her 104th year

• John Vincent Soppit married Olive Constance Archer in 1943 in Bromley, Kent. Listed in the 21 Jun 1945 edition of The London Gazette is Lieutenant-Colonel (temporary) John Vincent SOPPIT (124996), Royal Army Service Corps (Beckenham, Kent). They had one daughter, Amanda Janet Soppit, born in 1946. John Vincent Soppit died in London in 1990. Olive Constance Soppit of 54 Greenways, Beckenham, Kent, died on 1 Dec 2010. Amanda Janet Soppit appears not to have married and died on 9 Apr 2015.
• 'Betty' I L [Ida Louisa] Soppit married Alfred Ernest Woodley, in Deptford, London in 1938. In 1939, Alfred E Woodley (b. 22 Jan 1913) School Master, and Betty I L Woodley were living at 77 Salisbury Street, Blandford Forum, Dorset. They had one son, born in Carlisle, Cumberland, in 1942. Alfred Ernest Woodley of The Old Bank House, Blandford, died, aged 30, on 17 Feb 1943 at Bewaldeth Village, Cockermouth, Cumberland. Betty I L Woodley then remarried to Harold Greenleaves in Blandford, Dorset in 1944. They had one son in 1945. Harold Greenleaves, born 1904, died in North Dorset, in 2003. Betty Ida Louisa Greenleaves died, on 29 Jul 2014. Both sons appear to be still living.