Mildred Akers

Harry Hurlbutt Albino collected one song, Watercress Girl (Roud 1541) from Mrs Akers in Jan 1936, the sheet is marked "Bourton".

Mildred Palmer was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire in Spring of 1874 in the Gloucestershire village of Bourton-on-the-Water. Her father, George, was a local sawyer and her mother, Diana, came from down the road at Little Rissington. It was a large family - 7 boys and 4 girls, of which Mildred was the youngest girl. Her mother died when Mildred was only 9 years old, but she continued to live with her father until she married an agricultural labourer (in the 1901 census he is specifically described as "Hay Trusser") Albert Akers in June 1894, going to live with him in his home village of Marston, Oxfordshire.

Albert Akers died shortly after the meeting with Albino, in September 1938, but Mildred survived him, dying at the age of 79 in 1953.

Paul Burgess