My grandmother, Bessie Gosling, was born in 1876, the tenth child and fourth daughter of Charles Gosling of Strawberry Hill. In 1903 she married Eugenius Harvey. Her elder son, Eugene or Eugenius, was born in Bermuda in 1904 and her second, Adolphus John, known as John, in Nutting, New Jersey in 1905. They soon returned to Bermuda but sometimes visited Newfoundland where her husband had spent much of his childhood and his mother still lived. For a time her husband worked in Barbados and latterly at the Bermuda Post Office. After his death in 1921 Bessie took her two sons, Dr Eugene Harvey and Colonel John Harvey, Royal Marines, to England for their education. She had little money and found it cheaper to live in the South of France than England! After her son Eugene qualified as a doctor and returned to Bermuda she too returned and for her last few years lived with her older sister Belle, Mrs Eldon Harvey, on Victoria Street.
She died in 1945 from infected tonsils just as antibiotics which would have saved her were becoming available. An obituary said “In her earlier days she was one of the foremost tennis players in Bermuda, and in 1923 she and Mrs Goodwin Gosling were invited to take part in a tournament at Wimbledon, where they upheld Bermuda’s high reputation. Her fine spirit of sportsmanship was ever in evidence and has influenced for good many a player of today. During the war she was never happy unless serving some war unit. Again her modesty prevailed, for she sought no prominence or reward. Her work at the BWAF, LHO and at the Red Cross will always be remembered for its efficiency and readiness. But she will be remembered with gratitude for the gracious and gentle manner, her remarkable gift for making others happy, her high purpose of life, and her unselfish conduct throughout years of service. Death, for one like her, was but ‘A gentle wafting to immortal life.’