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Christopher Plumbe was my great-grandfather.  He served as Inspector of Mines in Ipoh, Malaya, retiring in 1904 and moving to England with his Cornish wife Emily, met and married (in 1893) in Malaya.  One daughter died, the other was Elsie, my father's mother.  He died in Putney, London in late 1911, aged 53, and his death certificate says he was born in Bendigo.

Hello Jack,

Yes thanks, that fits - I was told she was buried in Mylor.

Would William be training as a teacher at 12?  He doesn't seem to be anywhere on the 1861 census, Cornwall or elsewhere, and the only possible person I can see in 1851 is born in St. Austell and in the workhouse.  William and Mary is an unfortunately common combination - I've already found two couples in St. Austell!  Do you have records of his parents' deaths, please?

Best wishes

Michael

For your records, William Harvey and Elizabeth Wellington also had another daughter Elsie, born in 1883 in Flushing.  In 1891 Elizabeth and Elsie were boarding in Windsor but Elsie married in Malaya in 1902 to a George Moir and retired to Aberdeen with her four children.

Yes, Emily was the daughter of William Harvey Wellington who was Cornish and a schoolmaster in the 1881 census.  Nita was her surviving sister (mother Elizabeth and another sister died early) and George Moir later became a vet in Aberdeen, Scotland.  William had disappeared from the 1891 census while Emily was living in Windsor with an uncle and aunt.

I had no idea that they all moved to Malaya or that William became a miner but it does now seem likely that Emily and Christopher married in Malaya.  Their daughter Elsie was born on 8 November 1902 and her younger sister Eileen died of pneumonia at the age of three after they had retired to England.

Thanks to everyone for their help and information. 

My Welsh family don't appear in 1891 or 1901 censuses, but are there in 1911.  I think they may have Anglicised the spelling of their surname.  Can we search online without surname in a particular parish or do I need to visit the local offices?  Thanks.