It looks like he re-married in 1933. There's quite a few newspaper references for Joseph. The 1923 item paints a rather sad picture, and begs the question as to who the "wife" was, as it's doesn't appear to have been first wife Ellen.
GRO BMD references:
1933 Q2 Marriage - Joseph Tall & Ellen E Hooker; Braintree; 04A; 2142
1938 Q3 Death - Ellen Elizabeth Tall; age 75 (born c1863); Braintree; 04A; 825
1941 Q4 Death - Joseph Mingay Tall; age 90 (born c1851); Braintree; 04A; 1387
Daily News (London)
28 Apr 1923
A Forgotten Inventor
Man Once Famous Now In Poverty
Pioneer Of Revolution In Building
Coggeshall (Essex)
page 7
- Fifty-seven years ago Joseph Tall,
- a precocious London schoolboy of fourteen-and-a-half,
- with a passion for "making things",
- took out the first patent in this or any country
- for a method of reinforcing concrete
...
- On Tramp For Work
- A few years before the Great War of 1914 the same Joseph Tall
- was tramping England in search of work.
- For five nights he slept out with the human wreckage on the Thames Embankment
- With his wife he lined up in the bread queues.
- One day a lady, whom Tall recognised as a popular actress,
- came by, and, apparently touched by something specially pathetic about the woman,
- pressed a sovereign into her hand.
- "That lady," he said to me this afternoon,
- "didn't know she was giving charity to the wife of the man
- who had built the flat she was living in
- and invented the material is was built of
- But I knew it."
...
- he is 72 years old, and Mrs Tall ten years younger
...
- They lost their only son in the war,
- and their one daughter is married to a farm labourer
...
[long item, has photo of Joseph]
Chelmsford Chronicle
12 Aug 1938
page 10
Coggeshall
- The death occurred on Monday night of
- Mrs Ellen E Tall,
- wife of Mr J M Tall,
- of The Bungalows, Tilkey Road,
- at the age of 75 years
- Funeral to-day (Friday),
- at the Parish Church, at 3.30
Chelmsford Chronicle
26 Dec 1941
page 5
Night Walking At 90
- Coroner held an inquest on Monday on
- Joseph Mingay Tall,
- aged 90,
- of Tilkey Road, Coggeshall,
- who died at St Michael's Hospital, Braintree,
- on Sunday,
- from injuries sustained on Dec 9,
- when he was knocked down by a cyclist
- Stanley H Haines, aged 14, of Tilkey Road,
- said he and three other boys were cycling
- in Tilkey Road at 7 pm,
- proceeding in a single file,
- witness being last,
- They met deceased, who had a torch,
- and passed the three leading cyclists,
- and then walked into witness,
- who had an authorised light
- Verdict, accidental death
EDIT: Added a bit more info from the 1923 newspaper item
