Harry Bristow was a son of John Bristow and Mary Ann (nee Barnes). He was born in 1873 at the south Cornwall coastal town of East Looe in the part of the town known as Shutta.
His father, John Bristow worked for British Railways and was born at Maidstone in Kent. By the late 1850s she was working in Worcester where he met and married Mary Ann Barnes, who was some 20 years his junior. She was Cornish and had been born at Saltash in 1846.
Following the marriage they moved into Cornwall and settled in the town of Liskeard. It was here that their first two children, both daughters, were born. Harriet in 1865 followed by Ellen (Helen) in 1870. They were still in Liskeard at the April 1871 census date but had moved to East Looe by early 1873 at which time Harry Bristow was born. (His birth was registered at Liskeard, Cornwall in the June quarter of 1873). Their fourth and last child, Fred was born at East Looe in 1876.
All the family are at Looe at the 1881 census date but 10 years later only Harry (now aged 17 and working as a groom) and his widowed mother, remain at home.
At this point it is not apparent what Harry does next as he is not traceable on the 1901 census but it is known that in the period 1906-1909 he meets and marries Ethel Elliott (born 25/9/1887, likely at Tywardreath or Par, Cornwall).
Their first child is Vivian John Henry Bristow, born in Bath, Somerset on 13 August 1910 followed by another son, Philip Harry Bristow.
In 1912 the family are at living in Bromley, Kent and this is the address Harry gave when signing on for Titanic on 6 April 1912.
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