Franz 'Frank' Ernst Baselow 1852-1915 Ships chandler L2250

Franz 'Frank' Ernst Baselow was born in Rostock, Prussia, in 1852. After his father Captain Hans Henrich Baselow died in 1881, he and his mother continued to live in Mount Stuart Square and Frank was a provisions agent supplying the constant stream of cargo vessels leaving Cardiff to take coal around the world. Newspapers provide an insight to an apparently flamboyant character. In 1888, he is advertising for the return of a 'massive gold watch seal with green and red stone' and the finder is promised a handsome reward. In 1907, he had a diamond tie pin said to be worth £23 (almost £3,000 today) stolen from outside a restaurant in Soho. In 1901, when he and his mother are living at 'Rostock' 1 Howard Gardens, it is Frank who is described as the head of the household. A year later, his mother dies and later the same year he marries Florence Lydia Smith, who was born on 29 October 1871 in Stoke Goldington, Buckinghamshire, to Thomas and Louisa Smith. Thomas is variously described as a builder and brick and tile maker, but also a farmer, with a holding of 164 acres and employing 23 men and 4 boys. Franz and Florence had one child, Frank Thomas Henry, born in 1904, who died in 1961 and is buried with his parents. Franz dies in 1915, aged 64. His probate records that he left a surprisingly small sum of £105. Yet his memorial in Cathays Cemetery is one of the most impressive, topped by a carved stone sculpture of a mother reading to a child, probably depicting his relatively young widow reading to son Frank.

With grateful acknowledgement to Kathy Thomas for passing on the product of her research into the Baselow family.