Henry Dicken (1883-1973) was from near Chesterfield. He was one of 10 children born before his father, Robert Dicken, died in 1891. Five years later his mother (Ann 1855-1920) married Edwin Lomas in Derby. They lived in Normanton (between Osmaston and Littleover) and had two more daughters before Edwin died in 1900.
Henry Dicken worked as a lace card puncher. In 1904 he married Ada White (1885-1972) from Spondon. A year or two later they moved to Long Eaton (where there were many lace mills). Around 1908 they moved to New Sawley (where there were other lace mills; or he could have walked across the park to Long Eaton). In 1911 the family were at 18 Myrtle Avenue (not far from the site of the Sawley windmill discussed in a recent post). According to one source, they may also have lived in Golden Row in Old Sawley. The last of their children to be born in Sawley was Nellie (1911-1991).
1912 Henry left Liverpool aboard the SS Merion, bound for Philadelphia, USA. The rest of the family followed later.
The family settled in Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio (West of Cleveland), beside Lake Erie. In 1931 Nellie Dicken married Earl Ellsworth Hawkins (1909-1981), a captain in the Elyria Police Department.
They went on to have a son (Earl junior) and a daughter, Judith Ann Hawkins (born 1939).
Judith Ann Hawkins married Jerome Jesse Berry (1934-2003) in 1964. They divorced in 1970 after having two daughters.
The younger daughter, Maria Halle Berry, was born in Cleveland in 1966. In 1971 her name was changed to Halle Maria Berry. She became a model, winning Miss Teen All America in 1985 and Miss Ohio in 1986. She was the first African American to enter Miss World in 1986 (her father, Jerome, was black).
She became a leading Hollywood actress and is (as far as we know) the only grandchild of a Sawley girl to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, an Emmy award and a British Academy Film Award.
