On her marriage certificate and the birth certificates of all her children she gave her name as May Dora Carter, but she called herself Eugenie Cameron Clarke in the 1911 census and until her death, so I think we can be confident that she was May Dora Carter at the time of her marriage. On her marriage certificate she gave her father as James Carter (deceased). My mother told me that Eugenie was illegitimate and had been brought up by an aunt (or her mother posing as an aunt). The story was that Herman saw her swinging on a gate as he drove by and he stopped and seduced her. 

According to a poem written by Herman for her birthday she was born on 27th November. On her death certificate her date of birth was registered as 27 November 1893. If the date of birth on her death certificate was correct, she was only 15 when she married Herman on 11 August 1909 (the death of his second wife, Mazie (May) was registered between July and September 1909, so he married Eugenie at most a few weeks after the death of Mazie), though she gave her age on the marriage certificate as 23 (he gave his age as 42, though he was actually 51). In the 1911 census he again gave her age as 23 and her birthplace as Christchurch, Hampshire (he now gave his age as 44).

The only possible girl born in Christchurch between 1890 and 1894 is an Eva May Carter, whose birth was registered in July-Sept 1892, but she was still living with her parents in 1911. However, Herman's wife Mazie (May) died in Christchurch just before Eugenie and Herman married, so maybe Herman lied about his wife’s birthplace in the census, just as he lied about their ages on their marriage certificate and the census form.

The only May Dora Carter born in the UK between 1870 and 1894 was registered in Jan-March 1892 in Linton, which spans the boundaries of the counties of Cambridgeshire and Essex. I got her birth certificate, which shows that she was born on 27th November 1891 at Horseheath, the daughter of Minnie Carter, a domestic servant.
 

There is no marriage or death record for any other May Dora Carter than Eugenie (there are five May D Carters who married between 1890 and 1980 and one who died, aged 69, in 1964) so we can be as sure as we could be that this was granny Eugenie. This would mean that she was actually 17 when she married Herman, 20 in the 1911 census and 88 when she died.

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May Dora’s mother, Minnie Carter, was christened in Horseheath 1 August 1869. She was a lodger, aged 21 and living on her own means, at 34 Wood Street Brighton in the 5 April 1891 census (Wood Street was demolished in 1962).

Minnie’s mother was Matilda Carter, born Emily Matilda Loveday at Little Wratting, Suffolk, in 1830, daughter of Joseph Loveday, born 1802, who married Sarah Newman (1794- 1821???) at Little Wratting, Suffolk on 12 May 1825. Matilda married Jacob Carter (1827-1886) 19 October 1858 in Little Wratting. He was born at Shudy Camps, Cambridgeshire, the son of James Carter (born 1795) who married Susan Scotcher (born 1799) in Suffolk in 1820. (a familysearch.org tree – goes a lot further back, if you believe it).

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Jacob had married Caroline King in Linton, Cambridgeshire, in 1851. They had two children, Emily, christened at Shudy Camps, 3 April 1853, and Mary, christened 21 October 1855 at Shudy Camps. Caroline died in 1856.

Jacob and Matilda were living in High Street, Horseheath, in 1861, where he was a grocer and they had two children, Emily, aged 8, and James, aged 1. (Jacob had been a railway labourer, living as a lodger in Foxton, Hertfordshire, in 1851).

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In 1871 Jacob was an agricultural labourer living at Balsham, Horseheath with Matilda and seven children, Mary, aged 15, James, 11, Sarah, 9, Elizabeth, 7, Alice, 5, Minnie, 2 and Catherine, 0. (Mary does not appear in the census in 1861). Emily had left home and was probably the Emily Carter who was a servant in Cambridge in 1871.

 In 1881 Jacob was an agricultural labourer living at Carnals Green, Horseheath, with Matilda and six children, James, 21, Minnie, 11, Kate, 10, Eunice, 9, Caraline and Frank, both 5 (Sarah was now a servant in Balsham, Cambridgeshire and Elizabeth and Alice were servants in Cambridge), so Matilda had 10 children. Jacob died in Linton in Jan-Mar 1886.

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In 1891 Matilda was a widow, living with her son Frank and daughter Caroline in a cottage at Balsham, Horseheath, Ely, Cambs.

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So Minnie probably went back to her mother from Brighton for May Dora to be born at her grandmother’s house.

A May Dora Carter, born 27 November 1892, is on the school roll of Woodland Road School, Lambeth in May 1898 and December 1899. The 1898 school record says her previous school was Stafford Street (Cosway Street since 1912, NW1). This is now Christ Church Bentinck C of E School. The original buildings were demolished in 1949. She transferred to the Girl's Department on 8 January 1900. Her mother is named there as Matilda and her address as 10 Beacondale Road, Norwood.  10 Beacondale Road was unoccupied in the 1901 census. In 1891 it was occupied by a John Swift and family.

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There is a May Carter, aged 9, born in Horseheath, Cambridgeshire living with a grandmother Matilda, aged 67, born in Little Rontin, Suffolk, in Paddington in the 1901 census. Matilda Carter is almost certainly the one who died in West Ham in Jan-March 1905.

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A May Dora Carter was confirmed at Christ Church, Hampstead in 1906. She was aged 15 and lived at 8 Golders Hill Terrace, North End Road, a boarding house (in the 1901 census there were four families living there - 8 adults and 7 children), In the 1911 census there was a Caroline Carter, aged 29, born in Horseheath, living there, who was May Carter’s aunt (though May’s sister would have been 35 in 1911), which fits with the story that granny was brought up by a maiden aunt. Caroline was a dressmaker living with James Wry Burnard, a railway porter. In June 1912 Caroline Carter married James W. Buzzard in Hendon, obviously the same man. A Caroline Buzzard died in Banbury, aged 75, in 1951.

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What happened to Minnie? A Minnie Carter married in Brighton (E Preston) in 1892 (she married either George William Austin or William George Boynette, but I have not been able to trace either couple in the 1901 or 1911 censuses), so maybe Minnie went back to Brighton without her daughter and married, but there were two eligible Minnie Carters in Brighton at the time of the 1891 census, so this may not be her. A Minnie Carter died in 1899 and was buried at Carleton (near Horseheath) on 6th February 1899, but her age was given as 19, whereas Granny’s mother would have been 29, but this might have been a typo. There is no plausible Minnie Carter in the 1901 census, so Minnie probably married or died. (There was a Minnie Carter who died in Christchurch, Hampshire, aged 38, in 1911, when our Minnie would then have been 42, but there was a Minnie Carter, boarding house keeper, aged 38, born in Oxfordshire, living in Bournemouth, which is in the Christchurch registration district, in the 1911 census).

So the story would be that May’s mother Minnie got pregnant when working in Brighton, went home to her mother, where she had the baby. Either Minnie went back to Brighton and got married, while May was brought up by her granny, Matilda, or Minnie lived with May and her mother until Minnie died, when Matilda took May to London, where she went to school in 1898-1900. After her granny died in 1905, May lived with her aunt Caroline in Golders Green, where she was christened in 1906. She gave her uncle James (deceased) as her father on her marriage certificate.

May’s uncle James was born in 1860, christened 29 February 1860 at Shudy Camps, Cambridgeshire. In 1871 and 1881 he was living with his parents, an agricultural labourer by 1871 (aged 11!). In 1891 he was an agricultural labourer, living at Sowley Green, Great Thurlow, Risbridge, Suffolk with his wife Fanny, aged 30, and sons William, 4,  and Sidney, 10 months (both Fanny and James said they were born in Barnardiston. William was born in Risbridge, April-June 1886, Sydney’s birth was registered in Risbridge April-June 1890). James died in Risbridge in 1900.  His wife Fanny is probably the Fanny who died in Risbridge (which covers Great Thurlow and Barnardiston) in July-September 1892. A William Carter, aged 8, died in Risbridge in Jan-March 1895. I can’t find any plausible record of Sidney/Sydney or William in the 1901 or 1911 censuses. A Sydney Carter, farm labourer aged 19, emigrated to Canada in March 1910.

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May’s uncle Frank Carter was christened on 3 October 1875 in Horseheath. In 1911 he was living with his wife Edith (33, born Reydon, Suffolk) in Hampstead, working as a jobbing gardener.
GBC/1911/RG14/00637/0435/1

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I have not been able to find any aunts in Hampshire, who might have been looking after Granny when she met Herman. May’s aunt Eunice Carter was christened 9 June 1872 in Horseheath (birth registered in Linton). In 1891 she was a general servant working in the household of the butler in Clarges Street, Hanover Square, but there is no Eunice Carter in the 1901 census nor any Eunice Carter death up to 1980. A Eunice Carter married a John Stodden King in Marylebone in 1897, but I have found no trace of them subsequently. Perhaps she or they emigrated.

May’s aunt Kate Carter was born about 1871. She is probably the nursemaid, who was working for a private secretary Daniel H. Palmer and his Italian wife Elsie in Grove Road, Norwich in 1891.

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May’s aunt Elizabeth was born in 1864. She was a servant in a lodging house in Silver Street, Cambridge in 1881 and it is probably she who was a domestic cook and servant in charge in Marloes Street, Kensington in 1891.

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May’s aunt Alice was christened in Horseheath on 11 Feb 1866. She was a servant in a banker’s clerk’s home in Parker Street Cambridge in 1881 and a general servant in a house in North Street Clerkenwell in 1891.

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I cannot find any of these aunts after 1891, but they do not seem to be in the 1901 or 1911 censuses, so they may have married, emigrated or died.