The mystery of Kathleen Argyle

My maternal grandmother was Nellie Winifred van der Veen, nee Argyle, and this is what I know about her mother, Kathleen:

Kathleen Argyle was born Kathleen Guster, sometimes spelt Gustar, on the Isle of Wight early in 1878.

Her Christening record shows the date as 7 April 1878 and the place as Wootton, Hampshire, Isle of Wight.

Her father is Frank George Guster (1847 - 1914) and mother is Jane, nee Gould (1841- 1919).

From the 1901 Census data Frank is 55 years old and a Licenced Victualler, or Pub owner.

I have also found a family tree on FamilySearch which records her family all the way back to the 1500's!

And yet she remains a mystery.

There is a marriage record on the 25th September 1897. She is 19 years old then and is marrying William Argyle. He was the son of a gardener and a laundress and he is a decade older than Kate.

Their first child, Edith, is baptised 8 months later on the 13 May 1898 and dies on the 15 August that same year.



Kate is recorded on the 1901 census, she is 23 years old and living at 16 Church Street in Christchurch with her parents.

(Christchurch is a borough and town on the south coast of England. The town adjoins Bournemouth in the west and the New Forest lies to the east.)

Nellie is also listed, the grand-daughter of Frank and Jane and is a year old.

And then nothing.

Nolene and I have drawn a blank at this point after the 1901 Census.

William comes out to South Africa and settles in Pretoria, Nan arrives at some point, he remarries and no one seems to know anything about Kathleen, whether she died, or they divorced, or she remarried, all very curious.

So a potential story of Kate and William Argyle: 


Kate, one of 7 children born to the Pub Owner Frank and his wife Jane, was living in Christchurch, Isle of Wight. 
She is a young woman of 19 when she falls in love with an older man, one William Argyle, the son of a labourer and laundress. Perhaps he frequented Frank's pub. 
She is seduced by the trumpet playing dark eyed man, maybe her parents disapprove but either way she is committed.
Their daughter Edith is born 8 months later and the couple suffer through her death 3 months later. Kate falls pregnant again and they have a second little girl called Nellie Winifred. 
In 1901, Kate has taken refuge with her parents and she has the little Nellie with her. 
At some point they take Nellie, dressed in fine clothes and bonnet, to a formal photographer for studio photos, are they recording the moment that she is leaving her mother's family?

From here the story gets cloudier and we do not know what circumstances caused the young Nellie to move to Africa, maybe Kate had died and Nellie's grandparents were too old to have the responsibility for the little Nellie, or did William decide to raise her and sent for his daughter?
If Kate did not die, what would cause her to let Nellie go to her father in this remote colony, so far from the Isle of Wight? 

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson