Lydia, was born in Woolwich. Her father, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Wahab, was born in the East Indies, as was her mother, also Lydia Maria (nee Hands). (The East Indies generally meant South-East Asia.)
In 1881 Lt.Colonel Wahab and family were living in Bury, Lancashire. Lydia had an older brother, born in the Red Sea....., an older sister born in Ireland and a younger born in the East Indies.
In 1891 her family was living in Great Warley, in Essex presumably where she met John Herbert.
John and Lydia were married in 1893 in Paddington.
By 1901 John and Lydia were living in Montfort House, Chigwell, Essex. Father Thomas was retired and John and his older brother Thomas were Farmers. Their widowed sister Annie was with them, plus four Household Servants and two Nurses. John and Lydia's four children, Edith Doris, 7, Hugh, 6, Robert Arthur Cecil, 4, and Geoffrey, 1, all born in Essex, were living in Findon, on Kingswood Farm, (an 18th Century Listed building, now a Livery Stables), with four Servants.( If anyone can find anything more about this unusual arrangement...............)
In 1911 John (of Private Means) and Lydia were living at 14 Park Crescent. Single daughter Edith Doris and son Robert Arthur Cecil, both born at the Rectory, Great Warley, Essex, were with them and they had a Housemaid, a general Servant, a Parlourmaid and a Cook.
Lieutenant Thomas Hugh Mathews, of the 1st Battalion East Lancs Regiment died in November 1914 and is buried in the Lancashire Cottage cemetery, south of Ypres.
Second Lieutenant Robert Arthur Cecil Mathews, of the 3rd Battalion East Lancs Regiment, was killed in action in Northern France in October 1916. His name is recorded on the Thiepval Monument.
John Herbert was living at Stanhope, Bulkington Avenue when he died and Lydia died in Brunswick Rd., Hove.