A man from Farnborough now has 100 living direct descendants.

The 43rd great-grandchild of Lou Rossiter is a girl called Rhebe, born at Frimley Park Hospital on December 17.

Lou, 91, of Lye Copse Avenue, has 15 children, 37 grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren, most still living in and around Farnborough.

The milkman of 40 years, who still lives in the home most of his children grew up in, now wants 150 descendants before he is 100. A grandchild and a great-grandchild are expecting.
 
Lou had his children with wife Rose, who died five years ago, over 27 years, the first at 21. John and Jill, born ten months apart, were mistaken for twins as they were in the same year at Fernhill primary and secondary schools.

Lou was a grandfather at 39, a great-grandfather in his 50s and a great-great-grandfather at 86. All his children have children. Joe Rossiter, 49, of Osborne Road, their 12th oldest, was born an uncle as sister Dorothy, now 70, had a daughter three years earlier. Rhebe, Joe’s third grandchild, is his daughter Jessica’s first child.

In the Second World War Lou, originally from Bristol, was in British Somaliland with the Eighth Army, and assisted a colonel at Minley Manor, meeting scullery maid Rose there.

They married at Aldershot Register Office, lived in Prospect Road with her parents for five years, moved to the new Hawley estate then went from a three-bedroom house to a four-bedroom council home in Lye Copse Avenue, at one point sharing it with eight children.

Lou delivered furniture in the afternoons, Rose got a part-time job as a cleaner and Joe’s oldest brother Alan also worked to support the family. When all the children had left home they clubbed together to buy the house for their parents.