Constance was born on the 3rd of November 1887 in Gisleham, Suffolk. She was the eldest of four children born to Samuel Balls, a Farmer, and his wife Mary Ann Blunderfield Balls (nee Oldrin). She was baptised several weeks later on New Year's Day at Holy Trinity Church in Gisleham. When the April 1891 census was taken, Constance, aged 3 years, was living with her parents at Moat Farm¹ in Gisleham. The farm was very close to Gisleham village school, so it seems very likely that she would have received her primary education there. However, by March 1901, Constance, along with her two younger sisters, Millicent and Mary, were three of just six pupils boarding at a small Private School in Kirkley, Lowestoft. In the April 1911 census, Constance, now aged 23 years, is recorded living with her parents at 'The Chestnuts', their new house in Gisleham.

On the 22nd of September 1913, at Holy Trinity Church in Gisleham, Constance married Laurence John Rackham, the son of Henry Rackham a farmer of Corton. The couple initially set up home in a terraced house on Dene Road in Lowestoft, where their first child Constance was born in September 1914, but soon moved a short distance to a larger house at number 8 Station Road.  At some point during WW1, the family were evacuated to Kessingland, a few miles south of Lowestoft, where they lived in a house called 'The Homelands'. Their second child Margaret Kathleen was born there on the 27th of March 1916, just 2 weeks before her husband Laurence was mobilised and sent to France to join his regiment 9th Queen's Royal Lancers near the Somme.

Soon after the war, the family moved again, this time to 'The Chestnuts' in Black Street, Gisleham - a property that had been owned by Sophia's parents, Samuel and Mary Balls, who had just moved into Carlton Hall. Sophia, Laurence and their daughters were still at 'The Chestnuts' in 1925. However, by 1929 the family had moved to Rookery Farm, a large farm on the Beccles road near Carlton Colville. After Laurence died in December 1959, Sophia remained at Rookery Farm for a while before the farm was sold and the proceeds placed in an investment trust. Under the terms of Laurence's will, Sophia received an income from the trust which allowed her to live in nursing homes until her death on the 13th of January 1975.

Constance was buried, with her husband Laurence, in the churchyard of St Peter's Church in Carlton Colville, Suffolk

Notes

(1) Moat Farm was at the double moated site of the 13th century Gisleham Hall and Manor.