Cordelia Sampson Geach was christened on 6 May 1833 at Lancing Sussex. Her mother was Sarah Trethowen Miller and her father Thomas Geach, a coastguard. Her unusual middle name may have derived from her maternal grandmother, Mary Sampson, daughter of William and Ann Sampson born in the parish of St Gluvias, Cornwall in 1775. Mary Sampson married Anthony Miller at Falmouth on 1 September 1796 and they had a daughter Sarah Trethowan baptised on 10 July 1803. Sarah married Thomas Geach on 17 June 1826 at Madron, Cornwall.

The family had originated from Cornwall, Thomas Geach having been born in Fowey, possibly from a shipbuilding family. Due to the nature of his profession Thomas Geach was forced to move from one station to the other along the coast and his children were born in different locations. His eldest daughter Lucinda was born in Penzance; Cordelia herself in Lancing ; Edwin Cowling Geach  born a year after Cordelia and Sarah Miller Geach who was born on 19 November 1839 in Littlehampton.

Cordelia was a dressmaker/tailoress by profession and after her marriage to William Savell Lock, when she was 24 years old, she worked from home with her husband and later her children, Alfred ( born in 1859) and Cordelia Elizabeth ( born a year earlier). She also bore a son Edwin, named after her brother, who sadly died aged 18 months in 1865. 

Cordelia died on 11 October 1888 of Acute Bronchitis (Pthsis Pulmonalis) -  a kind of TB. She was living at 85 St Vincent Street. Southsea - her death was registered by her son Alfred. Her husband William Lock had died four years earlier. 

Lucinda and Sarah Geach remained in Littlehampton after the death of their father. Both still unmarried, they shared the same house at 16 High Street into their latter years. Both were originally self employed dressmakers but in as the century turned into the 20^th, handmade clothes as with boots and shoes were no longer the norm. Sarah had abandoned the trade and taken a job as caretaker in a bank and Lucinda simply retired, by 1901. The few records available seem to show that both women were close to their extended family. Their niece Cordelia Elizabeth Lock (later Clark), moved to live next door to them in Littlehampton after the death of her husband and their nephew Alfred William Lock gave his daughter Hilda the middle name Lucinda after his aunt.

Thomas Geach was born in Fowey, Cornwall in the early 1800s. It is possible that he was related to the Geach shipbuilding family from that region whose operations folded in the 1830s. As such he may have had to seek alternative employment and the newly formed Coastguard may have seemed promising. It could not have been a popular job – coastguards were regularly moved and rarely retained in their family home area. Thomas Geach was employed at Penzance, in Cornwall where his daughter Lucinda was born but he was moved at least twice more, to Lancing and then to Littlehampton in Sussex (as the birthplaces of his children bear witness). It could also be a hazardous employment as coastguards were often attacked and could be killed in the carrying out of their duties by smugglers and their allies. Thomas however survived in the service until at least his 50s as he is recorded as a coastguard annuitant (with a pension) in 1881 aged 77 and living with his two unmarried daughters Lucinda and Sarah.

The coastguard service really only dates back to the early nineteenth century as a formally established body and Thomas Geach must have been one of the earliest pioneers in this new company of men. A variety of smaller organisations to protect the coast from attack, to arrest smugglers and prevent the evasion of duty on goods and protect ships wrecked off the coast, were all amalgamated into the Coastguard in 1831 and at that time it employed nationwide 6,700 men – more than a third of whom were in the Royal Navy. In the Crimean War the Coastguard operated as a reserve for the Royal Navy and over the following decades its duties were extended to a variety of emergency situations both in peace and war – including such odd responsibilities as attending to rare fish, mammals or birds washed ashore and maintaining effective signals, lighthouses etc.

Cornwall and Sussex have long been favourite sites in Britain for smugglers and the export of tin from Cornwall, iron from Sussex and wool from a number of southern counties all gave rise to smuggling opportunities in the 18^th and 19^th centuries as well of course as luxury items such as spirits.