When I was an adolescent taking an interest in family history I discussed the idea of searching family members at Somerset House with my Grandmother, Grace Wilcox. She warned me off from doing this saying that I might discover skeletons that I would not wish to know about.
Such a wasted opportunity ! In recent years I learned to start with existing family members. If only I could turn the clock back I would have sat down with Grandma and asked her to spill the beans – tell me more about Grandad’s brothers and sisters !
This week I am beginning the saga of three members of the Wilcox family who, before and after the First World War, left London to live the rest of their lives in Tredegar, South Wales. Not only did they move there but they changed their surname also.
First, I need to recap on the Wilcox family that belonged to John and Lenna, my Great Grandparents. They had twelve children, two of them died at a very young age. The following shows the first to last born.
| Ethel Maud Mary | 1873 -1955 |
| Herbert James Thomas | 1874 -1974 |
| Lilian Phoebe Mary | 1877 – 1946 |
| Sydney James John | 1880 – 1959 |
| Bessie Leonora Marie | 1880 – 1970 |
| Frederic William Francis | 1881 – 1949 |
| Millicent Margaret Mary | 1883 -1884 |
| Margaret Mildred | 1884 – 1934 |
| George Harold Victor | 1887 – 1956 |
| William Arthur Leonard | 1890 – 1947 |
| Charles Robert | 1892 – 1892 |
| John Richard Howard | 1893 – 1983 |
To relate the Welsh story I have to take three of my Great Uncles and a Great Aunt out of the order of the family members. Frederic, Margaret and George.
At some point of their lives, after 1901, the brothers made a decision to leave London and change their surnames. Whether they left together or who went first is unclear. Also unclear is how they arrived in Tredegar for both of them. But I do I have one connection that might solve that last item.
Frederic was born in 1881 at Chaucer Road in Acton, London. Fred, as he was know in later life was registered with a ‘K’ at the end of his name but elsewhere Fred spelt his name without it.
London, England,Church of England Births and Marriages,1813 – 1916 (accessed from Ancestry.Com). Fred’s entry at the bottom of page one.
Fred’s Father is described as a House Decorator. At the time of the 1881 Census return the Wilcox family were living in Spencer Road, Acton, around the corner from Chaucer Road. I get the impression that the local council decided on classical authors for street names at this point in time.
There are very few records that I can find that tell me anything about Fred’s life in London during the following twenty years. In 1891 the Wilcox household had moved again and returned to Portobello Road at number 399. Fred had some younger siblings – Margaret 6, George 4, Bessie 2, and my Grandfather William aged 4 months. Fred does not appear in the Wilcox household in the 1901 Census return nor any other household that I can find. (It is worth noting that Fred’s younger brother George is still living at home with his parents in 1901 and he is described as a Newspaper Office Boy).
There is a record in the 1905 Electoral Register for Frederick William Wilcox whose address is 54 Stanley Buildings which were situated in the St. Pancras area of Camden in London. I cannot verify that this was our Fred but it does suit the narrative. The building is described as a Dwelling House. This was housing designed for the Working Classes during the 19th and early 20th Century. The most famous housing association in London in 1905 would have been the Peabody Trust. Stanley Building had been developed by the Imperial Industrial Dwellings Company in 1865. It was located in the Midland Road. The Model Dwelling Housing movement was an early form of municipal housing which also gave birth to the Housing Association movement.
In that Electoral Register entry Fred would have been 24 years old. I can find nothing to tell me about his occupation. It is not until 1911 that I find Fred again. It took me by surprise to find him in the 1911 Census return for Wales. It was not the only surprise. Fred had changed his surname. He had dropped Wilcox and from now on was calling himself Frederick Francis.
Census return 1911 showing Fred at 2, Butleigh Terrace Sirhowy, Monmouthshire.
Frederic Francis is living with his wife, Minnie Francis (nee Williams). He is 29 years old and she is 30 years old. Also in the house are his brother George Francis (note the change of surname) aged 24 and a boarder, Hubert Gurmin aged 19. The three men are working in the Coal Mines. Fred is a Pit Surfaceman, George is a Timberman’s Labourer (below surface) and Hubert is a Hewer. George and Hubert have the riskier jobs working inside the mine shafts. Hubert at the coal face and George assisting the Timberman with protecting the mine tunnels from collapsing.
Sirhowy is a village just above Tredegar and is in the middle valley of the three coal mining valleys, including Ebbw Vale, below the Black Mountains, that were the centre of the coal mining industry in South Wales.
Fred has completed the Census return himself and here is his signature
From this return I discover that Fred is now married. In 1905 he was living and working in central London. One year later he married Minnie Williams and changed his surname to Francis. Also during the years between 1905 and 1911, his younger brother has joined him and adopted the new surname of Francis like his brother. They have become the Francis family living in a South Wales coal mining valley. What drove them to do this ?
I have made a quick search on Minnie Williams, my Great Aunt, and discovered that she was born in Llandegley in Radnorshire (now known as Powys) not far from the Herefordshire border. She was the daughter of John and Jane, an Agricultural Worker and his wife. At the time of her marriage to Frederic, she gave her address as Llanarth which is close to New Quay on the West coast of Wales.
The information from their wedding certificate is that they were married in the Mozerah Presbyterian Chapel in Llanvihangel in February 1906. Fred is 24 and living at 1 Barton Cottage in Hereford. He is described as a Draper’s Assistant and this record is the first to show that he has dropped the name of Wilcox to become Francis.
Fred and Minnie did not have children. The 1939 England and Wales Register (not a Census but the register that was created at the outbreak of the Second World War to identify who was living in the country and the age and occupation. Also where they were born. This enabled the Government to identify potential military conscripts and also people born abroad who might then have been interned as enemy aliens) shows Fred and Minnie living at Rear Willows, Church Street, Tredegar. Fred is a General Clerk. My cousin in Tredegar tells me that Fred was a Clerk in the Finance Department of the Town Council after he left the Coal Mine and until he retired.
Their address in the 1939 Register is interesting, Rear Willows. This was explained to me by my cousin when I visited Tredegar in 2022. It was a social club in Church Street.
The headstone of Fred and Minnie’s grave in the Cemetery at Tredegar. (photo by the author)
It confirms that Fred Francis, my Great Uncle who was born Fred Wilcox, died in 1949 aged 68 and my Great Aunt Minnie died in 1956 aged 76.
I love the way that Welsh gravestones have an address. Fred and Minnie definitely did live at the Willows in Church Street.
I cannot think of a more different life to lead than that of Fred’s. Leaving London as he did and disappearing into the countryside. Living in the coal mining valleys of South Wales all of his life. What was he hiding from by changing his name from Wilcox to Francis ?
I shall continue the story with the life of his younger brother George in a future post.