This is a continuation of my last post from two weeks ago entitled the Welsh Dairy in Clerkenwell. It was further research into the life of John Richard Howard Wilcox. My research that week came to a stop because I couldn’t find the sort of records that I rely on to confirm and triangulate certain bits of information which were missing from my Great Uncle John’s life. I know that he was born on the 29th of August 1893 although some records suggest that he was born on the 31st of August, but that might have been an error made by the vicar at his baptism. I know his full name and I also know his place of birth which, although he thinks it was Acton, I know was in Portobello Rd. in Kensington. So, I know quite a bit about his life and times, but I don’t know much about him as a person. I know that he signed up in the First World War to fight for his country, and he fought in France, and won all three service medals for that war. I also know that before the war, or shortly before the end of it, he visited his brothers in South Wales. You will recall from previous posts that his two brothers, Fred and George, had fled from London to live anonymously in the coal mining valleys of South Wales, in Tredegar. In my last post I also published a photo of John with his two sisters, Marguerite and Bessie.
So just to recap, John Richard Howard Wilcox was born on the 29th of August 1893; he went to school and then worked as a dairyman; he signed up and joined the Yorkshire Light Regiment (King’s own) to fight in the First World War and he was awarded all three service medals for his active service.
What he did immediately after the war is not clear to me. The first record to help me was the 1921 census return. This clearly indicated that he was working and living in a dairy in Clerkenwell, London. He was living there with the manager and her sister. The manager was described as Dorothy Jane Edwards and it clearly states that she was born in Talsarn, Wales. In 1921 my Uncle John was 28 years old, and his manager was 34. A six-year difference. Three years after this census return in 1924 John and Jane married. It is about this time that I began to realise that Jane had dropped her first name. Although she begins to use it again when recording herself on the electoral register. It is the inconsistency of the use of her first names that has slowed me down in accessing more information from available records. After my last post I sent away to the General Register Office for copies of two certificates. The first was John’s death certificate and the second was the marriage certificate of John and Jane. The death certificate I have now received, and it makes for an interesting twist to the story of John and the Welsh connection. The second certificate, the marriage certificate, was not forthcoming because I received an e-mail from the General Register Office saying that the information that I had provided did not match that in the Ledger. This confused me because I kept on double checking the registration details that I had found online and believed them to be accurate. I had originally searched the marriage register with John Wilcox’s name first believing that he had married Dorothy Jane Edwards. However, when I then checked the register again using Dorothy Jane Edwards’ name first, I discovered that she had dropped the name Dorothy in the wedding register and was known as Jane Edwards. (The register of married names only gives names and the registration district followed by the volume and page number which is used for ordering certificates). I have now requested the marriage certificate by that name and hope to receive it next next week in time for maybe the third post on this interesting tale of John and his Welsh connection.
When the marriage certificate arrives, it will give me a lot more information to help me with my research. They were married in 1924 and so it would be interesting to see if they were still living and working in the dairy in Clerkenwell. It would also give me more accurate information about Jane Edwards’ age and her family details and origins in Talsarn in Wales, together with information about her parents.
I do know that by 1939 they had purchased and run their own dairy business in Hollywood Rd. Chelsea. I have seen this property on Google Street View, and it was a prime location for the business that John and Jane were running. A dairy was an essential shop for anything to do with dairy products. It was the 1939 Register for England and Wales, the register that might look like a census but had less detailed information and was designed to identify who were living in England and Wales and might be eligible for conscription or other war service, that told me for the first time that Jane was known as Jenny. But it also told me that Jenny had been born in 1883, making her ten years older than John which is a bit more than was explained in the 1921 Census return that suggested Jenny was only six years older than John.
After the Second World War at some point before 1963, John and Jenny had sold the shop and business and moved to a rather nice square in Kensington. They had moved into an apartment at 19 Courtfield Road, Kensington, according to the 1963 Electoral Register. The property was one of a street of mansion flats that look as though they had been designed at the turn of the 19th century. Three years after that register entry, Jenny Wilcox died in 1966 Aged 83.
This brings me to the death certificate of Uncle John.
Copy of John Wilcox’s death certificate purchased from the General Register Office (Crown Copyright)
John died in 1983. At the time of his death he was living in a nursing home called Ashley Lodge which was in Carlton Rd. Ealing in London. I checked online and discovered that Ashley lodge continues to be a nursing home. There is one important but confusing piece of information in his death certificate which made me wonder if I had found the right person. On the date and place of birth it was accurate with the 29th of August 1893, but it states that he was born in Dyfed, Wales. This was the name of a county in Wales which existed for only a short period of time and included the county of Ceredigion which would have been the home county of Jane Edwards. The death registration certificate continues to tell me that he had been a dairy owner, and that Ashley Lodge was his usual address meaning that he was permanently resident there. The informant for the registration was Robert Edward (no ‘s’) and he is described as Occupier, by which I am led to believe might mean Manager of the nursing home. John Wilcox died of bronchopneumonia, and he was just four weeks short of his 90th birthday. So, why would John Wilcox have told the nursing home that he was born in Dyfed in Wales? Was this connected to the Francis brothers and sister’s decision to lead an anonymous life outside of London, or was it a whimsical need to associate himself with his wife and her background? Jane Edwards was the Dairy Woman from Dyfed, John Wilcox was not from Wales.
I found the probate register entry for John Wilcox which tells me that he left an estate worth £50,000.
Probate Register entry for John Wilcox accessed vis Ancestry.co.uk
There is no evidence that John and Jane had any children so I went to a government website called Wills and Probate Online and completed a request form with all the information that I had (which was gleaned from the death certificate and the Probate Register entry) but could find no evidence that John had made a will which, if this was the case, means that he would have died intestate and the money would have gone to the government.
So, the story is incomplete until I receive John and Jane’s wedding registration certificate and I’m able to research more about Jane and her family and circumstances which might revise this story completely.
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