John Richard Howard Wilcox was baptised on 25 October 1893. There is a note in the Baptism register that shows John was born on 31 August 1893. That is disputed in John’s death registration and also in his 1939 Register entry. In those latter registers, John’s date of birth was 29 August 1893. There are only two days in the error which I can only think was made by the Vicar who was baptising him. It is an interesting error all the same.
John Wilcox was the youngest child of John Thomas and Lenna Wilcox. They were living in Portobello Road at the time of his birth and baptism. In later Census and 1939 Register entries, John states that he was born in Ealing. I’m uncertain why he should state this because his parents lived in Portobello Road and in Acton. John may have given Ealing as the registration district that covered Acton. John Thomas Wilcox and Lenna were my Great Grandparents. John Richard Howard Wilcox was my Great Uncle John. Like my Grandfather, John’s older brother, I never met him or knew anything about him. I have discovered that he was hard working man who lived a good life to an old age.
There is one photograph of John that I have, which I have shared here before. It’s worth sharing again for context.
((From the private collection of M.Hill)
The picture was taken between 1901 and 1911. John is standing at the far right. He may have been about 15 or 16 years old in this picture. In the 1911 Census return he was 18 and living at home still, working as a Dairyman. As was his brother William. Perhaps they worked together in the same Dairy. I don’t know. William, my Grandfather is standing at the back , second from the right. Fred and George, the two brothers who fled London to live anonymously in Wales, are on the far left next to my Grandfather.
Here is another photo that I believe may be John with his sisters.
((From the private collection of M.Hill)
The context for this picture is that it was taken in Wales possibly before the wedding of Margurite (soon to be known as Margaret). I cannot be certain that this is John but I have had discussions with my cousin in Wales and I have studied his face and am fairly certain that its similarity with the young John above is reasonable.
This is the story behind this week’s post. Another Welsh Connection.
Great Uncle John has a significant story to tell from the 1921 Census return. The transcript here gives the details of his whereabouts and whose roof he is living under.
- John was living in 4 Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell. This is a part of London near Farringdon and the Barbican which has become a gentrified and vibrant community in recent years. In 1921 it would have been similar but very much about the different trades that would have been there and connected to commerce. Including the nearby Smithfield market that was once the centre of the London meat trade. Great Sutton Street was part of Clerkenwell known to Charles Dickens. He lived close by for a while and many of his characters were based in the area. It mostly redeveloped from the 1920’s onwards to create warehousing and workshops. I have not been able to find any information about Number 4 which seems to have disappeared.
- Number 4 was the premises of the Grange Farm Dairy. That was the official name. Here were living four people.
- Dorothy Jean Edwards a name that may not be completely accurate. It has been transcribed as Druchery Joan on Ancestry. But that was purely to do with her handwriting. She was described as Shopkeeper, Employer and she was born in Talsarn, Wales. Aged 34, she was single, and the shop was her home. She has completed the Census form and has signed it, Jean Edwards. This, therefore is how she was known. Jean has also called the shop Edwards Dairy in her line of information and not Grange Farm Dairy as the formal address was known by on the back of the Census form.
- Hannah Edwards was aged 42 and was Jeans’ sister. She was born in the same village in Wales and was described as Housekeeper.
- John Richard Howard Wilcox was described as a Servant. Unless a person was related and was described as such, the choices in the Census for 1921 for someone in the house to be described were limited to Boarder, Visitor or Servant. John was 28 and a Shop Assistant living in the shop.
- Lewis Jones was aged 30 and he was born in Ciliau (or Ciliau Aeron) a hamlet in the registration district of Aberaeron, as was also Talsarn where the Edwards sisters came from. Lewis was described as a Boarder wworking as a Shopkeeper, Employer at the Cornish Dairy at 159 Lever Street, Clerkenwell. A look at Google Streetview suggests that this part of Lever Street has long since been rebuilt and developed. My guesses are, Lewis was a friend of the Edwards sisters and his Cornish Dairy was either premises only, or he chose to lodge with the sisters and receive his board.
The question that came to my mind when I looked at the details of this Census return was about the Welsh connection. Here was John who had recently been in Wales with his sisters, presumably for Margarets marriage, in Tredegar. Who were the Edwards sister and Lewis Jones? Aberaeron is 72 miles from Tredegar, and I cannot see a connection of the families with those of my other two Great Uncles, Fred and George who had settled in Tredegar. There may not be a connection, just a coincidence that John, who had been working as a Dairyman for at least the past ten years, had found a job as a living in shop assistant with a Dairy owned by Jean Edwards.
John married Jean Edwards in 1924 and eventually they ran their own business together in Hollywood Road, Chelsea. Looking at this road on Google Streetview gives me the impression that John Wilcox and Jean had arrived in a prime location to run a business that kept them occupied all their lives.
There are two other pieces of information that have come to my attention via the 1939 Register. Jean described herself as Jennie. She was born on 27 October, 1883. This would make another discrepancy because John was born in 1893. In the 1921 Census return there was a six-year difference between their ages, not ten. The other piece of information was that I discover that John had served in the First World War. Beside his name and details there is a second page that the Register compiler uses for making notes, particularly if the person being registered was to be exempted from conscription or mobilisation to a war effort activity. Here I find:
Sgt. J.R.H.Wilcox 23385. Southern Cavalry Depot. Hussars. Transferred to Reserves on demobilisation. 1914. Not on pay.
(Excerpt from the 1939 Register for England and Wales)
Then I found his medal card. He fought in France in 1914 to 1915, and he had served with the Yorkshire Light Infantry. He earned all three medals awarded during that war (commonly known by soldiers as Pip, Squeak and Wilfrid, after a popular comic strip). He had initially been a Private when he enlisted but when he was demobilised, he was a Sergeant.
Medal record card for John Wilcox (via Ancestry.co.uk)
This post has been a brief piece of research using the 1921 Census return for John and Jean Wilcox. A dairyman and a war hero. Just four lines of information gathered after the war and a whole story can begin to be pieced together. I have only uncovered a little of it and there will be another instalment to come after I have acquired some more records.
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