All the people mentioned are dead, except D. and I have his permission to post the details.
D's father was born Percival Herbert Constable Smith,(yeah, I know, sorry) 24 Nov 1915, South Hammersmith.
No father's name on the cert and Percival would never discuss this as he was very ashamed and bitter.
Mother Ethel Violet Smith.
From the Parish Magazine of St Matthew, West Kensington:(July 1916)
Baptism May 28th 1916, Percival Herbert Constable.
In the same edition of the magazine, Roll of Honour:
Bert Constable, RAMC.
For many years, D assumed that Bert Constable was the father of Percival. However, a few years ago, his mother showed him a newspaper cutting, which was a photo of Ethel Violet Smith, clutching Percival in a shawl anD underneath it said "the son of Ethel and X X ?"
D. cannot remember the name of the supposed father but it was definitely double-barrelled and he was "an Officer at Shoeburyness and a member of a long established Norfolk farming family".
The story was that he was killed in WW1 and that is why he never married Ethel.
D.'s cousin has looked in various local papers - Hammersmith and Southend - but cannot find such a photo (but we don't know how hard he looked).
Unfortunately, D gave the newspaper clipping back to his mother, and Percival then destroyed it.
Ethel went back to her mother in Southend about 1918, taking her three children to live there (no father's names on their certs either).
Um, how many Officers were there in 1915 with double barrelled names, from Norfolk?
OC
D's father was born Percival Herbert Constable Smith,(yeah, I know, sorry) 24 Nov 1915, South Hammersmith.
No father's name on the cert and Percival would never discuss this as he was very ashamed and bitter.
Mother Ethel Violet Smith.
From the Parish Magazine of St Matthew, West Kensington:(July 1916)
Baptism May 28th 1916, Percival Herbert Constable.
In the same edition of the magazine, Roll of Honour:
Bert Constable, RAMC.
For many years, D assumed that Bert Constable was the father of Percival. However, a few years ago, his mother showed him a newspaper cutting, which was a photo of Ethel Violet Smith, clutching Percival in a shawl anD underneath it said "the son of Ethel and X X ?"
D. cannot remember the name of the supposed father but it was definitely double-barrelled and he was "an Officer at Shoeburyness and a member of a long established Norfolk farming family".
The story was that he was killed in WW1 and that is why he never married Ethel.
D.'s cousin has looked in various local papers - Hammersmith and Southend - but cannot find such a photo (but we don't know how hard he looked).
Unfortunately, D gave the newspaper clipping back to his mother, and Percival then destroyed it.
Ethel went back to her mother in Southend about 1918, taking her three children to live there (no father's names on their certs either).
Um, how many Officers were there in 1915 with double barrelled names, from Norfolk?
OC
Comment