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Andy,

Thank you so very much for posting this wonderful link.

My late mother served with the ATS but, until now, I had no tangible information which could help me to apply for her service record. However, thanks to you, it took me no more than a couple of minutes via the TNA Discovery search facility to trace her indexed data.

As she was born in 1925, her full record will be closed until 2040 - but I have now submitted an application for it to be opened to me.

Willyam

As many of Mr Thompson's neighbours in the 1939 Register were involved in the woollen trade, might I suggest that he was possibly a Weaving and Spinning Inspector. The importance of which role is currently summarised via Google AI Overview.

Willyam

Antony,

The GRO death index for the George Deaves who died on 9 January 1870 has his age as 58; whereas the indexed age shown for the George Deaves who died on 24 May 1873 is 39.

This makes the younger George a better fit for the headstone; and thus most likely the son of Thomas & Sarah and a brother to Margaret.

However, the headstone does throw up a considerable mystery: which is that it implies that Sarah is not also interred in the grave - so why not? and where then was she buried in 1872?

With regard to the presence of the headstone, that it exists is confirmation that the burial site is what is known as a 'Purchased Grave'; and as it is located in Shrewsbury General Cemetery this means that it has its own pedigree chart.

As I found to my considerable benefit several years ago, during my quest to find my grandmother's last resting place, microfiche copies of the comprehensive historic burial records for the general cemetery are held at Shropshire Archives. The wonderful detail contained within these records includes: the name of the purchaser of the exclusive rights of burial associated with the grave; when it was purchased; how many interments were to be permitted along with the individual burial entries for those interred - revealing their contemporary personal details.

With regard to my grandmother, I was able to visit the archives, harvest the details in the fiche and then jump onto a waiting bus which took me straight to the cemetery for my first sight of a very unexpected headstone.

If a personal visit is not possible, the in-house archivists offer an excellent (and not too-expensive) search service which I have used to great effect. Additionally they would be able to help locate, and perhaps make sense of, where Sarah is buried.

Willyam 

Přemysl,

I was so captivated by your quest to identify Maisie that I was inspired to do some digging - as I explain below.

Although there can be no certainty that she was of local origin, I began by speculatively researching the 1939 Register for any Maisie, born in 1917 (+/- 5 years), who then lived in Warwick or Leamington.

This search produced several results, and I was initially drawn to one in particular who looked a promising fit for ATS Maisie. However, thanks to some canny handwriting analysis by Laurence Spring at the Surrey History Centre I was enabled to discount her.

Undeterred by this, I carried on searching and my attention was drawn to a Maisie Astill, living in Leamington - where she had married a Jan Babijczuk in December 1942. As I was uncertain where he may have hailed from, a wider search for Jan lead me to this key source at: https://listakrzystka.pl/en/babijczuk-jan/

Encouraged by this I then explored Maisie’s (online) life history which somehow prompted me to look at her entry in the 1921 census - which produced a quite astonishing outcome! Which outcome you can see for yourself from the attached copy of that census record (which is subject to Crown Copyright).

Astonishing because, not only is the handwriting of 1-year old Maisie’s forename on the census identical to that on the ATS photo, the inescapable conclusion is that the latter must have been penned by her father (who completed the census return) and not by Maisie herself. Indeed, such a conclusion is underpinned by closer examination of the 3 kisses (crosses) on the photo - which look to be lighter in colour than the name.

Jan died in Shrewsbury (in Shropshire), which is where Maisie passed away on 27 August 2011.

Willyam

I wonder whether the Whitchurch Herald item was derived from the comprehensive article, regarding the duel, which appeared in the Wrexham Advertiser issue of Saturday, 16th December 1882.

As found by searching for: "Richard-Pate-Manning" in Welsh Newspapers Online.

Willaym