please find Ethel May DON (nee LOCKE) - WW1 widow.

[LockeLad]

Fascinating! Some facts about Ethel May Locke:

a) Together with her sister, Beatrice, she was brought up at the family home at Orchard View, Kingweston, Somerset. Their mother was Mrs G (husband was George) Locke.
b) Significance of Weymouth: She married James Lever Don in the Weymouth area in 1918 and had an aunt living there at the time of the 1911 census: Mary Jane White (nee Rowland).

JL Don's medical condition, 'neurasthenia', could have accounted for his later desertion of his wife and son.
Ethel's trip to Canada so soon after her marriage came as a surprise to me, but it must be her. Was she going out to Australia via Panama while her husband went home by troopship? She had relatives in Canada, an Uncle in Ontario and maybe an aunt also in Ontario.

I am still puzzling out the movements of Beatrice and Harold Heslop UNDERWOOD. In the 1911 UK census a Harold Heslop Underwood, b 1889, age 22, is listed at a Military Establishment in Windsor, Berkshire, England. I was told that he married Lulu Fisher in Canada in 1915. I had presumed that she had died.

Please can you explain the National Archives of Australia item 4463256?
Title UNDERWOOD HAROLD HESLOP : Service Number - Q141386 : Date of birth - 04 Jun 1891 : Place of birth - OLDHAM ENGLAND : Place of enlistment - NAMBOUR QLD : Next of Kin - UNDERWOOD BEATRICE

Thanks,
LockeLad

[krisesjoint]

The National Archives record is a record of his WW2 service.

The item appears to be "Citizen's Military Forces Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947"

You can request a copy. Follow the link.

I presume he put his age down a little to get in. He was born Sep 1/4 1888 Oldham 8d 496 which fits well with the 1891,1901 1nd 1911 entries. (though the marriage entry in Canada he appears to be listed as 10 years older 

Cheers Kris 

[LockeLad]

Have found record of Harold Heslop UNDERWOOD as part of Canadian Expeditionary Force

http://www.archive.org/stream/CEF_33rdBattalion_1916#page/n17/mode/2up

CEF 33rd Battalian Nominal Roll, 1916, page 17

Regimental number:400847  Rank: R.S.M.   Underwood,Heslop Harold.  Former Corps. Imp.forces Next of Kin: Mrs E Underwood, Saville House Skegness Country of birth:England  Taken on Strength, Place/date Toronto Dec 9 1914

[krisesjoint]

Harolds death is listed in 1956, but looking at Burial he died Dec 1955 in Esk which is where they appeared - Somerset Dam Esk in 1954 (harold had gone from farming to Concretor in 1954.

http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/justice-services/births-deaths-and-marriages/family-history-research/

I don't see Beatrice but 1964 is the cutoff for deaths yet she does not appear to be buried with Harold.

http://www.interment.net/data/aus/qld/esk/esk_gen/esk_nz.htm

Cheers Kris  

Good Find with the Canadian Forces  Seems he was rather partial to the military

[majm]

Hi there,

At the online Ryerson index

Ethel May JOHNSON aged 91, late of Turramurra (northern Sydney Suburb) .... notice in SMH 13 Oct 1984 http://www.ryersonindex.org/  .... there's others by that name on that index.

Cheers, JM

[raveon]

This only supports the information you have already received on Harry and Beatrice Underwood.
In 1954, both Harold and Beatrice are enrolled in the Oxley electorate just east of Brisbane.  A major city in this zone is Ipswich, but the Esk area and cemeteries, which have been referred to,  are just a few miles north of Ipswich.
I would like to issue a warning on Ethel May Johnson and New South Wales.  Ethel May Johnson died 15 times in NSW between 1930 and 1979. The names of husband's are given, but no George and Lucy exists. Only one, with a father named Steven?? looks as though it could be a mistake, or misrecorded entry, but she would have been born in 1897.  Information on her son suggests a Queensland link and, after her separation and divorce, there is little to hold her in New South Wales.  As well, it would appear that her sister also spent years in Queensland.  I acknowledge the distance between Ipswich in the south and Mossman in Northern Queensland, where Gordon Don enlisted. His service records have not yet been digitised, so they are of no more advantage.
Another sidetrack, as I do not maintain membership, but "Somerset Fields" appears to have a date for Ethel May Locke's death in Australia on ANcestry family trees, but this may just be an unknown date, I guess.

[LockeLad]

I am grateful for your further interest in the plot!

I became aware that there were multiple individuals named Ethel May Johnson so very difficult to sort out a death date. I did get sight of 'Somerset  Fields' when I had membership of Ancestry. I contacted the owner who was very helpful but she had made errors in parts of her tree that related to people nearer to me than to her so I didn't take the death date too seriously. I was also told, by a descendant of Beatrice that James Lever Don was killed in France on the 7/6/1918. Definitely not true - so I treat unverified information with caution!

JL Don's War Papers made interesting and useful reading. It is possible that Ethel met James when he was in the military hospital at Weymouth, as a nurse?) and married him soon afterwards.

Thanks for your observations.

LockeLad

[raveon]

Lockelad
meant to say that war records page 5 were checked.  The date at the bottom could easily have been 1914, not 1919  - poorly-written "4".  Therefore, no ongoing medical treatment.
You were correct!!??!!

[raveon]

Lockie,
My last posting appears to have been lost to the ether world. I will repeat.

1919 date on Page 5 of JLDON's war service could easily be '1914  - poorly written "4".

One other interesting note  :  while Harry Underwood is buried in Esk cemetery, he apparently is very hard to find on Queensland's online index - in fact, you would say he is not listed.