Fred HARRIS, Great Eastern Hotel, City of London, WW2

[AnneToday]

Hi,

Trying to trace Frederick Charles Harris, born Norfolk, England, 1912.    1939 Registration has him as a Hotel Waiter at the Great Eastern Hotel, City of London.  No identifiable trace of him from here on.    Service records have been tried without success.

The Great Eastern was bombed in 1941 – does anyone know of records of casualties or other details, such as staff records, which might help, please?

Anne

[barryd]

Have you tried Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website?

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1

[AnneToday]

Yes, but none of the Frederick Charles Harris are the one I am looking for.

Anne

[dawnsh]

Was he married? did he have any children?

Have you found him in the London electoral registers for 1938/1939?

[AnneToday]

1939 Registration says married – family knew nothing about this.   Can’t find a female named Harris at his Registration address.  No marriage or children I'm able to identify.

Electoral Roll 1938/9 - found two men of the same name in Stoke Newington, but not at the September 1939 Registration. 

Anne

[dawnsh]

If you have his exact date of birth from the 1939 register, you can search England & Wales deaths on Ancestry (upto 2007 is complete, 2007-2013 is a partial index)and include the date of birth as part of the search. If there are no results, it can infer that he died before 1969 which is when dates of birth were included in the index. But not conclusive.

The 1939 register was compiled in a similar way to the census, if he wasn't with his wife (he was at work) at the time, she will be recorded elsewhere.

To complicate things, his name is quite frequently occuring in the marriage index.

If you were doing this professionally you would need to buy all marriage certs in his name between 1928 and 1939 to see if you can identify him.

[AnneToday]

Hi,
I’ve checked every birth of this name in 1912 and traced them through to death, which leaves two unresolved.  Ditto deaths of this name after 1939, leaving one unresolved in Somerset 1942.  The two unresolved sets don’t correlate as yet.  My Fred’s death not yet resolved. 
 
Marriages - that would be 63 between 1928 and 1939!  Without the marriage I can’t identify the wife at home.

Children – beyond counting as BMD registers do not show fathers.

Unless there is a descendent who comes forward, I think I might have hit a brick wall!
(This is to trace my own ancestors only)

Anne

[jonwarrn]

But for Frederick C Harris in Norfolk  there is only -
Birth, March 1912 Downham - mother Mears
Marriage, Dec 1936 Docking - to Ethel F Ginn
Death, Dec 1966 Fakenham - age 54

Are you sure they are not all relating to the same person? Or is the death one you have as unresolved?
Death in Kings Lynn, October 1985
Ethel Florence Harris, born 25 Sep 1913
(although the only Ethel F Ginn birth I can see was in Dec qtr 1912)

Have you tried looking for Ethel Harris in Norfolk in 1939?
John

[AnneToday]

Thank you, but no, they are not related.  Fred was not alive by 1952.  I'm being vague due to current living relatives.  There was no "wife of Fred" or "children of Fred" in Norfolk known to this close knit family. The three villages mentioned are only a bike ride apart. 

I've found other 'Frederick Charles Harris' in Norfolk, so the age of Ethel's husband would resolve this.

It is also possible the marriage is a red herring and the enumerator in 1939 made a mistake. 

Anne