Percy John Henley (born Catford, Kent 1885) and his wife Sybil (born Sybil Atkinson, Lewisham, Kent, 1881) emigrated to Saskatchewan in about 1910-1912. Both were artists, and after Percy died young (in 1917), Sybil made a name for herself as a professional painter Sybil Henley-Jacobson (after a second marriage) in western Canada. Her biography by Mary Alexander was published in 1984. Unfortunately this contains a number of factual errors and is particularly vague about her early life.
I have found an immigration entry for Percy John Henley travelling to Springside, SK, in 1910, but in the England 1911 census he is recorded with Sybil living in North Studio, Marlow, Bucks. I am a little dubious about this census entry, but it is certain that Sybil emigrated to Canada sometime in 1911 or 1912, either alone or with her husband, and they then settled in Elfros (near Wynyard), Saskatchewan. They are both recorded there in the Saskatchewan 1916 census.
So to my lookup request: I would very much like to trace them in passenger lists or immigration records. Did Percy return to England before the 1911 census, and they then travelled together to Canada - or did Sybil travel alone in 1911 or 1912 after falsifying the 1911 census entry by adding Percy's name when he was no longer in England?
Other questions about them will probably forever remain unanswered. If they were penniless young artists how did they pay their way? Percy had an uncle already in BC, who owned a thriving soda water factory in New Westminster - and Sybil's father was a director of a shipping company. Either could have funded them. Percy's 1919 probate papers show an estate value of $5536 - which is equivalent to over $116,000 in today's terms. Not exactly penniless! He was reported to be hopeless at farming, and it's most unlikely they could survive by selling paintings in the thinly populated Saskatchewan prairie.
