It has been the best part of a year since I wrote about the Kiwi Cousins – the May branch of the Scott family, mum’s maternal line. As of this article, I have now probably gone as far as I can from the online records, and can only hope to discover a living relative to fill in the gaps.
Returning from India
What had eluded me until today was pinning down all of the family’s return from India after the Second World War. The Reverend Spencer, with entourage, had traveled out to Ceylon/India in 1931 as a missionary {2}, his second trip out that way. They were presumably due to return sometime soon after 1939 but got stuck abroad due to the war. I had found two sets of incoming passenger lists:
- Dilys (aka Gwenfron, aged 18) arrived Liverpool 12 April 1946, giving UK residence as 15 Fern Terrace, Tonypandy.
- Reverend and Daisy May, Spencer junior and Bernard arrived 6 Jun 1946. Residence again 15 Fern Terrace.
These didn’t match mum’s memory that her mother had to travel to Southampton to meet the family, or at least part of it, off the ship. So in a further hunt today it was pleasing to locate Megan {4} arriving in Southampton before any of the others, on 6 Feb 1946. She gives an address of 42 Waller Road, New Cross – Mum’s then home address. Megan was the eldest child, age 20.
It is interesting that the girls were sent on ahead, unaccompanied as far as I can tell {3} (although as the passenger lists are in alphabetical order, perhaps they were traveling with some non-relation).
Life in Auckland, NZ
In the last few weeks I have discovered the New Zealand Government’s Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records website. This confirms that (Reverend) Spencer May died in 1956, about 2 years after arriving in New Zealand, leaving behind wife Daisy (mum’s aunt) and daughter Megan. Daisy then stays in Auckland up to her death in 1982. Daughter Megan, born 1925 in India, could well still be living in the area – last known address 23 Hargest Terrace, Mount Albert.
There is no obvious sign of any of the other 3 children in NZ.
Speculation
So the lack of these other May offspring down under raises the question of whether they remained in Britain after 1946. If so, here are a few possibilities:
- Gwenfron D May marries Edward R J Walker in Bristol district, 1948. Just possible second marriage to Graham Lissiman in 1970. {3}
- Spencer Hedley May marries Beryl Carter in Southend on Sea 1953. If so, did he become a chartered accountant (there are plausible phone directory entries)? {3} And why did he return to the area of his birth, when he would only previously have lived there for his first few months {2}?
- Possible death record for Bernard John May in Bristol for 1984.
Notes
- For more on the family background, see Kiwi Cousins article.
- In the outward voyage of 1931, the family’s previous residence is shown as 17 Russell Rise, Luton. They couldn’t have been in Essex for very long after Spencer Hedley’s birth (registered quarter ending Dec 1930), then.
- See Glenn’s comment for an update on these points.
- A bad typescript had seen Megan rendered as Mogan, presumably why I hadn’t found this record before.
- UPDATE: Spencer and Daisy first travelled out to India, via Colombo, in 1923. Their last residence in Britain is given on the passenger list as 12 South Hill Park Gardens, Hampstead, NW. See ‘A fraud of a husband‘ for further family connection to this address, which appears to be associated with the Pentecostal Missionary Union training centre in the area. This organisation was absorbed into Assemblies of God in 1925.
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