William James Mason

[Phoenix]

I'm fairly sure I found his WW1 military record on Ancestry. He was born c 1891 in South London, joined up before WW1 and the record shows his marriage. Can I find it again? Not on your life.

Can anybody spot it?

[Merry]

Was the wife Emily Clara Sidwell?

[Phoenix]

Clever clogs!

Yes.

[Merry]

lol I was just trying to find the marriage as her name was hard to read on the army papers, but i can't see it.

Anyway, what did you need to know? Most of the record was fairly blank!!

[Phoenix]

What search terms you used.

I found it with no problems when Ancestry first got the database, but am failing miserably now.

[Joy Dean]

There is someone of that name in ancestry in the London Freedom of the City Admission Papers:

Born 15 February 1891
Admission Date: 25 April 1888 - that can't be right! - ah, the admission of the father, I think it says.
Father: James Samuel Mason

[Merry]

Name: William James Mason
Collection: British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
Year of birth: 1890

Three matches, his being the one with no birth parish or residence details.

[Phoenix]

Thanks, Joy. These people have dopplegangers all over the place, Mason being such a wretchedly common name. Most seem to have the same parents too.

[Phoenix]

Thanks, Merry. So it was there, and obvious. Hmm. Perhaps it's past my bedtime!

Is it my imagination - the image is much foggier than I remember - but is the eldest child born two years before the marriage?!!

[Merry]

Looking at the 1911 census, if Emily Sidwell aged 17, music hall artist (to be married later in the Q) is the dau of Clara Sidwell, widow aged 43, both from Peckham, then there's a grandson in the house called William Sidwell aged 1 b Peckham!

They are at 14 Cottage Green, Camberwell.

[Merry]

Hmmm, middle name not Mason then!

Births Dec 1909
Sidwell William Harris Camberwell 1d 878

[Phoenix]

lol!

That is defo right Emily. I'm told she went on stage verry young.