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View Full Version : Lionel Ryder Champion and Russell Champion

ElizabethHerts
07-03-23, 16:17
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7814/images/LNDRG13_127_128-0027?pId=1972397

Widow Louisa Champion is with these two boys in 1901. Were they adopted?

Louisa Decelia Rickatson (28) married a widower Henry Champion (70) in 1885.
Henry died in 1890. I ordered both their wills yesterday and they arrived today!

Henry's will indicates that he and Louisa were childless and there is no indication she was pregnant.

I don't know when the boys went to live with her.

Lionel became a musician in the army and Louisa is referred to as his "Guardian" and later as his "mother". He came out of the army and died young in 1916. He was baptised in 1895 at Hampstead and his father was given as Henry Champion.
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1558/images/31280_198107-00080?pId=4267749
His birth date is given as 26th November 1890, just a couple of weeks after Henry's death.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1114/images/miuk1914a_083812-01078?pId=519617

I know even less about Russell Champion.
The places of birth don't look right on the census, at least not for Lionel.

Any ideas on what happened here?

Louisa died in 1944. Lionel died in 1916 so there is no mention of him but there is no mention of Russell either in her will.

I tried searching for the birth of a Lionel Ryder but found nothing.
ElizabethHerts
07-03-23, 16:20
More army documents for Lionel:

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBM%2FWO363-4%2F007266192%2F01078&parentid=GBM%2FWO363-4%2F7266192%2F69%2F1078
kiterunner
07-03-23, 17:20
Is this Louisa in 1891?
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/6598/images/WORRG12_2325_2326-0083?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=UMN66821&_phstart=successSource&pId=15044388
kiterunner
07-03-23, 18:05
Have you found Louisa in 1911, Elizabeth?
kiterunner
07-03-23, 18:20
This is The Hawthorns, Lynsdown Avenue, New Barnet / East Barnet (the 1914 address given for Louisa in Lionel's army papers) on the 1911 census but no Louisa there:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_07151_0411_03?backlabel=ReturnSearchResults&queryId=30fc4554c5f172016a99701c8ce8a892&pId=40038871

Just posting it so nobody else has to find it.
KiwiChris
07-03-23, 21:13
this is probably Lionel in 1911, musician b c 1891 Stroud Gloucs
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_28424_0085_34?pId=31185280
Olde Crone
07-03-23, 21:25
Kiwichris, I can't see the image (no sub) but could the birth place be Stroud GREEN? Stroud GREEN is a hop skip and jump from New Barnet. Just a thought!

OC
Merry
07-03-23, 21:28
I see Henry Champion was buried at Minchinhampton which is in Stroud district, and only about 3 miles from Stroud.
kiterunner
07-03-23, 21:49
The 1901 census has Lionel's birthplace as Seacombe, Cheshire, and the 1911 census has it as Stroud, Gloucestershire. His army papers say Branscombe, Stroud, Gloucestershire, though the Branscombe isn't very clear.
kiterunner
07-03-23, 21:51
Brimscombe is only a couple of miles from Stroud so maybe that's what it's supposed to say. Edit - having had another look I think it does say Brimscombe and was just mistranscribed on Ancestry.
kiterunner
07-03-23, 21:56
I looked through the London electoral roll entries for Louisa 1905-1908 and then 1920 onwards but neither "son" was ever listed with her.
kiterunner
07-03-23, 22:28
There is a Lionel George Smith birth Jan-Mar 1891 Stroud but he is with his parents George and Dorcas on the 1901 census so we can rule him out.
Merry
08-03-23, 07:40
The London erolls suggest Louisa was living at 31 The Priors, East Heath Rd, Hampstead in 1921. I looked for that address on the 1921 census and the property is empty. Just the word 'away' recorded! Louisa is visiting her brother, Robert Rickatson, in Wimbledon. No one else in the household who looks of any particular interest.
Phoenix
08-03-23, 07:44
Considering how similar Seacombe and Scarboro look, I wonder whether Louisa wrote "Brimscombe" for both boys. and the Enumerator interpreted the places differently, and then extrapolated the counties of birth? Not that I can find anything useful.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:00
Sorry! We lost internet from early yesterday evening to just now. I'll be back when I've read everything.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:01
Is this Louisa in 1891?
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/6598/images/WORRG12_2325_2326-0083?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=UMN66821&_phstart=successSource&pId=15044388

I thought so. This is added to our tree.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:03
this is probably Lionel in 1911, musician b c 1891 Stroud Gloucs
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_28424_0085_34?pId=31185280

Thanks, Chris. I had that.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:05
The 1901 census has Lionel's birthplace as Seacombe, Cheshire, and the 1911 census has it as Stroud, Gloucestershire. His army papers say Branscombe, Stroud, Gloucestershire, though the Branscombe isn't very clear.

One place (Army papers, I think) had Branscombe, Devon. This is a seaside village near where I grew up.

I think it's meant to be Brimscombe, near Stroud.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:08
Do you think she took disadvantaged boys under her wing and possibly renamed them?

There are a few Lionels and Russells for those periods but they weren't particularly common.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:11
I've come to the conclusion that they weren't her biological sons.

I wonder what Lionel did upon discharge from the army.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:24
I can't find Louisa Decelia Champion on the 1911 Census. She isn't with any of her siblings.
Phoenix
08-03-23, 08:35
I have just searched Brimscombe baptisms for the 1890s. There is not one single illegitimate child. William Butcher adopts a child and baptises it with his wife's Christian name as a second forename, so no indication of her origins.

The servant, MaryJane Young, came from Brimscombe, and I wondered whether she had recommended the boys (and effectively looked after them) and they were given brand new names to fit their exaulted new status.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 08:46
Louisa was young enough to remarry and have children of her own after Henry's death as she was only 30. In the event of her second marriage, Henry Champion cut her annual allowance but she would still have £100 p.a.

Phoenix, interesting about the baptisms.

It's also interesting that when Lionel was baptised in 1895 she named herself and Henry as parents!
Surely the Ryder component must have some significance?
Phoenix
08-03-23, 09:24
The Young family appear to have been servants to the Champions before Louisa arrived on the scene. Mary Jane is at Holcombe House with other servants in 1891 (no owner in residence) and a Priscilla Young is there in 1881.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 09:34
Interesting, Phoenix.

This prompted me to look at Louisa's will. She leaves a legacy of £200 to her maid Florence Secretan. I searched for this name and found her on the 1939 Register - with Decelia Champion!

Louisa Decelia also had a nurse in attendance so her health was obviously failing.

I hadn't previously found Louisa in 1939 - as she was using the name Decelia!
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=TNA%2FR39%2F0234%2F0234D%2F003&parentid=TNA%2FR39%2F0234%2F0234D%2F003%2F15
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 09:38
I've just noticed that in the same block as Louisa were living her nephew Hugh Cecil Rickatson and his wife Violet. Hugh is at no. 26 and Louisa at no. 31.
kiterunner
08-03-23, 10:15
Florence was on some of the electoral rolls with Louisa.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 10:17
Florence was on some of the electoral rolls with Louisa.

Yes, I've been attaching them to our online Ancestry tree.
Anstey Nomad
08-03-23, 11:05
I've come to the conclusion that they weren't her biological sons.

I wonder what Lionel did upon discharge from the army.

Ancestry thinks he died in Kensington MQ 1916
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 11:12
Ancestry thinks he died in Kensington MQ 1916

Yes, that's correct. I'm tempted to buy the death certificate.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 11:14
In 1915 a Lionel Champion is at Child's Hill, Hendon.
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1795/images/40020_190366-00386?pId=168241927
Anstey Nomad
08-03-23, 11:18
He isn't the Lionel Ryder registered in Kingsbridge in JQ 1891.

Russell I cannot find at all.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 11:22
He isn't the Lionel Ryder registered in Kingsbridge in JQ 1891.

Russell I cannot find at all.

AN, I appreciate your help. I do wonder if Louisa reinvented them. I looks as though it could have backfired on her.
ElizabethHerts
08-03-23, 14:36
This is the Pryors where Louisa lived until she died:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5596679,-0.1717046,3a,75y,54.3h,96.01t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPj_L2kr3QlqBIUhzyycWeA!2e0!7i1 6384!8i8192

It's right on the edge of Hampstead Heath. I remember the road from when I lived at Downside Crescent, Belsize Park, in 1973 and 1974!