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| Allan Leonard Lewis, courtesy of Wales Online |
The circumstances of his death and his gallant actions three days previously are commemorated on Wikipedia, where he has his own article, and in an interesting post on the British Library's Untold Lives blog:
http://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2014/11/allan-leonard-lewis-vc-waless-forgotten-war-hero.html
The blog post attempts to explain why Allan Lewis is not commemorated on any war memorial in Neath, South Wales, where he worked and where he enlisted. However, as of 2017 he is now commemorated in Neath by having a pub named after him. In Hereford, as Herefordshire's only county-born VC recipient, a fundraising campaign has been started to erect a statue to him, 100 years after his death.
The mystery involves his mother, Annie Elizabeth Gidley. I have a list of Gidley marriages where I can't link the names to any tree, and occasionally, when all other detective work fails, I send off for the marriage certificate in the hope that the father's name will provide an explanation.
Annie Elizabeth Gidley was married in the Kington registration district in Herefordshire and Radnorshire in the June quarter 1893. I had already worked out that her husband was George Lewis, and I managed to find the family in the 1901 and 1911 censuses. Allan Lewis is with the family in 1901, known as Leonard A Lewis. In both censuses Annie definitely states her place of birth as Lyme Regis in Dorset, and her age equates each time with a year of birth about 1869. But no Gidleys are registered there then, even allowing a couple of years either side of 1869.
So I sent off for the marriage certificate. The mystery has deepened.
The marriage took place on 10th May 1893 in Kington Register Office. Annie Elizabeth Gidley is aged 25, a spinster and domestic servant of Clyro in Radnorshire, and daughter of Frank Gidley, photographer, deceased. The problem is, there isn't any such person as Frank Gidley, as far as I can see.
Using the information she gave, I can't find any likely clues to Annie's origins. Everything I try comes to a dead end:
•All the Frank or Francis Gidleys are the wrong age to be her father.
•All the births of an Annie or Annie Elizabeth with any surname in the Axminster registration district (which includes Lyme Regis) came to nothing when tracking them through later censuses or through the Public Member Trees on Ancestry. Some were definitely ruled out, while a couple were inconclusive.
•There is no-one called Frank with any surname in the 1871 census working as a photographer, let alone in Lyme Regis.
•The names of the witnesses at the wedding are no help.
•No-one called Ann in the 1891 census in Clyro, Radnorshire fits the profile of Annie Gidley.
Frank was obviously an important name to Annie, as she called her first son Frank. She must have got the surname Gidley from somewhere, but it wasn't common in Dorset.
There is, however, one Gidley in Lyme Regis in 1871, the nearest census to Annie's birth. John Gidley was an unmarried journeyman miller aged 29, living in Horse Street in Lyme Regis. Born in Starcross, Devon, on the Exe estuary, he was one of the Gidleys who originated in Kenton. He had moved on to Hampshire by 1875 where he married Fanny Hebb. They had no children. Is he the key to the mystery? Is he Annie's father, or had she just heard the surname?
I note that one of the inconclusive Ann/Annies born about 1869 in Lyme Regis included Annie Callaway registered in the March quarter of 1869. She was illegitimate. In 1871 she was living with her mother in her grandfather's house, which also happened to be in Horse Street (a long street). By 1881 she had moved to Bath to live with an aunt - in the right direction for the Welsh borders. But, and a big but, the 1939 Register gives her date of birth as 18 May 1868, too early to be registered in the March quarter of 1869.
I think only DNA testing could sort this one out, but it would be an honour to be associated in some small way with the recipient of a Victoria Cross.
2020 Update
Thanks to Phil Nichols for his eagle-eyed detective work.(Comments Dec 2019). Frank Boswell is the father, indeed a photographer in Lyme Regis. His wife is listed as Mary, born in Devonshire, place not known, aged 24. Phil noticed that Frank Boswell had moved away to Somerset, the neighbouring county by 1881, and had another partner. He and Mary had several children all registered and christened as Boswell, mother's maiden name Gidley. They must be Annie's parents. I will publish a new post with the details.
3 comments:
I am the great niece of Allan Leonard Lewis VC and his brother Frank was my grandfather. I always remember my mum saying Annie was from Lyme Regis but since forming the ALLewis VC Memorial Fund, I am struggling to find the Gidleys too. If you have any further info, would be grateful to receive it. My mum is no longer with us but I seem to recall being told they were undertakers, but could have got that wrong.
Regards
Dawn Lewis
Hi .... when the births were registered of the first 4 children of Frank & Mary Boswell of Lyme Regis, between 1867-1875, the mother's maiden name was given as Gidley. Frank Boswell was a photographer in Church Street, Lyme Regis in 1871, although he and his children moved to Frome (Somerset) in 1878, with Frank's new partner, Emily Moore, so Mary wasn't with them. I'd be interested to know if you can identify Mary [Gidley] thanks
I think Phil Nichols has solved it. Frank Boswell, photographer of Lyme Regis, was the father, who never married Mary Gidley. And I've worked out who she was. I'll update the post, which I hope is the best way of alerting people, rather than a new post.
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