Find Ancestors

Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!

  • The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
  • You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
  • And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
  • The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Quick Search

Single word search

Icons

  • New posts
  • No new posts
  • Thread closed
  • Stickied, new posts
  • Stickied, no new posts

Sydney Herbert Speirs

ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Yvonne

Yvonne Report 5 Jun 2022 00:28

I'm trying to find out what happened to Sydney Herbert Speirs. He was born 1 February 1898 in Liverpool, to parents Thomas Speir and Margaret Catherine Brock. I have information on Thomas and Margaret and am just trying to find what happened to Sydney. He married Ida Rickards in 1927 in Fylde, Blackpool, and they had two children, Geoffrey and Patricia. Ida died in 1946 and Sydney re-married. A family story says his second marriage was to someone called Lena and they ran a boarding house in Blackpool. However, the only marriage I can find is to an Edith Stewart in 1947. I've sent for the marriage certificate to see if that will help.
In the 1921 census Sydney is not at home in Liverpool with his parents and siblings, but neither is there any sign of him in Blackpool. He shows up in the 1939 register in Blackpool but I can't read his occupation.
He was in the Liverpool Pals and was sent to France in 1915. Is it likely he was still in the army in 1921??
Any help would be very much appreciated.

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 5 Jun 2022 08:26

1939 for our reference:

Sydney H Speirs
in the 1939 England and Wales Register
Name: Sydney H Speirs
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Birth Date: 1 Feb 1898
Residence Date: 1939
Address: 117 Marsden Road
Residence Place: Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Occupation: Hotel Lo??
Line Number: 28
Schedule Number: 271
Sub Schedule Number: 1
Enumeration District: Ncoj
Borough: Blackpool
Registration district: 477-2
Inferred Spouse:
Ida Speirs
Household Members Age
Sydney H Speirs 41
Ida Speirs 36
Geoffrey M Speirs 10
This record is officially closed.


No, I can't read his occupation either.
"Hotel" is clearly the first word. Then there's either one or two words, starting Lon . . / Lou . . . / Lom . ./ hon. . . / hou. . . / hom. . . - and ending in ". . .ter".

Not much help!

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 5 Jun 2022 08:39

Deaths Mar 1959 (>99%)
SPEIRS Sydney H 61 Ashton 10b 172


Sydney Herbert Speirs
in the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
Name: Sydney Herbert Speirs
Death Date: 7 Feb 1959
Death Place: Cheshire, England
Probate Date: 5 Jun 1959
Probate Registry: Lancaster, England


SPEIRS Sydney Herbert of The Cottage, Daniel Adamson and Company, Dukinfield, Cheshire died on 7 February 1959 at The General Hospital, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire.
Administration Lancaster 5 June to Patricia Whitaker (wife of Colin Whitaker).
Effects £644 1s 5d.



Marriages Sep 1956 (>99%)
Speirs Patricia Whitaker Stroud 7b 1519
WHITAKER Colin SPEIRS Stroud 7b 1519

Maddie

Maddie Report 5 Jun 2022 13:10

Ida
District Blackpool
Last name Speirs
County Lancashire
Gender Female
Volume 10B
Birth day -
Page 446
Birth month -
Country England
Birth year 1904
Record set England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007
Age 42
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Death quarter 4
Subcategory Civil Deaths & Burials
Death year 1946

did he remarry
Sydney H
County Lancashire
Last name Speirs
Country England
Marriage quarter 1
Volume 10B
Marriage year 1947
Volume as transcribed 10B
Registration month -
Page number 787
MarriageFinder™ Sydney H Speirs married one of these people
Edith Stewart
Record set England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005
Spouse's last name Stewart
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
District Blackpool

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 5 Jun 2022 13:29

Re Daniel Adamson & Co:

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Daniel_Adamson_and_Co

and lots of other results from a Google search.

Yvonne

Yvonne Report 5 Jun 2022 16:09

Thanks so much for this. It definitely looks as though the 1959 death is his, as I believe one of his children was Patricia, so that definitely fits. I still can’t figure out where this Lena comes into it though.

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 5 Jun 2022 17:49

A nickname perhaps?

My s-i-l was Irene Lucy. Everyone knew her as Molly

Yvonne

Yvonne Report 5 Jun 2022 19:20

A possibility Erika. Hopefully when I get the marriage certificate it’ll enable me to find out a bit about Edith … maybe she had a middle name.
Thanks.

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 5 Jun 2022 20:27

Not according to the marriage record posted above

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 5 Jun 2022 21:12

According to the 1939 Register, Edith had been married before:

Edith Stuart
in the 1939 England and Wales Register
Name: Edith Stuart [Edith Speirs] [Edith Stewart]
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Married <<<<<<<<<<<<
Birth Date: 6 Jul 1914
Residence Date: 1939
Address: 53 Somerset Ave.
Residence Place: Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Occupation: Unemployed Cotton Weaver - Wa??
Line Number: 40
Schedule Number: 59
Sub Schedule Number: 5
Enumeration District: Ncnp
Borough: Blackpool
Household Members Age
James Crompton 55
Lucille Crompton 45
This record is officially closed.
This record is officially closed.
Edith Stuart 25



Marriages Mar 1930 (>99%)
Crompton James Vickers Fylde 8e 932
VICKERS Lucille Crompton Fylde 8e 932


So Edith's first marriage ??:

Marriages Jun 1935 (>99%)
Stewart John R Vickers Fylde 8e 1667
Vickers Edith Stewart Fylde 8e 1667


Possibly her husband's death??

STEWART, JOHN ROBERT 33
GRO Reference: 1944 M Quarter in BLACKPOOL Volume 08E Page 769

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 5 Jun 2022 21:38

Births Sep 1914 (>99%)
Vickers Edith Clarence Bolton 8c 942

Parents' marriage:

Marriages Mar 1914 (>99%)
Clarence Lucille E Vickers Bolton 8c 631
Vickers Frederick Clarence Bolton 8c 631

The 1930 marriage in my last post is presumably a second marriage for Edith's mother.


Lucile Evangaline Clarence
in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
Name: Lucile Evangaline Clarence
Registration Date: 1894
Quarter of the Year: Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration Place: Bolton, Lancashire, England
Volume: 8c
Page: 429



Very long shot -
maybe Lena was a nickname derived from her mother's middle name???

Edith herself had no middle name in any record.

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 5 Jun 2022 21:44

Frederick Vickers
in the UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920
Name: Frederick Vickers
Gender: Male
Enlistment Age: 29
Birth Date: abt 1886
Marriage Date: 14 Mar 1914
Marriage Place: Congregational Church Tong Moor Bolton
Document Date: 1915
Residence Place: 11 Westbury St, Bolton
Military Date: 1915
Relationship to Soldier: Self (Head)
Regiment Name: Royal Army Medical Corps
Number of Images: 7
Form Title: Short Service Attestation
Family Members:
Name Relation to Soldier
Frederick Vickers Self (Head)
Lucille Evangeline Clarence Spouse
Edith Vickers Child [ 6 July 1914 ] <<<<<<<<<<<


Frederick was discharged 5/1/1918 as "no longer fit for war service".
30% incapacity.
Valvular disease of the heart (VDH)

(Although in his pension record, it also states "discharged from the Service for refusing to volunteer for service overseas.")

Civilian occupation: Presser and packer at bleachworks

His pension record states:

"Steady, honest and reliable. Trained in First Aid and ambulance duties."
He'd had rheumatic fever in boyhood, and palpitations and breathlessness since then.

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 6 Jun 2022 10:50

Not to do with your question, Yvonne, but just because I came across it:

I think Lucille and Frederick separated. He seems to have died in 1967 in Bolton.

Lucille was already with James Crompton in 1921.

Edith not with them.

Lucille
Crompton
1894
Bolton, Lancashire, England
St Helen's
Prescot
Lancashire

With James 1884, and Mabel 1920


CROMPTON, MABEL mmn CLARENCE
GRO Reference: 1920 S Quarter in PRESCOT Volume 08B Page 1593

Another probable child, Clarence James Crompton, was born 1928 in Dudley.
Died in Blackpool 1991.

So Mabel and Clarence are probably the two closed records with Lucille, James and Edith in 1939.

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 6 Jun 2022 11:27

Baptism: 26 Jul 1914 St James, Bolton, Lancashire, England
Edith Vickers - [Child] of Frederick Vickers & Lucy Evangeline
Abode: 11 Westbury St.
Occupation: Finisher
Baptised by: A W Nye
Register: Baptisms 1863 - 1930, Page 242, Entry 2009
Source: LDS Family Search

Yvonne

Yvonne Report 6 Jun 2022 15:31

Thank you, all very interesting.
I was wondering if maybe Lena was someone he had an affair with before he met Edith.

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 6 Jun 2022 15:48

Or your 'source' is misinformed...........................

There were - at the absolute most - 6 months between Ida's death and his re-marriage

Yvonne

Yvonne Report 6 Jun 2022 17:24

I was thinking the timing was wrong too but maybe it happened during his marriage … I guess I’m grasping at straws, probably be something we’ll never know.