Several years ago I wrote about Mabel Maria Edith Summers Morris whose husband William went missing from his Swindon home in 1906.
William, grandson of the Swindon Advertiser founder, also named William Morris, was discovered drowned in the Thames at Molesey Lock, near Hampton Court.
Just two months before her husband’s death, Mabel had given birth to a baby boy.
Mabel never remarried. She lived at 26 The Mall with her two unmarried sisters until her death in 1936.
But what happened to her son?
Then last year Judith Giles got in touch. This is what she wrote:
‘I am his daughter. He was an apprentice in the railway works but became a materials inspector. He went to the High School in Bath Road. My father was a gifted musician and as well as playing the violin in a local orchestra he also had a fine singing voice. After his mother died in 1936 he married Irene Matthews who lived at 139 Goddard Avenue. They lived at 6 Avenue Road. I was born in 1938 and my sister Jane in 1943. During the war my father was a special constable. He was a member of the Swindon Camera club and became chairman.
William retired in 1968 due to ill health. He was an active member of Christ Church and was Parish hall secretary for many years. He died in 1981 in Cheriton Nursing Home.’
Judith was kind enough to send me a photograph of her father taken in the 1950s.
Radnor Street Cemetery 