Francis (Edward Marie) Gerard

[m23to53]

Gerard was a prolific crime novelist of the 1930s/1940s. Born in Middlesex in 1905, he and his family emigrated to South Africa in the late 1940s after marrying his second wife, Anne V Rogers, in 1946. In the early 1950s he gave up writing for an interest in politics. He is belived to have died in South Africa in the late 1960s.
Is it possible to trace his later movements and confirm his date of death?

Thanks
John

[lewskannen]

Hi there

I started playing around, but was not able to find much information on Francis. However, I did find information on his wife, Anne.

Anne Valerie Gerard
Maiden Name: Waserogers
Date of birth: 1917-06-16
Date of death: 2003-08-03
Place of Death: Sandton

They had two children: Peter CM Gerard and Karin H Gerard.

If you need more information, please let me know.

[m23to53]

I just found a search engine for various colections of the National Archive of South Africa, which I should have done before, and searched for Gerard. And this came up:

DEPOT     TAB                                                                   
SOURCE    MHG                                                                   
TYPE      LEER                                                                 
SYSTEM    01                                                                   
REFERENCE 8510/66                                                               
PART      1                                                                     
DESCRIPTION          GERARD, FRANCIS EDWARD.                                               
STARTING  19660000                                                             
ENDING    19660000                                                             
REMARKS   SURVIVING SPOUSE ANNE VALERIE GERARD.

I assume this may be related to his probate rather than his actual death, so he may have died 1965 or 1966. Is there any way to get more information about this document to see if it has a date of death?

[Nookie]

The information you found would be his estate file.  Generally this would include the death notice, his will as well as the distribution of his assets.

You can order a copy of it through eggsa.org