Alfred Paul Hooper of Redhill Surrey

[Smokey807]

 I would appreciate some assistance having reaching a bit of an impass in my research.

I have Alfred Paul Hooper born Sept 29,1873 Redhill Surrey, one of several children born to the architect Thomas Rowland Hooper of Redhill (1845-1937).

I have probate record for Alfred Paul Hooper of 31 Ridgeway Road,Redhill Surrey noting his death on March 24,1954. The executors were OLIVE HOOPER, widow, and his son the artist George Winston Hooper.  I cant find out any information about Olive Hooper.

I know that sometime after the 1891 cenus Alfred Paul Hooper left England and took up residence in India and worked as an account with the railway. His travel documents say he lived in Goraphur, India and his two sons George Winston Hooper (see probate above) was born in Gorakhphur India September 10,1910. His brother William Rowand Hooper was 1909 at Gorakhpur, India. Williams mother was given as ANNIE SARAH MAUDE

I have a marriage record for Alfred Paul Hooper to ANN SARAH MAUD KUNNING April 20,1908 at Gorakhpur,Bengal India.

There is a family tree that gives the wife of Alfred Paul Hooper as SARAH JANE CANNING (1875-1925) born in Ireland and died in India.

So I have three different versions of who the wife of Alfred Paul Hooper was. Can someone figure out who his wife (s) were with details please. Some accounts about Paul suggest his wife was from India.

[avm228]

Surrey electoral rolls show Alfred P Hooper and Olive Hooper together at 31 Ridgeway Rd, Reigate in 1945.

[lizdb]

Firstly you say you have a marriage record of his marriage to Ann Kunning in India
So that definitely happened.
Was he a bachelor or widower?

If the one to Sarah Canning is just mentioned on someones tree, with no documentary evidence, then you can discount that unless there is a marriage cert to  back it up.

The Olive in the Probate index entry - does it specify she is HIS widow, or just that she is A widow? She might not be his. Or it might be a second marriage (Ann having died, possibly in India)

A copy of the Will would confirm, and may make things clearer altogether.

(Posts crossed, AVM)

Interested in the Ridgeway Road Address, I was only yesterday  looking at Ridgway Road as my grandparents were at no 25 at one point!  Next door but two!

[avm228]

Sarah Hooper, wife of A.P. Hooper, was buried at Trans-Goomti Cemetery, Lucknow on 22 Dec 1925.

She is recorded as having died on 20 Dec 1925 of abdominal tuberculosis, aged 51.

[lizdb]

Marriage

Apr/May/Jun 1941
Cuckfield
Ref 2b 495

Alfred P Hooper  / Olive Holt

[avm228]

The record of the Gorakhpur marriage between AP Hooper and ASM Kunning shows the bride's father as George Kunning, deceased.

This then may be the burial of her mother:

Gorakhpur, 26 Feb 1922

Ann Kunning, widow of Assistant Surgeon George Kunning I.M.D.

She is recorded as having died on the same date of heart failure, aged 74.

[avm228]

I'd think the most likely scenario is that:

 - Alfred's first wife Ann Sarah Maud nee Kunning was known as "Sarah", possibly to distinguish her from her mother Ann, and that the 1925 burial of "Sarah" Hooper is hers.

 - Someone in their tree has got muddled between Sarah Kunning and a Sarah Jane Canning.

 - Alfred's second wife was Olive formerly Holt (not necessarily her maiden name).

[lizdb]

I agree with that.

[avm228]

Ann Sarah Maud Kunning appears to have had siblings, including at least:

Arthur Blandford Kunning born 1871 (not sure where).  Records show that he married in Gorakhpur in 1904 and, after long service in India, retired to England before WW2 and died in Hampstead in 1946.

Ernest George Kunning born 3 Apr 1878 and baptised at Ferozepore on 5 June 1878 to parents George (Senr Apothecary 1/18th Regt) and Ann.  He married in Calcutta in 1919.

Their parents, George Kunning (apothecary) and Ann Smart (a widow, nee Ritchson), married at Bareilly in 1863.