Not so distant relatives

[Gadget]

Would a dockyard electrician necessarily had a university education in the 1930s? Although electrical engineering books do suggest degree level courses.



Josey

Robert Gordons was more of a technical college/institute in those days. I think that is the most likely.

[NooshieW]

Thanks to you all. I have just spoken to my elder sister who confirms the Aberdeen higher education as she remembers very complex engineering books. We checked Aberdeen Uni some time ago, but found he wasnt there. He lodged in Peterhead and some time ago I wrote to the local paper and they also published a photo ,but to no avail. Anyone at school with him ,would presumably be long gone.
As for his step dad Arthur Flatman (Lisburne) he did indeed go back to Surrey to die with his family.
He is buried with his wife and my parents in Plymouth however.
Keep the ideas coming folks we may find out something yet!!

[josey]

Who brought him up?(I have doubts that it was his mother)

Perhaps William had been in trouble & was sent to Robert Gordon's as a kind of 'industrial school'? Presumably we are talking about the mid - late 1920s.
http://www.rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/gordonians/archives
if you are searching for information about an ancestor who attended the Hospital or College, or you would like information about the history of RGC, please contact Penny Hartley in the Archives.

[Gadget]

Try Robert Gordon's - it was a technical institute in those days so they should have records.

http://www.rgu.ac.uk/  (contact us tab)


Gadget

Added -Josey,  there were two Robert Gordons - the school (Michael Gove went there) and the Technical institute.

[NooshieW]

Thanks Gadget, my sister thinks Robert Gordon rings a bell. Why did he go there though? He was known as 'Jock' for most of his life and someone who knew him at Malta (a reply from a newspaper plea many years ago) remembers him having a slight Scots accent.
He had a dance band in the forties and fifties in Plymouth ,so was well known locally, a few people came forward about him when we wrote to the Plymouth Herald years ago, and we got some anecdotes and photos, but its his early life that is baffling.
We also have a photo of him with his car and it has an Aberdeen number plate.

[Gadget]

I've found a West with the same birthdate but his name was Frederick 

[Gadget]

You might also have a try with the Aberdeen Press and Journal

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/

[NooshieW]

I have just rung Aberedeen archives and he is looking into it for me. My dad attended as a higher education course, so not as a younger boy . He would have gone there at about eighteen so 1932 ish.
Certianly the few photos I have of him in Aberdeen he looks about twenty.
Hah Josey, he was a lovely boy I think so wouldnt have been sent away!! He was definitely studying electrical engineering.

[LizzieL]

There is a newspaper report in 1945 in Plymouth of council elections, his stepfather was elected as a councillor, it says he was also an electrician. So it's likely his stepfather influenced his choice of career (I don't mean forced him to take it up - just realised it was interesting and had good prospects). It seems likely therefore that he was brought up by his father and stepfather. Maybe Arthur had links with Scotland. His father John Gilbert Burnett Flatman was born in co Durham, so getting near to Scotland.