Hello keyboard 86,
Firstly, My interest in Charles is connected with a totally different research project. For many years I have been researching the history of local pubs in this area and I had his name as licensee of a pub in this village. Almost without exception other local historians have dismissed my ideas about this; their argument being that the pub I had listed had never existed. I have only lived here for 30 odd years - so what did I know? I have now proved that the pub DID exist and that he was the licensee. So now, I am trying to find information on the man.
His wife, Lily, came from the Bishop Auckland area and returned there towards the end of the First World War - when Charles was killed in action. So I am certain it is the same Lily. Charles was born in 1890 in Choppington, Blyth, Northumberland (1911 Census).
I am certain this is the same couple and I am trying to build up a picture of the family and their time in the pub. Lily's background was as a domestic so it is likely that the substantial value of the probate came from the business and, after Charles died, the sale of it.
I sincerely hope I am not barking up the wrong tree - just when I have proved the existence of the pub and him as licensee.