Hi
I am a great grandson of Clement Robertson Walker by his first marriage to Florence Edith Lough. Special hi to Erica Rae - with me, my siblings and cousins you've just acquired another 10 second cousins plus descendants. I only started looking at genealogy a month or so ago after a DNA match and I'm grateful for all the information so far put together on RootsChat. Hopefully I can add a contribution.
Clement and Florence married in 1903 and Vera, my grandmother, was born in 1905. The 1911 census shows Clement and Florence living apart. As discovered on RootsChat, Clement was travelling with Hilda Grace White. Clement had a business in Dalston, which is where Hilda lived, so it would be easy for them to meet. Florence and Vera had moved in with Clement's nephew, Grayson Stone. Interestingly, they maintained very good relations with the rest of the Walker side of the family. Grayson shows up centrally on Vera's wedding photo. We have several pictures of Clement's brothers and sisters and stories of Vera going to visit the Walker sisters (her aunts) in Bexhill. The Walkers seem quite virtuous and religious. A couple of them were active in the Congregational Church. Clement may be the black sheep of the family. He was also the youngest, being born 8 years after the next youngest. The others were more conventionally spaced.
In 1912 Florence and Vera travelled to the west coast of Canada, joining her sister. Three months after arriving Florence married Hugh Leo Taylor and seven months and one week later they had a son, Edwin Hugh Taylor (known as Uncle Ted). There are well-circulated family rumours that this was a bigamous marriage and the facts seem to back it up. On the marriage certificate Florence gave her father's middle name as her surname and slipped her birthdate by a couple of years. I haven't been able to find anybody that matches the details given by Hugh so he may also have been lying. There is also a suspicion, given the timescales, that Florence and Hugh knew each other before travelling. In 1915 Florence, Vera and Edwin show up in the immigration records travelling back to the UK. Hugh must also have travelled back some time but there is no matching immigration record. I'm looking forward to the release of the 1921 census to try and tie him down.
If Florence's 1912 marriage was bigamous then it backs up the idea that Clement and Hilda Grace White were not married when their son, Raymond Robert Walker, was born also in 1912. It also makes me wonder if Clement and Florence ever did properly divorce. Not only was it difficult in the 1920s but it would have raised questions about Florence's Canadian marriage to Hugh, who died in 1953, the year after Clement died.
Now onto stuff that is more directly relevant to this thread. I've attached some photos. The first shows a couple and child and a motorbike. The photo is labelled "Clement Robertson Walker, with Daisy and 'Madge'". The second photo is of Madge on her own and is labelled "Grandma C's 'step-sister' Margaret Walker". Grandma C is Vera, my grandmother. Unfortunately, there are no dates on the photos. It is tempting to assume that Daisy is Alice but Daisy is a nickname for Margaret. Also, my brother has pointed out that step-sister is a slightly odd term to use. Half-sister would be more appropriate if Clement is Margaret's biological father. Maybe she was already born before Daisy and Clement got together. Anyway, it is probable that this Margaret is the daughter that reported Clement's death.
The third photo shows Clement and Florence shortly after they were married. Notice how much younger Clement looks than in the first photo. The gap would be about 25 years.
The fourth photo shows some of Clement's siblings. John is left, back. Willie is right, back. Annie is left, front. Mary (Polly) is right, front. The sisters Annie and Mary married a couple of brothers, the Nordens. Unfortunately Annie's spouse died a few months after they married. Mary's spouse also died early, just before their fourth child was born, and the two sisters ended up living together.
I have some more photos, in particular one of Vera as a teenager standing outside the Ferry Boat Inn. This ties back to Clement being listed as the licensee in 1922 and shows that they were still on visiting terms. The Ferry Boat Inn is vaguely known in family stories but nobody still alive knows the details.
I use FamilySearch to collect all my information. If you'd like to see Clement's details so far then go to
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/L1C2-DQY