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Joseph is in the 1939 Register, single and names the other way round, Herwood Joseph.  Living in Swansea.

and born there too, it turns out.

I have seen lots of people gain and lose middle names over their lifetimes, as well as transposing the order of names, which is why I thought it might be worth checking.

Syncope does indeed, nowadays, mean a faint. But I think that in the past it was used more to cover any loss of consciousness but especially due to shock (as in physiological shock, eg blood loss, not psychological shock eg fear or surprise!!)

So this poor lady had a prolonged labour before the baby was actually due, and may well have lost too much blood during this, causing hypovolaemic shock = syncope.

(but if so, nowadays the order of these two would be reversed on the death certificate. The cause of death would be the shock, which in turn was caused by the labour).

For that last week or so, I've been unable to open any Ancestry hints. Is anyone else having the same problem? Any idea how I can resolve it?

Please could you clarify a few things in your post?

You refer to a great uncle in your first sentence but Dorcas is a woman's name; was this Arscott's wife?

I can't see anybody with "Arscott" as a first name anywhere in England, using FindMyPast.

You say "nee Pomeroy" but this seems in your post to refer to Arscott; did you mean it to refer to Dorcas, or was it possibly Arscott's mother's maiden name?

Are you wanting info from before they left the UK or after they arrived in Canada?

Thanks for looking, Maddys52.

I have a load of info about the Pegges, and their links to the Smith/Milnes families, but so far nothing to link Courtney Smith to the same families.

However! I've found out this morning that Courtney's father, Richard, was minister at Edensor and chaplain to the Duke of Devonshire. I've even found a portrait of him, here:

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1129249

Richard's memorial at Edensor states that he was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, so I've had a look at the alumni lists for Cambridge as they can give info re a person's birthplace -- but no joy so far.