Thank you for that...I knew this one was always going to be tough and I was planning to leave it well alone....but curiosity got the better of me!
William's wife, Alice was an interesting character. When I first started learning French at school, she used to speak to me in French! I was gobsmacked to use the current language as no one else in the family could speak a word of any foreign language!
Many years later, it fell upon me to clear out her effects and discovered that she had worked as a children's nanny in Marsailles and I located her passport (duly stamped "not valid for the zone of the armies" and even her contract. Amongst her possessions was a telegram, "Dad seriously ill, come home at once".
I suspect that William was quite a literate gentleman, stumbled upon some of his writing...he had that rather attractive copperplate writing and I think he might have worked in some clerical capacity in Edinburgh before joining the army. Sorry I am thinking out loud now!!
I have an idea that it was George who was a POW in Germany but I just can't be sure. He was a very quiet, unassuming and generous man who presumably wanted to stay in touch with his niece. None of this helps anyone of course - except me fishing for clues!
Thanks for your help....you just never know, I might drop lucky eventually! I've posted a message on GenesReunited too...just in case relatives in some foreign land see it!
Ian
