Anyone have any info on Uncle Tom?

[gralorn]

Thomas George Croftwright / Wright was born in 1888 and baptised in Chelsea, London. He was known to be a phone operator in Blandford, Dorset. If that was the Blandford Telephone Exchange or the Portman Estate telephone exchange. Would anyone have any information on him at all, not sure if he was married would like to know. Presumably lived in Blandford. Any advice or information would be most appreciated. Not even sure when he died or where buried.

Graham Allard

[nanny jan]

Hi again!,

Spotted this marriage on FreeBMD ; might be your man:


Thomas G Wright  Mar 1918   Sherborne  5a  735   bride  Olton

Did not see any marriages for a T G  Croftwright.

Do you know when he was in Blandford?  You could search phone books and electoral rolls.


Nanny Jan

[gralorn]

That's obviously him Jan, all the other siblings seemed to have left off the Croft on their marriages as well. Olton must be her surname hopefully! He was in Blandford 1920's/30's I believe, maybe until he died even. That was a great find though Jan, much obliged. Perhaps she was from Sherborne.

regards

Graham

[nanny jan]

Hi Graham


The bride was Elsie E Olton or possibly Otton.  Does that ring any bells?  The Sherborne registration district would cover lots of villages .


Nanny Jan

[gralorn]

No bells ringing, but certainly sounds right enough. If he was old enough to marry in 1918 he must have done War Service as well, how would I find that out?

Graham

[nanny jan]

Hi Graham,

He might have served in the war but there were still quite a lot of men back home.  Any idea of his occupation?

You could try to find his army pension on ww.ancestry.co.uk (if he did serve), or it's a search at the National Archives at Kew.  You could search their site online to see if he got any medals (£3.50 to download the card; there are 6 cards to each download).   However 60% of the service records were destroyed in WW2.

The Armed Forces board here are very helpful with WW1 questions.

Nanny Jan

[gralorn]

Know very little about him Jan, apart from the fact that he was my grandmothers brother and worked as the telephone operator at Blandford. My grandmother Margaret Wright/Croftwright was a trainee cottage hospital nurse at Blandford and my Grandfather (Harold Allard)came down from Chirk in North Wales and had a job in the Portman Estate as an estate agent. He met Margaret and they married in Winchester in 1920 and then had a house 3 Bryanston on the Estate where my aunt and father were born. Margarets father did a runner and left her and the other siblings around 1900. He was Thomas George Croftwright and so the mother Mary and kids seemed to have dropped the Croft after he did the runner. I'm interested in what became of the other siblings. I know Harry married, had a son who was born at Coryates (proof needed) and then Harry was killed 30 Sept 1918 is on Weymouth cenotaph and buried at Cerisy-Gailly Military Cemetery. Rhoda married Frederick Tizard, So it is really only Thomas and Isabella that I have nothing on apart from what I have said. There date of deaths would even help I suppose.
Still trying to trace where Thomas did a runner to as well, cannot trace in the 1901 census up to now. His Father was George Croftwright and mother sarah Croftwright.

Regards

Graham