Liz I can't thank you enough for using your credits to help me, you are so kind. Her occupation of electro plater and gilder really must mean that this was the Alice who was on the 1901 census with William Henry Cox and as you say I wonder if he trained her up in his occupation. Also, the address where Alice Emily lived was spot on with the address where William Henry Cox died in 1910. I now have the birthplace of Alice, and I have been trying to find a birth for her, but with no luck, I also saw that marriage you talked about of a WHC and a Margaret Spanner (1896 Isle of Wight) and wondered if she had called herself a completely different name what we know her as - Alice. A William Henry Cox and a Margaret Helen Cox (b Isle of Wight) were found on the 1911 index living in Wandsworth London, so that does rule out that couple. Alice now known as Alice Emily was really intent on calling herself the wife of William Henry Cox wasn't she? so perhaps one day a marriage for them may surface.
Milly, perhaps they did meet when they were working together elsewhere, I know in a Kelly's Directory from 1891, Sussex WHC entry was as 'Cox and Co Electro Plater and Gilder, she may have been the Co!
Ewan
