Thank you all for your interesting and helpful replies.
Re Winifred`s date of birth, I have copies of various Derby local newspaper reports (for local election and magistrate court appearances from 1947 and 1948) that give Winifred`s age as 47.
I don`t think Winifred ever Married Tommy as he already had a wife and family in Newcastle. He was a catholic, so no divorce. I think many of the couples friends, associates and the press of the day thought they were married. As did John Charnley (author of "Blackshirts and Roses") he does record in his book that "Toni" Moran, sometimes spoke as "Mrs Sharp" (a pseudonym I would guess, referring to her "sharp" tongue) Corroborating John Charnley`s claim, I have a copy of a newspaper report from September 1935, recording that Tommy Moran and "Mrs Sharp" spoke on the same platform at a Fascist meeting at Corporation Field, Hull. It could have been around this time that they met ? and Mrs Sharp became Mrs Moran. Re "Mrs Sharp" Morris Beckman in his book "The 43 Group" writes of Mrs Moran`s voice "she made a fishwife sound like a cloistered nun"
Knowing that she took on the name Moran, I do wonder if she also gave herself the name Toinette ? A further mystery is that John Charnley claims that she replied to Jewish hecklers at meetings in Yiddish ? Again, corroborated in newspaper reports. Did she grow up in an area with a strong Jewish community ? Was she Jewish ?
A long shot, but if I could find out the nature of her business in Derby, I could possibly by a process of elimination find her roots in Lancashire through local trade directories and the 1911 census. Following the theory, in business, you do what you know.
Once again thank you all for your helpful and interesting replies. Any further ideas greatly appreciated
Kind regards
Paul
