Thanks you for your response. I know very little of my grandfather's history. My father barely remembered him and only knew that he "disappeared" in 1915 when my father was about 6 or 7. I had always assumed that his legal marriage was to my grandmother...perhaps it was not. Arthur John and my grandmother had five children...not sure of the exact order but they were Robert, Bert, Emmy, Arthur Frank (my father) and the youngest Jack. My father was not close to his siblings but a cousin, a daughter of Jack, was very close to Emmy who I think wad the oldest. As part of our search to discover what happened to our grandfather my cousin recounted how Emmy recalled frantic search by her mother for her marriage certificate. Accompanied by Emmy she went to the court where Arthur Frank appeared on a bigamy charge. He was dismissed by the judge apparently with the admonition that if he appeared there again he would go to prison. The upshoot of this was that together with my grandmother he returned to the Isle of Wight, where he was born and took a job there as a farm laborer living in a tied cottage that came the job. Some short time later he abandoned my grandmother, leaving her with four children and pregnant with Jack who was born in 1915 in the Isle of Wight House of Industry.
Together with my cousin we discovered that he married a woman named Palmer in 1926 and had a family with here. He lived in the Tottenham area and apparently died in 1946. All I know is that apart from working as a farm laborer he also worked as a waiter/cook.
I am not familiar with his army record and would very much appreciate those details. His desertion does appear to be in character sadly.
Arthur John was born in Rookley, Isle of Wight in 1877 to William Woodford and Emma Phillips.
He wedding record of marriage to my grandmother would also be of interest and also any information of a possible marriage before that to my grandmother. My father was, I believe, the fourth oldest child born in 1908. Many thank for your help.
