What happened to Albert W R Duly?

[DavidJP]

Hi all,

In checking a household on the newly released 1939 Register yesterday, I have it seems uncovered a mystery which I have been unable to solve & I decided to see if my fellow RootsChatters could help!

My great great aunt Sarah Mildred Phillips (1878-1954) married in 1908 in Mitcham to Albert William Duly (1879-1958). Until yesterday I hadn't traced Albert & Sarah past this point (their marriage.)

On the 1939 Register in Fulham were:

Albert W Duly & Sarah M Duly & right next door as the numbers run concurrently but were different households was Albert W R Duly b1913 & Enid M Duly b1910 (Erich M Duly on the 1939 register).

Albert W R Duly was Albert & Sarah's son born in 1913 in Fulham, he married Enid M Kettle in 1934. There would appear to be no children of this marriage.

This is where the mystery starts, Albert W R & Enid are still married in 1939 as pointed out above, but in the March qtr of 1946, Enid remarries to a Carl A Askroth (Asiroth on 1939 Register) in Wandsworth reg dist. I cannot find a death or a remarriage for Albert W R Duly & nothing comes up on CWGC website either.

Sarah Mildred dies in the Croydon reg dist in 1954 & Albert W dies in Shirley, Croydon, Surrey in 1958.

What happened to Albert W R Duly? I cannot find anything of him after 1939. He just seems to vanish!

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards

David

[carol8353]

In 1946 Enid now Askroth moves out to the USA and dies on 18 Jun 1984 there.

I wonder if she was widowed/divorced when she remarried? Or did hubby die abroad in the war?

Answering my own question 

Yes he did die abroad,there's a probate record for him.

Albert William Reginald Duly
Probate Date:    25 Jun 1947
Registry,    London
Death Date, 30 Jul 1946
Death Place,Nysasaland

[ShaunJ]

Albert William Reginald Duly of Port Herald Nyasaland died "on or since 30 July 1946 at some place unknown" per the Probate Calendar for 1947.

[ShaunJ]

He featured in a census of British anthropologists in 1940

https://www.therai.org.uk/archives-and-manuscripts/archive-contents/census-of-british-anthropologists-a71

[DavidJP]

Hi Carol8353 & ShaunJ

Many thanks for your replies, very much appreciated.

Carol8353, thanks for detail re Enids emigraton to & death in USA, much appreciated.

ShaunJ, many thanks for the probate info. Just had to google Nyasaland!  Ahh,its present day Malawi in central Africa. What on earth was he doing there? Just caught your 2nd reply, anthropologist! Never would have guessed that! Many thanks indeed!

Kind regards

David

[ShaunJ]

A grandchild of Enid was looking for the Kettle family back in 2002 http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/KETTLE/2002-03/1016047607

[DavidJP]

Hi ShaunJ,

Many thanks indeed for rootsweb link, much appreciated.

Kind regards

David

[DavidJP]

Hmmm, this is interesting, Enid remarries on 12th February 1946 (from Rootsweb link) & Albert William Reginald Duly is declared to have died on or since 30th July 1946. Did Enid remarry bigamously or did they divorce?

Kind regards

David

[dawnsh]

The only way to check on a divorce for this date is to pay HMCTS £65 for a 10year search.

Unless you need it for legal purposes, it's often considered a wate of money as all you'll get is an a4 sheet of paper with their names, their place of marriage and the date and place the decree nisi was made absolute.

If the story was newsworthy enough, it could have made the papers but by the 1940's so many couples were divorcing, the papers don't always seem to be interested especially as they were living in and around London.