Hi Mandy1963
I think I've more or less sorted this riddle out thanks. I'll paste here what I (with a lot of help from Rootschatters!) found. I'm not directly related, but my young cousin's husband is George York's grandson and it was he who wanted to find out more about the mystery that surrounded his grandad's upbringing. Here's the story I passed onto him in case you're interested.
Cheers
Aitch
Mary Lizzie Grice was born on 3rd January 1893 in Caroline St Longton, eldest daughter of William Grice, a Potters Saucer maker and his wife Harriet (nee Bromley) who worked as a Lathe Treader in the pottery factory.
In 1911, when Mary Lizzie was 18 she was also working in the potteries as a Potter Paintress.
Mary Lizzie was 20 when she married 18 year old Bernard Parratt. Bernard was the only son of Cyrus Parratt (a coal miner born in Nantwich, but living in Fenton) and his wife Harriet (nee Kelsall, born in Fenton). The Parratts lived at Holly Place, Fenton.
Just a few months after their marriage, Mary Lizzie and Bernard's first child, Bernard was born (July 1913), followed in December 1914 by a daughter Alice.
At some point after the beginning of the First World War, Bernard enlisted with the 3rd Battalion of the North Staffs Regiment. He was a Sargeant. I don't have details of where he fought, but would have likely been part of the horror that faced young soldiers in the Somme. Mary Lizzie would have been home alone in Fenton with 2 small children.
In April 1919, Mary Lizzie had a relationship with the mysterious Mr Yorke and your Grandad George was conceived. The fact that Mr Yorke's name appears on Grandad's birth registration means that Mr Yorke was present when Mary Lizzie went to register Grandad's birth. Because Mary Lizzie was married to Bernard Parratt meant that the Registrar would have insisted that her married name, as well as her maiden name and the father's name (Parratt/Yorke/Grice) were all included in the registration.
I found Bernard Parratt's discharge papers from the North Staffs Regiment dated July 1919.
So, Bernard would have returned home from the War to find his wife pregnant with another man's child.
That was obviously the end of the relationship - so what was he to do? His father Cyrus Parratt had died sometime between 1901-1911 and his widowed mother Harriet Parratt, along with two of his sister had emigrated to Canada in 1913. He had no relatives left in Stoke so he went to Canada
I found Bernard on a Canadian Ship's passenger list - he arrived at Port St John on January 30th 1920 - just 16 days after his your Grandad, George Parratt/Yorke was born in Stoke.
He is listed as 'single' and a miner. He was 24.
He appears in the 1921 Canadian Census living in Toronto with his Mother and two sisters (one of whom is by then married and has two children)
Back in Stoke, Mary Lizzie had a second child who was also registered with the Yorke surname - Richard, born in 1921, died as an infant.
Mary Lizzie's relationship with Mr Yorke must have ended as she gave birth to her fifth child, Irene in1924 - baby Irene bore the surnames Parrat and Bridgwood. Her father was George Bridgwood, who went on to marry Mary Lizzie four years later in 1928.
Mary Lizzie and George Bridgwood had two more children - Bessie Bridgwood born in 1929 and Leonard in 1933.
Mary Lizzie was divorced from George Bridgwood sometime before 1959. George died in 1984.
In 1959, when Mary Lizzie was 66 she married William Shenton in Stoke. She died in Stoke in 1984 aged 91.
