missing family in 1939 census

[specialspud78]

Hi, i'm trying to find a leonard Arthur Spencer born 1921 Lambeth his father was Arthur Jackson Spencer born abt 1896 mother Winifred. I havent been able to trace them .Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanking in advance.

[KGarrad]

As I have said many times before - the 1939 National Register was NOT a census.

Those who were in the military aren't on there.
People born less than 100 years ago aren't there, unless they are known to have died.

The 1939 National Register was taken up by the NHS after the war, used and updated by the until the early 1990s.

FindMyPast has 6 results for Arthur J Spencer, born c c1896, and another 31 results for Arthur Spencer.
Including an Arthur J Spencer living in Ealing?

[DCB]

Online trees have him as Leonard Arthur Spencer, born on 18th November 1921.

Mother's surname was Seaman, as in the GRO. She is wih Arthur J in 1921

The Arthur J Spencer in Ealing, in 1939, matches the birth date in the trees.

He married again to Kate Borrowman, who is with him on the register.

Winifred married again to Ernest W Fleming, and they are together in 1939.

No sign of Leonard Arthur, so probably in the services, as K Garrard mentioned.

David

[specialspud78]

Online trees have him as Leonard Arthur Spencer, born on 18th November 1921.

Mother's surname was Seaman, as in the GRO. She is wih Arthur J in 1921

The Arthur J Spencer in Ealing, in 1939, matches the birth date in the trees.

He married again to Kate Borrowman, who is with him on the register.

Winifred married again to Ernest W Fleming, and they are together in 1939.

No sign of Leonard Arthur, so probably in the services, as K Garrard mentioned.

David

Thank you that would make sense it seems he did serve in the army. I wasnt aware that winifred also remarried. So i will look into that further.

[LizzieW]

Those who were in the military aren't on there

.

Interesting because I can't find my dad's eldest brother on the 1939 register, although I did find his fiancée. There must be lots of people who, for some reason or other didn't get onto the register. He was a musician and I have never heard of him being in the military, he certainly didn't serve during WW2 because he was still doing concerts around the country - often cancelled or curtailed because of a certain Mr Hitler sending bombs to large cities - I even have a letter referring to something like that, which was sent to my dad from a mutual friend of his and his brother.

[Jebber]

If he didn’t die before the NHS stopped updating the Register, and he would now be over 100, it may simply be that they have not got as far as opening his record, it is an on going process.

[LizzieW]

He died in 1982.  The reason I think perhaps he's just not on the register is that all his siblings are, apart from one who died in 2011 (well last time I looked), including my dad who died in 2003 (and my mum who died in 2007).  I'll just keep looking but my feeling is that if he was away with other musicians they just didn't bother.

Sorry to hi-jack this post.

[LizzieW]

I've done what I should have done previously, looked at newspaper reports.  In 1938 he was still in the Manchester area as a Pianist/Entertainer, but in 1940 he was named in a Motherwell newspaper as Private WB (an English pianist now stationed in Scotland).

So not only does it seem he was in the army, he was actually in Scotland so would be on the Scottish Register which is not available on line.  I'm going to see if I can find his army records to see if he did actually serve during WW2 because as far as I know he never left the UK unlike my dad's other brother and brothers in law (married to his sisters).