Hi, I'm looking for any information about Virginia Snider after 1927. I've shortened a long, and sometimes sad, story:
Virginia was baptised on 21 Sept 1892 as Virginia Augustina Mantasti Chanter, but known as Virginia Chanteri. She lived and was probably born in Folkestone, but possibly Italy. She married Egerton Cairns Snider from Ontario, Canada who had enlisted in May 1915 and travelled with his regiment to England. They married on October 14th 1915 in Folkestone and his regiment disembarked in Boulogne on November 1st 1915.
Egerton served in France, then England, and was invalided in July 1920. He and Virginia then sailed to Quebec, although their 18 months-old son John Francis Snider stayed in England. Virginia returned to England in March 1921, about two months pregnant, but Egerton remained with his family in Port Hope, Canada, and they were divorced in 1923. In 1926 their young sons John and Philip sailed alone to Canada to be met by their Grandfather, Eber Snider. On arrival they named a cousin as their closest relative in England, rather than their mother.
In 1927 Virginia was charged at Folkestone Police Court with fraud. It was said in court that her mother Teresa Chanteri had sold her business in December 1925 and left her, and over the following 14 months Virginia had taken rooms and board on several occasions under the names Mrs Cairns or Mrs Egerton, and left without paying. With no means other than a small Canadian Army pension, Virginia had also borrowed money to live on and not repaid. She stated that her husband was in Canada and had asked her to divorce him, but that she 'had nothing to divorce him upon'. She also said that her two children had been sent to Canada and that arrangements were being made for her to go out to her husband's father there, that she was expecting money from her father-in-law, and that he was going to see to her sons' education. The Magistrate sentenced her to two months in prison.
Her sons John and Phillip stayed in Port Hope until 1933, when they went to New Jersey, USA to live with their father Egerton. They stated their closest relative in Canada was their Grandfather Eber, i.e. not their mother Virginia.
I would very much like to find out what happened to Virginia after her Court appearance and prison in 1927. It seemed she used several names, and may have been in England, Canada or elsewhere. I have found no records or passenger lists, only an unverified suggestion that she died in 1948 at Port Hope, Ontario.
Thanks for any help!
Nick
