Search For Sidney West - Correspondence With Sue Parsons

From: R H Neergaard

To: Sue Parsons

Cc: Trig Treadaway

Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 9:11 PM

Subject: Re: Sidney West

Dear Sue,

I stand in admiration at your industry, and applaud your devotion to The Cause.

But you must surely feel frustrated in your search, and I'm most sympathetic: no Sidney West in the Sussex 1950-57 death index; no Will in the York probate records for the 51-53 period; and the GRO's 38 -year old West was almost certainly too young to have been our guy (we know he visited the RMIB orphanage in the early or mid 30's in a chauffeured limo, so would assuredly not have been younger then than 25, so was born not later than 1910, and most likely well before).

Well - we know he existed, and lived in your house. So either he used an assumed name, or was from abroad, or died before (or after) the geographic and/of temporal interval we've been focussed on.

As an alternative to locating his death certificate (or in addition to it), there's the Trust. Someone locally must know about that Trust. That was hardly a small thing, and with the town the beneficiary, it must have had a high legal profile. So, the Town Hall? A bank? A law office?

There may be still records in one of the Burgess Hill Athletic Clubs regarding who paid the rent, etc. The Trust did, of course, but where specifically did the checks emanate from? Official financial documents such as institutional ledgers ought to be kept a long time, I'd think, and even more so, trusts (as wills are). If the trust documentation could be unearthed, we'd probably have a line on West himself.

And once we knew his age, we could get a birth certificate from the GRO, find out who his parents were, then dig into the various censuses to identify his family, and find out where they lived, their occupations, and when and where they were all born (at least it's supposed to work that way!). We just need that one start point.

Regarding our quest to learn "Who was Edward William Treadaway Hoare", we have indeed made progress, in that we've unearthed a lot of detail, but the major mysteries of his life remain largely unresolved, though every new data point helps us close in.

Thanks for your great efforts, and for keeping us informed. And......

GOOD LUCK!

Dick

on 3/17/04 9:02 AM, Sue Parsons wrote:

Hi Dick,

Nothing much to report im afraid.

Have received a letter from Lady Mary Teviot (Census Searches Limited) Burgess Hill International Probate and Genealogical Research - Hazel Grove, Burgess Hill, W Sussex RH15 0BY She says that she has done a search of the death indices from 1950 to 1957 inclusive (that was the period during which Fred Avery believed that Sidney West died). Anyway Lady Mary said that there was no entry for a Sidney West in Sussex for that period?

The elderly lady to whom I have in the past referred, (author of several Burgess Hill books) Mrs Hallet, Portland Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex - has sadly not come back to me yet. She did mention however that she remembers Sidney and the various people who were left monies in his Will.

I have written off for a copy of Sidney's WILL to Postal Searches Dept, York Probate Regist, Castle Chambers, Clifford Street, York, Y01 9RG they came back to me saying that they had done a search form the beginning of 1951 to the end of 1954, and on the limited information I have given they can find no record.

I have written off for a copy of Sidney's DEATH CERT to General Reg Office, P O Box 2, Southport, Merseyside, PR8 2JD - they sent me a death cert of some chap who died in Shoreham aged 38 years in 1953 - I have returned it to them.

Well I just wanted you to know that I haven't been idle; even though my endeavours to date appear to be unsatisfactory to say the least.

How have you been doing? Slightly better than me I hope

Best Wishes

Sue

-----Original Message-----

From: RHNeergaard

Sent: 04 February 2004 15:19

To: Sue Parsons

Subject: Re: Sidney West

Sue - Thanks so much for your reply - glad to have it, even if the hoped-for info remains for the moment elusive.

The possibility of a link to the so-far mysterious Sidney lives!

All the best,

Dick Neergaard

on 2/4/04 8:43 AM, Sue Parsons wrote:

Hi Richard,

Well, I had a lovely chat with the lady I mentioned, we talked about everything you can imagine (it turned out that she knew all my deceased family), but her knowledge of Sidney West was limited. However, she said she may know someone who will remember him; she kindly promised to get in touch with that person. So now I wait to hear from her. My sole reason for getting in touch with her was to find out more about Sidney West.

I am sorry I can’t be of more help to you at this stage. She is a very nice lady, and I live in hope that she comes back to me in the near future. I shall then be more in a position to pass on information to you. The knowledge of Sidney West which I have, has been passed on to me by Fred Avery, but I’m hoping to add to that when I hear from the lady. Then hopefully you will have some interesting facts to pass on to you eighty year old pal.

Kind regards,

Sue Parsons

-----Original Message-----

From: Sue Parsons

Sent: 28 January 2004 09:34

To: 'RHNeergaard'

Cc: fredavery

Subject: RE: Sidney West

HI Richard,

It was rather nice to receive your e-mail this morning; all thanks to Mr Avery! Yes I am indeed keen to learn more about Sidney West, myself.

Funnily enough, I have a lunch meeting with a Burgess Hill lady tomorrow’ on this very subject. I shall keep you informed, and pass on to you anything I learn. I will of course be making notes.

Rest assured I’ll be back to you.

Sincerely,

Sue Parsons

-----Original Message-----

From: RHNeergaard

Sent: 28 January 2004 00:42

To: Sparsons

Cc: Fred Avery

Subject: Sidney West

Dear Ms Parsons,

I'm doing biographical research in which Mr Sidney West of Park Road, Burgess Hill, Sussex is a figure.

The subject of this research is Mr Edward William Treadaway Hoare, ~1866 - 1927, whose family owned a chain of inns in London around the turn of the century

Mr Hoare died relatively young and shortly thereafter, so did his wife, leaving their seven-year-old son an orphan. In 1933, Mr Sidney West of Park Road, Burgess Hill, Sussex visited the boy's orphanage (The Royal Masonic School for Boys in London) and offered to adopt him (the boy's guardian, a maternal uncle in Canada, refused consent).

The research I'm doing is on behalf of that boy, now a man of 80 and a close family friend, who is keen to learn more about his father.

I contacted Mr Fred Avery, Secretary of the Burgess Hill Local History Society, who referred me to you as the present owner of "Garfield", 52 Park Road, Burgess Hill, inasmuch as you too were interested in the history of Mr West.

Anything you can tell me about Mr West would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps we can be of help to one another in our research!

Sincerely,

Richard H Neergaard

cc: Mr Fred Avery, with thanks.

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