Enid & family in the 1911 census

[Chloe]

This sounds really interesting. Where is it possible to view the census online? I googled it but just found lots of register your family tree websites.

[Rob Houghton]

try this link:

http://www.1911census.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But you have to register and pay in order to view the census

[Belly]

As Robert says. It's so interesting, I've found my Great Grandmother was a midwife which I had absolutely no idea about!

I have got the details of the class Enid taught and will put on here at some point in the near future. I've been v busy of late and haven't got around to it.

I am curious about 'Doncastio Blyton' I mentioned earlier. I have a hunch there is a connection with Enid's family especially since Blyton is not that common a family name.

[CliffBeckenham]

In reality Thomas Blyton wasn't living with Theresa by 1911 either, having walked out on his wife shortly before Enid's thirteenth birthday in 1910 and set up home with another woman.
Anita, you wrote this a year ago when members exchanged info about the 1911 census.
i have been using the 1911 census during the last year for info on and am satisfied it is correct. Thus I doubt the accuracy of the statement that 'Thomas walked out shortly before Enid's 13th birthday' ? From whom would Barbara have obtained this information?
Cliff

[Belly]

Cliff, it's possible that Theresa told the census official that Thomas was living with them?

I think she covered up the fact he had gone for many years.

[Anita Bensoussane]

In reality Thomas Blyton wasn't living with Theresa by 1911 either, having walked out on his wife shortly before Enid's thirteenth birthday in 1910 and set up home with another woman.
Anita, you wrote this a year ago when members exchanged info about the 1911 census.
i have been using the 1911 census during the last year for info on and am satisfied it is correct. Thus I doubt the accuracy of the statement that 'Thomas walked out shortly before Enid's 13th birthday' ? From whom would Barbara have obtained this information?
Cliff

I don't know, but there are a number of possibilities. On the "Acknowledgments" pages of her Biography, Barbara Stoney thanks those who helped her with photos, letters and recollections of Enid Blyton's early years. Among others she mentions Enid's brother Hanly, a couple of members of the Attenborough family and Enid's cousin, Sylvia Conway.

As Belly pointed out, Theresa might have had her husband's name included at her address on the Census because she was anxious to cover up the fact that he had walked out on the family.

Anita

[Katharine]

From my own limited experience with various Census forms I think they can only be used as a rough guide as the 1911 showed inaccuracies from my own family, including listing 2 children with identical names!!

I just wondered if anyone had tried looking up Thomas and 'the other woman' as presumably if he wasn't living with the family he must have been living somewhere. Possibly like looking for a needle in a haystack, but at least Blyton isn't a very common surname which would make it easier.

[Rob Houghton]

just tried it, and only five Thomas Blytons come up in the whole of the UK, including Thomas Carey Blyton, aged 41. The others are either children or old men of 68.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I just wondered if anyone had tried looking up Thomas and 'the other woman' as presumably if he wasn't living with the family he must have been living somewhere.

I presume it would have been illegal for Thomas Blyton to be counted twice, at different addresses, but if anyone would like to try looking up "the other woman" Barbara Stoney tells us some details about her in Journal 17, Spring 2002. Her name was Florence Agnes Delattre (née Kernot), born in Islington in 1883. Her first marriage was to a Belgian man but she left him after only six months and had lost touch with him long before meeting Thomas. It is believed that when Florence met Thomas she was working as a secretary in his uncle's clothing firm. She was 28 when they set up home together [which does seem to point to their living together from sometime in 1911 rather than 1910, though Thomas might have lived alone or in lodgings or something for a period after leaving Theresa] and they never married because they could not obtain divorces from their respective spouses, though their children took the surname Blyton (changed to Blythe from 1936 onwards, which was when the children found out that they were illegitimate). Thomas and Florence lived in Sunbury-on-Thames and had three children - Florence Carey Blyton (born Sept 1911), a son whose name Barbara doesn't give (born in 1912 but died in his cot at the age of 6 months) and another son called Gebir (born 1915, but his birth was never registered and his name was changed to Leslie after Thomas's death in 1920). Thomas died of a stroke at home in Sunbury, but people were led to believe that he had died of a heart attack while fishing on the Thames - perhaps to avoid embarrassment to Theresa. Apparently Florence didn't go to his funeral, which was held near his former home at Beckenham.

Anita

[Belly]

Thanks for the detail, Anita. (I haven't been to the site for a while, I hope that you and family are all well).

I will try to have a look when I've more time. I've been thinking more about the Census return that seems to show Thomas and Theresa at home together in 1911. In my experience if the 'head of the household' is away on census night when the enumerator called the wife usually said something like 'husband, absent, on business'. I have a feeling, officially at least, the enumerator had to 'see' the people in the house to be able to count or include them.

I have a few family historian friends so will check with them.

It could be that Thomas was at home that night, if not just to keep up appearances?

Gebir - another unusual name in the family.

[Belly]

Hi Anita, just a quick question, I thought I had posted all the children in the school/class to this thread? Did I send a separate message to you or has it been deleted? Thanks. Maybe I am going mad. .

[Katharine]

If Thomas' daughter Florence was born in Sept 1911, then Thomas and Florence senior must have been in a relationship from at least late 1910. As Enid was 13 in August 1910 it would make sense that her father left the family home about that time to embark on his new relationship, unless of course he didn't leave until he found out Florence was pregnant? I don't know what month the census would have taken place, but presumably before Sept 1911 or otherwise the new baby would show up somewhere.

I don't know the conditions under which the census had to be filled in, but I'm guessing they were only as accurate as the information given and/or the thoroughness of the enumerator. Maybe the person concerned would be happy to accept Theresa's statement that Thomas lived there. Or maybe Thomas just didn't bother provide information for where he was living at the time. The fact that Gebir's birth was never registered shows that official records aren't 100% accurate.

I wonder why Florence didn't go to the funeral?

[Belly]

I am an interested, amateur family historian and I think it's quite unusual for a birth to go unregistered that late on? It's a bit curious. Certainly I know that deaths were usually registered (although my experience was in trying to find births and deaths slightly later on in the decade).

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hi Anita, just a quick question, I thought I had posted all the children in the school/class to this thread? Did I send a separate message to you or has it been deleted? Thanks. Maybe I am going mad. .

Hi Julia, Good to see you back on the forums by the way! Hope all is okay with you and your family - are you still in Singapore?

You started another thread about Hanly's boarding school (Craven College in Beckenham) - "Hanly Blyton in the 1911 Census" - but I'll copy the information here:

Finally have a moment so as promised here goes, 12 full time pupils and 4 teachers, not a bad ratio, no wonder as some would say standards were higher back then! :

Craven College, Croydon Road, Beckenham, Kent

William Carlin married head of school. Aged 34 in 1911. Married for 6 years. Born Yorkshire, Hull.

Amy Pole Carlin, married. Aged 32 in 1911. Also born Yorkshire, Hull.

Ernest Verral. Partner. Schoolmaster. Aged 35, single. Born Burgess Hill, Sussex.

Leslie Jackson, Assistant. Single. Married aged 21. Born Isle of Wight, Ventnor.

Raymond Mummery, Assistant teacher and single. Aged 18 born London, Brixton.

Charles Strong, Boarder aged 18 from Brixton.

Samuel Lang, Boarder aged 19, a visitor from France born in France.

Cecil Jackson, aged 14. Boarder aged 14 born Liverpool.

Wiliam Kemp, boarder aged 14 born London, Tooting.

Kenneth Kemp, boarder aged 12 born London, Tooting.

Hanly Blyton, boarder aged 11. Born Dulwich, London.

Robert Patry, boarder aged 15, born France a visitor.

Andri Patry, boarder, aged 14, born France a visitor.

Leonard Mitchell, boarder aged 14, born Fulham, London.

Richard Mitchell, Boarder aged 12, born Fulham, London.

Allen Moncrieffe, boarder aged 10, born London, Holborn.

Roy Moncrieffe, aged 10 born London, Holborn.

Baresford Moore, boarder aged 12 born London, Peckham.

Leslie Moore, boarder, born London, Peckham

Jack Kemp, boarder aged 9, born London, Balham

It may be possible, as you suggested, that Thomas spent the night of the Census at Theresa's house in Beckenham, to keep up appearances. And perhaps Florence didn't go to Thomas's funeral, even though she had been living with him for about a decade and had had three children with him, because some people attending the funeral still believed he was married to Theresa (which he was, on paper)? But if that was the reason the whole situation must have been very odd because Theresa would surely have been expected to attend (is it known whether she did?), as well as Hanly and Carey (but not of course Thomas's children by Florence). We know that Enid didn't go to her father's funeral and it's believed that she didn't even speak of his death to her employers, the Thompsons.

Anita

[CliffBeckenham]

Unlike census returns up to 1901, the 1911 census form was filled in by the head of the household and signed by him/her (not as before by an enumerator who wrote down what the inhabitants of a property told him).

I have seen and copied the 1911 census for 31 Clockhouse Road and it is completed and signed by Thomas. The writing of all the names and details on the form matches his signature. He clearly completed all details of the form.

The signature of Thomas in the 1911 census is "T Carey Blyton" and in the various company documents relating to his own mantle manufacturing business in Cripplegate in the City, this is how he termed himself.

Thomas's writing in 1911 is hardly changed from when he signed the marriage certificate on August 11th, 1896 when he married Theresa.