Herbert Atkinson Bicycle Shop Liverpool

[loudoniii]

Hi everyone - Apologies if there has been some duplicate research on this.. I had no idea that it all moved so fast!

To get everyone up to date, I did visit The National Archives in Kew yesterday, and got Roderick Read (now known it's spelt Read and not Reed) Atkinson's Merchant Navy records.

He discharged from the Merchant Navy on 18 Aug 1947, at the age of 18 in fact (looks like he shaved 2 years off his actual age when he applied to join the MN).

On the MN documentation, he claims to have been born in Cape Town, South Africa, though story from his family, and other documentation they have, suggests he was born in England, and that he was a bit of a storyteller, so I am not sure about this.

I continue to be perplexed about how he can have been born in South Africa when his siblings apparently were born and grew up in England, and one apparently ran a bicycle shop in Liverpool, but research continues...

I am very very grateful for all the good work you have all done here in helping me with my research.

I think the Royal Navy angle sounds very intersting and I have spent some time this afternoon dumping down all the Passenger List records I can find on Ancestry, and am now about to check them all up.. including the ones that suggest an RN aspect.. we shall see.

Thanks again to everyone - great job!

[dickiesam]

RE:

I continue to be perplexed about how he can have been born in South Africa when his siblings apparently were born and grew up in England, and one apparently ran a bicycle shop in Liverpool, but research continues...

Thanks for the update. In an earlier post I said I had compared all Herbert and Walter Atkinson births in England and Wales from 1922 to 1935 without finding a matching maiden name for the mother. I do not believe they were born in England or Wales unless one was born out of wedlock, one was adopted or a similar event.

[shirley]

Plimsoll house was in Canning Street Liverpool. If I can remember correctly, it was a MN officers hostel. There was another one around the corner in Gambier Terrace, not sure whether this one was for officers, or other ranks.

[loudoniii]

RE:

I continue to be perplexed about how he can have been born in South Africa when his siblings apparently were born and grew up in England, and one apparently ran a bicycle shop in Liverpool, but research continues...

Thanks for the update. In an earlier post I said I had compared all Herbert and Walter Atkinson births in England and Wales from 1922 to 1935 without finding a matching maiden name for the mother. I do not believe they were born in England or Wales unless one was born out of wedlock, one was adopted or a similar event.

Thanks for this. The perplexing thing is that Roderick Read Atkinson claims to have been born in South Africa on his Merchant Navy application, but at least one of his brothers, Herbert, lived in Liverpool, England and ran a cycle shop there, according to family information. Roderick was known as a bit of a storyteller, so not sure what to believe.

[loudoniii]

Plimsoll house was in Canning Street Liverpool. If I can remember correctly, it was a MN officers hostel. There was another one around the corner in Gambier Terrace, not sure whether this one was for officers, or other ranks.

Thanks for this, Shirley - very useful.

[loudoniii]

Update to all, now that I have found Roderick and Martha's Marriage Certificate. I just found that they were actually married on 25 Sep 1954 at Paarl, Western Cape. Martha Maria was born on 7 May 1930 in Hooikraal, Moorreesburg.

[dickiesam]

Update to all, now that I have found Roderick and Martha's Marriage Certificate. I just found that they were actually married on 25 Sep 1954 at Paarl, Western Cape. Martha Maria was born on 7 May 1930 in Hooikraal, Moorreesburg.

Thanks for the update. What was his father's name and occupation? And what did Roderick say his own occupation was?

[loudoniii]

Update to all, now that I have found Roderick and Martha's Marriage Certificate. I just found that they were actually married on 25 Sep 1954 at Paarl, Western Cape. Martha Maria was born on 7 May 1930 in Hooikraal, Moorreesburg.

Thanks for the update. What was his father's name and occupation? And what did Roderick say his own occupation was?

Hi Dickiesam! Unfortunately, South African Marriage Register entries have no details on either the bride's or groom's parents. At that time, Roderick was working as an "Engineer - Steel Construction Works" in Paarl. Martha was working as an"Operator - Rembrandt factory", which I believe was a cigarette factory in Paarl. Full Marriage Register scan was available on Family Search online once I eventually found it. Still digging.. Roderick's grandson Rudy applied to the South African authorities some 3 weeks ago asking for his Birth Certificate, but it can take upwards of 10 weeks apparently, assuming they can find the correct record. Cheers, Paul