Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

I'm search information on my Mum's Uncle, Ormond Clarence Downing. (aka Osmond and Bill)

He was born on Victoria Australia, 1 Dec 1900.

He immigrated to UK just after WW1, and last we heard, (1960's) he was living in the Liverpool / Lancashire.

Ormond (Uncle Bill, as he was know to the family) was wounded on the French front-line on the 30 September 1818 and was eventually taken to Torquay Hospital on 6 October 1818.
On the 18 November he was transferred to the Exeter War Hospital and finally returned to Australia 20 December 1818.

It was at one of the two hospitals in UK that he met May, a nurse, and returned to marry her once the war finished. They had at least one child, a daughter, naming her after my grandmother, Eileen.

We realised Ormond must have long passed away, but his family in Australia long for any news both of him and his family.

Warm Regards...

Do you have his last known address?

Hilary
Ed Officer

Hi,
What a romantic tale!
But I haven't yet found a Downing marriage to a May ???. But this is the list of all the Eileen Downings born in England and Wales between 1920 and 1945, mothers' maiden names in brackets. If you can match one of them to an area where he was known to be living at the time of the birth we should be able to find the mother's maiden name. That would help find the marriage if Ormond used a variety of first names.

DOWNING, Eileen - [Cound] - Birmingham South, Warwickshire - 1925 - Apr-May-Jun.
DOWNING, Eileen - [Webb] - Newcastle under Lyme - Staffordshire - 1928 - Oct-Nov-Dec.
DOWNING, Eileen E - [Knight] - Romford, Essex - 1930 - Oct-Nov-Dec.
DOWNING, Eileen M - [Becket] - Willesden, Middlesex - 1931 - Jul-Aug-Sep.
DOWNING, Eileen P - [Mason] - Wolverhampton, Staffordshire - 1932 - Oct-Nov-Dec.
DOWNING, Eileen J - [Downing] - Samford, Suffolk - 1935 - Jan-Feb-Mar.
DOWNING, Eileen M - [Hole] - Tavistock, Devon - 1937 - Jul-Aug-Sep.
DOWNING, Eileen M - [Downing] - Huddersfield, Yorkshire - 1940 - Jul-Aug-Sep.
DOWNING, Eileen A - [Hammond] - Norwich outer, Norfolk - 1942 - Jan-Feb-Mar.
DOWNING, Eileen S - [Farquhar] - Northumberland South, Northumberland - 1943 - Oct-Nov-Dec.
DOWNING, Eileen - [Burns] - Manchester, Lancashire - 1944 - Jan-Feb-Mar.

The one in Devon, 1937, would be the nearest to the hospitals he was in during WW1 but her parents were Edward and Laura Downing nee Hole.

Dickiesam

Hi, welcome to the boards

I've been trying to track Eileen too but no luck yet

wonder if he decided to use another name, if he had been known as Bill his name could have been assumed to be William and stuck at that

maybe lost the Australian place of birth too

May could be a middle name

wonder if he served in ww2?

any idea how long he left it after ww1 before returning to May?

May could be Mary/ Maisie/ Margaret?

Are ther any other siblings he may have named children after?

Simone x

Hi,
Have to ask... but having searched for a death in England and Wales for Ormond/Osmond/Clarence Downing from 1960 to 2005 without a hit...

Are you certain the surname is Downing? And like Simone I am now thinking he may have used the William forename. More guidance needed.

Incidentally, the only May Downing death I found with an age that could have made her a nurse during WW1 died in Camden, London, in 1984 aged 84. She had a second forename, Pretoria.

Dickiesam

Hi Brian

Surname may have been corrupted too couldn't it, could have ended up Downey or something similar

funny no trace of any of those names are there

will wait to hear back from Terry perhaps just a snippet of info will give us something

Simone x

Hi Simone,
Been thinking! Just because Uncle Bill's nurse was down south in Devon doesn't mean she was English or Welsh. Nurses were sent where they were needed and she might have been Scots for instance.

I had a look at the first Eileen birth on the list and her mother's maiden name was Cound. There are 6 other Downing/Cound births between 1920 and 1930; 3 in Birmingham and 3 in Kings Norton, quite close. But no marriages. I think it's Scotland here I come?

Brian

Scotland update! I had a couple of credits that had to be used within days..

Between 1918 and 1940 there were 9 male Downing marriages in Scotland. I very much doubt that any of them could be Uncle Bill!

Brian

Nice try Brian

wonder what his occupation was why did he come to Liverpool

so many questions

Simone x

Hi Simone,
For the benefit of Terry Francais and the crew I have amended my posted list of Eileen Downing births to include mothers' maiden names.

And, there's no definitive evidence yet that Uncle Bill actually married his former nurse. So was Eileen registered as a Downing?

Brian

Was grandma Eileen born in Australia??

I looked in All Resources in familysearch for Downing, not much listed in the state of Victoria around the time frame.
They also list Dunning.

Not much help, soz

If we had a place in Victoria it could help.

Tina

He was my grandfather.

You wouldn't have found him because he changed his name to James KEATING. Dunno why - I reckon he was bit of a shonky bugger.

May was May HORSLEY, my grandmother. Eileen, my mother's sister, was born in the UK (Liverpool I guess, as were the rest of the family).

Known as a few names - Uncle Bill, Uncle Aussie (Ossy, Ozzy), James. Mum knows all this stuff.

They had a few kids -
Eileen
Melba (Mum)
Graham
Elaine

Here's a link to a couple of pics of the old bugger. One taken during the Spanish Civil War with Ernest HEMINGWAY (yes THAT Ernest Hemingway)

https://plus.google.com/photos/11088802 ... 2229608065

Best Regards

S.

???????????

James Keating, May Graney, married Sept Qtr, West Derby, 1930, 8b 1226.

Elaine M Keating--------Graney, March Qtr, 1949, Liverpool S, 10d 766

Melba B Keating---------Graney, March Qtr, 1939, Liverpool N, 8b 840

Hi and welcome to the forum, nice of you to pop in and update a long outstanding message. Sadly the original poster never did return to acknowledge the assistance given by our crew, however I hope he picks up this response to it.

You may have better luck if you send him an email, hover your mouse over the "email" button on his post and at the bottom of your page you should be able to read it.

Mary, good response.
Thank you

Thanks for the tip - actually a cousin in the UK is in touch with someone of that name - probably the same bloke.

Cheers

Hope you get lucky.