TILLEY
with roots in Somerset, England
family
the
Harold William Duckett Tilley
Harold William Duckett Tilley was born in 1889 to Thomas Tilley (1849-1936) and Annie Tyley (1849-1914). Interestingly, he is named after his maternal grandmother, Sarah Duckett. During the 1st World War, he was a private in the King Edward's Horse corps of the Royal Field Artillery, a cavalry regiment of the Special Reserve, before rising to a second lieutenant, then lieutenant.
On 26 August 1915 Harold married Doris Elizabeth Anderson (born on 6 February 1888 in Jamaica) and went to Brazil to work for the
London and Brazilian Bank. They lived in Nicteroy (now called Niterói), a municipality across the bay of Guanabara from Rio de Janeiro. He offered a job as governess to his children to Frances Winifred, daughter of Herb and Edith Tilley, which she took up in 1919. The couple had four children, John Sutherland (b. 26 Jun 1916), Michael William (b. 11 Aug 1917), Helen (b.1919) and Peter. Harold and Doris also spent time in South Africa and East Africa and returned to England to live at Lower Baynton Farm, Edington, in Wiltshire, England.
The youngest of Thomas and Annie Tilley’s children, Harold William, is two years old in the 1891 census.
In the 1901 census Harold is a boarder at a private boys’ school in Weston-super-Mare.
The census of 1911 shows 22-year-old Harold living at home in Compton Bishop with his father, Thomas, who is a retired farmer, and his mother Annie. Also at home with Harold, who is a bank clerk, are his brothers Reginald John, a mechanical engineer, and Wilfred George, a motor engineer, as well as his sister, Bessie Hulbert.
Harold married Doris Elizabeth Anderson at the parish church of St Laurence in Upminster, Essex, on 26 August 1915.
The parish church of St Laurence as it is today.
In November 1919, Doris and three children, John, Michael and Helen, travelled on The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ship Andes from Southampton to Santos, Brazil, with their governess, Frances Winifred Tilley.
Harold is with his wife Doris and two sons John and Michael on Blue Star Line ship Almeda Star to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil from Southampton in March 1933.
Harold and Doris are on their way in April 1923 to England giving the address of his father, Thomas Tilley, with their two sons John and Michael as well as Helen, who appears on some of the earlier journeys but not in later years. As in 1919, they are on The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ship Andes from Buenos Aires to Southampton.
Doris is travelling with her three sons, John, Michael and Peter, from Liverpool to Santos in Brazil in December 1923 on the Lampert & Holt steamship Herschel.
Cross continent travel in the early 1900s
![In the 1939 census Doris is living at Church Farm in Ramsbury Wiltshire with her husband's niece, Dorothy, the daughter of Herb and Edith [Look] Tilley](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ffca98_4a7ebc580e6140828e2663b282eb38ef~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_82,h_9,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/Doris%20Elizabeth%20TILLEY%201939%20census%20-%20cropped.jpg){kind=small}
In the 1939 census Doris is living at Church Farm in Ramsbury, Wiltshire, with her husband’s niece, Dorothy, the daughter of Herb and Edith [Look] Tilley.
In 1926 Doris is on The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ship Asturias from Santos, Brazil, to Southampton and has given Waterfoot near Manchester as her address in England. With her are her sons John and Michael as well as Harold Lewis Peter who may the youngest member of the family.
Harold and Doris’ eldest son John was stationed in Canada for two years during the Second World War. He was based at No. 38 Service Flying Training School at Estevan near Saskatchewan. His brother Michael William had been killed two years before when his bomber crashed outside Liège in Belgium during a night raid. The transcript of the letter dated 23 August 1943 to his cousin Ursula, daughter of Ted and Ada Tilley living in Loxton, Somerset, reads:
“Many thanks indeed for your very long and interesting letter. I am sorry that your first one was returned to you. Excuse me replying by such method but this Airgraph service is not only much quicker but more reliable. To conserve space I shall not paragraph this. I had an A.G. [Airgraph] from Mum saying that Aunt Lilian had died in Austria. I hardly remember her but was glad that I was able to show her around London when she visited us before the war. Have you any details regarding her death, Ursula? As you can well imagine I feel very out of touch with you all for I have been in Canada about two years now. You can understand therefore how much I appreciated hearing all your news. Peter writes regularly and is now studying hard at his I.T.W. [Initial Training Wings] at Scarborough. I wonder if he will finish his training over here. If so I shall have a very good chance of seeing him even if he doesn’t come to my station for I can fly to neighbouring ones on the prairies. Actually I expect to return very soon now. Please congratulate Bruce from me in getting his commission and incidentally give him my sympathies on becoming an instructor! I never knew that Arthur and Barbara were bombed out last year and hope they are fixed up with another house now. Yes your letter brought back grand memories. Remember us roller skating into Mr Hooper’s sanctum, the post office! I wonder if he still recalls it. Give everyone my regards particularly Uncle and Auntie, Dick and Rachel. I should like to meet Zena [Dick and Zena married that year]. She sounds grand. Shall try and send off a food parcel.”