Williams Family Tree

from Emrys Williams
to Margaret Wells
date 17 April 2009 18:03
subject edited Ivor Fielder notes

This is an elaboration of the longhand notes I made of the 6.5 hour conversation I had with Ivor Fielder at his home in Hucknall yesterday, April 16 2009. The whole conversation is recorded on a 987 Mbyte .wav file as well. These notes are in the order I took them. Text in square brackets is my addition as I type this. Ivor Fielder is abbreviated IF here to avoid confusion with Ivor Williams. These notes have had the most scurrilous gossip removed so they can be distributed without anyone getting too offended! This is the text I will reference as a source in the history. Emrys

IF repeats his assertion that May lived on a farm for the first 14 years of her life. He says he took her back there and found it after much difficulty in 1956. Either the farm name or the village name was Yastrafelt, or something that sounded like that. IF thinks it was off the road to Brecon out of Merthyr up the Taff valley.

The 5, High Street, Penydarren address was above a butcher's shop. IF says that JTW worked in the shop.

The "Williams group 2" picture of four sisters is, left to right, Wella, May, Peg, Gwladys, and IF thinks it was taken at Brenda Wells's wedding. [That would be 1953-5-2]

The "Williams girls" picture may well have been taken at May and Jimmy's house. He says they are (left to right, back to front) Brenda Fielder, Peg, Doris, Vera, Brenda Wells, a friend, Brenda Sennitt, a friend, Maisie, Peggy Purvis: Daisy Britten, Gwladys, May, EMFrancis [I doubt this!]. Keith, Vincent

The "Williams boys" picture is Haydn, Ivor Williams, Les Mackney [the tall one], Ivor Fielder [in front of him], Jimmy, DK, DK, Charlie, Aneurin: May: Keith, Vincent.

The "Williams bridesmaids 2a" picture [tall chap with two older bridesmaids]: the tall chap is Ken Wallace, Ivor thinks. [He was married to EMFrancis's sister Winnie.] IF says that Ken was at lots of family functions that IF attended. IF thinks that the brig bridesmaid who isn't Brenda Wells could be EMFrancis's sister Sylvia.

IF thinks that the gangsterish man in the background of "Williams bridesmaids 4a" (the one with the bridesmaids looking grumpily to the side) is Walter Buxton.

On Jimmy Fielder:
Born James Henry Fielder 19 Oct, and IF thinks 1892 or 1893. He was 98 at the time of his death in 1990. Jimmy came to live in Hucknall. He died at a nursing home, The Lodge, 1, Bucklow Drive, Mapperley. Ivor and Maureen moved house to one suitable for them to look after Jimmy, but [while the new house was being refurbished for Jimmy] they were told that Jimmy would have to go to a nursing home for 24 hour care, so Jimmy never lived with them in the new house. He spent 4 years at the nursing home. IF claims that Jimmy died of Salmonella poisoning and that another three died as well. The salmonella was from food at Jimmy's own birthday party. There was an attempt to hush it up, IF says, but it all came out.

Jimmy's father and grandfather were cobblers. Jimmy's father was an alcoholic [so both IF's grandfathers were alcoholics!] Jimmy was likely born in Kingsland Road, Shoreditch.

Jimmy was a soloist in the choir at Westminster Abbey when young. He had a fine singing voice all his life.

Jimmy was apprenticed as a scientific instrument maker. He was assigned in WWI to work with the Barnes Stroud [?] company on rangefinders. He then went to work for Marconi on X-Ray equipment. IF says Jimmy actually worked with Gugliemo Marconi himself. [Could this be right? GM seems to have been in Italy at this time.] Later, he began to appreciate the dangers as workers were damaging their hands with X rays. He determined to leave. On descending the steps at lunchtime, he met someone coming up who wanted to see him. "It's no use, this is my last day'" Jimmy told him. Then they went to lunch and by the end of the meal Jimmy was a founding partner in the British Engraving and Nameplate Company, where he remained until retiring.

IF says that the address I have in Gramps is wrong, 137 Mildenhall Road is in Clapton, E5.

If says that after marrying, May and Jimmy lived at 1, Elderfield Road, Clapton, E5. He thinks Brenda Fielder was born there.

Then they moved to 7, Sewdley Street. IF was born there. There was a chap who lived in a room in the attic who may have owned the house. They moved out when IF was about 7, around 1932, and moved to 137, Mildenhall Road, Clapton, E5.

IF remembers trapping his fingers painfully in the front door of 137, Mildenhall Road.

[An aside on LCWilliams.] IF recalls that LCWilliams had a Fowler phrenological head when he lived at Teddington before the war. LCWilliams would read the children's bumps. When LCWilliams was still in Merthyr after he left school, he played for Merthyr Tydfil FC, a professional club, but demanded to play as an amateur. LCWilliams stopped playing when he couldn't stop the club giving him money, because he didn't want to compromise his amateur status. They hid the money in his boots!

During the war LCWilliams and EMFrancis rented a house in Highfields Road, Beeston. [Goldsmith's college, where LCWilliams now worked, was evacuated to Nottingham in the war.] 6 to 8 teachers shared the house. One woman whose married name was Rogers, later turned out to be the wife of IF's boss at Imperial Tobacco. She had an affair with another teacher in the Beeston house and left IF's boss. IF met Mona Marriott at the Beeston house. He travelled there on leave from his Lincolnshire bomber base.

[Back to Jimmy Fielder.] A large bomb fell in Mildenhall Road in 1940. When everyone came home on Friday evening, May gave them instructions on coming home the next day (they all worked a half day on Saturdays] to their new house in Cockfosters. She had organised it all by herself to get away from the bombing. They moved to 19, Gloucester Gardens, Cockfosters. They first rented the house then bought it. Jimmy bought two others and later sold them in the same development.

They moved to 40, Fairfield Avenue, Felixstowe, in 1960. They were next door to IF.

Before she married Jimmy, May worked for Muddimans, court dressmakers. She sewed thousands of sequins. She was an expert dressmaker. She did make some dresses for royalty. She left work about 1919.

May ran the local WVS during WW2.

[On the Buxtons]
In Wella's wedding photo, the chap 2nd from left in the middle row is Walter's brother.

[On Geoffrey Wells] Geoffrey Wells worked for Otis lifts.

[Back to the Fielder family]
David Charles Webster [there is a mistake in the marriage date I have in gramps] The Germans first amputated his legs. Two further amputation operations were needed after he returned to Britain. He could climb stairs using just his arms. There was some estrangement with Brenda, and David was to be sent to a military hospital for the mentally ill. The hospital advised Brenda to divorce him.

Vincent David Webster was born 30 Nov 1942.

Les Mackney was born 29 nov 1921 or 1922.

Brenda Fielder married Leslie Mackney on 2 Apr 1952 at Wood Green Registry Office.

Vincent himself chose to change his name to Mackney at the age of 14.

Erica Laxton was born 8 nov 1944. IF says her father was the swimming coach for Anita Lonsbrough, and also had friends on the stock exchange who got Vincent his job as a messenger there. Vincent and Erica met when he was 16 and she 14.

Vincent was sent to Australia by his firm and made fortunes both for his firm and himself trading stocks there in a short time.

Vincent worked for various stock firms and ended up working for UBS. He and Erica live in South Benfleet, Essex, on "Millionaire's Row".

IF says Perry Mackney is a successful stockbroker too.

Karen Mackney has been married twice. She was born 1 Mar 1966. Her first marriage lasted 7 years. IF said her husband came from a family of professional people but was not one himself. Her second husband is a gardener called Stephen and they have a young child called Molly.

Perry and Danielle have 4 children, the oldest two are both boys and called Ossian and Eden.

Barry Nicholas Fielder never married. He had many girlfriends. He was first a motorbike racer, then race mechanic, working for world championship teams. He'd leave each March and return rich each November after the season ended, being broke again by the next March.

Stuart Glyn Fielder has married twice. First was Janet, called Jan, in August 1982. She has now remarried and taken the surname Guest. They had two children, Alex, born 18 July 1985, and Jordan, born 10 Jul 1987. He then married Heidi, and they have two daughters, Holly born 24 May 1996 and Finley born 11 Sep 1997. Stuart made substantial sums as MD of various companies in the printing business and now trades in commercial property.

Peggy Ruth Purvis was born 5 Feb 1923. Her father took a chain of 20 hairdresser's shops in exchange for a bad debt and gave 8 shops to Peggy and 12 shops to her sister, putting Peggy into the hairdressing business. IF says that Peggy was busy with that and IF was busy with cigars and they led separate lives and grew apart. IF met Maureen at a party on 31 Dec 1969. Maureen was married before too. He was studying for a fellowship at the Institute of Purchasing and Supply at the time.

IF and Maureen have a son, Ian James Fielder, also in the printing business. He married Piyawan (Toy) Buathong on 8 May 2007. She is Thai and has a daughter Komonrat (Jenny) Buathong and son Suphalerk Buathong from a previous relationship. Ian and Toy are separated, as a result of which Ian sold his house and moved in with IF and Maureen, crowding the house out.

IF himself went to the Grocers' Company School at Uppingham. He started work for Imperial Tobacco at age 16 in engineering costing. He joined the RAF in WW2 and was a flight engineer, or general dogsbody IF says, in Lancaster bombers. He flew first 30 missions with 101 Squadron. This was a specialist operation which flew aircraft with a crew of 8 including a German speaker. His aircraft flew with a German jew. They intercepted radio messages to German night fighters and rebroadcast them to direct the fighters to the wrong place. Eventually the germans caught on and reacted by replacing all their ground radio operators with women. [wikipedia says: 101 Squadron Lancasters were later equipped with a top secret radio jamming system codenamed "Airborne Cigar" (ABC) operated by German-speaking members known as "special operators" commonly abbreviated to "spec ops". They sat in a curtained off area towards the rear of the aircraft and located and jammed German fighter controllers broadcasts, occasionally posing as controllers to spread disinformation. The aircraft fitted with the system were distinctive due to the two large vertical antennae rising from the middle of the fuselage. Breaking the standing operating procedure of radio silence to conduct the jamming made the aircraft highly vulnerable to being tracked and attacked, which resulted in 101 Squadron having the highest casualty rate of any squadron. [1] ]

IF then had 2 months leave, then flew 30 missions with 460 Pathfinders, under GC Edwards who also captained the Australian cricket team. [I can't find him in any list of test captains or even team members, this doesn't look right.] [I can't find a Fielder in the list of aircrew at http://www.gordonstooke.com/460squadron/sqdprsnl/index2.htm or under pilot Marks at http://www.gordonstooke.com/460squadron/crews/pilotscrews.htm, but maybe I'm mistaken.] He was then given 2 months leave again. After a few days, he received a telegram to report back. His skipper, squadron leader Johnny Marks, and Stuart, their bombardier, had been picked for a special mission, and they invited their old crew including IF to join them. They were to raid the U-boat pens at Brest. This was too far to return to the UK, so they were to fly on to Maison Blanche in North Africa. They arrived and the wheels sank into the sand! [I can't find a record of this mission but maybe it was too secret!] They had planned to return to the UK but were diverted to fly missions all over the Mediterranean, following the allied advance at the end of the war. They were based in Sicily during the battle for Monte Casino and later at Leghorn near Trieste.

Six months after the end of the war, they were still together near Naples. Flying was in short supply. They needed to test two new engines. The two new engines blew up and had to be shut down. Marks opted to fly the aircraft over a mountain pass used by DC-3 transports. There was a problem with the hydraulics and IF was dispatched to fix it. He remembers standing in the aircraft and seeing the tail hit the trees, then nothing until he came round on the ground, on fire. He walked and put the fire out in a stream. All the others on the aircraft died, one surviving a couple of hours. It had failed to clear the pass by a few feet. IF had a punctured lung and broken fingers.

IF was found by a hunting party of Italians after 3 days on the mountain. He was taken down first to Salupo [?] village, then a hospital in Benevento, then Caserta, then a British hospital in Naples, travelling on foot and in a jeep. In Naples, he was diagnosed with a broken back and put in a whole body plaster cast. He had pneumonia while still in the cast. He weighed 10 stones 2 pounds when they put the cast on and 6 stones when they took the cast off for the last time 2 years later.

IF was convalescing on Capri when the was to be flown home (he didn't want to go) in time for Christmas 1945. A DC-6 hospital plane started in India and picked him up from Italy. It was flying in bad weather over Southern France when it crashed. Out of 65 people on board, only 5 survived, one of whom was IF. [I can't find this crash at http://baaa-acro.com/archives/1945-JUL-DEC.htm which is supposed to be definitive. Am I misunderstanding something here?]

IF was eventually flown to Down Ampney. While there he had jaundice too.

After recovery, IF returned to Imperial Tobacco at the London Cigar Factory. He worked at the Regent Street Polytechnic to become an Associate of Cost Works Accountancy. After a short time, he was asked by Alex Money-Coutts to be his PA, IF thinks because of his RAF experiences. Alex M-C was 2nd son of Lord Latimer and later became lord himself. [That would be Alexander Burdett Money-Coutts http://www.geocities.com/adrian_money/286.html but I don't think he became Baron Latymer] IF played doubles tennis with him, with great success, in the company tournament. All this raised IF's profile in the company, and IF went on to manage cigar production and to sell to top accounts. Later he travelled widely to analyse local factory performance, leading him to recommend many to be closed, which distressed IF. He finished as Group Purchasing Manager with a budget of £6M/year in 1982 when he retired. He bought everything for the company except tobacco.

[I have Hayden Buxton's DOB wrong in gramps].

IF knows nothing about any family history papers of Ivor Williams.

Before WW2, Annie and various of the siblings lived at an enormous house at 1, Streatham Hill. He doesn't know if this was owned or rented. It was eventually compulsorily purchased and a block of flats built in its place. LCWilliams and Hywel made themselves responsible for Annie's family finances, probably because they had the biggest salaries. The house had a U-shaped gravel drive that was always full of cars. Owen and Ivor bought the cars and did them up for resale. Annie bred pomeranian dogs, perhaps 15 at a time. They bit!

IF remembers Price Watkins. Was he in the Boer war, IF asks? He was tall.

IF says that Charlie was stuck out in Georgia attached to the White Russian army and only got back by travelling via Vladivostok [!] in 1922. He and Gwlad married as soon as he got back. IF was very firmly told that Charlie and Gwlad were first cousins, and also was told that their daughter Brenda was a bit odd on this account. [I firmly disabused him of both notions!]