Bill Elford

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Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Birth

Birth:

User ID: 54EDE5453E9B551A1FFFFF53D99FC230

Record ID Number: MH:IF16

Date: 6 JAN 1915

Place: London, England

Death

Death:

User ID: 54EDE5453E9EB51A2FFFFF53D99FC230

Record ID Number: MH:IF17

Date: 21 DEC 1977

Record ID Number

Record ID Number: MH:I12

User ID

User ID: 54EDE5453EA2951A3FFFFF53D99FC230

UPD

UPD 24 NOV 2015 12:46:12 GMT+-0

External File

External File:

Format: jpg

Title: WJE

File: Y:\Desktop\JTheElfordFamily_Photos\P58_96_128.jpg

PRIM_CUTOUT Y

Position: 5 7 90 120

Photo ID: MH:P500058

File Size: 4874

External File:

Format: jpg

Title: WJE

File: Y:\Desktop\JTheElfordFamily_Photos\P63_85_113.jpg

Primary or Preferred: Y

Cutout: Y

Photo ID: MH:P500063

Marriage

Record ID Number: MH:F500252

User ID: 5657A818485BF3E601DF675810000270

Husband: William (Bill) James Elford

Wife: @I173@

Marriage:

User ID: 5657A8184A9623E611DF675810000270

Record ID Number: MH:FF500242

Date: BET OCT 1952 AND DEC 1952

Place: Ealing, London, England

Imported only OCT 1952 from Marriage Date and marked as uncertain.

• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch

William James Elford was my father. He was born on the 6th January 1915 at Protheroe Road, Fulham to Joseph Elford and Lillian Elford (maiden name Hearn). I know he had a brother James, an older brother Joseph, who died while he was still a child and as far as I am aware, 3 sisters Renee, Betty and Doris. I am not aware of what his childhood was like but he told me that he joined the Army when he was under age to get away from home! Unfortunately his Mum spotted him on guard duty and he was discharged. He rejoined the Army when he was old enough which I think was on the 6/3/1933 and served in India in the 1930’s. I think he left the Army but re-enlisted on the 3rd September 1939 on the outbreak of World War 2.According to his “Soldiers Service and Pay Book” he demustered at his own request on the 19/08/1945.I know that he was at the evacuation of Dunkirk and at D-Day, France. Dad never spoke very much about the war, I don’t know if that was because I didn’t ask or he didn’t want to talk about it. He married my Mum, Daisy Elizabeth Cannon, on the 26th December at St. Paul’s Church, Hounslow.. My Mum was told that she risked serious ill health if she had children. My Dad told me that she really wanted children and as a result I was born prematurely on November 7th 1946. My Mum’s health did suffer and sadly she died of kidney failure in 1951 when I was 4. All I remember was that I spent a lot of time with her, but can’t remember a lot of detail. One thing I do know was that I was named after her favourite singer Perry Como. After leaving the Army my Dad was a Bus Conductor, Bus Driver and Inspector with London Transport (at the time we lived at 7 Clifford Road, Hounslow West). Dad remarried in 1952 to my step mum Dorothy King (maiden name Shaw) who had been widowed herself. She had one daughter by her first marriage, my stepsister Katherine. Dad had two children with my step mum, Dorothy, born in 1953 and John Alexander born in 1955. By this time Dad was an ambulance driver and we had moved to Durham Avenue in Heston. Dad left the ambulance service and became a Prison Officer when I was about nine. We then moved to Cheetham Hill in Manchester for approx 2 years, then Everthorpe in Yorkshire for 2 years and finally to Liverpool, where we initially lived in Hornby Place, Walton and then moved to Maghull which was on the outskirts of Liverpool. I left school in Liverpool and moved back to Isleworth to live with my maternal grandmother and Aunt Connie at Nottingham Road. Dad had by now become a Hospital Officer in the Prison Service and I think in 1964 moved to Grendon Underwood Psychiatric Prison. Dad stayed there for a couple of years and left the Prison Service when he was refused a transfer. He went to work as a Valet/Chauffeur for a businessman named Larry Webb in Hertfordshire. I don’t know how long Dad was there but he left because he couldn’t get on with the Mr. Webb’s alcoholic wife (my step mum was also working for Mr and Mrs Webb as cook and housekeeper). Mr. Webb was a new house builder and offered Dad a new house on a small estate he was building, but Dad turned it down and went to work in Sussex in an equestrian centre. He moved to Hall Gardens, Colney Heath in Hertfordshire where he worked for Kodak as a Security Officer, then for the RAF as an RAF policeman and his last job was as a security officer with Rothmans, where he worked until he died. Dad’s health had always been good although he had rheumatic fever as a child and that had damaged his heart. He had his first heart attack at the age of 56 in 1971 and died after he had a second heart attack in December 1977.

written by Perry Elford

Sources

1. ↑ Elford-217 was created by James Elford through the import of JTheElfordFamily.ged on Dec 4, 2015. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 20 May 2023, 22:21), entry for William James Elford (PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:GQBX-JDM ); contributed by various users.
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 10 April 2020, 11:37), entry for William James Elford(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:GQBX-JDM); contributed by various users.
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 27 March 2020, 16:18), entry for William James Elford(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:GQBX-JDM); contributed by various users.