Alfred (William) & Jack Clarke – 15a Elm Street

This has proved a very tantalizing family to investigate. Alfred was born in Stamford in March 1895 and at his baptism in May his parents are recorded as John and Elizabeth. Neither of his parents can be found on the 1911 census and neither his mother nor his brother, Jack (born 1896 or 1897) have been found on the 1901 census.
In 1911 these two boys – Alfred an iron moulder aged 16 years and Jack an errand boy at a draper’s – are living at 15A Elm St with their siblings Maud aged 20 years; Arthur a machine hand aged 18 years; Elizabeth 9 years and George 6 years at school and Thomas, the youngest aged 4 years.

Maud presumably filled in the form and she indicated that there had been 8 children in the family and one had died but the enumerator crossed out this information and added ‘Head Away’. All the children were born in Stamford except George who has born at Woburn Sands, Buckinghamshire where John, their father, and the 3 eldest children were living in 1901.
The eldest and the youngest members of the family seem to have married in the Stamford area – Maude to James Jebb in 1918 and Thomas to Winifred Hudson in 1933 – but no other marriages or deaths have been found for any of the family. No military references have been found for either of the boys or their elder brother.