Alfred John William Adamson a.k.a. Harry
Alfred John William 'Harry' Adamson
This is Alfred John William Adamson, born on 22nd September 1911 (well at least thats what it says on his death certificate). I say that because Harry as he was more commonly known has turned out to be a little bit of an enigma!What I do know for certain is that during the war he met my Grandmother, Phyllis Doreen (Male) Adamson married her, had a son with her, Warren Joseph Adamson, and lived in England until his death in 1973. I also know that there is some dispute as to his actual date of birth as after his death it came to light that he had been less than honest with Phyllis about his genuine age and was in fact older than he had led her to believe. Unfortunately I am not clear if the date of birth given on his death certificate is genuine.
The story goes that he was a pilot in the RAAF ferrying planes to the UK for the Australian Air Force. His family I was told were agricultural workers from a place in Australia called Wagga Wagga. His marriage certificate gives his father as being Alfred John William Adamson which might explain why he went by the name Harry.
I have always had an interest in finding out more about the Australian side of the family as so little is known about Harry prior to his marriage in 1941 to Phyllis. Inspired by the efforts of my Father-in -law researching his family tree I thought I would have a crack. I probably in retrospect should have started with the easy stuff, but instead I started with that which intrigued, namely Alfred John William Adamson or Harry. I discovered very quickly records that related to his marriage and death in Chatham, Kent.
Then I discovered an excellent resouce, the Australian World War Two Nominal Roll and thought I had struck gold. The trouble was that no matter what combination of his name I tried, I couldn't find a record for him. At some stage I believed I had a possible and went to another great resource the National Archives of Australia and even paid to have some possible records digitised so that I could view them in the UK, but to no avail. I was by now beginning to get frustrated; geneology was drawing me in, but throwing up more questions than it was answering. My family tree was stuck on the first person I tried to get some history on! Even worse I was beginning to think that everything I thought I knew about this man was entangled in a web of lies.
Another story I had been told was about how my father Warren Joseph Adamson got his name. The story that I had been told was that my Grandfather named him Warren after a brother who had been killed in the war. This however drew a blank on the Nominal Roll and so again seemed to be a dead end. I then discovered another resource, namely the Australian War Memorial where you can search Australians that have been killed in conflicts. I used this to try and find a Warren Adamson that had been killed in differnt conflicts but yet again drew a blank. Another resource that I tried was New South Wales Births, Marriages and Deaths but unfortunately you can only research Births before 1907 and again I drew a blank.
I believe that Alfred John William (Harry) Adamson may have been married prior to Phyllis but have no firm evidence to prove this. I would love to go to Australia and try and research this further but that really is not an option. Naturally much of the information that I am trying to access is extremely old and records can get mis-placed, and the history as I know it may be correct.
I am hoping that someone may be able to provide me some additional information around Harry (Alfred John William) Adamson. If you can please drop me a line.
The story goes that he was a pilot in the RAAF ferrying planes to the UK for the Australian Air Force. His family I was told were agricultural workers from a place in Australia called Wagga Wagga. His marriage certificate gives his father as being Alfred John William Adamson which might explain why he went by the name Harry.
I have always had an interest in finding out more about the Australian side of the family as so little is known about Harry prior to his marriage in 1941 to Phyllis. Inspired by the efforts of my Father-in -law researching his family tree I thought I would have a crack. I probably in retrospect should have started with the easy stuff, but instead I started with that which intrigued, namely Alfred John William Adamson or Harry. I discovered very quickly records that related to his marriage and death in Chatham, Kent.
Then I discovered an excellent resouce, the Australian World War Two Nominal Roll and thought I had struck gold. The trouble was that no matter what combination of his name I tried, I couldn't find a record for him. At some stage I believed I had a possible and went to another great resource the National Archives of Australia and even paid to have some possible records digitised so that I could view them in the UK, but to no avail. I was by now beginning to get frustrated; geneology was drawing me in, but throwing up more questions than it was answering. My family tree was stuck on the first person I tried to get some history on! Even worse I was beginning to think that everything I thought I knew about this man was entangled in a web of lies.
Another story I had been told was about how my father Warren Joseph Adamson got his name. The story that I had been told was that my Grandfather named him Warren after a brother who had been killed in the war. This however drew a blank on the Nominal Roll and so again seemed to be a dead end. I then discovered another resource, namely the Australian War Memorial where you can search Australians that have been killed in conflicts. I used this to try and find a Warren Adamson that had been killed in differnt conflicts but yet again drew a blank. Another resource that I tried was New South Wales Births, Marriages and Deaths but unfortunately you can only research Births before 1907 and again I drew a blank.
I believe that Alfred John William (Harry) Adamson may have been married prior to Phyllis but have no firm evidence to prove this. I would love to go to Australia and try and research this further but that really is not an option. Naturally much of the information that I am trying to access is extremely old and records can get mis-placed, and the history as I know it may be correct.
I am hoping that someone may be able to provide me some additional information around Harry (Alfred John William) Adamson. If you can please drop me a line.
