Harold Rollason

Harold was the third son of John Thomas and Sarah Rollason (née Cooke/Cook).

Both parents were born in Dudley, Staffordshire; his father in about 1863 and his mother in about 1865. John, a pattern maker (at home) was living with his widowed mother, Alice, and his four younger siblings in Dudley in 1881. Sarah, a pupil teacher, was living with her grandparents, William and Sarah Smart, on High Street, Dudley.

John (21), the son of Thomas (deceased), and Sarah (21-sic), daughter of Benjamin Cooke, a confectioner, and both of Tividale, Staffordshire, were married at Tividale St Michael on 25 December 1884.

At the time of the 1911 Census they had had 12 children, three of whom had died in infancy or childhood. Nine children have been traced on the census and birth registration: twin sons Benjamin Arthur and Francis Victor who were born in Middlesborough, Yorkshire, in 1885, Alice Victoria b. 1887, Harold birth registered 1892 (JFM), Charles Henry b. 1893 and Gwendoline Marie birth b. December 1896 (reg. 1897 JFM) who were born in Dudley, and Reginald Wilfred b. 1901, Howard Dudley b. 1905 and Madelaine Vivian b. 1909 who were born in Ilkeston. A daughter, Gladys Irene, was born in Ilkeston in 1912.

John, a pattern maker, and his wife, a school teacher, and their three chldren, Benjamin, Francis and Alice, were living on St John's Road, Dudley in 1891.

The family had moved to 4 Russell Street, Dudley, by 1901; John was still working as a pattern maker (engineering firm). Benjamin was a woollen merchant's assistant and Francis an office boy at an ironworks, Alice Victoria , Harold and Charles Henry were school age, the youngest child, Gwendoline, was four years old.

John and Sarah moved to Ilkeston later that year, shortly before the birth of their son Reginald, and in 1911 were living at 140 Nottingham Road. John was working at an iron foundry as a pattern maker. Seven of their nine children were in the home on the night of the census; Alice Victoria and, Harold who were elementary school teachers, Charles Henry a grocer's assistant, Gwendoline Marie a student, Reginald and Howard who were school age and one year old Madelaine.

The twin brothers, Benjamin and Francis, were married; Benjamin to Martha Grose at Kirk Hallam All Saints in 1909 and Francis to Elizabeth Atkin at Sandiacre St Giles the same year. In 1911, Benjamin, an iron and steel turner at a pipe foundry, and his wife were living on Mill Road, Stapleford with their first child, Gilbert Ivan. A second son, Charles Henry, was born in 1914. Francis, a clerk at Stanton Iron Works, Elizabeth and their daughter Dorothy (1) were living on Victoria Street, Sandiacre.

Sarah Rollason died in 1915 (reg. AMJ Basford, Derbyshire Registrars-Ilkeston) and her husband in 1920 (reg. AMJ Nottingham).

By 1921 four of their daughters were boarders living on Botany Road, Southport, Lancashire: Alice, an elementary school teacher (Wigan Education Authority), Gwendoline, also a school teacher (Church of England Strays' Society), and their younger sisters, Madeline and Gladys, who were at school full-time.

Their brother Reginald Wilfred, a joiner's labourer working for a contractor at Stanton Iron Works, was a boarder living on Jackson Avenue, Ilkeston.

Only the youngest brother, Howard Dudley (b. 1905), has not yet been traced on the 1921 Census, but he was married in 1932 to Ivy D Roebuck and recorded on the 1939 England & Wales Register in West Hallam, Derbyshire. He was an accounts clerk for an electric power company.

Gladys Irene married Harold Wilfred Peet in 1931 and in 1939 Harold, a bus conductor, Gladys and their son Harold (b. 1933) together with her unmarried sister, Alice Victoria Rollason, a school teacher, were also living in Southport. Alice married Thomas WE Beach in 1939 (reg OND Southport).

Madelaine married Robert B. Haslam in 1938 and they were living in Southport in 1939; Robert was an estate agent and valuer and 'training for ARP duties' and his wife a 'part-time commercial teacher'.

Gwendoline married Robert C Thomas in 1939 (JAS Ormskirk, Lancs) and in 1939 she and her husband, an accountant, were living in Southport.