Leonard Leslie Dawson

Leonard Leslie (Leslie) was the youngest child of Arthur Alfred Dawson and Harriet Eleanor Dawson (née Pearson).

Both parents were born in Nottingham, his father in 1855 and his mother in about 1853. They were married in 1878 and had six children: Arthur Harold b. 1879, Percy Alfred b. 1880, Mabel Ethel b. 1881, Violet Evelyn b. 1884, Claude Reginald b. 1890 and Leonard Leslie (Leslie) b. 1892.

In 1881 Arthur snr., a lace warehouseman and his wife were living at Holles Crescent, Standard Hill, with their two sons, Arthur and Percy. Arthur employed a general domestic servant and a nursemaid.

By the time of the 1891 Census, Arthur was a lace warehouse manager. He and his wife had five children, the youngest, Claude, aged one year. Also in the household were a cook, housemaid and a domestic nurse, Mary Ann Walker (28, b. Newark).

Their fourth son and sixth child, Leonard, was born the following year. Their eldest daughter, Violet, died aged 15 on 22 July 1899.

The family had moved to Cavendish Road East, Nottingham, by 1901. Arthur. snr was a lace merchant. Only his wife and three of their children, Mabel (no occupation), Claude and Leslie, were in the home on the night of the census; Arthur now employed two domestic servants, a housemaid and a nurse domestic, Mary Ann Walker (38). His two sons, Arthur (occupation illegible) and Percy, an architect's apprentice, were living with their widowed maternal grandmother, Sarah Dawson, at 11 Park Valley, Nottingham.

Mabel Ethel married Arthur Morley at St James's Church on 16 June 1904. Her husband died on 28 October 1904 at Falmouth, Cornwall (home address Hamilton Drive, the Park). Ethel returned to live with her mother at 'Elmhurst', Cavendish Road East. She married secondly Samuel William Carding, a timber merchant, from Boston, Lincolnshire, at Nottingham St Nicholas on 22 December 1906.

Arthur snr. died on 6 March 1905.

His widow, Harriet Eleanor, of 'independent means' was recorded at Bute Court, Belgrave Road, Torquay, at the time of the 1911 Census; she has not yet been traced on the 1921 Census. She died on 23 March 1926; home address Araleun, Warwick Road, Mapperley Park.

Arthur Harold, a manager (warp lace factory), and Leonard, a clerk to a chartered accountant, were living with their grandmother, Sarah Dawson, at 11 Park Valley, The Park.

Percy had married Florence Morley (b. 1879) in 1908 and they had a daughter, Violet May, in 1910. Percy, an architect and surveyor, and his family were living in Long Eaton in 1911. However, by 1939 they had moved to 52 Sutton Passeys Crescent, Wollaton. Percy, whose wife had died in 1943, continued to live at the same address until his death in July 1957. He was survived by his married daughter Violet Stocks (m. 1930 Bertram Frederick Stocks).

In 1911 Mabel, her husband and their son Gerald Raymond were living in Lincoln; they had a daughter, Olive Rita, in 1918. Samuel Carding died in July 1927, residence Balmoral Avenue, West Bridgford, and his widow and their daughter were still living at the same address in 1939 when the England & Wales Register was compiled. Her son Gerald, who had married Edith Barker in 1934, was a director/warehouse manager and a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service and living on Wollaton Road, West Bridgford. Mabel Ethel, of 23 Ellesmere Road West Bridgford, died in 1959; she was survived by her two children.

Claude, a timber traveller, was living at 21 Balmoral Road, West Bridgford, a boarder in the home of Isaac and Eliza McGann, in 1911. Claude married Florence H Wood in 1913; there were probably no children of the marriage. In 1939 they were living on Davies Road, West Bridgford; Claude was a timber merchant (own account). He died in 1965.

Leonard married Ethel Gauntley, the daughter of Thomas Fox Gauntley, at St Giles Church, West Bridgford, on 1 December 1916. The probate record gave his home address as 'Araluen', Warwick Road, Mapperley Park, his mother's home.

The occupation of Ethel's father, Thomas Fox Gauntley, was recorded on the marriage register as 'tobacconist.' This is a well-known local business: 'one of the oldest family-owned tobacconists in the UK, established in 1880. Based by the entrance to the historic Exchange Arcade in Nottingham, we are one of the oldest independent companies in the city.' gauntleyscigars.com/about-us/Gauntleys