William HUDSON (1901)

William HUDSON was born 30 September 1901 in Cheadle, Staffordshire. While likely not the first born child to his parents, Thomas HUDSON and Mary LEWIS, William was the first to live past infancy and so grew up the eldest of five children.

William's family were travellers who moved around Staffordshire and Derbyshire. They were in the Ashbourne area between 1907 and 1911 (shown by the births of the next of William's siblings and the 1911 census). They were then in Uttoxetor are in both 1913 and 1917 when the youngest of the siblings were born.

In 1923, William married Martha Ann HILL at St James' Church, Bonsall, Derbyshire. They separated only six weeks later. William moved to Ilkeston, Derbyshire to find work where he lodged with the BOSTOCK family. In 1927 he married the daughter of the family, Ida, using the name of William JOHNSON (his Grandfather's surname), presumably because he was still married to Martha. William was convicted of bigamy in 1927.*

Along with Ida, William moved back to the Ashbourne area where the three eldest of their children were born: Mary (1929), Thomas (1930) and John James (1934). The next child, David, was registered in 1937 in Shardlow (the family lived in Sandiacre) and the youngest, Samuel, was born in Ilkeston in 1941. Despite not being legally married, Ida and William remained together until her death in 1955.

The 1939 Register records William as living in Ilkeston with the family and working as a Furnace Iron Moulder.

William remarried in 1957 to Muriel BEARDSLEY, having now divorced his first wife. He remained living in Ilkeston until his death in November 1984. His children still live in the area today.


* William and Martha were finally divorced in 1950. The newspaper report stated that Martha had not done so before at the request of her mother who had then died.