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Death and Service Newsletter

peter

peter

Administrator
Staff member
Richard Cooper-Knight , who runs the Death and Service website has visited the graves of over 1700 men and women who served in World War 1 but who are buried in the UK. He began his research in Somerset but has now visited 18 counties, photographing graves and researching the families of the fallen.

I always glance at his newsletter when it arrives in my inbox and I was interested note in the latest issue (October 2025) that the sister of the soldier who died (in 1919, aged just 17) seems to have disappeared.

I had a quick look but couldn't find her marriage or death - nor was she recorded in the outgoing passenger lists, the 1921 Census, or the 1939 Register. She might have travelled within the UK - I haven't gone down that route. Or she might have changed her surname - both her parents and her only sibling were dead, and it's possible that some people incorrectly assumed that Vacher was a German surname.
 
Here is a possibility:
I have his sister as Gladys Mary Vacher born 1898. In 1928 a Gladys M Vacher married George H Whitford in Wolverhampton district.
1939 Gladys Mary Whitford born 24 Mar 1898 a radio dealer and travel agent living with George Whitford at 81 New Road Kidderminster, Worcs.
Gladys M Whitford died 1960 in Kidderminster district.
 
peter said:
Not sure how I missed that marriage! I wonder where she was in 1921....
Click to expand...
Kidderminster. She was boarding with the Smiths, and working as a garage assistant in the motor cycle department of the Castle Motor Co. Ltd. That fits with her obituary in the Birmingham Daily Post which said she "joined the Women's Legion in 1916 and was one of the first six women motor-cycle despatch riders in the Royal Army Service Corps".

She is indexed in FindMyPast as Gladys Lacher - not unreasonably, as the squiggle written could be almost anything. FMP's name variants feature tends not to try varying the initial letter, but putting a wildcard there finds her easily enough with no place specified.
 
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