William Elliot

 

William was a Freemason, member of Lodge Temperance 2557 and one of our forgotten war heroes. He is not listed in the Lodge Temperance WW1 Roll of Honour although the Lodge registers clearly show he was on war service.

At the Lodge Temperance 2557 meeting held at the Assembly Rooms on the 15th July 1907 William was initiated into the mysteries and privileges of Ancient Freemasonry. He was passed to the second or Fellowcraft degree on the 19th August and raised to the Sublime degree of a Master Mason on the 17th September 1907. He was proposed by Bro. W. W. Raine and was a 29 year old Draper living at 52, Hedley Street, Gosforth, Newcastle Upon Tyne. It’s interesting to note that William’s brother Joseph joined Lodge Temperance a year later.

Unfortunately the service and pension records for William’s time during the war can’t be found so are probably among the 60% of the Service Records irretrievably damaged or lost completely as a result of enemy bombing in 1940 during the Second World War.

William was born in Dinnington, Northumberland in 1877, the son of John (1853 – 1936) and Hannah Elliott. John was born in Seaton Burn and although starting his working life as a miner, by 1891 was an insurance agent for the Prudential Insurance Company. He married Hannah Moody (b 1855 – d 1936) on 21st November 1874 in Ponteland, Northumberland. They had at least 6 Children although one didn’t survive infancy.

Joseph (b 1875 – d 1940)
William (b 1877)
Isabella (b 1880)
Eda (b 1887 – d 1974)
Arthur (b 1891)
Daniel (b 1896 – d 1896)

In 1911, William was a draper’s assistant working for the Cooperative Wholesale Society and living at 65, Elsdon Road, South Gosforth and the census of that year shows he was married in 1906 but his wife isn’t present. It’s proved difficult to identify his wife, although there is a likely marriage in Newcastle in 1906 between William Elliott and Hannah Carr. It’s not known if they had any children.

77 year old William is in the 1939 register residing at 554, West Road, Newcastle with  20 year old Hazel H. Elliott and housekeeper Emily E. Tavernar. William is a widow and Hazel is single and are both shown as salespeople in a Mantle dept. Perhaps Hazel is his granddaughter?

Let’s hope someone with knowledge of William reads this and gets in touch!