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Bagley family, Birmingham, 1920s

V

valandrews

New Member
I have 100+ letters from Edna (Topple) to her future husband Noel Anstey Bagley dating from the 1920s, until their marriage in 1925. The main address used is 383 Hagley Road, Edgbaston and then Highfield Road (new house), Moseley. If any family member would be interested in these, please let me know.
 
how fascinating please hang onto them for a while as we have some very good researchers on this forum that could research the name and hopefully find out if there are any of ednas extended rellies still alive..fingers crossed..

lyn
 
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A quick look and it appears that Noel and Edna had no children and that Edna was born in Plumstead, Kent and was an only child.

Noel was born in Wylde Green and had a brother and 3 sisters. Two of his sister don't seem to have married and the other but had no children. They are all living with their mother at 31 Highfield Road in 1939.

Noel's brother did marry and I think he had only one son who also had only one son (2 children) and is last seen in Church Stretton

So closest relative would be great nephew.
 
ive made a start...1939 eve of war register puts edna jessie bagley born 26th june 1899..husband noel and although name blanked out could indicate they had at least 1 child they are living at 138 portland road birmingham also living there is a jessie topple born 1875 which is most likely ednas mother...below is todays st view of 138 portland road..its the house with car in the drive..we need to try and find out if edna and noel had any children

lyn

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Hi, Findmypast has a newspaper obituary for Edna in the Birmingham Post, 14th Feb 1972. Refers to her address 138 Portland Road, husband Noel and "dear mother of john" so seems to confirm that John was their only child. Noel died in 1991.
 
thanks maz so now we need to try and find out if john is still alive and if he married and had any children

there is a probate for noel on ancestry

lyn
 
Hi
Ancestry have an outward passenger list in 1955 for John noel bagley, of 138 portland Rd bham to Singapore. He is shown as born 1/1/1930, police lieutenant and married
Below is a woman of same address (Presumably his wife) Taksiah jaapar bagley whose citizenship is given as Malaya.
 
Maz 60 said:
Hi
Ancestry have an outward passenger list in 1955 for John noel bagley, of 138 portland Rd bham to Singapore. He is shown as born 1/1/1930, police lieutenant and married
Below is a woman of same address (Presumably his wife) Taksiah jaapar bagley whose citizenship is given as Malaya.
Click to expand...
If he is a "lieutenant" then that suggests he is likeley to be in the Malaysian Poliice Force not UK as we don't have Lieutenants.
1783666065626.png
 
Thank you all so much for your interest. I actually bought these letters from eBay several years ago when I was doing family history research and assumed that no-one from the family was interested in them at that time. They are basically everyday (love) letters with news of what Edna has been doing while they are apart. I can't say I've read every letter and unless the postmark is legible there is no way to date them. All the letters bar a couple are still folded in their envelope with stamp. There are several mentions of Palm Bay and staying at "Marguerite", which is on the back of one of the envelopes - in Cliftonville. Extract from one letter: London Broadcasting Co. played Hamlet last night - Joan Corbett Wellings played Ophelia. I recognised her voice. Wonder how Ian Singer is? This one is 16 Feb. '24? from usual address: Edrom.

I do hope someone will be interested to have these, although I did approach the Birmingham Library Archives and had their response on 10 July 2023 (quite a coincidence!): Can you provide more info. about the general content/what is discussed in them? If you passed the letters on to us, would you be happy for us to weed or discard any we felt were not of interest for long term preservation?

I was in the process of packing off collections to the Berks. Record Office and Surrey History Centre at that time and was concerned that the content of the letters wouldn't warrant long-term preservation in the Brum Archives so didn't pursue my enquiry with them. Perhaps this time a new home might be forthcoming!! Once again, thank you all so much.
 
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