The Goodliffe Family of NottinghamAda Grace GOODLIFFE - youngest daughter of John Frederick Goodliffe and Mary Jane MILLINGTON
Ada Grace GOODLIFFE (known as Grace) was born in 1898 in Nottingham, the youngest daughter of John Frederick GOODLIFFE and Mary Jane MILLINGTON. In 1901 the family was living at 101 Musters Rd, West Bridgford, Nottingham. By the time of the 1911 census they had moved to Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham. John Frederick had taken over the family provisions business.
Miss Ada Grace GOODLIFFE travelled to Bombay, India on board the "Melita", which departed Southampton on 29 November 1919. She had just turned 21 and travelled alone.
Within days of arriving in India she married Lieutenant Ernest WOOD of the Indian Army on 14 January 1920. One can assume that she had met Ernest Wood prior to her travel to India but it is not clear where or when this would have occurred.
Marriage of Ada Grace GOODLIFFE to Ernest WOODWithin a month of turning 21 in 1919 Ada Grace GOODLIFFE sailed out to India alone. A month later and within days of arrival she married Ernest WOOD. I think it safe to assume she knew Ernest and they had been engaged for some time before these events. Either her family insisted she turned 21 before marrying or they disapproved of the marriage and Ada had to wait until she turned 21 and was freed from parental consent (they were devout Baptists who would have opposed war). But how did Ada meet Ernest? How did a young lady in Nottingham meet an apprentice fitter in Manchester? There is nothing in Ernest's army record to answer this, but did Ernest live in Nottingham after 1911 and prior to joining the Army in 1914? Many years later in a 2000 edition of an obscure publication (Chowkidar - The magazine of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia) a Mrs June ELLIOT was enquiring about the WOOD family. If this reference is correct, then perhaps some of the WOOD family moved to Nottingham. However, Ada Grace had a half-sister named June Callison GOODLIFFE, born 1926 in Nottingham. She would have been of similar age to Audrey and Leslie and it is highly likely that Ada would have taken her daughters to visit her father in Nottingham on their visits back to England. At that time June would have been living with her parents and this is the memory she refers to. June married Charles ELLIOT in 1952. Note also that June was living in London with the WOOD family in 1951 just before her marriage.
The WOOD familyErnest and Ada Grace had two daughters born in India - Audrey born in 1923 and Leslie Vivienne born 1930. They travelled to England on several occasions, returning to India in 1933 and 1939. They departed Liverpool on the "California" on 10 October 1933 and from London on "Strathallan" on 20 January 1939. The latter voyage is one of the few records showing both Ada and her two daughters Audrey and Leslie:
Wood retired from the British Indian Army on 2 June 1948, returning to the United Kingdom. Prior to that date Ada and Leslie had returned to London onboard the "Arundel Castle", arriving in Southhampton on 28th March 1947:
They lived in London for a while. In the 1951 electoral register, Ernest and Ada WOOD were at 4 Montagu Square, London, together with their daughters Leslie (WOOD) and Audrey BOURKE (note that Audrey had separated from her husband John Bourke by this date). At 4 Montague Sq were Ada's step-mother and her half sister and brother (Marjorie (Callison) Goodliffe; June C. and William F.K.). In the 1956 Electoral Roll Sir Ernest and Lady Ada WOOD were recorded at Flat 2, Frognal Mansions, 97 Frognal, lying close to Hampstead:
From London, they retired to the country, living in a country estate - Foxton House - at Foxton, just southwest of Cambridge. At the entrance to Foxton House is The Malting, an old malt house, pictured here in 1910 and in recent times.
Sir Ernest WOOD died at Foxton House on 17 May 1971. Lady Ada Grace WOOD (née GOODLIFFE) died in 1975. Both are buried in the nearly churchyard of the Church of St Laurence, Foxton.
The Children of Ernest and Ada Grace WOODAudrey Mary Alison WOODAudrey Mary WOOD was born 14 August 1922 at Coonoor, Madras, India. She was baptised there on 20 September 1922. Audrey married John Neal BOURKE on 3 August 1942 at the Catholic Cathedral in Simla, India. John BOURKE was in the Indian Army, under the command of Audrey's father Ernest WOOD.
John BOURKE was born in British Guiana in 1910. He and his brother Terence lost their father James BOURKE at an early age. By 1917 James was deceased when their mother - Marjory Augusta (NEAL) LAING, born Wall, Orkney in 1889 - effected the transfer of land in Georgetown. On 29 July 1918 John, his mother and brother travelled from Bermuda to St John, New Brunswick, Canada. His mother was listed as married. She had remarried by this time to Malcolm Buchanan LAING, probably in Georgetown. Malcolm was a civil servant. Marjory travelled to/from the UK frequently. In 1943 Marjory returned to Georgetown from Newport, Monmouth alone. She gave her UK address as 39 Spenser Rd, Bedford. At that address in 1939 were her father (Frederick NEAL) and her son John LAING (father was Malcolm LAING). Marjory LAING/BOURKE/NEAL died in Worthing, UK on 30 September 1953.
Going back to Audrey Mary Alison WOOD and John Neal BOURKE, they had one son - Nicholas John BOURKE born 16 September 1944 at the Portmore Nursing Home, Simla, India. Shortly after birth, Audrey and Nicholas travelled to the UK on the "Mauretania", arriving in Liverpool on 23 November 1945 from Bombay. They returned to India from Southampton on 5 October 1946. It is not clear what happened next to the family. Audrey returned to London where she appeared at various society events such as the Portrait Painters party in December 1954. It would appear that by this time she and John Neal had parted company.
Also on the lookout for a new partner was Bernard Archibald SHATTOCK, one-time Conservative Party candidate for Battersea. He had married Stella Adeen CALLANDER in 1942.
Audrey Mary Alison BOURKE married Bernard Archibald SHATTOCK at Westminster, London in late 1956. I assume both were divorced as I cannot find death records for either Stella or John Neal. Indeed, John Neal had not died, as we have a record for him in Ireland in 1970 in his application to join the Burma Star Association. (It is interesting to note that John BOURKE had not been awarded the Burma Star, or any other decoration even though he was a Major in the Army and served in Burma under his father-in-law General WOOD. He never saw action...)
Bernard and Audrey lived in London, moving into 40 Digby Apartments, Hammersmith Bridge Road. Audrey died at that address on 12 January 1990 and Bernard died there on 29 July 1995.
Leslie Vivienne WOODLeslie Vivienne was born 10 July 1929 at Quetta, Bengal, India and was baptised there on 25 September 1929. She travelled to the UK in 1947, arriving at Southhampton on the "Arundel Castle" on 28 March 1947 via Singapore.
In London Leslie became engaged to Robert Edward Moncton ELBORNE. Robert was born in 1926, the son of Sydney Lipscomb ELBORNE and Cavil Grace Mary MONCTON. Robert was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a barrister in London but later the family moved to Seaton, Rutland. Robert and Leslie had three children.
In later years Leslie and Robert lived at 1 Main St, Seaton, Rutland. This area is close to where Robert was born, but it is also close to Belton, Morcott and Barrowden where Leslie's GOODLIFFE family had lived and where her great-great-grandfather Arnold GOODLIFFE had been born. Robert died at Seaton on 22 January 2010. Leslie died a year later on 6 January 2011. Return to Frederick Goodliffe page Last updated: 06 August 2021 |
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