Extracts courtesy of Philip E. Robinson FRPSL, 5-30-09 Harold's father, Edwin Walter Blackburn was a schoolmaster. He was born at West Melton near Rotherham, Yorkshire, and baptised at the nearby Wath-on-Dearne parish church on 25 March 1844. He married Sarah Jane Tate in the West Derby area of Liverpool in July-Sept.1872, and they evidently spent most of their married life in the tiny village of Owston, about five miles north of Doncaster, Yorkshire. Edwin died there in Oct.-Dec.1906. Sarah evidently retired to the coastal resort of Bridlington where she died in April-June 1909. Harold lived with his parents at Owston until sometime after the 1901 census was taken. In the 1901 census his profession is given as "bicycle maker & repairer" (shades of the Wright brothers!!) but by 1911 he is an "aviator" - at that time he was a "boarder" with a family at Byfleet in Surrey. |
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