Stephen Patrick Lyons 1882-1953

1882. 10/03/1882, Stephen Patrick Lyons born, at 10 Freemans Lane St.John Horsleydown [St Olave] to Michael Lyons, lighterman, & Mary Ann Lyons, formerly Dillon, the informant being a Jane Dillon [Mary Ann's sister] of 25 Sands[ read Sards]Rents, Horsleydown. Possess b.c.B20.

1882bc

st-pat

A different copy ( same details) of his birth certificate, likely produced ed for his 1899 apprenticeship

1891C. At 12, Curlew St, Horsleydown, in 2 rooms, Michael Lyon 29, waterman, Mary Ann 29, Mary Ann 11, Stephen 9, John 6, Michael 3, all born St.Johns. 3 other families in the house.

1891c

1895. The Lighterman's Guild obtained a 18/7/1895 copy of his b.c : this available in their Guildhall records today! He would have been 13 then. Copy has 29-7 yrs written up high on it - have not fathomed the significance of this: the 7 maybe the length that his apprenticeship would be?

1899. He, aged 17, was bound as an apprentice lighterman 12/9/1899, freed 18/9/1906, the master being given as Michael Lyons - his father .District given as Horselydown, whereas his father had been apprenticed in Bermondsey back in 1877. Also length of apprenticeship has lengthened from 5 to 7 years. His number was, seemingly but seems too low, 292 - from 1920 entry of his son's apprenticeship to him.

stepat1899

1901C. Michael Lyons [mistranscribed as LYNS] 39 Lighterman barge, Mary 39, Mary 21 bookfolder binder, Stephen 19 lighterman barge, John 16 tea packer grocer, Michael 13 errand boy port, still living[ as in 1891] at 12 Curlew Street, still just 2 rooms, Bermondsey [ near river, to east of Tower Bridge Road].

1901c

1905. Married Mary Regan. Mar 1905 LYONS Stephen Patrick St. Olave 1d 276 [not in protestant records!]. Mary Regan was known as Polly[info.from Hilda 2009]. Marriage not in St.Georges, nor La Salette. Try Dockhead 2010. Or, purchase the certificate!!

1907. Stephen Lyons appears in Electoral Book at 57A Gainsford Street. 2 others registered there.

1910. Could he be the Stephen Lyons registered in the Electoral Book at 22 Dockley Road Bermondsey? probably not, as he is still in Gainsford Street in 1911, so this would be his uncle Stephen Lyons 1859

1911C. Stephen Lyons, 29, Lighterman, b.Horsleydown, Mary, 29, b. Bermondsey, married 6 years, 4 children, 1 died, Stephen 4, Mary 2 & James 1mth, all b.Bermondsey. They were living in 3 rooms at 56, Gainsford Street, St. Olave Bermondsey, London S.E. Have not looked this address up in Electoral Roll Books - just searched for Stephen Lyons in Ancestry Electoral Rolls. . The dead child must have been Lilian Margaret 1905, born just after the marriage : birth St Olave Jun 1905 & death Sep 1905- interestingly called Lilian Margaret Lyons, as this was the name of this Stephen's cousin, born the same year, 1882, as he was, but who died in 1883..

stepat-1911c

It is thought that he was friendly with his cousin, William John Lyons 1880, my grandfather, meeting for drinks in the pub, 1914-1930 say. He was also very fond of Opera and used to take my aunt Hilda, 1910, to the Old Vic, say 1924-30. Think he was known as Stevie.

1915 & 1918. Stephen Lyons is living at 15 Frean Street, Bermondsey. I am sure this is Stephen Patrick - he is living there 1928-1934. .

Did he join up? He would have been just 33 in 1915.

1920. His son Stephen James Lyons was bound to him as an apprentice lighterman, 29/6/1920, no length nor date of freedom given..

1928. His son Stephen James Lyons marries Ada Kenealy in St Olave Registry Office, Bermondsey. He Stephen Patrick is registered as a lighterman, and the witnesses were Mary Lyons and Arthur Regan, either his wife or daughter 1908 and a brother-in-law or a nephew. .

1928-1934. He and Mary were living at 15 Frean Street, Bermondsey . His son, Stephen James, being there in 1928, daughter Mary in 1929-1932, and son James in 1932-34

1936 & 1937. He and Mary living at 329 Brockley Road, Lewisham. . . these facts on addresses known from London Electoral Rolls, Ancestry

1939 Register. 55 Cranfield Road, Deptford . 3 closed records - presumably 2/3 of his children and maybe a son in law

Stephen Lyons 10 Mar 1882 ???licensed waterman & lighterman river Ths PWC 781/212
Mary Lyons 12 Sep 1887 Unpaid Domestic Duti
Philip Abraham 13 Nov 1936 Under School Age

 

brockley-road .foxberry-road

A house nearby where 329 Brockley Road would have been & 95 Foxberry Road in 2012.

1945. Stephen Lyons, Mary, Ellen & Michael were living 95 Foxberry Road Lewisham.

1946 -1952. Stephen Lyons, Mary, Michael &, by 1950, an Annie were living 95 Foxberry Road Lewisham. Who is this Annie Lyons? - likely Michael's wife.

1953. Almostly certainly, Stephen P. Lyons died, aged 71, Jun Lewisham. Seemingly no Probate for him. Do not know when his wife died - she, Mary Lyons, vanishes from Electoral Rolls in Lewisham. But still there in April 1958 when daughter, Ellen McNally, visited her from Canada . There is a death in Greenwich Jun 1961, aged 79, thus born ~1882- but from 1939 register she was born 1887, so this unlikely to be correct! - no probate for this death.

Tree for Stephen Patrick Lyons , his wife and 8 children 1906-1923, is at bottom of page . None of these children baptised at St.Georges nor in La Salette..

None of these on Ancestry trees -- May 2011

Births Sep 1919 Lyons Terence P. Regan Wandsworth 1d 1117 He does not belong in this family: parents were Maurice Lyons & Maude[nee O'Farrell, widow of James Regan]

I do not know whether Stephen Patrick served in WW1. I would have thought he must have done: and, to add substance to this thought, there is a gap in the births of children between 1915-1920. Looking up Military Records on Ancestry, there are 14 entries, several of them for the same person. http://search.ancestry.co.uk/ . I can rule out all except 4, and, of those, 3 of them received the 1914/15 Star, for which one would have had to enlist as soon as war broke out, or already have been in the Army or Territorials. He could have been one of the latter, but, if not, was unlikely to have joined up immediately with 4 young children. So, if he did not join up until 1916, he might have been a RE, a Spr, WR/314011/281430 who did not get the star.

But, lighterman very likely would have been a reserved occupation - in which case he would not have joined up.

It WAS thought- from Hilda - that at least 2 of these sons worked for the Hudson Bay Fur Company [ with which William John, as a fur trader, did business], and that they in fact emigrated to Montreal . But Ancestry's Canadian Immigration records seem to cover up to 1935, and no luck!. I have had contact with HBC archives and they have no trace of a Stephen James nor a James M. Now, 2011, I know that both of these were lightermen, and that the former, Stephen James Lyons 1906 went to Melbourne in 1955 - so where did this Myth arise from?? . Maybe Hilda knew that his daughter, Ellen, went to Canada?? Youngest son Michael Lyons 1920 also emigrated to Melbourne - when? - after 1952 .

Daughter Ellen Lyons, b.Mar 1923, married & was living in Canada when she visited her brother Stephen James Lyons in Victoria, Australia, in the late 1970s. Her nephew, Ramon Lyons and wife Joy, remembered the visit. She had 2 children. [As Ellen's father died in Lewisham in 1953, Ellen might have married Leslie H Stanley Dec 1946 Lewisham- seemingly no children in England - but this marriage is of an Ellen M. Lyons! .But Electoral Rolls for a Leslie Stanley show none with a wife Ellen!]! Ellen is living with her parents, at 95 Foxberry Road, Lewisham, in 1945, but not from 1946 onwards, suggesting a 1946 marriage There is a Mar 1946 marriage in Deptford, very close to Lewisham, of Ellen Lyons to Walter G McNally; just one child, Sandra E E McNally in Dec 1947 . .Do not need this marriage as it is definitely her as Eileen and Walter G McNally are both living at 95 Foxberry Road with her parents and brother Michael in the 1947 Electoral Register. So, when did they emigrate to Canada? In Auigust 1949, Ellen, 26, housewife,and Sandra McNally are on the Aquitania. .to Halifax, last address 95 Foxberry Road, to settle in Canada - FMP. And again in Sep 1951 on the Canberra to Montreal, Ellen 28 and Sandra 3, having stayed at Foxberry Road. . . . . . In April 1958, Walter, born 06??, father, Ellen 24/11/1922, Sandra born 17/12/1947, and Stephen, born 12/1/1955, all Canadian citizens,are on the Sylvania, tourist class, to Momtreal . Also on this ship are a William, b.1924, bricklayer, Mary, b, 1927, and Michael, b. 1954 McNally of 217 Blackfen Road Sidcup, all UK citizens - likely a brother of Walter .A Walter G McNally born Sep 1919 Deptford.

And a Walter G, builder, & Ellen McNally were resident at 79 Holyrood Ave , Halton Oakville Ontario in 1965- Ancestry . Also in Electoral list in 1953, 1957 and 1958 - Ancestry.ca

I originally ruled the following record out - as a McNally family with this Sidcup address is on the same ship in 1968 as Walter,father? & my Ellen , Sandra & Stephen .Coincidence or related ?? There is a Walter G McNally, 32, brickayer, last country of residence Canada, returning from St John New Brunswick in 1952 on a ship -address in England 217 Blackfen Rd Sidcup- this almost certainly where his brother and parents lived

 

James Michael Lyons, b. 26 feb 1911, was bound to his father in 1928 - see below

Similarly Michael Lyons 1920 was bound, to his father, Stepen Patrick Lyons, as an apprentice lighterman, 18/6/1935, parish given as Sidcup- this odd: Stephen Patrick was living in Bermondsey until 1934 and in Lewisham 1936 onwards. No record of him being freed 1939-42 so probably called up? : JL from Guildhall records. He was living at 95 Foxberry Road Lewisham with his parents from 1945-1952, and indeed would have been at Brockley Road Lewisham with them from 1936 . Had he married an Annie between 1949 & 1952?? - A Michael Lyons marries Annie M Henderson Mar 1944 Deptford., and has children, Deptford, Michael 1949, Lilian M. 1951 [ in memory of his eldest sister, also a Lilian M Lyons who was born & died 1905?] & Ann 1954: fair chance this is he . I now know that Michael Lyons also emigrated to Melbourne, being alive and still living in Melbourne in 1994 when his much elder brother Stephen James Lyons died in Queensland. There is a Michael Lyons appears in 1977 - seemingly not in Melbourne in 1972 roll - Electoral Roll, cleaner, at 5/23 Blenheim Street, Ripponlea, Melbourne, with Anne, cleaner. No trace of this Michael in 1980 Electoral Roll. I wonder if the son, Michael Lyons,1949, is still in the Melbourne area

A James Michael Lyons born 26 feb 1911 did die in Brighton in 1987, but there was another James M Lyons reg in Jun 1911 in Bethnal Green, so thought could be either[ unless we could determine the birth date of our one! - .in Feb 2011, with JL's visit to the Lightermen Guild, we now know that this was indeed Stephen Patrick's son].

1928. James Michael Lyons, bound 14.2.1928, born 26.2.11 Bermonsdey. & from Bindings record book:

6298/20 James Michael Lyons, bound 14.2.1928, freed 16.5.1933, apprenticed to Stephen Patrick Lyons

He married Sep 1934 Hilda M.Stibbings in Lewisham.

1935. James Lyons only on the Electoral Roll at 23 Holmesley Road Lewisham, Kent

1936 James & Hilda Lyons on the Electoral Roll at 23 Holmesley Road Lewisham. - shown below in 2012.

holmesley-road

1939 Register .13 Haddington Road, Lewisham. badly mistranscribed!

James M Lyons 20 Sep 1914 Male Unpaid Domestic Duties Married 31 2
Anne Hitchcock 26 Feb 1911 Female Licensed Waterman Lighterman (River Thomas) Married 31

Actually, James M Lyons Licensed Waterman lighterman[river Thames] born 26/2/1911 with Hilda M Lyons, unpaid domestic duties, born 20/9/1914 plus one closed record, presumably Patricia 1938

1937-1960, last entry . James Michael & Hilda May Lyons on the Electoral Roll at 13 Haddington Road Lewisham. Patricia Lyons also there by 1960

They had children Patricia A Lyons 1938 & Charles M Lyons 1942. This Charles M. Lyons could have married Ann E Wilson in Dec 1965 Bromley, Kent.. They in turn likely had Carl Steven Lyons Dec 1969 Dartford, David George Lyons Dec 1971 Tonbridge & Warren Dean Lyons Sep 1972 Dartford. David George Lyons likely a wedding photographer, with a website, who I emailed in Feb 2012 on Lyons@thescroggs.co.uk - no reply! May 2012: Searched Facebook for Warren Dean & Carl Steven - but no one with these middle names and nothing to distinguish all the Warrens & all the Carls!!!

michael=lyons-2012

 

 

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