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Potty: Sorry - have just been back over the ground and seen your allusion to Gladys writing on your previous post .
Helen: many thanks for the further on Edith. I wonder if she nursed n the war. The town is probably, Mazingarbe - is that possible from what you can see? - which is in the Pas de Calais region of northern France - but the war was well over by the time it's her last known residence. William's attestation v interesting. Is there one for Cyril who is the immediate family connection in the case? Did you use Find My Past? I used to use FMP but find its new search facility very cumbersome - and my limited skills can't get it to oblige.

Surely the b. 1887 Wm Littlejohn is Matthew's son - the one in the army. Matthew had an elder brother William, born in Shebbear. maybe he married Annie and they both used family names for their children - though Frances was more a Tillott name than a Littlejohn name I think. Or was Matthew a bigamist? But then most of the children allocated to Matthew and Ellen Jane appear on censuses with these two as parents and in the same household.
Potty: many thanks for unravelling the addresses. How do we know that Gladys wrote changing the NOK? Did I miss that? And - sorry - I'm not sure what the form was in 1920 listing the family.

Had seen it too Potty- will look into it

Interestingly there is a William Littlejohn, born Shebbear, living in London from 1881, married to an Annie, who has daughters with the same names as Matthew : Dorothy, Edith; also a Frances.

St Clements Road School, Admission and Discharge Register for boys:

William Littlejohn
DOB: 20 Sep 1887
Parent: Matthew
Admission Date: 26 Aug 1895
date of leaving: Feb 1897
Address: 8 St Georges Road
Last school attended: Earl's Court

From FMP: Attestation for the Malitia dated 8th March 1905

William Matthew Littlejohn
Born: Acton, Middlesex
Residing at: 19 Seagrave Road, Fulham
Age: 18 years 5 months
Served: 3rd Battalion East Surrey Regiment 8th March 1905
Released to: 1st Dragoon Guards 2nd Jan 1906

Name & Address of Next Of Kin:
Father: William Matthew Littlejohn- address Unknown
Younger Brother: Leslie, Kensington Schools, Banstead
Younger Brother: Cyril- Address Unknown

The girls certainly moved around alot- just found this on Ellisisland.org for Edith arriving Nov 04, 1924- note her last residence!

Edith Mary Littlejohn
Age:38
Occ:Nurse
Last permenant residence: Mazing?rbe, FRANCE
Nearest Relative: Gladys Littlejohn, 19 Nasmyth Street, Hammersmith
Employer: E. Herbert
Born: London, England

Potty and Helen: Thank you both enormously. Think I'm straight now. Sorting this means a lot to Littlejohn descendants.

ce it looks like the sisters moved several times, the different addresses are in 1950 and 1965 and the sisters appear to have spent most of their lives together till their deaths, getting one of the certs should show where they were at that time.

As Leslie originally gave his brother William as his next of kin when he joined the Army in 1910 I would guess that he didn't know where his parents were or he would have given them.

In Leslie's Army record is the telegram sent to William advising of his death, so at that time, William was recorded as his NOK. I wonder if that is when Gladys wrote advising Ellen/Frances's address.

Leslie's effects were sent to Frances Littlejohn at 33 Bangor St on 14 Sept 1917; the form was signed by her and received back on 21 Sept. The form listing the family is dated May 1920, address 24 Crescent St.

William's Service Record might give some clues but it does not appear on Ancestry but I think I saw somewhere that Guards records were kept in a different place and so weren't among those destroyed.

Helen, Potty - am confused. Is it that Ellen was in Bangor St when Leslie went to war - but Crescent Street later when he died, do you suppose? (Or the other way round)
And Dorothy seems to have 2 addresses in 1950 Nasmyth (which is London W6) and New River Crescent which is N13.

Blimey. Poor old Ellen. And she came from such an interesting family - the Tillotts of Norfolk, who go all the way back to Henry VIII's court and were nicely respectable innkeepers and farmers for much of the time.

Googling Bangor and Crescent Street, Kensington brings up a lot of history of the area-

"Five streets known as the ‘Special Area’ were Bangor Street, Crescent Street, St Clement’s Road, St Katherine’s Road and William Street. This area differed very little from the Potteries in terms of health and well being. This ‘Special Area’ was largely overcrowded. In 1904, there was one quarter the amount of public houses to dwellings, which suggested heavy drinking. Lodging houses accommodated over 700 people, each paying about fourpence or sixpence a night. Houses for ‘ladies of the night’ were open from the evening till around mid morning, at a charge of roughly a shilling a night."
(http://www.worleyfamily.co.uk/NOTTINGDALE.htm)

"The social situation thus created was first brought to the public notice in January 1893 through the publication in the Daily News of an article entitled 'A West-End Avernus'. In this article the author denounced in the lurid language appropriate to the popular press the social conditions in St. Katherine's Road (now Wilsham Street), William (now Kenley) Street, Bangor and Crescent Streets (sites now occupied by Henry Dickens Court) and part of St. Clement's (now Sirdar) Road, and concluded that he had never seen 'anything in London more hopelessly degraded and abandoned than life in these wretched places'"
(http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=49883)

A lot of the houses in Crescent St seem to have been multi-occupied in 1911. No sign of Ellen Jane/Frances at No 24. Bangor St also was in multi-occupation; again, no sign of Ellen.

On Leslie's Service Record, his Next of Kin card originally had his brother William as NOK. That has been crossed out and Mother, Frances, 18 Bangor St Nottinghill , written below.

Below that is "From letter Gladys Littlejohn, 81 Church Road, Richmond, Surrey".

There is no date given but as Leslie died in 1917 it must be before that.

In 1911 18 Bangor Street was a lodging house for women:

Alfred Ives 50
Susan Ives 47
Bridget Keet 45
Mary Johnson 27
Kate Planville 50
Alice Laidlow 58
Ellen Holme 32
Lizzie A Adams 50
Mary Smith 30
Paul Flemming 58
Lucy Shilbucks 44
Ada Dutson 43
Mary Grounds 42
Alice Day 36
Margaret Lee 63
Annie Brown 30
Emily Stwarts 40
Florence Williams 43
Sarah Sandoth 46
Selina Jupe 50
Beatrice Llons 28
Jane Smith 51
Annie Corpes 27
Mary Costello 29
Annie Pearce 21
Mary Lee 24
Mary Frances 31

Possible death

England & Wales, Death Index, 1916-2007 about Gladys Littlejohn
Name: Gladys Littlejohn
Birth Date: 16 May 1899
Date of Registration: Mar 1985
Age at Death: 85
Registration district: Haringey
Inferred County: London
Volume: 12
Page: 2087

England & Wales, Death Index, 1916-2007 about Dorothy Victoria Littlejohn
Name: Dorothy Victoria Littlejohn
Birth Date: 4 May 1897
Date of Registration: Jun 1975
Age at Death: 78
Registration district: Haringey
Inferred County: Greater London
Volume: 12
Page: 2032

England & Wales, Death Index, 1916-2007 about Edith Mary Littlejohn
Name: Edith Mary Littlejohn
Birth Date: 21 Dec 1884
Date of Registration: Mar 1970
Age at Death: 85
Registration district: Haringey
Inferred County: Greater London
Volume: 5b
Page: 2507

I note all the deaths reg Haringey, so probable the sisters remained living together.

and Gladys, Dorothy and Edith all together in 1965 at

42 Selbourne road.

don, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965 about Gladys G Littlejohn
Name: Gladys G Littlejohn
Year: 1965
County or Borough: Wood Green
Ward or Division/Constituency: Noel Park
Reference Number: LCC/PER/B/3087

I don't think this is already on here but sorry if it is, Edith M and Gladys both at this address. 144 New River Crescent Southgate N13

London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965 about Gladys G Littlejohn
Name: Gladys G Littlejohn
Year: 1950
County or Borough: Southgate
Ward or Division/Constituency: Southgate Middle
Reference Number: MR/PER/C/0833

Helen you are a genius (or you have brilliant specs). Kensington and Notting Hill are adjacent and quite possibly Crescent St spanned them. Doesn't seem to exist any more - maybe bombed in WW2. But I'm glad I can like Ellen Jane again. She came from a nice family and had a rough time after leaving home. Leonard Victor &Herbert Edward of the Littlejohn children both died v young. Probably Aline too, though rootgatherer's lead was interesting. If I can discover what happened to Gladys after her nursing adventures in NY and Nelly May, who's elusive after being the Cuffs' cook, the whole family is pretty well accounted for. EXCEPT the starting ? what Ellen/Nellie/Frances was doing between 1901 and 1927 If she was in Crescent St why isn't she on the 1911 census- OH: of course she might have been on it as Frances

Sorry to be jumping about with different people, but I have to get it down before I forget!

On Leslie's service records, on the statement of relatives, it gives his Mother as Frances Littlejohn - Potty wasn't sure of the address, but taking another look it appears to be 24 Crescent Street, Nottinghill.

I then found this tree http://www.micropraxis.com/elizabeth/tree/I598.html which gives Ellen Jane Littlejohn's (nee Brooks) death as 4 FEB 1927 24, Crescent Street, Kensington, London.

I think it would be worth getting the death certificate- it certainly looks as though Frances and Ellen were the same people.

Thank you Potty for the info on Dorothy in 1950. I had her marrying someone called Arthur Upton in 1915 and wondered, following RR's revelations, what she was doing flitting about the Atlantic with Edith. But it looks as though the Upton marriage is wrong: it seemed a bit dubious as it took place in Warwick. Hope you got my thanks for the copies of Leslie's records. My PC is playing up and I'm not sure it's obeying "submit".
And thank you RR for the extra on Nellie May. Can't find any marriage or death for her after 1927: assume she continued as a domestic help ....
No nearer fathoming Matthew's disappearance or Ellen's. Wonder if Gladys moved permanently to USA ...