Now anyone engaged in historical research knows that there is never any final certainty in the conclusions you drew from what history has left behind.
So, the confident assertion is blown away on the discovery of new evidence, and worst still the historian who cuts corners, or parks an inconvenient fact will sooner or later be proved wrong.
And to make matters worse, it was my story developed over a few days from a chance discovery of a wartime crime.*
It had begun when I was looking for the date of Queens Court in Didsbury, and discovered that in 1940 one of the residents had contravened the Official Secrets Act and after a trial held in camera was sentenced to six years hard labour.
His crime had been discovered when the police were investigating the failure of a young German refugee to notify the authorities of a change of address.
She had come to Britain in early 1939, and was not interned on the outbreak of war, because she was judged a “refugee fleeing Nazi persecution”.
She did however under the Aliens Act have to notify the police if she moved home, and this she didn’t do on the advice of that man she had fallen in love with.
He was the official who had broken the law, and she had been employed as a domestic servant in the flat he shared with is wife.
At some point in early 1940, he left his wife and began living with his former servant in a house in Old Trafford.
All of this had been covered by the Manchester Guardian and armed with their names I went looking for them in the historical records and while his life after prison is unclear, I did discover a reference to her at the tribunal which determined she shouldn’t be interned.
The names fitted as did her occupation, and I went onto follow up on the name of her employers at the time, who were a Russian Jewish emigre family in Liverpool.
Superficially it all fell together, and I reasoned at some point she left Liverpool for Didsbury in Manchester.
There were too inconvenient facts from the newspaper coverage, one of which was her age which did not tally with that on the tribunal record and a reference to her having been living in Macclesfield.
The first I reasoned was a journalistic mistake, and while I couldn’t reconcile Macclesfield which seemed an inconvenience to the time line I chose to park it, convincing myself that it didn’t alter the story.
But it did, and I have Tony Goulding to thank for digging deeper and reconciling the mismatches.
“I was intrigued by your story today about the refugee and the man charged with offences against the Official Secrets Act.
As by coincidence I was already looking at the Alien and interment records for a future story of internees/aliens living in Chorlton-cum-Hardy I decided to investigate the case myself to see if I could add anything to the story.
Having read a number of newspaper accounts of the case I was perplexed by a couple of things .
Firstly the age of the refugee was consistently given in the paper as 20 which meant she was born in 1920.
Then the according to the 'alien' records the refugee staying with Mrs. Cashden at Ducie Street, Liverpool was born in Nurnberg on 28th March,1913 which would make her 27 in 1940 then there was a puzzling Macclesfield connection.
Eventually I hit upon the solution surprisingly there were two refugees with the same name the one in Liverpool and another who was living with a Dr.Harry at "Fernlea", 1, Walker Street, Macclesfield .
This one was born in Heidelberg on 12th April 1920.
Armed with this information I was able to track the fate of the refugee from the court case. Apparently she was interned for the duration of the war first in Strangeways then eventually via a short spell in Holloway in London to Rushen camp on the Isle of Man It is possible that she was released on 2nd July 1942. when she was reclassified.
What is certain however was that she left for the United States on 13th July, 1947 one of 200 passengers on the "De Grasse", a ship of CIE. GLE. Transatlantique. At this time, according to the ship’s passenger, list she was working as a dressmaker and living at 40, Bramham Gardens, Earls Court, London.
I thought I would send you this information via E-mail rather than comment on your post for you to decide how you would like to use it”.
To which the obvious course was to ask Tony whether he or I should write the correction, which I did, with many thanks to him .......... And the lesson remains .... always check your facts.
Pictures; headlines from the Manchester Guardian, March-July 1940, Albert Square, October 18th, 1940, m75475,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Queens Court, Didsbury, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento
* Stories of Nazi persecution, Russian emigres and a wartime crime ............. Nuremberg, Didsbury, Minsk and Liverpool, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/05/stories-of-nazi-persecution-russian.html
 |
| Albert Square, October, 1939 |
And to make matters worse, it was my story developed over a few days from a chance discovery of a wartime crime.*
It had begun when I was looking for the date of Queens Court in Didsbury, and discovered that in 1940 one of the residents had contravened the Official Secrets Act and after a trial held in camera was sentenced to six years hard labour.
 |
| July, 1940 |
She had come to Britain in early 1939, and was not interned on the outbreak of war, because she was judged a “refugee fleeing Nazi persecution”.
She did however under the Aliens Act have to notify the police if she moved home, and this she didn’t do on the advice of that man she had fallen in love with.
He was the official who had broken the law, and she had been employed as a domestic servant in the flat he shared with is wife.
At some point in early 1940, he left his wife and began living with his former servant in a house in Old Trafford.
 |
| May, 1940 |
The names fitted as did her occupation, and I went onto follow up on the name of her employers at the time, who were a Russian Jewish emigre family in Liverpool.
 |
| Queens Court, 2020 |
There were too inconvenient facts from the newspaper coverage, one of which was her age which did not tally with that on the tribunal record and a reference to her having been living in Macclesfield.
The first I reasoned was a journalistic mistake, and while I couldn’t reconcile Macclesfield which seemed an inconvenience to the time line I chose to park it, convincing myself that it didn’t alter the story.
But it did, and I have Tony Goulding to thank for digging deeper and reconciling the mismatches.
“I was intrigued by your story today about the refugee and the man charged with offences against the Official Secrets Act.
As by coincidence I was already looking at the Alien and interment records for a future story of internees/aliens living in Chorlton-cum-Hardy I decided to investigate the case myself to see if I could add anything to the story.
Having read a number of newspaper accounts of the case I was perplexed by a couple of things .
 |
| Treatment of Aliens and in particular a Mr. Solf, March, 1940 |
Then the according to the 'alien' records the refugee staying with Mrs. Cashden at Ducie Street, Liverpool was born in Nurnberg on 28th March,1913 which would make her 27 in 1940 then there was a puzzling Macclesfield connection.
Eventually I hit upon the solution surprisingly there were two refugees with the same name the one in Liverpool and another who was living with a Dr.Harry at "Fernlea", 1, Walker Street, Macclesfield .
This one was born in Heidelberg on 12th April 1920.
Armed with this information I was able to track the fate of the refugee from the court case. Apparently she was interned for the duration of the war first in Strangeways then eventually via a short spell in Holloway in London to Rushen camp on the Isle of Man It is possible that she was released on 2nd July 1942. when she was reclassified.
 |
| July 1940 |
I thought I would send you this information via E-mail rather than comment on your post for you to decide how you would like to use it”.
To which the obvious course was to ask Tony whether he or I should write the correction, which I did, with many thanks to him .......... And the lesson remains .... always check your facts.
Pictures; headlines from the Manchester Guardian, March-July 1940, Albert Square, October 18th, 1940, m75475,courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Queens Court, Didsbury, 2020, from the collection of Barbarella Bonvento
* Stories of Nazi persecution, Russian emigres and a wartime crime ............. Nuremberg, Didsbury, Minsk and Liverpool, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/05/stories-of-nazi-persecution-russian.html
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