Why did DG Bruce marry so late?
March 28, 2011 at 10:59 pm
I have now more or less reached the end of my search. Although I’d like to discover more about Douglas Gordon Bruce, and the women who loved him, I must admit that I’ve found out more than I’d expected when I started this Mystery Challenge.
(If you’re new to this blog, and you’d like to find out what this is all about, it’ll probably help you to scroll down to the first post about the Mystery Challenge,in which I’m asking readers to help me find out more about the love letters from 1920’s China.)
If you know anyone with one of the surnames listed in the 2 charts below, I would be very grateful if you could direct them to this website – specifically to the Category: ‘6 Degrees of Separation Mystery Challenge.’ There’s just a chance that this might jolt a memory of something relevant they have heard about a great uncle, aunt, cousin or other relative.
Here is a table with the names and dates of people whose descendants and/or friends and relations might be known to readers of this blog. The first chart gives details of Douglas Gordon Bruce and his sisters and their children.
When I’d discovered the death notice in the Times Archives, and found that he had been ‘a loving father and uncle’, my researcher friend told me how to send off to the Government Records Office for a copy of his marriage certificate. As you can see from a previous post,we’d already discovered the name of his bride, and the date of the wedding, but I wanted to know if this was his first marriage, and that would be recorded on the certificate. This document duly arrived in the post, and revealed that he was a bachelor, and his bride, Phyllis Dorothy Slaughter, was a spinster.
The wedding took place on 9th February in 1978 at All Saints Church in the London Borough of Ealing. Phyllis would have her 62nd birthday two weeks later, and DG B was a few months away from 86.DGB was recorded as ‘Director’, and Phyllis, as ‘Book-Keeper’. What did surprise me was the fact that they were both living at the same address, Weymouth Avenue, Ealing, W5, not far from where he grew up. From the photos and letters that I’ve already posted, I would have expected that he would have been married decades before this, though on the other hand, he could have been totally resistant to the idea of committing himself to one woman for the rest of his life!
As for Phyllis, there’s no way of knowing how long they had been sharing the same house, but as she was 24 years younger than DGB, and he was in his mid-eighties, it would have been irresponsible of him if he hadn’t clarified her legal status by making her his wife.
What if a bad bout of winter flu had carried him off, before they could walk down the aisle together as man and wife? I can imagine some of their friends and relations congratulating DGB and finishing by adding, “Better late than never.”
Here is another table of names and dates of other people who would have known D.G.B.
All that is sheer conjecture, and it could be leading me into rather dodgy ground. Although both Phyllis and DGB died several years ago, it’s still not all that far back in time, especially when compared to 1920s Hong Kong. But if any nieces and nephews of either Phyllis or Douglas Bruce (or great nephews/nieces) stumble across this website, I would happily adapt or remove the paragraph above.
It would be great to receive a message from anyone who could give me some more information about the life and loves of Douglas Gordon Bruce.
As I’ve mentioned before, anyone who does this will receive a free copy of Paper Lanterns (or The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society) so do please spread the word to anyone who might be interested. If I do manage to glean more information I will publish it here.
March 29th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
I have enjoyed following this project. My mothers maiden name was Finnis which I do not believe is a very common name! My grandfather was Arthur Joseph Finnis and he was born in 1898 in Teddington Middlesex, but I do not recognise any of the names you mention, interesting coincidence though!
March 29th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
That is an amazing coincidence, Linda !
Thank you for letting me know - even if there is no connection, it is still very interesting.
Have you done any research into your mother’s family? If not, maybe there could have been some connection between Arthur Joseph, and some of the other Finnis brothers, though probably not the two who each married DGB’s sisters.