Sgt Percival S Drewcock💕Mary E Griffey.

On Monday, I shared this first wedding photo on social media. I realised that the groom was a Sergeant by his three stripes, but I hoped for more information from followers about him. I wasn’t disappointed. John, a follower from Twitter, said Parachute Regiment, and he also tagged Dr Peter Caddick-Adams @militaryhistori (Twitter), who kindly confirmed this. Neil and Steve, other followers, also said the same.

Tuesday, I shared this wedding photo, and you can see there are similarities, with a few of the same people, including the bride and groom from Monday’s wedding picture, standing behind the bride in the doorway of the Church. And also, Mum is wearing the same dress.

I also shared this extra photo I had of the first bride and groom in the doorway of the Church.

As there was no printing or writing on any of these photos, unless someone recognised a face among these groups, I didn’t ever expect to be able to identify the family.

So I was very surprised when Neil. @NeilGHotson (Twitter)sent me this message! “The marriage of Sergeant Percival S Drewcock, Parachute Regiment, and Mary E Griffey, at Charlton-All-Saints, on Saturday, 23 August 1947, is my final answer. It appears that the Drewcocks went to Canada in 1957. Lots of research for you to do, Lynn“.

Neil also found this photo taken in Canada, online of Betty Drewcock with Monica(b 1951), Peter(b 1953) and Rosemary (b 1959 Canada). “It looks like the Drewcocks went to Canada in 1957“.

@Woo100 (Twitter) Clothes rationing. Times were very hard – I heard stories from my mother of her and my grandma unpicking woollen skirts that were showing wear and remaking the skirt ‘inside out’ as it were because the inside fabric was better! Nothing was wasted.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped with all suggestions, especially Neil for identifying the Church and the first wedding couple.

Matching the Church

All Saints Church, Charlton, is in Wiltshire, not far from Salisbury.

It looks like a lovely Church.

I quickly found the family after Neil’s research and started to build up a small family tree with my own research.

Family History

Percival Sinclair Drewcock was born on 7 October 1926 in Birmingham, Warwickshire. His parents were William and Annie. Percival was known as Peter, according to a family tree on Ancestry. The first wedding photo was taken on Saturday, 23 August 1947, at All Saints Church, Charlton near Salisbury, Wiltshire, when he married Mary Elizabeth Griffey, known as Betty. She had been born on 24 June 1926 in Battle, Sussex. Her parents were John and Mary. Mary or Betty, as she was known, had a sister and two brothers.

The couple had three children who could all be alive still as they were born in the 1950s, the first two born in England and the youngest in Canada after they emigrated there in 1957.

Percival died on 9 June 1991 in Mission, British Columbia, Canada, at the age of 64. Mary died on 18 May 1998 in Midway, British Columbia, Canada, at the age of 71.

I found this small bit of information on a family tree on Ancestry about Percival/Peter: “Peter passed away at The Mission Memorial Hospital, Mission, British Columbia, Canada, on 9 June 1991. He was a dairy farmer and lived at 9043 Draper Road, Mission“.

Percival had a sister and brother, brother William Henry Arthur Drewcock was born 28 October 1920. He died suddenly during WW2 on 15 March 1942, while serving in Egypt with the RAF as a Sergeant. His service number was 551711. He is buried in the Heliopolis War Cemetery. 1.E.24. On Nabil el Wakkard Street, Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt.

This Memoriam was in the newspaper a year after his death.

The small picture of WHA Drewcock from a public tree on Ancestry matches the young man who was standing in the Church doorway at his brother’s wedding in the first picture.

Percival and Williams’ sister, Muriel Brenda Kitty Drewcock, was born on 28 December 1921 in Birmingham. She married Camille A Van Wynsberghe in April 1949 in Birmingham. She died on 26 November 2009 in Hythe, Kent, at the age of 87.

The second wedding picture was taken at the same Church when Mary/Betty’s sister Marjorie married Samuel.

Marjorie Rosemary Griffey was born on 19 May 1928 in Battle, Sussex. She married Samuel John O’Neill in September 1948 in All Saints Church, Charlton, Wiltshire. They had two sons. She died in August 2005 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, at the age of 77.

Marjorie’s husband was Samuel John O’Neill, who was born on 28 September 1926 in Warminster, Wiltshire, the son of Ellen and Samuel. He died just before Marjorie in May 2005 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, at the age of 78.

The Griffey family of Mum and children were living at a house called Bell Vue in Lower Road, Charlton, in 1939, according to the 1939 register, so very handy for the Church!

The Church of All Saints is right on the corner of the family’s road.

The report of Marjorie’s wedding in the Salisbury Times in 1948.

Small public family tree on Ancestry, also has extra pictures of the family: Drewcock/Griffey family tree

Mary and Marjorie’s Mum, Mary Ethel (Webb), died in 1953. I have a feeling they were close to their Mum, as I found their father, John Fernall Griffey was living away from the family on a couple of records, I think he’s got a story.