John Neale married Elizabeth Pilchard on 6 November 1752 in Fonthill Gifford, Wiltshire.  It is presently unknown how many children they had, but one was Samuel Nail who was born about 1763.  He was a labourer and he married Judith on 12 September 1808 in Fonthill Gifford, Wiltshire.  They had five children, Elizabeth, George, John, Henry and Charles.

Their daughter Elizabeth A M Neil was born in 1815 in Fonthill Gifford as well and she was listed as being a dressmaker.  She married Thomas Neil on 22 October 1832 in Fisherton Anger, Wiltshire. Fisherton Anger is located in Salisbury, between the railway station and the centre.  In 1801 the population was 865 and in 1831, a year before they were married, the population was 1496. The church at the time was the Church of St Clement, which was demolished in 1852, to be replaced by the Church of St Paul.  Fisherton Anger took its name from “the farm of the Fishermen”  The first church was built long before 1319 in Church Street as it was known in 1861. The opening of the railway stations in 1856 and 1857 led to the development of nearby areas with smaller houses.  Fisherton Anger goes back to the year 348.

Thomas was born in 1813 in Nether Wallop. He had an assortment of occupations, including Superintendant, Grocer, Baker and gardener.  (Perhaps this is where the “green fingers” came from in the present day Neil family).

By 1861 Thomas, his wife and their 9 children had moved to Jersey.  Their children included George, Priscilla, Matthew, Francis John, Rhoda Elizabeth, Albert, Luther, Aquilla and Samuel (otherwise known as Sam).

Their son Aquilla was born in 1848 in Nether Wallop and was an ambitious young man.  At age 13 he was a footman in the household of Edward Dixon, a surgeon of London, and living at 1 Grove Place, St Helier, Jersey. By the time he was 23 years of age, he was still unmarried and was a Metropolitan Fireman living at 44 Chandos Street, St Martin in the Fields, London, in the household of a Mr Paul Gerrard, also a Metropolitan Fireman.  During the next 10 years, he married Jane Carne on 13 November 1872 in Bermondsey, who was born in 1852, had 3 children, namely  Albert, Ernest and Rosa, and was a Salvage Officer.  They lived at 161 South Bridge Road, St George the Martyr, Southwark, which was just down the road from the fire department, now the Fire Brigade Museum at 94a Southwark Bridge Road.

By 1891 when he was 46 years old, and now a Salvage Corps Officer of Fire, and had had another 4 children with Jane, namely  Priscilla, Lily, Alice and William.  They had moved again to 12 Commercial Road, St Mary, Whitechapel.  Two years later, they had a son, Frederick George and then 3 years after that, along came Florence Beatrice. 

In 1901 he was listed as a collector in the England Census and they had moved yet again to 101 Harold Road, West Ham.  Two years later, 1903, his wife Jane died, and his youngest daughter was only about 7 years old at the time. And so on 13 May 1905 he remarried to Rose Ellen Gregory who was aged 31 to Aquilla’s 57 years. Together they had another 4 children, Ellen Rosina, Aquilla George Luther, Linda Ethel and Viola Mary.

From his first marriage, Frederick George met and married Elizabeth Maria Chatterson.  Elizabeth was 24 and Frederick was 25 years.  They were married in March 1916 in Maldon, Essex and had two sons, Frederick Frank and Douglas, who were a year apart in age.

Frederick Frank was born in Walthamstow, Essex on 14 February 1920.

 FREDERICK FRANK NEIL

He was born on 14 February 1920 at 114 Bretrnham Road, Walthamstow, Essex, UK.  He was conscripted into the army and completed his infantry training.  Thereafter he was called up in 1940 when the British were in France and joined the Queens Regiment to make up the losses at France.  He was seconded to the 1st 6th Battalion of the Queens Royal Regiment.  He continued up to Boston on the East Coast to do guard duty and quartered in wharehouses in Boston docks, which conditions were dirty and he became ill.  After being released from Hospital, he applied for training as a Reginmental Signaller.  He re-joined his old battalion, which were stationed at Farnham in Kent.  He was attached then to a battalion headquarters in a small village outside Farnham, called Ospringe, Kent, having learnt that he was able to ride a motorcycle.  He had had a motorcycle prior to the war.  He was made dispatch rider of the signals platoon and this he found very good as he was able to be out on his own, dispatch riding around the countryside, with 24 hours on and 24 hours off. That entailed driving a motorbike from post to post despatching mail or orders.

He was transferred down Broadstairs and was housed in a school, from which he was recalled from guarding the coastline from invasion, and went back again to Broadstairs to relieve troops there.  From there he was transferred to Dover castle and then to Woldingham, Surrey to await being sent overseas.  He was then in the 44th Home division.  The 3 battalions of the Queens Regiment 1st, 51st and 6th became the 131 Brigade of the 44th division.  He arrived in Egypt just after Rommel had been halted at El Alamein, and after two weeks acclimatisation, was moved up to the front line.

Subsequently, at El Alamein he was wounded, having shrapnel in his shoulder and was taken to hospital in Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt.  In due course he was evacuated by hospital ship down to South Africa via rail to Baragwanth hospital in Transvaal (Gauteng) for a short period.  He was moved down to Natal to a camp under canvas while they were busy finishing off a convalescent camp in Howick.  This was a convalescent type of camp for those who did not need hospitalisation at the time.  He spent 10 months in South Africa and met his cousin Bill Longmead (whose parents Alice and Albert Longmead lived outside Howick in a small village called Tweedie, where they ran a guest house “Banff”).

From there he was sent down to Cape Town and put on board a troop ship.  There were no hospital shops available and was sent back to England where he went into hospital at St Albans to have further operations to remove the shrapnel from his wounds.

Eventually he went to a red cross home outside St Albans, owned by Lady Burns.  He was able to walk in the vast grounds to his hearts content.  He moved to transit camp in Bedford and had another medical board test and was discharged as unfit for further service.  This was 9th February 1944.  Having spent time in South Africa, he wanted to go back and with the help of his father he went to immigration and passport departments.  Neither department would give him either a passport or exit permit unless they had one of the other first. 

He went for another medical by a private doctor who recommended that my health would improve in South Africa, and he was finally granted an exit permit and passport and set sail for South Africa on a small ship SS Settler of 8000 tons, unescorted through the submarines quite safely. 

It took 2 months to reach Durban, where he commenced work as a hairdresser in Pietermaritzburg for Mr McIntyre, whom he knew through his stay at the Howick convalescent camp.

In 1945 he came down to Durban with some money he got from his uncle (100 pounds) and some money that he had saved from the army and he bought premises in Park street, Berea.  The salon was called “London Hairdressers” because he came from UK.  He had an apprentice and the salon grew over time. 

He lived in a boarding house with a guy by the name of Jimmy Auld who had a dad that was a decorator painter.  The youngest son then came home, and the family needed Grandad’s room for him.  So, Grandad had to move out and he went to a boarding house on the Berea, where he met his future wife, Merle Rosalie Reinders.  She was in the room next to him and they became friends and later one thing lead to another and they were married.

 

 

 

 
Make a Free Website with Yola.