1939 Census

The 1939 Census was taken on 29 September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of war, to issue identity cards and ration books. It is not a census, but it is the closest thing we have to one between 1921 and 1951, and in one respect it is better: it records each person's exact date of birth rather than just their age.

John Henry Bagnall

By 1939 John Henry and his wife Dorothy were living at 856 Leeds Road, in the Dewsbury registration district. John Henry, born 15 December 1899, was working as a motor omnibus driver. Their daughter Shirley C. Bagnall, born 7 September 1936, was also in the household, recorded as "under school age" - an entry later annotated with her married surname, Williamson, in the way the register was kept updated over the following decades.

John Milton Bagnall

By 1939 John Milton, then 43 and married, was living at 78 York Street, Wakefield, with his wife Gladys. Also in the household was Fred H. Rowley - his brother-in-law and former host in the 1921 census, above - now recorded as a widower, meaning John Milton's sister Louisa had died in the years between. John Milton's occupation had changed from the trainee French polisher of 1921 to a printer's brush hand, and he is separately noted as an Air Raid Warden.

The page above names his wife as "Mary Ann"; this register instead gives her name as Gladys. I have not been able to reconcile the two and have left both here rather than silently picking one.