UPDATE - Gladys Kathleen (DAWES) HOWARTH

In my first post about Gladys (view here) I was confused by the name HOWARTH on her death certificate and the fact that no Maiden name was shown.  She was listed as Gladys Kathleen HOWARTH "otherwise" Gladys Kathleen DAWES.  So what was it, was she married or not?

I recently checked the 1939 Register for her and she is found married to Fred HOWARTH and living at 77 Stanley Avenue, Portslade, the same address found on her death certificate 40 years later.

Both she and Fred are shown as married and we know it's the right Kathleen because her mother is living with her.  Mary Jane (WRIGHT) DAWES was estranged from her husband Ernest and I always wondered what happened to her so now we know.  Ernest is found on the 1939 Register living at 60 Amherst Crescent, Hove with Sarah GASPER a widow aged 76.  Who is she and what role does she play in this puzzle?

77 Stanley Avenue is not the house Gladys inherited from her Grandfather Thomas, in 1925, which was 92 Chester Terrace, Brighton.

I have not been able to find a marriage between Fred and Gladys but I will keep looking.  There is obviously more to this story.

Gladys Kathleen DAWES or HORWATH

In the words broadcast from Apollo Thirteen "Houston we have a problem!"


I received the death certificate for Gladys Kathleen DAWES (1897-1979) and it opens up more questions than it answers. The earlier post on Gladys is available here.

It appears that Gladys died as the result of some sort or accident or unfortunate circumstance.

If I read it right, she died of an asthma attack brought on by an allergic reaction to an anesthetic which was administered at the Royal Sussex Hospital because Gladys had a fractured femur or broken hip. There was a coroner's inquest on 20th November 1979 and the last entry under the multiple causes of death is the word "misadventure." Was the misadventure the reason for the broken hip or the hospital's excuse for her accidental death?

Next we have her name which is shown as Gladys Kathleen HORWATH. Gladys never married and her death is indexed as DAWES but here her name is shown as HORWATH otherwise DAWES. I do know that she was a piano teacher and some kind of performer with a stage name of Kathleen YORK-PALMER. This is what Reg BARNES recounted about her in his memories.

Her parents, Ernest DAWES (1866-1948) and Mary Jane WRIGHT (1865-1941), were estranged at the time of their deaths but I don't believe that they ever got divorced. In Mary Jane's will, she expressed concern that Gladys wouldn't inherit her proper legacy from her father although Gladys was the only grandchild of "Thomas the Builder" to inherit one of his houses in 1925.

QUESTIONS - QUESTIONS - QUESTIONS
Was HORWATH another stage name? Would a 1979 coroner's inquest have been published in the papers? Where are inquest documents archived? Asthma and allergies certainly do follow the LANGRIDGE / DAWES family lines right down to my father's family and me.

Any assistance with this dilemma will be greatly appreciated.

The Ernest DAWES Family

Ernest was the second child born to Thomas DAWES and Sarah BOXALL and was born 23 March 1866. He was baptised 5 June 1870 at St. Nicholas Church, Brighton on the same day as his older brother, Walter, and younger sister, Florence, who died shortly afterwards. Ernest became a carpenter following in his father's footsteps and eventually joined the family business, Thomas Dawes & Sons. On 4 August 1890 at the London Road Chapel he married Mary Jane WRIGHT (1865-1941) and they had one child, a daughter Gladys Kathleen born 19 Nov. 1897.

Gladys became a piano teacher and had a professional name of K. York-Palmer so must have had a career on the stage on in the theater. Gladys never married and died in 1979 ending the Ernest Dawes family line. Mary Jane and Ernest must have been estranged in their later years because he always attends family funerals with only Gladys and Mary Jane was very specific in her will that her property go to her daughter and not her husband as she feared he would try to get it.

I have looked extensively through the Brighton playbills for any mention of Gladys or K. York-Palmer without success. At the beginning of this post there is a photo labeled Mystery Photo that I believe is a Dawes family gathering for some sort of performance by a family member. The little girl in the front is wearing gloves (common among piano players) and is holding a Brighton Hippodrome playbill so she may be Gladys???