Deadpool Detective Work

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

59 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Technically he seems to have died in May if that article is from June.

Bristol Post has his lifespan in this short death notice here:

"Brian Henry Northcote Walker

Brian Henry Northcote Walker. Northcote of Hinton Blewett, Somerset. March 22, 1926 - May 15, 2020. Much loved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, illustrator, writer, cyclist and occasional musician. Donations, if desired, for the Alzheimer's Society and Alzheimer's Research, may be sent to Bryan G. Bishop Funeral Service, Farrington Road, Paulton, Bristol. BS39 7LW."

@Spade_Cooley, the only Wurzel from the 60s lineup who is now in limbo is Reg Chant, the accordionist. Could I ask you to please message the user who contacted you and ask if they're aware of his fate?

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

Whilst I'm here...

Jeanne Manet, French actress from Hollywood's Golden era and supposed centenarian, who has been mentioned on these forums several times, is dead.

Here's the working:

1) Manet's real name is Gilberte Lachmann and she was born in Hovilles, France. Wiki listed a DOB of 28th June 1918, which is wrong as shown below and presumably came from IMDb.
2) This newspaper clipping mentions that she was at one-point married to American OSS officer Pat Hurst.
3) Using the magic that is Ancestry, this New York State Passenger List from 1959 details a Gilberte M. Hurst born 27 Nov 1917 in Hovilles, France.
4) Using the relatively new MatchID website which holds the complete French birth and death records on it, there's a Gilberte Marcelle Lachmann b. 27 Nov 1917, Hovilles France who died on 15 Jan 2012, aged 94 in Nogent-le-Rotrou, France.

So, not a centenarian but did reach a fair age. Another one that evaded our attention at the time and led us to believe she was a centenarian. IMDb is a shit site that has a lot to answer for in terms of its erroneous bio details.

If anyone has anymore French names who are in limbo, please fire them my way and using Ancestry/MatchID, I'll try and get you an answer.

[Spade_Cooley 9,641]

43 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

@Spade_Cooley, the only Wurzel from the 60s lineup who is now in limbo is Reg Chant, the accordionist. Could I ask you to please message the user who contacted you and ask if they're aware of his fate?

 

I'll message him, but if he's not able to answer, this is Chant's daughter on Facebook and I think she's talking about him in the current tense here?

 

 

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

1 minute ago, Spade_Cooley said:

 

I'll message him, but if he's not able to answer, this is Chant's daughter on Facebook and I think she's talking about him in the current tense here?

 

 

Wow, what an ace find! I'll reach out to her. All I know of him was that he was a pub landlord in Bristol. I assumed long dead, but maybe not! Cheers Spade.

[Toast 16,253]

15 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Wow, what an ace find! I'll reach out to her. All I know of him was that he was a pub landlord in Bristol. I assumed long dead, but maybe not! Cheers Spade.

 

[Spade_Cooley 9,641]

Bringing this all full circle: Guardian QO for Brian Walker

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Probably one for @Ulitzer95.

 

Nicky Byrne, major shareholder in Seltaeb which essentially took 90% of Beatles' merchandising seems to have "fled" to the Bahamas on his yacht when he sold out his interests and according to Wiki was last heard of in Trowbridge, Wilts.

 

Also, it's not beyond the realms of possibilities that Tommy Quickly could die off the radar - I know he was probably looked into in the Singles Chart thread, but it would be nice to know he's still with us - never deserved to be so famous and then dumped in the bin of obscurity.

 

And yes, I AM flicking through my Beatles history books....

 

[msc 18,571]

14 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Probably one for @Ulitzer95.

 

Nicky Byrne, major shareholder in Seltaeb which essentially took 90% of Beatles' merchandising seems to have "fled" to the Bahamas on his yacht when he sold out his interests and according to Wiki was last heard of in Trowbridge, Wilts.

 

Also, it's not beyond the realms of possibilities that Tommy Quickly could die off the radar - I know he was probably looked into in the Singles Chart thread, but it would be nice to know he's still with us - never deserved to be so famous and then dumped in the bin of obscurity.

 

And yes, I AM flicking through my Beatles history books....

 

 

Four Thomas Quigley's (FOUR!) died in the last decade. And BMD has no middle names for him at all, so... there's this guy. But that's just a possibility, not a certainty, obviously.

 

 

QUIGLEY

THOMAS

16 January 2019

5589832

26 September 2018

Grant and will

Leeds

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

11 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

Probably one for @Ulitzer95.

 

Nicky Byrne, major shareholder in Seltaeb which essentially took 90% of Beatles' merchandising seems to have "fled" to the Bahamas on his yacht when he sold out his interests and according to Wiki was last heard of in Trowbridge, Wilts.

 

Also, it's not beyond the realms of possibilities that Tommy Quickly could die off the radar - I know he was probably looked into in the Singles Chart thread, but it would be nice to know he's still with us - never deserved to be so famous and then dumped in the bin of obscurity.

 

And yes, I AM flicking through my Beatles history books....

 

There's been nearly 20 people by the name of Thomas Quigley who have died since 2000.

So according to the sources we have he was born 7th July 1945 (Wiki and most other sources) or 7th July 1943 (IMDb).

IF he is dead then it narrows it down to three individuals (assuming he didn't die more than 20 years ago – I think it would've been noticed by now!):

2019 Thomas Quigley b. 1945 death registered in Wakefield – likely the same individual @msc has singled out above
2004 Thomas Columcille Quigley b. 13 Nov 1944 death registered in Liverpool
2000 Thomas Quigley b. 10 Oct 1945 death registered in Lambeth

Full DOBs are only given on death certificates on Ancestry which are about a decade old at least. A pity cos we can't see the DOB for the 2019 death!!

The GRO suggests 1945 is correct. There are no Thomas Quigleys born in 1943 in England, period. Just one in 1945, in Liverpool North. Mother's maiden name was Gower. Likely our man.
It looks like he married a Marjory Carroll in Liverpool in January 1980. There are a few ppl called Thomas Quigley pottered around Lancashire from the 2005/10 electoral registers.

Meh. No idea is my short answer. Surely given that obscure players in the Beatles/Epstein story often obit it would be surprising if his death occurred unnoticed.

What is the latest year we know of him definitely still being around?

[YoungWillz 21,284]

8 hours ago, Ulitzer95 said:

When is the latest year we know of him definitely still being around?

Well, that's the point really. Like Jimmy Nicol, history relates little of Tommy Quickly, and only if we assume he stayed locally in Liverpool. A lot of this nonsense depends on someone knowing them and reporting it to the papers. Thanks to you both, I'm going to assume he's still about.

 

Nothing on Nicky Byrne?

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

12 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

Probably one for @Ulitzer95.

 

Nicky Byrne, major shareholder in Seltaeb which essentially took 90% of Beatles' merchandising seems to have "fled" to the Bahamas on his yacht when he sold out his interests and according to Wiki was last heard of in Trowbridge, Wilts.

 

Also, it's not beyond the realms of possibilities that Tommy Quickly could die off the radar - I know he was probably looked into in the Singles Chart thread, but it would be nice to know he's still with us - never deserved to be so famous and then dumped in the bin of obscurity.

 

And yes, I AM flicking through my Beatles history books....

 

Nicky Byrne is dead as per the GRO.

He was born Douglas Anthony Nicholas Byrne as per Wiki. The records spell it slightly differently: Douglas Antony Nickolas Byrne, born 1930 and died on 20th April 2009 aged 79. The record notes his last residence as Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire.

[YoungWillz 21,284]

5 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Nicky Byrne is dead as per the GRO.

He was born Douglas Anthony Nicholas Byrne as per Wiki. The records spell it slightly differently: Douglas Antony Nickolas Byrne, born 1930 and died on 20th April 2009 aged 79. The record notes his last residence as Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire.

Thanks man....I thought so, but Wiki doesn't even give that information!

 

And there you are, majorly involved with the Beatles but did he get a national obit? I could look, but I really have the information so I'll not bother. Though I don't recall him getting a sniff of a major national obit.

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

7 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Thanks man....I thought so, but Wiki doesn't even give that information!

 

And there you are, majorly involved with the Beatles but did he get a national obit? I could look, but I really have the information so I'll not bother. Though I don't recall him getting a sniff of a major national obit.

Annoyingly there's an article here, cited on Wiki (but sadly now taken down now... and I can't seem to restore it using the Wayback Machine!) about a crime writer putting out an appeal in the Bath Chronicle to find Byrne in July 2009, so we're not the first to look for him! Unfortunate timing for that writer given that he only died 3 months prior!

I think most people who are associated with The Beatles will be picked up pretty quickly, but I suppose it comes down to the individual. Sometimes they don't want to be found and want a quiet life away from everything. Reminds me of Kilroy-Silk a little bit. Nobody had heard from him in a decade then a journo finally tracked him down last year to a remote place in Hampshire, seemingly doing fine.

[Spade_Cooley 9,641]

What's weird is that there was recently a short film made about Quickley/Quigley starring some guy from Outlander, but a brief reading of press materials doesn't mention whether he's alive, dead, or even if they bothered trying to find out.

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Just now, Spade_Cooley said:

What's weird is that there was recently a short film made about Quickley/Quigley starring some guy from Outlander, but a brief reading of press materials doesn't mention whether he's alive, dead, or even if they bothered trying to find out.

I saw that.

 

I also saw that they seem to have made some factual errors in their rush to make the film, for example apparently they state he never had a hit. You'd have thought they would seek out the principal source...if they didn't and Tommy is reading this, I suggest he sues.

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

1 minute ago, Spade_Cooley said:

What's weird is that there was recently a short film made about Quickley/Quigley starring some guy from Outlander, but a brief reading of press materials doesn't mention whether he's alive, dead, or even if they bothered trying to find out.

I saw this! So so weird.

I wonder if there's anyone we could try and get in touch with to crack Quickly? When I was researching 50s/60s UK chart musicians, the Joe Meek Society were pretty helpful in supplying some info on a few of his obscure acts. Is there any Epstein-related fan clubs/societies etc. who may be in the know?

Beatles-related stuff isn't my forte so if anyone has a suggestion of a person/place to contact then I'm happy to do so given that Quickly is also in my UK Singles Chart list!

[Spade_Cooley 9,641]

I've long been of the opinion the best way to see if these kinds of figures are still alive is to check YouTube comments sections for "this is my uncle/cousin/old science teacher!" posts. There's two under one of Tommy's videos here:

 

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

2 minutes ago, Spade_Cooley said:

I've long been of the opinion the best way to see if these kinds of figures are still alive is to check YouTube comments sections for "this is my uncle/cousin/old science teacher!" posts. There's two under one of Tommy's videos here:

 

This is great stuff and yes you're right. YouTube comments are very useful and we should use them more often than we do.

Hmmm... so if he was alive in 2015, but in poor health, then that lends more wright to the possibility that the 2018/19 Thomas Quigley death was him. Determined that we get to the bottom of this one now!

[JQW 289]

8 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Beatles-related stuff isn't my forte so if anyone has a suggestion of a person/place to contact then I'm happy to do so given that Quickly is also in my UK Singles Chart list!

 

I've a couple contacts who may know, or may know someone who does. I'll try to get into contact with them this evening. If they don't know, noted Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn should, but I'm wary of contacting him as he's busy researching the second and third volume of his extensive Beatles history.

[msc 18,571]

Watching a good old Bond film, and Wiki claims Nino D'Abo (nee Kvinitadze), mother of Maryam D'Abo, is still alive aged 100. Some of the Geni type websites have her death date as "date unknown" which seems more realistic. As the mother of a Bond girl and the daughter of a famous Russian general, this intrigues me, and it's midnight so my research skills aren't what they normally are...

 

I think she might live in England hence a death record should be easy to track down?

[JQW 289]

No progress on Tommy Quickly, I'm afraid. Too obscure for even these Beatles nuts. 

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

Okay, I believe I have cracked Tommy Quickly, and it looks like he's still alive.

So stumbled across this post, where there's a comment from November 2017 saying that Quickly was alive and well in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Pump this into Ancestry and you get:
MR. THOMAS QUIGLEY (note – no middle names/initials)
BORN 1945–1947 (note – matches the DOB commonly used for him)
RESIDENCE 2003–04 SKELMERSDALE, LANCASHIRE

I'm certain this is him. There are only about a dozen people in the UK born in that decade with the same name. Since 2003, none of the ones who have died fit the profile of our man (i.e. the birth years are too different, or they died in a location which doesn't fit what we know of him).

There's also this, it's an amateur fan page on Facebook but it does talk about him in the present tense and they did put up a post in July wishing him a happy 75th birthday.

One more thing I will add – a common story online is that he developed a drug habit and later fell from a ladder which caused him severe brain damage. This isn't new – it's printed in the books I've been using to compile the UK Singles Chart info (they're from earlier to mid 00s). Now, these books are full of rubbish in places but let's suppose it's true – if it had happened at a young age, there's a good chance that he survived and lived out his life in some degree of isolation, maybe with limited faculties. It's entirely possible, and would account for why he has been "missing" for decades.

Personally I think the drug problems and fall might be true. I think the "severe" brain damage part may be an exaggeration. If somebody has commented saying he's "alive and well" then I tend to think he is? 

[Spade_Cooley 9,641]

I was going to put dream interpreter Ann Faraday under "people you were surprised to find are still alive," but then I couldn't find any actual evidence she is still alive. She used to on the TV all the time in the 70s and 80s, on big shows as well, so you'd have thought she'd still have some presence online somewhere. Wikipedia doesn't have a DOB for her. This website claims she was born circa 1948, but there's claims out there her first book was published in 1967 when she'd have been 19, bizarrely young for an academic text to be published. She was the "life partner" of John Wren-Lewis, born 1923, so there's a big age gap there (he's now long dead so no chance of chasing up a tangent there). Wikipedia says she and Wren-Lewis settled down in Australia, and says he died in the town of Shoalhaven. There is an Ann Faraday in Shoalhaven, but the woman in that photo is clearly the same woman in this video receiving an award for her work as a school cleaner, which seems to be an odd career change.  

There's a "Patricia Ann Faraday" in Company House who lists their job as a "historian and researcher," and with a DOB of January 1949, but it has her starting up a company in the UK in January 2006, when she presumably would have still been in Australia with her dying partner. 

Going back to the previous paragraph, we know that Wren-Lewis and Faraday had a daughter called Fiona. Now this 1983 "Dream Bulletin" newsletter shows that she went by the name Fiona Faraday rather than Fiona Wren-Lewis. There is a Fiona Faraday on Facebook... and look who that is with her in her profile picture.  School cleaner Ann Faraday. And she has Facebook friends with the surname Lewis. I'm lost.

[RoverAndOut 4,759]

8 hours ago, Spade_Cooley said:

I was going to put dream interpreter Ann Faraday under "people you were surprised to find are still alive," but then I couldn't find any actual evidence she is still alive. She used to on the TV all the time in the 70s and 80s, on big shows as well, so you'd have thought she'd still have some presence online somewhere. Wikipedia doesn't have a DOB for her. This website claims she was born circa 1948, but there's claims out there her first book was published in 1967 when she'd have been 19, bizarrely young for an academic text to be published. She was the "life partner" of John Wren-Lewis, born 1923, so there's a big age gap there (he's now long dead so no chance of chasing up a tangent there). Wikipedia says she and Wren-Lewis settled down in Australia, and says he died in the town of Shoalhaven. There is an Ann Faraday in Shoalhaven, but the woman in that photo is clearly the same woman in this video receiving an award for her work as a school cleaner, which seems to be an odd career change.  

There's a "Patricia Ann Faraday" in Company House who lists their job as a "historian and researcher," and with a DOB of January 1949, but it has her starting up a company in the UK in January 2006, when she presumably would have still been in Australia with her dying partner. 

Going back to the previous paragraph, we know that Wren-Lewis and Faraday had a daughter called Fiona. Now this 1983 "Dream Bulletin" newsletter shows that she went by the name Fiona Faraday rather than Fiona Wren-Lewis. There is a Fiona Faraday on Facebook... and look who that is with her in her profile picture.  School cleaner Ann Faraday. And she has Facebook friends with the surname Lewis. I'm lost.

 

Ok, lots to work through here and after a preliminary look, my first thought is that I'm struggling to be sure that any of these three women are the same person! Obviously it's difficult given the time that's passed.to compare the woman on the tv clip with the woman in Australia and the woman on Facebook but they all look quite radically different. The Facebook woman *I think* is now back in the UK (lots of references to Bristol among the friends on the profile, etc.) but how that matters to the story I'm not sure.

 

One loose end I can immediately get rid of though is Patricia Ann Faraday - she's not your woman. On the directors page on Company House, it lists her and 'Peter Faraday' as directors: Peter Faraday married Patricia A Smith in 1994, I've popped the Ancestry marriage record below.

 

                                                                                               

 

It seems too perfect for the Shoalhaven Ann Faraday to be the same one, given that's where they were living and I suppose maybe she did end up working as a school cleaner, but I agree it seems unlikely. John Wren-Lewis is himself an enigma. I'm not sure he was born with that name - there's no one called Wren-Lewis born according to the GRO records. There is a John W Lewis born in Wandsworth in March q. 1923 that looks promising, but it would mean he was 83 not 82 when he died (not beyond the realms of possibility). That said, the record of his death here says he's "John Peter Wren-Lewis", so we may be back to square 1. With them travelling so much, it's difficult to pin down Fiona too - no idea where she was born for a start or when. The reference to her that wiki uses is from an academic paper she wrote referencing a bus journey with John and Fiona in India in 1980. There's no mention of how old Fiona is and also the wording is interesting: 'Sometime in 1980, John Wren-Lewis, my daughter Fiona and I found ourselves on a crowded Indian bus' - note, "my daughter" not "our daughter" - is Fiona not John's? Not sure if that means she was born pre-1970 when they got together (but then how old does that make Ann?!) For what it's worth, the Fiona on the Facebook profile doesn't look (to me) at least nearly 40 - which she'd have to be to have been around in 1980, even as a baby.

 

Anyway, that's my preliminary thoughts - maybe she just became a cleaner in an Australian school who wants her tv coverage restoring..? 

[Ulitzer95 12,940]

Name:	John P Wren-lewis
Registration Date:	Apr 1949 [May 1949]  [Jun 1949]
Registration Quarter:	Apr-May-Jun
Registration District:	Chatham
Inferred County:	Kent
Spouse:	Shirley D Wren
Volume Number:	5b
Page Number:	565

Found this. His first wife? Also, what are the odds of marrying a woman also with the surname of Wren?! This case just gets weirder and weirder.

Comment – I've just thought about this. @RoverAndOut is right. He is not in the birth index as John Wren-Lewis. There are several profiles of John P Lewis which could fit. Is it possible he changed his name legally to include his first wife's family name before they were wed? It's strange but strictly speaking not impossible.

Even if he remarried, there are reasons why he may have kept part of his first wife's name. She could've died before her time. Or perhaps because he was renowned in his field, he had already become known by that name so it wouldn't make much sense to change it by that point?

Anyway. Is this our fellow?...

 

Name	John P-J Wren-Lewis
Residence	1963 Brentford and Chiswick East England

 

Name	John P-J Woodroffe Wren-Lewis
Residence	1961 Brentford and Chiswick East England

 

Name	John P-J Woodroffe Wren-Lewis
Residence	1960 Brentford and Chiswick East England

 

Name	John P-J Wren-Lewis
Residence	1964 Homefields England

 

Name	John P-J Wren-Lewis
Residence	1965 Homefields England

 

Name	John P-J Wren-Lewis
Residence	1962 Brentford and Chiswick East England

Surely this is him? Woodroffe is interesting... seems he liked fiddling with his name. Can we link him to Brentford or Homefields?

*goes to Google where the bloody hell Homefields is*