Any sign of my Fairbrothers?
 

I'm trying to find out about Arthur Lidyard Fairbrother and his wife Elizabeth Ann.

I've found Arthur's birth (14 Jun 1872) and baptism (1 Oct 1872 in Chipping Sodbury) on Ancestry. Lidyard is his mother's maiden name.

I've tracked him with his parents in 1881 and 1891 and then he appears in 1901 with his wife Elizabeth born Cape Colony and eldest daughter Gladys Nora.

I've also found various combinations of family members sailing the seven seas between 1924 and 1937. The home address in each case is 5 Queens Gardens Glasgow W. That has led me to sons Alan and Colin who were born somewhere in Scotland (a single match on SP in each case, though apparently not Glasgow City).

I can't find a likely death for Arthur in England or Scotland. And there seem to be too many Elizabeth Anns to home in on. I can't look for Elizabeth's birth until I know her surname, and I haven't yet found the marriage. I realise that Alan or Colin's birth will help but this is a fairly distant twig so I don't want to start buying SP credits.

Any sleuths out there please?

Perhaps you have already checked NSW BMD: Don't know his parents' names so you will be the best judge.
1962 FAIRBROTHER ARTHUR ALFRED HANNAH SYDNEY
1971 FAIRBROTHER ELIZABETH RALPH AGED 83 YRS NEWTOWN

There is an Arthur L Fairbrother death in Poole district, England, Oct-Dec 1937 age 65; what made you rule that one out, UJ?

I found that one too. It looks attractive because of the middle initial. They arrived on 31 May 1937 at Southampton from Durban, so I suppose he might already be suffering from something (malaria, yellow fever??) and died in hospital in Poole.

Which would mean that Elizabeth could have gone anywhere after that, presumably back to Glasgow.

He's listed in the Glasgow phone book under 5 Queen's Gardens till 1939.
Mrs EA Fairbrother is at that address in 1940. Could be that he died in 1937 and she didn't get the name changed immediately.
Miss GN Fairbrother is at that address in 1957 and 1958.

I'm getting a hit on ScotlandsPeople for a death for Gladys Nora Fairbrother in 1958, and one hit for a death for Elizabeth Fairbrother in 1944. Only Gladys is coming up as Glasgow, though.

I thought I'd found something interesting - a private A Fairbrother served with the Warwickshire regt in the Boer War, including in Cape Colony. However, he turns out to be Arthur James Fairbrother.

http://www.britishmedals.us/files/wo97supp.htm

Well done Mary and thanks very much. I hadn't thought of the phone book, though Arthur was clearly a man of some substance. Gladys wasn't very old when she died.

I'll interrogate SP more thoroughly now you've given me some dates to aim at.

Elizabeth died in Campsie, Stirlingshire and Gladys in Partick, Glasgow.

Looks like Gladys' brother Colin died in WWII in Hong Kong. There's a death in 1943 in the Scottish Minor records on SP and a CWGC entry for Lieut. Colin Stevenson Fairbrother of the Indian Army d. 4 Nov. 1943.