THE 1921 census has been released in full by the National Archives in collaboration with Findmypast.co.uk. It is the first-time people will be able to search every record in England and Wales from the census after it was digitised.

Here we take a look at the lives of some of Gwent’s famous people and interesting places in 1921.

 

Harold Jones

South Wales Argus:

Abertillery child murderer Harold Jones was said, according to court reports, to be living three doors down from number 9, Earl Street in Abertillery at the time of the February 1921 murder of his eight-year-old victim Freda Burnell.

Miss Burnell’s family – dad Frederick George, mum Susan Maud and sisters Doris Ivy and Ruby Winifred – all appear on the census as living at number 9 in 1921 along with a boarder Michael Roberts. The census was carried out just days before the June 21 trial of Jones for the murder.

However, there is no mention of Jones on the census – nor his family – for living in the street.

15-year-old Jones can, however, be found on the census at Usk Prison as an inmate; however, his year of birth is listed as 1905 not 1906 – which is something that is commonly found in older records where a birth year is off by a year or two. His occupation on the census is ‘errand boy (grocer).

He was acquitted of the murder on June 21 and returned home – to the delight of many in Abertillery at the time – however, they would come to regret this when on July 8 – 17 days after his acquittal – he struck again, killing 11-year-old Florence Little. Chillingly, Florence’s dad George was one who celebrated his return, telling Jones “Well done lad, we knew you didn’t do it.”

He admitted this murder after her body was found in the home he shared with his family and – two months too young to face the gallows – he was sent back to Usk Prison where he later admitted to the killing of young Miss Burnell.

He was released in 1941 and at some point, moved to London under the name Harry Stevens where he married and had a child. He died of bone cancer at the age of 64 in 1971 and is buried in Hammersmith, London. He was known to have returned to the place of his crimes to visit family after his release and has also been linked to several other murders in London – with many believing him to be the infamous ‘Jack the Stripper’ who killed a number of prostitutes between 1964-65.

 

Harold ‘Harry’ Arnold Parkes

Harry Parkes appears on the 1921 census as living in Warwick Road, Newport with the occupation of ‘Manager Football Club’. Mr Parkes was the manager of Newport County from 1919 to 1922 and was in charge of the club during the first two seasons that County were in the football league – 1920/21 and 1921/22.

He is listed as born in Worcestershire in 1888 and living in Newport with wife Edith Florence and son Geoffrey Arnold Parkes. He was 32 at the time. Before moving to Newport to take the reins at County, he played for West Bromwich Albion between 1906 and 1908, when he joined Coventry City.

He returned to West Brom in 1914 as player-assistant manager and retired during the war. He then took on his first managerial position in 1919 at Newport County where he was ‘secretary-manager’. He played in goal in April the following year due to an emergency situation. He left County after two seasons in the football league and joined Chesterfield where he had a five-year spell as manager. In 1927 he became boss at Lincoln City where he led them to be promoted to Division Two in 1932.

In 1936, he joined Mansfield Town as manager and headed to Notts County in 1938. A year later he left Notts County and retired from football. He died in March 1947 at the age of 58.

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Abertillery Isolation Hospital

At the time of the 1921 census, there was just one person in Abertillery’s Isolation Hospital – head matron Mary Augusta Richards.

Miss Richards, 29, was in charge of the hospital and two other women – Margaret Neville Jones and Gwendoline Violet King – were working at the hospital. It is unclear whether there was indeed any patients at the hospital as the census does not show this. The Isolation Hospital opened in 1902 with space for 12 patients on two six-bed wards. It also contained a kitchen and a bedroom above the kitchen.

Another bedroom was built for a caretaker or matron in 1909 and it is suggested that this is where Miss Richards would stay.

The hospital was built to house patients due to a number of outbreaks of diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria and typhoid in the area surrounding Abertillery in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The council struggled to find somewhere to build the hospital as the proposed Arael Mountain was ruled out due to it being a route to convey milk and they couldn’t risk contamination and local landowners refused to make their land available for such a use.

The hospital shut around 1930 and has since been demolished.

Aneurin Bevan

South Wales Argus:

Politician and NHS founder Aneurin Bevan was recorded as living in London at the time of the 1921 census where he was living at Kelabour College on Perrywern Road in Kensington. The Tredegar-born miner’s son was 23 at the time and studying social science at The Labour College. He would return to Tredegar later that same year before going on to become an MP.

Born in 1897 to a coal miner, Mr Bevan left school at 13 to work in the coal mines like his father. By the age of 19, he had become involved in local union politics and was named head of his Miner’s Lodge. Following his return from The Labour College, he was unemployed after his former employer wouldn’t re-hire him.

He became a union official and played a large role in the 1926 general strike. Three years later he became the MP for Ebbw Vale, just a year after being given a seat on Monmouthshire County Council.

At the age of 47, he was the youngest member of Clement Atlee’s cabinet when he was named minister of health.

He – led by his admiration of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society – founded the NHS to provide free healthcare to those who need it no matter their wealth. He was made minister of labour in 1951 but resigned just two months later.

He also held the post of shadow colonial secretary and shadow foreign secretary and in 1959 was elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party but died the following year of stomach cancer at the age of 62.

You can search through the 1921 census at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1921-census