Who was ‘Ukrainian Willie’?
QI believe my great grandfather, William Dixon, came to England from Ukraine with his parents, aged four, around 1884, leaving behind his twin brother Peter. Willie spoke ‘proppa Geordie’, with no hint of his Ukrainian heritage. His mother came from a wealthy shipowning family who disowned her when she married ‘beneath her’. Not knowing his original Ukrainian name, I have no idea how to trace Willie’s story back.
Aside from bigamy, Willie was also a drunk and abusive, beating his wife, Annie Holt. Annie, a cook, got her revenge. She got him drunk, then broke his legs with her rolling pin so he couldn’t chase her, picked up her two daughters, and ran away to London. She returned to Tyneside years later.
Willie was buried in an unmarked grave in Preston Cemetery, North Shields, in 1952. Some years ago, I visited the cemetery and found his grave. I was told he shared it with two other Dixons: Sarah, aged 39, buried in 1941, and Isabella, 72, buried in 1951. Staff informed me that graves can only be shared by unrelated people if 14 years have passed between the deaths. Therefore it seems Isabella and Sarah are related to Willie.
Sally Goffin-Adams
AWillie Dixon sounds a complex character. You included with your letter a story from the Newcastle Evening Chronicle that refers to “William Dixon,
42, ship steward” being accused of setting fire to his own shop at
North Shields in
1922, and being commuted for trial at the Assizes.
For more details of this offence, you need to locate records for the North-Eastern
Assize Circuit at The National Archives – they are not online. Indictments for Northumberland (which North Shields came under) can be found in series ASSI44, and depositions in ASSI45.
William’s burial might provide the best clue about his family. From the dates you give, it suggests that Willie was buried with Isabella Dixon, born around 1879, and Sarah Dixon, born around 1902. Could they be mother and daughter? The 1911 census has a Dixon family living in North Shields; the mother, Isabella, is aged 32 – born 1879, and she has a daughter, Sarah, who is aged nine – born 1902.
In addition, Isabella’s husband, and Sarah’s father, is called William Dixon. I would suggest you double-check whether the William Dixon buried in this grave is definitely your ancestor (try obtaining his death certificate); if it is, it reinforces your suspicions that your ancestor was a bigamist. But if not, you may simply have come across another William Dixon, who was buried with his wife and daughter. It’s also worth trying to find other evidence that William Dixon was really Ukrainian – stories become distorted as they pass down the generations. Look back in local archives to find evidence of William’s origins; are there any census records that denote a foreign birthplace for him? I say this as there is a marriage entry for William Dixon and Annie Holt in South Shields on 29 April 1902, where William’s father’s name is given as the decidedly unUkrainian Humphrey Dixon.
I have found a Humphrey Clark Dixon, born in Cullercoats in 1839, who was a ship’s-engine fitter. He was married to Louisa, from Kent, and they certainly had two sons named Peter and William: although William (born c1878) may have had a twin, it wasn’t Peter, but his sister Ethel. It’s certainly worth investigating this family further, even if just to rule out a connection. Nell Darby