Why did Alice Knights disappear after having her son?
QI have been trying to find out what happened to Alice Maud Mary Knights (née Williams), after giving birth to her son in 1901. She was born in Welshpool in 1864, and is on the 1881 census, but none after that. A local newspaper records her marriage to Arthur Knights on 22 May 1900 in Accra, Ghana. Alice returned to the UK soon after, as Arthur Ivor James Knights was born in Eastbourne on 20 April 1901. Alice’s husband died on 24 November that year, aged 34.
In 1911, the census has Arthur Ivor James Knights, 10, living with his aunt and uncle John and Ellen Stanton (née Knights) in King’s Lynn. Arthur died in Montgomeryshire in 1948.
Trevor Bushell
AUsing passenger lists (on ancestry.co. uk and findmypast.co.uk), it’s possible to reconstruct some of the story. Alice M Williams left Liverpool bound for Accra in April 1897, on the SS Bathurst. A few months after she got married, Alice returned to England. The relevant passenger lists don’t survive but the Manchester Courier for 30 August 1900
reports (from Accra) that “Mrs Knight [sic] sailed for England on the steamer Fantee”.
On 19 September 1900, Mr A Knights is on a passenger list, travelling on the SS Sokoto, from Liverpool to Sekondi, a major port some 140 miles west of Accra. This must be your Arthur, and it might explain why we can’t find him on the 1901 census. We can find Alice, living at 12 Hardwick Road, Eastbourne, where she’s a patient (the address appears to have been a small private hospital). Her age is 37 and her place of birth looks like ‘Wontpool’ – it’s clearly meant to say Welshpool.
Then, on 16 October 1901, four months after their son was born, Mr and Mrs A Knights boarded the RMS Sekondi, bound for Sekondi. We know Arthur died just a month later, but we don’t know what happened to Alice. It’s possible that she remained in Ghana for the rest of her life.
Alice’s son married his cousin, Harriet Mollene Williams, and her father, Evan John (Alice’s brother), died in 1954. Evan left a will, and it would be worth getting a copy of this to see whether Alice is mentioned. Few records of the former British colonies are available online, but try contacting the Birth And Death Registry, PO Box M270, Accra, Ghana. Registration of deaths began in Ghana