William STEWART ¹

  General Notes:

William Stewart 1901-1982
William was born on July 18, 1901, at St Michael's Street, Eastwood, Greenock, Scotland. He left school at 14, was offered a place at Alloa Academy, but turned it down to become a baker's apprentice. He met Betty Valentia Hadden at a Revivalist meeting at Rothesay, Bute, in 1919, they married, had their first son Alexander in June 1922, and on August 12, 1922 left London on the P & O ship "Bendigo", bound for Melbourne, arriving there on October 16, 1922. They lived at 215 Geelong Street, Footscray, Melbourne. Two more sons were born in Footscray - John in 1924 and William in 1927.
They returned to Scotland in 1929, to Coalsnaughton, Clackmannanshire, and to nearby Tillicoultry in 1931. That year Will started work at the Devondale Paper Mill, where he stayed until 1941. In 1935 they moved into "Easterton", a large house on the estate of Walter Alexander, the bus manufacturer, at Solsgirth, near Blairingone, in Kinross-shire. On November 17, 1941 Will joined the Royal Navy.
The newly-commissioned HMS escort destroyer "Blean" was launched at Chatham on January 15, 1942, and Will served on her that year in the North Sea. During the night of December 11, 1942 the "Blean" was steaming along with the fast North African/UK Convoy MKF.4 (French North African Campaign), 60 miles west of Oran in the Mediterranean, when it was torpedoed by two tinfish from U-443. 89 out of the 168 sailors died.
After survivor leave in Scotland Will went to Canada and the USA, to visit relatives and to pick up his new ship, the USS "Clinton", an American minesweeper with a compliment of 90 men, loaned to the Royal Navy (it would be returned to the Americans in 1947).
Will was demobilized in 1946, and returned to Hespera Cottage, in Storrington, Sussex. Betty had moved there in 1943 from Scotland, to be with her favorite aunt Annie, who died in July that year and left her Hespera Cottage. Will went to work for Marley Tile.
In 1947 they sold Hespera Cottage to Lily Turner and bought "Woodlands", on Shaw's Lane, in Southwater, Sussex, a converted hunting lodge that had previously been owned by an old colonel of the Royal Engineers in India, B.A.G. Shelley, BMG, who had lived at The Woodlands [as it was originally called] there with his wife and family since at least 1937. The widow Shelley moved to Keymer Crescent, Goring-by-Sea, and on Aug. 7, 1947 the Stewarts moved in. They later moved to Hampshire, where they would spend the rest of their lives.

William married Betty Valentia HADDEN, daughter of Henry Alexander HADDEN and Maude Gertrude Annesley WEBSTER-WEDDERBURN, on 9 Aug 1921. (Betty Valentia HADDEN was born on 26 Apr 1893 in Sydenham, Kent, England ¹ and died on 21 Mar 1978 in Gosport, Hants, England.)