The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 51 No.1 | June 2024

Member’s article

Britain all the evidence points to Frank Butler changing his identity before the end of that year. Francis (Frank) HOWARD On the 1901 census, taken on the night of 31 March, a Frank Howard, widower aged 45, appears with a 29-year-old housekeeper named Eugénie Badois, single, born Folkestone, Kent, living at 8 St James Street, Winchester. He is a widower, born in Ireland and working as a tobacconist. He is resident at the address of the tobacconist’s working on his own account, i.e. not employed by someone else. There is no documentary evidence that this person previously existed. Eugénie Badois is the daughter of professional couple who originate from France and Germany. Whilst Eugénie marries another professional person in the following year away from Winchester, this census entry does imply a questionable relationship under the circumstances (respective ages, no other occupants, Frank Butler’s history). Frank then appears on the 1911 census at the same address, but now married to Beatrice Millicent Howard, aged 29. He is now 55 and married less than a year, but now he says more specifically he was born in Dublin. He is working on his own account as a tobacconist and colliery agent. His wife was born at Kings Somborne, a village some ten miles from Winchester, and is assisting in the business. This form would have been filled in by Frank and then signed by him. It is a matter of record on a late-19th century trade directory that the previous owner of this tobacconist’s had the surname Hamblin, a possibly fortuitous connection to Frank Butler’s mother who was still alive when he arrives in Winchester. The scenario is that Frank Butler comes to

Winchester seeking to acquire a business and able to hide his background by working for himself. He would have found it difficult to seek employment under an assumed name without any employment history. It is understood that the official name he used was Francis Howard, but liked to be called Frank, hence the census records show that as his preferred name as well as his marriage certificate. It seems likely that the marriage to Beatrice arises after she started working for him in the shop. There is no knowledge of his previous life amongst the grandchildren of his relationship with Beatrice, and it is only through DNA that the truth has emerged. On 23 November 1911, Beatrice has her first child with Frank, Frances Isoult Howard, followed on 5 May 1917 by Eustace Aubrey Francis Howard. This means there was a 29-year gap between Frank Butler junior being born in 1882 and Frances Isoult Howard being born in 1911. I have assumed that Frank Butler had no other children by an unknown woman in the meantime when I say this gap between children takes some beating. There is also the point that all of Frank Butler’s known children bear a version of his own name, i.e. Frank/Francis/Frances. When Frank Howard marries Beatrice Millicent Howard on 6 March 1911 the only additional information he gives about himself is that his deceased father was a gentleman called Ralph Greville Howard. It has not been possible to prove this person existed. Crucially, there was a person called Sir Ralph Howard who died in 1873 and had an Irish connection. He was also a founding member of the MAIDIC organisation that Frank finished working for in 1900. It seems Frank uses this connection to help provide a new identity for

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