SPENCER, Harold Evelyn Peere
Harold Evelyn Peere Spencer was born at The Cottage, Benham Farm, Bitterne, Hampshire on 5 October 1899, son of Hannah Alice Spencer (1866-1933), no father is named on his birth certificate, who in 1911, was a 41-year-old 'widow', housekeeper to 63-year-old widower John James Casey (1847-1928), an upholsterer, living at 31 William Street, Northam, Southampton with her 16-year-old daughter Ethelwyn Urith Jenkins Spencer (1894-29 September 1962). Hannah Spencer had married John Casey later in 1911 but they had separated by 11 March 1918 when a maintenance order was made against John Casey. In 1921 Harold was a 21-year-old curator assistant at Ipswich Museum living at 7 St Helens Street, Ipswich with his 67-year-old foster mother Louisa River, who was also born in Hampshire, who was blind and unable to work. Harold married at Ipswich in 1925, Lilian May Squirrell (3 March 1898-12 July 1986). Harold exhibited at the Ipswich Art Club from 43 Benacre Road, Ipswich in 1937, 'Reynard Arrives at Court'. In 1939, a 'museum technical worker' still living at 43 Benacre Road, Ipswich with his wife Lilian and son Arnold Evelyn Peere (born 1926). Harold Evelyn Peere Spencer was a retired assistant curator at Ipswich Museum when he died at 43 Benacre Road, Ipswich on 26 January 1985. Author of 'A Contribution to the Geological History of Suffolk' (1972).