Whatever Happened to Claris?

Claris MALES has always been a bit of a mystery to me. The first part of his life was straightforward to research. His birth was registered in 1896, he was present in the censuses of 1901 and 1911. He worked in the family grocer's shop in Stevenage and in 1912 married a Hertfordshire girl Marion CHANDLER. Claris did serve in France in the First World War. In the 1921 Census, Marion MALES nee CHANDLER is shown married and living with her two sons and two daughters. I have not yet found Claris in the 1921 Census. However he can be found living with his wife Marion in Knebworth from 1922 to 1930. Then Claris appears on his own living in Kensington in 1930. Meanwhile in the 1939 Register Marion is living with her son Maurice in Stevenage. Marion is reported as married. 

However, the trail ran cold for Claris but Marion is registered dying in 1974. This was the situation until the start of 2023 when a Clifford MALES was noted in Electoral Roll records released online for Sussex. Clifford was living in Chichester in between 1945 and 1959 with a Mary E A Males. I then found Clifford's death registered in Brighton Sussex in 1963. The puzzle was who was Clifford MALES as there  was only one MALES in my research findings with the forename Clifford and this Clifford did not match his profile.

However, I did by search find a Clifford MALES marrying Mary Anthony LOFTUS in Brentford in 1931. This fitted with the Sussex electoral roll records. I decided to send for the certificate of his marriage to Mary A LOFTUS.

In the meantime, I established Mary Anthony LOFTUS was the illegitimate daughter of an Annie LOFTUS who came from Skelton in Cleveland in North Yorkshire. She had moved away from Skelton to North London to have the baby. Via a newspaper report of a court case taken out by Annie LOFTUS for maintenance of her daughter Mary, I established that Frankland ROBINSON an iron ore miner from Skelton was the putative father of Mary.

Fortunately the certificate came quite promptly from GRO and as you can see on the left that Clifford's father is recorded as Jeremiah MALES farmer and Clifford MALES is a provision traveller.

Querying my research records built up over 40 years I only found 1 Jeremiah MALES despite having over 1600 MALES individuals in my records. The sole Jeremiah MALES had been an Ag. Lab. in Weston Hertfordshire and then subsequently a grocery shopkeeper in Stevenage.

This immediately rang bells with me. Was Clifford really Claris?

Looking at the records and the clues below I concluded Clifford was Claris.

Clifford and Mary had one son together Kenneth Richard MALES 1934-1992. Son Kenneth Richard also married and had several children. Kenneth Richard was living in Scotland when he died.