▶Date of birth: 16 April 1893     Place of birth: Nottingham

▶Father: William James Anton   Mother: Edith Emma Lyddon

▶Spouse(s): Raymond Walter Smith   Date(s) of marriage:  28 September 1931   Place(s) of marriage: All Saints Church, Cheltenham

▶Occupation:

▶Lifestory:  When Gertrude married Raymond they both gave their address as 13 Pittville Lawn, Cheltenham. Raymond was an Engineer with family connections in Hong Kong, which is where the couple went after they were married. 13 Pittville Lawn continued to be their address whenever they left or returned from their travels until the early 1950s, after which they settled in Prestbury.

When WW2 broke out in September 1939 it appears the couple and their son were then still in Hong Kong. They had returned to Pittville Lawn by 1940 as Raymond returns there in September 1940, giving his address as 13 Pittville Lawn. Gertrude remains here and she was reported in the Cheltenham Chronicle on the 25 January 1941 as being fined 30 shillings for black-out offences at no. 13. When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in December 1941 her husband and mother-in-law were taken prisoner. Raymond was moved to a POW camp in Japan in 1943 and was just 45 miles from Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped.

▶Moved to Pittville from:      Moved from Pittville to: Hong Kong

▶Date of death: Late 1975   Place of death: Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:     Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 15601

Contributor(s): David Drinkwater