| Biography | Douglas Norman Spafford was born at Eccles, Lancashire 1890, son to Howsin Spafford, a merchant, and Lucy Spafford. Douglas also had two brothers, Christopher Howsin Spafford and William Oliver Spafford, both also born in Eccles.
By 1908 the family was living at The Beeches, Park Road, Buxton. In 1911, Douglas is recorded as studying at Oxford University in Holy Orders. Douglas lived near Vera Brittain, whose family lived at Haighleigh, Manchester Road and Melrose, Park Road, Buxton during this period.
After the First World War broke out, Douglas joined the army and in 1916 was sent initially to India, where he lived the life of a young officer in the Raj and got very bored and frustrated until he was finally sent with an Indian artillery regiment to Mesopotamia (Iraq) and saw action against the Turkish army.
After the war, Douglas became engaged to, and subsequently married, Nancy Garnett (Frances Alison Garnett), 1892-1980, at St John the Baptist Church in Buxton on the 14 June 1922, who had been his neighbour, living at Cold Springs, Manchester Road, Buxton, and by 1921 West House, Manchester Road, Buxton. At the time of his marriage, Douglas was a clerk in Holy Orders and living at 175 Walton Village, Liverpool. In 1939 he and Nancy were living at the New Rectory, Liverpool, where Douglas was still a clerk in Holy Orders.
Douglas died in October 1961 in the Dewsbury area of West Yorkshire. |
| Source | All England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
All England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
1901 and 1911 Census.
Electoral register (electoral roll) for the High Peak constituency 1911 (reference ER/HP/1911).
1939 England and Wales Register.
Derbyshire, England, Church of England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932.
Buxton Directory, 1908 (reference 914.251 BUX). |