The four children in the above photograph were born in New Zealand though whether to Clara or Jessie I cannot recall. What I do recall quite clearly and I remember it often being repeated, is that in the 1960's one of these children (by now in their late teens or early twenties) travelled to England, and while taking some photographs from the newly erected Cole Brothers building (a local large department store) fell down a lift shaft and died of his injuries. It was certainly reported in the Sheffield Star so a trawl through their archives should probably give me the exact date.

Hopefully sometime soon I will ask my mother to go over this story in more detail and try and establish a more comprehensive timeline of events.

Updates:
2007-07-31 Very exciting news. Descendants of the ASHFORTH / RENWICK line have left comments and sent an email regarding this post and provided further details of this branch of the family tree. I will endeavour to repost with corrections and amendments as soon as possible.

2007-08-02 I have amended, corrected and created a new post regarding the death of Douglas Roy WILLIAMSON 1940-1963. To read this update please click here.

2007-08-04 Using FreeBMD I have found a marriage record for Clara ASHFORTH 1895-1932 and Henry James WILLIAMSON 1894-1965. The marriage took place at Sheffield in the June quarter of 1919. To read this update please click here.

2009-01-28 Thanks to KW for kindly contacting me and providing a great deal of information regarding the families of Henry James WILLIAMSON 1894-1965, enabling me to correct and clarify this article.

It was Douglas Roy WILLIAMSON 1940-1963 who died as a result of injuries sustained in a fall. - KW

The four children in the photograph above were from the marriage of Henry James WILLIAMSON 1894-1965 and Clara WILLIAMSON (née Clara ASHFORTH) 1895-1932. - KW

Douglas Roy WILLIAMSON 1940-1963 was from the marriage of Henry James WILLIAMSON 1894-1965 and Jessie RENWICK 1908-1982. - KW

To read this update please click here.

2015-03-16 This link to Henry James WILLIAMSON 1894-1965 may help clarify the marriage details.

Old Comments:

ashforth/renwick
Submitted by susan horsfield on Sat, 2007-07-14 13:56
harry renwick is my great grandfather,clara renwick is my grand mother who married john barber ,my mothers name was joan barber and she had a sister called rene and a brother called jack.ernest renwick was my uncle ,my sister and i visit the ashforth and renwick graves at wardsend cemetary.we have several family photos of all these people and also frank and bob .i was born at 41 burton street where we used to live with my great grandparents,sadly my grandparents and my own parents are deceased, i would love to hear from anyone who knows of our family .the person who you mention that fell to his death from cole brothers was my mothers cousin dion williams (son of jessie from nz).please do not hesitate to contact me for more information if wanted. sue