Amended 31st May 2011

In the 1901 census, only one Gidman was in London.  Joseph, 23  single, was a Cowman in a dairy in Bermondsey in the parish of Christchurch  The 1901 index transcription incorrectly says his occupation is “carman”.  The form states he was born in Stapleford, Cheshire but in the 1881 census.it is given as nearby Clotton.   His parents give the full name “Bruen Stapleford” in 1901 but say Clotton for father Charles and adjacent Burton for mother Mary in 1881.  He was married on 26th October 1905 at St Mary, Whitechapel, age “24”, to Sarah Jane MORGAN, 25. They had three children: David James 1906, Gladys Mary 1908 and Richard 1914 but he died early 1915 to be followed shortly after by their mother.  Worse was to follow as on 24th May 1916 their father died of TB. 

It seems he was the Joseph who on 3 January 1911 was named amongst the injured, shot in the forehead, in the Sidney Street siege just across the river in Stepney.   I  imagine he was an unfortunate bystander, as reported at the time in the Manchester Guardian:  

“For several hours the police and a party of Scotch Guards poured a heavy fire upon the windows of the desperadoes' refuge. The men within fired back with revolvers. Altogether one police officer was seriously wounded, and several other persons, including some spectators, were slightly wounded.,,,,,, Just at the corner is the Rising Sun public-house, its Sidney-street side about 40 yards away from the firing .... and out upon the roof ...  I found a score or so of pressmen looking down into that pit of death. This was a post of some danger, and if the murderers had cared to risk exposure they could have easily sent bullets amongst us. Bullets had been flying about the street all the morning, ricocheting off from the walls in a highly unpleasant manner.... The soldiers could not be seen; they were, we knew, lying flat in the shelter of the opposite windows pouring their lead into the house. There was dead silence but for the reports; everybody watched and waited leisurely. Away on the roof of a brewery at the other end of the street there was another small crowd, and it was a curious thing to see in the upstairs windows along the street itself men and women sitting with their children on their knees. ...”

This was an event in which Winston CHURCHILL was directly in charge of around 1500 troops and police attacking three or four well armed anarchists who had previously killed three policemen.

• The births in the years after 1901 show an ever increasing geographical spread in the UK.  By numbers they are still predominantly in the north Midlands, STS in particular, but we stretch from Dover in the East to Devon in the South West and there is a significant YKS branch.

• The 244 births from 1984 to 2005 were in
  Staffordshire 90
  Lancashire    41
  Yorkshire       40
  Cheshire        19
  Others [25]     54
• 
  In 1918 James married  Elizabeth Hyslop THOMPSON. in Scotland.  She died in Ontario, Canada but in 1926 he married again, also in Scotland. Cecilia HENDERSON / WOOD was his wife.  Did they have any children?