This page is about grandparents Bill and Doris Spencer
Harry William Spencer
Harry William Spencer (but always known as Bill) was born on the 14th Nov 1903 at 5 Greenock Street, Armley. He was the son of Wilfred and Henrietta Spencer. He had three brothers Clifford, George and Arthur and two sisters Violet and Beatrice.
In the 1911 census they were living at 1 Warrels Place Bramley. The electoral rolls of the 1920s show them living at 34 Cedar Road, Armley.
Doris May Spencer (nee Revell)
Doris May Revell was born on the 8th May 1905. She was the daughter of Joseph and Laura Revell. She had four sisters, Dorothy, Winifred, Marjory and Connie and three brothers, Wilfred, Reginald and Royston
.In the 1911 census, they were living on Armley Road. The electoral registers of the 1920s show them living at 25 Noster Hill in Holbeck.
Their Married Life
Bill and Doris married in1926 and lived on Tong Road, Armley. They had four children.
Bill followed in his father’s footsteps and became a builder. He worked for his father with his brothers and their business was called W Spencer and Sons. During the war most of the work was on schools and the railways and for Blakeys Boot Protectors Ltd. There is a mention of the business in the 1947 Yorkshire Post which says the business was then on Halliday Drive, Armley. After his father died he ran the business with his brother Arthur.
Doris tried to get a job in the munitions factory during the war, but failed the health check. Instead she went to work for an engineering firm. After the war she worked part time in her father’s shop. This was on the new estate in Middleton (89, Middleton Park Road).
Also during the war, their children were evacuated to Lincoln.
Bill and Doris were divorced around 1953.
After the Divorce
Doris later moved to Filey where she worked at Butlins. She had a stroke when she was about 49 and about ten years later, she died in 1965 following a brain haemorrhage.
Bill married again to Olga Patricia Jackson in 1959. They were divorced in 1973. He married for a third time to Kathleen Joan Johnson.
Joan died of a stroke in 1986. Bill died at home (20 St Mary’s Close) of lung cancer on the 3rd May, 1999.