Talk:Kathleen Byron

Death

According to the Brit Movie forum, Byron has died.[1] News sources need to confirm, though. --From Andoria with Love (talk) 11:16, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Obituary in The Guardian -- SteveCrook (talk) 15:20, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Year of birth

This article states 1921. In the External Links, BFI and IMDb both state she was born in 1923, The Guardian obituary states 1921, but that some sources state 1923; German Wikipedia states 1923. Does anyone know for certain which year she was born? Nietzsche 2 (talk) 19:55, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I think the 1921 date is the more correct. When I got the message from her daughter that she'd died she added that the family had just celebrated Kathleen's 88th birthday. It's not unknown for an actress to adjust her birth date to shave a couple of years off her age -- SteveCrook (talk) 23:45, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

The obituary in The Times says Byron was born Kathleen Elizabeth Fell in London in 1921, but changed her name after it was suggested that her surname made it sound as though she had taken a tumble. Given the nature of the role of Sister Ruth, it was remarkably appropriate.

Looking through the records at www.1901censusonline.com there is no sign of anyone with a name anything like Kathleen Byron born in London anywhere close to 1921. But there was a Kathleen E. Fell born in West Ham in the first quarter of 1921 (stored at [2]). I am sure we've found our girl :) -- SteveCrook (talk) 11:50, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

That's it. She was also described in The Esthameian July 1960 (EHGS school magazine) as "Kathleen Byron (nee Fell, 1932-37) is currently appearing as Mrs. De la Roux in "Emergency Ward 10" on ATV" - which fits with the earlier date. The Telegraph initially had the date wrong, but it was corrected in the on-line version. Kbthompson (talk) 19:04, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

"Byron Avenue" is the name of a street in East Ham (Manor Park); so, a good bet that's where they lived! Kbthompson (talk) 19:07, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

"West Ham"-"East Ham" - at that time, West Ham, (ie Stratford) was the registration district for both East and West Ham. It is likely she was born at East Ham hospital, or at home. Unusually, she could have been born in Forest Gate maternity - which was in the Municipal Borough of West Ham. Kbthompson (talk) 00:14, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

see East Ham was a sub-district of West Ham - until 1935. Kbthompson (talk) 14:01, 13 March 2009 (UTC)