Alan Edward Hanson was born in the Wallasey area on 25th May 1895. He was the son of Daniel Hanson (born Barnsley) and his wife Annie (nee Green) who was born in Birmingham. They had married in Birkenhead in 1891.
The 1901 census recorded the family living at 11, Park Road in Poulton cum Seacombe, which was part of Wallasey. The father was a bookkeeper for a canal carrier. Alan Edward was five years old and he had one brother Daniel D. aged eight years and three sisters: Lois Mary Davies (7), Frances (1) and Emily Madeleine who was less than a year old. Mary M. Hanson, who was a 26-year-old widowed nurse, also lived with them. They had had one other child, Elizabeth Pauline Annie who had died at a year old in 1899.
Ten years later the family now included Arthur who was born in 1906. They lived at 21, Lonsboro Road in Seacombe. 15-year-old Alan was a clerk to an iron merchant and his older brother Daniel was a university student. His sister Lois was also a student.
Alan’s service records showed that he enlisted in April 1915 at Liverpool at the age of 19 years and 300 days. At the time he was living at 26, Mill Lane in Liscard on Wirral. He was in the Denbighshire Hussars 2/1st Battalion (service number 1139) which was a territorial force and then he transferred to 2/2 Glamorgan Royal Engineers (service number 126597). In August 1916 he was in Worcester, in the Wireless section of the regular Royal Engineers, working as a telegraphist (a wireless operator). He went absent without leave for four days in January 1917 and was reduced to the rank of Sapper. He also was absent after 10pm. from his billet without being able to produce a pass on 10th February 1917, for which he received four days C.B.(confined to barracks). He received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his war service.
It would appear that Alan married Christina E. Frazer at Morpeth in Northumberland in the summer of 1916. She had a daughter called Christian Elizabeth Annie on 19th March 1917. A letter from his wife on 22nd April 1917 asks for a separation allowance to be permitted as she was separated from her husband who was on military service.
Alan was on the absent voters’ list for Preston on the Hill for 1918 at Brook House by the Bridgewater Canal. By the autumn of 1919 he was back at Brook House as a resident. Christina was not living there. His father died in Runcorn in 1923 aged 64 years, so the family must have moved to Runcorn around the time of the Great War.
On 12th August 1922, Alan sailed on the “Canada” from Liverpool to Montreal. He was a manager working in an electric company. He gave his last address as 41, Colehill Road in Teddington, Middlesex which was the home of his older brother Daniel. He intended to live in Canada.
He travelled again to North America in February 1927, giving his address as Norton Lodge, Waldegrave Road, Teddington, Middlesex. He sailed on the “Aquitania” from Southampton to New York. He gave his occupation as an accountant. He crossed into the USA via Vermont and gave his intended final destination as Stratford, Connecticut. He was described as 5’7’’ tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.
In 1927, an Alan Edward Hanson married Ada Winifred MacKenzie in New York. She had been born in Kingston, Surrey in 1893 and in 1911 was a shorthand writer and typist.
The 1939 register showed Alan Edward Hanson, who was a metallurgist, as living at 56, High Drive in Malden, Surrey. He was married, but no wife was present. His wife Ada Winifred was living at the home of his older brother Daniel and his wife Hilda in Broom, near Alcester in Warwickshire. Daniel was a university professor and with them was living Ann Hanson, his mother, who was incapacitated. Ann Hanson died in 1947 aged 89 years. Christina E. Hanson, married, was living in Morpeth with her daughter and her elderly mother.
Alan Edward Hanson died on 23rd May 1969 at Hillingdon in Middlesex, 17 years after the death of his wife Ada. He was 74 years old.