Fannie Lucy Dawson-Croker
of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England
Fannie Lucy Dawson was born in December 1888 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England daughter of Frederick Whin Dawson and Anna Elizabeth Huggins and married William Henry Croker on June 29, 1926 in Toronto, Ontario, they had no children and lived at 23 Hiltz Ave in Toronto, Ontario, in a neighbourhood built by William's father who was a contractor. Auntie Fan and Uncle Bill as they were known in our house were a big part of my father’s life. They are buried at Pine Hills Cemetery in Scarborough, Ontario along with Fannie’s mother Anna Elizabeth Huggins Dawson, her sister Grace Penelope Dawson-Needham and her husband Alexander Carter Needham, their son Eric Carter Needham and my brother. When my parents passed we buried them there as well. Fannie Lucy Dawson arrived in Canada in 1911 with her mother and sister Ada. Their father Frederick Whin Dawson had died in 1909 and her sister Grace Penelope Dawson-Needham and her husband, Eric Carter Needham, had come to Canada in 1906. Her brother Charles Percival Dawson had left for a new life in Canada in 1909. Her older brother Frederick Vincent Dawson remained in England, enlisted for WWI, survived and eventually married Edith Emma "Daphne" Leach in 1930. his occupation was brewmaster, they had no children. Her older sister Nellie Lizzie Jemima Dawson remained in England and married Robert John Fowl Oldroyd and they had five children. Fannie remained in contact with her sisters family. The Cranstoun's lived on Alton Ave which was around the block from the Croker house on Hiltz Ave. With both his mother and father working, and marital problems, my father was left with his sister Vivian, with whom, at one time, he was very close to, but he would spend the majority of his time at Auntie Fan's. At the age of six years old my father had his own key to their house and his own room in the house, he was the child they never had. At one point in his life my father was approached by Uncle Bill who wanted to adopt him, as he knew what was going on in the family. I have mentioned earlier that my grandmother Ada disliked my father very much. In fact my father overheard his mother talking to their neighbour one day and learned he was a "mistake" and "unwanted", pretty harsh words to hear from your mother's mouth as a young child. Fannie Lucy Dawson Croker died at Riverdale Hospital in Toronto in 1979. The fallout and family squabbling after her death kept the family apart for another thirty five years. Click on pictures to enlarge.
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