I had always suspected that Fred Cowling's wife had died before he went off to fight in WW1. This was confirmed when I saw Fred's papers in the National Archives last October - he was described as a widower when he enlisted. But what had happened to his wife Lillie? The details remained obscure to me - until this week. I found death records which showed that there was a Lillie Cowling who had died in Q1 of 1914, but that was in Gateshead. The family had lived in Ferryhill, Co