The death of Major Charles Graham Steadman was registered in West Surrey RD in February 2006. He died February 18th and is buried at the Bordon Military Cemetery in Hampshire, England.
He was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, in November 1914 and had joined the Army before 1940 when a notice of his commission was announced in the London Gazette. He served in the Burma Campaign during World War II and was a Prisoner of War in Thailand.
I am looking for a copy of his obituary to see if he was the Charles G Steadman who married Constance Marjorie Green in Hemsworth, Yorkshire, in 1936 and the grandfather of the famous Rugby player and coach, Graham Steadman.
Constance is listed in the 1939 UK register as married, but her husband is not included in the family listing. Or anywhere as far as I can see. They had Barbara in Doncaster in 1937 and twin sons Graham and Malcolm in 1939 in Hemsworth. There may be several other children but those are only ones in Yorkshire. Charles G either died or divorced Constance before 1959 as she married Stanley Shillito in 1959 and died in Pontefract in 2000.
Hopefully, some kind person with good access to English newspapers can help answer this question.
I believe the mystery has been mostly solved after finding (with the help of Guild Members and others) additional records. The key was discovering that Charles G Steadman and Constance Marjorie Green had another child Malcolm James Graham Steadman about May 1936 in Sheffield. He died there in November of 1936 and was buried in City Road Cemetery in Sheffield. The burial record gave the father’s name as Charles Graham Steadman.
Another important observation was the lone newspaper reference found. It was in the South Yorkshire Times from 28 October 1939. From the snippet that was found: “Staff Sergeant Charles G. Steadman is also doing his part with the Army. Charles married Donald’s eldest sister, Miss Marjorie Green, who was a staff nurse…” This shows that at time of 1939 UK Register, Charles was in the Army.
Lastly, another researcher discovered that the Electoral rolls in Farnham, Surrey, in early 2000s showed Charles G Steadman with a presumed wife Olga. Olga was Olga Maria Carmen Rosa (Gliottone) Bager whom he married in late 1956 in London. I then discovered that they had a child together in 1953 in York: Charles P M G Steadman. (Can we assume that “affair” may have finally precipitated a divorce?)
So now I am asserting that Charles Graham Steadman was the grandfather of Graham Steadman, the rugby player and coach. So what does this tell us of their deeper ancestry?
The earliest Steadman ancestry I have been able to determine is to his great-grandparents William Steedman (c.1802-1850) and Mary Ann Graham (c. 1799-1883). William was born in Nottinghamshire, but several Williams were born there at about that time. Mary Ann was born at Everton, Notts., and again her parents are not obvious without much more work. It is evident though that she was a force within family as the forename Graham persists within branches of the family to present time.
The fact that William comes from Nottinghamshire is interesting in that some of us believe that this county is one of the earliest Stedman homes. In my next website update, I will include this family in some detail.