Remarks:
Dorothy Kathleen Radcliffe (nee Duffin) was left a widow at the age of 23 after her husband Captain Miles Radcliffe was killed in action near Ypres in December 1914.
She received a widow's pension of £100 a year until it was stopped by the War Office in November 1916 for her alleged 'immoral conduct' in entertaining military officers at her home 103 Manchester Road, Southport which was next door to the 5th Manchester Regiment at 101 Manchester Road.
She was also accused of booking into the Lion Hotel with a man signed as 'Harold Langham Radcliffe' . Her sister Mrs Mealing, who had just left her husband, was also booked into the hotel with another man.
(Mrs Mealing's husband, 11660 Corp. Mealing, R.F.A Shoeburyness, had called at Leeds Police station to say his wife was missing from her home The Laurels, Hull Road, York which led to the police investigation)
Dorothy Kathleen Radcliffe wrote to the War Office asking on what grounds her widow's pernsion had been stopped and claimed that she would be in poverty especially as her 3 year old son Claude was paralysed and needed regular massage from a hospital doctor at £40 a year in order to improve. The War Office decided it was best not to reply.
She enrolled in the Air Ministry in April 1918.
Certificate of discharge:
Air force trade: Clerk General
Her work has been very good.
5ft 3in, slight build, brown eyes, brown/reddish hair
enrolled on 17.4.18
demobilised on 1.8.19
at H.Q. York
References:
Service record of Captain Miles Radcliffe: WO 339/5895, National Archives, Kew.
Air Personnel record of Dorothy Kathleen Radcliffe: AIR 80/198/54