John Arthur Frederick d'Ernée
born 23 September 1864
died 1 September 1949
Islington, Liverpool, co Lancaster
died 1 September 1949
Islington, Liverpool, co Lancaster
John went to school at Brighton. He passed the stiff Civil Service Exam and was accepted as a junior clerk at the Admiralty, Whitehall, London. John Arthur Frederick d'Ernée followed a most respected accounting career in the Admiralty, rising to the position of second to the Paymaster, keeping the accounts of RN Officers from the rank of Captain to the First Sea Lord (Lord Jellico in WWI). A chance encounter with Lord Jellico, suprised at John using public transport to deliver the payroll, employed his chauffeur to drive him from then on to Somerset House in his Rolls Royce.
Earlier, he worked for the Royal Liver Company, the port of Liverpool authority. He stood about 5"8" tall and was a very fine pianist, enjoying Gilbert & Sullivan, Grieg and most of the lighter classics. He had a wonderful sense of humour. Thirty happy years of retirement were spent at Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
By his first marriage to Nellie Young, John had two children, Vyvyan Arthur and a daughter. Doris Winnifred. Nellie, an actress, was quite young when she died. His second marriage to Mary Anne Frost, a widow, produced two sons, Basil and Richard, and two daughters May and Lillian.
During the 1930s, John sent books from England to his grandson John Victor Dernee in Sydney.
Xmas 1936: "John, with love from Grandad, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, England" was inscribed in the Half-hours Underground - Volcanoes, Mines and Caves, London: Daldy Isbister & Co. 1877.
Christmas 1938 he chose The History of Sandford and Merton - A Book for the Young by Thomas Day, London, T. Nelson & Sons, 1882.
In his will, he bequeathed all his real and personal estate unto Vivian D'Ernee, Doris D'ernee (married name Knight), Arthur Frederick D'Ernee (Basil) and Frederick William Frost.
His last address was 24, Paradise, Hemel Hempstead in the county of Hertford.
His parents are Eliza and Charles Moore Jones (the d'Ernée was not adopted until 1868, and apparently the common Jones was dropped in the same generation).