Walter first turned up in the Tearle family tree as a son of Joseph Tearle 1878 and Rachel Elizabeth nee Parker, which meant he was a member of an exclusive family – the Preston Tearles. Joseph had earned a Silver War Badge in WW1 because of a debilitating illness he picked up while on active service. I was looking for the family of Tearle, whose mother was Parker and they lived in Preston, Lancashire. Rachel had nine children from 1902 all the way until 1923. And in 1918, there was Walter. The next document I found was for his marriage – Margaret E Mercer in 1941, in Preston. And that was it. In the years between 1919 and 1950, there was a paucity of documentation that made researching ordinary people in Britain very difficult. There were no Tearle children registered in Britain who had a mother whose maiden name was Mercer. Walter had disappeared. His story would have to wait until something turned up.

It has, but only in index form, and that will have to do us. Here is the first one, on a voting list in Canada, in 1957.

Name:Walter Sidney Tearle
Occupation:Production Mgr.,
First AveYear:1957
Location:Renfrew, Ontario, Canada
Electoral District:Renfrew South

There is a closely related family descended from Edward Tearle 1890 of Preston, in Calgary, Alberta, who fought with the Canadians in WW1, but Walter does not seem to have sought him out.

This index, not dated, is from U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2 but he has certainly moved from the cold winter of Canada:

Name:Walter S Tearle
Birth Date:3 Jun 1918
Address:286 NW 92nd Ter,
Coral Springs,
FL, 33071-6919

The next record, from Volume 1, in the series above, is dated:

Name:Walter S Tearle
Birth Date:3 Jun 1918
Address:1920 SW 97th Ave,
Miami, FL, 33165-7603 (1992)

Then we have the death record from the Florida Death Index, 1877-1998:
Name:Walter Sidney Tearle
Race:White
Age at Death:74
Birth Date:3 Jun 1918
Death Date:23 Sep 1992
Death Place:Broward, Florida, United States

And the death record issued by the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
Name:Walter S. Tearle
SSN:263-13-5802
Last Residence:33165 Miami, Miami-dade, Florida, USA
BORN:3 Jun 1918
Died:23 Sep 1992
State (Year) SSN issued:Florida (1966-1967)

It would appear that Walter moved to Florida and then received his American citizenship in 1966, so he was in Canada for less than ten years, and all we know about him was that he was good at running a factory. We do hope that he and Margaret had a pleasant life.

If I find out any more about him, I shall be certain to return to this page.