A Brief History of Family X
The following is a chapter in a series about the evolution of the famed family X.
Walter X never knew his biological father, Harry X, who died one year after Walter’s birth in Pretoria in 1916. Since Lucy Champion and Harry were divorced shortly before Harry’s death, we cannot be 100% positive that Harry was Walter’s biological son. Lucy married Walter Harry Evans less than a year after Harry X’s death. Walter Evans was Lucy’s second marriage to an English emigrant.
Interestingly, Walter Evans arrived in South Africa around the same time as Harry X. While Harry’s occupation was a bricklayer, Walter was a soldier with the English Royal Engineers during the Second Boer War. According to his enlistment records, he was 19 years old, just under five feet, seven inches tall, and weighed 132 pounds.
Walter Evans returned to England after his military service, but returned to South Africa before 1918 after spending some time knocking around Australia.
Lucy and Walter Evans were married in 1918, less than a year after Harry X’s death and two years after Walter X’s birth. Although Walter Evans died when Walter X was 14, Walter Evans was the only father Walter X ever knew.
Walter X’s first occupation was a moulder. In the British world, this typically refers to someone who undertakes the final decorative work for a building project. It also means someone who creates moulds (molds in American English) to pour material into. This suggests that Walter X was intelligent and detail-oriented.
Walter X’s moulder career was interrupted by World War II. His military assignments were in military intelligence and cryptography.
In May 1944, Walter married Cora Amelia Robinson in Johannesburg, South Africa. Like Harry X and Walter Evans, Cora left England for South Africa. Cora was born in Liverpool, grew up poor during the Great Depression, and immigrated to South Africa around 1943. Cora and Walter X promptly had two X sons, Errol Graham in 1946 and Michael in 1952.
The X family history repeated itself. Cora was not very happy in her marriage to Walter. She was an independent woman with a career as a furrier. She took her children back to Fleetwood, north of Blackpool, England, at least once. While there is no record of a formal divorce or separation, family interviews disclose that Walter became a sullen, unhappy, drunken man.
