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Biographical notes on miscellaneous players from outside Yorkshire and Lancashire.

(See Person Index for main alphabetic index.)

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John Henry Dunford

Birth:

15/07/1870, Nottingham [1939 Register]

Death:

20/08/1943 at Nottingham General Hospital [probate], aged 73

Parents:

Railway guard John Dunford (born 1846/47, Ketton, Rutlandshire) and Eliza Jane Dunford (née Hind, 1848, Chesterfield)

Siblings:

Adolphus Edward Dunford, born 1874/75, Nottingham

Maria Emma Dunford, born 1880, Nottingham

Education:

High Pavement School, Nottingham; Nottingham University College.  Fellow of Chartered Institute of Secretaries [Nottingham Journal]

Marriage:

to Lucy Freeman (born 21/10/1869, Nottingham), 1897 Nottingham

Children:

Cyril Freeman Dunford, born 1901, Nottingham

Edward Dunford, born 1877, Nottingham

Maria Emma Dunford, born 1880, Nottingham

Alice Dunford, born 1882/83, Nottingham

Thomas Dunford, born 1887/88, Nottingham

Residence,

Occupation:

02/04/1871 [census]: (elusive)

03/04/1881 [census]: 2 Finkhill Place, Nottingham; scholar

05/04/1891 [census]: 46 Bruce Grove, Nottingham; lace warehouseman

c. Nov 1897 or before to  c. Oct 1899 [chess records]: Grimsby – reason for being in Grimsby unclear, presumably work-related

31/03/1901 [census]: 48 Villa Street, Draycott, Derbyshire (c. 10 miles SE of centre of Nottingham); secretary to glue & bone works

02/04/1911 [census]: 69 Lady Bay Road, West Bridgford; chartered secretary to bone works

29/09/1939 [register]: 69 Lady Bay Road, West Bridgford; chartered secretary

20/08/1943 [probate]: 69 Lady Bay Road, West Bridgford

Chess:

He was active as a player in Nottingham from about 1890, an early match appearance being on 04/10/1890 in a Nottingham Mechanics v St George’s Birmingham match.  He played both for Nottingham clubs and Nottinghamshire.  He played in both North of England v South matches, of 1893 and 1894.  He was playing in Nottingham up to 1896, but had moved to Grimsby by 1898.

While in Grimsby he played 8 games for Grimsby against Hull, winning seven games and drawing the other.  (That may have been 4 matches with 2 games per match.)  When he left Grimsby the club made an honorary life member.  How long he was there is unclear, but was probably at least two years.

He was then active in Nottingham from late 1899 to World War I.  He was Notts. county captain from 1904 to World War I.  He appears to have withdrawn from over-the-board chess in the immediate post-war period.

When the Notts County Chess Association was revived in 1922, he was made a vice-president, and he was pressurised to resume over-the-board play.  He was evident after the war from 1923.  On 13/09/1929 he visited the AGM of Codnor Park & District Chess Club, and took on thirteen members simultaneously winning eleven and drawing two.  On 13/12/1930, he played for Nottinghamshire against Lancashire in the English Counties final, Nottinghamshire’s first appearance in the final; Lancashire won; after this he retired from match play.  In 1931 he was president of West Bridgford Chess Club, and presumably for some time after, though he seems not to have played for them in matches.  In June 1939 he replaced Mr. T. H. Tylor as Midland representative on the B.C.F. council and executive.  He “came out of retirement” to play for Nottingham Mechanics against Mansfield on 26/06/1943, and this may have been his last chess match.

“The late Mr. J. H. Dunford, twice “Mayor” of West Bridgford, was one of the finest chess players in the Midlands.  He not only composed over 60 chess problems but had drawn against such acknowledged chess masters as Gunsberg (1888), Lee (1891), Dr. Lasker and Maroczy (1900) and H. E. Atkins, British Champion.  Mr. Dunford played for Notts. against Hull four times and won every game.  He used to play top board for the Institutes Association and the late Mr. J. A. Dixon’s team, and ever encouraged promising youngsters.” [Nottingham Journal, 23/08/1943]  One draw with Atkins was in a match Nottingham v Leicester played at Leicester on 16/03/1895.  He apparently drew another game with Atkins.  The draw with Lee was in a simultaneous display given by Lee.  The other draws mentioned were presumably also in such displays.

Notes:

In1900 he was appointed secretary to Hall’s Glue & Bone Works Ltd, Trent Side Works, Holme Street, Meadow Lane, Nottingham, and was appointed managing director in 1915.  He was chairman of the local Urban District Council (a post sometimes humorously termed “Mayor” of West Bridgford) on two occasions.  He served in various ways various local bodies and organisations, and was connected with Order of Foresters for 69 years. [Nottingham Journal 23 August 1943, which listed a number of those bodies and organisations]

 

(from Kelly’s 1904 directory of Nottinghamshire)

 

 

William Slater Fazan

Birth:

1850, Kensington district of London

Death:

1929, Wandsworth district of London

Parents:

Daniel Slater Fazan (born 1821/22, Fulham) owner of a butchery business, and Frances Fazan (née Slater 1822/23, Charlton, Kent) who married in 1843, in the Kensington district of London

Siblings:

Frances Fazan, born 1844/45, Kensington

Anne Jane Fazan, born 1846/47, Kensington

William Slater Fazan, born Jul/Aug 1850, Kensington

Marriage:

to Annie Beck (born 1853/54, Kensal Green), 1876, Kensington district of London

Children:

William Daniel Fazan, born 1877, Shepherds Bush

Ernest James Fazan, born Nov/Dec 1880, Shepherds Bush

Gertrude Frances Fazan, born 1885/86, Milburn

Arthur Cecil Fazan, born 1890/91, Milburn

Residence,

Occupation:

30/03/1851 [census]: 6 Edwards Terrace, Kensington

07/04/1861 [census]: 6 Edwards Terrace, Kensington

02/04/1871 [census]: (elusive)

03/04/1881 [census]: 216 Gold Hawk Road, Hammersmith, living with parents; butcher, having taken over from now-retired father

05/04/1891 [census]: 242 Belsize Road, Hampstead; butcher

31/03/1901 [census]: 33 Crescent Lane, Clapham; commercial clerk (having sold butchery business?)

02/04/1911 [census]: 15 Rossiter Road, Balham; shorthand writer

Chess:

“W. S. Fazan” features in newspaper reports of chess events over the period 1893 to 1905, and was presumably active before and after that period.  He was associated with the Ludgate Circus and Clapham Chess Clubs.  Outside internal club chess and inter-club team chess, he played in both the North of England and South matches, of 1893 and 1894.  He would give simultaneous displays at smaller clubs.  At Hornsey Chess Club, on 03/10/1894, he reportedly won 8, drew 4, and lost 2.  At Dunstable Chess Club, on 02/10/1905, we won 10 games and lost 1.

 

 

 

Created

13/11/2020

Stephen John Mann

Census information is copyright of The National Archive, see UK Census Information

Last Updated

22/11/2020