Alfons Jan and Isabel Garscia
Alfons Jan Garscia (or Garcia in some records) was born in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, on 20 November 1907, the son of Jan Garscia and Mary (née Augusxy-Nowicz). At eighteen months old, he lost his father, a policeman, who was shot and killed by a fellow officer on 23 February 1909 while attempting to arrest a resisting suspect. Following Jan's death, the US Consulate regarded Mary as a hardship case, and the police offered personal financial assistance should she need food or clothing. Mary was listed as a dressmaker in the 1910 United States census, but this may not have provided enough income to support her and Alfonso, and she may also have wanted to return to her family. On 26 June 1911, she and Alfons left Pennsylvania for Warsaw, then under Russian rule. By 1916, after settling in Gdansk, Alfons was recorded as an American citizen at the US Consulate.
In May 1936, he married Lucja in Warsaw, and they later moved to England together.
The date and circumstances of Alfons' arrival in England are unknown. By 12 November 1948, however, he was a British national living in Derby with his wife, Lucja; they divorced in May 1955. In early 1958, he married his second wife, Isabel Betty Bennett (née Redfern), in Surrey. He died the following year, on 13 September 1959, at the Manor Hospital in Nuneaton, although his home address was 17 Kingston Street, Derby. His death followed a car accident just outside Nuneaton. Alfons worked as an electronics engineer at Rolls-Royce, where in the mid-1950s he developed new apparatus and improved existing equipment, for which patents were later granted.
Isabel (Betty) Redfern was born in Hayfield, Derbyshire, on 17 December 1913, the younger daughter of Percy Redfern and his wife Edith née Barber. Her father was a journalist (sub-editor) and historian of the co-operative movement.
In 1939, aged 26, Isabel worked as a shorthand typist in Esher, Surrey. The following year, she married Herbert Samuel Tison Bennett, an accountant. They had two sons, Oliver, born in Derbyshire in 1943, and Christopher, born in Surrey in 1947. When Herbert died on 29 August 1949, the family lived at White Cottage, Newlands Corner, near Guildford.
In early 1958, Isabel married Alfons Jan Garscia, who died in a car accident on 13 September 1959.
Isabel was active in the local Amnesty International branch. She died at home in Leamington on 3 December 2014. Her funeral was held at Stoneleigh Church on 17 December; this would have been her 101st birthday.