Dorothy Jane (Dora) Besford (later Hornsby) (1915–2018)
Dora Besford spent two years training to be a teacher at City of Leeds Training College, and returned to teach at Hirst North Girls School.
Bedlington
Bedlington is a town in Northumberland about 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. Its ironworks, established in the eighteenth century, made nails and later locomotives.
Coal was mined around the town from 1838 until the pits closed in the 1980s.
David Besford (1919–2015)
David Besford worked for the Cooperative Wholesale Society in Newcastle, where he met his future wife Joan Matthews. He drove a fire engine during the Second World War, and later joined the Civil Service.
George Bestford (1897–1968)
George Bestford was born at Bensham, Gateshead. He served in the First World War, and later moved to Pretoria where he joined the South African Police.
William Thomas Besford
William Thomas Besford worked as a miner before becoming landlord of The Waterloo Hotel at Amble, Northumberland.
Catherine (Kate) Besford (later Gordon)
Catherine Besford worked as a general servant in a household in Bedlington. In 1903 she married Robert Gordon, a coal miner, at Gateshead Register Office.
Harry Besford (1921–1992)
Henry Besford, always known as Harry, went to school in Bedlington and then studied Physics, becoming a Senior Medical Physicist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
Mary Besford (later Ferguson) (1822–1883)
Mary Besford was born on the farm where her parents were living and working. She worked on the farm, and later as a dressmaker.
William Besford (1823–1906)
William Besford worked as a coal miner until he retired, and was later recorded at age 77 to be working as a grocer in the 1891 census.