Daucourt
The name Daucourt may have originated in France or Switzerland as these are the two countries where it is most common. However, it is a fairly uncommon name even there. There are only four D'Aucourts in the UK - my immediate family. My father changed the spelling of the name thinking it would have had an apostrophe in it. Having discovered more about my French great grandfather we later found that it was not spelled this way! Perhaps it used to have an apostrophe in the distant past and it was dropped at some point
Andre Louis Daucourt
Andre, my great grandfather, was born in Paris in 1889. He was the son of an engineer called Louis and lived in Buenos Aires for a short time when he was very young. Perhaps his father helped build the railways there? Andre came to England in about 1909 and married Elizabeth Simpson and they settled in Margate, Kent. He returned to France to serve in their army in the First World War. The photo below shows Andre (under the cross) in his infantry uniform.
In 1919 he came back, bringing his grandmother, Marie Antoinette Vriet, with him. Marie was born in 1846 in Monchig Humiere, France. Since she was 73 when she entered the UK I presume she died here. I started looking for a death record and got up to 1928 without finding one. Either she went back to France or she was was well over 80 when she died.
Andre was registered under the Aliens Act which meant he had to report to a police station whenever he changed address and job. He did this frequently so his ID book is quite full! He worked in various restaurants and hotels in London for much of his time in this country. Andre left his wife and children behind in Margate, sending them money now and then. The ID book states that he worked at Park Lane and Grosvenor House. According to my grandfather he was wine waiter to the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) at one hotel!
In 1926 Andre got a job on a ship, HMSP Almonzera, which was sailing to South America and back. During the six week trip he worked as a steward and kept a diary, written in very good English for a Frenchman! Click on the cover to read the diary.
Since Andre never became a naturalised British citizen the last entry in his ID book is his move to Littlehampton on the south coast to retire. The book was stamped in 1960 stating that he didn't have to report to the police any more.
At some point in the 1920s/1930s Andre met another woman and had a daughter who used the name Daucourt. We only discovered this fact when Andre's death certificate was requested by my grandmother. He died in 1977 and the certificate listed the informant as his daughter. It was through the daughter that we obtained the diary, Andre's First World War medals, his ID book and several photos. I have since discovered that Andre did remarry legally (I wasn't sure for a while!) - a few months after his first wife's death. His second wife had previously changed her surname to Daucourt by Deed Poll though.
Alfred Louis Robert Daucourt
Alfred was my grandfather, and was the third of Andre's four children. The eldest son, Andrew died in infancy in 1910. Marie was born in 1913 and Alfred was born in 1915.
At the start of World War Two Alf was called up to both the French and British Army! His father wrote a letter to the French consulate explaining that Alf would serve in the British Army. Since he didn't speak any French he would not have fared well in France! Alf served as a Batman in the Black Watch. I believe this was basically a servant to the senior officers. In 1944 he did get to go to France as part of the D-Day invasion. He arrived a few days after the main fleet, but was wounded by shrapnel and returned to the UK shortly afterwards.
Alf did many odd jobs in his time, but spent most of it employed by the council as a gardener in the parks. He also enjoyed gardening at home and grew lots of vegetables.
In 1946 Alf married Vera Steers from Westgate-on-Sea. They lived in Margate with Alf's mother Elizabeth (who died in 1956). Vera died in 1995 after a long battle with cancer. Alfred died in 2002 aged 87.
Famous Daucourts
The only person I have come across recently with this name is a Swiss mountain biker named Chantal.
Frenchman Pierre Daucourt made the first flight from Paris to Berlin in 1910. In 1913 he was the first person to try flying from Paris to Cairo. He crashed in the mountains of southern Turkey (uninjured) and was beaten to it before he could try again. Go to this web site for more information.