Jack Wiltshire/Wilshire/Wel...

from Rodney Deitch (5 March 2012): "My mother said of Jack Wiltshire: He was poor and a widower when Pearl was born. He scraped a living as a carter. She remembered him gentle and good-natured. He had a goat-cart, in which he delivered items in Castle Carey and environs. My mother remembered being put in the cart and pulled by the goat when she was probably four years old (which would make the year 1921). She also remembered that she was sometimes sent by her parents “round the corner to the pub” to tell Jack that his lunch was ready. Sometimes he stood her on a chair in the pub and she sang. On one occasion she entered the bar and thought Jack was dead because he was lying on the floor. Very drunk, but not dead. His fellow drinkers carried him home, one of them carrying Pearl. I assume Jack died for real soon afterwards, between 1921 and 23. That’s all I know."

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Wikipedia re Castle Cary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Cary

"Castle Cary is a market town and civil parish in south Somerset, England, 5 miles (8 km) north west of Wincanton and 8 miles (12.9 km) south of Shepton Mallet. The town is situated on the River Cary, a tributary of the Parrett."