Sunday, November 7, 2010

on behalf of one veteran

This morning it was my intention to post a page from the defunct family history site, a page that commemorates those in our (extended) family that served in the military and went to war ……. some came home, some did not. Then, two headline stories caught my eye, one on the audacious disguise that failed for an illegal refugee from the far east and the other on the proposed changes to Veterans’ benefits. What leapt to my mind was the outrage our Dad would have felt at each of them.

Dad arrived in Canada from Scotland in the late 1920s with his parents. He was old school – you worked therefore you ate - so did your family. As a product of those times he would have been astounded that someone would even attempt to sneak into our country wearing a disguise and then to top it off be supplied with food, housing and all the necessities while waiting for unnamed bureaucrats to decide their fate. That we as a country could have homeless families and jobless youth and yet still accept people from elsewhere who immediately end up being government-supported would have been beyond the pale.

Even more demoralizing would have been that we as a country had allowed this deplorable situation to develop on one hand while attempting to take away from Veterans with the other. Were he aware of the costs of health care today, the (de)value of the dollar and the lump-sum payment proposal he would be horrified. The military fought for their country and as such should be able to count on that country in time of need. That being said, there was only one reason in his estimation that anyone should call on the VA for help – military wounded and/or incapacitated during service was who the pensions were for, as well as their dependents; those who needed extensive medical care (no government medical insurances existed for anyone back then).

Admittedly being part of the Commonwealth had allowed for his parents’ routine entry into our country and everyday jobs were not difficult to come by .. but still, nobody handed you a damn thing. You were not paid if you were ill – he even went to work with a full-blown case of the mumps because he knew the family needed his salary. Dad’s way of thinking may have been somewhat extreme – he for instance did not want to avail himself of the “unemployment insurance” that was temporarily available when he retired – it took Mum months to convince him that he need not be embarrassed to ’collect’; nor did he ever consider applying for any kind of help or support from Veterans’ Affairs. Handouts. It would have been dishonest to accept any support when he was perfectly capable of working.

His views on the world situation may seem a bit bizarre to some – each year the minister from our church used to visit parishioner’s homes in order to obtain donation commitments. He arrived armed with ‘collection’ envelopes – you were expected to pledge for the year and donate a portion each week. Each envelope had two sections, one for the church and the other for missionary activities. Dad flat out refused to give to any missions – it was his firm belief that a goodly proportion of the world’s wars may never have happened had no-one been allowed to travel afar forcing their beliefs on whomever they encountered. “What gives us the right?” he would ask.

Dad, in my heart I know you can see this and I hope I have not presumed …… I think I got it right …. Stop accepting immigrants unless they have a job to come to and don’t take a damned thing away from the vets who fought and are still fighting to make this country the envy of the world.

Thanks Dad


Saturday, November 6, 2010

Remembrance Day 2010


Thank you

  • Lance-Corporal William King #31265,15th Battalion Royal Scots
            • killed in Belgium on Sunday, 14th April 1918 at age 20. William was the son of William and Lizzie Matthew King of Lochee, Scotland, born on the 12th of January 1898 at 12 Henry Lane. His father William was a yarn dyer and his mother Lizzie a jute weaver - he was our Nan's brother. His death is commemorated at the Ploegsteert Memorial (Panel 1) in Comines-Warneton, Hainaut, Belgium. The memorial commemorates over 11,000 men who have no known grave. They fought in 1914 or 1918 on Belgian soil beside French troops, and died in France or Belgium when the frontier was of little interest in this area in which trench warfare lasted longest. The following exerpt from the Royal Scots 1914-1918 War History would seem to describe the conditions under which he died ..."Our defensive cordon was drawn close round Bailleuil on the night of the 13th/14th April 1918, and during the readjustments that were effected under cover of darness the 15th and 16th Royal Scots were sent up to the station at Bailleuil and aligned along the railway. From midday on the new position became the target of German gunfire but our casualties were few".
            • In 1922, William King was posthumously awarded the British War Medal & Victory Medal. The 5 inch wide circular placque is inscribed around its' circumference with the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' and has the figures of Victory and a lion in the center. The placque is accompanied by a letter from the Record Office and another from Buckingham Palace signed by the His Majesty the King.

Lance-Corporal George D'All #63260,3rd Battalion, Canadian Infantry, Central Ontario Regiment

killed on Tuesday, 13th of June 1916 at age 40. George was born in 1875 in Dundee, son of Alexander D'All and Mary Jane McDowell. He was our grandfather's uncle. Alexander had died when George was four, so his mother brought up their three sons, George, Samuel and Alexander. George married Jessie Gow Robertson in 1895, and they had five daughters who survived infancy - Mary , Jessie, Jeannie, Margaret and Georgina. The girls were left orphans upon George's death, their mother Jessie having passed away in 1913.His death is commemorated at the Ypres Memorial, Menin Gate in Belgium. The Memorial is dedicated to the men who were lost without trace during the defence of the Ypres Salient in the First World War.

Sergeant John Arthur Stockwood # 2869 Rifle Brigade, 10th Battalion

killed September 3rd 1916 in Belgium,age 38, his death is commemorated on the rial, as well as in the nave of Holy Cross Church, Cowbridge and the Cowbridge War Memorial. Son of John Stockwood and Rachel Thomas, he was born in Cowbridge in 1878. He left his wife Beatrice Naunton Davies and three young children, Marion, Alick and Arthur Mervyn.

2nd Lieutenant Lawrence Finlay Stockwood, Household Battalion

killed 12 October 1917, aged 20. His death is commemorated at the Cement House Cemetery, Langemark-Poelkapelle, Belgium. Son of Samuel Henry Stockwood and Alice Emma Taylor, he was born in Bridgend in 1897.

Daniel Joseph Linehan Bombardier - 147th Garrison Field Artillery

Our beloved Irish Grandad, Daniel left Ireland at age 12 to work in the pits at Coed Ely. Later in life he moved his family to Surrey, where my younger brother and I were born in his home in Worcester Park. Grandad died in Surrey in 1962 at the age of 71.


Joseph Albert Parsons, Unit 73rd Battalion and 13 Battalion Royal Hospital Corps, CEF


Joseph, born in Liverpool of Somerset origins, married Mary Robertson D'All, daughter of George D'All who had been killed in Belgium. Joseph & Mary's descendants are spread from the Maritime Provinces to British Columbia. He died in Montreal in the 1980.

Major the Reverend Alfred Beauchamp Payne

born at Cowbridge, September 17th, 1882, son of Thomas Payne & Mary Elizabeth Susan Stockwood. Appointed chaplain 60th Rifles, 1913. Volunteered for active service with this Battalion in 1914 and proceeded overseas. Appointed chaplain 11th Battalion at Valcartier; when the battalion was broken up at Salisbury Plains was appointed chaplain of No.1, C.C.S., with which unit he served until his return to Canada. Married Marion Frances Moore (daughter of the Reverend William Moore, Rector of Lyndhurst, Ont.); the couple lived in Saskatchewan where he was appointed Rector of Shaunavon in 1923.

Colonel Illtyd Henry Stockwood, South Wales Borderers

born at Porthcawl 29 July 1892, son of Samuel Henry Stockwood & Alice Emma Taylor, he served with the South Wales Borderers during WWI in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, as well as with the Tank Corps & the RAF in France and Belgium. WWII saw him again serving with the Borderers in the UK and in troopships. He died in 1932.

Private William Bertram Stockwood, 11th Battalion CEF (CAMC)

born at Cowbridge 26 March 1884, son of John Stockwood & Rachel Thomas, William emigrated to Canada before WWI and enlisted in the CEF at Valcartier, Québec on 23 September 1914. He served in France and England, married Emma Tuffs in 1915 and was invalided out in 1919 at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He died 25 November 1952 in Victoria, British Columbia.

Inspector William Scrimgeour D'All Hong Kong Police Force

William, born in Dundee in 1904 to Samuel D'All & Agnes Dryden Scrimgeour,joined the Hong Kong Police Force on 18 May 1928. He married Helena Middleton Gauld in 1933 in Dundee, and was in Hong Kong when it fell to the Japanese in 1941. What follows is a newspaper interview with William almost a year and a half after he returned to Scotland.


Mr. D'All said that he had been a civilian policeman in Hong Kong for the past nineteen years. About three weeks after Japan declared war on the Allies, they captured Hong Kong. "Fortunately," said Mr. D'All, "my wife and family had been evacuated to Australia before this took place." He, with many others, was taken to Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong, which housed 2500 internees. Close by was another large camp for military personnel. "Christmas Day 1941" said Mr. D'All rather ironically, "was the day I was taken inside the barbed wire compound, and there I remained until I was released in early September 1945. We were given no time to go home for any extra clothing and necessaries, but hustled off to Camp in the clothes in which we stood." In the words of Mr. D'All, "Camp life was pretty grim." They had two meals a day, if they could be called meals which consisted of two small bowls of rice with a little vegetables among it. Many died from beriberi and more suffered from malnutrition. "Only on two occasions," said Mr. D'All, "would the Japanese allow Red Cross parcels to get through." They had to work five hours every day, which may not seem too long, but in their weak state it was a punishment. The work was of an agricultural nature. The only relief to a really horrible existence were the frequent bombing raids made on Hong Kong by squadrons of American aircraft."

William retired from the Force on 30 December 1946 and spent the rest of his life in Dundee. He received two civilian commendations for help given to other prisoners during his time in the camp. He passed away in Dundee, where his surviving son Ian and his family live, in April of 1977. William's service is mentioned on Tony Banham's "Not The Slightest Chance", a site dedicated to the defence of Hong Kong, 1941.


Corporal Harry King D'All Royal Montréal Regiment (32nd Reconnaissance Regiment)

born in Dundee in 1921 to Harry Bruce D'All & Helen (Nell) King, he emigrated to Canada with his parents in the early 1930's. He was in the Black Watch (Montréal) Cadets and enlisted in the RMR in 1939, serving in England in the Reconnaissance Troop. The letter above was sent by his mother in 1940 and salvaged from the sea when the ship carrying it was torpedoed. Nan had fortunately put the return address at the top of the letter, so it was returned to "Mum" labeled "salved from the sea". He met and married Mum, Gertrude Maria Linehan and when he was demobilised in 1946 we came to Canada as a family. After returning to England for a few years, we settled in Montreal for good in 1951. Dad continued with the RMR, now a peacetime militia regiment and retired as Regimental Sergeant Major. He died on 12 June 1988.

Dennis Price Linehan Royal Air Force

born in Tylcha Fach in June 1920 to Daniel Joseph Linehan & Gertrude Teresa Stockwood, Uncle Den served with the RAF for the duration of WWII. He married Joan Delafield, who passed away in 1995. Uncle Den lives in Evesham and most of his seven children and their families live in the surrounding areas.

John (Jack) Watson Chivas Merchant Marine

Jack's entire working life, peacetime & wartime was spent in the Merchant Marine. He and his wife Ella D'All, Grandad's sister, lived in British Columbia. Ella passed away in 1972, Jack in 1997 - they had no children.



This last I include purely for its historical significance; having five Regimental Sergeants Major in one picture is a rare event. This was taken at Valcartier, Québec in July 1956 during the summer exercises of the Regiments.





J. Ritchie RSM Victoria Rifles of Canada

H. D'All RSM Royal Montreal Regiment

T. Turley RSM Black Watch (RHR)

W. Cunningham RSM Service Corps

G. Fogarty RSM Canadian Grenadier Guards

R. Diplock Brigade Sergeant Major (Ret)

Monday, November 1, 2010

matchboxes & golliwogs

Golliwogs are not politically correct in today’s world, but they were a part of my life, and my Gran made some lovely ones as well as other fabric dolls. They were fabric dolls of colour, patterned after the minstrel shows as they were portrayed back then. The one Dan is holding in the photo had a green and white striped suit with pink polka-dotted swiss lapels and shirtfront – Gran sewed every curl of his hair by hand and his earring was a curtain ring. His bowtie was pink. Heaven only knows where he is now, but I would dearly love to have him. Once Gran made a nun, dressed entirely in a white habit complete with rosary. Grandad was the gardener for a convent – the details are fuzzy so I am not sure whether it was for his retirement or that of the Mother Superior - but the doll was made for whichever event it happened to be. Gran’s pride and joy was the sewing machine on the sideboard beside the dining table. You turned the wheel by hand (no pedals or electricity) – she made all the dolls and their clothes on it and many other things as well. Mum used it to make my first dresses … The china doll I am holding in the same photograph was a gift for my last birthday in England, my ninth – and the second doll and the last doll I was ever to possess. Dad sent the money from Canada – she had a china head, arms and legs and a cloth body. Much to my dismay I was to discover that her head had a seam from ear to ear which split open as I dropped her within the first hour. Fortunately, Grandad had glue.

We didn’t have a lot, but then no-one in the rows of council houses did, that’s why we were all there. Grandad, a gentle Irishman who had developed black lung from laboring below ground in the Welsh mines from his teens to his 30s, had moved his family with no lock, stock or barrel to Surrey in search of work. He bicycled from Coedely in South Wales to the English countryside despite his lungs – he had little or no choice if he wanted to feed everyone. Eventually he found work on the railroad and later was the gardener cum general factotum at a nearby convent. Their first home in England was a disused Quonset hut where dampness misted the walls when it rained, a not unusual event, especially in the winter.

When they secured the council house that was to be their home until Grandad passed away 30 years later, it must have been a huge relief for him. Not a grand house, but it served his family of five quite well – a sitting room with space for a table and chairs, a scullery with Gran’s stove and another table, bathroom with just that – a bath, since the toilet although in the house proper, was reached by an outside door – and upstairs, one big bedroom, one smaller and the “box room” made into a third bedroom. Heat came from Gran’s kitchen stove and a coal fireplace downstairs as well as a fireplace in the ‘big’ bedroom.

When one reaches the so-called golden years as I have, you often wonder if all your memories are really memories or simply events culled from stories told to you by others. Obviously I cannot claim to have been a witness to Gran & Grandad’s life in Wales or their move to England – I can however recall with great clarity each and every room in their council house and have memories, as well as stories, associated with almost all of them.

This is one of the ‘culled events’ – most of my (remembered) life I have been terrified of fire in any form. As a child and even a teenager I simply could not even light a match, including the big, wooden kitchen ones. A sound in the night became fire crackling; sirens were signals of fire engines coming to wherever I was living at the time; the smoke from a wood fire meant that the wooden bones of my house were smouldering. The grate in Gran’s sitting room almost always had a nice, warm coal fire going – I remember the dampness on your back when your front was toasty warm, the firemarks on the front of your legs, somebody or other with chilblains, visiting the defunct air raid shelter in the back garden to fill the coal scuttle – never alone because there were spiders. As was the case with pretty much everyone we knew, the sitting room fire was the only one regularly lit, anything else was used just before bedtime and only briefly –they never did ‘take the chill off the air’, which was the reason given for lighting them. We did have hot water bottles though. Before these memories, something happened to which Mum ascribed my irrational fear of fire, something I honestly do not recall. I was barely toddling, Dad & Grandad were sitting on either side of the fire when apparently I decided to try out my newly-found legs; were it not for Dad seizing the back of my dress at the last second, my wobblies would have launched me face-first into the hot coals. I know it was pretty close because Dad could never imagine why I was not singed. Well, perhaps my skin was not, but my psyche sure was. Over the years I have become less paranoid as one does what one has to do in order to live – but that does not include using the gas oven with the pilot light in my present apartment (I have managed the stove-top burners without too much cringing) – I use a counter top electric oven to roast & bake.



Nor do I recall the coal storage bin in its original incarnation as an air raid shelter yet I certainly spent time there along with the rest of the family. Since each house had an identical brick structure I am making a leap of faith in the assumption that the ubiquitous council provided this protection to those in proximity to London – rough concrete-roofed, solid brick – ours stood to the right as you went out the back kitchen door, Grandad’s shed was to the left, with the garden path between them. I bring this up because during the war years the little house that did so well for five was pushed to accommodate a few more – my uncle had married and there was a son John too; Mum & Dad were married & had produced moi – when Dad was off doing his Canadian Army duty & Uncle Den was doing the same in the RAF, his wife Big Peggy (big so as to distinguish from Mum’s little sister “our” Peggy), their son John & I swelled the family. Other sleeping arrangements elude me, but I am told that John & I were put to bed each night underneath the dining table where we could be easily grabbed & transported to the shelter when the air raid siren sounded – the table was also perceived as protection for the infants from an unannounced raid. I have often wondered how Auntie Peg at only ten years old felt about the ‘priority’ given to the babies – she did tell me once that what few toys she had became ours L. The dining table figured largely in childhood entertainment – our Gran espoused the philosophy that housework would always be there but children would not, so spend time with them while you can. Upended it became a pirate ship – we had cardboard swords & eyepatches with cocked hats fashioned from newspapers; with a sheet draped from leg to leg it was my faraway tree where sat on bed pillows and read when it was too wet outside (there was no heat in the bedrooms); it was a castle; it was what ever we children imagined.

This next sitting room memory is as clear as a bell. Our Peg, along with the young man who was to become our Uncle Brian, was looking after undeniably missish me and my young brother Danny who was ostensibly asleep upstairs. Gran had a kiddie table in front of the window – I don’t recall the exact task, but we were at that table when we heard Dan’s footsteps on the stairs. Being me, I leapt up before the adults could react and arms akimbo officiously confronted my little brother, who by virtue of the steps was now of a like height, only to receive a bloody nose as a reward. He turned and went backup without a word while Peg dealt with my nose.

A much much later sitting room memory occurred when I was on my first return to England – I had brought cigarettes for our Peg and was not aware that Grandad did not know that she smoked and handed her a package right in front of him.

The scullery was warm. Gran making small beer from dandelion leaves in the huge earthenware bowl, Welsh cakes on the griddle, thick bacon rashers with rind for Sunday tea, birthday cakes … on that same return visit, the neighbour lady arriving with a bowl of cherries from her tree so that I would not have to pick my own. Gran did the ironing in the scullery, with two castiron irons heated on the griddle. Off the scullery, the bathroom, where bath water was heated by paying the geezer (sp?) ie by putting money in the gas heater. During the war, bath water was rationed to five inches once a week so people shared the water. Until we left England, Dan & I always shared the Saturday night bath to save paying the geezer twice, a hangover from the wartime rationing & economics. The laundry was done in the bathroom – Gran had a washboard on which she scrubbed everything (on her hands & knees beside the tub) – before she had a mangle, she wrung everything by hand, even bed sheets, and hung them on the clothesline.

Soooooo, sooner or later I guess I should get into the rest of the tag line … memories have been at least partially covered, but what of the matchboxes? I began by stating that we did not have much. There are times when I think of my son’s and nephews’ birthdays and Christmases that I wonder how my generation was not overcome with boredom. So much STUFF! Now I am not going to claim that our Christmases resemble those of Mum and her siblings – they had stockings with an orange & a lump of coal – and the reason I am not venturing there is because I honestly have no memory of one blessed Christmas before we came to Canada – I don’t think much was made of them or surely I would remember?? Of course, nobody is left to ask either. I do remember having several lovely books, Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, Enid Blyton but am not sure how I got them. The Woolworths shop in our town carried a myriad of items as they did everywhere, and among those items were tiny, mini baby dolls not even as long as my little finger was at the time – these miniature dolls were within the realm of possible purchase and indeed I had quite a few, so did my friends. We collected matchboxes from our families and refurbished them up as wee beds and other furniture. A handmade pillow in a matchbox with the slip-on cover refinished in some scrap of fabric made a comfy baby cot. Gran used to put together entire sitting room sets, settees and armchairs, made from fabric and lace-covered match boxes – they were given as gifts and sometimes sold. It was Gran who supplied me with the scraps of material for mine.




Another source of amusement was faery dish gardens - faeries were after all a fact of life, they lived in the hedgerows and at the bottom of the garden, especially if the gardener let things run wild. We gathered moss, pretty coloured stones, tiny plants, berries and assorted items meant to make a comfortable habitat, then we cadged a dish and hopefully a bit of mirror or glass and spent hours arranging all our finds in the dish around a pond in a way we felt would please any faery. One of our neighbours had a derelict patio of sorts at the end of his garden where we could pick up small pale green tiles when occasionally allowed if we asked nicely. The fae loved them.


What do I remember about the bedrooms ? Well to start with I have no idea where Danny & I slept. There were three rooms, Gran & Granddad had the front room with the fireplace except when Mum was giving birth – then she occupied the big bed – three times. Peg has said she slept in the box room, which leaves the third room for Mum, Dad, Dan & me – not sure how it worked. In addition to the births, there was another exception to bedroom number one and that was when I succumbed to the German measles. This was the only bedroom with heat and the doctor was apparently extremely worried – the measles had closed my eyes and he was not at all sure what the outcome would be. Mum & Gran bathed my eyes incessantly for days. One day, when Dad came home and made his nightly visit - I can hear Mum’s voice “look Daddy, she can open her eyes” - I blinked open long enough to see a candle on the mantelpiece (the room was kept dark) … When Danny was born, he almost immediately developed what was referred to then as bronchial pneumonia. This meant that his cot was moved into the sitting room near the fire to keep him warm. Mum said it was touch & go for about six weeks – he came out of that (obviously J ) but suffered from the croup for much of his early childhood. I recall being awfully affronted when he was in hospital in an oxygen tent and got a new lorry! (Well it wasn’t his birthday after all). He was in hospital aboard ship with an attack when we travelled to Canada ,and so far as I remember the last one was on our first New Year’s in Canada, Mum & Dad were going out and we had to have the Doctor because Danny could not breathe. I was terribly impressed by the Doctor who interrupted a phone call on the party line so he could call the pharmacy. I for one outgrew sibling jealousy, but for along time Danny got a gift on MY birthday so he would not fuss.

On to the funny, sorta. Each November in England, one celebrates (or celebrated??) Guy Fawkes day by burning the Guy and setting off fireworks. Sometimes it rains – hard. One year there was a downpour and we children were relegated to watch from the house while Dad and Grandad ventured into the back garden to set Guy alight (with some sort of flammable help) and attempt the fireworks. I am pretty sure that they only did this to stop the whining at the disappointment with rain on Guy Fawkes night – that being said they did get the Guy afire as I watched from the bed under the box room window. Then the fireworks – there were some that were in strings, sort of curved up together, that ‘walked’. Walk they did, only one turned around and headed straight for Dad who took off running. Already hyper from the whining I was hysterical with laughter, jumped up and down, managed to fall in between the bed and the window, smacking my nose on the sill – yet another bloody nose. Many years later I was to learn from Peg that Dad had run because whatever they had used to light the Guy was on his clothes – it could have been a very different story.

Now that we are in the back garden … Grandad grew vegetables, all kinds of them. Potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage stretched from the house to the laneway, unbroken except for a line of black currant bushes where the path ended halfway down. Dad was not a gardener but one spring Grandad enticed him into planting and caring for peas, which he did very well. He however did not think so because there was very little yield for the amount of plants in his estimation. Grandad listened to him then said that not much was sweeter than peas still in the pod (while nodding at Danny and me)… Dad never planted anything else. Two little children can wreak havoc in a garden. Grandad had to declare the black currant bushes verboten because we sat underneath them and ate the not quite ripe berries, making ourselves ill and limiting the crop. The previously mentioned neighbour lady with the bowl of cherries had a garden that was a child’s delight – apple, pear and cherry trees, blackberries, raspberries , black currants , gooseberries – the list goes on. We thought we were so smart! Down the garden we would go, past the shelter, crawling among Grandad’s veggies until we could cross into her garden sight unseen – uh huh. Why do you think she presented me with a bowl of cherries all those years later? Danny planted an apple seed and from it grew a tree. Gran used to periodically send pictures of the tree’s progress.



Oh gosh, we were not all bad and we were not alone in what we did – not that it makes it right – we were stealing. Idle minds and all that. This of course was before we found other things to do with our minds. Having the example of Gran, I was given a needle and thread when I was very young – I made the clothes and covers for the faeries and for a doll that was a precursor to Barbie. I watched Gran & Mum knit, begged needles and wool and taught myself how – to this day I knit with the wool in my left hand – I never did master the multi-tasking right hand. I read anything I could set my hand to – all of these things before I reached the age of four. Children are amazingly self-sufficient you know. The end of the garden path, halfway down the garden, was where I used to sit on sunny days to read, sew or knit – that is until I discovered my tree. At the very bottom of the garden was an unpaved laneway between us and the houses across the back and nestled in the lane, stunted and gnarled, was an ancient (to my mind) apple tree. Lord only knows whose it was to begin with. Its branches spread out horizontally as if it had been pruned that way and right in the center where the branches split, was a space just big enough and comfy enough to accommodate my four-year old bottom. So there I read.

Once more I have blathered on …. Hopefully someone will like it …….

Monday, September 20, 2010

our Thomas

It’s been a while …….. hard to believe that I have not written anything in more than a month!

One of the most interesting characters in our family saga is Thomas Stockwood, our gg-grandfather. There were several Thomas’ , starting with the earliest we have been able to find to date, Thomas (1) born in Monmouth ca 1735, our 5th g-grandfather who had two sons, Thomas (2) ca 1752 Monmouth, husband to Margaret David and John ca 1755 husband of Ann Thomas. Thomas (2) & Margaret had several children, one of whom was yet another Thomas (3) baptized in 1790 at St. Woolas in Newport. This Thomas(3) and his wife Maria May born ca 1798 in Newport, were married at St. James in Bristol on 28 December 1813 – they had sixteen children of record and moved the family from Monmouth to Cardiff in the early 1820s, in between the baptism of Joseph at St. Woolas in 1822 and that of Maria in Cowbridge in 1824.

Thomas (3) and Maria May did have a son called Thomas in 1814, but we are descended from his younger brother William who was baptized in 1821 at St. Woolas. William moved with the family to Cardiff when he was extremely young. He married Louisa Fulli(n)love at St. John, Cardiff on 15 April 1839. In 1841 the census records them as living at Harris Buildings, Cardiff with their infant daughter Mary. William’s profession is ostler, not altogether unexpected given that his father Thomas (3) was a coachman.

Through the census records and the birth records of his children William is seen as progressing to “railway labourer” – 1848, “clerk Taff Vale” – 1851 and “stationmaster” – 1856. The family, in accordance with William’s new profession, left Cardiff for Pentyrch where William was stationmaster, then on to Walnut Tree Junction. They were most certainly somewhat elevated in prosperity along with William’s job at the Taff Vale.

“Our” Thomas, if you will, was William & Louisa’s third child and eldest son, baptized in 1843 in Cardiff. It was in researching our Thomas that I began to get a hint of the incredible amount of records available at the National Archives in Britain and associated repositories ~ and it absolutely amazes me to this day.

Knowing from Annie Gertrude’s file that Thomas had drowned at sea I set out to find whatever I could. Once again, folks on the list came through and let me know that given his date of death & the name of the ship upon which he was serving, I might be able to find his registration papers. And I did – with lots of help! A friend went to Kew then mailed me a copy of Thomas’ Certification as Second Engineer, which he earned in Bristol on May 28th 1865. Speaking as a researcher, opening the proverbial can of worms is not necessarily a bad thing … on the registry record were listed all the ships he upon which he served and all the voyages he took from registration until his death …. perhaps this illustrates why we are always looking for the ‘one more thing’ – you never know what may be attached! The friend who had procured the registration, an expert in records maritime, enclosed the ‘how to’ instructions for interpretation of the ships’ information – quite an exercise – they are in ‘code’ so as to minimize the use of space I imagine.

For instance, the 1868 column contains the following notations:

60255

Lord Bute

21.10 62 Galveston

21.2. 69 Galveston

62

60255

Lord Bute

11.3 62 Galaty

16.6 72 Galaty

Which translates into : The Lord Bute, Ships’ Registry # 60255 sailed on October 21, 1868 from Liverpool (port#62) to Galveston. (British ports are assigned a #, foreign ports are not) – February 21 1869, she sailed from Galveston to Liverpool. March 11 1869 the voyage to Galaty (Mediterranean) started in Liverpool (#62) and ended on 16 June in Newport (#72)….. I am not sure of everything written there, but have been able to extract a fairly comprehensive, albeit short, history of his career.

To summarize:

Thomas Stockwood was born 15 October 1842 in Cardiff

. baptized 19 November 1843 in Cardiff

. as far as we have been able to determine he began his seafaring career aboard the Isabella Croll (#17769) in late 1863

. received his Certificate of Competency as 2nd Engineer 23 May 1865 at Bristol based on his experience aboard the Isabella Croll

. married Angelina Collins aka Annie at St. John, Cardiff 31 May 1866

. first son Thomas William baptized 19 May 1867 at Cardiff

. daughter Annie Gertrude baptized 25 June 1869 Tonwynglais

. drowned at sea 15 April 1874 off the coast of Cadiz at the Sancti Petri shoals – he was 32 years old

. son Alfred John, our g-grandfather was born 7 June 1874 at Cardiff

After Thomas’ death and the birth of Alfred John, Angelina sold their possessions and moved close to her in-laws William & Louisa. I have not been able to determine whether they actually lived together or just nearby. In August of 1876, Angelina died of a “ramolissement” of the brain; she was followed by William in December of the same year. In 1877 we see the application for placement in the Muller Homes wherein Louisa is deemed unable to care for her grandchildren. The original request was for all three children, but in the end it was only Annie who went. In 1881 Thomas William resided with his maternal great-aunt Urina Hicks Davies in Eglwysilan and Alfred John with his Uncle John Collins in Morganstown, Radyr. We have been able to trace Thomas William – his marriage & child – and of course Alfred, but Annie Gertrude, after her release from Muller into the care of an aunt, continues to elude us.

For about ten years, this was all I had been able to find ~ then earlier this year, on a whim as is so often the case, I ‘googled’ “Cornubia shipwreck Cadiz” & WOW – up popped several auction house entries from two years previously, advertising this:

NINETEENTH CENTURY SHIPWRECK: notarial copy of an official shipwreck protest
issued by the British Consul Cadiz, dated April 16th, 1874 describing in
detail the fate of the steamship Cornubia out of Cardiff and wrecked off the
Spanish coast. Written in neat scribal hand on 11pp folio with official
stamps. £30-£40.

My heart stopped – or at least did a really good lurch! Each of the houses concerned very kindly volunteered to contact their buyers to see if anyone still had the papers ~ to no avail …….. but yet again, listers are the best! Two people sent newspaper accounts of the Official Board of Trade Enquiry, one from the Western Mail dated 20May 1874 & the other from the Bristol Mercury edition 23 May 1874.

I shivered when reading the account from the Western Mail in particular – this is an excerpt:

“Two or three minutes afterwards he telegraphed that the engines must be stopped, and when he required them to be in action again, in order to get the ship from off the shoals, he learnt that they were disabled. With regard to Stockwood, the second engineer, who still remained on the vessel, he (the captain) gave him a life-buoy and said “Here is the ship sinking, and very likely I shall go down with it. Why don’t you try to save your life?” There was a ladder lying at his feet, and he begged Stockwood to pick it up and jump into the sea with it. Stockwood took the ladder in hand, looked at it, dropped it down again, and turned away. “

It is difficult to reach the conclusion that I did unless one reads both articles and the Board of Trade summary I later found at the Archives – but I feel that Thomas died needlessly, that the Master was negligent, and I do not believe for one second that a man with two small children and a third on the way would be so cavalier. I instead believe that Thomas was ordered below to restart the engines & died as a consequence – just my opinion, but there it is. The fact that the Master constantly attempts to shift blame to the Mate ……

Since the acquisition of the newspaper accounts, I have obtained a very abbreviated official inquiry summary from the Archives as mentioned above, as well as Thomas’ actual Certificate of Competency – as opposed to the copy of the Register. Along with the Certificate is his application for same, in his own handwriting .. so wonderful to have this from over 100 years ago.

I shall not give upon the search for the Consular Protest – it is out there somewhere …

As a result of my delving into Thomas’ life as a mariner I have gained a new efriend in the person of a retired Merchant Mariner as well as his wife and family – they have become of invaluable help in trying to determine exactly what happened on April 15th 1874.



Isla Sancti Petri and the Castillo, showing a hint of what it could be with a storm ....



Wednesday, August 18, 2010

absolutely not about genealogy

Mid-August {sigh} …… where has (most of) summer gone? Well, wherever summer has gone/is going, fall is coming and the winter-is-around-the-corner syndrome has hit with a vengeance. Thanks in part to air-conditioning (we have been 100+ frequently this year) I have halfway knitted a new scarf ~ with no snowflakes in sight. Arthritis-in-the-thumb be damned, I refuse to spend my hard-earned $$ on mass-produced stuff any more. Got a little long-absent knitting enthusiasm going and unearthed some other patterns, notably one for an aran purse I have always wanted to make. Wonder if I will this time? Hmmm ……

One love of my life that never sleeps nor takes a sabbatical is reading ~ this summer, replete with glorious five-day weekends, has been epic. All three of Steig Larssen’s Millennium tomes bit the dust. I was so wound up in the first two that I actually bought for the first time in forever, the hardcover edition of number three because the paperback was not out.. A second hardcover, since I simply could not wait, again, Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven – an absolutely incredible read and a definite read-again – as a matter of fact I have not even put it in a bookcase. Then along came Minette Walters, Greg Iles, Kathy Reichs, Peter Robinson and oh wonder of wonders, the magnificent Stephen King and his delicious Under the Dome. SK at his finestkind.


I have been reading (and knitting) since before I was four years old – my favourite book as a child was Kingsley’s The Water Babies seconded by anything Enid Blyton. It was a given in our house that I could not simply be called for dinner if I was deep in a book, I had to be physically touched or I would read right through any mealtime. That being said, only two books in my entire adult life have affected me personally (and my adult life accounts for a considerable length of time) - the first was Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Hospitalized at 16 for tests, I received my first copy from a friend – I could not put it down. Perhaps it was the era, my own idealism, but I really, really wanted to be Dagny Taggart (and find John Galt). Romanticism aside, Ms. Rand’s depiction of the destruction of a corrupted society scared me to death. Some years later and a lot of water under the bridge, and The Stand arrived (bless Mr.King) – one more time the world as we know it became redundant – in my mind I became Frannie helped that I identified Harold as a teenage acquaintance), confused but with that strong inner spark. I have absolutely no idea of how many times I have read each of these…….

Reading Under the Dome spurred me to re-read other Stephen works, so far I have gone through Lisey’s Story, Hearts in Atlantis, Talisman, Black House (latter two with Peter Straub), The Dead Zone …… and currently Insomnia. I see Duma Key staring at me as well. Despite all of this I have a confession to make – for reasons I cannot fathom I have never been able to get “into” the Dark Tower series – each time I have tried, because I KNOW I will love it, I get stopped dead part way through Gunslinger …….

UPCOMING EXCITEMENT! The erudite Jack Whyte has a new book due out in September. I have read his Dreams of Eagles series several times as well as the Knights Templar Trilogy. This book is the first of the new Guardians Trilogy, the subject is the Scottish Wars of Independence, and it is called The Forest Laird – William Wallace, to be followed by Robert the Bruce and later The Black Douglas. Given our family history and Dad’s propensity for quoting Robbie Burns “'Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled”, they should be extremely interesting. Another author, of whose books I have read only one and was suitably impressed, is Mark Chadbourn. Quite some time ago I picked up his Lord of Silence and loved it. Inexplicably (to me at least ) my bookstore has not seen fit to stock anything else of his, until now that is -

Because of this experience with Mark Chadbourn’s books – and others ( Kate Forsyth, Stephen Lawhead, Maggie Furey et al) I have been thinking about an e-reader ….. just thinking though – I might have a hard time giving up the ‘feel’ of a book in my hands and yet, the weight of the reader versus a hard cover book or even today’s trade paperbacks would be much easier on the arthritis in these hands, not to mention that ordering books online in the midst of winter would be infinitely preferable to venturing outside. I do so love being in a bookstore though {sigh}

Throughout the years I have read a huge proportion of the classics from Dostoyevsky to Dickens, best sellers such as Gone with the Wind, but now I concentrate mostly upon my true loves, fantasy literature and any and all interpretations or points of view on the Uther/Arthur/Merlin saga with a few mysteries thrown in for good measure.

In no particular order, some favourites …..

~ Guy Gavriel Kay ~ Maggie Furey ~ Pamela Freeman ~ Janny Wurts ~ Helen Hollick ~ Mark James ~ Gail Z Martin ~ Irene Radford ~ Karen Miller ~ Mark Chadbourn ~ Gregory Frost ~ Holly Taylor ~ Robert Scott & Jay Gordon ~ Bernard Cornwell ~ Edward Rutherfurd ~ Ayn Rand ~ Thomas B. Costain ~ Trudy Canavan ~ Khaleed Hosseini ~ Stephen Lawhead ~ Marion Zimmer Bradley ~ Jack Whyte ~ Anne Kelleher ~ Laura Resnick ~ Kathy Reichs ~ Greg Iles ~ Minette Walters ~ Juliette Marillier ~

I think I started this whilst bemoaning the approaching end of summer …. back to SK …