GREAT GRANDPARENTS
This is the only photograph I have of any of my great grandparents as a couple – John Matthews (1843-1918) and his wife Matilda (1849-1929).
My great grandfather John Matthews of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire was a man of many parts – a third son in a large family; under hand roller, underhand shingler and hollow fireman at an iron works; a complete change of occupation to that of insurance agent and also shopkeeper; with his wife Matilda, parent to ten children, and a prominent member of the local Methodist church where he was choir conductor.
Below is the silver crested baton presented to John Matthews in 1904 in his role as conductor of the choir.
The tiny
inscription reads: Presented to John Matthews by the Choir and
Congregation of Wesleyan Chapel, Ladymoor: 28.11.04. To hold
the baton used by my great grandfather was a delight to me, as a former choir
member with a love of church music
There is something of a mystery about my great grandmother’s childhood. It proved to be a challenging research task, complicated by the need to distinguish three generations of Matilda’s, the birth of three illegitimate children, two possible questionable, unverified marriages and changing surnames of the children from Such to Williams to Simpson.
The couple married in 1871, with ten children born over the next twenty years including my grandmother, Mary Barbara (below). Sadly four of the children met an early death.
John died in 1918 and Matilda survived for a further eleven years.
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MY PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS
The only photograph I have of my paternal grandfather,. Albert Ernest Weston (1876-1947) here with his wife Mary Barbara Matthews (1875-1959) - taken after my parent's wedding in 1938.
Arthur Ernest Weston was born in West Bromwich. Staffordshire, the son of John Thomas Weston, an agricultural labourer and Sarah Ann Jones. In some records he was noted as Ernest Albert. The family later moved from the rural setting to the industrial hub of Bilston, Wolverhampton, with is mines and ironworks.
In the 1921 census, Albert’s occupation was given as an "engine driver stationary" - this seemed an illogical description to me as surely a driver involved motion? However it meant a person who maintained steam driven machinery e.g. at a mine, iron works, or power house. Two years later Albert married Mary Barbara.
Another move took the young Weston family, including my father to Broseley, near Ironbridge, Shropshire, cited as the birthplace of England’s industrial revolution. My father had very fond memories of growing up in Broseley.
The Weston family seemed to move around the Midlands presumably with Albert's work. I recall Nana Weston claiming she had lived in 17 houses.
The 1939 Register (compiled in preparation for wartime ID cards) listed the Weston family in Leicester, where 62 year old Albert was described as a Typewriter Works Storekeeper, with the note “Heavy Work”.
The war saw heavy bombing raids over over the industrial Midlands, and Mary and Albert were particularly devastated when the news came that youngest son Charles was a prisoner of the Japanese. Albert never recovered from this blow and died in 1947, aged 69. Mary made her home with her daughter Madge and family and died in 1959.
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MY MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS
William Danson (1885-1962) and Alice English (1884-1945) of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire
A photograph taken 1916 before William set off for the battlefields of the First World War. He came from a long established local Danson family, traced back to 1736, and baptised, married and buried at the local church of St. Chad’s.
William was a taciturn country man, working as a cattle man at the local Auction Mart and later a labourer in a local chemical works. Like many men, he would not talk abut his wartime experience, which included being awarded the Military Medal for bravery. My memory of him is of him taking my brother and I walks around the local countryside where I gathered leaves etc. for the nature table at school. He used to buy us as a treat a bag of pear drops every weekend.
Alice English is my major, major brick wall, as I have been unable to find a birth record for her. I suspect she was illegitimate, with a father's name (Henry) fabricated for her marriage certificate The 1901 and 1921 censuses cite her birthplace as Bolton, Lancashire. Family relate how she came to Poulton as nursemaid to the Potts Family from Bolton who were prominent Metthodists. She married William in 1907 and they had five surviving children, including my mother Kathleen. Alice died in 1945. It would have been lovely to have known her.
Photograph taken at my parent's wedding in 1938.
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MY PARENTS
My parent's wedding photogaph, 1938
Dad left school at the age of 14 and worked in a local grocer's shop before moving into being a infomercial traveller. He was a self-made man who achieved the status of Sales Director of a small Scottish firm as his final work role. Wherever we lived he threw himself into coal community affairs. A choirboy from the age of seven, he remained involved with the church until his death aged 91,
He often talked about his boyhood and also of his war-time experiences and I am afraid it did provoke the reaction “Not the war again, Dad”. We also used to joke about him being in the Intelligence Branch. It was only later that we came to realise what a life-defining period it was and I persuaded him to write (type) his memoirs. He would have loved the world of blogging. I am so pleased I have these now, as they, with the correspondence between my parents (discovered after their deaths), formed the basis of two narratives I have written based on Dad's memories.
Mum too left school at 14 and was apprenticed to a local tailor. I often felt her motto would have been "Happiness is Stitching", as she was always making something. She was also a "joiner" of local organisations.
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