Saturday, June 30, 2012

Private Harold Horatio Smith 241292

A search in the CWGC database showed over a thousand results! Of these, 11 were for H. H. Smiths and 8 were Harold H Smiths.
Not all of these entries showed where they were from so I tried a different approach and looked in the index of births for Liverpool for the period 1875-1900. I found only one matching entry, Harold Horatio Smith, born in Toxteth Park in 1896. There wasn't an entry in the CWGC for Harold Horatio so I looked in the entries in UK Soldiers Died in the Great War and found only one, Harold Horatio Smith. Using his regimental number from the medal card I located his entry in the CWGC database where he was one of the H.H. Smiths.

Given the lack of another H.H. Smith born in Liverpool and the fact that this Harold H Smith was a casualty of the Great War and his CWGC entry shows that he lived in the right area of Liverpool, I am happy that this is the right man.

******************************

Harold Horatio Smith was born on the 2nd February 1896 in Liverpool. The record of his baptism (below) shows that he was baptised on 7th April 1896 in St Peter's, Liverpool. His parents were Caroline and Richard Herd Smith (a bricklayer) who lived on Park Road.  Harold's middle name was given for his grandfather, Horatio Smith who was from Jersey. (information from the 1891 census)

source: ancestry.co.uk

The 1901 census (below) shows the Smith family living at 155 Park Road, Toxteth Park.
source: ancestry.co.uk

In the 1911 census (below) the family were living at 34 High Park Street. Harold H Smith was 15 years old and working as a telegraph messenger for the post office. His father was at this time an employer as a bricklayer, plasterer and builder.
On a sad note, the census shows that Harold's parents had already lost 4 of their 12 children.
source: ancestry.co.uk

The medal card for Harold H Smith (below) shows that he was a private in the Liverpool Regiment with the regimental number 241292. He was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.  The card has not been completed for the theatre of war he first served in or the date, nor does it have any notes about his death.
source: ancestry.co.uk

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919


Name: Harold Horatio Smith
Birth Place: Liverpool
Residence: Liverpool
Death Date: 5 Nov 1918
Death Location: France & Flanders
Enlistment Location: Liverpool
Rank: Private
Regiment: King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Battalion: 6th Battalion
Number: 241292
Type of Casualty: Died
Theatre of War: Western European Theatre

Click here to see the CWGC entry for Harold H Smith

This information shows that Harold was in the 6th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment and died on 5th November 1918.

KLR Database
The following images are from the Devereux Database, Museum of Liverpool.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Private Charles Stenson 16567, 16302

There were 3 entries for Charles Stenson on the CWGC, only one of them had no middle name and his 'other information' showed that he was from Liverpool. Neither of the other 2 were from Liverpool.

**********************
Charles Stenson was born in 1881 in Liverpool, his CWGC entry shows his parents' names were Thomas and Sarah Jane.

In the 1891 census the family lived at 8 Blair St, Thomas was a house decorator. Charles was 10 and a scholar (although ancestry have his age transcribed as 19 years)
source:ancestry.co.uk

In the 1901 census (below) Charles was a boarder at the house of his brother Thomas in Manchester. Charles was working as a railway carriage painter.

 source:ancestry.co.uk


On 5th August 1901 Charles Stenson married Georgina Andrew at St Matthew's Church in Toxteth. The certificate (below) shows that Charles was aged 20, a painter and decorator and lived at 14 Upper Harrington Street. His father, Tom Stenson, was also a painter and decorator.  Georgina was 19 and worked as a general servant, she lived at 20 Hyslop Street and her father, John Alfred Andrew, was a sailmaker.  Witnesses to the marriage were John Stenson and Elizabeth Mary Turpin.
source:ancestry.co.uk

The 1911 census (below) shows Charles and Georgina at 22 court 6 house Hampton St with 3 children. The census shows that they had one other child who died. Charles' occupation was painter, employed by Liverpool City Gardens.


source:ancestry.co.uk


Charles Stenson's servicepapers do not appear to have survived. His medal card tellsus that he was in the 8th Battalion East Lancs Regiment with the regimental number 16567 then the Loyal North Lancs Regiment with the number 16302. He was a private and earned the Victory Medal, British War Medal and the 1915 Star.
The card shows that he first entered the theatre of war: France on 1/8/1915, there is a notation 'killed 9-2-16'

 source:ancestry.co.uk

His entry in UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919 gives the following information:
Name:
Charles Stenson
Birth Place:
Liverpool
Death Date:
9 Feb 1916
Death Location:
France & Flanders
Enlistment Location:
Liverpool
Rank:
Private
Regiment:
East Lancashire Regiment
Battalion:
8th Battalion
Number:
16567
Type of Casualty:
Killed in action
Theatre of War:
Western European Theatre
Comments:
Formerly 16302, N. Lancs Regt.


East Lancs Regiment, 8th (Service) BattalionFormed at Preston in September 1914 as part of K3 and attached to 74th Brigade in 25th Division. Moved to Codford and was in billets in Bournemouth in November 1914.
November 1914 : became Divisional Troops to 25th Division.
March 1915 : transferred to 112th Brigade in 37th Division at Ludgershall.
Landed at Boulogne in late July 1915.
21 February 1918 : disbanded in France. Officers and men transferred to 11th Bn.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Leading Stoker James Wilding SS/110409


The CWGC had only one entry for James D Wilding and the 'other information' showed that this man was from Liverpool so I am assuming that it is the right man.

The CWGC information showed that James Dennis Wilding was from Liverpool, the son of Richard and Mary Wilding and he was in the Royal Navy.

I searched the census returns using these details but couldn't find the Wilding family.

My next move was to get together all the details I could about James D Wilding to help find his family on the census returns. This gave me some conflicting details; the UK Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll 1914-1919 has an entry for James Wilding (below), the service number matches that on the CWGC database but the information for his mother does not match.

UK Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll 1914-1919

Name: James Wilding
Rank: Act Ldg Sto
Birth Date: 17 Apr 1889
Birth Place: Liverpool, Lancashire
Branch of Service: Royal Navy
Cause of Death: Killed or died as a direct result of enemy action
Official Number Port Division: S.S.110409. (Dev)
Death Date: 31 May 1916
Location of Grave: Not recorded
Name and Address of Cemetery: Body Not Recovered For Burial
Relatives Notified and Address: Mother: Austin; 27, Rodgers Road, Gibraltar


Looking through baptism records on ancestry.co.uk I found a record of a Catholic baptism for James Dennis Wilding, in Liverpool, parents' names Richard and Mary Elizabeth (below). This all matches the CWGC entry but the date of birth and the mother's name do not match the UK Naval deaths entry. However, the godfather's name is Austin Welsh (Welsh was the maiden name of James's mother) so this could be the Austin listed as mother on the other record.
source: ancestry.co.uk Liverpool Catholic Baptisms

I also found a Catholic baptism record for an Austin Michael Wilding, brother to James D Wilding.  This is an unusual name and another option for the next-of-kin in Gibraltar so I decided to look for the brothers in the census returns.

In the 1891  census I found James Wilding living with his Uncle Thomas and Aunt Hannah Wilding in Liverpool.  The census shows they lived at 25 Sussex Street, Thomas was a sail maker and had 5 of his own children at home as well as his nephew. 
source: 1891 census ancestry.co.uk

James was still with his uncle and aunt in the 1901 census, they had moved to 19 Upper Hill Street - this is close to St James Church.
source: 1901 census ancestry.co.uk
I couldn't find James in the 1911 census so I purchased a copy of his naval service record from the National Archives and it showed that he enlisted on 19th Sept 1910 and was at sea on the HMS Indefatigable from feb-nov 1911 (the census was on 2nd April 1911)

(I will add an image of his record)

Other information in the service record shows the birth date which was on the Naval Roll of Honour and that before enlisting he was a barman in Liverpool. He enlisted for Short Service of 5 + 7 years.  He was 5 ft 5.5inches tall with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He had no distinguishing marks or scars.

His date of death is given as 31st May 1916 and he was killed in action.
Notes on the record show that his war gratuity was paid and his relatives gave the information that his middle name was Dennis.


In an interesting side-story, Austin Michael Wilding was an inmate in the Liverpool Farm School (Reformatory), Newton in Makerfield, Lancashire for the 1901 census. For the 1911 census he was enumerated as a private with the Infantry of the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment in the enumeration district of 'Arabia, Cyprus and Gibraltar' so it seems very likely that the relative informed of James's death was his brother.

James was killed when the HMS Indefatigable was sunk at the battle of Jutland, the most famous naval battle of the first world war.

"Indefatigable was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Part of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, she was hit several times in the first minutes of the "Run to the South", the opening phase of the battlecruiser action. Shells from the German battlecruiser Von der Tann caused an explosion ripping a hole in her hull, and a second explosion hurled large pieces of the ship 200 feet (60 m) in the air. Only three of the crew of 1,017 survived."

File:HMS Indefatigable (1909).jpg
DescriptionBritish battlecruiser HMS INDEFATIGABLE underway in coastal waters just before the Battle of Jutland.
Date1916
(Photo from Imperial War Museum Files, copyright free)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Plaque to H.P. Clarke

The picture below is of a plaque to Rifleman Henry Percy Clarke which has been returned to the church. When the building work is completed this plaque will go back on display where it should be.

Thanks are due to Ron who is responsible for the plaque coming back to its rightful place and to Paul for sending me the photo. Who knows, maybe the war memorial  is out there somewhere- keep your eyes peeled!

Monday, June 25, 2012

James Tonkies

James Tonkies was another mystery, as with his brother I could find plenty of records for his life but nothing for his death. Then a very helpful member of the Great War Forum pointed me in the direction of the deaths at sea records, another very helpful member of the same forum went to the trouble of photographing an account of the sinking of the SS Burutu and emailing the pictures to me. Many thanks are due to them and to all the members of the forum who read my posts and responded with ideas, information and encouragement.

Anyway, back to James Tonkies. He was born in Liverpool in 1900. If you want to know more about the movements of the Tonkies families through the census returns please refer to an earlier post for his brother SAMUEL JOSEPH TONKIES.

James was born 3rd December 1900 on and baptised on 13th December 1900 in St James' Church.

source: ancestry.co.uk (image cropped by  me)
James was a baby in the 1901 census and a schoolboy the 1911 census.

The next record I have of James is for his death. He joined the Mercantile Marine (Merchant Navy) and was killed on 3rd October 1918 when his ship the SS Burutu sank after accidentally colliding with another British Merchant ship.


source: deaths at sea index 1918 at findmypast.co.uk
This record shows that he was an OS (Ordinary Seaman) and only 17 years old. The address given matches that on his brother's CWGC entry.

James Tonkies was not eligible for a CWGC entry as he was not killed as a direct result of enemy action.



Samuel J Tonkies

This record was all a bit of a puzzle. Although I could find Samuel Joseph Tonkies in the census records, there was no listing for Samuel J Tonkies in the ancestry.co.uk military database, nor in the CWGC database.  There was however a G J Tonkies on the CWGC database whose 'other information' showed that he was the son of Mary Jane Tonkies of Liverpool. This matched the census records I had found for Samuel. As he didn't have a brother with the initials G.J. I assumed that the record was in fact for him and had somehow been mis-transcribed as G.
I tried to confirm this with the merchant seaman records on the national archives online but the only record I could find was for John Edward Tonkies (a brother of S.J.)

I then got in touch with an ancestry member whose wife is a descendant of the Tonkies family and they confirmed that the G.J. Tonkies record was Samuel. They didn't know why his name was wrong or why it hadn't been corrected.
***********
Samuel Joseph Tonkies was born on 25th April 1895. He was bptised on 5th June 1895 in St Gabriel, Toxteth. The baptism record (below) shows that his parents were John Edward and Mary Jane Tonkies. They lived at 21 Guest Street, Toxteth and John Edward's occupation was Engine Driver.

source:ancestry.co.uk
The 1901 census return shows the Tonkies family lived at 24 Guest Street,  John Edward (head of the household) was an engine driver (stationary) Samuel J was 5 years old and the 5th of 7 children.
source:ancestry.co.uk

In the 1911 census return the family were living at 10 Rhyl Street, Toxteth. The number of children seems to have been misunderstood as it says 7 born, 2 died and 5 living. However from census returns, birth and baptism records I can identify a total of 10 children, 2 of whom died.
Other details from the census return show that Samuel Joseph Tonkies was 16 and working as a plumber's labourer.
Just to confuse matters further, Ancestry.co.uk has for some reason got this census return listed twice with small differences in transcription (eg John Edward's place of birth is Salford in one, Liverpool in the other)
source:ancestry.co.uk

The CWGC record for Samuel is under the name G.J. Tonkies but I am sure it is the right man as it gives his mother's name as Mary Jane. There is not another Mary Jane Tonkies in the census returns or birth records, there is also no G.J. Tonkies.

click here to see the CWGC entry for G.J. Tonkies

Samuel was in the Mercantile Marine (Merchant Navy) but his death was eligible for CWGC status because he was killed as a direct result of enemy action.

The death at sea index (below) also has the name G.J. Tonkies. These sources show that Samuel was a fireman and trimmer on the SS Artist which was sunk by enemy on 27th Jan 1917. Samuel was 'supposed drowned.'


source: deaths at sea index findmypast.co.uk 


CLICK HERE TO GO TO A POST ON THIS BLOG CONTAINING THE TEXT OF  WARTIME PAMPHLET ABOUT THE SINKING OF THE SS ARTIST (opens in new window)


sinking of the SS ARTIST - leaflet

The following text is from what I assume is a wartime leaflet. The source for the original pdf file was sourced from the University of Colorado library WW1 digital collection.

Murder Again !

Now that the shadow of disaster hangs over her, Germany

resorts to deeds of shame such as the world has never known.

The Secretary of the British Admiralty makes the following

announcement :

The British ss. " Artist," when 48 miles from land in a

heavy easterly gale, was torpedoed by a German submarine

on Saturday morning, January 27th. In response to her

appeal, sent by wireless, " S.O.S., sinking quickly," auxiliary

patrol craft proceeded to the spot and searched the vicinity,

but found no trace of the vessel or her survivors.

Three days later the ss. " Luchana " picked up a boat

containing 16 of the survivors. The boat had originally contained

23, but seven had died of wounds and exposure, and

were buried at sea. The surviving 16 were landed, and of

these five were suffering from severe frostbite and one from

a broken arm.

The crew had been forced to abandon their ship in open

boats in a midwinter gale, and utterly without means of

reaching land or succour.

Those of them who perished during those three days of

bitter exposure were murdered, and to pretend that anything

was done to ensure their safety would be sheer hypocrisy.

The pledge given by Germany to the United States not

to sink merchant ships without ensuring the safety of the

passengers and crews has been broken before, but never in

circumstances of more cold-blooded brutality.

Printed in Great Britain by Sir Joseph Cattston & Snns, Ltd., 9, Eastcheap, London, E.C.

"BUT NINE OF HER CREW ALIVE"

The following account of the sinking of the SS Artist is an extract from the book 

The merchant seaman in war
by L. Cope Cornford, with a foreword by Admiral Sir John R. Jellicoe.

Published 1918 by George H. Doran Company in New York.
Written in English.

 
 
 
"BUT NINE OF HER CREW ALIVE" 
 
NINE O'CLOCK on the morning of January 27th, 
1917, in very dirty weather, in the North Atlantic. 
One of his Majesty's patrol boats fighting out a 
full easterly gale with a breaking sea, smothered 
in water, violently flung to and fro. To the 
lieutenant-commander, R.N.R., comes a mes- 
senger with a signal pad, on which is neatly 
written an intercepted wireless S.O.S. call : 
" S.S. Artist sinking rapidly, mined or torpedoed 
in ' then followed her position. The lieu- 
tenant-commander replied by wireless that he 
was proceeding to her assistance. No answer 
came, then or afterwards. The lieutenant - 
commander increased his speed up to the limit 
the boat could stand in that sea, and steered for 
the spot indicated. He shoved along for two 
hours ; then, as the vessel was being strained 
and the engines were racing, he reduced speed ; 
an hour later he was obliged again to reduce 
speed. At half-past one he arrived at the 
position indicated. There was nothing but the 
boiling waste of waters. 
 
The lieutenant-commander cruised twelve 
miles in one direction and twelve miles in another ; 
the wind increasing, the sea rising higher, the 
cold very bitter. 
 
At three o'clock in the afternoon the lieu- 
tenant-commander was obliged to heave-to. He 
did not think that in such weather the boats of 
the sinking ship could have been launched, or if 
they were launched, that they could live. That 
night it blew harder than ever, and the thermo- 
meter fell to 37 degrees. At nine o'clock the 
next morning the lieutenant-commander went 
to succour another ship in distress, and so passes 
out of this story. 
 
He was right and wrong in his surmise. A 
little after the lieutenant-commander had 
received the S.O.S. call from the Artist, the 
boats had been launched from her, and one lived. 
While the lieutenant-commander, the same 
afternoon, was beating to and fro in the raging 
sea and icy spindrift, there was a boat with its 
miserable crew somewhere near. 
 
It was between eight and nine on that Saturday 
morning, January 27th, 1917, when the Artist's 
wireless operator sent out his call. The Artist, 
sailing from an American port, had run right 
into the gale ; and she had been hove-to for 
three nights and two days. Between eight and 
nine in the morning, without a sign of a submarine, 
the dull boom of an explosion roared through the 
tumult of the gale, and a torpedo, striking the 
starboard side forward, tore a huge hole close 
upon the water-line. 
 
There was not a moment to lose. The violent 
pitching of the ship, lying head to sea, ominously 
slackened as she began to settle by the head. The 
sea poured over her bows and swept the decks 
from stem to stern. Waist-deep in water, the 
crew struggled desperately to lower the three 
lifeboats. In one boat were the master with the 
second and third officers and part of the crew ; 
in another were the chief officer and part of 
the crew ; and in the third were a cadet and 
part of the crew. What followed is taken from 
the cadet's narrative. 
 
He was in his boat, which was swung out on 
the falls, and he saw the chief officer's boat, also 
swung out, dashed against the ship's side as 
she rolled, and broken. The next moment the 
cadet's boat was borne upwards by a rising wave, 
so that the after fall was pushed upwards and 
thus unhooked. As the boat was left hanging 
by the bows her stern dropped suddenly. Two 
men were flung overboard and sank at once. 
The next wave bodily lifting the boat on an 
even keel, enabled the cadet to unhook the 
foremost fall, and the men, pulling hard, got 
clear of the ship. 
 
As he pulled clear, the cadet saw the chief 
officer's boat filled with water to the gunwale, 
broadside on to the tremendous sea, and help- 
less. She was never seen again. 
 
In the meanwhile the master's boat had also 
pulled clear of the sinking ship. Both boats laid 
out sea anchors and drifted in sight of each other 
all that terrible day. 
 
There were forty-five persons in all on board 
the Artist when she was torpedoed. Some had  
gone down in the chief officer's boat, some were 
in the captain's boat, and in the cadet's boat were 
sixteen persons. 
 
That night, the night of January 27th, as 
the lieutenant-commander stated, the gale 
increased in violence and the thermometer 
dropped to 37 degrees. Somehow, the frozen, 
wet, exhausted men must keep baling out the 
boat, and her head to the sea. Concerning the 
horrors of that night the cadet says nothing. 
It is possible that the partial paralysis of the 
faculties, induced by long exposure, dulls the 
memory. There is no consciousness of time, but 
a quite hopeless conviction of eternity. The 
state of men enduring prolonged and intense 
hardship seems to them to have had no beginning 
and to have no end. After a period of acute 
suffering, varying according to the individual, 
the edge of pain is blunted and numbness sets 
in. In many cases the retardation of the 
circulation, withdrawing the full supply of 
blood to the head, causes delirium, in which 
men shout and babble, drink salt water, and 
leap overboard. By degrees the heart's action 
is weakened, and finally stops. Then the 
man dies. Seven men in the cadet's boat did 
in fact die. 
 
After the night of the 27th the captain's boat 
was no more seen. The cadet and his crew alone 
were left of the people of the Artist. 
 
They drifted in the gale all that Sunday, the 
28th, all Monday, all Monday night. Men died, 
one after another, and the pitiless sea received 
their bodies. When each one passed the cadet  
does not state. Probably he could not remember. 
For the survivors were dying, too. They were 
dying upwards from their feet, in which frost- 
bite had set in. One man, a fireman, endured 
the agony of a broken arm. . . . 
 
On the night of January 29th-30th, when 
the castaways had been adrift for three days 
and three nights, they saw the distant lights of 
land towards the north. The wind and sea 
began to go down, and at daylight the crew 
hoisted sail and steered north. At a little 
after nine on that Tuesday morning, exactly 
seventy-two hours since they had cleared the 
sinking ship, they sighted the smoke of an 
outward-bound steamer. Twenty minutes later 
nine men were taken on board, and one dead 
man was left in the boat. 
 
The rescued men were transferred to a 
patrol boat, which landed them in an Irish 
port the same evening. Here, says the cadet, 
" the Shipwrecked Mariners' authorities took 
care of us and did all they possibly could 
for us." 
 
Five of the nine survivors were placed in 
hospital. The remaining four, of whom the 
sturdy cadet was one, speedily recovered. 
 
The boat with the dead man in her was picked 
up by a patrol vessel. 
 
A brief official account of the affair was 
published at the time by the Secretary of the 
Admiralty, who remarked that ' The pledge 
given by Germany to the United States not to 
sink merchant ships without ensuring the safety 
of the passengers and crews has been broken 
 before, but never in circumstances of more 
cold-blooded brutality." 
 
But when it comes to brutality the Germans 
can do better than that, as will be seen. What's 
the use of talking ? 
 
 
 

Rifleman Percy Harold Harwood 240606

There were two CWGC entries for Percy H Harwood, both men were called Percy Harold but one was from Liverpool and the other from Somerset.

Percy Harold Harwood was born on 26th Sept 1895 in Liverpool. His baptism record (below) shows he was baptised on 13th October in the church of St Michael. His parents Alfred, a clerk, and Charlotte lived at 19 Parliament Place.
source: ancestry.co.uk

The 1901 census shows the Harwood family still living at 19 Parliament Place.
source: ancestry.co.uk

The 1911 census shows that the family had moved to 43 Upper Parliament Street.
source: ancestry.co.uk

Percy H Harwood's medal card showsa that he was a private in the Liverpool Regiment with the regimental numbers 2250 and 240606, he was then a rifleman in the Liverpool Regiment with the regimental number 240606.
source: ancestry.co.uk
the card also shows that he first entered the theatre of was on 24/2/1915 in France. The card shows that he was entitled to the Victory Medal, British War Medal and the 1915 star. It bears a note that he is deceased.

Percy H Harwood's entry in UK Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919 gives the following informtion:


Name:
Percy Harold Harwood
Residence:
Liverpool
Death Date:
19 Sep 1916
Death Location:
France & Flanders
Enlistment Location:
Liverpool
Rank:
Private
Regiment:
King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Battalion:
6th Battalion
Number:
240606
Type of Casualty:
Killed in action
Theatre of War:
Western European Theatre


There is a slight discrepncy in that he was listed as a private here but rifleman on his medal card and on his CWGC entry. He was in the 6th Battalion of The King's (Liverpool Regiment) at the time of his death so rifleman is correct.