Kelly’s Directory of Gloucestershire, 1906 parish recorDs
Marriage records for Frocester (1559-1837); Maisemore (15571813); and Tirley (1655-1812)
This CD and all of its contents are for personal use only. The CD and contents may not be: l Used commercially, re-sold, modified, distributed by any method, copied, loaned, hired l Reverse engineered, de-compiled, disassembled or used to create derivative works from the contents l Rented, leased, licensed or otherwise transferred without the express written consent of S&N British Data Archive Ltd and ABM Publishing Ltd. Printed and distributed. COPYRIGHT. All intellectual property rights in the software and contents are protected by copyright. Failure to abide by these terms and conditions may result in legal action being taken against any offenders. Although this CD has been thoroughly checked, we recommend, as a matter of precaution, that all media be checked with an up-todate virus checker and regular file backups are made. The programs and content are provided ‘AS IS’ and you assume responsibility for determining the suitability of the content for your system and for the results obtained. In no event shall ABM Publishing Ltd and S&N British Data Archive Ltd be liable for any consequential or incidental damages. No responsibility or liability will be taken by ABM Publishing Ltd or S&N British Data Archive Ltd for damage, loss or corruption of data through the use of this disc or any of its contents. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions then please do not use this disc. All content of this disc is copyright S&N British Data Archive Ltd, ABM Publishing Ltd and individual authors.
BRINGING YOU THE BEST FAMILY HISTORY ADVICE for 28 years war illustrateD
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Plan your trip with our essential tips what to do. Don’t panic. There is an information desk straight ahead where you can get directions. Take your time to get oriented. Turn left into the café area. You also pass a small museum, where you can have a look at the 1225 Magna Carta for a real sense of the historical importance of TNA. And there is a cloakroom with free lockers to leave your belongings. As a first-time visitor, you then need to head up to the second floor to get a reader’s ticket. You will fill in a form at one of the computer terminals and complete a short online course on how to handle old documents before your ticket is issued.
Don’t waste your visit looking for census records that can be found elsewhere, look instead at the real gems
sound off before you go. l A camera – make sure you switch off the flash. l Your means of identification. l Cash – enough to pay for lunch, any photocopies you might need and perhaps a visit to the bookshop. l Research notes – ideally, your laptop or tablet could have a copy of all your research to date so you can see what gaps you are trying to fill. l Mobile phone – you cannot use it to make calls, so will need to switch it to silent.
Things to leave at home l Food
and chewing gum – banned from every record office in the country for obvious reasons. If you A visitor examines an unrolled manuscript. have brought a packed lunch, leave it in a locker. l Biros, fountain pens, pencil yourself. So be prepared. You might want to take: sharpeners and pencil erasers, l Two pencils – not pens, record coloured pencils and handheld offices don’t let you use them for fear scanners – stick to pencils. l Children – TNA does not usually of damaging the original documents. And make sure they don’t have erasers allow entry to those under 16. attached as these are also forbidden. l Paper to make notes or, better still, a On the day laptop or tablet computer – there are As you walk through the front door, plenty of power points, but turn the you may wonder where to go and
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Then, head back down to the first floor. To your right is the research and enquiries room. This houses shelves full of directories, civil service yearbooks, and Army, Navy and Air Force lists as well as terminals and microfiche machines for you to view digitised documents. You may also use the terminals
About the catalogue You can search the catalogue online before you visit TNA or from terminals in the building. All documents have a unique reference number that you will need to order documents. Part one of the number identifies the Government department, part two is the series, and part three the ‘piece’ – which may be a box, volume or file. So, for example, HO 2/20 means Home Office (HO) certificates of arrival of aliens (2), at Hull (20). Some references have divisions below the department, and sub-series or even sub sub-series. Finally, there may be an item number for a single document within a piece. Only pieces and items can be ordered for viewing. Read more information at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ catalogue.
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Visiting the national archives VISITING
A researcher at The National Archives.
to reserve a seat in the document reading room and order up original files. Although you do not need a reader’s ticket to use the research and enquiries room, you will need one to see original documents and to enter the document reading room. You may order up to three pieces or items at any one time (see ‘About the catalogue’ on page 11), and all being well these should arrive in 40 minutes to an hour. Assuming the file you have ordered up contains information that you want, you will need to make a record. You can, of course, take notes, but sometimes it is easier to photograph the documents and view them at your leisure later. A fairly recent addition to the services on offer at Kew includes fixed position digital cameras that you
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Plan your trip with our essential tips
can use free of charge. You can then email the images to yourself.
Documents ordered by readers in pigeonholes, awaiting collection.
Little gems
1384 to 1858 can be found at Kew. Start at PROB 12 (register books) in the catalogue and work from there. Typically a 19th century will may be around a page in length and will record the beneficiaries, executors and date the will was made. l Land valuation – If your ancestor owned or occupied property, you may well be able to track it down in the Field Books created in 1910 by Valuation Office officials recording baseline data for future taxes. These record the type of ownership (for example, freehold or leasehold) and the area covered by the property. Some records also include the building date, state of repair, number of rooms and sometimes a sketch plan. Start at IR 58 in the catalogue. l Passports – Indexes and registers
TNA’s on-going digitisation program means that some of its collections can be viewed online, either on TNA’s DocumentsOnline site or in partnership with other websites, some of which require payment to access. As home to 1,000 years of official Government and court documents, TNA holds a wealth of gems and less obvious material of interest to family historians. l Wills – Before January 1858, all wills had to be proved by the Church and courts – and this required copies to be transcribed into bound volumes. The Prerogative Court of Canterbury was the most important of these courts, dealing with relatively wealthy people living mainly in south England and Wales, and copies made between
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Visiting the national archives of passport applications survive from 1851 onwards. Early indexes list the names and dates of passports and sometimes observations. Later ones hold just the name and date issued. Microfilm lists can be found in FO 611 in the reading rooms. Using the issue date and passport number shown, you can then search FO 610 for registers showing travel destination. Indexes for 1863 to 1873 are missing, and the series ends in 1916. l Workhouse – TNA holds records from 1834 to 1921 of workhouse overseers, teachers, nurses and medical staff. Salary details and often much more, particularly if a member of staff came to the attention of the authorities for some form of misconduct, can be found in MH 9. There is also extensive correspondence between central Government and local authorities that may contain some information on inmates as well as staff in MH 12. l Excisemen – Tax collectors were seldom popular with their contemporaries, but find an exciseman in your family history and you can raise a smile. Excise Minute Books from 1695 to 1874 provide sufficient details of postings and eventual retirement, along with comments – good and bad – about their conduct, which enable you to reconstruct a fairly full account of their career. You can look at the CUST 47 index on microfiche and order up the original documents from there. l Military – TNA contains so much material on servicemen and women that it is impossible even to begin describing it here. Records range from 18th century British Army officers, to members of the Women’s Royal Air Force and prisoners of war. Pinpoint what you need before you visit, using TNA’s website at www. nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/ looking-for-person/default.htm. l Railway workers – When the railways were nationalised in 1947, many staff records also transferred. There is an excellent online guide at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ records/research-guides/railwaystaff.htm that lists the railway companies whose records survive at Kew and the files in which they can be found. Typical survivals include salary registers and personnel files.
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Plan your trip with our essential tips
Many records, however, are in local record offices, while the navvies who built the railways were typically casual workers, so there are no records. Do check before visiting.
If you can’t make it… There is something exciting and satisfying about using original records in your research. Somehow, it can make that sense of history seem all the more real. But all is not lost if you find you are unable to pay a personal visit. Although you mostly have to pay for the service, ever increasing numbers of records are being made available through TNA DocumentsOnline at www. nationalarchives.gov.uk/ documentsonline. Some records – notably the collection of poor law union correspondence – are free but you will pay £2
Look online www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ records/research-guide-listing.htm In-depth TNA research guides. l www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/visit TNA guide to planning your visit. l
for a First World War medal card and £3.50 for a will or entry in the death duty register. Worth the money? Certainly – but I’d rather see the original for myself!
Boxes of War Office documents on repository shelving. View through the stained glass above the entrance at The National Archives, the keeper of 1,000 years of UK Government records.
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forenames THROUGH TIME
The history behind your ancestors’ names
First name
fashions
Roy Stockdill takes a look at naming patterns and popularity over the ages.
Images: name clouds © Office for National Statistics; illustration, Queen Victoria & Florence Nightingale all © Photos.com/Thinkstock; photo of children © Jupiter Images/Thinkstock; maps © Archer Software.
Where did your ancestors’ first names hail from?
‘P
a drove happily… thinking of his six children and the splendid, handsome names he and Ma had given them. Jolly good names, perfick, every one of them, he thought. There was a reason for them all. Montgomery, the only boy, had been named after the
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general. Primrose had come in the spring. Zinnia and Petunia were twins and they were the flowers Ma liked most. Victoria, the youngest girl, had been born in plum-time. Suddenly he couldn’t remember why they had called the eldest Mariette. “I wanted to call her after that Queen,” Ma said. “The French one, Marie Antoinette. But you said it was too long. You’d never say it, you said”.’
This delightful extract from HE Bates’ famous novel, The Darling Buds of May, which became a memorable TV series and launched the Hollywood career of Catherine Zeta Jones, illustrates perfickly – oops, he’s got me at it now! – the dilemma that faces the parents of every newborn: what to call the baby. It’s a phenomenon families have struggled – and experimented – with for many centuries. In some ways we have seen huge changes – and yet it
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forenames THROUGH TIME could be argued that, really, nothing much changes at all. Consider the panel below listing the top 10 first names for boys in England and Wales in 1700, as given in The Guinness Book of Names by Leslie Dunkling, and then compare it with the top echelon of male baby names in 2010, over three centuries later, according to the Office for National Statistics:
Top 10 boys’ names 1700 1 John 2 William 3 Thomas 4 Richard 5 James 6 Robert 7 Joseph 8 Edward 9 Henry 10 George
2010 1 Oliver 2 Jack 3 Harry 4 Alfie 5 Charlie 6 Thomas 7 William 8 Joshua 9 George 10 James
No fewer than four names – Thomas, William, George and James – are still up there in the top 10 after more than 300 years! And if we take the view that Jack and Harry are really no more than the 21st-century versions of John and Henry – diminutives or nicknames that developed into given first names in their own right – then the grand total is SIX male first names still among the most popular today that our early 18th century ancestors would have been very familiar with. We could add that Alfie and Charlie are modern variants of Alfred and Charles, two other male names that were extremely common in previous eras. Edward is yet another name that has been around for many centuries – the name of eight kings, no less – while Robert and Richard, too, are names still borne by a great many British males that date back to the Norman Conquest. Oliver, the current leader of the pack in boys’ names, is a relative newcomer. It did not make an appearance in Dunkling’s lists of the top 50 male names in England and Wales until 1875 when it appeared as a joint number 41. It then fell out of the top 50 for more than a century, returning in 1985 as a joint number 43, since when it has climbed steadily
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to reach the number one spot for the last two years. Interestingly, Mohammed tops the 2010 boys’ list if variant spellings are included. When we look at girls’ names, the picture is quite different, as the panel below shows:
Top 10 girls’ names 1700 1 Mary 2 Elizabeth 3 Ann 4 Sarah 5 Jane 6 Margaret 7 Susan 8 Martha 9 Hannah 10 Catherine
2010 1 Olivia 2 Sophie 3 Emily 4 Lily 5 Amelia 6 Jessica 7 Ruby 8 Chloe 9 Grace 10 Evie
Not a single name from the top 10 of 1700 remains in the list of the most popular baby names for girls in 2010, which was headed for the second year in succession by Olivia, the female version of Oliver, both deriving from the olive tree as a symbol of peace – which perhaps says something about modern parents and their ideals. Of the top 50 girls’ names in 1700, only Grace – then listed at number 17 in the 18th century – features in the top 10 today. Grace, however, has survived staunchly as a girl’s name through the ages, moving up and down the popularity charts until its triumphant return to the top ranks. Could this be because some couples like to give their female children names they believe will personify their nature, just as devoutly religious parents once gave their offspring names like Faith, Hope, Charity, Mercy, Patience, Prudence and Verity, espousing the worthy virtues? It’s also worth asking whether girls’ names are more open to frivolous experimentation, while traditional names rule for boys? First-name fashions in Britain fall into several distinct periods and it is instructive to take a look at them...
existed at all because the population was tiny and most people lived in remote villages, so they saw no reason to distinguish one man or woman from another. Thus, first names were important. Anglo-Saxon males bore personal names like Alfred, Alwin, Edgar, Edmund, Edward, Harold and Godwin, while Edith, Ethel and Edwina – all the Es – were popular for women.
No fewer than four names are still up there in the top 10 after more than 300 years! The Normans introduced surnames but also brought with them a new stock of first names – Alan, Bernard, Denis, Geoffrey, Henry, Hugh, Piers, Many girls were called Florence after ‘the Lady with the Lamp’ in 1900, but surprisingly few were named after Queen Victoria until more than 70 years after her death.
Pre-Conquest & Norman names Before William the Conqueror arrived on our shores in 1066 surnames barely
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The history behind your ancestors’ names Ralph, Richard, Robert, Roger and Walter for men and Adela, Alice, Constance, Emma, Marjorie, Maud, Rosamond and Yvonne for women. The Normans and their descendants became the aristocracy and those lower down the social ladder aped their betters, so the Old English names dwindled away.
Christian names The split between the Catholic and Protestant Churches during the English Reformation of the 16th century was reflected in name changes. Catholic saints’ names like Augustine, Benedict, Agnes, Barbara and Mary were rejected by the Protestants in favour of Old Testament names like Abraham, Adam, Benjamin, Daniel, David, Jacob, Joseph, Samuel and Solomon for boys and Abigail, Deborah, Esther, Eve, Hannah, Naomi, Rachel, Rebekah, Ruth and Sarah for girls. The extreme puritanism of some Protestant parents in the 16th and 17th centuries produced children with extraordinary names like Be Courteous, Faint Not, Fight The
Good Fight, Fly Fornication, Make Peace and Safe Deliverance, which inevitably attracted much mockery. What can one say, except poor things! One wonders what kind of suffering and mickey-taking they must have attracted from contemporaries.
Pet names Later in the 18th century, girls’ names began to be truncated to diminutives or ‘pet names’ in their own right. Female children who once might have been called Elizabeth were now being given names like Bess, Bessie, Beth, Eliza and Liz or Lisa. These names begin to appear in parish registers from around 1750 and have continued in General Register Office (GRO) birth indexes ever since.
Flower names Who can forget the monstrously snobbish Hyacinth Bucket and her sisters, Daisy, Rose and Violet in the popular TV series, Keeping Up Appearances? The late 19th century introduced names like Rose, Lily, Hazel, Ivy, Blossom, Cherry, Heather, Holly, Iris, Laurel, Myrtle and Poppy into the pool of girls’ first names.
Jewel names Girls’ names derived from precious stones came in at about the same time as flower names in the 19th century and included Amber, Beryl, Pearl, Ruby, Opal, Jet, Crystal, Coral, Amethyst and Jade.
Famous names This is one of the most obvious sources of first names in the 20th and 21st centuries. How many children today, whether they appreciate it or not, owe their names to somebody famous? How many Kylies, Keiras, Jasons and Waynes are there? However, this is not a new phenomenon. In 1900 the name Florence rocketed into the number one spot, having first appeared at number six in 1875. This was entirely due to the fame of Florence Nightingale, the ‘Lady with the Lamp’, who was named after the Italian city in which she was born and became a heroine of the Crimean War. Florence survived in the top 50 as a popular female name until 1935 and then fell right away but is now making a
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comeback, reaching number 54 in the top 100 in 2010. The other classic example of a female first name that owed phenomenal popularity to just one person is Shirley. The name barely existed before it arrived out of nowhere to top the charts at number one in 1935 – thanks to a six-yearold blonde moppet called Shirley Temple who entranced the world with her rendition of On The Good Ship Lollipop, marching down the aisle of an aeroplane in the 1934 film, ‘Bright Eyes’. Such fashions are usually fleeting and so it was with Shirley, for by 1960 the name had disappeared from the charts even in America.
Royal names Kingly names like William, Richard, John, Edward, Henry and George have formed the backbone of traditional boys’ names since the Middle Ages. Later, from 1700 onwards until 1925, Mary was always either top or runnerup in the girls’ charts, while Elizabeth, too, rode high, usually in second or third place.
The extreme puritanism of some Protestant parents produced children with extraordinary names But here is a somewhat curious fact: though Queen Victoria was probably the most famous person in the world during her reign of more than 60 years, her name was rarely used for the female offspring of her subjects in the 19th century. Indeed, Victoria never even appeared in the top 50 girls’ names in England and Wales until 1975, over 70 years after the queen’s death, when it stood at number 12. Perhaps Flora Thompson put her finger on the reason when she wrote in Lark Rise to Candleford: ‘There was no Victoria in the school, nor was there a Miss Victoria or a Lady Victoria in any of the farmhouses, rectories or mansions in the district, nor did Laura ever meet a Victoria in later life. That great name was sacred
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forenames THROUGH TIME
The history behind your ancestors’ names Studying distribution
to the Queen and was not copied by her subjects to the extent imagined by period novelists of today.’
Mapping names A brilliant source for looking at the popularity of first names at one precise moment in history is the interactive CD-Rom, The British 19th Century Surname Atlas (from Archer Software at www.archersoftware.co.uk), which can produce distribution maps for forenames as well as surnames, derived from data in the 1881 Census. The chart reproduced right shows the top 10 names in Britain in 1881, with their respective total numbers.
When we look at the top male name, John, and the top female name, Mary, we can see that their relative distribution in England was fairly evenly spread, while they seem somewhat thin on the ground in Scotland and Wales. However, that probably indicates the much smaller populations of those countries. It is no surprise, either, that the two names were most heavily concentrated in Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and the London area, since those were the greatest centres of population.
An illustration of a family reading from the Bible at home, as a newborn slept. Old Testament names were popular among Protestants.
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Taking a look at my own forename and that of Family Tree editor, Helen, threw up some interesting statistics. Roy is Gaelic and means red, which hardly Numbers of the first describes one name Roy (above) and who was born Helen (below) in 1881 a blonde, blue- on Archer Software’s eyed Yorkshire Surname Atlas. baby! According to The Guinness Book of Names, it has never ranked very high in popularity charts. Roy came into general use in the GRO birth statistics for England and Wales about 1884 and the highest spot it ever reached in the male charts was number 17 in 1935. Distribution maps from the Surname Atlas reveal there were just 225 males called Roy in 1881 and the name was ranked at number 1,667. However, when looked at in terms of instances per 100,000 people, my name was most common in the counties of Scotland – possibly because the Scottish hero, Rob Roy, still held a folk memory there. Helen, on the other hand, has long been a fairly popular girl’s name, being from the Greek, a saint’s name and meaning ‘the bright one’. In the 1881 Census there were 88,715 Helens and the name ranked at number 35 in the top 50 girls’ names. It was exceptionally popular in Scotland – the greatest number of Helens were found in Lanarkshire, where 11,435 females had the name. Helen achieved its greatest popularity in the second half of the 20th century, peaking at number six in England and Wales in 1975.
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World War II records
Reader Story
Officers of the 2nd Battalion The Loyals at Keijo, Korea, December 1942. Jack McNaughton is far left, second row from the back.
Tracing WWII Far East PoWs Japan entered World War II at the end of 1941, and throughout the South Pacific and South East Asia, thousands of Allied troops were captured and sent to PoW camps in the Far East. John Howard researched his father’s PoW experiences and shares useful sources to help you do the same.
O
n 7 December 1941 the Japanese bombed the US fleet at Pearl Harbour; within hours they had landed invasion forces in Thailand, Malaya, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In the next few months the invaders swept through South East Asia. By the end of February 1942 Japanese troops had pushed down the Malay Peninsula and taken the jewel in the British Empire’s Asian crown – Singapore. British troops were pushed back from Malaya and Johor onto Singapore Island in a series of desperate rear-guard actions until they were forced to surrender in what Churchill described as the
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‘worst disaster… of British history’. Eventually, around 130,000 men, let down by politicians and senior commanders, found themselves at the mercy of a brutal Japanese military, which was ill-equipped psychologically to deal with prisoners of war. My father, Lt Jack McNaughton, was among those captured at Singapore and held at camps at Outram Road and Changi before being transported to hard labour camps in Thailand, Burma, Java, Korea and Japan. The prisoners were marched over land or transported by sea in appalling conditions on ‘hell ships’. PoWs were located all over South East Asia, so it can be difficult to find information about a captured relative and to
understand the experience of being a Far East prisoner of war.
Army records To research a deceased relative’s movements during WWII, start with Army records, which are available to next of kin, or other enquirers with a letter of authority. Contact: Army Personnel Centre, Historical Disclosures, Mail Point 555, Kentigern House, 65 Brown Street, Glasgow, G2 8EX; http://www.veterans-uk. info/service_records/army.html. Welfare requests on behalf of former soldiers take precedence and there are currently high volumes of enquiries. Try also: l The National Archives (TNA), www.
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Prisoners of war in Asia nationalarchives.gov.uk. The Japanese efficiently indexed their PoWs; TNA holds Japanese Index Cards and Liberation Questionnaires. Liberation Questionnaires were completed by each PoW upon liberation and contain details of the camps in which they were held, with dates and details of camp commanders. However, some forms are incomplete. Find Japanese Index Cards in TNA at WO 345 and Liberation Questionnaires at WO 344.
Foreign national archives After the war there was a series of trials of Japanese military staff involved in war crimes. Investigations by Allied powers were carried out to secure convictions. The Americans interviewed British PoWs – my father included. An online check of the US National Archive, www.archives.gov, led to an interview transcript given by Jack to US officials of his captivity in Tokyo, outlining daily life in the camp.
Centre for Research Allied PoWs under the Japanese To trace your FEPOW (Far East Prisoner of War) ancestors click on www.mansell.com, which aims to be a primary source of documentation for all Allied PoWs in the Far East, including lists of all Japanese PoW camps, rosters of captured men, and photos of camps. Follow the links to view lists of camps according to geographical location in Japan and throughout Asia. Choose links to individual camps for timelines, camp rosters, lists of the deceased, personal stories, photographs and other external sources.
Children of Far East PoWs
Regimental museums
For families of PoWs, click on www. cofepow.org.uk, a registered charity set up to promote the memory of PoWs. There is an online database and a research advice centre. The database includes name, rank, service number and date of capture of around 60,000 captured servicemen taken from armed forces’ records. The online database is being compiled by volunteers and will eventually include digital copies of the Liberation Questionnaires for all FEPOWs. l The Armed Forces link reveals accounts of individual units’ actions taken from regimental war diaries, occasionally mentioning individuals. I found this about my father: ‘After C Company had retired, A Company blew up some culverts and then withdrew in their turn. In the course of the action Lieutenant JW McNaughton and nine men of his platoon got cut off, and it was not until 12 days later that Lieutenant McNaughton and two men managed to make their way back to Singapore Island.’
Regimental museums are a fantastic source of information about individual units. Indices of holdings can be found on TNA’s ARCHON directory at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon. Material held by museums includes unit histories, war diaries, regimental diaries, photos and memorabilia. My father served with the 2nd Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (The Loyals). It later amalgamated into the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, which in turn has become part of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment Museum is based at Fulwood Barracks in Preston where, on my visit, I discovered details of my father’s captivity from photographs, regimental accounts, the diary of his commanding officer Colonel Elrington, and a camp magazine called Nor Iron Bars that he helped to produce (along with officers and men of 2nd Loyals during his captivity). l Interested in the 2nd Loyals? Click on www.qlrmuseum.co.uk.
Diaries and memoirs Many Far East PoWs kept diaries and some survivors later published accounts of their experiences, which are worth reading, particularly if the author served in the same unit as your relative. In the account of 2nd Lt Church parade, Omori PoW camp, Tokyo. Below: Telegram confirming Jack’s liberation.
Images: all images courtesy John Howard.
FEPOW Community Another important resource is www. fepow-community.org.uk, which offers research tips and links to other websites and stories. It includes historical documents including Gen Sir Archibald Wavell’s report to the War Cabinet and the General Officer Commanding, Malaya Command Lt Gen Arthur Percival’s dispatch in the London Gazette – Operations of Malaya Command 8 December 1941-15 February 1942.
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World War II records Tom Henling-Wade of the 2nd Loyals, Prisoner of the Japanese (Kangeroo Press, 1994), I discovered that he had served with my dad and was with him in prison. The Loyals’ officers largely remained together throughout their captivity, so shared many experiences. Wade and my father went together from Changi to Keijo along with the other Loyals officers, before being separated from their group and transported to Tokyo. Wade writes about the Changi Concert Party, in which Jack McNaughton took a leading role: ‘The greatest boon in Changi was the concert party or theatre founded in the early days. We contributed Jack McNaughton, a lieutenant from my battalion who was a West End actor with much comedy experience and a mobile and highly expressive face. No 122 Field Regiment Royal Artillery contributed Arthur Butler who was already wellknown on the stages of Malaya as Gloria D’earie.’ Jack is mentioned on other occasions, as was Frank Fujita, a Japanese-American Marine sergeant, who was in Tokyo along with McNaughton and Wade. Fujita also wrote a memoir that mentions Jack; Foo: A Japanese American Prisoner of the Rising Sun (University of North Texas Press, 1993).
Prisoners of war in Asia Jack’s timeline l April 1939 Enlistment, London Irish Rifles. l April 1940 2nd Lt The Loyal Regiment. l Oct 1940 Promoted to full lieutenant, posted to the 2nd Battalion The Loyal Regiment in Singapore. l Dec 1941-Feb 1942 Platoon commander ‘A’ Company 2nd Battalion The Loyal Regiment during the Malay Campaign, the Battle of Johor and Battle for Singapore. l 15 Feb 1942 Capture. l Feb 1942-Aug 1942 Changi. l Aug 1942 Japan Party B moved from Changi to Keijo aboard the Fukkai Maru. l Aug 1942-Dec 1943 Keijo (Seoul, Korea). l Dec 1943-Aug 1945 Omori, Tokyo. Written evidence My father kept two written accounts; one recorded the retreat of the Loyals through Malaya and finding their way back to Singapore. The only surviving written evidence of his captivity is a book of poems written during his imprisonment in Keijo. Here is one example: Keijo, August 1943 To AC (killed in action 61st Milestone Ayer Hitam) Sometimes in twisted dreams my mind slides back Again to live that gallant forlorn hope, Once more this battered company attack Up and across that sun-scorched shell-torn slope. Out of the brooding jungle’s savage maw Machine gun bullets spit in enfilade. More deadly than the tearing tiger’s claw Comes the explosion of the first grenade. Frigid I behold again your poor smashed head That held so much of kindness and humanity Plug the raw hole from whence grey brain is shed, And all the cheer and essence of your sanity. My fumbling hands are stained a richer red Than the red rose for which you fought and bled.
2nd Lt Jack McNaughton (right) in Raffles Hotel, Singapore, in 1941 with his wife Jane Cobb and their friend Johnny Wood. Jack was an actor before the war and appeared on stage several times. Off duty, he worked as a radio announcer for the Malayan Broadcasting Company.
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re ut mo Find wo.iwm.org.uk
. seum ww ar Mu W l ia per k/ The Im ww.mod.u lw n r et/ ceInte / Defen r/Veterans o F f e o c y n istr Defe he Min fice. T ls a f Med dal O ce Me Defen l
Page from Changi Concert Party programme.
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Key websites
Journey online...
The Scottish Border region All aboard for Mary Evans’ online journey to the Scottish border region: West Lothian/ Linlithgowshire, Midlothian/ Edinburghshire, East Lothian/Haddingtonshire, Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire.
BMDs, parish records, censuses & wills
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he first place to search for baptisms and marriages is the Historical Record Collections of FamilySearch at www. familysearch.org. East Lothian is well represented on FreeREG at www.freereg.org.uk with a few areas in Berwickshire also completed. West Lothian FHS, www.wlfhs.org.uk, has a range of burials and census indexes available on CD while The Lothians FHS (http://drupal.lothiansfhs.org) has census indexes for 1841/1851/1861 plus some burial indexes. Search the Gravestone Index at The
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Key websites EdinburghMarriageRegister1701-1750. pdf and http://web.archive.org/ web/20070708071348/www.scotsfind. org/marriages_access/marriages. pdf for Edinburgh parish marriages 1595-1800. There is an index to Corstorphine old parish churchyard inscriptions and other data at www. angelfire.com/ct2/corstorphine with Inveresk churchyard (1857) inscriptions at www.ancestor.abel. co.uk/inv/mi1857.html, Duddingston inscriptions at www.duddingstonkirk. Borders FHS (www.bordersfhs.org.uk). co.uk/page28.html and an index The society has a range of monumental to and some photos of Liberton inscriptions for sale and other records inscriptions at www.libertonkirk.org/ for all four Border counties. Uphall has churchyard.htm. Find Canongate census and gravestone records under burials 1820-1851 at http://web. the Genealogy link at www.uphall.org. archive.org/web/20070707231329/ http://www.scotsfind.org/ West Lothian and Edinburgh have some entries on the gravestone photos canongateburials_access/ website at www.gravestonephotos. canongateburials.pdf and interments com/public/cemeteries.php and check 1658-1700 for Greyfriars at http://web. also Edinburgh Crematorium and archive.org/web/20070802031026/ http://www.scotsfind.org/ the two Edinburgh cemeteries under greyfriars_access/greyfriars.pdf. St Scottish Monumental Inscriptions on DeceasedOnline at www. Cuthbert’s at http://web.archive.org/ web/20070802040250/http://www. deceasedonline.com. There are some records from Leith Parish Registers scotsfind.org/st.cuthbert’s_access/ St.Cuthbert’s.pdf and Rosebank 1588-1700 at http://web.archive. org/web/20070707225857/http:// cemetery at www.dwalker.pwp. blueyonder.co.uk/Cemeteries/ scotsfind.org/south_leith/leith.pdf. Edinburgh has some marriage records Rosebank%20Cemetery.htm have available: see http://web.archive.org/ some gravestone inscriptions available. For East Lothian there are some web/20070707231823/http://www. Carmichael marriages at http:// scotsfind.org/canongate_access/ homepage.ntlworld.com/carmichael. canongate.pdf for Canongate/ Holyrood marriages 1564-1800, www. world/smarriage/12.htm. Find memorial inscriptions for Bolton, ancestor.abel.co.uk/dud/marra.html for Duddingston marriages 1595Saltoun and Pencaitland at http:// ndhm.org.uk/page_5.htm with 1700 and both http://web.archive. Dunbar burials 1739-1851 at www. org/web/20070802040005/www. oocities.org/mfhsau/dunbarburials. scotsfind.org/marriages_access/ The old bridge over the River Tyne at Haddington, East Lothian.
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ScotlandsPeople at www. scotlandspeople.gov.uk is a superb resource for Scottish records with indexes and digitised images of: statutory births, marriages and deaths from 1855 (note: closure rule applies to the more recent images so not all are available online), Old Parish Registers up to 1854, Catholic registers, censuses 1841-1911 and Wills and Testaments 1513-1901. Searching is free but there is a charge for viewing search results, except for Wills and Testaments, and a further charge for viewing the digitised images, so good preparatory work beforehand is essential.
West Lothian l Archives and Records Centre, 9 Dunlop Square, Deans Industrial Estate, Livingston EH54 8SB (01506 773770), www.westlothian.gov.uk/tourism/ FamHistGenInfo/famhistarch/. l Heritage and Information Centre, County Buildings, High St, Linlithgow EH49 7EZ (01506 282491), www.westlothian.gov.uk/ sitecontent/libraries/localhistory.
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Midlothian l Midlothian Local Studies Officer, Midlothian Council Library, 2 Clerk Street, Loanhead EH20 9DR (0131 2713980), www.midlothian.gov.uk/info/476/family_
htm. There are Berwick marriages for 1865 at http://freepages.genealogy. rootsweb.ancestry.com/~connochie/ bdm/bewmarr1865p1.html and links to some Bunkle, Channelkirk, Chirnside, Coldingham, Cockburnspath and Legerwood register entries at www. oocities.org/scotborder. Read monumental inscriptions for the Old Burial Ground at Whitsome at http:// homepages.ipact.nl/~robertson/ whitsome%201%20place%20study/ burial_ground and use the General Index to Surnames at http://freepages. genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry. com/~connochie/generalindex.html for a range of parish register entries for Berwickshire, Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire. You can read The Churches and Churchyards of Berwickshire (1896) by James Robson at www.archive.org/ details/thechurchesandch00robsuoft. There are Carmichael marriage entries for Peeblesshire at http:// homepage.ntlworld.com/carmichael. world/smarriage/23.htm and Tinline entries for Roxburghshire at http://tinlingenealogy.org/trees/ netherancrum.htm while http:// haygenealogy.com/hay has links to Hay and other names in the Borders. Find Selkirk deaths in 1874 at http://
Fishing nets at Dunbar Harbour.
history_archives_and_local_history/152/ midlothian_archives. l Edinburgh City Archives, Level 1, City Chambers, 253 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1YJ (0131 5294616), www. edinburgh.gov.uk/info/428/archives. East Lothian l East Lothian Local History Centre, Newton Port, Haddington EH41 3NA (01620 823307), www.eastlothian.gov.uk/ localhistory. Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire & Selkirkshire l Scottish Borders Archive & Local
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Images: Edinburgh Castle © godrick; River Tyne © Victor Denovan; Dunbar Harbour © Bill Spiers; Eyemouth mist © Susan Mackenzie; Leith © Brendan Howard; Scott’s View © nrg123; all at Shutterstock.
Your ancestors around Scotland freepages.genealogy.rootsweb. edinburgh-sites.com for a guide ancestry.com/~connochie/bdm/ to Edinburgh and read an 1868 seldeaths1874.html. There are description at www.genuki.org.uk/ baptisms, marriages and burial big/sct/MLN/Gaz1868.html. See entries for the surname Hogg in www.visiteastlothian.org/townsEttrick at http://freepages.genealogy. and-villages.asp for East Lothian places and try the Local Heritage site rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hogg/ archives/ettrickopr.html. For the at www.elh.info/site/pages/localheritage-groups.php. For some lovely Baird surname in the Borders see www.bairdnet.com/borders.html and old Aberlady photos, complete with for the Cowan surname see http:// names, see www.flickr.com/photos/ old_aberlady/with/1260293505. freepages.genealogy.rootsweb. ancestry.com/~valorie/cowan. The Scottish Villages website at www. the-scottish-villages.co.uk has short Selkirk Genealogy has transcriptions histories of several Borders villages. for all four border counties for sale at www.sgtranscriptions.co.uk. Use the interactive map at www. scottish-towns.co.uk/borders FreeCEN at www.freecen.org. for towns. Read an early uk is a good source of census Do c material, especially for heck description of Hawick parish and Hawick town the early censuses. See fi As a r lway st at www.genuki.org.uk/ also www.freecen.pwp. s to deta check , it pays big/sct/ROX/Hawick/ blueyonder.co.uk and il s b visit e fo r ing a tr i imperial/hawickParish. www.maxwellancestry. e p, t arr c a n o e n s u r a nging html and www.genuki. com/census. For a view of e yo ac c e re c o s s th e u org.uk/big/sct/ROX/ Selkirk in an 1817 Census rd s. Hawick/imperial/ see www.cangenealogy. hawickTown.html. There is com/armstrong/selkirk1817. a list of Edinburgh apprentices htm. Search the free Wills 1583-1800 at http://web.archive. and Testaments index 1513-1901 org/web/20070707225540/http:// on ScotlandsPeople at www. scotsfind.org/apprentice_access/ scotlandspeople.gov.uk – you can apprentice.pdf and Corstophine download a will for £5. schoolmasters at www.angelfire.com/ ct2/corstorphine/index7.html. Find a Places & people passenger list for The Lady Kennaway, A huge range of information is which sailed from Leith to Sydney available for searching on all the in 1838, together with births and counties on ScotlandsPlaces at www. deaths under the surgeon’s report, at scotlandsplaces.gov.uk. Discover www.historyaustralia.org.au/ifhaa/ the Lothians at www.edinburgh. ships/kennaway.htm. There is a list org/lothians has links to various of Jedburgh Bridewell Jail prisoners areas and there’s an 1868 gazetteer in the 1851 Census at www.rootsweb. extract at www.genuki.org.uk/big/ ancestry.com/~sctbew/Prison/ sct/WLN/Gaz1868.html. Use www. History Centre, Heritage Hub, Kirkstile, Hawick TD9 0AE (01450 360699), www. heartofhawick.co.uk/heritagehub.
Societies l West Lothian Family History Society: Secretary, West Lothian FHS, 21 Willowpark, Fauldhouse EH47 9HN (sec@wlfhs.org.uk), www.wlfhs.org.uk. l The Lothians Family History Society: (www.lothianfhs.org/?q=contact), http://drupal.lothiansfhs.org. l Borders Family History Society: c/o 30 Elliot Road, Jedburgh TD8 6HN (www.bordersfhs.org.uk/ BFHSContacts.asp), www.bordersfhs. org.uk.
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Museums l The Bennie Museum, Bathgate (01506 634944), www.benniemuseum.org.uk. l Annet House Museum, Linlithgow (01506 670677), www. annethousemuseum.org.uk. l Linlithgow Canal Centre, www.lucs. org.uk. l Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Livingston (01506 414957), www. scottishshale.co.uk. l National Mining Museum Scotland, Newtongrange (0131 6637519), www. scottishminingmuseum.com. l National War Museum, Edinburgh Castle (0300 1236789), www.nms.ac.uk/ our_museums/war_museum.aspx.
Mist rolling in off the sea at Eyemouth.
bridewell_jail.htm and names from the great Eyemouth fishing disaster of 14 October 1881 at www.oocities. org/scotborder/Eyemouth.html. An index to biographical listings of Hawick people is at www.genuki.org.uk/ big/sct/ROX/Hawick/peopleTable. html and there is an index to Kelso Grammar School prizewinners in 1853 at www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/ROX/ Kelso/1853schoolprizes.html plus a list of ministers of Roxburgh Parish Church at www.roxburgh.bordernet. co.uk/history/ministers.html. Borders families might find useful information on the Border Reivers website at www. borderreivers.co.uk.
History The best starting point for historical glimpses of the parishes is at http:// stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/sas/sas. asp?action=public where you can view the Old (1791-99) and New (183445) Statistical Accounts of Scotland. l The Museum of Fire, Edinburgh (0131 6597331), www.lothian.fire-uk.org/ museum/museum_intro.htm. l Museum of Childhood, Edinburgh (0131 5294142), www.edinburghmuseums.org. uk/Venues/Museum-of-Childhood. l Museum of Edinburgh (0131 5294143), www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/Venues/ Museum-of-Edinburgh.aspx. l Queensferry Museum (0131 3315545), www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/Venues/ Queensferry-Museum. l Prestongrange Museum, Prestonpans (0131 6532904 in season or 01620 828203 out of season), www.prestongrange.org. l Dunbar Town House (closed for refurbishment), (01620 828204),
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Key websites
View over Leith out to sea.
Read a history of Linlithgow at www.linlithgow.com/history. htm and of Abercorn at http:// www2.thesetonfamily.com:8080/ gallery/Abercorn_History. htm. The Queensferry History Group has a history at www. queensferryhistorygroup.org.uk/abrief-history-of-queensferry. West Linton history can be found at www. west-linton.org.uk/content/history with Bonnyrig and Lasswade history at www.bonnyrigglasswadehistory. org.uk/brief_history.htm. Some Milestones In The History Of Leith offers a detailed timeline at www. leithlocalhistorysociety.org.uk/ timeline.htm. There is a history of Edinburgh at www.localhistories. org/edinburgh.html with another aspect at www.edinburgh-history. co.uk. Read a history of Haddington at www.haddingtoncc.org.uk/ history.htm and of Aberlady at www. aberlady.org/History.html. There is an excellent timeline-based history of Dunbar at www.dunbaruk.com/ timeline.php?f=Dunbar while North Berwick history is covered at www. north-berwick.co.uk/town_history. asp. A History of Peeblesshire (1864) by William Chambers is online at www.archive.org/details/ ahistorypeebles00chamgoog with Peebles: Burgh and Parish in Early History (1903) by Robert Renwick at www.archive.org/details/ peeblesburghand01renwgoog. The www.dunbarmuseum.org. l Musselburgh Museum (0131 6656642), www. musselburghmuseum.org.uk. l John Gray Centre, Haddington (opening 2012), (01620 828200), www. johngraycentre.org. l Coastal Museum, North Berwick (under development), www.eastlothian. gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info. php?documentID=1307.
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Your ancestors around Scotland Gateway to the Borders website has a history of Jedburgh at http:// borderpics.co.uk/jedburgh.html. There are articles on the history of St Boswell’s at www.stboswells. bordernet.co.uk/history/articles. html and of Yetholm at www.yetholm. bordernet.co.uk/history/articles. html. Find Selkirk history at www. selkirk.bordernet.co.uk/history and Galashiels history at www.galashiels. bordernet.co.uk/history.html. There is an online copy of A History of the Border Counties: (Roxburgh, Selkirk, Peebles) (1899) by George Brisbane Douglas at www.archive.org/details/ ahistoryborderc00douggoog.
Photos & maps The West Lothian FHS has a good range of old photos at www.wlfhs. org.uk/picgall.htm and there are many more on the Heritage Services’ photostream at www.flickr.com/ photos/westlopics. There are many categories to browse on the Edinphoto website at www.edinphoto. org.uk and some nice photos of modern Haddington at http:// local.upmystreet.com/pictures-ofhaddington.html – use the links for other East Lothian places. Haddington Old and New has five interesting sets of photos at www.haddingtoncc.org. uk/hadd_old_&_new1.htm. Ettrick Graphics has some lovely old photos of Border towns at www.ettrickgraphics. com/bordersindex.htm. See also Borders Cam at www.borders-cam.com
Scott’s View, overlooking the Tweed Valley, Scottish Borders.
l Eyemouth Museum (01890 750678), www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/ member/eyemouth-museum. l Coldstream Museum (01890 882630), www.holy-island.info/coldstreammuseum. l Jedburgh Castle Jail and Museum (01835 863254), www. museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/ member/jedburgh-castle-jail-andmuseum.
and browse the county links at www. francisfrith.com/scotland. Use the search facility at http://maps.nls.uk for a vast range of maps.
Occupations There are lists of coal mines with owners and managers in 1896 for Edinburgh, Haddington, Linlithgow and Peebles at www.pdmhs.com/ MinesIndex1896Scotland.asp. Search www.scottishmining.co.uk for information and use the maps at www. cmhrc.co.uk/site/maps/scotland to locate mines. Read brief notes on West Lothian’s industrial heritage at www. wlonline.org.uk/tourism/ LocalHistory/849/# and browse the Shale Villages Project website at www. almondvalley.co.uk/V_home.htm. The Bo’ness Pottery website at http:// bonesspottery.co.uk has a history together with names and census records. Find details of photographers at www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_p/1_ photographers.htm. Read about the fisherfolk of Newhaven, Leith, at www. electricscotland.com/history/leith/19. htm and papermaking at Penicuik at www.penicuikpapermaking.org. There’s a brief history of Lothian and Borders Police at www.lbp.police.uk with links to names of war casualties. A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Peebles (1802) by C Findlater can be read online at www.archive.org/ details/generalviewofa1802grea and you can read a history of Hawick knitwear at www.seventeen71company. com/scottish-knitwear-shop/historyof-hawick-knitwear.aspx. The Collections of the Lothians Health Service Archives can be searched at www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk. l Please note that the web addresses starting with http://web.archive.org may take a little time to load, but are well worth the wait! l Borders Textile Towerhouse, Hawick (01450 377615), www.scotborders.gov.uk/ directory_record/10700/borders_textile_ towerhouse. l Hawick Museum (01450 373457), www.scotborders.gov.uk/directory_ record/10704/hawick_museum. l Halliwell’s House Museum, Selkirk (01750 20096), www.scotborders.gov.uk/ directory_record/10703/halliwells_house_ museum.
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Travelling back to the past
Steaming ahead!
Many of our ancestors’ inventions and hard work in the transport industries were, quite literally, some of the driving forces behind Britain’s Industrial Revolution. Suzie Grogan journeys through some of the key developments in the final part of our Science Museum series. From cart to canal
London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) poster promoting rail and sea services between North America, England and the Continent on the Cunard White Star.
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Brunel standing in front of the stern checking drum on his steam ship the SS Great Eastern, 1857.
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Images: © Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library. LNER poster © NRM Pictorial Collection; Brunel © National Railway Museum; Clapham Junction, porters, pigs © National Railway Museum; tram driver © Royal Photographic Society; Rotherhithe Tunnel © Science Museum Pictorial.
D
uring the 18th century, new industrial processes and a rapidly growing manufacturing sector highlighted the need for a reliable means of transporting raw materials and goods. Engineers realised that purposebuilt waterways could convey goods more directly than rivers, resulting in the beginnings of a canal-building programme. An inland system joined the existing river and coastal trades, with the first major canal routes opening in the 1760s. Canals were efficient and economical, utilising horse-drawn boats pulling up to 30 tons and an expansive national canal ‘network’ soon emerged. The years 1770 to 1830 were something of a ‘Golden Age’ for canal building, with mile after mile dug by gangs of ‘navvies’ (originally a nickname for ‘navigators’, who worked on the canals, the term became used for labouring men more generally). Many boatmen took their whole family with them, living on board the cramped boats, parents and children packed into tiny cabins. In time, destitution
In association with the Science Museum London, Brighton & South Coast Railway staff, Clapham Junction, London, August 1889. Staff include a stationmaster (in the top hat), guards, porters and a policeman.
Rea
The up o d of b Shire H n it on r ooks h istory ailw as m rang a met ys, can any boo e h als a all in ods nd ks of a and short, w transpo other r a e See ccessib ll-illustr t a w .co. ww.sh le forma ted uk f or th irebook t. threatened s e fu ll list . as the new
Porters loading luggage into the baggage van of a London & North Western Railway train to Greenore, Euston Station, London, c1907.
rail system began to grow, and investment in canals was cut and wages plummeted. By the 1850s the amount of cargo on canals had fallen by 60 per cent from its peak time.
The steam age
After being transported by railway, the pigs were loaded onto a London, Midland & Scottish Railway vehicle, 1933. Prior to the advent of railways animals were transported by foot, losing weight and value in the process.
Railway development was blessed with charismatic and inventive genius. Richard Trevithick built the first steam locomotive; George Stephenson produced an engine to run an intercity passenger route – the Liverpool & Manchester Railway (L&MR) – and Isambard Kingdom Brunel increased travelling speeds and designed bridges and other infrastructure. But as the rail network became more extensive the industry relied less on individual brilliance and more heavily on a mass workforce. Towns such as Swindon and Crewe became focal points in the growing network, sites for major junctions and engine works. They employed large numbers of workers who were often housed in estates provided by the railway companies. But discipline
The Rotherhithe Tunnel in construction, 1907. This 4,860-foot tunnel took four years to build, and ran under the Thames, joining south and east London. To this day it is the the largest iron-lined subaqueous tunnel in the world.
could be very strict and working conditions could be harsh – a much more dangerous environment than that which we have today. By the late 1800s the railways were a huge employer. In the 1871 Census, more than 22,000 were listed as ‘Railway officer’, ‘clerk’ or ‘station master’, with a further 49,000 classed as railway ‘servants’ such as porters.
Steam at sea It was not just land transport that benefitted from steam power. Originating with the Charlotte Dundas, which towed barges on the Forth-Clyde Canal, steamships also began taking passengers on inland waterways –
Left: interior of an Argosy passenger plane, with air steward in attendance, late 1920s. Right: a female tram driver, 1916. Photograph by Horace W Nicholls, whose photos documenting World War I include the series ‘Women at War’.
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Travelling back to the past
Imperial Airways Limited was formed by the British Government on 31 March 1924 – this poster dates from 1936.
.n www ilway nal Ra io t a N m u . Muse
From June 1940, East Coast shipping was heavily cut back, and transferred onto the East Coast Main Line: this poster shows the priority of guns (right) over passengers.
becoming a common sight by 1820. However, they were not immediately popular as a means of sea transport as a sail exploited the ‘free’ wind and their unreliability stalled demand. Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s breakthrough steamship SS Great Britain, launched in 1843, was in many ways the first luxury transatlantic liner, carrying more than 200 passengers and 130 crew.
About town In 18th-century towns and cities travel by foot was the norm, but there were alternatives available – for the wealthy,
at least. In London the Thames moved many around the capital as ‘watermen’ charged for a seat in their rowing boats, known as ‘wherries’. These ‘boats for hire’ had their land equivalents in ‘Hackney carriages’, which had taken passengers since the 17th century. The introduction of the sleek two-wheeled Hansom cabs in the 1830s, proved extremely popular as they could cut through the increasingly congested streets. The forerunner of today’s black taxis, they were a common site well into the 1920s. In 1829 London’s first ‘hail and ride’ omnibus service was launched, challenged in the decades to come by
Going underground As Victorian streets grew thick with traffic, transport went underground. The opening of the first underground railway, from Paddington to Farringdon in 1863, relied on massive manpower to dig the necessary cuttings at ground level. The result was not the most pleasant travel experience, with steam engines creating a noxious environment. It was only from the 1890s, when tunnels could be cut safely through London clay, that electric trains ran for the first time under the capital’s streets. The Tube became
Left: man unloading goods from a cart in front of a Boots store, early 20th century. Below: photo from an album of Charles Stewart Rolls (on the front seat), future founder of RollsRoyce Ltd, while at Cambridge University, 1895.
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Images: © Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library; fireman © Colin T Gifford; Pantechnicon and Longbridge © Daily Herald Archive/NMeM; boy dockers and Boots © National Railway Museum; East Coast © NRM Pictorial Collection; Imperial Airways © Science Museum Pictorial; Rolls © Science Museum Archive.
online Look rm.org.uk
horse-drawn trams carried on street rails. Cheaper, and running from early morning, these offered the working classes affordable public transport. Similar developments in other British towns and cities considerably increased the number employed in transport. In the 1851 Census of England and Wales, nearly 15,000-plus individuals had been listed with the occupation of ‘coachman’. By 1871, this had more than doubled, with those in related occupations, described as ‘carter’ ‘drayman’ or ‘carman’, increasing to more than 74,000.
In association with the Science Museum a major employer in the capital.
Self-propulsion
The fireman waits for right of way to return to the top shed at King’s Cross Station, 1962.
The Pantechnicon, a removals firm of Belgrave Square in London, c1920s.
As well as the growth in mass transport systems, transport on a more personal level has changed over the centuries too. The modern bicycle remains a popular mode of transport, which has its origins in the French ‘velocipede’, the first commercially successful design, known in England as the ‘boneshaker’ owing to the discomfort experienced on cobbled streets. An experience much improved by the time James Starley invented the first British ‘penny farthing’ bicycle incorporating rubber tyres and large front wheel, increasing speed and comfort. Cycling became a popular craze in the late Victorian period, among women as well as men. Demand for the machines grew rapidly and British manufacturers rose to the challenge. Within the space of a decade, the Raleigh Bicycle Company had become the biggest bicycle manufacturer in the world, employing many hundreds at its Nottingham factory.
The birth of the motor vehicle
Above: polishing finished cars at the Austin motor car factory at Longbridge, Birmingham, 1935. Below: boy dockers with Jersey potato barrels, Holyhead, 1909.
In 1900 the sight of a motor car on the streets of Britain was a rarity and ownership reserved for the rich. Companies such as Morris and Austin catered for the growing market and both received a major boost when fulfilling Government contracts during World War I, where motor transport made a significant contribution. In America, Henry Ford revolutionised the industry. Pledging to produce cars affordable to all, he developed mass production
Above: use of the ‘Steam Navvy’ on building the main line between Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, and Bristol, 1899.
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Top: £1 million furnace at Ford’s car factory, Dagenham, 1934. Above: launch of SS Great Britain, 1843.
techniques, enabling a relatively affordable car to be completed in less than two hours. Ford’s first British factory in Manchester employed only 60 men, but in 1929 the Dagenham plant opened and that would become Europe’s largest. At its height, the plant employed more than 40,000 people.
Into the air The 20th century also witnessed the creation of another form of mass transport. The 1903 powered and controlled flight by the Wright brothers was the catalyst for the modern aircraft industry. Progress in aviation was rapid, driven in part by military applications but also by the potential for a commercial civilian service. A potential aided by the glamour associated with early flight and the sheer spectacle afforded by giant airships, which were once seen as the future of travel. The full potential of air travel was only realised after the Second World War. Afterwards, trained pilots moved to civilian transport, and companies such as Douglas, Lockheed and Boeing prospered and ever larger fleets of passenger planes heralded in the age of mass air travel. l We wish to thank Stewart Emmens, curator at the Science Museum, for his assistance with this and previous articles in the Science Museum series in Family Tree.
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