Remembrance Day 2010

Thank you

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

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

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

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

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

2nd Lieutenant Lawrence Finlay Stockwood, Household Battalion

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

Daniel Joseph Linehan Bombardier - 147th Garrison Field Artillery

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

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

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

Major the Reverend Alfred Beauchamp Payne

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

Colonel Illtyd Henry Stockwood, South Wales Borderers

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

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

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

Inspector William Scrimgeour D'All Hong Kong Police Force

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

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

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

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

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

Dennis Price Linehan Royal Air Force

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

John (Jack) Watson Chivas Merchant Marine

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

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

J. Ritchie RSM Victoria Rifles of Canada

H. D'All RSM Royal Montreal Regiment

T. Turley RSM Black Watch (RHR)

W. Cunningham RSM Service Corps

G. Fogarty RSM Canadian Grenadier Guards

R. Diplock Brigade Sergeant Major (Ret)

sooooooooo – who are the Stockwoods??

To date we haven’t visited Mum’s family at all, so here goes …

. Mum’s mother Terry, our Gran, was Stockwood by birth and a Linehan by marriage

. her mother Eveline (Grannie Stockwood) was married to a Stockwood and was a Davies by birth

. Eveline’s mother Maria (Grannie Davies, so as to be distinguished from her daughter) was a Davies by marriage and a Price by birth. Not knowing Grannie Davies’ Christian name, asked our Peg who was convinced she was called Eveline, like her daughter. Uncle Den however, set me straight – she was Maria Price ~ Our Mum was called Gertrude Maria and Uncle Den was Dennis Price Linehan in her memory.

. Gran married a gentle Irish miner called Daniel Linehan who had arrived in Wales barely into his teens and found work in the pit at Coedely. They had three children – Dennis Price, Gertrude Maria (Mum) & Margaret Teresa – all three gave me as much information as they could - we even have an audio tape courtesy of Peg, of Gran singing all the ‘old’ songs. It has often occurred to wonder how she sang so prettily given she was rendered deaf when quite young.

Rather than attempt to unravel the Davies records in Wales for the moment, I chose to go with the Stockwoods, especially since apart from his name, no-one really knew a blessed thing about great-grandad Alfred John Stockwood.

baby steps 

One of the first places one looked for family back then was the 1881 Census for the UK (not including Ireland). There were a lot of Stockwoods ~ including a six year old Alfred John, born in Cardiff, listed as ”nephew”, living with a John Collins and his wife Sarah-Annie.

(herewith began the mass accumulation of paper – I kept every Stockwood listing from 1881, feeling that someday they would prove to be “mine” – and down the road a few years, most of the Welsh ones are!).

Must digress a wee bit to confess that I do “collect” Stockwoods. By this I mean that I research the name even when I cannot immediately prove a connection ~ in doing this I have details from all over the world, including a large family in our own province of Newfoundland ~ Florence, the researcher, ‘knows’ that an ancestor called John came from the UK, but not his actual origins. Similar families exist in parts of the UK, in Lincolshire & Essex where a William Stockwood married into the Moncar family – William’s father, whom I have never found, was Thomas, a bricklayer from Middlesex. Two Welsh Stockwood ladies married into the Hole family – one of these ladies we have absolutely identified, the other, because of a date discrepancy, is a bit of a problem.

Perhaps the best link, because it included contact with a living relative, was looking into Gran’s claimed connection with Arthur Mervyn Stockwood, late Bishop of Southwark. Peg said they did not really believe Gran, but research has proven that they should have, Gran & Arthur were in fact third cousins. His nephew David, who sadly has since passed away, lived in Toronto ~ we exchanged quite a few emails about the family.

Back to Alfred John 

Mailing lists are wonders. I needed to know who AJ’s parents were and a list member with local access to parish records kindly presented me with their names – Thomas Stockwood and Annie Collins along with a bonus of two other children, both older than AJ, Thomas William (1867) and Annie Gertrude (1869).

In 1881, Thomas William, a fourteen year old clerk and nephew, was living at the Junction Hotel in Taff’s Well with the proprietors, John and Urina Davies.

Annie Gertrude at twelve, was in an orphanage – of their parents there was no sign, ominous if you take into account Annie Gertrude’s residence, the Muller Homes in Bristol.

The orphanage was to be my first BIG BREAK – the Muller Homes were still in existence, albeit as a museum  and I was able to obtain and hold in my hand photocopies of handwritten correspondence from 1877, requesting that Annie be admitted, the information that had to be supplied, her acceptance and her dismissal in 1882.

From this I learned that:

. Thomas, her father, had drowned at sea in 1874

. our grandfather AJ was born after his father’s death

. her mother Annie (or Angelina) passed away in 1876

. Thomas’ father William who was helping Angelina, died two months later in 1876

All relatives, Grandparents, aunts and great-aunts, uncles and great-uncles, were enumerated along with their relationships and reasons why they could not take Annie in – some would be willing to take though her if for any reason she had to leave the Home.

Interestingly, one had blatantly lied as I was to discover later – Urina Hicks Davies states that she was a widow, yet in 1881, four years later, her husband John was alive, well & running the Junction Hotel with Annie’s older brother Thomas in residence.

The papers included:

. the death certificate for Angelina

. the newspaper article recounting Thomas death

. Thomas and Angelina’s marriage certificate

. Annie’s birth certificate

. statements of health from a doctor

. letters from town officials detailing the childrens’ financial situation

... a veritable goldmine of information. How sad that the necessity of placing a child in an orphanage would result in someone a hundred years later being able to tarce their family.

This set of documents with its myriad pieces of information, no matter how obscure, has allowed me to build a decent family history, albeit the “distaff” side as Dad would have said, tongue in cheek………

With the deaths of their father, mother and grandfather, Angelina and Thomas’ three children were separated. One has to wonder if they ever saw each other again – certainly neither Mum nor her brother and sister knew of them – perhaps Gran did, but if so, she never said …

family around the corner ....

After having spent a fair amount of time on this earth, I have reached the conclusion that in the grand scheme of things, the only thing that actually matters is family. There may have been times way back when my thinking kind of skittered away from that fact, but I always came home. If you think about it, one works to support a family, votes to protect (hopefully) your family’s way of life, espouses causes to prolong or bring the planet back to what it once was – to save it for your family. Sooooo, pretty much everything you do ~ or at least I do, since I won’t speak for others ~ is essentially for family. We are eventually forgiven the lapses that occur in our late teens and twenties when we quite naturally became me-firsters.

Even though Mum’s family were in England and we were in Canada, there was a close relationship. Her sister Peg had one daughter and brother Den had seven children, and of the eight, only Den’s first son John is older than me. During the war, Mum and her sister-in-law lived with Gran ~ John and I were put to bed each night under the dining-room table to protect us from bombs if we could not be taken to the shelter in time. I once spent a holiday with his family before we came to Canada when I was nine. The next time I saw my cousins I was sixteen, then twenty-seven, then fifty-something – but –we were always in touch.

Which is why it is so difficult to understand that we knew nothing of Dad’s family in Canada.

Dad was an only child, so there were no aunts and uncles for us there. His Mum Nell had a brother Jim who flitted in and out of our lives as children. Jim had a daughter who was (rightfully I think) estranged from her father, so we never knew her. Grandpop of course had his three sisters, Ella in Vancouver who visited Montréal once, Lizzie in Dundee whose daughter Irene was mentioned occasionally and Jean, also in Dundee.

One of the first things I was to discover was that there are many, many more and not very far away …

family around the corner ….

Fifteen years ago give or take, an article of mine was published in our daily newspaper. There were several congratulatory calls, none of which prepared me for the one that opened with “are you young Harry’s daughter?” .. I am she, however only family would use the term - the few times I had heard it was when Grandad read us letters from Scotland – the gentleman went on to say that being young Harry’s daughter, I was then related to his wife.

He was Gordon and his wife was Anita, daughter of Mary – Mary proved to be first cousin to our Late Grandpop, Dad’s father and although Mum was aware that there was a connection she had no idea what it actually was. Mary’s name had been mentioned often when Dan & I were children, always in the context of one or the other of our parents or Grandpop having “run into Mary”, but never once was it said that she was family. Even more shattering to me was that Gordon & Anita had called from within walking distance of our home!

We got to know Anita and her family over the next few years. Mary had three children, one son Albert had gone to the Maritimes, another, Tommy to BC and Anita stayed here. At Mary’s 100^th birthday party in 1995 we met relatives from both ends of Canada and from the USA . To think that we had grown up in this city, at times even on the same street, with family out there of whom we never knew just floored me. Anita’s children Donald and Maureen are of an age with Dan and myself ~ it might have been nice to have been friends with cousins in the neighbourhood as well as with cousins overseas.

Mary, whose story as I have come to know it I will tell you later, lived to the grand old age of 110. Anita, whose Gordon is also gone, is in her 90s now, very “with it”!! ~ I love her company J

We had been told all our lives that we were the only family to have emigrated – how wrong that impression was.

It was not until three or four years after this that I seriously dug into the family history. Mum had passed away after a lengthy illness, I had a hand-me-up computer from Liam and to be completely frank, I needed something to occupy my mind – this was it. So it was that I set off with absolutely no idea of how to proceed and funnily enough, it may have helped J Joined a genealogy message board mostly concerned with American ancestors and through the members learned what was out there and how to proceed. One of those “members” in Iowa remains a friend to this day, although we have never actually met.