52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 3 - Favourite Photo

 

Now this is a difficult one! I have over the years been given many family photographs, some dating back to the late 1800s, so I have a gorgeous collection, so choosing my favourite is going to be a challenge.

 

Do I pick the photo because it is of a favourite relative, a special occasion, the fashions, or the story associated with it? A conundrum.

After thinking about the theme for this week I have decided to choose a photo of my Granddad Morgan, the only grandparent I knew. The photo was taken by my cousin’s husband on Granddad’s 88th birthday in 1977, coincidentally about the same time that I really got interested in recording my family tree. My Granddad had no teeth and I had been told that they had been shot out during the First World War.

My Granddad, William Henry Morgan, was born on 8 September 1889 in Charlton, a hamlet near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, UK.  He was the elder son of Harry and Emma / Emily Morgan. He was baptised on 24 June 1891 in Hitchin. His younger brother Ernest Arthur was born in 1892.

In the 1891 census William appears with his parents living in Charlton.  Harry is a Labourer and Emily a Housewife.  Little Will is aged 1.

Willie Morgan from Charlton attended the British School in Hitchin, which is now a unique museum - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Schools_Museum. 

In the 1901 census he is living with his parents, Harry & Emily in Charlton.  Harry was described as a Drayman (brewers).

After he left school at 12 Will was apprenticed to a butcher in Hitchin.  From other photographs I have inherited he was also a footballer in his spare time, playing for St Johns, 1911-12 and also H.W.F.C. 1912-13. 

 In the 1911 Census he is living with his parents at Charlton.  Father Harry was a Mineral Water Maker employed at a hotel, with William and Ernest both being Butcher Salesman at a Meat Purveyor.  Mother Emma has no occupation noted.  Will’s parents had been married for 22 years and had just the two children, Will aged 21 and Ernie aged 18.

Will married Sarah (Sally) Taylor on 29^th January 1912 at Hitchin Register Office, with their eldest daughter, Violet Winifred making her appearance on 16^th February!   She was closely followed by Dorothy May (always known as Cis) in 1913, Ernest Arthur (always known as Son) in 1915, Daisy Lillian (Babs) in 1919, Eva Joan (my Mum) in 1925 and Jean Elizabeth in 1928. 

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 – 15 saw younger brother Ernie volunteer for the front in the Bedfordshire Regiment before he was transferred to the East Surrey Regiment.  He was sadly shot by a sniper about 8 / 9 November 1915 and died of wounds at Poperinge shortly afterwards.  He is buried at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, Poperinge in Belgium.  He was evidently a tall strapping lad, the opposite to my rather small Granddad.  But that is another story.

Will, as a married man with three children, was called up on 29 May 1915.  He first joined the 4^th Battalion the Bedfordshire Regiment before being transferred the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in 1916 and to the Manchester Regiment later the same year.  He was promoted to Corporal in 1917 and Sergeant in 1918.  He served in France and Italy and was eventually invalided out in 1919.   Granddad gave me his Manchester Regiment cap badge.

I have been lucky enough to locate via www.ancestry.co.uk his Service Records which made for very interesting reading and proved some of the stories I had been told about his time as a soldier.    

Granddad was called up on 29 May 1915 and joined the 4^th Battalion the Bedfordshire Regiment on 5^th June.  He was then transferred to the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on 26^th June 1916 and posted to France.  He was transferred to the Manchester Regiment on 28 September 1916 and was promoted to Corporal on 16 October 1917 and Sergeant on 11 September 1918.  He served ‘at home’ from 19 May 1915 until 10 June 1916 and was then posted to Italy and France from 1 July 1917 until 13 October 1918 and Home again from 14 October 1918 until 5 April 1919 when he was deemed no longer fit for service.  He was discharged from the 10^th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment on 5 April 1919. The records state that he suffered a gun-shot wound to neck and face with a fracture to his jaw.  He was wounded on 4 or 5 May 1918.  The records also state that he had 50% disablement and was entitled to a War Pension of 16s 4d.  Regimental No 44421.  Will was living at 62 London Road, Hitchin at this time so had returned from hospital.

Granddad gave me his Silver War Badge and I inherited Granddad’s First World War medals, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal, from my cousin.

After the War Granddad did not go back to being a butcher.  Maybe it was too much after the horrors he had seen. Alternatively, there may have been a scarcity of work in Hitchin for Butchers. He inter-war years were difficult for those returning home from the War with lack of employment opportunities and the adjustment to home life.

Granddad was employed by the Great Northern Railway (1921 census) and London, North Eastern Railway (1939 register) as a Plate Layer until retirement.  He lived in the family home in Hitchin Hill Path until the last few years of his life, when he spent time with each of his children on a rota basis.

The house at Hitchin Hill Path had a scullery with a copper, a kitchen with a range and a front room. There was also a cellar where I used to venture with Granddad to get a little ‘nor’ carrot from the veg kept there which he peeled especially for me.  Granddad had an allotment in Charlton where he grew veg to feed his family. On the first floor, accessed by a narrow staircase, there was the room where Granddad slept and another room which was the one used by Uncle Son, all the 5 girls were on the top floor, accessed by a further staircase, in one large room with several beds.  Goodness knows how they all ate at the one table in the front room – I guess in sittings!  Bathing was done once a week in a tin bath in front of the range with the toilet being outside in the yard, next to another one for the family next door.

I fondly remember sitting in front of the coal fire at Hill Path, on a hassock, the covering of which had been made for one of my Mum’s hats.  Here Granddad told me the stories of what he had done in the War, how he was blown up and came round in a shell hole crater, eating bully beef and sleeping standing up.  My Granddad had no teeth and did not or could not wear dentures - I expect the nerve endings were still in his jaws where his teeth had been shot out. He could never eat ice cream without ‘warming it up’ first.  I used to love my chats with him by the fire and eating the lemon puff biscuits from the biscuit tin that was brought out when Mum and I visited him.  Happy times.

Old habits die hard, and Granddad always had boots that he polished until he could see his face in them.  He always said goodbye to me by palming me a 5p piece and shaking my left hand with his as well as a kiss which tickled as he had a moustache.  He always smelt of Wright’s Coal Tar soap, a very reminiscent smell for me.

My Granddad died on 1^st March 1978 at the age of 88 at my Auntie Vi’s house and is buried at the council cemetery in Hitchin in the same grave as my grandmother, Sally, who died in 1967.