Now I do not have a picture of my great uncle who went over to Canada in the May of 1914 with the Middlemore charity, and only a handful of photographs of his sibling’s one of whom was my grandfather.
But I do have one of his father who was my great grandfather and that I think will be rare amongst the stories of British Home Children.
He was Montague Hall who was born in 1872, served in the old Queens army from 1888-92 and lived with my great grandmother for eight years
This one was taken sometime around 1914 when he had re-enlisted in the British Army.
His relationship with my great grandmother was I think a tempestuous one, and they separated sometime in 1902.
He stayed in Gravesend in Kent and she returned to Derby with her three surviving sons where she had her daughter in the Workhouse later that year.
All of the children spent time in care and were later placed by the Poor Law Guardians with employers.
Great Uncle Jack was apprenticed to a blacksmith, Laura was sent into service in Northumberland, and granddad went to sea, leaving my great uncle Roger to cross the Atlantic where he was placed on different farms before running away to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and changing his name and lying about his age along the way.
On arriving in Britain with his regiment he was stationed just a few miles away from his father who by then had married and had a second family.
Which brings me back to the picture which was supplied my cousin who is the granddaughter of Montague’s marriage..
Neither families knew of the existence of the other but both were searching for Montague’s story and in that bizarre way we found each other through my great uncle.
Picture; Montague Hall circa 1914, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
So, so interesting! Thank you !!!!
ReplyDelete