Sometimes the inspiration for a new story comes straight “out of left field”.
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| Newspaper cutting |
I came across this old newspaper cutting a few days ago, completely by chance, whilst sorting through donations at Oxfam’s shop on Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. I immediately saw its potential as a source for a future story.
Unfortunately, the clipping does not reveal the newspaper’s name, meaning I can’t acknowledge it. Neither is the exact date of the event recorded, however the ages of the old soldiers combined with the fact that the Boer War ended in 1902 hinted at 1960 being the approximate year. Further investigation initiated by the wedding photograph at the bottom of the page narrowed the time down to the September quarter of 1959. Both the old soldiers’ event and the wedding having taken place in Altrincham, Cheshire suggests and the reverse of the cutting featuring an article on the clocks of Altrincham composed by a “Guardian” reporter and photographer confirms that the cutting must have been taken from an issue of “The Altrincham Guardian” during the late summer of 1959.
Some difficulty arose when researching the life stories of some of these old soldiers. The newspaper managed to record Harry’s name wrong! He served as Henry William George Cropps (not Croops!). When born, on the 29th April 1882 in Camberwell, in the Surrey part of London, his birth surname appears to have been “Crapp” which he, unsurprisingly, seems to have avoided using during his lifetime, although the record of his death in the December quarter of 1970 confirms it as his true name.
Henry William (Harry) served in the Boer war as a private in the 104 Derbyshire Company 4th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. He was slightly wounded on 2nd February, 1902 in action Nr. Fraserburgh as a British force were attempt to relieve the town under siege by the Boers. Returning to civilian life he married Mary Ethel (née Haywood) in the Ashton-under-Lyne registration district during the June quarter of 1907. The couple’s first child Violet Amy was born on the 9th October, 1907. At this time Harry was employed as an engineer polisher/grinder and lived, as recorded in the 1911 census at 11, Sandiway Road, Broadheath, Altrincham, Cheshire.
On the outbreak of the First World War, Harry enlisted on 9th October, 1914, joining the Labour Corps. (1) He served throughout the war until he was discharged sick on the 7th March, 1919. In respect of this he was issued with a Silver War Badge which was granted to service personnel honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness.
A silver War Badge
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| A silver War Badge |
Shortly after his demobilisation his wife gave birth to a son Albert T. on the 20th April, 1919. He remained in the Broadheath area of Altrincham, moving after 20 years on Sandiway Road to 9, Norman Road about 1930.
In 1939, for the third time in his life Harry answered a call to serve his country in wartime, the National Register taken in September records that he was a full-time A.R.P. Warden.
He died in his 89th year in the December quarter of 1970.
Charles Henry Rolfe, in contrast to his fellow veteran above, had a much more nomadic life, necessitated by the fact that from a very early age he spent most of it in uniform in service to his country. He was born in Kamptee Nr. Nagpur in the Central Provinces of India on the 14th October, 1887 where his father, also Charles, was serving as Sgt. Major in the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment.
British Army H.Q. - Kamptee 1894
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| British Army H.Q. - Kamptee 1894 |
His father died on the 19th January, 1888 caused, a little curiously, by a gunshot wound to his neck. His mother, Elizabeth Frances (née Crawford) remarried in St. Matthias Church, Vepery, Madras on Valentine’s Day, 1889 Albert Edward Ridell, a lieutenant and quartermaster in the same battalion as his late husband. Charles Henry’s new step-father was a recent widower himself who had been left with 5 young children all under 10-years-old.
Harry’s step-siblings were soon added to by two half-brothers Victor Alexander, born in Kamptee, India on the 15th November, 1889 and Arthur Leopold who was born on the 19th February, 1891 after his father had been posted home to Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. A half-sister followed on the 1st September, 1893 but by this time the Riddells were back in India at Dagshai although the baptismal register shows Albert Edward then serving with the Derbyshire Regiment.
It is possible that some of the children remained in England. In support of this is the fact that the 1901 census has one child, George Thirsk, recorded as an adopted son of Nugent Foster Taylor, a painter at the Royal Arsenal, and his wife Priscilla (née Kemp) (2) living at 17, Walmer Road, Plumstead, Woolwich, London.
The 1901 census also shows Albert Edward Riddell recorded as retired from the army and having returned to England living at 33, Fernholme Road, Camberwell, London with his wife and four of his children. His step-son was not one of them, however, as, by the time this census was taken on the Sunday the 31st March, Charles Henry Rolfe had been in the British Army for three months. He had joined at Woolwich on the 4th January, 1901 as a boy soldier after lying about his age (he was then not yet 3 months passed his 13th birthday). He signed on for twelve years in the same Middlesex Regiment as his father and step-father in which his eldest step-brother, also Albert Edward Riddell was already serving.
Young Charles remained in England for the initial 15 months of his army career but then his “globetrotting” began. On the 11th March, 1902 he was posted to the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean to guard Boer Prisoners of War. (3) He remained in this post for 6 months before being sent to South Africa where he stayed for another four years. From South Africa he was sent to China (Hong Kong) (4) on the 4th October, 1906 for just over two years. A similar two year posting to Singapore ending on the 29th November, 1910 brought his travels to an end. After close to a decade away his final two years one month in the army were based on home soil.
Leaving the Army, though, just meant that Charles Henry swapped uniforms as he joined the police force initially the Salford City Police into which he again followed his eldest step-brother Albert Edward. After two years he transferred, on the 3rd March, 1915, to the Manchester City Force which one of his sons, Charles Kenneth, was also to join on 10th August, 1938, keeping up the family connection.
In the June quarter of 1915, shortly after his move to the Manchester Police, Charles Henry Rolfe wed Ethel Parker. Ethel was the only daughter of Robert William Parker a former marine pilot of Boston, Lincolnshire who had retired from the sea to keep a shop and off license with his wife Clara Maria at 370-372 Liverpool Street, Pendleton, Salford, Lancashire.
Charles Kenneth who was to follow his father’s footsteps into the Manchester Police was the couple’s first child born in Ardwick, Manchester on the 15th March, 1916. On the 22nd April, 1918, Ethel gave birth to her second child; a girl Freda Vera Lindsay. Two further children were born to the couple, a second daughter, Brenda Beatrice, in the June quarter of 1920 and another son, Arthur Gerald in the June quarter of 1927 by which time Charles Henry had been moved from the Ardwick area to North Manchester. Tragically both these latter two offspring died in their infancy.
The 1939 Register recorded Charles Henry Rolfe as a Police Constable Reserve living at 37, Alfred Street, Bury, Lancashire with his wife and soon to married daughter, Freda. (5) His son, Charles Kenneth, was by then working as a police constable in Urmston, Lancashire.
After a long and eventful life full of service to his country, Charles Henry passed away aged 92 in Manchester during the March quarter of 1980.
Pictures, Newspaper cutting in collection of Tony Goulding. Silver War Badge in Public Domain - By Europeana staff photographer - http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/contributions/17174, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40943705 British Army H.Q. 1894, By Vmmrdes - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67219523
Notes:-
1) It is indicative of the huge numbers of men enlisting in the early months of World War 1 that on the 28th May, 1915 the Nantwich Guardian published a list, compiled by the honorary secretary of the Cheshire County Bowling Association, of no less than 510 of the counties bowlers by then serving in the armed forces. Henry Cropps was included in this list as a bowler for the Navigation Hotel, Broadheath, Altrincham.
2) This couple were married in Newry, Northern Ireland in 1878. That same year Edith Anne the Riddells’ first child was born also in Newry. It is likely that the two couples were at least acquainted at that time. This may well have been a consideration in leaving the young George Thirsk with the then still childless Taylors.
3) At its peak the number of Boer prisoners reached 6,000.
4) During his time in Hong Kong, Charles carried out Ambulance Drill training and qualified in swimming.
5) Freda Vera Lindsay Rolfe married a Manchester fireman, Walter Henry Le Vesconte in Christ Church, Manchester on the 18th November, 1939. The couple had a daughter, Denise in 1942, and the family emigrated to Australia after the war on the 9th June, 1949.
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