1921! ......... more family history revealed .....from Tony Goulding

The release of the 1921 census and on-line access to it has rekindled my interest in my family history. 

    

I hoped the records would shed some light on to two mysteries in particular. One was how my great-uncle; Charles Henry Ross became a British Home Child and was sent to Canada. The other was where was my grandfather, Arthur Harold Clarke, in 1921 and was he still living with his first wife. As is normally the case with such questions, the census data did provide some answers but also threw up some further quandaries. 

      

I have written about both these named family members previously on this Blog and thought it might be appropriate at this time to update their stories with what I have gleaned from this latest gift to genealogists.

      

As stated previously, in July last year, Charles Henry’s father died on the 8th July, 1914 when he was just 7-years-old and that he was later, in April, 1922 sent to Canada.

      

Former Royal Albert Orphanage, Worcester

I can now confirm that he was resident in the Royal Albert Orphanage, Henwick Road, Worcester, prior to his becoming a British Home Child. From newspaper reports he must have been placed here before April, 1920. 

The “Evesham Standard and West Midland Observer” gave a very detailed report of the annual meeting of the orphanage’s governors on the 26th March, 1921. Charles Henry was not among the latest “recruits” elected to the home which, as he appears there in the census taken on the 19th June, 1921, it seems safe to presume he was in residence for some time. This report also highlighted the financial problems the institution was facing, whether or not these had any bearing on the decision to send my great-uncle to Canada is a question which I suspect I will never find an answer to.

       

My grandfather, and  future prolific photographer of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Arthur Harold Clarke was still living with his first wife Ellen (née Maries) and his 5-years-old daughter Cecilia Elaine at 11, West Street, Upper Ipsley, Warwickshire. One piece of information which surprised me, however, was that his occupation is recorded as a Civil Service clerk for the Ministry of Labour at the Curzon Hall labour exchange in Birmingham. At this time, as the census also reveals, the young lady who was to become Arthur Harold’s second wife Norah Janet Ross was living with her widowed mother, Kate Harriet, and her three younger siblings (Annie, 12, William, 10, and Alice Margaret, 7) at Withybed Green, Alvechurch, Worcestershire. Also present on the day of the census was Norah Janet’s Grandmother, Mary Walters who was visiting from Walsall, Staffordshire. Mary Walter’s (née Joynt) was the widow Harry Walters who had served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

   

Norah Janet is recorded as working as a domestic servant for Mrs. Smith of Fern Dale, Birmingham Road, Redditch, Worcestershire.

   

My gran used to tell the story of how she didn’t take to domestic service and left one employer rather abruptly. I have no basis for this but the romantic in me leads me to the conjecture that my grandparents met as she “signed-on at the labour exchange!"

Pictures; Former Royal Albert Orphanage, Worcester, by Dr. Christopher Allen on 24 August 2021.

All original material on British Listed Buildings by British Listed Buildings is licensed under a -

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Charles Henry Ross’s Form 30A “Ocean Arrival” downloaded from digitized microforms of the Library and Archives Canada.