And what did you do in the Empire? …………..

Now today I have been reflecting on my family and its links with the British Empire.

Sailing for India, 1930

Ours is not a history of military glamour or the acquisition of vast wealth and nor were we victims who were exploited, harshly treated and ruthlessly suppressed.

That said we were on the winning side, born in Britain and going out to the “colonies” as soldier’s seaman and clerks and craftsmen.

My own links are very tenuous. 

I was born two years after India and Pakistan became independent, and grew up as Britain shed its empire, a process which was not as peaceful as some history books would record and which some of my teachers found difficult to come to terms with.  

So at least two classrooms were adorned with maps of the world with a quarter coloured red of the former British Empire.  But to be fair that might have more to do with a lack of resources which condemned us kids to out of date maps and textbooks as well as readers which were already old before the outbreak of the last world war.

Nor did we participate in Empire Day, which was first celebrated in 1902, and became British Commonwealth Day in 1958 and then just Commonwealth Day six years later.  Father who was born in 1908 vividly recounted his experiences of the day, which involved much flag waving, long speeches, silly costumes, and lots of “treats”

Uncle Charles in a far away place date unknown

But the family links to Empire are there, from a distant relative who was an engineer on a tramp ship plying the sea routes which linked the “colonies”, to our great grandfather who spent time in the British West indies and in peace keeping duties after the first South African War in the 1880s.

One of his sons was migrated to Canada as a British Home Child, having been given the option of crossing the Atlantic at the age of 16 or going to a training ship which was the standard practice for youngsters who were feral and in the judgement of the authorities needed a mix of training and discipline.

To this I can add my one middle name which is Bux which was the maiden name of my German grandmother.  Bux I am told is not a common name in Germany and mother always maintained that we had links with India.  It was a notion I found hard to accept given that at the very least Germany’s imperial possessions did not include anywhere on the sub-continent.

But then an idle search of shipping records found numerous sailors called Bux all from the Indian sub-continent, and as they the story is still in play.

All of which leaves our uncle who was born in 1903 in Gateshead and died just a little shy of a century later in South Africa.  I knew he had worked in both India and east Africa but took it all for granted.

Uncle Charles, Tanga, 1937

And then with an idle afternoon and a degree of curiosity I went looking for what I can find on him.  He had started work as an “apprentice turner” in 1921, four years later described himself as an “Ironmonger”, and later still as a “Hardwareman” and at the age of 42 as a “merchant”.

The records show at least two trips out to India and one return from Siri Lanka.  In between I know he was in different parts of east Africa and while the details are vague and now lost he will have been one of those ex pats who maintained local economies feeding into the bigger picture which was the British empire.

To these stories can be added that of another member of the extended family who as a young sailor spent part of 1944 on the island of Ceylon [Siri Lanka], and as young men do spent part of his spare time photographing the people he came across.

So we were the little people, always believing we were a tad higher in the social order than the indigenous peoples and on trips home not quite able to comprehend how Britain had changed.

Meanwhile in our house in southeast London, we drank tea from India and parts of Africa, used wood and rubber from the far east, ate meat from Australia and New Zealand and sugar from the West Indies.

Local women, Ceylon, Siri Lanka, 1944

And having exchanged Eltham in south east London for Manchester I was a regualr visitor to the Ceylon Tea Centre.

All of which adds to those links to empire.

Location; pretty much everywhere.

Pictures; shipping list, 1930, Uncle Charles, date unknown, courtesy of Findmypast, Uncle Charles with possibly his first wife, Tanga, 1937, fromm the Simpson collection, and a group of local women, Ceylon, 1944, courtesy of Bob Ward

Boer War Veterans ........ another story from Tony Goulding

Sometimes the inspiration for a new story comes straight “out of left field”. 

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

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

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.

India past and present ......... on the wireless

Now this is one to listen too.

India past and present,  offers up a discussion on that excellent new book on the East India Company by William Dalrymple, along with contributions on the Amritsar massacre from Anita Anand, and Kashmir by Professor Sumantra Bose ........ Radio 4 at its best

"Corporate rapacity and government collusion are at the centre of William Dalrymple’s history of the East India Company. 

He tells Amol Rajan how the company moved relentlessly from trade to conquest of India in the 18th century. 

But Dalrymple warns against the distortion of history both by those in Britain nostalgic for an imperial past, and Hindu nationalists in India.

2019 marked the centenary of the Amritsar massacre in which more than a thousand Indians were killed by British soldiers. 

Although the events leading up to the atrocity are now well documented, Anita Anand has uncovered the extraordinary story of revenge which led to the shooting in London of the man responsible for the massacre.

In August this year the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s special status, sparking protests in the Muslim-majority valley. 

But why has this region - once a princely state, until the end of British rule - become such a flashpoint for violence? Professor Sumantra Bose explores the consequence of the Indian government’s latest actions.

Producer: Katy Hickman"

Picture; Coin, 1835, East India Company, courtesy of National Museum of American History


*India past and present, Start of the Week, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bvw5

How to steal a continent ………………. stories of India and the East India Company

I suppose I am the last generation to be brought up on stories of Empire, when in countless lessons at school we were told of the quarter of the globe which was painted red.

In the case of India, I only vaguely knew of the role of the East India Company in the history of the sub-continent, and how that played out with the British Empire.

It was the first multinational company and its ships were often just referred to as “Indiamen”.

It had been founded in 1600 to trade in the Indian Ocean region, and until 1858 controlled large parts of the Indian sub-continent, along with parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, and arguably damaged the
the Indian economy which its asset-stripped, looted, and plundered.

All of which means I have been fascinated by Anarchy,  on the wireless this week.

In five episodes Radio 4,  has taken “William Dalrymple's new and acclaimed history of the East India Company [and explored] how a small trading company founded in 1599 led to the formation of the British Raj. The reader is Alistair McGowan.

Adapted by William Dalrymple
Produced by Elizabeth Allard”*

Today is the last of the five episodes, but all are available to listen to, for the next month.

Picture; East India coin, 1835, courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

*The Anarchy, Radio 4,  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000b4wf

Stories of an Italian in India ....... part 1 the introduction

Now the thing about holidays is that you end up meeting new people who all have stories to tell and this year has been no exception.

But what makes this year different is that the stories are from Sandra who is Italian and who we met in Alb Adriatica.

And after a chance conversation which included India, vegetarianism and a lot more I asked Sandra to write for the blog.

What will make them just a little different is that the stories will appear as two posts on the same day, one in Italian and a second in English allowing you to choose which you want to read.

So there you have it, a little bit of Italy and something of India and who knows where they will lead.

It could lead to a whole new section on the blog devoted to Italy and its history and its people.

We shall see.

And where ever the stories lead they will also be a perfect way to end what had been a wonderful holiday which started with sun and sand, developed into lots of adventures in the small surrounding towns and ended with the promise of those stories from Sandra.

Location: Italy









Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Storie di un italiano in India ....... parte 1 l'introduzione

Ora la cosa sulle vacanze è che si finisce per incontrare nuove persone che tutti hanno storie da raccontare e quest'anno non ha fatto eccezione.

Ma ciò che rende questo anno diverso è che le storie sono da Sandra che è italiano e che abbiamo incontrato in Alb Adriatica.

E dopo una conversazione possibilità che comprendeva l'India, il vegetarianismo e molto altro ho chiesto Sandra a scrivere per il blog.

Che cosa li farà solo un po 'diverso è che le storie appaiono come due posti nello stesso giorno, una in italiano e una seconda in inglese che consente di scegliere che si desidera leggere.

Quindi non lo avete, un po 'di Italia e qualcosa di India e chi sa dove porterà.

Si potrebbe portare a una nuova sezione sul blog dedicato per l'Italia e la sua storia e la sua gente.

Vedremo.

E dove mai portano le storie che sarà anche un modo perfetto per concludere quella che era stata una festa meravigliosa che è iniziato con il sole e la sabbia, sviluppato in un sacco di avventure nelle piccole città circostanti e si è conclusa con la promessa di quelle storie da Sandra.

Località: Italia







Immagini; dalla collezione di Andrea Simpson