Private Samuel Spence K.i.A. 24th August, 1901 …. another story from Tony Goulding

This memorial stone marks the grave of James Duncan Spence and his wife Jenefer (née Naylor) and includes a dedication to their son Samuel who was killed in action at  Rooikopje, South Africa on the 24th August, 1901 during the 2nd Boer War. 

It is located in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery, Non-conformist section, Plot D 710. 

The Spence family came to South Manchester from Dublin during the first decade of the 20th century, although James Duncan was born in Dumfries, Scotland and his wife hailed from Lyme Regis, Dorset. They were married on the 17th January, 1872 at the district church of Ballybunion in the parish of Killiheney, Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. Samuel was born on the 23rd July, 1883 at 7, Lower Sackville Street, Dublin. (1)

When the 1901 census was taken on the 31st March, Samuel had already landed in South Africa as part of the Imperial Yeomanry, a force drawn from all parts of the British Empire to combat the rebellion of the Boer Republics. He had left his family home at 124, Cowper Road, Rathmines, Dublin to enlist on the 11th February and, lying about his age to do so, he joined, according to his attestation documents, the 13th battalion of that force.  The record of his death however, includes a reference to him belonging to the 74 (Dublin) company, 8th battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. Samuel left behind in Ireland his father James Duncan, recorded on the census return as a “printseller”, his mother Jenefer, an older brother, William Naylor, who was a picture dealer and six unmarried sisters. (2)

Shortly after James Duncan and Jenefer Spence re-located to Didsbury with their remaining sons and three of their youngest daughters (3), James Duncan died on the 21st May, 1909 at 5, Lansdowne Road, West Didsbury, Manchester. He had suffered with blindness from before the 1901 census which recorded him as “blind”. Jenefer Spence survived her husband by more than 17 years, dying on 2nd November, 1926.

I had expected that this would conclude the story of this grave. However, further investigation revealed that two other people, not recorded on the headstone, were also interred in it viz. Miss Anne Jane Cantley on the 17th April, 1937 and Henry Parnell Heney on the 1st October, 1942. 

The family connection of the second of these interments was straightforward, he was the husband of Stella Edith Spence, the second youngest daughter of James Duncan and Jenefer

Christ Church, West Didsbury.

The couple had married on the 12th February, 1923 at Christ Church, West Didsbury and in the 1939 register are shown living at 95, Atwood, Didsbury, Manchester. 

Living with them was Stella Edith’s older unmarried sister, Jenefer, who appropriately perhaps considering the fate of her brother, worked for The League of Nations as a confidential secretary in their offices at 53, Barton Arcade, Manchester.  Mr. Heney, who was a sales representative, latterly in the pharmaceutical industry, died, a week shy of his 56th birthday on the 26th September, 1942. He left an estate of £1,140-14s-7d. (equivalent today to £37,535).

Despite there being no shortage of biographical detail available concerning Anne Jane Cantley’s, finding her connection to the Spence family proved to be problematic and at present still remains a mystery. 

Grafton Street, Dublin circa 1870

Anne Jane was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1863, her parents were Joseph Cantley, who was a hosier and glover of 79, Grafton Street, Dublin and Marianne (née Boon).

 Of her earlier life in Ireland little has shown up in the records; perhaps as she was the first-born daughter, she remained single in order to take care of h.er parents in their old age. 

By 1911 she had moved to England and is recorded in that year’s census return residing with her brother Joseph, a surgeon, at 398, Great Cheetham Street East, Broughton, Salford, Lancashire. 

Her nephew, Joseph Donaldson, was recorded as newly born; he went on to have a distinguished career in Law. (4) 

Anne Jane Cantley later moved to Kensington, London where the 1921 census shows her as the manageress of a large up-market boarding house at 44-46, Longridge Road, Earls Court. Later, she briefly owned another boarding house a short distance away at 28, Nevern Square. 

Joseph Cantley’s shop

This was, apparently a joint venture with Eduard Gustaaf de Lange which was “dissolved by mutual consent” from the 31st December, 1927 as reported in the London Gazette on the 7th February, 1928. Sometime after this Anne Jane returned to live, with her brother’s widow and her children at 43, Brooklands Road, Prestwich, Manchester where she died on Tuesday the 13th April, 1937, aged 74. 

Pictures: - Headstone of the Spence family grave from the collection of Tony Goulding

Christ Church, West Didsbury courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives, and Information, http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

79, Grafton Street, Joseph Cantley’s hosier and glover shop, this, also, was home to the Dublin School of Photography and the Studio of Frederick Holland Mares, National Library of Ireland on The Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:79_Grafton_Street..._(8248610379). 

Notes: -

1) Sackville Street and its extension towards the River Liffey, Lower Sackville Street, was renamed O’Connell Street, in 1924, by the newly established Irish Free State government with one of its earliest actions.

2) Samuel did have two other siblings an older sister, Margaret Anne, who had recently married on the 27th July, 1899, and a younger brother, Albert Harley, born on the 4th December, 1886 who was for some reason absent from the census return of 1901. Albert Harley later emigrated to the United States from the family home in Manchester in 1907.

3) Stella Edith, the second youngest child, remained behind in Dublin for the time being.

4) Sir Joseph Donaldson Cantley O.B.E. became a High Court Judge. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and The University of Manchester. In his legal career he was the lead prosecutor in the final capital murder case prior to the abolition of the death penalty when the conviction of Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen for the murder of John Alan West led to their executions on the 13th August, 1964 at Manchester’s Strangeways and Liverpool’s Walton Prisons, respectively. Later as a judge Mr. Cantley presided over the sensational conspiracy and incitement to murder trial of the former leader of the Liberal Party, Jeremy Thorpe. His reputation and legacy were to a degree sullied by his summing-up in this case which was deemed by many to have been too skewed in favour of the defence following the accused acquittal.

Two more veterans of the Boer War …...... another story from Tony Goulding

Following on from my recent story of Boer War veterans, I return to the subject to tell the stories of the other two old soldiers mentioned in the article from the “Altrincham Guardian”.

Boys of the Old Brigade

With only his initials to start the search J. P. Webster proved quite illusive to track down, but I think I finally ran him to ground. Joseph Paul Webster was born into an army family in the Portobello area of Dublin, Ireland on 27th May, 1874. Both his father and grandfather were also named Joseph Paul. His father was born in Canterbury, Kent the son of a policeman. When the third generation Joseph Paul Webster was born his father was a Sergeant-Major in 17th Lancers, based in Dublin Ireland.

His mother was Jane (née Adams) who was born in Godalming, Surrey in 1848. He was his parents third child and first son, after two older sisters Sarah Jane, born in Godalming in the March quarter of 1870 and Elizabeth who was born in Gort, Galway after her father had been posted to Ireland. 

Soon after his birth the family moved back to England, to Basingstoke, Hampshire, where Sargeant-Major Webster took up the post as the drill instructor to the Hampshire Yeomanry as evidenced by the 1881 census. 

This also shows, Jane had given birth to a second son, William Henry, in 1877, a third daughter, Clara, had followed in 1878 and another son George Augustus was just a month old when the census was taken on April 3rd, 1881. Later, a fourth son, Arthur Gulliver was born to Joseph Paul and Jane in Basingstoke in the March quarter of 1888. 

A sad feature of the children of this family was curiously, although the three daughters all lived into adulthood, Joseph Paul Jr. was the only son to do so; the other three all dying tragically young.

The cap badge of the 17th Lancers

The young Joseph Paul enlisted into his father’s old Regiment the “Death or Glory Boys” - 17th Lancers in Basingstoke, Hampshire on the 1st February, 1892. He served for a full 12-year term after being recalled to active service, on 28th December, 1899, at the outset of the Second Boer War during which he was promoted to the rank of Sargeant on the 5th May, 1900. He was finally demobilsed on the 31st January, 1904.  

He married, only six weeks later, on the 14th March, 1904 at St. Mary’s Church, Edge Hill, Liverpool to Jane Mason (née Fox), a widow with two school-age children, Ellen (13) and Percival (10), who kept a boarding house at 85, Leopold Road, West Derby, Liverpool. 

According to the 1911 census, the family had moved to 18, Lucan Road, Aigburth, Liverpool. Joseph Paul was recorded as a Mounted Police Constable; Ellen was a shop assistant and Percival a clerk. 

 Searches into possible records of his life after 1911 have been unproductive. It is likely that he did not serve in the forces during World War 1 as he was in a reserved occupation. From the press cutting he at some point moved, before the autumn of 1959, from Liverpool to Stretford, Lancashire. 

 A death of a Joseph P. Webster was registered in the Isle of Wight during the June quarter of 1960. Given his age (86) coinciding and his connections to the Hampshire area I think it’s fairly safe to conclude that this entry refers to our man.

The final veteran, Mr. W. Hayes, also provided a research challenge as again only his initial was provided by the paper and, unlike the above man, no indication was given as regards which army unit he served in. Fortunately, I was able to discover an article from the Manchester Evening News of the 14th February, 1951 on an inaugural annual dinner of the Manchester and District branch of the South African War Veterans Association. This article confirmed that the branch secretary was, 72-year-old, Mr. William Hayes and also furnished his regiment, the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry into which, it was further stated he enlisted, aged 18, as a trumpeter.

Armed with this additional information I was able to find his various military records, which proved to be exceptionally comprehensive. They showed not just his army service history but additionally, his home address, the names of his wife and children, the details of his wedding (date, church, and even officiating minister’s name) and the date and place of birth of his children. I was then able to access other records to garner more details of William’s life story.

He was born at 1, Newton’s Buildings, Hulme, Manchester on the 11th July, 1880. His parents were Edward, a general labourer, and Annie (née Royle). William served an apprenticeship with P. R. Jackson (Engineers), Salford and became a motor mechanic before volunteering to join the 105 (Manchester) Company, 8th Battalion, The Imperial Yeomanry. Following his service in South Africa, he married at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Oldfield Road, Saford, Lancashire, on the 22nd February, 1902, (1)   Mary Elizabeth Sharphouse. William’s bride was the daughter of Aaron Sharphouse, an engine driver, and Hannah Eliza (née Braithwaite); born in the village of Foston-on-the-Wolds, Near Bridlington, Yorkshire (East Riding), where she was baptised in its parish church on the 22nd January, 1879.

In the first few years of their marriage, William and Mary Elizabeth, moved a number of times between the Weast area of Salford and Prestwich before settling at 29, School Lane, Didsbury, Manchester, where they remained for more than thirty years. The couple’s first, of six children, Fanny, was born at 25, Trent Street (2) on Christmas Eve, 1902.  Olive, followed on the 14th November, 1904 during their sojourn in Prestwich, where the first and only son, William Edward, was also born on the 10th June, 1906. After the family had returned to Salford, 37, Nelson Street, Florence Eunice, arrived on the 9th February, 1908. The fifth child, Doris Mary, was born on 19th May, 1910 whilst the family were already residing on School Lane, Didsbury. They were at this address at the 1911 census in which William gave his occupation as a chauffeur (domestic)

After William’s demobilisation from his service in the First World War a sixth child, Doreen, was born in Didsbury during the December quarter of 1920 but tragically she died in her first year of life.

School Lane, Didsbury,1962

Despite having a young family at home William felt it was his duty to enlist, which he did on the 28th October, 1914. He served as a driver in the Army Service Corps, arriving in France at Rouen on the 23rd November, 1914 after a long couple of days sailing from Avonmouth, Nr. Bristol on board the S.S. Woodfield. On arrival he was posted to the No. 2 Echelon the Indian Cavalry Division Supply Column. While serving with this unit, William was steadily promoted to reach the rank of acting Sargeant (without pay) on the 3rd December, 1915. However, after being admitted to hospital he was reverted to Private on the 1st March, 1916.

William remained a private for the remainder of the war. He suffered more bouts of sickness and was invalided back to England in October, 1917 with nephritis. The final year of his service was spent on home-based duty, including a brief posting to Dublin, Ireland during the summer of 1918. He ended his time in the army with duties in his home city of Manchester where he was demobilised on the 15th February, 1919 at the Army Dispersal Unit in Heaton Park. Following his 28-day demobilisation-leave he was transferred to the army reserve “Z”, and became a civilian again, on the 15th March, 1919. The danger and “excitement” for William did not end, however, as, after continuing his lorry driving into civilian life, later in 1919 he was involved in a serious road traffic accident. On Saturday, the 4th October, 1919 while negotiating Chapel Street, a steep hill in New Mills, Derbyshire, having picked up a van-load of Furniture in nearby, Mellor, an axle broke and his vehicle careered, out of control, down the hill. Hitting an embankment, it overturned and pinned William and his 12-year-old son underneath. The van and furniture were all smashed as was William’s jaw. It was reported that the child was also hurt. (3)  

Between the two World Wars, William returned to his family home in, Didsbury, Manchester where as indicated by his entry in the National Register of 1939 he worked as a taxi driver. Approaching 60 at the start of the World War 2, he still saw service as a Sergeant in the Home Guard.

The records of his death are not conclusive but it’s most likely that he died in Withington Hospital, Manchester during the December quarter of 1962, aged 82.

Pictures; - newspaper cutting from the collection of Tony Goulding. Cap Badge of the 17th Lancers- by GMJ - www.paoyeomanry.co.uk. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28049195

School Lane, Didsbury – 1962 by R.F. Harris m 22122 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes: -

1) The marriage certificate recorded the address of both the bride and groom as 21, Oxford Street, Salford.

2) both Fanny, on the 21st January, 1903, and Florence Eunice, on the 25th March, 1908, were christened in St. Luke’s church, Weaste, Salford. William gave his occupation as “motor driver” and “chauffeur” respectively.

3) Manchester Evening News: Monday 6th October, 1919.

News from that South African War, circa 1901

The Boer War which lasted from 1899 to 1902 has largely been eclipsed by the Great War.

It sits tucked away with all those smaller colonial campaigns the British army fought across the world after the Crimean War and before the two great world wars of the 20th century.

And yet in its time it was a major event, dividing world opinion, raising in particular questions about the treatment of civilians and accounting for around 75,000 deaths of which between 20,000 and 28,000 were Boer civilians.

And the postcard manufactures were not slow about getting involved.

Raphael Tuck & Sons produced a range of cards covering all aspects of the war from photographs of British soldiers, the Boer commanders and a series of humorous ones.

This comes from a collection of six by the artist L Thackery which alternated between jingoism and a more sober reflection on experiences of British servicemen.

And of course there is a direct connection with Manchester.

In St Ann's Square we have the memorial to the men who took part.







Picture, Memorial St Ann's Square, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and With the flag to Pretoria, from the series, The Boer War, issued by Tuck & Sons, circa 1901, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/