Category:

Reay family

24/4/2015

John Tone Reay (1857-1912). Photo provided by David Payne (2015).

I was interested to find a copy of an artilcle on your web site written by Percy Reay. Percy was a first cousin of my Grandmother, Elizabeth Mary Florence Reay. Her Father was John Tone Reay.

I have lots of photos of the Family from the early part of last Century if they are of any interest to you.

I know that the family lived in Blue Row in Heddon in 1895 but they then moved to Falcon Terrace in Wylam.

David Payne recently contacted the web site with the following message:

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Pilot Officer J A Trotter

24/4/2015

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On our transcript of graveyard memorials, the stone (numbered 173) reads:

There are just two Commonwealth War Graves in St Andrew's Churchyard in Heddon on the Wall and I had often wondered how Pilot Officer Trotter of the Royal Australian Air Force came to be buried here. Rev. Audrey McCartan put me in touch with Jean's daughter, Jenefer Creamer, who kindly helped fill in the story.

In 2012, at a private family gathering in St Andrew's Churchyard in Heddon, overseen by Rev. Audrey McCartan, the ashes of a lady, Jean Bainbridge Cummings, who had recently died in Canada, were buried between the Commonwealth War Grave of her first husband, Pilot Officer J A Trotter and the unmarked grave of her father, Thomas Matthew Scott.

Pilot Officer
J.A. Trotter
Royal Australian Air Force
24th August 1942 age 31
Greater love hath no man.

Commonwealth War Grave of Pilot Officer J A Trotter. Photo A Curtis (2011).

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Henry James Chapman

3/4/2015

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Gillian Massiah recently sent me more information and some photos of this family, her relatives.

Chapman family c.1911. Photograph kindly supplied by Gillian Massiah (2015).

As described here, Oakwood Lodge, west of Houghton on the Hexham Road, in 1911 was the home of Henry James Chapman (49) working as Head Gardener. Sharing the lodge was his wife, Elizabeth (46), and six sons. He had been employed for his experience in propagation and cultivation of orchids, a passion of Norman Charles Cookson (Tyneside Industrialist, 1841-1909) at Oakwood House. One of the greenhouses still exists today and is to be restored by its current owners.

From Left to Right Standing:
William Henry Chapman (b.1893; colliery clerk); Harold Thomas Chapman (b.1896; school); Wallace Chapman (b.1900, school); George Lewis Chapman (b.1894, teacher)
Seated:
Henry James Chapman (b.1862, gardener): Frederick Charles Chapman (b.1905, school); Elizabeth Chapman (nee Lewis; b.1865, married 20 years)
Standing:
Albert Edward Chapman (b.1903, school).
The dog is either Digger or Trencher.

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Lt. Dr. Forbes Tulloch RAMC

24/1/2015

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Gravestone of Lt. Forbes Tulloch R.A.M.C, St Andrew's Churchyard, Heddon on the Wall. Photo A Curtis (2011).

In loving memory of Lieutenant Forbes Tulloch R.A.M.C. fell asleep 20th June 1906 age 27.
"We fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake". "Until the day dawn".

Obitiary. British Medical Journal, June 30, 1906; 1(2374): 1568.

Tulloch medal auctioned in Newcastle, October 2014.

Hexham Courant - Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Heddon village notes

A RARE medal was auctioned in Tyneside on Wednesday and is behind the story of a medical officer from Heddon. A Tulloch Medal was awarded by the Royal Army Medical College as a prize for pathology and only one other example has come up for sale.

The medal was presented to Lt. Dr Forbes Tulloch who served as a civil surgeon from 1902-03 with the South African Field Force and who was the son of John Tulloch who was the deputy surgeon general on the army medical staff.

Following these years in 1905 Lt. Dr Forbes Tulloch joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and in 1905 he was sent to Uganda as part of a team investigating the cause of sleeping sickness who unfortunately died of the disease in 1906 after returning to England. While he was travelling back to England his father also died.

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Ralph Eustace Smith

14/11/2014

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Thomas Eustace Smith (1831-1903) built the Anglican Church of St. Mary's in North Gosforth, which is now the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, and a schoolhouse which was (just) standing in 2010.

Ralph Eustace Smith was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on August 28th 1889.

His father, Eustace Smith, and mother, Ellen Gertrude (née Hawkes), married around 1888.

Eustace Smith was the son of Thomas Eustace Smith (1861-1902), JP, barrister, Liberal politicion and wealthy managing director of Smith's Dock on Tyneside. This company eventually became the Swan Hunter shipyard. The family had a home in London, Gosforth House in Newcastle and the Manor House at Whalton. Thomas' father was William Smith of Benton, a ropemaker.

Ralph Eustace Smith is one of the names on the Heddon War memorial, a casualty of the Great War. This blog is to give some details of his life and circumstances of his death.

Sacred Heart RC Church. Photo by Weston Beggard (2005).

School House, North Gosforth. Photo by Peter Maddison (2010).

The Engineer 20th June 1902.

There is further information about Thomas and William Smith of Guildhall and St Lawrence, Newcastle-on-Tyne, the rope making part of T. and W. Smith, on the Grace's Guide website.

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William Maxon Collingwood Wilson (1897-1942)

31/7/2014

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William Maxon Collingwood Wilson was born in Tynemouth, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1897.

The 1901 Census shows that he was living with his family at Heddon Hall in 1901.

His father was William Robert Wilson (43), a Solicitor from Bolton, Lancashire. He was born on 18th May 1857 in Bolton-le-Moors and died on 23rd November 1903 in Heddon Hall. He played cricket for Newcastle and Northumberland between 1879-80.

His mother was Mary Fenwick Wilson (31, born Newcastle).

William MC Wilson was the youngest of three children, having two sisters, Dorothy Foster Wilson (9, born Durham) and Phylis Fenwick Wilson (6, born Dinnington). In Heddon Hall in 1901 they were tended by 7 servants: Emma Ann Graf (19, governess from Switzerland), Mary Doughty (47, widowed uphostress, born North Shields), Euphemia Willey (25, cook, born Ovingham), Jane Maxwell (27, waiting maid, born Wigton, Cumberland), Elenor Ames (20, house maid, born Hylton Castle, Durham), Hannah Clewes (19, nurse, born Jarrow), Sarah Frances Story (9, kitchen maid, born Wigton, Cumberland).

There were two neighbouring cottages to Heddon Hall. One was occupied by Sarah Ames (51, born Newcastle) working as laundress, her son, James Ames (18, born Hylton Castle, Durham), working as a gardener, and two daughters. George Moore (33, born Benwell) was also a gardener, living in the other cottage with his wife and two young daughters.

The Wilson family cannot be traced in the 1911 Census and had clearly left Heddon Hall some time before. As we have already recorded in our account of the 1911 Census, William Robert Wilson was found shot dead in the grounds of Heddon Hall in 1903.

His death was recorded in The Shields Daily Gazette on Tuesday 24 November 1903, page 4, col 6.

NEWCASTLE SOLICITOR'S TRAGIC DEATH. The death took place yesterday under very tragic circumstances of William Robert Wilson, solicitor, of Newcastle. Mr Wilson resided at Heddon Hall, near Heddon-on-the-Wall, seven miles from Newcastle, and had lately suffered from sleeplessness, taking drugs to alleviate the trouble. Yesterday he left his residence in the morning with the apparent intention of going to business at Newcastle, and later in the day his dead body was found in a wood near the hall, shot wounds having caused the death. His body was found by his daughter, and a double-barrelled shot gun and a loaded rook gun lay by his side, one barrel of the former being discharged. The deceased was a member of the firm of Wilson and Wilson solicitors, Newcastle, having been admitted solicitor in 1881, and he had a considerable practice in the city. He leaves a widow and family of three. He was a keen sportsman, chiefly known as a dog fancier, and was a well-known member of the Kennel Club, his favourite breed being fox terriers.

William MC Wilson, aged just 3 in 1901, became Lieutenant Colonel William Wilson, and now occupies a Commonwealth War Grave at El Alamein, where he died on 25 July 1942.

A recent email contact from Sean Smart, Head of History at Shrewsbury House School, provided more information about his later life from a project on former pupils.

The family moved from Heddon sometime before the First World War and William attended Shrewsbury House School in Surbiton, Surrey. From there he went to Dover College and then, perhaps because of his North East connections, served in the Northumberland Fusiliers in WW1 as a junior officer.

He served in France and Italy, and was awarded an Italian medal for bravery (White Cross of the Order of Savoy)
and was mentioned in dispatches

After the war he served in the Indian Army and was eventually in the 1st Bn Punjab Regiment. Sean found out that he represented the regiment at George VI’s coronation in 1936.

A William M C Wilson is recorded on the ship Ranpura from London to Bombay on 24th June 1927, his occupation listed as the Indian Army.

By 1939 he was the Regiments CO and was serving with them on the NW Frontier of India. The regiment was moved to North Africa via Iraq and sadly he was killed by enemy shell fire at El Alamein on 25th July 1942. He is mentioned briefly in a very rare book called – The First Punjabis: A History of the First Punjab Regiment (Mohammed Ibrahim Qureshi 1958).

On 20th March 1924 William married Barbara Campbell Baldwin (b. 1903, Tateley, Hampshire) in Rawal Pindi, Bengal, India.

On 5th March 1949, Deirdre M.P. Wilson, the only daughter of the late Lt.Col. W.M.C. Wilson, and Mrs B. Campbell Wilson, of Yately, Camberley, Surrey, married Hugh Desmond Campbell Wilson, an officer in Royal Navy (retired 1953), at St Peter's, Yately, Surrey.

Sean finished off his email correspondence with:

PS – One more thing, if you do update his entry on your website, maybe you could mention we did add him to our School’s War Memorial this year since previous to our research project his death was unknown here.

Shrewsbury House School War Memorial. Photo by Sean Smart (2014).

Shrewsbury House School students managed to uncover the names of three forgotten soldiers missing from the school's First World War Memorial and are currently researching the names on their Memorial from the Second World War, including William Wilson.

Surbiton pupils uncover missing World War One soldiers' names - Surrey Comet,11th October 2013

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Heddon in 1911

23/2/2014

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Harold Thomas Chapman in 1957. Photograph kindly supplied by Gillian Massiah (2015).

Last year we looked at the 1901 Census for the village. This year, we are particularly interested in the 1911 Census because of the commemoration of WW1 which started just three years after the Census. Many of the male residents of Heddon would serve as soldiers in the conflict, some would be injured, and a few would give their lives. Few families would remain untouched.

First, some details from our local time-line to set the scene.

In 1902, the Margaret Pit, situated at the foot of Station Road, and the last deep mine to be worked in the village, was bought by the Throckley Coal Co., and was worked until the early 1930's. After that it's reserves were accessed from the Isabella Pit at Throckley.

On 26th June 1902 an oak tree was planted for the coronation of Edward VII by Fenwick Charlton on the green at the top of Station Road . The 1901 Census showed he was born in 1851 (50 years old) and working as the Colliery Engineer at Heddon Margaret Pit.

The first power driven aircraft was flown by the Wright brothers on 17th December 1903. One of the casualties on our War Memorial would be killed in action serving in the Royal Flying Corps just a few years later.

In 1908, the Old Age Pension was introduced. In Heddon the Methodist Chapel was altered, creating a porch and schoolroom, and a forge was set up beside the Swan Inn, starting a small business that would run until 2011.

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Alice Robson (1797-1889)

26/7/2013

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In February 2013, a lady called Julie Williams contacted me about a relative from Heddon on the Wall:

I am researching my family tree and have found my 4th great grandmother was Alice Robson from Heddon-on-the-Wall. I notice there is a grave stone of the Robson family but these were later members.

Alice was born in 1797 and was convicted of larceny (she stole some cloth) and was transported to Australia in 1814 (she was 17).

There are lots of stories about her that I've found on Ancestry and I wonder if you would be interested. I believe William Robson and Jane Lister were her parents. Do you have any information please on the family.

There are indeed a lot of Robsons in the graveyard of St Andrew's Church but as a common Border name, they might not be simply related.

Julie continued to supply me with the well documented stories of Alice Robson and I will give you a flavour of them below.

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The Armstrongs of Bays Leap

4/7/2013

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This short article arises from a recent contact message to the website from JP from Canada who is the great-great-great grand-child of James Armstrong and Hannah Armstrong (nee Shield) who farmed at Bay's Leap in the late 18th Century.

I visited the St Andrews churchyard some years ago to see the gravestone of my great-great-great grandparents, James Armstrong and Hannah (Shield) Armstrong.

I took some photos of the gravestone and was intrigued by the three smaller gravestones behind my ggg grandparents labelled with only initials.

On the website here my ggg grandparents are # 242 and MA, WA and HA are #s 243, 244 and 255.

I had assumed that they were the gravestones of James and Hannah's children: Mary, William and Hannah.

St Andrew's Churchyard #242. Photo A Curtis (2011).

St Andrew's Churchyard #243, 244, 245. Photo A Curtis (2011).

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Romantic account of a visit to Heddon Hall by Rev. Dr. Douglas Frazer-Hurst

23/3/2013

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A lady called Jo-Anne Sunbeam got in touch asking the following question:

I am researching my Irish ancestors and find in one of the books written by Rev. Douglas Frazer Hurst (Presbyterian Minister) he states around the time of 1904 - 1915 he went to stay with relatives at Heddon Hall, Heddon on the Wall. He however does not state the name of these relatives and I wondered if you had the name of the people who rented it after 1903 and again in 1910.

As usual I had no answers but did put together a partial list of people I could find at Heddon Hall after it was sold by the Bates family in 1895.

William Robert Wilson 1901 (died 1903)
Max Holzpfel 1907 (see below)
Frederick Wise 1920
Archibald Ross died 1931
Rollo Samuel Barrett 1937

Jo-Anne sent me some further information:

I have attached the relevant pages from the book "The Bridge of Life" by the Rev. Douglas Frazer-Hurst, who was born of Irish extraction in Walker on Tyne, Northumberland, his father being the local doctor there. I think he was there [Heddon Hall] between 1904 and 1910.

If anyone knows the names of Jo-Anne's relatives who lived in Heddon Hall between 1904 and 1915 please let us know.