I recall as a child a photo of a man in uniform, enclosed in a plastic art deco frame on the sideboard at my grandparents’ house. It never occurred to me that it was my grandfather, despite seeing it on every visit. Later I assumed it was his brother Alan who we will meet shortly. It was only decades later, after my father died, that I found this photo in my father’s possessions. Studying it with more interest than the young child I was back then, I could discover from the uniform the role my grandfather played in WW2. Let us see.
Category Archives: Ancestry and Genealogy
Darwen in Victorian Times – Desperation, Poverty, and Family Resilience
The late 1870’s are the most desperate of times for the Atherton family. Central Darwen either side of the main road is home to hundreds who slave day after day, hour after hour in the dark satanic mills of East Lancashire. Water Street and the area around it is the home of the Athertons until a breakout from the area in the 20th Century. In our cossetted lives it is difficult, impossible really, to fully comprehend what these people went through in those times.
Discovery of the Truro Cornwall ‘Ghost’
The people of the remote county of Cornwall have long had a tradition of having an interest in superstition and the ‘unexplained’. Even today there is still to be found by the curious tourist a thriving trade in visitor attractions that trace their origins back to such matters and times. Thankfully at least the Cornish people have by Thomas’s day in the early 1800s finally stopped bringing potential witches to trial but that does not stop children to be still chasing and harassing old ladies that ‘looked the part’ through the streets of Truro. Education comes slowly to the poor of the parish and the parents of these children see no harm in upholding the long traditions of this isolated and independent county.
The year is now 1821 and in May of that year we find that Thomas Ashburner is in a dreadful state both physically but more especially mentally. It is now that our Surgeon L H Potts re-joins our story by taking it upon himself to pen an extraordinary and detailed letter to the Royal Cornwall Gazette. In it he first paints a picture of the Ashburner family’s home circumstances.
Alan – A Young man lost at Salerno 1943
After the death in 1919, at a time when John Atherton was away on service as an army driver, of his young son Roger it took some time for him to come to terms with his son’s death. On his release from the army John settled back with Sarah in the family home in BuryContinue reading “Alan – A Young man lost at Salerno 1943”
Jonathan Walkden – As with many Lancashire men he is a victim of the Somme
This account of Jonathan’s life is compiled from newspaper reports, known movements & actions of his battalion and other local sources including Cotton Town and thanks to Tony Foster for extra information on my relatives military service. It is not definitive but as accurate a story as I can portray from this distance in time.Continue reading “Jonathan Walkden – As with many Lancashire men he is a victim of the Somme”
A Young Man prepares for War
Young Roger Orrell is a handsome man by any standards. Had he been born somewhere else but close to the mills of East Lancashire then his film star looks would have meant a more lucrative career than being a labourer in the local paper mill. At the outbreak of the Great War Roger is 20Continue reading “A Young Man prepares for War”
A Young Man prepares for War
Young Roger Orrell is a handsome man by any standards. Had he been born somewhere else but close to the mills of East Lancashire then his film star looks would have meant a more lucrative career than being a labourer in the local paper mill. At the outbreak of the Great War Roger is 20Continue reading “A Young Man prepares for War”
Football Star in Victorian Lancashire, a tragedy and a mystery
John Richard Parker or Johnny Parker to give him his footballing or soccer playing name was my great grandfather. I knew him as a rather dapper gentleman, never appearing without a tie or his walking cane. He had a presence, a man who filled the room even though he was in his late 80’s whenContinue reading “Football Star in Victorian Lancashire, a tragedy and a mystery”
Spanning the Generations back to Victorian Times – my Ancestry link to the past
This is quite a photograph in the context of my family history research. It is also notable this week in that the central characters, my parents, celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary. In the current covid-19 situation it was not possible to travel north to see them but for them this was another happy milestone inContinue reading “Spanning the Generations back to Victorian Times – my Ancestry link to the past”
Discovering my family in Victorian Preston Lancashire
This photo always intrigued me. It was in a collection that once belonged to my great grandfather John Richard Parker who was from Preston. He was a notable footballer in the 1890’s and had a good career as a mill manager. He was an active participant in local life including the Preston guild. The photosContinue reading “Discovering my family in Victorian Preston Lancashire”
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