A 1916 Christmas Day Tragedy

John Chaffer Buckley was a fulling miller, he had finished work for the Christmas period, it was 1916, war raged in Europe, but John who was born in Norden was going to enjoy the Christmas festivities.

The 1911 census gives us a snapshot of the family at that time, living at 14 Gordon Street, Newhey;

John Buckley, head of the household, aged 36, fulling miller, born in Norden.
Emily Buckley, wife, aged 35, born in Norden.
Edna Buckley, daughter, aged 11.
Lena Buckley, daughter, aged 9.
Rose Buckley, daughter, aged 7.
Harry Buckley, son, aged 3.
Sarah Ashworth, John's 60 year old mother in law also lived with the family.

John and Emily had been married for 12 years at this point, they'd had 5 children, 1 of which had passed away, another child, 

Phyllis was born to the couple in 1913.

Rose died aged 11, in July 1915.

Alan would be born to the couple in early 1916.

Christmas Day 1916, John left home at 104 Shaw Road around 11.30am and headed for the Wheatsheaf pub in the Haugh. 

He clearly had a good drink as he didn't return home until 5pm that afternoon.

104 Shaw Road Where John Buckley Died In 1916

Emily said that he'd a lot to drink but wasn't particularly drunk, she made him something to eat and he had a sleep on the sofa.

Around 7.30pm he made his way out again to the Sheaf, Emily asked him not to go but he didn't listen.

Arriving home at around 10pm he was now in a much worse state than before. 

Emily made him a cup of tea and a slice of bread and butter and went upstairs to bed around 11pm. 

On entering the bedroom he said to his wife that he was going back downstairs to sit by the fire.

John misplaced his footing at the top of the stairs, there was no handrail to grab onto, he tumbled head over heels down the steep staircase crashing into a heap at the foot of the stairs.

Emily's mother and Edna managed to put John onto the hearthrug in front of the fire and the doctor sent for immediately. 

It was in vain - John had died around 10 minutes later from a severe concussion.

John was laid to rest in the churchyard of St. Thomas' on December 29th 1916.

13 month old Alan Buckley passed away in February 1917, he was laid to rest alongside his father.

Emily Buckley lived to the age of 63, she passed away in 1939, she had never remarried after John's death, she became heavily involved with Newhey Methodist Church, she was survived by 3 daughters, Edna, Lena and Phyllis and her son Harry.

The SS Falaba And A Rochdale Victim

SS Falaba

The SS Falaba was a 5000 ton British passenger & cargo ship, built in 1906 by Stephens and Sons in Glasgow.

Owned by the Elder Dempster Shipping Line, she would regularly ply her trade between Liverpool and ports in Africa and further afield.

Richard Jackson Whittaker was born in 1877 in Heywood to John and Louisa Ann Whittaker, he was baptised on June 3rd 1877 at St. James's church in Heywood.

John Whittaker was a once time owner of the Beach hotel at Hollingworth Lake.

Richard would see service with the 23rd Company, 8th Battalion, Duke of Lancaster's Yeomanry in South Africa during the Boer War, he was discharged from the army on January 25th 1901 due to being medically unfit, he had already been awarded the Queens South Africa Medal with clasps for Cape Colony, Orange Free state and South Africa 1901.

South Africa had a profound effect on Richard, for after the Boer War finished he paid a short visit back to his country of birth before returning to Africa. 
As a qualified joiner / carpenter he set himself up as a builder and contractor based in Pretoria.

At the outbreak of war in August 1914 he was working as clerk of works on some building operations in Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa, the work was suspended due to the war, Richard decided to return to England.

On arriving back in England, he stayed with his aunt and uncle on Market Street, Healey, where his mother also lived.

Whilst back in England he was offered the opportunity to take a job as clerk of works on a new Government railway project in Sierra Leone, West Africa. 
Leaving Healey on 27th March he made his way to Liverpool to join the SS Falaba for passage to Sierra Leone.

The day after setting sail, the Falaba was shadowed in the Irish Sea by a German U-Boat, U-28, captained by Georg von Forstner.

Whilst off the coast of Southern Ireland the U-boat made contact with the Falaba stating its intention to torpedo the vessel and giving the crew time to evacuate the ship. 
The Germans claimed to have given 23 minutes in order to evacuate the ship, this was disputed by the British who claimed they only got 7 minutes.

A single torpedo slammed into the side of the ship, resulting in the deaths of over 100 passengers and crew, including Richard Whittaker, the Germans also claimed that she was carrying rifle cartridges which when exposed hastened the sinking - the subsequent board of enquiry revealed that she was indeed carrying 13 tonnes of cartridges and gunpowder for Government use, this was no more than what was carried during peacetime. Evidence was also given that the crew of the submarine were cheering and jeering whilst the men and women on the Falaba fought for their lives.

Many of the dead were recovered from the cold waters of the Irish Sea, it would be several weeks however before Richards body was found. 
His was one of 6 bodies that washed ashore on the coast of Cornwall at St. Ives.
On Richards body was found £11 in gold, a silver watch with a gold guard, a diamond ring and a photograph.

Along with the others recovered, Richard was buried in Barnoon Cemetery, St. Ives.

His headstone reads;

Richard Jackson Whittaker sailed on SS Falaba from Liverpool 27/3/1915 torpedoed by Germans 28/3/1915, body found off Cornwall 25/4/1915 interred 29/4/1915, 39, also Louisa Ann of Lancashire his mother 14/7/1925, 78

Richard Jackson Whittaker 1877-1915

Mary Jane Billington Of Charles Lane

Mary Jane Billington was born in Milnrow in 1873, the daughter of a farmer, George and his wife Harriet.

The family can be traced through the various census returns, in 1881 the family were living at 49 Butterworth Hall, at this time George's occupation was listed as being a carter, Mary had 3 siblings, Jesse, Alice and Harry, Mary being the second eldest child.

George was a native of Preston, his wife Harriet was a Milnrow girl, her maiden name being Hornby, they married in 1871.

Harriet the daughter of Samuel and Mary Hornby was baptised by the vicar of St. James, F.R. Raines on the 15th September 1850 (incidentally, Raines Crest is named after the clergyman).

In 1891, George & Harriet were living on Charles Lane, George was now listed as being a farmer and cotton waste dealer, the family had grown by one with the addition of another son, Samuel.

Mary Jane is listed as being a domestic house maid.

10 years later and the family is still living on Charles Lane, number 49. 

The family have taken in a boarder, 60 year old James Kerr, a wheelwright from Ayr in Scotland, it may be that he was also employed on Georges farm, as both Harry and Samuel gave their accusations as wheelwright to the census enumerator.

Tragedy struck the family on Tuesday 21st January 1902.

At around 4pm, Mary Jane was in the yard of the farm and told their wheelwright (possibly James Kerr), to fill the skip with firewood, she then told her brother, Jesse, that she was going for a short walk before tea. At 8 o'clock that evening when she hadn't returned home, the family became worried and began searching for her.

A body was seen floating in Stott Lodge near Butterworth Hall early the following morning.

PC Thomason managed to recover the body with grappling hooks at around 5.30am on Wednesday morning - it was Mary Jane, she had drowned in 8-10 feet of water.

An inquest was held at the Hole in the Wall in Milnrow the following Friday.

The coroner stated that no marks had been found on Mary Janes body and that he urged the jury to return an open verdict, there was no suggestion that Mary Jane had any intention of taking her own life.

The lodge was predominantly used to water the horses that worked at Butterworth Hall colliery.

Mary Jane was the third person to drown in Stotts Lodge within 12 months, the coroner stated that the owners of the lodge should attempt to make it shallower to prevent any further drownings, and that Milnrow Urban District Council should see to it that steps were taken to remedy the problem.

Mary was laid to rest at St. James on Friday 24th January 1902.

The Rochdale Spitfire Fund

With war raging across Europe, and the Battle of Britain taking its toll on fighter command, both in terms of aircraft and men, many residents of the Borough wrote to the Rochdale Observer expressing their desire to help in some way to fund the purchase of more fighters for the RAF, so was born the "Rochdale Observer Spitfire Appeal"

William Crossley of Holmefield, Spotland wrote to the editor saying;

Sir, 

For several weeks I have had in my mind to suggest to you the Rochdale ought to give a fighter plane to the Government.

I would gladly give a small portion, say £100, towards such a fund. I feel sure you could successfully raise the sum required, as all classes, rich and poor, would welcome the opportunity as a thank-offering for the wonderful achievements of our RAF boys.

Yours,

William Crossley 

The cost of brand new Spitfire in 1940 was £5000, the Observer thought that it was highly achievable to be able to raise such a large amount from the residents of the town, the "Spitfire fund" was born.

Talk of the German air invasion was rife, the Battle of Britain had begun, in a little under a week of the German air assault, 381 Luftwaffe aircraft had been shot down, the RAF meanwhile had lost 78, 20 of the RAF fighter pilots that had been shot down were saved, either by baling out of their stricken machines and managing to land without causing too much damage to themselves.

Within days of the fund being launched, donations began to pour into the Observer offices,  Mr E.B. Clegg J.P. of Shore, Littleborough pledged £500, the proprietors of the Rochdale Observer matched this generous gift.

Many of the well to do business people of the town pledged large amounts, Mr P.W. Greenhalgh of High Bank, Newhey gave £10, Alderman H. Wycherley gave £25, and so it went on.

Fund raising events were arranged around the town, one of the most common being whist drives arranged by some of the "well to do" ladies.

On November 23rd 1940, the fund finally closed with a total of £12,250, organised by the Rochdale Observer on behalf of the people of Rochdale and District.

Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister for aircraft production wrote a letter to be published the Observer;

The total now subscribed by the people of Rochdale for the purchase of fighter aircraft is one which you and your fellow citizens have every right to be proud.

You have placed your Borough in the foremost ranks of those who by their patriotic generosity are bringing nearer the day of victory.

And in acknowledging this further gift you have sent me I would add to my thanks to the subscribers of your fund an expression of my gratitude to your newspaper for the initiative and enterprise it has displayed to such valuable purpose.

The success of the campaign was enough to be able to purchase 2 aircraft for the RAF, they were unsurprisingly given the names "Rochdale And District I", and "Rochdale And District II".

Spitfire MkIIb, P8348 was Rochdale I, this aircraft flew with 52 Operational Training Unit in 1943 from RAF Debden.

Spitfire MkIIb, P8346 was Rochdale II, this aircraft flew with 303 (Polish Squadron) from RAF Northolt, it was shot down by flak near Lille on June 28th 1941, the pilot, Pilot Officer Josef Bondar was killed.

Milnrow Railway Station Larcenists

Carter, John Hargreaves and a Coal Yard labourer Joseph Willd both worked in the yard at Milnrow Railway Station.

It's February 1882 and both men appear the Rochdale Borough Police Court.

Hargreaves is charged with stealing three firkins of butter, two boxes of herrings and various other items , the total value being £14, the property of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway.

Wild appeared alongside his friend Hargreaves and was charged with receiving the items knowing them to be stolen, the police had found some of the goods in the cellar of Wilds house.

The railway company had been concerned about thefts for a number of months and had taken extra precautions to try and identify, and ultimately catch the culprits. 

Superintendent Tindall, of Rochdale Borough Police, told the court that since October 1st the previous year there had been almost daily reports of items going missing.

The court remanded both men to stand trial at the quarter sessions.

33 year old Joseph Wild, a married man with a young family of 2 Milnes Yard, Dale Street, appeared before Mr T. Dickens J.P. on February 27th 1882, the charge sheet contained the following items which he was accused of stealing;

3 firkins of butter
3 wooden tubs
224lbs of sugar
1 hemp bag

Found guilty by the jury, Joseph was sentenced to 12 months hard labour.

Hargreaves didn't fare any better, when he appeared before the court, he too was found guilty, it has to be assumed that he was possibly the brains behind the operation as he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment with hard labour.

Tunshill Colliery Tragedy

The Oldham company of Platt Brothers, machine makers, owned a large colliery situated at Tunshill, at the top of Kiln Lane.

At around 10:30am on Friday 27th May 1887, a collier by the name of William Ashworth, a resident of Ladyhouse Lane, noticed a slight trickle of water coming from the roof in one of the shafts from which he was hewing coal. 

His son, John William who worked with him in the mine sounded the roof and told his father that he thought it was was unsafe. 

The two men were in the process of fitting a prop under the roof when a sudden deluge of water burst through he roof and engulfed them, both William and his son were washed along the length of the mine for a distance of around 30 yards by the torrent of water.

John was able to grab onto another mine prop and was able to raise the alarm, William managed to raise himself to his feet and both were able to make their way to the mouth of the pit along with a number of other colliers.

There was relief amongst the men until the realisation dawned that 3 men were missing;

41 year old James Mills, a collier from Butterworth Hall.
38 year old Thomas Schofield, a collier of 4 The Haugh, Newhey.
18 year old Michael Kenny, a collier also from the The Haugh.

The three men were working in a lower part of the mine, a rescue party was sent in to look for them, the water was extremely deep where they were thought to have been, the rescuers soon realised that nobody could have survived.

The police were soon called to the scene, the management of the colliery attempted to keep the news of the disaster quiet so as not to have people from the village descending upon the colliery interrupting the workers.

Thomas Schofields body was recovered around noon, the bodies of the other two men were found several hours later.

WW1 Letter From the Front - Sapper Frederick Blackburn

I have a group on Facebook named Milnrow & Newhey Now & Then, a post was made on their recently by Steph Griffin regarding a letter sent by her Great Grandad during World War One, so I thought I would do a similar post regarding one of my relatives.

My great uncle, Frederick Blackburn was born in 1881 in Pendleton, he married Eleanor Hendrickson Walter in 1906. 

The 1911 census tells us that he and Eleanor lived at 5 New Foster Street, they had been married 4 years and had no children, Frederick was employed as a slater.

As the spectre of war loomed Frederick joined the Royal Engineers, more specifically the 431st Field Company which formed part of the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division.

Sadly Fredericks service records haven't survived so we don't know when he joined up, or the actions in which he fought.

What we do have though is a letter he wrote to Eleanor, dated Friday 6/7/1917.

Letter Written By Frederick Blackburn

The letter reads;

Dear Eleanor,

Your letter dated 1/7/17 received today, parcel to Maud Thursday the 5th, many thanks for sauce. I am not at all surprised at Will being fed up. I knew the work would be too heavy for him. I hope he is successful in getting his discharge, how would he like my job, we are making some gun pits, preparing for a big advance and Fritz has been sending shells at us at the rate of 10 to the minute, and we have no cover, we just take pot luck, we do a few acrobatic feats at times because we have to do.

But I must tell you it is absolute murder here, we have lost a few men and horses and consider ourselves very lucky up to now, I shall be glad to get back in the trenches, we do get a chance of a smoke and a bit of fodder, all the same I shall remember Belgium without a doubt.

I should just like to say if I dare, well I can honestly say I thank god or his protection and I hope he gives you the same protection, as I know there is many pitfalls at home more dangerous than shells, well I hope the day is not far off when you will greet me home, to have a new life of peace and happiness, I always think of you and in spare moments open my pocket book and look at your photo and I find it a great (unintelligible) to know that I am out here doing my bit for someone who really cares for me, so cheer up and be of good spirits and think of me when you get down in the dumps, and I know your (unintelligible) feeling will disappear.

Wel I must now close, leaving you in Gods care. hoping you keep in good health as it leaves me at present.

Good night and god bless you.

Your loving hubby

FB

xxxxxxx

Frederick was injured during fierce shelling and was taken to the 91st Field Ambulance, he died from his wounds on July 26th 1917 - just over 3 weeks after writing his letter to his beloved wife back home in Blighty, he was 36 years old. 

Frederick was laid to rest in Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium, his grave, like millions of others is marked with a commonwealth war graves commission headstone.

Families had the option of having a footnote inscribed on the headstone, Fredericks' carries the following;

"THE DEARLY BELOVED HUSBAND OF ELEANOR H BLACKBURN, LIFES GOLDEN DREAM IS OVER"