Uncle Joe - who fell on his head in Jarrow

Well, that's the story my grandma always used to tell us.  We always got the impression that Uncle Joe had been a favourite of my grandma and that he had been taken in the prime of his life.  Certainly his death had made a big impression on her.

When I began my family history research nearly 20 years ago the first family (on my side) that I researched were the Moderates (I had already done a lot of digging into my ex-husband's Sheffield ancestors, but that was made easy due to the proximity of the records).  My parents came from Durham and their ancestors from Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria (mostly! - see my Surnames page for more details) so all the research had to be done long distance.

This is what I wrote about Uncle Joe in March 1997:

Since I last wrote [about the Moderate Family - I was writing a newsletter to send to other people with the Moderate surname] I have been busy finding out all about Uncle Joe. 

Uncle Joe Moderate (from Ileen Moderate's album)

This is he, the second son of Joseph Moderate and Ann Taylor, born in 1868 in Walker, Northumberland.  This photograph is a copy made by Neville Moderate of one of the photo's in Ileen Moderate's album. 

He was a joiner, in fact Joseph Moderate snr seems to have made sure that all his sons had a good trade.  John was a grocer, William a plumber and Jeremiah a photographer before he set out for the West Indies via Belfast.  Ernest worked for the railways.

Joe lived at 74 Croft Terrace, Jarrow just across the road from his parents.  This is the address he gave when he married on 31st July 1902 to the 'girl next door' Elizabeth Johnson of 73 Croft Terrace.  He was 34 years old and she was 22.  Maybe he had waited until he was able to afford a house before he married.  My Grandmother recalls Uncle Joe and Aunt Lily, she says they took in a niece, Peggy, as they had no children of their own.  This was probably a daughter of William, but I can't get it to fit with any of the names I know. (and all these years later I still can't!).  When Norman Moderate wrote to me last year he mentioned meeting a Peggy Moderate in Longhorsley village near Morpeth in the war.  She was married to a Mr F Knox, and running the local store.  Maybe this was the same Peggy, she did mention Croft Terrace to him.  If so I can only suggest she married twice as no Moderate I have found in the St Catherine's House indices married a Knox.

My grandfather had always said that Uncle Joe died by falling through a hatchway on the 'Duchess of York' in Jarrow shipyards. So when I found the entry for his death in the indices we sent for the certificate.

1928 Death certificate for Uncle Joe Moderate

Sure enough it gives the cause of death as 'fracture of base of skull accidentally caused by falling through a hatchway ...' The next problem was that the ship number given on the certificate, No. 967. 

Old copies of Lloyd's Lists are not available in my local library, Sheffield is rather a long way from the sea!  I suppose there isn't much demand.  But my (then) partner's sister lives in Bristol and the library there was able to supply copies of the book going back to the 1850s.  However there was no sign of a ship number 967, or any 'Duchess of York' in the right place.

The puzzle had to wait until we visited Bristol ourselves at Christmas.  My partner had the bright idea of looking up Palmer's Yard itself in Lloyd's Lists, and there it was ... Ship no. 967 under construction in 1928, the 'York' a cruiser.  The next step was to look up the entry in Jane's Fighting Ships. 

HMS York under construction in 1928 (from Jane's Fighting Ships)

The picture shows the 'York' under construction in 1928.  A later entry describes the ship as 'the first attempt on the part of one of the Treaty Powers to break away from the 10,000 ton type of cruiser'.  Below is a diagram of the vessel also taken from Jane's.

A diagram of the York taken from Jane's Fighting Ships

The HMS 'York' was involved in the defense of Crete in 1940.  On 12th October HMS 'Ajax' sighted an enemy force, she crippled one destroyer but the rest of the force escaped.  HMS 'York' came up in support.  The next morning the crippled Italian destroyer was spotted in tow to another enemy destroyer.  The damaged ship was the 1,620 ton 'Artigliere'.  The second ship fled in the direction of Sicily at highspeed.  HMS 'York' joined the 'Ajax' and the gave the Italian crew half an hour to abandon ship.  After this the 'Artigliere' was sunk by gunfire.  'York' dropped rafts for the survivors and broadcast their position on the radio.  This was done despite the fact that such a signal compromised the position of the British forces.

During the German assault on Crete in May 1941 the Italians claimed to have destroyed many British ships.  Amongst these was the 'York', hit by an explosive motor boat, she beached in Suda Bay.  Meanwhile a 'brilliant rescue' had been achieved by our Navies and survivors from Crete transported to Egypt. Dive bomber attacks prevented the repair of the 'York', and her wreckage was not salvaged until after the war.

So Uncle Joe helped to build a warship in Palmer's Yard, and she did not disgrace herself in service either.

When he died, at age 60 years, Joe left no will.  His effects amounted to £330, and his wife Elizabeth survived him.  They were still living at 74 Croft Terrace and my grandmother can remember how upset her mother, Joe's sister, was when she heard the news across the river in Wallsend.
.................................................

Even now, all these years later, I still can't find Peggy, the power of FreeBMD and Ancestry are not enough to solve that puzzle.  Maybe she was a relative on Elizabeth' side, a Johnson, but she used Moderate when she met my relative Norman Moderate just to strike a friendly note. 

The information about the York's war service was taken from an old illustrated book (almost a collection of picture magazines) about the Second World War that belonged to my dad, I'm afraid that 15 years ago I wasn't as concientious about noting down references so I don't know, off hand, what it was called, though it is still on the shelf at Everton.

My grandmother would have been 21 years old when he died and although he was still working, not a lot of pension and no Welfare State in 1928, Joe was hardly a young man in his prime when he died.  It just shows how family stories and memories are not completely reliable, I suppose we change things over time to appear more tragic or more exciting. 

This might be quick ... and some sudden deaths

I'm due at the hospital this afternoon for the most invasive test I've yet experienced - no, I'm not going to tell you what, but it's to check if my Crohn's Disease has reactivated and I've been drinking prep to clear my bowels since 6pm last night so you can make your own conclusions!

So forgive me if I rush off to the smallest room and don't get this finished ...

Last night I started to collate the collection of old newspaper cuttings I'd made over the weekend with my two days worth of subscription to the British Newspaper Archive.  They tend to fall into three separate groups, cuttings related to my family history in Durham, mainly Sunderland, cuttings related to the OH's family history, mainly Barnsley and cuttings related to Nelson Street, Barnsley - because I became really interested in that street and its pubs last week. 

Crossing over the collections are cuttings about deaths - these seem to be reported in old newspapers much more frequently than births and marriages - and of course any death of a gruesome or criminal nature is the very stuff of journalism, today as it was then no doubt.

Here's one, vaguely related to the OH and Nelson Street.

Yorkshire Evening Post 15 May 1893 (from BNA)

Uriah Brettoner lived on Nelson Street in 1851 - he was an iron founder's journeyman then, although at his marriage two years previously he had given his occupation as book keeper, which sounds as if he might have been trying to appear a little more classy than he actually was.  He has three daughters, all of whom lived to marry (I think), but he seems to have been closest to the middle one, Alice, who is the wife of the son-in-law mentioned in the cutting.  Uriah's wife had died quite a few years before and since then he appears in the census living with Alice and George Firth and his grandchildren, including little Uriah George Firth, obviously named for his father and grandfather. 

The Brettoner stone in Barnsley Cemetery

The family who live together are buried together and are commemorated on a lovely big gravestone (yes, I know, but I do get excited when I find a gravestone!) in Barnsley Cemetery.

And what I am sure was a rather more unexpected death is reported in the same paper a few years later:-

Yorkshire Evening Post 25 May 1897 (from BNA)

Arthur Kellet was only 23 years old, his parents John and Ann had 11 children and were unlucky enough to see 3 of them die before them. Of all their losses Arthur's death must have been the most uncommon, the family might have known he was delicate in some way, if his heart disease was long standing, but we do still hear of apparently fit young people being taken in this way.  If his ill health was known about he wasn't letting it stand in the way of him living a normal life, but I do wonder how his sudden collapse affected poor Emily Rowe the bereaved sweetheart.  The other Kellet children who died prematurely were firstly their eldest son George, who died aged about 7 years old in Retford before the family moved to Barnsley and then their fifth son James was killed, aged 14, in tragic, yet not uncommon circumstances in a mining accident.

Barnsley Chronicle 20 May 1882

This cutting is not from the BNA but from the microfilm copies of the Barnsley Chronicle kept in Barnsley Local Studies and Archives (sadly closed until May 2013 currently).  Note the uncertainty of the spelling of Kellet - one t in the first cutting and two in this.  Some members of the same family went on to spell their surname Killet, which causes me many problems when trying to track down all the branches in census returns and birth, marriage and death records. My OH's great, great grandmother was a Kellet, and the aunt of the deceased young men mentioned above.

Finally, before I have to get ready to go to my doom at the Northern General Hospital, here's a story that has nothing to do with my family history, but a lot to do with Barnsley and the history of coal mining and miners.

Northern Echo 30 December 1875 (from 19th C Newspapers) 

John Normansell lived on Nelson Street in the 1860s and 1870s, though I've not found him at home on a census return.  His story as told above in the Northern Echo is a classic tale of getting on in life by your own sheer hard work.  I do wonder what he might have achieved for the miners if he hadn't died so suddenly.  His home at the time of his death is now the headquarters of the National Union of Miners at the bottom of Victoria Road, Barnsley, built in 1874 and listed Grade 2.  Other newspapers of the day report his death as a consequence of contracting either pleurisy and/or brain inflammation after visiting the Swaithe Main colliery and descending the shaft "to ascertain the cause of the explosion", a disaster that occurred on 6th December 1875 killing over 140 miners, men and boys.  

Don't worry, I'll be back with more before you know it!