‘For the spirit of adventure to keep alive the soul of man’

Today marks the birthday of George Leigh Mallory, a talented mountaineer who became a national hero, and whose fate on the Northeast Ridge of Everest in 1924 is debated passionately to this day.

Mallory was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, on 18 June 1886. His father, Herbert Leigh Mallory, was rector of St Wilfrid’s church, a position first held by a Mallory (Thomas, son of Sir William Mallory of Studley) as far back as 1619. 

George didn’t follow his father into the church, however. At 13 he won a mathematics scholarship to Winchester College, where he became interested in rock climbing and mountaineering. (Although it is said he scaled the tower at St Wilfrid’s aged seven, so perhaps it was always part of his make-up!)  After getting a degree at Cambridge, he became a teacher at Charterhouse, marrying Ruth Turner just six days before the start of the First World War. George served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the war, and then returned to Cambridge. In 1921 (now with three children) he resigned his post to join the first British Mount Everest Expedition.

By this time Mallory’s reputation as an exceptional mountaineer was uncontested; many considered him the best climber in the world. ‘His movement in climbing was entirely his own’, said Geoffrey Winthrop Young. ‘It contradicted all theory. He would set his foot high against any angle of smooth surface, fold his shoulder to his knee, and flow upward and upright again on an impetuous curve."  Fellow climber Harry Tyndale agreed: ‘In watching George at work one was conscious not so much of physical strength as of suppleness and balance; so rhythmical and harmonious was his progress in any steep place ... that his movements appeared almost serpentine in their smoothness.’

The attempt on Everest was unsuccessful, however, as was the Second Expedition, which was further marred by the deaths of seven porters in an avalanche, for which Mallory felt partly responsible and for which he was harshly criticised. Following the disaster he travelled to the US to lecture on his experiences, and in New York was asked why he wanted to climb Everest: ‘Because it’s there’, he famously replied.

And then came the Third Expedition. By now George was 37 and he knew it would probably be his last chance to become the first person to climb Everest. On 8 June 1924 Mallory and Birkenhead-born Andrew Irvine, who was 22, left their camp at 26,700 feet to make a summit attempt. They were sighted briefly by support climber Noel Odell at 12.50 pm, when he saw them scaling what he believed to be the Second Step on the Northeast Ridge (he later decided it was actually the First Step; some have since suggested it was the even higher, then unknown, Third Step), about 800 feet from the summit.

This was the last time they were ever seen alive – Mallory and Irvine never returned. Whether they reached the summit before they died has been a matter of contention ever since.

News of the loss of Mallory and Irvine was greeted with shock in Britain. A memorial service at St Paul’s cathedral on 17 October was attended by King George V and other members of the royal family, as well as Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald and the entire Cabinet.

Memorials were erected around the country. They include stained glass windows in the South Cloister at Chester cathedral and at Winchester College. Unsurprisingly, there is also a window dedicated to him at St Wilfrid’s. Mallory Court at Magdalene College, Cambridge is named after him, and in 1925 US climber Norman Clyde named Mount Mallory  and Mount Irvine in California in the men’s honour.

As has been well documented, Mallory’s body was discovered on the North Face of Everest in May 1999. Two pieces of circumstantial evidence – the fact that he no longer had the photograph of his wife that he had planned to leave on the summit; and that he was carrying his snow goggles, implying the men were descending after sunset – have led some to believe that they did reach the summit. Others believe the Second Step was just too difficult to climb at that time.

After an Anglican service, Mallory’s body was covered by a cairn of stones and left on the mountain.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

George Leigh Mallory; Mallory memorial window; detail of window; St Wilfrid's, Mobberley

A terrible death

Genealogists often find themselves wandering around graveyards (usually, it seems, in the rain!), checking names and dates on the stones. Many graves give us additional information, like the leaf designs on medieval graves that tell us the occupant was a forester. Unusual inscriptions are worth researching, and sometimes reveal macabre tales.

One such grave is that of Thomas Meaykin, at the church of St Lawrence the Martyr ­(also known as ‘the chapel in the wilderness’) in Rushton Spencer, Staffordshire. The inscription, on a weathered stone beneath a yew tree, reads:  

Momento Mori [Be mindful of death]

Thomas, son of Thomas and Mary Meaykin

Interred  July 16th 1781

Aged 21 years.

As a man falleth before

wicked men: so fell I.

Bia Thanates [death by violence]. 

Thomas left the tiny village of Rushton and went south, ending up in the comparatively large and prosperous town of Stone. There he found work as an odd-job boy for the local apothecary, a post which included taking care of the horses. The tale goes that the apothecary’s daughter developed a crush on Thomas and, after putting up a weak resistance, knowing his notoriously ill-tempered boss would not approve, Thomas succumbed. The affair was the talk of the town, and local gossip went into overdrive when Thomas unexpectedly died following a very brief illness. He was buried, many thought with an unbecoming speed, at St Michael’s church on 6 July 1781.

Rumours abounded about Thomas’s death, with people pointing out the apothecary’s knowledge of, and access to, poisons, and how he might quite like Thomas out of the way.  When, some time later, Thomas’s favourite horse was found at his grave, scraping at the ground, it was taken by many as a sign. The rumours gathered steam, and a year after Thomas’s death an exhumation was ordered to settle the affair.

When the coffin was opened Thomas Meaykin – who had been buried on his back – was lying face down.

The theory at the time was that he had been drugged so deeply that he appeared dead, and that he had then re-awakened in the ground – a fate which doesn’t bear thinking about. No one was ever brought to trial for his murder, however, presumably because there was no actual evidence.



Parish records show that Thomas’s remains were taken to St Lawrence’s, where they were reburied on 17 July 1782. In what today might seem a further indignity but which was believed at the time to bring him eternal rest, his body was buried the wrong way round, with his feet to the west rather than the east, so preventing his spirit from walking. 

 

 St Lawrence's, Rushton

 

A streetcar named …

HS2 might be hitting the news at the moment, but Three Shires has been looking into the arrival of Britain’s first street railway (basically a tram pulled by horses), which was making waves in 1860. Patented by an American – one Mr George Francis Train (really, we’re not making this up) – and installed at his own expense, the new railway stretched for 1.5 miles between Woodside Ferry and Birkenhead Park.

Each carriage could carry 20–30 people inside, with the same number on the open top deck. Two horses pulled each car, and they were said to keep up a steady 7–8 miles an hour with no ill effects. Each pair of wheels had its own broom which swept stones and other debris out of the way.

The street railway was said to be far more comfortable and reliable than the old-style trams, and the line was so successful that it was soon extended. Three similar routes were opened in London, but these met with strong local opposition and did not last long.

Francis Train sold the Birkenhead Street Railway Company in 1876, when it became the Birkenhead Tramways Company. The tramline lasted until 1937, when the petrol motor-bus became the new state of the art.

The picture shows the street railway at its opening on 30 August 1860. Mr Train is standing top left, with his arm outstretched, and, no doubt, his fingers crossed!
 

What Kate did next

After returning from Alexandria some time in 1898 Kate left the Peel family. Perhaps she couldn’t stand the thought of all that sailing to Egypt and back! She then worked for other moneyed families around Cheshire, including the Swetenhams of Somerford Booths near Congleton. She married Fred Price in 1906 at the Baptist Chapel in Union Street, Crewe. Fred’s job on the railway took them to Tranmere, Wirral, where they set up home and had four girls ­– Winifred, May (sound familiar?!), Violet and Hilda. Here she is in Tranmere with Fred and their daughters:

 

Kate died in March 1928, aged 51.

The Peels

‘Master’ – William Felton Peel  – was born at Tamworth, Staffordshire in 1839. The son of Edmund Peel, a Commander in the Royal Navy, William became a successful cotton merchant, dealing mostly in India and then Egypt. He married ‘Mistress’ – Sarah Edith Willoughby – in Poona, India in 1866. Sarah was the daughter of Michael Francklin Willoughby –  a Major General in the British Army who was Canadian by birth. The Peels’ first five children (they eventually had 13) – Emilie Constance, Edith, Lucy, Willoughby Seymour and Jonathan – were born in India.

Winifred, May and Grace Peel, the ‘young ladies’ that were in Alexandria with Kate at the time she wrote her diary, were born in Salford, near Manchester, where the family moved because of Mr Peel’s business interests. In the 1881 census they are living at Shenstone House, Broughton with a large household, including a governess and nurse maids. Mr Peel is described as a merchant in cotton and foreign produce. Business was obviously booming because by 1891 they are living at Saltersford House, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, with an even bigger household, including a page. In 1893, when Lucy married Ernest Charles Hogg (Lt RN) at St Mary’s Church, Wistaston, the family were living at nearby Wistaston Hall.

After Alexandria, Winifred married Reginald Norton Knatchbull,  who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Leicestershire Regiment, in 1906. According to the army death indices, she died in Poona, India in 1910, aged just 33.

May married George Frederick Godfrey Purvis (Lt RN), mentioned in Kate’s diary, in Tamworth in 1900. George was 40 when they married and May was 22 years old. The couple lived in Berkshire, where George died in 1936 and May in 1964, at the age of 84.

Grace married Richard Griffith Bassett Jeffreys,  a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, in 1909 in London. The couple were killed in a plane crash while holidaying in Ajaccio, Corsica on 10 January 1923. Grace was 43 years old.

‘Master’ died in Blackwater, Hampshire, in 1907 aged 68 – although there is also a report that he died playing polo in Alexandria; certainly, he lies buried in Hawley Church, near Blackwater. In the spring of 1908, Sarah extended and refurbished an apse at the east end of the church in memory of her husband. 

After William’s death Sarah went to live with Lucy, also now a widow, as Ernest Hogg had died in Egypt earlier that year. Sarah outlived yet another of her children: Lucy died in 1924 in Hartfield, Sussex and Sarah in 1932 in Wargrave, Berkshire.

 

William Felton Peel

 

 

Grace Peel

Crewe Alexandr(i)a 2

A week or so after arriving in Egypt Kate had found her feet:

 Friday 29^th October 1897
Mistress & Mrs Hogg [the Peels’ married daughter, also living in Alexandria] drove to town & Miss Grace went out for a ride & Miss Winifred went on her bicycle. Polly & I were left in by ourselves... We got our teas while they were out & now have just had our supper. … Just fancy, a week today we landed here. I felt awfully strange but I am better used to it & know my way about now all over the house & all round. We have two very nice ponies & the young ladies ride them in turns …

 The following Sunday marked the first time they went to church – always a big occasion for Kate:

 
Sunday 31^st October 1897

 It has been a very wet morning … but it has cleared up now & is fine again. I hope it keeps fine for [Mistress] has promised to let us go to church this evening. They are all gone this morning & we have just done the clothes ready for the wash & we have builders & joiners & all sorts of men here working today. It does seem so funny. I don’t know how they expect to prosper I am sure with such carryings on. She never seems to think it is Sunday, it is all the same with her so as the work is done. We have got the roof off the drawing room. You never saw such a place as we have got, to be sure it is awful. The men are busy doing the roofing & building two or three more rooms on to the house to make it larger. I don’t know whenever we shall be straight I am sure. …  We have just had our dinner & now we are trying to write a bit before tea, for it is nearly tea time now. Polly is busy getting it ready & there is a lot of gentlemen here to tea that have called to see our people & welcome them back here to their home here. They are having tea in the hall. After our tea we got ready for church & went about half past 5 oclock. From here to Ramleh church it is about ¾ of an hour’s walk. We went down the railway line & came back part [that] way . Got back here about half past 8 oclock & then had our supper & to bed about 10 oclock pm. I did so enjoy my walk & it was a lovely little church & such a nice minister. It was quite a treat to be able to go to some place of worship or other so goodnight & sweet repose.

 

Throughout the diary Kate is appalled by her employers’ willingness to work on a Sunday:

 Sunday 7^th November 1897 
It is a beautiful day. I hope it will keep fine for we want to go to church tonight again … Two of the young ladies are gone to church. Master & Mistress & Miss Winnie are at home, all on business matters with the men. They are working here today, putting drawing rooms with doors in and knocking the tower down off the top of the house. You have no idea what it is like & now Mistress is gone to enamel the seat of the WC, on Sunday mind you, & we two have just done the clothes. Now I must dress for lunch, there is several gentlemen here to tea. We went to church again & got back here by 8-20 pm so we were not out late.

 

Sunday Nov 14^th 1897
It is a splendid day today, such a change again. The men are here working today just the same as usual. After dinner Polly was messing about; she can’t rest without she is on with something or other all the time & I don’t believe in it. I shan’t forget these Sundays, never to my dying day shall I forget them. It is tea time now well we went to church and were back here by 9 x 30 pm. The minister was a splendid little man. I did so enjoy it for he spoke so plain & nice it was rather dark coming home

 They couldn’t always make it to the church though:

 Sunday Dec 12th 97 

It is a cold rough morning … Miss May & Miss Grace & master are gone to church & mistress & Miss Winnifred are at home. Polly is quite busy as she has to help to lay the table, we are having 3 more to lunch today. It is raining & pouring again, now we can’t see the sea for the rain is so dreadful & so sudden. … It has been too rough for us to go to church tonight so we have sat down for an hour & read, Polly her bible & me Ben Hur for a while & then I read several chapters in my bible.

 

Amid all the upheaval of the alterations to the house, Kate had to carry on with her usual routine, which was pretty arduous. As sewing maid, she was responsible for making and mending day clothes along with evening dresses for the many balls and parties the family attended. As well as this, she had to clean the house, serve at the table and be on call for endless fetching and carrying for the family. Mrs Peel had an ‘at home’ every week, with guests enjoying tea and a musical evening, and dinner parties for 50 people were not unusual.

 Monday 1^st November 1897 
I was up by 6-40 am & had breakfast by ¼ past 7 oclock. I went down to Mrs Hoggs at 8-30 am to put the sewing machine in working order so as she could use it & came back about 9-30 am. [I] did my rooms after & then sewing a bit & cleaning a bit & polishing furniture. I have to be jack of all trades. …. Mrs Hogg has been down to lunch & we have just had our dinner & I am darning now for dear life…

 Tuesday 2^nd November 1897 
I was up 6-45 am & breakfast by 7-15 am & now am nearly ready for my dinner. Miss Grace is in bed ill all day long, it is so tiresome, there is enough running about without them stopping in bed now to make more work. Mr Pervice, an English gentleman … has arrived here this morning & is staying with us for lunch [Mr Purvis later married May]. …  Polly & I went … to the station to post a letter for Mistress. We have just had our supper & I am trying to write a bit before bed. It is 9 o clock now, I don’t know how long they will leave me alone I am sure.

 Thursday Jan 27th 1898 
I was up by 6 x 50 am and have been busy sewing till lunch time. After lunch I straightened the work room up …  the young ladies and midshipmen are having tea there today because the dining room table is laid ready for dinner tonight because we have a dinner party on. … We had 4 gentlemen & our young ladies in the workroom for the tea & two gentlemen & a lady with mistress for tea in the drawing room, & we have had 2 sailors & 2 soldiers & Mrs Hogg for dinner tonight. Now they are all in the drawing room, playing & singing… We have just had our supper … & we must get to bed as soon as possible for we are both tired  … I am retiring to rest now at 11-10 pm.

 And even if she was ill, Kate didn’t seem able to take time off:

 Tuesday Nov. 30th 1897
It has been a very dull cold day. I fell upstairs this morning & hurt my leg rather bad. I was up by 7 oclock & have been busy covering chairs to day & beeswaxing the young ladies room. ..

 
Friday Dec. 17th 1897

I was up by 7 o clock & was very busy sewing all day long, making & retrimming Miss Winifred’s black velvet bodice. I was very sick & vomiting all day, quite out of sorts somehow. I did feel ill & bad but you have to keep on with your work all the same & say nothing. 

 
She was soon back on her feet, though, and getting excited about Christmas:

 
Dec. 22nd 1897

It has been a lovely day. … I have been very busy sewing as usual. Mistress has had several Xmas presents all ready. She has had two Hams & a live turkey & Plum pudding & a Bale of apples. 

 

Friday Dec. 24th 1897 

It has been a lovely fine day & we have all been busy preparing for Xmas day. Just fancy, it is so near I can’t believe it. We have had two more live turkeys sent as presents to day & mistress bought one & a cheese sent as well for a xmas box. We have just given over work,  it is xmas eve & I am not going to do any more that ever I can help to night. It is 7 oclock now. I wish I could have a look at you. I know you are fine & busy to night. I gave Miss Winifred a bath after our supper & then I got to bed about 9 x 45. Feel tired but a little better today, so now must get to sleep. Goodnight & god bless you all, & keep you together to spend Xmas day together. I am thinking about you & the bands playing in Crewe now…

 

Saturday Dec 25th 1897 

Xmas morning. I was up by 7 x 30 am & we were very busy first thing to get done. We went to the garrison church service, commenced at 10 x 45 & it was so nice there. The soldiers were all there & the band played beautiful. All our people went & us two as well. I had the thimble out of the plum pudding & Polly the ring & Eliza a silver coin. I left the ring on a plate & carried it out to the kitchen & it was thrown down the slopstone in the water. I am as vexed as can be for Polly did so prize that, it was a keep sake of hers & there it is lost. After that we went down to the beach for an hour & when we came back I got a cup of tea but we were all too upset to eat ... I have had a present from mistress & one from Mrs Hogg & a box of chocolate between Mary & I from M. & G. Peel & a card from W. Peel. Now it is nearly dinner time. We have had Mrs Hogg’s waiter here helping to wait so as Polly & us could be by ourselves. I had a card from Polly as well. They are busy in the dining room now. They have taken the plum pudding in, the room all ablaze, it looked grand. It has been blazing hot today, just like summer in England & now we must have our supper for it is getting late. We got to bed about 11 x 30 & were both fairly tired out, so that ended xmas day.

 

The next big event, of course, was New Year’s Eve:

 Friday Dec 31st 1897

It is bitter cold again today but the sun is shining now. I fairly tremble with cold so you can guess what it is like. Just fancy, the last of the old year today and now commences a new year. Last night I had a mince pie, the first one this year! … I have been busy cutting out a new evening dress for Miss Winifred so I am quite busy. The soldiers have all been past here this morning for the sham fighting again & the band played beautiful as they were passing here. I heard them shooting but could not see them with me being in the workroom. … It is 2 x 30 pm now, there is 5 gentlemen dining here tonight, so of course it has been very busy to night. Miss Winifred is going out to a dance.

After dinner: well just fancy last of the old year to night, if we live to see morning it will be in another year. How the time does go to be sure. I must give over now for I want my supper & then to bed. So goodnight & sweet repose & think if me so far away in a foreign land on the eve of the old year & the new year coming in. It is 11 x 30 o clock & to sleep & rest I hope. Our young ladies & two of the gentlemen have gone to a dance at Mrs Wilson’s after dinner tonight. The carriage is waiting now to take them so ta ta. Polly is having a donkey ride outside, at this time of night! I got to bed, I was tired but she stayed up & let the new year in. They came back from the dance at 2 o clock next morning.

 Saturday January 1st 1898 

It has been cold again today but the sun was shining this morning. I was up by 7 x 45 am & have been busy sewing all day long. They all went out this afternoon … so we had tea out on the sea veranda. The sun was shining & after supper we got to bed about 10 o clock. We were both tired & sleepy - that is the commencement of the new year. So goodnight & god bless you all in England, & think of me so far away.

 

So begins a new year for Kate. The diary ends shortly after this, but because the last part of the notebook is missing we’re not sure exactly when Kate returned home.

Next time, though, we’ll see what happened to her after she did, as well as finding out about the sad ends met by some of the Peel family.

 

 

 

Crewe Alexandr(i)a: Part 1

Kate Jones was a 22-year-old sewing maid from Crewe who had worked for several families in Cheshire before joining the wealthy  Peel family in 1896. Mr Peel was in the cotton trade and spent several months of the year in Alexandria. The family had a large house there, and Kate made the journey with Mrs Peel and the three eldest girls – Winifred, May and Grace – in October 1897, the first time she had ever left England. Every day, she wrote a diary in the form of a letter to her sweetheart, Frederick Price, whom she later married.  As you can imagine, the diary makes fascinating reading – although keen on a laugh, Kate was a deeply religious girl (a member of the Crewe Baptist Church), who was often shocked at the antics of the rich family for whom she worked, as well as her fellow maids, Jane and the irrepressible Polly. Her days seems to have been long and very hard work; and she does much more than just sew.

The diary starts on board S.S. Laconia on the journey out to Egypt, as Kate discovers she is not a good sailor:

 

Oct. 5th 1897

At last I am able to put pencil to paper to tell you how we are going on. Well, I wish we were either landed at Egypt or else back in England again. We sailed out on Tuesday evening  with the 6 o clock tide. … I went up on deck till supper time & then we came down to the saloon for supper.  I did not want much supper for I felt too bad to eat. I went to bed at 8 oclock. Polly came shortly after.  I was not sick that night nor next day for we both stayed in bed all day Wednesday & Polly got up first on Thursday. The greatest effort is dressing for it rocks you about so while you are dressing. I went up on deck after I dressed but I did not stay long for it was so cold & it made me feel so ill I came down to my cabin & had a lay down. …  I went on deck again but I could not stand it, it was too much for me, I did not go out of my cabin again that day.  … It is my first voyage & my last if god spares me to see England again & my friends & you dear, I will never venture a sea voyage again. 

 

 

At this point they are still in the Bay of Biscay!  And things do not improve:

 The stewardess brought my breakfast to me in bed & I had only just started of it when the ship began rolling something too dreadful. It sent my tin box down bang on the floor just like a ball of worsted going down & then the breakfast things in the saloon are all gone smash …  so of course I did not want my breakfast after that lot. …

We had not been in bed long [that night] when the ship came to a sudden standstill & we wondered whatever was the matter. Some of the pipes in the engine house had broke so they had to set to work to mend them at once. You should have heard our people shouting stewardess to know what had happened.  Polly nor I had very little sleep last night for when she started again she rolled about so that she nearly threw us out of our own beds several times.

It is Saturday morning and Polly is out on deck & stewardess has just been for my breakfast things. She says Polly has had a wave dashed right over her & wet her finely what she was not expecting. I suppose she has been too near the side of the ship. Well dear, I sometimes wish you were here but let me tell you the truth I don’t envy anyone on board ship for it is an awful life to live. I only wish we were near landing, instead of that we have about 10 more days yet on sea before we land. I shall be so glad for I feel so ill I cant do anything & when I get out on deck I am as weak as a child. I cant walk along deck myself without Polly has hold of my arm & then I can go pretty well.

 

The ship finally gets into the Atlantic, where things improve a little:

 

I am beginning to write again …  it is Tuesday morning Oct 12^th ’97 & we arrived in Tangiers at 2 oclock this morning. It is so nice to be quiet & still. Polly & I got out of bed at 4-30am & looked through our port holes  - it was so nice to see land. … We both got up about 7 oclock & went on deck till the breakfast bell rang & then we went down to the saloon to breakfast. While we were down our people went out in a small boat across to land to see Tangiers.  …. We started out again at 4 oclock this afternoon, & now we have passed the north coast of Africa & are on our way for Algiers. We have a fine set of people with us now, Maltese & Pilgrims both men & women …  the ship has gone very nice since she started again. We passed Gibraltar at 6-30pm tonight just before we went to dinner & then we came on deck again after dinner & our young ladies were playing their banjos & mandolines & singing on deck. …  We have had man o war ships & Spanish ships & French ships & sailing boats & all sorts today, could see the donkeys on shore quite plain through the glasses & the New York Hotel at Tangiers as well. The view was really beautiful through the glasses.

 

They arrive in Algiers, but one passenger nearly doesn’t make it back on board…

 

Thursday October 14^th 1897 

 

Thursday morning.  I am just waiting for the breakfast bell to ring. It is a splendid morning, the sun is shining brightly & it is enough to roast you in these cabins. I shant be long before I am out on deck. I have got the Port Hole open while I am dressing & I can see land for miles round. We arrived in Algiers this afternoon at 4-30pm as near as I can say & the scenery is really magnificent . We are as near shore as our ship can go & you have to take a small boat to take you on shore. Our people went on shore about 5 oclock & came back at about 6-30pm. A gentleman passenger & two ladies went in another boat to shore & when they came back the man on the boat would not let the gentleman come on the ship. He took him out farther to sea because he wanted him to pay more money. He paid him the proper fare but he would not let him off because he wanted more & he had to pay more. They kept him out about a couple of hours & our captain had gone ashore so they knew what they were doing -  our men daren’t get a boat out without the captains orders & he was afraid to bring him back; in the finish he made another man bring him. The young gentleman was quite hysterical when he got on the ship. He upset us all. None of us wanted any dinner untill we knew he was safe back with us & then he went to bed as soon as he could controll himself a little & then we had our dinner. Our people went to bed about 9 oclock & we went down to the further end of the deck listening to the mess-room boy playing & singing on his banjo - while the cat’s away the mice will play. We got to bed about 1 oclock & were tired too so good night for present.

 

 and a few days later the end is in sight:

 

Friday October 22^nd 1897 

It is a beautiful day & we are in sight of Alexandria. We landed there about 11 oclock as near as I can say & oh the noise & fuss of people there, you could not hear your own ears. Master met us at the docks & then we drove in two open conveyances to here [the Peels’ house]. It  is over an hours ride to here from the dock & we brought some of the small luggage with us & the other followed after. The house here is splendidly situated … we can see the harbour one side & the station & trains passing by, so it does not make it feel so lonely, it makes me think of those that are on the railway [Fred Price was a railway worker in Crewe]. It was a splendid ride here only so hot & the scenery was really delightful as we came along. It looks such a queer country, there is nowhere green like in England, it is just like as if the sun has withered the grass all up.  … I have just finished unpacking & are very glad for I do feel so tired. I hope I shall sleep well tonight for I have not slept on board ship very much all the time we were on it. I was very glad to get off & to feel my feet on dry land again.

 

It was straight to work the next day though:

 

Saturday October 23^rd 1897 

It is a nice morning. I was up just after 7 oclock. Master had his breakfast at ¼ to eight oclock & we had ours as soon as he was gone to his office … the rest had theirs at 9 oclock am. Jane came down about 10 oclock & then we all sat down & started making curtains, some stitching rings on, others turning hems on theirs & me machining for them. Then we were busy at something or other all day long. [I] retired to rest about 10-30pm & was glad to get there for I ached so with running about.

  

Next time, we’ll see what Kate gets up to in Alexandria.

The death of James Walmsley, 1839

James Walmsley, 68, died a few days after being involved in a fight between workmates at a pub in Leekfrith, part of an all-day binge following a walk-out from the dyehouse where they worked. Local man George Allen was found guilty of his manslaughter at the subsequent inquest and was committed for trial at the Staffordshire Summer Assizes. The Prosecution Brief and police witness statements are part of our collection documenting nineteenth-century crimes in the Three Shires.

Here’s the start of the Prosecution Brief. (We’ve kept the original spellings and (lack of) punctuation – note how the spelling of ‘Walmsley’ varies, as it does through the whole document – just to make things more difficult for the weary genealogist!)  

 

The Queen on the prosecution of William Alcock Constable of Leek

ag!

George Allen

For manslaughter

 Brief for the prosecution

Case

The prisoner a youth about 17 years of age is the son of John Allen a labourer residing in the Town of Leek, he stands charged with killing and slaying one James Wamsley at the parish of Cheddleton in this county on Wednesday the 20^th of March last.

The prisoner and deceased (who was an old man about 68 years of age) were both employed at the Silk Dye Houses of Messer^s Wardle & Milner of Leek Brook situate about 1/2 mile from the Town Leek but in the parish of Cheddleton.

The prisoner lodged with his parents in the Town of Leek

The deceased who was a widower resided with 2 of his Daughters in a small dwellinghouse near to the Dyehouses.

On the day in question all the work people of Messer^s Wardle & Milner about 30 in number refused to work or as it is technically termed “turned out” in consequence of Messer^s Wardle & Milner having discharged a Bookkeeper named Tomkinson!!

The men turned out about 1/2 past 8 o’clock in the morning and went in procession to Cheddleton, Basford Bridge and other places  & in the afternoon returned to a Beer House near the Dyehouses [run ] by one Joseph Moss.

They were drinking all day and in the Evening were all Drunk.

The prisoner joined one of the Party in the procession to Cheddleton but the deceased went in a contrary direction to Leek and there got much in liquor and returned to the other men at Moss’ Beer House in the Evening

There are two rooms in the Beer House on the ground floor one called the House place, the other the Parlour, outside doors open into each of those rooms.

Between 7 & 8 o’clock that night the prisoner, William Olarenshaw, Ann Smith, John Langan, Joseph Wardle & several other persons were in the parlour of the beerhouse, it appears that the prisoner who was then drunk got up & began to push & jostle against two other persons in the room first against one & then against the other, in consequence thereof the prisoner & Olarenshaw had words & began to fight, about this time the deceased came into the Parlour at the outer door, some of the witnesses say he was sitting in the room near the door when the fighting began others say he came into the House just  at the time they were fighting at all events he interfered between the parties and got killed in the affray. Ann Smith says that the moment Wamlsley entered the Room he said that neither Olarenshaw or his mistress (meaning Ann Smith) should be put upon he would take their part, and immediately squared right off at the prisoner, she says she saw them both down together that when deceased was down he sighed & groaned and that when he got up he put his hands one upon another  and then pat them against his left side just upon the hip and said “I am killed”. Turner another witness says he saw the prisoner strike the deceased. The deceased after he was hurt left the Beer House & went towards his own House which is not 100 yards distant and was met on the way by his Daughter H. Maydew he said to her “they have killed me” she asked who had done it and he said that George Allen had struck him and threatened to pay him “for old and new and all ” together.

The deceased was very ill after the occurrence Mr Walters a surgeon was called in between 8 and 9 o’clock on Thursday night he found the deceased sitting in Bed with great difficulty in breathing he complained of being hurt in the left side he would not allow Mr Walters to examine it minutely as it was so painful, the deceased had a plaster on it, Mr Walters immediately bled deceased and treated him for a violent inflammation in the lungs and sent him such medicine as he thought proper for the case. Mr Walters saw him every day afterwards until he died, deceased never would allow anyone to examine the injured part it was so painful and sore, the deceased died on the 26^th of March. Mr Walters made a post mortem examination of deceaseds Body and observed a slight discolouration in the chest on the left side externally, on the side of the Ribs. On opening the Chest he discovered 5 ribs to be broken the fracture was a recent one, one of the Ribs had entered the Lungs the effect was great imflamation of the Lungs and adhesion of them to the side of the Chest, there was effusion of water about 16^oz in the cavity of the chest a mixture of water and lymph, the injuries were quite sufficient to cause death, in Mr Walter’s opinion the injury must have been done either by a blow or a fall and not by falling against the floor, it must have been either a blow or by a fall against a chair or some protruding substance and not on a flat or even surface.

An Inquest was held touching the death of the deceased at the House of Mr Wardle at Leek Brook on the 29 March when the Jury unanimously returned a verdict of Manslaughter against the Prisoner

The Prisoner has employed an Attorney and will no doubt bring the Beerhouse Keeper his wife and other witnesses to give evidence on his behalf, the Beerhouse Keeper and his wife were however examined on the Inquest but the Jury were of opinion such evidence was false, no doubt the Evidence on the Trial will be conflicting but there appears little doubt the prisoner struck the deceased and perhaps kicked him when down or that the deceased fell against a Chair so as to cause the Fracture of his Ribs

 

There then follows witness statements, with telling handwritten notes made by the prosecution lawyer in the margin. Joseph Moss, he writes, will ‘give his Evidence as favourably as possible for the prisoner he being the son of his landlord’.  Arthur Turner is described as ‘a very Stupid Boy and will probably give his evidence in a very unsatisfactory manner’; Ann Smith was ‘formerly a Common prostitute but is now kept by Olarenshaw’; and George Dale is ‘a Boy of good Character and will most likely prove the Conversation with prisoner very satisfactorily’. That conversation was when George told Dale he had given ‘the old Bugger a good punch under the Short Ribs’.  This would seem pretty conclusive, and, despite the favourable slant on George’s involvement given by Joseph and Ellen Moss and his other workmates – as predicted in the Brief – the Assizes jury found George guilty. He seems not to have spent time in prison, though (his sentence was ‘imprisonment until the rising of the court’), having been in Stafford jail waiting for his trial.

The name ‘George Allen’, referring to a man of the same age as our George, also from Leek, crops up in the Assizes records on six later occasions, for offences including larceny, house-breaking and malicious wounding. So it seems he may not have changed his ways after the sad events of March 1839.