Social history – Page 3 – A little bit of this ~ A little bit of that

Ordinary women, extraordinary lives

February 12, 2021February 13, 2021 ToniLouisaLeave a comment

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by history but more recently I have become intrigued as to why women’s lives so often seem to go unrecorded, devaluing and silencing their achievements and why it is that as we get older, society so often dismisses us, when in fact there is a lifetime of achievements, experiences and stories to share. On this page, I share some of my favourite stories of ordinary women who led extraordinary lives and whose achievements should never be forgotten.

Hazel Hill

During the 1930’s, Hazel Hill, a 13 year old girl, figured out the precise mathematical calculations to enable improvements to be made to Spitfires, increasing the number of guns to eight from four and helping to win the war. A 30 minute documentary about Hazel can be viewed below.

The Schoolgirl Who Helped to Win a War

Hazel Hill

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis joined the Air Transport Auxiliary after hearing an advertisement for women pilots on BBC radio and was responsible for delivering Spitfires and bombers to the front line.

Mary Ellis: The air pioneer

Mary Ellis

The women of NASA

In the 1940s, a group of female scientists were the human computers behind the biggest advances in aeronautics, breaking down gender and racial barriers at the same time.

Katherine Johnson, whose calculations of at NASA
were critical to the success of the first and subsequent
US crewed spaceflights.

The Mercury 13

On 9 April 1959, NASA announced that seven men, who would become known as the Mercury 7, would go into space. At the same time, thirteen women, enrolled on a privately funded program, successfully underwent the same physiological screening tests. The women never went to space.

From left to right Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Ratley, Myrtle Cagle and Bernice Steadman, seven of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATS) photographed in 1995.

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr was an actress famous for films such as Samson abnd Delilah and White Cargo. She was also an inventor who pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems.

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr

Striking female machinists at the Ford Motor company

On 29 May 1970, two years after going on strike, 187 women working at a factory in East London witnessed their hard work pay off when the Equal Pay Act received royal assent. Coming into force five years later, the Act sought to ‘prevent discrimination, as regards terms and conditions of employment, between men and women’. This meant that it was required for men and women ‘in the same employment to be treated equally, in terms of their pay and conditions of work.

Further information

William Barratt, Barratts Shoes and The Barratt Maternity Home

February 11, 2021March 3, 2021 ToniLouisaLeave a comment

On 16 August 1944 my dad was born at The Barratt Maternity Home in Northampton. World War two was still raging and it would be another eight months until victory was declared in Europe. The photo below is said to have been taken the year dad was born. The title and description read ‘The front of the Barratt Maternity Home in Cheyne Walk, after nurses had covered it in flags. The American Stars and Stripes the most prominent, perhaps due to the number of US fathers who visited after American forces came to town, It was said at the time the American fathers outnumbered the ‘local dads’.

Embed from Getty Images
The Barratt Maternity Home, 1944

The flags may also have been displayed to mark VE day, as described in the newspaper article below.

An article from the Northampton Mercury newspaper
dated 11 May 1945 detailing the display of a large US flag.

The Home was a separate building in the grounds of Northampton General Hospital and was built by William George H Barratt who was born in Northampton in 1877, where he lived throughout his life. The son of a boot sewer, William and his brothers became shoe workers by their early teens and William managed one of Manfield’s shops in London, then his father’s boot shop in Gold Street, which later he bought. By 1902, he and his brother David had a boot shop in the Drapery. Their innovative idea of selling boots via the post (the first in the country) was resented by the manufacturers who cut off supplies of boots and shoes. However, in 1907, the brothers started a new company, W Barratt and Co, Ltd. to make their own shoes, with two of their other brothers, Albert and Richard, as nominal shareholders.

William George H. Barratt
Photo credit: Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust

In 1913 they opened a new factory, the Footshape Boot Works an elaborate looking building with a brick and cream terracotta frontage and a pierced balustrade which reads Footshape Boot Works. The building was designed for the comfort of its workforce, with air conditioning and natural light through roof vents and widows with clear glass. An up to date conveyor reduced lifting and carrying. A canteen served tea free of charge and made hot meals available. Welfare services included a benevolent scheme and contribution free pensions.

They added a chain of retail shops and advertised their wares with the slogan ‘Walk the Barratt way’, which became famous internationally. The first shop opened in London in 1914, and by 1939 there were 150. A chain of retail shops followed and products were advertised with the slogan ‘Walk the Barratt way,’ which became famous internationally. The first shop opened in London in 1914, and by 1939 there were 150.

William Barratt was also active in politics. He and his brothers were fervent socialists. As a young man he was a prominent member of the Social Democratic Federation, one of the forerunners of the Labour party, and he was present at the foundation meeting of Northampton Independent Labour party in 1908. In 1904 he stood twice, unsuccessfully, for the town council. His second attempt came 25 years later in 1929, when he was elected as Labour councillor for Delapre ward.

In 1930 William contested Bethnal Green at the parliamentary election. He was narrowly defeated, but the incoming Labour Minister of Health appointed him to a committee inquiring into the law covering the composition and description of food. In 1935 he became a Northampton magistrate. He was a Director of Franklins Gardens Sports and Pleasure Company, and a Committee member and later President of the Saints Rugby Club.

Sisters and pupil midwives
on the steps of The Barratt Maternity Home, 19 February 1941.
Photo used with permission of Historic England.

William and his wife, Alice, are best remembered however for financing the building of the Barratt Maternity Home with an initial gift of £20,000 in 1934. Alice laid the foundation stone in May 1935, and the Home was opened in July 1936. William explained they had desired to do something in their lifetime, of a lasting character, for the benefit of the town, and that the Home should be as bright and cheerful as possible for the benefit of the patients and staff alike.

A view of the labour ward. with a nurse preparing equipment,
at The Barratt Maternity Home, 19 February 1941.
Photo used with permission of Historic England.

The following year the Barratt’s agreed to fund a gynaecological department, a maternity outpatients department, and an operating theatre. It was hoped that the provision of a maternity home would help to reduce maternal mortality in the town. William was a regular contributor to good causes, including a rest home for the unemployed, and the Mayor’s Fund for the Red Cross. He died in a Northampton nursing home in December 1939.

Pupil midwives with babies on their laps, in the bathroom
at The Barratt Maternity Home, 19 February 1941.
Photo used with permission of Historic England.

The Historic England website records the Home at first provided 34 beds for ante- and post-natal patient, a nursery, and a labour ward. Located on the first floor, the labour ward and was separated from the gynaecology ward by doors which were opened to allow patients to be transferred to the gynaecological theatre for caesarean sections. It consisted of two delivery rooms, a first-stage room, staff changing room, sluice room, and admission room.

Miss C. E. Nelson, Matron to
Northampton General Hospital and The Barratt Maternity Home (1938 – 1954)
Photo credit: Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust

Midwifery training was divided into two parts in 1938, and establishments were approved to provide training in one or both: Part I was primarily theoretical, based in hospitals and was assessed by examinations; Part II was largely practical, and allowed pupils to demonstrate competence and to link theory with practice. The same year, The Barratt Maternity Home was approved as a Midwifery Training School to provide Part I of the training. Miss Eleanor Hague, who had qualified as a midwife in 1933, was appointed by the Central Midwives’ Board as the Approved Teacher; in 1943 she received her Midwife’s Teacher’s Diploma. Later, Miss Hague became Matron of the Barratt Maternity Home and is regarded by some as the ‘Mother of Midwifery’ in Northamptonshire. When my dad was born in 1944 the Matron was Miss C. E.Nelson.

The Barratt Maternity Home as it looked in 2020.

In 2021 it was announced that William would be the recipient of a blue plaque, an initiative of English Heritage, which celebrates the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked.

Sources

Further information

Louis Bowers Abram

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021 ToniLouisaLeave a comment

Louis Bowers Abram was my grandfather on my fathers side of the family.

During the 1930’s Louis passed exams set by the East Midland Educational Union in Motor in Practical Mathematics, Workshop Science and Principles of Engineering and Engineering (Mechanical). He later worked at S and W Motors Limited where he was indentured as an apprentice from May 1931 to May 1933, as a Motor Engineer at York Ward and Rowlatt from May 1933 to May 1934 and at Gilmour and Vale a company that manufactured engineering components.

He was a Corporal in the Royal Air Force and learnt to fly in a Tiger Moth at Sywell but war broke out on the day he was due to take his test, so he never saw active combat. (Louis is stood at the back on the far left),

He also worked at Vauxhall Motors in Luton, retiring in 1970 after 25 years service having established ‘an excellent reputation in respect of loyalty, conscientiousness and timekeeping’.

I remember visiting my grandparents at their homes in Luton and Chester. My grandad grew tomatoes in a greenhouse and to this day, I can’t smell tomatoes without thinking about him.

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Delia Eileen Clarke

January 18, 2021April 1, 2022 ToniLouisaLeave a comment

My grandmother Deilia Eileen Clarke was the daughter of Albert Edward William Clarke, a Northamptonshire Police Sergeant and Louisa Jane Shortland.

Delia (known as Dids), born in 1916, was one of five children, having four sisters – Dorothy, born 1904, Cecily Mary Clarke (known as Molly) born 1914, Kitty (known as Kitten), born 1920 and one brother Edward Alexander (Teddy), who was born in 1906 and died, aged four, in 1910. However my dad believes that Louisa Jane had a number of miscarriages and if these had not occurred, there may have been 11 or 12 children.

My grandmother married Louis Bowers Abram in 1940 and my father Michael was born in 1944. Oldest sister Dorothy married Henry Grey Faber in 1960. Born in 1914, Cecily Mary Clarke, known as Molly, was the second oldest sister. She suffered with epilepsy and did not marry. Kitty Alexandra was born in 1920 and married Reginald William Jeffery, known as Bill. Together they ran a hairdressers shop in Brackley, Northamptonshire.

I remember visiting my grandparents at their homes in Luton and Chester. My nan I remember would wear more than one pair of glasses at a time and also, back when we had paper money, would use the money as writing paper to work out how much she owed someone or who much they owed her. In writing this, I am surprised at how many photos of my nan I have found where she is standing, as I only really ever remember her with mobility issues – firstly using sticks to get around and later being confined to a wheelchair. Nan’s condition went un-diagnosed during her lifetime but today it seems likely that she may have had centronuclear myopathy like dad and I.

Lucy Thompson

January 18, 2021April 8, 2021 ToniLouisaLeave a comment

Lucy Thompson was the first wife of my great grandfather Joseph Charles Abram, a Corporal in the Army Service Corps. Married on 16 April 1906 in Northampton, at the time of her wedding, Lucy was living at 35 Burns Street, Northampton and the witnesses were Lucy’s sister Alice Thompson and Joseph’s brother Frederick George Abram.

Born in Northampton in 1880, Lucy was the daughter of William and Harriett. On the 1881 census, Lucy can be found aged one, living with her parents and sisters Emily, Annie and Alice. Living in the same house is Lucy Munns (described as mother in law).* In 1891, Lucy, aged 11, can again be found living with her parents and sisters at Great Russell Street. Her father William is now recorded as working as a Gentleman’s Gardener. Finally, in 1901, Lucy, aged 21, is no longer at home with her parents but is working as a servant for a widow, Elizabeth Peach, at 25 Margaret Street, Northampton.

Lucy died aged 26, at 4 Ferndale Villas, Holly Road, Aldershot on 12 October in 1907 with the reason for death being instrumental labour and pulmonary embolism. The death was registered by Joseph Charles and Lucy was buried four days later on 16 October 1907 at the Aldershot Military Burial Ground, Hampshire. John Greenfield at the Aldershot Garrison has kindly helped me identify Lucy’s burial place in the cemetery, as plot number 1406, in site M. Sadly there doesn’t appear to be a record of a burial for Joseph and Lucy’s child.

I am interested to learn more about Lucy and her family, as she has been described to me as ‘a dark skinned lady’ and I have discovered that Northamptonshire has a significant black history, with people of Asian, African and Caribbean origin, residing in the county over many centuries.

Further information

* I have located a Lucy Munns on the 1851 and 1861 census returns. She is recorded as having been born in Riseley in Bedfordshire and is married to George Munns. The couple have a daughter called Harriett.

Joseph Charles Abram

January 16, 2021July 10, 2023 ToniLouisaLeave a comment

Joseph Charles Abram was my great grandfather. Married to Millicent May Bowers, the couple had three children – my grandfather Louis Bowers Abram, Betty and Joseph Bowers Abram, their first son, born in Tempe, Pretoria, South Africa, in 1913, where Joseph Charles was stationed on army service. The child lived for two short months – he died of enteritis and heart failure and is buried in South Africa.

Joseph served in the army from January 1901 to March 1922, receiving the 1914 Star, the British War Medal 1914 – 1918 and the Victory Medal 1914 – 1918 as well as being mentioned in Despatches on 30 December 1918.

On discharge, Joseph Charles Abram was involved in a number of projects. He is believed to have run two pubs – the Red Lion in Stambourne, Essex (around 1924 when his daughter Betty May Abram was born) and the Kings Arms in Woodbridge, Suffolk.

He built two houses at Mears Ashby Road in Earls Barton. Choosing to live in one of these, the second property he sold. Newspaper articles from local newspapers in 1939 advertised a semi detached house with six rooms (three being bedrooms), central heating, bath, electricity, gas and main water. The houses still stand today.

He also ran Earls Barton Motors (known locally as Abram’s garage), from which he sold vehicles and ran a bus service in the early 1930’s. operating a small local service with trips to Wellingborough and back at weekends costing four pennies return. During the war the garage was used for repairing aircraft parts for Sywell aerodrome and in March 1943 the garage sustained a broken window when two Air Force Bombers collided and crashed.

Further information about Joseph

Henry Grey Faber

December 27, 2018March 17, 2019 ToniLouisaLeave a comment

Henry Grey Faber was the husband of my great aunt Dorothy (my grandmother’s sister). Dorothy was Henry’s second wife and the couple were married at Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate, York in 1960. Although Henry is not a direct ancestor, I was interested to learn about him, as I have a very clear memory of being told by my great aunt that his family appeared in Burke’s Peerage and I wanted to learn more about this.

My dad tells me Henry was known as Hal and that he worked as a solicitor. I have confirmed this to be correct by looking at census returns and have also found mentions of Henry’s legal career in the Gazette newspaper.

The Gazette

The 1891 census shows a Henry G Faber was born in Durham in 1887, to Thomas Faber, aged 30 (born 1861 in Durham) and Ada Faber aged 29 (born 1862 in Wimbledon, Surrey). A younger brother and sister, Frank S and Ada L are recorded too. Aged 14 in 1901, Henry appears to have been a boarder at a school in Harrogate and in 1911, aged 24, he is recorded as being a solicitor, living again with his parents Thomas and Ada and with more sisters and a brother.

I have also located information about Henry on the 1939 register, working as a solicitor and living with Ellen G Faber and Elizabeth H F Faber. I believe Henry married Ellen Holberton in Totnes, Devon in 1916. Their daughter Elizabeth was born in Knaresborough in 1917 and in 1939 her occupation is shown as VAD, which I have learned stands for Voluntary Aid Detachment, a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire.

It would be another 20 years before Henry would marry Dorothy, who was working as a school teacher at the time, living in the Morrison household at Faceby Manor Faceby, Stokesley R.D., Yorkshire (North Riding), England.

Searching for Henry Grey Faber on the Find My past website, I found details of his service, medals and awards and his first world war record. Ellen it seems also served in the army as a staff nurse.

Henry’s father Thomas, born 1861, can be found on the 1871 census residing at Middleton One Row, Middleton St George, Darlington, Durham, England, with his parents Henry Grey Faber, aged 41 (born 1830 in Durham) and Elizabeth Faber, aged 38 (born 1833 in Durham). Also four brothers and two sisters. The Faber family are all recorded as visitors to Sarah Moore aged 75 and her daughter Mary A Moore aged 37.

I believe that Henry’s grandfather, also called Henry Grey Faber, was the first son of Thomas Henry and Eleanor Faber and that he was baptised on 1 December 1829 in Durham. Henry can be found on the 1841 census, aged 11, at Shincliffe, St Oswald, Durham and Lanchester, Durham, England which appears to be a school. In 1851 aged 21 Henry can be found lodging in the household of George and Hannah Harrision at Church Street, Guisborough, Yorkshire & Yorkshire (North Riding), England and employed as a Solicitor’s Articled Clerk. In 1871 he can be found aged 41 residing with the Moore family as described above.

Origin of the names Faber and Grey

Information about the origin of the Faber and Grey surnames can be found on the Ancestry.co.uk website.

I am interested to learn more about the surnames Faber and Grey, as the name Grey appears to have been used as a middle name by many people with the surname Faber, both male and female, including Henry and Edward, largely in Stockton on Tees. However, I have also found the name connected to Dorset, London, Middlesex and Essex and would very much like to know more about this. See footnote about the family of Hamilton S Faber and in particular his grandparents Thomas Henry Faber and Eleanor Faber (nee Grey).

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Shortland shoemakers

April 1, 2018May 20, 2018 ToniLouisa1 Comment

In papers given to me by my great aunt Dorothy, she noted that John Shortland (the brother of my great great grandfather William Shortland) had started a shoe firm in Irthinglingborough, Northamptonshire, so I set out to investigate.

I had always known that Northamptonshire was famous for making shoes and boots and that it was likely my ancestors had been involved but I never expected to find them involved to the extent I did.

Information about the firm Dorothy referred to was initially located on The Rushden Heritage website which indicated the firm was actually started by John’s father, also called William.

In 1875 the late Mr. William Shortland left his native Harrowden to seek work in the trade at Irthling-borough where he soon established himself and was one of the first to install a sewing and stitching machine. In 1891 he built the Tower factory where he and his sons, John and James, made shoes for the wholesale market. Eventually, John Shortland started business on his own account and in 1899 founded the Express Works, which during the past 59 years have been extended many times. On his death in 1934 the management passed into the hands of his son, Mr. Hugh Shortland. The development of the well-known “Wearra” fitting system, covering slim, medium and broad fittings in men’s, women’s and youths’, started in 1936.

Information about John Shortland Ltd was located on the National Archives website and about information about William and John Shortland on the Grace’s guide website where I discovered a large selection of adverts for William Shortland, John Shortland and Wearra Shoes.

I subsequently contacted the Irthlingborough History Society and Roy York and Philip Watts told me about Wearra shoes and the Express Works factory where the shoes were made.

The Shortland family I was told were ‘very important in the town employing many local people and Hugh Shortland’s name appears on the foundation stone of the local Methodist church. The hall, coincidentally, is where the history society holds it’s meetings. A reproduction of the giant plaque, on the now demolished Express Shoe factory, is being placed on the buildings of the new development being built at the moment on the large site in the centre of the town next to St. Peter’s church.’

The society also kindly sent me the photos that appear below which show William and John, photo three is believed to be James (John’s brother) and Hugh Shortland.

Believed to be an image of James Shortland

They also told me about a book titled ‘Clicking to Closing’ which contains information and memories about the work of my ancestors and it was lovely to read about the contribution they had made to the town and also to read they didn’t just run a successful business but appeared to care about the welfare of their staff too, boasting the axiom ‘The best use you can make of surplus profits is to invest them in the welfare of your employees’. In a strange coincidence, the book was printed and bound in the premises formally occupied by John Shortland Ltd – The Express Works in Church Street.

Sadly, the firm, which had become known as David Scott Shoes and was one of Irthlingborough’s largest employers, closed in 1982 with the loss of 320 jobs and today not one shoe manufacturer remains in Irthlingborough – in October 2002 R Griggs Ltd announced that production of Dr Martens in the town would cease, bringing to end, an industry with which the town had been associated for many hundreds of years. I feel incredibly fortunate however to have discovered such a wealth of information about my ancestors and the work they did and to be have been able to gather it here for my family and others to learn about them too.

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