Worker of the Week is a series of blog posts which highlights the workers at H.M. Factory Gretna that our volunteers researched for The Miracle Workers Project. This project aimed to centralise all of the 30,000 people who worked at the factory during World War One and, although it may be over, our amazing research volunteers are continuing to uncover more stories about H.M. Factory Gretna workers to be added to this database. We are always looking to learn more about H.M. Factory Gretna workers. If you know anything about a H.M. Factory Gretna worker please feel free to get in touch with us by contacting info@devilsporridge.org.uk This week’s Worker of the Week, Egerton Sayer was an engineer, who preformed in The Border Hall in Gretna. A massive thank you to our research volunteers for making this possible.
Early Life
Egerton Sayer was born in 1864 at Clifton in Bristol with his baptism taking place on 20th October of that same year. His parents were John Saunders and Alice Emma Sayer. John worked as a Scientific Lecturer.
By the 1871 census, the family moved to St Pancras, London. Egerton appears to have spent most of his childhood in London.
Egerton was still in London in the 1881 census, but he had now moved to Kensington.
Married Life
In 1891, Egerton Sayer married Marion Bates. They both lived in together London first at Battersea, then Willesden and later in Hampstead. Egerton worked as an Assistant Chief Electrical Engineer for the Hampstead Electric Lighting committee.
Marion and Egerton had three children. According to the 1911 census of these became a pianist, while another became a wireless telegrapher.
Later, the youngest child Daphne went to work at the same place as her father. Where was this? Well, it was at H.M. Factory Gretna! Egerton worked as a electrical engineer at Mossband.
Egerton Sayer can be seen in this photo of the Engineering Staff from the Mossband Farwell Magazine. He is second from the right on the front row.
H.M. Factory Gretna
Egerton appears in the the Mossband Farewell Magazine with his address being listed as “Stormont Cottage, Gretna.” [1] Perhaps this was were the family were living while Egerton and Daphne were working at H.M. Factory Gretna.
Two of Egerton’s colleagues at the factory would have been W G Emmett and G Bately Godwin. [2] W G Emmet’s relatives, even kindly shared the photo below of Egerton in his workplace.
However, this is not the only record of Egerton at the factory. We think that he could have been a member of The Gretna Choral and Operatic Society! [3] This was one of the many recreational activities H.M. Factory Gretna workers could be involved in. They preformed at least four different performances at The Border Hall in Gretna.
The societies last performance was The Gondoliers! We know Egerton appeared in this production as “Mr E. Sayer” appears in the cast list as “Don Albambra del Bolero (the Grand Inquisitor).” Unfortunately, we do not know if he appeared at any other performances put on by The Gretna Choral and Operatic Society, but we would like to think so!
The front of The Gondoliers programme.
Later
On 11th April 1927, Egerton died in Finchley in London.
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[1] “The Mossband Farewell Magazine” from The Devil’s Porridge Museum’s archive.
[3] Gretna Choral and Operatic Society, The Gondoliers programme, December 1918 from The Devil’s Porridge Museum’s archive.
Find Egerton Sayer’s online database entry here>
Do you have a relative who worked at H.M. Factory Gretna? We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us by emailing info@devilsporridge.org.uk. You never know maybe your relative feature in a future Worker of the Week blog post! You can also have a look at some more H.M. Factory Gretna workers on our online database here>
