Skip to main content
Category

News

Calum in his museum uniform

A Day in the Life of a SVQ Student at The Devil’s Porridge Museum

By News

by Calum Boyde, SVQ Student at The Devil’s Porridge Museum.

Calum in his museum uniform

I came to volunteer at the museum due to a work placement at Annan Academy in 2019. I got offered a chance at doing an SVQ by Judith (the former museum manager). I want to work in the museums because ever since I watched Horrible Histories, I have been interested in History.  My favourite time period is the Ancient Egyptians, Roman and Greek, The Golden Age of Piracy and The Age of Revolution and all the way up to the end of the Cold War. Some of my favourite people from History are Cleopatra, Robert The Bruce, William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, Blackbeard, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Marquis de Lafayette, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. My hobbies are Gaming, Reading and watching Musicals.

The object store

One of my many experiences of working here is re-organising the object store and accessioning objects. I started by having a short meeting with Judith as she explained what needed to be done. We took boxes out to see what was in them and to see if they could be better in a different box. We had a collection of objects gifted to us last year that I had to accession all the objects. During the accessioning of the objects, I had to write a description of what it was and where it could be found in the object store and then I wrote a label for it. After we have accessioned and catalogued all the objects we got to work at reorganising the object store so everything was easer to find.

An environment monitor in the object store at The Devil’s Porridge Museum

At the museum we check pest traps and environmental control once a month. Pest traps are recorded by picking up the pest traps and seeing what bugs and insects are in and seeing if there is any pests. If there is any pests we check the trap or traps a week later to see if there is anymore in the trap because it would be a sign of an infestation. Every trap gets a number and is recorded on a report sheet. Environmental controls are recorded digitally and we collect them to put the data onto a computer so we can print it out. In this we look at the temperature and humidity to see if any places are affected by them. If there is anything above or below the lines, we would see if we can explain what it is before we do any action.

Tik Tok club was set up to bring in teenagers who use this site to the museum. I have enjoyed working on Tik Toks because it diversifies what I have done in the museum. The challenging parts of making Tik Toks are making sure everything we want is in frame and making sure we don’t make many mistakes while making them, even if they are sometimes funny.

@devilsporridgemuseum

Have you ever been so bored you’ve shot a telegraph pole? Stitch this with your most unusual object museums! We tag @lincsmuseums @sachistorymuseum

♬ original sound – The Devil’s Porridge Museum

I have enjoyed doing this SVQ and volunteering in the museum as it gave me experience of working in different parts of a museum, even though it is a small museum, The staff and volunteering here are welcoming and very polite. If I had any advice for new SVQ students it would be to do it because it’s great for CV and experience.

Isabella Morrison Marriage Certificate

‘Gretna Girl Heroines – Volunteering on the Miracle Workers Project.’

By News

‘Gretna Girl Heroines’ is the headlines that announces an article in The Daily Mirror from 3rd May 1918 of three Gretna Munitions Workers receiving the British Empire Medal from the Earl of Lonsdale for gallant work at Gretna. In the lower left-hand side is a photograph of Miss. Ada Watt, one of the first munitions workers that I’ve researched for the Miracle Workers project at the Devil’s Porridge Museum. Ada received her medal for, ‘courageously staying at her post….and saving many lives.’

Ada Watt is but one of several courageous munitions workers that I have had the pleasure of researching for the project. The other women have included Annie Milne, Ethel Davies, Gladys Carr, Isabella Morrison, and Lily Florence Curle. As a volunteer I hunt through birth, record, deaths, and census records and the British Newspaper Library to try put together an assemblage of these women’s lives from before, during, and after they worked at Gretna. Some research is more fruitful than others with some of the women having a lot of mentions whilst some having no mention whatsoever in both the official and newspaper records.

The most helpful website for this work has been the Scotland’s People’s website with it’s vast array of online, digital records available to researchers. The clear and concise imagery of the various records has enabled me to pin-point information for one munitions worker, Isabella Morrison, who was born 22nd May 1897 near Elgin in Moray-shire.

I have been able to find her birth certificate, marriage certificate and mentions in the 1901 and 1911 census. Isabella married shortly after the end of the First World War and immigrated to Canada with her husband; because I was able to find her marriage certificate, which contained an address she was married from, I was able to use Google Street view to see the actual building which still stands in Elgin. These links with the past is what most excites me as a volunteer with the Miracle Worker’s project as I get to bring back to life women who have been almost forgotten for over a century and may have only been remembered within their own families or local area where they lived.

Miss Ada Watt, The Daily Mirror, May 3rd 1918

Additionally, the fact that this project and resources like Scotland’s People are available to people who want to volunteer digitally due to the current pandemic or geographic restrictions has enabled me to be part of the larger volunteer project whilst still living in Ireland. I am very familiar with the Devils Porridge Museum and the local area and have visited the museum on several occasions in the past and hope to do so in the future. By engaging with the Miracle Worker’s project, I feel that I can be part of the larger volunteer project and am contributing something worthwhile to the project whilst also gaining new skills in research, writing, and explaining of historical information.

A closer look at our mini conference: the importance of chemists to HM Factory Gretna

By News

 

Chemists were crucial in the manufacture of Cordite, which was what HM Factory Gretna produced during World War One. Harry Marchanton Lowe was one of these chemists, and his grandson, Peter, researched his life during WW1 and after for The Miracle Worker’s Project. Hear Peter speak about Harry by coming along to our ONLINE mini-conference on July 31st from 10-12.

Tickets are FREE and available here!

Harry Marchanton Lowe at his graduation.

Some young people with the archive photo that inspired them.

Stories From the SS Avoceta: The Success of Museum’s Creative Writing Workshop.

By News

On Monday 26th July we enjoyed welcoming local author, Kerrie McKinnel and some young people to the museum for a great creative writing workshop. Everyone involved had completely different ideas for some excellent stories or story beginnings (with some great cliff-hangers!).

 

(Note: All the children  in the photographs are part of the same bubble with no need to social distance.)

 

Young people looking at a page from the family photo album in the museum’s collection.

 

Using early 20th century holiday photos from a family photo album in the museum’s collection as inspiration, we took part in some fun games. Including one where everyone told a sentence of the story each to find that it went in a completely different direction to what we were expecting (thanks to some ducks!).

 

A page from the family photo album we used for inspiration.

 

Another page from the photo album.

 

Everyone then chose a photo from the family photo album to inspire their story. Although most of the photos chosen for inspiration may have been the same, the ideas couldn’t have been more different. They ranged from biographies to adventures, which were about the ship’s captain, a young doctor, a widower, someone called to court and more!

 

Young people hard at work crafting stories!

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed hearing all these fantastic stories and hope everyone else enjoyed the workshop too. Thanks to Kerrie McKinnel for hosting the workshop and all the imaginative young people who took part!

 

The young people with the photo their inspiration; a photo taken onboard the SS Avoceta from the family photo album.

Obituary of Edward Ernest Pearson.

A closer look at our mini-conference: the importance of newspaper research

By News

 

One of the most important sources of information for our Miracle Workers Research project has been newspapers. The newspapers in South Scotland and Cumbria are a rich source for finding out about munitions workers at Gretna–especially when they were caught doing something not entirely legal! One of our researchers, Fiona, has concentrated her volunteering on newspaper research, uncovering some fascinating stories from over 100 years ago.

Learn more about newspaper research by coming along to our ONLINE mini-conference on July 31st from 10-12 and hear Fiona speak about the interesting stories she’s uncovered!

Tickets are FREE and available here!

A photo of Fiona’s grandmother, Jane, who worked as a typist at HM Factory Gretna.

Two munition workers unloading the Incorporator.

A closer look at our mini-conference: Keynote speaker Dr Chris Brader

By News

Dr Chris Brader wrote his PhD thesis on women munition workers at Gretna during World War One. He not only delved into the nature of their work, but also how they lived and what they did for fun. It’s an absolutely fascinating read and we’re delighted to have him speak at our mini-conference in July.

Learn more about Chris’ work by coming along to our ONLINE mini-conference on July 31st from 10-12.

Tickets are FREE and available here!

 

Chris’ excellent book on WW1 and borders women also contains an exploration of munitions workers at HM Factory Gretna

Florence Catnach.

A closer look at our mini conference: From HM Factory Gretna to the Cadbury Factory

By News

Miss F Catnach was a tricky person for our volunteer researcher, Cathy, to research, because initially we only had the above photo of her and her first initial. However, she not only found her Christian name, but also uncovered a fascinating family backstory that includes suffrage, charity work and the Cadbury Factory in Birmingham! Florence had a very important role at HM Factory Gretna–she was the Chief Supervisor in the Mossband Section. Learn more about this fascinating woman by coming along to our ONLINE mini-conference on July 31st from 10-12 and hear Cathy speak about her!

Tickets are FREE and available here!

A photo of Cadbury’s centenary celebrations in 1931. Florence is somewhere in this picture.

A colourful banner which reads Disability Pride Month.

Disability Pride Month: Working in the Heritage Sector as a Disabled Person and Telling Disability History

By News

This month (July) is Disability Pride Month, and in this post, I want to talk both about working in a museum as a disabled person and the importance of researching and sharing disability history.

As I neared the end of my PhD, I came to the conclusion that what I loved most about the study of history was sharing that knowledge with people. And, when a job came up at The Devil’s Porridge Museum that gave me the incredible opportunity to continue historical research whilst also gaining vital in-museum experience, I jumped at the chance. 

But I was also a little nervous.  

I have Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD). HSD is a connective tissue disorder that affects joints and ligaments. Often grouped together with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, HSD is different for everyone a little differently. I often have joint subluxations—where joints such as my knee cap or thumb pop out of place and partially dislocate. This is extremely painful, and can also happen at any moment. These subluxations often leave me with chronic pain, and I sometimes need to use mobility aids and braces to feel a bit more stable. Another part of my condition is ‘brain fog’. This generally happens when I’m going through a flare up—when I’m in a lot of pain and/or dealing with recurrent subluxations. Brain fog spaces me out a little, and makes it difficult for me to concentrate. The combination of chronic pain and joints that pop out whenever they please also make me a lot more tired than usual—my body spends a lot of time recovering from subluxations and this can be exhausting! HSD is a life-long condition that varies a lot—sometimes I can walk and exercise and drive without pain, but other times I struggle making it up and down the stairs in my flat. 

Laura is pictured in a white dress, holding a mobility aid for support.

My trusty mobility aid.

Being a disabled person is sometimes tricky. Having rest days around big events to try and ensure I can make it is normal. Phoning up train stations, or places to visit to ask about lift access and how many stairs the building is similarly something I do pretty regularly. And some days I can’t drive or walk at all. So beginning a full-time job in a museum at the other side of the country was daunting. The heritage sector has made great strides forward in accessibility in recent years, with increased focus on the need to make culturally important sites and museums accessible for all.

If there’s one positive thing the last year of lockdowns has given us, it’s the increased pivot by many organisations towards the digital. In museums, this took the form of virtual exhibitions, and online talks, opening up a route for people–no matter their location, or their physical ability to be present–to virtually visit museums. Not only can such a move widen audiences, but also it means that a more diverse audience can access a rich cultural heritage. For me, beginning my job at the Porridge during lockdown, I worked remotely for months. Whilst this was sometimes lonely and frustrating, it showed me that I could do a good job from home.

Laura's legs are pictured, one of them is in a knee brace

The knee brace I wear after a dislocation

When I finally moved to the area and got to work in the museum for the first time, I was so excited. There is something so special about sitting at a desk in arms reach of a interesting historical object that I’m sure many of my fellow history nerds can relate to. Not only that, but I got to meet my colleagues for the first time, as well as actually seeing the museum for the first time. It was an incredible experience.

But it was also tinged with a bit of fear. When you live with a chronic condition like HSD, you learn to be aware of warning signs of a coming flare-up. I knew that my HSD would inevitably worsen at some point, and I wanted my employers to be aware that as a result of my disability, I might need some adjustments. Telling people about my condition was, as always, scary. HSD isn’t very well known, and as a ‘invisible illness’ I’ve (in the past) encountered some people that struggle to believe that I have a disability. But disabilities come in all shapes and sizes, and aren’t always visible at first glance. However, my colleagues at The Devil’s Porridge were kind, keen to understand, and willing to make the necessary adjustments for me, which was brilliant. Together, we devised a support plan and I work from home once a week, with the option for more home working if my HSD flares up. I can also use the lift when stairs are too much for me. The Devil’s Porridge Museum is staffed mainly by dedicated volunteers, and they were also made aware of my condition–I didn’t want to worry them all by having a random dislocation at work!

It’s crucially important for disabled people to both be able to work within the heritage sector, and also for sites and museums to be accessible for disabled visitors–and I believe these two goals are interrelated. According to an Arts Council England Report in 2017/18, only 4% of museum workers were disabled, leading The Museum’s Association to conclude that diversity remained static within the sector. This is a disappointing statistic. History should be accessible to everyone, and this is especially so when it comes to areas that have traditionally been neglected, like disability history.

A fascinating and wide-ranging area of history, disability history is (to me) endlessly interesting and also very poignant. It can be viewed from a number of perspectives from development of medical treatments, to the records of charities and work-houses, to recollections of disabled people themselves. Historic England have compiled a great overview of disability history in England, whilst both The National Archives and The Institute of Historical Research also have resources and tips on researching disability history in the archives. The history of disabled people cannot be divorced from the wider historical context of time and place, and this is never more true than during, and in the aftermath of World War One.

Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1972-062-01 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Much has been written about the horrific injuries soldiers at the Front received during the Great War. According to Martina Salvante, 8 million people were disabled in World War One. Not only did these people have to reconcile their disabilities with a post-war world, but many also struggled with ‘shell shock’, a form of traumatic disorder. This influx of disabled veterans also raised questions about the treatment and attitudes towards disabled people–organisations were established to help support this men, whether in re-training them to work in a new occupation or with living independently.

However, it wasn’t only disabled soldiers who had to readjust to life with a disability. Many who worked in munitions factories, such as HM Factory Gretna were also disabled. Some had arrived at the factory disabled or injured and were unable to do active service. Eric De Clemont lost his eye and contracted miner’s phthisis before the outbreak of war. Considered unfit for active service, Eric spent the war working in the cordite section as a sub-section officer at Gretna. Others were disabled through their work at Gretna. Victoria May McIver lost the lower part of her arm in an accident at the factory. In later life, one of her son’s friends was amazed at her skills at potato peeling, balancing the potato in the crook of her elbow.

A munitions worker, Victoria May McIver, is pictured giving Queen Mary a bouquet of flowers. The king stands next to his wife.

Victoria gives a bouquet of flowers to Queen Mary during the Royal Visit to Gretna in 1917. She was chosen to present the bouquet to the Queen on account of being the youngest munitions worker at Gretna Works Hospital.

There are many accounts of workers afflicted with chronic illnesses after working at HM Factory Gretna. There are accounts of women whose whites of their eyes turned yellow, and many suffered breathing problems long after the war was finished. The health impact of working in munitions during WW1 still isn’t clear, and may never be, due to a fragmentary nature of records kept and a lack of understanding of the medical effects of working with cordite. However, what I think is clear is that munitions factories like HM Factory Gretna often operated as hubs for disabled people to work in wartime, and this is a crucial, and often untold part of the history of disability in WW1. Many men considered ‘unfit’ for active, front line service were diverted into working in munitions, as an acceptable, yet maybe not as prestigious, alternative to being a soldier. These men contributed to the war effort in a different, but no less powerful way, by supplying the Front with ammunition. Similarly, all munitions workers risked injury and death as a result of their work in factories and with dangerous and volatile chemicals. Many, like Victoria May McIver, lost limbs, others were disabled in less visible but no less traumatic ways. These conditions would often dog them throughout their lives, and was a direct result of their wartime work.

Whilst the horrific injuries soldiers received during the war increased visibility for disabled people in the UK, it would be decades before The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act of 1970 gave statutory provision to disabled people. Disability history isn’t widely known–it isn’t taught in schools, and even when (inevitably) other areas of history overlap with the history of disability, the focus is generally on medical developments and disabled people aren’t centred as historical actors in their own story. This needs to change. As a historical researcher and disabled person, I have been woefully ignorant of this history, but it is important to learn it, and to share it.

Disabled history is a crucial part of our collective national story, and the disabled workers at HM Factory Gretna, and other munitions factories, during World War One are a very small part of this wider rich and complicated history.

 

 

A collection of board games from the past. These include cards, scrabble, the beetle game, dominos and some card games.

Donation of board games

By Collections blog, News

Jack and Ronan have been volunteering at The Devil’s Porridge Museum for nearly two months as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award.  In that time, they have done a lot of work to help re-organise our object store and they have started to work with recently donated objects.  This blog was written by them about a box of old games and board games they found.  We hope to make use of these games in September when we work with a project involving Gretna Primary School – their Primary 1 class is going to be looking at childhood and toys in the past so this will be perfect for them!

Jack writes…

The first game I researched was a game called “Canasta”. I decided to look into this game because it was one I had not heard of before. I found out a detailed history of the game as well as something interesting about the company that made the version in the museum, John Waddington Ltd.

Canasta (Spanish for “basket”) is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, four, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. The goal of the game is to make ‘melds’ of seven cards of the same rank and “go out” by playing all cards in their hand. Canasta was originally created by Segundo Santos and Alberto Serrato in Uruguay in 1939. In the 1940s the game spread in different variations to Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, where its rules changed some more before spreading to the United States in 1949, where it was then referred to as the Argentine Rummy game. In 1949/51 the New York Regency Club wrote the Official Canasta Laws, which were published together with game experts from South America by the National Canasta Laws Commissions of the USA and Argentina. Canasta became even more popular in the United States in the 1950s with many card sets, card trays and books being produced. The games popularity started to die out in the 1960s but there are still some Canasta leagues and clubs in some parts of the US and South America.

The Canasta set in the museum was made by games company John Waddington Limited, a company who made some variations of monopoly and Cluedo in the late 1940s. Earlier in the first world war, the company was used by MI9 to make special versions of monopoly that would be sent to German prisons by fake charitable organisations and would contain items such as maps, compasses, real money and other items useful for escaping.

 

Another game I researched was called Lexicon, which I had also never heard of before. I found out some information about how the game came to be and how it first gained popularity.

Lexicon was basically a pack of cards but instead of the usual symbols on the faces there was letters of the alphabet. A writer named Dave Whitelaw came up with the idea and persuaded Waddington’s to make the game. Originally the game came out in 1932 and there wasn’t much success as the game was quite expensive and relatively unheard of. Then the company took the unprecedented decision to package the game nicer and increase the price. This was heavily criticised and did not help with the popularity. An official release of the game came later and this got the attention of several newspapers who brought in more sales and the game became successful.

The lexicon set in the museum contains a full deck but slightly damaged packaging and does not include instructions.

I also researched a game called the Beetle Game, which I had heard of but wasn’t sure about how it worked.

The beetle game is a classic 1960s board game by Chad Valley in England. The game can be played by 2 or more players, and the goal is to construct your own beetle, first to complete it wins. There are 6 parts to the beetle with a corresponding number on the dice. The player must roll the dice and try to get the beetles body firt. Then they must roll the dice and attempt to get every part of the beetle and put it together. The player loses the dice if they fail to throw a number required for a missing part.

The set in the museum includes all parts of the 4 coloured beetles, although one of them falls apart when constructed due to wear. It also includes full packaging and some new and used scorecards.

The final game I researched was called Lotto or Housey Housey, and it turned out we also had a more modern version of the game which was named Bingo.

Lotto is a family game of chance suitable for any age range. It uses 90 wooden numerals and the set in the museum can be played with 2-12 players but some sets can go up to 24 players. You are given a card with 15 numbers on it and the end goal is to mark off all those numbers. One player is selected as the caller, and they pick the wooden numbers from a bag and call them out, and if a number called is on your card, you cross it off. Once they are all crossed off, you shout “Lotto!” and the first person to do so wins the game.
There are 2 sets of this game in the museum, one being a more classic style and another named as Bingo that is more modern and has unopened packaging.
Finally, I tried researching a game called 4-Tell Fortune Telling Cards but I was unable to find anything on that exact set or company. If you know anything about this set feel free to reach out to us.
The other games were researched by Ronan and also thanks to him for the photos.
Ronan writes…

The first game I researched was called the crime club card game and was made in 1935 By peter Cheyney.
He was a famous crime writer known for multiple novels. It is missing quite a lot of cards and the box is in bad condition. It is for 2 to 6 players, and it lasts around 30 mins. The game contains 50 cards – 6 suits of 8 cards (split into 3 detective and 3 crook suits featuring characters – such as Hercules Poirot – objects and locations) and 2 jokers. The game is played in two parts. During the first part of the game players collect a hand that will enable them, during the second part of the game, to take as few tricks as possible.

Nora Morphet being given the British Empire Medal by Lord Lonsdale.

Worker of the Week: Nora Morphet

By Collections blog, News

Worker of the Week is a weekly blogpost series which will highlight one of the workers at H.M. Gretna our volunteers have researched for The Miracle Workers Project. This is an exciting project that aims to centralise all of the 30,000 people who worked at Gretna during World War One. If you want to find out more, or if you’d like to get involved in the project, please email laura@devilsporridge.org.uk. This week, volunteer Marilyn tells us all about Nora Morphet.

Nora Morphet was born on 18th April 1898 at Staveley , Nr Kendal , Westmorland to James and Sarah nee Irwin. James was the son of an agricultural labourer ( 1871 census) and at 17 in 1881 James is a Railway Porter.  James and Sarah were married in Brampton in 1891 according to Marriage registers. They lived in and they lived at 15, Dalston St, Carlisle

The 1901 census places the family at Railway Cottage, Staveley, James being a Railway Signalman age 35 and born at nearby Barbon, Westmoreland. Sarah was born in Brampton, Cumberland , now aged 36. They already had 4 children – Mary Alice , 8 and Ethel, 3 born in Brampton , Nora 2 and James 1 born in Staveley. A 5th child , Esther Annie  was born on 2nd July 1901 but tragically Sarah the mother died on 13th December according to the Register of deaths. The parent’s ages indicated in the 1901 census are questionable when tallied with other sources of evidence.

By 1911 , James now  a widower for almost 10 years, lived in Back Street , Yanwath ,near Penrith with his young family. He is now 47, still a Railway Signalman. Mary Alice , 18 , described as single and now indicated as being born in Carlisle which links with other sources – the young couple had lived at  15 Dalston St  when they first married. Nora, 12, James 11 and Esther 9 all scholars.

Ethel is to be found on a separate census return as a 15 year old servant for a miller and his wife at Morland ,Penrith.

The Cumberland and Westmoreland Herald- Saturday 30th December 1911 report in full the Christmas performance by the whole village school at Yanwath. Nora , James and Esther all performed. Nora played the part of a Christmas  fairy.

Here we turn to the plight of James junior. The Forces war record tells us that in July 1915, James , a private in the Coldstream Guards having previously been reported missing was now being reported by the German Authorities as being in a POW camp. Having been born in 1899 he clearly lied about his age in order to join up. One can only imagine what Nora and the rest of the family suffered at this time.

Coldstream Guards Log for James Morphet

The Coldstream Guard log tells us that he was dismissed on 12/11/1919 “ Surplus having suffered. “

He must have joined the Royal Irish Constabulary rather than go back home to Carlisle where the family were now living at 6 Millholme Avenue. The Royal Irish Constabulary pension ledger clearly shows James as being pensioned off in February 1922 ( now aged 22/3) , £46.16.7d to be paid annually and all correspondence to be sent to 6 Millholme Avenue, Carlisle. He was clearly going back to live with his father.

Meanwhile, Nora we can assume responded to a call to work at HM Factory Gretna in 1916 and more than likely travelled on a daily basis from Carlisle. Throughout her whole time at Gretna she must have worked with the knowledge that her younger brother was a prisoner , that he had joined up when he was too young and that he may not come home again.

Nora must have worked as a munitionette at Gretna because the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer of Thursday 2nd May 1918  reported “. Miss Nora Morphet, 6, Millholme Avenue, Carlisle, for courage and high example in continuously working long hours in poisonous atmosphere which habitually affected her health;”

Nora pictured in The Daily Mirror, May 3rd 1918

For this she was one of 3 young women Presented with British Empire Medal by Lord Lonsdale in Carlisle “MEDALS FOR BRAVE CARLISLE WOMEN WORKERS. By command of the King, Lord Lonsdale, the Lieutenant Cumberland, at the Town Hall.”

Chris Brader in Timbertown Girls refers to the three girls but there are no specifics of why exactly they had been awarded over and above many others and what particular effect it had on their health.

Not only was this reported but it was photographed and Nora appeared proudly on the front page of the Daily Mirror , Friday 3rd May 1918.

We lose track of Nora at this point until April 1926 when she is listed in the Marriage registers for St Pancras, London as marrying an M H Lyons. Was she in service in London? How had their paths crossed?

Mark Horatio Lyons , a young widower, described variously as Diamond dealer/salesman/jeweller in Passenger lists for trans Atlantic crossings. He was from Edgbaston , King’s Norton, Birmingham. Passenger lists show his as travelling to New York via Ellis Island on 6th January 1916 aged 19 on board the  SS Paul, with the intention of becoming a  permanent citizen. On the same passage is a Florrie Hazel Myra Price, his future bride, also of Edgbaston.

A US Army draft card appears in the records for Mark H Lyons, born in Birmingham , England and stating that he had been deemed “ medically unfit for the British Army and he is the sole supporter of his wife and child” Subsequent events date this at autumn 1918. He is described as tall, slender with brown hair and blue eyes. We can assume that he married Florrie in Baltimore, Maryland and they had a daughter.

Mark Lyon’s (Nora’s first husband) US Army Draft Card

On April 12th 1919 he arrives in Liverpool aboard the “Aquitania” , described as single and a diamond dealer . Florrie had died in February in Baltimore , Maryland and findagrave.com shows that both Florrie and the baby daughter were interred at the Price family grave in Brackenwood Cemetery Birmingham on 17th April 1919. Florrie had died before they left America.  Baby Valerie Rena Lyons baby daughter of Mark and Florrie Lyons  was 4 and  a half months old.  His address is 8 Wellington Road, Edgebaston. Probate records show that Florence left £135 6s 3d in effects to Mark Lyons of 8 Wellington Road.

Nora’s marriage to this first widower did not last long. Mark died in 1933 in St Mary’s Hospital , Paddington ,London  on 14th January 1933 . Probate was to Nora Lyons , 8 Wellington Road , Edgebaston £ 28,902 17s 10d. This same year we know from the nursing registers that Nora began her 3 year training in Leicester to become a nurse.

Her brother James was living with father James in 1924 according to the Electoral register and is working as a Railway Porter, dad still being a signalman. They are listed as James and James Jnr.

Marriage registers tell us that James Jnr married Betsy( Bessie) Jane Heslop in 1925, She had been born in Yanwath where the Morphet family had lived. Her father was also a Railway Signalman.

We learn later that they had a daughter, Dorothy in 1926 and a son, James in 1928.

Tragedy hit Nora and her family in 1930 when her brother James , aged 30, committed suicide by gassing himself and the 2 children, Dorothy 4 and James 2, in bed. His wife had gone out for the evening to visit her sister in law. It was reported nationally and regionally that she had come home to discover this scene in the bedroom of  their home at 31 Prescott Road , Carlisle – described in one newspaper as the new Corporation Housing.

James’ death reported in The Scotsman – Monday 06 January 1930

Reports mentioned that they seemed such a happy family, that he had suffered ill health for some time. The Sheffield Telegraph and the Londonderry Times reported the inquest and mention depression and bad headaches.

James ( father ) appears to have moved along Millholme Avenue at this point to number 12 to stay with his daughter Ethel Annie now Armstrong and her husband .

By the 1939 register now aged 65 he has moved again to 28 , is a retired Railway signalman and is living with Emma Bell , 62 a widow.

In 1933 Nora appears on the Nursing Registers for the first time , training at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Children’s Hospital between 1933 and 1936. Her registration number was 85004. She appears on the Nursing Registers  for 1937, 1940, 1943 and 1946. They are revised every 3 years.

The  1937 Nursing register shows that Nora is back in Cumberland, living at 5 North Street, Maryport No trace of her can be found on the 1939 national register.

The 1940 register of nurses shows that she has moved to Brackenlands, Wigton, Cumberland and it is from there that she marries a second widower, Wilfred Isaac Witts Lomas.

The 1939 National register shows Wilfred as being 33 , a Commercial Traveller selling Tubes, of “ The Rowans” , 66 Lutterworth Road, Blaby Leicester. His wife Susan is listed on a  separate page as a patient at Leicester hospital, Regent’s Lane and death registration shows that she died in September 1939.

10 months later Wilfred married Nora, 9 years his senior in Wigton, Cumberland. Coincidentally, his father was also a Railway Signalman. Could Nora have nursed his wife whilst in Leicester and some kind of bond struck? This was the second widower that she  married.

At aged 42 it seems that Nora had a son, John Wilfred A Lomas born in Leicester. Electoral registers subsequently place him in Edinburgh in 1964 aged 21  living in Marchhall Crescent in the vicinity of the Pollocks Buildings of the University. He married Irene Kemlo in Abernethy, Perthshire in 1966.

Nora and Wilfred appear on the Midland, England, Electoral Register for 1962 living at 60 Swancote, Road Birmingham. It is not clear why Wilfred’s Probate listing mentions the Leicester address.

There is an indication that Nora  died in Birmingham in 1984 aged 86 having outlived Wilfred by 10 years. The last official mention of her that can be found is the  Nursing register where she is still listed as living at 66 Lutterworth Road , Blaby, Leicester.  Death registers tell us that Wilfred died in 1974 in Leicester.

 

Translate »
BOOK NOW