General

Just over six months ago businesses, schools and other places of work shut their doors. None of us knew what to expect. At Northumberland Archives we spent the week before lockdown doing our best to make sure that we could carry on working. We took laptops home, divided up responsibility for tasks and updated our website and social media. 

Although the archives at Woodhorn and Berwick were closed to the public, staff were busy at home. Between March and September archive assistants worked on preparing catalogues that were only available in paper format, so that they could be included on our digital catalogue. Members of the reprographics team had the opportunity to develop our digital preservation system (basically an archive for digital files of all sorts) and to add digital images of parish registers to our Reading Room computers.  We’ve also been working on an education project which will provide archival resources and activities on a specially designed section of our website. 

In addition, there have been video meetings, contributions to this blog (including a really fascinating series about folklore in Northumberland) and lots of posts on social media. All in all, we used lockdown as an opportunity to get the sort of things done that have always been on our wishlist, but which often take a necessary second place to running a busy public service. 

Six months later and we are about to open our doors once again. It is an exciting time for us, but has taken a massive amount of planning. Risk assessments have been done for each member of staff and for the buildings. Staff have all had an induction so that they are all familiar with the new COVID restrictions at work. Social distancing means that offices and the searchrooms have been rearranged. Rooms each have a maximum capacity so the number of researchers that can visit us each day is limited, as is the number of staff that can be on hand. 

Across the County Council, the staff who are being allowed back into workspaces are being arranged into “Bubbles” (a small group that works together). At Woodhorn we’ve divided the archives staff into two Bubbles (there’s fewer at Berwick, so they make up one Bubble).  Each Bubble works for half the week in the office; the staff on duty on a Wednesday will be different from the staff working on a Thursday. Unfortunately, this does mean that some of our services take a little longer than they used to, but we hope that users will understand that this has been introduced to help protect staff and researchers once we open. 

As well as reorganizing buildings, furniture and staff, we’ve had to rethink the way that we do things at the archives. We decided that we should limit the items that are passed between staff to researchers – when you start thinking about a “normal” visit to the archives you realise how often that happens!   

The first thing that most people do when they come to visit us is fill in a registration card and the visitors’ book. That will be done online now at https://archivescard.com/ . We also won’t be lending paper, pencils or magnifying glasses. In the past, we’ve also lent out tokens to lock bags and coats away. We will still be asking researcher to use the lockers, but the tokens will be in the lockers at the beginning of each research session. If you want a copy of a document after your visit, we’ll be asking you to fill in a form as usual, but to leave it in a plastic wallet on your desk, which we can wipe down. 

We also have to quarantine the documents before and after they are used in the searchroom for 72 hours. That might sound simple, but actually involves a lot of work behind the scenes. Documents have to be retrieved well in advance and boxes marked up to show that they are not to be opened again until quarantine is over. We also have to talk to researchers before they visit about what they need to see so that we can make sure that we get it right and so that the researchers can make the most of their visit. 

A visit to the archives at Woodhorn or Berwick might not be quite like it was before lockdown, but we are very much looking forward to welcoming the public back and safely sharing the documentary heritage of Northumberland with them.   

Tips for potential house historians!

The best place to start is with the deeds to the property. If they are not in your possession they may be in the care of your bank, building society or solicitor. It is very unlikely that the deeds will be held by an Archive Service. If you are able to locate the deeds there may not be a full series dating back to the date that the property was built. There may be an abstract of title – a document that summarises the various transactions on the property. This may refer to earlier transactions where the deeds don’t survive.

Old maps can help date the property and date any substantive changes to it. A good starting point is the various editions of Ordnance Survey maps – these can be found online at https://maps.nls.uk/ and  www.old-maps.co.uk. Northumberland Archives holds copies of many historic Ordnance Survey maps. Other maps sources particularly tithe maps (circa 1840) and the 1910 Land Valuation can provide information about land ownership and occupancy.  This information may lead you to estate records. Northumberland Archives holds records of many Northumberland estates.

We hold historic planning records dating back to 1856 and it may be possible to locate an original building plan for your property. This involves looking through a planning register to locate a plan reference.  

 If you find evidence that your property formed part of a manor you should look for records of that manor. A good place to start is the Manorial Documents register- https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/manor-search. This will tell you what records survive and their location. The records themselves are not available online.

Census returns, 1841-1911, can help you locate who lived in your property. These are available online via two commercial sites – www.ancestry.co.uk and www.findmypast.co.uk. The same sites include a digital copy of the 1939 register for England and Wales – a list of all civilians. This can also be useful in tracing occupancy of properties.   

Another useful occupancy source is electoral registers – lists of voters. Electoral registers for Newcastle. 1741-1974, can be found on www.ancestry.co.uk. Northumberland electoral registers are not online but can be consulted in our searchrooms.  

Copies of almost any items in our care can be provided for a charge. Staff are happy to provide guidance around sources and research strategies but are unable to undertake research for you. If you are unable to undertake personal research  we have a charged for Research Service – see https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/services/research/  

The second of our VJ Day blogs from our researcher, Paul. He has been looking through local newspapers for stories of Japanese prisoners of war and this blog does contain descriptions of brutality and torture.

An article in the Japan Times states that there were 140,000 allied prisoners of war held by the Japanese forces. The death rate was horrendous; 27% (possibly even as high as 38%), compared with only 4% of those held by the German Army. Death could have been by a multitude of causes not only brutality, mistreatment or summary execution, but also succumbing to tropical diseases, malnutrition and breakdowns to their immune system. Poor food and lack of medicines only made the situation worse. Plus you must also factor in friendly fire. It is thought that one in four deaths was a result of this. US forces attacked many Japanese convoys, most were transporting POWs for work in Japan.

According to the British Legion webpages:  

Even after VJ Day the distances many of these men and women had to travel from Asia and the Pacific back to Britain meant that there were servicemen and women, along with now released POWs, that would not return to Britain until 1946, to a nation trying to move on from the war.

Therefore, when British members of the Fourteenth Army returned to the UK after the war, many were explicitly told not to talk about ‘their’ war. They were told that the war was over, that people wanted to look forward, and in any case the families to which they were returning had wartime experiences of their own. For many, the war became their own personal history, not to be spoken about publicly. For thousands of Far East POWs this was a particularly difficult experience.  

In terms of numbers, resources and sacrifice, the war in North Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe was far greater than Asia and Pacific for the British. As one writer has suggested, ‘only 30,000 British servicemen died in the war against Japan, as compared to 235,000 in the war against Germany.’ The big events in the Far East in 1944, overlapped with great events in Europe, with large numbers of war correspondents and radio journalists in Europe, but not the Far East. There was only one radio journalist at the Battle of Kohima – Richard Sharpe – and he got there by accident, and only stayed a few days [Source British Legion webpages].

I found many stories in the local county newspapers and I apologises for not recording all of them for you to read, but there were simply too many. I have selected a few stories of forgotten, and now long dead, men and women of the North East caught up in this theatre of war:

Mr and Mrs J H White of 20 Ladbroke Street, Amble grieved the death of their son, George White. George served with the 9th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. He died whilst in a Japanese POW camp, back in September 1943. They only received notification of his death in December 1945. He was one of three brothers who were all POWs. William had been caught in 1940 and was in Germany, whilst the third son, John, served with George in the same battalion and had been taken prisoner with the fall of Singapore in 1942.

I had heard or read somewhere that many Japanese POWs were shipped home, but not on the usual shipping route via India and South Africa, but via the USA and Canada. This was the longer of the routes and was to make sure that when they arrived home in the UK they had put some weight on. This could be correct as Fusilier Richard Nairn of Warren Mill, Belford, arrived home in December 1945. He was the last of the Belford boys to come home from Japanese captivity. He came home via Canada. He had suffered jaundice on the trip so was hospitalised in Ottawa for three weeks before he could continue his journey.

Mr and Mrs J Wakenshaw of 15 Falloden Terrace, Spittal, received notification from the War Office in December 1945 that their son, Private Thomas Edward Wakenshaw of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, had died on 1 August 1942. Thomas was aged 27 and had been held in a Japanese POW camp in Kuala Lumpur. He had been called up in 1940 and went missing in Malaya in February 1942. 

As a child in the 1970s, I remember calling many times with my grandad to see one of his friends, Allan Hinson, who lived at the lodge house at Ewart Park, Wooler. I remember he was very thin and had a funny colour and all I was told was that he had been a Japanese POW. 

Last year whilst at an antique fair I came across a Second World War medal box. These were sent to soldiers with their entitlement, if claimed after the war. To my surprise it was Allan’s box so I didn’t haggle; I had to have it. It is now in my private collection to be kept for prosperity. I wondered if I would find out anything more about Alan during this research and, low and behold, I did. In the Berwick Advertiser I found two articles:

In the September 1945 Allan’s parents had received two cables and a letter from him saying that he was safe and well in India. He wrote “It’s good to be free again after 3 years and 7 months under the Japs.” He expected to be home before Christmas and regretted having lost some good pals. 

In November 1945 Fusilier A. W. A. Hinson, son of Mr and Mrs Hinson of West Lodge, Ewart Park, arrived home fairly well after long captivity. He was very reticent about his time and treatment by the Japanese. Fortunately he was a batman for the last nine months to a medical officer. He had been captured in Singapore in 1942 having previously served in France and had been evacuated from Dunkirk. 

Fusilier Robert Dawson of 10 Magdalene Drive, Berwick, arrived home on Friday [Berwick Advertiser 25 October 1945] after being held as a Japanese POW for three and half years. He was in 9^th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. Robert was captured in Singapore and spent eight months in a POW camp in Singapore before being moved to Thailand to work on the [infamous] Siam Railway. He was in the same camp as Captain McCreath and Captain Veitch. On liberation, he was flown from Bangkok to Rangoon and then had two weeks convalescing on board the SS Orduna. Robert was in the same camp as Berwick lads Gunner J McDonald, Corporal Foster, Fusiliers Johnson and Townsley. A number of other lads from Berwick died in this camp.    

William Angus Burn, a civilian who had been captured by the Japanese at the fall of the Philippines, returned home to Oaklea, Thorp Avenue, Morpeth. Mrs Burn received further good news that her youngest son, Major Henry B. Burn of 9^th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, who had been taken prisoner at the fall of Singapore, was on his way home. 

Fusilier Thompson of 72, 10^th Row, Ashington, who was an employee of the Co-op and escapee from Dunkirk, had been captured in Singapore. In April 1945 his family received a message from the War Office to say he was well and had arrived in the UK. But this was an error by the War Office. The family was later informed that he was still a POW in Thailand and that the War Office was sorry for the false hopes they had raised. 

Private Alan Howe of the Royal Army Medical Corps from 679 Plessey Road, Newsham, received a cordial welcome home after being a POW in China for six years. He had been in the army for nine years and was in Hong Kong at the outbreak of the war. He had been taken prisoner when the Japanese forces invaded. On his return, he was granted six weeks leave.

One story that really stuck a cord is that of the Hall family of Wooler. Mr J. H. Hall had been a rubber planter in Sumatra from 1919 and was interned along with his wife and daughter when the Japanese forces took the island. He was separated from his wife and daughter in March 1942 and didn’t see them again until September 1945. The newspaper was not able to report whether they were alive or not. 

The food supplies in camp were inadequate; there was no meat at all and only small quantities of sugar and salt. To get meat they had to catch it themselves. They often ate snake steaks and some prisoners resorted to eat rats or dogs. They had no cigarettes so rolled leaves so they had something to smoke. 

Their Japanese captors didn’t need an excuse to torture their captives. Once, the woman leader of the female camp was dragged around a room by her hair whilst another was tied up and hung for hours with just her toes barely touching the ground. Mr Hall had seen an old feeble man so badly beaten that he had to have an operation to keep him alive. Another woman was beaten so badly that she suffered severe concussion.

The inmates were only given a small amount of drinking water a day despite there being an adequate supply close by. Food was rationed to 200 grams of rice a day, but not every day. Therefore, the prisoners all lost a considerable amount of weight. Mr Hall was twelve stones before he was captured and was under nine on liberation, whereas his wife was half as heavy at the time of liberation.

By the end of the war the death rate in Mr Hall’s camp was at least five people per day. During all the time he was a prisoner he never saw a Red Cross parcel. The Officer who was in charge of the Civilian camp in Sumatra committed suicide when the English and Dutch Army began their investigations. Talk was heard that one camp had been totally destroyed by fire to try and hide the crimes committed. 

And in a final story from the newspapers, Sergeant G Easton gave a talk to a large audience at Presbyterian Church at Norham on the brighter side of life as a Japanese POW. He talked about conditions, hospitals and rations. He pointed out that there was high morale amongst the man, which mystified the Japanese guards.