BERWICK ADVERTISER, 9 MAY 1919

10/05/2019 by Northumberland Archives

37 YEARS’ SERVICE IN POST OFFICE

MR CLEM. BINGHAM RECEIVES THE IMPERIAL SERVICE DECORATION

Thirty-seven years represent a big slice of a man’s life, but these spent in good fellowship, may not take so much out of one as might be expected. For this period Mr Clem. Bingham has acted as a postman in the Borough, and in all weathers, residents have heard his cheerie call as he delivered his rounds.

Clem is one of the old school, and it is with feelings of sadness that those still in the Post Office Service who served along with him in the time of Postmasters Wilkinson, Jones and Franklin, see him going into retirement through illness. For some time prior to retiring he had not been in the “pink,” and only managed to go on his rounds with difficulty. The only course left open to him was to sever his long connection with the Post office Service, a work which to him had become part of life. A son of the late Mr Bingham, Low Greens, Berwick, “Clem,” since entering the Post Office has had an unblemished career. He speaks of the happy days spent in the old office, then situated on the site of the A. and B. Garage, and amongst his most pleasant memories are the days he spent in the comradeship of old “Joe” Ferrah, Dick Cockburn, and Jimmie Byrne. He had also, some humorous stories to tell of his old postmasters, one especially being about one of his masters who tried pig keeping, with so little success that his “grumphies” were one day mistaken for whippets.

The Imperial Service medal which comes to all “posties” who serve honourably and well, at length has come Mr Bingham’s way, and on Friday evening, surrounded by his fellow postmen and lady and gentleman clerks from the instrument room and counter, he received the decoration from the hands of Mr Snowball, Postmaster.

BELFORD DISTRICT

ON LEAVE

We were very pleased to see Privates Thomas and John Hunter, both of the D. L. I., home on leave from Germany quite recently. These two gallant boys are the sons of Mr and Mrs Hunter, North Lyham. Prior to May 1918 Mr Hunter and his boys were employed by Mr Blenkinsopp, Ross Farm, and might perhaps have been so yet had the manly spirit of the boys not been so persistent.

North Lyham area of Northumberland
© Graham Robson – Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).

In March 1915 Privates Hunter informed their father that they were going to the Army in the following May, the younger boy having then attained military age, and no obstacles being put in their way, they went and got their training in, and out to France and over the top a few times before the Armistice was signed. Both boys have greatly improved in appearance since joining up having become quite manly-like and from their conversation one might almost believe they had never experienced a single hardship. Mr and Mrs Hunter ought to be proud of their brave young sons. May the best of good luck be theirs.

LOCAL NEWS

This year the Berwick Rowing Club celebrates its Jubilee. This Club started with a membership of thirty at a meeting held on Monday, 18th January, 1869, in the King’s Arms Hotel, and presided over by the late Mr William Miller. The rules of the London Rowing Club were adopted. Later Mr .T. Carter was appointed Secretary and Treasurer, and the late Mr W. Young was elected Captain, and Mr E. Willoby a member of committee. The season was started in June, when the newly purchased Foy Fours arrived from Newcastle. A Regatta was held on 7th September when a silver cup for a race with Foy Fours and a pair of silver sculls for a race with two skiffs, presented by Mr Watson Askew, were competed for. It will be interesting to note also that the present President (Mr Alex Darling) was a coxswain that year. The Club starts operations for this year on Wednesday first. At a Committee meeting on Wednesday three new active members were elected. The pre-war Committee continues in office, with Mr H. R. Smail as Captain, and Mr J. Cairns as Hon. Secretary. Great credit is due to the latter, the President and Mr W. J. Dixon for having “carried on” during the war in the absence of over 90 per cent of the members on active service.

The first cargo of deals and battens to be discharged at Tweed Dock, Berwick, arrived with the Swedish steamship Munkfors this week, and although the cargo is small in comparison to those landed in pre-war days, still it is a sign that normal conditions are coming again. The wood has been shipped from Skoghall, Gothenburg, and is for Messrs Allan Brothers, Tweed Saw Mills.

The British nurse has helped to win the war, and there is scarcely a home in Great Britain that does not owe a tribute to her care of the wounded. The nursing profession tests the endurance of its members very severely, and during the war many nurses have contracted serious maladies, such as loss of sight, injury to limbs, nervous breakdown, etc.

World War One nurses and midwives recruitment poster. © Imperial War Museum (Art.IWM PST 14581).

An effort is now being made to raise sufficient money to enable the College of Nursing to make provision for the nurses who have suffered through the war. The Nation’s Tribute for Nurses takes the form of a Thank-offering fund with Viscountess Cowdray as Hon. Treasurer, and Miss C. May Beeman as Hon. Organiser. A large sum is aimed at, and all over the country money is being raised. Berwick V.A.D.s not to be behind hand held a most enjoyable dance on Thursday, 1st May to raise funds. The Artillery Hall, Ravensdowne, was kingly granted free by Major Graham, Officer Commanding 4th V.B.N.F., who also sent a donation of £5. Among those responsible for the arrangements were: Miss Anthoney, Commandant: Mrs Scarlett, Mrs Copperthwaite, the Misses Caisley and Kennedy. Music was supplied by Miss Jobson, Miss White and Mr Davidson, violin. The duties of M.C. were capably discharged by Messrs Scobie and Renwick, and Mr J, Wilson also rendered great assistance. A sum of £25 will, it is hoped, be handed over. The members of the V.A.D. are endeavouring to make Berwick’s contribution up to £50 by means of “Wheel of Gratitude” collecting cards.

BLASTING ACCIDENT AT TWEEDMOUTH

A CHARGE WHICH HUNG FIRE

On Friday morning, 2nd May, a blasting accident which might easily have been attended with more serious consequences, took place in the Quarry owned by Mr A. D, Watt, Tweedmouth, resulting in rather server injuries to a miner named Robert Drysdale, whose home is in Blakewell Road.

It appears that Drysdale, who is employed making “shots” at the Quarry had made a charge which for some reason hung fire. Drysdale thinking the squib had failed walked forward to fix another when the charge suddenly exploded, knocking him down and inflicting severe wounds on the hands and head.

He was removed to Berwick Infirmary, where five of his fingers were found to be so seriously hurt that amputation was necessary. He is going on as well as can be expected.

Learning to read old handwriting at the Berwick Archives (Twixt Thistle & Rose)

25/04/201916/04/2019 by Northumberland Archives

The volunteers got to grips with some fascinating documents this week from an eighteenth century Guild Book entry detailing the carving of the coat of arms by a stonemason who had been working at Alnwick Castle, to a pair of letters written in the same hand but with different signatures, complaining about life in the Berwick Workhouse.

There was one letter that was with the Tweedmouth Parish Records by an anonymous writer who was informing them about ‘a grat Blagard a Margaret Haberon that moment she gittes her the Prish money she goes to a wiske shop and spends it’. He claims that she isn’t caring for her children and wouldn’t be given any money if she had applied to Berwick for assistance.

Some research has been done on poor Margaret and she had rather a sad life. It is thought that her name was actually Hepburn and there are records of three baptisms of children born to William and Margaret Hepburn, David in 1818 in Tweedmouth who died aged 2 1/2 years old, Jane in 1820 also in Tweedmouth, and then after the family moved to Berwick, another David in 1822. Her husband was a cabinet maker who died at the age of 35 in the 1832 Cholera epidemic. This would explain why she was in receipt of Poor Relief from the parish.

The author of the original complaint was in fear of her burning down his house if she found out who had complained about her, obviously she was quite a formidable character! We assume that the letter was written by a man, as although the spelling is erratic it puts over its point forcibly, and the level of education for boys at the time would have been better than that on offer to girls.

So much to find out around one letter!

The other document that we looked at was ‘To Make Sirip of Turnips’ (used to treat ‘Conscumpsion or cough of the Lungs’) which was a mixture of sliced turnips, sugar, Hyssop Water, Aniseed, and liquorish root. I’m not sure if anyone went home to try it!

Volunteers and Research – Berwick Record Office

03/04/201918/03/2019 by Northumberland Archives

Volunteers at the Berwick Record Office are encouraged to research people or events mentioned in the records they index. This enhances the lists and is an opportunity to bring together information from a number of sources that the Archivist may not have the time to collate.

Following a thread

Helen is a volunteer at the Berwick Records Office and has been involved in a number of projects – particularly those with schoolchildren. Recently, she has been looking through the Borough Surveyor’s notebook (featured in an earlier post) for references to Berwick men who served in World War I and decided to find out more about one of them – Sidney Hill.

Sidney Hill

Sidney Hill was born in Berwick in 1900. He was drafted towards the end of the war and from 1918-1919 served on HMS Kildonan – a patrol gunboat that monitored the British coast.

In 1936 he was appointed the first Housing Officer of the Berwick-Upon-Tweed Town Council. However, in 1937 he and his wife emigrated to Salisbury in, what was then known as, Rhodesia to take up a post on the Bulawayo Railway. This followed “malicious rumours” that he was involved in financial irregularities at the Council. However, The Mayor appealed for this gossip to stop, in the Berwick Advertiser on the 29 June 1937, saying neither he nor the Surveyors Department was under investigation.

Local newspapers are a useful source of information for this kind of research and the Archives has a collection of them dating back to the early 19th century. The Berwick Advertiser and Berwickshire News regularly carried reports about Berwick people who lived in other parts of the world. Helen also looked at national sources – such as the census of 1901 – to find out about Sidney’s family background.

Armenia Tabor

My own curiosity was piqued last week by reading the petition of Armenia Tabor, the widow of Thomas Tabor, a Freeman of Berwick-upon-Tweed (Draft Guild Minute Book 1738-1755 B 2/4). She asked the Guild if they would pay for her to return home to Holland because, she said, she had become “burthensome ” to the Incorporation. They agreed as letting the meadows and stints to which she was entitled as a Freeman’s widow would defray the expense of sending her home.

It is interesting that, as a Freeman’s widow, Armenia was able to bargain with the Guild to improve her lot. The Borough Archives are a rich source of information about women’s lives – though not all of them as lucky as Armenia. Guild petitions and court records, for example, illustrate what life in a Garrison town was like for ordinary women through incidental and direct references to them.

Possible baptism of Thomas Tabor, Transcripts of Berwick Holy Trinity Church Baptisms

And, it is likely there is much more to be discovered about Armenia and Thomas should someone want to look. Were they brought together by war (the War of the Spanish Succession took place around the time they might have met), did trade with the Netherlands play a part or was it something else entirely? What happened to her when she left Berwick?

Would you like to join us?

If you are interested in researching stories like this we are looking for volunteers to help us.

At 2 pm on Saturday 23rd and on Tuesday 26th March we will be holding introductory sessions for potential volunteers at the Berwick Record Office in Walkergate. Please come along if you are thinking about getting involved. We want to hear what interests you.

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