A Guild seminar was held on the 21st February, at Alwalton, near Peterborough, entitled "From Waterways to Railways: A journey through Britain’s working past." I always try to attend any of the seminars that are reasonably local to me, even if the topics don't particularly match with what I am working on at the time. There is very much a social aspect to attending - an opportunity to catch up with friends that I only see at Guild events, to meet other members that I might not know so well, if at all, and to put faces to some of the names seen on the mailing lists, forum, or the Facebook Group.
But I often find that I gain a lot from the talks, even if I hadn't expected to beforehand, and so it was with this seminar.
After a welcome by Alison, the first talk of the day was by one of the Guild members, David Scrimgeour. David had been a volunteer at the Yorkshire Waterways Museum and, after that closed in 2019, he became a trustee of the "Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society."1 This was set up to continue to carry out research, and to promote the history and heritage of the waterways, by creating a permanent, digital, memorial to the people involved.
I like maps so I particularly enjoyed seeing the one David showed of the navigable canals and rivers in Yorkshire - it was a good reminder that our ancestors had a variety of options for travelling around the countryside. I was also interested to learn that there was a "Bradshaw's Guide" to the canals, long before the railway guides we so often hear about.
[Having sidetracked to investigate further, I came across Bradshaw's map of the canals and navigable rivers in the midlands2, which has confirmed something relating to one of my other interests - isn't it great when hobbies overlap like that! ☺]
The second session was a talk by Chris Turland, about the history of the railway ships from Harwich to the Continent. I didn't know anything about this topic, so found it interesting to learn about the development of the port, and the various ships used over the years.
There were a couple of war-time stories that particularly stuck in my mind, although I wasn't able to take note of all the details during the talk. The first was about a British ship, captured by the Germans and refitted by them, which then hit a mine when coming out of Hamburg, and was 'finished off' by the Royal Navy.
While that might raise a smile at the turn of events, the second story, about one of the British merchant captains, certainly didn't. I hadn't written the Captain's name down correctly, and the papers are full of details of incidents where the German submarines had sunk British fishing and merchant ships. But it didn't take much searching to identify the relevant Captain, owing to the vast number of newspaper reports covering this specific series of events.
Captain Charles Algernon FRYATT worked for the Great Eastern Railway Company. On the 4th March 1915, newspapers reported that the Captain, at the time master of the Company's steamer, Wrexham, had arrived in Harwich having been chased, but outrun, a German submarine.
Later that month, on the 28th, there was another incident, this time while Captain FRYATT was master of the Great Eastern Railway Company's steamer, Brussels - a German submarine "called on the Brussels to stop, but Captain Fryatt ordered full steam ahead. The submarine went under the surface, and the Brussels now chased the raider, whose periscope was still visible. The fireman working below suddenly felt a shock, and nothing more was seen of the submarine."3
[While it might have sounded as if the submarine was destroyed, the Germans later reported that the submarine "escaped the steamer by a few metres only by immediately diving".4 Since, according to the newspapers, this was at a time when the declaration from Germany was that they "would treat all armed merchantment as belligerent vessels and attack them at sight wherever they might be encountered", the British Government's view was that it was a legitimate defensive act, for a merchant ship to steer towards an enemy submarine in order to force them to dive.5]
On the 21st June 1915, there are reports of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty presenting to Captain Fryatt "a hunter gold watch, bearing a suitable inscription, together with their appreciation on vellum" in recognition of his seamanship during this latter incident. The chief officer and chief engineer were also reported as receiving watches. It was noted that, three weeks earlier, the chairman and directors of the Great Eastern Railway Company had also presented Captan Fryatt with a watch, for the first incident, when he eluded the submarine.6
Over a year later, from the 25th June 1916, there are reports that the Brussels had been captured and taken to Zeebrugge. Initially, the outlook seemed promising, as the Evening Star reported, on the 26th June 1916 that, "it is a welcome change from the sink-at-sight policy usually followed by these pirates of the sea. We can therefore be certain that neither Captain Fryatt nor any of his gallant crew have lost their lives", although it was also reported elsewhere that "it is to be feared that the crew will be sent to Germany as prisoners."7
On the 22nd July, 1916, the Army and Navy Gazette reported that "Captain Fryatt of the Brussels, is in prison awaiting trial at Ghent on a charge of sinking a German submarine." The charge was "founded on an inscription in a gold watch alleged to have been found on the captain."
Then, on the 29th July, 1916, many newspapers reported that the Captain had been executed - the execution had taken place immediately after the trial on the 27th July 1916. At the time, it was not known whether the Captain had even been defended, and the speed of execution allowed for no appeals.
The papers reported on the "deep indignation" caused by the case, and likened the Captain's execution to that of the British nurse, Edith Cavell.
At least one newspaper carried a report that indicated the capture of the Brussels might have been achieved through a deception, in that the German officer had "employed a strategem by making the captain of the Brussels believe that a British torpedo-boat had come alongside"8 , although I didn't look for any confirmation as to whether that was true or not. However, reports in the days following the Captain's death did claim that there had been, "special plans laid to capture the Brussels" and that the Captain was, "doomed before his trial."9
The Captain was married, and had seven children, with ages ranging, at the time, from three years to eighteen.10
The case had nothing to do with any PARRYs, but it was a reminder (as if we need one!) of the innumerable tragedies of war, and how principles that we expect to exist can so easily be overridden.
The usual excellent buffet lunch followed this second talk, along with the opportunity to explore the displays some members, and speakers, had brought, as well as to look at purchase books from the FHS stand.
After lunch, Dr Nicholas Dixon spoke about tracing 18c and 19c mariners (a 'mariner' being in the merchant service, a 'sailor' being in the Royal Navy, or a fisherman.) Again, this was an interesting talk, with some potentially useful references mentioned, such as the Lloyds Registers, which are now digitised11, the Soundtoll12, which is a record of the tolls paid by ships passing through the Sound, the strait between Sweden and Denmark, between 1497-1857, and the Welsh Mariners site.13
In the Soundtoll site, once I'd worked out how to search, (since using the "All indexed fields" did not produce any results), I found 28 entries where the shipmaster was surnamed PARRY.
The Welsh Mariners site contained 291 PARRY entries in the "merchant seamen" database, which covers those active from 1800 to 1945, and 21 in the "Royal Navy" database, which included two of those I have previously mentioned on this blog, as being at the Battle of Trafalgar.
The topics then moved on from water to rail, with Dr Richard Marks' talk on Railway History. He covered some of the companies, and the changes to them through the years, but also highlighted sources, such as records of the railway unions, where the payment of subscriptions can be helpful in tracing an ancestor's career. I also noted not to assume that someone recorded as a 'locomotive driver' worked for the most local, or the 'obvious' company, since companies often had depots in various areas, and some towns might have several depots belonging to different companies. Also railway companies sometimes built houses for their workers so, occasionally, an address can help to identify whether someone worked for a railway company.
It was also interesting to be learn about, (or be reminded of) some of the impacts that the spread of the railways would have had on our ancestors' lives, for example, new jobs and occupations that hadn't previously existed, with faster transport links came access to a wider variety of fresh food, and the develpment of things such as fish and chip shops, as well as the opportunities for 'national' sporting events, rather than just local ones.
It wasn't all positive though, as the railways also allowed larger manufacturers to transport their goods further afield, competing with smaller, more local, businesses, which often led to the decline of the latter. The brewery, and shoe manufacturing, were two of the industries specifically mentioned regarding this.
Again there were some specific details that stuck in my mind, such as the comment about the "ikea church" (referring to the 'tin tabernacle' of the Methodists, which was packed up and relocated, whenever the navvies building the railways moved on), that ancestors might appear to change which company they worked for, but it was really to do with mergers, or nationalization, of the companies (a bit like ancestors who seem to move counties between censuses, yet actually live in the same house - it's just the county boundary changed!), and some of the engineering ideas, which were dismissed as 'bizarre', or unworkable at the time, but which have since been 'rediscovered', such as a nuclear powered space vehicle.14
In contrast to Dr Marks' talk, which largely dealt with the 'bigger picture' of the development of the railways, the final session of the day was from Dr Mike Esbester, looking at "What Life Working on the Railways was really like", which focused much more on individuals involved in railway work, and the dangers they faced. Again, a few specifics I noted - that there were many 'invisible roles' on the railways (eg cleaners, bill posters, steam laundry workers, hotel service workers, etc), that companies were more concerned about passenger accidents, than their workers' accidents, viewing accidents on the job as "a natural part of life", and preferring to pay compensation, rather than taking steps to improve overall worker safety, that workers in the railway 'factory' workshops came under a different inspectorate from those actually working on the railways, leading to under-reporting of railway accidents, and that the railway inspectorate did not have the power to go beyond "repeated warnings" in order to enforce safer working practices.
Many of the accidents have been recorded as a result of the "Railway Work, Life & Death" project, which has produced a database of railway worker accidents.15 This currently contains over 200 references to PARRYs (while I might, generally, like finding databases with lots of PARRYs in them, that's not the case this time!)
But, as you can tell, as well as being an interesting and enjoyable day out, the seminar has provided me with quite a bit of additional information to add to the one-name study.
Other news from February
During the month, I picked up two more postcards relating to PARRYs, one addressed to a "Mrs O PARRY", who lived in Ormskirk, Lancashire, in 1915.
It didn't take long to identify Alice, with her husband, Owen, and some of their children, Isabel, Jack, Malcolm, Gordon, and Margaret, in the 1911, and 1921 censuses, as well as in the 1939 Register. There are four trees on Ancestry for Owen and Alice but, as is often the case, it looks like there's a few errors, with incorrect records being added in, so I will need to do some more research on them, in order to confirm the details, and perhaps also look for the friend who sent the postcard from Keswick.
The second postcard hasn't been posted, but features a PARRY Draper and Milliner, in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, from around 1920.
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I suspect this might be the property of Norman and Ada PARRY - in the 1939 register, Ada is managing the business, since Norman is recorded as "incapacitated", and their address is described as "Bank House", which would tie in with a 1905 postcard I've seen on ebay for the same property, at which time it was described as "Lloyds Bank." Although Norman was born in Worcestershire, it appears that he was a drapers apprentice in Staffordshire, in 1891, before moving to Leicester, where he appears in the 1901 census working as a draper's assistant in a "large drapery establishment" at 18 Market Street. Leicester is possibly where he met his future wife, Ada, since there is an Ada M LEAVIS working in a Millinery establishment in Leicester in the 1901 census, although her birthplace, stated as Newcross, Derby, differs from the later censuses. Norman PARRY and Ada LEAVIS married in Camberwell in 1906, before returning to Bromsgrove, to set up business there.
Again, more research is needed to 'tidy up' all the details, but it is encouraging when so much information can be found fairly easily.
At the end of January, a post on facebook, about the Convict Death Registers for New South Wales, led to three PARRY entries - which then increased to 53, when I searched the whole "Convicts Index 1791-1873" collection.16
1. "Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society": https://ywhs.org.uk/
2. Bradshaw's map: Bradshaw, George, 1801-1853.; Gardner, W. R.; Twyford & Wilson., G. Bradshaw's map of canals, navigable rivers, rail roads &c., in the midland counties of England : from actual survey shewing the heights of the ponds on the lines of navigation from a level of 6ft.10in. under the Old Dock Sill at Liverpool / from levels, 1830. On the National Library of Scotland site, at https://maps.nls.uk/countries/england-and-wales/rec/13147
3. The quote about the incident on 28th March 1915: Northampton Chronicle and Echo 29 March 2015, accessed through FindMyPast
4. The escape of the submarine by diving: Irish News and Belfast Morning News 29 July 1916, accessed through FindMyPast
5. British Government's view: Birmingham Daily Gazette 29 July 1916, accessed through FindMyPast
6. Presentations to Captain Fryatt and the chief officer/chief engineer: Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 21 June 1915, accessed through FindMyPast
7. Potentially would be prisoners in Germany: 1st July Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser, accessed through FindMyPast
8. The Brussels potentially captured through a deception: 7th July 1916 Birmingham Daily Post, accessed through FindMyPast
9. The claims the Brussels had been targeted, and Captain doomed: Weekly Dispatch (London) 30 July 1916, accessed through FindMyPast
10. Details of the Captain's family: Star 29 July 1916, accessed through FindMyPast
11. Lloyds Registers: https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/
12. The Soundtoll: https://www.soundtoll.nl/
13. Welsh Mariners site: https://www.welshmariners.org.uk/
14. Nuclear powered space vehicle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_flying_saucer
15. Railway worker accidents: https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/
16. New South Wales, "Convicts Index 1791-1873" collection: https://mhnsw.au/indexes/convicts/convicts-index/
