Facebook post #009 (Apr 2020 – 006-008 were progress updates)
OK, so we’ve reached the great war in the family history… the Great Chocolate War. With the younger sons in Mum’s family trying to make a living away from the family farm in Yorkshire at this time, and Dad’s moving out of Peaky Blinder country, it’s not too surprising that some of the cousins ended up working in chocolate factories. (See George Powell and Leonard Lambert). This was the start of cocoa for the masses. Who would win, Rowntree, or Cadbury?
The picture is of a tin in my collection, the result of a collaboration between the Quaker chocolate company founders, reluctant to support the actual war effort, but also reluctant to offend the Queen. It was a luxury Christmas present for troops in the Boer War.
By WWII, chocolate was considered an essential household food.
So, combining photos from a bunch of places we visited last year, I’m working my through from Edwardian to modern to upload to Flickr in order.
I’m up to this sleek machine – which was as much a leap forward as the Spitfire had been over the Gladiator. Five or so survive around the world; a swarm of 30 was one of the last things my grandmother’s second cousin, Bruce Maclennan RCAF, saw of this earth. With sickening invevitability, a burst of 30mm shells took the nose off his unescorted Avro Lancaster, over a U-Boat yard, near Hamburg. Such was 1945.
RAF Museum, Cosford30mm Cannon. Killed my 2nd cousin Bruce Maclennan, RCAF, 1945. RIPRAF Museum, CosfordRAF Museum, Cosford
On 4 July 1917, a 21-year old Royal Navy air mechanic was one of three killed in a bombing raid on Felixstowe. This I learned today in researching family history: James Cordell was my grandad’s third cousin, and hailed from Southampton. As I’ve been looking at old planes with my son lately, I dug a bit deeper.
So, by 1917, planes like the Royal Aircraft Factory BE2 below (which we saw at RAF Hendon) had become increasingly successful in bringing down the Zeppelin airships which had terrorised London early in the War. But The resulting hiatus was suddenly ended by a series of raids by the giant Gotha biplane bombers of the new ‘England Geschwader’. The first two raids were aborted, their bombs being dropped on the south coast. The fourth was redirected due to weather conditions, and killed cousin James.
James looked after kite balloons which were beginning to have some success as observation platforms from which to spot ‘U-boats’. Flying boats based nearby were developing new techniques to destroy the submarines. Seaplanes developed in Felixstowe provided early funding for the companies which made them, and which came together after the War to form English Electric – of Lightning and Canberra fame.
In 1968, EE became a founding component of GEC, where both my parents worked. I moved to Wellingborough to work for GEC Reliance, and this is why my children were born in Northants. The Felixstowe site was used after the War by Supermarine, who developed the Southampton flying boat below, to replace the older models. Later, of course, they created the Spitfire.
Back in 1917, the third raid, on 13 June, was on London. 17 planes dropped 4 tonnes of high explosives. 162 people were killed, including 18 children in a primary school in Poplar. As a result of these raids, Jan Smuts was commissioned to review the air services. His report led directly to the foundation of the RAF, which started in 1918 as the Independent Air Force. It consisted of nine squadrons of planes including the De Havilland DH9A and Sopwith Camel, below, which now have pride of place at RAF Hendon.
The revulsion to all things German after the raids led directly to the royal family rebranding itself from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor on 17 July 1917.
RAF Museum, LondonRAF Museum, LondonRAF Museum, LondonRAF Museum, London
Doing a bit of family tree. I have Fred Parrott, son of Fred Parrott, and Ernie Parrott, son of Ernie Parrott. Different parents, same grandparents. Then we have brother Major Parrott who married a Frankie. The there is Frank Parrott, son of Frank Parrott, son of Frank Parrott, and a Frank Parrott son of George Parrott, and a Dick Parrott, son of Harry Parrott and all three have different parents but the same grandparents – but (obviously)(partially) different from Fred and Ernie’s. It turns out that the middle Frank, has a brother-in-law called Frank Collier. He also has a nephew called James Parrott, and a brother called James Parrott, and a brother-in-law called James Collier. This James Collier is the son of James Collier who married first Ann Astbury, and then Alice Mary Astbury. James Collier Jr married a different Alice Mary. Their son Sid only had three grandparents as James and Alice were half first cousins. One of these was my 4th great aunt, Martha Barnes, since you ask. And they were all farmers in C19 Staffordshire.
Update (Jan 2020): Even better – one of the Parrots could fly. Third cousin x2 James Edward Parrott got his Royal Aero cert in 1948 in a Miles Hawk at Wolverhampton Aero Club. Here’s one I snapped last summer (a Hawk, not a Parrott).
Plodding through my family history research today, I found a new cousin, Frederick Peckham, who was apparently master of the SS Umona.
During WWII, 36,749 Merchant Navy seamen and women were lost to enemy action, 5,720 were taken prisoner and 4,707 were wounded, totalling 47,176 casualties, a minimum casualty rate of over 25 percent.
SS Umona (Library of Contemporary History, Stuttgart via uboat.net)
Finally got something to boast about on the family tree. My grandad’s 3rd cousin, the composer Harold Box, gave this to the world.
Fred Heatherton is credited as composer – that’s a songwriting pseudonym for a collaboration of English songwriters Harold Elton Box (1903–1981) and Desmond Cox (1903–1966). The song was published by Box and Cox Publications.
Now (Dec 2022) fully imported from my 2020 lockdown Blogger site, converted from posts to pages, and with the contemporary Facebook highlight posts added here as posts.
Now, in a second phase, I’m restructuring to layer in more research without losing coherence, e.g. by separating out the tree summaries to give a thread all the way through from the 32 initial families, and to fold in another generation in summary to the structure. This means that I’m rewriting Chapter V in the same format as Chapters I – IV. The information is presently in the ‘families of…’ pages, formerly family directories.
The Tree itself is currently kept at Ancestry.com; the Living Tree is also available in a private group on Facebook. Let me know if you want access or info.
