Martin Boys of Crieff go to War

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Ewan Martin

This Remembrance Day, I'm following up on some Strelley /Martin relatives. My three-times great-grandaunt, Georgina Grace Greasley Strelley married William Martin and ended up with three boys who had distinguished careers as teachers or clergy.

          Georgina Grace Greasley Strelley    m         William Martin

                               1829-1907                                       1838-1893 

                                                                          

John Rundle Martin  +   William Martin   +     Alexander Moody Stuart Martin   

       1856-1921                       1860-1924                       1868-1921

 

I have previously written about William Jrs sons- William Strelley Martin and Thomas Partington Martin’s distinguished careers. https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2016/03/brigadier-william-strelley-martin-and.html

Previously Georgina’s brother who was  my 2x great grandfather William Strelley was a pensioned soldier who had served in the Crimean War. https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2017/11/everyone-is-called-william-william_22.html

Georgina’s first son  Joseph Rundle Martin, Schoolmaster, Fowlis Wester, and his wife Jane (McEwan) Martin had five sons. Military service was in their blood. Dad, Joseph, had previously served in the Scots Guards.  His older brother William, was a career School Master and Joseph’s two nephews were enlisted enlisted.

Joseph’s sons were

William Martin 1886-1980

John McEwan Martin1886-1972

James Alexander Martin 1891-1951

Peter McEwan Martin (Ewan) 1897-2/12/1917

Henry Stewart Martin (Harry)1899-23/7/1918

The oldest of Joseph and Jane’s sons William  Martin 1886-1980 was precluded from signing up much to his lifelong regret. William Martin was a career school teacher; he ended up being the principal teacher of maths and science at Pitlochry High School and Brett Albain Academy, Aberfeldy. He died in Pitlochry in 1980, aged 94.

 

Henry and Peter Martin

The other four chose to enlist in the Great War : these two would lose their lives before the end of the war.

First to die was Captain Peter McEwan Martin1897-1917  ( known to his family as Ewan), 11th Border Regiment  who was  killed in action, 2nd December 1917.

Peter McEwan Martin (Ewan)

After starting work at the Crieff  Branch of the British Linen Bank, Peter (Ewan) Martin, enlisted around July 1916 as a private with the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), Reg. Nos. 3164 and S/43260. He attained the rank of L/Cpl. and was then promoted to temporary 2nd. Lieut. with effect from 26th Feb. 1917 (Supplement to the London Gazette 5 April 1917) and transferred from a Service Bn. Royal Highlanders to the 11th Bn. Border Regt. 

There is no record of his promotion to Captain, but it is likely that he was promoted “in the field,” because of his leadership qualities and heavy casualties.

Copies of letters he wrote to his sister in law Mary have survived. Initially he is upbeat about his experience and had seen his brother James several times as they are in the same division. They are both in good health. Weeks later they are in the trenches – the weather has turned and there is plenty of mud. “As long as one is in good health there is no reason for grumbling.”

By July 1917 he writes that he and James have both been wounded. He was injured twice in five days but nothing too serious. All up he was wounded 3 times.  His brother James was injured and required convalescence locally – not back home.

Letter sent to Aunt Mary from the Front Aug 1917

As this August letter  says he is a young Company Commander with perhaps more skill than the older boys- they will soon be off to action and “it will be up to me to pull them through.”

 

A MOONLIGHT MASSACRE....

 

An Extract from “A Moonlight Massacre: The Night Operation on the Passchendaele Ridge, 2nd December 1917” by Michael Stephen LoCicero tells the story. A detailed account of the night attack can be found here - from "A Moonlight Massacre: The Night Operation on the Passchendaele Ridge, 2nd December 1917" by Michael Stephen LoCicero. P188 

“With two companies in front and two immediately behind, the 11th Border Regiment (CO Major and acting Lieutenant-Colonel T.F. Tweed, MC) waited for Zero-hour along the 300-yard jumping-off tape. Silence was maintained as the battalion ascended the gentle incline toward the summit of Vat Cottage Ridge at 1:55 a.m."

"Confronting them was the anticipated collection of occupied shell hole outposts comprising the Vorfeldzonelinie, the left-hand portion of linear trench facing 16th HLI and, beyond the forward edge of the Hauptwiderstandslinie and subsequent green line objective, the ramshackle agglomeration of dugouts, shelters and trenches found, approximately 200 yards south of the battalion’s final red line objective, in Mallet Copse."

"Another short stretch of linear trench, protected by barbed wire and extending from Veldt Farm to Mallet Copse, had also been noted by II Corps intelligence in the days leading up to the attack."

“The enemy remained quiet as the four companies of 11th Border Regiment silently entered no man’s land. Sporadic rifle bursts – immediately followed by a vicious fusillade and cascade of descending magnesium flares – put paid to any hoped for surprise. Both front companies, resolute in the face of fierce machine-gun fire, quickly swept over the Vorfeldzonelinie and, topping the ridge crest, occupied the green line and seized Veldt Farm."

"The two leap-frogging companies, passing through the secured intermediate objective, rushed downhill to enter Mallet Copse at its southern end. Bomb and bayonet made short work of any occupants discovered among the haphazard warren of mined dugouts, corrugated metal-roofed shrapnel shelters and narrow trench sections before the tiny copse was cleared and its north edge gained. Any further advance from there through the muddy northern valley towards the red line was stopped by machine-gun fire originating 200 yards northward from inundated Mallet Wood. Remnants of the leap-frogging companies, their position now rendered untenable under a rain of bullets, fell back to ‘the southern edge of the copse with their left flank refused"

“The 11th Border Regiment, notwithstanding heavy casualties and resultant confusion, had been able to advance 500 yards and occupy dispersal positions of the green line intermediate objective to – 200 yards short of the red line – Mallet Copse. This epic action by the ‘Lonsdale’ Battalion, was, as with other battalions of 25 and 97 Brigades, underlined by many obscure human tragedies now lost to time.”

Although there is no definitive record of how Ewan Martin lost his life, it would have been at some stage of this action.

The War Diary of the 11th Border Regiment states that

“Casualties included Capt. P.M. Martin along with other officers”

Officer casualties for 11th Border Regiment were as follows: Killed: Captains I. Benson, A.F. Sandeman,P.M. Martin; 2nd Lieutenants R.C. Richardson, W.B. MacDuff. Wounded: Captain McConnan, 2ndLieutenants J.M. Jamie, Fell, Hotchkiss, Malley Martin, Duff, Abbey. 34-year-old Captain Issac Benson,33-year-old Captain Albert Fitzroy Sandeman, 21-year-old Captain Peter McEwan Martin, 2nd Lieutenant Robert Cecil Richardson (age unknown) and 24-year-old 2nd Lieutenant William Brown MacDuff have no known grave and are commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing.

Peter's obituary

His Commander wrote this lovely tribute to mother  Jane telling of her son’s service and death.

  

Reprinted letter from Peter's Lt-Cpl

His little brother, the youngest of the Martin boys, Henry Stewart Martin1899-23/7/1918, also known as Harry S. Martin, was with the 6th Gordon Highlanders.

Henry Stewart Martin

Henry (Harry) Martin enlisted in Perth in March 1917 not long after finishing school. According to information on the Commonwealth War Graves site, he commenced his basic training and joined his Battalion in September 1917 near Dirty Bucket Corner in an area to the North West of Ypres. Note I have not been able to confirm this as it is at odds with his age and the obituary below.

On 23rd July 1918 the 6th Battalion was subjected to heavy artillery fire and suffered numerous casualties on 23rd July 1918. Fifty-one Gordon Highlanders were killed including Henry on that day alone. Henry was just 18 ½ years old when he lost his life. 

The Battalion Diary shows there was difficulty with terrain and training.

6th Highlander's War diary of the day

Sometime after the 23rd of July Henry’s parents learned that their youngest son had been killed in action in France. His summer death seems to have come only weeks after he had finished his school career as he had enlisted during the spring. His death was recorded in the local newspaper.

Henry's Obituary

 

Commonwealth War Grave - Henry is buried at Marfaux British Cemetery

 Henry Martin is also commemorated with his brother Peter on the Fowlis Wester Parish War Memorial.

The Fowlis-Wester Memorial at the local Church

Up until their his enlistment the boys had been attending the distinguished Perth Academy, a traditional and highly reputed secondary school in Perth, Scotland.

It is noted that 165 former students lost their lives during the Great War. As part of the Perth Academy remembers research project in 2014 students set about remembering the 168 former pupils and staff who lost their lives in World War I.

The” Flowers of the Forest” Research Project remembered them during the centenary of World War I. The current links for the research project on their website are broken, but the war stories have been transferred to the relevant people on the Commonwealth War Graves site. Peter McEwan Martin and Henry Stuart Martin. Links are here.Captain Peter Mcewan Martin | First World War Story | For Evermore and Private H S Martin | First World War Story | For Evermore story 

The Great War Memorial in the school hall remembers the boys. Relative Sheila McMillan visited the school on a recent return to the UK. She presented the school with memorabilia she held for Peter McEwan Martin (Ewan). This is now displayed next to the Roll of Honour. It includes medals, letters, and photos.

Memorial at Perth Academy with Peter's (Ewan's) Memorabilia framed to the right

One thing led to another, the Perth Academy put me on to the fact that Sheila had provided the information and that she had emigrated to Australia. I tracked her down via her ancestry tree and discovered we lived close enough to meet up. So recently, I enjoyed a coffee with my Australian fourth cousin looking at her copies of photos, letters, and comparing notes. Too busy talking, and sorry, no photos.

Back to the Martin family...

Poor Jane and Joseph Martin, their second son, killed for service of their country. With William jealously at home, Jane and Joseph nervously waited news of their other two sons.

 

James Alexander Martin, 1891 - 1951, is the brother referred to as injured in Peter's letters. His service with the King's Own Scottish, service number 22369, where he was an Acting Warrant officer, Second class. His brother Ewan’s letters back home in the early days mention seeing James once or twice over in France, that he had been injured and had convalesced.

His obituary has him demobilised with a rank of Sergeant Major by the end of the War and no other war records can be found.

After the death of his father, Joseph Rundle Martin  in 1921, he continued with his financial career and married Gladys Mallet. In 1929, he travelled to Canada and was an investment dealer with WC Pitfield and Co. and wife Gladys and his son Peter Martin, born in Hampstead in 1928, followed in 1931 on the Ausonia. They lived in St John and Monreal.

When the Second World War broke out, he enlisted in the Active Army, in which he served for most of the war as an adjunct to the 2nd Battalion, St John Fusiliers, with the rank of Captain. Post-war, he was transferred to Toronto as manager for Hugh McKay & Co, which a post he held to his death, dying in York, Toronto on 20/2/1951.  He was survived by his wife, Mabel, an active Red Cross worker, and his son, Peter.

James' Obituary

The 4^th Brother to serve was a career Soldier. John McEwan Martin 1886-1972 was the second oldest boy. By the time of his death he appears to have been somewhat distanced from his remaining brother William who did not go to war and of course his brother who immigrated to Canada. He had a distinguished career as a professional soldier. The London Gazette lists him in the 30th of March 1915 as temporary lieutenant. His war records cannot be located. However, he has an interesting story and a very distinguished career

At the outbreak of the War he married Lanarkshire born Cecilia Turnbull Anderson in 1915 in Lanarkshire. She had finished her medical training in Glasgow. After the War ended the couple lived in London.

John signs the 1921 Census as Captain of the Royal Engineers. He is 36 years old and an Analytical Chemist with the Ministry of Labour Training College and she is a 36 year old physician and surgeon with the Public Health Services of the Leyton District Council.  

Later, he was promoted to Captain from 4 July 1922. In 1924, he is with the London Divisional Engineer Corps of the Royal Engineers. She died, possibly in childbirth, in 1927.

He married for a second time to Mabel Dickinson in 1935 in London. Later, in 1937, John was promoted to Major. He was obviously involved during World War II. (No records are available. ) Sheila feels he was involved with research into flame-throwing technology and weaponry. Flame thrower incendiary devices were used in WWI and more widely in WWII as tactical weapons against battlefield fortifications and bunkers.

 He was finally discharged in 1949 when he reached retirement age.

John's obituary

After this time, he married for a third time in 1960 to Edna Muriel Leighton, and they lived together until John's death in 1972. His obituary shows he received an OBE, possibly for military service. Edna died in 2000 in Nottinghamshire.

As part of the research into these war stories, I looked into Georgina's remaining sons and grandsons. William, whose two sons were career soldiers, died in 1924. His sons served out two wars.

Alexander Moody, Stuart Martin, who married Christina Williamson, were missionaries who migrated to Montreal in 1911. Their sons William and Henry were too young to serve in World War I. Son William died in 1924, and Henry and his clan appear to have followed in the family religious service occupation.

Meanwhile Joseph and Jane continued to live locally, Joseph dying in 1921 and Jane in 1951.  Their plaque commemorates their two dead sons also.

Jane and Joseph's tombstone

This Remembrance Day I cannot begin to imagine how hard it would be to have your four sons serving in the war, especially after two were killed and another being injured.

I, myself have daughters who, for most of their life, have been safe from enlistment. Two of them have grown up daughters now, who now would be called up and would have to serve. The times have changed, and there'd be an expectation that the women would be there.

I hope I never see this or my grandsons being called to fight in another world war.

Thank you for your service, Martin family. Thanks for a job well done.

Rest in Peace

We will remember them on this Remembrance Day 2025.

  

More Rowbothams found..... David Grant Rowbotham aka Rowe and his sister Peggy Grant Rowbotham

David Rowbotham and Cousin Cpl Leighton Rowbotham

After I found the Rowbothams in Canada Found.... The Rowbothams of Ontario, one son, Alfred Rowbotham, intrigued me. There was much sorrow in his life. His parents died when he was young and then he followed his siblings to Canada to live in 1905. His marriage to Charlotte Grant ended in three babies dying as infants and poor Charlotte dying of TB a short while later. 

I feel that he was sponsored to Canada by a rich uncle who was in the building industry in Warwickshire as there were plenty of opportunities for building in the expanding Canadian provinces and the US territories. As such he had contacts and opportunities in both countries and back home in England.

Next this young widower is found in England as a 33-year-old married to Margaret Robotham (nee Scott) with a child, Peggy Grant  Robotham, in the 1921 English census. Peggy was born in Manchester in 1916.

Rowbotham family 1921 Census

It seems Alfred returned to Canada shortly after the census to prepare the way for his little family. In 1922, Peggy and Margaret  travelled to Canada to make a new home with Alfred. They lived in Canada from 1922 to 1926, and after a visit back home to England, returned in 1926 to Toronto. Peggy had many trips back and forward to visit her grandmother in England. Presumably they must have been able to afford frequent 5 day travel across the Atlantic. Little Peggy has travelled backwards and forwards with or without her mother between Canada and her grandmother's back in England. Her grandmother is Janet Scott, living in Nottingham Road, Mansfield. She is familiar with her home country.

Reading between the lines, it seems Alfred and Margaret split at some time during his time in Toronto. 

Further investigations show a marriage between Alfred  and  Verea Carr, previously Simmons. When at 40 years of age, he married on the 1st of March 1929 in Detroit, the marriage certificates states he has been married twice and now divorced and has no legal wife living. She is also a divorcee. This marriage lasted from the 27th of July 1929 to the 13th of October 1930, when final divorce papers were issued. They had in fact parted in April 1930.

Passenger papers show him in a 1930 border crossing from USA to Ontario to his brother's place from Detroit.

Next Alfred married another Margaret, Margaret M Adams in October 1933 in Rumford, Essex. A son, David Grant Rowbotham, was born in London on the 23rd of July 1934. They lived in London. It seems Margaret may have died in childbirth a year or so later. This is according to an article accessed regarding little David Rowbotham.

Alfred and David in 1939 Register

This is backed up by the War time 1939 Register record, where Alfred and a minor are living in London. Alfred is a  widowed father. David was told stories by his dad about living in Canada and of his extended family who had settled there in the 1900s.

David's life was almost as tragic as his father's.....

A few years later, London and other parts of England were hit by the Blitz. The Blitz was a surprise attack bombing campaign by Germany and Italy  during WWII for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. It was mainly a night campaign on London, Liverpool and other port  and industrial cities.

At some time during the Blitz, David and Alfred's house/home was hit. Details of what happened next are a little sketchy. It seems Alfred was seriously injured, possibly killed, and/ or was unable to care for his son. Records at the time are sketchy due to the carnage.

Newspaper reporting says that David was orphaned or considered as such. He was taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Taylor of Brighton Sussex, adding to the six orphaned children they had already taken in, because of the London Blitz. 

Some years later, luckily for David, his cousin, Corporal Leighton Arthur Rowbotham, had arrived in London in November 1945 after war service in Germany.

He had enlisted and spent three years in Germany with the Canadian Army. He had received a letter from his family, asking him to trace his little cousin, David. By this time, David was 11 and still living with the Fraser's in Brighton. Leighton set about obtaining legal custody and offering David a home in Belleville, Canada.

“I want to give David a good education and the opportunities which I think Canada can offer him" said Leighton in a newspaper article. Leighton’s parents were George and Florence Rowbotham. 

George was Alfred's older brother. Florence was ecstatic. She was the mother of 13, (10 living) children. Adopting one more was no problem to her. She had four grandchildren living nearby and was looking forward to taking in the son of her husband's brother. “This is a children's country and we know that David will be happy here” she said.

Back in England, the magistrate commended Corporal Rowbotham for his appeal to others to adopt orphan children into Canada. David himself was happy to go back to the place his father had talked about. "I think I would like to be a farmer or a railway man, but anyway, I'm going to be a good citizen of Canada" he said. People have described him as a red head who was a well-mannered boy. He was also a very good singer. He lived with his father’s brother and family in Kern County.  

And what became of Peggy?

Peggy Rowbotham married in 1933 in Detroit. Her marriage too was short-lived, divorcing in February 1938. One child had resulted; George W. Day Jr  was born on the 22nd in 1935 in Detroit and it wasn’t a happy marriage. It seems he may have stayed with his father.  Peggy appears to have returned to England possibly with her father. There looks to be on a 1939 record with her pursuing a career in nursing.

She married Alexander McDougall in 1944 in Surrey. She doesn't appear to have had any more children. Peggy Grant McDougall died in 1981 in Camden, Greater London. Due to the circumstances, she probably wasn't very close to her little brother David, who came along after her father's divorce from Verea Carr and his fourth marriage to Margaret Adams in 1933.

What became of David?

He moved to Toronto,  married Vivian and had two children.

In 1950, he joined the Black Watch Army and was in Korea in the early 50s. When he came back to Canada, he packed his family up and followed Uncle Art (Leighton Arthur Rowbotham) and  Aunty May (Martha Laing) to Bakersfield, California. He died on his birthday in 2002.

He was a home repair handyman and personnel manager at the White Front Store in the early 70s and a driver for Orange Belt Stage Lines for 10 years. At some stage he changed his name to Rowe.

His obituary notes him as  a member of the Stein Road Baptist Church. “He had a servant's heart and left his world after spending several days working on a church at the Eagle Mount Indian Reservation.”

He was survived by his wife Viviann Rowe, son Brian, daughter Janet and grandchildren.

William Theodore Block 1888- 1962 AKA Shorty de Witt

 

This story follows another of my vaudeville relatives Willam Theodore Bloch or Block also known as Shorty deWitt.

Shorty and his burlesque partner Lillian 1905- The Evening Star 16/1/1905

Years ago, I discovered the Bloch/ Block family. A first cousin, three times removed, named Katherine Murphy, had married a man named Theodore Bloch in Glasgow, Scotland. Theodore was from Germany. They had a couple of daughters, and soon moved to Chicago, where they added seven more children to their family.

A couple of DNA matches caught my eye, and my search started. Chicago was full of German people making new homes. It had the added interest of Theodore coming via Glasgow. see a previous story written in 2018 https://robynandthegenies.blogspot.com/2018/07/from-dungannon-tyrone-to-chicago-via.html

The German families seemed to get along in Chicago quite nicely, and I began to flesh them out. One child stood out. He was in theatre, and I love a vaudevillian. And there is grease paint running in the veins of the Murphys.

The child was named William Theodore Bloch later Block. He was Chicago born to Theodore and C(K)atherine in 1888. Further investigation showed that he was born with dwarfism, a feature which probably made him popularly expoited on the stage and would be totally outrageously discriminatory these days *.

By 1905, he had been working in theatre for about four years. By then he was 17 years of age, William was performing in New York as part of a burlesque team, “Shorty and Lillian DeWitt”.

                    Report of Shortys "abduction " case

His father, Theodore arrived from Chicago in 1905, charging that Lillian and her husband Louis Ulmer had abducted his infant son. At this stage, William was 17 years old and three feet 9 inches tall. Lillian and Lewis counterclaimed that he had been contracted with the consent of his parents. They claimed to have taught him the art of mimicry and dancing, and he was able to now work as a co-partner.

Some may have thought that his age and disability made him simple and or less than capable. Perhaps his parents, Theodore and Catherine, were being a little bit overprotective. At the court case, young William claimed that he was not being held against his will and that he lived with the Ulmers. He was earning $40 per month, and he sent $35 per month to his father who by then was an aging carpenter.

He also claimed that his father wanted him back to put him on the stage himself and possibly make more money. His father Theodore admitted that his son had been sending nearly all his wages to him for four years and that it was his mother Catherine or Katherine who was (probably fretting), wanting him home. The case was sent to a referee and the result is unknown.

After the discovery of the Abduction court case it was found that William had been living with Lillian's family (Schols) for some time as an adopted son aged 13 and at school in the 1900 census. The family were from  musical entertainment background. By the time of the court case in the 1905 census he is living with Lillian, her husband Lew, 7 month old daughter and her now retired parents. He is listed as a boarder and Actor.  (Lillian died in 1911 from what looks like a burst appendix.)

William living with the Schols family in 1900

His World War One Registration Card shows William working for Marcus Leow as a performer in New York. Marcus founded Leow's Theatrical Enterprises, New York City. With World War One, the focus of American entertainment shifted from vaudeville to movies at about this time.

In 1910, Loew had acquired another production house…think MGM. His business grew from a New York theatre circuit presenting vaudeville and early moving pictures.

The registration card claims he has no disability and that he is supporting his mother and father. The World War I draft describes himself as medium, grey-eyed, brown hair, and short. Presumably his height would have precluded him from army service.

A Review in "Variety" 4/4/1914

A "Variety" review appeared in April 1914 which tells of his teaming up with Grace Stewart. " The act was a small sized riot , due principally to the knockabout work of Shorty who is bowled over in grotesque fashion by Miss Stewart."

  In 1918 he and partner Maybelle Gunther performed at Reading. He was described as “Shorty is one of the best-known Lilliputians* on stage and ranks head and shoulders not in physique but in talent over most of the other little people on stage.”  Under the name of Dewitt and Gunther they had their own stage setting and did a “melange of comedy, singing and talk.”

At the end of World War I, on the 26th of October 1918, He married his fellow artist Mabel Grace Gunther, who had been performing with him as Shorty DeWitt and Mabel Gunther in “A Pint and a Half of Fun.” Mabel was of normal height. They had a child, June Block, in 1920 in New York. June lived until 1934, dying in San Diego. It is not known if she suffered from Dwarfism.

One of his characters around 1919 was Jeff, as in “Mutt and Jeff” who amused with nimble antics and created much mirth.  Their routine had brilliant dialogue, a score of tuneful musical numbers, and some sumptuous musical production.

In a review of his show which was called “Youthful Follies”at the Columbia Burlesque  in 1924 he and Maybelle are among the acts receiving wonderful plaudits.

Advertising for thr "Youthful Follies"

In one scene Maybelle appeared in a bathing suit number with dancing girls for a fitting and cleverly lit finale for Part 1. In Part 2  “Shorty deWitt” was described as the most “likeable appearing midget *we have seen on any stage.” Then with Maybelle they “sang, talked and danced and what they said was “fully encored.”

The end of a marriage

In 1927, Mabel had sought a divorce from William, charging him with infidelity. In newspaper reports of the divorce there was much ado about their comparative heights. William was ordered to pay $20 a week to Mabel for alimony. Mabel went on to marry Rolf Rodefer Pryor only months after the divorce.

After his divorce, he is seen living with his brother George and sister, the widowed Elizabeth Daly, and her family in the 1930 census and despite the early depression years and the downturn of live theatre he lists his profession as being an actor in the Theatre.

Draft information WW2

The WWII draft records him as 3 feet 9 inches, 90 pounds, blonde hair with hazel eyes and light complexion. William Theodore's WW2 registration card shows him working for the WPA Theatrical Project in Boston. The WPA, The Works Project Administration, WPA, was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as part of the New Deal Capital's attempt to combat the Depression.

This included the Federal Theatre Project, FTP, an attempt to offer work to theatrical professionals. It was established on 27 August 1935. Over 100 theatre productions took place in 22 different states. Many of these were given free in schools and community centres.

Other outstanding theatre people served as regional directors. Although performers were only paid $22.73 a week, the FWP employed some of America's most talented artists. The WPA Theatre Project was to assist the homeless and penniless performers.

Not a lot is known about Shorty, Bill, Dewitt, William in the intervening years. People described him as a giant among show people. His cute personality, button nose, and sparkling blue eyes, and his dancing feet brought him fame and fortune in the 1920s and beyond he performed in various parts of America and reputedly in Europe. People remembered his side splitting stunts and humour. He was still well known and respected by the time of his death.

It appears when he died aged 74 in late 1962, he was with little finances. In the last 10 years of life, he had failing health. However, people had seen him out and about, walking his two cocker spaniels for many years. After they succumbed to old age, Shorty devoted his attention to tropical fish and his cat.

With ill health, he was taken to hospital on the 14th of October 1962, but died after an emergency stomach operation. Destined to be buried in a pauper’s grave, some old-time vaudevillians banded together and sought out an old friend of William's, who had known him for 30 years. This friend was a Mrs. Marcia Van Nordstan who had been a dancer and singer back in the day.

She checked out his finances and found he received a $40 a month social security pension and a $38 per month old age stipend. She contacted the Actors Guild, which donated a grave for Shorty, and the funeral home made the final arrangements without requiring compensation. Thanks to these actions, he received a grand farewell, which he well deserved.

Vaudevillians band together

Authors note *  In this day and age, the terms used in the newspaper reviews would be offensive and derogatory. We have moved on since the 1920s.This story remembers the life and times  of a vaudevillian as many are undocumented due to the decline in this form of entertainment. No offense or ridicule is intended.

You've got to pick a pocket or two! "John" Cashmore Israel, circa 1796 to 1872.

 

This story follows on from the Anzac Day story The Fighting Israels.  Here I look into the grandfather of these fighting heros, his convict origins and his successes.

Cashmore Israel was convicted in the Old Bailey in 1817 in England, sentenced to death, but had his sentence commuted to life upon the mercy of the court. He was transported as a convict to Australia serving  his sentence in the New South Wales colony and then was sent to Van Dieman’s Land or Tasmania. and was reportedly a well loved member of an “old Launceston family” upon his death in 1872.

How does an 18-year-old come to this? His Old Bailey Court case reads like a chapter from one of Charles Dickens' novels.

He was arrested on the 12th of November 1817 and was indicted for stealing jewellery and other items from his father's house. 

He was accused of theft from a specified place (stealing, on the 11th of november, at the Parish of St. Botolph, Aldgate, one necklace, value 2l. 10s.; one pair of bracelets, value 1l.10s.; three broaches, value 3l.; one pair of ear-rings, value 1l.; four yards of cotton, value 5s.; eight yards of poplin, value 16s.; two rings, value 5s.; and two other broaches, value 3s., the goods of Isaiah Israel , in his dwelling-house).

In this excerpt form the trial he admits to his bad behaviour.

His father, a general dealer (pawn broker) from Houndsditch *, Isaiah Israel, said at his case, 'I am the unfortunate father of the prisoner.' When his daughter began missing some property, he suspected his son and reported him to police. Perhaps this is a little harsh but maybe he could not afford such a loss. In his favour, his father had claimed that Cashmore was born in 1799, but was most likely born in 1796; this was to avoid the death penalty.

*Houndsditch is a street in London known for its historical association with pawnbrokers and the trade of goods, including those of questionable origin. While not specifically a single pawnbroker, the area has been a location where pawnbrokers operated and where stolen goods were likely to be fenced. 

Isaiah’s child had been in trouble since he was about 11. Cashmore was one of 10 children of Isaiah and Yilete Israel. The convict records site https://convictrecords.com.au/  hints that he had been expelled from the family and lived on the streets from his early teens. He was quite possibly a forerunner to the likes of streetwise Artful Dodger, Oliver Twist and Fagan's gang of children who worked as thieves and pickpockets.

Charles Dickens, writing in books such as Oliver Twist, used to vividly describe the social problems he was observing in London; he was merely a child when Israel was transported, but he was deeply influenced by his own circumstances, i.e, his father was in debtor's prison, and what he saw around him.

“Oliver Twist” was not written until 1837, well after John Cashmore Israel was transported but it is believed that Ikey Solomon who Dicken’s Fagan character was modelled on lived about 10 houses down from Cashmore’s home and the surrounding pawn shops.

On the 20th of December 1817 at the Old Bailey, he was given a sentence of death for stealing in his father's house goods. 

Cashmore Israel was placed in Newgate Prison near the Old Bailey Jail and later awaited his transportation to Australia in the Hulk Bellerophen, a decommissioned Navy ship which was moored on the Thames River at Woolwich. It was technically a floating prison due to the overcrowded prisons in London.

"Bellerophon Hulk "

He sailed on the Glory to New South Wales on the 30th of April 1818 among 169 other convicts. When he arrived in Sydney on the 14th of September 1818 after a journey of 119 days he and the convicts who arrived on that voyage were dispersed to Parramatta, Windsor, Liverpool, and Bringelly.

Cashmore was only to remain in the New South Wales colony for six months when he with about 60 others continued their sentence in Van Dieman’s Land.

He was placed on the Prince Leopold to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) where he remained a prisoner for more than 18 years doing public service. Van Diemen's Land was known to hold the more dangerous or troublesome of the criminals.

He had a clean sheet for three years. His misdemeanours started in 1822, where he was charged before the magistrate for “neglect of duty” and ended up in a chain gang, in irons, for 30 days. His misdemeanours continued when on 17th of September 1827, he was charged with being absent from his post as a watchman in the new store and punished to work for one fortnight in the chain gang.

 

Click to expand John's record. 

He received a conditional a conditional pardon in 1830. On February 6, 1832, he was charged with assaulting Margaret Rogers and bound over to keep the peace for three months.

On 4 June 1932, he was charged with absconding, being concealed on board the bargue, Princess Augusta. As a condition of his ticket of leave, he was not to be aboard any ship. So this deprived him of his ticket of leave.

On the 3rd of January 1834, his surgeon ruled him unfit for labour. Later on the 2nd of October 1936, for making use of obscene language, he was fined five shillings.

He received his full ticket of leave and eventually his free pardon in November 1842 after 23 years in the Colony and 4 years holding a conditional pardon with good conduct. He was “well recommended”.

At some stage, Cashmore added John to his name to be known as John Cashmore Israel.

Later in June 1844, John Cashmere Israel married Adelaide Cooke who arrived in Tasmania via the New South Wales colony. She had come to Australia with her mother, who was being transported for larceny. Unfortunately, her mother, Sophia Cooke nee Sanders, passed away during the journey, and upon arrival in Sydney Town spent her early years in the Sydney Orphan School with her young brother Alfred Cooke, before being sent to Tasmania, probably as a child servant.

He acquired a property around northern Tasmania,  and gained his pawnbroker license in Brisbane Street on the 17th of April 1947.

Site of John's Pawnbroking business

By the 1850s, he was a man of property. He had taken on the trades he had known from his father: baker, confectioner, jeweller, and pawnbroker.

Together, John and Adelaide had nine children.

The Israel family tree  Click on the photo to expand

 

Though Jewish, his wife was Anglican, and the children were brought up Anglican. His sons went to Barrett's Private Academy and the Church of England Grammar School. Some sons went into banking and the army moving to NZ and New South Wales . John William Israel became the Chief Auditor General of the government upon Federation! Only in Australia could sons of convicts rise to be the men in charge of the government purse or a financial institution. Charles Dickens, the champion of social justice, redemption, and social reform, would be very proud.

It is not known whether John Cashmere Israel ever connected with his family again. Being Jewish, records are limited for them. His father died in 1820 and is buried in the Great Synagogue in London. His mother died in 1842.

However, his sisters and brothers began  slipping into the English records when 10 yearly census records and births, deaths, and marriages began to be recorded around the 1840s. Judging by death records and probates, they mostly married well, had small families and left plenty of cash. It seems Hannah remained single and was housed by her siblings.

The rest of John's story is that he lived out his days in Launceston. Despite becoming more feeble he was working to the end collecting rents and other commission business the day before his death.  The local papers recorded the death of John Cashmore Israel, an old colonist of 53 years standing, on the 29th of May 1872, at the age of 73 years. At that stage, he was reported as a confectioner and a commission agent.

Israel, says the “Cornwall Chronicle” was a man known and respected not only by the residents of Launceston, but a large proportion of the colonists of northern Tasmania. He died of apoplexy. Towards the end of his life he expressed the desire to see his oldest son who was absent from the colony living in NZ. He also stated his desire as a Hebrew to be interred by those of his own creed with the customary Jewish rites.

He was buried according to Jewish rites in the Jewish burial ground in Georgetown Road. Each of the deceased’s sons, who were raised Anglican, placed a shovel full of clay on the coffin in the Jewish tradition. Australian Israelite, 7-6-1872.

His obituary described him as an active and intelligent man with a respectable family. It rued the fact that he was long term resident passing with a vast knowledge of the development of Port Dalrymple and the “rise and progress of Launceston”. He had been respected by locals for his authoritative knowledge in Courts of Law regarding town allotments in cases of disputed land claims.

 

He predeceased Adelaide who lived for a further 16 years until 1898. 

Now, if you dig a little further into Adelaide's story and that of her mother and father, the plot thickens- it’s a story which starts in Jamaica, of money lost, bigamy, domestic violence, inheritance scandals - a story for another day. Watch this space!