Cawdery Ancestors

The following genealogy represents the hard work of Tanya Baker. A more complete family tree can be found on the FamilySearch website.  You will need to open an account. The site is completely free of charge.

See: George Cawdery (1834-1898)

Direct son to father line (top to bottom)

The Family of Francis Arthur Cawdery

Francis Arthur Cawdery

Francis Arthur Cawdery was born in Dublin, Ireland on the 14th of May, 1875, and baptized a Roman Catholic at St. Andrew's Church in Westland Row.  The church is only a ten-minute walk from where his family lived at 20 Queen's Square (now Pearse Square), which is part of a quiet 'Georgian' terrace that forms one side of a then private square.


His parents were George Cawdery (1832-1898) of Lambeth, and Teresa Scott (1842-1879) of Dublin.  George was a master carpenter, who specialized in making stage sets. He moved to Ireland's capital about the time the Gaiety Theatre opened in 1871 in order to take advantage of the city's thriving theatre business.


George, Theresa and their children returned to England sometime after January 1877. [1]  In 1879, Teresa died, and the following year George remarried, and  moved to Camberwell, Surrey,  According to the 1881 census, George's family lived at 40 Maydwell St., Camberwell. [2]


 

St Andrews, Dublin

The Cawdery family lived at 20 Queen's (Pearse) Square.

Registration of the birth of Francis Arthur Cawdery (Dublin, Ireland)
click on image to enlarge

Stowell Memorial (1869-1981), Salford

Francis Arthur Cawdery followed in his father's footsteps, and became a 'theatrical property master'. Leaving Camberwell, we next encounter him in Salford, Lancashire, where he married May Hall of Ashton Under Lyne on the 14th of November 1894.  The wedding took place at Stowell Memorial Church on Eccles New Road.

page 141 Parish Register

23 West Brownbill Street, Salford
near the corner of intersection of Cross Lane, Regent Road,
Eccles New Road and Trafford Road.

At the time of the marriage, May Hall lived at 23 West Brownbill Street along with her siblings and their mother, Frances (Fanny).  The 1891 census describes Frances as a 'Boarding Home Keeper', and as the widowed head of the household. Her husband, Nathaniel Hall of Mossley, Yorkshire, died sometime between 1881 and 1891. His death may have precipitated a move from Oldham, where the family lived in 1881, to Salford. Before his death, Nathaniel worked as a mechanic.

May Cawdery holding her eldest daughter, May, circa 1900

After they were married, Francis Arthur and May continued to live at 23 West Brownbill Street. Their first two children, Alfred (1896-1897) and George (1895-1899) were lost in childhood to either diphtheria or scarlet fever.  Their surviving children were:

• May 1898-1955
• Lilian 1900-1972   
• Arthur Valentine 1905-1964
• Joseph Frederick 1907-1963
• Elsie 1912-1962
• John Charles 1914-1972
• Jack 1918-2001

Francis Arthur Cawdery died in 1939.  His wife, May Hall Cawdery, died in 1948.

May and Francis Arthur 

Francis Arthur and May Hall Cawdery with their daughters,
May (standing) and Lilian. circa 1902/3

Photos: There are more photographs of the Cawdrey clan on Flickr

Notes

[1] Teresa gave birth to Mary Georgina Cawdery on 29 December 1876. The birth was registered in Dublin on 20th January 1877.

[2] Maydwell was near the intersection of Camberwell Rd and Albany Road

First World War Centenary. 12: 2nd Lieutenant John Legge Bulmer

Source: Newsletter. Merton College, Oxford 2016
click on image to enlarge

2nd Lieutenant John Legge Bulmer (1913)

4th Battalion, attached to 5th (Service) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

John Bulmer was born on 18th September 1894 in Yorkshire, the third son of Revd Edward Philips Bulmer and Elizabeth, née North, of 1 Brooklands, Filey, North Yorkshire. He had four brothers and a sister.

He was educated at Marlborough College where he was head boy in 1913, and knew TS Eliot while at Merton College.

He volunteered for service in October 1915, and went to France the following March. Wounded on 6th September 1916, he was sent home; he rejoined his regiment in January 1917.

He was posted as missing, presumed killed in action, aged 22, during an attack near Cherisy on 3rd May 1917.

He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France. 

Source: Merton@750 Anniversary Collection

• BBC article
• Find a Grave Memorial
• Merton College News
• Pintrest
• Merton at War 1914-1918

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Record (Grave Registration Document)

Rank:

Second Lieutenant

Date of Death:

03/05/1917

Age:

22

Regiment/Service:

Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry

 

"A" Coy. 4th Bn. attd. 5th Bn.

Panel Reference:

Bay 6 and 7.

Memorial:

ARRAS MEMORIAL

Additional Information:

Son of the Rev. Edward and Elizabeth Bulmer, of 1, Brooklands, Filey, Yorks. Educated at Marlborough College. Postmaster of Merton College, Oxford, 1913-1915.

Anyone who can help with the search is being asked to contact Lynne Gammond at the Army via email lynne.gammond453@mod.uk or on 07769 887707.

Primrose Day

From that lost land where every dream is sweet
I have brought you a little shining star.
I strew my primroses beneath your feet.
                               
                                  from Nera's Song by Eva Gore-Booth.

The primrose grows wild in Ireland, decorating damp woods, shady banks and the hedgerows of country lanes.  It is considered a harbinger of spring, appearing from March until May. The flower held a special place in Irish mythology long before the Victorians created Primrose Day.  Nera, the harper, brought primroses to Queen Maeve's court to prove that he had spent a year with the aos sí.  On May Day (Bealtaine), garlands of primrose flowers were placed over the threshold of cottages to guard them against the faeries. 

Margaret Leahy was born in Kinsale. Her family had lived there longer than public records can attest. In 1907, she married William Fitzpatrick, a Kinsale blacksmith, from a family of Kinsale blacksmiths. They were blessed with seven children, one of whom was Nora.

Nora left home to work in Dublin when she was eighteen. During 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression, she took the civil service exam, and won a place at the Department of Education on Marlborough Street. There she met James Walsh, and they were married on the 19th of April 1939, Primrose Day.

To commemorate their wedding anniversary, Nora's mother would dig up a sod of earth containing a primrose, and then carefully pack it into a cardboard box. Air-holes were cut into the box, which was then sent to Dublin on the train. This, of course, was done in a gentler age, a time when attention could be given to such fragile cargo and steam trains still had a goods van. [1]

Expecting its arrival, Jimmy would cycle from the Department of Defence, where he worked, to Kingsbridge station, now Heuston Station. Once the primrose had been collected, it was strapped on the carrier at the back of the bicycle, and carried through the Phoenix Park to his home, where it was joyfully planted in the garden.

[1] Sadly, Iarnród Éireann ended its parcel delivery service, FasTrack, in 2009.  

First World War Centenary. 11: Aid to East Prussia

On the Eastern Front, the First World War began with the Russian invasion of East Prussia (Ostpreußen) during August 1914.  In the following year, a German counter-offensive [1] resulted in the Great Retreat of Russian forces. During this period, the Russian army destroyed 33,500 buildings in East Prusia. The cost of the property damage was estimated at $250 million.

source: www.altearmee.de

One of the ways that Germany responded to this devastion was to form the Kriegshilfsverein (War Aid Association). By 1916, twenty-four branches were established throughout the country. [2] Their purpose was to 'adopt' a district in East Prussia, and raise money to support its reconstruction. Berlin, for example, adopted Landkreis Ortelsburg, one of the largest rural districts in East Prussia, which was almost completely destroyed in the opening salvos of the war. One method of fund-raising was the sale of Wohlsfahrts-Karten (charity cards). The card shown below is an example.

Ostpreußen während des Weltkrieges 1914/15
Kirche in Domnau
(East Prussia during the World War 1914/15
Church in Domnau) 

You will notice that the top of the card is serrated. Originally, it was part of a Postkartenbuch, a booklet containing 18 cards of varying scenes, which sold for two Marks, with 80 pfennigs going toward reconstruction in East Prussia. [3]  The verso states für Wohlfahrtszwecke (for charitable purposes). It was published by Verlag: Reichs-Kunst-Verein, Berlin.

On the verso it states, "nach Originalen von A. Kraska" (after an original [painting] by A. Kraska). Arthur Kaska was a German painter, graphic designer, film director and producer, and stage designer. During the First World War, he also designed Vivatbänder (memorial ribbons given in response to a donation). Kraska was employed at the Kunstgewerbemuseum and the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He was a pioneer during the 1920s in the commercial film industry. It appears that his painting was based on a contemporary photograph shown below. 

Domnau Church was built in the Fourteenth Century. Suffering slight damage in the two world wars, it is now a redundant church and has been empty since 1997.  The postcard is addressed to Fräulein Agnes Hicks, daughter of William Henry Hicks.

• Significant donations to the East Prussian appeal were acknowledged with a wall plate.

• Before the U.S. entered the First World War, sympathetic Americans established the East Prussia Relief Fund. 

Further Reading: 

William Glenn Gray. Charity as Cultural Renewal? German Civil Society and East Prussian Suffering, 1914-1918. (German Studies Association Annual Meeting
Kansas City, Missouri, September 2014).

1. The Gorlice-Tarnow Campaign, 1915.
2. Annalen des Deutschen Reichs für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft, Volume 49. 1916:210.
3. Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung Nr. 26-28. Juni 2014:14