Individual Notes

Note for: Noreen Fern (Jane) HOWELL, - Index

Individual Notes

Note for: John HENRY, - Index

Individual Notes

Note for: Robert John HENRY, 1888 - 1 Mar 1964 Index

Occupation:   Marconi Wireless Operator in the Merchant Navy
     Date:   1919

Residence:
     Date:   1919
     Place:   Beverstone Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey

Residence:
     Date:   Feb 1964
     Place:   24 Cypress Road, Newport, Isle Of Wight

Residence:
     Date:   1922
     Place:   5 Leigh Park Rd., Leigh-On-Sea, Essex

Residence:
     Date:   1919
     Place:   4 West Hill, Hednesford, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

Residence:
     Date:   1948
     Place:   'glen Ebor', Newbarn Road, East Cowes, Isle Of Wight

Event:   was recorded as a Marconi Radio Operator, part of the crew aboard the S.S. 'Otira', arriving
     Type:   was recorded as a Marconi Radio Operator, part of the crew aboard the S.S. 'Otira', arriving
     Date:   27 Apr 1919
     Place:   New York Harbour, N.Y., U.S.A.
     Note:   The S.S. 'Otira' was originally bound from Belfast, Ireland.

Event:   was recorded as a Marconi Radio Operator, part of the crew aboard the S.S. 'Port Stephens', arriving
     Type:   was recorded as a Marconi Radio Operator, part of the crew aboard the S.S. 'Port Stephens', arriving
     Date:   14 Feb 1923
     Place:   New York Harbour, N.Y., U.S.A.
     Note:   The S.S. 'Port Stephens' was originally bound from Hull, Yorkshire.

Event:   was recorded as a Marconi Radio Operator, part of the crew aboard the S.S. 'Port Stephens', arriving
     Type:   was recorded as a Marconi Radio Operator, part of the crew aboard the S.S. 'Port Stephens', arriving
     Date:   7 Sep 1923
     Place:   New York Harbour, N.Y., U.S.A.
     Note:   The S.S. 'Port Stephens' was originally bound from Barry Docks, Wales.

Individual Note:
     Served as a Marconi Wireless Operator in the Merchant Navy, at the beginning of World War One he was taken prisoner in Hamburg by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. The camp probably used for his internment was Ruhleben Camp, in the Berlin suburb of Spandau, this was the only large POW camp housing mainly civilians and those in Germany at the beginning of hostilities. It also housed over a 1,000 Merchant Seamen who were berthed at the ports of Bremen and Hamburg at the outbreak of war. In a literal translation, 'Ruhleben' can be read as 'peaceful living'. The facts suggest that Ruhleben Camp was anything but a peaceful haven. Accounts of the Ruhleben Civilian Prisoner of War Camp reveal the utter misery of those held there. The feeling there was : Hell could not be worse. Travellers and residents in Germany were arrested and clapped into this camp in August 1914, where they remained ignored and mostly forgotten by the majority of the English at home. Suddenly snatched from their peaceful occupations, some 4,000 men were herded into the racecourse at Spandau to live in its overcrowded stables.
Two of the ships that he crewed on are known; SS Otira and SS Port Stephens, both during the period 1919 to 1924.

Individual Notes

Note for: Elsie May WALLBANK, 22 Dec 1888 - 19 Jan 1968 Index

Residence:
     Date:   1891
     Place:   Station Road, Hednesford, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

Residence:
     Date:   1919
     Place:   4 West Hill, Hednesford, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

Residence:
     Date:   1922
     Place:   5 Leigh Park Rd., Leigh-On-Sea, Essex

Residence:
     Date:   1914
     Place:   4 West Hill, Hednesford, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

Residence:
     Date:   1948
     Place:   'glen Ebor', Newbarn Road, East Cowes, Isle Of Wight

Census:
     Date:   5 Apr 1891
     Place:   Station Road, Hednesford, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire

Event:   Worker in Queen Mary's Army Auxilliary Corps
     Type:   Worker in Queen Mary's Army Auxilliary Corps
     Date:   1917-1918
     Note:   Worker in Queen Mary's Army Auxilliary Corps. Regimental Number 344.
Birth Note:    BI30

Individual Note:
     On the 9th January 1914, Elsie May Wallbank arrived at Ellis Island Immigration Centre New York. She had departed from Liverpool on the R.M.S. Lusitania as a second class passenger, the fare for which she had paid herself. On the Lusitania's manifest she is recorded as a single female passenger of 25 years of age travelling alone. Her destination, she stated, was Clay Avenue, Jeannette, Pennsylvania. She was to stay with a friend Mrs. Mary Fellows. On her arrival she had Ł60 in her posession and no ticket for the rest of the journey to Pennsylvania. Why she eventually returned to Britain is not known, perhaps it was the outbreak of World War One. Her son, John Henry, could not answer this riddle as he was shocked to find that she had tried to emigrate in the first place. An interesting addendum to this story is that I, Nicholas J. Henry, her grandson, was told by her that she had known the Wireless Operator of the Lusitania. He had drowned when the R.M.S. Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915. I had always assumed that he was known to her because her future husband, Robert John Henry was a Marconi Wireless Operator in the Merchant Service. Perhaps, after all, she had known the Lusitania's wireless operator through a meeting on board ship to New York.