John William Blakemore
The oldest of Charles’ children, John William Hodgkins* was born on the 17th October 1852 in St Albans. He was around 8 when the family moved to Birmingham and 9 when his mother died. He joined the army as soon as he was eligible and served for 21 years in total, marrying twice and having six children. On the face of it he had a “better” life than his sisters and half-sisters; I wonder tho….
In August 1870 he enlisted in the 76th Foot regiment – exagerating his age slightly. He gave his trade as “Gutter Percha Moulder” and his physical description is in the image. He was posted to India in the December of that year until April 1876.
He was variously stationed at Bangalore, Secunderabad and Poonamalee. The latter seems to have been a place to recuperate in a “healthier climate”. John’s medical record from his time in the Army is copied below. Doctors’ handwriting was no easier to read in Victorian times! There were no battles rebellions during his time in “Hindustan”, but dysentery was a real threat.
The Great Famine of 1876-1877 was beginning just as the regiment returned to England.
He married Jane Galbraith in Aldershot on 27th October 1877; he was a Sergeant in the 76th Regiment; Jane was a farmer’s daughter “from Bradford on Avon”. (Actually (Mary) Jane was born in Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland in 1851, during the Great Hunger, or Irish potato famine. She was living in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire at the time of her marriage. Her father, Francis was described as a farmer. In the 1871 census she was an Under Laundry Maid in Heytesbury House near Warminster, Wiltshire, working for the second Baron Heytesbury. His boss’ father, the first Baron, had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the start of the famine, in 1846.)
1881 census: John and Jane were living in the barracks Spring Hall Lane Gibbet Road Dickins Street(?) Halifax, because John’s regiment had been merged with the 2nd Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding). They were soon moved to the newly build Budbrooke barracks in Warwickshire with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Their three children, Ernest, Mary and Elizabeth were all born there, and by 1891 census the family were living away from the barracks in Stand Street, Warwick. )
John left the army a year later with a pension of xx pence
1901 census they were living in Battersea, John is a Solicitor’s messenger. Emily?? bookbinder.
1903 Jane died, John was over 50 with grown children but married 1904 Alice Hill in Hendon. 4 more children, the youngest born when he was 63.
1911 census: Army Staff sergeant; 5 of them in 10 The Avenue Hambrook Nr Emsworth Hants – also a Gutta Percha Moulder, unemployed.
Died 19th July 1931, buried on the 25th in Westbourne/Chidham in Sussex.
There are some Chelsea Pensioner records in Fold3. / tidy up the later years
Superficially much easier life than the girls. I wonder. What happened to Alice lives to old age with one of her sons. and the children?
Lived to be xx and saw all bar one of his children die??
Of the three children from his first marriage, Ernest became an “Electric Tram Driver”, Emily remained unmarried and worked in service and lived to be 80. By 1948 she was living in Kensington Court, round the corner from Kensington Palace, probably as a house servant for a family in one of the luxury apartments. Gertrude had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Leahy, who was attending university in 1939. That was very unusual for the time, even more so for a woman from a working class background.
His second wife Alice… Her oldest child Alice Joan Amy married a much older man and; her first son Charles died at xx but John Edward became a bus conductor with very modern side hustle as a self employed shoe repairer. William Albert Thomas was Head Porter at M&S Bognor.