A Brief History of

the Passmore’s of Cark.

by Sydney Passmore-Wood

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Who were our Passmore ancestors?

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The Passmore Family History as told by Sydney Passmore-Wood

(born George Sydney Passmore, Holker, 1871)

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Foreward by David Reay.

This is a transcription of a letter which has recently come to light, written to Dorothy Passmore in 1936 by her uncle, Sydney Passmore-Wood, in reply to her efforts to trace her father, Walter, who had left home in the 1920s

The transcription has been done as faithfully as possible, but to make it easier on the eye, additional notes down the margin of the original hand-written letter have been included in brackets where it appeared the author meant them to be read. Long lengths of writing have been broken into shorter paragraphs for the same reason.

Whilst the details contained within are obviously those only known to the writer at the time, it is hoped to continue to follow up as many points as possible and to try and prove to genealogical satisfaction the information contained in the letter.

David A Reay

Lancaster, England

March 1989

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Foreward to the Second Edition

I had no particular interest in the family history until in 1990 my cousin David Reay gave me a copy of this remarkable letter, written by our great uncle over sixty years ago to our aunt Dorothy Passmore. She was then still a pupil at Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School, looking forward to setting off shortly to St Katharine’s College, Liverpool, to train as a teacher.

This younger generation of Passmore children was an extraordinary bunch of kids, brought up by a mother who had been abandoned by her husband for another woman, when Dorothy was only aged five. Such an occurrence might well have destroyed any other family and would almost certainly have left it destitute and dependent on poor relief, shamed by having had recourse to the ignominy of the workhouse. But my grandmother, Jessie Bayliss, proved to be an incredibly resourceful and determined woman; she had already demonstrated considerable ability in fending for her family, but now on her own she had to apply all her energy to providing for her children in this new crisis. Fortunately she lived long enough to be able to see them flourish and achieve success in various different fields.

The successful upbringing of these children must have rested on a knife-edge in the early days during the 1920s, since money was constantly in short supply, as it was for most families in those days. It is not surprising, therefore, that, when Walter Passmore repeated the action of his own mother some 25 years previously by walking out of the door, never to return, he became a non-person to his abandoned family; they simply committed themselves to forgetting him and getting on with their lives without him. So it was that in later years my father, the eldest of these five children, was able to recall only a little of his father and virtually nothing at all of his father’s family. It is part of our family mythology that there was some connection with the Cavendish family who lived at Holker Hall on the Cartmel peninsula in Lancashire; the head of this family at that time was the elderly 7^th Duke of Devonshire. It was also believed that one of our ancestors had been in charge of the post office in the nearby village of Cark and had run off with the PO funds.

This letter goes into these matters in great detail and explains how Dorothy Passmore’s family is related to these hitherto scarcely-known ancestors, and it sets out for her the family members in their various generations, so that she can see who are her present Passmore relations in 1936 and where they came from. She was given enough factual detail in this letter to have been able to make contact with a number of them, if she had chosen to do so. The family’s decision not to follow up this lead at the time appears regrettable and short-sighted with the benefit of hindsight, but was probably quite understandable at the time. Happily, the re-discovery of this letter by the next generation after all these years has now enabled all the earlier leads to be followed up to a successful conclusion. Most of those family members who are mentioned in the letter are now dead, but communication has been restored between the descendants of those that Sydney describes here. Even more, we are now in contact with the few survivors of those we read about here.

At the time that Sydney wrote this letter from South Africa he was in his mid sixties, and it was already virtually fifty years since, as a young boy, he had left his home at Cark just as his family were split up; he, therefore, recalls many of the events of his childhood in the same way as he saw them, through the eyes of a child. The images he gives us from the past appear to have been formed and fixed when he was still a child and not subsequently contextualised through an adult perspective, as they probably would have had he grown up in the same environment. The result is that, while there is much in the letter which is historically accurate, there is also a substantial element which does not stand up to close scrutiny, because it is apparently based on a distorted recollection of events of his childhood¹ Notable in this respect is Sydney’s lifelong belief, still unexplained, that there was a connection between his family and the family of Sir Graham Wood, the wealthy Salford industrialist, a belief so strong that he actually changed his name to Wood. There are also a number of other instances where the detail of Sydney’s narrative is slightly inaccurate, though not seriously in error.

It is for these reasons that I thought that the text of this letter would benefit from a detailed annotation, so that readers can see where the story fits in with known facts and where there are discrepancies. There are some statements where it is now probably quite impossible to get to the truth of the matter; in many other instances I have added some explanation or additional information. I hope that this exercise has performed a useful service for those who would wish to use this document as a source for their own family history studies.

Alan Passmore.

Parkgate, 9 May 2002

{Tap on annotation number for explanation notes; and tap on note number to return to main text.}

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Ravenshulme²

268 Rebecca St

Pretoria

South Africa

8^th February 1936

My dear young lady,³

I am back from Cape Town, and now will try to give you a longer answer to your letter of 21^st November.⁴

First let me say that it surprises me to hear that you do not know where your father is, and that he has been gone so very long.⁵ I fear that must be a Foster trait,⁶ which you will understand perhaps after reading my letter. Walter wrote to me from 1 St Nicholas St, Lancaster,⁷ in 1915; also from 8 Cheapside, Lancaster,⁸ about the same time. I last heard of and from him on 23 March 1923, when his address was 40 Wills Road, ⁹ Durban, Natal. He was at Off Saddle Hotel, Ixopo, Zululand, in April 1923. I advertised in the papers, ¹⁰ and got friends to enquire, but could never find him after this date.

If you can find out for me where he last wrote from, & when, I will try to find him. Walter was my favourite brother when we were boys, but in spite of this we have been separated far apart most of our lives. I visited your house in Doncaster ¹¹ in 1914, just before the war. I was away at and in the war for almost five years, and got back home in 1919 to find my employment gone.¹²

While I have been in Cape Town ¹³ I have thought very carefully over the matter of giving you a historical narrative of our family. After all you and your brothers are blood members of the family and I think you ought to know what manner of men and women have preceded you, and from whom we are sprung. Before going further let me say that I think that your mother ¹⁴ has done wonders to carry on and bring you up as she has done. Great Honour to her! My respect goes out to her! But don’t think hardly of your father, my lass. I hope to make you understand as I proceed.

I fear that to give an understandable narrative I shall have to give a very rambling and intermixed account, branching off into many veins to bring in far-flung facts. I will try to give you a history of the two stems of our family ¹⁵ as far as I myself have been able to ascertain it. Unfortunately I left home so very young, and have been abroad for so many years that I have had trouble getting any authoritative or authentic early history.

My first memories go back to Holker, ¹⁶ probably about 1874. If you have been to Cark, I have given you a little sketch, from memory. After leaving Cark station, go along the road to Cark. Bear to your right and go over the two bridges. Then, almost facing you at the foot of the hill is a double storey house. ¹⁷ The road to the right goes to Cartmel, the one to the left goes to Holker. We lived in this house from about 1875 to 1886. We kept the Post Office and a Grocery and General Store – the only store or shop in Cark in those days.¹⁸ A large sign over the front of the house said “THOMAS PASSMORE”.¹⁹ Go up the left hand road to Holker. Go through Holker village until you come to cross roads. Go up the hill to your right. As you go up the hill, there is a nice old house set back in the garden and lawn inside a large gate. Covered with ivy. We lived here prior to 1875.²⁰ If instead of turning up to the right you go down to the left, and go in through the park gates. From here right across the park to your left, about two miles away, was Grandfather Foster’s farm.²¹ To get to Grandfather Wood’s place ²² go to Flookburgh. Cross the main street at right angles and follow the road that goes to East Plain. Some distance along the road turn to your left and head towards the big cliff, Humphreys Head. About two miles ahead is Wraysholme or Ravenshulme, contracted locally to Rasum.²³

Our father known locally as Thomas Passmore or sometimes William ²⁴ Passmore was in the employ of the Duke of Devonshire. I don’t know the exact capacity. [I have heard people say that father was the Butler ²⁵ at the Hall, but butlers don’t travel around the country!] He rode about in a carriage and always looked dressed up, very frequently wore a tall “top” hat and dress suit. He travelled about the world with the Duke, and did his correspondence and accounts and managed his affairs, so I was told.²⁶

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He seldom was at home, except when the Duke was in residence at Holker. At other times he was at Chatsworth House, Bolton Abbey, Devonshire House, London. Also in Germany and Egypt for parts of the year. This Duke was the grandfather of the present Duke.²⁷ Father was a tall well-made man of over 6 feet. Dark eyes, dark curly hair. A great athlete, known all over the North country for his walking and running feats, and high pole leaping. Well known at Grasmere sports. [Father is remembered in the Holker district as having carried a man from Cark to Ulverston for a wager] Now here is a part that I never have been able to investigate and verify. Although father was known at the village and on his sign as Thomas Passmore, mother always called him William,²⁸ and his friends up at the Hall called him William.

About three miles away at Wraysholme Tower lived old Wood,²⁹ a farmer and horse breeder. A big, fine looking old chap, who usually was seen riding a white horse. People in the village said that this was father’s father. Long ago, when I was quite a small boy, ie in the 70s and early 80s, father used to take me down to the farm. An old lady named Mrs Hogarth ³⁰ was housekeeper to the old man Wood. There I met a man Edward Wood, who was said to be father’s brother, and my uncle Edward. ³¹ He certainly looked like father. Edward Wood was an engineer. He founded the Ocean Iron Works, Ordsall Lane, Salford, Manchester. Afterwards knighted and called Sir Edward Wood.³² Was Mayor of Salford for some years. Died in London in 1930. Now I was taught to call this man Uncle Edward when I was a boy! [Edward Graham Wood. Forty to fifty years ago I often saw Edward Wood and Aunt Elizabeth.³³ I went to stay there in Salford somewhere once, and we lived near Peel Park. Edward Wood once told me that his father had been a clergyman at one time.³⁴ My cousin Basil Wood ³⁵ was killed in the Great War. Father had two other brothers. John, also an engineer, was in Brazil, and later in India. Then another brother lived in Baldock, Cambridgeshire.³⁶ Your father (Walter) went to live with this brother when he was quite small and stayed with him for some years.³⁷

This old man Wood – known locally as auld gin Wood – did not like my mother, and would not come near the house. I could never understand this anomaly. When quite a small boy, I asked old Mrs Hogarth ³⁸ how old Mr Wood could be father’s father and we were called Passmore. So far as I can remember, the story told by old Mrs Hogarth was that Grandmother Wood of Wraysholme, whom she said was my father’s mother, died in the early 60s, and the boys all left home. Father, who was a great rider, went as a boy to the South of England into the employ of Lord North,³⁹ the racehorse owner. He would seem to have dropped the name of Wood and used the name of Passmore. Another theory is that Passmore was his mother’s name – for she came from Devonshire ⁴⁰

It was suggested to me fifty years ago that father had gone to his mother’s people in Devonshire when his mother died, & had been brought up under the name of Passmore. I could never verify it because I went to Burmah when only 14. At any rate, I can vividly remember when I was eleven or twelve, riding a horse over a fence at Wraysholme, and old Wood clapping me on the back and saying “Thou art a Wood lad, never forget it”.

Old Wood of Wraysholme was probably 6’2” or 6’3” in height, perhaps more. Grey eyes. Heavy shoulders. Side whiskers.⁴¹ Father also was very tall – perhaps 6’2”, but his hair was jet black and curly and eyes either black or dark brown.

My memory of father was that he was very popular and had a big circle of friends amongst the farmers around Holker and Cartmel and Grange.⁴²

I gathered from my enquiries about 1892 that father had come back to the Holker neighbourhood round about 1867 ⁴³into the employ of the Duke of Devonshire. Here he seems to have met my mother – who was considerably younger than he, and just back from school in France.⁴⁴ The marriage actually took place in London, on 18 May 1870 at St Mary’s Church, Marylebone,⁴⁵ London, and the names given into the register are – Thomas Passmore aged 27, and Dorothy Rachael Foster, aged 19. Therefore, whether the real name was Passmore or Wood, he was in 1870 definitely known as Thomas Passmore. He also had a southern accent – like the Londoners. A cultivated way of speaking – not like the accent around Cark. He certainly was a fine looking man in the early 1880s. When I was in Cark in 1914 I found many who remembered him, and spoke well of him. Old Edward Hall,⁴⁶ William Kellet,⁴⁷ Jim Wilson ⁴⁸ of Holker, Mr Seward the schoolmaster,⁴⁹ old Mrs Mackereth,⁵⁰ Mr Nash,⁵¹ Maggie Carter,⁵² Mrs Holden,⁵³, all spoke well of him. That man Brown ⁵⁴the station master, & Teasdale ⁵⁵ of Cartmel, went to school with me. My brother Walter – your father – went off to Baldock when quite small, and he did not return to Cark until just before our home broke up in 1886.⁵⁶

In the 70s, say up to 1881, father seems to have had a good post with the Duke, and things seemed to be going very well with us at home. Walter and I went to Cartmel Grammar School,⁵⁷ and our sister Louise went to Mrs Sandbach’s school ⁵⁸ >at Cartmel. Then father seems to have gone as assistant or secretary to Lord Frederick Cavendish,⁵⁹, and he was over in Ireland with Lord Fred when he was murdered in Phoenix Park, Dublin, on 6 May 1882. I remember taking a telegram up to the Hall to the old Duke, on a Sunday morning to give him the news of Lord Fred’s death.

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Father’s great friends were a Mr Baring,⁶⁰ Colonel Fred Barnaby⁶¹ and Canon Lightfoot of Cartmel.⁶² After Lord Fred’s death father seemed to be away more than before. Then he was involved in an accident in London (a runaway horse), and got injured in some way, and came home about 1884 with his head all bandaged up, and a terrible scar across one temple. Then about 1884 he had a fainting fit at the Hall and had brain fever due to the injury. After this illness he went to London to a post with Major General Bulwer.⁶³ He had another faint in the street, and got run over by a bus, and again injured. After this he had desultory employment – I don’t know of what kind – and I fear that he had hard times. I saw him at a place called Grindleford near Sheffield in 1892. He was then working as a navvy on some railway construction works.⁶⁴ He looked ill and thin. I at the time was out of employment, & could be of no assistance to him. I was 21 only at the time.

I went out to India ⁶⁵and never saw him again. During the Boer War when I was in Kimberley, father took ill with pneumonia, in Lancaster, and died in Lancaster,⁶⁶ and he is buried in the cemetery at the top of the hill at Lancaster. It is marked M476 Thomas Passmore, behind M396 Nicholas Cuthbertson, about 50 yards in from the gate on the right side of the main pathway in Lancaster cemetery.

I have lost touch entirely with my father’s side of the family.⁶⁷ I left England in 1886 for India. I was in London for 1891-92, then went back to India. I came to South Africa in 1899 & made Pretoria my home. Was in England for six months in 1914, was at the war from 1914 to 1919. In England again for the whole of 1930.

When I was quite a lad I always called old Wood, Grandfather Wood [Old Wood taught me Latin when I was about 12-13.⁶⁸ He also spoke French and I think Italian] I liked old Wood in the 70s and early 80s. He was a huge lean kind of man, with bushy eyebrows and white side whiskers. A fine noble looking man. He was always seen in Cark riding a white horse. I don’t think my mother and he agreed very well. My father used to go down to the farm and sometimes he took me with him. Old Man Wood’s wife, who I am told was my father’s mother, had died before I was born, and I cannot remember her. An old lady named Mrs Hogarth kept house for the old man, and some maids. In 1914 I met an old lady who had been a maid there when I was a child.

The sons had left home after the mother’s death. [but Edward used to come over from Manchester occasionally] So far as I was able to find out, there had been four sons. Edward Wood went to be an engineer in Manchester and later on became Sir Edward Wood of Ocean Iron Works, Salford. He died in London in 1930.

John became an engineer and was in India and Brazil. [I never met John] Another brother lived in Baldock in Cambridgeshire. My father, whom I was told was the youngest son, went first to Devonshire to relatives, then to Lord North, then to the Duke of Devonshire. He remained with the Duke until about 1885. Your father – my brother Walter – went to live with the brother in Baldock when he was quite a small boy, and he stayed there about 5 or 6 years. He only came back shortly before our family broke up. Old Grandfather Wood died about 1887,⁶⁹ and I think is buried in Cartmel Church Yard.⁷⁰ I was in Burmah at the time, and I lost touch entirely with Father’s people after that. The Wood family go back in the old local records for about 500 years.⁷¹

The name Passmore I can’t quite account for, unless Grandfather Wood’s wife’s name originally was Passmore! When I visited Cark in 1892 and asked questions of the older people I met, I was told that both names had been used in the neighbourhood, ie both Wood and Passmore. An old lady named Bainbridge ⁷²told me that father was called Wood when he was a boy, but that he had used the name Passmore since his mother died. However that may be, he was married under the name of Thomas Passmore, and also buried under this name.

There may still be old people living in or around Cark, Holker or Cartmel who remember father, but in order to give an authoritative statement they must be around about 80 or over to be able to speak clearly of the times, say 1865 to 1885. I found many people who remembered our family, but they won’t speak on the matter – they seem to be frightened! There may be written records about the place. [For instance, Mrs Mercer ⁷³wrote up an account of the old families around Cark. David Hall is still alive I think at Cark. He married Robina Foster.⁷⁴] That man Brown was only a boy when I was, & he can’t go back prior to about 1870. Jim Wilson or old Nash may still be there.

Now we will consider my mother’s side of the family. I saw more of this side for I stopped in turn with all members of it living at the time. My mother was Dorothy Rachael Foster,⁷⁵ a daughter of Plaxton Foster. At the time of my mother’s marriage to my father in May 1870, Plaxton Foster was in charge of all the farms at Holker belonging to the Duke of Devonshire.

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He had come over from Yorkshire about 1860 ⁷⁶ to take up this work, and thus really was a stranger to the Holker and Cark residents. I don’t know what he had been doing in Yorkshire – farming probably – but I know that he lived in Arnold, Yorkshire, from about 1848 to about 1860.⁷⁷

In the early 70s he lived in a good looking house right at the far end of Holker Park – perhaps two miles from the Hall.⁷⁸ I understand that grandmother Foster and mother’s sister Ann both died there about 1870, and they are buried in Cartmel Church Yard.⁷⁹ After his wife’s death Grandfather Foster left the service of the Duke of Devonshire (about 1874 I think,⁸⁰ and he went in a similar capacity to Escrick, near York, to Baron Wenlock.⁸¹ Grandfather Plaxton Foster died at Riccall, near York, on 6^th August 1905, aged 83.⁸² After he had gone to live at Escrick – about 1876 – he re-married,⁸³ and his second wife – whom we knew as Granny Foster in our boyhood – died at Riccall on 13^th> April 1918. ⁸⁴ Grandfather’s farm at Riccall ⁸⁵ came to my sister Emily, and she still owns it.⁸⁶ Her address is Mrs George Lee,⁸⁷ Oak Tree, Kilvington, near Thirsk.

Grandfather Foster claimed descent from Baron Thomas le Scrope, who was 5^th Baron le Scrope of Masham near Richmond, Yorkshire.⁸⁸ Dorothy Dransfield, Thomas le Scrope’s granddaughter, married John Foster of Leyburn, Yorkshire, and Grandfather Foster claimed to be the direct descendant of this John Foster. John, Thomas, George, Dorothy, Jane, Elizabeth and Ann are names that have persisted in our family since the 1500s. I will sketch you a family tree later. Grandfather Foster seems to have had 6 children, 2 sons and 4 daughters, they being in order of birth:-

1. Thomas Walis Hornby Foster, born 7^th October 1841 at Hornsea, Yorks. [A nice man] Became a mining engineer.⁸⁹ Married his cousin Mary Ann Foster.⁹⁰ Two children, William and Ann. Went to Brisbane, Australia in 1887. I believe both died there. His son William is said to have drowned.⁹¹ Daughter Ann, married, was living in Australia ten years ago.⁹²

2. Mary Ann Foster, born at Skirlaugh, Yorkshire, 20^th December 1844. Married Robert Wastling, a Market Gardener, at Beckside, Beverley. Died at Beverley in 1923.⁹³ No children.

Your father, Walter, lived with the Wastling’s from 1886 to about 1908.⁹⁴ He was known as Walter Wastling in Beverley. Walter was a well known cycle racer, and won dozens of silver cups. The garden ought to have come to him, but he hated the drudgery of the life, and always wanted to be a carpenter.⁹⁵ He must have had an appalling life of it for 20 years. I visited him in 1894 at Beverley. He was about 21 – a strong lad but simply worked to death. The uncle, Robert Wastling, did all he could to humiliate the lad, and break his spirit. Robert Wastling died a few years ago.⁹⁶ He frittered away a lot of his money, the balance went to some relations of his own.

3. Ann Elizabeth Foster, born June 10 1847 at Hornsea, Yorkshire. Died at Holker about 1873.⁹⁷ Buried in Cartmel Church Yard.

4. John Foster, born August 24^th 1849, at Arnold, Yorkshire. Married Ann Thornhill of Holker.⁹⁸ Became an engineer. Joined a firm in Manchester. Was sent to Buenos Ayres in the Argentine by his firm, about 1884 or 1885, to lay down a railway in Argentina. He died out there. His children (named Foster) were living in Warrington in 1914.⁹⁹ Two girls were teachers.¹⁰⁰ Jim Wilson of Holker Lodge married the other Thornhill girl,¹⁰¹ and the Foster girls visit Holker. Mat Thornhill ¹⁰² of Holker was a brother. The Thornhills were a very nice family; they lived right in the centre of Holker in 1885. Tom and Jim Wilson both were there four years ago. I was in Cark for a day.

5. Rachael Dorothy Foster (My Mother) born 27 Sept 1851 at Arnold, Yorkshire.¹⁰³ Went to school in France and Vevey, Switzerland. Was a noted Horse Rider. Used to ride to hounds at Holker in the early 70s. Married Thomas Passmore on 18 May 1870 at St Mary’s Church, Marylebone, London. Disappeared on 4^th May 1886 and we never saw her again!

6. Sarah Foster, born at Arnold 10 Feb 1856. Married William Barnsley,¹⁰⁴ a signaller on the Furness Railway, and lived at Lindal in Furness from about 1880 to 1905. Died at Lindal in 1905. Buried at Pennington. Son, Harry Barnsley, about 56, on the Furness Railway as a clerk. Lives at Lancaster. Age about 56 or 58.¹⁰⁵ Daughter Edith, married Tom Fowler. Keeps Branch Post Office in New Hall Lane, Preston – about 50 or so.¹⁰⁶

In my early boyhood I was told that Rachael Dorothy Foster was a remarkably pretty girl, small – petite, dark flashing eyes, long ringlets of hair, good skater, mountaineer & an accomplished horse rider.

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For some reason she had been sent to school in France & Switzerland and was educated beyond her sphere – speaking French and German well. When she came home to Holker, about 1869 she seems to have caused quite a furore and a lot of jealousy amongst the local men – mostly farmers I think. Thomas Passmore, then about 26 also was a great rider and hunter, and an all round athlete. For some reason they seem to have gone to London to get married.¹⁰⁷

Now old Foster was to some extent a stranger to Holker people.¹⁰⁸ Although I heard him very well spoken of, there was some jealousy that he had come from Yorkshire to boss up the farms. [An adopted daughter of Grandfather Foster – Robina Foster –¹⁰⁹ married David Hall. I think she still lives at Cark] Mother seems to have given offence all round by her vivaciousness and sporting tendency. She used to sketch, and swim, and ride on horseback. I remember when she used to jump her horse over high fences. After the marriage they lived (my father & mother) in the house on the right of Holker Hill. Father was away all over the country most of the time, only coming to Holker when the Duke came. Your father and I were both born in Holker.

Things seemed prosperous in those days for we had a nice house and garden. I know that the old Duke used to call at the house, and he called my mother Rachael. About 1875 or 1876 we moved to Cark, and took over the Post Office at the foot of the hill. The place consisted of a grocery store with drapery, crockery, hardware, oil and coal, – a large weighing machine for carts. And the Post Office was a busy corner in those days, before the sea receded.¹¹⁰ The name Thomas Passmore was erected on a sign on the front of the house, but Thomas Passmore had nothing to do with the business and never was there. My mother was postmistress, and she managed with the aid of two servants. Some of those servants did quite well.¹¹¹

All seemed to go quite well until about 1881. In 1881 my youngest sister, Eva, died,¹¹² and father went away from the Hall to go off with Lord Fred Cavendish.¹¹³ A competitive store opened in Cark about this time.¹¹⁴ I imagine that from about this time money began to become scarcer. At any rate father was away from home for some years. In the early days, your father and I & our sister Louise went to Holker School. Round about 1879 or 1880 I commenced to go to Cartmel Grammar School, under Dr Meabie.¹¹⁵ Then Walter joined me, and my sister went to Mrs Sandbach’s school at Cartmel.¹¹⁶ Then I fear father lost his employment, and Walter & Louise returned to Holker School, although I continued at Cartmel.

About 1883 the shop caught fire and a lot of damage was done to the house and furniture and stock.¹¹⁷ I fear mother lost very heavily over this fire. As father at this time was away in London and apparently in poorly paid employment and I think mother got into money difficulties. She made frantic efforts to raise money to keep going. She took photos and she took sketches, we let rooms to summer visitors, but I fear things got worse.

I left school in Easter 1885 and went to Macclesfield in Cheshire to be apprenticed to a chemist. Walter had been away in Baldock for some years, and I had lost touch with him entirely. I was apprenticed to a Thomas Cooper,¹¹⁸ Chemist of Macclesfield. Mother paid a premium for me. I stayed there about a year, then the chemist commenced drinking very heavily and deserted the shop. Mother came and took me away and we went back to Cark. Walter was away in Baldock. I then joined a fisherman in Flookburgh but he paid me nothing. Then the uncle at Baldock where Walter was staying, died I think,¹¹⁹ and Walter came back – say about March 1886. Walter was a nice lad and we were great play mates. Just at this time the telegraph service got busier and I stayed at home to attend to it. I think Walter went back to school.

Then at Easter time 1886, father suddenly arrived home. I had not seen him for many years, and he looked considerably changed – thin, old looking, and evidently ill. He had grown a brown moustache and he had a scarlet scar on one temple. Mother seemed to be terribly upset over something, and she was taken ill and went to bed. At this time we had one servant only, Annie Wrigglesworth from Ulverston.¹²⁰ A man named McGuire, an inspector of the Post Office, came to inspect the Post Office accounts, and I overheard a violent quarrel going on one morning between my mother and he. Father knew nothing about Post Office work and he busied himself cleaning up the garden and planting potatoes. We youngsters stayed in a large back room used as a kitchen, and we rarely saw our mother. The Post Office work caused her to get up at about 4 in the morning to attend to the arrival of the mail, and see it sent out by the two postmen, Isaac Ellwood ¹²¹ and Robert Davies.¹²² While mother was ill I got up to help sort the letters & and help Annie Wrigglesworth and the postmen.

On Saturday morning 6 May 1886 mother left to go to visit her father, Grandfather Foster at Escrick.¹²³ We knew for a week before that she was going for a fortnight. Annie Wrigglesworth and another girl were to manage the shop. As mother went off down the street Annie Wrigglesworth said, ”She will never come back.”

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I was too young and boyish to grasp the import of these words. We never saw mother again. She never reached grandfather’s place. Apparently she went to Liverpool and sailed for America.¹²⁴ Long years afterwards I heard that Aunt Sarah – Mrs Barnsley – had received letters from her from Detroit. [Mother was known as Lily Ray in Detroit!] I obtained some of these letters from my sister Louise in 1914.¹²⁵

I must now go back and describe our little family. The children of Thomas Passmore and Dorothy Rachael Foster are:-

1. George Sydney Passmore (myself) born 22 May 1871 at Holker.

2. Walter Plaxton Passmore (your father) born 13 June 1873 at Holker.¹²⁶

3. Mary Louisa Passmore, born 27 December 1874 at Holker.

4. Emily Passmore, born 4 December 1876 at Cark in Cartmel.

5. Albert Edward Passmore,¹²⁷ born 22 October 1878 at Cark in Cartmel.

6. Eva Passmore, born 11 June 1880 at Cark in Cartmel.¹²⁸

Eva Passmore died at Cark on 12 October 1881 ¹²⁹ and is buried at Cartmel.

Now I will take each of the children prior to 1886:-

1. Sydney (myself) first of all went to Holker Boys school under Mr Seward. Then later I went to Cartmel Grammar school, up to Easter 1885. Then for ten months or so to a chemist’s shop in Macclesfield.¹³⁰ Then home to help in the shop. About this time it was being arranged that when I was 15 I would join the navy. Papers had been signed for me by Admiral Egerton¹³¹. At this time Sydney was about 5’4” – very slender, grey eyes, curly brown hair.

2. Walter (your father) first went to Holker Boys school. The he went with me to Cartmel Grammar school. Then he went to live with his uncle in Baldock and remained there until early in 1886.¹³² When he came back home in 1886 I think he had left school. In 1886 he would be 13. A small slender boy, dark eyes, a lot of freckles, dark hair. An impulsive good hearted lovable boy.

3. Louise had first been to Holker Girls school,¹³³ then to Miss Sandbach at Cartmel,¹³⁴ and finally back to Holker. In 1886 she was a slender dark eyed girl of 11, with long dark curls. Still at school.

4. Emily or Lily was still at Holker school. A tiny, black eyed, black haired girl of just past 9.

5. Albert or Bertie in 1886 was just turned 7. He was a tiny mite of a boy, yellow haired, grey eyed – very frail & childish. At Holker school.

Walter, Louie and Lily had dark eyes and dark hair and a general appearance of their father. Sydney and Bertie had gray eyes, and a Foster appearance.

When mother went away, this man McGuire was in charge of the Post Office, and Annie Wrigglesworth ¹³⁵ & I looked after the shop and the house. My father seemed to be ill and unable to take any hand in the looking after of affairs. He at the time would be about 42, and my mother about 34. After about a fortnight we discovered that my mother was not with her father, and grandfather Foster came over to see about it. This man McGuire said that there was a shortage in the Post Office accounts & said mother had cleared off with the money. Father collapsed and was taken to hospital ill.¹³⁶ Aunt Sarah, Mrs Barnsley, came over from Lindal and took Louie and Bertie back to Lindal.¹³⁷ Grandfather arranged for all to be sold up, and there was a public sale of everything.

Walter was taken by Grandfather to Beverley and left with his Aunt Wastling where he stayed almost twenty years.¹³⁸ Lily went to Grandfather Foster’s at Escrick – took the name of Foster – Emily Foster ¹³⁹ – and grew up to womanhood with Grandfather Foster. Grandfather by this time seems to have had a little farm of his own – his own property¹⁴⁰. Lily eventually married a man named George Lee,¹⁴¹ and together they managed Grandfather’s farm as he got old, eventually taking over the farm themselves. Some years ago when farming got bad, they let the farm to a tenant and themselves went to live at an Inn called Oak Tree, Kilvington, near Thirsk, Yorkshire,¹⁴² where they still are. Lily hasn’t done so badly, except that she has had a hard working life. She is now round about 60 and George must be nearing 70.¹⁴³ They have three children, 2 girls and 1 boy. 1 boy and 1 girl married, Edie is unmarried¹⁴⁴.

Walter went to the Wastlings and I saw no more of him until 1894 nine years later. He took the name of Wastling.¹⁴⁵ Old Robert Wastling had been a carter ¹⁴⁶ when wagons carried goods all over the country. He now had a large piece of ground up the canal side at Beverley which he used as a market garden.¹⁴⁷ He had no children of his own. He was a large, coarse, red headed man

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who got up at 4 am and kept Walter and his Aunt Mary Ann working in the garden from daylight to dark. Walter was a delicate lad when he went there, and he must have endured the tortures of the Spanish ¹⁴⁸ while he lived there. He took up bicycle racing at the various sports, and won a lot of cups.

I went to visit him in November 1894.¹⁴⁹ He would then be turned 20. I found him very brown, with large brown eyes, very thin but wiry looking but not nearly so tall as I. I was then booked for India where I went the following month. Walter confided to me that he was keen on getting away from the garden,¹⁵⁰ that Wastling bullied him and was always taunting him about his father and mother. Some years later he wrote to me from Bristol,¹⁵¹ saying that he had left the garden, and was now working for a builder, getting the first wage he had ever received. At that time I tried to persuade him to join me in India, where I could have got him into the Indian Public Works, but I lost track of him entirely until 1914. In 1914 I came to England on holiday and spent a lot of time finding him, going round the country, visiting places where Louie or Lily had heard he had been.¹⁵²

I eventually located him in Doncaster. I stayed in your house in Doncaster ¹⁵³ for two days and saw your mother & Walter and the children. Walter went with me to visit Lily at Riccall – where we also saw grandfather Foster’s widow, Granny Foster. We also went down to Beverley and saw Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Robert Wastling, and stayed there overnight returning to Riccall the next day. A few weeks later we went to stay at Cark, and Walter came and stayed a few days with us there. Louie also came over from Preston and we had a few days together to visit old haunts. At this time Walter looked dreadfully ill. He had been in hospital, being operated on for piles. My wife was with us and she liked Walter. He was out of employment at this time. Shortly after this he went to Lancaster. I however never saw him again after about August 1914. He wrote to me from two addresses in Lancaster in 1915.¹⁵⁴

Then I heard no more until I suddenly received a letter from Ixopo, Zululand, saying that he was working as a carpenter on a new school building. He gave me no particulars except that the work would not last long. I went off to see the foreman of a firm of shopfitters in Johannesburg – named Sage & Co – and arranged for Walter to be taken on by the firm. Then I received a letter from 40 Wills Road, Durban, saying that he had left Ixopo. I wrote several letters to this address but never received answers, and never heard of him again.¹⁵⁵ This was in March 1923. I wrote to the secretary of the Carpenters Company, and also advertised, but I could get no trace of him. I felt sorry for this for he was my favourite brother. He was<a> large hearted, good natured but impulsive lad. The Wastlings did their best to break his spirit, and he undoubtedly had a hard & dreary life during his youth. I should dearly like to know where he is. I don’t think that he can be in South Africa for I have advertised all over¹⁵⁶. He might have gone to Australia, or even America. If you can tell me where he last wrote from and when, I will endeavour to trace him. Don’t think hardly of him, lass. He is now turned 60, and probably lonely and in penury!

Louie and Bert went to Aunt Sarah’s – Mrs Barnsley – at Lindal in Furness. Louie was just turned 11, and Bert less than 8. Both went to school in Lindal. Uncle Will Barnsley had only a small pay of about 23/-s a week as a signal man on the Furness railway. They also had two children of their own, of about 11 and 8.¹⁵⁷ Therefore funds were very low in the family. Louie took the name of Barnsley.¹⁵⁸ She eventually went to live with a family named Knowles¹⁵⁹ – K.C.- at Kirkby Lonsdale, and I saw her <t>here in Dec 1894, a kind of companion to Mrs Knowles’ invalid daughter. From here about 1898 or 99 she married a water engineer named Barnes at Kirkby Lonsdale.¹⁶⁰ He was a rascal, and she ultimately got divorced from him. Round about 1901 her aunt, Mrs Barnsley, developed cancer & became bedridden. Louie went back to nurse her aunt at Lindal.¹⁶¹ Uncle Will Barnsley had in the meantime developed a hernia (rupture of bowels). He took a gratuity and left the Railway.

He bought a little shop and Post Office at 128 New Hall Lane, Preston.¹⁶² Louie and her cousin Edith Barnsley went with him to help manage the place. Uncle Will Barnsley died there on 1^st January 1913, of pneumonia – aged 63. My wife and I went to visit the place in June 1914 and found Louie and Edie running the place on their own. We stayed with them a few weeks and took them for a trip to Cark and up the Lakes. Edith Barnsley married a man named Tom Fowler – a postman – in Preston, about 1919,¹⁶³ and they seem to have turned Louie out of the business.

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Louie then married a little man named William Burrow.¹⁶⁴ He works in Nottingham, but I think he barely keeps himself. Louie opened a little grocery shop at 260 Fylde Road, Preston, and barely makes sufficient to provide her with food. Her husband William Burrow lives in Nottingham and seldom comes to Preston.

I have just received a letter from Lily, from Kilvington, saying that Louie was knocked down by a motor car last week in December, and is seriously injured.¹⁶⁵ I don’t know what has happened since. I am six thousand miles away, and too far to be of much assistance. Louie was my favourite sister and a good lovable lass. When I saw her in 1930 she looked dreadfully thin, and had an injured hand. She was a grand girl when young. She gave all her savings and her time for about fifteen years, helping Aunt Sarah and Uncle Will, and then Edith Barnsley turned her out & seized the business!¹⁶⁶ Poor Lou, I would like to come to look after her. She will be about 62 now.

Now we come to Bert. Bert in 1886 was about 7 only. A very tiny, frail, fair haired lad, with gray eyes. He also went to Aunt Sarah and attended school for a time in Lindal. He was then put into a grocery dept of the coop stores at Lindal – afterwards going to Dalton.¹⁶⁷ He attended technical classes and learnt to sketch and draw in water colours and crayons very cleverly. He drew a sketch of Queen Victoria that got him a gold medal. He became manager of a branch store, and became engaged to a girl ¹⁶⁸ in the shoe dept. He was small and frail. Bluey gray eyes, and bald on top.

About Boer War time he developed a cough & was advised to get out to South Africa. He came out here about 1905 and went to Johannesburg into a tea store. Seemed to do well, and got to be manager. Sent all his savings to the girl in Dalton to keep for him. This girl in Dalton cleared off to America with another man, and took the money with her!¹⁶⁹ Bert later went into partnership with another man named Glessor – Passmore and Glessor,¹⁷⁰ Provision Merchants, Johannesburg. The partner cleared off during the late war & took all <the> money he could lay his hands on, and they had to be declared insolvent.¹⁷¹ Bert in the meantime had married a girl named Elizabeth Smith.¹⁷² Twins were born in 1917, Roger ¹⁷³ and Ann.¹⁷⁴ The wife went off to England ¹⁷⁵ with the two children about 1920, and are there yet – in Hastings I think.¹⁷⁶.

I hear that she has brought up the children very well. Roger is apprenticed to an accountant.¹⁷⁷ Bert himself was very ill with pneumonia, & has not done very well for the past fifteen years. I saw him some years ago when he came and stayed with me for some weeks after an illness. He is now about 58 but looks much older. He is with a tobacco company in Johannesburg. Quite a small, slight man, very bald & no teeth, gray eyes. At one time was well known around Lindal and Dalton as a cyclist at sports meetings. I rarely see him, in fact I haven’t seen him half a dozen times in 30 years, although he is only 45 miles away! His name is Albert Passmore.¹⁷⁸

We now come to myself, George Sydney Passmore. I had come back from Macclesfield at the end of 1885 when Cooper’s business went bankrupt.¹⁷⁹ Although mother had paid a premium of I think £200 for me, this was lost. I was now helping in the shop. I was trying to get into the navy and a vacancy had been promised for me when I reached 15 – ie on the 22 May 1886. For some months before May 1886 mother had been telling me that she was in trouble and owed money, and father was ill and doing nothing, and had not given her any money for over five years. It was evident that things were in a bad way, but I was too young, too much of a boy, to realise it.

The week before mother went away, when she was ill in bed, she told me she was going away to see some friends,¹⁸⁰ and would make a new home and we would all come to her.¹⁸¹ I didn’t realise that this was the parting. We all were at home – ie, all five of the children, and father also had turned up. I stood at the door watching mother go down the street towards the station. None of us went to the station. I can’t even remember if we said goodbye. It was a Saturday morning, I think 4^th May 1886. We none of us saw her again.¹⁸²

After a few days, when no news came of mother, I think Annie Wrigglesworth must have sent for Aunt Sarah (Mrs Barnsley) for she came over and took away Louie and Lily and Bert.¹⁸³ Then Grandfather Foster came over and stayed about a fortnight. Father had been taken

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seriously ill and he was taken away to hospital.¹⁸⁴ I am under the impression that Grandfather Foster went down to Wraysholme to see old Mr Wood for I saw old Mr Wood in a carriage at the front door one day. But the old man (Wood) was old at this time, and had been seriously ill not long before. I don’t know what happened between the two. I never again saw old man Wood.¹⁸⁵ I heard that he had had a stroke, and <was> unfit to see anyone.

Our house was sold up. Louie and Bertie went to stay with Aunt Sarah at Lindal, and I did not see them for some years. Lily went back to Escrick, near York, with Grandfather, and remained there until Grandfather Foster’s death. Walter – your father – went to live with the Wastlings at Beverley. Now it was hoped that I would join the Navy. Grandfather made an arrangement that I should stay with some people named Bayliff ¹⁸⁶– opposite to our old house in Cark – until I was old enough to go down to Liverpool with my baggage and papers to HMS Eagle.¹⁸⁷ When I arrived there I was found to be too slender, and could not be taken on. Altho 15 years of age, and about 5 feet tall, I was very slender and thin. There was I left stranded in Liverpool – only 15, and no money. I left my bag in a coffee house, and never saw it again. I walked to Manchester to try to find my Uncle Edward, but did not know his address. A policeman in Manchester was very good to me and kept me several nights. Then I walked all the way to Barrow in Furness ¹⁸⁸ to try to find a lady I used to know.¹⁸⁹ I got on a sailing ship at Barrow, and sailed to Burmah. I was in Burmah in 1887. Then I went to Tasmania and worked on some gold diggings. Then to South America, and afterwards back to Australia. Then I sailed about amongst the South Sea Islands for a time. I eventually got back to Dundee in 1889.¹⁹⁰ I got down to Cark at the end of 1889 and found that old man Wood was dead.¹⁹¹ No one knew where my father was.

I went to see Aunt Sarah ¹⁹² at Lindal and found Louie and Bert still there – each somewhat bigger. A sailor and myself had won some money in Hobart ¹⁹³ in helping to save a wreck for a shipping firm in Liverpool. I went to Liverpool in Nov 1889 to collect my share. I got £500. In the meantime I had found out that Edward Wood had an engineering firm at Ordsall Lane, Salford, Manchester, and I went to Manchester to see him. I hadn’t seen him since I was a little boy. I found Edward Wood a high and mighty person,¹⁹⁴ who wanted nothing to do with me. He didn’t know where my father was, and didn’t want to know. However he ended up by arranging for me to go to the Royal College of Science, London,¹⁹⁵ to study, if I would drop the name of Passmore and call myself Wood. Well, anyway I went to London to study and had three fairly stiff years of it, eventually taking the degree of B.Sc. with First Class Honours at London University at the end of 1892.¹⁹⁶

I went up to Lindal to see Aunt Sarah and Louie at the end of 1892. In conversation with Aunt Sarah I learnt that mother had sent several letters from America,¹⁹⁷ and that the last had been received not long before, from Detroit, saying that she was very ill. I went over to America, and spent all winter of 1892 and Spring 1893 in the States going from place to place trying to locate mother. If the proper address had been given to me by Aunt Sarah I might have found her, but I was merely told that she was in Detroit, c/o a Mr Frank Wilby.¹⁹⁸ Well I could get no trace of her,¹⁹⁹ and I myself took rheumatic fever from the cold and wet, and I came back to England in April 1893.

Although I had a University degree I could get no employment. I went to Manchester to see Edward Wood. He was away abroad. I saw his wife, Aunt Elizabeth. She was quite nice to me but quite evidently wanted me away. She however mentioned that my father’s favourite brother, Uncle John,²⁰⁰ was in India, and advised me to try to go out to join him. Well, I couldn’t get any work to do and my money was finished.

For some years I had been called Sydney Wood.²⁰¹ I now joined the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment ²⁰² as Sydney Wood²⁰³ – July 1893. I went to Ireland to a place called Mullingar,²⁰⁴ where I stayed a year.

Before joining up with the Loyal North Lancs Regt, I knocked about the North of England for some months doing desultory labouring work, wherever I could find it. While doing this I unexpectedly came across father – also doing labouring work, working on a railway tunnel at Grindleford ²⁰⁵ in Derbyshire. He looked a vastly different man to the man I had known. He was living at a place called Eyan.²⁰⁶ I stayed near to him for some weeks, and saw him frequently. He had comfortable lodgings at the time, and was attached to a contractor’s staff of workmen. This would be about April 1893 or perhaps May. I left here to join the L.N. Lancs Regt at the end of June, and never saw father again.

While living at Grindleford – near Sheffield – I took advantage of a cheap trip to Hull ²⁰⁷ to go to see Walter, the first time I had seen him since 1886. He was then a thin looking lad – very brown and sunburnt, but delicate looking. In fact it was talking to him that caused me to start thinking

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where I was leading to doing labouring work. When I got back to Grindleford I wrote to the military authorities and told them that I had a degree and no work other than occasional labouring jobs. I was instructed to come to Lancaster. I came to Lancaster to the barracks on the top of the hill,²⁰⁸ and on 2^nd August 1893 I joined the Loyal North Lancs Regt. I went to Preston for a month to the barracks there,²⁰⁹ then I went to Ireland, and stayed there for a year. While there I developed into a record long jumper – jumping 24 feet against C.B.Fry.²¹⁰

At the end of 1894 I came to England on holiday before going to India. I stayed with Aunt Sarah at Lindal for a time, and saw Louie and Bert there. I went to Beverley and stayed a week with Walter – he and I going about quite a lot there. I also stayed a week with Grandfather Foster in Riccall. I saw Lily there, a tall dark eyed young woman of about 18. This was the last time I saw Grandfather Foster. It also was the last time I saw Uncle William Barnsley and Aunt Sarah,²¹¹ and practically all the friends I had known in the North. I went to Cark. Old Man Wood was dead and the farm seemed to be in other hands.²¹² Some people named Telford ²¹³ were in our house at Cark. I didn’t see my father. I could not find him or hear where he was.

I went out to India as a Corporal, and went to Poona.²¹⁴ Almost immediately I was sent to the engineering school at Roorkee ²¹⁵ and I stayed there a year. Then I went to Ceylon, to the Public Works in Colombo where I stayed until 1899. Early in 1899 my old regiment, the 1^st Bn Loyal North Lancashire Regt was being sent to Cape Town.²¹⁶ I received a letter from the Colonel,²¹⁷ asking would I care to come back to take over the position of Orderly Room Sergeant. I decided to return to the regiment, and I came to Cape Town in March 1899 as Colour Sergeant Orderly Room Sergeant. Almost immediately we were sent to Kimberley, and we stayed there during the siege. After the siege I trekked around Africa for a year,²¹⁸ then returned to Cape Town to be Sergt Major of the Main Barracks, Cape Town.

I was here until the end of 1902 and grew very fond of Cape Town. At that time it was a lovely place – not many houses, but a huge mountain surrounded for many miles by forest country. And close to was a lovely sea beach for bathing. This is all changed now, and most of the forest has disappeared, and a huge town has taken its place. Still, Cape Town & district is a nice port!

At the end of 1902 I married,²¹⁹ and as my wife was not very strong I left the regiment and started a business in Cape Town as a builder. I did quite well for a time, then foolishly bought ground that caused me to lose all the money I had. My wife’s maiden name was Mair Griffith,²²⁰ a Welsh girl, a B.A. and other things. Secretary to the Forest Dept. She had been in the British Museum with Dr Barnett²²¹ She contracted a cold and developed consumption. We moved up to Pretoria, and I opened a technical school. In 1908 Mair went to England, and she saw Louie and Lily and Uncle Will, and Mrs Wastling at Beverley. Aunt Sarah had died in October 1902,²²² and my father had also died shortly before this,²²³ so Mair did not see them. The trip home did her harm, for she rapidly became worse after her return, and died in June 1909 in Pretoria. She was a grand chum, and I revere her memory!

Just at the time of her death the Government took over control of the technical college, appointing me as Principal.²²⁴ During the Boer War I had received a bullet wound ²²⁵ which gave me some trouble in my side. In 1913 I was operated on, and the case of the bullet removed from beneath my shoulder blade. The wound took a long time to heal, and in April 1914 I took six months leave of absence to come to England. Before leaving Pretoria I got married again to a girl I had known in 1900 whilst Mair and I had lived in Cape Town, Annie Wilson.²²⁶

We came together to England, coming up by the Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea by Gibraltar. We visited Louie in Preston. Edith Barnsley and Louie at that time kept the New Hall Lane Post Office together and we stayed there a few weeks. Then we went to Riccall to see Lily – Mrs George Lee. Here we heard that Walter was supposed to be at Doncaster and spent some time hunting round, enquiring for Walter. Eventually I found the house,²²⁷ and your mother and some children.²²⁸ Walter turned up presently. He had been ill and looked very thin and worn. I think he had had an operation for piles. I stayed overnight and telephoned for Annie to come down. Annie came down, and I think she stayed another night. Then Walter and I and Annie went up to Riccall to see Lily. Then we went on to Beverley to see Aunt Mary Ann, ie Mrs Wastling.

We found Robert Wastling old and a little quarrelsome.²²⁹ Aunt Mary Ann was old and small and frail but wonderfully sweet and nice to us. She had bluey gray eyes, like the Fosters. She had had a difficult life, and from some aspects it seems a pity that Walter could not

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have remained at Beverley to cheer up her old age for Robert had become very querulous & difficult. She died in Beverley in 1923.²³⁰ They had no children of their own. I had some talk with the old lady quietly. She knew that I had been over to America looking for mother. Letters had arrived from mother at intervals up to 1892 – through a Miss Robinson,²³¹ who had at one time been lady’s help to mother at Cark, and who latterly had been cashier at the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Barrow in Furness. Aunt seemed to think that Miss Robinson had deliberately misled us. She even thought that Miss Robinson had intercepted the money sent to help the children. She showed me two letters written by mother when she was seriously ill with pneumonia in Detroit, and mention is made of money having been sent.²³² I never saw Aunt Mary Ann again.

Annie and I moved over to Cark and went to live with a Mrs Wadeson ²³³ of Newholm Cottages, near the station gates. In the meantime Louie had given to me a small bundle of letters ²³⁴ that had been found stuffed inside the lining at the back of the organ, after Aunt Sarah’s death. If I had had those letters in 1892 I could have found mother alive. Some foolish sentiment had prevented Aunt Sarah from letting me know. Walter came to stay with us at Cark for a few days, and we visited quite a number of folk that we had known thirty years before. We went up to the Lakes, and to Cark and Holker. We found our old schoolmaster at Holker – Mr Seward – still alive, living with his daughter and we spent an evening with them. We also saw Mrs Edward Hall, my godmother.²³⁵ She had been mother’s friend as girls. She could not show us any pictures of mother, but she said that my wife Annie is very like her. She spoke well of father, and said that until his injury by the run-a-way horse he was a fine looking and lovable man. Apparently after the injury he had taken to drinking.

In the early 1880s grandfather Foster instituted proceedings to try to claim the title of Baron Masham, or Baron le Scrope.²³⁶ Grandfather claimed to be a direct descendant, and the most direct in line. Mother had gone off with grandfather about 1882 to make a search of records in churches in villages in the west of Yorkshire. I know that the old Duke came to the house several times, with gentlemen from London, to discuss some old papers mother had in her possession. I imagine that grandfather wasted a great amount of money over this investigation. Mother had taken on an important manner, and I think father and she had quarrelled a lot. At any rate father went away to London, and we did not see him for several years.

The claim came to nothing, I think! It was admitted that grandfather Foster was a direct descendant of John Foster of Leyburn ²³⁷ who had married Dorothy Dransfield,²³⁸ but the title had died out, and the estate and funds had been forfeited to the State owing to political misdemeanours long years ago.²³⁹ I once went with mother by horse and trap, and we spent several weeks visiting farms and churches, looking at old records held by persons we visited. What we really established was that we really were descended from Thomas le Scrope and Sir Ralph FitzRandolph ²⁴⁰ through Dorothy Dransfield and John Foster. Mr Baring the banker ²⁴¹ advanced money for this investigation, round about 1879. I think if anything had come of it, Tom Foster’s children would have had a prior claim to Rachael Foster’s children.²⁴²

However, the Rouge Dragon of the College of Arms, London, some years ago tried to get me to claim the Coat of Arms of our family. I didn’t take it up then, but I have their letters. I may some day go further with it for my son.²⁴³ Mrs Hall ²⁴⁴ seemed to think that the costs & publicity given to the family by the investigation caused father and mother to become estranged, and caused father’s drinking.

The war came on in August 1914, and the country was thrown into disorder. Walter went back to Doncaster, and I never saw him again, although I had a few letters from time to time.²⁴⁵ I left Cark for Glasgow. I was recalled by my government and sailed back to South Africa. I, however, almost immediately joined up for France, with the Royal Engineers. I was away in France for 1915-16-17 as a Captain in the Royal Engineers. I was wounded in July 1917 – and had my right shoulder broken as well.²⁴⁶ I was in hospital in the South of France for a time, eventually coming to England to a place called Tenterden in Kent.²⁴⁷ From here I joined the staff of the War Office as a Staff Captain. After some time spent in London I was sent to open an office in Sheffield, and take charge of the Northern Areas for engineering supplies. I was in Lancaster several times in 1918. I often went over to see Louie in Preston, but did not know Walter’s address. I was in Doncaster many times, but could not find Walter.²⁴⁸

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While in Sheffield, Grandmother Foster died at Riccall on 13 April 1918.²⁴⁹

I had a great friend, Colour Sergeant Phil Rathbone ²⁵⁰ – afterwards Captain – who lived at Ashburner Cottage, Scotforth, and I came to Lancaster and spent a day with him once. Phil died on 8 January 1935, and I think Mrs Rathbone has gone to live with her daughter. I had no idea that your mother and you were living in Lancaster or I should have hunted for you.

In the meantime while I was away from home at the war, Annie had taken a post as a schoolteacher. She had been trained for this at Cape Town before our marriage. [Annie is a grand woman and has done her best to keep our home together under trying circumstances] I got back to South Africa in April 1919, and found my post occupied by another man. I had been Principal of the Pretoria Technical College before going to the war. Now I was left out of employment because I had gone to the war! Well I got temporary employment as science teacher in High Schools in Johannesburg, and I kept going until February 1928, going first <to> one place then another. In February 1928 I was finally retired for good, and I could get nothing else to do. Annie continued to teach after I came back from the war, & is still teaching. She however will have to finish up this year, for she is 50. Annie continued to live in Pretoria while I lived in Johannesburg 45 miles away. By doing this we kept our house and home together. If we had sold the house and both gone to Johannesburg we would now have been homeless. On 24 April 1923 a son was born to us whom we christened Sydney Passmore.²⁵¹

I must now go back again to the year 1901. At that time I was Colour Sergeant Sydney Passmore of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and acting Sergt Major of the Main Barracks, Cape Town. I had been endeavouring to investigate the names Passmore and Wood, and had had considerable correspondence with Edward Wood of Ocean Iron Works, Manchester, and Aunt Sarah of Lindal. Uncle Edward visited Aunt Sarah about this time. Edward Wood said that I ought really to be called Wood because father’s name really was Thomas Wood.²⁵² After giving the matter much thought I compromised and adopted the name Passmore-Wood. I went before the magistrate in June 1902, and finally and legally took the name of Sydney Passmore-Wood, and have been known by this name ever since.

My son also is Sydney Passmore-Wood. He will be 13 on the 24^th April. My wife Annie is short, slender, dark brown eyes and dark hair. Mrs Hall said she was very like my mother. My son – whom we call ‘Tinker’ is tall – somewhat slender, light brown hair, but gray eyes like the Fosters. The little chap had an operation for mastoid trouble when only four, and his left ear is deaf. He is in standard 7 at the Christian Brothers College. He passed College of Preceptors last November. At present he isn’t very strong for he had pneumonia last winter, and hasn’t picked up very well. I am training him to jump, and I think presently he should do well at this.²⁵³ A little thought shows me that he is your blood cousin, for Walter and I were brothers. He has a cousin of about the same age as himself in London. Mary Wood lives near the Crystal Palace.²⁵⁴

My sister Lily’s children ²⁵⁵ are all grown up – but Edith is an awfully nice girl. Edith Lee. She lives in Scarborough in Yorkshire as companion to an old invalid.²⁵⁶ She must be around 28 or 30. [If you write to your Aunt, Mrs George Lee, she will give you Edie’s address in Scarboro.] Annie’s two sisters have children – in Cape Town – and they are Tinker’s nearest cousins here. Then Bert has two children, Roger and Betty Passmore.²⁵⁷ They were born in July 1917 in Johannesburg. I think that they live in Hastings at present. They are also your cousins. Roger is apprenticed to an accountant. I don’t know their address. They are called after Roger and Betty Cavendish.²⁵⁸

After I was retrenched in 1928, as I could get no work to do, I went to London to study eyes, at the Refraction Hospital. I passed the British Optical Assn, and the Spectacle Makers Company examinations, and came back here to practice as an optician. Sorry to say I have never made a penny profit at it. In fact, up to date, I am round about £1,000 to the bad. But times have been very bad for everybody out here since the war, and I have hung on hoping that times would improve and let me clear up my loss.

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There are signs that things might perhaps improve. At present I don’t clear my rent, but if I close down and wait, and then reopen, it will take a lot of money to open up again. We have our own house to live in. Annie still has her employment, and we keep hoping for better times.²⁵⁹

I was in England for the whole of 1929 and 1930 – studying in London. I was in Edinburgh for a time. I visited Preston and York several times. I was in Lancaster in October 1930, going on to Cartmel and Holker. I found that man Teasdale ²⁶⁰ in his shop at Cartmel. I also saw Edward Hall ²⁶¹ and Mrs Edward Hall,²⁶² both very old. Also Tom and Jim Wilson,²⁶³ both around 70. Also Bob Kellet ²⁶⁴ at Flookburgh, Mrs Wadeson, ²⁶⁵ Mrs Laurence,²⁶⁶ daughter of old Seward the schoolmaster. There are probably fifty people there who still remember us. There are several people around there who are our cousins – Fosters, Wilsons,²⁶⁷ Woods!

If Jim Wilson is still alive – at the far lodge near Bigland Scar, Holker ²⁶⁸ – he must be around 80 – perhaps over. He may be able to throw some light on the difference between Passmore and Wood. His sister Emily was our nurse maid when we were children.²⁶⁹ I saw Jim’s brother, Tom Wilson, five years ago in Cark. If old Nash is still alive, he can tell a lot. Or Mr Lancaster the saddler of Cartmel;²⁷⁰ or Bob Davis ²⁷¹ of Cark, our one-time postman. Even Brown ²⁷² the late station master may have been told some facts long ago. Edward Hall, if he is still alive, was a sweetheart of mother about 1869-70,²⁷³ or David Hall’s wife ²⁷⁴ may still be alive at Cark, or Mrs Holden,²⁷⁵ or there may be written records – say at the church at Flookburgh or Cartmel or Allithwaite.

Edward Wood’s first wife,²⁷⁶ who was a nice lady and came to see us sometimes, died many years ago. Edward Wood married again.²⁷⁷ I think I was told he had married the daughter of a Congregational Minister.²⁷⁸ There were some young children when I went to see them in 1914.²⁷⁹ Basil Wood, my cousin, was killed during the war.²⁸⁰ I saw Edward Wood at Hampstead,²⁸¹ London, in April 1930. He was then an old man, and in frail weak condition. He died at the end of 1930.²⁸² I wrote to Lady Wood, his widow – but received no answer. When I was quite a boy father took me to London, and we called upon the engineering works at the corner of Compton Street and Judd Street – named Wood,²⁸³ not far from Euston Station. I looked at the place in 1930, and all is built up. I however found a police sergeant, retired, who remembered the Wood who had had the place in 1880 and before. This was a relative of father and looked like him too. I think Walter also went there once, for he too went with father to London in the early 1880s. If I could spare a summer to going around asking questions I believe I could unearth quite a lot of information regarding father.

An idea that has just occurred to me is, father was employed in some capacity at Holker Hall under the name of Thomas or William Passmore. He was there from 1870 or earlier to about 1883. There will be some record in the books of the Cavendish family. I remember quite well Master Victor Cavendish ²⁸⁴ and Master Richard Cavendish ²⁸⁵ and Master Fritz Egerton.²⁸⁶ Victor is Duke of Devonshire now, and Richard is Lord Richard Cavendish. Both of them were lads when I was, and therefore won’t know much of happenings prior to say 1875 or 76. But they may have heard! The old Duke’s wife was a Foster!²⁸⁷ And there was a story around that Grandfather Foster was related to her.

Grandfather Foster was a stately old gentleman about 1880. He was known all over the country, for he bred good horses. Before he lost all his money he was rather a widely known man. Long ago I understand that his relatives were William Foster of Hornby Castle ²⁸⁸ – brother or cousin. I once heard that he had a brother a general in the army in India – say in the 70s. A relation named Foster was Town Clerk in Richmond in Yorkshire ten years ago. It has occurred to me that old Mr Baring of Barings Park, London,²⁸⁹ knew father, and used to visit him. Also father was married at St Mary’s Church, Marylebone, London,²⁹⁰ and I know that years afterwards – after mother went away, father went to live in Marylebone. The Compton St Engineering Works that I visited with father about 1882 or 83 is in Marylebone.²⁹¹

When Grandfather Foster came over to Cark in 1886, after mother had gone, he visited the Duke – for I went with him. He also visited Colonel Hibbert in Cartmel,²⁹² and old John Ruskin at Coniston.

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Now mother was a great friend of John Ruskin, and both Walter and I occasionally went to stay at the house. I even went to visit him in 1886 after mother had left us, to tell him what happened. I wrote to me in the siege of Kimberley but I did not receive the letter until after the siege and Ruskin was then dead.²⁹³ Mother also knew the… WT Stead ²⁹⁴ the journalist very well, and Mr Stead sometimes came to stay with us at Cark. Another memory is, while I was attending Cartmel Grammar School – perhaps about 12 years old, I went to Meathop ²⁹⁵ farm between Grange and Arnside to visit the Knowles. Old Wood came over to see Knowles one day and Old Wood and Knowles and Harry Knowles the son and myself rode out to a large tarn near Silverdale bridge.²⁹⁶ Old Wood looked around the plain & pointed to Birket Tower ²⁹⁷ and said to me, “Thy forefathers once owned all the land thou can see in every direction.” And old Knowles added, ”And perhaps thou wilt get it all back some day!”

Now Annie and I went to Wraysholme Tower in 1914,²⁹⁸ and found a woman named Wood ²⁹⁹ who said she was my cousin. It wasn’t in the big farmhouse in the yard, but in a smaller house near to. We stayed there for tea. This woman would be 30 or 35 then.³⁰⁰ You see when I went to Cark in 1914 the news spread all over the country that I had arrived in the neighbourhood, and several quite nice girls came and claimed to be cousins. Lady Moyra Cavendish ³⁰¹ came in to see me one morning after Annie had gone up to Scotland, and said that Richard Cavendish would have liked to see me but had been called up to his regiment.³⁰² The war coming on so suddenly stopped all investigation but I discovered that people were very friendly and all spoke glowingly of father, but said little of mother! Although I am tall and heavy, all around said that I looked small compared with father.³⁰³

My son Sydney is your cousin. He is only 12. My sister Lily’s daughter Edith Lee is your cousin. She is about 28 or so. My brother Bert’s two children are your cousins. They are about 18-19. If ever you visit Preston, I wish you would call upon your Aunt – your father’s sister – Mrs Burrow, 260 Fylde Road, Preston. She is awfully nice but I fear she is very badly off & ill.³⁰⁴ She was a remarkably nice girl when she was young. She has had hard luck, and is now drudging away for little return. She will be round about 60 years of age. Harry Barnsley who also will be a cousin, ie his mother was your father’s mother’s sister – also lives in Lancaster ³⁰⁵ – a clerk or advertising agent for the railway. His sister is Mrs Tom Fowler of Post Office, New Hall Lane, Preston.

Long long ago I used to come with the volunteers ³⁰⁶ to camp in a field half way from Lancaster to Morecambe. I was in Morecambe five years ago. Louise & Edith & Harry Barnsley and I rode by bus from Lancaster one day and spent the day in Morecambe. We also went to Blackpool to see the illuminations. I doubt very much that I shall ever get to England again, or Bert either.³⁰⁷ I am now 65 – have no employment, and I am far from being so alert and active as I was some years ago. My son who is also your cousin will I hope be able to come to England some day to see the parts I knew as a boy. I notice that you visit Cark and Cartmel. When I was a boy, forest land with tall trees extended from the top of Cark Hill right past Holker for twenty miles. We had to pass through tall forest to get to Cartmel. Now the trees are all cut down over the whole district. During the latter stages of the late war I was attached to the staff of the War Office and occasionally visited Enfield.³⁰⁸

No I haven’t forgotten you all. I simply did not know where you were. Your father, Walter, was a generous lovable lad when a lad. He is highly strung in his nervous system, and very sensitive. I liked him always. When I saw him in 1914 we got on well. When he came to Durban I hoped it would be possible for him to settle near us. I feel certain he could have secured good permanent employment either in Pretoria or in Johannesburg, for he was a good carpenter I was told.³⁰⁹ The fact that you heard from him six years ago is useful. If you let me know where he was then, I’ll get to work to try to find him.³¹⁰

You seem to be surprised at me writing to the newspaper. Abroad this is done as a custom, eg. if a person goes on holiday, instead of writing letters to a number of friends, you simply send a description of your movements to the local newspaper. But I didn’t send my letter to the newspaper! I wrote to the master of the grammar school at Cartmel to tell him that I had attended the school fifty years ago.

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I was schoolmaster for thirty years and I still have a list of all the boys who passed through my hands. I know what most of them are doing now and where they are. Hundreds pass me daily and call out as they pass. Wherever I go in South Africa I find my old pupils.

I was astonished to hear that as a family you all have weak eyes. I have exceptionally good eyes, and I noticed in 1914 that Walter also had good eyes,³¹¹ Louie too has very good eyes – and Lily. Bert’s eyes don’t seem so good as the rest of us but haven’t given him trouble until during recent years. If you wore glasses when you were young, this sounds like Myopia or short sight. This is a pity because it has a habit of getting worse.

You mention a Walter Passmore ³¹² the great comedian of thirty years ago. So far as I know he was no relation of yours. I fancy that he is still alive. I wrote to him once at Boer War time. He was a Londoner and quite a nice man. Dan Leno ³¹³ and Walter Passmore were very popular at Boer War time.

In 1885 the newspapers in the Furness district were the Lancaster Observer, Barrow and Dalton News, Ulverston Mirror, Ulverston Advertiser. About May or June 1886 there would be quite a lot of our family affairs in the newspapers, ie. just at the time that mother disappeared. The back files of the newspapers will be in your library filed away year by year. Look them up.³¹⁴ I think it quite right for you to obtain all the information you can of your people. I wish I could have had a year or so to spare long ago so that I could have investigated while people who could tell were alive. I know that in England people can be very insulting in their manner and the way the ask questions. Out abroad here, no one takes the slightest notice what happens or has happened. We make our own friends amongst those we like, we don’t question who or what their people are. But while on this subject I was welcomed everywhere around Cark in 1914. All who remembered father spoke of him with respect and admiration at his wonderful athletic powers. And the few I met who remembered mother spoke of her as a marvellous rider.³¹⁵

I found quite a number of men and women who remembered Walter – your father – but Walter left the district when only 12 and never returned to Cark.³¹⁶ You are likely to find out much more of your father at and around Beverley in Yorkshire for Walter was very well known there for 20 years – say from 1886 to about 1910.³¹⁷ He was called Walter Wastling ³¹⁸ all that time. He would be well known amongst the sporting community for he went in a lot for bicycle racing and won silver and gold cups. He was also known in York and Hull. Had mother remained at home another three years all our lives would have been different. She left just at the time when we were helpless and unable to shift for ourselves.

You bear the name Dorothy! This name should bring you good luck for you are named after Dorothy Dransfield. I have enclosed a little family tree to show how we came down from le Scrope. All the papers are in the hands of a firm in London.³¹⁹ I have an official printed family tree. It is packed away at present.³²⁰

Now my lass, I have told you all I can think of. Think well of yourself and make the best of yourself. Find out where your father was last heard of and I will try to find him. My son is too small to write letters I fear. Try to get in touch with Edith Lee. Bertie’s children will be nearer your age.³²¹ I will try to find out their address. If you go over to Preston, try to look up your auntie Louie.³²² Cheer her up. And think well of your father, for he really is a nice man.³²³

Hold your head up and keep on smiling.

Yours sincerely

Sydney Passmore-Wood

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References

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