Joseph Henry Pearce known as Harry was born to William and Sarah Pearce (nee Clarke) on 16 Feb 1886 in Innerleithen, Scotland. He was the baby and the tenth child of the family.
‘Montgomery Cottages’, 66 High St, Innerleithen.
Birthplace of Harry Pearce. (From Google maps)
Harry had eight brothers and two sisters although Mary Elizabeth the second girl died in 1878, only eight months old.
I was hoping to find out if Harry had had an education, so I checked the National Records of Scotland to see if there were any school student records. They state on their website there is only “information on individual schools and sometimes on individual teachers but rarely on pupils in our records”.
As the family grew older, they all helped in the mineral soft drink factory their parents ran, in Miller Street, Innerleithen until they left home. They did little jobs like capping the bottles.
On the 1901 census Harry is 15 years old and listed as an assistant Aerated Water Manufacturer. (NB: Wake Marks is a transcription error for Water Maker). Ref: Ancestry.
Below are some images from the period when Harry was growing up, still living at home.
Resourced from the Facebook site:
Bonspiel (Curling tournament) in the Tweed at Innerleithen, c 1900
Early 1900’s Innerleithen
Games Procession in Innerleithen, 1907
When he was 22 years old Harry married Susan Saunderson on 23 Dec 1908 in the Camlachie district of Glasgow, Scotland. The Marriage certificate names the Bluevale Church (at 572 Duke St) Glasgow.
Susan was the daughter of Edward Saunderson and Susan Cochran. Harry used their address as his own - 12 Craigmore St, Glasgow.
(There are currently no homes in Craigmore St, according to Google maps, it looks like they have all been removed awaiting development.)
Marriage Record No 370 the lower entry is for Harry and Susan
The Topographical Dictionary of Scotland 1846, Vol 1, p 137 gives the description below of Bluevale. (Author: Samuel Lewis)
Susan was known as Aunt ‘Cissie’ to our family.
Harry and Cissie had two children:
Richard William born 1909
Henry Edward born 1911, Glasgow.
Harry & Cissie with their firstborn son - Richard William
As an adult, Harry had a few jobs. Maybe because of the effects of his illness – tuberculosis, interfering with his long term availability.
When he married, he was working as a Tram Car Conductor, the same as his Father-in-law Edward.
I wonder if Edward invited him home for dinner one evening and he met Cissie there?? Or had he met Cissie first and her father Edward helped him to get the job??
I wonder if Edward invited him home for dinner one evening and he met Cissie there?? Or had he met Cissie first and her father Edward helped him to get the job??
‘City of Glasgow, Tramcars’: https://www.caingram.info/Scotland/Pic_htm/glasgow_tram_1.htm;
Accessed 06 May 2019
From the tramways information (at the end of this blog) we see that the horse-drawn tram service withdrew at the end of April 1902 and an additional 400 new trams were built and fitted with electrical equipment with the Glasgow Corporation Tramways; this would mean that in the period after 1902 there would have been a need for many more tram workers such as conductors, the job Harry took on.
Harry had moved to Kilsyth, Forth Bridge in Stirlingshire, Scotland and was only 26 years old when he died there at ‘7 hours am’ on 03 December 1912, in Market Street, Kilsyth.
Google Map showing Market Street Kilsyth
Harry had been suffering from pneumonia for three days, an effect of the tubercular disease. He and Cissie had only been together for four years. His brother Ned (Edward) was present.
The Forth bridge construction began in 1882. Opened 04 March 1890 by the Duke of Rothesay, future Edward VII. Length is 8,094 feet/2,467 m.
Reference: The Forth Bridge by Sir William Arrol. https://www.electricscotland.com/history/stirlingshire/StirlingMerchantsGuide046TheForthBridge.pdf
Reference: The Forth Bridge by Sir William Arrol. https://www.electricscotland.com/history/stirlingshire/StirlingMerchantsGuide046TheForthBridge.pdf
Harry was buried with his parents, brother Richard and sister Mary Elizabeth, at the Cemetery in Innerleithen.
(My photo: Family gravestone in 2015)
Cissie re-married in 1920 in the Camlachie area of Glasgow. Her new husband was David Liddle Bathgate and they had one son – David in 1915.
Cissie lived to be an old woman of 96 years when she died in 1980 in Park Circus, Glasgow.
For Interest sake – this is a postcard of the Forth Bridge sent to my father – (Master W Pearce) after they had left Scotland in 1912 and settled in Victoria, Australia.
Transcription:
“Dear Billy
How are you getting on. Do you like Australia as well as Scotland. I think I’ll have to come out and see you all some day. Do you know which one is me in the photo:
Best love from Aggie.”
I think the post date is No. 20, 13 from Innerleithen
I don’t know what she means by ‘which one she is in the photo’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FURTHER INFO RE: GLASGOW TRAMWAYS
Glasgow Corporation Tramways were formerly one of the largest urban tramway systems in Europe. Over 1000 municipally-owned trams served the city of Glasgow, Scotland with over 100 route miles (160 route kilometres) by 1922.[1] The system closed in 1962 and was the last city tramway in Great Britain (prior to the construction of new systems in the 1990s).
Creation
The Glasgow Street Tramways Act was enacted by Parliament in 1870. This legislation allowed Glasgow Town Council to decide whether or not to have tramways within Glasgow.[2] In 1872, the Town Council laid a 2 1⁄2-mile (4.0 km) route from St George's Cross to Eglinton Toll (via New City Road, Cambridge Street, Sauchiehall Street, Renfield Street and the Jamaica Bridge).
The Tramways Act prohibited the Town Council from directly operating a tram service over the lines. The act further stipulated that a private company be given the operating lease of the tram-lines for a period of 22 years.[3] The St George's Cross to Eglinton Toll tram line was opened on 19 August 1872 with a horse-drawn service by the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company.[4] The Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company operated the tram-line and subsequent extensions to the system until 30 June 1894.
In declining to renew the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company operating lease, Glasgow Town Council formed the Glasgow Corporation Tramways and commenced their own municipal tram service on 1 July 1894.
Track gauge
Glasgow's tramlines had a highly unusual track gauge of 4 ft 7 3⁄4 in (1,416 mm). This was to permit 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in(1,435 mm) standard gauge railway wagons to be operated over parts of the tram system (particularly in the Govan area) using their wheel flanges running in the slots of the tram tracks. This allowed the railway wagons to be drawn along tramway streets to access some shipyards. The shipyards provided their own small electric locomotives, running on the tramway power, to pull these wagons, principally loaded with steel for shipbuilding, from local railway freight yards.
Electrification
The electrification of the tram system was instigated by the Glasgow Tramways Committee, with the route between Springburn and Mitchell Street chosen as an experiment. With a fleet of 21 newly built tramcars, the experimental electric route commenced on 13 October 1898 and was considered a success. The citywide horse-drawn tram service was withdrawn at the end of April 1902.
An additional 400 new trams were built and fitted with electrical equipment, with the Glasgow Corporation Tramways workshops at Coplawhill, Pollokshields heavily involved in the construction of the new trams.
Standard Tramcars
These four-wheeled, double-deck tramcars were the mainstay of the Glasgow tram fleet from electrification until the late 1950s (only being withdrawn due to the imminent closure of the system). Over 1000 were built between 1898 and 1924. They were progressively modernised in four phases, although not all went through each phase. The first cars were open-top unvestibuled four-wheelers (phase one). They then received top covers with open balconies (phase two), platform vestibules and roll-top draught covers (phase three) and finally fully enclosed top covers (phase four). Electrical equipment and running gear was also upgraded at each modernisation phase. The earlier cars had rounded front dash panels, but later cars that were built with vestibule glazing from new had hexagonal profile dash panels. When early cars were upgraded to receive vestibule glazing they retained their round dash panels, and latterly the main visual difference within the fleet was between the "round dash" and "hex dash" variants. A few cars were also cut down to single deckers for use on the Clydebank - Duntocher route which passed under low railway bridges.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Corporation_Tramways; Accessed 06 May 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment