Flying in the Vulcan

Snapshot File - Flying in the Vulcan

Flying as a rear crew member in a Vulcan was both frightening and uncomfortable.  The discomfort started when you got dressed.  There were several options as to what to wear, depending on the time of year and the task you were undertaking.  For flying in the airfield circuit you might get away with wearing your underpants, a green tee shirt (everything was green), aircrew socks, boots and a flying suit.  The flying suit was light and comfortable and composed mainly of pockets and zips. If you were, for instance, flying low level over the United States, then you would wear over your tee shirt and under your flying suit, a white cotton air ventilated suit.  This was a mass of little tubes and was connected to the aircraft cooling system.  The most uncomfortable option was also the most common.  If it was winter or if you were flying over the sea, you wore an immersion suit.  Under the immersion suit you wore a green (of course) bunny suit.  This was a one piece suit with a nice warm fluffy inside.  The immersion suit was of rubber and covered you from neck to toe and out to your wrists.  At the neck and wrists were thin tubes of rubber that the Flying Clothing people cut the fit very tightly to stop the water getting in.  It also made it hard to breathe and to get blood through to your hands!

Next came the external gear.  First was your Mae West, or inflatable jacket.  Your parachute harness came next, and had to fit tightly, especially through your crutch.  Failure to get this right meant finding your balls behind your ears if you had to bail out.  On your back was your parachute, and hanging down behind your bum was a dinghy.  When you sat in your bare metal seat, these two items formed bone hard padding to lean back on and to sit on.  Then came your seat harness and you plugged yourself into the intercomm, oxygen and air conditioning.  And finally finally, there was line that armed your parachute as you left the aircraft.  The overall affect of this was that not only were you trussed like a chicken, but you had a curved spine.  After six years of flying in the Vulcan I had more or less permanent backache.  It took six months of not flying in the Vulcan for the backache to depart!  

The Vulcan cabin was pressurised to 10,000 feet.  You can live at this altitude without an oxygen supply, there is enough in the atmosphere.  For safety reasons, one pilot and one rear crew member were always on oxygen, which meant wearing a mask.  Down the back we were supposed to take turns, but I always volunteered to have mine on.  This was because the microphone was in the mask and the AEO had a lot of talking to do.  In addition, for my first three years the Nav Plotter, sitting next to me, was a guy with a stomach defect, which meant he was always airsick at low level.  Not many people know that air sickness is catching.

The rear crew sat down the back, in the dark, facing aft.  The pilots were several feet higher and in daylight.  They also had ejector seats.  For reasons of aircraft design and money, the rear crew didn’t have ejector seats.  Our seats did swivel though, to give us a slight chance of making the exit which was set into the floor just forward of our seats.  

In the event of having to bail out, the Nav Radar would open the door in the floor and would be first out, followed by the Nav Plotter.  Last of all would be the AEO - me.  There wouldn’t be time to disconnect the various tubes and cables you were hooked up to, so they were designed with “break” points.  The parachute line would arm the chute, stopping it opening till you were below 10,000 feet.  So, if you bailed out at 30,000 feet, you were supposed to free fall till 10,000, when your chute would open.  A possible problem was if the undercarriage was down (hydraulic failure?).  The nose wheel was aft of the hatch, so as you slid down the hatch with all your connections safely disconnecting, the first thing you saw was the nosewheel.  You leapt aft, grabbed the nose wheel strut and swung round it.  Likely story!  A final point about the “break” points.  I was taking a Canadian air force major through the various safety drills once.  He slid down the door and the breaks didn’t break.  He hung upside down and then the leg of his nice Canadian flying suit tore off.  Luckily there was only about 4 feet to the ground.  He wasn’t very happy though.  I really must remember not to fall over when I am laughing.

Memories of Majunga

Snapshot File - Memories of Majunga.

Majunga is a town on the north western side of Madagascar, near the northern end of the island.  Madagascar was either the first island God made and he learnt from his mistakes - or the last one and he used all the bits left over.  Majunga was a ramshackle town sat on a river estuary.  It had many buildings that looked French provincial - not surprising considering it had been a French colony.  The French killed 70,000 people in 1947 and they were not very popular with the locals.  The locals spoke French, which was a problem because we didn’t - being English.  

Majunga had an airfield.  It wasn’t very big, although an Air France Boeing 707 came in once a week, which must have been a heart-stopping experience for its pilots.  The Shackleton was OK, as long as it wasn’t too hot.  With a full fuel load, its usual state, it took every inch of the runway to get airborne.  There were usually 2 Shackletons and 3 crews based at Majunga, and their task was to log all the tankers in the Mozambique Straits.  We would fly down the straits to the frigate stationed off Beira, drop their mail to them, and fly back, logging all tankers heading south west.  We did this because the UK government wanted to stop oil reaching Rhodesia, which was in a state of rebellion against the Crown.  We couldn’t stop tankers unloading at Beira because it was Portuguese.  But if they were identified, pressure could be brought to bear on the companies that owned them.  It was all futile, because oil entered Rhodesia via South Africa.

We did 3 or 4 sorties per crew each week.  The Shackleton heaved itself into the sky at about 8 am.  We couldn’t go earlier because the locals were in bed instead of in the tower.  One morning we actually took off without local air traffic control or the fire service (Huggis!) . We flew down to Beira and dropped things to the frigate, then flew back.  It was a good idea to land before it got dark, as the locals packed up early.  To drop things to the frigate we used a gear called Lindholme.  This consisted of canisters that floated. One Christmas we announced we had their Christmas mail including a cake.  We dropped the canister and it sank.  We had filled it with stones!  After they had recovered, we dropped the real mail canister.  

On another occasion, the Navy were lowering their whaler to recover the Lindholme when it stuck.  So they launched a rib, and it’s engine failed.  So they threw the ship’s diver over the side and he swam to the Lindholme.  Happy that all was well we departed, only to get a call.  They had lost sight of their rib, could we find it?  We did and departed on our way.  

Life in Majunga was pretty basic.  The officers lived down in the town centre, but the SNCOs and the airmen lived out on the edge of town.  The airmen were in an ex-French army encampment - called the Camp Britannique.   The SNCOs lived nearby in a big house owned by the Mayor.  Which was pretty basic.  We had beds but our lockers and things were made out of orange boxes etc.  The food was also grotty.  We often feasted on  food which had been in storage in Aden for many years.  The cook did his best, but he was  on a hiding to nothing.  

The Maison de Maire depended on a well in the grounds for its water.  The pump was broke, so the fire brigade came up occasionally and filled the tanks in the roof.  The chief night spots were Madame’s, a brothel, and a night club that was in a converted garage.  The toilets in the night club were appalling, so you just walked over the road and pee’d over a small cliff.  I was doing that one night, when the guy next to me tried to light his cigarette off a distant lighthouse.  He fell over the cliff down onto the beach.  It was only about 20 feet and as he was drunk he landed like a baby.

I did four months in Majunga.  Two months from Singapore and two from the UK.  None of it was enjoyable.  The place itself was a miserable shambles created by the French.  There were quite a lot of Frenchmen around and they were uniformly unpleasant.  No wonder the Malagache hated them. We on the other hand, were cheered as we drove out to the airfield for another 12 hour flight.

On my second visit one of the other signallers had a project as part of his university degree course.  He got a detailed map of Majunga and we spent many happy hours wandering round identifying the usage of lots of tin shacks.  

Holiday in Italy

1. Snapshot File - Holiday in Italy.

The UK joined the Common Market in 1972.  Six years earlier, we holidayed in Italy.  We went with Ann and Bryan Mercer.  This was quite a big step for all of us.  We and our friends didn’t usually go abroad to holiday; in fact, Mary and I didn’t holiday!  Brian and Ann usually went to her parents in Cornwall for their summer holidays.  We parked our young children (2 each) with our parents and went to Italy.

We went in Brian’s 6-month old Ford Cortina.  He was rather careful with this car, but he allowed Mary and I to share the driving.  The trip started out in Harwich, where Brian’s precious car was swung high into the air and down into the hold.  No drive on/off on this route.

Brian and I were both sergeants in the RAF; so we didn’t have much money.  There were no credit cards then, so we took cash.  Probably mainly Italian Lira plus some German Marks and Swiss Francs.  We also had BFG (British Forces Germany) tokens for fuel in Germany and Italian tourist tokens for fuel in Italy.  We crossed international borders ten times.  Each time, we drove up clutching our British passports; they waved us through.  The only time they inspected them was in the middle of the night crossing from Italy back into Switzerland.  The lonely Swiss soldier guarding his country, burst out laughing at the ladies’ passport photographs!

We first drove non-stop to Lake Garda in northern Italy.  This took about 18 hours and saved us a night in a hotel. We then drove into Venice.  We had a guide book, but chose the first hotel in the tourist bureau list - Academia.  A really good choice, right in the centre of Venice.  We stayed in Venice for 4 nights.  Ann, Mary and Bryan spent a day on the Lido beach, while I took in more of the sights, including the Doge’s palace.  Highlight of that was seeing a tryptich by H. Bosch.  Only 3 of them survive and I saw another one in Vienna many years later. 

We left Venice for a day on the beach at Rimini.  We had just rented loungers and sunshade on a beach, when the heavens opened up and we left.

We then drove down to Rome and did the sights there for several days.  Once again the other three spent a day on the beach; I went round the ruins of Ostia, the port for Rome.  We left Rome and drove overnight to Basle.  Stayed in a gasthof in the centre.  There we had our first encounter with a duvet; we didn’t have them in England.

And finally, overnight to the Hook of Holland and home.

The holiday was planned to cover long distances overnight.  Which meant we didn’t have to pay for hotels.  So, quite a lot of sleeping was done in the car, especially by Ann, who didn’t drive.  The holiday was planned by Ann and I, with little input by the other two.  They agreed to the holiday because they didn’t think we would go ahead.  But we did.  Interesting really, as Ann and I ended up married to each other

Training as an Air Signaller

In August 1954 I became an Aircrew Cadet at RAF Swanton Morley.  Basically, I was an AC2, the lowest form of RAF life, but I wore brass Albatross badges on my arms.  Commonly known as shite hawks.  The camp at Swanton Morely was built to a design used in the run up to WW2.  The living accommodation was made up of 3 H-blocks, each containing dormitories and toilet facilities.  We lived about 20 to a room, each with our own “bed space”, which we were required to keep clean and tidy.  Immaculate in fact. 

The No 1 Air Signaller’s School was organised into 3 wings, each containing entries.  A new entry, containing about 30 cadets, started every 3 weeks.  My entry was DE119, the 119th Direct Entry flight.  After DE122 they changed the designation to AS; don’t ask me why, but there is an enormous department in the Air Ministry dedicated to changing things.  Or so they say.

The Basic section of the year-long course consisted of ground school.  There was lots of marching and slinging rifles around of course - but the chief thing was morse.  The morse code was the main method of wireless communication in aviation, especially military aviation.  We spent a couple of hours every day sending and reading the morse code.  The aim was to be proficient at 25 words a minute by the end of the year.  The instructors were elderly gents, ex-RAF usually, who did nothing but send morse to rooms full of struggling students.  The trick, as with typing, was to stop thinking about what you were doing - stop reading it.  We also learnt how to use the radios carried in the aircraft used by Swanton Morley. 

The radios were the R1155 (receiver) and the T1154 (transmitter).  These radios were developed during WW2 and were very widely used.  With them, we worked to a plan given to us on take off.  Radio stations had to be contacted and messages sent.  Some of the ground stations were “real”, others were sited at Swanton Morley and solely for the use of the Air Signaller cadets.

Avro Anson

The first flight was in an Avro Anson.  This meant that a staff signaller could supervise you and check that you were safe on your own.  After that, all the flights except the last one were in the Percival Prentice.  This small aircraft had a pilot and a cadet.  The cadet sat in the back and couldn’t see ahead, or see the pilot.  The pilot could only be contacted by the intercom which was OK most of the time.  There were 18 airborne exercises that had to be completed.  The first and the last was in an Anson.  The bulk of the exercises were in the Prentice and lasted two hours.  We flew a triangular track over eastern and central England at about 2000 feet. 

In theory, as you completed each item of the exercise, you wrote up your wireless log, on which you were assessed.  However, with up to 30 cadets in the air it was dog-eat-dog, and your logging tended to get behind.  Often you would be landed and taxing in and still be busy writing.  The instructors would leap onto the wing of the aircraft and snatch your log off you.  They were also very hot on people who sent their take-off message before they got airborne!

Generally there were two flights each day, one before lunch and one afterwards.  30 small aircraft would take off in waves.  The cadets didn’t do much sight-seeing; they were too busy trying to establish contact with the ground stations.  On one occasion there was a very strong wind, and the pilots flew into it and remained more or less stationary over Swanton Morley. 

I was excused the last flight, the check flight in the Anson, because I was still recovering from an operation to remove my appendix.  My marks were good enough for this – so I got my wings and was promoted to sergeant. 

Margaret Thatcher

In the early 1980s, I was on holiday in Italy.  We were enjoying a leisurely lunch in a back street in Sienna.  At the next table was an Italian chap, a bit younger than me.  Would we mind if he practised his English on us?  After a bit of practice, he asked us if English ladies always wore "hets"?  From this we got to Mrs Thatcher.  She always wore a "het" he remarked.  Yes I said, but did he know that she was actually a man in women's clothes?  His brown Italian eyes grew round and new English words were exchanged.  Behind us there was an explosion.  Another Italian, eavesdropping, collapsed into his soup.  He didn't know Mrs Thatcher was a bloke either…….

I nearly met her once.  One Saturday afternoon, I was scheduled to give her an intelligence briefing on cruise missiles.  Unlike most politicians, in my experience, she was not happy to talk about something she knew nothing about.  I was warned to speak normally, answer all questions and be prepared for a lot of them.  All prepped up and wearing my best suit I arrived at the Cabinet Office just after lunchtime on Saturday.  Only to be told that her flight to Washington had been brought forward and the briefing cancelled.  

What's this all about you ask?  Well, everyone else is writing about her and most of them never met her, let alone nearly gave her a talk on cruise missiles!  Going back to the first paragraph, I met lots of foreigners, Americans, Canadians, Frogs and various other sorts of Europeans.  All of them admired her AND us for electing her.  Would we like to swop they asked; her for half a dozen of their leaders.  

In my opinion, her greatest achievement was to change the national mood.  In 1979 we were depressed and depressing.  She changed all that.  Far too many people have forgotten what it was like pre-Margaret, and many of those with an opinion are rather too young to hold it.  Before she came along we had a long line of depressing male plonkers ruling over us.  Since she fell, we have had more of them.

God bless Mrs Thatcher and please, God, send us another one!

Writing to your MP

Tf C

I would like to encourage all OPCs who are UK residents, not just those living in Cornwall, to write to their MPs.   You can find their email addresses on Theyworkforyou.  Obviously, you will have to edit my email, not just forward it.  Nor does it matter if an MP hears from several constituents.

Dear Ms Newton

I am a constituent of yours, living in Mitchell, and I would like to enlist your help.

My hobby is family history, in particular, Cornish family history.  I am a founder member of the Cornish Online Parish Clerk project (http://www.cornwall-opc.org/index.htm).  This is basically an "adopt-a-parish" scheme with over a hundred volunteers world wide.  OPCs are committed to helping Cornish FH researchers free of charge.  The project has an online, searchable, free-to-view database (http://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/) with over 2.3 million records online.  Our main target is the parish registers, but we always looking for other sources of useful data.  

For the last six months I have been exchanging emails with the Registration Office in Truro, trying to persuade them to let me photograph and transcribe the indices of the 19th century registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths.  Not the registers, the indexes.  Yesterday, they said no, quoting an email they had had from the Policy Dept of the General Registration Office.  This said:

“This query is linked to a wider issue relating to access to records by family history societies, Ancestry, Find my past etc.   We are still seeking a resolution to this query and while I am unable to provide a definitive answer at present, I will advise you as soon as I am aware of the outcome.

In the interim, you may wish to advise the parish clerks that the public may only have access to the indices in the manner provided for by statue, i.e. in accordance with s.64 of the Marriage Act 1949, where you will note that there is no provision to transcribe or photograph the indexes, see link below.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/12-13-14/76/section/64  “

It is interesting that they mention commercial operators such as Ancestry.  They, of course, would charge for access to the data, we don't.  Also, they say that the relevant act has no provision to allow the photographing or transcription of the indices.  But does it say that they can't be?  

As they have a policy dept, I would like to know what the policy actually is and how they intend to alter it.

I would like to re-iterate that it is the indices I want to transcribe, not the registers.

Hoping you can help.

Rgds

Michael

Some background.  There are about 30 such projects in operation.  According to the administrator of UKBMD, he has been at usergroup meetings with the GRO and no objection to such projects was raised by them.

The Truro RO allowed CFHS to copy and transcribe the indices some years ago, but the results were not used for reasons not explained to me.  Personally, I think it was because rather belatedly they realised that CFHS charged for access.  I also think that within County Hall there is an IT department that would like a council web site to host the data, but they have neither the expertise or money to do it. We on the other hand have both the expertise and the web site!

Finally, despite not admitting any knowledge of UKBMD, in 2009 the Truro RO asked UKBMD for advice on setting up such a project.

Local BMD registers

Tf C

A couple of years ago, Myra asked me to subscribe to the mailing list of the Open Genealogical Alliance.  This is a bunch of people interested in public access to public data.  They are operating a bit above our pay grade but they are interested in the same data as we are.  This is a quote from the mailing list.

The index for the civil register of life events - births, deaths and marriages (BMD) - is a collection of books populated with tables, where each row is a reference to a certificate for a corresponding life event. Every time someone is born, dies or gets married, the local council register issues a full page certificate, then it makes an entry of the event in the local index, and they also make a copy of the local index to be sent to a central location: the General Registry Office (GRO), part of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). This institution has the collection of all these copied index books dating back to the mid nineteenth century. Older life event records were maintained by the church instead of the government, and are kept separately This index is meant to be digitised and made available online for free, but the delivery of this service has been delayed for many years due to problems with commercial subcontracting. In the meantime, other forms of access to the index - such as CDs - have been restricted or suppressed, ostensibly due to the imminent availability of the online version. This long impasse has created a situation where a number of commercial companies - such as Findmypast.co.uk --are stepping in and providing paid for access to this public information that the government has committed to deliver for free. The Crown claims copyright on the design of the index, expiring 50 years after creation as they are not published works, but the actual content is factual information not encumbered by intellectual property restrictions. Thus anyone is free to copy the index data. Our partner organisation FreeBMD.org.uk has been providing free online access to a partial copy of the index transcribed by volunteers, as until recently the registers were handwritten, and thus requiring manual typing into a computer. The official advice form direct.gov.uk for citizens requiring free access to the index is to go via FreeBMD. This volunteer group has offered to help providing to the full index in collaboration with GRO, and we have been trying to help communicate and advance this great idea. Unfortunately, these requests have been batted away, without even being allowed to meet to discuss the options. Emails have gone without reply for months. We have been told for 18 months now that a new plan is imminent and we should just wait. We have responded that under the coalition agreement and the compact for the voluntary sector, we should be consulted at an early stage in order to help shape the plans, not informed afterwards. This is particularly applicable when we are proposing a solution that could save taxpayers money. Unfortunately this has been ignored. We have also been told that the online index is entangled with a major ICT project that is suffering delays. However, new government policy is to break down large contracts, and this would seem an ideal candidate for outing this new policy into practice, given the costly delays already incurred and the apparent inability of moving this forward within a reasonable timeframe. We would like to request an urgent intervention from the Transparency Team to help us reach to the GRO and discuss a way to promptly ensure that the full BMD index is available online for free as open data.

Barriers in accessing this data: 

The index for the civil register of life events - births, deaths and marriages (BMD) is meant to be freely available online, but this has been delayed for many years. Volunteer groups have offered to provide this as open data for free, but this has been dismissed without due consideration.

Benefits overview:

The BMD index is very valuable, being the first point of call for anyone in need of tracing their ancestors, or obtaining a copy of the certificates. This could be for practical reasons, such as an inheritance, but in most cases it's people wanting to explore their family history. There is fundamental transparency principle in making the civil register freely available, and also an economic imperative. Family history is a very popular hobby and drives a lot of cash online, with people paying up to £150 per year for subscriptions to commercial sites. For the UK it could also become a major economic activity thanks to ancestral tourism marketed to the descendants of British people. There is a huge market for US travellers, and several county councils have already started local programmes to tap into that market. The development of this kind of services based on secondary reuse of data, where the business model is tourism instead of data paywalls -- is hampered by the lack of proper Open Data in the family history domain. County council tourism boards cannot reach local US prospective travellers and commercial ancestry websites do not provide those data services.

I have a personal interest in this because 9 months ago I started an exchange of emails with the Registration Officer in Truro.  I asked for permission to photograph the indices to the local BMD registers.  Why bother to do this, given that FreeBMD has transcribed the GRO indexes.  However, it is well documented that there are differences between these indexes and those of the local BMD registers.

In January they said NO, although I pointed out to them that there are 30 such projects in England under the umbrella group UKBMD.  These are usually joint projects between family history societies and local Registration Offices.  But not always, they also involve groups such as ours.  Their refusal was based on advice from the GRO, which I think was incorrect.  I therefore wrote to my MP and asked her to ask the GRO just what the official policy was.  I am still waiting for an answer.  If anyone who is a UK resident would like to ask their MP what the policy is – I’ll provide a copy of my email.  The more people who ask, the better it might be.

Burial Registers of Lanreath in the 19th century

Tf C

Burials and causes of death in Lanreath in the 19th century

Transcribing a Burial Register can be a tedious process, particularly when the incumbent’s hand-writing is not of the best, but occasionally the tedium can be alleviated when one encounters an enlightened Minister. One such was the Reverend Richard Buller of Lanreath.

Crockford’s Clerical Directory indicates that Richard Buller graduated with a B.A. from Oriel College, Oxford in 1826, and gained his M.A. 3 years later. He was made a deacon in 1828, in which year he appears to have been appointed Curate of the parish of Lanreath in Cornwall, and he was appointed Rector of the parish the following year. He was then 23 or 24 years old. He died on 19th June 1883 at Pounds near Plymouth (his death was registered at Plympton St Mary) but he had certainly been carrying out his duties in the parish until the previous month – he performed his last baptism on 13th May and conducted his last burial on 17th May.

He had therefore served his parish for some 55 years. That is, of course, a commendable and remarkable record of service, but in terms of social history, he left us so much more.

In 1812 Parliament had decreed that with effect from 1st January 1813, Parish Registers should be in a standard format, with one volume for baptisms, one for marriages and one for burials. The format was set out in the 1812 Act, and the Burials Register was to have 5 columns, headed ‘Name’, ‘Abode’, ‘When Buried’, ‘Age’, and ‘By whom the Ceremony was performed.’ Anyone who has transcribed a Burial Register will know that the majority of incumbents recorded just the information they were obliged to record, but not the Reverend Richard Buller.

Beginning on 8th October 1828, when he had only been in post for a few months, he recorded that Mary Searle, aged only 49, had died of consumption. Between then and 17th May 1883, when he conducted his last burial service, there were 615 burials in Lanreath. Of that total, Reverend Buller had entered some further information on no less than 245 occasions. Some of those entries related to the personality of the deceased – in August 1841, for example, when he buried Samuel Willcock, aged 78, he noted ‘55 years Parish Clerk’. Similarly, in March 1855, when he buried James Stevens, aged 72, he noted ‘A Peninsular hero; medal with 2 clasps’. But the most interesting entries, arguably, are those where he recorded the cause of death. There are 237 such entries, and the biggest killer, by far, was consumption with 52 entries, followed by accidental death (22), scarlet fever (14), diphtheria (13), typhus (11), decline (10), dropsy (10), inflammation of the lungs (9), childbirth (8) and atrophy (5).

Of the 52 deaths from consumption, 23 were female and 29 male. The ages of the deceased ranged from 9 to 76, but the average was just 29 years 9 months.

Of the accidental deaths, 2 were of children (aged respectively 1 and 8) who were ‘burnt’, 1 (aged just under 2) was drowned, and a baby aged just one month old was killed ‘by a stick running thro' the eye to the brain’. In 1842, James Martin aged 10 had been ‘killed by a well falling in’, and in 1849 Philippa West died as a result of ‘poisonous berries’.

The accidents claiming the lives of adults were in some cases somewhat bizarre – in 1835, William Searle, aged 58, was killed when ‘a gutter fell on him’; the previous year Edward Tucker had died when he ‘fell from a rick’ and in 1846 Francis Hicks, aged 40, died as a result of ‘fall from a horse in frost’. On 14th May 1876 three men were buried as a result of ‘explosion of gunpowder’ (presumably an accident at the powder mills in the parish). The most unfortunate, however, was surely Anne Stephens, aged 32, who in 1831 was ‘run over by the Mail Coach’. For sheer misfortune, you have to feel for the family of Elizabeth Hockin, buried in June 1867, aged just 37. In the Register, Reverend Buller has recorded ‘childbirth; the 3rd sister who died thru’ the same cause’.

It seems unlikely that the Reverend Buller had any assistance from a medical practitioner, because of the sometimes rather strange explanations for deaths. According to the Register, ‘cold on Erysipelas’ claimed Richard Rowe in 1846; Philip Hicks, aged only 21, was buried in 1843 and the Register records his death as having occurred from ‘fright’. Strangely this idea of fright being the cause of death also appears in 2 burials, one in 1840 and the other in 1842. They were both females, aged respectively 75 and 72, and the Register gives their cause of death as ‘typhus – from fear’. ‘Hysteria’ is the somewhat surprising cause of the death of Mary Hill in 1865, aged only 17.

If anyone in the parish could have afforded to call in a doctor, it would certainly have been the Buller family, and yet when he buried his 3 year old daughter Jane Elizabeth, in 1838, Reverend Buller records the cause of death as ‘malignant sore throat’ which does not sound a reason which originated from someone medically qualified. Four youngsters succumbed to measles – 1 with ‘suppressed measles’ and of those who were claimed by scarlet fever (14 children, all under 10 years of age) 4 of them are recorded as having the ‘suppressed’ form of the disease.

As you work your way through the Register, one fact that you cannot miss is the apparent high number of child burials. Much has been written, of course, on the subject of infant mortality in the 19th century, and I was interested to see the actual numbers, rather than rely on impression. Of all the burials in the parish between 1813 and 1900, the age group of 0-10 bears the brunt – on average 30% of total burials, and in some decades over one third. No other age group comes anywhere near that percentage – the closest is the 71-80 group (where one would expect the death rate to be fairly high) but in fact it is not far off half of the rate for youngsters.

 (Click on image to enlarge)

John R.P. Evans

March 2013

Parish Burial Registers.

Tf C

In 2012 the question arose as to where family historians should go in Cornwall to obtain details of burials of family members. Historically, of course, most burials had taken place in the graveyard attached to the Parish Church, and would have been recorded in the Parish Burial Register. But as local populations increased and graveyards became full, alternative arrangements had to be found. In the main those cemetery sites were acquired and administered by the local authorities which existed at the time – the Councils of Urban Districts, Rural Districts and Parishes.  In time the UDC’s and RDC’s ceased to exist, and their responsibilities were taken on by the 6 District Councils, which in turn were recently disbanded and replaced by the Unitary Authority – Cornwall Council. The cemeteries which they administer are detailed on their website.

As far as the other authorities were concerned, I emailed all the town and parish councils in the county, asking whether they had a cemetery. Predictably a number never replied; one replied in a very arrogant and rude manner; one amusingly asked why I was asking the “real” parish clerk rather than the online variety; but the majority were pleasant and helpful. Again, as one might expect, most parish councils said that they  had no cemetery, and that burials were still taking place in the graveyards attached to the Parish Church.

Those who administered cemeteries were then asked whether they would give permission for their burial records to be copied. Bude Town Council and Falmouth Town Council said that, although they had no objection in principle, they were in the process of putting their records online, and there was little purpose in duplicating effort. Of the remainder, most said that they had no objection, and I spent several enjoyable days visiting the homes or offices of welcoming parish or town clerks and was usually liberally plied with refreshments while photographing their Registers!

Some of the authorities had only acquired their cemeteries after 1937 (in 2012 the “cut-off” date for the OPC database) so although I photographed their records and transcribed them, they will not form part of the database for many years. But some – notably St Stephen in Brannel, St Dennis and St Enoder – have records which either have contributed or will contribute (when I can complete the transcribing!) significantly to the database, not merely in numbers but in the detail provided.

Unlike the Parish Registers, the Cemetery Registers always give a grave location, very often give date of death as well as of burial, and frequently give occupation or family information such as “wife of” or “son of” etc.

So far I have recorded the Registers of Gorran, Luxulyan, Mullion, Cury, Wendron, St Dennis, St Stephen in Brannel, Probus and St Enoder. My quest will continue in 2013!

Written by the photographer, John Evans.

Bodmin Prison Registers

Tf C

County Records holds 24 volumes of the Bodmin prison registers, covering 1821 to 1916.  These volumes are rather large and very heavy.  They are in handsome covers, closed with brass clips.  The pages are in good condition and the handwriting is very neat, if sometimes rather small.  There are 10 records on each page and they contain minute detail about the prisoners including a detailed description of their physical appearance.  Other detail, that is often included, is a list of all the letters sent by the prisoner and details of the recipients.

To photograph them, I use an iPad.  The back camera is good and easy to use.  It doesn't make any noise and hasn't got a flash.  CRO doesn't allow noise or flashes!  You often hear muttered curses from camera users as their flash goes off.  When I started this project, I usually took 4 overlapping pictures to cover a complete page.  However, I now get by with two plus close ups for particularly dense patches of writing.

John Heath has been appointed supremo for transcribing the prison records and has 4 transcribers.  The main problem with transcribing them is the large amount of detail to be recorded.  I expect that most people are aware there is a commercial transcription available, but this is a limited transcript, and as usual, we are going for the full version.  And its free.  Each record is separate, so it is not possible for a researcher to browse the records.  

The registers include 3 for the Bridewell and 2 for debtors.  I have 13 left to do.

Left hand side:

Right hand side:

Please click on the image to enlarge.

The British in Afghanistan

This is a piece written by someone else.  It expresses my thoughts.

There should be a national debate abnout the tragic loss of lives in that dusty hell-hole commonly known as Afghanistan; and perhaps more importantly a discussion of the possible fate of all the politicians who sent, and continue to send, British Services personnel into harms way in order to establish a ‘Democratic State’ in Afghanistan.

The other ‘purpose’ of this multi-billion pound endeavour is alleged to be ‘keeping us safer here at home’ because of the sacrifices of those bright shining spirits in the drug- and blood-soaked sands of Afghanistan. The sheer lunacy of even believing in the very idea of a ‘democratic Government’ in Afghanistan should give all sensible people a pause for thought.

We tried it, to govern Afghanistan that is, over a century ago, and we eventually scurried out over the bodies of the sixteen-odd thousand British members of the column from Jalalabad. We went in again, time after time, to prevent influence from France, from Russia, and it got us absolutely nowhere.

We should have taken to heart the warning of the latest Russian occupation which was to support their Afghan proxy, an occupation which was total, brutal and unswerving, but which eventually came to nothing after the Mujahideen gained superiority through the advent of the Stinger missile supplied by America. Was the NATO-led invasion justified after 9/11? Most certainly yes, but instead of ‘nation-building’ by force, which has ever been a fruitless exercise wherever it been tried, we should have handed over to the Afghanis, told then that the next time the West would be coming, we would be coming to make their ‘country’ a smoking radio-active car-park, and to mind their manners; and then left.

Western politicians have yet to learn that you cannot make a Nation out of ten thousand villages, soaked in the beliefs of muslim autocracy. But we saw Bush, and Blair, and all the other guilty parties, including the fool John Reid, with his forever-remembered ‘British Forces could leave Afghanistan without a shot being fired’, prate, and parade, and posture.

We saw them line up beside the Cenotaph, with their wreaths of poppies, while not understanding that what they had signed the British Army up to achieve was just unachievable. And let us not forget that none of these posturing, primping princes of political thought have ever served one single day in uniform, of any colour or rank, at all.

We do not retain, in Britain, the ability to legally kill someone who has committed treason, but I for one would sign any petition to restore such a power, and then the first ones to be tried would be every politician, of any Party, who has expressed the slightest desire to extend, for one second, our presence in the corrupt stagnant pool of drugs, grand-scale larceny and murder which is the alleged country named Afghanistan.

The Sharrocks of Cornwall

In 1620, the College of Heralds visited Cornwall. Their visit was to check on the pedigrees of families claiming the right to bear arms. Armigerous families. Amongst the minor gentry of Cornwall was a family listed as the Sharrocks of Veryan. A later note was attached to the family tree claiming that they had originated in Lancashire, fled to Ireland, where they stayed for a hundred years before moving to Cornwall.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to link my wife’s paternal line to the Visitation family. She seems to be descended from a Thomas Sharrock, born about 1640, location unknown. His oldest known child was Matthew, baptised in St Just in Roseland in 1671. Matthew is my wife’s 6 times grandfather.

The family lived in and around St Mawes, where they were farmers. Matthew described himself as Yeoman, one step above a tenant farmer, and fairly respectable, as he was the Reeve of the Manor of St Mawes.

Throughout the 18th century, the family remained in St Mawes, presumably farming and also fishing. Certainly Joseph Sharrock, who died in 1833, was a mariner. The next generation joined the Royal Navy and then the Coastguard. The Coastguard was recruited from Navy personnel. Usually, tours of duty were not in the man’s home town, so the family moved to Boscastle on the north coast of Cornwall.

The next generation of my wife’s family was born near Swanage in Dorset at yet another Coastguard station. Joseph Pascal Rowe Sharrock, born in 1843, became a mariner in the Merchant Marine, often sailing out of Boscastle. The family now remained on the North coast of Cornwall, spread out between Newquay and Bude.

The next generation left the sea and settled in Newquay.

Although I cannot find any link between the Visitation family and that of my wife, all of the Sharrocks in Cornwall till quite recently are members of this one family. There were also Sharrocks in Cornwall before the Visitation family. So, the note on the 1620 pedigree might be correct and the Sharrocks arrived in Cornwall in the 14th century. Long enough to be naturalised?