Miss Jenner’s Bible and Tract Depot

The re-imagined story …

I hadn’t visited Miss Jenner’s shop for many years. I wasn’t even sure if it was still open or whether Miss Ellen had taken over the running of the business after her sister’s death.

As Sunday schoolteacher at the Railway Mission I’ve patronised Miss Jenner’s establishment on countless occasions, buying bibles and prayer books, scripture cards and presents for the children on prize giving day. Now that seems like another place, another time.

We have lost so many of our young men in the Great War. Members of our congregation who worked on the railways and in the GWR factory. Young boys, barely men; boys I taught in the schoolroom at the Railway Mission; boys I remember well.

And now that it’s all over, where is the solace. Sadly, I find it less and less in the word of God. What comfort can a text from Miss Jenner’s shop provide for a grieving mother, a bereaved wife, an orphaned child?

Miss Jenner died before the horror of war erupted. I decided against a visit to her shop today. Perhaps that has been lost as well.

August, 1914

God said, “Men have forgotten Me:
The souls that sleep shall wake again,
And blinded eyes must learn to see.”

So since redemption comes through pain
He smote the earth with chastening rod,
And brought destruction’s lurid reign;

But where His desolation trod
The people in their agony
Despairing cried, “There is no God.”

Vera Brittain

The facts …

Sarah Ann and Ellen Mary Jenner were the daughters of William, a farmer and his wife Mary. Sarah Ann was born in Linley, Tisbury and her sister in Bremhill, Wiltshire. By 1871 the family had moved to Swindon where William farmed at Okus Farm.

Following William’s death in 1879, Sarah and her mother lived at 21 Victoria Street where Sarah opened her first stationery shop.

By 1891 the women were living at 12 North Street where Mary, Sarah Ann and her sister Ellen Mary described themselves as ‘Stationer & Bookseller.’

In 1901 they had moved to 29 Commercial Road. Sarah was described as head of the household, her occupation ‘Shopkeeper Books Tract Depot’. Her widowed mother, by then 75 years old, was described as a ‘retired farmer’ and Ellen as a ‘Tea Merchant.’

Mary Jenner died in 1908 and is buried in plot A2484. At the time of the 1911 census Sarah Ann and Ellen Mary are living at 14 Dowling Street. Sarah’s runs a Bible & Tract Depot while Ellen works as a ‘Dealer in Tea, Coffee, Cocoa etc.’

Sarah died in February 1913 and was buried with her mother in plot A2484 on March 1. Another sister, Annie Sophia Smith died in December 1930 and was buried in the same plot on January 1, 1931. Ellen Mary died in 1937 and was buried on March 20 with her mother and two sisters.

featured image is a view of the Railway Mission

Charles Herbert Henry Gore – Swindon museum’s first curator

In 2016 we all got very excited when Make Architects produced an ambitious £22m design concept for our town’s much needed new Museum and Art Gallery. But sadly, the bid for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant that would make this possible was unsuccessful and it was back to the drawing board.

And then four years later Covid struck. In March 2020 the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery closed its doors, like everywhere else, as the country shut down in an attempt to halt the spread of Covid 19. But when other museums and galleries nationwide reopened in May 2021, Swindon’s didn’t.

Swindon Borough Council subsequently announced that the Grade II listed Apsley House property wasn’t fit for purpose (which we knew anyway) but what was their solution. The top floor of the Civic Offices in Euclid Street was to be converted into a museum and art gallery while selected artefacts and paintings were to go on tour around Swindon. The long-term plan is to build a new museum and art exhibition facility in the centre of town but when they say long term, they really do mean long term. The estimated timeline is in the region of 10 years.

So why am I telling you this sorry saga?

Charles Gore pictured left

This is the last resting place of Charles Herbert Henry Gore and his wife Clara. As a ten-year-old boy Charles found the fossilised bones of a prehistoric animal on the site of the Queen Street gasometer and this discovery began a lifetime’s interest in geology and natural history. But of course, what career opportunities were there for the son of a house painter in the 19th century.

By 1881 14-year-old Charles had finished his education and was working as an apprentice coach body maker in the GWR Works according to the census taken that year. In 1890 he married Clara Downs at St Mark’s Church and they set up home just round the corner from here at 31 Radnor Street.

By the turn of the century ill health had prevented him continuing his job in the Works and by 1911 he was working as a Draper’s Traveller. The 1911 census also describes him as a ‘part time student.’ It can probably be safely assumed that his studies involved his interest in fossils and geology.

By 1919 Charles had accumulated an extensive collection, which he offered to the Swindon Corporation on condition that it provided a building in which to accommodate it all (sounds familiar).

It was decided to use the Victoria Hall, a property in Regent Circus, which had just be vacated by the Roman Catholic congregation awaiting completion of their new church at Holy Rood.

*Victoria Hall is the building on the extreme right of the photo – published courtesy of the Swindon Society*

Charles was appointed curator, cataloguing and displaying his collection, which opened to the public on October 27, 1920.

Ten years later Charles packed up his collection again and moved it all up to Apsley House where it remained until 2020, when the museum closed it doors for the last time.

Where is Charles’s collection now? Well to be honest we don’t actually know. ‘In storage’ is the official comment – it certainly isn’t on display, that we do know.

Charles’s wife Clara died in 1912 aged 44 and was buried here on May 1. Charles died in 1951 aged 84 years.

There is one last fact concerning Charles Gore who was born in Newbury in 1867, the son of Frederick and Hepzibah Gore. By 1881 the family were living in Swindon at 4 East Street where Frederick died on Tuesday, August 2. Frederick Gore was the first person to be buried in the new cemetery which opened in 1881. His funeral took place on August 6.

Radnor Street Cemetery supporter and local historian Mandy Lea added this fascinating extra to the Charles Gore story.

Charles Herbert Henry Gore – founder/curator of the Swindon Museum. After he left the GWR (due to injury) he owned a draper’s shop in Granville Street. He was also a medium and an artist. His love of fossils and is what started off his geological collection and became a Fellow at The Geological Society – he even had two ammonites named after him – Perisphinctes Gorei and Crendonites Gorei. He and others donated their collections as the Museum was founded; he also sourced the gharial (we all call it crocodile!) and the mummy. The Museum has a bust of him somewhere, but when we asked to see it they couldn’t find it. He was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Swindon. It appears he led a rather colourful and varied life!

Lance Sergeant John Wilfred Goodwin – Tell Them of Us

Following yesterday’s Remembrance Day service in Radnor Street Cemetery we continue with our series of stories – Tell Them of Us.

Sometimes it can be frustratingly difficult to find out much information about the soldiers buried beneath the Commonwealth War Graves headstones in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Local and military historian Mark Sutton had a vast knowledge of all aspects of the Great War and during our guided cemetery walks was able to describe details about the action in which the soldiers had been involved. Quoting from his book Tell Them of Us Mark tells us that John Wilfred Goodwin was a Lance Sergeant in the Welsh Horse Yeomanry and that he died on January 5, 1918 aged 35 years.

John Wilfred Goodwin was baptised at St John the Evangelist, Farnworth, Lancashire on February 12, 1882, the eldest of James and Elizabeth’s five sons. James worked as a grocer and in 1891 he was Manager at the Co-operative Stores in Bisley, Gloucestershire.

In 1899 John Wilfred enlisted with the Royal Artillery. He was 18 years old. However, by the time of the 1911 census, twelve years later, he had left the army and was lodging at 68 Curtis Street and working as a grocery assistant.

As a former member of the regular army he would have been on the reservist list and recalled for service when war broke out in 1914. Unfortunately his military records have not survived, but we do know that he was discharged on Jul 21, 1916 due to a disability.

John’s last address in January 1918 was at his former lodgings 68 Curtis Street. The funeral took place on January 9 when John was buried in grave plot B1931. His initials were incorrectly recorded as W.J. Goodwin in the burial registers, but even a search under this name does not reveal any further information.

We would like to purchase the death certificate of the people we research, but sadly with the amount of research we conduct this is impossible.

John’s youngest brother, Samuel Colin Roy Goodwin, served with the Somerset Light Infantry and survived the war. He later emigrated to Australia following elder brother Josiah, and served as a Leading Aircraftman with the 13 Aircraft Depot, Melbourne during WWII.

Image kindly provided from the funeral records of A.E. Smith & Son, Funeral Directors

#TellThemofUs

#Mark Sutton

Pte. Thomas Tugby – Tell Them of Us

Sometimes the death of a soldier received a lengthy obituary in the local newspaper. One such case was that of Thomas Tugby.

Swindon Soldier’s Funeral

Man Who Was Wounded at Ypres

Great sympathy has been extended to Mrs Thomas Tugby in the loss she has sustained by the death of her husband, which resulted from wounds sustained in action. Pte. Tugby was the son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Tugby, of 9 Gooch Street, Swindon, and was only 29 years old. He joined the Army at the age of 17 and became attached to the South Wales Borderers, and on taking his discharge, some years later, he entered the employ of the GWR Company and worked in ‘V’ Shop (Loco. Dept.) of the Swindon Works. On the outbreak of hostilities, he was called up on reserve, and went to the front with his old regiment. He was a participant in the heavy fighting at Mons and on the Aisne, and was wounded at Ypres by bursting shrapnel. On Nov. 1^st he arrived in England with a batch of wounded, and was sent to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Rochester, and hopes were entertained that he would recover from his wounds. On Wednesday last, however, his condition gave cause for anxiety, and his relatives were summoned. They were in time to see him before he died later in the day, and on Saturday his body was brought to his home in Swindon.

The remains were interred with full military honours at Swindon Cemetery on Monday afternoon. A large number of the Royal Field Artillery stationed at Swindon were present, and formed a guard of honour as the body was borne from the house in Gooch Street to St. John’s Church. The coffin was of plain oak and was covered with a Union Jack. The service at the church was impressively conducted by the Rev. W.H. Walsham How, who also officiated at the graveside. After the coffin had been lowered into the grave, the firing party fired three volleys and the “Last Post” was sounded by the buglers. The inscription on the breastplate of the coffin read:-

Pte. Thomas Tugby

Died Feb. 17^th, 1915.

Aged 29.

The chief mourners were the widow, Mr. and Mrs. J. Tugby (father and mother), Mr and Mrs E. Lewis, Mrs. Lewis, Mrs Lewis (sister), Mr J. Tugby and Miss Lily Tugby, Mrs W. Turner and Mrs. J. Green (sisters) Sergt. J. Green (brother-in-law) Mr W. Turner (brother-in-law) Miss Ivy Lewis (sister-in-law), Mr. W. Lewis (brother-in-law), Messrs. J. Smith and A. Whale (representing deceased’s old shopmates), Mr C. Hill, Mrs. W. Gleed and Mrs Skeates (aunts) and Mrs W. O’Neil (cousin). Beautiful floral tributes were placed on the coffin from the widow, Mrs and Mrs Tugby, Mr and Mrs. Turner, St. Mark’s Ward of the Hospital at Rochester, Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Cooper, Mrs Dance and Mrs Gleed, ‘The family at 1 Linslade Street,’ Sergt and Mrs Green, Shopmates in ‘V’ Shop, Loco, Dept. GWR Works.

It is interesting to note that Sergt. Green was with deceased in the early days of the war. He has been invalided home, and is shortly to return to the front.

North Wilts Herald, Friday, February 26, 1915.

But after the funeral what happened to the family left behind?

His widow Alice was just 24 years old when he died. On April 22, 1916 she married for the second time. The wedding took place at St Mark’s Church, the groom was Thomas Henry Walter Archer, himself a widower.

The UK World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards 1914-1923 record that sadly Alice’s second husband died on September 10, 1925, also as a result of the war.

Quite what happened to Alice after this second bereavement remains difficult to discover. The impact of that terrible war can never be under estimated.

Tugby, T.

Private 7923 1st Battalion South Wales Borderers

Died 17th February 1915

Husband of A. Tugby of 9 Gooch Street

B1722 Radnor Street Cemetery

Tell Them of Us by Mark Sutton

Pioneer Andrew Lowe Young

And then there are the men about whom so little can be discovered. Even the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website can provide little information about one such soldier buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Andrew died in the Isolation Hospital, Gorse Hill on September 11, 1915. The cemetery burial registers record that he was buried on September 14, 1915 in grave plot B1769, a public plot where he lies with two others. His headstone displays the regimental badge of the Royal Engineers and his regimental number, but there are no personal details – not his age nor a few words chosen by his family.*

Andrew Lowe Young was born in Longforgan, Perth and Kinross, Scotland in about 1890. The UK World War I Pensions Ledgers and Index Cards 1914-1923 reveal that he left a widow, Elizabeth Young and an illegitimate stepchild, John Binett Gillatley born April 25, 1905, but even this information is not enough to reveal more about the young soldier’s life and times.

Andrew enlisted at Dundee and served in the 205th (1st Dundee) Field Company, Royal Engineers, raised in March 1915 as part of Kitchener’s 5th New Army. The 35th Division included units known as “Bantams”; soldiers who were under the minimum regulation height of 5ft 3ins, so perhaps Andrew was of small statue.

We can see from the headstone that Andrew served as a Pioneer, but what is that exactly? The extensive network of trenches across the battlefields of France and Flanders were dug by infantry regiments’ own pioneer battalions, however, it would seem that Andrew probably never saw service overseas. In August 1915 the 35th Division moved to Salisbury Plain with headquarters in Marlborough. Further moves during that month were made to the training camp at Chiseldon, which may explain why Andrew ended up in Swindon’s Isolation Hospital after he took ill.

Andrew was about 26 years old when he died as a result of his military service.

*more information might be available on the death certificate but we do not have funds to purchase the certificates of everyone we research.

Sapper J.E. Paintin – Tell Them of Us

John Edward Paintin was born on September 6, 1883 and baptised at the ancient church of St. Aldgate, Pembroke Square, Oxford. He was the second of six children born to John Edward Paintin Snr and his wife Julia Betsey.

In the summer of 1906 John Edward jnr married Florence Alice Hazlewood. In 1911 the couple lived with their two young children (a baby had recently died) at 54 Sunningwell Road, Oxford. But by 1913 the family had moved to Swindon and were living at 84 Beatrice Street. John had arrived in Swindon not in search of a job in the GWR Works but as an attendant in the Electric Palace [cinema] in Gorse Hill. A daughter Dorothy Lorna Mary was born on May 3, 1913 and baptised on July 12 at St. Barnabas Church, Gorse Hill. A last child, Gordon, was born and died in 1917.

It is likely John was conscripted in 1916 but unfortunately his military records have not survived and we only know the briefest details about his service from the UK Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects 1901-1929. He died on December 31, 1918 at the Military Hospital, Chiseldon. The hospital was established at the training camp in June 1915 and was soon receiving casualties from the battlefields in France and Flanders. The hospital opened with six wards and 24 beds but was soon extended and supplemented with tented accommodation. By 1917 an additional hospital was built on the site, reserved for patients suffering from sexually transmitted diseases and known locally as the ‘Bad Boys’ Camp.’

John Edward Paintin was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery on January 6, 1918 in a public grave with four others. His last address is given as 15 Handel Street. He was 35 years old.

Florence Alice quickly remarried, as did many young war widows with a family to support, but she was sadly misled by her second husband. Austin Oliver Rogers was a Corporal in the South African Native Labour Corps and the couple met while he lodged with Florence awaiting demobilisation. They married on April 7, 1919 and sailed for South Africa that September. But when they arrived at Barberton in the Eastern Transvaal, Florence discovered Austin’s circumstances were not as he had described. He had promised her that he was well off and that he could provide for her and her children, giving her boys a college education. But the reality was quite different. Austin and his widowed mother lived as tenants on a small farm. The marriage broke down because Austin’s mother refused to accept Florence and her children.

Florence left the family home, placing her children in lodgings, but despite her best efforts and working two jobs her three younger children ended up in a children’s home. Florence died in 1925 in the Johannesburg General Hospital as a result of pneumonia contracted in hospital following an appendectomy.

The two sons that John barely knew both joined the military in their adopted home of South Africa. Edward James joined the SAMC Active Citizen Force later enlisting with the South African Permanent Force.