That's me and my Grandad in 1968
William Henry Wellburn was born in Cayton on August 6th, 1870. He married Nellie Smith in 1897, and on 21st June 1898, young Lewis Wellburn was born. The family was then living at 25 Aberdeen Road in Scarborough.
These are two views of Aberdeen Walk.
Lewis was born on 21st June 1898 and baptised on 16th July here at Saint
Mary's with Holy Apostles, Scarborough (Church of England) a fact that is of interest later in the story.
The 1901 Census shows that on 2nd April 1901, the family was living at 13 St Thomas Walk, Scarborough, a busy thoroughfare.
In 1903, when Lewis was five, the family was joined by his brother Clifford (1903–1956). Then, in November 1906, by his sister Ivy (1906–1981).
Here is a 1910 article about his father's effective policing!
POLICEMAN COMMENDED HOW A SCARBOROUGH OFFICER TRACED A THIEF.
THIRTY MILE CHASE AND ARREST AT LANGTOFT.
At the Scarborough Police Court today, before the Mayor (Councillor W. Ascough) and other magistrates, William Potts (29), of 26, Seamer Street, and Samuel Borrows (28), of no fixed abode, both labourers, were charged on remand with stealing a fowl, valued at 2s. 6d., the property of Edward Leng, dairyman, 149, Victoria Road. Both pleaded guilty.
Chief Constable Basham, in relating the facts, said that the prosecutor kept a hen run on Seamer Road. On October 6th, P.C. Wellburn was in Mere Lane when the prisoners saw him and doubled back. The officer caught Borrows and asked him what he was doing there, and he replied, "I am here." As he had nothing on him, the officer chased Potts and on him found the fowl, dead, but warm. Borrows left the town and was eventually arrested at Langtoft.
P.C. Wellburn bore out this statement, adding that he traced Borrows to Ganton Carr, then to Willerby Woods, on to Thwing, and to Kilham, where he lost trace of him, but on the Monday he picked up the trace and arrested the prisoner at Langtoft, where he was milking a cow. The chase extended some thirty miles.
Potts told the magistrates that Borrows caught the bird and put it in his pocket, remarking that he was going back after tea and would clear the lot.
Borrows replied that he never touched the bird, and said Potts was telling a wilful lie. Potts then asked him to get one of the fowls, and he replied, "You can do as you like, but I have done with that game now." Potts then went across the road, got one of the fowls, and put it in his pocket. He heard there was a warrant out for him because of his child, so he said he was going to clear off. Borrows added, "I hope God will strike me stiff if I know anything more about it."
The Clerk asked: Was there a warrant out against him? Chief Constable Basham: No.Has he any arrears? - He always has, as he never pays. Borrows: If I were innocent, I would say so -(laughter)- I mean if I was guilty.
The magistrates retired and, on their return, the Mayor said that they had given careful consideration to the case, and had considered each point of doubt, but they felt that they must put a stop to these petty thefts. There was nothing more mean than stealing a neighbour's fowls. Borrows had a very bad record. Each would be fined 7s. 6d.. and, failing to pay, would have to go to prison for fourteen days.
The Mayor added that P.C. Wellburn deserved great commendation for his work in tracing Borrows. It would be an unfortunate thing if any man, being guilty of a crime, could feel that he was going to escape. P.C. Wellburn did his duty in a manner that deserved commendation from the Bench, because that arrest would act as a deterrent to other criminals
Following this chase, in the 1911 census, the Family were living at 56 Falsgrave Road, Scarborough, presumably in the flat above what became the paperback shop.
1914 and WW1
At the outbreak of war, he was 16 and living with his parents, and now living in Falsgrave Road in the flat above the paperback shop.
Eventually he was conscripted under the terms of the Military Service Act 1916 and was called up thirty days after his 18th birthday.
He was posted to the Army Service Corps (Mechanical Transport) in March 1917 as Private M/298843. After training, probably at Grove Park, he was posted to the British Expeditionary Force to an unknown destination. However, on 28th September 2017, he was admitted to 18 General Hospital at Camiers (near Etables) suffering from a sprained right ankle and a 'colles fracture right' (that’s his wrist). He was repatriated to the UK on the 8th October on a hospital ship.
The hospital record of this states he had "one year's service and 13 months" with the field force, which makes no sense. It then shows he was next with 181 Labour Company, but then Labour Company is struck through. So it's a bit of a mystery what happened next.
The medal roll then shows his number as EMT/43012, this is a post-war re-enlistment number for an additional one year's service for the Armies of Occupation. This tells us he re-enlisted on the 4th March 1919 and was discharged on the 17 March 1920, free from further military obligation.
In 1919, there are two references to him in the absent voter electoral rolls for 56 Falsgrave Road – in one, he is shown as being "Private 298843 1st M.T. reserve depot." In the other "M.T. RASC 76th aux H.P. coy"
There is a lot of information about the reserve depot here, and as much as I can find about the 76th here. I am still trying to find out more about Labour Company 181 or whatever he did for the rest of the war.
Also in the house are two tenants, John McKeag, 34, and married, a visitor from Newcastle upon Tyne while working for Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Ltd, and Harold Wildbore, 32, from Leicester St Leonards, who is a Machine Tool Maker.
Below are some photos of the charabancs operated by Robinson Motor Tours near the Grand Hotel and at the station.
In January 1924 his mother-in-law, Josephine Lonsdale died, just before she would have met her granddaughter Joyce, who was born around midnight on the 24th of February
In May 1924, Lewis’s father William the publican at The Scarborough Arms is prosecuted as his wife sold a jack of Brandy to Edith Knox at 8:30am, outside licensing hours.
From an undated newspaper clipping.
EVIDENTLY, in the early 1920s, Scarborough's Chief Constable, Henry Windsor, and his policemen spent countless hours trying to catch publicans who served intoxicating liquor during prohibited hours.
However, they generally failed miserably to do so, In fact, they seldom managed to nab anyone unless some disgruntled drinker or trusty teetotaller tipped them off, as happened in May 1924.
At 8.30 am on Saturday, 24 May, acting upon information received, Sgt Herbert Nalton and PC Jeromiah "Taller" Taylor began to watch the Scarborough Arms, on North Terrace. Its licensee was William Wellburn, who had been a Scarborough policeman for 25 years.
After seven minutes' surveillance, they saw a woman knock on the public house's side door and enter the building. They recognized her as Edith Knox, who lodged at 119 Castle Road.
When she left the Scarborough Arms at 8.55 am, Mrs Knox was stopped by the policemen, who discovered a flask hidden beneath her coat. Questioned by Sgt Nalton, she admitted: "I was served a 'jack' of brandy." (A "jack" being equal to a gill.)
Taking Mrs Knox with them, the policemen marched into the Scarborough Arms, where they accused Mr Wellburn of selling alcohol during prohibited hours. He replied: "I know nowt about it," and called his wife, who said: "The woman was ill, so I gave her the brandy."
Mr Wellburn declared: "You can see the woman's ill - I always give her some brandy when she's ill." Whereupon, to emphasize his declaration, Mrs Knox had a "fit of noisy hysterics" and fell to the floor in a swoon.
PC Taylor promptly administered first aid by rubbing her lips with soda water from the siphon on the bar top. When she remained in a faint, he was forced to revive her with a tot of brandy.
After threatening Mr Wellburn with prosecution, the policemen escorted Mrs Knox to the police station (at the north end of St Thomas Street), where she signed a statement as follows: "Mrs Wellburn served me with brandy. I owed her 4/- (20p) for it and was to pay later in the day. Yesterday (23 May) and the day before, at about 8.30am, I was served a similar quantity of brandy. I know who gave me away; it was my landlord, Reuben Panther."
On Wednesday, 4th June, Mr Wellburn was charged with supplying intoxicating liquor during prohibited hours, to be consumed off the premises. He pleaded "not guilty", but changed his plea to "guilty” after hearing Mrs Knox's statement.
In a convincing speech, Welburn said: "I know nothing about Mrs Knox being an habitual brandy drinker. She calls at my house every morning and I give her a cup of tea - she has no gas in her room and cannot make a hot drink. On the 24th May, she was ill so my wife gave her a gill of brandy."
The Scarborough Arms, which the police placed under surveillance after a tip-off that alcohol was being sold outside licensing hours.
The mayor, Alderman George Whitfield, as chief magistrate, announced the decision made by him and his colleagues, Miss Mary Hopkins, Christopher Graham and George Rowntree.
He said: "We do not believe the brandy was a gift - it was obviously a sale made by your wife. You are responsible for her actions and are fined £2. If you had personally made the sale, the fine would have been much more."
At the same court, Knox pleaded guilty to the charge of taking intoxicating liquor from licensed premises during prohibited hours.
Alderman Whitfield told her: "You were the cause of Mr Wellburn being convicted - we hope a fine of £2 will deter you from ever again committing a similar offence.
Then in 1926, the couple had a son, Lew (is) John Patrick Wellburn.
This is where things get complicated. Something must have been going on at home because Maud somehow leaves the home, which is now (and until his death), 28 Mayville Avenue, and Bertha Deyes, (also shown on the census as Betty and Elizabeth) moves in.
In 1931 it looks as if the family converted to Catholicism, not sure if this was before Maud left.
It is thus especially odd that, as a “New Catholic,” her Lewis should have soon been "living in sin" with Bertha right through till 1948;
However, the next year, my mother was sent off to a Catholic Children's home, ‘Nazareth House’ in Middlesbrough - the records show she entered on 8th February 1932 and was there till 7th January 1936. Lew is later sent to somewhere in Hull and has a slightly easier time there.
Meanwhile, back in Scarborough, Lewis was living with Bertha Deyes, and they had two children, Wendy, who was born in July 1934, and June, who was born in her own month in 1936.
My mother remembered with horror her time in the home and had persistent nightmares about it throughout her life. The horrors especially came back during thunderstorms and would often be of people in a long line being harshly judged as sheep or goats for tiny misdemeanours and sent to heaven or hell for eternity. She had to keep herself spotlessly clean for the nuns and sometimes had her hands tied at night so she couldn’t “touch herself”. She remained a catholic but had a very odd relationship with religion all her life.
This is what I heard from The Sisters of Nazarath about my mothers time there.
1. Middlesborough Children’s Register (FDB/00/06/X)
There is an entry for Joyce in this register at number 1579. The entry indicates that your mother entered the House on 8th February 1932 and stayed there until 7th January 1936. The entry records that she was born in Scarborough and baptised at St Peter’s, Scarborough. Her parents were Louis Wellburn who worked as a chauffeur and Maud Lonsdale. She was recommended to the care of the Sisters by a Reverend P. Loughran. The Observation column notes that her parents were living at the time.
2. Middlesborough Girl’s Disposal (FDB/00/10/X)
The entry in this register indicates that your mother was 11 years old when she left the house and that she was taken by her father to live at an address in Scarborough.
3. Middlesborough Baptismal Certificates (FDB/00/19/04)
I found a baptismal certificate for your mother recording that she was baptised on 20th February 1931 at St Peter’s Catholic Church, Scarborough. Interesting to note that the priest who signed the certificate is likely to be the same person recorded in the Children’s Register as recommending your mother to the care of the Sisters.
For four years, she was away from home.
She was only brought back to Scarborough as Bertha was finding it hard to cope with baby Wendy, and another baby was on the way.
Although so young, she acted as mother to Wendy and June and did most of the housework. Lew was needed back to “bring some money into the house” by getting a job, and he also returned though I am not sure when.
In 1939, Lewis is living with Bertha Deyes, Joyce, Wendy, and June at 28 Mayville Avenue.
Wendy, Wendy and June and June
There are so many other puzzling things about this time. I saw an article in the local Scarborough newspaper when Lewis was in an open-air theatre presentation of Hiawatha, probably in 1947. The things he claimed to have done are legion.
They include him being captured by the IRA in Ireland. They kept him and another soldier imprisoned naked in a house. Luckily, he escaped by hitting their captor on the head with a boot before escaping into the night. He said he drove the first bus into Scarborough as well as the first Rolls-Royce. Also, he was given a medal from the Society of Pharmacists for his skill in a crash involving a charabanc he was driving, which saved the passengers' lives.
He supposedly fought a duel with a "Belgian Count" and was often a leading light in the open-air theatre in Scarborough as a swashbuckler. I am not sure now how accurate these stories are .
I tried in vain to confirm his escape from the IRA with the "Police Museum" in Belfast- they had no record of him serving in Ireland, but now I know more about his likely unit, I might try again.
He was a motor mechanic and chauffeur, trained in the RASC, according to the census, so the driving claims could well be true.
My mother said he was a quartermaster of stores in WW2, tasked with finding old barns and factories to store essential items in the area near Scarborough, and he held a similar post in the Local Council when I met him, probably in 1962.
He certainly showed us around the sheds where the battleships used in mock sea battles on the lake in Peasholm Park were stored and got us a free train ride on the little narrow gauge railway. Everyone seemed to know and like him.
As I said Joyce acted as a mother to Wendy and June and did most of the housework. Unsurprisingly, she did not get on well with Bertha, and told me of things such as when her periods started, she had no idea what was happening, and her stepmother just threw a sanitary towel at her in the bathroom.
She told me how she would go to confession and confess everything sinful she had read about in the bible, things a 12-year-old couldn't possibly do, just to be certain she had no sins “on her” should she suddenly die.
In the 1939 Census, they are living on Mayville Avenue and his occupation is given as “Driver Mechanic - Incapacitated.” I think this is the paralysed arm story that my mother told me, She said they prayed together over his arm and that it was miraculously healed.
Her Father cruelly prevented my mother from going into teacher training despite her having a scholarship after she left school.
From around 1931 till 1948, Maud disappears from the records - in 1948, she is in a mental hospital near York, dying from Syphilis.
There are so many questions unanswered here - had she been born with the disease, if not, how did she contract it - did Lewis have it and pass it to her or vice versa? It was curable then, although she obviously and sadly wasn't cured, but Lewis could have been.
Other questions hang over family life, as Wendy always had strange relationships with much older men, but always continued to live at home, not even when she married did she live with her husband; her relationship with my mother was alternately intense and then distant.
Clues about what he Lewis did in WW2 are found in this photo taken much later, but possibly showing his career.
The cap badge appears to be the British Military Provost Cap Badge of the WWII period, and the last ribbon appears to be the WWII Defence Medal. This is usually followed by the WWII War Medal, which is not evident. This suggests to me that he might have been in a reserve occupation, such as the police. In summary, "GR" on civilian cap badges during wartime would have typically indicated a connection to the monarchy or the nation's support for the war effort, with some badges explicitly displaying "GR" and others using a similar symbol. I was told he might have been a “A Quartermaster of Stores in the Scarborough area,” finding places to store crucial war-related items.
His father, William, died in June 1946 at age 75
Then, in 1948, Maud died.
A member of the Sangwin family (Mauds mother's family) gave me this information
A death certificate reports Maud Wellburn female, died on 24 Feb 1948, at North Riding Mental Hospital without Clifton R.D. her home address was given as 55 Hinderwell Road, Scarborough wife of ( no first name given) Wellburn. aged 54 years.
Cause of death:
a) general paralysis of the insane
b) chronic Nephritis P[ost] M[ortem] by J Iveson Russell MD.
Sadly, the diagnosis confirms what you were told: Syphilis. Antibiotic treatment was in its infancy, but it was in use during WW2 and could have saved her. I haven’t found the newspaper report on your Grandfathers life, you mentioned, but he seemed to lead a double life with his second partner whilst his first family suffered.
Other goings on in that time are my mother starting work first at a Boots lending library, then as a projectionist at The Odeon cinema. She meets and marries my father in 1943, but she remains in Scarborough, living at home, and it's some time before she moves down to Croydon to be with him. I don't know if she was able to visit her mother during those years, or what she thought of Lewis and Bertha's hurried marriage. It's almost like the plot of a Soap.
So Lewis marries Bertha “Betty” Deyes on February 28th just four days after Maud’s death.
Clues about what he did next are found in this photo taken much later, but possibly showing his career.
The cap badge appears to be the British Military Provost Cap Badge of the WWII period, and the last ribbon appears to be the WWII Defence Medal. This is usually followed by the WWII War Medal, which is not evident. This suggests to me that he might have been in a reserve occupation, such as the police. In summary, "GR" on civilian cap badges during wartime would have typically indicated a connection to the monarchy or the nation's support for the war effort, with some badges explicitly displaying "GR" and others using a similar symbol. I was told he might have been a “A Quartermaster of Stores in the Scarborough area,” finding places to store crucial war-related items.
Clifford died in December 1956 aged 53 and Ivy dies in Wales in 1981 aged 75, with Lewis passing next March at age 83.
