The Whitehead family of Derby

These two cabinet card portraits from the studio of Pollard Graham of Derby and Burton-on-Trent were recent purchases on eBay. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when they arrived in the post and I read the inscriptions on the reverse.

with E.A. Whitehead's Compliments Feby 1897

and, in an identical hand

with R.D. Whitehead's Compliments Feby 1897

A quick check of the census records confirmed my suspicions. Richard David Whitehead (1860-1928) and his wife Elizabeth Ann née Barnett (1860-1898) were the parents of the brothers Vincent, Cecil and Maurice Whitehead. They, in turn, are the subjects of a portrait in my Aunt Bunnie's family photograph collection (shown below), which featured in a previous post of mine at Photo-Sleuth.


Vincent (at back), Cecil (left) and Maurice (right) Whitehead
Large format mounted print (Mount 140 x 165 mm, Print 73 x 99 mm)
Taken by unidentified photographer, c.1914, probably at Derby
The question posed in the original article about the Whitehead family was to do with how they might be related to my Payne family. I'm really no nearer to finding an answer, but I'm writing about them here in the hope that some day a reader may be able to shed some light on the matter for me.

Richard David Whitehead was born in Manchester in early 1860, to a warehouseman David Whitehead and his wife Jane née Binks. As a young man he went into his father's profession, and is shown as a warehouseman after his marriage to Elizabeth Ann Barnett in the 1881 Census of Hulme. Over the next ten years, however, his career advanced most impressively. Their first three children Vincent (1881), Cecil Barnett (1884) and Minnie Burton (1888) were born in Manchester, but by the time of Maurice's arrival in late 1890 they had moved to Derby. Two more daughters Dorothy and Ethel were born in 1892 and 1895.

In Derby Richard was employed as a science teacher by the then recently formed Derby School of Art and Technical Institution, which shortly afterwards became the Derby Municipal Technical College.


Byzantine Capital from Sta. Sophia, Constantinople
from The Principles of Ornament by James Ward, 1899
In August 1891 The Derby Mercury reported that Richard D. Whitehead had,

... completed the Art Class Teacher's Certificate, which qualifies [him] to teach an art class under the Science and Art Departments ... receiving a commendation from the examiners at South Kensington,

and had submitted a series of drawings for the Art Masters Certificate, comprising

[an] outline drawing of a figure from the antique, outline design for a panel, sheet of diagrams showing the elementary principles of ornament, and a sheet of perspective problems.

In September 1895, he was awarded:

ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE SECTION. Technological Subjects.
Examinations held under the City and Guilds of London Institute - Brickwork and masonry: Honours Grade, First Class, and silver medal, highest positions in the Kingdom, Richard D. Whitehead.

Vincent Whitehead (1881-1925)
By the time the reports of prizes at the Municipal Technical College for 1896 were published, his eldest son Vincent had joined him, appearing in both the Elementary Art Examinations and the Engineering & Technological Section honours list. Richard was continuing with his own education, achieving a 1st class prize in Honours level Building Construction. Further entries appear until at least 1900.

Elizabeth Ann Whitehead died at Derby in late 1897 or early 1898, possibly in child birth. Richard remarried three years later, to Martha Ann Wheatcroft (1868-1939) who had been listed as a housekeeper in the Whitehead household in 1901.


Image © and courtesy of Brighton & Hove Trading Standards Service
The 1901 Census shows Vincent as a "Weight Adjuster Weights Office," which presumably refers to the Weights & Measures Offices, situated in the County Council Offices in St Mary's Gate, Derby. Vincent married Lily May Alcock (1880-1958) at Derby in 1904, and between the birth of the first son (also Vincent) in 1906 and their second (Eric) in 1909, they moved to West Bromwich. There he was employed by the Borough Council as an inspector of weights and measures. Vincent died in 1925, his wife Lily in 1958, both in West Bromwich. Their son Vincent Whitehead (1906-1950) married Viola Parker (1906-1979) at West Bromwich in 1931 and they later moved to Crewe in Cheshire, but it is not know whether there were any children.


Cecil Barnett Whitehead (1884-1937)
After a brief spell in the army (he was serving in the infantry at Chatham Barracks, Kent in 1901) Cecil married Lilian Perry (1885-1965) at Derby in 1909. They had at least two children, Frederick Richard (1910-1974) and Victor James (1918-1995).


Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons
The 1911 census describes Cecil as a railway gasman, presumably working in the goods staff department at Midland Railway. Frederick Richard Whitehead married Violet Lilian Taylor (1911-1973) at Derby in 1937.


Maurice Whitehead (1890-1917)
Richard and Elizabeth's youngest son Maurice Whitehead joined the Army in January 1909, attesting at Leicester, having previously been employed as a page, kitchen porter and waiter at the Midland Railway Hotel in St Pancras, London.


Image © Bernard Renshaw and courtesy of Military Regimental Cap Badges UK
He was initially posted to Jersey, where he served in the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) at Fort Regent and Elizabeth Castle. Then, in January 1912, after having been based in Dover for three months, the regiment shipped out for India, where he remained until November 1914, stationed variously in Bombay, Lucknow, Lebong, Barrackpore and Calcutta. After returning with the regiment to England, he did not proceed with them in January 1915 to France, but was transferred to the 3rd Reserve Battalion, based in Southampton, and given a promotion to Lance Corporal a month later.


Image © and courtesy of North East Medals
In August he was transferred again, to the 1st Garrison Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, based in Gibraltar, where he remained until July 1917. Yet another series of transfers sent him, via Rouen to join the 10th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, arriving "in the field" on 26 August, and immediately being promoted to the rank of Sergeant.


West of Zonnebeke village, 8 April 2007
Soon afterwards, his unit, one of four in the 76th Brigade which formed part of the 3rd Division, must have been moved east of Ypres in preparation for a major attack on the German front lines. This took place on 26th September and resulted in the storming of what remained of the village of Zonnebeke, simultaneous with the Battle of Polygon Wood immediately to the south, conducted by two Australian Divisions. Some time during the attack, Maurice Whitehead was reported missing. His body was never recovered, but he was presumed killed during the assault somewhere immediately west of Zonnebeke village, probably in the area covered by the portion of satellite image shown above.


1901 Census: 60-68 Normanton Road, Derby
I still haven't found the connection, if indeed there is one, between the Whiteheads and the Paynes. However, the 1901 Census record did provide an intriguing potetial clue. Living three doors away from the Whitehead family, at 62 Normanton Road, are the Hogg family. Constance May Hogg (1889-1918) married my grandfather Charles Leslie Lionel Payne (1892-1975) in November 1917, while he was home on leave from the war in France. He returned to duty with the 6th Brigade Canadian Machine Gun Company a few days later.


Constance "Con" May Hogg, c.1917
"Con" died in my grandfather's arms during the influenza epidemic a year later on 20 October 1918, less than two months after he had been wounded by machine gun fire east of Arras, and while he was still recuperating. Although they had been married for almost a year, they had only spent a matter of days - a couple of weeks at the most - together during that period.

Was Con friendly with the Whitehead family? And did this photograph of the Whitehead brothers belong to her? Several of the Hogg children were similar ages to the Whitehead children, and it seems a distinct possibility.

References

British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920, Maurice Whitehead (1909-1917), 80 pages, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

England & Wales, Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes, 1937-1984, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919, War Office, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

England & Wales, Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes, National Archives, Courtesy of FreeBMD

Anon (1891) 1891 Census of Derby, Derbyshire: Whitehead family, 53 Silverhill Road, Litchurch, NA Ref. RG12/2735/106/46/306, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

Anon (1891) Derby School of Art and Technical Institution. Examination Results & National Awards, The Derby Mercury, 26 August 1891, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

Anon (1895) The Derby Municipal Technical College. School of Art & Engineering and Science Sections, The Derby Mercury, 20 September 1895, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

Anon (1896) The Derby Municipal Technical College. School of Art & Engineering and Technological Sections, The Derby Mercury, 21 October 1896, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

Anon (1897) Municipal Technical College. School of Art & Engineering and Technological Section, The Derby Mercury, 15 September 1897, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

Anon (1899) Municipal Technical College. May Examinations, The Derby Mercury, 27 September 1899, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

Anon (1899) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire & Rutland, London: Kelly's Directories Limited, Courtesy of the University of Leicester's Historical Directories

Anon (1900) Derby Municipal Technical College, The Derby Mercury, 18 July 1900, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Gale CENGAGE Learning.

Anon (1901) 1901 Census of Derby, Derbyshire: Hogg & Whitehead families, 62 & 68 Normanton Road, NA Ref. RG13/3213/81/37/249-252, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

Anon (1901) 1901 Census of Chatham, Kent: Chatham Barracks NA Ref. RG13/732/46/21/14, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

Anon (1911) 1911 Census of Derby, Derbyshire: R.D. Whitehead family, 39 Wilmot Street, NA Ref. RG14/20/9/03, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

Anon (1911) 1911 Census of Derby, Derbyshire: C.B. Whitehead family, 114 Yates Street, NA Ref. RG14/20/8/95, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

Anon (1911) 1911 Census of West Bromwich, Staffordshire: V. Whitehead family, 29 Law Street, NA Ref. RG14/17/3/16, National Archives, Courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

Anon (2008) Battle of Polygon Wood, 26 September 1917, Australians of the Western Front, 1914-1918, Department of Veterans' Affairs and Board of Studies NSW.

Anon (2010) Railways, Staff Records: Appendix 2 - Staff trades and occupations, National Archives Research Guides

Baker, The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, The Long, Long Trail

McCarthy, Chris (1995) The Third Ypres - Passchendaele: The Day-by-Day Account, London: Arms & Armour Press, ISBN 1854092170

Ward, James (1896) The Principles of Ornament, London: Chapman & Hall, 224p, Google Books

The Mansour sisters in Edinburgh

Latifa Middleton and Gamila Binnie,
standing next to the cannon Mons Meg,
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland, June-July 1932
Image © and courtesy of the extended Binnie family
Over at Photo-Sleuth I have talked about the importance of photographs in documenting pilgrimages, how they help to maintain contact between distant branches of the family, and can provide a sense of history for families long since disconnected physically from their ancestral homelands. I scanned this photograph in February 1998 from the collection of Gill's Aunt Maud, before we emigrated from Zimbabwe a year later. Gill's paternal grandmother Gamila Binnie née Mansour (1897-1993), at right, is standing with her sister Latifa Middleton née Mansour (1905-1987) in front of what looks like an enormous cannon. According to my notes made during a visit by Maud in May 1998, she told me that it was taken in 1933 at Edinburgh Castle, and that Gamila was heavily pregnant with her fifth child, John. Edinburgh was the birth place of Gamila's husband George Hinton Binnie (1898-1965), although he had lived in Egypt ever since the end of the Great War, working as an inspector for the N.A.A.F.I. (Navy, Army and Air Force Institute) in Cairo.


Postcard of the P. & O. ocean liner T.S.S. Bendigo
Image © and courtesy of Ian Boyle & Simplon Postcards
George and Gamila were married at Cairo on 13 September 1919, and their three daughters Maud, Dorothy and Virgina were born between then and 1925. In July 1926 George had taken Gamila and their three very young children for a trip back to Edinburgh, and they had returned to Scotland again in the summer of 1929.



Passenger manifest for the Binnie & Middleton families, T.S.S. Bendigo
Arrived London 12 June 1932 from Port Said
Image © The National Archives & courtesy of Ancestry.com
Actually they arrived in London on 12 June 1932. It was the third visit for Gamila and her daughters, although this time, as the passenger list for the P & O liner T.S.S. Bendigo shows (click on images above for full pages of manifest), they were accompanied by toddler Leo, sister Latifa and Latifa's two year-old daughter Teresa (Tess).


Latifa, Teresa and Dick Middleton
Postcard portrait, Cairo, Egypt, c.late 1930-early 1931
Image © and courtesy of David Nelson
Latifa had married Richard James "Dick" Middleton (1902-1931) at Cairo in October 1926, and their daughter Tess was born in May 1930. Judging by Tess's apparent age, they must have visited a studio there for this family portrait shortly before Dick was killed in a motorcycle accident on 25 March 1931.

After disembarking the Binnies went directly to Edinburgh, where they strayed with George's parents at 36 Angle Park Terrace. Latifa and Tess appear to have first stayed in London and later joined the others in Edinburgh.


Postcard of the Nederland Royal Mail liner Christiaan Huygens
Image courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons & the Tropenmuseum of the Royal Tropical Institute


Passenger manifest for the Binnie & Middleton families, Christiaan Huygens
Departed Southampton 25 July 1932 for Egypt
Image © The National Archives & courtesy of Find My Past
The Binnie and Middleton families returned together to Egypt after a stay of six weeks, departing from Southampton on 22nd July aboard the Christiaan Huygens, a Nederland Royal Mail ship en route to Java in the Dutch East Indies via the Suez Canal. The Binnies would make further visits to Scotland in 1936 and 1939, before the Second World War broke out.
~~~~~~~

Hanna Wakim, Mona Saikily and Ronald Thomson
Mieh Mieh, nr Sidon, Lebanon, 29 April 2010
Image © and courtesy of Anis Francis
Latifa's daughter Madeleine and her husband Bill have recently paid a visit to the Latifa and Gamila's birth place, the village of Mieh Mieh, located just outside Sidon in southern Lebanon, where they were hosted by cousins still living there. This follows a trip there by another cousin, Maud's son Ronald Thomson, a few weeks ago (above) ...


Hanna Wakim and Lesley Payne
Baalbek, Lebanon, 25 May 1997
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
... and one which Gill and I made to Lebanon in May 1997 (above and below).


Gill (& Louise) Payne, Mona Saikily and son, Matta and Rita Wakim
Anjar, Lebanon, 26 May 1997
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The tradition is continuing.