Married the girl next door - wife lived at 17 Woodhave St. he at 15 Woodhave
St.
Fought in WW I. After the war he planned to emigrate to Australia and persuaded
his other brothers and sisters to go also since most of them could not find
work in the depression which followed the war. A few weeks before he was due
to leave he obtained an offer of employment and became a civil servant working
at the DHSS in Benton. His mother, and 11 brothers and sisters left for Australia.
Lived at the end house in Cochrane Park (No. 30?), Benton until he retired.
Then moved to Rydal Cottage, Station Road., Allendale, Northumberland, Eng.
He moved out of Newcastle in the hope of improving his wife's asthma
Died of a stroke in 1968 and buried in Allendale cemetery.
'My Grandfather was a popular man with all who knew him. He could never do enough to help his niebours. He had a wonderful sense of humour. Even as a child I remember him with white hair, It turned white at an early age, but, he was compensated by never suffering from any form of baldness. He was the sort of person no child could resist. I remember the climax of each visit to his home being a visit to his 'Aladdin's Cave' the garage, where over the years he had accumulated a copious supply of odds and ends. These he would sift through and give to me in a brown paper bag. Old alarm clocks, electrical switches, war memorabilia - gas masks etc. all became my new toys. It was probably to him I owe my skill at tinkering with and repairing all sorts of gadgets.'
