Heroes and Rebels in the Family Tree -- Robert Jeremiah Wooltorton
Heroes
and Rebels in the Family Tree – Robert Jeremiah Wooltorton
Military Service:
Family Life:
Four years after his initial enlistment in the Royal Regimental Artillery, Jeremiah met and fell in love with Alice Ann Brown. They were initially married at the Parish Church in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, England on December 18, 1889 witnessed by William Brown and Susannah (Susan) Brown—Alice’s older siblings. For some unknown reason, they were re-married at St. John’s Church, Woolwich, London, England on August 29, 1892. Jeremiah’s younger half-brother Frederick Wooltorton and Alice’s older sister Susan Brown were witness to the second marriage. Perhaps, the military required permission for marriages in order to provide family pay allowance, housing and travel authority and the second ceremony was required to fulfill military protocol.
While stationed at the Royal Regimental Artillery training base at Woolwich, Jeremiah and Alice had their first child Dorothy Alice Wooltorton, born on July 14, 1893. Katie Bona Wooltorton soon followed and was born in Woolwich on February 9, 1895. By 1899, the family was relocated to Ireland. Violet Kathleen Wooltorton was born on November 18, 1899 at Fort Westmoreland, County Cork, Ireland. Today, Fort Westmoreland is known as Spike Island and the fort was repatriated to Ireland in 1938 and renamed Fort Mitchel.
On March 5, 1901, Jeremiah, together with his wife and three children, boarded the transport ship “Wakool” for their new assignment in Malta. This tour would last 4-1/2 years and during that time his fourth child, Robert William Christian Wooltorton was born in Malta on November 16, 1903. By 1906, he was nearing the end of his 21 years of service when his fifth child, Mark Sydney Cecil Wooltorton was born in Plymouth, Devon, England on May 17, 1906.
Extraordinary
as it may seem, Robert Jeremiah, in spite of growing up in poverty, being shot
as a young lad, serving in the military for 21 years and serving again at the
start of World War I in order to train many raw recruits to give them the skills
necessary to survive on the battlefields of France, lived to a grand old age
and, in 1954, he and his wife were able to celebrate 65 years of marriage! An
extraordinary achievement, the couple had married when they were 22 and 21
years old respectively and raised 5 children as they toured the world in his 21
years of military service. This tough old soldier lasted just over another 2
years and died in 1957 aged 89.
An Extraordinary Athlete:
After leaving the Army,
the pensioner had a number of jobs although he remined local. He must have been
extraordinarily fit; when he was the landlord of The Buck Inn at Flixton, for a
bet, he undertook to swim the 1912 flood waters from the Norfolk side of the
River Waveney over to his pub. This epic and extraordinarily dangerous swim
took almost 3 ½ hours. He had been an Army Athlete, a licensed victualler (having
been trained in military cooking school), was known locally as the Strawberry
King due to his success in growing and selling his produce and finally had been
a professional destroyer of rabbits. According to the Diss Express article
published on December 24, 1954, Robert Jeremiah was an extraordinary
athlete.
“During his long service career, Mr.
Wooltorton, in his first year, became champion runner of a garrison in the
Eastern Counties, and was a miler of outstanding merit. ‘Jerry’ as he is affectionately known to many
in the district dryly commented, ‘Of course, my time for the mile was slightly
more than Bannister’s.’ He was
afterwards champion runner of another garrison for three years and had never
been beaten in obstacle races.
“At a military exhibition he won the
obstacle race against all-comers from various regiments. Later he took up cycling, and, in 1892 became
an Army cyclist champion. On his
discharge from the army in June 1906 he held the rank of Company Quartermaster
Sergeant. He volunteered for service in
the first world war and in addition to serving in France did much valuable
training work at home.
“For twelve years Mr. Wooltorton was
employed as a warrener at Pulham Mary Hall and other local farms, and in one
season alone accounted for more than 1,000 rabbits. He admitted that at that time he had no knowledge
of the now prevalent myxomatosis disease.”
An Interesting Life,
Indeed:
(Robert) Jeremiah received a wound to his
head in his youth which occasionally led to episodes of confusion. Still, he
was a tough fellow and in 1934, at the age of 67 he cycled from Harleston to
Diss, slipped on the steps outside the Star after having had a pint of beer and
became very confused. This confusion lasted some hours to the extent one of his
sons had to fetch him by car; unfortunately, a policeman came across the former
soldier, smelt the beer, noted the disorientation and assumed he was drunk.
Now, in his youth Jeremiah had been an occasional boozer (but I suspect no
worse than most of this peers) but on this occasion, Superintendent Fuller
spoke up for him in court and he was discharged with a warning! Most unusual
but the court case did reveal that Jeremiah and his 4 military brothers had all
achieved the Rank of Regimental Sergeant Major or Colour Sergeant.
On another occasion,
the brothers James, George, Jeremiah and oldest brother William Sheldrake along
with a friend James Websdale got themselves absolutely plastered when Jeremiah
was on leave from the Army.
The Ipswich
Journal published its account of the case on September 27, 1889:
“Unfortunately,
Jeremiah, having been initially arrested, was promptly ‘rescued’ from the
police by the rest of his party and was later heard swearing that it would need
40 men to take him! Dear old mother, widow Hannah Wooltorton, gave her son
Jeremiah an alibi for the occasion, stating that at the time he was accused of
carousing around Bungay with his wing men, he was actually with her ‘In defence
the prisoner (Hannah Wooltorton) said they were all against her, it was
no good her saying anything she had no witnesses. The court decided she was to
be sent to the next assizes. Shame on you boys!”
FOOTNOTE: About Dr. Barnado’s Home for Boys and Girls
Beginnings – the Ragged School
 |
| Thomas Barnardo at his desk |
Thomas John Barnardo was born in Ireland 1845. As a young man he moved to London to train as a doctor. When he arrived, he was shocked to find children living in terrible conditions, with no access to education. Poverty and disease were so widespread that one in five children died before their fifth birthday. When a cholera epidemic swept through the East End, leaving 3000 people dead and many orphaned children, the young Barnardo felt an urgent need to help
His
first step, in 1867, was to set up a ‘ragged school’ where children could get a
free basic education. One evening a boy at the mission, Jim Jarvis, took
Barnardo around the East End, showing him children sleeping on roofs and in
gutters. What he saw affected him so deeply he decided to abandon his medical
training and devote himself to helping children living in poverty.
 |
| Barnardo's children in 1906 |
No
child should be turned away
In
1870, Barnardo opened his first home for boys. As well as putting a roof over
their heads, the home trained the boys in carpentry, metalwork and shoemaking,
and found apprenticeships for them.
To
begin with, there was a limit to the number of boys who could stay there. But
when an 11-year-old boy was found dead — of malnutrition and exposure — two
days after being told the shelter was full, Barnardo vowed never to turn
another child away.
Barnardo’s
work was radical. The Victorians saw poverty as shameful, and the result of
laziness or vice. But Barnardo refused to discriminate between the ‘deserving’
and ‘undeserving’ poor. He accepted all children, regardless of
race, disability or circumstance.
Barnardo
believed that every child deserved the best possible start in life, whatever
their background. This philosophy still guides the charity today.
Barnardo’s
girls’ village
In
1873 Barnardo married Syrie Louise Elmslie, who was to play an important role
in the development of the charity. As a wedding present, they were given a
lease on a 60-acre site in Barkingside, east London, where the couple opened a
home for girls.
 |
| Barkingside village in the 1900s |
Syrie
was especially keen to support girls who had been driven to prostitution.
Protecting children from sexual exploitation continues to be an important part
of our work today.
The
Barnardos were early adopters of the ‘cottage homes’ model. They believed that
children could be best supported if they were living in small, family-style
groups looked after by a house ‘mother’.
By
1900 the Barkingside ‘garden village’ had 65 cottages, a school, a hospital and
a church, and provided a home – and training – to 1500 girls.
Caring
for more and more children
Barnardo
went on to found many more children’s homes. By the time he died in 1905, the
charity had 96 homes caring for more than 8,500 vulnerable children. This
included children with physical and learning difficulties. Barnardo’s
experience of caring for his daughter Marjorie, who had Down’s syndrome,
strongly influenced his approach to the care of disabled children.
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