A Time to Recollect

[Grandad]

As mentioned elsewhere, I spend some time on family history research. As a child of the WWII years I am also recording my experiences of those years. This has become more of a 'Life Story', an autobiography with pictures, that I plan to have printed by one of the online publishers so that copies can remain in my family for the future.
I include in my tome some relevant extracts from my family history. I have copied below one such extract which, to me, has a poignancy about some of my antecedents.

"My maternal grandfather, James Frederick Wootton, was born in Folkestone in 1886. He was a mariner and married Alberta Madams and then lived in Whitstable. He was a Royal Navy Reservist and was called up for service at the outbreak of WWI in August 1914. He was drafted to serve on the cruiser HMS Cressy. On 22 September 1914, just a few weeks after the commencement of hostilities, HMS Cressy and two sister ships, HMS Hogue and HMS Aboukir, were on patrol in the North Sea when they were all torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. JFW was among those who perished at sea leaving his wife and four young children. The youngest of these was my mother, just 10 months old at the time. Alberta had another daughter out of wedlock, then remarried and had one son with her second husband. She died at the young age of 41.

My grandmother Alberta's father, my Great Grandfather George, was born in 1857 and was also a mariner. He was master of a barge and early in 1904, his barge was moored at Greenwich. After having some drink ashore he returned to his barge and in the darkness tripped and fell from the quay onto his boat resulting in fatal injury. He was just 47 years old and left his wife Eliza and six children with no form of support.

My Great Great Grandfather George, was born in 1836 and was also a mariner. In 1867 he was master of the Brigantine Bethesda which had a crew of 7 and a registered cargo limit of 160 tons. On 18 March 1867 she ran into difficulties in the Solent. Two of the crew took to the small boat while the remaining crew tried to manage the ship. The Brig capsized with all five onboard being lost including Captain George Madams. He was just 31 years old and left his wife Eliza with five children and another expected. They too were left with no means of support.

So you will see that I have 3 direct line grandfathers, all mariners who all died young of various causes connected to the sea. And all left a widow and children to face new lives without the support of a husband".