William Innes As a Young Man

William Innes as a young man 1 7 THE FOURTH GENERATION William Innes Rhosgoch, Entrepreneur As I wrote this chapter, it became clear to me that my grandfather, known as Taid,42 was a complex man of many parts and that no single description would capture him, except possibly “entrepreneur.” To provide for his family, he operated several small businesses in the rural community in which he lived; not unusual in small com- munities even today, where the size of the local market cannot sup- port the same degree of specialization that a city can. And so to make ends meet, he was, at one and the same time, an innkeeper, farmer, pig dealer and horse trader; as well as the owner of a bot- tling business for mineral waters, a petrol station and possibly a taxi service. With this history, is it any wonder that my father, my brother, Bill, and I, are driven personalities? And a further reflection: obviously, he didn’t do all this on his own; he had to work with and through others. In those days, of course, there were men and maids to lighten the load, but getting along with people and earning their respect was then, as now, an im- portant ingredient of success. In my father’s case, I rather suspect that it was from watching his father in operation that he developed the leadership philosophy and skills that would stand him in good 42 “Taid” is Welsh for grandfather. 2 stead for the rest of his life and which, in some measure, he passed along to Bill, and me. Of William Innes Rhosgoch’s early life, little is known beyond the fact that he was born on December 27, 1873 at 49 Abbey Street, Everton, and that sometime later, before 1881, the family moved to 41 Morland Street, also in Everton. In his notes, my father had this to say: “The family had an influen- tial friend who had made a successful career in the White Star Line whose name was Appleton. He took an interest in father as he was growing older, and attaining the age of 18 or so, induced him to consider a vocation in the catering service, that is the victualling services supporting the White Star ships. Thus it was that he had to spend time (3 or 4 voyages I think) back and forth across the North Atlantic, actually being a practicing Steward, before returning ashore and joining in the administrative side of supplying the ships with their provisions. He must have progressed very quickly and been extremely careful with his money for by the age of 27 he had left the White Star Line and had come to Rhosgoch, a village in the North West of Anglesey, Mr Appleton then having retired to Rhosybol nearby.” Why Mr. Appleton, an Englishman, would choose to retire to a small, somewhat remote village on the island of Anglesey in Wales remains a mystery. From this and other sources, we develop a picture of William as a hardworking and ambitious young man, intent on self-improve- ment. In my possession, I have his copy of English Grammar and Analysis by W. Davidson and J.C. Alcock, dated September 21, 1891. This presumably was the required text for a course that he took. I also have his Collected Works of Shakespeare, dating from the same period. From his marriage certificate and census records, we know that his hard work paid off, for in relatively short order he progressed from clerk to bookkeeper within the White Star Line. 3 On December 29, 1896, at the age of twenty-three, he married Elizabeth Jane Williams, daughter of Hugh Williams, a police of- ficer, at the Parish Church in Heswall, Cheshire. He was twenty- three; she was four years his senior. After their marriage, they set up house at 21 Premier Street, Everton, not far from his parents’ home. Among the few things which I have of his is a little blue Roman missal dated November 23, 1900. It suggests that around this time he explored Roman Catholicism.43 What drew him to the Roman Church, we don’t know. It appears to have been a passing phase, however, because for the rest of his life he attended the Anglican Church and, at one point, I believe, he considered a late vocation to the ministry. In 1901 he left Liverpool and a promising career in the White Star Line for Anglesey, accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth. At first sight, this would seem an odd move; a retrograde step for a young man with ambition; that is until one considers that William’s mentor in the White Star Line, Mr. Appleton, had recently retired to Rhosybol, and that Elizabeth, whose father’s family came from Anglesey, would, in a sense, be returning to her roots. Whatever his motives – to please his wife, his mentor or both – for William, given his background victualling ships, becoming an innkeeper would have seemed a logical next step, perhaps the only career move available in a deeply rural setting to someone with his skills 43 A Simple Prayer Book, published by the Catholic Truth Society in 1899. It is signed and dated November 23, 1900. 4 and abilities; and so he became the innkeeper of the Rhosgoch Ho- tel44 a few miles from Rhosybol, where Appleton had settled. To- day, the hotel is a curry house and pub. I used to stay with my grandmother during school holidays and on more than one occasion, she told me that my grandfather was led to believe that he would inherit Appleton’s estate, Appleton being childless. To William’s great surprise and consternation, this didn’t happen, although one suspects that Appleton was very generous to him during his lifetime. In retrospect, the move to Anglesey would seem to have been a stroke of great good fortune, for in 1907, six years later, the White Star Line took the decision to move its transatlantic steamer oper- ations from Liverpool to Southampton; and then, five years later, on April 15, 1912, its flagship, Titanic, sank with great loss of life. In his notes, my father tells us that the hotel was the “hub” of the Rhosgoch Postal District. Seeing the hotel today, it is hard to im- agine that it was at the hub of anything. There is an air of dilapi- dation about the place, and the railway line, once its lifeblood, fell into disuse many years ago. But a hundred years ago, during my grandfather’s tenure, the place was a hive of activity. Initially, at least, William’s first wife must have been an asset for, according to my father, she was known to be attractive and played the piano; and by other accounts, was an actress. He goes on to conjecture that because “she was reasonably well educated and of a rather sophisticated type for the rural environment of Anglesey, she found life boring.” Bored and barren, without children to oc- 44 The Rhosgoch Hotel is known today as “The Ring,” which may be a corrup- tion of “Yr Inn,” though others suggest that there might have been a cock- fighting ring on the site. 5 cupy her, she strayed, and after thirteen years, in August 1909, Wil- liam sued for divorce on the grounds of her infidelity. He named as his wife’s co-respondent, John William Jones, a master painter, of 8 Twrcuhelyn Street, Llanerchymedd. The case came before the High Court of Justice in London, on November 30, 1909, at which occasion neither the respondent nor the co-respondent were pre- sent, and neither party offered any defence. How Rare and Expensive was a Divorce in 1910? Approximately 240,000 men were married in England and Wales in 1910. Of those, only 240 gave their previous marital status as divorced; or in percentage terms 1/10th of 1%. The cost was £120 if uncontested but up to £800 if contested, and the process took about a year. William was represented by the London firm of Fowler & Co. He petitioned the Court for £500 plus costs, which the jury reduced to £150 with costs – about £13,500 in today’s pounds; although the income equivalent would be more like £80,000 today. Of this event, my father simply says, “in those days getting a divorce was an expensive matter and it must have set Father back quite a bit.” Rare and expensive. One wonders how a young innkeeper could afford such an expense. One can only speculate that perhaps his mentor, Appleton, came to his aid. 6 In any event, on June 27, 1910, William was granted his final decree and two years later married his housekeeper, Sarah Elizabeth Wil- liams, who was to become my grandmother, or “Nain” in Welsh. In the divorce papers, Elizabeth Jane, the first wife, gives her resi- dence as Sport-y-Gwynt near Benllech, which, it so happens, is also the same small place from which Sarah Elizabeth came, raising the possibility that both wives were related in some way, perhaps, cous- ins. Sarah Elizabeth, known from now on as Nain, came from a family of seafarers. Her father was a mariner and her brothers followed their father to sea. William, the eldest, was drowned at sea when his ship, the SS Dotterel, was sunk by a mine off the coast of France on November 29, 1915. Jack, the middle brother was also in the merchant navy, and the youngest, Bob, was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy.45 My father gives the following account of how my grandfather met my grandmother: “In the period preced- Bob Williams ing his arrival in Anglesey to live, Fa- ther had visited Anglesey aboard the pleasure ships plying from 45 Bob lived at Glandwr, Benllech and was married to a District Nurse.

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