The Waddington Boys Researched and Published by Suzanne Stirke

At the beginning of the Christmas Term 1910 two brothers started at Scarborough College. Francis Reginald Waddington aged 12 and Charles Robson Waddington aged 11.

These two boys came from a small village near Leyburn called Thornton Steward. Their parents Henry Martin and Annie Lynn Waddington lived at Manor House and were farmers.

Reading from the above notes in the 1910 edition of the Scardeburgian ther

seems to be an air of happy optimism although King Edward V11 had died i May to be succeeded by George V. Life continued as normal and no doubt the school was a busy hubbub of lessons, rugby and preparations for Christmas.

At the beginning of the Christmas Term 1910 two brothers started at Scarborough College. Francis Reginald Waddington aged 12 and Charles Robson Waddington aged 11.

These two boys came from a small village near Leyburn called Thornton Steward. Their parents Henry Martin and Annie Lynn Waddington lived at Manor House and were farmers. Reading from the above notes in the 1910 edition of the Scardeburgian there seems to be an air of happy optimism although King Edward V11 had died in May to be succeeded by George V. Life continued as normal and no doubt the school was a busy hubbub of lessons, rugby and preparations for Christmas.

WADDINGTON FAMILY TREE

Lancelot Tones Eleanor Ann Robson Burgess 1848-1923 1850-1924 Hartlepool Bedale

Eleanor Henry Martin Annie Lynne Fall Waddington Robson 1868-90 1858-1936 1872-1917

Thomas Fall Waddington H Henry Lancelot Francis Reginald Charles Robson 1890-90 1895-1958 1898-1972 1899-1975

It is unclear exactly why Francis and Charles were sent to Scarborough College, but I think their mother was unwell. When the boys started school, their maternal grandparents also moved to Scarborough.

In the 1911 census we are told that Lance and Eleanor Robson (the grandparents) were living at 51 Valley Road, Scarborough along with the two boys. Previously Lance and Eleanor had live at Leeming near Bedale.

Their only daughter, Annie was the mother of Francis and Charles. There was also an elder brother called Henry Lancelot, who was born in 1895. Henry didn’t attend Scarborough College, he went to St. Peter’s in York but I shall include his story as Scarborough played a large part in his life.

Annie had married the boys’ father Henry Martin Waddington in June 1894. She was 22 and he was 36. He had been married before, but within a year of marrying his first wife she had died, along with their first child.

Transcript of the above wording:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF ELEANOR, WIFE OF HENRY MARTIN WADDINGTON MANOR HOUSE, THORNTON STEWARD WHO DIED OCTOBER 11TH 1890 AGED 26 YEARS ALSO THOMAS FALL WADDINGTON SON OF THE ABOVE WHO DIED SEPTEMBER 21ST 1890 AGED 1 MONTH THY WILL BE DONE ALSO THE ABOVE HENRY MARTIN WADDINGTON OF MANOR HOUSE THORNTON STEWARD WHO DIED 23RD MARCH 1936 AGED 77

Thornton Steward parish church sits a couple of hundred yards away from the Waddington’s farm house, in the middle of one of Waddington’s fields. This grave stone stands next to the footpath that leads up to the church and Annie would have seen it every time she went to church or walked across the field. I do wonder what effect this might have had on her over the years.

Looking through the College’s archives I have been able to follow the boys’ progress through the school. After their first introduction in the school magazine, they are next mentioned in the 1911 summer Term Sports Days results;

Francis, identified as Waddington major came 2nd in junior hurdles and 1st 100yd run.

Charles identified as Waddington minor came 2nd in slow bicycle race and 1st in under 13 obstacle race.

In 1912 Sports Day yielded more small sporting victories with Francis coming 1st in 120yd hurdles for under 14 and 3rd in 220yd junior run.

Charles won the Melee with Crosier and was 2nd to his brother in the 120yd hurdles. Both boys received a certificate for swimming one length of swimming pool under 40secs.

In the summer 1912 school magazine there is a lengthy article about the Titanic.

By winter 1912 Francis was getting a few games in the 2nd X1 Football team and Charles gets a game in the 3rds.

In 1913 both boys are playing regularly in the 2nd X1. The summer term sports day yields 5 places in races for Francis - 1st in the junior 100yd and 440yd races and wheel barrow race with Crawford, and 2nd in the 120yd hurdles and 220yd run.

Charles took 2nd place after his brother in the wheel barrow race with Webster and another 2nd in the melee.

Francis is also described as a “good catcher” in the cricketing roundup.

Winter 1913 again sees both boys playing for the 2ndX1 football team.

It appears that Francis leaves Scarborough College at the end of 1913 and joins his brother Henry at St. Peter’s in York.

1914 - The year starts off with a long editorial piece about the London Coal Stirke.

In the spring term Charles achieved a distinction in algebra in the Cambridge local exam. At the summer sports day he again excels with a 1st in the long jump and obstacle race and a 2nd in the slow bicycle race. He is also playing cricket for the 2nd X1.

The winter term starts on a sombre note with the outbreak of war in September. In the magazine there is a list of OB serving and already two OB deaths, Lieut JH Bird killed at Ypres and Lieut CH Bussel – missing.

In school Charles is recorded as playing both football and hockey in the winter term. On December 1914 Scarborough was bombed and by January 1915 the school has moved to Cumbria. At this point Charles was 15 and leaves Scarborough College. However in the January edition of the Old Scardeburgian it is recorded that Charles got a distinction in algebra in the College of Preceptors junior exams.

There is also a short piece of good news that CH Bussel had turned up in London and was no longer missing. He had then returned to the front. Bussel survived the war.

The next picture comes from the school archives, it is dated 1914.

After having inspected it closely and doing quite a few comparisons I think that Charles Robson Waddington is the taller boy on the right standing in front of the back row. He holds his head slightly to his right; this is a trait that continues in much later photographs.

Scarborough College 1914 - from the college online archives

Another picture from the archives – The Dining Room in the 1920’s

During the years that the Waddington boys were at Scarborough two other names have repeatedly appeared WE Puddicombe and JG Crozier, along with their siblings. All excelled at sport and their stories make an interesting read, maybe a project for another day.

Francis at St. Peter’s York

He was at St. Peter’s from Jan 1914 until April 1916 when he was 17. Here he is mentioned as a football player, a member of the hockey and cricket teams.

THE WAR YEARS – 1914-18

On July 5th 1917 Francis joined the Royal Flying Corps as a Cadet and in November 1917 he became a Flying Officer with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, the Royal Flying Corp later became the RAF. Perhaps he joined the RFC because his elder brother Henry had joined them. Initially Henry had worked as a motor cyclist dispatch rider on the front for 15 months before joining the RFC.

There are no records or information about what Charles did after he left school in January 1915 at the age of 15 until July 1918 when he joined the Artists Rifles as a cadet. The Artist’s Rifles were stationed at Ripon, which is only ten miles from Thornton Steward, so it was convenient for him. Wilfred Owen had also served with the Artist’s Rifles. Information from the Regimental Roll suggests that Charles Robson enlisted between July 10th and 27th 1918, and his number was 768858. The Waddington boys’ grandparents had moved to Scarborough by 1911. When Charles left school in 1914 it appears that the grandparents stayed in Scarborough at 51 Valley Road.

On 3rd February 1917, the boys’ mother Annie Lynn, died aged 44. On her death certificate it state that the causes of her death were;

1. Chronic Nephritis- 8 months (inflammation of the kidneys) 2. Valve disease of the heart- 8 months 3. Bronchitis – 14 days

She died at Thornton Steward and with her at her death was her husband Henry Martin. We can only imagined what it must have been like for the three boys aged 21, 18 and17 to lose their mother in the middle of the war.

The next mystery was the location of Annie Lynn Waddington’s grave. There was no sign of it in the Thornton Steward churchyard. The answer came when I later found the location of where her father was buried.

In 1923 the boys grandfather Lancelot Robson died in Botham Park Hospital. The causes of his death were;

1. Arterio Sclerosis-8years (thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries) 2. Congestion of the lungs-3 days

However, Botham Park Hospital was, at that time a psychiatric hospital. Many patients at the hospital were there voluntarily and some were there as private patients. Lancelot Robson was always a wealthy man. His parents had farmed at Hartlepool before it was developed in the mid nineteenth century during the industrial revolution. Both his mother and father’s families appeared to have sold their farms to the companies that were set up to build the new town of West Hartlepool, the docks, factory and iron works.

I would like to think he enjoyed a comfortable time at Bootham Park and was probably suffering from Dementia. But where was he buried?

Using the family history search websites we discovered that Lancelot Robson was buried at Scalby Church, next to his wife, daughter, brother in law, and mother in law.

So, whatever it was that originally brought the Robsons’ and the Waddington boys to Scarborough resulted in five members of the family being laid to rest at Scalby. Eleanor Waddington, the boys’ grandmother died in 1924 and lays next to her husband.

In the middle of the war it must have been quite an upheaval to take the boys’ mother all the way from Thornton Steward to Scalby to be buried and the obvious question is, why? Reading Annie Lynn’s will it is clear that she has turned against her husband Henry Martin, who by now had lost two wives. I have asked older members of the family and friends if they could shed any light on this. An old family friend who has now passed away told me that Henry Martin Waddington was the kindest and gentlest of men you could ever wish to meet and photographs of him would confirm this assessment.

When Lancelot Robson died intestate, it was his son-in-law, Henry Martin who acted on his behalf.

The sadness of the death of the boy’s mother and the war no doubt left its marks on the family. Did Charles leave Scarborough College in December 1914 and return home to the family farm to be near his ailing mother and to help his father on the farm?

After the death of Annie Lynn and after the war, Scarborough remained an important place for the family, particularly the eldest son Henry Lancelot. On his demob papers his address is Valley Lodge, Scarborough, not far from his grandparent’s house. Is this house still standing in the corner of the Valley Gardens? He had started as an articled clerk with a company of solicitors in Scarborough before the war and he returned to Scarborough, becoming a solicitor in 1920. His interest in mechanics manifests itself when he starts a bus company in Bridlington, called Trown, Tooth and Waddington.

He married a Scarborough girl, Molly Appleyard in 1923 and they later moved to London. I have included two pieces I found about him on the internet.

NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us, the undersigned, John Godfrey Tooth, Felix Parr Trown and Henry Lancelot Waddington, carrying on the business of Motor Garage Proprietors and Engineers, at the Coventry Garage and the Alexandra Garage, Bridlington, in the county of York, under the style or firm of TROWN, TOOTH& WADDINGTON, was dissolved by mutual consent as and from the 5th day of December, 1923. All debts due and owing by the firm will be received and paid by the said John Godfrey Tooth and Henry Lancelot Waddington, who will continue to carry on the said business under the style of Tooth & Waddington, and at the premises lately occupied by the said firm. Dated this 10th day of December 1923

J. G. TOOTH. FELIX P. TROWN. H. LANCELOT WADDINGTON

WADDINGTON, Henry Lancelot, F.I.M.I. Governing Director, Waddington Motors Ltd., Hampstead, London. Governing Director, Wadcol Motors Ltd., West Hampstead. Governing Director, Waddington Property Trust Ltd., London, W.I. Born Thornton Steward, Yorks, 12th October, 1896. Educated St. Peter's, York. Trained for legal profession and admitted a solicitor in 1920, after serving as a flying officer in the Royal Flying Corps and R.A.F. from 1915. Retired as a captain in 1918. Founded Waddington Motors Ltd. in 1927 and Wadcol Motors Ltd. in 1935. Served throughout 1939-1945 war as a Squadron Leader in the R.A.F. Elected an Underwriting Member of Lloyd's in 1946. Clubs: Public Schools, Royal Thames Yacht. Recreations: Yachting, Travel. Married, T922. Private Address: 101, Eyre Court, St. Johns Wood, London, N.W.8. Telephone: Primrose 4972

After the First World War, Francis and Charles returned home to Thornton Steward where they both farmed.

From the archives I found that Charles, who was always known as Robson in his adult life, had trials to play hockey for Yorkshire in 1926. We don’t know what the outcome was.

In the 1939 census the two brothers are entered as follows,

Francis is at Manor Farm with his wife Marjorie and apart from being a farmer he is also an ARP Warden.

Charles Robson is at The Old Hall, and describes himself as being employed in “heavy work”.

PICTURE GALLERY

Charles Robson Waddington with his wife Aileen and friend Bert Metcalfe

Francis and Marjory Waddington - 1957

Charles Robson Waddington with his daughter Ann on her Wedding Day – 1957. Before her marriage she worked at the Royal Hotel in Scarborough.

Henry Lancelot Waddington who lived and worked in Scarborough.

Francis died in 1972 and Charles Robson died in 1975.

Of the three brothers only Charles Robson and Aileen had children, Anne, Henry and Mary. Of the three only Anne had children, two boys Peter 1958 and Richard 1961, who in turn both have two children.

The family name of Waddington died out in 2006 when Charles Robson’s son Henry died. There are three more points that may be of interest;

1. Charles Laughton, the actor was at Scarborough College with the Waddington boys and it was a Laughton owned hotel that Anne, Charles Robson’s daughter worked. 2. Wilfred Owen also served with the Artists Rifles, as did Charles Robson and missed him by a couple of months when he was stationed at Ripon. 3. The boys’ aunt, Mary Ann Waddington married Francis Winn from East Witton. Francis Winn’s sister Alice married David Holtby, they were the parents of Winifred Holtby. Winifred became an accomplished writer and her closest companion was Vera Britten who wrote Testament of Youth, taking us back to the experience of World War One.

To bring the story up to date and perhaps to make it relevant to your pupils and students. Charles Robson’s legacy is best illustrated by the attached photograph of his eldest grandson Peter and his two sons Tim and Matthew.

A trait that all three have inherited from Charles Robson is their strong mathematical ability. All of them think maths is easy!

Suzanne Stirke April 2019