Census record for Charles Sanderson sheds light on Grandma's early life

There is a story in Grandad's memoir about him and Grandma attending fox-hunting events while they were courting. Given that neither of them came from noble families, their presence at these events didn't make sense. Now some new information has emerged which throws light on this mystery.

Grandma was an only child who grew up in the East End of London. I knew very little about her early life when I began this blog except that her maiden name was Florence Mary Sanderson and that she was born in Shoreditch in 1905.

From research done on My Heritage and Find My Past, I've been able to discover a little more about her roots. Her father was Charles Sanderson, born in York, Yorkshire in 1857. Her mother was Florence Mary Wilson, born in Bethnal Green, London in 1875. What is remarkable here is the age difference between her parents. Charles was nearly 18 years older than Florence, which may explain why they only had one child.

I am fortunate to have become the keeper of the Sanderson family Bible. It came to me in a very fragile state and I had it professionally re-bound to preserve the precious notes recorded on its front pages. Charles' name is listed, along with his father Thomas Winskill Sanderson and his mother Mary Ann Bland. The record shows that there were eleven children in all, although only eight made it to adulthood.

According to census records, all Charles' surviving siblings lived out their lives in Yorkshire. He was the only one who left and move to London. Perhaps his being the eldest son placed certain expectations on him, or perhaps he was simply looking to seek his fortune in the city. At any rate, that was how he met and married Florence Wilson.  The marriage took place in 1903, the year before Grandma was born.

It was from the 1911 census taken in Mile End Old Town that I learnt Charles Sanderson's occupation was horse keeper. This little detail reminded me that Grandma had a small brooch with a riding whip and horseshoe which she gifted me when I entered my first gymkhana as a child. She also fostered my interest in horses by buying me a subscription to an expensive English horse magazine. Grandma never rode after she and Grandad moved to South Africa but she must have retained fond memories of the horses her dad cared for back in London. When I shared what I had found with my sister, she reminded me that she had a three-handled mug depicting a hunting scene which had belonged to our mother, and that this may have been passed down from Grandma who received it from her father. I have added a photo of the mug here, and if anyone can suggest its provenance, I would be most grateful.

Did Grandma and Grandad gain access to fox-hunting events through Charles' job, I wonder? After all, it was through my own friend's father, who was a keen better on the races, that she and I gained access to the race course! It seems conceivable that Charles, who was responsible for  someone else's horses and therefore familiar with horsy events, should wish to open doors for his daughter and her fiancé, especially as David was always so keen on visiting new places.

I like this explanation of the story in Grandad's memoir. It feels right. I can just see my very tall grandfather  holding the elbow of my very petite and stylishly-dressed grandmother as they politely acknowledged the master of the hunt in his black top hat and scarlet coat, while throngs of riders, grooms and horses milled about on a grey winter's day.

Photo credit: Illustration of fox hunting from Sporting Sketches (1817-1818) by Henry Alken (1784-1851). Original from The New York Public Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

Travelling first class from England to South Africa

Grandad had been working for BTM for a couple of years. One day, he was summoned to head office and told he'd been chosen to head up the Cape Town branch, which was an amazing opportunity for a young man of 26. His task was to bring up the staff compliment to 12 and build a solid base for the Hollerith brand in South Africa. I'm guessing he had met his sweetheart by then because he and Sandy [Florence Sanderson] married a year later.

He must have been excited about the prospect of starting a new life with his bride in a faraway land. I imagine he knew something about South Africa as it was a member of the Commonwealth, the location of the Anglo-Boer War and an envisaged growth region for BTM. Yet I wonder what his imagination dreamt up when he thought of living there? Lions and elephants on the streets? Or smart colonial cocktail parties?

The company gave David a first-class ticket to sail on a Union Castle ocean liner to Cape Town. That was when he bumped into Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Apparently, the Duke was stunned into silence by the sight of his double, and Grandad had to scramble to think of what to say in the presence of such an esteemed royal personage. After all, this was the son of King George V, no less. With a polite half-smile and a respectful “How do you do”, my grandfather got past the awkward moment, but as he says in his memoir, “I swear he gave me a wink!”

This is a fascinating anecdote but it’s hard to correlate with the facts. Grandad’s memoir states that the Duke was on route to Lobito Bay on the Atlantic coast to open the Benguela Bay railway. The Benguela Railway was completed in February 1929, sure enough, but there is no record of the Duke of Gloucester being amongst the officials at the opening. What is certain is that Henry and his brother were in Africa in September 1928 on an expedition to shoot big game. It was while in Nairobi that Henry was entertained by Mansfield Markham and his wife Beryl, and where his affair with Beryl is purported to have begun.

Finding passenger lists for people travelling to and from the United Kingdom isn't generally complicated, but for some reason, I haven't been able to track down that first trip of David's in 1928. All his subsequent trips are there [1939 being the most eventful because the family's time in England happened to coincide with the outbreak of war] but then he was sailing as a second-class passenger along with his wife and daughters. So, that first voyage remains something of a mystery. Another one to add to the mounting pile!

Photo by Royal Australian Historical Society

What I know about my grandfather's early life

There is a strange dearth of information surviving about my grandfather, David Scott Ritchie's early life. I've tried, as described in recent posts, to find clues by researching the lives of his parents, David Scott Ritchie senior and Maude Alice Parker, but nothing has come up so far. No 1911 census, no school admissions records, and no articles from old newspapers.

All I know is that he was born in Paddington and lived for a time in Albert Street. The next evidence I have of his whereabouts comes from his memoir about his travels around the world, in which he tells of his first job out of school. I guess he must have been about 16. He worked as an office boy for Cadbury and Pratt, which had offices in New Bond Street. His job included polishing the great brass door knocker and delivering goods to Buckingham Palace.

In June 1926, he and 3 friends went on holiday abroad. Among them were Dick, from London, and Pat, from Wales. As he described in his memoir, they caught a ferry from Dover to Ostend, Belgium with their bicycles and explored as much as they could on their meagre budget. It was this holiday abroad, he says, that first infected him with the travel bug.

At the time of his Belgium trip, he was working as a "lowly engineer" with an unnamed company. Perhaps he was in training for what was to come, because February 1927 saw him start work with the British Tabulating Machine Company Limited as a service engineer, based in Letchworth in Hertfordshire. He noted in his memoir that the Company had branches in all the dominions except Canada, and including Hong Kong.

Clearly, he was set up for a career full of interesting travel, just as he wished. And his memoir bears this out. Yet I still wonder, what, besides that initial bicycle tour through Belgium, inspired such a thirst for exploration and new experiences? Surely, there must have been someone in his youth, a particular relative or special teacher, who introduced him to the idea of visiting far-off lands?

Image from "Bicycles and supplies" Year: 1918 (1910s) Authors: Boyd, T.W. & Son, Montreal Publisher: Montreal, Desbarats