Dora Baynham (1899-1978)
Born: 1899 at Walsall
Parents: Arthur William Baynham and Elizabeth Pye
Married: 1920 to Howard Leslie Walker
Died: 1978 at Birmingham
Dora was born at Walsall, in 1899.
She married Howard Leslie Walker, son of Marshall Walker and Louisa Pye (Dora’s mother’s sister) at Bishop Latimer Memorial Church in Winson Green, Birmingham in 1920, when they were both 21. They had four children: Betty Dora, in 1921; Geoffrey Marshall, in 1924; and twins Malcolm Howard and Joyce Vera in 1928. Howard died at Birmingham in 1953, aged 54.
Dora died at Birmingham in 1978, aged 79.
Dora was born on 13th May 1899 at the family home 26 Oxford Street, Pleck, Walsall and was baptised on 8th June at St. John’s, the local family church.
At the time of the 1901 census, she was just 1 year old and living at 26 Oxford Street with her parents Arthur William and Elizabeth and four siblings – Arthur (19), Louisa (Lillie) (15), Tom (11) and Marshall (‘William‘) (3).
Her father and brother Arthur were both working on the railways and Lillie was a tailoress.
Later in 1901, her oldest brother Arthur got married and set up home with his wife Ann a few doors away at 14 Oxford Street.
Another brother Henry (‘Harry’) was born in 1903.
Sadly her father Arthur died in 1905, aged 49, when Dora was just 5; her sister Nellie, who was working away from home as a housemaid, died the following year aged 23, of tuberculosis.
It was probably around this time that her mother Elizabeth moved the family to 151 Prince Street, Pleck which would remain the family home for more than 60 years.
In 1910 her sister Lillie also contracted tuberculosis and spent a couple of months in a convalescent home and just after Christmas was admitted to the lunatic asylum at Burntwood; a month later her brother Tom died suddenly at 21, of intestinal problems.
The 1911 census showed Dora, a schoolgirl aged 11, living at 151 Prince Street with her widowed mother Elizabeth (50) and three siblings in what appears to have been a troubled household – Lillie (25) was working as a sewing machinist in tailoring, but was described in the Infirmity column as ‘lunatic’ as she has yet to be discharged from the asylum at Burntwood;
William (13) had already left school and was working as an apprentice whip maker; Harry (9) was not at school either, possibly as a result of problems with his hip when he was younger. They also had a boarder, Thomas Reeves (61, widower).
Dora then suffered two more family deaths: her eldest brother Arthur died in 1913, aged 31 (in a work-related accident) and her mother Elizabeth died of a stroke in 1915, aged 53. Dora was just 16.
So throughout the war, Dora must have continued living at 151 Prince Street with Lillie and Harry, though presumably my grandfather William stayed there too, when on recuperation leave from The Front (he was wounded twice).
In 1920, just before her 21st birthday, Dora married Howard Leslie Walker at Bishop Latimer Memorial Church in Winson Green, Birmingham; they then lived with Howard’s father Marshall, by now a widow, at 253 Lodge Road, Winson Green.
Howard was her cousin – he was the son of Marshall Walker (1871-1956) and Louisa Pye (1869-1916), the younger sister of Dora’s mother, Elizabeth Pye.
Howard had served in WWI with the 5th Battalion of The Dorset Regiment after enlisting in early 1917; before the war he had worked as an assistant electrician.
They had four children: Betty Dora was born in 1921, Geoffrey Marshall on 4th May 1924 and twins Malcolm Howard and Joyce Vera on 14th June 1928.
The 1939 Register showed Dora and Howard, both now 40 years old, living at 7 Tew Park Road in Handsworth, Birmingham with their four children – Betty (18); Geoff (15), working as an apprentice printer; Malcolm and Joyce (both 11), at school. Howard was now a Foreman Electrical Fitter.
Howard died at Birmingham in 1953, aged 54.
In 1957 Dora, now 58, was still living at 7 Tew Park Road with Malcolm (29).
Dora died at Birmingham in 1978, aged 79.
Malcolm died in 1980, Joyce in 1987, Geoff in 1991 and Betty in 2015.
Acknowledgements:
- Census extracts – Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk)
- Birth & Death Certificates – General Register Office (www.gro.gov.uk)
- Photograph – family’s own