Marshall William Baynham (1897-1963)
Born: 1897 at Walsall
Parents: Arthur William Baynham and Elizabeth Pye
Married: 1920 to Phoebe Isabel Walker
Died: 1963 at Walsall
Marshall was born at Walsall in 1897.
He married Phoebe Isabel Walker, daughter of Frederick Walker and Phoebe Beesley, at St. John’s Church, Pleck, Walsall in 1920, when they were both 23. They had three children: Joan Isabel in 1921; Stanley William in 1927; and Dennis Marshall in 1932.
Marshall died at Walsall in 1963, aged 66.
Phoebe died at Walsall in 1984, aged 86.
Marshall, my grandfather, was born on 6th May 1897, at the family home 26 Oxford Street, Pleck, Walsall; he was baptised on 28th May 1897 at St. John’s Church, Walsall.
At the time of the 1901 census, he was 3 years old and living at 26 Oxford Street with his parents Arthur William and Elizabeth and four siblings – Arthur (19), Louisa (Lillie) (15), Tom (11) and Dora (1); he appeared on the census as William, the name he would use for the rest of his life.
His father and brother Arthur were both working on the railways and Lillie was a tailoress.
Another brother Harry was born in 1903 and shortly afterwards the family appears to have moved to 12 Oxford Street.
There two members of the family died – in 1905 William’s father Arthur died of tuberculosis, aged 49, when William was just 7, and in 1906 his sister Nellie, who had been working away from home as a housemaid, also died of tuberculosis back at home aged 23.
Soon afterwards it appears that Elizabeth moved the family to 151 Prince Street, Pleck which would remain the family home for more than 60 years.
In 1910 Lillie also suffered a bout of tuberculosis and spent two months in a convalescent home in Weston-super-Mare.
Then, in early 1911 William’s brother Tom died, aged 21, of intestinal problems (his death was the subject of an inquest).
So the 1911 census showed William living at 151 Prince Street with his widowed mother Elizabeth (50) and three siblings in what appears to have been a troubled household – Lillie (25) had been working as a sewing machinist in tailoring, but was described in the Infirmity column as ‘lunatic’ as she had yet to be discharged from the asylum at Burntwood where she had spent the past few months.
William was now 13 and working as an apprentice whip maker in Walsall, a town famed for its leather goods.
Dora (11) was at school but not Harry (7) who in the Infirmity column was recorded as having had had ‘hip troubles at the age 6’.
William then suffered another family death – his eldest brother Arthur died in 1913, aged 31 (in a work-related accident which was the subject of an inquest).
William enlisted into Kitchener’s New Third Army at Walsall on 13th April 1915, a few weeks before his 18th birthday.
He had been working as a plater in a galvanised iron works nearby and signed up with two other local men, Willam Millett and George Cartwright. It appears that the war stories of these three Walsall Pals may have been intertwined; all three survived.
William joined the Royal Field Artillery and, after a period of basic training in Ireland, landed in France on 26th September 1915, as a reinforcement gunner.
He was posted to 32nd Battery, part of 33rd Brigade (8th Division), seeing action in a gun crew firing an 18-pounder at the opening battle of the Somme in early July 1916, near Albert.
He was wounded in action shortly afterwards near Laventie on 18th July during heavy enemy shelling and was brought back to England on the Hospital Ship St Denis.
He returned to the Front in December 1916 and was posted to ‘A’ Battery, 86th Brigade (19th Division). He served with it until June 1917, taking part in the Battle of Arras and the successful capture of Messines Ridge, but was again wounded in action shortly afterwards and was brought home on the HS Stad Antwerpen.
On both occasions when he was wounded he was featured in the local newspapers –
In 1916, in The Walsall Observer of 5th August on its page ‘Brave Men And Worthy Patriots, Dear To God’ he was included in the ‘Wounded’ column and in 1917 he appeared in a photographic supplement to The Walsall Pioneer of 4th August, called ‘The Toll Of The Brave’.
Bombardier William M. Baynham, of the R.F.A., a single man, 19 years of age, and whose home address is 151, Prince Street, Pleck, has written home stating that he was wounded on 18th of last month after 10 months’ service in France. Prior to enlisting in April, 1915, he was employed by Messrs. Walker Bros., Ltd., of Pleck Road, and as a boy attended Hillary Street Schools.
He was posted back to France in February 1918, but spent several months in and out of hospital with minor ailments at Havre before being promoted Bombardier on joining 24th Divisional Ammunition Column in September.
He finally returned to UK in June 1919.
His MoD service record reveals his long and fascinating Great War story.
After the war, aged just 22, he returned to The Pleck to live at 151 Prince Street with his older sister Lillie (32) and younger siblings Dora (20) and Harry (15); William’s mother Elizabeth had died of a stroke on 8th October 1915, aged 54, shortly after he had landed in France.
Lillie died of tuberculosis in March 1920, aged 33.
William married Phoebe Isabel Walker at St. John’s Church, Pleck, Walsall on 4th September 1920, when they were both 23.
Phoebe was born on 21st May 1897, the fourth of the eight children of Frederick Thomas Walker (1852-1922, described in the 1901 census as a ‘Victular Pub. Own Account’) and Phoebe Emma Beesley (1868-1946); he was from Basford, Nottinghamshire but his wife was a local woman.
As a child, Phoebe lived at 92 Oxford Street, Wednesbury.
By 1911 the family had moved to The Pleck in Walsall and was living at 148 West Bromwich Road. Aged 13, Phoebe was working as an artificial teeth maker, like her older sister Florence (17). Her father was now an agent for sewing machines, two other children were working in the leather trade, plus there were three younger children still at school.
William and Phoebe’s first child, Joan Isabel, was born on 14th April 1921. William may well have missed her birth, as he had been re-called to the colours on 12th and posted to Newcastle Upon Tyne on standby during a period of serious industrial unrest.
The census of June 1921 showed William (24) living with his new wife Phoebe (24) and baby daughter Joan at 151 Prince Street with his brother Harry (18) and a boarder named Richard Manford (69, widower).
William was working as a Plate Layer for London & North West Railway at Bescot, Harry was a Fancy Leathert Worker with Winsor & Plant on Glebe Street, Walsall and Richard Manford was working as a Gardener for a Mr. E. J. Shaw who lived on Wednesbury Road, Walsall.
This seaside photo, taken in 1922, shows (left to right) William holding his daughter Joan (1), his wife Phoebe, his sister Dora and her husband Howard holding his daughter Betty (1).
Phoebe’s second child Stanley William (my father) was born on 23rd February 1927.
This photo, most likely taken in The Pleck in Summer 1931 , shows Phoebe and William with their children Joan (10) and Stanley (4) on the left and their nephews and nieces (Dora and Howard’s children) Betty (10), Geoff (7) and the twins Joyce and Malcolm (3) on the right.
Their third child Dennis Marshall was born on 1st January 1932, so the 1939 register shows William and Phoebe still living at 151 Prince Street, Pleck, Walsall with their three children Joan (18), Stanley (12) and Dennis (7).
William was working as a Sub Ganger, Railway Engineering and Maintenance.
William died on 24th January 1963 of chronic bronchitis. He was buried in Ryecroft Cemetery, where his father was buried.
Phoebe continued to live at the family home for a short while after his death before going to live with her daughter Joan. She died at Walsall, on 22nd January 1984, aged 86.
Dennis died in 2001, Joan in 2011 and Stanley in 2015.
Acknowledgements:
- Census and Register extracts – Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk)
- Birth & Death Certificates – General Register Office (www.gro.gov.uk)
- Army Service Record – Historical Disclosures, Army Personnel Centre, Glasgow
- Medal index card – National Archives
- War Diaries of the following units, Royal Field Artillery – National Archives
- 8th Divisional Ammunition Column
- 33rd Brigade
- 19th Divisional Ammunition Column
- 86th Brigade
- Advice and assistance on Army Service Record – various members of The Great War (1914-1918) Forum (www.greatwarforum.org) in particular David Porter, Graeme Clarke, Max D, ‘sadbrewer’, ‘tullybrone’, ‘wmfinch’, ‘awjdthumper’, Craig (Admin) and Charlie (‘charlie962’)
- Photographs – family’s own