The Life of a Northern Cyclist – James Willie Wood (1892 – 1972)

James was born in County Durham, but brought up in Northumberland. At the age of three, he was with his mother at Red House Farm, Monkseaton and by age seven, he was living with his grandparents in Ashington where he attended the Hirst North Boys School until leaving at twelve years of age. His first job was as a lather boy at a local barber shop and at age fourteen he was working at Woodhorn Colliery, Ashington.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABy December 1914, James had enlisted and was placed in the Northern Cyclists 2/1st Battalion, ‘C’ Company, commanding officer Captain Alister Hardy. The Cyclists Battalions were primarily a Home Defence Unit and also provided trained men for the regular Army – usually the infantry.

‘C’ Company was billeted in Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, for training and for coastal defence both south and north of the Castle. Christmas Day, 1915, saw the Norwegian barque Lovespring floundering off shore with the crew being rescued by the steamer Copsewood and as the Lovespring broke up, some of the cargo was salvaged by C Company.

Early 1916 saw ‘C’ Company being relocated to Chapel St. Leonards, near Skegness, Lincolnshire, where once again, they were used for coastal defence, building trenches and outposts in readiness for a possible invasion. It was here that James met his future wife, Mahala Hunter

Somerset Light Infantry cap badgeIt wasn’t long before James found himself being transferred into the regular Army; he was placed in the Somerset Light Infantry and was shipped to the Western Front. Like many infantrymen, he was wounded and was returned to England for recuperation. When declared fit, he returned to France as a Corporal where for a short time he was a guard at a POW camp.

Mid 1917 found James back in England where he was placed in the Labour Corps – a common practice for soldiers who were deemed to be unfit for service at the front line. It is thought that James never fully recovered from the wounds he suffered in 1916. James was stationed in Seven Oaks, Kent and in November 1917 he was allowed to return to Mahala’s home village where they married in the local church. After a very short time together, James returned to his unit in Seven Oaks and remained there until the end of the war.

After demob, James returned to Mahala in Lincolnshire and then in late 1919, he brought his wife and his two young daughters back to Northumberland where they lived in Hollymount Cottages, Bedlington with James working at a local colliery. Circa 1923 found the family moving across to Ashington and to a newly built house in Garden City Villas with James working at Woodhorn Colliery where he worked until retiring at age 65.

Every year in late October / early November, James’s old commanding officer, Captain Alister Hardy, (now a Professor in Marine Biology and later to be knighted in 1957) hosted a reunion dinner for surviving members of ‘C’ Company. James attended each and every year with his final attendance being in 1971.

James passed away at his home in Garden City Villas in December of 1972, having been survived by his wife, Mahala who later died in 1977.

James Wood with C Co. of Northern Cyclists

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Allan Robinson in supplying this article for the Northumberland At War Project.

Christmas in Stannington Sanatorium

 Many of the children in Stannington Sanatorium were patients there for many years and would have spent several Christmases in the sanatorium away from their families.  However, by all accounts great efforts were made by the staff and the local people to ensure that the children had an enjoyable time and didn’t miss out on the Christmas spirit.  A report from the Morpeth Herald and Reporter of 1916 recounts the occasion as such:

A most enjoyable time was spent by the children at Stannington Sanatorium during the festive season.  The rooms were gaily decorated for the occasion.  On Christmas morning each child had his or her stocking well filled with toys and other suitable gifts.  Special fare was provided.

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We find similar accounts of Christmas in Stannington year after year throughout its operation.  In1931 one of the children even described Christmas in her own words in the Sanatorium’s in-house children’s magazine. (see below)  The magazine was created by the children themselves and contains many accounts of life in Stannington as well as some of the children’s own stories and poems.   

 

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Merry Christmas!

xmas tree

The Opening of Stannington : the First Children’s TB Sanatorium

This week we have another guest post kindly provided by Dr Hazel Jones-Lee on behalf of Children North East detailing the establishment of the Sanatorium by the Poor Children’s Holdiay Association, the predecessor to Children North East:

 

The opening to patients on 15 March 1908 of the first Children’s Sanatorium in Great Britain at Stannington, Northumberland, was the culmination of a lengthy and tireless process by the Poor Children’s Holiday Association to improve the health and wellbeing of poor children by taking them out of the fetid air of the slums of Newcastle to the fresh air of the seaside or countryside.

 

Against a background of a national Fresh Air Movement, the PCHA’s founders, J.H.Watson & J.T.Lunn, began work in 1891, by taking 120 poor children for a day at the seaside in Tynemouth. Supported by the generosity of local people, this modest scheme expanded rapidly in 1894 to include country holidays of two-three weeks for those sickly or weak children who needed a longer period of fresh country air. By 1901, 8796 children a year went on day trips and 214 on country holidays: even so, it was soon clear that more was needed.

 

At least as early as 1903, the charity’s honorary physician, Dr.T.M.Allison, was calling for separate treatment to be available for the many consumptive children in the region, whose condition might be improved significantly by a prolonged stay in the country with “food and fresh air, shelter and sunshine’ , but who could not be sent into the country homes where they might infect others.

 

Accordingly, a small sub-committee of the PCHA was set up in 1903, and having established that there was no conflict with the focus of the existing County of Northumberland Sanatorium Committee chaired by Lord Armstrong, produced a plan at the AGM of 1904 proposing an interdependent three-part scheme: a farm on which to train rescued street boys who were not suited to city life; a Boys’ Convalescent home and finally a Children’s Sanatorium.

 

White House Farm at Stannington, with 173 acres, had already been found by the time the formal appeal for the £11,000 needed to fund the scheme was launched on 28 April 1905.  Thanks to the CNE 1generosity of one of the Charity’s supporters, Mr. Roland Philipson, £5000 was promised to add to the £3500 already available from the Trust Fund of another supporter, the late Mr.Robert Scott. These gifts, together with further donations or low interest loans, meant that the plans could go ahead. (Their magnitude is apparent if we compare the ‘pleasant surprise’ at the donation of £500 to a rival southern scheme felt by Rev. Edward Bedford of Great Ormond Street, writing to Dr. Allison on October 6, 1905 )

 

The tenant farmer, Mr. Atkins was retained as farm manager to train young boys in farm work to produce the high quality food and milk needed for the future Sanatorium and by the autumn, 6 boys were already at work, with a further 14 to follow.

 

The design of the Sanatorium was heavily influenced by Dr. Allison, who insisted on the inclusion of many French windows topped with fanlight arches to let in as much light as possible (see photograph below) and on occasion the architect, W.T. Spence, was asked to modify his design to suit. Finally, on October 5, 1907, the building was opened by the Duke of Northumberland and the first of the 50 patients admitted on March 15 1908.

 

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There is an early example of the effectiveness of the simple regime of ‘food and fresh air, shelter and sunshine’ on the patient to the left of the photograph (left), taken in 1908. ‘M__J__S came to us from a Workhouse. She was in the last stages of consumption, having a cavity in both lungs, and was terribly wasted and thin. In a month’s time she put on 6 1/2 lbs. weight…her cough has now almost gone, all spitting has ceased, and we are hoping that instead of an early death there is a long and useful life before her.’ 

 

Between March 15 and October 31, there were 52 patients, of whom 10 left with the disease ‘arrested’, 2 very much improved, 3 went home to die and 37 remained under treatment. Given that there was no attempt to select only the ones most likely to thrive, this was a remarkable achievement. More was to follow.