James Finch (1831-1900) and his adventurous son Jacob

James Finch (1831-1900) and Mary Wicks (1831-1881).
My 2nd great grand-uncle and aunt.

James Finch was baptised on 13 November 1831 at St Mary’s Church in Reigate, Surrey, one of the sons of Henry Finch and Jane Bashford.

After growing up in the town with his siblings, he following his father in working as an agricultural labourer. He married Mary Wicks on 19 December 1853 at St Mary’s in Reigate. She’d been baptised on 22 August 1830 in Reigate, the daughter of labourer John Wicks and his wife Sarah.

James and Mary would have at least four children – Emily, Thomas, Edward and Jacob – and they lived in Earlswood for a while before moving to King’s Alley in Reigate. Mary died in 1881 and was buried at St John’s Church in Redhill on 12 January, leaving James and his son Edward living together in King’s Alley. Ten years later, James was a lodger with the Fuller family at Sandhole, Penshurst. He was described as a widower and agricultural labourer but he was clearly some distance from home so he’d either moved for work or to live with someone he knew. By 1900 he was back in Reigate as his death was registered there late in the year.

The record says he was at Reigate Union Workhouse at the time he died. He was buried at St Mary’s Church in Reigate on 12 December. Workhouses had a poor reputation in the 19th century, and were invariably the last resort for the working poor. But by the time of James’ death, they were more a refuge for the elderly and sick.

James and Mary’s children:

• Emily Finch (1855-1920) was baptised in Reigate and married labourer and bricklayer Charles William Mitchell in the town in 1876. They raised a family in the area. Emily died in 1920.
• Thomas Finch (1856-????) was baptised in Reigate but I have no confirmed details for him after the 1871 census.
• Jacob John Finch (1864-1945) – see below.
• Edward Finch (1872-1945) was born in 1872. In 1891 he signed up for military service and was in the East Surrey Regiment before being invalided out after six years. He married Sarah Annie Seagrave in Reigate in May 1901, raised a family in the town and worked as a builder’s labourer. Sarah died in 1942, Edward in 1945.

Jacob John Finch – soldier and cricketer

James Finch’s son Jacob John Finch was born in Redhill on 13 January 1864 and served in the military. With the regimental number 388, he enlisted in the 2nd Battalion the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment in January 1883 at Guildford (signing with an X). He was described as 5ft 9ins tall with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. He also had a scar over his right eyebrow and an additional four smallpox scars.

In September 1883 he sailed for India and the regiment’s diaries show him as one of 138 rank and file men who arrived in Bombay on HMS Malabar on 24 October. He joined the battalion in Umballa (Ambala) on 6 November. In October 1884 the battalion left Jutogh and Subathu, route marching to Cawnpore, taking up quarters in the British infantry barracks there and relieving the 2nd Battalion the Scottish Rifles. In 1885 the battalion was ordered to Calcutta and to furnish detachments at Dum Dum and Barrackpore, arriving in November. By this point the battalion consisted of over 1,000 officers and men in India.

The battalion was put on active service in August 1886 and prepared for a move to Upper Burma, where the British Army was engaged periodically in a series of wars and skirmishes against armed rebels known as dacoits. All short-service men were told their service was being extended by 12 months as a result. The headquarters of the battalion arrived at Ningyan in Burma on 18 September 1886, with men following along in the coming weeks to form part of the 3rd Brigade Burma Field Force.

On 21 November 1886 a column under the command of Colonel Holt killed the ‘notorious’ dacoit leader Tha Hman during action that involved a continuous 27 hours of marching. Other dacoit leaders were also killed and various camps captured in the following weeks, forcing them to flee to villages in the interior. Over the next few months the battalion fanned out over the country, fighting dacoits, killing leaders and their supporters, ransacking their camps and capturing weaponry. In the summer of 1887 those who’d served during the campaign received a gratuity – privates got 38 rupees.

Over the course of late 1887 and early 1888 various companies and HQ staff were moved out of the Burma region and back to India, relieved by other regiments and loaded with praise from the British Army’s senior officers and Queen Victoria. In March 1888 the battalion was back in Calcutta but then moved to Umballa and other barracks in neighouring districts. In all, two officers and 69 men had died during the Burma campaign. For his efforts, Jacob received the India General Service Medal with Burma Clasp before sailing for home in December 1890.

His service in India was marked with the usual medical problems, and he suffered from bouts of diarrhoea, dyspepsia, ‘debility’ and an unnamed fever that left him hospitalised. He also had two bouts of gonorrhoea in 1886 that saw him in hospital for more than 20 days on both occasions. Back in the UK, Jacob remained with the regiment until January 1895 and the completion of his 12 years of service.

At around this time, there are local newspaper reports in the Surrey Mirror of Jacob playing cricket for several teams in Surrey. As an example, he appeared for Earlswood Asylum (where he was also working as an attendant) in a match against F Nice’s XI. He took 6 wickets for 13 runs as his side won, but he scored a duck as batsman.

In 1895 he married Ellen Dale and by 1901 he was living in Middle Herrington, County Durham, working as a professional cricketer. During his career as a cricketer he was also known as Jake Finch. He played for Reigate Priory, Doxford (1897-1900), Philadelphia (1900-1903) and Wearmouth (1904-1920), where he was also groundsman for many years. He also played for Northumberland (Minor Counties Championship, 1899) and Durham (Minor Counties Championship, 1904-1910). The Sunday Sun (Newcastle) in an obituary published on 25 February 1945 noted that at one point he held the batting record in Durham and Northumberland, with 1,090 runs for 21 innings.

The census in 1911 listed him as a gardener living in Southwick, County Durham, with his wife and children. Jacob and Ellen were living in Sunderland at the time of the 1939 Register, and Jacob was still working – as a curiously named colliery shifter. He died in 1945 at home in Charles Street, Southwick.

Sources: Ancestry.com and Findmypast.com for BMD and census returns, Surrey Family History Centre (Woking), British Newspaper Archive, cricketarchive.com. Jacob’s military record downloaded from National Archives. UK, Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1949. workhouses.org. Cricket Archives.