Mary Ann Finch (1867-1954).
My 2nd great aunt.
Born to Isaac Finch and Phoebe Ann Ward in 1867 in Reigate, Mary Ann Finch was baptised at St Matthew’s Church in Redhill, Surrey, on 19 January 1868. She grew up in the area with her family and in 1881 was living at home but working as a domestic servant. Ten years later she was a dressmaker.
Mary Ann married Thomas Richard Wall, a railway worker at the time, in 1894 and moved to live with him in Dover on the Kent coast. He’d been born in the town on 13 June 1870. They had several children, including Thomas Walter Wall, who was a gunner during the First World War and died in 1916.
The 1901 census showed the family living in Longfield Road and Thomas was working as a railway porter foreman. But 10 years later he’d become a ‘general carrier’, in other words a haulier, and they’d moved to Millais Road.
But disaster struck Thomas’s haulage contracting business, as the Dover Express of 12 January 1934 reported. “A disastrous fire involving the destruction of 4 motor lorries and a private car, as well as rag for paper making, broke out on Tuesday night at the garage and warehouse in Union Road used by Thomas Wall, haulage contractor, of 55 Buckland Avenue, Dover. Fire crews had difficulty tackling the blaze because of drainage work being carried out in Union Road and an earlier damaged water main… Bare electric cables rendered much of the corrugated iron work alive…” The lorries were used in connection with Thomas’s carting contract at Wiggin Teape’s mills at Dover.
Thomas Snr died on 5 March 1941 and the Dover Express of 14 March reported that he had two addresses – 55 Buckland Avenue, Dover, and Hill View, Kingston, near Canterbury. At the time of the 1939 Register Mary Ann was living in one, Thomas in the other. She died on 25 January 1954 and left effects worth more than £4,000.
Thomas and Mary Ann’s oldest son was Thomas Walter Wall, a gunner (regimental number 168982) in the First World War. Born on 21 February 1897 in Dover, he served with the Royal Field Artillery as a signaller. This usually meant being close to frontline troops, providing signals communications back to Company and Battalion HQ. Wired telephones were used where possible but this involved laying landlines, which was a hazardous job owing to enemy shelling. The practice of using flags for signals, common at the start of the war, gradually diminished.
Where it was not possible to lay landlines, many forms of visual signalling were used including flags and systems that made use of light either from daylight (involving sun and mirrors) or lamps at night (Lucas Lamps). Signallers were also used in forward positions to assist the artillery and provide information on their enemy targets. In these positions, often isolated, the signaller became vulnerable to enemy shelling and attack, and many lost their lives.
He died on 23 October 1916 at the Canadian General Hospital in Etaples from wounds he’d suffered on active service and is listed among the dead at Etaples military cemetery in France.
Etaples became the principal depot and transit camp for the British Expeditionary Force in France and also the point to which many wounded soldiers were transported. The nearby six-hectare cemetery is resting place to 11,658 British and Allied soldiers from the conflict.
For many years the Wall family put a notice in the Dover Express on the anniversary of Thomas’ death: “In fond remembrance of our dearly loved son and brother, Thomas Walter Wall, R.F.A. (Signaller), 190th Brigade Headquarters Staff, who died from wounds received in action October 23, 1916. Interred at Etaples Cemetery. Peace, perfect peace. From his ever loving Mum, Dad, Sisters and Brother.”
Sources: Ancestry.com and Findmypast.com for census and BMD returns, Surrey Family History Centre (Woking), British Newspaper Archive, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, online sources for military information.