Mary Ann Finch (1867-1954) and Thomas Richard Wall (1870-1941).
My great-grand aunt and uncle.
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, in 1894 and moved to live with him in Dover on the Kent coast. He’d been born in the town to parents Thomas and Caroline Wall on 13 June 1870. He was baptised on 24 July that year at St James’s Church.
Thomas and Mary Ann had several children and the 1901 census showed the family living in Longfield Road, Dover, with Thomas 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 long-term contract at Wiggin Teape’s paper mills at Dover.
Thomas Snr died on 5 March 1941 at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital 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. The company he founded, Thomas R Wall Ltd, continued long after his death.
Mary Ann died on 25 January 1954 and left effects worth more than £4,000.
Thomas and Mary Ann’s children were:
- Agnes Caroline Wall (1895-1983). Born in Dover, Agnes was working as a dressmaker at the 1921 census. She married soldier Charles Thomas Skeats in Dover in 1924. He served with the Royal Artillery for many years, rising to lieutenant. The 1939 Register showed Agnes living in military accommodation at Shoeburyness in Essex, which was known as an experimental weapons testing station. But they later moved to Little Avebury in Wiltshire. Charles died in the hospital in Marlborough, Wiltshire, in 1951. Agnes died on the last day of 1983 while a resident of Royston in Hertfordshire.
- Thomas Walter Wall (1897-1916). Born in Dover, Thomas served with the Royal Field Artillery as a signaller in the First World War. He was killed on active duty. Being a signaller 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. Thomas died on 23 October 1916 at the Canadian General Hospital in Etaples from wounds he’d suffered on active service and was 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.”
- Dorothy Louise Wall (1898-1959). Born in Dover but baptised in Reigate, Dorothy married William Frederick Sharr in Camden, London, in 1921. He was a sailor in the Royal Navy, and had served at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 – the only major battleship clash of the First World War and one that denied Germany control of the North Sea for the rest of the conflict. He continued in service until 1928. The 1939 Register showed Dorothy living with her father in Dover and future electoral roll records showed William alone. Perhaps they’d separated? Dorothy died in Kent in 1959, William in 1984.
- Mary Phoebe Alice Wall (1901-1994). Born in Dover, Mary never married and was living with her father at the time of the 1939 Register. She worked as a clerk for many years. She died in Herne Bay, also in Kent, in 1994.
- Percy William Wall (1908-1963). Born in Dover, Percy married Dorothy Grace Baker in the town in 1931. They had children and Percy worked as a motor engineer. He died in 1963. Dorothy lived until 2005.
Sources: Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk for census, military and BMD returns, Surrey Family History Centre (Woking), British Newspaper Archive (titles in text), Commonwealth War Graves Commission, online sources for military information.