Tom and Hannah visit

Tom and Hannah were at home this weekend. They called in on Saturday on their way back from a short break in the Peak District. Sounded like a nice break - they watched Manchester United in the European Cup on Tuesday and then to Derbyshire on Wednesday for three nights.

They got to us around lunchtime and we were in time for a walk with the dogs during the afternoon.

Tom and I took them across the fields to Knarr Fen Road. I've been keen to give Gravel some time off his lead and so I let him off quite early. He didn't stray too far, but as we got a field away from the road (and just as I was going to get them on the lead) he caught a couple of scents and wouldn't come back.

He didn't run far, but was deaf to all calls, which is always cause for concern. I would have waited for him, but Tom wanted to turn back in the hope that he'd follow us, which we did and he did. I was tempted to give him a bit longer off the leash, but thought I'd nab him while I could, so he walked back on his extending lead.

We made it a longer walk by heading across the fields to Toneham and back down the avenue.

Holly, in contrast to Gravel, is a model of good behaviour. She doesn't venture as far and generally comes back first call. I wish Gravel was the same, it would allow us to exercise him much more easily and make walking more pleasant.

Back home, Margaret had 'run them a bath'. There was a bucket of soapy water and two watering cans for the rinse cycle. I have to say that once they were dry, they were lovely and clean.

After dog walking-and-washing duties, it was getting dark, so we retired to the Rose and Crown for beer. Steve had Young's Gold on and it was in good condition - went down very well.

We were back home for 6pm and because I'd done dinner earlier, we only needed rice and a naan putting on.

I'm trying a few vegetarian dishes that we can all eat and so on Saturday night I did Tikka Masala with Quorn pieces instead of chicken and on Sunday I made Margaret and I baked risotto with Quorn. Margaret has found some Knorr stock cubes that are like a tick gel rather than dry like an Oxo cube and the vegetable stock was really nice.

That's two meals I can easily make over Christmas.

On Sunday, I spent some time taking Tom through the family tree I've been building on Ancestry.co.uk. He had suggested that we photograph some old photos and documents instead of scanning them, so we spent some time with tripod and camera looking for good light.

I added more old pictures to Flickr and Ancestry later in the day. I tried a bit of gardening during the afternoon, but couldn't generate any enthusiam. There was a really cold wind and I seemed to be in a bit of a nesh mood.

In the end we finished off a bit of Christmas shopping. We've done a lot online this year, but got Tom's last present from the shop. 


Margaret has given all three boys a Christmas tree ornament every year since they were born. They've always sat on our tree. Two years ago Sam got his for his own tree (and so had his decorations given to him) and this weekend, Tom's were packed up so he and Hannah could have them on their tree (first time they've had one).

As a consequence, our tree will be a little bare this year, although Margaret is planning to varnish and decorate some gourds that we grew this summer. I think they'll look quite nice.

Down in London all week. I'm staying over at Sam's on Wednesday (not seen him and Lucy for a while) and the week is being rounded off with a Kate Rusby concert at the Barbican on Friday. Looking forward to that.

A cold morning

On the train, it's 7.30am and there's a spectacular sunrise over Sandy, Beds.

Fields are tinged with frost and this morning I had to scrape ice off the car windscreen for the first time this winter.

In my garden, it may have polished off the geraniums and also the lobelia, which has been massively prolific this year and is still in flower in a few pots. It also self-seeded all over the place from pots and hanging baskets, so I've had plants appearing in odd places where the seed has blown.

The new bottom border has a carpet of seedlings from two troughs of lobelia and begonias we had planted up this summer. I'm guessing last night's frost will have burnt or killed them. If it hasn't then it won't be long before another one does. 


In the office in Victoria now and it's very cold and foggy in central London. From our window, I can barely see Westminster Cathedral just a couple of hundred yards away.

The day's musings

November 15th 2011


Margaret is busy Christmas shopping. A lot of it has been done on line. In fact I think that so far it's all been done on line, which isn't good news for the high street.

We're trying to buy British and have found some nice quirky things. I'm not sure what I'd like for Christmas. I know I have some Norfolk whisky coming; I'm actually OK for books this year (I have about five unread). I may need a new cagoule as mine seems to have gone missing, a head torch (just because I want one) and a sleeveless pullover - just in case Santa Claus reads my blog.

Margaret managed to walk the dogs up the avenue and back today, but says her foot was very sore by the end. She also has a sore throat.

It's been a nice day today, clear and sunny. Went out to Caledonian Road to see a potential new customer who was based in an old bus workshop. It was the place where the first London omnibus was designed and built (actually the first purpose-built double decker bus in the world. It had an open cab and open top deck and, during the First World War lots of them were used as troop carriers, ferrying men to the front lines in France. The building is now serviced offices for start-ups - quite a difference.

Off to Cambridge tomorrow night to watch Bellowhead, a folk rock band, with Margaret, Janet and Andrew. It's a bit of a pain actually because I'll have to go straight from work and meet them there. No problem with that, but I am in Howden on Thursday, so will have to bring my laptop back with me and turn up to a folk gig wearing a suit. Not really the done thing!

Iron Age fort in the Fens

Our little walking group got started again yesterday. Karen planned the first one and took a route out into the fens from Wimblington. 

It was pretty standard fen country very flat, but the highlight was an Iron Age fort called Stonea Camp, which I had no idea was there.

It was built in about 500BC when all the land around would have been marsh and Stonea (like Thorney and Ely and lots of other places ending in ee - ea or ey - which is Viking for island) would have stood as dry land being very marginally higher. It's actually a shingle bank and about 2m above the surrounding land.

It's a large D-shaped enclosure with ditch and bank and would have been quite an undertaking to construct. It was occupied later by the Iceni and a battle was fought there in AD57 when it was taken by the Romans and everyone slaughtered. Digs have found skeletons of people (including children) with damage to bones where they've been hacked with swords. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonea_Camp

We didn't have long there as we'd set off quite late and it was getting dark. I'd quite like to go back and have a good look around. Perhaps a walk for Christmas or new year?

Besides Karen, there were the Coakleys, Crosslands and Harveys so eight of us and two dogs - Gravel and Holly. We could be as many as 15 if we all turned up.

Margaret didn't go on Sunday as she has been suffering from a sore heel and Achilles tendon and couldn't have made the course. She got some health advice later in the evening. We all had supper at the Coakleys and Karen brought her a book about pressure points. Apparently Karen had suffered a similar ailment and had cured it through massage of pain spots. I think it might be worth a try.

Really warm weekend. It was 15.5 deg C on Sunday, warm, little wind and not a cloud in the sky.

Next walk is in two weeks and is being led by David and Anne. I guess it will be in Rutland. Hope Margaret might be able to make that, although not hopeful.

Here's a picture of the site

Poppies for Remembrance Day

It was Remembrance Day today; two minutes silence to remember the dead starting at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when the armistice was signed at the end of the First World War in 1918 (not 1911). Of course, it's now the dead of all wars that we remember, with a growing number from our ridiculous involvement in Afghanistan. 

When I was a boy, it was a huge thing. Many of those who fought in the First World War were still alive and the Second World War was still very fresh in the memory. The generation above me had lived through it.

There was a parade and ceremony at the war memorial in Works Lane and lots of men with lots of medals. One of the most prominent in the whole thing was Helen Woodward’s dad, nicknamed Smokey Woodward because he was a fireman at ICI. Ironically, he’d never been in the war due to his reserved occupation.

My dad never wore his medals and my mum (who was in the WRNS) had never claimed hers. Her brother Dick had done the same. He told me that he didn't want them - they were quite unconventional I guess. I still have dad's medals in the box in which they were posted to him. I'm not sure he's even looked at them more than once. Uncle Don said I should apply for a Palestine Medal as dad had served there after the war, but he’d never been bothered to and I didn’t really want to.

Mum and dad never went to the ceremony but would wear a poppy. In those days, Remembrance Day seemed more reflective, more sorrowful. Even as a child I felt the pain and the loss that my parents' and grandparents' generation were feeling.

A collection was made and it was for the British Legion, I don't remember calling it the Royal British Legion until I became a reporter and had to write about the organisation. Then they'd complain if we missed the 'Royal' out. The money helped wounded soldiers and their families, also war widows and children. And there were wounded soldiers about: old Homas who was a bit mental and had been since 1918, although I think that was partly due to drink, and Peter Roberts' grandad Joe Corker who fought in Mesopotamia, where it was so hot you couldn't hold your rifle unless it was wrapped in a rag and where an exploding shell had blinded him. I never saw him move out of his chair in their front room.

Nowadays, the horrors of the First World War have passed into popular legend. It's an icon for the horrors of war - the mud, the barbed wire, the trenches, the poison gas, men struggling through no-man's land easy targets for the German machine guns, poems by Owen and Sassoon. But was it so much more horrible than Coventry, Dresden, Belsen, Hiroshima?

It's become almost a cliché and Remembrance Day is now quite different in feeling to how it was. We report the sums raised as if it's the school fete, other service charities such as Help for Heroes muscle in on the available popular sympathy/donations. Few people wear poppies and often it's no longer the simple poppy that used to be paper, wax and wire, made by disabled soldiers. Now it's a plastic stem and pop-on stamen, possibly made in China like everything else. Even the simplicity of the poppy has gone. They all now have a little leaf (although I pull mine off - I'm a purist) and you can buy enamel lapel badges (I've seen a lot of those), poppy rings and large, lifelike oriental style poppies, which Davina at work was wearing today.

On TV, everyone has to have a poppy, but there's an unwelcome trend (in my opinion) for presenters and entertainers to wear glittery poppies and poppies sewn into dresses. What are they thinking about? A poppy is sad, a poignant symbol of lost lives, the flowers of a generation cut down, but frail and brave growing again among the mud on the battlefields, a sign of hope and regeneration.

Woes of a commuter

Good heavens, what a day. I'm on the usual 6.10 out of King's Cross to Peterborough and it's been a miserable day transport-wise.

As I write this I'm jammed into a table seat near the window surrounded by three of the fattest blokes you've seen. The bloke opposite is a ginger with short hair and beard. He's wearing a T-shirt that says 'Natural Born Lover' but he clearly isn't. He's taken up the whole table with his laptop, iPhone and iPod (why would you need both) plus glasses case and I'm fighting a losing battle for my fair share of foot space. He's watching some kind if film and is firmly in his bubble.

Chap next to me has a belly busting of of his shirt, a beard and he's so fat he can't put his legs together. He's sitting with them splayed out and his belly is so big he doesn't know what to do with his arms. There's no room at his side and if he folds them they sit on the top of his distended gut like a hospital bed tray. He's also wheezing like an asthmatic, which is probably because he is.

Chap diagonally opposite is not in my space, but he is very big. Legs stretched out with a laptop on his lap!

I was hoping they would all get off at Hitchin but they're still on at St Neots!

God I need a couple of pints. Wish Max was home, so I could go to the pub.

Tubes have been dreadful today. Signal problems on the Victoria Line and something wrong with the Jubilee Line as well. My train this morning was a horror. Couldn't get on one - platform and train were too packed - and the one I managed to squeeze on was rammed. It took half an hour for a journey that normally takes 10 mins. At every station those stupid Victoria Line doors kept giving error messages (not shut properly) so the train can't pull away. Since the new trains were introduced it has been a nightmare. If someone brushes the door as it's closing, the train can't start and the doors have to be opened and closed again. The train was so packed this morning that we had to open and close about five times at Oxford Circus.


At Green Park, some chap pushed his way on at the last minute, pushed another chap to make room and he crashed into someone else, starting a grumpy argument about rudeness. The bloke who started it all took the "I'm just an honest bloke trying to get into work" moral high ground, but then kept stirring it all up by saying (about five times) that people with bad attitude just made it worse for everyone.


I thought it would be better coming home, but it was almost as bad. Platform was packed, train was packed and everyone was thoroughly grumpy.


Anderson Morgan who comes in from Greenford each day had had an argument with a bus driver who didn't pull into the bay, shut the doors in his face and then refused to open them even though he was banging on the door. Because the bus was stuck in traffic, he walked down to the next bus stop and got on there. He asked her (the driver) why she didn't let him on and she said she was on the road. Anderson said she was, but wasn't moving, hadn't moved and should have pulled into the bay. She said he should write and complain if he wasn't happy. Anderson took the "I'm just an honest bloke trying to get into work" moral high ground, then said she was stupid. Davina and I both thought he'd overstepped the mark. He was winning until that own goal.


Think I might walk tomorrow.

Reply to:

Family History - the medals

Had a real panic on Sunday. We had the house upside down trying to find Granddad Little's war medals. Turned out they were in a chest previously checked by Margaret, but ho-hum, just relieved to know where they were. The three medals awarded to my grandfather Richard Gibson Little are the 1914-15 Star; the British War Medal 1914-18 and the Allied Victory Medal.

I've included some information about the medals below.

The medals are all inscribed: 15891 Pte R G Little, York. & Lanc. R.

I presume the number is his service number and would suggest that the citation for the DCM (mentioned in the previous post) was a different R Little (different number and different regiment) - the York and Lancaster Regiment for my granddad as opposed to the West Riding Regiment.

The fact that he has the 1914-15 Star, as opposed to the 1914 Star would suggest that he wasn't involved in the very earliest battles of the war, in particular the First Battle of Mons. I think that bit of misinformation came from Uncle Don who was a career soldier. I showed him the medals to see if he knew which ribbon went with which medal. He didn’t, but he told me that it was a Mons Star which meant he’d fought in the first Battle of Mons. In fact, there’s a very slight difference in the 1914 Star and the 1914-15 Star (which is explained below). It’s useful to have the internet to find out information like that. I was able to see which ribbon went with which in a flash.

I was also able to find out some information on the York and Lancaster regiment. The restricted recruiting area for the regiment (described below) suggests that Richard was in South Yorkshire when he joined up. We were always led to believe that he was in the army when the First World War was declared, so he must have moved across from Penrith (not that far really) before the war and been working in South Yorkshire.

I’ll have to look into his war record, but he could well have been in the Second Battalion, which was in Ireland when war was declared and shipped over to France in September 1914. It arrived in time to help stem the German breakthrough and stabilise the line of trenches which became the Western Front. It wasn’t a great regiment to join with almost 9,000 killed from 57,000 men. That’s a 16 per cent chance of being killed. The actual rate of attrition for those in France would have been much higher because half the regiment was serving in other, less dangerous theatres. I've attached a small note (below) from Wikipedia on the York and Lancaster Regiment and also some notes on the medals.

There is still a mystery over the ‘Gibson’. At some stage Richard Little became Richard Gibson Little. He’s described as R G Little on his war medals. The story was that he was married before his marriage to Nelly (my grandmother), but the family didn’t approve, his wife died and, heartbroken, he adopted her name and joined the army.

He was married before, but to Annie Braithwaite and in 1917, when he’d already been in the army for at least three years. She died in 1919. Perhaps the Gibson story has some truth in it, but perhaps there was no marriage, just a love affair. Richard clearly wasn’t rich or skilled (and was also possibly illegitimate), so he might not have been a great catch from a father's point of view. Richard was born in 1888 and so would have been 24 when war broke out – plenty old enough to have had a 'past'.

I guess we’ll never know the truth, but I think there’s some root for the stories there.

History of the York and Lancaster Regiment

It was formed in 1881 through the amalgamation of two other regiments:

                65th (2nd Yorkshire North Riding) Regiment

                84th (York and Lancaster) Regiment

The title of the regiment was derived not from the cities of York and Lancaster, or from the counties. Instead, the name came from the fact that it recruited from, amongst other places, landed properties owned by the Duchy of York and the Duchy of Lancaster. The regiment's recruiting area was in fact wholly within South Yorkshire (an area known as Hallamshire). Indeed, the regiment's Territorial Army battalion dropped its number and was known simply as The Hallamshire Battalion from 1924.

The new regiment saw service in both Egypt and Sudan immediately after its formation, and also during the Second Boer War, when it took part in the Relief of Ladysmith.

First World War

The regiment raised 22 battalions for service in the First World War, of which eight saw action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. During the war it suffered 48,650 casualties out of 57,000 men serving, with 8,814 killed or died of wounds (72 out of every 100 men being either wounded or killed). The regiment won four Victoria Crosses and 59 battle honours, the largest number for any English regiment during the war.

The 22 battalions consisted of the two regular battalions, the depot battalion, six Territorial Army battalions, nine Service, two Reserve, one Transport and one Labour battalion. 17 of the 22 battalions saw service overseas.

During the Battle of the Somme the Yorks and Lancs' eight battalions that went over the top on the first day suffered huge casualties, the three Pals battalions; 12th (Sheffield City), 13th and 14th Barnsley Pals Battalions, in particular suffering heavily. Eleven battalions of the regiment fought during the Somme campaign.

The regular 1st Battalion returned from service in India to be formed up as part of the 28th Division. The 28th Division consisted of regular battalions returning from overseas service and was shipped to France in January 1915. The 1st Battalion saw action in the Second Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Loos. The battalion was then shipped to the Balkans as part of the British Salonika Army where it would remain until the end of the war.^[2] While the battalion was still in France Private Samuel Harvey won the York and Lancs' first Victoria Cross since the regiment's creation in 1881.

The 2nd Battalion was stationed in Ireland with the 16th Brigade when war broke out. The battalion arrived on the Western Front in September 1914 with the 6th Division as part of the original British Expeditionary Force. The 2nd Battalion fought its first battle at Armentières during the Race to the Sea. The 2nd Battalion fought in most of the major battles of the war including the Battle of the Somme and spent the entire war serving in France and Flanders. Private John Caffrey, 2nd battalion, won the Victoria Cross in 1915.

These are the three medals awarded to Richard Little:

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred are the affectionate names given to the three WW1 campaign medals — The 1914 Star or 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal respectively. These medals were primarily awarded to the Old Contemptibles ( B.E.F. ). and by convention all three medals are worn together and in the same order from left to right when viewed from the front. The set of three medals or at least the British War Medal and the Victory Medal are the most likely medals to be found among family heirlooms.

When the WW1 medals were issued in the 1920's it coincided with a popular comic strip published by the Daily Mirror newspaper. It was written by Bertram J. Lamb (Uncle Dick), and drawn by the cartoonist Austin Bowen Payne (A.B. Payne). Pip was the dog, Squeak the penguin and Wilfred the young rabbit. It is believed that A. B. Payne's batman during the war had been nicknamed “Pip-squeak” and this is where the idea for the names of the dog and penguin came from. For some reason the three names of the characters became associated with the three campaign medals being issued at that time to many thousands of returning servicemen, and they stuck.

Mutt and Jeff”

The two British campaign medals commonly found as family heirlooms nicknamed Mutt and Jeff: the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

In a similar vein when only the British War Medal and Victory Medal are on display together they are sometimes known as “Mutt and Jeff”.

The 1914 Star

Established in April 1917.

Also known as 'Pip' or the 'Mons Star'.

This bronze medal award was authorized by King George V in April 1917 for those who had served in France or Belgium between 5^th August 1914 to midnight on 22^nd November 1914 inclusive. The award was open to officers and men of the British and Indian Expeditionary Forces, doctors and nurses as well as Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Navy Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve who served ashore with the Royal Naval Division in France or Belgium.

A narrow horizontal bronze clasp sewn onto the ribbon, bearing the dates '5th AUG. - 22nd NOV. 1914' shows that the recipient had actually served under fire of the enemy during that period. For every seven medals issued without a clasp there were approximately five issued with the clasp.

Recipients who received the medal with the clasp were also entitled to attach a small silver heraldic rose to the ribbon when just the ribbon was being worn.

The reverse is plain with the recipient's service number, rank, name and unit impressed on it.

It should be remembered that recipients of this medal were responsible for assisting the French to hold back the German army while new recruits could be trained and equipped. Collectively, they fully deserve a great deal of honour for their part in the first sixteen weeks of the Great War. This included the battle of Mons, the retreat to the Seine, the battles of Le Cateau, the Marne, the Aisne and the first battle of Ypres. There were approximately 378,000 1914 Stars issued.

The 1914-15 Star (this is what my granddad has)

Established in December 1918.

Also known as 'Pip'.

This bronze medal was authorized in 1918. It is very similar to the 1914 Star but it was issued to a much wider range of recipients. Broadly speaking it was awarded to all who served in any theatre of war against Germany between 5^th August 1914 and 31^st December 1915, except those eligible for the 1914 Star. Similarly, those who received the Africa General Service Medal or the Sudan 1910 Medal were not eligible for the award.

Like the 1914 Star, the 1914-15 Star was not awarded alone. The recipient had to have received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The reverse is plain with the recipient's service number, rank, name and unit impressed on it.

An estimated 2.4 million of these medals were issued.

The British War Medal, 1914-18 (also this)

Established on 26^th July 1919.

Also known as 'Squeak'.

The silver or bronze medal was awarded to officers and men of the British and Imperial Forces who either entered a theatre of war or entered service overseas between 5^th August 1914 and 11^thNovember 1918 inclusive. This was later extended to services in Russia, Siberia and some other areas in 1919 and 1920.

Approximately 6.5 million British War Medals were issued. Approximately 6.4 million of these were the silver versions of this medal. Around 110,000 of a bronze version were issued mainly to Chinese, Maltese and Indian Labour Corps. The front of the medal depicts the head of George V.

The recipient's service number, rank, name and unit was impressed on the rim.

The Allied Victory Medal (and this)

Also known as 'Wilfred'

It was decided that each of the allies should each issue their own bronze victory medal with a similar design, similar equivalent wording and identical ribbon.

The British medal was designed by W. McMillan. The front depicts a winged classical figure representing victory.

Approximately 5.7 million victory medals were issued. Interestingly, eligibility for this medal was more restrictive and not everyone who received the British War Medal ('Squeak') also received the Victory Medal ('Wilfred'). However, in general, all recipients of 'Wilfred' also received 'Squeak' and all recipients of 'Pip' also received both 'Squeak' and 'Wilfred'.

Family history mysteries

Mike Towers, husband of my cousin Jennifer (she’s the daughter of my mum’s younger brother Dick), has been doing some family history research. He mailed me some time back to say that he’s been looking into my grandfather (mum’s dad) Richard Gibson Little.

The story was always that he had been born in Cumberland (now Cumbria) and had ginger hair (which was where my and my sister’s hair colour had come from). I was told he was born Richard Little, but had married first, above his status, and his wife’s family (wealthy shop-owners in Carlisle) had disowned her. She had died and Richard, presumably heartbroken, had taken her maiden name (Gibson) as his middle name and had joined the army.

I know that he had fought in the First World War and was in the army when the war broke out. He was therefore an Old Contemptible and had also fought in the first battle of Mons, when the German army invaded Belgium and tried to break through to Paris. They were stopped at the Mons canal by British riflemen, who had kept up such a fierce rate of fire that the Germans thought they were facing machine guns. But the British were outflanked (when those dodgy Frenchies gave way) and the army faced a difficult retreat into France and the Western Front was formed.

I have three medals from the war, including a Mons Star, awarded to those who fought in the first battle of Mons, so that much is probably true; also a fearsome bayonet from later in the war.

After the war, Richard Little settled in Yorkshire and married (secondly) to my grandmother Nelly and had six children – Jack, Nellie (my mother), Dick, Joyce, Jessie and Margaret. He worked as a cowman in Adwick-le-Street, just off the A1 north of Doncaster. His wasn’t a charmed life; his wife had suffered a stroke and was partly paralysed and I think she had a second, fatal stroke soon after the birth of Margaret. Jack was adopted by family, but the rest of the family, including the baby, were put into an orphanage in Doncaster, called Stanley House. My grandfather lived alone in a tied cottage in Adwick and probably didn’t look after himself too well. He died from pneumonia just before my mother’s 14^th birthday.

Now Mike has been doing some proper research, which, of course, has debunked some of the family myths. Richard was born in Cumberland, possibly illegitimate and was not brought up by his birth parents. He did have a marriage before marrying my grandmother, but the Gibson link and the disowned daughter don’t tally. Mike reached something of a block and could find out nothing more. It is possible Richard Little has a relationship before his first marriage.

He has now contacted me to ask about the medals and I’ve said I will photograph them carefully to see if I can capture all the detail. Mike has also found a record from the West Riding Regiment for an R Little, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal at Ypres. That may, or may not, be my grandfather; there certainly isn’t a DCM among the three medals I have.

I hope to get stuck into family history proper when I retire, but Mike’s work is shedding some light on the past. I’ve included his findings and the words of the DCM citation below.

Interesting the comment about Gibson and shops (grocers have cropped up before) but Jacqueline says the Uncle Jack always talked about the Gibson’s being cobblers and a low grade family with whom the Little’s had no truck! 

Still don't know were the Gibson name came from and, having just had a look back at our emails since we started this family tree lark, I couldn’t believe that the first one was 29 Dec 2001. Don’t know how much farther you have got with your tree and I think that your recollections of your Granddad Little are probably based on a family myth about the Gibson's which I have to change as I can trace no connection with a Gibson family. 

That said, I am still struggling to clarify his birth and parent details but this is what I have got at present.

Richard Gibson Little

Born 9 April 1888 – only registered birth is as Richard Little in Penrith and not Richard Gibson Little. Birth certificate shows mother as Margaret Little nee Lowis, Charwoman of Ainstable, Penrith.  No father’s details appear on the certificate and father thought to be a Joseph but cannot trace a marriage to Joseph (see below).   There are a number of Margaret Lowis that I’m trying to pin down.

His mother is said to have died when Richard was 4/5 years old i.e. 1892/3 and then fostered by a maiden aunt but census return of 1891 suggest different as already being fostered at age 3.

First Marriage - shown as Richard Gibson Little

This was to an Annie Elizabeth Braithwaite born Q1/1894 Penrith who was confirmed 12 May 1910 at C of E Ousby, Penrith – Aunt Margaret has her confirmation book endorsed by the vicar.

Married 20 Sep 1917 – Ousby, Penrith. Died 19 Nov 1919 in or from child birth or "Parturition, Post Partum haemorrhage and Exhaustion from Septicaemia"

At marriage no father’s name shown for Richard on certificate. Annie came from a family of farmers, John Cheesborough Braithwaite of Ousby, Penrith with 30 acres. This is confirmed to me by other Genes Reunited members and census records.

Second Marriage shown as Richard Gibson Little

To Nelly Beatrice Burrows – birth and death records show Nelly but marriage cert. as Nellie

Born 6 April 1894 – Warter, Pocklington

Married 20 Jun 1920 – Adwick-le-Street, Doncaster

Died 23 May 1933 – Doncaster

His Death – 15 Dec 1937 – Doncaster

At marriage a father is shown as Joseph Little, a miller – see below re Barnes

Census Records show him as Richard G Little

1891c - Nurse Child age 2; living with Anthony Sander and family at Cross House, Becks, Ainstable, Armathwaite, Penrith

1901c - living as son age 12 with Joseph Barnes at Ruckcroft, Ainstable, Penrith

1911c - cannot pin him down – there is an entry for a Richard Little in the army but not conclusively him.

Currently I’m working on the maiden aunt fostering him theory as, in 1901, Joseph Barnes was married to a Margaret nee Little who may have been Richard’s sister. The problem is matching this Margaret with a parentage. I have found a family of Little’s with children of Margaret and a Joseph who was much older and who married a different women.  If this is the correct family it may support illegitimacy.

I’m beginning to think that Joseph Barnes, who was a miller, was misquoted as the father on ‘respectability’ grounds on Richard’s marriage to Nellie. I have come across this before in my mother’s tree where children were illegitimate. So is Richard illegitimate and did Margaret Lowis also use Little for respectability – its frustrating to say the least.

The next problem is that if Richard’s father was a Joseph Little then there are dozens in Cumbria and I need to address this as a separate research line but I do not hold out any hope.

Presently, I’m speaking with Doncaster Council to see if they have any archived records for Stanley House Children's home.