Episode Synpopsis
Gregg Wallace lives in Whitstable, Kent with his two children. He was born in London in 1964.
Gregg's mother also lives in Whitstable and he visited her for some information about their family. She said her father was Wilfred Henry Spriggett, born 6 Oct 1907, and that his father, Henry Roland Spriggett, "cleared off", leaving her granny Emily with Wilfred and his younger sister Vera, who was born 26 Aug 1911. Henry was a stoker in the Royal Navy and the family story was that he deserted from the Navy, last seen on a ship leaving from Liverpool for Australia.
Vera had a twin brother Harold who died aged 2 of TB.
The 1911 census entry shows Emily and Wilfred, with Henry Springett's name crossed out. (The twins were born after the date of the 1911 census.)
Gregg's mother also gave him a photo of Emily's mother, and gave Emily's maiden name as Leythorn.
Gregg looked online for Henry Roland Springett's naval records and found them. They showed that he was born 31 Oct 1880 in Bromley, Kent, and was a greengrocer by trade. The records confirmed that he served as a stoker but showed that he did not desert as he served for a long time and received a navy pension.
Gregg visited the Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth to find out more about Henry's naval career. He served in WW1 in the Irish Sea and the North Sea, on a Q ship which was a special navy ship disguised as a merchant ship to act as a decoy for German U-boats (submarines) and armed with concealed weapons.
The records also showed that Henry joined the Canadian Navy for a term of 2 years in 1910 and sailed on the 10th Oct 1910. He then signed up for a further 2 years in 1912.
The twins Vera and Harold were born on the 26th Aug 1911 so it appears that they were not Henry's children.
Gregg used his phone to search the catalogue on the website of TNA (The National Archives) for a divorce and found that Henry filed for a divorce in 1917, naming one Jack Burke as co-respondent. He applied for custody of his son Wilfred but not of Vera. However, the divorce didn't go through as Henry didn't appear in court in 1922 for the hearing.
Gregg was given the death certificate of Henry and Emily's daughter Valerie Springett, who died aged 22 months of shock from burns caused by an accident with a paraffin lamp. Gregg read newspaper reports of the inquest.
He then traced Emily's family back. Emily was born in High Bickington, Devon. She was baptised at the Bible Christian Chapel on the Barnstaple Circuit, a Methodist chapel. Her parents were Eli Leythorn, a farm labourer, and Selina. Gregg was told that the Bible Christians had women preachers and he thought that Selina might have been one of these preachers and that was the reason for the photo.
On the 1871 census, Selina was a gloveress aged 20, her sister was also a gloveress, her father an annuitant and her brother Richard an "imbecile".
Gregg visited an old glove factory in Torrington, Devon, and heard about the history of the glove industry there.
He then looked at the other census entries for Selina and her family:
1861 - Selina was already a gloveress, age 8, the only one in the household who had an occupation listed. Her father George Gill was listed as a pauper invalid.
1881 - Selina was a silk glove maker, married to Eli, a agricultural labourer.
1891 - Selina was still a glove maker, with two children, Emily and Ethel.
1901 - Selina was a lunatic in Devon County Lunatic Asylum at Exminster.
Gregg visited the Devon Record Office in Exeter to look at the lunatic asylum records on Selina. The reception order from 1896 showed that she believed she was destined to go to Hell and that she was always talking about this and disturbing people. She had previously been in the asylum 17-18 years before this, with a similar complaint, and her brother Richard had died at home of convulsions soon before her first admission. She had been discharged in 1879, 3 years after this first admission.
Selina died in the asylum in 1901, age 51.
Gregg visited the old asylum building and was shown a photograph of another woman who had been discharged from another asylum. The photo was similar to the one of Selina so it seems it could be that her photo was also taken when she was discharged from the asylum.
Back to Henry Springett - his death certificate was dated 6 Feb 1946. He died in Slough and the informant was his daughter S R Springett. A researcher told Gregg that this daughter had married and had been living in Slough recently as Rosemary Higginson with her son Geoffrey Higginson. Gregg managed to contact Geoffrey and met him to learn the rest of Henry's story.
Geoffrey's grandmother, another Emily, was a ballet and piano teacher. She and Henry did not marry. They had two England and they were fostered out. The family story was that Henry was a passenger in the car which knocked Emily down, but Gregg visited Larne library and read reports in the local paper, the Larne Times, which showed that he was a witness from 25 yards away. Emily had dashed in front of the car to rescue her young daughter from being knocked down. The newspaper report also stated that Henry had previously been the sole survivor of a drowning accident. Gregg visited the site of the car accident in Glynn.
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