My Bayes Ancestors
The furthest I can go back, for sure, with my Bayes line is at Morton, near Gainsborough, Lincs. in 1809. Other surnames join later on this page, like the variously spelt Watmaughs from North Nottinghamshire and the Bates line from Cambridgeshire.
The pages on this site are best read on a Tablet, Laptop or Desktop. They don't work well on a mobile. I'm afraid I don't have the skills or the nouse to adapt or structure the content to work on a mobile, so for that, I apologise.
The earliest of my Bayes ancestors I know about, as yet, are Thomas and Elizabeth Bayes.
We know that in 1813 they were living at Morton, just North of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, England and had moved to Dunham on Trent, in the North of Nottinghamshire by the 1830's.
Here are their children:
(Note: Richard & Mary are probably kin, but this connection has yet to be properly confirmed).
Richard Bayes:
Born 1806 Whitby, North Yorkshire, died 1843.
He married Caroline and had a son, Richard, baptised in 1830 at Dunham on Trent
Mary Bayes:
Born and baptised on 22 July 1808 in Whitby
Anne Bayes:
Born 1803, at Whitby or at Morton, nr. Gainsborough. In 1831, at Dunham on Trent, she married George Baxter, a schoolteacher, who was born c.1803 in Dunham. I can find no trace of George and Anne after 1841, at that time they were teaching in Dunham. Ann reappeared in 1881, when she was visiting her brother James at Newton. By that time she was a widow. She died in 1891 at Sneinton, a suburb of Nottingham.
James Bayes:
Born in 1813 at Morton, nr. Gainsborough. He died in 1893 in Newton on Trent. In 1836 at Dunham on Trent, he married Frances Watmaugh (b.c.1816 and died NoT 1878).
These folks are my ancestors, more details below.
Charlotte Bayes:
Born 1815, baptised at Gainsborough.
Jane Bayes:
Born 1817 at Morton. In 1840, at Dunham on Trent, she married carpenter, William Hanson and they eventually had nine children. By 1851 they were living in the historic town of Grantham, Lincolnshire, where William was a carpenter, then a Licensed Victualler and by 1871, they ran a pub called the "Sir Isaac Newton" at 14 Wharf Road.
Thomas Bayes:
Born 1820 and died 1821.
As we have seen, Thomas Bayes and Elizabeth, (my Great-great-great-grandparents), were living at Morton, a mile or so North West of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England in 1813. Thomas was then a Farmer.
(As I've mentioned, they may well have been at Whitby in North Yorkshire, before that. The clues are there, but this has yet to be confirmed).
My ancestor James Bayes was born in Morton in 1813 and christened at All Saints Church, Gainsborough in Jan 1814.
In the 1830's they were living at Dunham on Trent, Nottinghamshire, where Thomas was now the Victualler of the Bridge Inn, (pictured above). This late 18thC. public house is listed by English Heritage, as Grade II.
The use of this building has now changed from a public house, to an indian restaraunt.
James Bayes, a sawyer, married Frances Whatmore in St. Oswald's Church, Dunham in 1836.
Another change is that St. Oswold's Church has fallen out of use.
The spelling of the name has many variations. A lot of ordinary folk at this time were illiterate. I'll try to stick to the spelling on the original documents. The name, or a variation of it, was also used a few times, among their descendants, (including my Father), as a given middle name.
Robert Watmaugh was born c.1741. He married Mary Metham (b.c.1737) at Normanton upon Trent on 18 Feb 1762. They were living at Dunham on Trent when their son John Watmaugh was baptised on 31 Aug 1768.
John married Frances Hill (1773-1809) on 8 Jul 1792 at Dunham on Trent. Their second child was Ann Watmaugh, (1794-1863).
Frances Whatmore was born in 1816, the illegitimate daughter of Ann, (Father unknown). She was christened at Fledborough Church, a mile or so South of Dunham, on 2 Jun 1817.
The Watmaughs
This old map, (left), shows Dunham and Newton in the middle of the 19th Century.
The River Trent is shown flowing South to North in the middle of the map, with the Dunham Toll Bridge, (built in 1832) crossing it.
Information on James and Frances Bayes' children:
John Whatmore Bayes was born in c.1836 and Thomas Bayes in 1838. Thomas died in 1840, by then, the family had crossed over from Dunham on Trent, Nottinghamshire, on the West side of the Trent, on to the East side into Lincolnshire to live at Newton on Trent.
John Whatmore Bayes married London born Mary Ann Bunce in Clerkenwell, London, in 1860. In 1861 he was a carpenter in Clerkenwell. Then, like his Father, John became a publican. They had three children, Maud Mary b.1863, Frances Elizabeth b.1865 and Frederick J. b.1867.
From June 1870 until July 1873, he was landlord of the Kings Head pub in Tooting, in South West London.
By the time of his death in 1876, he had been landlord of 'The Sportsman' pub, for 3 years. This pub was located at 317 City Road, Islington, London.
(The picture on the right shows the pub after it closed in 2003, it was demolished soon after).
Another son was born to James and Frances in 1841, who was also named Thomas. This second Thomas went into the Grocery trade, eventually having a Fish and Chip restaurant and fish supply business, (Bayes & Co.), in Langworthy Road, Salford, Manchester. He died in 1917. During his lifetime, he married three times.
He was widowered twice, i.e. Elizabeth (nee Walton) and then widow Matilda Cater (nee Pape). His third wife, another widow Frances Stanton, (nee Osbourne), survived him.
Thomas and Elizabeth had three children, Herbert Walton (b.&d. 1871), Alice (b.1872) and Harry (b.1873).
Thomas and Matilda had a daughter, Gertrude, in 1880. She married Thomas Shufflebotham in 1905. They emigrated to Canada in 1912 with their daughter, another Gertrude (b.1906). Other siblings and step siblings may have gone to Canada too.
My direct ancestor, George Bayes was born in 1843. (More info below).
Finally there was yet another son, James born in 1845. He was to live his life in Newton on Trent, working on the land, eventually owning a steam Traction Engine and Thresher, which his son George worked at Newton until the 1950s.
To return to my ancestor, George Bayes. A Carpenter, he moved 18 miles Westward to Worksop, Nottinghamshire in the early 1870's. He married Mary Jane Bates at the Weslyan Chapel in Worksop in 1876.
They lived at 11 Sandhill, Worksop, (probably one the houses pictured, left, now demolished). A son was born in 1879, called John Whatmoor Bayes, who died of Scarlatina in 1881.
The Bates family
Mary Jane Bates was from Cambridgeshire and born in the Workhouse at Wisbech St Peters in 1850. Her Mother, Sarah Bates, (1827-1904) was unmarried and again, we don't know who the Father was.
I guess her family must have disowned her, hence her making the awful decision, as a last resort, to go into the Workhouse to have her baby.
Sarah's parents were Joseph Bates, (1796-1879) and his wife Susannah, (1805-1846). They lived at nearby Wisbech St Mary, in an area called The Broad.
The 1851 Census shows us that Sarah and baby Mary Jane are staying with the Tibbs family, in Sandbank, Wisbech St Mary, where she is described as a niece.
It can't have been not long afterwards that they moved to Worksop in Nottinghamshire, because that's where Sarah married Thomas Dodgson in 1854.
Why did Sarah and Mary Jane undertake that 92 mile journey to Worksop?
But to return to Mary Jane and George Bayes - another son, my grandfather, Percy Frederick George Bayes, was born in 1883.
Sadly, in 1886, when my Grandad was only 3 years old, George Bayes died and he was buried in the cemetery of Worksop Priory.
In 1891, the Census tells us Mary Jane and Percy were living on Parish Pay, (welfare).
Percy Bayes took up (field) hockey. Here he is, in a Worksop team, c.1905, (the short chap, 4th from the left on the back row).
By 1901, Percy was an Apprentice Wheelwright.
Mary Jane died in 1907 and was buried, joining her husband in his grave in the Priory Cemetery.
In the 1911 Census we see that Percy was now a Wheelwright, still living in Worksop. At the same time, Ada Woodhall was a cook in Carlton in Lindrick, just North of Worksop.
In 1912, Percy and Ada married in Brightside, Sheffield. Ada Woodhall's ancestry is on my Woodhall page.
Later in 1912, in the hilltop village of Laughton-en-le-Morthern, South of Sheffield, a son, George Thomas was born. A daughter, Mary Winifrid Ruth, was born in Eccleshall, Sheffield in 1914 and then another son, my Dad, Leonard Whatmore Bayes, was born in a house on The Green, Churchdown, Gloucestershire in 1916. As it was halfway up Churchdown Hill, the house enjoyed a wonderful view of the Severn plain over towards Cheltenham and the Cotswold Hills. By this time Percy was describing himself as a Carpenter.
This is when the First World War intervened.
I can't find his Call up/Attestation military records, so I presume they are part of those burnt in WW2. So, I can only estimate that Percy was called up into the Military in 1916. What records I have found show me that, initially, he was in the Wiltshire regiment (No 202992).
He was transferred to the Somerset Light Infantry as Private No. 30290 and served in the 6th Battalion and went to France.
On the 21 March 1918, there was a German attack, the opening day of the German Spring Offensive. The 6th Battalion was very badly mauled and Percy was captured by the Germans at Moÿ-de-l'Aisne, Picardie, France and became a Prisoner of War. He was just one of 21,000 British prisoners taken on that day, (and of course, very many soldiers and airmen died).
Percy F.G. Bayes died of pneumonia and heart weakness as a PoW in War Hospital 21D on 6th of June, 1918.
The hospital must have been at Bohain-en-Vermandois, Aisne, Picardie, as this was where he was first buried, West of the Railway Station.
A Bohain town website states of Rue du General Foy.
"During the war of 14/18, a German cemetery was installed next to this street for the German and English dead of Bohainese hospitals."
The picture on the left shows the cemetery before all the graves were cleared.
I once thought that the cemetery was at the Southern end of Rue du General Foy, where it joins the D28 main road. However, when I recently discovered the 1st October 1918 map, (above), I realised that I was wrong and I now know it's actual location.
The cemetery is the small square plot located to the left of the word "Sta.", just below the left centre of the map. Rue du General Foy, is seen running SSW-NNE.
The British Army Map Grid Ref. given for Bohain Station Military Cemetery is 62b.D.14.c.9.5, which confirms this location.
Percy Bayes was buried in Grave No. 276.
Bohain Station Military Cemetery was made by the Germans, but one plot of 47 graves was added by the 11th Essex and other British units in October 1918. It contained in all, 806 German graves, 155 British, 14 Russian, twelve French, one Italian and one Rumanian.
There is no plaque or marker at the site to show that this cemetery at Bohain was ever there. It was in, what is now, just a large field to the West of the Rue du General Foy.
All the remains of the 989 war dead were removed to other cemeteries in the 1920's, which is when Percy Bayes was dis-interred. (They knew his identity, as his grave had a marker cross and he was buried with a bottle containing his details).
Along with the remains of, what looks like, most of the other British dead at the cemetery, Grandad was transferred to a new War Cemetery at Premont, which is a mile or so to the West, (see his gravestone, right).
He lies in Grave No. IV.B.6.
My Father, Leonard Whatmore Bayes, had been born on 16th March 1916, at a house on The Green, Churchdown in Gloucestershire.
In 1920, two years after his Father's death, the family moved a few miles south-east to Great Witcombe, where Dad first went to school.
Then from 1922 until 1929, they lived across the county in the small, picturesque, riverside town of Newnham-on-Severn.
They lived at two different properties during this time, both on the High Street, one was Wilcox House, (pictured).
Sometime around 1929, the family moved 30 miles north, upstream of the River Severn, to the historic City of Worcester. He attended Stanley Road School, (which is over the road from the Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce Factory). He left school at the age of 14 and then joined a local firm as a packer.
Dad achieved a long held ambition by joining the Royal Air Force on the 30th of January, 1935.
A year later, he was a member of the duty ground crew at RAF Bircham Newton in Norfolk on 21 January 1936, the morning after the death of King George V at nearby Sandringham.
The ill-fated new King, Edward VIII, had to leave for formalities in London. Dad and his colleagues were in attendance as the King left Bircham Newton at 11.25 for Hendon aerodrome, London in his own De Havilland Rapide aircraft, registration G-ADDD, (seen right).
My Father therefore witnessed the first ever flight by a reigning British Monarch.
Dad served with 18 Squadron at RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, (Hawker Hart light bombers). On the picture (left), my Dad is the chap leaning on the chock of a Hart.
See this link, for an 1938 film of 18 Squadron flying Hawker Harts.
In March of 1937 he was transferred to 100 Sqn., based at RAF Seletar in Singapore.
The squadron was equipped with torpedo bombers, the Vickers Vildebeest Mk.III. See the picture of 100 Sqn. (right).
He was still at RAF Seletar at the outbreak of WW2 in Sep 1939. Within a month of the declaration of war, he was transferred to Middle East Command. He moved to Egypt, (where, as part of his work, he re-assembled one of the record-breaking long range flight Vickers Wellesley light bombers from crates).
In the March of 1941, he was posted on to Crete.
In the 20th of May, the Germans began their invasion of Crete and after prolonged hostilies gained control of the island by the 1st of June. Dad was part of a group that had been sent on a re-fuelling mission to a remote airfield. This resulted in them missing out on joining the Allied evacuation. To rub it in, the plane that needed re-fuelling didn't turn up, so they were left behind on the island.
By June 6th, he and his colleagues realised all was lost. They came down from the hills and gave themselves up. "Ah, there you are, gentlemen!" was the German response to their arrival. This was how he was interned and became a Prisoner of War in Germany.
In August 1941, he arrived at the PoW camp of Stalag 3D near Berlin.
In March 1942, he was at Stalag 8B, at Lamsdorf, (now called Lambinowice, in Poland).
In July 1943, he was transferred to Stalag Luft III. This was at Zagan, (located in modern Poland). This was the infamous PoW camp of Wooden Horse and Great Escape fame, (see right). He ended up in the East Camp section.
The PoWs were forced to undertake 'The Long March', when Hitler ordered that all the prisoners in Eastern PoW camps were to be evacuated westward into Germany, (about 80,000 prisoners in total). They were walking away from the advancing Russians, unprepared, in the bitter winter, with what they could scramble together in warm clothing and physically carry in terms of food and personal possessions. See also another site about the Long March.
East Camp started walking in the early hours of 27 Jan 1945. It was very cold with six inches of snow lying. After a march taking many days and of over 40 miles (64km), they eventually got to Spremburg, on 2 Feb.
There, they were boarded onto Cattle Trucks for a train journey across Germany that lasted 2 nights and 2 days. There was little water, never mind food. On February 4th, they got off the train at Tramstedt and after another short march arrived at Marlag Milag Nord Lager, a PoW camp at Westertimke, near Bremen. The camp was nowhere near ready for the arrival of the 3000 men from Stalag Luft III and conditions were very poor.
On the 2 Apr 1945, the Commandant was ordered to leave with most of his guards, leaving a small detachment to hand over the camp to allied forces.
However, that afternoon, a detachment of over 100 members of the SS Feldgendarmerie entered the camp and mustered 3000 of the PoWs, then marched them out, heading East. (I'm assuming my Dad was one of these). Over the next few days, as the column marched on, it was attacked from the air several times. The column crossed the River Elbe, North of Hamburg on 18 April.
On 28 April, they finally arrived at Lubeck on the Baltic Coast. The PoWs were liberated there by the British 11th Armoured Division, on 1 May 1945.
On 18 Feb 2019 we visited the excellent RAF Museum at Hendon, in North London for the first time. As it happened, this was 30 years and 5 days after my Dad had died. There, I was very surprised and moved to find this memorial (right), to those who died and, like Dad, suffered, on 'The Long March'. (It was unveiled in 2003).
Sadly, there is so much I don't know about Dad's experience on the Long March. I've found out so much more in recent times off the internet.
He vaguely mentioned it a couple of times, saying that his own Father had helped him through this ordeal. (A case of 3rd Man Syndrome? His Father had died as a PoW in the First World War, when Dad was an infant, 27 years before).
To my great regret, I didn't ask more questions when Dad was around, but then in those days, you didn't, did you?
Dad returned home in May 1945. He had been serving in the RAF for nearly 10 years and been away from the UK for about 7 of them. He decided to leave the RAF after the war, (despite them wanting him to stay on). I suppose, with his experiences as a PoW, especially the Long March, enough was enough.
Back home in Worcester, he met my Mother, war widow, Joan Frost (nee Platt) at that time 'on the boards', a singer on the Variety circuit with the stage name of Joan Amber.
They married in Rawcliffe Street Methodist Church, South Shore, Blackpool, Lancashire, (see photo right), on 31 Jan 1948. (See her ancestral story on my Platt page).
They set up home in Worcester, I was born there a year later, followed by my sister in 1950.
Dad died in Worcester in 1989 and my Mum died there, the year after.
Here is a panorama of my home City of Worcester, with the Malvern Hills beyond.
"There is one place, above all others, that has a smile for me"
A paraphrase of a quotation from the works of the Roman poet, Horace, (II.vi.13.)
"If you don't know where you are going, know where you come from."
Krio proverb.
Jack Bayes here!
I hope you find this web site of interest. I am always open to suggestions as to how to improve these pages. You may have information to add, or to clarify that given on the site. Also, I hate to admit it, there may well be errors! Whatever the case, please let me know.
Please note my new E Mail address, which is:
s y l v j a c k 1 @ g m a i l . c o m
(I've added spaces in between each letter of the E Mail address as a form of "address munging", (if you'll pardon the expression).