{"id":262,"date":"2015-10-02T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/?p=262"},"modified":"2024-07-01T10:25:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T09:25:50","slug":"a-tale-of-two-sisters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/2015\/10\/02\/a-tale-of-two-sisters\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Sisters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 1915 an application was made for two little girls to be admitted to St Stephen\u2019s Orphanage in York.\u00a0 Contrary to its name, those admitted to St Stephen\u2019s were not necessarily orphans in the accepted sense of the word, the rules of admission required only that girls had lost at least one parent, that they could supply a baptism certificate, and that someone was willing to pay a weekly sum for their care.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
The rules for admission to St Stephen’s, as printed in the application form of Winifred Brooks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In this case their father Albert Brooks made the application, undertaking to pay 4 shillings and sixpence a week for each of his daughters.\u00a0 The application forms are otherwise perfunctory; both girls were examined and found to be in good health, six year old Winifred had previously suffered from measles, four year old Hilda had not.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
The application of Winifred Brooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In many cases an application form, and perhaps a baptism certificate, are all that survives for the residents of St Stephen\u2019s.  However, for Winifred and Hilda a particularly tragic set of circumstances has left what amounts to a small family archive among the orphanage papers that tell of the impact that war and disease could have on an ordinary York family in the early years of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children\u2019s applications were accompanied by two letters of support which provide a succinct account of the difficult situation faced by the Brooks family in March 1915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The case of the Brooks is a sad one,\u2019 the vicar of St Lawrence in York, Reverend Hutchings, wrote to the orphanage, \u2018the wife quite young died of consumption and left the 2 children.\u2019 \u00a0 Another supporter attests to the children\u2019s good character, \u2018I knew their mother and visited her for 2 years before her death and constantly saw the children, who are nice & well behaved, and are very bright.\u2019\u00a0 Both give a positive account of Albert and his wife, one writing of the \u2018great regard\u2019 they held for Mrs Brooks, and the other calling Albert \u2018a decent fellow\u2019, although he didn\u2019t know \u2018where he works or what his work is.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
A letter sent in support of the application by an ‘R. Birch’ of St Saviourgate, York.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately the St Stephen\u2019s papers answer this question, including as they do Albert\u2019s marriage certificate which describes him as a \u2018confectioner\u2019 as well as a later letter signed by D. S. Crichton, head of the Social Department at the Cocoa Works, the chocolate factory set up by the Rowntree family on Haxby Road in York.  It was perhaps there that Albert met his future wife Jane, or \u2018Jennie\u2019 Wytcherley, who was employed in the factory\u2019s Cream Department.  The notice of their marriage appears in the firm\u2019s Cocoa Works Magazine, dated 27th<\/sup> March 1907. 24 year old Albert Brooks of the packing and stores department was presented with a \u2018beautiful over-mantel\u2019 to mark the occasion, while 22 year old Jennie received the firm\u2019s wedding gift, their fellow workers wishing the couple \u2018much happiness and long life.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were married three days later at St Lawrence Church.  In March 1908 their daughter Winifred was born, followed by Hilda two years later in November 1910.  The 1911 census finds the small family living at 5 Apollo Street; 28 year old Albert, a \u2018confectionery packer,\u2019 26 year old housewife Jane, 3 year old Winifred and the infant Hilda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly this happy family life was not to last.  By 1912 Jennie was already suffering from the tuberculosis that was to kill her.  The York Tuberculosis Dispensary, later York Chest Clinic, opened its doors in 12th<\/sup> December 1912 and its records show that Mrs Jane Brooks of 5 Apollo Street applied for treatment for the disease just four days later.  She was treated by \u2018open air ward\u2019, possibly at Yearsley Fever Hospital which had opened in January of that year, but sadly died in February 1915 at only 30 years of age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 22nd<\/sup> February Albert paid for the interment of his wife at York Cemetery in a burial plot that would later be shared by her parents.\u00a0 The burial certificate recording the grave number and cost is included among the orphanage papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
The certificate issued by York Public Cemetery for the burial plot of Jane Brooks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Exactly one month later, on the 22nd<\/sup> March 1915, Albert placed Winifred and Hilda in St Stephen\u2019s Orphanage.  It\u2019s possible he enlisted in the army immediately afterward, certainly by November he was a Private in the 4th<\/sup> Battalion of the Grenadier Guards stationed in France.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do not know if Albert wrote to his daughters at the orphanage or visited them during the following year, the minute book of the orphanage committee covering the years 1911-1918 has unfortunately not survived.  However we do know that Albert\u2019s army career, like that of so many others, ended at the Somme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The orphanage records include an official notice from the War Office stating that Private A. Brooks of the Grenadier Guards was posted as wounded and missing after the engagement \u2018at Overseas\u2019 on the 25th<\/sup> September 1916.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
The notice stating that Albert Brooks had been reported ‘wounded and missing’ in action in September 1916.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Further enquiries were evidently made, at least in part by D. S. Crichton at the Cocoa Works, and the resulting letters, kept by the orphanage, allow us to piece together what may have happened. \u00a0 \u201cI was told by [Private] Brake,\u00a0 4th<\/sup> Company, 4th<\/sup> Grenadier Gds. that he saw [Private] Brooks wounded at Les Boeufs on September 25th<\/sup> on the way over,\u2019 wrote Private Adams of the 4th<\/sup> Battalion in April 1917, a reference to the principal offensive in the capture of the French village of Les Boeufs that took place on that day, resulting in heavy casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
The reply to D. S. Crichton at the Cocoa Works reporting the account given by Private Adams.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It seems likely that Albert was shot during his battalion\u2019s initial advance.\u00a0 In a letter dated March 1917 a Private H. Weekes described how the Grenadier Guards made a charge on the 25th and \u2018when we had got half way over, I saw Albert Brooks making his way back to the dressing station with a bullet wound in the arm.\u2019\u00a0 Whether he made it to dressing station or not, Private Weekes couldn\u2019t say, \u2018the Germans were shelling very heavily at that time.\u2019\u00a0 Poignantly, he added, \u2018I am very sorry indeed to hear that he is missing as we were the best of pals right from our early soldiering up to the afore said date.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Photograph
Page 1 of Private Weekes’ letter.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Photograph
Page 2 of Private Weekes’ letter.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I fear that this must be one the many cases,\u2019 read a subsequent response from The Red Cross enquiry department to D. S. Crichton, \u2018where a second and fatal casualty has occurred on the way to a dressing station.\u2019\u00a0 As this letter was still being written a final typewritten note came in from a Corporal Shenton that appeared to confirm his theory.\u00a0 It said simply, \u2018At Ginchy he was killed by a shell in the communication trench.\u00a0 I was told this by a stretcher bearer who was a man who had just joined us from a Labout Batt[allio]n.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
The report passed on to D. S. Crichton by the British Red Cross in 1917.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Albert\u2019s body was never found and his name is now commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France, one of the 72,000 soldiers who were lost, presumed dead, at the Somme before March 1918.\u00a0 More than 90 per cent of that number died, like Albert, between July and November 1916.\u00a0 At home in York he is commemorated in the King\u2019s Book of York Heroes, one of the 1,443 men (and two women) from the city who were killed in the First World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photograph
Private Albert Brooks in The King’s Book of York Heroes.
Copyright Chapter of York: Reproduced by kind permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What then became of Winifred and Hilda?\u00a0 The lost minute book means we do not know when or what they were told about their father\u2019s fate, although they, like so many families, received an official memorial from Buckingham Palace.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Photograph<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The next reference to the girls comes two years later, in 1918, and brings us full circle back to the Cocoa Works where the story of their family began.   A bundle of correspondence sets out arrangements for the trustees of Rowntree\u2019s Death Benefit Scheme to pay Albert\u2019s pension fund over to St Stephen\u2019s for the maintenance of the two girls.  A further \u00a350 was also given on the condition that the trustees of the scheme were permitted \u2018at any time to see the children\u2019 and to receive yearly reports of their progress; reports which we know, from a later entry, were duly forwarded \u2018from time to time.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1920 Mr Crichton wrote again on behalf of Rowntree to offer  payment for the continued education of Winifred, an offer that was gratefully received, and in 1925 another lump sum was paid by Rowntree \u2018for the Brooks children\u2019 out of the Rowntree War Memorial Fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, Hilda disappears from the orphanage records after this date, but \u2018Winnie Brooks\u2019 appears again in June 1926 when she was taken on as a staff \u2018probationer\u2019 at St Stephen\u2019s. However her ambition was not to remain at St Stephen\u2019s and in the same entry it is added that \u2018Miss Marshall also said that Winnie Brooks much wished to become a missionary and she hoped that Messrs Rowntree would give assistance for her training.\u2019 Perhaps they did, for in March 1927 the committee minutes note that she had left to begin her training at St Brigid\u2019s and staff were pleased to hear \u2018excellent accounts\u2019 of her progress over the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of the Brooks family, as told by the orphanage records, appears to end there. Spanning twenty years in all, it is just one example of the many thousands of personal stories that can be found in the Borthwick\u2019s collections, and one of millions in archives across Europe that tell of the human cost of the First World War. If you would like to explore the records of St Stephen\u2019s for yourself, the collection is fully open to the public (although records that are less than 100 years old are subject to data protection).\u00a0 Alternatively, perhaps you know what happened to Winifred and Hilda Brooks after they left St Stephen\u2019s? If so, we would love to hear from you. Our contact details<\/a> can be found on our website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many thanks to Mr and Mrs Poole for their help in searching the York Public Cemetery records.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Sally-Anne Shearn, Genesis Project Archivist. In March 1915 an application was made for two little girls to be admitted to St Stephen\u2019s Orphanage in York.\u00a0 Contrary to its name, those admitted to St Stephen\u2019s were not necessarily orphans in the accepted sense of the word, the rules of admission required only that girls … Continue reading A Tale of Two Sisters<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,69,84,9,32,42],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-20th-century","tag-author-sally-anne-shearn","tag-project-genesis","tag-rowntrees","tag-womens-history","tag-ww1"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"custom_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1719825950:242"],"_last_editor_used_jetpack":["block-editor"],"_wp_old_date":["2024-06-19"],"_edit_last":["242"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}