desperance ([info]desperance) wrote,
2007-12-15 00:43:00
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What I learned from my Bible

I was a little bored this evening, so I double-tasked a bit: with CSI on the TV, I shifted books around.

Last year, a man and his lad came to lay fresh fluffy insulation in my loft. When they came back down, they brought treasure with them: three ancient hickory-shafted (and very warped) golf clubs, and two books. One is a random and disintegrating volume of an encyclopaedia; the other is the classic family bible, vast and portentous. They are both exceedingly dirty, so mostly they've been sitting around untouched. But I moved them, I set them on a new shelf, I thought "must run the vacuum over those sometime" - and then I realised there was something in the bible.

Three somethings, to be exact. Two images, of which more later, and a small envelope on which is written - in pencil, in proud copperplate - "School Referance" [sic]. Inside is a little fabric tag with an ancient safety-pin, which I suspect of being Boys' Brigade or similar; it shows two flags beneath a crown, and they're identified as 'Tyneside Scottish' and 'Tyneside Irish'. The tag is folded into a sheet of paper, a letter, with the printed headers 'Newcastle-upon-Tyne Education Committee' and 'Westgate Hill Council School (Senior Department)'. [I should point out that I live on Westgate Hill, and the school is a hundred yards from my house.)

The letter reads:

"Harry Hoad has recently left the above school. He is a capable and intelligent lad and occupied a high position in the Seventh Standard. He has ability more than the average in sketching and geometrical drawing. His conduct was always excellent and I can most heartily recommend him for employment.

"A R Shaw, Head Master."

It's dated 09/02/11.

Googling Harry Hoad turns up people of that name in Kent and Sussex and Australia, but not in the north-east. Nevertheless, I hope he had a long and happy life, and I hope this letter helped.

*is moved*

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  • 22 comments

[info]going_not_gone

December 14 2007, 23:55:32 UTC 4 years ago

What a nice little bit of history. I think you should name a character in your next novel Harry Hoad.

[info]desperance

December 15 2007, 08:52:26 UTC 4 years ago

Yay, will do! Thanks...

[info]going_not_gone

December 15 2007, 13:56:27 UTC 4 years ago

Now that you know what happened to him, I think it would be a fitting memorial.

Strangely wonderful--110 years after his birth and ninety years after his death, people around the world are talking about him, using inventions he probably never could have imagined. Is there anyone still alive who remembers him, so many years later? Likely not--and yet, his name circles the globe, pulled out of the past from the pages of a grimy old Bible.

Something about this makes me smile.

[info]xiphias

December 15 2007, 00:55:01 UTC 4 years ago

Well, clearly, Mr Hoad had good penmanship and drawing skills, but his spelling was weak.

What age would Mr Hoad have been at this point -- what's "Seventh Standard"?

Do you think he has descendants in the area who might be interested in this? Does the family Bible have any birth or death records or the like written in it? This sounds like a job for -- CAT-WAXING, LOCAL HISTORICAL RESEARCH VERSION!

You could probably get a solid week of not working on any of your projects out of this.

[info]desperance

December 15 2007, 08:57:42 UTC 4 years ago

"Seventh Standard" is a band and a pentecostal church and an examination in Kerala and I do not know what else, but I've no idea what it signifies in terms of an English education. Except that clearly this was his school-leaving level, so I'm guessing he would've been fourteen. My grandad was of the same generation, and he left school at that age.

And yes, I could & should pursue local contacts. Just, it's not really my thing, all that talking-to-strangers stuff. The joy about cat-waxing is that one can do it at home and in private. I will check the bible for records (nice point: I should've done it already, but oh, it is filthy...).

[info]papersky

December 15 2007, 13:00:26 UTC 4 years ago

I went to a junior school that had standards 1-4, standard 4 was 11, the age you took the 11+ exam to secondary school. My grammar school started again then at Form 1, but I suspect Harry Hoad's (pre Education Act of 1911) would have continued and Standard Seven would have been 14.

I bet he died in the trenches. I hope for something better, but he'd have been just the age for it.

[info]desperance

December 15 2007, 13:08:24 UTC 4 years ago

Thanks, Jo. That's entirely clear.

And, um, yes. It's all too likely. I can do optimism (both my grandfathers fought the whole war and came through; many many others must have done the same), but even so...

[info]possumqueen

December 15 2007, 08:16:46 UTC 4 years ago

I agree with Szandara -- excellent suggestion. As Harry and his Head Master just let you know, he has good potential for employment. And wouldn't it just tickle him to know that the author-guy who accidentally bought his home and accidentally found his stuff, folded him into a story?

I think it's cool! Good name, too, it has a ring to it.

[info]desperance

December 15 2007, 08:58:28 UTC 4 years ago

Yay. I agree with both of you. Watch this space...

[info]possumqueen

December 15 2007, 09:04:11 UTC 4 years ago

There's got to be a great yarn surrounding those warped hickory golf clubs. Ask Harry, perhaps he'll tell you. ;) Did you check the USA? Perhaps he hopped a boat over here and had wild adventures in the brave new world...

[info]pogodragon

December 15 2007, 09:13:17 UTC 4 years ago

Wow! That is utterly awesome. What a great find.

If you did want to find out more about Harry Hoad I know someone who is a hot genealogy researcher type (actually [info]jeremy_m's mum) who might be persuaded to look into his history. She keeps hitting patches of Smiths in her family tree and might like something more unusual.

[info]arkessian

December 15 2007, 10:09:21 UTC 4 years ago

I've found a Henry Hoad born 1897 in the 1901 census, resident in Westgate...

[info]wishus

December 15 2007, 10:43:59 UTC 4 years ago

Yeah, I was going to suggest looking there.

[info]desperance

December 15 2007, 12:52:12 UTC 4 years ago

Yay! You're a genius! Of course he'd be a Henry... And the date is exactly right, puts him at 14 in 1911...

*beams in gratitude*

Anonymous

December 16 2007, 17:00:19 UTC 4 years ago

This is [info]durham_rambler, but being away from home I have forgot my password.

If, as you surmise, Henry Hoad died in the trenches, then his name would be on the net in lists maintained, I think, by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I'll research this later this week, if I remember (nudge me).

This seventh standard may be a reference to the system in force then where, if you could pass the final exam (which may have been the seventh standard) you could leave school early. My grandmother left school when she was 12 (in 1899) because of this.

Anonymous

December 15 2007, 11:01:24 UTC 4 years ago

Idetrorce

very interesting, but I don't agree with you
Idetrorce

[info]minnehaha

December 15 2007, 16:28:35 UTC 4 years ago

I collect antique photographs. I am amazed again and again at people losing the stories connecting their family artifacts and histories. My mother has boxes of photos, unidentified. Her family, my family, my forebears: but who are they? She plans to sort them and identify everyone she can. Maybe she will.

Mom has a cake plate in her china cupboard that belonged to her grandmother, or maybe her great-grand. And none of us kids know which plate that is in the stack, nor if the other plates are anything special.

Who put the Bible in the attic? Who forgot to say that it was something important, that a family treasure had been tucked away? Did the last person who knew about the Bible forget it was there? These are the moments I wonder about.

K. [of course, I am curious about the 2 photos, too]

[info]lauriemann

December 15 2007, 16:36:48 UTC 4 years ago

I love genealogy, even when finding out about someone tells you something you didn't exactly expect.

Being a Yank, I don't know as much about WWI as I probably ought to. Neither of my grandfathers, though they were of military age in WWI, served in it. My uncles who fought in WWII never spoke about it. I learned most of what little I know about WWI from the soldier's point of view by reading Tolkein and the Great War, a remarkable piece of work.

[info]martyn44

December 15 2007, 21:52:33 UTC 4 years ago

Tyneside Irish and Tyneside Scottish were both First World War Regiments. The Scottish lost a lot of men at the Somme, including my grandfather. Who wasn't Scottish.

[info]desperance

December 15 2007, 23:28:43 UTC 4 years ago

Ah, right; of course, I should've thought of that. Thanks, Martyn.

But it's all the more interesting, then, as these were not the regiments he served in...

[info]mabfan

December 16 2007, 01:01:03 UTC 4 years ago

Wow.

[info]handworn

December 16 2007, 03:07:55 UTC 4 years ago

Neat!

I don't know if you get to-- if these things are yours-- but early golf stuff is highly, highly collectible. A potential supplement of your income, is my first thought.

Not that they wouldn't be neat to keep, too, of course.
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