In 2006 a young boy went missing in Aberdeen. There was considerable media interest and a
massive search response, including dogs and air support. The boy had the surname TRENDALL and I
recall wondering how the surname reached the north of Scotland. The story, unlike like others in this post,
had a happy ending and the eight year old was found safe and well a day
later. During lockdown I came across the
story again and although I have not attempted to trace his family backwards I
did look for a connection between ‘our’ Trendalls and North East Scotland. Trendall is a surname that is mostly found in
Berks/Bucks, Kent and London. There are a few Trendalls in Aberdeen and I
looked at other unexplained (to me at least) clusters around the UK and I noted
that another Trendall outpost is in the area around Grimsby. The connection between Aberdeen and Grimsby
is that both were home to large fishing fleets for most of the 20th
century.
My great great Grandfather, Thomas TRENDALL (1820-1878) was
a twin. His brother, William, was a
pawnbroker and had premises in the Brunswick Square area of London, just south
of St Pancras. He married Elizabeth
JOHNSON in 1845 and they had at least three children. Elizabeth died in 1858 and some years later
William went to Canada, probably to join another of the brothers, Robert. One of his children, William (B1849), moved
to Gorleston on Sea in Norfolk (then in Suffolk) (1) and became a
fisherman. What was behind the move is
unknown. It would be interesting to
understand why a young man brought up in central London should move to the
coast and take up a dangerous and specialised trade. Perhaps there was a pre-existing family
connection, (which I have not yet found), but there is no trace of a Trendall
family in the area in the censuses of the earlier part of the century.
William TRENDALL (1849-1919) married a widow: Harriet Mary
Ann WHEELER (nee BETTS) (1852-1932) in 1881.
In the census of the same year he is shown as the master of a fishing
vessel: The Seabird, at Great Yarmouth.
The couple had three children,(2) all born in Suffolk/Norfolk during the
1880s. By 1901 the family had moved to
Aberdeen where William worked as a ‘trawl fisherman’. He was now a long way from the urban sprawl
of the metropolis. Around this time he
is often called William Arthur TRENDALL, although on census records he stuck to
his registered name which did not include a middle name. There are other William Arthurs in our family
which adds to the confusion caused by a lack of imagination as far as the
choice of Christian names are concerned.
Thomas, William and Frederick account for a sizeable number of my
forebears first names.
William remained in Aberdeen for the rest of his life. By 1911 he was retired and in 1919 he died there
in a temporary hospital that was being used to cope with the pressures of war
and the pandemic, although his death was from unrelated natural causes.
William and Harriet had one son during their time in
Suffolk/Norfolk. Thomas William TRENDALL
(1886-1942) was born in August 1886 in Gorleston on Sea. He moved with the family to Scotland and
became a fisherman. He qualified as a
mate in 1907 and moved to Grimsby where he married Williamina GORDON, aged 22,
a ‘fish worker’. She was originally from Aberdeen. Their new household must
have had a fragrant air. Williamina was part of a group of 'fish women' who followed the herring fleets as they traveled up and down the east coast. These women would work long hours gutting and preserving the fish as it came off the boats. Williamina was
known as Minnie or as Willie and appears as the former in the 1911 census. Thomas is not on the 1911 census, possibly
because he was at sea. The couple had
five children spread over 13 years.
“From the 19th to
the 31st December 1914 sweeping operations were conducted by the
East Coast Mine Sweepers with the object of clearing the minefield which had
been laid by the enemy off Scarborough.
At the beginning there was no indication of the position of the mines,
although owing to losses of passing merchant ships it was known that a
minefield had been laid. In order to
ascertain how the mines lay it was necessary to work at all times of tide with
a consequent large increase in the element of danger.” (Naval Despatch dated 19 February 1915)
Several ships were lost or damaged, including several
sweeping trawlers, as a consequence of the mine field which is said to have
been the densest laid in the history of naval warfare. One historian has described the situation on
16th December as follows:
“The sweepers found themselves
in a desperate situation by this time as the full horror of the minefield
became apparent. As the tide fell, they were in the midst of a horrible mêlée
of floating mines, tangled wire sweeps and stricken trawlers, all drifting with
the current.” ( https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?65661)
On Christmas Day the Solon was involved in an
incident which is described in the despatch under the list of officers who were
‘specially noticed for their services during the operations’:
“Skipper T Trendall, RNTR
Trawler “Solon”, No 55, on his own responsibility went to the assistance of the
Steamer “Gallier”, which had just been mined on the night of the 25th
December. It was low water at the time
and dark, and the “Gallier” was showing no lights, so had to be searched for in
the minefield” (Naval Despatch dated 19 February 1915)
Thomas was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service
Cross (DSC) for his actions on Christmas day and he remained on active service
for the duration of the war. In 1924 he
was sent his other war medals: The 1914-15 Star, The British War Medal and the
Victory Medal: Pip Squeak and Wilfred.
At the start of 1914 nobody foresaw the full extent of what
the year would bring. For Thomas and
Williamina this was a year which they would have remembered as one of complete
darkness. At exactly the same time as
Thomas was confronting great danger from the enemy at sea, at home the couple
were dealing with loss that is painful to behold, even for the casual
researcher separated by over a century.
Harriet Rose TRENDALL was named after her Grandmother and
was born on 18th June 1909.
She was Thomas and Williamina’s first child. She died of measles on 13th
December 1914 aged five. Her funeral was
on the day after the start of the minesweeping operations in which her Father
was so involved. But worse was to come. The youngest in the family, Ruby TRENDALL,
was only 21 months old when she too died of measles a few days later, on 29st
December 1914. The two sisters are
buried together in Scartho Road Cemetery Grimsby. It is easy for us to forget what the world
was like before vaccinations protected us from the scourge of diseases such TB,
polio and measles. (3)
As well as Harriet and Ruby the other children of Thomas and
Williamina were:
Williamina Gwendolyne May TRENDALL (B1911)
Thomas William TRENDALL (B1916)
Dorothy TRENDALL (B1922)
In 1939 Thomas (B1886) and Williamina (B1886) were living at
8 Evelyn Grove Grimsby. Also in their
household was their son, Thomas William (B1916) and their daughter Dorothy
(B1922). The younger Thomas William had
followed what was now a family tradition and was a fisherman by trade. Both Father and son are described as
unemployed.
Shortly after the start of the world war two the older Thomas William
and Williamina moved to Aberdeen where he died on 13th August 1942
‘suddenly’ after treatment for bowel cancer and heart failure, at Woodend Hospital . Several newspaper items recorded the death
and funeral and for some years Williamina posted an ‘in memoriam’ advert on the
anniversary of his death. Such
advertisements have largely gone out of fashion but until recently were common
in local newspapers. They will be remembered for the use of off the shelf unsophisticated verse which, despite its literary shortcomings captured and
conveyed the rawest of emotions. In 1943
her advert read:
“The call was short, the shock
severe. To part with one we all loved so
dear- from his sorrowing widow, W Trendall and family” (Aberdeen Evening
Express Wed 13th October 1943 p7)
Williamina lived until 1973 and was back in Lincolnshire at
the time of her death.
Fig two: The grave of Thomas William Trendall (1886-1942) and his wife, Williamina Gordon (1886-1972) in Aberdeen
Thomas William (B1916) followed his Father into the
RNR. He skippered at least two trawlers
that were taken up into war service; the Edward Walmsley (FY 624) and
the Fentonian (FY 868). He was also in charge of the Harlech Castle
but it is not clear if this was on active duty at the time. In September 1940 he married Gladys Watt
FRASER in Aberdeen. He was described in
the marriage register as ‘Skipper – Royal Navy Reserve – Now Engaged in War
Service’. ‘ Occupation Trawl Fisherman’
A (rather poor) picture of the couple appeared on the front page of the Aberdeen
Evening Express on 20th December 1940. He is wearing his RNR uniform and looks
rather nervous!
Earlier in the same year whilst skipper of the Harlech Castle Thomas William hit the national headlines when he captured four German aircrew:
The
Grimsby trawler Harlech Castle yesterday landed three German airmen and the
body of a fourth. They were part of a
crew of a bomber which participated in the raid on the Tyne on Saturday. One of the Germans was uninjured, but the two
others were wounded in the legs……. The fourth man died while the Harlech Castle
was waiting to get into dock. The skipper,
Mr Thomas Trendall, said they saw five men standing on the fuselage of the
aeroplane. “By the time we had got a bit closer the machine had sunk and we
could see four men swimming. They were
hauled aboard. We dressed their wounds
as well as we could. Two of the men
could speak a little English, and they thanked us for what we had done. I was not very pleased to hear from one of
them that some more planes were coming over in the afternoon” (Aberdeen Press and Journal 05 Feb 1940
p1)
Other newspaper accounts reported that Thomas and the crew
visited the injured airmen in hospital and gave them cigarettes.
Thomas William TRENDALL died in 1985 in Grimsby.
The nearest common ancestor I have to the people described
in this post is my great great great Grandfather, Joseph TRENDALL (D1838), so
they are distant cousins. But I am still
proud of their actions in war and mindful of their struggles in peacetime. It is clear to me now that there is more to
this family tree than the London branch from which I am descended.
Bramfield
Aug 2020
Notes:
1.
We know Gorleston on Sea as being in Norfolk.
Indeed I recall (just) a holiday there many years ago. However it was technically in Suffolk until
the mid nineteenth century. This makes
for some confusion in census records as the place of birth of some of our
subjects is given as Suffolk and even though their place of residence is shown
as Norfolk they are still in the same place.
2.
One of these children was Edith Miriam TRENDALL
(b1889). She married in 1915 when she
was 26. Her husband died in 1920 and she did not re-marry. She was a widow for 66
years and died in Aberdeen in 1986 aged 96.
3.
In 1955 there were over 600,000 cases of measles
in England and Wales which killed 174 people.
The introduction of vaccination made a huge difference. In 2010 there were around 2,000 cases and no
deaths. It is a disturbing fact that the
UK has lost its international ‘Measles Free’ status in the last couple of years because of an increase
in parents failing to vaccinate their children.
.JPG)
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