Thomas Back and Elizabeth Mary Horn

Plymouth: Morice Square
cc-by-sa/2.0- © Martin Bodman - geograph.org.uk/p/688016

Thomas Back (b. 15 Oct 1850 in Stoke Damerel), son of Thomas Back and Mary Drake married Elizabeth Mary Horn (b. 1859 in Okehampton, Devon), daughter of James Horn and Elizabeth Bolt, on 23 Oct 1884 at St Paul's Church, Devonport. (The Anglican Church of Saint Paul the Apostle was situated on the east side of Morice Square in Devonport, Plymouth.)

Born Thomas Drake (1850 D Quarter in STOKE DAMEREL Volume 09 Page 429), as he was named Thomas, it did seem likely that he was the son of Thomas Back, who his mother married two years later. He started life in Stoke Damerel Workhouse, where he was in 1851 with his mother and his older (half) siblings, Mary and George. He was subsequently known as Thomas Back and on his marriage certificate in 1884, as Thomas Back, Stoker RN, lists his address as 40, Cannon Street, Devonport - the very same address where we find both his parents and his sister in 1881, so we can be sure it's him - and names his father as Thomas Back, Labourer. Of course, this could simply be because that was the man who was around as he was growing up, but actually being named after him at birth, seems to confirm what we're being told.

Thomas Back, DOB 15 Oct 1850 (agrees with the quarter of his birth registration), enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1865, volunteering at HMS Implacable (1805) - former Duguay-Trouin, turned training ship (exactly the same ship, on exactly the same day as my great-grandfather, David Jones). Thomas Back's naval career does not appear to progress at this point, there being no entries beyond enlistment. 

There is then a record of a Thomas Back from Devonport, with date of birth given as 14 Oct 1849 (one year and one day of difference and this time the year does NOT agree with his birth registration), but we know this is our man from other records (marriage, census), who [re]joined the Royal Navy on 9 Jan 1873 and served for 21 years, until 27 Apr 1894. He began as a Stoker 2nd Class, moved up to Stoker, Leading Stoker and Leading Stoker 1st Class.

Both naval records list Thomas as having Black hair and Hazel eyes. He was 4 ft 10 in at 14 and grew to 5 ft 6 in as an adult, gaining a bunch of tattoos.

From May 1873 to Aug 1875, Thomas was with HMS Agincourt (1865) at Portland, Dorset and, during that time, spent 28 days in Dorchester Gaol (HM Prison Dorchester) - Pure Victorian detention in all it’s glory.

At the time of the census of 1881, Thomas Back (30) Stoker, was moored in Hong Kong aboard HMS Victor Emmanuel (1855), which ship he was assigned to from Jun 1880 to Jan 1882, Feb 1882 to Jan 1883 and again from Feb to Apr 1883 (transferring to HMS Pegasus (1878) for the month in 1882, also in China and HMS Albatross (1873) in Jan 1883).

Two days before his marriage, Thomas joined HMS Tamar (1863), commissioned at Devonport on 21 Oct 1884 and then, from 15 Jan 1885 until 22 Jan 1889, was with HMS Nelson (1876). She sailed for the Australia Station after commissioning and became the flagship there in 1885. She was in Sydney and Brisbane and at the Woolloomooloo Bay Regatta on 18 Apr 1885, remaining on station until returning home in January 1889.

Thomas and Elizabeth's only child was born later that year:

1. Lilian Mary Back b. 4 Nov 1889 D Q in STOKE DAMEREL 05B 340

Thomas spent time with HMS Magicienne (1888) in Portsmouth in 1890; HMS Goshawk (1872) took him to Gibraltar from May 1890 to Jun 1892 and while he was away, Elizabeth M Back (31) Wife Of A Stoker RN and Lilian M Back (1) were living in St Levan Road, Devonport. Thomas finished his career, from Dec 1892 to Apr 1894, at HMS Vivid II, the Stokers and Engine Room Artificers School in Devonport, before being pensioned.

In 1901, Thomas Back (50) Naval Pensioner was living in Avondale Terrace, Devonport with wife, Elizabeth M Back (41), daughter, Lilian M Back (11) and John Cornhill (29) General Labourer from Ireland, Boarder.

Thomas Back died in 1906 D Quarter in DEVONPORT Volume 05B Page 220. His age was estimated as 58 (he was 56), having gained yet another year on top of the one he added the second time he enlisted in the Navy.

In 1911, Elizabeth Back (51) Widow from Okehampton, Devonshire, was living in East Stonehouse. Living with her were recently married, son-in-law and daughter, Charles and Lilian Renshaw.

In 1921, Elizabeth Mary Back was still living with Charles and Lilian Renshaw (and their two daughters), at 7 Duckworth Street, Devonport.

Elizabeth Mary Back died, at 66, in 1926 M Quarter in DEVONPORT Volume 05B Page 457.

William Edgar Farthing and Ivy May Hepworth and Lieutenant Commander Derrick William Graham RN OBE

Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Derek Voller - geograph.org.uk/p/3699730

Ivy May Hepworth (b. 3 Nov 1892), daughter of Vincent Hepworth and Mary Ann (Annie) Rogers, married William Edgar Farthing (b. 23 Dec 1892), son of Frederick William Farthing and Emily Maud Gidley, on 10 Jan 1913, at the church of Saint James the Less, Plymouth. They had one son:

1. Edgar Grahame Farthing, b. 15 Nov 1913 (1913 D Qtr in PLYMPTON Vol 05B Page 333), bap. 16 Apr 1914 at St Mary's Church Plympton. 

William Edgar Farthing, formerly a clerk at the Great Western Railway, who enlisted in July 1914 in the Royal Garrison Artillery, husband of Ivy May Farthing of 22 Atheneaum St, The Hoe, Plymouth, Devon was invalided home and died at the London Hospital, Whitechapel on 8 Feb 1917, aged 24, of a disease contracted while on active service. Second Lieutenant William Edgar Farthing is buried at Ford Park Cemetery (Plymouth Old Cemetery). 

Ivy May Farthing remarried, on 29 May 1925, to Derrick William Graham. 

Derrick William Graham b. 8 Aug 1900, was the elder son of Charles William Graham a Silk Merchant born in Melbourne, Australia and his wife Edith Eleanor Clodd (m. 1899 in the City of London). In 1911, Derrick (10) and his younger brother, Geoffrey Edward (9) were boarders at Doon House Preparatory School for Boys, Canterbury Road, Westgate-on-Sea. He entered service with the Royal Navy in May 1913, as an officer cadet, at Britannia Royal Naval College, at Dartmouth, Devon. 

Derrick and Ivy had two sons:

1. David William Graham b. 1926 D Quarter in DEVONPORT Vol 05B Page 423. Died 1926 D Quarter in DEVONPORT Vol 05B Page 395
2. Michael William Graham b. 5 Jan 1929 in MEDWAY Vol 02A Page 1189

Derrick William Graham made Sub-Lieutenant in 1919; Lieutenant in 1921 and Lieutenant-Commander in 1929. His service record places him in Malta in 1928 and Ivy May Graham and son Michael, of 109 Broadfield Road, Catford, SE6, sailed to Malta with RMS Viceroy of India, in 1931.

In 1939, at West Lodge, Villiers Road, Portsmouth, were Ivy M Graham, listed with a birth year of 1896 - it was 1892 - admitting to be four years older than her husband, but not all eight, while Derrick W Graham RN, at that time, was attached to HMS Dolphin (shore establishment), home of the Royal Navy Submarine Service from 1904 to 1999, at Fort Blockhouse, Gosport.

On 1 Jan 1944 Acting Commander Derrick William Graham, Royal Navy (Portsmouth) was listed in The London Gazette, having been mentioned in despaches. His record states "Mentioned in Despaches for zeal, patience and cheerfulness in dangerous waters, and for setting an example of wholehearted devotion to duty, upholding the high traditions of the Royal Navy."

Graham got his OBE (which him indoors tells me stands for "Other Buggers' Efforts") in 1946 for distinguished services during the war in the Far East.

Acting Commander Derrick William Graham reverted to the retired list on 30 Jul 1948. The marriage between Derrick and Ivy was disolved on 23 Feb 1951 and Derrick William Graham immediately remarried, on 17 Mar 1951, to Margaret Hamilton Sterling in Natal, South Africa. Derrick William Graham of St. Paul Road, Vacoas, Mauritius died, at 59, on 28 Apr 1960.

Ivy May Graham died on 20 Oct 1978 in Portsmouth, just days short of turning 86. She is buried in the churchyard at St Nicholas Church, Durweston, Dorset, where her sister, Ida Lily Soppit, is also buried. Dorset Monumental Inscriptions lists her as "Mother of Grahame & Michael GRAHAM".

• Having joined The Royal Regiment Of Artillery in 1933, Edgar Grahame Farthing married Kathleen Lucy Downs (b. 29 May 1914), in Windsor, Berkshire, in 1949 and on 17 May 1957, they and their two children, of Officers Married Quarters, Andover, sailed to Canada on the RMS Empress of Britain. Edgar Farthing died on 3 Jan 2000 (aged 86) and is buried at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, North Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Kathleen Farthing died on 17 Nov 2004 and is buried with her husband.
• Michael William Graham, formerly a Director of Rookery Estates Co, property management company, in Maidstone, Kent, married Rachel M Norman in 1952. He died at 69, in 1998.

Derrick William Graham's father, Charles William Graham, had also died at a relatively early age, 52, in London on 14 Jan 1924. The Probate record quotes him as being of 42 Gutter Lane, London and Mirabelle, Carshalton, Surrey. 42 Gutter Lane was the address of Messrs Courtauld and Co.

William Edgar Farthing's father, Frederick William Farthing, died in 1936 and his obituary in the Western Morning News was interesting: Former G.W.R. Inspector Dies at Plymouth. As well as detailing his 49 year career with the railway, it mentioned a son (Frederick Arthur) who was in the Customs at Southampton and that his wife's sisters, Alice and Lilian Gidley, were formerly headmistresses at Stonehouse. As my father, who had left Plymouth in 1936, had been to school in Stonehouse, means there's a possibility my father's headmistress had been a very distant relative by marriage to my mother.