Isaac Henry Williams

Certificate presented to Isaac Henry Williams

This splendid certificate was awarded to Isaac Henry Williams in recognition of his services as a stretcher bearer during the First World War. It was found recently amongst her late father's belongings by Pauline Memmott and, as there is no connection with her own family, she would like to return it to Isaac's descendants.

Pauline got in touch with the British Red Cross who were able to find a personnel record card for Isaac which showed that he came from Totley. Then having found a number of references to Isaac on our website, Pauline got in touch with us to see if we had any more information that might help her.

Isaac Henry Williams was born in Handsworth, Staffordshire on 4 February 1881 and baptised at St. James Parish Church, Handsworth on 31 January the following year. He was the third of eight children born to Henry Williams, a wheelwright and carpenter, and his wife Martha, nee Battison, who had married at Piddington, Northamptonshire on 1 August 1875.

By the time of the 1901 census, Isaac was living in Sheffield at Talbot Street in the Park District. He had become a parcel post railway porter. On 29 October 1903 he married Sheffield born Ellen Williamson at St. Mary's Church, Bramall Lane. In the 1911 Census they lived at Maltravers Street, Park. Isaac's occupation was described as a Midland Railway parcels vanman.

Isaac and Ellen had moved to Totley by the start of the war. They made their home at 13 Lemont Road, where they would live for the rest of their lives. The 1917 register of the National Union of Railwaymen records that Isaac worked as a signalman at Dore & Totley.

Isaac's association with the emergency medical services dates from 1914 when he joined the Midland Railway's ambulance service as a stretcher bearer based at Sheffield station. After the war, he studied and passed St. John's Ambulance Brigade first aid examinations and won many awards, rising in rank to Divisional Superintendent, a position he still held at the outbreak of World War II.

Totley by the start of the war. They made their home at 13 Lemont Road, where they would live for the rest of their lives. The 1917 register of the National Union of Railwaymen records that Isaac worked as a signalman at Dore & Totley.

British Red Cross WW1 personnel record

Isaac and Ellen were prominent members of All Saints' Church and the parish magazines make numerous mentions to Isaac in relation to fundraising for St. John's Ambulance. He gave talks on the work of the ambulance service to various church and local social and sporting groups. He also tutored the Scouts Troop for their ambulanceman badge for which he was awarded the Scouts Association "Friends Badge" in 1939.

Isaac died in 1948 and was buried at Abbey Lane Cemetery on 13 November. Ellen died at Winter Street Hospital, Sheffield and was buried in the same grave as her husband on 12 March 1973. The couple had no children and so our search for living relatives turned towards Isaac's seven siblings. Our research has so far been unsuccessful and so we are publishing brief biographies in the hope that one of Isaac's descendants might read it and get in touch with us.

John William Williams was born in 1876 in Handsworth. He continued to live in his parents' home in Elford, Staffordshire after their deaths. Like his father, he became a carpenter and wheelwright. He never married and died in 1934.

Henrietta Martha Williams was born in 1878 in Handsworth. She married Alfred John Owen in 1906 and they had one daughter, Catherine Gwendoline Owen who married John Douglas Ball in 1933. The family emigrated to South Africa in 1938. Their only son Harry Anthony Ball died there in 2012 but there could still be relatives who we do not know about.

Arthur Ronald Williams was born in Handsworth in 1883. He married Margaret Barker in Castle Donington, Leicestershire in 1910. Arthur also became a railwayman with L.M.S. and was based at Derby where he died in 1951. There was a daughter, Gwendoline Margaret Williams, who married Harry Alexander Ford in 1938. Their son Roger Alexander Ford was born in 1940. Roger married Elaine Moffat in 1963 but there our trail runs cold.

Gwendoline Dorothea Williams was born in 1885 in Handsworth. She married John William King, a mechanical engineer, in 1915 and the couple lived in Swadlincote, Derbyshire. Gwendoline died in 1964. The couple had one son, George Henry King, born in 1917, who marred Florrie M. Cartwright in 1946. We have been unable to find any children of the marriage.

Gerald Charles Williams was born in 1887 in Handsworth. As a young man he worked on farms as a cowman but later became a horseman for the railway. There were no children from his marriage to Mary Penn in 1924. Gerald died in Birmingham in 1959.

Ellis Vaughan Williams was born in 1890, probably in Smethwick, Staffordshire where he was baptised on 28 March that year. Prior to the war he was employed as a wheelwright and waggoner. He joined the North Staffordshire Regiment and served at Gallipoli in 1915. Ellis died at number 18 Casualty Clearing Station, Belgium, from wounds incurred in the Battle of Messines, during the Flanders Offensive of 1917. He was aged 27 and unmarried.

Frances Ethel Williams was born in 1893 in Elford, Staffordshire the youngest of Henry and Martha's eight children. She was recorded as being in domestic service in the 1911 Census and again in 1939 when she was employed at Broadstairs, Kent. Frances remained unmarried all her life and died in Harborne, Birmingham in 1969.

October 2019