What kind of man...

... was Colour Sergeant George Vale?

George James Vale

As you research people and families you can't help but form opinions and judgements about them. Sometimes these judgements are based on fact but more often they are based on guesswork, speculation and intuition. Here is a man whose life had so many twists and turns and mysteries that I honestly don't know what to make of him. The best approach is not to judge at all: it's futile and serves little purpose. But that would be no fun at all, would it!

George James Vale was my grandmother's father. He was born in 1864 in Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire to a single woman, Harriet Vale who already had an illegitimate son, Charles ( b. 1860). Harriet went on to have two daughters Annie Elizabeth (b.1875) and Clara Louisa (b.1878) Harriet did eventually marry, but not until 1879, fifteen years after George was born so it seems unlikely that she married his father. The two girls were baptised 'Vale' but were later known by Harriet's now married name Bennett.

By the time his mother married, George was in service to a local farmer's widow in nearby Alcester. What his movements were in the intervening few years, we don't know, but George joined the army in 1884.

The regiment he joined was not local to Bidford where he was from, but The Royal Welsh Fusiliers in Wrexham. I'm not clear what took him all the way to Wrexham but that's where he joined up, and it was a good move. He thrived in the army and was promoted about as far as you can go without a commission.

He served in India much of the time between 1885 and 1897. He married Annie Sophia Dawson from Normacot near Stoke in 1894. They had a daughter Lilian in India on 10 August 1895 but Annie died a few weeks before Lillian’s first birthday in July 1896 and is buried at Jhansi, India. Her gravestone reads: Sacred to the memory of Annie, beloved wife of Colour Sergeant G Vale 1st RW Fus who died at Jhansi on the 3rd July 1896 aged 25 years. Erected by NCO and Men of H Company as a token of esteem.

At this point - the height of Victorian Empire - George was a 31 year old successful career soldier, travelling the world, ruling the colonies... with a one year old daughter! The loss of his wife must have been a blow, just when things were going so well. After all, he was a lowly labourer from a small agricultural village; one of four bastard children of a glove-maker. I assume that little Lilian was repatriated to the UK, I really don't know, but George himself didn't return until December 1897 when Lilian would have been two.

Still, a very eligible chap, he remarried in November 1898 in Devonport, the Naval dockyard next to Plymouth. His bride was Rose Anna Heath, the seventh child of Alfred Heath and Christiana Newman's twenty, yes twenty, children. How they met, I don't know. Her family were from Dovercourt in Essex, another maritime centre. Her father was a brick-maker, although his father before him was a coastguard so there may have been a naval connection there. Maybe they just went on a day-trip to Plymouth and misplaced one of their 20 children... "I'm sure we had more than this dear. Have you done a head-count?"..."Oh, don't fret Alfie. She'll find someone to marry here!".

George was in the UK until 23 October 1899 when he went off to South Africa to tackle the Boers. This was sad for Rose Anna (and, I'm sure, George when he found out) because she lost their first child, Violet, in March 1900. Rose Anna was staying in Dovercourt, presumably with her family, at the time but took a job as a domestic in Hammersmith after that. George was still in South Africa. He returned on 2 July 1901.

You may be wondering what happened to Lilian during all this time. By 1901 Lilian was five and living at 12 Orwell Terrace, Dovercourt with a 63 year-old spinster, lodging-house keeper, Mary Meadows. I was going to say "farmed out", but that would project my, probably unfounded, judgement of the situation on you, the reader. Mary Meadows may well have been a wonderfully kind-hearted old lady who loved children but never had any herself. I don't know. And what were the alternatives? George had an unmarried (I think) brother, Charles, in Bidford-on-Avon. A mother who was married to a step-father he probably didn't know. His first wife's mother was widowed and his current wife's family were big enough already.

George and Rose Anna didn't waste time and had another child, Annie on 26 May 1902 by which time they had moved to Holywell to be near to the barracks at Wrexham I assume. They had another five children. George retired from the army in May 1910 but did another stint during the First World War. At 50, he would be too old for active service by then though.

During the period that George moved to Holywell, Lilian was moved to a local orphanage run by nuns, Saint Clare's Catholic Orphanage for Girls at Pantasaph near Holywell. I'm not sure why she couldn't live with the family a few miles away but I'm sure there were reasons. It must have been difficult for her to understand though. I wonder what she thought.

For a long time I couldn't trace what happened to Lilian after the census in 1911. She seemed to just disappear. Then I came across a Lilian Vale who got married to John Hayes in Chester in 1919. There was a chance it was her so I took the gamble, paid my money and sent off for the marriage certificate. Success! George James Vale, Captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers is named as her father. Lilian (now Hayes) then lived in the town of Flint and she and John had three children: George Edward, Gertrude, and Robert. Lilian died, still in Flint, in 1959. I'm glad I finally found out what became of her and that she led a good life.

George Vale was active in Freemasonry which likely didn't harm when it came to getting some cushy little jobs like Clerk to the Territorial Forces Association, and Clerk to the Town Council in Holywell. George ended up a well respected member of the community which was a fine achievement considering his beginnings. I can't help feeling that there might yet have been a few more skeletons in George's cupboard though!

George James Vale died of pancreatic cancer on 6 April 1950 in Holywell. His daughter, my grandmother Evelyn registered his death.