After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He chose to abdicate after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson. On the evening of December 11, he gave a radio address in which he explained, “I have found it impossible to carry on the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge the duties of king, as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love.” On December 12, his younger brother, the duke of York, was proclaimed King George VI.
Edward, born in 1894, was the eldest son of King George V, who became the British sovereign in 1910. Still unmarried as he approached his 40th birthday, he socialized with the fashionable London society of the day. By 1934, he had fallen deeply in love with American socialite Wallis Warfield Simpson, who was married to Ernest Simpson, an English-American businessman who lived with Mrs. Simpson near London. Wallis, who was born in Pennsylvania, had previously married and divorced a U.S. Navy pilot. The royal family disapproved of Edward’s married mistress, but by 1936 the prince was intent on marrying Mrs. Simpson. Before he could discuss this intention with his father, George V died, in January 1936, and Edward was proclaimed king.
My grandfathers photos, the first, taken on his admittance to Barnardos — Larry Clark
Larry Clark’s Grandfather–Alfred Henry Mallindine
This first piece was found here (Lynwen Clark, no relation) historian’s remarks. the Her web page is here
Alfred was born in Plaistow, Essex on 7 September 1889; he was the second son of Joseph Mallindine and his wife Alice Manhood. After his father died in 1898, his mother was unable to care for her three youngest children and placed Alfred and his brother Stephen in the care of Dr. Barnardo’s Home on 1 May 1899.
Alfred stayed in Barnardo’s Leopold House in Stepney for six months before sailing for Canada on the SS Arawa on 11 September. Two weeks after arriving, ten year old Alfred was placed with Marshall Armstrong on his farm near Maberley, Ontario and an update to Barnardo’s reported that Alfred was ’in good health, a bright lad, willing and useful.’ He stayed on the Armstrong farm for four years before being moved to Robert Donald’s farm in Mount Forest but this placement was not a happy one and Alfred was moved on again six months later.
Robert Donald Farmer Mount Forest.
In November 1904, Alfred was placed with Edward D. Foster in Ingersoll but this was another short stay and he was moved again in February 1905 and sent to work for Thomas Adams who had a farm in Hawthorne in Gloucester Township near Ottawa. He remained there for almost three years before moving to his last placement under Barnardo’s guardianship on a farm in Bolton ( This was Quebec- read Canadians Just Wanted to Use me as a Scullery-Maid). Once he reached legal age, he was no longer bound to Barnardo’s and was free to make his own decisions.
Photo-British Home Children in Canada—Knowlton Distributing Home, Quebec — near Bolton- this is where Alfred would have been sent first
In January 1910, he was working in a lumber camp, operated by the V.A. Lumber Company, in Wahnipitae near Sudbury but later that year, he returned to the Ottawa area when he obtained a position as a moulder with the Findlays Foundry in Carleton Place. On 4 October 1911, twenty-two year old Alfred married Violet Thake at St John’s Church in Weston, now a suburb of Toronto, with Violet’s aunt Daisy and uncle Charles acting as witnesses. Violet was born in Putney, south London on 30 September 1893, the daughter of Henry Thomas Thake and Flora Wacey, but she was raised by her maternal grandmother and emigrated to Canada in 1908.
Findlay’s Foundry Workers c. 191
Alfred returned to Carleton Place with Violet following their wedding and on 25 July 1912, Violet gave birth to their first daughter, Eleanore Emma. Their second daughter, Kathleen Violet, was born in Carleton Place on 13 January 1914 but she lived only one hour. On 5 April 1915, their son Frederick Alfred was born followed by daughter Evelyn Lillian on 3 October 1916.
The family suffered a devastating loss when Violet died of Typhoid Fever on 5 September 1917 at the public hospital in Smiths Falls, about 30 kms south of Carleton Place. Typhoid is an infection caused by the salmonella typhi bacteria and it is most often contracted by drinking water or milk contaminated with feces carrying the bacteria. In 1911, a typhoid epidemic in Ottawa left 987 people ill and 83 dead and a second epidemic in July 1912 affected 1391 people and left 91 dead. The epidemics were traced to raw sewage that had been released into the Ottawa River and later entered the city’s drinking supply and it was typhoid epidemics like this that forced many cities and towns to improve city sewers and build water treatment plants.
1917
Violet was sick for five weeks before her death and she may have been moved to a hospital in Smiths Falls in the hope of better treatment and an eventual recovery. She was only 24 years old when she died and left three children aged five, three and 11 months; Violet was buried in the cemetery at St James’ Anglican Church in Carleton Place on 7 September — Alfred’s twenty-seventh birthday.
In a letter dated 14 February 1969, Alfred explained that he did not know what to do following Violet’s death but eventually hired a housekeeper from Ottawa to help care for their children. The arrangement worked well until Alfred fell ill with influenza and pneumonia and despite an initial recovery, he was told by doctors that he only had six months to live. After his experience in the Barnardo’s Home in London and as a home child in Canada, he had no wish for his children to be placed in an orphanage and so in 1918, he agreed to let neighbours, Dan and Tilley Bennett, have his youngest daughter Evelyn while son Fred was placed with another local family, Harris and Katherine Bennett, although they were not related to Dan and Tilley. Alfred’s eldest daughter, Eleanore, came home from school to discover her brother and sister were no longer there but had been given up for adoption and she was told not to speak about them or her mother — a traumatic experience for a six year old who had lost her mother only one year before.
Alfred left Eleanore with her great-grandmother, Emma Wacey, in Weston and despite the prognosis from the doctor, he took a physically demanding job in a lumber camp near Blind River on Lake Huron and worked on the river drive where the raw logs are floated down the river to the sawmill for processing. With his health seemingly restored, he returned to Carleton Place and claims that he tried to get his two youngest children back but the Bennett families were not willing to return them. He left the town and got a job as an Iron Moulder in Guelph, 100 kms west of Toronto, but he occasionally returned to Weston to visit his daughter and on one of these visits, while travelling on the street car with Eleanore, he met Lilian Richardson. (Lynwen Clark, no relation) historian’s remarks. the Her web page is here
Alfred (Alf) was employed in Findlays as a moulder and lived on Moffat St. for a time; was living there when my mother was born in 1916, at home.–, shortly after (or before, circa. 1920) my grandmother Violet’s death. Larry Clark–(photo courtesy of Jason Porteous and Linda’s post
I have added to this family (Lynwen Clark, no relation) historian’s remarks. the Her web page is here— Larry Clark
My grandfather’s story by Larry Clark:
On 4 June 1898, Joseph (my great grandfather) died of tuberculosis at their home at 51 Tucker Street in Canning Town (London) and he was buried three days later at the West Ham Cemetery in Newham; he was only 47 years old and due to his illness, he had been unable to work for six months prior to his death. His death left his family in a dire financial situation and although Alice received some relief from the parish and found employment, she did not earn enough to support herself and her children. Fifteen year old Alice Eliza was working as a domestic servant and twelve year old Joseph was sent to live in Norfolk but it is not known if he went to live with family or to work in exchange for food and lodging.
With no other options, Alice made the difficult decision to place her two youngest sons, Alfred and Stephen, in the care of the Dr. Barnardo’s organisation. On 1 May 1899, Alice took the boys to Barnardo’s, possibly the one in nearby Barkingside, and they were admitted that very same day. The boys were separated when ten year old Alfred was transferred to Leopold House in Limehouse where he remained for four months before being sent to Canada.
Leopold House on Burdett Road opened in 1883 and after it was extended in 1887, it could accommodate over 450 boys between the ages of 10 and 13. Five year old Stephen was considered too young for emigration so he was boarded out first at Messing near Colchester and then at Palgrave near Diss on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. He returned to Leopold House and was sent to Canada in July 1904.
Stephen George Mallindine Born December 26, 1895- Died Feb 17th 1930
Stephen went to the home of a doctor in Toronto and was then employed by the CPR as a telegrapher. He joined the army in WWI, served in Europe, winning the DCM: returned to the CPR after the war, married in 1926 and was stationed in Chapleau, where he succumbed to cancer in1930. I have not been able to find an adult picture of him. We have no knowledge of Alfred ever meeting his brother after his arrival in Canada.
The only known photo of my grandmother, with my aunt Eleanore
My Grandmother’s Story- Larry Clark
In May 1893, Florrie married Henry Thomas Thake at the Emmanuel Church in Putney south London and four months later, she gave birth to a daughter, Violet Daisy Emma (my grandmother). Violet was baptised on 14 January 1894 at St Stephen in Clapham Park but instead of remaining with her parents in Putney, she was placed in the care of her grandmother. It is not known why or when Emma Wacey started caring for her granddaughter but Violet never returned to live with her parents.
In early 1899, James Wacey died in Hull, East Yorkshire at the age of 50; Hull was a major fishing port and it is likely that James died there while working. By 1901, Emma (James wife) had left Yarmouth and moved to 41 Willow Grove in Plaistow, Essex and she appears there in the census along with her five youngest children, granddaughter Violet and a boarder named Joseph Dumsday.On 24 December 1905, Daisy Ann (Emma’s daughter, Violet’s Aunt), married William Joyce in West Ham and shortly after, they emigrated to Canada and settled in Weston near Toronto.
In 1908, Charles Frederick Wacey, his mother (Emma Wacey) and his niece Violet Thake also emigrated to Canada. On 29 July 1908, they sailed from Liverpool on board the Lake Manitoba bound for the port of Quebec City and after taking the train to Toronto, they joined Daisy and her husband in Weston. In 1911, they were living on Main Street in Weston and Charles was working as a labourer, Violet as a shop assistant and Emma was receiving a private income.
Later that year, Violet met and married Alfred Mallindine in Weston and moved with her new husband to Carleton Place near Ottawa.
The family started to grow and in 1912 Eleanore Emma was born; 1914, Kathleen who died 1 hour later; 1915, Alfred Frederick and lastly, my mother, Evelyn Lilian in 1916. At the time of my mother’s birth, the family were living on Moffat St., street number unknown.
I did find them in the CP assessment rolls, 1916/17 at the town hall but found no further info other that they owned a dog. Looking back I think there may have been a lot number but in any event I have lost my notes and will try again sometime in future.
The only known photo of my grandmother, with my aunt Eleanore followed by my grandmother’s grave marker in St. James Cemetery, lastly, Alfred and first born Eleanore in CP-perhaps Moffat St.
I was disturbed by the fact that Violet was not mentioned by name (no one in the family knew her name), also, Mallindine was misspelled (perhaps, I could fix it with a chisel). (One of the first things I want to do when covid is over is to correct this situation).
Violet was buried in the cemetery at St James’ Anglican Church in Carleton Place on 7 September 1917 — Alfred’s twenty-seventh birthday.
Granted, there were other, horribly sexist and awful laws enacted through our time but the Contagious Diseases Acts in the 1860s was awful. These acts forced women to involuntary genital examination if they were suspected of having a venereal disease or had an affair. They were brutal, unfair, and cruel– and immediately people protested them and sought to have the laws repealed–which they finally were in the early 1880s.
It began in 1864 when something underhand happened in the Houses of Parliament in the UK. A bill was passed with no publicity, no debate, no discussion and no dissent. The public knew nothing about it, for all that the newspapers reported was that ‘The Contagious Diseases Bill passed its reading’.
By an extraordinary ‘coincidence’, a Bill for the prevention of contagious diseases in cattle were also being debated around that time, and under precisely the same name ‘the Contagious Diseases Bill’, and so of course people assumed that any mention of those words in the newspapers referred to diseases of cows.
And so in 1864 a new law was brought in quickly. The secrecy was maintained when it was extended in 1866 and again in 1869. But the new law did not apply to cattle at all; it stripped half the human population of their civil rights. And this was known only by the few who administered and applied it.
This meant that any woman walking along a street in her own town was liable to be watched and followed by a plain-clothed policeman hell bent on identifying prostitutes. In those days without cars, most ordinary women walked everywhere, whether going to work, to church, to meetings, or on errands, shopping, or visiting. Every one of them, in 138 towns and parishes, fell under suspicion. A woman need only bump into a male acquaintance in the street and exchange a “good evening” with him to find herself arrested and forcibly genitally examined.
The “Contagious Disease Act” also passed in Canadian parliament and existed from 1865-1870 but there was silence among the Canadian public with regards to the act. But it was known as a way to control venereal disease and attempt to rehabilitate those who were a prostitute or had an out of wedlock affair— if they were proven guilty they were sent off to asylums and prisons.
The 19th century Canadians had no idea how to treat prostitution, and wondered if it was a necessary evil, or the result of a male sexual erection. Anyone could swear that a female was a woman of ill repute before a justice of the peace and she would be forced to be examined. In the UK the law was restricted to ports where the military sailed in, but in Canada it was governed everywhere.
Many middle class and upper class women put themselves in a straitjacket of chastity which forced their husbands to seek fallen women. There were so many false promises of marriages, mock marriages that had no legal status and deliberate attempts to entangle a woman in debt or emotional dependency that reform for the law was demanded. It was said the reason being was that Canadian women were being forced into prostitution by untruthful men. Of course men were never examined as they objected to it. Bet this was a tale no one ever told you. I know I had not heard about it until today.
Are these women retreating into the past, or are they are retreating into nostalgia and romanticism? This 30 minute video is quite the eye opener. People retreat to the past all the time. One of my favourite ‘time-warp” groups pictured below–Steampunk Ottawa at Puppets Up! in Almonte that remind me of my former life. Keep up the good work– you are nothing short of fabulous!
My Steampunk home
Buy Linda Secaspina’s Books— Flashbacks of Little Miss Flash Cadilac– Tilting the Kilt-Vintage Whispers of Carleton Place and 4 others on Amazon or Amazon Canada or Wisteria at 62 Bridge Street in Carleton Place
This is a tale of two Vicki’s–One is Vicki Racey from Almonte, Ontario and the other is Victoria Norris from the UK. Vicki Racey has one of the largest vintage stores in the heart of Almonte called Vintagewear. You will also see a few of her live mannequin models at the Carleton Place and Beckwith Museum place precariously among the exhibits after the tea at Ladies Who Lunch June 6th in Carleton Place. Victoria Norris lives in Ely, England and is one of our contributors to the Tales of Carleton Place. This week she went shopping at one of the local antique haunts.
I give you Victoria Norris.
Victoria has volunteered to offer some neat tidbits here and there comparing her country and ours. Victoria first contributed her Easter Flower pictures from the UK and then she made Nanaimo Bars and Date Squares because there is none in Britain. What a pity! Today, we compare vintage stores in both countries.
Mem’ries,
Light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we? Could we?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we? Could we?
We simply choose to forget
So it’s the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember…
The way we were…
The way we were…
Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.
Bob Dylan
I have a bestie in the UK that is following our Carleton Place Blog. Victoria is going to add some neat tidbits here and there comparing her country and ours. Last week she contributed her Easter Flower pictures
Here is how she describes where she lives.
Well, I live in Ely (pronounced to rhyme with “wheelie”) but there is also an Ely in Wales, so I always write it as “Ely, Cambridgeshire”, or I suppose you could call it “Ely, England” just to avoid any confusion. It’s a beautiful city just north of Cambridge (one hour from London) with its cathedral dating back to the 11th century being its highlight.This is going to be great fun!
Well, there are no Nanaimo Bars or Date Squares in England. She became intrigued so she made her own after I posted the recipes.
Linda, as promised, here are the results of my first attempt at Canadian baking! I present to you “Date Squares” and “Nanaimo Bars”. I’ve just had a look at some photos to see how closely they resemble the real deal and I don’t think they’re too bad for my first attempt, but as a real life Canadian, I’ll let you be the judge…Be kind lol x
After she posted the pictures the Facebook comments began from her fellow Brits. It seems there are NO Graham Crackers there either so she had to substitute.
Victoria Norris— I had to substitute a couple of things. Digestive biscuits are the closest we have to Graham Crackers here, but I had some wholemeal Jacobs crackers for cheese left over in the tin from Christmas so I just used those lol. I also used coconut palm sugar instead of refined sugar and it worked fine – plenty sweet enough.
Her friend who also resided in England said:
Jo– I remember having Date Slice at school with custard. Wonder if it’s the same. What are the Nanaimo bars?
Victoria– They’re both Canadian recipes – the Date Squares are sometimes called “Matrimonial Bars” and yes, they are not too dissimilar to what we had a school I don’t think, but the Nanaimo Bars are really unique – I can’t actually think of anything else that we have here that tastes like them.
I think she did a fantastic job.. Let’s make her an honoury Canadian!
I have a bestie in the UK that is following our Carleton Place Blog. She is going to add some neat tidbits here and there. They don’t have Nanaimo Bars or Date Squares in the UK, so next time Victoria will share how she fared out baking Canadian.
Welcome Victoria Norris.
Here is how she describes where she lives.
Well, I live in Ely (pronounced to rhyme with “wheelie”) but there is also an Ely in Wales, so I always write it as “Ely, Cambridgeshire“, or I suppose you could call it “Ely, England” just to avoid any confusion. This is going to be great fun!
Last week I posted a picture of Easter Flowers on Facebook and she posted one of her Spring displays in England.
This is our local Walmart in Carleton Place
AT THE ADSA STORE IN THE UK
Gnomes in the UK trying to take over Ely
Gnomes in Carleton Place chez moi hiding out from Winter.
1/2 cup vanilla buttercream, colored yellow with food coloring
red sprinkles, to garnish
Procedures
1Unwrap your first Cadbury Creme Egg. Give it a long, hard look and ask if it is ready to meet its destiny.
2Using your very sharp knife, gently slice the egg in half lengthwise, following the seam that keeps the two egg halves together. The egg should separate into two separate halves fairly easily; each will have a dollop of fondant inside. Leave the fondant inside of the egg halves.
3Using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, pipe yellow buttercream in a spiral so that it covers the entire exposed inside of each egg half (directly on top of the fondant). You’ll use about 1-2 teaspoons’ worth of frosting per egg.
4Garnish with red sprinkles to mimic the look of paprika.
lindaseccaspina 