Guest Post: The Tale of Albert Tetley (1894-1968)

Over the summer, I have had the help of two wonderful students at Cardiff University who have used their detective skills to compile short biographies of some of the book owners in my Edwardian book collection. Here, Llio Mererid shares the story of Albert Tetley - a working-class boy from Leeds - which she managed to piece together from archival records.

Albert Tetley was born on the 18th of August, 1894 to Emma (née Laycock) and Alfred Tetley of 32 Edgar Street, Burmantofts, Leeds. He was the eighth born of their ten children, two of whom died shortly after birth. Albert was baptised on the 12th of September, 1894 at Burmantofts, St Stephen, Yorkshire.

Living in a small house with so many children, all hands needed to be on deck to ensure that every mouth was fed. This must have caused particular strain and pressure on Albert’s father to work long hours and this might have consequently contributed to his early death in 1903. This would have been an enormous strain on the family and Albert’s mother would have had to take on the responsibility of caring and providing for her large family all by herself. She would quite probably have had to face sending some of her children to work at young ages and would have had to think of other ways to ensure an income for the family. She needed another father figure for the children, and more importantly, a secure income to provide for them.

Just shy of two years after the father of her children passed away, Emma re-married a miner named James Schofield. The very same year-1905- was when Albert Tetley received his copy of Ungava- R. M. Ballantyne from his school for good conduct and regular attendance. His mother Emma and his step father James must have been very proud of him for this achievement, especially as their family circumstances had been difficult in the previous few years.

It is difficult to know the exact motivations behind Emma and James’ marriage. It could have been for love or for some company but it is quite probable that this was a union for financial stability for Emma. James could have provided her with another pay check so that her children wouldn’t go hungry; however, what an unmarried man at 50 was not expecting was just how much money he would have to provide for his new wife’s family. In September 1910, the strain of having to live in such impoverished conditions surrounded by a large family took its toll on James Schofield and he passed away, listing his address as the Leeds Workhouse.

By 1911, Albert’s mother was a 53 year old widower who had lost two husbands in the space of a decade. However, with a few of the children having moved out of the family home to start their own families, those who remained with their mother worked to be kept. They had moved to number 56, Dawlish Avenue: a small four room, red-brick, back-to-back terraced house on the corner with a small square area out the back to hang clothes and chat to neighbours. In this era, even Albert’s youngest brother William at age 13 was working with a Boot Manufacturer and 16 year old Albert was working as a Railway Porter.

In 1925, Albert married Ada Holmes; a Yorkshire girl of the same age. In 1939, they were residing at her childhood home address of 17 Old Hall Street in Leeds with Ada’s older brother Charles. The house is pictured here as the fourth house from the right; with four windows and a front entrance between the two bottom windows.

There is a chance that it was through her elder brother that Ada met Albert, as both boys worked as Porters at the Railway Station back in 1911. However, with the three of them under the same roof and the war looming over them, Albert was working as a Driller at a Drop Forging Steel and Engine Works Company as a government contract for armaments; Ada as a Raincoat Machinist; and Charles as a Clothes Patcher.

Albert’s specialist skills in the steel foraging industry would have made him exempt from having to fight in the war, therefore him and Ada would have been able to stay together during the war. They had no children, but both would have kept each other company for many years until Albert’s death in July 1968. They would not have stayed at Old Hall Street their entire lives as the area was demolished to make way for a school in July 1964. Although Albert would not have had the opportunity to attend, we can hope that children today show good conduct and regular attendance, just like Albert in 1905.