Andrew Pickering Riddiough 1891-1918

1891 census return showing Andrew Riddiough aged under 1 month
Hannah is a widow, the boarder Joe Pickering is presumably Andrew's father (from Ancestry)

I am currently researching Barnsley born men who are NOT remembered on any war memorial in the Barnsley Borough. This blog post was originally written on 21 February 2014 and since then other records have become available which assist in the research First World War service personnel. I have revisted the post today, 18 March 2022, and added more information. I am still no wiser as to the reason why Andrew Pickering Riddiough is not remembered on a Barnsley war memorial, but I make some suggestions at the end of this post.  

Andrew Pickering Riddiough was born Q2 1891 in Barnsley (9c 203). Probably in the March at 19 Union Street. He was the son of Joe Pickering (b.1865 in Barnsley) and Hannah Riddiough (nee Shaw) (b.1864 in Barnsley). At the time of his birth Joe and Hannah were not yet married.

Hannah Shaw had married her first husband Walter Riddiough, a Labourer, on 29 October 1882 at St Mary's, Barnsley. Walter and Hannah had 3 children together, all of whom had died by March 1891. Mary (born Q1 1884, died March 1891), Alice Ann (born Q2 1886, died February 1891) and Edward (born Q3 1888, died April 1889). Walter died in December 1888 aged 27. So Walter died first, and was closely followed by Edward, then Alice Ann and Mary died two years later.

Walter, Alice Ann and Mary were buried in Barnsley Cemetery in plot M 219. The address from which they were all buried was 5 Union Street. Seven year old Mary Riddiough was the last to die, she was buried in plot M 219 from 19 Union Street on 29 March 1891. 

1890s map of Union Street, off Sheffield Road, showing numbers 5, 19 and 31 highlighted,
estimated by comparison to a 1960s map where a few numbered houses were still extant.
(with thanks to Digimap)

 
As we have seen, Andrew Riddiough was born in the first quarter of 1891, which suggests that his mother and Joe Pickering were in a relationship by June 1890. On 5 April 1891, as recorded in the census (see the image at the top of this post), Joe, Hannah and their son Andrew were living at 19 Union Street, Barnsley. Andrew was one month old suggesting he was born in March, possibly before his half-sister Mary passed away at the end of the month. Andrew was baptised at St Peter's church on Doncaster Road on 11 June 1891. His mother was named as Harriet Riddiough, unmarried, of Union Street.

Joe Pickering, an Iron Moulder, and Hannah Riddiough married in Q2 1892 in Barnsley (9c 341).
They had four further children and sadly three of them died before 1898. William Handel Pickering (was born Q2 1892), Arthur (born Q3 1894, died February 1896), Joe (born Q4 1895, died March 1896) and Henrietta (born Q2 1897, died October 1898). Arthur and Joe were buried in Barnsley Cemetery in plot M 219 from 19 Union Street. Henrietta was buried on 28 October 1898 in plot M 306 from 31 Union Street.

Joe and Hannah must have moved to Rotherham between October 1898 and March 1901 because they appear in the 1901 census living at  43 Neville Street in Rotherham. Living with them were Andrew Pickering aged 10 and William A Pickering aged 8. Also in the household was Joe's mother Jane, a widow aged 60. I suggest that the A in William's name was due to the enumerator writing down 'Andle' for William's middle name. In Barnsley it is common to miss the 'H' off the beginning of word in speech.

Hannah Pickering died in July 1901, just a few months after the census, and was buried at Barnsley Cemetery in plot M 306 from the Rotherham address, the same plot where her daughter Henrietta had been buried three years before. Hannah was 37 years old and had given birth to eight children, but only two were still alive at the time of her death.

Hannah Shaw's children (using Family Historian software)
The little 'Tommy' and 'Poppy' icons attached to Andrew Riddiough Pickering
allow me to see at a glance the First World War service people in my family trees.

William Handel Pickering died in January 1911 aged 18 and was buried in Barnsley Cemetery in plot (a) 80. The address given at his burial was 17 Union Street. The Barnsley Cemetery burial register lists three other William Handle Pickering burials (although other evidence suggests they were all William Handel Pickering), one in 1879 aged 44, one in 1889 aged 11 weeks and another in 1943 aged 63, suggesting the name was a family tradition.

By the time the 1911 census was taken Andrew, now using the name Riddiough (although you can see an amendment from Pickering in the image below) was living with his uncle William Pickering at 12 Livingstone Terrace, off Silver Street in Barnsley.  Note that both the head of the household and his son are both William Handel Pickering.

1911 census showing the Pickering household at 12 Livingstone Terrace, Silver Street Barnsley
(with thanks to Ancestry)

 
Does the amendment from Pickering - the name Andrew must have been used to using since he was a child, reflect the opinion of his legitimacy, in the eyes of his uncle William? He was acknowledged as William's nephew. Andrew was a Horse Driver below ground (presumably in a colliery) and was 20 years old. 

Joe Pickering, Andrew's father, widowed when Hannah died in 1901, was living with Jane (formerly Edgley) at 24 Union Street in 1911.  Jane was Hannah's younger sister. It became legal to marry your deceased wife's sister in 1907 but I can find no evidence that they did marry. Jane's first husband Sampson Edgley had died in 1902 aged 36, leaving her with two children, Ethel (born Q1 1894) and Annie (b.Q1 1898).  She and Joe Pickering had at least one child together, Ernest Alfred Pickering, born in Q3 1907.

Joe Pickering himself died in 1917 aged 51 and was buried from 24 Union Street, in the same grave, (a) 80, in Barnsley Cemetery as his son William Handel Pickering. 

The lack of a formal marriage between Joe Pickering and Jane Edgley, Hannah Shaw's sister, is further supported when Jane remarried in Barnsley in Q3 1936, under the name of Edgley, to Albert England.  I found them living at 24 Union Street in the 1939 Register, the same address where Jane had lived with Joe in 1911.

Andrew Pickering Riddiough married Jane E Denton in Q4 1915 in Barnsley (9c 415). I cannot find an Anglican marriage for the couple, which suggests they married in a Non-Conformist church or in the Register Office. They had one child, Marjorie Denton Riddiough born 4 November 1916.

It is possible to make a calculation from the War Gratuity paid to a soldier, from the Army Register of Soldiers' Effects on Ancestry, to find an approximate date when the man enlisted. For Andrew Pickering Riddiough his gratuity was £3 which indicated that he had enlisted about 12 months or less before his death on 12 June 1918.  We know that he served with the 2nd/5th West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) and was a Private, Service Number 205446. He was 27 years old when he died. His occupation, working in a coal mine, may have kept him out of the Army for a while, or it may be that he was initially rejected as being unfit - too short, flat feet, bad teeth, any number of things that prevented him from being mobilised as soon as his age group was called up under conscription in 1916. As his Army Service Records do not appear to have survived it is not possible to be certain what the circumstances were that kept him from active service until June 1917 or later.

We know that Andrew Riddiough Pickering was buried at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen in grave Q III G 3 and that he died of wounds on 12 June 1918.  His widow Jane appears to have submitted a death notice to the Barnsley Chronicle within a few days of his death.

Death Notice for Andrew Pickering from the Barnsley Chronicle, 22 June 1918, p.4.
(with thanks to Barnsley Archives)

In the pension cards saved by the Western Front Association and now available to their members as part of their subscription and through Ancestry via Fold3 (additional subscription payable) Jane E. Riddiough (not Pickering!) claims a pension not only for her daughter with Andrew, Marjorie, but also for Elizabeth Jeffels Denton who was born in 1914, before her marriage to Andrew.  In 1918 she was living at 20 Thomas Street in Barnsley. She appears to have taken a grant of £7 and been awarded a weekly pension of 25 shillings and 5 pence. Any money due to her rather than her children would have ceased in any case when she remarried, which she did in early 1920.

Jane Elizabeth Riddiough, Andrew's widow, remarried on 25 April 1920 at St George's church in Barnsley to Matthew Round who was a miner. She was 27 years old and he was 21. They were both resident at 20 Lower Thomas Street at the time of their marriage. They went on to have five children together, all born in Barnsley. In 1939 they were living at 37 Thornton Road, in Kendray, Barnsley.  Jane Elizabeth Round died in the Blackpool and Fylde Registration District in May 1984.

Neither of Andrew's parents were still alive when he died. His wife remarried within two years and his only child Marjorie was very young. Is this why Andrew is not remembered on any of Barnsley's War Memorials? Was there was no-one who was willing and able to put his name forward for commemoration?