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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Martha Hannah Beech


old-ted

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Hello all.

Martha Hannah Beech is the only woman commemorated, to our knowledge, on any Seaham WW1 memorial.(There are civilian women on the WW11 memorial). Her name appears on the St Hild & St Helen Church, Dawdon alter rail memorial. Her husband,George Henry Beech served in the 1st North Staffs (we also know he was a miner though he is not on the 1917 Londonderry Roll of Honour) and she gave birth to a son in 1915 but the child died in 1916. The family lived at 19 Melbury St Seaham. Her husband is not on the absent voters lists for the address. There are other Seaham women who served in munitions ,nursing etc who do not appear on the town rolls of honour. We can find no record of her service, no medal card for her or her husband.

Our question is. Why is her name on the roll of honour?

Any ideas or suggestions would be most welcome.

Regards to all.

John & Kathleen

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John and Kathleen, You have helped solve one of my many outstanding queries and I hope that I have helped solve yours. Martha Beech was a munition worker who lived at 17 Milburn Street, Seaham Harbour. She died in a fatal accident. Munition workers are not one of the groups whose graves are cared for by the CWGC so you won't find her on their website. Neither were the normal medal's issued to them. There are two Medal Information Cards for her husband but you will need to search just under the name of George Beech. Was there a munition works at Seaham?

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Many thanks for the reply Jim. Quite a lot of Seaham lasses worked at Longtown (Gretna Green), including Kathleen's Grandmother. As far as we know there was no munitions factory in Seaham though there was in Sunderland. The address you give as Milburn St has us thinking as we have never heard of a Milburn St in the town. The Melbury St address we have is from the baptism record of her son.

What is your interest in the family Jim?

Regards.

John & Kathleen

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Jim, photo as requested. If you PM your e-mail I'll try to send a better one. Any further info you have on her would be a huge bonus for us.

Regards

John & Kathleen

post-28333-1238068579.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any idea of the date of her death?

I can't see a death registered

Grant

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Any idea of the date of her death?

I can't see a death registered

Grant

Hi Grant, no known date of death yet but I will post it here if I find it.

Regards

John

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John,

Still cant find a death for her, the nearest that I can get is a Martha A BEECH aged 18, registered in Carlisle (which is nealy 80 miles away) in 1917 (10B 708 2qt), this girl would be the right age, could her husband have come from that area? as I cant see a locally born George H BEECH, but without his DOB it's a no go anyway:-(

Martha Hannah PIGG born chester le street 1899 (10A 610 2qt)

Martha Hannah PIGG married George H BEECH eastington 1915 (10A 1007 3qt)

George H BEECH born eastington 1915 (10A 822 4qt)

George H BEECH died eastington 1916 (10A 531 4qt)

I'm also suspecting that the husband is an older man and the marriage was by licence.

Grant

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Hi Grant,

I suspect the death registered in Carlisle could be her. There was a huge munitions factory in Longtown near Gretna. My wifes grandmother (a Seaham Colliery lass) worked there. I have searched all over the place for her burial record but with no clear result. I will follow up your Carlisle line of enquiry. We suspected her maiden name was Pigg and her father was a William Charles Pigg 2nd DLI. In addition there is a burial record for a Martha A Beech in Easington District, which includes Seaham in 1917 & we know for sure that the infant born 1915 died 1916 was her son.

Many thanks

John

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Martha's age, 18, corresponds with her age in the burial index on Durham Records Online database. It is very likely Grant is correct in assuming that her GRO death ref is Carlisle 10b 708 Jun q.

Christina

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Thanks Christina,

I've just found the family on the 1911 census and the eldest child in Martha H Pigg age 11 years. Father William Charles Pigg. The only issue now is, is the Martha A Beech the Martha H Beech we are researching. I'll buy some credits for Durham Records on line tomorrow and check. The other important issue is... What happenned at Longtown to cause her death. Lost of things were kept low key in ths respect. Any Longtown researchers out there?

Regards

John

Edit, I have changed Beech to Pigg where appropriate

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I have noticed that she must have been pregnant when she married. Her baby was registered the quarter following the marriage. She had a very sad and short life by all accounts.

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Thanks to all who have taken time to look for and post info. We could really do with someone who has information on the munitions factory where she was killed. The death registered in Carlisle leads towards Longtown but its not nailed down yet. Nothing in local papers of the time. The Times report was short and concise and is a good insight as they reassure the readers that production of munitions was not disrupted.

Thanks

John

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Hi again, I think that this confirms the Martha Ann Beech burial is in fact our girl Martha Hannah. It ties up with the Carlisle death registration and the fact that she is the wife of George Henry Beech. I can't find a medal card or service records for G H Beech and there is no sign of a marriage other than that shown on Ancestry. Would "married by licence" be at a registery office?

Burials, Easington District - Record Number: 82707.2

Location: Seaham

Church: Princess Road Cemetery

Religion: any

30 May 1917 Martha Ann Beech, age: 18, wife of George Henry Beech

To be continued I hope.

John

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If one or both marriage partners were under 21 years of age it would be neccessary to have their parents or guardians permission to marry. If this was refused or unobtainanable for any reason the young person could apply for a licence to marry. Those who issued the licence considered the case on its merits, in this case as she must have been pregnant at the time the licence was granted. The licence was probably granted more in mind of an unmarried mother becoming a "burden on the parish" than any thought of sparing her blushes.

Again as they lived close to Gretna Green they could have been runaways in which case it would be also be described as under licence.

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Hi Phil,

thanks for that explanation. I doubt if they lived as a couple in the Gretna/Longtown area as He was in the 1st North Staffs. There were some N Staffs billeted in Seaham at the start of the war. I suspect she went off to work in munitions after the death on her son in 1916.

Regards

John

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I am realy enjoying reading this thread.

How good it is to see that Hannah is comemmorated, since she, killed in an accident whilst making shells, was as much a war casualty as a man at the Front.

The poor lass certainly seems to have had a difficult life.

May she Rest in Peace.

Bruce

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Glad your enjoying the thread Bruce. I have started another related thread in Soldiers to try to pin down George Henry Beech so we shall wait to see if anyone can assist.

Fingers crossed.

John

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John,

In post #2, Jim suggested that he was indexed under "George" BEECH, have you looked at those (he said there were two of them), also might pay giving Jim a quick PM to see where he got the information about the accident.

As for the license, I doubt wether the church would look too kindly on a pregnent sixteen year old, nor I suspect would her Father !!

Grant

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Hi Grant, I have been in touch with Jim but he has no additional information on the actual munitions factory where she worked. I do know he has done an amazing amount of research on women casualties and I for one look forward to his book being published.

Still looking for a munitions factory expert to pick this up.

Regards

John

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John,

If you do a goole search on the Gretna munitions factory, there is a museum there which might have some information about Martha's death - might be worth dropping them a line.

http://www.devilsporridge.co.uk/ - sounds like it was a massive place, had 125 miles of rail track and 35 engines and a telephone exchange that handled 2.5 million calls (thats in 1918!!)

The factory was visited by Conan Doyle (he of Sherlock fame) who describes the women / girls mixing the explosives up in vat, calling it "Devils porridge", it looks like a great place to visit

Grant

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Thanks Grant I'll take a look.

The web site appears to be very much a work in progress but the scale of the place was huge. I'm sure the museum will be well worth a visit.

Regards

John

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  • 2 months later...
Guest stephanie-bull@hotmail.com
Hi Grant, I have been in touch with Jim but he has no additional information on the actual munitions factory where she worked. I do know he has done an amazing amount of research on women casualties and I for one look forward to his book being published.

Still looking for a munitions factory expert to pick this up.

Regards

John

Hello, My name is Stephanie and it has been interesting reading this thread and seeing you talk about my relative.

I have Martha's death certificate and will be more than happy to share the information I have.

She died May 25th 1917 at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle.

The certificate says she died of burns, the result of an explosion in a munition factory.

There was an inquest held on May 26th 1917 .

Her husband George Beech was a soldier of Eden Hastel, Carlisle.

By the way she was born at 8. Harold Street, Washington Station.

If you have any questions please ask.

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Guest stephanie-bull@hotmail.com
Many thanks for the reply Jim. Quite a lot of Seaham lasses worked at Longtown (Gretna Green), including Kathleen's Grandmother. As far as we know there was no munitions factory in Seaham though there was in Sunderland. The address you give as Milburn St has us thinking as we have never heard of a Milburn St in the town. The Melbury St address we have is from the baptism record of her son.

What is your interest in the family Jim?

Regards.

John & Kathleen

Martha's parents address was 17 Melbury Street, Seaham Harbour.

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