Despite having spent numerous holiday's in Cornwall, I can't recall having been here on St Piran's Day. Now that I am a resident, I felt I ought to do a little research and find out a bit more about the day which is named after one of the three patron saints of Cornwall ..... the other two being St Michael who is associated with St Michael's Mount and St Petroc associated with Padstow.

​St. Piran was an Irishman who was said to have performed many miracles, such as raising soldiers slain in battle from the dead.

It was reported that he was flung into the sea in Ireland with a millstone around his neck and miraculously floated across the water to Pirran Beach in Perranporth where he built a small chapel in the sand dunes.

​The Saint Piran Trust website says : According to legend, St Piran was born in Ireland in the 6th century. He was renowned for his miraculous deeds but a group of tribal kings grew afraid of his powers and jealous of his influence. They put a millstone around his neck and threw him off the top of a high cliff into the sea. As Piran fell, lightening and thunder raged, but as he reached the sea the storm ceased and the Irish watched St Piran float on the millstone towards the Cornish shore. After many days at sea, he safely landed on the beach that bears his name today – Perranporth.  He built his chapel in what is today a large expanse of sand dunes and it is said that his first converts were a fox, a badger and a boar.  The Cornish people flocked to see him as news of his teaching spread.

According to an article in the Western Morning News in 1909, on his arrival, St. Piran led a hermit like existence and occupied his plentiful leisure by studying rocks and crystals, collecting many specimens. Before long, it chanced that one of the stones which composed his fireplace was missing, whereupon St. Piran, searching among his collection for a suitable replacement, chose one which was black and of unusual weight. The fire was lit and in due time a stream of white metal flowed over the ground – the first indication of Cornwall's future of wealth. Thereupon the neighbours were summoned and were initiated into the secret of digging and smelting tin. In connection with this legend, the 5th of March became St. Piran’s day and was invariably celebrated by the tinners with much hilarity. 

​According to the Gospel of Wikipedia, there is little description of specific traditions associated with this day apart from the consumption of large amounts of alcohol and food during 'Perrantide', the week leading up to 5 March. The day following St Piran's Day was known by many as 'Mazey Day'. The phrase 'drunk as a perraner' was used in 19th century Cornwall to describe people who had consumed large quantities of alcohol.

St Piran is believed to have lived for 200 years although no date of his death was recorded. He was fond of a drink and met his end falling down a well.  It is said that in 1281 the church at Perran possessed a box containing his head.

​It seems St Piran's Day is always held on 5th March each year. Tinners have a tradition that there are some secrets regarding the manufacture of tin which were communicated to their ancestors by St Piran and that, on that day, they stop work and treat the day as a holiday. It has only been since the late 19th century that Celtic revivalists managed to introduce a day of celebration to Cornwall. Saint Piran's Day has been celebrated throughout the County since the 1950's and now almost every Cornish community holds some sort of event to mark the day.

Thanks to St Piran there is a good excuse for the consumption of much alcohol !   

Reports made by returning escapees

All of these reports were made by officers and men of the armed forces and merchant navy and usually provide: service details; when and where captured; home address and civilian occupation.

For Royal Air Force personnel details can include: where based, type of aircraft, when, where and how the aircraft was lost, and the presumed fate of the other aircrew. Every report includes a narrative, of variable length, which describes an individual's experiences as an escaper, evader or prisoner of war.  In addition, many reports include appendices which can provide the names and addresses of civilian helpers, nature of help given, and relevant dates; details of the escape method and fellow PoWs who assisted in an escape; the usefulness of officially provided escape aids, which ones were used, and suggested improvements and / or additions. 

Escape and Evasion reports are in the National archives at Kew.  The following record series WO208 are included: 

• Pieces 3298 to 3327 – MI9 escape and evasion reports numbered 1 to 3,122, dating from 1940 to 1945 
• Pieces 3343 to 3345 – 843 miscellaneous interrogation reports from 1945 
• Pieces 3348 to 3352 – 3,048 escape reports from 1945 
• Pieces 4238 to 4276 – reports of prisoner of war escapes from Italy to Switzerland 1943-1944 
• Pieces 4368 to 4371 – sundry additional reports on prisoner of war escapes via Switzerland 1943-1944 
• Pieces 5393 to 5404 – MI9 reports on escapers and evaders through enemy lines in Italy 1943-1944 
• Pieces 5582 to 5583 – interrogation reports on repatriated allied prisoner of war escapers and evaders 1942-1946, including some appendices to reports in pieces 3305 to 3327 

A couple of weeks ago we visited an antiques fair in Harpenden. You never know what you will discover and on this occasion it was some old postcards. The lady selling them had packaged them into neat packs of 12 and, when I said I was specifically looking for pre WW1 cards which had been posted, she started looking through some of these packs and extracted the odd card here or there for my perusal. There weren't that many as it turned out but, what was unusual, was that they were all sent to a Miss Busby of Abbots Langley. I purchased three of them in the hope that I could research her further. 

I knew that Abbotts Langley was a small village so there was a good chance of tracing Mary. I did and she was actually quite a local celebrity.

Mary was born on 5th September 1884. She was the daughter of the village undertaker, Homer Busby, and as a child, earned many a sixpence for holding gentlemen’s top hats at funerals. In fact the family business consisted of much more than just the undertaking business as Homer was a builder who had built a number of the larger houses in the area.

​When her father died on Christmas Day in 1929, aged 73, Mary took over the undertaking business to become the only female undertaker in Hertfordshire and one of only a few in the whole country.  She soon became a familiar sight at funerals dressed in her ankle length, dark grey worsted costume and large, broad brimmed, black straw hat. She later reminisced about the good old days when "we had beautiful black horses with plumes, and the gentlemen all wore black crepe around their top hats".

If she wasn't in her funeral attire she would mostly be seen dressed in a capacious blue gingham wrap around apron making for the churchyard with a gardening fork over her shoulder, to tend the graves she was commissioned to keep in order. 

One of the postcards I purchased was sent to her in August 1913 from a friend which suggested some trauma in Mary's life. "So very sorry, my dear", the sender says, who hopes Mary will be able to get to the seaside as it is "the best reviver one can get". I wondered if some relation had died so I started looking into Mary's background. Unfortunately I didn't find out what the postcard was alluring to but I did discover some very sad facts about her father's siblings.

Her father, Homer, was one of four children born to Benjamin and Elizabeth Busby who were publicans at The Kings Head public house opposite the graveyard. I found that Homer's three siblings had all died relatively young, even for those days, so I sent for their death certificates :

• Agnes, who had been born two years after Homer, died aged just 16 on 23rd May 1875.
  
• A few months later on 19th September 1875, Elizabeth, the oldest daughter, died aged 20.

Both died from a form of tuberculosis which in those days was incurable and led to millions of deaths ...... as it still does today despite the existence of a vaccine. TB is a disease found in the lungs and is spread through the air by coughing, sneezing, even speaking. You can imagine the young adults living together in a limited space unknowingly infecting each other leading to their painful and possibly lingering deaths. Coincidentally, twenty years later, the other sibling, 34 year old Leonard Raynor, died of the same disease. 

In her life Mary referred to her customers as having "gone over the garden wall" and she went over her garden wall in 1973, aged 89. At her funeral, as a tribute to her love of flowers and gardens, the organist played "In an English country garden". Mary is buried underneath an avenue of lime trees in the graveyard she so carefully looked after. 

Amazing what you can discover from the back of an old postcard !
​

Having been an Accountant and a member of the Institute of Taxation for over 30 years, I have always wondered why this country remains the only one in the modern world to retain the archaic 6th April as being the beginning of the tax year.  

​I had dozens of clients who referred to their income "last year" as meaning their income in the previous calendar year rather than in the previous tax year. Explaining that a year runs from 6th April to the following 5th April confused the client even before I started on the intricacies of how tax worked and when it was payable !  

So why 5th April ?

You have to go back a long way and I won't be going into too much detail as, if you are really interested, you can Google it and find out. Suffice to say that in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII ordered a change from the Julian Calendar, named after Julius Caesar, to the Gregorian Calendar, named after ....... himself !

The Gregorian calendar was based on the time it took the earth to travel around the sun, which was eleven and a half minutes more per annum than a year under the Julian calendar. By the late 1500's this meant the difference in time since the year zero was 10 days. As the Brits were in dispute with the Catholic Pope, we ignored the decree and carried on using the Julian Calendar. It wasn't until 1752 that we thought we should align our New Year's Day, previously Lady Day on 25th March, to the same as was being used in Europe i.e. 1st January.

To do this the Government decided that in 1752, when there were now 11 accumulated lost days compared to the rest of Europe,  2nd September would be followed by 14th September. This was very unpopular with the masses and they allegedly rioted in the streets complaining that they had been robbed of 11 days of their lives. The main focus of their fury was that they were still going to have to pay a full year's tax despite the fact the year was only going to be 354 days long. To pacify the proletariat, but at the same time getting the New Year into line with our European friends, it was decided that when the old tax year ended on 25th March 1752 it would be immediately followed by the beginning of the new tax year on 5th April, thus loosing the 11 days in a hole nobody noticed.

In 1800 a further day of trickery pokery had to be found in order to maintain alignment with Europe, so the start of the new tax year was again moved, this time to 6th April, where it has remained ever since.

One of the gravestones in St Stephens Parish Church, St Albans, looked interesting, so I took some photographs. When I got home, I went on the internet to see if I could find out more about Anthony James Fairbrother who has a gravestone with a carving of what looks like an old Comet aeroplane. 

Tony Fairbrother was born in 1926 in Coventry. After leaving school and college, he went to the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School in Hatfield. After working in the design and aerodynamics departments he joined the company's new flight test department in 1948.

On 27 July 1949, still only 23, he was chosen to be the flight test engineer on the historic 31 minute maiden flight of the world's first jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet 1. The revolutionary aeroplane was designed and built in secret and doubled the cruising speed and altitude of the conventional propeller-driven planes of the time. 

Today, when we take for granted trans Atlantic flight, it is hard to appreciate the charisma of the Comet which, in technology terms, was the Concorde or space shuttle of it's day. Tony was quoted as saying : "The Comet must have been one of the all-time technical achievements. I don't think it is too much to say that the world changed from the moment it's wheels left the ground". It was this phrase which had caught my eye on the back of his gravestone.

Tony went on to became head of the de Havilland flight development team for the next 30 years. He managed the development, flight testing and certification of more than 15 new types of both civil and military aircraft including the Comet 4 which, even up until recently, was being used, in a vastly modified form, as the The Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft. 

Tony Fairbrother died on 7th December 2004.

It was just after the second World War that Bob Pelham formed a company called "Wonkey Toys" in Marlborough, Wiltshire, with the purpose of making novelty wooden toys. He got the unusual nickname of "The Wonkey Donkey Officer" during the War as he made small donkeys which moved when you compressed the spring in the bottom - not unlike the modern version (see right).

After seeking advice from the team behind the TV phenomenon, Muffin the Mule, Bob hit on the idea of making marionettes simple enough to be manipulated by children - not something that had previously been considered realistic. He was a resourceful man without funding. He built prototypes with legs made from war surplus duffel coat toggles and the bodies were made out of bits off ammunition boxes. ​Although early heads were machine made, he soon began to make them from wooden balls previously intended for coconut shies. 

​Despite initial indifference from toy retailers, he managed to persuade Hamleys to let him demonstrate the puppets from behind his own counter in their Regent Street shop. They were an instant hit and Bob later recalled "By explaining how simple string puppets really were to work and showing a somewhat surprised audience their comical antics, the first puppets began to sell". A year after the formation of Wonky Toys Ltd, the company was renamed Pelham Puppets. 

​Millions of puppets were made between 1947 and 1993 by Pelham and it is believed that, at any one time, there are around 500 on sale on ebay. 

One of the ranges they made was The Jumpette Range, and mine is one of these. It was particularly aimed at very young children and was a simple three string affair with a single bar control held by the child.
​
My Jumpette Girl (see left) has a small round wooden head with yellow woollen hair, painted features, blue eyes, early composite open hands, bamboo arms and legs, with white blouse and purple shirt and blue demi-ball feet.

There is a single string attached to each hand going through the control bar and the head is on a separate piece of elastic also connected to the bar. When the bar is moved the puppet automatically jumps on the elastic, hence the name "Jumpette".

​The puppets can be aged from the colour of their box :

• The 50's had brown boxes with a dark blue and white label (and other colours) 
• In the 60's the boxes were yellow and had pictures of other puppets from their range.
• By the end of the 60's, the boxes had cellophane fronts so that the puppet could be seen inside.
• Throughout the 70's the yellow cellophane fronted boxes continued, reinforced with a band of card across the front.
• The late 80's saw a change to red and yellow striped boxes.

My box is marked with a cost of 14 shillings and 6 pence which, assuming it was from the early 1960's, using the retail price index, equates to about £14 today. They weren't cheap toys and it was probably a Christmas present. Apart from a few rarities, the puppets are not valuable even with the box in mint condition. My box is far from mint as either me or my sister must have decided it would be fun to colour in the letters and generally draw all over it !

After Sheila Burton had stood down as Chairman at the 2003 AGM I was asked by the Committee to take over - an honour I was pleased to accept.

In my first newsletter I said that having spent a lot of money over the past few years on the courts and the patio, the continuation of our ten year plan meant we would now be concentrating on improving the inside of the clubhouse. In the summer of 2004 we put in "new windows and frames to replace the rather worn, tired looking ones, and decorated the kitchen" to comply with health and safety standards.

It was October when all the Chairmen since 1990 got together for this photograph.

The Clubs Centenary celebrations started with an over subscribed American Tournament in November 2004 followed by a centenary sit down dinner which was attended by around 100 members. I had put together a collage of attendees who had supplied photos of themselves in their younger days and everyone enjoyed trying to identify their table mates :  

Celebrations peaked and culminated in June 2005 with the 'Centenary Day', held on one of the hottest days of the year. Dozens of members helped organise and set everything up. The courts were surrounded by bunting and a huge white marquee covered both the top two hard courts. Mike Probert and Liam Adams were on guard duty at the Club overnight to watch for any would-be vandals or thieves. 

​There were displays of memorabilia, organised tennis, ploughmans lunches and afternoon teas. In the evening we held a thrilling barn dance with a professional caller together with a huge barbecue to feed everyone. 

​We estimated that, throughout the day, we shared the celebrations with over 350 past and present members and friends of the Club. A function to end all functions !

Charles Allistone who had joined the committee in 1956 sadly died in 2005. He had been Chairman of the Club throughout the 1980s and was instrumental in overseeing the work done to upgrade the courts.

John Allen, treasurer on and off for 29 years, stepped down at the 2005 AGM. 

The 2006 AGM reported that a small sub committee were looking at ways in which to reinvigorate the clubhouse. ​ On a relatively small budget this was partly accomplished in 2007 with a much more comfortable and modern looking small bar area.

The next stage in this rejuvenation programme was the complete renovation of the kitchen area which was completed in early 2009.

In October 2009 a remarkable £1,250 was raised by members for charity over one weekend. On the Saturday, my Super Quiz raised £615 for Star Scope and was used to purchase some much needed equipment for a local disabled child. The following afternoon, a massive £642 was raised for Children in Need after we held an American Tournament held in memory of Mike Probert who had tragically died while skiing.  

At the AGM a few weeks later I stood down and handed over the reins to new blood. In my retirement statement I said "This has been a very difficult decision to make as we are such a good team and the club is buzzing with first rate facilities and a rising record membership.  All the goals we set in 1998 have been achieved. However, 14 years is a long time and I think the time is right to step down".  

I must say, even now, 7 years later, how much pleasure it gives me to think of the changes we were able to bring to the Club over this period - although I am the first to say that it was done as a team effort and everyone concerned should be equally proud of their contribution.

The new millennium started with the inside of the clubhouse being redecorated and our logo painted above the bar. In the autumn newsletter, Sheila Burton, our new Chairman, reported that :

• the Club had one of the most successful years for some time with membership, court lettings to local schools, bar income and visitors fees - all up.  
• "the Club is debt free, having paid off all its loans". This meant we were finally in a position to plan and budget without pressure from third parties.

She reiterated our vision "to have a family focused tennis club at the centre of the community where members enjoy themselves".  ​

The old patio had been on three different levels and was dangerous, certainly not accessible to buggies or wheelchairs. ​In July 2001 plans were drawn up to create a new patio with ramps to enable disabled access at an estimated cost of around £25,000 (actual cost over £30,000). 

It was announced at the 2001 AGM that John Harris, Chairman when I came onto the committee, had agreed to become the Club President. Everyone looked up to John and, personally, he gave me so much support during my time as Chairman. As Sheila said in her report, "as the club moves forward we can have no better advocate for us than John".  

At the 2002 AGM Sheila was proud to report that "the refurbished patio was the final project in phase one of a rolling programme of improvements that were initiated by your new Board in 1998. During the period both sets of carpet courts (8 to 13) have been renewed with astroturf, macadam courts (3 and 4) have been relaid and courts 1 & 2 resprayed. The clubhouse has been redecorated internally and the bar refurbished".

All of this was done using club funds and no external borrowing - something which could not have possibly have been envisaged four years previously. It was primarily possible due to increased membership and monies received from the telecom mast. ​

​The next phase of the master plan was discussed at the 2002 AGM. "It seems to be generally accepted that in the days of all year round tennis, the grass courts have reached their sell by date". The Committee felt that we needed to dig up the final three grass courts and replace them with artificial grass. There was not a lot of opposition apart from some of those older members who just liked playing on grass. The fact they were only usable for three months of the year and were expensive to maintain made it a no brainer. They would have to go as soon as we could afford about £90,000 to replace them with astro turf.

​As it was, the final three grass courts began to be dug up in October 2003, soon to be replaced with fully floodlit acrylic. The passing of the grass was the end of an era. The importance of the event was recognised by the holding of a Wooden Racket Tournament where everyone had to play using a wooden racket. Us oldies went up into our lofts and supplied the youngsters with our prehistoric Dunlop Maxplys. Some dressed up in long white trousers and boaters. It was a memorable afternoon. Ironically, the winners were two youngsters who had never even held a wooden racket in their life before that day !

At the 2003 AGM Sheila stood down as Chairman and as a Director. She said that "five years ago I agreed to become chairman of the club for a five year period on the understanding that I wanted to drive through a large refurbishment programme. Any corporate business would be proud of the growth and successful financial position that we can now demonstrate". Shortly after the AGM, the Committee gave Sheila Honorary Membership and I can think of very few others who deserved it more.

​This was the point at which the Club had reached when I wrote the Clubs potted history of "The First 100 Years" in the build up to our centenary celebrations. I summed up where we were at that time by saying :

"We should be proud of our past and the trials and tribulations which have got us to where we are today. We have a Club that will have nine excellent fully floodlit carpet courts and a new patio admired by both members and visitors. We have an increasing membership and money in the bank. Most of all we have a friendly club where everyone seems to enjoy their tennis. Not a bad way to end the first 100 years !"

At the end of the twentieth century there was an abyss between those who thought tennis should still be played with wooden rackets on manicured grass courts and the younger generation who embraced change. In 1997 the club had deteriorating courts, was in debt and loosing members.

Our new chairman, Robert Graham, set up a fresh sub-committee to draw up radical proposals which could be put to the members for discussion. Myself, Peter Ward and Sydney Ratcliffe initially floated some ideas in a July 1997 newsletter and at the subsequent AGM. 

We argued that as the Club could not afford to maintain 13 courts, given its poor membership, that the solution would be to either utilise some of the courts by introducing a second sport - archery and bowls were suggested - or we should seek planning permission to put up a bubble for indoor tennis. Because of opposition from the traditionalists, nothing came from our efforts.

In  May 1998 a new group, consisting of enthusiastic members, met to brainstorm ideas as they felt the club had declined and they wanted to turn around the Club's fortunes. Members of the group became known as the WAGs - The Way Ahead Group - and we were lead by Sheila Burton, St Albans Mayor in 1993. Other members were myself, Archie McDonald, Marsha Boyes, Anne Swallow, Ann Toogood and Tony Wilkins. A meeting at the Clubhouse was arranged for September when members were invited to help us draw up an action plan to move the club forward. Over 70 attended in what was probably the watershed for SALTC.

In July 1998 the Club signed an agreement with Orange to erect a phone mast. This was a controversial decision but financially enabled much needed funds to flow into the coffers on an annual basis for the next ten years.

Unexpectedly on 22nd September Tony Pritchard who had served as Secretary for many years resigned from the Committee. I was appointed in his place and, at the AGM in November, four of the other WAGs not already on the Committee were voted on. Robert Graham stood down as Chairman which, he said, was due to the "emergence of the Way Ahead Group and its envisaged integration within the Club's Board of Directors" and he saw "the Club's potential future as bright and in good hands".

The revolution at SALTC was complete. Sheila Burton became our new Chairman and she would take us safely into the next millennium. Membership numbers reportedly stood at 184 adults and 154 juniors.

​​The new Committee knew that things had to change and that increasing membership numbers must be a priority. As a sign of how things were changing the Club introduced a new logo, designed by Marsha Boyes, which proved very popular.

Other immediate innovations were :

• the issue of a regular newsletter providing news and information to members
• the development of a new website, largely provided by Jenny Stokes.
• the issue of a membership consultation document to find out what members wanted (36% of all households responded).

The three old acrylic 'carpet' courts, nearest to the Clubhouse, were replaced in September 1999, utilising what funds we had. At the AGM, the Club voted to remove the reference to "croquet" from their name. 

We all then waited for the impending Millennium Bug to hit causing untold damage to our computers and the country in general ....... and we waited ......... and waited !

I have been a member of St Albans Lawn Tennis Club (SALTC) for over twenty three years and have enjoyed hundreds, possibly thousands, of games of tennis with some wonderful people. As a past Committee Member, Company Secretary, Chairman and soon to be ex-Club Archivist I have seen many characters come and go.

I wrote "SALTC - the first hundred years" in 2004 when the Club celebrated it's centenary. It is now twelve years on and I am looking forward to my retirement on the Cornish Coast. Before I leave, I am passing the archives back to the Club which I hope will provide amusing ammunition for a future historian to reminisce about when he or she comes to write the next installment of the club's history. In order to bring the History more up to date, I thought I would write about some of my own memories of playing tennis and of the Club which has been a large part of my life for so long.   

Pre SALTC

I was probably about 12 when I joined a very small club in Willifield Way, Hampstead Garden Suburb called Cranbourne 20 and can remember the thrill of playing my first junior match. Not long after joining, the Club folded and I was 'transferred' to Temple Fortune Tennis Club (TFC) in Bridge Lane. This was a bigger club and, I seem to remember, they had six courts. Unfortunately these were En Tout Cas red dusty clay which meant you were continually dirty. During my time there, they built two squash courts and I enjoyed playing although it didn't do much for my tennis as it was all wrist. When it was wet we played cards or table tennis and there was such a friendly atmosphere - families even had their Sunday dinners down at the Club.

As we got older, us teenagers would get together for all sorts of social activities as well as for tennis and we spent more than one summer holidaying together in small tents on grassy fields. I thought every tennis club would be like TFC and I guess I subsequently strived to recreate what was good about TFC at SALTC.

Sadly, after what seemed a lifetime, we all went our separate ways, to College or University, and most moved out of the area. A couple of years ago a lot of us met up for a BBQ and, even though it was 25 years since most of us met, it seemed like yesterday.

After I married in 1977 the commuting between Watford and Temple Fortune became too much and I stopped playing. Children arrived and my life as a husband and an Accountant took over. I briefly joined a tennis club in Chesham but it wasn't like TFC so I didn't enjoy it and left. After having moved to St Albans in 1985 I became a couch potato.  

One day, I decided this wasn't good and I really needed to get some exercise so I thought "Why not join the local tennis club ?" ​

Open Day at SALTC

They say that first impressions are lasting impressions and this was so true on this occasion. Rather nervously, after a break from tennis of about 15 years, I turned up for the Clubs Open Day in May 1993.  I was met by Anne Swallow on the patio and was immediately welcomed and put into a four which, I think, included Robert Thomson. The standard was fine and I was assured that even though the Club had a playing in test I wouldn't have a problem passing. That was how my love affair with SALTC started.

At this stage, the Club had three acrylic grass and four hard courts, all floodlit, plus six unlit grass courts. In September 1994 planning permission was obtained to put floodlights on the remaining grass courts - although the lack of money stopped any being erected. 

Development Sub Committee

By October 1994 I had already been invited to join a long standing sub-committee looking into the possibility of converting the Clubs six grass courts to some form of new surface and adding floodlighting. There were lots of ideas floating around and numerous detailed reports on the pros and cons of different surfaces, or the possibility of even putting up a bubble. Unfortunately, for all of these options, funding was a major problem. The Club had previously paid for the replacement of court surfaces by borrowing from the LTA. As such, they had to make regular repayments and had a commitment to maintain a sinking fund to replace these courts after their useful lives - there was very little cash, if any, to spend. On top of this, the membership was falling as the Club couldn't afford to maintain the 13 courts it had. Any new expenditure was predominately going to have to be funded by borrowing.

The Mike Broad Affair

When I wrote my potted history of the Club it was too soon after to mention it. Even today, it is still only spoken about in hushed words. This was obviously a difficult time for the Club and we were approached for comment by both local and national newspapers. The fact Robert Graham, a lawyer by profession, was our Chairman and "spokesman", was very fortuitous as he was able to field all requests for interviews with a knowledgeable, friendly and indefatigable "No comment" in his broad Scottish accent. 

New Coach

It was a critical time for the Club and we had to appoint a suitable replacement coach. Luckily, Tony Wilkins, with his wife Frances, applied for the post. Tony had been a part time coach at the club throughout the 1980s but had moved away to further his business career. There were two other candidates but in all honesty Tony was the perfect person to steady, what was, a rocking boat.  

My next blog will cover the transition from the old guard to the new which put in motion the building blocks to the highly popular club we have today. 

I was looking for something 'glass' to take to an "Antiques and Collectibles" group I belong to and was struggling to find anything glass and antique, let alone something interesting enough to talk about.

However, I went up into the loft and recovered one of the many nick nacks which I had wrapped up when sorting out my Mother's belongings after her death. They were three miniature glass perfume bottles with their original stoppers. 

I had never really looked at them before or given any thought as to where they might have come from or how they got into my mothers possession. ​The only clue as to their identity is on their bottom. They are all marked "Bottle made in France", one with "JP 0" after and the other two with "JP 1". Not much to go on !

It was my wife who made the connection to a well known French designer, Jean Patou. This was confirmed when we found an identical bottle which had been sold on ebay described as a "Jean Patou perfume bottle, vintage mini miniature size, hobnail style, all glass stopper dauber, retro 1930's era, vanity boudoir decor". 

Who was Jean Patou you ask ? He was born in 1880 and was a highly successful couturier making original garments to order for private clients. In addition to his clothing range, in 1925, he launched a perfume business and in 1928 he created the first sun tan lotion.

​He became known for eradicating the 1920s flapper look by lengthening the skirt and designing sportswear for women. He is considered the inventor of knitted swimwear and the tennis skirt. Notably he designed the then daring sleeveless and knee length tennis dress worn by Suzanne Lenglen.

He was also the first designer to popularize the cardigan and helped move fashion towards the more natural and comfortable.

​The Yorkshire Evening Post in 1930 said of his designs that he "hurled upon the dress world that bomb of the long skirt. It burst so suddenly that the whole fashionable world was convulsed. Finally, after being cautiously approached - like the mouse approaching the piece of cheese - it was graciously accepted. We submitted to the entanglement of its added folds". 

Like most men, I hate walking around clothes shops with my wife. Jean had a novel approach to keeping his clients' husbands and men friends on board which might have even got me into his shop. He put a bar in his showrooms "to quench the thirst of bored husbands and other men during clients fittings, an amenity which was much appreciated, and helped to curb the impatience which experience had taught him often led to the loss of sales". He also introduced a perfume bar at which a woman could mix their own perfume in a shaker. 

Patou's clothes were marketed mostly to rich American women. However, when the American stock market crashed in 1929 a lot of his customers became bankrupt and his brand only survived through his perfumes.

​It was during the Great Depression that Jean Patou created a fragrance "designed as a work of art and as a gift for his good customers to chase the Depression blues away. No expense was to be spared and the finest raw materials were to be used. The costliest fragrance in the world was named 'JOY' in defiance of grim headlines and hard times with a mission to spread a message of JOY around the world" (source : current Jean Patou website). 

'Joy' has a heavy floral scent, based on the rose and jasmine and remained the costliest perfume in the world until 1972. It remains the world's second best selling scent after Chanel No 5. 

Patou died aged just 49 in 1936 although his brand lived on and can still be purchased around the world and in the UK in up market stores such as Harrods, Selfridges, House of Fraser and John  Lewis.

It was this fact which made me wonder whether the fact my mother worked as a children's hairdresser in Selfridges (for Mr Selfridge !) might have been the cause and source of her having these miniature bottles. Perhaps they were gifts from Mr Selfridge, sample bottles given to the staff or a Christmas gift Dad bought Mum ? 

As I said earlier, one of these bottles was sold on ebay. Am I in possession of a valuable antique ? Sadly not. It was sold for £15 which means the bottle is only of scentimental value !

However, they might try but you can't stop the masses from enjoying their annual festivities. In 1647 there were major riots in London when the authorities forcibly attempted to stop people celebrating Christmas. As a mark of protest shops closed for the day and holly was hung in doorways. ​

​The unrest led to a resumption of the civil war which eventually saw the execution of the King in 1649. The subsequent republican regime, partly under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, neither officially sanctioned nor suppressed Christmas.

​After Charles II came to the throne, all legislation passed between 1642 and 1660 was declared null and void which meant everyone could once again enjoy their over eating and debauchery.

The attack on Christmas failed in 1647 - let's hope it fails again in the 21st century.

When writing about my ancestors, I try to think of them in context to what was going on in the world around them at the time. Everyone would draw up a different list of crucial things which have happened over the last two hundred odd years, but I have chosen some which are most relevant to the modern day genealogist : 

The more family history I do, the more interesting it becomes to research what is going on in the background of these ancestors. They have names, dates of birth, marriage and death, even details of their occupation and places they lived, but unless you put their lives into the context of what is going on around them you only have part of their story.  

We think of governments raising taxes and budgeting expenditure but long before we became a parliamentary democracy the King or Queen would need to do much the same - although their outgoings included their own personal household costs. They came up with  a number of strange ways in which to raise money, some of which, much like the modern so-called 'bedroom tax', were very unpopular. This blog is about one such tax.    

All governments at some point say that they are going to 'simplify' the tax system. This invariably means more red tape and hundreds more pages of legislation which taxpayers' advisers will do the utmost to get round. One of the problems with taxing people is that unless there is a full proof system, they will tend to make themselves invisible and outside the law. The dastardly plan which King Charles  II, who had been restored to the throne in 1660, came up with was to impose a tax on something which was much easier to count and immovable - the fireplace !

In 1662 the King passed a law that every house occupier was required to pay a tax of two shillings a year for each hearth or stove within his property - the tax was to be collected half yearly. 

Those who were not required to pay were :

• the occupiers of houses or land worth less than £1 a year
• the possessors of property worth less than £10
• those that paid neither church nor poor rate and
• those who received poor relief or were inmates of almshouses or hospitals.

These people had, however, to petition for an exemption certificate from the minister and parish officials. However, nobody with more than two hearths could apply for exemption. 

​There was some fairness to this tax as the wealthier you were, the more fireplaces you would have. However, what was so disliked was that tax officials were authorised to enter your house unannounced in order to count the number of fireplaces there were in your house. A newspaper report said "the hearth tax was considered one of the most obnoxious and unjust of taxes, as it was both inquisitorial in its action and pressed (by the Collectors of the tax) with undue severity upon the poor in comparison with the rich".

By coincidence this tax was imposed just before the Great Fire of London in 1666. Records show that the tax inspector counted five hearths and one oven in a property in Pudding Lane, little knowing that these would soon be the source of one of the most important events in the history of this country. There is an excellent searchable website with details of these records, not just for London, at Hearth Tax Online.  
​​
Tax avoidance

Everyone responded by blocking up their chimneys which effectively made the fireplace obsolete. This enabled them to avoid paying the tax.
​
​The tax didn't last very long and was repealed in 1689.

In the late 18th century both men and women were wearing large wigs which required whitening in order to give them their distinctive white or off-white colour. This was done by administering hair powder. It was therefore unsurprising that William Pitt the Younger came up with a dastardly plan which he hoped would bring in funds to help pay for the war he was waging against Napoleon.  

The 'Duty on Hair Powder Act 1795' said that everyone using hair powder must visit a stamp office to purchase an annual certificate. There were exemptions including :

• the Royal Family and their servants
• clergymen with an income of under £100 a year
• non-commissioned officers, privates in the army, artillery, militia, mariners, engineers, fencibles, subalterns, officers in the navy below commander, yeomanry, and volunteers.

An understandable relief was given to the master of a household who could buy a certificate for  his servant which would also be valid for their successors within that year. Also a father with more than one unmarried daughter could buy two certificates which would be valid for all his daughters. 

The same article continues by saying that in Russia in 1705 "Peter the Great assessed the beards of his nobles at a rouble and those of the common people at a kopeck. The tax was partly for the purpose of inducing the Russians to shave. Any man wearing a beard without having paid the tax was liable to have the hair torn out by the roots or to be shaved with a blunt razor."

I am not sure what our tax collectors would have made of being given the opportunity to inflict real pain on the poor taxpayer ! 

With each of these taxes, I can see there being long legal arguments over 

• whether a moustache or beard had a growth of more than two weeks, or
• how long or bushy your beard was. 

Perhaps we were lucky that the modern tax specialist spent his time arguing over whether a Jaffa Cake was a cake, and zero rated from VAT, or if it was a biscuit and standard rated !  

We take it for granted these days that our houses will be nicely furnished and most rooms will have a nicely patterned wallpaper hung to hide the otherwise plain white walls. This was not always the case.

The wallpaper tax

It wasn't until the beginning of the 18th century that the use of wallpaper became widespread. This inspired a tax to be introduced under the reign of Queen Anne in 1712 to tax paper that was "painted, printed or patterned to serve as hangings". The paper was initially taxed at one penny per square yard but increased to one shilling by 1809 (about £3.25 in today's money).

Tax Avoidance

Seems simple, and I suppose it was, but you could get around this tax by purchasing plain wallpaper and having it stenciled or painted over by hand.

Tax evasion

Although I must say I haven't actually found anyone found guilty of the falsification of wallpaper stamps, which showed that the tax had been paid, in 1806 it was added to the list of offences punishable by death.

Talking of death ........

The price of wallpaper dropped dramatically in 1836 after the tax was abolished. As oil lamps were also replacing candles, which had needed the room to be a reflective pale colour, the darker patterns became the vogue with Scheele's Green and Schweinfurt Green the most popular. It was estimated that in 1858 there was 100 million squares miles of green wallpaper in Britain alone. One manufacturer boasted that demand for the 'bright cheerful colour' was so high that he was using up to two tons of Scheele's Green every week. 

The boom in wallpaper sales was obviously good for the economy and this continued despite scare stories in the press (and The Lancet) making a connection between green wallpaper and arsenic poisoning. Similar to the tobacco manufacturers of the 1960's denying a link between smoking and cancer, the wallpaper manufacturers vehemently denied any possible connection of their product to arsenic poisoning. Successive governments chose the wealth of the industry over the health of the people and chose to ignore the warning signs. 

Unfortunately, what people failed to realize was that their wallpaper was coloured with arsenic, and slowly poisoning them. It took until the 1890’s for science to show that arsenic vapour - caused by the arsenic in the wallpaper mixing with the intrinsic damp walls - was causing countless cases of blindness, acute diabetes, neurological disorders and deaths.

Nobody likes paying tax on the necessities of life. Clothes are one of those things we need in order to pass muster with our fellow human beings and to keep ourselves warm. Is it fair to impose tax on something so basic ? Well, we have been paying VAT on our clothing for many years and it seems successive governments going back into the dim and distant past have targeted wearing apparel.

What was the hat tax ?

The prosperous Georgian gentlemen would have owned a number of hats, one for each occasion, some more expensive than others.  He would always like to be seen properly dressed in his hat which would hopefully be bigger and better than that of his friends. In those days, size did matter ! 

It would therefore have been seen as a sensible move for the newly elected Pitt the Younger to impose a tax on hats. It would hurt the rich a lot more than the poor. As with tax policies today, those better off would pay more because of the sheer number of hats they owned and, because those less well off would probably only have one hat, it meant the poor would pay less. Clever - a tax on the rich !

The rate of hat tax

​Between 1784 and 1811 every hat retailer had to buy a license to sell hats. The cost of the retail license was two pounds in London and five shillings elsewhere.

In addition, there was a tax imposed on each hat which needed to have a revenue stamp stuck inside on its lining showing that tax had been paid. The amount of the duty depended on the cost of the hat.

• Cost under four shillings - duty of threepence
• Cost between four and seven shillings - duty of sixpence
• Cost between seven and twelve shillings - duty of a shilling
• Cost over twelve shillings - duty of two shillings. ​​

A shilling of that period had the purchasing power of about £3.40 today. The richer you were, the more expensive the hat, the more tax you paid.

I am not sure why, but this hat tax was only levied on men's hats, not women's. Was that fair ? 

Heavy fines were given to anyone, milliner or hat wearer, who failed to pay the hat tax. However, anyone forging the hat tax revenue stamps would be subject to the death penalty. 

Tax avoidance ?

I remember the technical arguments and the time spent discussing whether something was a 'cake' and zero-rated for VAT purposes or whether it was a 'biscuit' and subject to VAT at 20%. Similarly, the hat makers tried to get round the law by stopping calling their creations 'hats' and heated discussions must have ensued. In the end nobody won and the loose definition of a 'hat' in the legislation lead to the hat tax being imposed on all headgear by 1804. 

As a retired member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation I thought I should use my retirement to find out about some of the stranger taxes which have been imposed in this country and throughout the world. As the Government need to reduce the deficit and it isn't politically beneficial to do it by increasing income taxes, I wondered if they might use or adapt some of the taxes our ancestors used to pay.

Today we have betting duty and the television licence which are effectively taxes on our leisure time but did you know that, up until comparatively recently, there was a tax on playing cards - the actual cards themselves, not the act of playing the game of cards.

History of the card tax 

The church was always opposed to gaming with cards. It was believed that the use of cards lead to crime, dishonesty, drunkeness, fighting and other unsavoury behavior. Cards were viewed as evil and sinister. In 15th century England it was even forbidden to play cards except during the 12 days of Christmas.

A long time before we all started to watch the square black box in the corner of the room, even before they had electricity, playing cards was one of the most popular pastimes and I guess most houses would have a pack to bring out on a wet evening. James 1, who was in charge when the United Kingdom was formed in 1603, came up with the idea of raising revenue by making the card makers pay for a stamp which would be printed on the Ace of Spades showing that tax had been paid. In 1805 the rate of this card tax was half a crown (12.5p) which is about £3.75 per pack in today's money. The effect was to more than double the retail price of each pack of cards. Unsurprisingly, this led to a few card makers trying to find ways to evade paying the tax altogether and making a much higher profit as a result.

Tax avoidance or evasion ?

John Blacklin thought he had found a way around the law when in 1805 he began selling packs of cards which excluded the Ace. He sold these packs of 51 cards in great numbers ...... oh yes, he sold the Aces separately if you wanted one. He argued that he wasn't liable for the tax because he wasn't selling a complete pack of playing cards. Sadly, the jury weren't convinced and he was found guilty.

Tax evasion

A case was heard at the Old Bailey on 21st October 1805 when John Harding was indicted for forging and counterfeiting the ace of spades on playing cards and selling them knowing them to be forged and counterfeited.

Harding was a respectable playing card maker and had two separate, properly licensed, shops. It seems that the authorities became suspicious because of the very small number of stamps he paid for compared to the size of the business he was running. A bit like the modern day tax inspectors looking to detect traders who aren't declaring all their cash income, they sent in some stooges to buy a quantity of playing cards from Harding to obtain the cards with the allegedly fraudulent stamp. They then raided his premises and found the copper plates which he had used to produce the forged stamps hidden under the ground ..... which was a bit of a giveaway. ​

Law changes

In 1828, in order to defeat widespread evasion, the duty was reduced to one shilling and, rather than allow the card maker to print their own Aces, the aces and card wrappers were specially printed by a company called 'Perkins Bacon' on behalf of the Commissioners of Stamps. This ace was known as 'Old Frizzle' and had an even more intricate design which carried the maker's name. The Ace was held by Customs and only issued once duty had been paid by the card makers. ​

In 1862, the duty was reduced to three pence and was charged for the officially printed wrappers they had to be wrapped in rather than the Ace. This left the makers free to produce their own designs for the aces.
​

Having written about nearly 100 ancestors, it occurred to me that there were a good proportion of them who had died for their country during World Wars. This may be due to the fact their information may be easier to find than other mere mortals but in any case I thought it would be appropriate to provide a brief resume and list them in the order their deaths took place so that they could be remembered. To read their individual blogs just click on their names.  So far, my research has found 10 servicemen and 3 civilian ancestors who died during the two world wars.

Private Frank Arthur Musgrove of  The Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment) (2nd battalion The Queen's Own Buffs).  Died of his wounds on the 5th October 1917, aged 19, during what became known as 'Passendale 1917' - probably wounded during Battle of the Menin Road Bridge (20th September) or Battle of Polygon Wood (26th September) or Battle of Broodseinde (4th October). Over the period of 100 days there were over half a million Allied casualties with a gain of only a few miles. He is remembered at Godewaersvelde British Cemetary and was a great uncle.

1942

Flying Officer Gerald Eugene Musgrove was killed on 22nd February 1942 when his Hurricane collided with an Army Lysander over Totnes during a training exercise. Gerald was just 21 years old. He is remembered on the Wendover CWGC Memorial with his father and brother. He was a first cousin once removed.

1944

My grandfather on my birth tree, Bill Anderson (aka Lamond), served with the Army Service Corps in WW1. He was a baker between the wars and in WW2 again served with the RASC, presumably making bread for the troops.  He went to France with the British Expeditionary Force before being evacuated from Dunkirk with a puppy called Yorkie under his great coat. He then went to North Africa where he was captured by the Italians at Tobruk (June 1942) and taken to a POW camp in Italy. When the Italians capitulated (about September 1943) he escaped and at some point was subsequently recaptured by the Germans.  He was being taken by train to a POW camp in Germany on 28th January 1944 - the train he was being transported in was going over a bridge to the north of Orvieto in Italy when it was bombed and destroyed by the Americans. He was 47 years old.   Hundreds of POW's of all nationalities died, including Bill.

Hugh 'Pops' Benson was 62 years old when he died on 12th July 1944 in Stalag IV B in Muhlberg, South of Berlin. He served with the Royal Field Artillery in the Boer War at Ladysmith, with the 1st Mounted Rifles during WW1, before being captured during WW2 at Tobruk while serving with the 1st battalion of the Royal Durban Light Infantry.  The unique photograph opposite was taken in the POW camp where he was being given a military funeral by both his comrades and his German captors. He was a great uncle. 

Godfrey Dennis Musgrove, better known as Bobby, signed up for the RAF Volunteer Reserve after his brother (Gerald) had been killed. He was diagnosed with leukemia and died aged 22 in the RAF hospital, St Athan, on 18th October 1944. Like his father and brother, he is remembered on the CWGC memorial at Wendover. He was buried with his brother and the gravestone says: "Great Pals - To their gay and gallant spirit a happiness which once has been is imperishable. R.I.P." He was a first cousin once removed.

1945

​Christina Chatterton Bird (aged 76) (my 2nd cousin 2 x removed), her sister Gertrude Pattie Friend (aged 70) (2nd cousin 2 x removed) and Gertrude's daughter Christine Chatterton Friend (aged 37) (3rd cousin 1 x removed) are all civilians commemorated on the CWGC website. They were killed in Wanstead, on the north eastern corner of London after a V-2 rocket landed on their house at 06.24, probably when they were still asleep. Official sources record that it killed 14 others in the surrounding streets, with 6 injured and 27 slightly injured. We know the rocket fell on 26th January 1945 but the death certificate says "dead body found 27th January".

George Musgrove, father of Gerald and Bobby (see above), won the Military Medal and the Distinguished Conduct Medal during WW1. He lost his leg near Ovillers during a battle on the Somme. He joined up again for WW2 and was a Major in the Royal Army Pay Corps (RAPC), which was responsible for administering all financial matters in the British Army. George died, aged just 48, on 10th June 1945 after catching pneumonia following an operation for a duodenal ulcer. He is commemorated on the CWGC memorial at Wendover, as are his two sons who died before him. ​

Lithography can be dated back to 1796 in Germany when an otherwise unknown Bavarian playwright, Alois Senefelder, accidentally discovered that he could duplicate his scripts by writing them in greasy crayon on slabs of limestone and then print them with rolled on ink. The process depended on the chemical aversion of grease and water which makes certain parts of the surface accept the ink and other parts reject it. Because the limestone retained any crayon marks applied to its surface, even after repeated inking and printing, lithographs could be printed in almost unlimited quantities. 

I have this lithographed picture from around 1850 of a drawing done by an ancestor of mine, Thomas Ross. The lithographer was Robert Martin of 124 High Holborn who has four lithographed portraits in the National Portrait Gallery.

I bought it because of the fact the artist was related to me and because we like Hastings. I knew nothing about the process involved in making a lithographic picture so tried to find out. It is surprising how complicated it sounds when you look on the internet so I thought I would attempt to write a blog in simple English explaining some of the mechanics of what must have taken place all those years ago in order to produce the print below. Whether I have succeeded or not, I leave you to judge.

• The tricky part was then to load damp paper onto the limestone slab and run it through a lithography press. The ink remained on the roller when it met the water and transferred from the roller to the paper when it met the grease.
• The paper would then be lifted off the slab to get an initial reverse print. 
• The process would be repeated with more ink, three or four times. Before putting the paper through the press again they would have marked each sheet so that subsequent presses would be in identical positions. 
• The end result would be a print which was the reverse of the original drawing. Presumably the benefit of having your drawing lithographed was that you could have numerous identical copies printed and be able to sell more !​

What is clear from my research is that to get a good lithographic picture requires the skill of not only the artist drawing the sketch, but also the expertise of the lithographer who turns it into something which can be replicated time and time again. In the days before photography this would have been the only way to do this. 

Click here to watch an excellent video about the lithography process I found on U-Tube.

To read my blog about the artist, Thomas Ross, click here. 

This week our U3A 'Graveyards and memorials' group visited St Peter's Church in London Colney. I must admit that I had never noticed its existence before as it is set back from and not facing the road. It is also right near the most picturesque part of London Colney and your eyes are more drawn to the river and the ducks !

Nine of us met in their car park on a fresh autumn morning. Thanks to one of our group members, we were invited inside the Church and sat down to a very interesting talk and slideshow. The talk covered nearly 200 years of the church's history, from the laying of the foundation stone in 1824 to the refurbishment of 2010.

St Peter's was the first church in Hertfordshire to have been built with government funding after the 1818 Church Building Act. It is situated right by the river which would have been a stagecoach stop at the time and ideally placed to serve the frequenters of the 26 nearby pubs. The design on the outside hasn't changed much over the years but inside has seen massive changes - from the removal of two of the galleries in the mid 1800s to the replacement of the pews with comfortable chairs in 2010. It was fascinating to learn about the adaptations and how everything evolved to what there is today.

The Church was consecrated in 1826 and soon afterwards the first burial took place. The graveyard itself is over an acre in size and hides behind the Church so you wouldn't even know it was there. The grass needs to be cut by volunteers so it was hardly surprising that it was quite long and boots were the order of the day.

​I hesitate to say this, as everyone has a story, but there isn't anyone well known buried in the graveyard. We therefore just walked around the graves, looking at their design and the names of those who had died. There were at least four Commonwealth War Graves from the Second World War.   

Afterwards, six of us retired to 'The Bull' which was one of three or four nearby public houses for a quick lunch and a chat about our morning.   

Cause of Discharge - paragraph 392 subsection :

(i) References on enlistment being unsatisfactory
(ii) Having been irregularly enlisted
(iii) Not being likely to become an efficient soldier
(a) Recruit rejected both by medical officer and approving officer
(b) Recruit passed by medical officer, but rejected by a recruiting officer stationed away from the headquarters of the recruiting area, or by approving officer
(c ) Recruit within three months of enlistment considered unfit for service
(cc) Recruits with more than three months service considered unfit for further military service
(d) Recruit who after having undergone a course of physical training is recommended by an examining board to be discharged, or in the case of a mounted corps is unable to ride
(e) Soldier of local battalion abroad considered unlikely to become efficient
(f) Boy, who, on reaching 18 years of age, is considered to be physically unfit for the ranks
​(iv) Having been claimed as an apprentice
(v) Having claimed it on payment of 10/- within three months after his attestation
(vi) Having made a mis-statement as to age on enlistment
(a) Soldier under 17 years of age at date of application for discharge
(b) Soldier between 17 and 18 years of age at date of application for discharge
(vii) Having been claimed for wife desertion
(a) By the parish authorities
(b) By the wife
(viii) Having made false answer on attestation
(ix) Unfitted for the duties of the corps
(x) Having been convicted by the civil power of ___ or of an offence committed before enlistment
(xi) For misconduct
(xii) Having been sentenced to penal servitude
(xiii) Having been sentenced to be discharged with ignomony
(xiv) At his own request on payment of ___ under Article 1130 (i), Pay Warrant
(xv) Free, after ___ years service under Article 1130 (ii), Pay Warrant
(xva) Free under Article 1130 (i), Pay Warrant
(xvb) Free. To take up civil employment which cannot be held open
(xvi) No longer physically fit for service
(xviii) At his own request after 18 years service (with a view to pension under the Pay Warrant)
(xix) For the benefit of the public service after 18 years service (with a view to pension under the Pay Warrant)
(xx) Inefficiency after 18 years service ( with a view to a pension under the Pay Warrant) 
(xxi) The termination of his ___ period of engagement
(xxii) With less than 21 years service towards engagement, but with 21 or more years service towards pension 
(xxiii) Having claimed discharge after three months notice
(xxiv) Having reached the age for discharge
(xxv) His service being no longer required
(xxvi) At his own request after 21 (or more) years service (with a view to pension under the Pay Warrant)
(xxvii) After 21 (or more) years qualifying service for pension, and with 5 (or more) years service as warrant officer (with a view to pension under the Pay Warrant)

The Census Taker was someone who collected information in the 19th century to enable future genealogists to trace their family trees - a great idea but sadly not. In fact their purpose was to provide statistical information about the population so that councils and government were better informed.

What happened was that : 

• a person called an 'enumerator' would deliver by hand a pre-printed form to all households to be completed on a designated evening. It was usually the head of the household who completed them the best he could and in his normal handwriting. A fine could be "inflicted upon any person who either refuses to give the required information, or wilfully gives false information in filling up the returns". 
• the enumerator would later return to collect these forms and it was his duty "to open and examine to see that it has been correctly and intelligibly filled in, and he may ask any question which may be necessary to satisfy himself on this point. Errors are to be rectified by him upon the spot, and if, from ignorance, or any other cause the schedule has not been filled up, the enumerator must enter upon it himself all the particulars he can ascertain from the occupier or other competent member of the family". Presumably if the householder had a strong accent, the enumerator could well misspell names or other information given to him.
• the enumerator would then pass the forms to the district registrar who then put all the details from the forms into a register. Where the handwriting was hard to read or obviously mis-spelled it all came down to a matter of interpretation.
• the district registrar would then send the registers and the forms to the General Register Office in London who would check them again, make any alterations they thought fit, before destroying the forms. 

Today we stopped off in the picturesque village of Farningham in Kent. It was a speculative visit to see if I could find any graves in the local graveyard and to see if I could find the manor house in Sparepenny Lane where William (week 65) and Marion (week 67) Benson lived for many years and where Alick (week 2) and Hugh (week 50) were born.  

The graveyard was rather disappointing in that most of the older graves were not readable due to the weathering of the stonework. I wasn't really expecting to find any Bensons but you never know - unfortunately we didn't but at least I've visited the church which the family probably attended.