This is a post about the Whitworth and Hopkinson family. More specifically, it was prompted by a comment made by Kath Whitworth about a mysterious newspaper clipping. Her comment and the clipping itself are below.
While the reproduction quality is poor, her comments starts out with "This a hoot!" and then she wonders who this is. Partly that's because the clipping never mentions what Quarter-Master Sergeant Hopkinson's first name. What's more, it doesn't mention his wife's name, nor his father's name, nor is there any date on the clipping, much less what newspaper it was snipped from back in the day. All we really know is that he had a brother named "A Hopkinson," he had 8 children, and he was buried in the Sheffield Intake Cemetery with military honours. The gauntlet had been tossed down. Foolishly, Steve volunteered to see what more could be discovered.
The first clue was in the photo. The gentleman in the photo (presumably QMS Hopkinson), was wearing a uniform such as those worn in the late 19th Century. That suggested we'd be looking for somone who died sometime between 1890 and the start of the World War in 1914. After that date, everything changed and such military funerals, with 40 men from the unit and a 14-man firing party, no longer could be conducted. This notion was furthered by noting there was nothing in the clipping that mentioned any wartime service. A future post will show how deaths were reported during the War. However, as it turns out, QMS Hopkinson was a member of a volunteer unit (sort of an army version of a volunteer fireman) that men joined out of a sense of patriotic duty and served in addition to their normal jobs.
The second clue was that he had a brother named "A Hopkinson."
I first tried looking for any Hopkinson's buried at the Sheffield Intake Cemetery. Well, Findagrave couldn't even find the cemetery. Going to Wikipedia revealed that the Intake Cemetery is also known as the "City Road Cemetery." Unfortunately, Findagrave didn't have any Hopkinsons or Whitworths listed at City Road. Crooke's Cemetery was also listed in findagrave. Hopkinsons buried there included an Ada Hopkinson Dey. She might or might not be a relative, but wasn't the sister of anybody I might be looking for. There were also 4 Whitworths listed, but none of them look closely related to anybody as recent as Sam's Grandfather. I also looked at Norton Cemetery, which had a single Whitworth, who died in 1905 at the age of 4. But I digress.
Next, I went through my genealogy database to look for male Hopkinsons whose first name started with an "A." Sure enough, Albert Hopkinson, an older brother of Lucy (Lucy Rice's mother) popped up. Albert was born in early 1868 and died in 1926, both of which would have been appropriate for a brother of QMS Hopkinson. Checking further, Albert's father, Marshall, died in 1917 which would have been perfect for someone still alive for a QMS Hopkinson that died between 1890 and 1914. Things were looking good, but I still didn't know QMS Hopkinson's first name, though I had a strong suspicion from names in the database.
The next step was really simple. From census data, I knew that Marshall had at least 2 sons and 6 daughters. Since we already had Albert accounted for, it looked like QMS Hopkinson would be Marshall Hopkinson's other son, Charles. Now we had a real person of interest.
After that, it was simply a matter of gathering corroborating evidence. I knew from census, birth, death and marriage registrations, that Charles Hopkinson was married to Mary Wilkinson and had 8 children. Both of those items matched the obituary. What's more, Charles died in the 4th Quarter of 1908 which would have fit the timeline. Charles had gone from being a "person of interest" to a prime suspect. Checking the mourners:
But WAIT, there's MORE!
I was able to get a free trial subscription to The British Newspaper Archive, where it will bring up four articles before it wants money. The first article, from the Thursday, 10 December 1908 issue of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph (Page 9, Column 3), shows a photo of QMS Hopkinson's funeral cortege. It uses the "City Road Cemetery" rather than "Intake Cemetery" of the original clipping. I thought it a real coup to find another photo of the funeral in Sheffield.
Next, I found an article from the Thursday, 10 December 1908 Sheffield Daily Telegraph (Page 4, Column 3). It is shown below, but apparently the Daily Telegraph was not so shy about naming names. It confirmed Marshall Hopkinson as the previously unnamed father, and named Charles's eldest son and daughter, George and Florence, as well. The final article, from the Wednesday 9 December 1908 Yorkshire Telegraph and Star (Page 6 Column 4) is also below, and has a photo that looks just like the original clipping, though it is cropped differently and has more information in the clipping. I did find a 4th clipping, but it was shorter and had no added information not already in the other clippings shown in this post.
While the reproduction quality is poor, her comments starts out with "This a hoot!" and then she wonders who this is. Partly that's because the clipping never mentions what Quarter-Master Sergeant Hopkinson's first name. What's more, it doesn't mention his wife's name, nor his father's name, nor is there any date on the clipping, much less what newspaper it was snipped from back in the day. All we really know is that he had a brother named "A Hopkinson," he had 8 children, and he was buried in the Sheffield Intake Cemetery with military honours. The gauntlet had been tossed down. Foolishly, Steve volunteered to see what more could be discovered.
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The second clue was that he had a brother named "A Hopkinson."
I first tried looking for any Hopkinson's buried at the Sheffield Intake Cemetery. Well, Findagrave couldn't even find the cemetery. Going to Wikipedia revealed that the Intake Cemetery is also known as the "City Road Cemetery." Unfortunately, Findagrave didn't have any Hopkinsons or Whitworths listed at City Road. Crooke's Cemetery was also listed in findagrave. Hopkinsons buried there included an Ada Hopkinson Dey. She might or might not be a relative, but wasn't the sister of anybody I might be looking for. There were also 4 Whitworths listed, but none of them look closely related to anybody as recent as Sam's Grandfather. I also looked at Norton Cemetery, which had a single Whitworth, who died in 1905 at the age of 4. But I digress.
Next, I went through my genealogy database to look for male Hopkinsons whose first name started with an "A." Sure enough, Albert Hopkinson, an older brother of Lucy (Lucy Rice's mother) popped up. Albert was born in early 1868 and died in 1926, both of which would have been appropriate for a brother of QMS Hopkinson. Checking further, Albert's father, Marshall, died in 1917 which would have been perfect for someone still alive for a QMS Hopkinson that died between 1890 and 1914. Things were looking good, but I still didn't know QMS Hopkinson's first name, though I had a strong suspicion from names in the database.
The next step was really simple. From census data, I knew that Marshall had at least 2 sons and 6 daughters. Since we already had Albert accounted for, it looked like QMS Hopkinson would be Marshall Hopkinson's other son, Charles. Now we had a real person of interest.
After that, it was simply a matter of gathering corroborating evidence. I knew from census, birth, death and marriage registrations, that Charles Hopkinson was married to Mary Wilkinson and had 8 children. Both of those items matched the obituary. What's more, Charles died in the 4th Quarter of 1908 which would have fit the timeline. Charles had gone from being a "person of interest" to a prime suspect. Checking the mourners:
- Sister Ada Elizabeth married Harry Siddall and hence "Mr. and Mrs. H. Siddall"
- Sister Lucy married Sam Whitworth Sr and hence "Mr. and Mrs. S. Whitworth"
- Sister Minnie Mary married Ernest Morton which actually matches "Mr. and Mrs. E. Morton"
- Brother-in-law William Wilkinson or Walter Wilkinson could be "Mr. and Mrs. W. Wilkinson"
- Among the wreath donations: AE and H Sidall were probably "Mr and Mrs" rather than 2 brothers of his
- Ernest and Minnie were probably "Mr and Mrs" rather than a brother and sister. Lucy and Clara were both sisters of Charles. Overall, it's looking like we have our man, or more specifically, our Charles.
But WAIT, there's MORE!
I was able to get a free trial subscription to The British Newspaper Archive, where it will bring up four articles before it wants money. The first article, from the Thursday, 10 December 1908 issue of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph (Page 9, Column 3), shows a photo of QMS Hopkinson's funeral cortege. It uses the "City Road Cemetery" rather than "Intake Cemetery" of the original clipping. I thought it a real coup to find another photo of the funeral in Sheffield.
Next, I found an article from the Thursday, 10 December 1908 Sheffield Daily Telegraph (Page 4, Column 3). It is shown below, but apparently the Daily Telegraph was not so shy about naming names. It confirmed Marshall Hopkinson as the previously unnamed father, and named Charles's eldest son and daughter, George and Florence, as well. The final article, from the Wednesday 9 December 1908 Yorkshire Telegraph and Star (Page 6 Column 4) is also below, and has a photo that looks just like the original clipping, though it is cropped differently and has more information in the clipping. I did find a 4th clipping, but it was shorter and had no added information not already in the other clippings shown in this post.
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As with many family history investigations, every mystery solved raises new questions. Like checking up on other spouses and people like "Mrs E Gray, Mrs F Butler, and Mrs Barnes." In addition, there is more work to be done with QMS Hopkinson himself. Was his service entirely local in England or was he posted overseas? In any event, he would have been a Great Great Uncle of Laura, Linda and Steve or a Great Uncle of Paul Whitworth and Lucille Averill. Click here to see how he was an older brother of Lucy Whitworth (nee Hopkinson), Sam and Lucy's mother.
As far as I can tell, the Sheffield Artillery Brigade was part of the West Riding Artillery; in turn a Volunteer Corps of the British Army. The Volunteer Corps were established after 1860 to provide a volunteer backup to the regular army. For many years, volunteers made uniforms to their own design, and there were typically 3 batteries in each brigade. As noted in the first clipping, QMS Hopkinson was a member of the 7th Battery. Also attending were representatives of other volunteer units, including the Hallamshire Rifles and the 3rd West Riding Brigade (RFA stands for "Royal Field Artillery"). These volunteer units have a long history in England and continue today. Yorkshire Volunteers later fought in France in both World Wars. You can read about the Yorkshire Volunteers Regimental Association here.
Following is a photo, from Wikipedia, that shows artillery volunteers in 1902. As you can see, there are quite a few variations on the basic uniform, including several that look like the one QMS Hopkinson wore in the obituary clipping.
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| Photo by HantsAV in Wikipedia Article on West Riding Artillery |
