Sometimes the information on a headstone leads to a story quite different to the one you thought you might find.
I was attracted to this stylish headstone with its central cruciform shape and Easter Lilies symbolising hope of the resurrection.
The first name recorded on the headstone is that of George Wonacott who died on February 10, 1927 aged just 20 years old. The only way to discover how he died would be to purchase the death certificate, but the cost is prohibitive on a project such as Radnor Street Cemetery with 33,000 burials.
So I turned to the available historical resources to see what I could discover but despite a search of the British Newspapers Archive I was unable to find any reports connected to young George. Next I searched the Ancestry website to find the family there.
George's mother was born Martha Lauretta Leyshon in 1878 in Burbage, a small Wiltshire village in the Vale of Pewsey. Martha was the youngest child of Evan A. Leyshon and his wife Mary. During the intervening years between the 1891 and 1901 census, the Leyshon family moved to Swansea. By 1901 Mary was widowed and living in two rooms at 30 Argyll Street, Swansea with her son William 26, a railway signalman, her 10 year old grandson Edmund Parsons and our Martha, then aged 20 and working as a general domestic servant.
In 1905 Martha married Wallace Ackland Wonacott, a bottler, and at the time of the 1911 census they were living at 91 High Street, Swansea with their two children Dorothy 5 and four year old George.
This is the last time George appears on any official record. He was too young to have served in the First World War so there are no military records for him and by the time of the next available official name count in the 1939 list, compiled at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was dead. Perhaps when the 1921 census is released in two years time I may be able to discover a little more about George.
The family moved to Swindon and a home in Princes Street but by 1920 Martha's husband William had died. It's difficult to imagine how Princes Street looked back in Martha's day. Built in 1876 and named after Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor, Princes Street was long and narrow with shoulder to shoulder terraced housing stretching from Regent Circus to the Whale Bridge.
Martha married John Poolman, a labourer in the GWR Carriage Works, in the summer of 1920. He was recently widowed, his wife Henrietta was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery on April 29, 1920. The couple continued to live at 44 Princes Street where John died in 1933 and was buried with his stepson.
Martha didn't hang about and in the winter of 1933 she married for the third time. Her husband was George Higgins and the 1939 list describes him as a retired engine driver. The couple continued to live at 44 Princes Street, sharing their home with two lodgers, Alfred Andrews, a railway shop clerk and William Barnes, a general labourer in the Works.
Martha died in December 1942 and was buried with her son and second husband in plot D331. She was 64 years old. Her third husband survived her by 16 years. He died in 1958 but does not appear to be buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.
What began as a quest to discover how a young man died turned into the story of his much married mother, Martha Leyshon/Wonacott/Poolman/Higgins.
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Views across Radnor Street Cemetery
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I was attracted to this stylish headstone with its central cruciform shape and Easter Lilies symbolising hope of the resurrection.
The first name recorded on the headstone is that of George Wonacott who died on February 10, 1927 aged just 20 years old. The only way to discover how he died would be to purchase the death certificate, but the cost is prohibitive on a project such as Radnor Street Cemetery with 33,000 burials.
So I turned to the available historical resources to see what I could discover but despite a search of the British Newspapers Archive I was unable to find any reports connected to young George. Next I searched the Ancestry website to find the family there.
George's mother was born Martha Lauretta Leyshon in 1878 in Burbage, a small Wiltshire village in the Vale of Pewsey. Martha was the youngest child of Evan A. Leyshon and his wife Mary. During the intervening years between the 1891 and 1901 census, the Leyshon family moved to Swansea. By 1901 Mary was widowed and living in two rooms at 30 Argyll Street, Swansea with her son William 26, a railway signalman, her 10 year old grandson Edmund Parsons and our Martha, then aged 20 and working as a general domestic servant.
In 1905 Martha married Wallace Ackland Wonacott, a bottler, and at the time of the 1911 census they were living at 91 High Street, Swansea with their two children Dorothy 5 and four year old George.
This is the last time George appears on any official record. He was too young to have served in the First World War so there are no military records for him and by the time of the next available official name count in the 1939 list, compiled at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was dead. Perhaps when the 1921 census is released in two years time I may be able to discover a little more about George.
The family moved to Swindon and a home in Princes Street but by 1920 Martha's husband William had died. It's difficult to imagine how Princes Street looked back in Martha's day. Built in 1876 and named after Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor, Princes Street was long and narrow with shoulder to shoulder terraced housing stretching from Regent Circus to the Whale Bridge.
Martha married John Poolman, a labourer in the GWR Carriage Works, in the summer of 1920. He was recently widowed, his wife Henrietta was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery on April 29, 1920. The couple continued to live at 44 Princes Street where John died in 1933 and was buried with his stepson.
Martha didn't hang about and in the winter of 1933 she married for the third time. Her husband was George Higgins and the 1939 list describes him as a retired engine driver. The couple continued to live at 44 Princes Street, sharing their home with two lodgers, Alfred Andrews, a railway shop clerk and William Barnes, a general labourer in the Works.
Martha died in December 1942 and was buried with her son and second husband in plot D331. She was 64 years old. Her third husband survived her by 16 years. He died in 1958 but does not appear to be buried in Radnor Street Cemetery.
What began as a quest to discover how a young man died turned into the story of his much married mother, Martha Leyshon/Wonacott/Poolman/Higgins.
Views across Radnor Street Cemetery
