The Daglish Family

Ian Daglish 1952-2011

2011-08-01T06:32:00.009Z

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Ian Daglish on 31 July from extensive burns and injuries sustained when a light aircraft crashed in Salford.

A statement from the family said:

"Ian was, first and foremost, a family man - an extremely proud father of two teenage daughters, Hazel and Fiona, and devoted husband of Joy to whom he had been married for 26 years. He has one brother Andrew. Ian and Joy moved to Alderley Edge in 1988 and have since established themselves firmly in the village.

Ian was an active member of the community and was particularly interested in the history and conservation of the area. Ian was passionate and meticulous about all his interests especially his flying; he was an experienced pilot of many years."

We wrote on this blog about Ian's work as a military historian:

http://daglishfamily.blogspot.com/2007/06/ian-daglish-military-historian.html

Ian also helped with the Daglish One-Name Study which researches the history of the name and the related DNA study.

http://www.alderleyedge.com/news/article/4702/hundreds-pay-respects-at-ian-daglishs-funeral

Walking With The Wounded

2011-04-01T13:44:00.028Z

Simon Daglish is co-founder of the charity Walking With The Wounded, which aims to raise £2 million Pounds to help wounded ex-servicemen.

The goal of the challenge is to successfully reach the North Pole with four wounded soldiers, of whom two are amputees. They will become the first amputees to reach the North Pole unsupported. The team has been joined by Prince Harry who is training with the team and will join them for the first five days of the trek. The aim of the team is to reach the North Pole around the 25 or 26 of April.

Picture: The Walking with the Wounded team trekking to the North Pole (L-R) Guy Disney, Simon Daglish, Edward Parker, Jaco Van Gass, Martin Hewitt, Steven Young and team leader Inge Solheim pose for a team photo as they train on the Norwegian Island of Spitsbergen on March 31, 2011 in Spitsbergen, Norway.

For more information please see the Walking With The Wounded website:

http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/

http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/profile/simon-daglish/

Donations can be made here:

http://www.justgiving.com/walkingwiththewounded

For details of Simon Daglish's 2006 Numis Polar Challenge to the South Pole, see:

http://daglishfamily.blogspot.com/2007/09/simon-daglish-numis-polar-challenge.html

Latest progress report:

On Top of the World

Late last night, four wounded servicemen have reached the Geographical North Pole unsupported! Setting a World Record, the teamed trekked almost 200 miles to achieve their goal and raise money for projects that help rehabilitate our injured servicemen and women. They reached the Pole well ahead of schedule and were absolutely delighted to have achieved their goal! They speak below from on top of the world:

Simon Daglish: "What an incredible thing to be able to and thank you to everyone for your support."

Ed Parker: "It’s been the most exciting, amazing, emotional day but we’ve done it and there were a lot of people who said we couldn’t."

Martin Hewitt: "We acheieve our aim, set a world record and we hope we have proved what can be achieved with the right team and equpitment and attitude. You can adapt and improvise and overcome challenges."

Guy Disney: "We are absolutely delighted, we got here in thirteen days which is much quicker than we ever hoped, everyone is in great form with just a few bumps and bruises and it didn’t stop getting challenging until the last minute."

Steve Young:"It’s unbelievable, we're sat at the top of the world tonight and loving every minute of it."

Jaco Van Gass: "Thank you everyone for the support, we can’t thank you enough! A lot of people said it can’t be done and here we are, at the North Pole."

Polar Guide Inge Solheim: "We’ve had a great trip, everything has gone well and according to plan and we have had relatively good ice conditions, stable weather and no serious injuries. We are very, very happy for how it has all turned out. We are there or four days ahead of schedule, which is great! Over and out from the North Pole!"

Peter Daglish at Chelsea Futurespace

2009-04-11T21:06:00.005Z

An exhibition entitled "Wall Hangings - A Collaboration" by Marian & Peter Daglish opened at CHELSEA Futurespace on April 15th and runs until June 21st. It is open 7 days a week from 11:00 am to 6 pm, admission free.

The brochure which accompanies the exhibition notes that the designs by Peter were produced by his wife Marian:

These works were made using the "Punchwork" method: Peter would draw directly onto stretched Osnaburg canvas, a type of coarse linen, which Marian then perforated and stitched using a hollow needle filled with yarn to create a kaleidoscope of vivid colour and warm textures.

Marian Daglish passed away in 2008, and the exhibition is a celebration of their life and work together.

CHELSEA Futurespace is a collaboration between Chelsea College of Art and Design, Future City Arts and St James Homes. This gallery is situated in the Hepworth Building at Grosvenor Waterside, a new residential development near Chelsea Bridge.

Address: CHELSEA Futurespace, Hepworth Court, Grosvenor Waterside, London, SW1W 8QP
http://www.chelseafuturespace.org/

Uppies and Downies 2009

2009-04-11T20:44:00.005Z

Easter is the time for the annual Uppies and Downies games in Workington. With a history stretching back hundreds of years, three games are played on Good Friday, Easter Tuesday and the following Saturday.

Of these, the Tuesday game is considered by many to be the most prestigious as this was the original match day. The local Daglish family has started the Tuesday match for as long as the games have been played, and also participated in many.

On Tuesday, Jennifer Daglish (pictured above) threw the ball in - the first woman to do so since 1941. The match was won by the Uppies, who also won on Good Friday giving them a 2-0 lead. However the Downies salvaged some pride with a win in the last match which, at 40 minutes, was one of the quickest in recent times.

The future of the games has been under threat for some time as Tesco plans to build a new store on the area where the games are played.

Pictures from the Workington News & Star.

Joseph Daglish watch

2009-02-22T10:38:00.004Z

Last year, I was fortunate to find a pocket watch for sale made by the Alnwick clock maker Joseph Daglish. The watch is hallmarked 1814 and has an enamel face with gold coloured hands.

It has now been restored to working order with the help of our local antique clock shop, Times Past in Eton High Street, and is keeping good time - with a distinct loud ticking produced from itsa verge movement.

The name of Joseph Daglish is engraved inside the watch.

DNA Study includes Daglish name

2009-02-15T11:00:00.006Z

A paper has recently been published by researchers from the Department of Genetics at Leicester University. This looked at 40 British surnames and their variants - including the names Daglish and Dalgleish.

Some years ago the researchers - Professor Mark Jobling and Dr. Turi King - contacted people with the surnames being studied requesting DNA samples. I know of at least two Daglishes who were contacted in this way at the time and provided samples. Under the terms of the study, the identities of the participants are confidential; the results are by surname only.

The results are interesting, providing some good matches with those in our own Daglish DNA Study. These include exact matches for the names Daglish - and some very close matches with the results for the name Dalgleish. This does seem to provide more evidence for a possible link between the names and I have now added the names Dalgliesh and Dalgliesh to the scope of the Daglish DNA Study to try to investigate this further.

The results of the study can be found in the Supplemental Table here, and the full article here.

Peter Daglish exhibition in Calcutta

2009-01-25T11:15:00.006Z

This month sees Peter Daglish in India for a joint exhibition with Amal Ghosh entitled "Vitreous Enamels & Linocut Prints". The show - which features linocuts by Peter and enamels by Amal Ghosh - is at the Ganges Art Gallery in Calcutta. It opened on January 14 and runs until January 31.

Ganges Art Gallery: Exhibition guide includes images
Review - from Kolkata Mirror

In its notes about the exhibition the Gallery writes:

Peter Daglish’s incisive linocuts hark back to the graphics of Hogarth and Daumier. Linocuts are relief print produced in a manner similar to woodcut.

The wooden block has a thin layer of linoleum which can be cut away in any direction to produce a raised surface that can be inked and printed, producing either monochromatic or multi-coloured images.

Daglish makes incredible use of the medium’s strong graphical potential to exploit the bold patterns which are integral to his work. His use of colour, while exuberant in its own terms, also allows for shading and texturing the image.

Daglish’s linocuts brim with the fineness and foibles of the human condition and are both perceptive and funny. He is able to explore the earthy and quotidian as a reproach to the spiritual and a negation of the ideal and is able to perceive incongruous relationships and express them in a pointed manner.

His women are celebrations of pure energy: stylized, curvilinear and more than faintly kinky. Their sensuous lips and extravagant hairdos show the artist’s taste for precise detail and stylized though highly idiosyncratic motifs.

In what they encompass or allude to, these works transcend the beautiful, the comic, the grotesque or even the quest for objectivity. They are a relentless scrutiny of the world ranging from scathing social commentary to opulent ornamentalism. On all scores, though, the artistic attention is contemplative rather than confrontational.

Christmas wishes

2008-12-21T12:17:00.008Z

I would like to take this opportunity to send best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. I would also like to apologise for the lack of postings here in the last few months. This has mainly been due to pressure of work leaving not enough time.

However that does not mean that work on the Daglish One-Name Study has stopped. On the contrary this has continued throughout the year.

I am still working on building the trees for Daglish families around the World, with the focus on trying to go further back to find connections. This inevitably leads to variations with the spelling of the name.

During a recent trip to South Shields, I found a gravestone for the Dagleas family in Westoe Cemetery. The name Dagleas shares its roots with the name Daglish, and I have now added this into my One-Name Study.

The Daglish DNA Project continues. Although we have not had many new members this year, we have had one very interesting result. This is from a living descendant of Henry Daglish, the Premier of Western Australia. This new result matches our core group of Daglish results, providing more useful information to the study. The cost of DNA testing appears to be coming down, so I hope we can recruit some more members next year.

During the year several people have left comments under stories on the blog. There are some that I would very much like to contact for more information, but unfortunately this is not possible through the comments section. I would particularly like to hear from Derek and Phil if possible please.

If you do have any connections with the Daglish name or information and stories, please do e-mail me - you can do this through my Profile page on this blog, or go to the Daglish One-Name Study site.

1911 Census of England and Wales

2008-12-21T11:12:00.010Z

UPDATE:

The official site for the 1911 Census of England and Wales was originally launched on January 13. The site was initally launched with 35 English counties but - unfortunately for me - neither County Durham or Northumberland were among these initial counties.

More counties have since been added - and, as at April 11, all of the remaining English Counties (Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland) and the missing Gateshead district records from County Durham have now been added. Therefore all English counties are now complete and online.

Scanning of Welsh records is underway and some data from Wales should be available in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

1911 Census

The 1911 Census is not covered by the Census Act 1920 which requires the closure of all subsequent censuses for 100 years. A challenge was made under the Freedom of Information Act to allow access to the 1911 Census earlier than 100 years and, following referral, the Information Commissioner ruled that access should be given. However personally sensitive information will not be released until 2012.

Unfortunately it is not possible to show a sample page - but the details shown in the 1911 Census for each person are name and surname, age, sex, marital status, occupation, birthplace, nationality, infirmity (only available after January 2012 under the 100 year rule - until then this will be obscured). Additionally, for married women the census shows number of years married and number of children born to present marriage, living or deceased.

Unlike the pages for the 1901 Census and before, the 1911 Census will show schedules completed by the householders themselves, rather than by the census enumerators. This means that when you find a census page relating to an ancestor, you will see their own handwriting and signature if they were head of the household.

Life in England and Wales in 1911:

The estimated population in England and Wales in 1911 was 36,003,276 people. Today’s population is an estimated 54 million people.

Life expectancy was 54 years for women and 50 for men in 1911. By 2011 life expectancy is predicted to be 82 for women and 74 for men. There was an estimated 100 centenarians in England and Wales in 1911 - today this has grown 90-fold to 9,300 people.

The average family had 2.8 children in 1911 - the average in 2008 was 1.8 children.

The top five occupations in 1911 were domestic service (1,302,438), agriculture (1,229,555), coal mining (971,236), building (817,942) and cotton manufacture (623,825).

Time to remember

2008-11-06T18:43:00.009Z

Today saw the opening by The Duke of Edinburgh of the The Royal British Legion Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey.

The Field of Remembrance is made up of thousands of little Remembrance Crosses, Stars of David and Muslim Crescents each bearing a poppy in tribute to those who lost their lives in the service of their country. They are laid out in plots for Regimental and other Associations.

In Plot 22 there are four crosses to remember some Daglishes who fell serving in the First World War.

The Field of Remembrance is open for public viewing throughout the period of remembrance and commemoration and visitors can add their own crosses in memory of loved ones.

The Welsh Field of Remembrance is also open at Cathays Park, behind City Hall, in Cardiff.

This week also sees the launch of a new web site for Military Genealogy. The site claims to hold records of over one million members of the British armed forces going back to before 1630. Included are details of Daglishes who died in conflict, and also some serving and retired members of the forces.

UK incoming passenger lists go online

2008-10-25T15:59:00.011Z

This week a new set of records went online containing details of more than 18 million immigrants, business travellers, tourists and returning emigrants and their descendants who arrived in the UK by boat in the period 1878 to 1960.

The records are from the National Archives and made available on-line by the Ancestry web site. It is free to search - but there is a charge for viewing the full entry and downloading images of the passenger lists. TV presenter and family history enthusiast Tony Robinson was on hand for the launch.

The passenger lists are for people arriving in the United Kingdom from ports outside of Europe and the Mediterranean and may include: name of passenger, their birth date or age, port of departure, port of arrival, date of arrival and vessel name.

The press coverage of the lauch concentrated on some of the well-known names that are included in the lists - but the collection also includes many Daglish entries. These mostly refer to those travelling abroad for work or pleasure and returning home, although some refer to families which have moved permanently overseas and are returning for family reasons.

This is an interesting new resource for family historians.

National Archives news release

The Independent article

The Herald article

Daily Mail article

WWT Nikon Photography Competition 2008

2008-10-25T09:05:00.004Z

Anthony Daglish from Wallsend has won a top prize in the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) Nikon Photography Competition 2008.

His image of Washington’s record-breaking avocets fought off competition from WWT’s eight other UK wetland centres to be named number one in its category by the judges.

In July 2006 a pair of avocets – which traditionally nest in southern England – hatched two chicks at WWT Washington Wetland Centre, the most northerly ever recorded in the UK. They have since bred and successfully reared young in both 2007 and 2008.

Anthony, 34, only took up photography two years ago, after seeing fellow wildlife enthusiasts with cameras in tow.

He said: “I first got into photography after watching other people doing it. It sparked my curiosity and I thought, ‘I wouldn’t mind a shot at that’.

“I’ve always loved birds and have been a keen birdwatcher for years, so it was the next step to start taking pictures of them.”

Details from the Joural Live - full story here.

Royal Humane Society award

2008-07-26T09:07:00.003Z

The most recent issue of "Remember When" published by the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle includes in its Roll of Honour column the following:

1954: The Royal Humane Parchment was presented to 12-year old Anne Valerie Daglish, a pupil of Central Modern School, Wallsend. William Messenger, a nightwatchman, had been overcome by gas and fell into a four feet deep trench. In a gallant rescue Valerie managed to help the victim to safety.

The Royal Humane Society is a charity that grants awards for acts of bravery in the saving of human life and, also, for the restoration of life by resuscitation. Its awards range from bronze, silver and gold medals to Testimonials on Vellum and Parchment.

The Testimonial on Parchment is awarded where someone has put themselves in danger to save, or attempt to save, someone else. Many of the awards go to people who have swum to the rescue of someone else - in a quarry, a lake, a river or at sea.

Some useful web sites

2008-07-19T09:34:00.011Z

Firstly my apologies for the lack of recent postings. However, I am still here and continuing with the Daglish research! I hope to continue to make occasional postings, as time allows.

The following web sites that I have not seen before have been brought to my attention - these may be useful to anyone interested in family history research.

The Coalmining History Resource Centre

Described as "the UK's largest and most comprehensive website concerning the history of coalmining - including a searchable database of over 164,000 recorded accidents and deaths".

The information on the site has been compiled by Ian Winstanley and is now available through this new site, sponsored by Rales solicitors from Barnsley - who are described as specialists in workplace accidents and disease compensation.

The War Graves Photographic Project

Working in association with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the aim of this site is:

"to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, MoD grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day and make these available within a searchable database."

The site was launched in February 2008 and is work in progress with many photos waiting to be uploaded. The site relies on volunteers to visit, record and catalogue the many hundreds of thousands of graves scattered aound the World.

Deceased Online

This new site was launched on 11 July. It is described as:

"the first central database of statutory burial and cremation registers for the UK and Republic of Ireland -- a unique resource for family history researchers and professional genealogists ... We are making it possible for burial and cremation authorities around the country to convert their register records, maps and photographs into digital form and bring them together into a central searchable collection."

For now the site has very limited data from Kent and Sussex - and is running in test mode. During this tes period, access to data is free of charge, but after this there will be a charge to access the records (although searching will be free).

The Aerial Reconnaissance Archive

2008-06-17T06:41:00.012Z

In the news today is The Aerial Reconnaissance Archive (or TARA), one of the World's largest collections of aeriel photography. More than 10 million military photographs are stored in the archive, most of which were taken by surveillance aircraft in World War Two. The photo below shows the German battleship Bismarck which was sunk within a week of this picture being taken.

The collection is is being re-located from Keele University to a new home at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in Edinburgh. It is hoped much of the archive will be now made available to the public online; an earlier attempt to do this was unsuccessful.

Historian Ian Daglish has provided the BBC with some interviews about this interesting collection which will be going out today. There is also an Audio Slideshow on the BBC web site, where Ian and retired Wing Commander Michael Mockford discuss the significance of just a few of the photographs from the war.

See also The Times Online

Richard Daglish, New Zealand

2008-05-17T09:35:00.005Z

This is a photo of Richard Daglish which he signed and also wrote on the back "Taken "Somewhere in France" 10-1-17".

Richard was born in November 1892 in Tasmania, the son of James Daglish and Lydia Stevenson. James and his wife were married in Newcastle in 1884 and a few weeks later emigrated to Australia. The family later moved to Dunedin, New Zealand.

Richard's army service record shows that he joined the Dunedin Cycle and Signal Corps in 1909, going on to join No.2 Signal Company (Otago) before leaving for Europe in 1915 with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

He served first in Gallipoli and Somalia before arriving in France in 1916. On 2 January 1917 he was mentioned in dispatches by General Sir Douglas Haig and the photo was taken a few days after this. On 11 March 1917 he was promoted to Staff Sergeant.

In 1917 he was posted to England, marrying Mary Stewart Scott in Ryton on 5 February 1918.

The photo below of Richard and family is dated May 1918 and taken at the Kapai Studio, Dunedin. Richard also served in the Second World War.

North East War Memorials Project

2008-05-11T13:12:00.006Z

The North East War Memorials Project is a site that may be of some interest to people with ancestors from the North East who lost their lives in the two world wars.

What makes this site different from some others - such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission - is that it is dedicated to local war memorials. This includes the public memorials ones that can be seen in towns and villages, and also ones that are less visible being inside schools, churches and working mens clubs.

Details provided include the location and description, a listing of names and a photograph. Searches can be made by name and/or location. A simple search for Daglish produces 43 results.

I have used this to find various memorials on my trips to the North East, such as the Cenotaph at Castle Bank, Morpeth.

The Proceedings Of The Old Bailey 1674-1913

2008-04-29T16:17:00.006Z

A new site offering transcripts of trials held at the Old Bailey in London has been causing a lot of interest - so much so that the site is currently displaying a warning that, due to high demand, the site is running slowly and some services may be temporarily suspended.

The site contains the transcripts of every trial heard at the Old Bailey from 1674 to 1913, a total of more than 210,000 criminal trials. These are covered in more than 110,000 pages of text and some 120 million words - together with 195,000 digital images, contemporary maps, images of the courtroom and information on the historical and legal background to the Old Bailey court. Also included are the biographical details of around 3,000 men and women executed at Tyburn.

A search by keyword Daglish produces just 6 results.

Of these two are for a Daglish Street in East London, mentioned in a case in 1822 and again in 1866. I cannot find any information about this address or its history.

The other four references are to Daglishes appearing before the court as witnesses (including my grandfather, James Daglish) or as the victimsof crimes. No black sheep here!

The Proceedings Of The Old Bailey 1674-1913

Peter Daglish exhibition opens in London

2008-04-27T09:58:00.007Z

An exhibition of prints and enamels by Peter Daglish has just opened at The Sun and Doves in Camberwell, London. A private view was organised last night by the Kapil Jariwala Gallery, with Peter in attendance and playing with The Parkshot Jazz Ensemble.

The Sun and Doves is a pub which also presents art, films and music, providing an interesting and unusual venue for seeing Peter's work on display.

The exhibition continues until May 25th at The Sun and Doves, 61 Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, London, SE5 9NS.

Peter Daglish Racing

2008-04-20T09:48:00.006Z

Peter Daglish is competing in the British Formula Ford Championship this year.

24 year old Peter from Chester-le-Street has been involved in the sport since 1998, starting in karting and for the last two years in the BARC Westfield Sports Car Championship - last year recording 3 wins, 4 second places and 4 pole positions and finishing 2nd overall. This has given him the confidence to step up to Formula Ford. This season Peter is competing in the Scolarship class, and after the first two events is lying in third place.

Formula Ford has been a launch pad for many drivers who have gone on to bigger things. The list includes drivers who moved on to Formula 1 including such names as James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jenson Button and David Coulthard.

Races take place throughout the summer and autumn at tracks including Brands Hatch and Silverstone, with TV coverage on Sky Sports.

I know very little about the sport of motor racing - but will be keeping in touch with the results as the season progresses.

For more information, see Formula Ford 2008 and Peter's own site.

Latesst news: Evening Chronicle

Lost Cousins, Family Search and a postcard

2008-04-13T08:51:00.011Z

Firstly my apologies for the lack of new posts in the last few weeks. There has been a lack of new stories relating to the Daglish name, whilst a major project at work is likely to keep me busy until the summer.

Nevertheless, research into the Daglish name goes on.

Lost Cousins seeks to match entries based on entries in UK, US and Canada censuses. This helps to ensure correct matches by effectively removing those with similar names but from different families. Only the details from the census records are shown on the site.

LostCousins has recently reached agreement with the Guild of One Name Studies for members of the Guild to add their records to the LostCousins site - and I plan to add the Daglish details in the hope of making some new contacts. Unfortunately uploading the data is a manual process, so this may take some time to complete.

Basic LostCousins membership is free, but if you want to contact any matches you need to pay a subscription.

The International Genealogical Index (or IGI) published by the Church of Latter Day Saints on its FamilySearch site has long been a useful index of parish records for those researching family history.

The Church has now launched a new pilot site FamilySearch Labs, which includes some new indexes and also some scanned images. A simple registration is required using an e-mail address.

I was interested that it includes scanned images of Bishops' Transcripts from the Diocese of Durham from the 1700s and 1800s. Bishops' Transripts were copies of the parish registers, which were ordered to be kept from 1598 - the parish was requiredto send these transcripts within a month of Easter for the period covering the previous year. These transcripts can useful where the original register is missing or is unclear.

Details are available on the site for most County Durham parishes and many from Northumberland, with some for Yorkshire and a few for Cumberland. At present these records have not been indexed but are still useful as reserarch material available online.

Lastly, I have received a postcard photo which suggests this might be a Daglish. Little is known about this, other than the writing in pencil on the back which shows two names (Daglish on the left and Jarvis on the right) and a date (13 January 1922). The place where this was taken is unknown and the uniforms give little away. I will be trying to find out more about this - but if anyone has any details, please let me know!

Uppies and Downies

2008-03-21T08:34:00.015Z

The Uppies and Downies is a series of ball games held in Workington each Easter. The games have been supported by the local Daglish family for over 300 years, and I had the pleasure of seeing the Tuesday game last year - and had hoped to be back this year, but unfortunately work commitments made this impossible.

The future of the games is in doubt following the sale of the Cloffocks, an open area on which the games are played, to Tesco - which intends to build a large supermarket and petrol station on the site (see illustration below).

In January Tesco's planning application received approval by Allerdale Council. As well as concerns for the future of the games, other questions have been raised about the way in which the local council conducted the sale.

These games are part of the history and tradition of the local community which Tesco hopes to serve - and it would be a real shame if these were lost. There have been some suggestions to re-locate the games to another site - but this would make it an organised event which is contrary to the spirit and tradition of the games.

On Tuesday evening, the ball was thrown off by Robert Daglish junior, continuing the long family tradition. His father, Robert Daglish senior, talking to the local media about the current situation said:

“I hope that the new Tesco won’t bring a stop the game as it is right in the heart of where the Uppies try to get the ball to. As long I have a breath in my body I want the game to continue. It is part of the tradition of Workington. It would be a sad day if the game had to stop.”

The Uppies won the 2008 series 2-1, their fourth successive win.

See recent coverage from the BBC and Times & Star.

The games are celebrated in a recent book "Uppies and Downies: The extraordinary football games of Britain" by Hugh Hornby, published by English Heritage.

Whilst the book takes its name from the Workington games, it also looks at other similar events around the country and provides a useful calendar of these.

The book includes a photograph from 1872 of Anthony Daglish, pictured holding the balls he had hailed for the Uppies in that and the previous year (the years are on the balls).

There is also reference to an article in the Whitehaven News in 1931 that the Daglish family once owned a 300-year old ball won by an ancestor. I wonder where that is now?

Daglish - the development of a name

2008-03-08T20:35:00.006Z

There has been little new Daglish news to write about recently. If you have any stories, photos or anything that might be of interest, please let me know.

Today I attended a meeting of the London branch of the Northumberland & Durham Family History Society. The speaker was Rosalind Moffitt and the subject "Surnames in the North East".

Rosalind studies the history of surnames, in particular those from North East England where her family comes from. After studying English at Durham University, Rosalind trained as a Speech and Language Therapist and spent time working with children. She began her talk by looking at how young children adapt words - and how this might be applied to ways in which surnames developed in an age of widespread illiteracy.

Names might be simplified by dropping syllables from the word or maybe just the last consonant or by using different vowels.

Looking at the entries in the Whickham parish register for marriages - in which Daglishes have appeared since the late 1500s - we can perhaps see some examples of this.

The earliest entry is for the name Daglis, maybe a case where the last consonant has been dropped. Will Daglis married Magdalene Thompson on 30 January 1596.

Under burials, there is an entry for 3 April 1613 which reads:

"A POORE child of Daglis, his wife, and the mother and two other children of Daglis. Buried."

The spelling of Daglis continued to be used until around 1615, after which various others are used - including Dagglish, Dagleish and Dagleese - until the name is shown as Daglesh, a change of vowel. This begins with the marriage of John Daglesh to Barbery Croser on 31 May 1669 and continues until around 1691.

After this date the spelling Daglish is consistently used.

This is how the name may have developed in one key Parish - this may also have been influenced by changes in the local vicar and how the name was written down. In other places the name may have developed differently.

The subject of how the name may have changed is of interest because of some recent developments with the Daglish DNA Study.

We now have matching DNA results with a person named DOUGLAS and with a person named DALGLIESH. Both of these people live in Scotland. Both of these names have been suggested in various reference books as the source of the name Daglish (though neither have been found to be linked through standard research of historical records).

It is perhaps possible to see how Douglas may link to the early records as Daglis, and also to imagine that the Scottish name Dalglish or Dalgliesh may have been simplified if it moved across the border into North East England. This is a subject for further research.

Rosalind Moffitt runs a service Nameswell Surname Research and also writes for Family Tree Magazine.

William Daglish, Santa Cruz, California

2008-02-22T19:57:00.011Z

I recently found some advertising materials for Daglish’s Health Food Service of Santa Cruz, California, and a little research led to a colourful story.

An article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel by Carolyn Swift provided some details.

The story begins in 1928, when Sarah Jane Kitchen married William Edward Daglish. The couple moved to Santa Cruz at the height of the Depression, opening the “Daglish Free Welfare Depot”. William quickly earned a reputation: the report describes him as "something of a fanatic, driving a "sign-flaunting gas chariot"... on a boisterous one-man moral crusade".

Life for his wife was difficult. She was described as "semi-invalid" and, forced by her husband to eat his chosen diet, some thought she was slowly starving – and said she occasionally went to neighbours for more food.

On July 17 1940, Sarah Jane died. She was buried the next day, Thursday, when William delivered the funeral sermon. On the following day he eloped to Reno, Nevada, with 22-year Joan Allardyce where the couple were married. This series of events led to nationwide news coverage, and one newspaper reported:

"If Daglish and Miss Allardyce had reached the Remo marriage license clerk four minutes later than they did, their marriage would have to be postponed until Sunday because Daglish’s church, Seventh Day Adventist, does not sanction marriages on Saturday."

Meanwhile, back in Santa Cruz, the authorities had ordered Sarah Jane’s body to be exhumed from the Felton Cemetery, and tested for poison.

William protested his innocence and gave his version of the story. He accused the authorities of a plot against him because of his campaigning against vice and gambling. He claimed that Sarah Jane had approved of Miss Allardyce as his future wife, and had urged him to marry her immediately after the funeral.

No poison was detected in the tests, and the authorities accepted the coroner’s decision that Sarah Jane had died of “hemorrhagic pancreatitis”.

The handbill dates from just after this in 1941. The photo shows William, Joan and their daughter Noaomi Celeste. William continued his business until his death in 1952.

William was born in 1896 in Indiana, the son of John Daglish and Mary Aldrich. His grandfather, also John Daglish, had emigrated from England.

I would be very interested to know more about the family and their story, or to hear from any relatives. Also any photos of the Daglish store in Santa Cruz, which was covered with various slogans and adverts - I have seen one small photo from the 1950s, but this is too small and the quality too poor to show here.

Daglish boxers of Workington

2008-02-15T20:10:00.008Z

I recently stumbled upon an excellent web site abour Pre-War Boxing, run by boxing historian Miles Templeton. The site included details of two Daglishes who were boxing in Workington in the mid 1930s -Harry and Jim Daglish. From the site I obtained scans of two handbills from 1934.

The first is for Harry Daglish (born Henry Daglish, born 1917, died 1977). The fight to which the handbill refers took place on Monday November 12, 1934 at Drill Hall Carlisle. Harry beat his opponent Frank Moran on points.

At this time Harry would have been 17 years old. Miles tells me that he would be fighting for prizes of around 10 or 15 shillings, money that would support the family budget.

Harry was a member of Jim Pattinson’s Boxing Club and fought all over the North of England, from Workington to Manchester and across to the North East.

He carried on boxing until he was called up into the Navy during WW2. In the Navy he kept quiet about his boxing skills – but his daughter Linda tells a story:

“There was one fellow used to win bouts most of the time and he got rather too big for his boots - so Dad decided to bring him down a peg or two. Harry told his mate to put all the money he could scrape together on himself - and then he hammered the other fellow, much to everyone’s surprise! They all lost their money, except Dad’s mate - and of course the other fellow wasn't quite so big for his boots after that.”

Harry is part of the Daglish family which has been involved for many years with Workington’s famous Uppies & Downies held each year over the Easter period.

The other handbill is for Jim Daglish – and this is proving something of a puzzle, as no-one knows who this is! The fight appears to be a challenge match, as the handbill reads:

Daglish has asked for this contest, confident he will check Nugent’s series of victories. Will he?

Unfortunately we don’t know the result of the match!

My thanks to Miles Templeton for the handbills and to Linda Carter for the photo and family details.

Remember When - a Daglish research story

2008-02-08T20:24:00.000Z

This week I was sent a copy of "Remember When", a monthly magazine on local history covering Newcastle and the North East. Included in this issue is a story about a Daglish family - and how an interest in finding about their family history has brought together cousins living many miles apart.

The story starts in July 2007 when Stuart Daglish, who lives in Doncaster, came across some old letters which started his interest.

Stuart knew that his father, John Francis Daglish, was from Byker in Newcastle. His father never spoke much about his childhood, except to say that he was brought 130 miles south to Doncaster from Newcastle when he was aged about 13 by someone called Elizabeth Machin and her husband. Stuart's father died in 1987, and all that Stuart had to start with was his father's old, tattered and taped birth certificate, an old photograph of his grandfather in uniform and two old letters from the only known sibling.

Stuart's grandfather, John Maddison Daglish, was born in Gateshead in 1884 and died of wounds in 1915 whilst serving in Gallipoli with the Northumberland Fusiliers. Stuart's grandmother, Theresa Daglish (nee Francis), later re-married but died in childbirth in 1922.

Stuart placed an advert in the Newcastle Chronicle looking for family members brought immediate results. He remembers:

"Three days later one of my cousins replied. She had not seen the advertisement. It was a friend of one of her daughters who read it and rushed round to their house. We had a three hour telephone conversation that Friday night and she put me in touch with other cousins. I went up to Newcastle in September to meet them and they are all wonderful people, and we are now in touch regularly. It is wonderful to discover you have new enlarged family you were not aware of."

Pictured (left to right) Kathleen Nelson, Betty Garner, Stuart Daglish and Pat Whitton.

Betty Garner is the daughter of Henry Butcher and Isabella Daglish. Kathleen Nelson and Patricia Whitton are daughters of Thomas McKane and Catherine Daglish.

Pat has been working with Stuart on the research, spending many hours in the Tyne & Wear Archives at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle, looking not just at family records but also at where their ancestors lived and the social conditions in those times.

Stuart got in touch with me at the end of last year when he was trying to find out about his great great grandfather James Daglish who married Isabella Wheatley in 1844. James was proving hard to track down, but I was able to put Stuart in touch with Elaine, also descended from James and Isabella, who had found a possible answer to this mystery and extended the research on the family back to the parish of Whickham in the late 17th century.

Stuart and Pat hope that the article in "Remember When" might result in more contacts with relatives and people who knew the family. If you would like to get in touch with Stuart and Pat, please contact me at the e-mail address in the Profile section and I will be happy to pass on your details, or leave a Comment below.

My thanks to Pat for sending me the magazine and photos, and to Stuart for the details he has provided to the Daglish One-Name Study.

Remember When is published monthly by The Evening Chronicle and aims to record the recent history of the North East through the memories of local people.

Liverpool tram, 1949

2008-02-05T19:37:00.001Z

I recently found a photo taken in 1949 showing a Liverpool Corporation Tramways tram on route 40 from Pagemoss to Pier Head, here seen going around a curve with a shop of R.P. Daglish in the background. I wrote about this business in November - see here.

Photo copyright N.N. Forbes

Marian Daglish 1933-2008

2008-01-31T20:06:00.000Z

My wife and I today attended the funeral of Marian Daglish (nee Brown), wife of Peter Daglish and mother to Ailie and Lucas, who sadly died last week.

Our deepest sympathy to Peter and family; we know that they will greatly miss Marian.

Ancestors on Board: Passenger Lists

2008-01-27T12:54:00.001Z

An online resource that may be of interest has been made available by the company FindMyPast under the name Ancestors on Board. These records from the National Archives cover the period 1890 to 1960 - the details online currently cover the priod to 1939, with more to be added.

Many of the records are for people emigrating from the UK. In the years between 1890 and the start of WW1, an estimated 125,000 British people emigrated to USA, 50,000 to Canada and 25,000 to Australia every year. After the war, emigration continued but became increasingly controlled and often had a changed emphasis: for example, Australia became a more and more popular destination.

Also included are records of business travel, tourists and diplomats, as well as economic migrants from Europe who came to England to catch a boat to their final destination.

There is no standard form used. Passenger lists vary in size and in length, changed over time, and different shipping lines had their own pre-printed forms. Some are typed, others are handwritten; some record only a minimum of detail about the passengers, others include a wealth of information down to exact address and ultimate destination overseas.

Searching the records, I found my uncle, Ernest Edgar Daglish, travelling on the Lusitania from Liverpool to New York in December 1914. From other records, we know that in September 1915 he enlisted into the US Army. After the war, back in England, he is found again crossing the Atlantic as well as travelling to places such as Buenos Aires.

The big disadvantage is the cost of accessing the records. Searching the records is free, but to view and download you need to either buy units or to take out a subscription.

This week it was announced that Scotland Online, which runs the web site ScotlandsPeople, had acquired FindMyPast. Quite what this means is unclear - but hopefully the combined company will continue to make new records available online. Scotland Online recently won the tender for the 1911 England and Wales census records. It is understood that the 1911 census will be available from 2009, starting with the major conurbations, although personally sensitive data will be withheld until January 2012.

Image and logo copyright FindMyPast.com

Update - February 1: FindMyPast has just extended the records up to 1949, taking in the period of WW2. Records now include 20 million names within 137,000 passenger lists spanning 1890 to 1949.

Mess Night, Germany - January 1919

2008-01-13T15:19:00.000Z

This menu from January 17 1919 and was for a Mess Night held by the Alberta Regiment of the 31st Canadian Infantry Batallion.

The Canadian batallion saw action in France and Belgium from September 1915 until the end of hostilities in 1918. They formed part of the Army of Occupation in Germany in December 1918, and finally returned home in May 1919.

The menu is worth taking a moment to look at more closely - it has been put together with many references to the conflict just finished.

On the back of the menu are the signatures of some who attended the dinner - and at the top is that of R.F. Daglish.

This was Robert Findley Daglish (1896-1988), who I have written about before (see April 2007). He served in the Royal Air Force at the end of the First World War, and the photo below is thought to be his squadron; it probably includes Robert and some of the others who signed the menu card.

Daglish Corner, UpHolland

2007-12-31T16:53:00.000Z

On 23 December a small ceremony took place to dedicate a memorial, quiet garden at the church of St. Thomas the Martyr, UpHolland, near Wigan in Lancashire.

The space is also known as “the Daglish corner”, and there has been a long association between the local Daglish family and the church. The dedication ceremony was attended by Richard Daglish, who writes:

“I was warmly greeted by a lay reader who is well versed in the story of Robert Daglish's early locomotive, the Yorkshire Horse, and is involved in the East Lancashire Railway (a volunteer preservation group that runs services with old stock in the Bury/Manchester area).

The church was completing its 700th anniversary celebrations since its foundation as a Benedictine monastery, and was decorated not just for Christmas but for the anniversary as well. One event had been a Christmas Tree Festival a week earlier, with 45 decorated and lit trees, entered by a range of organisations, church-based and otherwise, down the side aisles.

After the main service at which the Bishop of Warrington, David Jennings, was the guest preacher, the congregation was asked to stay in the church while the bishop, rector, lay readers, churchwardens and assorted helpers, and I left to walk to the outside area which had been cleared, paved and generally made a more welcoming space, with a good wooden bench.

A few prayers were said in rather an icy wind and we adjourned back to the church for coffee and mince pies.”

Richard learned that the building did not become the parish church until around 1880, about the same time that Robert Daglish, junior (1808-1883) contributed to the costs of building the chancel and, a little later, for a new East window. He also arranged for the remains of his parents Robert Daglish, senior (1779-1865) and his wife Margaret to be reinterred at UpHolland.

My thanks to Richard for the story and photos. Richard is the great, great, great grandson of Robert Daglish, senior.

Blum, Ray & Daglish - Houston, Texas

2007-12-29T17:42:00.000Z

Here is an envelope from 1923 from the company Blum, Ray & Daglish, a hardware company from Houston in Texas.

Research has shown that this was George Daglish, born in Brantford, Canada, in 1871, one of twins - the other was his sister Georgina - the children of Joseph Daglish (born England, about 1825, died Brantford, Canada, September 1884) and his wife Sarah Ann Marshall.

The 1920 US Census shows that George Daglish entered the US in 1877 and was naturalised in 1879. He married Allie Fitzgerald (nee Bryan) in November 1896, and they lived in Houston, Texas.

The 1930 US Census shows that George Daglish was President of the company. George died in September 1938 and his wife Allie died in February 1958. I do not believe the couple had any children.

My thanks to Constance Peck for help with details of this family. If anyone has any further information, please let me know.

Wills in England and Wales after 1858

2007-12-24T21:54:00.000Z

I have added details extracted from the National Probate Calendar index for the name of Daglish for the period 1858 to 1998 into the Daglish Archive.

Since 1858, all wills in England and Wales have been administered through the civil courts; prior to this, the proving of wills came under the jurisdiction of the Church. This article is concerned with wills proved after 1858.

The Court will issue a Grant of representation which enables the person(s) named to deal with the assets and belongings (the Estate) of the deceased. There are three types:

Probate: granted to the executors named in the Will;
Letter of Administration [with Will]: granted to someone other than an executor when the deceased left a valid Will;
Letters of Administration: granted when the deceased did not leave a Will. In such cases, as there is no Will the only details provided are details of who was granted administration.

The Grant is usually a single page giving the details of the deceased and the executors or administrator – this is an example for John Daglish of Bell’s Close, Newburn who died in 1862:

The will itself can often give interesting insights into the family – the following is a short extract from the will of John George Daglish of Gateshead, who died in 1913; in it he sets out his personal possessions to be shared between his sister Mary Ann and his brother Robert:

It is possible to buy a copy of any will for a fee of £5.00. To do this you need the name of the deceased person, the name of the court and the date on which probate was granted.

To find these details a search of the National Probate Calendar is usually necessary. This is an index of Wills and Admons proved in each year. Prior to 1973, these are in book form; after this they are on microfiche and more recently held on computer. A project is underway to digitise these records to improve access to the indexes, and eventually to make it possible to order online.

For now, the only complete set of indexes from 1858 to date is held in the public searchroom at First Avenue House in Holborn, London. I spent some time there last year extracting the details for Daglish, and these are now included in the Daglish Archive for the period 1858 to 1998.
Local District Probate Registries usually have indexes covering the last 50 years.

The amount of detail shown in the index has changed over the years, but every entry shows the full name and address of the deceased, the date of death, the type of grant, the date of grant and the Registry at which it was issued, the gross value of the Estate.

Wills can be purchased either by:
- A personal visit to Court of Probate at High Holborn (which offers a one-hour service, or a 7-day postal service);
- From your local District Probate Registry;
- By post from the Probate Registry at York (which includes a four-year search).
More details can be found on on the H.M. Courts web site.

News update

2007-12-24T20:13:00.000Z

Two recent news stories caught my eye.

The first concerns Toby Daglish from New Zealand, a professor at the Victoria University in Wellington.

Toby was previously at the University of Iowa in the United States, and whilst there he was one of three finance academics who foresaw the looming U.S. subprime mortgage crisis at least three years before the problems started to become public early in 2007.

Late in 2004 he bought a house in Iowa City and arranged a mortgage through a small regional bank. “I was thinking I was going to have to pay mortgage insurance there - but the lady from the bank said, “Oh, we’re having a promotion this month, and you don’t have to buy mortgage insurance”. I remember thinking that’s not a very sound way to run your business.”

This experience led to the study which highlighted concerns with sectors of the US mortgage business.

Full story here.

The second story comes from Visilia, a city in central California, where Dr. Thomas Daglish has been named as Tulare County Physician of the Year. Dr. Daglish has lobbied tirelessly to improve health provision.

The report notes that Dr. Daglish came to Visalia from Canada in 1979. He started an obstetrics practice that eventually evolved into the Visalia Family Practice Medical Group. He now practices general medicine.

"There's always new challenges," he said. "And there's always somebody coming up with some strange legislation that is going to impact the delivery of health care."

While he said his work in organized medicine has made a positive impact over the years, Daglish admitted that "in politics, you never get 100 percent what you want." He said he will not stop lobbying to improve the public's health.

"As long as I'm capable of doing it, I think it's worth it to keep fighting," Daglish said.

Full report here.

Seasons Greetings

2007-12-15T19:23:00.000Z

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

This is a wood engraving by my father, Eric Fitch Daglish, entitled The Mistle Thrush - which was used as a Christmas card many years ago.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog during the year. If you have any stories or pictures that could be posted on the blog, and a few spare minutes over the Christmas break, please e-mail me - the address can be found on the Profile page.

Daglish patents

2007-12-15T16:53:00.000Z

This week I was sent a Patent registered by Harry Bolton Daglish in 1908. Harry Bolton Daglish (1857-1934) came from the Lancashire engineering family connected with the St. Helens (or Daglish) Foundry - for more detail see the article from April 2007 below.

Patents can give an interesting insight into the people that registered them, who may be scientists, engineers or in some cases untrained people with brilliant minds and ideas. Many patents can now be searched for online.

The major database is Espacenet, the European Patent Office gatway. Containing data on up to 60 million patent documents from around the globe, this free service is described as one of the world's biggest technology databases, and draws information from many nations' separately maintained databases.

Pre-1918 British patents cannot yet be researched online, but many can be researched by a personal visit to the patent section of the British Library.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has an online database with a full-text search of patents issued since 1976.

Google has begun to create an independent OCR-based index of the US patent images for the period 1790 to 1975.

William Daglish, Methodist minister

2007-12-08T10:06:00.000Z

During the time that I have been studying the Daglish name, I have received several enquiries about William Daglish, a well known Methodist minister. I was delighted this week to receive a photo of William as a young man.

William Daglish was born on 26 October 1901 in Kyo, Co. Durham, the son of John Daglish and Mary Addison. The following tribute is from the the Minutes of the Methodist Conference following his death in February 1960:

As the youngest son in a large Methodist family whose men were all engaged in the mining industry, it seemed natural that he should join them in working at the pit. He accordingly joined the staff in the colliery office and applied himself assiduously to his work.

At eighteen he was given a Note to Preach, and at twenty was accepted for the Ministry, to which he had incessantly heard a call from his early youth. Two years at Hartley College and probationary years at Harringay and Finchley, Pocklington and Eyemouth, were followed by terms at East London Mission, Buckley, Stockton, Hull, St. Helen's, Brandon, Deerness, and Stanley, his home circuit, where he will long be remembered with gratitude and affection.

As a preacher he was expository and devotional; he always had a sound message, and gently led his flock into the pastures of fuller truth. As a pastor he gave himself with that strong tenderness, modesty and fidelity which befit a man of God. He had a flair for administration and had disciplined himself in thoroughness, neatness and efficiency. In 1959 the enlarged Newcastle District called him to be Secretary for Chapel Affairs.

He had an affectionate and warm-hearted nature, and enjoyed sharing his truth, sympathy, and humour with every man. His friendships, increasing and ripening as he travelled, were as solid as his frame. He used the gifts with which he had been bestowed to glorify God along ordinary paths. He slipped peacefully away from this life on 25 February 1960, in the fifty-ninth year of his life and the thirty-sixth of his Ministry.

My thanks to William's daughter Audrey and to Louise for sending the photo. If you have any memories or information about William, please let me know.

R.P. Daglish, pawnbrokers of Liverpool

2007-11-24T16:34:00.002Z

This painting of R.P. Daglish Ltd., pawnbrokers, on the corner of Ellison Street and Great Homer Street in Liverpool, is by Billy Schwartz and appears on his page on the Scottie Press site, which covers the local area.

Billy's first job was working in the shop at the age of ten and he posts his memories of the shop as it was in the early 1960s:

The shop was split into two. The front shop sold jewellery, watches, bedding, linen, rugs, pumps (shoes) and all kinds of household goods. The back shop was dark and dingy - and very Dickensian. This was the pawnshop, and every Monday morning ... all manner of items were pawned by the less fortunate ... - and then when Friday afternoon or Saturday morning came around they would be redeemed for the weekend.

The place was like and Aladdin's cave with rooms upstairs crammed to the ceiling with all kinds of stuff. There was a rope and pulley, and trap doors in the floors from the top of the building to the bottom, and this was how all pawned items were transported to the storerooms.

The business had been founded in the nineteenth century by two brothers, Robert Pemberton Daglish and John Henry Daglish, the sons of John Daglish of Wigan (engineer, coal owner and farmer). It is Robert's name that appeared over the shops, and in historical directories he is described as a clothier and outfitter and pawnbroker.

By 1895 the chain of shops had extended as far as St. Helens, and the high point was reached in the early years of the twentieth century when there were two dozen branches around northern and eastern areas of inner Liverpool, with more throughout the wider area.

Robert died in 1904 and on 25 April the Liverpool Echo reported:

DEATH OF MR R.P. DAGLISH
A PHILANTHROPIC CAREER

Mr Robert Pemberton Daglish, who during many years carried on an extensive business in Liverpool and St Helens as a pawnbroker, died yesterday morning, at his residence, 19 Falkland Road, Liscard. Mr Daglish was sixty-five years of age. His health for some months past had been the cause of grave anxiety. Early yesterday morning he suddenly became worse, and death supervened about four o'clock. The deceased, who was unmarried, was a Conservative, but although approached on several occasions to become a candidate for municipal honours declined to enter public life.

After his death the business continued in his name run by a syndicate of other pawnbrokers. By 1971 the chain had shrunk to one shop in Goodison Road, Everton, and two in West Derby Road, and the business was finally wound up soon after.

Robert is buried at Anfield cemetery in Liverpool with an ornate memorial markerd "RPD" at each corner. This picture was taken in 1991.

In his Will, Robert left money to several local charitable organisations and also for two memorial windows to be erected in Christ Church, Everton - one for his sister Ann Abigail who had married Thomas Abbay and died in 1897 and the other in his own memory. Christ Church was destroyed by bombs in May 1941, leaving no trace of the windows.

This is abbreviated from an article prepared by Richard Daglish, a second cousin three times removed of the brothers John Henry and Robert Pemberton Daglish. If you are interested in more details, or have any memories of the shops, please let me know and I will be happy to put you into contact with Richard.

UPDATE - MAY 2009
Steve from the Friends of Anfield Cemetery has kindly sent me an updated photo of the memorial as it is today. Steve writes: "Shame it is starting to fall apart and taken over by the tree. The inscription is hardly readable."

June 2009:

Since the above picture was taken, work has taken place to clear the monument (see below). Thanks to Martin Doherty, the cemeteries manager, and the Glendale the ground staff and also to Steve for the further update.

New Australian and US online records

2007-11-22T19:51:00.000Z

I am a relative newcomer to family history, having started in 2005. Even during the short time from then to now, an amazing amount of new data has become available online, including the entire UK census details from 1841 to 1901. Before this, researchers often had to travel to local libraries and archives and spend hours looking at microfiche or other copies. I realise how fortunate I am - and how dedicated those who have been researching their family trees for years and "doing it properly" have been!

With the main sources now available, the companies which provide this online data are challenged with what new material they can provide to keep people subscribing to their services.

This week Ancestry made available two new sets of data - one from Australia and the other from the US.

Australia Electoral Rolls 1901 to 1936 are useful because under Australia's privacy laws no census records are available to researchers. Nearly 42 million names appear on the rolls, although coverage for some states is currently patchy. Details shows include names, addresses and occupations.

There are many Daglish families listed - below is a sample from 1936 in Yarra, Richmond County, Victoria:

The rolls can be found on http://www.ancestry.com.au/. Unfortunately you must be a subscriber of ancestry.com.au or of Ancestry.com's "World Deluxe Membership" to access the Australian Electoral Rolls.

It is interesting to note that women have had the right to vote in Australia since the beginning of the 20th century. Compulsory voting was introduced in 1924 after the voter turnout of those registered to vote in Australia was as low as 47%. Since voting was made compulsory by the Federal Government, voter turnout has remained around 94-96%.

The other new set of records is US Passport Applications from 1795 (when the US began issuing passports) to 1925. These details had previously been available through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Unfortunately there are only three Daglish applications in this collection - these are for William John Daglish (1883-1945), his wife Mabel and his widowed mother Agnes.

The applications show that John worked for the US Shipping Board and spent much time overseas. The family lived in the Panama Canal Zone from 1916 to 1921, where his daughters Elizabeth and Marion were born. In 1921 William is applying for a passport for a 2 year stay in Europe, including England, France, Spain and Belgium and during 1922 his wife and mother are applying to join him in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Passport Applications can be found on http://www.ancestry.com/. Again you must be a subscriber of ancestry.com or of Ancestry.com's "World Deluxe Membership" to access these details.

Tynemouth Coronation Medal, 1902

2007-11-19T20:44:00.001Z

Here is a lovely medal from the coronation of King Edward VII and his wife, Queen Alexandra in June 1902. At this time, Jacob Daglish was the Mayor of Tynemouth.

Jacob is also remembered on a statue of Queen Victoria in Tynemouth which reads:

"Erected by public subscription to the memory of our late beloved Queen Victoria by the inhabitants of the Borough of Tynemouth during the Mayoralty of Alderman Daglish J.P. 1901-02 and unveiled by the Mayoress October 25th 1902".

Jacob was a brewer and had founded Duncan & Daglish, the Newcastle brewers and wine and spirit merchants. There is more information about Jacob Daglish and the company below - see article posted on 3 March 2007.

Westminster Field Of Remembrance

2007-11-09T20:07:00.000Z

On Thursday, the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in London was opened. This year a record number of 29,000 crosses are laid out in memory of the dead from two World Wars and other conflicts, including Iraq.

Amongst them are these three crosses remembering some Daglishes who fell in the First World War whilst serving in the Northumberland Fusiliers:

Robert Daglish, died 20 November 1915, aged 20 - the son of James Daglish (1857-1924) and Honor Godwin of Forest Hill, London

Alexander Daglish, died 5 February 1916, aged 20 - the son of Alexander Daglish (1861-1943) and Mary Ann Postle of Browney, Co. Durham

Arthur Ernest Daglish, died 26 October 1917, aged 27 - the son of Charles Pearson Daglish (1854-1934) and Margaret Henzell Yellowley of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Westminster Field of Remembrance is open until next Thursday, November 15th.

X Factor

2007-11-09T19:54:00.001Z

In recent weeks, some of the the local papers in County Durham have been keenly following the fortunes of local “budding pop star” Charlie Mole, who is appearing in the TV show “X Factor” with her group called Hope.

This week comes news that Charlie and her boyfriend Lee Daglish are planning to get married.

The Shields Gazette reports that Lee proposed to Charlie on her 23rd birthday - also the day she found out she had got through to the live final stage of The X Factor.

Good luck to Lee and Charlie ... maybe if Hope win the contest, we shall have a Daglish pop star!

Story and photo from The Shields Gazette - full story here
Also from the Sunderland Echo here

Update: December 1 - Having reached the final five, Hope were eliminated from the competition, but announced that they intend to continue as a group. Good luck!

The Guardian and Observer Digital Archive

2007-11-04T15:33:00.000Z

The Guardian and The Observer UK newspapers have just launched their own digital archive.

For the launch, a 24-hour free trial is being offered until the end of November - details are on the site under Introductory Offer. After this, there will be a charge - although access may be available from some libraries in the same way as The Times Digital Archive.

The site gives the following details:

This archive will eventually contain the digital reproduction of every page, article and advert published in the Guardian (since 1821) and the Observer (since 1791 – the oldest Sunday paper in the world). For this launch the archive covers the period of 1821-1975 for the Guardian and 1900-1975 for the Observer as we are still working on digitising the remaining material. From early 2008 onwards the entire archive up to 2003 will be available – more than 1.2m pages covering all major historic events over 212 years as reported at the time.

The Guardian was originally The Manchester Guardian and the coverage of North West England is particularly good.

A search on "Daglish" produces 204 results - a mixture of news articles, announcements and adverts. One news article covers the inquest into the unfortunate death of Adelaide Daglish in 1905.

The Daglish DNA Project

2007-10-20T08:54:00.000Z

An item in the morning news today prompted me to write about the Daglish DNA Study, which began about a year ago.

Fathers pass to their sons, via the Y-chromosome, DNA markers which remain virtually unchanged generation after generation.

These markers can be compared with the markers for other individuals to establish relationships that may have been impossible to find by documentation alone.

The objectives of the Daglish DNA Study are:

to determine which of the many Daglish families can can be linked back to a common ancestor. For example many Daglish families in County Durham can be traced back to Whickham parish - but even from the extensive parish registers we do not know if they all shared a common ancestor. Other Daglish families can be traced back to Northumberland. Are these separate from the County Durham Daglishes - or are these linked by a common ancestor? This will help the usual question 'are we related' and will also give a greater insight into the history of the Daglish name.

to test whether there is a link between DAGLISH and other similar names: in particular DALGLISH and DALGLIESH. The standard reference works on surnames show that Daglish is derived from these names - but this is not clear so far from currently available data.

So far we have 11 members of the Daglish DNA study - and some interesting results.

There are five matches for a group of distinct Daglish families which trace their origins back to the parish of Whickham in County Durham. This suggests that these families share a common ancestor, probably around 500 years ago. At this stage there is no known link between these families through the paper records, so this provides an interesting challenge for further research.

It is worth noting that the chances of getting a random match is several times less likely than the chances of winning the UK lottery - so I believe that these results are significant.

The results for Daglishes whose histories go back to ther parts of North East England are less conclusive at this stage.

The news story that prompted me to write about our study is that it has been announced that the web site Ancestry.co.uk is offering DNA testing for family historians; the story is can be seen here.

This is likely to be a significant step forward in the use of DNA as a tool for genealogy. Ancestry is by far the largest commercial family history web: it already offers online access to the England & Wales census 1841-1901, birth, marriage and death indexes and much more. Although home access to Ancestry is by subscription, the site can be accessed free from most major libraries.

One common concern with DNA for genealogy is that the test is medically informative and can identify someone as an individual. In fact, the test is made on a part of the DNA structure which has no medical value and is completely different from the tests used as a ‘forensic’ profile by the police. Put simply, we are interested in what people share in common with their ancestors, not what makes them unique.

The value of testing is to find matches with others. If you would be interested in joining the DNA Study, please let me know. Your surname will be Daglish or Dalglish or other close variant - and you must be male! The biggest barrier to DNA research is the cost of the tests - but it is worth noting that tests ordered within the Daglish DNA Study receive a discount.

For more information about DNA and how it can be used in genealogy, please see the following sites:
Genetics & Genealogy - An Introduction
International Society of Genetic Genealogy

Armed Forces Memorial

2007-10-13T09:13:00.000Z

Yesterday the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales attended the dedication of the new Armed Forces Memorial.

The £6m stone circle is located at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, and bears the names of 16,000 service personnel who have died since World War II. There is room for 15,000 more names to be carved on the Portland stone walls.

The memorial will open to the public on October 29. It was designed by architect Liam O’Connor.

Photo: Press Association (PA)

The names of those commemorated on the new memorial can be searched on the Armed Forces Memorial web site under The Roll of Honour. There is one result for Daglish.

Richard Daglish was born in Catterick in October 1944 and was killed in April 1964 in Brunei, whilst serving with the Royal Signals. He was 19 years old. The site shows that he is buried in Singapore. Richard was the son of John Henry Daglish and Ann Birkett.

At last - a Daglish clock!

2007-10-12T18:01:00.002Z

For some time I have been looking for a photo of a Daglish clock - and this week I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Simon and Jane, who kindly sent some of their clock.

Simon and Jane bought the clock in the late 1980s. They think it may originally have had a pediment at the top but that perhaps it was too tall for some past owner's cottage. They report:

It is keeping excellent time (has an eight day movement) and chimes the number of hours, it has a lovely mellow chime which we can hear throughout the house.

As shown in an earlier post, there were three generations of clockmakers working in Alnwick, Northumberland, between the 1740s and 1840s - all called Joseph Daglish. Simon and Jane's clock was probably made by the younger Joseph (1775-1843).

The premises were in Peakes Lane in Alnwick, close to the centre of the town and near the Town Hall. It is now known as Paikes Lane - and, although there is no surviving clues as to the location of the business, I took the photos below on a recent visit.

My grateful thanks to Simon and Jane for providing the photos of their clock.

If you have any photos of objects with a Daglish connection, I would be very pleased to hear from you.

Update - June 2008:

Peter Fenwick kindly sent me a photo of a clock by Joseph Daglish that he saw for sale. This one has a rare and magnificent dial by the dialmaker Richard Hipkiss, who was making dials in the period 1805 to 1811.

Peter writes that in the dial centre, to the right of the number 9, are the words "Nile, Copenhagen, Trafalgar" on the drape held by the cherub.

The arch shows a country house with a boating lake. The clock is housed in a typical Northumbrian oak case.

My thanks to Peter for the photo and details.

Nonconformist church records online

2007-10-05T18:36:00.000Z

In recent weeks, some records of baptisms have been made available online. These are from nonconformist churches (that is, those not belonging to the Church of England) - in particular Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians.

The records are from the National Archives in association with a commercial company under the name BMD Registers. There is a free search, but it costs £2.50 to download a scanned image.

The documents are useful as they are mostly before 1837 – the date of the introduction of civil registration in England and Wales. Although these have previously been available to researchers, this is the first time they have been fully indexed and searchable by name. The first release (the RG4 and RG5 series from the National Archives) apparently covers up to six million individuals – of which there are 36 records for Daglish.

At first, I found the indexing on the web site to be inaccurate. I knew that the files included three baptisms for my own family which, at the time, was living in Spaxton, Somerset. Shown below is the baptism certificate for James Daglish from the Wesleyan Methodist Registry 1818-1838.

I was therefore interested that the index listed a fourth Daglish baptised in Somerset – could this be a long lost ancestor! Unfortunately when I downloaded the image, I found it had been wrongly indexed - and the baptism was in fact for a family in Newcastle upon Tyne. I also found another record with the wrong location - so reported these errors to the web site and these have now been fixed.

The details provided vary from location to location. Some are certificates - such as the example above - while others are pages from registers.

One interesting record shows a James Daglish being born in the Tower of London:

James, Son of James Daglish, Royal Artillery, in the parish of Woolwich & County of Kent and of Elizabeth his wife, was born in the Tower of London Augt 15th 1807 and Baptized Sept 14th 1807 by me. John Blythe

This is a mystery to me. I have no other record of this family, and wonder whether this is really Dalglish (although the entry on the document is clearly written as Daglish), as the baptism took place in the Scots Church, Woolwich. I contacted the Tower of London - but they have no record of either a Daglish or Dalglish in the records.

Simon Daglish: the Numis Polar Challenge

2007-09-21T21:30:00.002Z

On 14 January 2006, Simon Daglish was part of a four man team that reached the South Pole, after a 170-mile trek across the Antartic. In the Numis Polar Challenge, the team re-anacted the final stage of Captain Scott's 1912 expedition - with the aim of raising £1,000,000 for charities.

The 17-day journey was completed using the same methods and kit as used by Scott. Heavy wooden sledges lashed together with flax, gut and leather carried their reindeer-skin sleeping bags and canvas tent. Skis were made of birch and hickory and they steered by traditional theodolite and sextant navigation. In their kit, the team made an unusual sights and Simon reported on their arrival:

We were greeted by two Swedish scientists from the American Amundsen-Scott base who skied enthusiastically up to us and radioed back to the South Pole calling out: “The Brits are here!”.

We marched on, chatting to the first signs of human life we had seen for 17 days – it was wonderful. As we approached the Pole, scientists, technicians and workers from the Scientific Centre poured out, all with cameras to take photos of a sight which hasn’t been seen since Captain Scott and his team approached the Pole on 17th January 1912. For me, the approach to the Pole, having hauled almost 200 miles across the most inhospitable land in the world, was full of emotion – hard to summarise but my goggles filled up with emotion and I couldn’t see.

Simon’s team mates were friends James Daly, Ed Farquhar and Roger Weatherby. They were accompanied by polar guide Geoff Somers. Unfortunately the million pound target was missed – but just under £900,000 was raised; a remarkable achievement. Upon their return, the team gave a series of lectures around the country including the Royal Georgraphical Society in London.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott set sail for the Antartic in 1910 with the aim of being the first person to reach the South Pole, and to plant the British flag on Earth’s last great wilderness. The expedition developed into a “Race to the Pole” with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who had a head start. After delays, Scott and his team reached the Pole on January 17, 1912 (see picture below) – but found they had been beaten by the Norwegian. On the journey back, Scott and his team succumbed to starvation and extreme cold.

Simon’s primary motivation for the Polar journey was to raise money from the charity Tommy’s. His youngest son was born more than three months early and suffers from cerebral palsy. Whilst his son was under treatment in intensive care, Simon was struck by how many premature babies die and wanted to raise money for research into the causes of premature births and their prevention. Simon also had a keen interest in Scott. He was bought up believing Scott was a hero – but in recent years some books and commentary suggested ineptitude and even a lack of bravery in Scott. Simon felt this was unfair and probably inaccurate.

Simon’s team mates were friends James Daly, Ed Farquhar and Roger Weatherby. They were accompanied by polar guide Geoff Somers. Unfortunately the million pound target was missed – but just under £900,000 was raised; a remarkable achievement. Upon their return, the team gave a series of lectures around the country including the Royal Georgraphical Society in London.

This has not been Simon’s only adventure. In 2003 he rowed a boat across the Irish Sea, also to raise money for Tommy’s, and has ridden a bicycle across the Stony Desert in Australia. He plans to lead an expedition to the North Pole in 2009.

** UPDATE **
Simon is involved with the Walking With The Wounded Arctic Expedition 2011.

The Tower Hill Memorial, London

2007-09-14T20:23:00.000Z

The Tower Hill Memorial in London commemorates Merchant seamen from the two World Wars who have no known grave, apart from the sea. The memorial is located opposite the Tower of London and in front of Trinity House.

The 1914-18 monement was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and consists of a vaulted corridor with 12 bronze plaques engraved with 12,000 names. The World War II memorial was designed by Sir Edward Maufe in a semi-circular sunken garden with 24,000 names. All names are arranged in alphabetical order under the names of the ships that they were lost on.

There are two Daglish names on the memorial.

Chief Engineer Officer Edward Daglish died on 16 May 1943, aged 51, on the S.S. Aymeric (Glasgow). The Aymeric was torpedoed and sunk by U.657.

Edward was the son of Joseph Daglish and Frances Elizabeth Green, and he married Hilda Crumpton in 1919. The couple had four children. Edward was a Member of the Institution of Marine Engineers.

Steward James Daglish died on 11 August 1940, aged 20, on the S.S. Kirnwood (Middlesbrough). James was the son of James Daglish and Elizabeth Horn Garvock of South Shields.

The main inscription on the monument reads:

The Twenty-Four Thousand of The Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets whose names are honoured on the walls of this garden gave their lives for their country and have no grave but the sea.

Trip to the North East

2007-09-09T05:38:00.000Z

I spent the last few days this week in the North East – enjoying some wonderful, sunny weather and the opportunity to meet some Daglishes.

The main reason for the trip was to be at Gibside, the National Trust property, which has been open for free this weekend as part of the Heritage Open Day scheme, under the theme “Your History Matters”. I was there trying to help others who are interested in starting family history search and want to know where to begin. There was a steady flow of visitors all day – some of whom were already experienced researchers with their “brick walls” that they wanted solved!
The highlight of the day for me was meeting Mr & Mrs Bill Daglish, who came to meet me after their son saw details of the event on the blog – an unexpected pleasure!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Louise and her husband Nigel, and Vera and her husband Allen. Louise has been researching her Daglish line for over 20 years, and has got back as far as 1583 in Whickham. Louise told me about her dismay when she found that one of her family headstones in a local cemetery had been flattened – apparently done to making mowing easier.

This started some thoughts about how gravestones and headstones are in danger of being either flattened, damaged or even removed, and I thought it might be useful to create an archive of photos of Daglish graves and other memorials.

With this in mind I went out to look for some. One in Newcastle Cathedral is for John Daglish (1793-1837), a chemist and druggist. He is recorded as being the son of William Daglish of Gateshead and whose mother was a descendent of Henry Maddison, sixth of the ten sons whose effigies are on the extraordinary Maddison Monument, also in Newcastle Cathedral.

John Daglish is reported to have been "of a philanthropic and benevolent disposition, a promoter of infant and Sunday schools, and a warm hearted friend of the young, the helpless and the suffering. " He was twice married, first to Catherine Wilson (who is buried with him) and later to Mary Wilkinson. One of his sons William Stephen Daglish (1832-1911) became a prominent solicitor in Newcastle, whilst another John Wilkinson Daglish (1828-1906) was a mining engineer and Justice of the Peace.

The only danger to this stone is probably from the hundreds of pairs of feet that must walk over it every day, most without taking time to read the inscription.

If anyone has their own photos of headstones or memorials connected to the Daglish name that they would be willing to let me have copies of I would be very grateful. Also it would be very useful to know the locations of any Daglish graves or memorials - much easier than finding them by chance! Living as I do in the south of England, it was a thrill to be able to go into a churchyard or cemetery and find a Daglish grave.

I have posted some other photos that I took on this trip on a flickr site (a way of sharing photos).

I also visited another National Trust property, Wallington, to try to locate the Daglish clock that my wife and I remembered seeing there some 15 years ago. My wife remembered that it used to be in the upstairs restaurant – but it’s no longer there. I spoke to a lady who worked in the restaurant at that time, who confirmed that the clock was indeed there at the time but she thought it was now held as part of the private collection. The person who would know was not there on the day I visited – but I left details and hope to hear from Wallington soon.

My thanks to Louise and Nigel, and to Vera and Allen, for their kind and generous hospitality.

Operation Epsom: new book by Ian Daglish

2007-08-15T18:10:00.000Z

Just a quick update on the latest book by Ian Daglish, "Operation Epsom" (see full story below: June 23).

The book has now been published after a short delay which, according to Ian, "is almost all my fault, since the publishers allowed me several stages of proofing before I let it go to print".

This is a book that has been in Ian's mind for some ten years, and follows his earlier books on other Normandy campaigns.

"Operation EPSOM, the first of Montgomery's major set-piece Normandy battles, marked a turning point in the Normandy campaign. Before EPSOM, there remained the chance that a German counter-strike in Normandy might seriously threaten the bridgehead. After EPSOM, the Allies retained the strategic initiative through the liberation of France and Belgium".

The book is a hardback with 272 pages, illustrated with photos, including aerial photography of the battlefield, and period Army maps. It is published by Pen & Sword at £19.99 (but can be found cheaper on some online sites, including Amazon or direct from the publisher).

The Times Digital Archive

2007-08-10T21:29:00.000Z

The Times newspaper is a valuable resource tool for researchers. The Times Digital Archive 1785-1985 can be accessed online from many libraries in the UK, with the possibility to search news articles, obituaries, editorials, features as well as classified advertisements. Searching for "Daglish" I found announcements of many births, marriages and deaths, together with some more general news items.

One entry under News In Brief caught my eye. This notes the death of Henry Edward Daglish in 1951 - the event appears to have been deemed newsworthy because Henry was apparently 7 feet 7 inches (The Times, March 16 1951). Henry was the son of Christopher John Daglish and Beatrice May Hambidge from Swindon, and his grandfather, John Daglish, had moved to Swindon from South Shields.

In the years 1968 and 1969, James Daglish wrote for The Times, with many articles showing that he was part of the Political Staff. I have so far been unable to identify who this James was - if anybody can help, please let me know. The article below is from August 1968 concerning one of the hot political stories from the time.

British Army World War 1 Pension Records online

2007-08-04T09:09:00.000Z

Some more documents of interest have recently appeared on line at the Ancestry subscription site - this time British Army Pension Records from 1914 to 1920. These again are sourced from the UK National Archives.

There are 17 Daglish files included in the records now online, and at least two of these have already been useful to living relatives in finding out more about their ancestor's war service.

One I would like to highlight concerns George William Crawford Daglish. George was born in 1872, so was older than most others who joined the army after the outbreak of the war. George's record show that he first enlisted in 1891, when he was 18. He served in South Africa in between 1899 and 1902 and was awarded the South African War Medal.

Research by George's granddaughter, Maralyn, has shown that George was in fact born George Jobson, the son of Jane Jobson of Alnwick, in 1872. He was raised by his aunt Elizabeth Daglish (nee Jobson) and her husband John.

This kind of "informal adoption" by families was not uncommon. It can cause havoc with our DNA study as, of course, it will cause a break in the assumed Daglish line. However this is only from the biological point of view; in all other respects, children brought up in this way will regard themselves as Daglishes and will pass the name down to their descendents.

George married Eveline Florence Lee in London in 1898 and their first daughter was born in the same year. After that George was posted to South Africa - so the next child, a son, did not arrive until 1903. The photo shows George at Aldershot in around 1915 or 1916.

According to The National Archives:

When war broke out in August 1914, the British army numbered just over 730,000 men. Unlike the other major European states, where conscription allowed huge numbers of men to be rapidly brought under arms, Britain relied on a small, professional defence force. But the scale of the conflict between the Allies and the Central Powers demanded massive increases in Britain's military manpower resources. By the end of the war in 1918, more than seven million men and women had seen service in the British army.

Unfortunately, more than half of their service records were destroyed in September 1940, when a German bombing raid struck the War Office repository in Arnside Street, London. However, an estimated 2.8 million service records survived the bombing or were reconstructed from the records of the Ministry of Pensions. This means that there is a roughly 40% chance of finding the service record of a soldier who was discharged at some time between 1914 and 1920.

With thanks to Maralyn Webb who provided the photo of George William Crawford Daglish, for her research on this family and also her help with other Daglish families from Alnwick.

Olly back on Dragon's Den

2007-07-30T08:11:00.000Z

This week saw Olly Daglish back on the TV show “Dragon’s Den” – this time in a follow-up show entitled "The Dragons’ Den – Where Are They Now?"

The BBC show is based around would-be entrepreneurs pitching their money-spinning ideas to gain business financing to a panel of five "dragons". The Dragons are all established business people with money to make things happen. However, the entrepreneurs need all their powers of persuasion, reasoning and presentation to convince the five Dragons that their business is worth investing in.

Olly first appeared on the show in February seeking investment in his Ollypop surf towel – but then his idea was harshly criticised by dragon Theo Paphitis. “It’s about as useful as knickers on a kipper!” Theo declared.

This week's show looked at what had happened since, and showed Olly in his home environment - down on the beach.

Olly reflected: “Theo’s not from a surfing background so I can understand why he couldn’t see the potential in the towel. But I was determined to come away from the Den with something, and the “kipper’s knickers” quote was it!”

He added: “I just couldn’t resist. It would be a shame to let such a quirky phrase go to waste so we’re using it as our new slogan. Ollypop - the kipper’s knickers!- just like the ‘bee’s knees’ or the ‘cat’s whiskers’!”

The Ollypop towel range has been expanded to include ‘Girlpop’, designed specifically to appeal to the growing band of surf girls, and the ‘Grompop’ for kids - in addition to the 'Original', which is an updated version of the towel Olly took to the Den. Orders are up - and the ‘kipper’s knickers’ phrase is catching on.

Australian convict records

2007-07-27T08:58:00.000Z

This week it was announced that details of Australian convict records for the period 1788 to 1868 have been released online through subscription site Ancestry.

The BBC web site reported:

The records of tens of thousands of British convicts sent to Australia from the end of the 18th Century have been put online for the first time. Subscribers can browse names, date of conviction, the length of sentence and which penal colony they went to.

It is estimated two million Britons and 22% of Australians will have a convict ancestor listed in the records.

Transportation of convicts to Australia began as British prisons were becoming overcrowded in the late 18th Century and crime in cities increased following the industrial revolution. The journey to Australia by boat took eight months, six of which were spent at sea and two in ports where supplies were picked up.

The majority of the convicts were men and although a small number had been found guilty of serious crimes such as murder and assault, most had committed minor offences. Some of the crimes they were punished for included stealing from a pond or river and setting fire to undergrowth.

After serving out their sentence many convicts remained in Australia and the BBC site comments:

Many Australians are said to consider a convict in their family tree is a badge of honour and 22% are direct descendents of these convicts.

The documents are from the National Archives in the UK, and include two Daglishes.

James Daglish in December 1832 on board the ship "Jupiter" to Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania). He had been convicted on 28 July 1832.

The New South Wales and Tasmania Convict Musters 1806-1849 show that James had been assigned to Public Works but died on 31 October 1836.

William Daglish in May 1865 on board the ship "Racehorse" to Western Australia. He had been convicted on 22 July 1863.

More details of the voyage can be found on the Convicts to Australia site which shows that the Racehorse left Portland, England on May 26, 1865 bound for the Swan River Colony. The voyage took 76 days and the Racehorse arrived in Fremantle on August 10, 1865 with 172 passengers and 278 convicts.

The list of convicts shows that William Daglish, aged 31, had been convicted of house breaking on 22 July 1863 and sentenced to 12 years.

Could this be the same William Daglish who was reported in The Times in May 1858 under the heading "A Notorious Burglar"?

"William Daglish, a powerful, thick set young man, 25 years of age, is in the custody of South Shields police, and haws been identified with two desparate burglaries ... there seems no doubt but that, though he is only 25 years of age, he is the leader of the gang of burglars who have caused so much alarm in the north country towns during the past two or three months ... He has suffered four years penal servitude for shoplifting at Sunderland; 18 months imprisonment for a burlary in the parsonage of Holy Trinity Church, South Shields and has been imprisoned for three other offences. It is suspected that his companions are either returned convicts, or ticket-of-leave men"

UK flooding

2007-07-24T07:23:00.000Z

As anyone living in the UK will know, the country has been suffering with serious flooding in many parts of the country. A couple of weeks ago it was the North of England, in particular Yorkshire - but now it is the areas around the rivers Severn and Thames. The map below shows some of the areas affected.

Many thousands of families have had their homes flooded and many more are without electricity or clean water. Although the peak levels seem to have been reached in the areas worst affected, it will take many days for the waters to recede - and much, much longer for life to return to normal. The forecast is for the UK summer to continue to be unsettled, with more rain to come.

The BBC web site is publishing a number of stories from its readers under the heading Your stories: Fighting the floods; this includes the following from George and Emma Daglish:

GEORGE AND EMMA DAGLISH, KINGSWAY, GLOUCESTER

George Daglish, 34, said he and his wife were relying on bottled water to help feed their six-month-old daughter, Olivia, and were still waiting for a bowser to be delivered to their area.

"We ran out of water at the weekend and went to get some supplies from Morrisons, but it was like a scene from a film," said George.

"People were panicking and just grabbing things off the shelves. I've never seen anything like it.

"We managed to get some water from elsewhere, so I'm not too worried at the moment. Our electricity went off during the night, but it came back on this morning, so if it stays on then we should be OK.

"If things do get too bad then my wife will probably take the children and go an stay with her parents in Blackpool. We have a two-year-old and a six-month old baby, so getting bottles made up for her is obviously the most important thing.

"We don't think the floodwater will reach us, so we are better off than many people. We just have to tough things out for a few more days."

Story and map from the BBC News web site.

The Land of Nursery Rhyme by Alice Daglish

2007-07-21T09:35:00.000Z

Alice Daglish was the first wife of my father, Eric Fitch Daglish. Born Alice Archer in 1896, she married my father in 1918 toward the end of the First World War. They had three children - two sons (twins) and a daughter. Alice died in January 2000, aged 103.

The Land of Nursery Rhyme was a book that Alice worked on with Ernest Rhys (1859-1946), a friend of the family who was a writer and founding editor of the Everyman’s Library series. This series, published by J.M. Dent in the UK and E.P. Dutton in the US, published classic book titles at an affordable price. The aim of the series was to publish 1,000 titles, in batches of ten titles at a time. The target was eventually reached in 1956, ten years after Rhys died.

The Land of Nursery Rhyme was first published in 1932, containing drawings by Charles Folkard (1879-1963), an illustrator of children's books.

These included some very rich, colour illustrations of particular rhymes - such as the one shown for "Ride A Cock Horse To Banbury Cross". Later editions and re-prints of the book did not contain all of these full colour illustrations.

In a sign of the times that it was written, in the introduction the authors note:

“Here are the favourite old Nursery Rhymes along with some others which are more or less new … The very latest of all is one about a Flying-man.”

Flying-man, Flying-man,

Up in the sky,

Where are you going to,

Flying so high?

Over the mountains,

And over the sea -!

Flying-man, Flying-man,

Can't you take me?

A later book "A Christmas Holiday Book" was published in 1934, this time with illustrations by Mary Shillabeer.

George Melly on Peter Daglish

2007-07-21T08:30:00.000Z

George Melly, the jazz musician and writer, died on July 5.

Back in 1979, George Melly reviewed an exhibition of lithographs by Peter Daglish - the review was published in the February 1979 edition of the London Magazine. This particular issue was the 25th Anniversary of the London Magazine, and had a painting of Bjorn Borg by Rosemary Taylor on its cover.

The exhibition was at the Graffiti Gallery in London and was made up of a suite of 25 lithographs entitled the Ofay Suite.

In his notes entitles "Ofay Melody" Melly wrote:

"With a rapidity approaching Picasso, and with intentions not dissimilar from that painter's loose variations in a single theme, Peter Daglish has produced twenty-five splendid black and white lithographs to be looked at in any order.

He has worked at them ritualistically. With one exception, he has divided each print into two upright rectangles, two separate images. In the left-hand frame he has drawn a woman. In the right, a man. On completing one image, he covered it over while he drew the other. In this way the first image couldn't directly affect the second. Only the memory of what he'd just invented could influence what he was about to do ...

In the case of every rectangle containing a man there is, either at the top or bottom, a word in a frame. Some refer to poems: "Oranges, for instance (Frank O'Hara is Daglish's favourite poet). Others to art: Vincent for example. (Daglish has also made a series of prints based on Van Gogh's "Painter on the way to work".) Jazz too. "Jellyroll" it says under the image of a thoughtful moustached man who in no way resembles Morton. The words add poetic resonance. They are also formally beautiful. In some cases letters are reversed "as in a mirror".

Melly concludes:

In whatever order these prints are arranged it would be possible to invent "a story". There would also be no point in it except as a test of ingenuity. What they are far more like is a "blues" (isolation or desertion hover). In most blues the verses can be sung in any order and still convey their meaning.

In one print "MEANWYLE" (sic) a sailor in the right-hand frame leans forward to hold the breast of the girl in the left hand frame. Contact is made. The effect is so tender that I would always wish to see this print last".

John Snowden Jackson Daglish - The Battle of Kohima

2007-07-12T19:29:00.001Z

On Wednesday evening, the BBC screened a special edition of Who Do You Think You Are, featuring the TV and radio presenter Nicky Campbell.

Nicky was adopted, and the film followed his adopted family, and featured a section on the involvement of Nicky’s father in what is known as “the forgotten war” against Japan in India, and in particular at the Battle of Kohima. This was a critical battle of the Burma Campaign, fought from April 4 to June 22, 1944. It marked the end of the Japanese offensive in India and was described as the “Stalingrad of the East”.

The British and Indian forces lost around 4,000 men, dead, missing and wounded. The Japanese had lost more than 5,000 men in the Kohima area fighting.

I was reminded that Private John Snowden Jackson Daglish of the Durham Light Infantry lost his life at Kohima on 22 April 1944. John was the son of Septimus Joshua Daglish and Hannah Jackson, and was born in Gateshead - but his family was originally from Morpeth. When he died he was 32, and he left a wife Amelia and a young son. Some ten years later Amelia married George Septimus Daglish, John’s younger brother.

John is buried in the Kohima War Cemetery (see picture below). The cemetery is completely terraced and contains 1,420 Commonwealth burials. At the lower end of the cemetery, near the entrance, is a memorial to the 2nd Division. It bears the inscription:

When you go home

Tell them of us and say:

For your tomorrow

We gave our today

Daglish of Alnwick - update

2007-07-08T08:32:00.000Z

I received a letter this week from the Bailiffgate Museum in Alnwick with some more information about the Daglish clock makers - see below.

The workshop was located in Peaks Lanes (sometimes spelt Peakes Lane, and now known as Paikes Lane). The narrow lane is still there, and is part of Alnwick Market Place, running from the north west corner through to the junction of Bondgate Within and Narrowgate.

So the family ran its business in the heart of the town, almost next to the 18th century Town Hall. The Museum provided an early 19th century street plan of Alnwick, with Paikes Lane marked in red.

My thanks to Mrs. Marjorie Brown at the Bailiffgate Museum for these additional details.

Talking of maps, I would like to mention a company which sells a series of old Ordnance Survey maps.

Most Daglish families have their roots in the North-East – so it is frustrating for me living in the South East of England with little access to local information.

One resource that I have found very helpful is a series of old Ordnance Survey Maps published by Alan Godfrey Maps under the title The Godfrey Edition.

The maps date mostly from the late 19th century and are highly detailed, taken from the 1/2500 plans and reprinted at about 14 inches to the mile. The area covered by each map is relatively small, covering about one and a half square miles.

On the back of each map are some interesting historical notes on the area concerned, written by local experts for this series. Many also include extracts from contemporary directories giving the names of local residents and trades.

With more than 2,000 maps already published, there is a good range of maps covering the whole country, and County Durham and the Newcastle area well represented. The company is also based in the area, so has some useful local knowledge. Maps are priced at £2.20 each and can be ordered on-line through the on-line store at the company’s website.

Alan Godfrey Maps, Prospect Business Park, Leadgate, Consett, DH8 7PW, England. Tel. (01207) 583388

The Daglish clockmakers of Alnwick

2007-06-29T19:13:00.001Z

Have you seen a Daglish clock? I did once - many years ago on a family holiday in Northumberland when our children were still young, we visited a nearby National Trust property and in the team room we saw a grandfather clock with the name "Daglish, Alnwick" on it. We didn't take a photo - and I have never seen another!

I was recently I was in touch with Peter Fenwick, a clock enthusiast who lives near Alnwick and who had owned a Daglish clock - but had recently sold it. The picture on the right (which appeared in the February 2002 edition of Clocks magazine) is of Peter's clock - you can just about see the name of Daglish on the dial.

The Daglishes made fine clocks, mostly grandfathers with brass or painted dials, many of which survive - but most of which are owned privately by collectors and rarely appear for sale.

During the 18th and 19th century, there were three generations of clockmakers called Joseph Daglish who lived and worked in Alnwick, Northumberland.

The family apparently had Scottish origins and are described as "dissenters" or nonconformists. The first Joseph Daglish arrived in Alnwick some time before 1740 - he was married to Ann Forster in that year. They had two sons, Joseph (1749-1798) and Robert (1753-1807), and both became clockmakers. Joseph succeeded his father, whilst Robert remained a journeyman all his life. Robert junior also had a son Joseph (1775-1843) who took over the business on his father's death. Over a hundred years of clockmaking under the Daglish name.

As far as I know, the youngest Joseph did not marry and had no children. He appears in the 1841 Census, living with his sister Ann, also unmarried - so I believe that the clock business ceased when he died.

Some Daglish clocks clocks are described in the book "North Country Clockmakers of the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries" by C. Leo Reid (1925). A grandfather clock had a "face decorated with pictures of old English warships and at each corner there is a painting of admirals, one of which is Nelson". Another had a dial showing "old English figures painted with two pheasants and vase, in each corner flowers".

I would be very interested in any information about this clockmaking family - and to know the wherabouts of any Daglish clocks or to see any photos. Maybe we will have to pay a return visit to that National Trust property to see if we can find the clock that we remember seeing all those years ago!

Details from the book "Clock makers of Northumberland and Durham" by Keith Bates (1980). Other information supplied by Peter Fenwick.

Ian Daglish, military historian

2007-06-23T08:46:00.000Z

Ian Daglish writes books about the Normandy campaign of 1944, and his latest book “Operation Epsom” is due out later this summer - it was originally scheduled to be published this week, but has been delayed due to some production issues. This is a book that has been forming in Ian’s mind for more than ten years.

Ian’s interest in history in general and the Normandy campaign in particular has grown throughout his life. Ian was born in Redhill, Surrey, in 1952, and when he was 8 years old his family moved to the United States for a few years. Ian remembers:

Alabama was in the throes of celebrating the centenary of the American Civil War, and this made school history lessons more exciting than usual. I returned to England with a passion for war stories, toy soldiers and board war games.

He read History at Trinity College, Cambridge, writing a thesis on Napoleon Bonaparte and the Invasion of England.

Some fifteen years later, a chance purchase in a California supermarket of a paperback about the American paratroops of 1944 sowed the first seeds of Ian’s interest in Normandy. The book accompanied Ian on many business trips - and by the 1990s Ian had visited the airborne battlefields of the Cotentin peninsula, written numerous articles about the air campaign and designed a series of board war games on the subject for a New York publisher.

Meanwhile a deeper interest was forming. Returning from a family holiday in the Dordogne in 1994, following a midday picnic by the Orne river, Ian suggested a short cut to avoid the town of Caen. The route led over Hill 112, the site of a key battle in 1944, and on through the village of Gavrus, where Ian recalled that a Scots battalion had fought a brave battle against the Germans. On returning home Ian read everything he could find about the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders’ action there. Ian found it an inspiring story – but one which was not well documented.

The following year he was back in Gavrus to do some serious research, and in the years that followed Ian has learned more and more about the story of the Argylls at Gavrus. A highlight for Ian was a return to Gavrus in 2004, leading a party of surviving Argylls. Ian recalls:

The village turned out, the band played, the anti-tank gunners revisited their gun positions by the bridges and elderly Jocks entertained appreciative visitors with their war stories.

Eventually Ian persuaded a publisher, Pen & Sword, to let him write a book - not about Gavrus, but the later Operation Bluecoat also involving the Argylls. This was well received and the publisher asked Ian to write a second book, Operation Goodwood – both books are part of the publishers Battleground Europe series. By this time Ian was becoming accepted as a military historian – he was inducted to the British Commission for Military History, invited to lecture and to speak on the Normandy campaign and to lead serving soldiers on battlefield tours.

For his third book, Ian persuaded the publishers to let him cover a Normandy battle at greater length and greater depth – and this format provided Ian with the vehicle for a book about the Argylls at Gavrus and the broader Operation Epsom - the book he has wanted to write for so long.

Ian’s father was Anthony Fenwick (Tony) Daglish, the only son of Francis Richard (Frank) Daglish. Frank volunteered with the 10th Northumberland Fusiliers in 1914 and served as a Lewis machine gunner until severely wounded on the Somme. His two brothers also served, one was later killed in WW2 and one was gassed but never regained his health.

His father Tony attended Chester-le-Street Grammar School and won a scholarship – at his headmaster’s suggestion he went to Trinity College, Cambridge where he read Chemistry. On completion of his studies, he was sent to work in armaments production at Bishopton, near Glasgow. Whilst there he served with the Bishopton Home Guard, led by a former Argyll & Sutherland Highland Regiment officer, and wearing the Argylls’ famous cap badge.

Years later during Christmas 2004, Ian mentioned to his father his involvement with the Argylls. His father asked whether Ian knew that this was the largest cap badge in the British Army, and then casually mentioned that he had once worn the badge. Ian remembers that he nearly fell off his chair!

Ian has his own views of the source of the Daglish name. He strongly believes that it is independent of the Scots Dalglish and Douglas names – and has a hunch that it could be a corruption of Danegeld-ish, denoting Danish invaders who first accepted Danegeld as a bribe to go away, and later settled the area which took its name from the tax levied to pay the bribe. Ian heard a radio documentary in which a historian happened to describe these people who settled in the North East as the Danegeld-ish.

Ian's books are:

Battle Ground Europe series
Operation Bluecoat: The British Armoured Breakout (2003)
Operation Goodwood: The Great Tank Charge (2004)

Over the Battlefield series
Operation Goodwood (2005)
Operation Epsom (due summer 2007)

Ian's board games are in the Advanced Squad Leader series, published by Multiman Publishing.

Jenny Hay, contemporary sculpture

2007-06-16T20:09:00.000Z

Today marks the start of Bucks Visual Arts 2007, an annual event now in its 22nd year, where local artists throw open their doors to meet the public and to show their work. This year's event runs for two weeks, until July 1.

My sister, Jenny Hay (nee Daglish), has participated in this for a number of years, opening her garden in Monks Risborough to visitors who can view and purchase examples of her work.

After her children had grown up in the early 1990s, Jenny took up painting, working in oils, acrylic and watercolours. During the summer of 1997, she took a pottery class in Aylesbury - and found that she liked working with clay. She then took a City & Guilds in ceramics, before beginning a three year degree course in ceramics and glass at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College.

Since then Jenny has continued working with clay and enjoys experimenting using different methods and glaze techniques. She produces large abstract pieces but also enjoys producing smaller, stylized animals.

Jenny's main influence is nature, and she particularly loves the Dorset and Cornish coastline. She is also influenced by the work of Barbara Hepworth, Andy Goldsworthy and Peter Randall-Page.

For anyone interested in visiting Jenny, details can be found under the list of exhibitors on the Bucks Visual Arts website under Sculpture.

Ben Daglish, musician and composer

2007-06-15T13:44:00.000Z

Returning to the recent theme of people who have worked in the arts, this week we feature the person who always gets the most results when you enter “Daglish” into Google or any other internet search engine - Ben Daglish.

Ben was born in London in 1966, and became involved in music very early in his life. At the age of 5 or 6 he started playing the penny whistle and the harmonica, encouraged by his mother who, with his father, ran the Three Feathers folk club in London.

He then moved to Sheffield, where he studied oboe and played cornet in the Stannington Brass Band before settling on percussion as his main study. He was principal percussionist for the City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra and later played with the Sheffield Youth Orchestra and the Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra, performing extensively as both percussionist and conductor. When he was about 17 he found himself listening to the music of Jethro Tull, and on his 18th birthday received a flute as a birthday present - it is the one he still plays today (and probably the one in the photo).

After an abortive stint at Essex University studying maths, Ben started composing music for computer games in the early 1980s, mainly for the Commodore 64 (usually referred to as the C64). This period is particularly well documented on the internet.

Ben moved on to composing what he describes as more "real" music and spent the next five years composing, performing and acting as musical director for a number of theatre shows, due mainly to the influence of his partner Sarah, a theatre director. He has worked with a number of theatre companies (including being Musical Director of the Marlow International Youth Theatre from 1992 to 2000) and performed in a number of Box Clever productions, including the Canterbury Tales around English Heritage sites and a touring version of Merchant Of Venice which toured from Dublin to Jerusalem.

Now living in Derbyshire, Ben plays with a number of bands, including Loscoe State Opera, and is involved with musical and theatrical projects. Ben owns upwards of a hundred different instruments – but still concentrates on whistle, flute, guitar and percussion. He also continuesto work as a computer programmer and analyst.

Loscoe State Opera is a seven piece group which one reviewer described as:

"Classical and Celtic influences along with the combination of traditional instruments with modern electric guitar give LSO a sound that not only crosses genres of music, but a sound that crosses oceans of time, bringing a familiarity from the past to life".

Their summer appearances this year include appearing at the Belper Music Festival on June 30 and at the Stainsby Festival on July 29.

Ben’s family tree stretches back to Morpeth – and he is a distant relation to Neil Daglish, actor - featured below. Both Ben and Neil have kindly agreed to participate in the Daglish DNA Study. We hope that this may help us to understand whether the "Morpeth Daglish" family is related to the Daglishes from County Durham, something that has been difficult to find from paper records.

Sarah Jane Daglish - Trip Across The Plains

2007-06-09T08:57:00.001Z

This week I received a transcribed copy of a remarkable diary written about a journey across the plains of the United States from Knoxville, Iowa to San Bernardino, California. It was written by Sarah Jane Rousseau (nee Daglish). Below is a page from the original diary.

The story begins in England in North Shields, Northumberland, where William Daglish (who is my g-g-great uncle) married Mary Elliott in May 1812 at Christ Church, Tynemouth. The couple had two daughters, Mary Ann and Sarah Jane. In the 1820s the family moved to London, from where they emigated to the United States, arriving in New York in 1833.

A picture of family life in London is given in an article written by Sarah's granddaughter Evelyn Anderson-Strait. She wrote that the family lived in Brunswick Square where the girls were taught by tutors "and for seven years they were taught by a music master who had been a pupil of Beethoven".

In America, Sarah met James Rousseau, who had been sent on a government mission to survey the then unknown lands of Michigan. He later became a doctor, and the couple married in 1839, having 4 children. There is a a pair of portraits of Sarah and James, which are reputed to have been painted by Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code - but otherwise a distinguished portrait painter.

In 1864 the Rousseaus (Sarah, James, and children Elizabeth, John and Albert - elder daughter Mary Ann stayed behind in Iowa) joined three other families in a wagon train to San Bernardino. The others were the Earp, Hamilton and Curtis families. The Earp family included the notorious Wyatt Earp, then 16 years old.

It was a hazardous journey, setting out in May and arriving in December, seven months later. The reason for the Rousseaus making this trip seems to have been for Sarah's health; at this time she was crippled by arthritis and she believed the warmer climate would give some relief.

Their route followed the so-called "Mormon Trail" to Salt Lake City, and then the "Mormon Corridor" to San Bernardino. Although established routes, there were still hardships and dangers, particularly from Indians. During the first part of the journey these were principally from the Sioux, Comanche, Snake and Blackfoot tribes which posed a real and constant threat. During the latter part of the trip, an interesting relationship was created with the Paiute Indians, who would ride with the party by day and at night some would tend the horses and cattle whilst others were "held prisoner" until the morning to ensure the safe return of the animals.

After reaching Salt Lake City, they frequently encountered Mormons, who were invariably friendly and hospitable. The men of the party were invited to meet Brigham Young (pictured right), sometimes known as The American Moses, who Sarah describes in the diary as "easy in manners, affable and a good deal of a gentleman". They also heard his brass band - Sarah notes that they played "A Life On The Ocean Wave", which she says was a great favourite of hers.

On the darker side, they passed the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre, where in September 1857 a Mormon militia and some Paiute Indians killed an entire wagon train - around 120 unarmed men, women and children were killed. Sarah notes that "only 6 small children too young to tell the tale were suffered to live. They are at Salt Lake City. I cannot for a moment suppose that such barbarism will be buried in Oblivion. Oh it cannot be. It will be brought to light and the aggressors punished."

Sarah wrote in her diary every day; the entry normally includes a description of the weather conditions and the daily mileage travelled - 25 miles on a good day. She also records details of the passing landscape and buildings. It is a truly remarkable, historic document that I cannot do justice to here.

Sarah died in San Bernardino in February 1872, and her husband James in July 1882.

So, a story which includes Beethoven, Wyatt Earp and Samuel Morse. The mention of Beethoven seems like a possible embellishment, whilst the portraits appear to me to be a little crude for Morse's normal style - but the Wyatt Earp connection is a historical fact.

Meanwhile Sarah's sister Mary Ann married Albert Miller in 1838. Albert, usually referred to as Judge Albert Miller, was a distinguished pioneer in Michigan - Miller's mother's family claims descent from those who arrived aboard the Mayflower in 1620. Mary Ann and Albert had two daughters. In the 1850s my great great uncle, another William Daglish, also emigrated to America, qualifying as a doctor and lawyer before joining the Millers in Michigan, where he married his cousin Emily Miller. This could be a story for future weeks ...

I am very grateful to Pam Greenwood who so kindly sent me a copy of Sarah Jane's diary and has provided much additional detail, and to Dick Molony who was the source of most of the information and in particular the article by Sarah's granddaughter Evelyn Anderson-Strait and the portait of Sarah. The transcribed version of the diary is in the San Bernardino Historical Society's collection.

Update - July 2008: Sarah Jane and her husband James Rousseau are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in San Bernardino, California. The following pictures were provided by Dick Molony.

Eric Fitch Daglish, author and engraver

2007-06-01T17:51:00.000Z

This week I would like to write about my father, Eric Fitch Daglish. He was born in Islington, London in 1892, the son of James William Daglish and Kate Annie Fitch. The family originated in Whickham, County Durham - and had arrived in London in the mid 19th century, via France and Somerset! The family established a business in the area - firstly in cabinet making and upholstery and later as overmantel mirror makers.

Eric studied in London and in Bonn, Germany, before the outbreak of the First World War. During the war, he served in the Middlesex Imperial Yeomanry and the Royal Field Artillery in Ireland, Flanders and France. When the conflict ended, he continued in Army life as Officer in charge of education at Woolwich Garrison until 1922.

The family then moved out of London to the Buckinghamshire Chilterns, where Eric could pursue his lifelong interest in the countryside and natural history. His first of many books was published in 1923.

He became a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, which revived the art first developed in the 18th and 19th centuries by Thomas Bewick and others. Fellow members of the society were his close friends the brothers John and Paul Nash, and Eric Gill who lived close by. More information about wood engraving can be found at the web site of the Society of Wood Engravers.

He used wood engravings as illustrations in many of his books. Most wood enravings are black and white, but it was also possible to hand colour these - as was done in the book Birds Of The British Isles (see cover which shows a coloured wood engraving of goldfinches). He also illustrated books by other authors, including Walton’s Compleat Angler.

His wood engravings are in the permanent collections of the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Art galleries of Liverpool and Manchester, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

As well as engraving, Eric also painted. His paintings show the same level of detail seen in the wood engravings. Shown here is detail from a painting of parrots.

Other interests included breeding dogs and he wrote several popular handbooks on a number of breeds. He judged at many dog shows, including Crufts. The picture above shows him judging at a local show at Thame in September 1953.

My father died in 1966, and his books are now out of print. In recent years there has been something of a revival of interest in the art of wood engraving and I have received a number of enquiries from libraries and museums in the last year about works by my father.

Peter Daglish, artist

2007-05-25T17:56:00.000Z

This week I had the pleasure to meet Peter Daglish and his wife at their home and studio in London.

Peter Daglish was born in Gillingham, Kent in 1930. It was his grandfather William Daglish (1874-1949) who moved from Newcastle upon Tyne to Gillingham in the 1890s, where he married and raised a family. William worked as a coppersmith in the Chatham dockyard. Peter's father, another William (1898-1968) also worked in the same dockyard - and I was interested to find that both Peter's father and grandfather were awarded the Imperial Service Medal in recognition of their services - William senior in 1934 and his son in 1958.

At the age of 25, Peter emigrated to Canada where his interest in painting developed whilst he was working at a hotel in Banff. He received encouragement from artists such as Maxwell Bates (1906-1980), and enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montreal where he studied from 1956 to 1960. He then won a Max Beckman Scholarship to continue his studies at the Brooklyn Museum Arts School in New York.

In 1961 Peter married Marian Brown in Banff and soon after returned to the UK, where he continued his studies at the Slade School in London from 1963 to 1965. This was followed by teaching posts at Ealing College, London and from 1969 to 1971 at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Back in London, Peter taught printmaking at the Slade School and Chelsea School of Art in London from 1973 until his retirement in 1996.

Since his retirement, Peter has continued to be active with exhibitions and workshops around the world - most recently solo exhibitions in Canada and Cuba.

Peter's early works were paintings in oil - but he soon focussed on linocuts and lithographs. Since 1985 he has made fired enamel on steel plate. When we saw him this week he was busy preparing for work to be collected the next day for an exhibition in Bristol, where he has recently been working at the University which has an enamel research department.

Among the many public institutions that own work by Peter are The British Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, Portland Museum of Fine Art and the University of New Mexico.

Peter's other passion is jazz and Cuban music. He plays saxophone and plays regularly with a number of jazz ensembles around London.

In a strange coincidences, we discovered that Peter's son now lives in the small village in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns where I grew up and attended the local primary school, and where my father is buried in the churchyard. It can sometimes be a small world!

Gordon James Daglish

2007-05-23T18:43:00.000Z

I am hoping that someone can help with this, please.

This painting was sold at auction by Bonhams at Knowle, UK, in September 2006. It is attributed to Gordon James Daglish (19th century), and entitled "A Dinghy and A Barge On An Estuary, A Town Beyond".

The problem is that I have no knowledge of Gordon James Daglish, and can find no reference to him in the art reference books. I have written to Bonhams to check the details but, so far, have received no reply.

Is this the correct name - or could the artist perhaps be a Dalglish, or similar? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Robert Daglish - our man in Moscow

2007-05-18T17:24:00.000Z

Robert Cyril Daglish (1924-1987) is now mostly remembered as an accomplished translator of books from Russian to English.

Robert was born in Honor Oak Park, London, the son of Walter Daglish and Ethel Stocken. His grandfather, James Daglish, was born in North Shields, Northumberland, and the family moved to Bermondsey, London in the late 1880s. Robert read Russian history and literature at Jesus College, Cambridge. He started work at the British Embassy in Moscow in 1949, where he met and married his Russian wife, Ina Gregorievna Nogtich, in 1954.

In March 1982 in a letter written to Richard Daglish, Robert wrote:
“You will be surprised to find me domiciled out here. I have been working in Moscow for over thirty years on translations and dictionaries and am at present producing a complete English edition of the works of Mikhail Sholokhov (author of “Quiet Flows the Don”). I have also played small parts in eight Russian films.”

He also wrote:
“My interest in the family history has been mainly confined to wondering about the origin of our name, which is so often distorted by all and sundry, even the BBC pronounced it with the stress on the last syllable!”.

A more colourful account of Robert’s life in Moscow written by Lev Navrozov appeared under the title of “Why an Englishman Did Not Become a Soviet Citizen”, which makes an interesting read.

Robert is remembered at his old University through the Robert Daglish Fund. The Fund was established 'for the encouragement of Russian studies' through a bequest from his wife Ina in memory of her husband. The purpose of the Fund is to 'make grants or loans to undergraduate members of the University to assist them in travelling to or in Russia in connection with their studies in the University'.

Neil Daglish, actor

2007-05-11T18:41:00.000Z

In the next few weeks I hope to feature some Daglishes who have worked in the arts. I will start with Neil Daglish, an actor with an impressive career working in the theatre and in television.

Neil was born in in Hebburn, Co. Durham in December 1949, the son of Matthew Daglish and Mary Dobson. When he was ten, the family moved to the East End of London. After the death of his father, Neil left school at 15, working in a Magistrates Court as an assistant court clerk.

Neil writes: “After three years working in the Magistrates Court, I decided that I’d rather be an actor than a court clerk. I went to the Webber Douglas School of Acting in South Kensington and completed a 3 year course. I was employed (off and on) for the next 30 years as an actor in the theatre and television and thoroughly enjoyed it. I still work as an actor, but mostly in television and do very little theatre work”.

Among the highlights of his career, Neil lists:

appearing in the West End production of Terence Rattigan’s last play “Cause Celebre”, with Glynis Johns;
playing Ernest in “The Importance of Being Earnest”, with Penelope Keith;
appearing as Sir Robert Chiltern in Sir Peter Hall’s production of “An Ideal Husband”;
starring with Nicholas Lyndhurst in “Straight And Narrow” at the Wyndham’s Theatre;
five plays at The National Theatre, including Arthur Miller’s “The American Clock”, William Congreve’s “Love For Love” and “The Beggar’s Opera” with Tim Curry;
World tours with the Derek Nimmo British Airways Playhouse Company.

The programmes from two of these productions are shown here.

Neil’s many TV credits include everything from Dr. Who (with Peter Davison) to Rumpole of The Bailey, and his recent TV work has included appearance in popular favourites such as The Bill, Casualty and Eastenders.

My thanks to Neil for providing the information. I contacted Neil a couple of weeks ago to ask his permission and it has been a pleasure to find out more about his life and work.

Research shows that Neil's family tree goes back from Hebburn, where Neil was born, to Gateshead and then to Morpeth in the mid 19th century, back John Daglish who married Hannah Hall in Morpeth in 1768 - and we know that there were Daglishes living in Morpeth long before this date. This is a large and extensive family tree that we will visit again in coming weeks.

For anyone with connections to Hebburn, there are some interesting sites. The Hebburn Website has many old school photos - there are more on Norman Dunn's Hebburn on Tyne site.

The Australian Gold Rush - a Daglish story

2007-05-02T19:12:00.000Z

The Australian gold rush of the 1850s had a big impact on Australia, and in particular the newly formed state of Victoria.

In 1851 the Australian population was 437,655, of which 77,345, or just under 18%, were Victorians. A decade later the Australian population had grown to 1,151,947 and the Victorian population had increased to 538,628; just under 47% of the Australian total and a seven-fold increase from ten years earlier.

Many of those arriving in Australia at that time were from England, particulary from the mining communities - and the following account of the life of Matthew Storey Daglish has been kindly sent by Jenny Clark, who is his great, great granddaughter.

Matthew Storey Daglish, the son of James and Mary Daglish, was born on 30 December 1828 in North Shields, and christened at Christ Church, Tynemouth (pictured above).

He married Mary Chambers in 1851 in Easington, County Durham, and their two eldest children, James and Margaret, were born there. Some time between 1854 and 1857, the family emigrated to Australia. They went to Ballarat in Victoria where Matthew mined in the new Victorian goldfields.

Gold had been discovered in Ballarat in 1851. At first this was alluvial gold, found on the surface or in creeks and rivers; gold pans, puddling boxes and cradles were used to separate the gold from the dirt and water. When this ran out underground mining began; this was much more difficult and dangerous.

Six more children were born in Ballarat – but in 1867 Matthew was killed in a mining accident, leaving Mary with 7 children aged under 13 (the eldest son James had died in 1864, aged 12), and another on the way. The family moved to Chiltern where the last child, another James, was born. This last little James Storey died the following year aged 8 months.

Many Ballarat families moved to Chiltern in the late 1860s as a new goldfield opened up there. It may be that Mary had other family or close friends who were moving – otherwise why would she relocate 250 miles?

These are Matthew and Mary Daglish’s children -
James (1852), Margaret (1854), Mary (1857), Elizabeth (1859), Thomas Brown (1861), Matthew Clark (1863), Robert (1864), Ann (1866) and James Storey (1868).

Elizabeth married Thomas Arthur Robert Skerry in Chiltern in 1883. Thomas Skerry was also the child of an immigrant gold miner who had moved from Carngham near Ballarat to Chiltern in the 1860s. Elizabeth and Thomas had six children; after Elizabeth’s death in 1910, Thomas remarried and had three more children, the last born when Thomas was 62 years old! Mary Maud Skerry married Alfred (Dick) Lappin, the youngest in the large family of immigrant Irish farmers in 1906. Dick was a mining engineer who began his career in gold mining but moved on to earthworks associated with dams in Victoria’s irrigation schemes. They had 14 children between 1907 and 1930, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. The youngest, Norman Richard (Dick) Lappin was my father.

Jenny Clark, Hamilton, Victoria.

For reasons of space, this is an abbreviated account of the article that Jenny sent to me. If you are interested in more details of Matthew Storey Daglish and his family please e-mail me.

Some further research has found that Matthew had a sister Mary Ann and two brothers, James and Abner.

Sadly James also died in a mining accident, this time at Percy Main colliery, near North Shields (see watercolour above painted by Thomas Hair). An article in the Newcastle Journal of 15 September 1849 which reads:

The same coroner (J.G. Stoker) held another inquest on Thursday at Percy Main on the bodies of Thomas Pattison aged 29 and James Daglish aged 23. The deceased were pitmen at Percy Main Colliery and it appeared that after the had got into the corf to descend the pit the chain broke and they were precipitated to the bottom of the shaft and killed. The jury ... are of the opinion that the chain was not of good quality and recommend that in future the chains be properly tested to ascertain their strength before being put into use".

Matthew's other brother Abner married Elizabeth Kears and had 12 children. His eldest daughters married and emigrated to Australia and New Zealand, and there are descendents of Abner's family living today in the UK.

The National Archives of Australia has recently added a section to its web site entitled A Gift To The Nation which makes available WW1 services records online, with free access - an excellent resource. There are only two Daglish entries – Roydon (Roy) Oliver Clark Daglish and Henry William Daglish.

Roy was the grandson of Matthew Storey Daglish, and the son of Matthew Clark Daglish and Malinda Keat. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force to serve in WW1 as soon as he turned 18. There are twenty pages of Roy's service history available on the site, with high quality scans -see extract below. Roy returned from overseas service and married Mary Gertude Kavanagh in Albury, New South Wales. Their son Reginald James Daglish died in 1966.

There is also an interesting site for the Chiltern Athenaeum Museum, which records the births of the family after the move from Ballarat to Chiltern.

As a footnote, gold production ceased in Ballarat in 1918 – but the last few years has seen mining begin again, in deeper mines and using the latest technology.

Robert Findley Daglish

2007-04-27T20:01:00.000Z

Here is a photograph which shows the name of Robert Findley Daglish, who served as Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force at the end of World War 1, and Flight Lietenant V.C. Cordingley. Also on the back of the photo are the words "The first machine to fly under the Hohenzollern Bridge Cologne New Years Day 1919".

Robert Findley Daglish, the son of James Daglish and Georgina Robinson, was born in Liverpool in May 1896 - although his family were from Newcastle. He died in March 1988.

Robert's brother, George Richard Gordon Daglish, a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service, was killed in 1917 at the age of 27.

Is Daglish an endangered name?

2007-04-20T19:23:00.000Z

This week I read an article about how some unusual surnames have died out. With low numbers a name can become unsustainable. My wife has an unusual maiden name where this could become a possibility, as the current population of her family surname is very low. So what about Daglish?

Since the start of civil registration in the UK in 1837 the number of registered births has consistently exceeded the number of registered deaths. From the start of civil registration in 1837 until 2005 there were 3,624 births and 2,219 deaths recorded.

Another measure is the UK census records. In the 1851 UK Census there is a total of 408 Daglishes listed, of which most were in Durham (198) and in Northumberland (150).

By the 1901 Census the total had increased to 764, with 364 in Durham and 257 in Northumberland. Other Daglish families were living in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland and, increasingly, in London.

After the First World War, the drift to other areas of the country increased, reflecting greater mobility.

There are some web sites which can searched for details of surname numbers and distribution.

One is Surname Profiler, which gives a comparison of the distribution of a particular surname in England, Wales and Scotland in 1881 and 1998. This is displayed in figures and on maps - the ones for Daglish are shown here.

The one shown above left is for 1881, showing the high concentration of the name in the counties of Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire. Purple is highest, followed by red and yellow. There were other Daglish families in Lancashire, Cumberland and in London - but these do not register on this particular map.

The second map, right, is for 1998. The highest numbers are still in the North East - but there is a much wider distribution throughout the country.

This spread can also be seen in libraries by looking at telephone directories - there are most entries in the directories for the North East, but there is usually at least one Daglish entry to be found in every directory.

Expressed in numbers, in 1881 there were 23 Daglishes per million names, which had risen to 25 per million in 1998. The ranking of the Daglish surname rose from 5592 in 1881 to 5472 in 1998.

The records also reflect a number of social trends.

One of the most striking is the decline in infant mortality. Comparing the 10 year period 1866-1875 with 100 years later (1966-1975), in 1866-75 39 infants died before their first birthday, and 10 more before the age of 2 (from a total of 141 deaths). One hundred years later there were only 2 deaths before the child's first birthday and no more before age 2 (total 137 deaths).

At the same time life expectancy has increased. In 1866-75, 18 people lived to be older than 70 (12.77%), with 5 of these reaching 80. 100 years later 83 people lived beyond 70 (60.59%), with 29 of these living beyond 80.

So it seems that, although unusual, the Daglish name is thriving - and there is no reason to be concerned for its continuing survival!

Extracts from the UK Daglish Births, Marriages and Deaths registers 1837 to 2005 can be searched in the Daglish Archive.

The Daglish Foundry, St. Helens

2007-04-14T10:02:00.000Z

The picture shows the Robert Daglish & Company foundry in St. Helens, Lancashire in about 1870. The foundry started in the 1790s and Robert Daglish (senior) took an interest in 1818. By the 1840s, it was known as Watson, Daglish & Co., but from 1843 the Weston name was dropped.

The firm described itself in those days as "Brass & Iron Founders, Manufacturers of Steam Engines, Weighing Machines, Gas Apparatus, Mill Machinery, etc.". The company went on to build an international reputation for the casting and building of steam pumping and winding for the mining industry, and was particularly successful producing locomotives and bridges for the expanding railway network.

Visitors to Dublin today can find some evidence of the work of the foundry on the Rory O'More Bridge over the River Liffey, close to the Guinness brewery. The bridge was completed in 1859 as the Victoria Bridge and re-named in 1939 after Rory O'More, one of the key figures in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Inscribed on the arch of the bridge is: "Robert Daglish Junr. St. Helens Foundry Lancashire". Robert Daglish Junior was the son of Robert senior, and was well known for his work on bridges.

By the 1890s the St. Helens site had extended to cover 25,000 square yards and over 400 people were employed. However, by the beginning of the 19th century the peak had passed, and by the 1920s a decline in the local collieries had reduced demand and some said that the machinery built by the Daglishes was too well-built to need replacing. The foundry was in continuous production from 1798 until its closure and eventual demolition in 1939.

Photo of the foundry and details provided by Richard Daglish, who has spent many years researching his Daglish family from Lancashire. Richard has provided much support and encouragement to my own Daglish research and is a member of the Daglish DNA Project.

Photo of the rolling equipment from book "A Teatise on Manures" by A.B. Griffiths.

Uppies and Downies 2007

2007-04-13T17:32:00.001Z

I took an extended Easter break to travel to Workington to see the Uppies and Downies on Tuesday evening.

At 6:30 pm Robert Daglish (pictured left) threw off the ball. During the next hour, there was plenty of action as play took the ball across and often into the beck. For much of the time the ball was lost from sight in the scrummage, emerging every so often and thrown – presumably to a team-mate, although to the untrained eye it is hard to tell who is on which side.

As darkness fell the ball began to move down the beck in the direction of Curwen Hall and at about 9:15 the Uppies won the game by hailing the ball. The ball was hailed by Jamie Beaumont, who also plays for Workington Town Rugby League team. This also gave the Uppies the 2007 series, as they had also won the Good Friday game giving a 2-0 lead in the three match series.

However there is a possible cloud on the horizon. The game begins on The Cloffocks, an open space used for sport and recreation - and most of the action takes place there. Some space has already been lost to a car park and to new Council offices – but now a large part of the Cloffocks has been sold to Tesco for a new supermarket. Tesco’s original plans were to divert or cover the beck – but the discovery of salmon and lampreys, an endangered species, in the beck may have caused a change of plan. But this is still a subject of local controversy, with some disputing whether Allerdale Council has the lrgal right to sell land that was apparently left to the people of Workington for recreational use.

As an outsider, the Uppies and Downies is a unique event like nothing I have seen before, with a long and proud history. The continued existence of the games seems to be inextricably linked to the future of The Cloffocks – and it is to be hoped that a solution can be found which will allow the games to continue for many more years to come.

I would like to thank Bob and Robert Daglish, Linda Carter and Aunt Amy for their very warm hospitality, which was very much appreciated.

Uppies and Downies - Easter in Workington

2007-04-05T18:04:00.000Z

The Uppies and Downies games take place every Easter in Workington – and there is a long tradition of involvement of the local Daglish family.

Uppies and Downies is one of only three mass-football events that are still played in the UK, the other two being at Ashbourne in Derbyshire and at Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands.

The games are played each year on Good Friday, the following Tuesday and the next Saturday - but it is the Tuesday game that the Daglish family has been involved with.

In recent years this is Bob Daglish and his son Robert. Bob told me:

"We have been involved with the game as far back as records began. Basically it involves the Up side of town getting the ball to the Curwen Hall and the Down side getting it to the harbour. There are no rules, we simply throw the ball off at 18.30 on Easter Tuesday and watch the fun!

Anyone can play, it can last 30 mins or it can last 6 hours. it depends alot on the weather and how many people turn out, sometimes 5 or 6 hundred, sometimes a couple of thousand (especially if Easter is late, and the weather good with light nights). There is no team strip or colours, you wear old clothes, especially if you intend following the ball into the beck (a beck is a small stream or a river)."

Each game starts at The Cloffocks, an open area used for recreational purposes, and is won by the team that reaches its goal and "hails" the ball by raising it three times. The play can go anywhere - in the river, in the beck or into the town. It can be rough – but rarely violent, although injuries are common and death is not unknown. Four players are known to have drowned – most recently in 1983.

Bob's father Henry Daglish (1917-1977) and his great great-uncle Anthony Daglish (1850-1933) are the only men ever to have thrown the ball off and hailed it in the same game. Anthony Daglish also appears in the all-time list of top "hailers" with five successes between 1871 and 1890. The cutting shown dates from around 1928.

The ball, which is dated, is hand made to an existing pattern and takes thirty hours to make. Each ball weighs about two and a half pounds and is 21 inches round. No spares are made.

The Uppies and Downies series raises thousands of pounds each year for charity through ticket draws and ball money donations.

With thanks to Bob Daglish, Linda Carter and to the Times & Star for the information. The cutting appears in the book "Workington in old picture postcards, Volume 2" by Derek Woodruff.

Yellowley & Daglish - grocers from Newcastle

2007-03-30T18:32:00.000Z

Shown here is the cover of a catalogue from October 1958 published by Yellowley & Daglish Ltd - wholesale grocers, provision merchants and confectioners from Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Company claims to be "The North's Leading Wholesalers", with "25 Fully Trained Representatives covering the Counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire & North Lancashire".

It also shows the business has been "Established over 200 Years" - but I don't think that it has traded under this name for all of this time.

On 6 May 1856, William Daglish and Henry Yellowley agreed to take over the existing grocer's business run by William Yellowley in Pilgrim Street, Newcastle - so possibly the business was previously run by the Yellowley family. Both William and Henry Yellowley were already involved in the grocery business.

William Daglish was born in Morpeth, and was married twice. He died in 1902, aged 81. His only son, William Anthony Daglish (1854-1923), worked in the business - and I believe that William Anthony's sons may also have carried on in the business. I do not know if any Daglishes were involved in running the business at the time that the October 1958 catalogue was published.

The catalogue has 52 pages of listings and makes interesting reading. In among the lists are some little "words of wisdom", such as "Silence is one of the great arts of conversation".

Looking at some old Trade Directories*, in 1890 the business was still at 125 Pilgrim Street; in 1898 the address is 37 High Bridge, and in 1910 at 5 Elswick Court, an address it appears to have occupied for many years. The 1958 catalogue shows the address of the Head Office is shown as "YanD House", 961-973 Scotswood Road - and there is an address of an office in Belfast. I do not know what happened to the business after this date.

Any information about this long established business, and the involvement of this particular Daglish family, would be much appreciated.

* Local Trade Directories can be found in libraries - and there is a useful online resource Historical Directories, a project run by the University of Leicester.

Richard Rothwell Daglish - New Romney, Kent

2007-03-24T19:52:00.000Z

This week I took the opportunity to visit New Romney in Kent, the adopted home of Richard Rothwell Daglish. New Romney was one of the original Cinque Ports (with Hastings, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich), and has a long and interesting history.

Richard was born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1841, the son of Robert Daglish and Rebecca Rothwell. He studied medicine and in 1864 was admitted as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

In 1866 he married Laura Stringer, daugher of a lawyer from New Romney. They had one son, Harry Rothwell Daglish.

Richard retired in 1906 and died on 23 April 1908. His son Harry died in 1910 and his wife Laura died in 1915. The family are buried in the graveyard of the parish church, St. Nicholas.

Inside the church is a brass plate which reads:

To the glory of God and in loving memory of Richard Rothwell Daglish, the chamber was built and the machines for blowing the organ constructed at the expense of his widow Laura Daglish, July 15 1910. Also the glory of God and in fond remembrance of Harry Rothwell Daglish, son of the above, this Church was endowed in the sum of one thousand Pounds for the preservation of the organ under the Will of Laura Daglish, who passed away beloved by all January 25 1915.

Richard was mayor of New Romney four times (1885-87, 1888-89, 1894-96 and 1905-08) and was also Speaker of the Confederation of the Cinque Ports twice (1888-89 and 1895-96).

In West Street, there is an inscription on some cottages that were left by John Southland in 1610 as a hospital for the elderly.

This reads:
This Hospital being the gift of John Southland Gent: Anno 1610 was rebuilt at ye charge of Sr Robt. Austen and Sr Heny. Furneses Bar's Anno 1714
And was further endowed by Thomas Baker Gentleman Anno 1734 and by Richard Rothwell Daglish M.R.C.S. Anno 1908

The Daglish name is further commemorated in the town by a road named Daglish Close - unfortunately when we saw it the road sign was damaged.

The Wigan Daglish family, which had interests in coal mining and engineering, has been extensively researched over many years by Richard Daglish. The family moved to Lancashire from Northumberland at the beginning of the 19th century. Richard has provided me with much help, support and encouragement during the much shorter time that I have been researching into Daglish family history. Richard is a member of the Daglish DNA Study.

For King and Country

2007-03-16T20:03:00.000Z

Few towns, villages or families were not touched by the wars of the 20th century, and in particular the two World Wars. Those who died are commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) web site.

There are 31 Daglish names listed and details given usually include name, rank, service number, regiment or unit, date of death, age, names of parents and the cemetery or memorial. Please see the names listed below - more details can be found by going to the CWGC web site.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established in 1917 and pays tribute to the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars. The commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots; over one million casualties are commemorated in 150 countries.

The CWGC operates under the following principles:
- each of the dead should be commemorated by name on a headstone or memorial;
- headstones and memorials should be permanent;
- headstones should be uniform;
- there should be no distinction made on account of rank, race or creed.

Alexander Daglish, died 1916, age 20
Abner Daglish, died 1916, aged 20
Arthur Ernest Daglish, died 1917, age 27
Charles John Daglish, died 1915, age 31
Edward Daglish, died 1943, age 51
Edward Graham Daglish, died 1944, age 23
E.H. Daglish, died 1918
George Daglish, died 1942, age 22
George Richard Gordon Daglish, died 1917, age 27
Harry Jackson Daglish, died 1943
John Daglish, died 1915
John Daglish, died 1915, age 16
J. Daglish, died 1918
James Daglish, died 1940, age 20
Joseph Bucknall Daglish, died 1916
Joslyn Frederick Daglish, died 1941, age 23
J.H. Daglish, died 1919, age 18
John Pattison Daglish, died 1941, age 56
John Snowden Jackson Daglish, died 1941, age 37
John Thomas Daglish, died 1941, age 37
J.W. Daglish, died 1916
John William Daglish, died 1919, age 22
Robert Daglish, died 1941, age 59
R. Daglish, died 1915, age 20
R. Daglish, died 1916, age 27
R.A. Daglish, died 1915, age 27
Reuben Richard Daglish, died 1942, age 36
Thomas Reuben Daglish, died 1914
W. Daglish, died 1916, age 38
William Daglish, died 1916
W. Daglish, died 1917, age 29

Other sites which may be of interest are:
The British War Memorial Project
UK National Inventory of War Memorials
North East War Memorials Project
Imperial War Museum

Henry Daglish - premier of Western Australia

2007-03-11T12:36:00.000Z

Henry Daglish was the first Labor premier of Western Australia from 10 August 1904 until 25 August 1905.

He was born in Ballarat West, Victoria, on 18 November 1866. His father was William Daglish, who had emigrated to Australia from Newcastle upon Tyne with his first wife Elizabeth Forster. After Elizabeth died in 1860, William married Henry's mother, Mary Ann James.

Henry married Edith Bishop in 1894 and in 1896 they joined many others moving to Western Australia, settling in the fast growing town of Subiaco.

Henry became involved in local politics, serving as mayor before being elected as Labor member for Subiaco. After the fall of his administration, he resigned from the Labor party in August 1905 and was elected as an independent in the October 1905 election; he served as minister for works under Frank Wilson from 1910 to 1911. Losing his seat at the 1911 election, he became an estate agent and from 1912 until his death in August 1920 he was employers' representative on the State Arbitration Court. He had a daughter Edith Rachel (b. 1896) and son Henry William (b. 1898).

Henry is remembered in the Perth suburb of Daglish which was named after him. Daglish railway station was built in 1924, and it is written:

Not every railway station has its name spelt out in greenery, but there is a trimmed hedge beside the Daglish station on the Railway Road frontage that leaves passengers in little doubt that this is indeed DAGLISH. To create a unique and attractive garden feature that also served a useful purpose was probably an English rural tradition, where railway station gardens were the source of much pride and a degree of competition.
Ken Spillman - Identity Prized : A History of Subiaco, UWA Press, 1985

The Methodist influence

2007-03-10T13:01:00.000Z

During the last week two people have written to me about the strong Methodist influence in their Daglish family histories. This does seem to be common amongst many of the Daglish familes, including my own - and I think this would be an interesting subject for further research.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, spent much of his life touring Britain and Ireland preaching to crowds - often numbering many thousands - in the open air. It is estimated he covered over 250,000 miles and preached some 40,000 sermons, and until his death in 1791 he continued to campaign tirelessly on social issues and for universal education.

His journals hold a record of his travels and show that he visited the North-East of England on 48 occasions, visiting towns and villages sand giving birth to Methodism in the region.

Methodism appealed to the working people with a down-to-earth, more informal approach to religion. Wesley encouraged people to work hard and to save for their future; he also warned about the dangers of gambling and drinking.

Later during the nineteenth century the methodist movement split into groups, such as the Prmitive Methodists, which set up their own meeting places. These divisions ended in 1932 when most of the various strands of Methodism were reunited to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

Duncan & Daglish - Newcastle brewers

2007-03-03T09:22:00.000Z

Duncan & Daglish Limited was a company in Newcastle upon Tyne involved in brewing, pubs and hotels and wine and spirit merchants. The company was formed in 1899 by John Duncan and Jacob Daglish, taking over an existing business J. Duncan & Company which had also been formed by Duncan and Daglish and which was involved in the same business.

The new company acquired the Westgate Hill Brewery and had 22 licensed premises, of which 15 were well established premises in Newcastle - others were in Gateshead, South Shields, Middlesbrough and Bishop Auckland. Additional houses were acquired in 1900 from local wine merchant D.A. Williamson & Co.

Pictured is the Black Bull Hotel in Wallsend; this shows "Duncan and Daglish" above the door and windows (although it is hard to see it here due to the small size of the picture).

The company continued to expand and in 1907 Bass, the brewer from Burton, acquired a substantial shareholding. By the Second World War Bass owned a majority shareholding and the company became a subsidiary of Bass - although the name of Duncan and Daglish continued to be used until 1967.

Jacob Daglish was born in 1852, the son of William Daglish, who in the 1861 census was a maltsman in Tynemouth. Jacob followed in his father's footsteps serving an apprenticeship as a maltster at Carr's Low Lights Brewery in North Shields before becoming North of England agent for Aitken & Co. of Falkirk. He also had interests in steamship and colliery companies and became mayor of Tynemouth in 1900.

There is a statue of Queen Victoria in Tynemouth which reads:

"Erected by public subscription to the memory of our late beloved Queen Victoria by the inhabitants of the Borough of Tynemouth during the Mayoralty of Alderman Daglish J.P. 1901-02 and unveiled by the Mayoress October 25th 1902". Jacob had three sons and two daughters and died in July 1904.

Information about Duncan and Daglish from the book Brewers and Bottlers, Newcastle upon Tyne by Brian Bennison, 1995

Update:

I recently received this photo of the grave of Jacob's parents William Daglish and Isabella (nee Coulson), in Preston Cemetery, North Shields. This shows William's death on 25 July 1865, aged 46, and Isabella's death on 18 Jun 1879, aged 62.

This was taken by Cindy Nunn and her husband Colin Nunn, to whom I am very grateful.

Daglish or Dalglish?

2007-02-23T08:48:00.000Z

This week I found a new web site "The Internet Surname Database" which promises to tell you about the origins of your family name.

If you are a Daglish, at some time you have probably had others mis-spell or mis-pronounce your name! If you live in the UK, the name is often confused with Dalglish (after footballer Kenny Dalglish) or Dalgliesh (after Adam Dalgliesh, the fictional detective in novels by crime writer P.D. James).

So, is there a connection? Well, according to this web site there is - see details below.

It seems to me that it is likely that the name Dalglish has its roots as a place name in this area of Scotland - there are villages of Over Dalgliesh and Nether Dalgliesh on the B709 road south of Ettrick by Tima Water.

However, so far the widely held view that Daglish is a variant if Dalglish has not so far been supported by our research in the Daglish One-Name Study.

For now this remains a big unanswered question - if you have any thoughts or information we would be pleased to know!

This interesting and unusual name, with the variants Dalglesh, Dalglish, Dagleas, Dagless and Daglish, is of Scots origin and is locational from a place "above the sources of the Tinna Water in the parish of Ehrick, Selkirk". It was first recorded in 1383 in the form Dalglas and derives from the Gaelic "dail", field and "glas", green. Unfortunately it seems that some early individual of the family were connected with disturbances of the peace and got on the wrong side of the law, for example George Dalgleish, confidential sevitor of the Earl of Bothwell, was executed for participation in the murder of Darnley in 1567. However in the other extreme, Simon Dalgles was Canon and Prebend of Askirk in 1448 and offshoots of the family established in Timmygaske, Fife "successfully avoided any distinction". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Symon de Dagles, which was dated 1407, in the "Register of the Great Seal of Scotland", during the reign of King James of Scotland, 1406 - 1437. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
Copyright: Name Orgin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 - 2006

Coal Mining in County Durham

2007-02-18T17:44:00.000Z

Many Daglish families worked in the coal mines of County Durham, Northumberland and Yorkshire, often living in mining villages which grew up around the pits. Life was hard and working conditions often dangerous.

For anyone interested in coal mining in Durham I would strongly recommend a visit to the Durham Mining Musuem web site. The site includes a wealth of material, including a history of mining, details of individual collieries with historical maps and reports of the all-too common disasters.

The site lists details of those who lost their lives, which includes the following:

George Daglish - died 1912, age 34, Browney

James Daglish - died 1876, age 13, Usworth

John Daglish - died 1894, age 20, St. Helen's, Workington

Stodart Daglish - died 1928, age 48, Murton

Timothy Daglish - died 1905, age 21, Dean & Chapter

Vincent Daglish - died 1961, age 37, Murton

William Daglish - died 1855, age 71, Littletown

I am grateful to Kev Duncan, the webmaster of the Durham Mining Museum site, for providing the photo above of the sadly neglected grave of Stodart Daglish at Murton Cemetery.

Olly takes on the Dragons

2007-02-18T16:56:00.000Z

Olly Daglish, a surf instructor from Newquay, appeared on the first of the current series of the BBC show Dragons' Den looking for a £50,000 investment in his Ollypop surf towel product.

“It all happened so quickly", Olly said. I was contacted by the associate producer of the Dragons' Den early in November. He’d read about Ollypop in the press, loved the idea and asked me if I'd like to apply to go on the show. He sent the application through and after a lot of deliberation I thought what the hell, filled it out and sent it back. Three weeks later there I was in the Den!”

Olly asked for £50,000 in return for 20% of his company and, although he did not get the money, has no regrets about going on the show.

For more details see the Ollypop site.

The Daglish water gauge

2007-02-18T11:19:00.000Z

This instrument was made by T.B. Winter & Son of 21 Grey Street, Newcastle on Tyne. There is a plate which shows Daglish's Water Gauge - see below.

Water entered from behind into the U-shape pipe and there is a measure.

Any information about this would be welcome - how old it is, how it worked or the makers T.B. Winter & Son from Newcastle.

Robert Henry Daglish of Crook, County Durham

2007-02-18T09:24:00.000Z

I recently acquired an old beer bottle, which has on it "R H Daglish - Crook". In this case Crook is the name of a place in County Durham.

I believe this bottle was made for Robert Henry Daglish (1865-1911). Robert's father was Matthew Daglish, who was a coal miner - but in the 1881 census was an inn keeper at the Heights of Alma public house in Mount Pleasant, near Crook.

Robert Henry was twice married - to Elizabeth Storey and later to Elizabeth's sister Ada. He died in Harrogate in Yorkshire but his home was in Hope Street, Crook. His occupation at time of death was given as Saddler and Wine and Spirit Merchant.

It would be interesting to hear from anyone with knowledge of this family or of the area in which they lived.

Welcome to The Daglish Family Blog

2007-02-17T21:56:00.000Z

A warm welcome! I hope this will be of interest to those who share the Daglish family name or have some connection to it.

As far as we can tell, the Daglish surname originates in County Durham and Northumberland in the North of England - but over time has spread through most of the UK and to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

For more information, please see the Daglish One-Name Study.