George Joins the Marines

Well now I know that my great grandfather George Cockram deserted from the Marines, although I don't know why, nor why he joined up in the first place.  But since my last blog post, I've learned a little more about this period of his life, thanks to Kevin Asplin, a researcher at Forces War Records in England, who dug up what little there is of George's military record.

According to the Royal Marines Service Register, George was recruited on the 27th of February 1871 at Barnstaple, Devon, not far from his home town of Fremington, into the Plymouth Division of the RM.  His entry in the register says he was 18 years and 9 months old, when in fact he was 19 and 9 months, and this mistake probably explains why he was said to be 23 when he deserted, instead of 24. 

The first part of George's entry in the RM Service Register, showing his name
as Cockram or Cockrem.

At this time, Britain was not at war, so recruitment into the armed forces wouldn't have been overly energetic.  But the Royal Navy did need to maintain its superiority over all others, and patrol the vast British Empire, which required the services of marines as well as sailors.  So the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines had recruiting officers all over the country looking for young men eager to volunteer.  No doubt there were enticing recruitment posters promising adventures at sea, good food and high wages, but I haven't found any for this period - earlier and later, yes, but not during Victoria's reign.  So did George volunteer on the spur of the moment, when he just happened to be in Barnstaple and happened to come upon a recruiting sergeant?  Or did he consider it for awhile, and go to Barnstaple specifically to join up? Can't answer that one. 

Judging by family memories of George's love of the sea, it's not surprising that he was attracted to the RM - but why didn't he join the Navy instead?  Perhaps because sailors had a pretty rough life, whereas a marine got a splendid uniform and didn't have to do much in the way of manual labour. Marines were primarily ship based infantry, and seafaring skills were not required.

Two days after signing up and having a medical examination, George was in Exeter, where he was sworn in to the Royal Marine Light Infantry for a period of 12 years.  From there, he was sent to B Company in Walmer (Deal), Kent, for training at the RM Depot there.  The training was mostly land based, using similar weapons and tactics to that of  infantrymen, to prepare the recruits for guard and sentry duties, maintenance of discipline, enforcement of rules aboard ship, and for fighting both aboard ship and ashore.

So at last, I know where George was on census night in 1871. It's no wonder I couldn't find him before - he's listed as George Cockrane, age 28 (he wasn't yet 20), at the South Barracks in Walmer. Despite the discrepancies, I don't doubt that this is him, having seen the evidence that he was sent there just a month before the census was taken. (But I still don't know where his siblings Mary Ann and Alfred were that night....)

George is on line 16 of this 1871 census page, one of hundreds of marine recruits at South Barracks.

South Barracks, Walmer, Kent

In November 1871, Private George Cockram was sent to Plymouth to join the 63rd Company of Royal Marines at Stonehouse Barracks, known as the spiritual home of the RM.  At some point, he was transferred to the 35th Company, and was with them on the 1st of March 1873, when he received a Good Conduct Badge, known as a Mark. (This is indicated in the Register entry above, in pencil under his name: 1 Mark 1 March 1873)  The badge was an inverted chevron worn on the left forearm, and was awarded after the first two years of service with a performance level of at least 'very good'.  Further badges could be earned after another 3 years, then 5 years, and a marine with 3 badges and at least 10 years of service got a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.  But George didn't stick around for that. 

Royal Marines on the parade ground of Stonehouse Barracks, mid to late 1800s

The Good Conduct Badge brought with it an increase in pay.  As a private, George's pay would have been around 22 pounds a year, and the GCB would have earned him an extra 1 penny a day, or about 1 pound, 6 shillings a year.  Compared to other occupations, even farm labouring, the pay was low - but George didn't have to pay for his food, lodging, clothes, or anything else really, so he could easily have saved most of his income.

So there he was, earning a living, probably spending some time at sea and obviously not getting into trouble - there would be a record of him losing his GCB if that were the case.  So what went wrong?  I can't answer that one either, but I'll speculate about it in my next post, and I'd be pleased to hear your speculations too.

General information about pay and conditions in the Royal Marines comes from 'The Queen's Regulations and the Admiralty Instructions for the Government of Her Majesty's Naval Service, 1862'

George on the Run!

Holy smoke, the mystery of great-granddaddy George's name change and scarpering off to Canada has been solved!  I had pretty much resigned myself to never knowing George's deep dark secret, when suddenly a light shone in the distance...

Way over in Canada, my 2nd cousin Jack noticed a blip on his George radar which hadn't shown up on mine (I'm talking about Ancestry tree hints, if you're confused).  It said that someone named George Cockram had deserted from the Royal Marines in 1875, but there were no details to suggest whether this was 'our' George or someone else.  Jack sent it on to me, wondering whether we should get all excited about it or not.

RM uniform 1874.
But this is NOT how
George was dressed when
he deserted.

There had been hints in the family before about George being a Royal Marine, and I speculated earlier in this blog that he might have been a deserter, but I could never find any evidence of anything, such as his attestation papers or his service record.  These records are online at the British National Archives, but there's nothing there about George.  But that doesn't mean he WASN'T in the Marines, it only means I couldn't prove he WAS.

So I thought this new lead was too good not to follow up, even though it meant spending money to join Fold3, a site that holds historical military records, mainly about Americans, which is why I had never thought they'd have anything on George.  So I paid up, and found the record.

It's a page from the  Police Gazette of June 1875.  It lists a whole lot of people who were dishonourably discharged or deserted from all branches of the military, and in the Royal Marines section - there's our George!

from UK Police Gazette, 21 June 1875, page 5. You'll be able to read this when you click on it. 

I'm as good as 100% sure this is our George, for the following reasons:

• His name - I've searched for any other George Cockrams (or Cochranes, Cockrems, Cockerhams, Cockerills, Cockatoos etc etc) this could be, and I've found exactly none. According to birth, marriage, death and census records, the only other George Cockram who was born at around the right time and place died in childhood.  And the only other one who shows up in the Marines in the second half of the 19th century didn't join until 1881.  
• The place - Plymouth.  I know he was in Plymouth two months earlier, getting married, and listed an address there on his marriage record.  So it makes sense that he was serving at the Plymouth naval base, as opposed to any of the other ones.
• His birthplace - Fremington - no doubts at all about that.
• His age - this is stated as 23, but in fact, he would have turned 24 just a week before.  So that would be an easy mistake to make.
• His occupation - labourer, which is what he said he was on his marriage record.
• His description - I know from other evidence that his height was somewhere around 5'6" and his eyes were blue.  I'm not so certain about the 'sandy' hair.  It's grey in almost every photo I have of him, which of course are all in black and white.  In the only one where it isn't grey, when he was in his 40s, it looks darker than 'sandy', but I don't care - 'sandy' is too subjective anyway.  Let's just say it was brown.
• The date - I love this - he deserted on the 8th of June, and only TWO DAYS later he was getting on a ship in Liverpool using the name Thomas Smith.  He absconded from the Marines wearing undress uniform (white or blue trousers, short white jacket, cloth cap), so he must have gone home and changed into civvies, grabbed a suitcase and got on a train to Liverpool.  The timing strongly suggests that this was not a spur of the moment decision; he must have been planning it for some time.

So, what are the chances that this is NOT our George?  Pretty slim, I think.  Jack and I, and others in the family, are very excited about unlocking this mystery, and I'm never going to let Jack forget that he was the person who found the key.  And none of us blames George for deserting.  We would too.

But of course, I'm never wholly satisfied until I've turned over every damned rock. And because I can't find George's military records under any online rocks, I've asked a military history researcher in the UK to look for some paper records for me, and he's now on the case.

I'm also looking for information about what train or trains George would have taken - did he have to go via London and change trains to Liverpool? How often did the trains run? How long would the journey have taken?  And so on.

So this story isn't finished.  I'll come back and fill in whatever details arise.  I only hope I don't find anything that says it couldn't possibly have been him!  I really don't want this bubble to burst.

George Won't Leave Me Alone....

I have to report that I'm not making much progress toward my aim of writing about my Wanamaker ancestors.  Too much of my time has been taken up with totally unrelated stuff recently, and when I got back into genealogy mode a few days ago, I got sidetracked right away, by good old George Cockram.

The trouble is, we watched the movie 'Titanic' on TV, in which our hero Jack Dawson (played by Lenny Cappuccino, as we like to call him) acquired his ticket for the doomed journey by winning it in a poker game, so of course it had someone else's name on it.  Aha!  Could that be how George became Thomas Smith, I wondered?  Was he a gambler, intently poker-faced in a dark smoky pub in Plymouth or Liverpool, staking everything on one last hand, and winning Thomas Smith's ticket to Canada on the Dominion?  Well, it's a thought, but all of my instincts tell me it didn't happen that way.  Surely George wasn't a gambler ... or was he?

And then there's the question of where George, Louisa and their daughter Audrey were when the 1921 Canada census was taken.  I read an article with several reasons why people don't appear on censuses, and the one that grabbed my attention was this:  Census data wasn't all collected on one day, and if a family was moving to a different house during the period when the census was being taken, they could have missed the enumerator's knock on the door in both locations.  George et al did move at around that time - I don't know exactly when, but their absence from the census could be the clue that answers that question.  If their new address was enumerated shortly before they moved in, and their old address shortly after they left, that would certainly explain why there are two other families at those addresses on the census, and why George, Louisa and Audrey can't be found.

I did get around to looking at some Wanamakers and McConnells, and was soon embroiled in a huge tangle of these two massive families.  Did I mention earlier that both of these families kept using the same first names over and over and over again, deliberately making things very difficult for me?  How many Harmanus Wanamakers and Thomas McConnells can there possibly be?  Too many, that's all I know.

But leaving that problem aside, I need to find a focus for these two families.  They both go back a long way, and their early history in America interests me, but I know that it might not interest you - you want to hear about more recent people, right?  Well, I'll get to them, but I think I won't be able to resist banging on about some ancestors from the 17th and 18th centuries first - if I ever get them untangled.

For now, I'll just remind you how I'm related to these families - my great-grandfather William Wanamaker married Alma McConnell in Ontario in 1888.  But long before that, their ancestors migrated to America - the Wanamakers from Germany, and the McConnells from Scotland via Ireland.  I don't know when or how these two families first met each other, but in my mind, they come together in the 1770s, the time of the Revolutionary War in America - and that might be my starting point when I finally get ready to write about them.

I AM a Wanamaker!

Well, it looks like I won't have to redo several big branches of my family tree after all. I've found four people with whom I share some DNA and some Wanamakers. Two of them are a bit iffy, tree-wise, and we only share a tiny bit of DNA, but the other two are quite convincing, especially Vicki F, who is probably my 5th cousin once removed. We're both descended from Hermanus Wannamacher and Susannah Pulisfelt, my 5th great-grandparents from Germany via New Jersey. Here's the 'proof' that we're related, a nice big yellow and blue block on good old chromosome number 8:

Yes, I know our chromosomes aren't labelled with the names of our ancestors (would that they were!) but I couldn't resist. 

I've also found some DNA matches with people from some of the other families that join up with the Wanamakers.  These families include some of my favourite ancestors - the Bates, Towers, Lincolns and Lathrops.

So now I can confidently write about the Wanamakers and the other family lines that join up with them, all of which amounts to several hundred people - those are just the ones I know about, of course,  Don't worry, I won't be writing about all of them.

For now, I'm doing some more research, and probably won't be writing much for awhile - unless I find a juicy scandal, of course, or god forbid, somebody who changed their name for a mysterious reason.  And I'm still looking for more DNA matches, just to settle the Wanamaker question once and for all.

I Thought I was a Wanamaker

First I thought I was Irish, but when I researched my father's 'Irish' ancestors, I found that they were mostly German and English.  Then I thought I was a Smith, but if you've been reading this blog, you'll know what happened there.  Then I thought I was a Wanamaker.....

After a bit of a break from dead ancestors, I'm climbing around in the Wanamaker branch of my family tree.  Late last year I did an autosomal DNA test in hopes that I might make some Wanamaker connections that lead back to the Mayflower.  Why?  I wrote about this puzzle in an earlier post, here.

So when my DNA matches became available, I eagerly typed 'Wanamaker' into the search box.  Guess how many matches popped up?  ZERO! I tried every spelling variation I could think of, and still got ZERO.  Yes, the search box works - I had no trouble finding multiple matches for several other surnames in my tree, but not a single Wanamaker.  What does this mean?

Well, one possibility is that even though there are a great many Wanamaker descendants who have trees on Ancestry.com, I'm the only one who has had a DNA test.  I find that hard to believe.

Another possibility is that someone in the Wanamaker line was adopted.  I find that hard to believe too, but not quite as hard.  I have birth records for some of them, but certainly not all.

Alma McConnell Wanamaker -
does she look the type?
And is that a black eye?

The possibility that's easier to believe is that one of the Mrs Wanamakers along the line 'played away' on at least one occasion.  If so, how will I ever find out who it was?  Was it my great-grandmother Alma McConnell?  She married William Henry Wanamaker, and everybody knows that William was a difficult man with a fiery temper.  Did Alma seek comfort somewhere else?  Or maybe it was William's mother, Catherine Bates, wife of Jacob Wanamaker, or Jacob's mother Elizabeth Tice, or... who knows?

I'm currently exploring ways of finding out if there's any Wanamaker DNA out there somewhere that I can connect with, and I'm keeping all extremities crossed.  If I'm not a Wanamaker, a great big branch of my tree is wrong, and I don't even want to think about that.

Oh well, I do like puzzles...

This was a family....

Researching and writing about George Thomas Smith and Louisa (Lucy) Murphy has been a very rewarding experience, and has taught me something about who I am. I'm very pleased to be able to claim them as my great-grandparents. I can't quite say goodbye to them without a few more words about them and their children.  Some of the best words on this subject were written by my cousin Donna, who knew six of the ten children, and learned a lot about the others from our great aunts Prue and Audrey.  This is how she described the family:

The children Thomas and Lucy raised probably say more about themselves than any statistical information to be found in any records.  All were church goers, and active in their church life. The daughters had a stately bearing and were accomplished homemakers, but were equally at home helping with livestock, seeding crops and harvesting. All were compassionate, caring people willing to help others in need. All made good marriages. I don’t remember any of them saying anything unkind to or about their spouses. The love and respect between the individual couples was always in evidence. Such things in their children speak volumes about the kind of people Thomas and Lucy must have been. (1)

So to sum up each family member in a few words -

Clara Louisa (1875 - 1918): Clara's original surname was Cockram, but her parents became Smiths when she was an infant, so she may never have known her real name.  She and her husband Archie Adair had five sons, two of whom died in infancy, and Clara was well known in Indian Head for her affinity with the young people in the community.  She often invited groups of children to her home for afternoon teas, parlour games and singsongs around the piano.  She had a beautiful singing voice and was an accomplished pianist.  After Clara died, Archie remarried and got involved in public life, serving for several years as the Mayor of Indian Head.

Annie Maud (1877 - 1943): Maud was very involved in church activities and was a life member of the Red Cross Society, having assisted in many of the Society’s war efforts during WWI. She loved flowers and lace curtains, and once said that if there were no flowers or lace curtains in Heaven, she wasn’t going.  She and her husband William George Bennett had two sons.  They farmed at Summerberry until 1920, and lived in nearby Wolseley after that.  William served for some years as a Conservative MP for the Wolseley constituency.  Their house in Wolseley was the setting for various family gatherings, and later became a French restaurant, and one of the heritage-listed buildings of the town.

Maud and William Bennett's former home in Wolseley, photographed in the 1990s

George Thomas Jr (1881 - 1936): When his parents moved to Regina in 1919, George took over the farm at Grand Coulee.  He was highly respected as a fine person and an excellent farmer. It was said he could get a higher, better quality yield on his farm than anyone else in the district. He was a very big man, and must have looked massive in the buffalo coat he usually wore. He would often oblige his neighbours by riding to town with them, sitting in back of the buggy as a windbreak on very cold days.  George had a rich bass singing voice but wouldn’t sing in the church choir. He never married, but was once engaged to a teacher.

Frederick William (1883 - 1945):  Will was also known as a fine farmer, and he took over some of his father's land near Summerberry when he married Aggie Fleming in 1907.  He and Aggie had seven children, one of whom died at birth.  In the 1920s, Will and Aggie bought a house in the town, where they spent the winters, and later they lived there permanently when their eldest son Morris took over the farm.  Will was a well-known and highly regarded citizen of the district and and served on both the rural and Summerberry councils. His wife was also a prominent member of the  community, and continued as such for many years after Will's death.  Everyone knew her as 'Aunt Aggie' and she was involved in all sorts of sporting and church activities, and was the church organist for 73 years.  She had a sunny smile and a youthful spirit all her life.  When she was in her 80s, she fell and broke her hip, and couldn't understand how it happened - all she'd been doing was washing her foot in the sink!

Will Smith and family, about 1927.
Standing: Louise, Helen, Stewart, Aggie, Russell
Sitting: Will, Will Jr, Morris

Bessie Jane (1885 - 1978):  Bessie married John Stewart (Jack) Fleming, and had two children.  They lived all their married life in Indian Head, where Jack was a blacksmith.  Bess was very active in her church, as well as the United Church Women's group and the Red Cross.  After Jack passed away in 1942, Bessie stayed in her home for many years, until she moved into the Golden Prairie Home.  When she was 90, she was still able to recite a poem her father had taught her in childhood.  She died at 93 and was buried with Jack in the Indian Head cemetery.

Elizabeth Grace (1886 - 1974): Grace loved to sing, and was a mainstay of the church choir at Grand Coulee.  She married Andy Mowat when she was in her early 30s, and they moved to a farm near Sintaluta, and had two children.  Then when her widowed brother-in-law Archie Adair moved into Indian Head in 1923, Grace and Andy rented Archie's farm at Rose Valley, where they stayed for 33 years. They retired to Indian Head, and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary there in 1968.  Grace passed away six years later, at the age of 88; Andy lived to 101.  Both are buried at Indian Head.

Herman Ryley (1891 - 1962): My grandfather was a gentle and kind man, and quite shy as a youngster.  My grandmother remembered that shortly after the Smiths moved to Grand Coulee, when Ryley was about 16, the young people of the area were skating at the the outdoor rink.  Ryley was too shy to join them, and stood and watched from outside the boards, with his skates over his shoulder.  But he, like most of his siblings, was a member of the church choir, as was Myrtle Wanamaker, who became his wife.  They farmed at Summerberry and had eight children.  I'll go into more detail about them in later posts.

Prudence Irene (1893 - 1993):  When Prue married Roy Wanamaker in 1915, they moved to a farm in the Sherwood district near Regina, where they lived for 50 years. Prue was well known for her beautiful handwork - knitting, crochet and needlepoint - and for her talent at cooking and baking - fluffy scones were her specialty.  She was equally at home helping bring in the harvest, working in her garden, caring for the horses or pouring tea from a silver tea service.  Prue shared her family's love of music, and was the church pianist for many years.  She was very active in the church and was awarded a lifetime membership in the United Church Women's group.  Roy worked as a telephone linesman as well as running the farm.  He was an avid hunter, and did beautiful woodwork on his lathe.  He was also active in the church and served on the church board.  They retired to Regina, and celebrated 75 years of marriage before Roy passed away in 1990, and Prue in 1993.  Both are buried in Riverside Memorial Gardens in Regina.

Four Smith sisters, about 1919.
Standing: Ethel, Audrey;  Sitting: Prue, Grace

Beatrice Ethel (1897 -1997): Ethel met and married Frank Burton in Grand Coulee, and the two of them farmed there for awhile before moving to another farm to the northeast of Regina.  Like her sisters, Ethel loved flowers, singing and playing the piano.  She was an accomplished homemaker and helped with the harvest.  She and Frank were both active in their churches, from Grand Coulee to their retirement in Regina.  After Frank died in 1981, Ethel lived in the Pioneer Village Nursing Home in Regina, where she passed away in 1997, just a few months short of 100 years.

Audrey May (1899 - 1991): Audrey moved to Regina with her parents in 1919, where she became a member of the United Church Women's group.  She nursed her mother when she had cancer, and after Louisa's death, Audrey cared for her father until he passed away in 1943.  Two years later, when she was 46, Audrey married widower Harry Hardy, a superintendent with the National Grain Co., and they lived in her house in Regina, which George had left to her in his will.  Shortly after her marriage, Audrey was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  She wore a brace on one leg, walked with sticks, had her car outfitted to accommodate her needs and was never known to feel sorry for herself.  She had a sharp mind and kept it busy with reading, doing crossword puzzles, keeping up with the news and enjoying lively conversations with friends and family.  She did embroidery, loved flowers and had a fine singing voice.  After Harry died in 1958, Audrey moved into an apartment, and when she was unable to care for herself any longer, she moved into a private care home.  Her long, brave battle with MS came to an end in 1991, and she was buried with her parents in the Regina Cemetery.

The eight Smith children who outlived their parents, photographed in 1943:
Grace, Will, Ethel, Maud, Bessie, Ryley, Audrey, Prue

Louisa (Lucy) Murphy Cockram Smith (1855-1928):  Louisa was known to her friends and family as Lucy for most of her life.  She loved flowers and handcrafts, and passed her gardening and needlework skills on to her daughters.  She had few idle moments, and rarely sat down without picking up her knitting.  She had a great fondness for Ireland and often spoke of her Irish heritage.  She was a shy, quiet person who was happiest at home, and was well-loved by her husband, children and grandchildren.

George Cockram / George Thomas Smith (1851-1943):  I've already said a lot about George, but I'll just add a few more words.  George was a great reader - mainly he read poetry, newspapers from England, and his bible.  He had very bad asthma, and would often read late into the night when he was unable to sleep.  He taught his children to recite poetry, encouraged them to sing, and had a beautiful singing voice himself.  He would often sing to Lucy, especially her favourite song, 'I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen'. He and Lucy must have had a wonderful marriage - the example they set shows in the extraordinary marriages their children made.

I'll leave the final, eloquent words to Donna:

This is a family of faith. This is a family with an incredibly strong work ethic, which sometimes worked against them and made them hard on themselves. This is a family that valued its members; a family with optimism and a sense of humor. This is a family that loved music, and boasted of several fine pianists and singing voices. This is a family that valued education and loved to read. This is a family that loved handwork – knitting, crocheting, needlepoint and petit point. Love of the land and of all nature ran deep in this family, of close-knit, down-to-earth, decent folk. Theirs is a story that needed to be told. (1)


1) From Donna Marie Smith's scrapbook about George Thomas Smith and his family, 2012

 

George the Patriarch 1928-1943

At the age of 77, George Thomas Smith had lost his wife of 53 years, but his daughter Audrey was still living with him, and played a large part in the rest of his life.  His other surviving children were never very far away either.  Family was all important to George, and he continued to be interested and involved in his children's lives.  I don't know what impact the Great Depression of the 1930s had on him.  All of his children who were farming at the time were hit hard, as southern Saskatchewan suffered extreme dry weather, dust storms and crop failures as well as economic recession.  But they all stayed put and saw the trouble through.

During his time as a widower, one more of his children passed away.  George Jr died in April 1936, at the age of 54.  I haven't discovered his cause of death, but he died in the hospital in Regina, and no doubt his father and siblings were near him.

Later that year, George and Audrey, along with Roy and Prue Wanamaker, drove to California for an extended holiday. On the 2nd of November 1936, the four travellers crossed the US border at Raymond Montana, and were granted admission for six months.  George gave their destination as Long Beach, California, and also said that he had been there before, in 1914.  This is another of George's mysteries, as I can't find any other evidence of him being anywhere in the US at any time.  Not forgetting that in 1936 he was 85 years old, and might easily have got the earlier date wrong, maybe he, Louisa and Audrey were there in 1921, when they were missing from the Canadian census.

George's border crossing document, Nov 2nd 1936.  This is where I learned he had blue eyes. It's hard to read, but I think  his height is stated as 5 feet 5 1/2 inches.  Louisa was slightly shorter. But all of their sons were over 6 feet, and their daughters were generally tall too.

I don't know how long the foursome stayed in the US, but I do know they spent some of their time there with Roy's aunt Mary McConnell and her husband Zedick Wright, who had lived in San Bernadino, California, for many years. Although they lived a long way off, it seems that they had close ties with their Canadian family and in-laws.

Zedick and Mary Wright, Prue Wanamaker, Audrey Smith, unknown and George Thomas Smith
at the Wright home in San Bernadino, California, 1936

By this time, George was using a cane to help him walk (but he never called it that - it was his walking stick).  His general health was still good though, despite the asthma that had plagued him for many years.  And as the photos show, he was something of a snappy dresser.

A few years later, in 1942, George's family threw a 91st birthday party for him.  (It seems that there was no 90th birthday party - perhaps he had taken sick at the time.)  He was always an outgoing person, and although he was becoming frail, he still enjoyed special occasions and gatherings of family and friends.

Just over a year later, George passed away at the age of 92.  Like Louisa, he died at home, where Audrey had cared for him.  His passing was felt by many people far and wide, and his obituary in the Regina Leader Post is a lovely tribute to him, although the author, a well-known journalist, made a few mistakes. (1)

George was buried in the family plot in the Regina cemetery, where Louisa and George Jr had preceded him, and Audrey would follow.

A page from Donna Smith's scrapbook, showing the Smith family plot in the Regina cemetery at Broad St and 4th Ave.  Since these photos were taken, the 'Mother' and 'Dad' markers have disappeared, and George Jr's marker is partially buried, and hard to find.

Having made sure during his lifetime that his three sons were settled on their own farms, he made his will in favour of his daughters.  He left the house in Regina to Audrey, and to his other five daughters, something over $2000 each. (2)

And so I've come to the end of George's story without getting any closer to discovering his secrets.  But as I move on to learn more about other family members, I'll still be on the lookout for anything else that pops us about George.  Having spent a lot of time with him, I feel that I've come to know him rather well, and I'm certainly never going to forget him.

1) For instance, the reference to George having served in the Royal Marines is the only suggestion anywhere about this, and I can't help wondering who told the author that story.  His daughters remembered him as someone who loved the sea, but that's as close as I've come to finding any seafaring adventures in his past.  Also, George never lived at Stratford or Collingwood Ontario, although the name Collingwood was used to refer to the general area where he lived.  And George and Louisa were married in England, not Ontario.

2) This information came from my cousin Donna, who wasn't sure how much money George left, or whether he still owned any land when he died.  I'm currently hunting for George's will in the depths of the Saskatchewan court system, which may take some time.