Bulletin 35 Appendix II: Townley for Service in Nigeria

from the townley family collection but
with only the words 'Gallipoli' and '1915' decipherable. [Author]

In his article  The Tewkesbury Townleys, the author excited the interested of the Editor as a result of this paragraph concerning service in Nigeria because I taught in Nigeria in 1969. Charles kindly written this appendix focusing on that country:

My grandfather, Charles Henry (1892-1969), followed his father working in the Manchester Newspaper industry, his WWI service records show his employer was E  Hulton Limited Withy Grove and his Health Insurance Scheme is given as the Manchester Branch of the Typographical Association.  He was demobbed in 1919 with a "silver badge" due to his dysentery during Gallipoli.  As a territorial he was also mobilised to France/Belgium in September 1914 and also service in Egypt and also in Germany after the armistice.  My grandfather went out to Nigeria in May 1920, and it appears that he usually worked a 12-to-18-month stint before having a trip back to UK. 

The length of his courtship with his future bride Winifred is unknown but a 1923 letter home remarked pleasingly on her being a regular visitor to his parents whilst he was abroad. They married in 1925 and both returned to Lagos and from another letter we have, his bride, Winifred, returned to Stretford, Manchester in the summer of 1926.  My Dad's birth, Charles Henry Angus (1926-1999) on 27 November 1926 was a post WWI “homes fit for heroes” council house, which had been given as Charles and Winifred home address when they sailed to Nigeria in November 1925. It is clear from tracking immigration/emigration records from various ships that she also returned to Nigeria on occasion to stay with her husband. ^[1]

As far as I know my father never visited Nigeria and, as he was an only child. he was looked after by Charles and Minnie when his mother was visiting Nigeria. Winifred was an amateur artist, and, within the family, we have a few examples of paintings done in Nigeria.

I don't know how many people worked in the printing works it has been suggested that some of annual reports of the printing works might be in the collections at the Bodleian Library.

He was clearly very involved with the Freemasons to rise to being Provincial Grand Treasurer, but he also had time to shoot and play golf. And one of a very small number of letters to his mother refers to being a technical advisor to a Nigerian led newspaper founded in 1926 - which I believe to the Nigerian Daily Times, as the dates of first publication fit.^[2]

References

1. Townley Family Ancestry Tree based on National Archives BT26 and BT27 Incoming and Outward Passenger Lists 
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Times_(Nigeria)  [Wikipedia]