stephen george mallindine + mary ethel buckley
Stephen was born in Plaistow, Essex on 26 December 1894 to Joseph Mallindine and his wife Alice Manhood. Several months before his fourth birthday, Stephen’s father died of tuberculosis at the family home in Canning Town. The family was already in a dire financial situation as Joseph had not been able to work for six months prior to his death and although Alice was able to find some work as a seamstress, it was not enough to support her family.
On 1 May 1899, Alice took Stephen and his older brother Alfred to the Dr. Barnardo’s home and agreed to have them sent to Canada in the hope they would have a better life. Stephen was only four when he was separated from his family and fostered out to a family in the rural village of Messing near Colchester in Essex. He returned to Barndardo’s Leopold House, a home for 450 boys in Stepney, for a short time before being fostered out a second time in Suffolk and he appears there in the 1901 Census in Thrandeston in the household of Edward Jones, a general shop keeper. Edward and his wife Emily had two teenage daughters but also took in three seven year old boys, including Stephen, from the Barnardo’s Home in Stepney.
When boys turned 10 years of age, they were considered old enough to work and therefore ready for migration to the colonies under the Barnardo’s scheme. Stephen was returned to Leopold House before sailing to Canada on board the SS Southwark on 21 July 1904. For the five years he was in the care of the Barnardo’s organization in London, he did not see his mother, siblings or any other family members.
Stephen arrived in Quebec City on 31 July and travelled by train to Toronto where he was placed in the care of Dr. Thorburn, a retired physician, on Bloor Street. According to Barnardo’s records, Stephen acted as a companion to the elderly doctor and was making good progress in his care but by 1911, Stephen was living in Madoc Township with the Allen family and working on their family farm as a labourer. The census notes that he worked 60 hours a week, 52 weeks a year and earned $224.
Conduct Medal
Stephen must have been in contact with his mother in England as he told Barnardo’s in 1913 that he was considering bringing his mother, step-father and younger sister out to Canada but the start of the war ended any plans for a family reunion. On 1 December 1915, Stephen enlisted at Sault Ste Marie in the 119th Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He listed his occupation on the Attestation Papers as a Telegraph Operator and his present address as c/o Superintendent of the CP Railway in Sudbury; he was 21 years old when he enlisted but he added two years to his age when he declared his birth date as 26 December 1892.
He sailed on board the SS Metagama with his battalion and arrived in Liverpool on 19 August 1916. Stephen was initially assigned to Bramshott in Hampshire as an Acting Signals Sergeant and while there, he requested that a portion of his military pay be directed to his mother Alice who was living at 29 Seymour Road in Tilbury Docks, Essex. He later moved to Witley near Godalming and finally to Seaford in East Sussex before travelling to France with the 19th Canadian Machine Gun Company. He landed on 24 March 1818 and five months later he was involved in the Battle of Jig Saw Wood near Arras while assigned to the 2nd Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade.
Stephen was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on 1 January 1919 for his bravery and devotion to duty while under fire at Jig Saw Wood and his actions were recorded in the London Gazette on 3 September 1919:
For consistent good services and gallantry under fire, especially while in action in Jig Saw Wood on August 29th, 1918. He had charge of communication between the forward batteries and report centre. The heavy shelling made it very difficult to keep this communication intact, and he showed great gallantry and devotion to duty in keeping it up.
1924
Stephen returned to Canada and was discharged from the army in Toronto on 16 May 1919 and it appears that he intended to return to western Ontario as he listed his address as the General Post Office in Sault Ste Marie. He returned to work with the Canadian Pacific Railway and later moved to Cartier, a village on Georgian Bay, and a stop on the CPR line before settling in Chapleau, 250km north east of Sault Ste Marie.
While in Chapleau, Stephen met and married Mary Ethel Buckley who was a nurse at the local hospital. Ethel was born in Fort William, now part of Thunder Bay, on 16 August 1899 to Timothy Buckley and his wife Josephine Charbonneau. Stephen and Ethel applied for a marriage license in Chapleau but they married in Thunder Bay on 27 April 1926 with Joseph Mayhew and his wife acting as witnesses. They returned to Chapleau but four years later, Stephen died of colon cancer at the Lady Minto Hospital on 17 February; he was buried at the local cemetary two days later.
Ethel remained in Chapleau following Stephen’s death and continuned to work as a nurse. She appears there in the Canadian Voter’s List in 1935 but later moved to Fort William and appears in the 1974 Voter’s List on May Street South. Ethel died in Thunder Bay on 31 August 1990.