william mallandain + gladys may lawley
Bill was born in Holborn on 14 July 1884, the son of William Mallandaine and Emma Sibery, and baptised at St Peter in Clerkenwell on 6 July. When he was two years old, his family moved to Rotherhithe where Bill grew up, first on Rotherhithe Road and later on Tooley Street. After leaving school, he worked as a Store Keeper before enlisting in the Northumberland Fusiliers on 5 September 1904. Shortly after enlisting, Bill was deployed with the Fusiliers to South Africa for two years from December 1904 to March 1907.
He transferred to the Middlesex Regiment on 1 March 1908 and spent four years in service in England. In 1911, he was a Corporal with the 4th Battalion and stationed at Stanhope Lines near Aldershot in Hampshire but shortly after, his regiment was assigned to duties in the East Indies and only recalled to England following the outbreak of WWI; he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and served with the Middlesex Regiment (3rd Royal Fusiliers) in France.
While on leave in England, Bill married Gladys May Lawley at Forest Gate in January 1916. Gladys was born on 18 July 1896 at Ilford, Essex and was the seventh of eight children born to Frederick Lawley and Elizabeth Mary Mullen. Bill and Gladys had one daughter, Muriel Gladys, who was born in Rochford, Essex on 14 November 1916.
Following his marriage, Bill returned to the war in France and was injured in the line of duty when he was shot in the chest and suffered injuries to both his lungs. He was awarded the Military Cross, which was awarded ‘in recognition of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land’, on 5 March 1918 for bravery during the Second Battle of Ypres. His actions in this battle were recorded in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The British Campaign in France and Flanders: ‘Great slaughter was caused by a machine gun of the 3rd Royal Fusiliers under Lieutenant Mallandain.’
London
At the end of the war, Bill and Gladys separated but they never divorced. Bill stayed in the army but his injuries finally forced him to retire on 12 January 1921 and he took a job with the Imperial War Museum. He was appointed Superintendent of the museum on 21 December 1926 and remained there until his retirement. Bill had a long term relationship with Violet Winifred Ethelberta Clark but they never married. Vi was born on 5 August 1907 at 16 Bear Road, Brighton, the daughter of Herbert Joseph Clark and Ethel Ada Power. Bill and Vi had one son, William Alan Clark, born on 4 September 1932 in Lambeth.
In 1939, Bill was living at 60 Gilbert Road in Lambeth and his brother Fred, a travelling salesman, was staying with him at the time. His wife and daughter were living at 44A Brunswick Square in Hove, Sussex and Gladys was not working outside of the home so it seems that Bill was still supporting them. Vi Clark was living close by at 9 Crampton Street in Walworth along with her 7 year old son William.
His daughter, Muriel, emigrated to Canada following the second world war and sailed on board the SS Battory on 8 June 1947. She was listed on the passenger list as a 30 year old single female, employed as a Clerk and her last permanent residence was listed as Hove in Sussex. She arrived at Fort Erie, Ontario one month later and travelled to Raymond, Alberta to visit a family friend Jack Mayhew before crossing the border at Eastport, Idaho on her way to visit another friend, Dorothy Wride, in Portland, Oregon. Her border crossing record notes that her she was held landed immigrant status in Canada and this was her intended permanent residence. One year later, Gladys followed her daughter to Canada and she appears in the Passenger Manifest of Pan American Airlines Flight 115 where she boarded the flight at Shannon, Ireland on 6 January 1948 bound for New York City. Her age was recorded as 51 years and her address as 3641 Rox Street in Portland, Oregon.
After arriving in Canada, Muriel married Jerzy Adam Pohoski, a former pilot in the Polish Air Force in Britain. Jerzy, known as George, was born in Warsaw, Poland on 30 May 1919 and he also emigrated to Canada at the end of the war. George enrolled at the University of British Columbia and completed a business degree before going on to work as an accountant for many years. Muriel and George had one son and they lived in West Vancouver for many years before retiring to Duncan on Vancouver Island. Gladys lived with her daughter and her family for many years.
Bill lived on Lawrence Road in Hove for many years but later moved to 42 St Mary’s Gardens in Kennington where he lived until his death. He died on 2 September 1956 at Lambeth Hospital and was buried in Streatham Cemetery. Five years later, his son William married Marian Stracchino in Lambeth and they went on to have three children.
Gladys Lawley died of cancer at Lion’s Gate Hospital in North Vancouver on 2 February 1968 and was buried at Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby. Vi Clark died on 11 July 1994 and their son, William, died in Downham Market, Norfolk on 3 March 2010. He was pre-deceased by his wife Marian in 1999.
George Pohoski died in Duncan, British Columbia on 3 September 2008 and Muriel died, aged 96 years, on 19 May 2013.