Chapter
8.4
By
Alan Jack Bramhill
My great-grandfather Richard Thomas Bramhill was born
in 1874 in Leeds, England where he grew up, married and raised his family. His parents
were Thomas Bramhill and Mary (Bairstow) Bramhill who were married in 1862 in
Rotherham, Yorkshire. Richard Thomas had three sisters all of who were born in
Rotherham, Yorkshire. They were Emma Carr, Adah and Mary Ellen Hutchinson.
Emma Carr and Mary Ellen were both married at the turn
of the 20th Century and moved to Pritchard, British Columbia to work
on farms. Mary Ellen Bramhill married John Hutchinson in 1886 in Rotherham and
they emigrated to Canada in 1887. Adah and Emma
Bramhill married two brothers. Adah
Bramhill married Alfred Carr in 1890 in Rotherham (they remained in
England). Emma Bramhill married Alfred's
brother Edmund Carr. Edmund and Emma
Carr emigrated to Canada around 1911.
The photo is from about
1908.
Left to right: Elizabeth (Gilberthorpe) Bramhill, Adah (in
Elizabeth's lap),
Richard Thomas, Isaac
(Jack), Constance (in front of Isaac),
Gertrude and
Richard Henry.
Richard Thomas Bramhill, married Elizabeth Gilberthorpe
and they had six children...Gertrude, Adah, Constance (Connie), Isaac (Jack-my
namesake), Richard Henry (my grandfather), and Edward. (Mark Peoples tells me
that there was a seventh child called Isabel but that is yet to be confirmed).
This
is a photo from about 1904 - from left to right are: Constance, Gertrude, Isaac
(Jack) and Richard Henry.
My grandfather Richard Henry Bramhill was born June 25,
1900 in Leeds, England. He married Alice Mason in 1922 in Leeds, England. Alice
was born March 21, 1906 in Blackpool, England. They had two children in
England: Alan Richard Bramhill (my father) born in 1923 and Mary born in 1924.
This is another photo from
around 1900 of Richard Thomas Bramhill (my great-grandfather).
Richard Thomas Bramhill was an Inventor. One of the items he invented
and patented was a device to fix broken umbrella arms. He
called it the “The Gampclip”. Click
here to see more about the Gampclip.
The photo on the left from 1921 is of
Richard Henry Bramhill (my grandfather).
Our "Nana" had two maiden names. She was born
Alice Aspinall, but her first Dad died when she was very small and her mother
remarried a fellow called Mason. Thus she was Alice (Aspinall) Mason when she
met our grandfather Richard Henry Bramhill. Nana had a sad childhood; she lost
her first dad when she was small, then after she was Alice Mason, her
full-blood-brother drowned. Then before she was even a teenager her mother
died. So before she married granddad, she was a total orphan being raised by a
stepfather and a stepmother. Nana loved her stepfather very much. Her
stepmother was very mean to her though. She worked as a seamstress and then
when she was a teenager her family moved from Blackpool to Leeds and that’s
where she met our grandfather Richard Henry Bramhill.
They met soon after granddad returned from the First
World War. He lied about his age so he could enlist in the Royal Flying Corp.
He served from 1916-1918. In 1921 they were engaged. In 1922 they married. Our
father, Alan Richard Bramhill was born in June 1923 and our Auntie Mary
Bramhill was born in 1924.
In
1926, our grandparents then emigrated to Canada leaving Liverpool on the SS Montcalm
(which became a troop carrier the SS Wolfe during the Second World War) and
arrived in Quebec City. There they hopped on a train for the long journey west
to Pritchard, British Columbia.
Alice (Aspinall/Mason) Bramhill my grandmother and wife of Richard
Henry Bramhill - taken in 1926.
My grandfather Richard Henry Bramhill came to Canada
for economic reasons and to help his Uncle Edmund Carr and his Aunt Emma Carr
(nee Bramhill - Richard Thomas Bramhill’s sister) on the Carr farm in
Pritchard, British Columbia. Nana cried all the way from Leeds to Liverpool and
even when she arrived in Canada, because her stepfather Mr. Mason was dying. He
died soon after our grandparents arrived in Pritchard.
You can imagine what it was like to leave a cultured,
civilized city like Leeds, England, to go to Pritchard in 1926: bush, no paved
roads, no electricity, no running water, outhouses, hillbillies, native Indians
for neighbours dropping by and scaring (they weren’t bad guys they were being
neighbourly) Nana at first, until she got used to them. Plus there were wolves
and coyotes, bears, hillbillies, moonshine stills...weekend dance hoedowns...I
guess it wasn’t all bad...it was just a big culture shock for our little
refined grandmother who became a mother at 17! My grandfather had another son,
Kenneth Albert Bramhill who was born in April 1, 1929 in BC.
My father Alan Richard Bramhill married Constance
(Connie) Connor in 1945 and they had eight children.
My Aunt Mary (deceased 1972) married Walter Tayler in
1953 and they had two children: Donna Tayler (of Vancouver, BC) and Gary Tayler
(Penticton, BC).
My Uncle Kenneth Albert (deceased 1997) married
Margaret Jean Webster (deceased 1988) in 1951 and they had four children:
Richard Edward (of Fort Nelson, BC), Carol Anne (also of Fort Nelson), Kenneth
Douglas (again Fort Nelson) and Barbara Jean (Chilliwack, BC).
Alan Richard Bramhill
Alan
Richard Bramhill married Constance (Connie) Connor in 1945 and they had eight
children: Terrance (deceased 1966), Alana, Alice Darlene, Brian Thomas, Robert
Edward, Alan Jack (me), Bruce Wayne and Keith Gregory.
Mr.
Alan Richard Bramhill passed away at Mt. Cartier Court Extended Care of Queen
Victoria Hospital, Revelstoke on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at the age of 82
years. A Celebration of Life Service was held from the Chapel of Brandon Bowers
Funeral Home on March 3rd, 2006 — cremation with interment of the cremated
remains at a later date in the family plot of Mountain View Cemetery,
Revelstoke. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the
lllecillewaet Greenbelt Society care of the City of Revelstoke.
Alan
was born in Leeds, England on June 8, 1923 and moved to Pritchard in 1926. He
lived in Albert Canyon, moved to Revelstoke, married
in 1945 and he and his family had a working farm with several animals on Loop
Road, South Revelstoke. He held many jobs during his life, including working as
a CPR fireman, a sawyer in sawmills, working for the Department of Highways and
finally on road maintenance for Parks Canada for 36 years. Alan enjoyed
hunting, fishing, gardening and trees. He was interested in people and liked
talking about world events and politics. Alan especially loved camping and
walking his dog Riley.
Alan
Richard Bramhill
Alan
was predeceased by his son Terry in 1966, granddaughter Lisa Carachelo in 1985
and two siblings:
Kenneth Albert Bramhill and Mary Tayler. He is survived by his loving wife of
60 years Connie of Revelstoke; seven children: Alana (Butch) Carachelo of
Revelstoke, Darlene (Wade) Pascoe of Calgary, Brian Bramhill of Salmon Arm, Bob
(Julie) Bramhill of Edmonton, Jack (Lucero) Bramhill of Burnaby, Bruce (Linda)
Bramhill of Edmonton and Keith Bramhill and good friend Vivian Mitchell of
Revelstoke; four grandchildren: Melvin (Tracy) Carachelo of Revelstoke, Patrick
Pascoe of Calgary, Leanne (Gary) Daw of Surrey and Tara (Cory) of Edmonton;
five great grandchildren: Mitchell, Melanie, David, Kayla and Tyler as well as
numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
Arrangements
were in the care of Brandon Bowers Funeral Home, Revelstoke.
Alan Jack Bramhill
I married Lucero Chavez of Cali Colombia in October
1997. Lucero works as a federal public service civilian administrator for the
RCMP. She knows of two RCMP members that live and work in BC and are
Bramhill’s.
I have discovered that I have two definite links to our
branch of the Bramhill Family.
The first connection is with Mark Peoples of
Montgomery, Alabama. It seems his maternal grandmother Constance Bramhill is
the sister of my paternal grandfather Richard Henry Bramhill who both were from the Leeds, England branch of the family. I have
already e-mailed both Will Bramhill of England and Mark Peoples of Montgomery,
Alabama and I am awaiting a reply.
Jack & Lucero Bramhill
The second connection was with Pat King of Kamloops, British
Columbia. It appears that she is also related to my grandfather. It looks like
Pat’s great-grandmother, Mary Ellen Bramhill, was my great-grand aunt. Her
brother Richard Thomas Bramhill (yes his full name was Richard Thomas Bramhill)
was my father’s father’s father. So, yes indeed it looks like we are third
cousins. My grandfather, Richard Henry Bramhill was Mary Ellen Bramhill’s
nephew. I have never seen the historical book of Pritchard "Pursuit of
Memories" but I sure would like to see it. At the moment, I am in the
process of putting together a photo scrapbook of photos of my branch of the
Bramhill family dating from Leeds, England to Pritchard and up to the modern
era.
From
a different viewpoint of the same family Pat King writes:
My first documentation of our Bramhill Family goes back
to the marriage of Thomas Bramhill and Mary Bairstow in Rotherham, Yorkshire,
on the 26th October 1862. The marriage certificate states that
Thomas' age is 22 years at this time. It seems that both Thomas and Mary were
born about 1840. Thomas, a Cabinet
Maker, was the son of John Bramhill. Thomas’ wife Mary, a Straw Bonnet Maker,
was the daughter of Matthew and Ann Bairstow.
Thomas
and Mary produced four children:
1. Mary Ellen Bramhill, born 20 October 1865, in
Rotherham
2. Adah Bramhill, born 1867 in Rotherham
3. Emma Bramhill, born 15 October 1871 in Rotherham
4. Richard Thomas Bramhill, born 1874, in Rotherham.
1. Mary Ellen Bramhill (first child of Thomas and Mary Bramhill)
Mary
Ellen was my great grandmother. On the
14th June 1886 she married John Thomas Hutchinson (JTH) in
Rotherham. At the time of their
marriage, JTH was living in Rawmarsh. He
was the eldest child of Thomas and Mary Hutchinson and was born in Rawmarsh. It
seems that the family originally came from the Timberland area of Lincolnshire
and, after living in Rawmarsh for a few years, moved back to Timberland, where
most of their other children were born.
John Thomas, it seems, returned to the area, probably to work in the
coalmines.
John Thomas Hutchinson
&
Mary Ellen Bramhill
John Thomas Hutchinson was a coal miner, as was his
father, Thomas. Family story explains
that after JTH suffered an accident in the mine, his father suggested that they
all pack up and leave for Canada. It
should also be noted that Thomas and Mary had lost four of their seven
children, possibly to typhoid, and felt that life might be better for them
elsewhere.
So, less than a year after their marriage, John Thomas and
Mary Ellen, along with his parents Thomas and Mary, and his siblings, Francis
and Susannah Hutchinson, the family left Liverpool on 17 March 1887. They sailed on the SS Parisian and arrived in
Halifax on 23 April 1887 - a 37-day voyage. The family then traveled by rail
across Canada to Brandon, Manitoba. Mary
Ellen was pregnant at this time and within about two days of their arrival at
their destination of Brandon, Mary Ellen gave birth to
their first child, Mary Ellen ‘Nellie’, on 30 April 1887. JTH and Mary Ellen
first moved to Little Souris south of Brandon before settling in a small
farming community called Hayfield, which was not too far from Little
Souris. I believe that most of their
children were born in Hayfield, although it seems that some of the younger
family members were born in Brandon, in the years before their move west to
British Columbia.
I believe it was in the latter part of 1910 that John
Thomas and Mary Ellen packed up their family and moved to Pritchard, BC, a
small community east of Kamloops, British Columbia. It was here that their tenth child was born.
Family
of John Thomas and Mary Ellen (Bramhill) Hutchinson
Mary
Ellen ‘Nellie’ Born 30 April 1887 Brandon, Man
Died
13 November 1953, Kamloops, BC
Adah
Sushannah Born 22 February 1889 Hayfield, Man
Died
25 February 1973, Vancouver, BC
Edith Born 19 Sept. 1891 Hayfield,
Man
Died
15 Apr 1967, Vernon, BC
Ruth Born 30 June 1892 Hayfield,
Man
Died
28 Jan. 1967, Vancouver, BC
Jessie Born 27 June 1894 Hayfield,
Man
Died
13 Sept. 1993, Clearbrook, BC
John
Thomas Born 6 Nov. 1895 Hayfield, Man
Died
13 May 1986, Vancouver, BC
Dorothy Born
27 Mar 1900 Hayfield, Man
Died
16 June 1995, Burnaby, BC
Hugh Born 26 Feb. 1902 Brandon,
Man.
Died
14 Sep. 1959, Vancouver
Leonard
Born 22 Aug. 1906, Brandon, Man
Died
5 Sep. 1987, Kamloops, BC
Gertrude
Ethel Born 18 Mar. 1911 Pritchard, BC
Died
24 Aug. 1996, Burnaby, BC
Back Row Standing (L to R): Mary Ellen "Nellie" & Adah
Sushannah
Middle Row: John
Thomas Jr., John Thomas, Edith, Dorothy, Hugh,
Mary Ellen (Bramhill)
Front Row Sitting:
Ruth and Jessie
John
Thomas and Mary Ellen purchased land on the South Thompson River and in the
spring of 1911, opened a general store within their home, selling groceries and
dry goods. Unfortunately, John Thomas
died at the early age of 48 years, about two years after their arrival, and
Mary Ellen was left with the store to run.
Nellie, who would have been about 25 years of age by this time, helped
her mother, Mary Ellen, and together they ran the store for several years. In later years, Nellie and her husband, Bert
Boyde, would take over the responsibilities of the store and post office.
Sometime later Mary Ellen moved to Vancouver as several of her children were
living there by that time. Although she
was still living in Vancouver, Mary Ellen was on an extended visit with her
daughter Nellie in Pritchard, when she passed away 20 May 1937. She is buried in Vancouver.
2.
Adah
Bramhill (second child of Thomas and Mary Bramhill)
Adah married in 1888, in Rotherham, to Fred Carr.
3.
Emma
Bramhill (third child of Thomas
and Mary Bramhill)
Emma married in 1890 in Rotherham, Yorkshire, to Edmund
Carr, brother to her sister’s husband, Fred.
Emma and Edmund immigrated to BC about 1912, settled and farmed in the
Pritchard area. It is most likely that
they chose this place to settle, as it was where her sister, Mary Ellen and her
family had moved to about two years previously.
Emma died 31 Mar 1929 in Pritchard.
Edmund died on 21 December 1930.
4.
Richard
Thomas Bramhill (fourth child of Thomas and Mary Bramhill)
Richard is the great grandfather of Jack Bramhill of
Burnaby. My grandmother, Adah Sushannah Hutchinson, was the second child of JTH
and Mary Ellen. She came with her family
from Manitoba and married my grandfather, Rowland Joshua Denney, on January 31, 1911. Rowley had known the Hutchinson family in
Brandon before he purchased property at Pritchard. It is likely that the
Hutchinsons chose Pritchard for their move as they had known Rowley previously
and he was probably engaged to be married to their daughter Adah by that time.
Rowley and Adah farmed in the area for a few years as well as raising
turkeys.
Rowland Joshua, Adah Sushannah (Hutchinson) Denney with Joshua Rowland
Taken 1913
My
father, Joshua Rowland Denney was born in Pritchard 13 August 1913. The family of three then moved to Sooke, BC
where Rowley worked on the fish traps.
They then moved to Victoria where their second son John Henry Tomlin
Denney was born in 1919. Soon after, the
family moved back to Pritchard for about five years and, during this time, was
very involved in the affairs of the community.
They then moved to the Vancouver area where they raised their two sons
farmed and raised chickens and had an egg route.
They
spent the rest of their lives in Vancouver with my grandfather, Rowley, passing
away in 1958 and my grandmother, Adah, passing away in 1973. My father, Joshua
Rowland Denney, married Eileen M. Walls on the 29 June 1938 and they had two
children, a son, Raymond R. Denney and myself Patricia
M Denney. My father lived in Vancouver until he passed away in 1996 and my
mother has since moved to Kamloops.
Standing: Rowland Joshua Denney
(Left
to Right): Joshua Rowland, John Henry,
Adah Sushannah (Hutchinson) Denney
Taken
1923
Bob & Pat King
Taken 1988
My husband, Robert V. King and I married in September
1961 and have three children, Catherine, Douglas and Steven. Cathy has two children, Cheryl and
Trevor. Bob and I were both born and
raised in Vancouver and moved to Kamloops in 1979 when the company that Bob
worked for as an accountant moved their head office to the interior of BC.
Richard
Thomas Bramhill was born in 1874 in Leeds, England. His parents were Thomas Bramhill
and Mary (Bairstow) Bramhill who were married in 1862 in Rotherham, Yorkshire.
Richard Thomas had three sisters all of who were born in Rotherham, Yorkshire.
They were Emma Carr, Adah and Mary Ellen Hutchinson.
Richard
Thomas Bramhill, married Elizabeth Gilberthorpe and they had six
children...Gertrude, Ada, Constance (Connie), Isaac, Richard Henry, and Edward
(Eddie).
Constance Bramhill's Wedding Photo
From
left to right: Eddie Bramhill (about age 12), Elizabeth Bramhill,
Gertrude
Bramhill (Wade), Francis Edwin Barrett (my grandfather - the groom), Constance
Bramhill,
Alfred
Wade (Gertrude's husband), Ada Bramhill,
Richard
Thomas Bramhill
Mark Peoples
Audrey Constance Barrett
(now Audrey Constance Peoples
- my mother)
-
End -