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 My paternal grandfather
Frederick William THOMPSON was born in 1865 in Dundalk, Ireland, the first
son but second child of William Frederick THOMPSON. His father was
so named throughout his Coastguard career (born Richard RASPISON and later
known as Charles Alfred RASPISON - the complexities of his surnames recur
in some of his children and grandchildren!), and was later a Chief
Coastguard Officer.
In the 1881 Census Frederick
THOMPSON was a 2nd Class Boy from HMS Impregnable, staying with a family
called DEAN (father was a smith in HM Dockyard, Devonport, and grandfather
a superannuated Leadingman of shipwrights) at a house in Gloucester
Street, Stoke Damerel, Plymouth with another lad of the same age. It
is possible that through this friend he met his future wife for she had
cousins, with whom she was in regular contact, who lived nearby.
His elder sister (born Dundalk in 1863) was
nearby as a general servant to a retired Chief Paymaster RN at Osborn
Villas - and Mary Anne was then using the surname RASPISON.
In early 1890 he married Mary Gertrude GAWDEN
of Torpoint, the eldest daughter of Thomas GAWDEN (1839 -1922), a RN
gunnery instructor who was awarded the Baltic Medal. As her husband
would still have been at sea she remained at Torpoint and I believe her
first two children were born there (although the later ones might have been
born in Gravesend and then elsewhere once he was in the Coastguards):
-
Bertram Gordon Raspision
THOMPSON (the Registrar mis-spelt both his middle names as they should
have been Gawden and Raspison!) born 15.12.1890 (my father) who, after an
apprenticeship in Devonport Dockyard, became an Admiralty draughtsman; he
narrowly escaped from being on the last, ill-fated, trip of the submarine
HMS Thetis in the upper 1930s, and in 1951 he took a model of the Royal
Yacht Britannia to Buckingham Palace to discuss it with King George VI.
-
Hilda Mary THOMPSON, born
30.9.1892 - when she was married to Edward Borrowdale she used the surname
RASPISON-THOMPSON (she wasn't going to be thought of as a nobody!).
She nursed a Leeds constituency during World War 2 when the sitting MP was
on active service, and was a great personality.
-
Walter Frederick THOMPSON,
born 14.7.1894 but died aged 2 years.
-
Gertrude ("Girlie") THOMPSON,
born 19.2.1896, died of TB at Calstock Cornwall 1.8.1921.
-
(Olive) Gladys THOMPSON, born
30.12.1898 at Havens Hole, Canvey Island, she was engaged to James HYSLOP
of Torpoint but died of TB at Robin Hood/s Bay 3.11.1917.
-
(Edith) Nellie THOMPSON, born
13.9.1904, died of TB at Calstock 7.5.1923.
Frederick William, his wife Mary
Gertrude and 3 of their daughters
(from left: "Girlie", Nellie and Hilda Mary)
photographed in 1920
Click to enlarge. Thus the three younger sisters
all died round 20. On enquiring from cousin Harold CRADICK what they
were like his reply was that they were all like their elder sister, Hilda
Mary, and the world wasn't big enough for more than one of them!
In 1893 (presumably about the time he left the
Navy as he would by then have served for 12 years), he travelled from
Torpoint to Gravesend and around 1895 he still seems to have been in
Gravesend (where his RASPISON family lived), as I have a Gravesend
photograph of him and his wife and first two children taken there.
Was there a Coastguard training establishment there, or did he actually
start as a Coastguard rating in the Coastguard station there? Son
Bertram thereafter stayed with his GAWDEN family in Torpoint to be
educated, and the daughters went with his wife to the Coastguard stations
once he went into that Service. In 1896 he still seems to have been
in Gravesend. He moved
from Gravesend 20.10.1898 to be stationed at Canvey Island, and on
17.3.1900 he moved to the Isle of Grain. He broke a leg in 12.1903 falling
off the sea wall whilst patrolling there at night, was discharged from
hospital 19.2.1904 and then had 3 weeks sick leave.
He was at Bridlington in 26.7.1910 (presumably
by then he would have been a Chief Boatman because he soon after became a
Chief Coastguard Officer) when he signed the death certificate for his
father (who was by then known as C.A.RASPISON); he signed as "F.W.RASPISON,
son, Coastguard Station, Bridlington". I was told by my father that
his father then opened the Coastguard Station at Filey, although that is
not mentioned in the surviving extracts from the family diary.
On 22.12.1911 he was promoted to "C.B.C."
(presumably Chief Boatman Coastguards) or "C.B.O." (the writing in the
extracts from the family diary is here unclear) backdated to 15.12.1911
and appointed to Robin Hood's Bay. He took up that appointment on
26.1.1912 and remained there for nearly 8 years (a surprisingly long time
at one station, even taking World War One into account). I am not sure
when he became a Chief Coastguard Officer, but he is so described in
Dalton's "1914 Guide to Robin Hood's Bay", when he was also in charge of
the Sea Scouts. As Chief Coastguard Officer he lived in the house attached
to the Coastguard Station, although that house is now almost
unrecognisable due to some unfortunate subsequent alterations to the
building. In July 1919 he was involved in an attempt to aid the Cap
Palos which had run aground at Ness Point (ref: Lidster's "Robin Hood's
Bay as it Was"). He is shown in a photograph of the Lifeboat Day
procession in Fig 21 of that book, behind the White Ensign standard
bearer, but the photograph is unfortunately undated. I have his
sword although it might originally have been his father1s (i.e. my great
grandfather's). It seems
that there was no Freemasonry Lodge in Robin Hood's Bay for I have the
certificate dated 26.3.1917 confirming his 18.12.1916 Initiation into Lion
Lodge No.312, Whitby, Yorks.
Having found that the National Trust had
purchased the Old Coastguard station at Robin Hood's Bay, I visited it in
9.2002, and later in 2002 I gave enlargements of a few photographs of my
grandfather to the National Trust there, who from their acknowledgment
letter, were delighted to receive them and planned to put them on display.
(Webmaster's Note: A photograph
showing Chief Officer Thompson, plus a description of an attempted
rescue, can be found
here.)
He was posted to New Quay, Wales, on
7.12.1919. That was his final appointment as he then retired to Calstock
on the Cornish side of the Tamar, north of Plymouth.
He is recorded as becoming a joining member of
Cotehele Lodge in Calstock No.2166 on 8.2.1921 and, as a very regular
attendee; he was elected Tyler of the Lodge in 3.1922 and was so appointed
in 4.1922, serving the Lodge thereafter "until his death in 10.1922"
according the Lodge Secretary in 12.2002. However either "1922" is a
typing error for "1924" or he ceased attending in 10.1922 on account of
ill-health and this is incorrectly recorded in the Lodge books.
I have not yet obtained dates for his
political activities, and only in Jan 2003 did I become aware of them;
when he died he was, according to the accounts of his burial service in
the East Cornwall Times of 24.10.1924, Cornish and, in the Devon Post of
25.10.1924, the Chairman of the "local" Conservative Association.
He suffered from diabetes, was taken to the
Naval Hospital 26.9.1924, died 11.10.1924 and was buried at Calstock
15.10.1924. I remember seeing as a child a newspaper cutting of his full
ceremonial Freemason funeral - this cutting was in his Freemason carrier
pouch, but over the years has disappeared. I obtained the two above
accounts (presumably one is the account I saw as a child) from the
Newspaper Library in Colindale, West London. According to these
newspaper reports (which are all but identical) the funeral service was
held in Calstock churchyard, the Rev.C.W.Rowland, Rector of Calstock,
officiating. The family mourners were:
"Mr.B.G.Thompson, son" - Mr.B.G.R.THOMPSON, my father
"Mr.H.Cradick, nephew" - Mr. Harold CRADICK, son of his sister Anne
"Mr.C.Brooks, nephew" - Mr. Charles BROOKS, husband of Harold's sister
Maud
"Mr.C.Cowburn, brother-in-law" - possibly the husband of his sister who
stayed in Ireland
"Mr.H.Davis, brother-in-law" - Mr. Harry DAVEY/DAVIS, his wife's
half-brother.
It is reported that "W.Bros.
W.Spry W.M., and W.Billing G.M. impressively rendered the Masonic
oration", although the Lodge number is reported as 2161 not 2166.
The following acted as pall
bearers: "W.Bro. Spry W.M., W.Bro. W.Billing P.M." (the two papers list
him a P.M.in one place and G.M. in the other, but in reversed places!),
"and W.Bros. Cann, Holden and Gibson". The following "W.Bros." also
attended but apparently were not pall bearers (although the listing is
none too clear on this): "G.Hele, Hill, Steele, Lock, Hambly, Bowden,
Kellow, Mulhallen and Hele Jun. Messrs Mulhallen and W.Hutten"
represented the local Conservative Association.
His widow, who had been deaf for many years as
the result of an accident, returned to Torpoint, sharing the house with
her unmarried sister Ellen Ann Sloman GAWDEN and widower brother-in-law
Charles AYRES. She died 20.12.1946.
Dorothea Elspeth Gordon BAILLIE
Feb 2003
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