On 10th March 1918, the Rev’d Allsebrook baptised three babies of the Chamberlain family in the Church of St John the Baptist, Wickhamford. Triplets would have been most unusual in any case, but in this instance the babies had different parents. The baptisms were of cousins James Henry, Francis John and Joan Elizabeth Chamberlain.
Family background
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The Chamberlain family had lived in Wickhamford for a few years in the 1900s, when Francis Henry Chamberlain had lived there. His wife was variously named in the records as ‘Eliza’, ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Lizzie Maria’. They had four children baptised in Wickhamford – George Vivian in 1904, Frederick John in 1906, Frank Stanley in 1907 and Walter Clive in 1910. The family resided in the village when the first two were baptised but had moved to Bowers Hill, Badsey at the time of the other two baptisms. Francis Chamberlain was recorded in each case as a gardener, rather than a market gardener, and he worked as foreman-gardener at Wickhamford Manor, where he supervised the laying of lawns and the gardens. Where the family lived is not known, as they were in the village between censuses.
Francis Chamberlain and Eliza Clark had been married in 1888 in Wellington Heath, near Ledbury, Herefordshire and they had a total of twelve children between 1890 and 1910, born in that village, Wickhamford and Badsey.
They celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1938, at Bowers Hill, Badsey. By that time, they had twelve children, all married, 35 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
The March 1918 Baptisms
Of the three baptisms that took place on 10th March 1918, one was of Francis George Chamberlain, the son of Arthur Henry and Margaret Chamberlain. Arthur was the eldest son of Francis and Eliza and he was away in the War. He was a Private in the Worcestershire Regiment and he was captured by the Germans only eleven days after his son’s baptism. He remained in prisoner of war camps until the end of the War and did not see his son until 1919.
The second of the baptisms that took place on 10th March was that of Joan Elizabeth Chamberlain. She was an illegitimate daughter of Frances Esther Chamberlain, the fifth child of Francis and Eliza, who was about 20 years of age at that time.
The third baptism was of James Henry Chamberlain, son of Albert Francis and Mary Chamberlain. Albert was the second son of Francis and Eliza, and he had enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps, as an aircraftman, in September 1917. He was serving in France at the time of his son’s baptism and he remained in France until March 1919.
Birth dates of the Baptised children
According to notes in the Wickhamford Baptism Register, all of the three Chamberlain children had been born the previous year – James Henry in January 1917, Joan Elizabeth on 3rd July 1917 and Francis George on 30th December 1917. It may have been the case that the baptisms of the babies of the two servicemen were delayed waiting for their return home from France. The delay in the baptism of the illegitimate child is not clear. Whatever the reasons, the family finally decided to sort matters out and all three children were baptised together. There may have been pressure from Rev’d Allsebrook or, perhaps, the grandparents? Or did the mothers decide to hold the service?
James Henry’s father, Albert Francis Chamberlain, was still working at home when his son was born and he joined the Army when the baby was 6 months old. Why his son’s baptism was not undertaken whilst he was still at home is not known.
Francis George’s father, Arthur Henry Chamberlain, was called up when his wife was about 3 months pregnant.
What became of the children?
James Henry Chamberlain was in the Worcestershire Regiment in 1941 when he was killed in a train accident in Goole. He had saved three children from being hit by a goods train at a level crossing by getting them off of the line, but was himself struck by an express train travelling in the other direction. He had survived being evacuated from Dunkirk the previous year. He was buried at Goole, in the very south of Yorkshire.
Francis George Chamberlain was still living at 3 Bowers Hill at the time of the 1939 Register. He married Doris Faulkner in the Dudley area of Staffordshire in 1943 and died in Wombourne, Staffs., in mid-1997.
Joan Elizabeth Chamberlain was unmarried at the time of the 1939 Electoral Register when she was living at 2 Bowers Hill. (Her mother, Frances Esther, married John Moses Grinnell in 1920 and she went on to have two legitimate children in 1921 and 1928.) Joan married Albert Charles Palmer in Badsey in 1951 and she died in 2014 at Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire.
Tom Locke, November 2024
Acknowledgement:
Thanks are due to Darren Pardoe for his help and supplying photographs for this article.