My Grandfather married the girl next door - his future wife lived at 17 Woodhave St. and he at 15 Woodhave St.

He was a soldier who fought in WW I. After the war he had difficulty in finding a job and planned to emigrate to Australia. He persuaded several of his brothers and sisters to go also since most of them could not find work in the depression which followed the war. A few weeks before he was due to leave he obtained an offer of employment and became a civil servant working at the DHSS in Benton. His brothers left for Australia and later his mother followed with some sisters. Eventually all 11 brothers and sisters left for Australia.

Lived at the end house in Cochrane Park, Benton until he retired. Then moved to Rydal Cottage, Station Road., Allendale, Northumberland, Eng. He moved out of Newcastle in the hope of improving his wife's asthma

Died of a stroke in 1968 and buried in Allendale cemetery.

What sort of person was he?

As a child I was very fond of my grandfather. He always had time for his grandchildren. The highlight for me of my visits was when he would take me out into his garage and rake out from what seemed an endless supply a brown paper bag of 'junk'. This might be anything from old gas masks, broken clocks, electrical switches to the mechanism of an old shotgun or a WWI bayonet (carefully blunted). I would take these treasures home and spend hours dismantling them (and later re-assembling and fixing them).

He always had time for his neighbours and would often go out to help them.

He had a cheerful nature and always had a thick thatch of pure white hair which he cut himself. In later life he had a number of small strokes and this affected his speech but not his enthusiasm for life or his grandchildren.

In his final moments he complained of a pain in his leg and went to sit in a chair in the kitchen. He was found dead there a few minutes later by my father.