Upton's site has this snippet from the London Illustrated...
Quote
From The Illustrated London News - Saturday, April 3, 1847 Opening of the Birkenhead Docks
Monday will be an eventful day for the fast rising town of Birkenhead, on the shore of the Mersey, immediately opposite Liverpool. It is then proposed to open, with great ceremony, the Birkenhead Commissioners' Docks and the Dock Company's Warehouses, an extension line of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway to the Docks and the Park.
In 1847 the Birkenhead Dock Warehousing Company opened their first warehouses, capable of storing 80,000 tons of goods. Each block is detached, and the whole premises are surrounded by a wall 12 feet high. A railway branch, called the Dock Extension Railway, is carried round the property. The company also built blocks of houses for their workmen, known as the Dock Cottages. This property is now in the hands of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.
Thanks, bert; it's looking more & more likely that it refers to the dock branch. Going back to the original plaque, Mr.C.W.Hayes is the only man not associated with a station. My guess would be that he was a linesman or a signalman on the dock branch.
I didn't work at Mollington St. but spent many unofficial happy hours there. Saturday afternoons were good, riding with the shed coalman,which involved turning, coaling & watering the locos, together with with a bit of driving.
Chris, I think its G W Hayes and on putting that name through the Ancestry mangle i came up with this chap as a possible. His records are well and truly chewed up, i think he probably died of trench fever having been admitted to hospital and his wife and baby receiving a pension. They lived at 84 Hinderton Rd, Birkenhead, served with the 1st Batt Cheshire's, not sure about the parish he was born, where or what it is, he was a railway porter.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
Hi, Bob; there seems to be a lot of evidence that the "extension" refers to the dock branch. Would you agree? I used to spend time at Mollington St. around 1950. Just cleaning; never got to drive.
Thanks for that, bert. I'd read it as C.W. but I'm sure you're right & have got him. Not listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site. I got 5 C.W. Hayes's but none of them seemed to be a match.
Poodle, if you mean a non combatant, i think he did see action and what little of his records were there he developed Trench Fever, i think 1916, ended up in hospital in Scotland, guessing he died from same, due to his wife and one child receiving a pension.
mmm if it is G W Hayes,and bert thinks he died,he may be a non com!
There's a group on another forum,who research non coms,and get them recognised as they rightly deserve.
Any reason to suppose he might be a non com?
As a matter of interest, my father in law was a non com in the 1914-18 war. He served with the Second London Field Ambulance. He survived & live to age 92.
No sorry i meant a non commemerarative,no war grave/memorial.
Indeed they should be rightly recognised and added to memorials. The list of non combatants is endless, Chaplin's, Doctors, Ambulance men, nurses, miners, etc. Even if they never dished it out, they certainly took it.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.