Richard Sibthorpe Pooley was born in May 1895 in New Brighton, Cheshire as Richard McNamara Pooley. In the 1901 Census (aged 5), his middle initial is M, but ten years later his name is recorded as Richard Sibthorpe Macnamara Pooley. After his death he is recorded as Richard Sibthorpe Pooley; the reason for this is not currently known to me.
His parents were John Sibthopre Pooley (1861-1933, born in Cheshire) and Frances Matilda McNamara (born in Ireland, possibly 1867). They may have married in Ireland in 1889 and Richard had one elder brother, Francis Henry Pooley (born 1890 in the Sunday’s Well area of Cork, Ireland).
Richard’s great-great-grandfather founded an iron foundry in Liverpool around 1790 which came to specialise in the manufacture of weighing machines of all sorts, including for domestic use, industrial and agricultural use, as well as weigh stations. (I’m indebted Known as Henry Pooley and Sons, their work survives in many places such as this one at Fairfield’s Yard in Govan (photo credit to This is My Glasgow FB page (link):
John, Richard’s father, had been involved in the company from the late 1860s and was the manager of the Albion Foundry in Liverpool. In the 1891 Census the family lived in a villa called Craigside, in the Parish of St Hilary’s, Wallasey, an affluent town outside of Liverpool.
In 1896 the company introduced some major changes, moving the main works from the restricted site in Liverpool to Kidsgrove in the West Midlands. John was now one of the five directors of the company.
How does this explain his connection to Ireland where he met his wife and where his first son was born? I wonder if the answer is that in 1896 a company called “The Revolution Cycle Company” was launched with John as a director, businessmen from Cork in Ireland as co-directors and the share issue being handled by bankers in Cork. John could have met Frances during a business trip.
The cycle company was an attempt to diversify the business by producing bicycles (velocipedes) with improved suspension – apart from making every existing bike obsolete the directors also saw sales to the army and others …
We don’t know what Lady Cyclists thought of this but the company was in liquidation five years later.
In 1901 John was put in charge of the company’s business in Glasgow. From this 1908 advert on the Grace’s Guide website (link) we know 69 McAlpine Street was an important address:
McAlpine Street is between Argyle Street and Broomielaw, close to the modern Kingston Bridge. I am not aware of any photos of the building from street level but this clip from a 1951 photo (credit: Britain from Above) shows 69 McAlpine Street in the red oval. For orientation we’re looking from above the river, the city centre is out of shot to the right. The orange oval shows Anderston Cross where Argyle Street, which enters the photo in the middle of the right side and bends up to the centre of the top of the view. Following Argyle Street out of shot to the right would bring you to Central Station.
Professor John Hannavy has a special interest in the Henry Pooley company and has been very generous in providing me with information and saving me from several embarrassing mistakes (any remaining are my fault!) He says, “The Glasgow operation was much more than just an office; it was in fact a full manufacturing facility, and many surviving weighbridges and platform weighing machines carry the legend ‘Henry Pooley & Son Ltd Liverpool and Glasgow’, or ‘London & Glasgow’. In the period 1896 to 1910 Pooleys had several addresses in Glasgow, two of which were clearly just service depots, but the Albion Works – first in South Kinning Place off the Paisley Road, and by the early 1900s in McAlpine Street – were full working foundries, with a substantial workforce.” For more information about the company see this link, but Professor Hannavy’s book will be out soon!
John’s family moved from Wallasey to Glasgow as well – the 1905 Valuation Roll gives their address as Eblana, Bearsden. ‘Eblana’ was thought at the time to be an ancient name for Dublin, and we have seen John and his wife had strong connections to Ireland. With the help of other documents (the 1940 Valuation Roll that lists villa names and street names and numbers for the first time), Eblana can be identified as 2 Thorn Drive. (Confusingly the 1905 document says it is in Glenburn Road West rather than Thorn Drive, one of several mistakes in the roll).
In 1904 Patent No.26,852 “Improvements in Weighing Machines” was granted to John Sibthorpe Pooley of Bearsden, Dumbartonshire, so he used his home address.
John’s younger son, Richard, initially attended Janefield, a private school in Bearsden (now number 7 Chapelton Avenue) – it was mainly for girls but in the 1906 School Prizes, he won a prize for drawing. He then attended Kelvinside Academy.
In the 1911 Census the family was at Eblana, with a servant, Mrs Margaret Duncan (aged 27, from Elgin):
Sadly, we know very little about Richard as an individual. On 20th January 1911, the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald mentioned Master Dick Pooley (then aged 15) contributing to a church social evening:
It’s possible the setting, at a church event, tells us something about Richard’s upbringing. In later years, his father presided at an inspection of the Bearsden Boys’ Brigade and gave a short speech (Milngavie and Bearsden Herald 27th April 1923):
John seems to have been a man of strong views!
Richard had just turned 18 when war was declared in August 1914 but he enlisted straight away in the Highland Light Infantry. Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, he arrived in France on the 19th September 1915.
These portraits of Richard and Francis date from about this time:
Currently I do not know the details of his war service (a copy of his military service file held by The National Archives has been requested). He must have served for around 18 months; it is not yet known if he was wounded during this time, but as his brother’s wounding was reported (see below) and his was not, it is unlikely.
In April 1917 he was attached to the 1st Battalion of the Border Regiment which, as part of 29th Division, was attacking near Arras as a follow-up to the victory at Vimy Ridge two weeks earlier.
On the night of 22nd-23rd April, the battalion was moving up to attack, which involved moving from west to east through a village called Monchy-le-Preux. The village was under constant shellfire – this photo was (obviously) taken in daylight but Richard’s battalion would have been advancing at night (photo credit):
The Germans shelled the village through the night. D Company of the battalion was moving through at 2am on the 23rd April when a shell exploded, killing Richard. (A transcription of the battalion’s war diary is available at this link, see 23rd April entry to 11.40am).
Given that he was killed with his men and not directly in battle it’s likely his body was buried and the grave marked with a piece of wood with his name. However, in subsequent fighting (Monchy was retaken by the Germans in 1918 and then retaken by the Allies later that year) the location was lost. Richard is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.
Note that while there are individual headstones in the foreground, the memorial for those with no known grave is the building in the background which has lists of names on the walls (over 34,000).
Richard’s elder brother, Francis
After education at Glasgow Academy (1901-4) and Allan Glen’s (1904-9), Francis was apprentice engineer in the family company, assigned to the experimental department. At the outbreak of war he joined up and was commissioned, like his brother.
He was wounded with the Machine Gun Corps:
After this he was assigned to the experimental office developing the first tanks and continued in this role beyond the end of the war. In the 1921 Census he was deputy to the Superintendent in charge of the Department of Tank Design and Experiment at the War Department, based at Charlton House in Greenwich, London (link). He married Kathleen Sibthorpe in 1922 in Dublin; she was his father’s cousin. He died in Willesden in 1958, leaving his estate of £58,000 (roughly £1.5 million in today’s rates) to Marjorie Frances Wynne (nee Sibthorpe), a doctor from Dublin and presumably a relation of his wife’s.
Richard’s father, John, left Eblana some time between 1925 and 1930 and moved to Harpenden where he died in 1933 (link). I have not been able to find anything further about Richard’s mother, Frances.