In the 1 February 1947 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer we have the following interesting autobiographical account.
Veteran Driver’s memories WHEN BOROUGH HAD ONE MOTOR BUS. Days of the horse cabs and the town’s only motor bus, which plied between Hastings Station and the Fishmarket, are recalled by Mr George William Spice, of 16, Brook-street. One of the oldest drivers in the town, Mr Spice, who is 71, has now retired, but he has a host of memories of former times.
Born in St Leonards, he is the son of the late Mr Richard Spice, an owner of horse cabs, who had his stables in Harold-mews, and he often drove for his father.
In 1911, Mr George Spice passed his test for a licence to drive taxi-cabs and was employed by Mr Mitchell, of Castle-street. Then, for a few years he drove Skinner’s double-deck motor bus on the Station-Fishmarket route.
While employed by Messrs. Skinners, he also drove horse cabs, and later, for Mr Sheather, of Robertson-street, he drove a horse bus from Alexandra Park along the Front to the Royal Victoria Hotel, and a bus drawn by three horses harnessed abreast from the Memorial to Hollington via Cambridge-road.
Mr Spice recalls the old arch which carried the railway over Queen’s-road, and which was lit by gas lamps. It was the custom to change horses at this spot.
He next drove for Messrs. Timpson’s and later the Maidstone and District Motor Services, Ltd.
In 1928 he went to Canada, where his wife died in 1936.
Returning to England, he went into business on his own and bought a taxi cab for £5. “And a jolly good cab it was,” he told an “Observer” reporter. He continued driving until 1941, when he had an accident in the black-out and as a result of this he decided to retire.
At first glance this looks like an excellent account. Anyone researching their heritage would be thrilled to have such details for one of their relatives. However, is it a sanitised account ? Were important details left out ? Is it accurate ? His war service, for a start, was left out, and both the death of his wife and the year of the accident were a year out.
Using the British Newspaper Archive and data in priced family history sites I tried to find out more on this man. The results were quite revealing, such as details of his war service, and also a fistfight in Harold Place !
He first appeared in the 1881 census in an unnamed cottage at The Green, St Leonards. His father, a flyman (driver of a horse drawn carriage), was born in Hawkhurst. His wife Sarah and the children were all born in St Leonards. George was five years old.
In the 1891 census they were at 10 Alma Villas, Silverhill, his father now a fly proprietor, implying that he owned the carriage and did not rent it off a company. Both the mother and 15-year-old George were now said to have been born in Silverhill, and George’s occupation was ‘omnibus company’.
He married 29 July 1897, St Matthew’s, Silverhill, Charlotte Ann Usher. Both gave their address as 56 Silverlands Road although this is unlikely to mean that they were living together. It was common for the address of one to be given for the other. He was a flyman, the son of a fly proprietor, she was the daughter of a ‘chintz glazier’. George’s parents had married at the same church in 1875.
In the 1901 census, the couple were living in rooms or possible an apartment at 34 Silverlands Road. He was a coachman fly driver.
So far they were in the north half of St Leonards, but in the 1911 census they were at 9 Victoria Mews. This was presumably Royal Victoria Mews, the area between Maze Hill to its west and Mews Road to its east now occupied by modern housing, while the area further east, Harold Mews, has seen much less change — that was where he stated in his account that his father worked. The family probably lived ‘above the shop’ with horse and carriage on the ground floor. The pumps shown on the map below suggest that there was no running water, and the toilets were almost certainly somewhere in these yards.
The 1911 census has much more detail than previous censuses. The household occupied two rooms. George stated that he had been married 14 years and had one child. His occupation was ‘coachman livery stables, worker’. Their 13-year-old son was at school.
The newspaper account did not mention World War I. George joined the army on the 8 July 1916. As far as I could tell from his military file we are not told if this was voluntary, but he was almost certainly conscripted. Conscription was introduced for single men in January 1916 and from May 1916 married men under the age of 41 were conscripted with some exceptions such as being engaged in vital war work. Hard luck for him, he was 39.
George became a motor driver for the Army Service Corps’ (ASC) Motor Transport division. He gave a new address, 5 Horntye Road, Bohemia, close to his old addresses. He was first given training at Grove Park, an ASC barracks located in the former Greenwich workhouse. Deciphering the entries which often use army shorthand can be difficult: an enigmatic entry for 27 November 1916, ‘absent from night washing’, resulted in two days’ pay being deducted. Did he really get punished for not washing himself at night ?
He was posted to Salonica, Greece, from the 28 February 1917 to 16 May 1918, and then posted home. A document dated 29 May 1918 states that he was on general duties in the regimental police and was considered both reliable and intelligent. George was demobilised 28 Feb 1919 and claimed disability due to attributable malaria, 30% [presumably that degree of disability]. He was to receive 8s 3d [weekly] from 1 March 1919, to be reviewed in 26 weeks.
There is then a glorious piece of journalism which can be interpreted as you will: who told the truth ? It was reported in the 11 June 1921 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer. Here is a summary of what was reported.
George gave his statement in court. He was driving at night in his taxi past the Albert Memorial and was entering Harold Place. He said that a man was in the roadway. This was Corporal Albert Stephen Gorringe of the 5th Sussex. George slowed and blew his horn. Gorringe jumped up [presumably onto the running board] and punched Spice in the mouth. George’s wife Charlotte had been waiting nearby for a taxi, saw a crowd round her husband’s taxi and that his mouth was bleeding.
Gorringe then gave his evidence. He claimed that George deliberately tried to run him over and had then called him a name. Gorringe had demanded an apology, was told he had not been called anything, and George then struck the witness in the face. The newspaper’s account then states, almost farcically,
Witness hit back, and Spice struck him again, and then turned round and asked someone to hold his false teeth. Witness also took out his teeth, as he thought Spice was ‘coming for him.’
George’s memoirs never mentioned he had false teeth when in his forties ! The police turned up at that moment. A man named Darvell then grabbed Gorringe and when the witness struggled struck him, and a fight between those two broke out. A sergeant who was with Gorringe backed up his story.
Despite the sergeant’s testimony the magistrates believed George. Darvell was discharged, and Gorringe was offered a choice of paying a fine of 40s or 14 days in prison.
Just over a week later the 1921 census listed the family in 3 rooms at 5 Horntye Road. George was a motor driver on his own account, so he was not an employee.
The couple departed from Liverpool 3rd class on the Antonia, a Cunard liner, 6 July 1928, for Montreal. He was a motor driver, and they gave a contact address in Britain: 78 Willingdon Avenue, St Leonard. This was their son’s address. Why the move ? Presumably they were hoping for a better life but one can only speculate.
As we know his wife died in Canada. However it was not in 1936 but on the 23 June 1935, at York, Ontario, now a Toronto suburb. The death certificate notes that she had had a hernia operation on the 15 June.
George soon returned to England. On the 17 August 1935 he arrived at London on the Cunard liner Ausonia. Again he gave his address as 78 Willingdon Avenue.
On the 30 Sept 1939 there was compiled what is know as the Register, a list in street order of the civilian population for the country. George was at 53 Church Road, ‘owner taxi driver.’ 78 Willingdon Avenue was occupied by his son William George Spice’s family, who was a pier commissioner. In 1915 he had joined the Royal Sussex Regiment and served in France. That early meant that he had been a volunteer, and in the 1921 census he was a private in a barracks in Bermuda. He died in 1976 in the Hastings area.
Meanwhile, 78 Willingdon Avenue – his 1928 and 1935 address – was occupied by the family of his only child, William G. Spice, born 1898, a pier commissionaire. At the time there was a St Leonards pier as well as the Hastings pier. He had served in the Royal Sussex Regiment in France from 1915, which meant, that early, that he was a volunteer. In the 1921 census he had been a private in a barracks in Bermuda. He died in 1976 in the Hastings area.
Do you remember that George stated that he retired from driving because of an accident in the blackout in 1941 ? The Hastings Observer reported the accident, but in the 2 November 1940 issue:
Three persons were injured when a taxi was involved in a collision with a bus at the junction of Warrior-square and Eversfield-place, St Leonards, during the black-out on Monday evening.
The driver of the taxi was Mr Spice, of Church-road, St Leonards, and he was taken to the Royal East Sussex Hospital by the St John Ambulance and detained suffering from suspected fractures of the ribs.
The passengers were Mr and Mrs Barrowcliff, of 20, Burton-street, Loughborough, Leicestershire, who were also detained in hospital. Mrs Barrowcliff received facial injuries and Mr Barrowcliff severe head injuries.
The taxi was badly damaged, but little damage was done to the bus, and there were no casualties among the passengers.
The 23 November 1940 issue reported on his being before the Bench. He was charged by the magistrates with ‘Driving a motor hackney carriage in a dangerous manner and alternatively with driving it without due care and attention.’ He was fined £2 10s. He said that he was unable to pay, had been in hospital, and was still attending hospital. His only means were 6s from Public Assistance [per week, presumably, which would be less than £26 annually], and had not paid rent for a month. These are poignant details.
George died in 1951 in the Hastings area. Despite so much detail I still don’t know what sort of a man he was.