Derek Johnstone and Carole Fife have provided the following:
Joseph Hedley was born at Cowpen, Blyth, Northumberland about 1898. His parents were Joseph Hedley who was born in Northumberland (died in 1899) and Ann Heslop from Brigham in Cumberland. Joseph’s mother Ann remarried in September 1901 (after the census for that year) to Frank Hedley, possibly a relation of her late husband, whose military records use the name Francis. Frank Hedley’s wife, Elizabeth Mary Wandless, died in April 1901.
The 1901 Census shows Joseph’s mother to be a widow and his family was living in the house of Thomas Heslop, the father of Ann Hedley at Cowpen near to Blyth. In the house at this time were siblings Thomas 9, James 6, Mary Ann 5, George 2 and Jane who was 10 months old.
By 1911, Joseph was 14 years old, working in the coal mines and living with his mother Ann and stepfather Frank Hedley who also works in the coal mines as a hewer. The census at this time gets confusing and introduces the name Wandless against several names for some reason. This name could apply to Margaret who could have been a child from Frank’s first marriage. The military records for his step father Frank (Francis), who served in the Great War and was wounded, are available and confirm the details shown above.
Joseph enlisted at Bedlington and died in 1915 within a month of his older brother James.
He is remembered in Bedlington on B15.06
