Bowyer Study Group Newsletter #11

CRICKET; They tell me that there is a stone on Mitcham Green to commemorate "the birthplace of the noble game of cricket". Under dispute, I am sure, but my interest is that among the names mentioned on it is one John Bowyer. John, son of John (the vicar is short on info!) was baptised in the Parish Church during 1790, and grew up to live all his life in that Parish of Mitcham, Surrey. He played for the local cricket team, joining Surrey C.C. in 1810, together with another Mitcham player James Sherman. John was a left handed batsman; by trade a print cutter. The Mitcham Club was at its strongest about this time, a hard-to-beat side. John played in his first "The B's" team against an England side in 1816, when all his team-mates names began with the letter B. In their last match a similar side had been beaten by six wickets, the final innings total score of six constructed of one boundary and two singles. In form batsmen were needed for the 1816 game, and where better to look than on Mitcham Green? They lost by nine wickets this time. An opening bat, John was not a prolific scorer away from the Green, where he continued to play until about 1838, then as umpire to the game for a further thirty years.

My thanks to Jeff. Hancock for the Surrey C.C. info; and you may like to know that John Bowyer himself dictates a chapter in the book 'Old Cricket Fields' by Frederick Gale, entitled "John Bowyer, of Mitcham, smokes a pipe with me ". He tells how the game should be played.

WHEN A DUCK WAS NEARLY A DECK.
Joy Simpson has found the story that Lord Nelson, when watching the cricket match on Mitcham Green before travelling to Portsmouth, his ship 'Victory' and the Battle of Trafalgar (October 1805), gave John Bowyer (aged fifteen) a shilling: "To drink confusion to the French". It worked anyway, and I consider John a lucky lad not to be scrubbing decks having been pressed gang'd into the Navy! My Trafalgar book (by Oliver Warner) says that Nelson left London 'in the late evening of the 13th September ...' From "300 years of Mitcham Cricket" by Tom Higgs.

NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS.
Chichester Area: Picture of the planting of a foot high walnut tree to replace one of 180 years old (1813) that was recently blown down in front of the Berkeley Arms, Bosham, Sussex. The Chairman of the Gale & Co. Brewery Group, Group Captain George Bowyer and his wife Elissa are shown supporting the ceremony. Dudley Area: Poem by Jack Judge, better known for his words to the war time "anthem" "It's a long way to Tipperary". It starts with the line: "Twas one night in the month of March in 1925," being a poetic tribute to the officials of the Lower Gornal Athletic Football Club, which had its base in the Old Bull's Head from the 1890s. It appears that for the 'sing-song' on that evening "Dan Field supplied the mutton and by jingo it was grand, Joe Bowyer sent some splendid beef, the finest in the land which together with "best" vegetables from Arthur Burrows, the landlord’s wife made a meal of it all. I wonder, did they win a cup; or did they just win a match?
Slough and Windsor Area: Mrs. Guest of Canada sends me newspaper cuttings of "Slough's last tribute to Charter Mayor" which tells of the impressive scenes at the funeral of Edward Thomas Bowyer, who died in September 1944. The seating in the Parish Church was full to overflowing on that day, well over one thousand people attending. The reporter's job to collect most of the names must have been daunting, and his printed report is a mine of info. for anyone with relations in this district at this time. Mrs. Guest has extracted a list of the names and some of the organisations that they represented and has kindly sent me a copy.
WORLDWIDE .... A short newspaper cutting tells me that Leslie Charteris, creator of "The Saint", died in a Windsor Hospital, aged 85. He was born in Singapore in 1907, his father a very aristocratic Chinese surgeon with links back to the Shang emperors, his mother a "middle-class" Englishwoman. So he was half a Bowyer. He started writing his novels in 1928 after tackling several exciting jobs, such as pearl diver, gold prospector and ... bus driver. His real name was Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin. Wonder why he chose the pen-name of Charteris and not Bowyer?
STOKE AREA, Staffordshire..... "Does he belong to anybody?" asks Mrs. Doreen Dale. She sends me a picture of a football team. There at the end of the back row stands Frank Bowyer, born in Chesterton in April 1922, joining Stoke City F.C. in 1939. He played 439 games for the side, touring Canada during the summer of 1950.
AUSTRALIA ......... The South Australian Genealogist for April 1988 announces the death of their first Hon. Member Mary Mildred Bowyer Hodge, born 30/Dec/1911. She was the only child of Frank and Laura Hodge (nee Mildred), both born in 1867, and a grand daughter of Hiram Telemachus Hodge, who at 13 was there when the proclamation of the new colony of South Australia was read out under a gum tree. (Obituary written by Mandy Macky and Kingsley Ireland).

PITFALLS AND WRITER'S CRAMP.
I recently read some rather old copies (of 1985ish) of the Journal of One Name Studies, one of which had an editorial about the high cost of joining the various Federations. I shudder to think what the fees are to-day, and do not really want to know. What interested me more though was an article in another by Eunice Wilson which set out most of my fears about running a One-Name Thingie (Society, Study Group; call it what you will.) Mrs Wilson mentioned that twenty active members willing to help with costs was not enough support, and in any case it soon reduced to ten, mainly because the name concerned was not in the immediate branches of the member's family tree, and so the said newsletters would become too egotistical. Like me, Mrs Wilson was collecting facts about her chosen name 'from anywhere and everywhere, we are all walking indexes'. This in the hope that one day they will all match and meld together, to produce one complete family tree. I have heard of a One-name Family Society secretary who had drawn his member's family trees on the vast wall of his living room. Anyone with that chosen name, calling at his house, could be introduced with a stab of the finger to descendants and, if extra lucky, to long lost cousins. Living childless rich uncles are harder to find. Recently at a Family History Society member's evening I pinned up a large sprawling family tree sent to me by Brent Bowyer in Canada, measuring a good yard and a half wide and of unyielding proportions. He had deftly pasted together three large personal trees, the branches intertwining neatly. Some of my friends there spent some wasted time looking for my name on it, but the three families come from East Anglia, several counties away from 'my lot' in North Wiltshire. It is a start though. Brent is currently writing a book about the Bowyers from East Anglia, and would welcome any unusual information that you may find and think of interest to him. Brent Bowyer, P.O. Box 1438, Wingham, Ont., Canada, NOG 2WO.

RED CARPET TREATMENT: The crowds turned out for Janet May's visit to the new Reading Record Offices, but she was glad to see no red carpet up to its doorway for her, or Her Majesty, who was busy elsewhere in the town on that day.

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