Biographies of Walter and Isabella Ross (nee Almond)

WALTER MALCOM ROSS (A.K.A. GOODMAN) AND ISABELLA (NEE ALMOND)

Walter Malcolm Ross was born at 84 Ravenspurn Street, Grimsby, on the 18^th of November, 1891.  He was the youngest child and only surviving son of Henry Malcolm Montague Ross and his wife Hannah Rebecca (“Annie”) Ross (nee Rack).  Henry, known as “Harry,” was a Scot and had been born at Glasgow.  He sailed as a mate on Grimsby fishing smacks.   Annie came from a long-established Lincolnshire family.  Henry and Annie’s marriage broke up and Annie took her children to Birmingham, where her brother had settled.  Henry remained at Grimsby, also sailing as an Able Seaman aboard tramp steamers.  He died in hospital of a head injury, apparently sustained at sea, in 1900.

Walter Malcolm Ross grew up in Aston, Birmingham, where he lived with his mother, step-father (William Goodman) and his younger half-brothers, William and James.  On leaving school, he took work as a French Polisher.  It seems, however, that Walter, a lad of good character, wished to see a little more of the world, so – under the name of Goodman – he enlisted in the British Army at Birmingham on June 23^rd, 1910.  He was then living at 125 Park Lane, Aston.

Walter expressed a preference for the Durham Light Infantry.  Why this was remains a mystery, especially in view of the Cardwell reforms of 1881 that introduced county regiments.  Initially, Walter was posted to the 2^nd Battalion DLI stationed at Fermoy in Ireland and thence to the depot at Colchester (Hyderabad Barracks).  Upon transfer to the 1^st Btn he sailed from Southampton via troopship, the steamer “Hardinge,” for India on October 29^th, 1912, arriving at Karachi on the 19^th of November.

Private “Goodman” was stationed on the North West Frontier (NWF), guarding the Khyber Pass against invasion from Russia or neighbouring Afghanistan and also effecting the provision of internal security in a notoriously volatile area.  His service on the NWF took him to Nowshera, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Kuldana, patrolling the border country.  India, with its snake-charmers and fakirs must have seemed a very exotic place indeed to any working-class young Briton. 

Walter became a junior NCO.  His service record shows that he accepted temporary promotions but declined them on a permanent basis, meaning that he wasn’t comfortable with the extra responsibility.  He saw active service during the Third Afghan War that lasted through May and June 1919.  April of that year saw the infamous “Amritsar Massacre” and the newly incumbent Amir of Afghanistan took advantage of the prevailing Anglophobia.  His forces crossed the border into the Punjab, occupying a small village.  The British responded with a rapid deployment facilitated by motor vehicles and good field intelligence, commencing full hostilities against the Afghans.

Most of the action comprised small-scale but quite vicious engagements and the British quickly secured a military victory.  Walter Malcolm Goodman (Ross) saw active service at Landi Kotal.  British and Indian battle casualties comprised 236 killed and 615 wounded.  An outbreak of cholera killed a further 566.  Walter’s Indian service came to end after this conflict.  His character was described as “exemplary.”  Demobilisation saw him sail home abord the P & O steamer “Khyber,” embarking at Bombay.  He subsequently saw out the rest of his army career in the reserve, stationed at Newcastle and Ponteland.  He received the following campaign medals: India General Service Medal with “Afghanistan” bar; 1914-15 Star; 1914-18 war Medal; 1914-18 Victory Medal.

On leaving the army in June 1921 Walter Malcolm Ross (aka Goodman) arrived in West Hartlepool, presumably as a result of the work opportunities there.  Working as a shipyard labourer, he took lodgings at 50 Elwick Road (actually 51a, above a grocer’s shop), 42 Eden Street and then at 25 Park Street.  The latter was the home of one Pickering Calvert, a baker.  Calvert was married to Minnie, nee Almond, who had an unmarried younger sister, Isabella.

Daughter of Joseph Almond and Mary Jane (nee Sidney), Isabella Almond lived at 32 Richard Street.  She’d been born at Sunderland on October 15^th, 1892 and moved to West Hartlepool with her parents and siblings in the mid-1890s.   A trained seamstress, Isabella first worked as a nursery maid at Tunstall Grange, West Hartlepool.  This was the home of Sir Stephen Wilson Furness, a barrister and Liberal MP for the Hartlepools.  During the Great War Isabella worked at the Hartlepools National Shell Factory, based at the Central Marine Engine Works of Wm. Gray’s shipyard.  This employed 85 men and 365 women on the production of 8-inch High Explosive Shells.  Isabella’s supervisor was the redoubtable Miss Winnie Sivewright, daughter of a local naval architect.  Isabella’s photograph appears on Page 37 of George Colley’s “A Hartlepool Portrait” (1995), along with Miss Sivewright and selected members of the shell factory workforce.

Walter Malcolm Ross (aka Goodman) married Isabella Almond on the 12^th November 1921 at West Hartlepool Register Office.  Both the Ross and Goodman surnames attest on his marriage certificate.  Shortly after his marriage Walter took his new bride to Grimsby, where the Goodmans were then living.  He then learnt that his mother Annie, of 130 Burgess Street, Grimsby, had passed away.  Walter Malcolm and Isabella Ross lived in a “two-up, two-down” at 21 Penzance Street, West Hartlepool, and had three children: Walter Edmund (born 27 August 1922), Kenneth Charles (born 13 May 1924) and Catherine Isabel (born 29 December 1929).

Sadly, Walter became very ill, having contracted tuberculosis during his army service in India.  He took a job as commissionaire at the Northern Picture House but his physical condition declined, resulting in him becoming a permanent invalid.  Isabella turned increasingly towards religion for emotional support.  She attended meetings of the Seventh Day Adventists, being introduced by a friend, Mrs McMurdo of Studley Road, and was also a member of the Panacea Society, formed in memory of the so-called “prophetess,” Joanna Southcott.

 In 1937 the Ross family were re-housed, moving to the modern, semi-detached 31 Wordsworth Avenue on the Rift House Estate.  After a short time at a sanatorium Walter Malcolm Ross died at home of TB on December 28^th, 1939 – the eve of his daughter’s 10^th birthday and the 39^th anniversary of his own father’s passing.  The year of 1939 was a personally heartbreaking one for his widow.  She lost not only her husband, but also both of her parents.  Isabella’s two sons saw active service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and the Hartlepools became a target for the Luftwaffe.

By the mid-1960s Isabella was in poor health and in the spring of 1966 she moved from her council-house in Wordsworth Avenue to Hazelhurst, an old-folks’ home in Wooler Road.  She still made regular visits to see her daughter, Cathie Wilson (nee Ross) at the Wilsons’ home in Fenton Road but developed Alzheimer’s Disease, subsequently transferring to a specialised hostel at Throston Grange.  She passed away at Hartlepool General Hospital on the 24^th of November, 1972 and was laid to rest with her husband.  Remaining possessions included her handbag.  It contained nothing but her husband’s medals, a photograph of her youngest son, Kenneth, and a photo of her grandson, Stuart James Wilson.

Source: “The Ross Family and Others” by Stuart James Wilson.          

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