Roll of Honour

Thomas Speedy was born on 17^th August 1861, Cliff Street Whitby . His parents were John (a Jet worker) and Mary (nee Coggin) Speedy. John Speedy was born in Whitby in 1832 and Mary Coggin was born in Robin Hoods Bay c1836. John Speedy and Mary Coggin married in Whitby reg dist. in 1856. John Speedy died on the 27^th December 1868 and was buried in Whitby on the 30^th December 1868. See information from the Whitby Gazette 2^nd January 1869. The Whitby Gazette 31^st March 1911 (In Memoriam) records that Mary died 31^st March 1910.

In the 1861 Census before Thomas Speedy was born, the family were living at Millers Yard, Whitby and John Speedy was a Jet Ornament Manufacturer.

By 1871 John had died and the family were living at 5 Parliament Street  Bilton with Harrogate . Mary Speedy was shown as a widow and a Jet Manufacturer. Children were William Coggin Speedy 13, Mary Hannah 11, Thomas 9 and John Coggin Speedy 5.  They were all scholars and l born in Whitby .

 In 1881 Thomas Speedy was an able seaman on the Eclipse in South Shields . In the subsequent censuses he must have been at sea as he doesn’t appear. Thomas joined the Merchant Service as an Apprentice on the 26^th February 1876. He gained his 2^nd Mates Certificate on the 3^rd March 1882.

Thomas married Eliza Walker Ayre in Cardiff in the December quarter of 1904.

The 1911 census shows Eliza Walker Speedy  living at 38 Alma Street, South Shields aged 24. There are two children living with her, Mabel, aged 5 born Cardiff , Wales and Dorothy aged 3 born  in Stockton-on-Tees . From Eliza Walker Speedy’s death registration in 1971 she died in Hartlepool and was born on 24^th May 1886. 

Thomas and Eliza’s daughter Mabel died in 1914 and their daughter Dorothy married Leslie M. J. Maunder at Christ Church , Hartlepool on the 7^th November 1936.

Thomas himself lost his life on 5^th Oct 1918 in the Bay of Biscay when SS Heathpark, on which he was 2^nd officer, was sunk by submarine  U19 whilst carrying iron ore from Bilbao to Maryport. At the time of his death, his wife Eliza was at 86 Westmoreland Street West Hartlepool.