| My granddad was the baby of his family. The youngest of the four children that survived infancy, he was somewhat spoiled by his mother and two
elder sisters. Although born in Ramsbottom he grew up in Preston and had a fairly normal Victorian home life. He attended St. Ignatius' Roman Catholic School, was a member of the Church Boy's Brigade, and enjoyed football (soccer) and other sports. After leaving school he worked at several jobs in the town but was restless and dreamed of bigger things. He joined the British Army c. 1909/1910 but his military career was short-lived. |
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He was a witness at his brother George Leo's wedding and they seem to have had a close relationship, although it is clear that he did not get along with George's wife Ellen. It was his older brother, whom the family always called Leo, who motivated my granddad to leave England. Sometime between September and December 1907, Leo, a hard working man who would go wherever the work was, emigrated to Tacoma, Washington. His intention was to find work and a place to live before sending for his wife Ellen and their infant son Cyril. Leo's friend Fred Griffiths had emigrated to Tacoma sometime earlier and may have encouraged Leo to do the same. Leo's daughter Elsie told me that in those days they thought the streets of America were "paved with gold". Leo found things to be very different. Unable to find work as a Brass Moulder, he took a lower paid job as a janitor and elevator operator. It took more than two years for him to save the money to send for his young family, and even then he could only afford to pay for their travel in steerage. Ellen's mother, Jane Blackburn, did not like the idea of her daughter and young grandson travelling in steerage, and gave Ellen the extra funds to travel 2nd class. The steamship journey from Liverpool to Quebec, Canada took two weeks, followed by another two week trip across Canada by train to Vancouver. Soon after arriving in Tacoma, Ellen was pregnant and their only daughter, Helen "Elsie" Swarbrick, was born on the 8th of August 1911. Leo and Ellen had already lost their first son Horace back in England, and a few months before Elsie was born their second son Cyril died. |