Walter Boynton Staveley was born on January 10th 1896. He was the son of John Staveley (1861-1909) and Mary Elizabeth nee Boynton (1864-1944). At the age of 13 his father died from tuberculosis and he would have been looked after by his older sister Hilda May.

In the 1911 census he is living with Hilda May at 8 Belle View Street, Scarborough. Hilda May has been married since 1909 and lives there with her husband Henry Godfrey. Walter Boynton Staveley is 15 years old and already working as a builders clerk.

Walter Boynton Staveley enlists in the army on the 22nd December 1911. He serves with the Northumberland Batteries, Royal Field Artillery which were units of the Territorial Force with its HQ at The Drill Hall, Barrack Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His rank is Corporal.

On 28th July 1914 at the start of the First World War, Walter Boynton Staveley is sent to France where he serves with the artillery units. His military papers show that he is disembodied ( released ) from duty on 12th February 1919.

Walter Boynton returned to Leeds to start a family

Walter Boynton married Ruby Millicent Rowlin when he was 21 years old. The couple married on 24th October 1917 at the Parish Church of Burley. Walter Boynton was a soldier still in active service at the time and living at 47 Cardigan Crescent in Leeds.

Founded in 1905 by Henry Price the company’s factory was built in 1923 on Lennox Road and was extended as far as Cardigan Crescent, off Kirkstall Road in the 1930s.

Ruby was the daughter of Baron Rowlin ( left ) a munitions worker ( shown here on the right) although the family held the village post office at Rudston near Bridlington.

My father, Walter Staveley, was born on the 26th January 1921, his sister Gladys was born in 1925 and Margaret in 1935. The family lived at 35 Cardigan Mount in Leeds but later moved to 15 Monk Bridge Avenue in Leeds. This is the address that I remember and the one that we visited as children.

Both Walter Boynton and Ruby Millicent remained at this address until they died, Ruby Millicent on 1st June 1970 and Walter Boynton on the 8th October 1972.

I remember both grandma and grandad Staveley well. I can recall several visits to Leeds with the family and one occasion just Dad and I both before and after Ruby Staveley died. The house in Monk Bridge Avenue was one of the old back to back terraced houses with a cobbled street and an outside toilet. Coal fires were still used to heat the properties and you could smell the smoke in the street.

Even in the 1970’s this house would have looked very much as it had done when it was built. Although the house now had electric, you could still see the old gas lighting fitments. The house still had its outside loo. A bad pan in the room was needed at night to save having to get up and walk down the path to the toilet. As a small child I hated that outside loo, especially in the winter.

Walter Boynton was not interested in mod cons and he had been used to this lifestyle all his life so there was no need to change. He would have been brought up in an environment where children were expected tp speak when spoken to by adults and where the dinner would be on the table when he arrived home from work. He still used a cut throat razor for a shave in the morning.

When visiting Leeds I can recall that grandad would always give me some pocket money and send me off to the corner shop to buy myself some sherbert and sweets.

Walter Boynton Staveley was keen on football and after leaving army service he went to work at William Thompson & Sons Builders as a clerk. He remained a clerk until he retired.

Take a look at the website Leodis – A photographic archive with over 62,000 images of Leeds, old and new, managed by the Local and Family History team at Leeds Libraries.

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