Born 22nd July 1877 at Mount Pleasant, Purlewell, Batley, Yorkshire at 11 - 15 a.m. - 2nd son of William Henry Webster (1) & Sarah Jane Webster (nee Hemingway).
The old maps of that period show very few buildings & these are now replaced by houses built in the 1890`s onwards, which are now (in 1986), multiracially occupied by Pakistanis, Indians, & West Indians; these would have been a rare sight in those days.
The next address is 81, Warwick Terrace, Batley, a small terrace house to which Mrs. Webster possibly moved on the death of her husband.
W. H. Webster attended Batley Grammar School, which is several hundred years old. "In 1612 William Lee bequeathed land and money to the school. He bequeathed 6/8d, (about 20p new currency), to be paid to the preacher". The school is still one of the best in the area. He was awarded the Commercial Prize, a book called ` A Pictorial Museum of Sport & Adventure`.
He was brilliant at mathematics & could work out problems in his head, faster than others could do it on paper, more like the speed of the present day calculators (not invented then); he could even beat the Japanese with their abacus & they were amazed ! Nowadays they are quicker with them than we are with calculators.
His hobbies included running, & he was a member of the Dewsbury Harriers & he was a keen cyclist, doing 100 to 110 miles every Friday night after work, & they worked much later then. He kept a very interesting log book with all the details of his runs. The account states - February 27th 1894, solid tyred safety bicycle £3, lamp & front tyre etc, £1 - total £4. Sold April 1896 to C. Midgley 19/6d. March 1897 "Coventry Cross" Dunlop tyred No 12 geared to 63" wheels 28" £15. nett. May 1897 he got 70 gear fitted to above, 4s/3d. He logs miles ridden who with, weather, time taken ,& stops. The total distance he rode on his solid tyred bicycle was 1,013 miles. With his younger brother Bertie they had a weeks tour of Derbyshire in July 1897 whilst staying with relatives.
In addition, with John, his elder brother, he frequently walked the 16 miles to visit the Kayes, his cousins at the Bond House, Flockton, & the 16 miles back. We too, in our generation, all enjoyed our visits there, as there was always plenty of good food. Dad, (i.e. W.H. Webster 2.) visited them on his return from Japan, this time by car, dressed in a tussore silk suit & the Kayes said "He looked very fresh faced, young & debonair".
He worked at Critchleys, Card Makers, Batley, Yorkshire, & continued with them when they created a combine - Critchley Sharpe & Tetlows, at Prospect Mills, Cleckheaton, where he became Manager. His son, John Stanley Webster worked there for 24 years, after leaving school & on revisiting the area in 1988 to take photographs, we met the son of Jack Briggs, who worked with them; he knew many of their associates.
W. H. Webster travelled extensively all over Europe at this stage, especially to Russia, where he spent more than three months each year & whilst there he visited his brother John & other relatives in Odessa. (See Family Tree). I have many postcards dated from 1902 onwards, that he sent home from many countries, (see passport particulars).
Later he had his own mill at Brighouse, Yorks. (Bird`s Royd) - pulled down now, & at Croft Mills, Almondbury, now empty. Then he had a big one at Bradley Mills, which overlooked the Huddersfield Town Soccer ground at Leeds Road; we kids thought it great to be able to watch matches free, but the players were very small from that distance.
He always had a fund of amusing stories & anecdotes to relate & kept a little book of them. One rather terrible one was that, one night when he was in a taxi in Tokyo, it ran into a man; the car mascot caught the man on the forehead, and blood shot out, so did the driver & Dad. The driver bundled the man into the taxi and drove off leaving Dad behind. He said that the man`s body would probably be found in the river next morning.
All his life, he kept his slim, tall upright figure, remaining at 10 stone, 4 lbs from his marriage to his death, whereas Mum looked at food & put on weight and always had a problem. Some of us take after one & some the other for that. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall and his passport says with grey / green eyes and dark brown hair.
In later life he was a keen bowler and Secretary to the Edgerton Bowling Club. He was a Freemason at the Huddersfield 290 Lodge. Their reputation for helping needy members did not apply here.
We all felt that Dad would live in to his 90`s as he was so fit physically & mentally, working right to the end, but after a minor car collision, he developed carcinoma of the gall bladder and died aged 77 on September 20th 1954 at the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. Also Mother required much help in her latter
There was a serious slump at this time & big firms threatened to stop his supplies of raw materials if he did not join their combine, so reluctantly he joined Card Clothing & Belting, & became a Director of the firm & visited Japan for them. The firm did not realise the difficulties of dealing with the Japanese, as they still lived in a medieval world in 1927. Even today in 1988 they rarely accept imports. His firm found a technical loophole in Dad`s agreement whilst he was in Japan, and he returned home to find he had no job, & not allowed to work in competition, i.e. he could not work at all. After a very difficult period he joined T. Walker & Son of Brighouse, as a traveller & his faithful customers still supported him loyally. He worked there until his death in 1954.
To return to his personal life. - his Father W. H. Webster (1) died in 1896, so Dad helped to support his Mother & Sister |Emma financially; when he first married, he only earned £3. per week & was still paying 15/-. i.e. a quarter of his income to her.
By 1909 there are Postcards to Nurse Whitney C/O the Barbers, the Cottage, Bakewell, Derbyshire, & on the 20th of September 1909 he married Ethel Blanche Whitney. The employees presented him with a <<<<<<<<<<< something missing here !!!!! >>>>>>
Mr Webster`s Calling Card. (English on front, Japanese on reverse). Scanned from an original, 06 September 1998.
Related Documents
1. Letters from Abroad, 1927 Letters written to his family during voyages to China and Japan.
2. More Letters from Abroad, 1927
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