Joseph James Austin,  Private, 13th Battalion South Wales Borderers

James Austin was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire in 1881.

In the 1871 census, his father, Joseph Francis Austin, is listed as a grocer at 46 Watson Street, Birkenhead. 

In 1875, Joseph Francis Austin marries Margaret Jane Blackburn.  Both had been born in Ackworth, Yorkshire. 

By 1881, Joseph Francis Austin is a widower, his wife having died earlier that year and is living with his brother-in-law and his sister at the same residence as ten years earlier with his newly born son, James (Joseph James) aged 5 months.

 In 1882, James Austin’s father emigrates to New Zealand leaving James behind.

Above photo: Joseph Francis Austin (1)

The 1891 census states that James Austin, aged 14, was residing with his great uncle, also called James Austin, aged 76, and his aunt, Theresa Blackburn, aged 48 at Leigh in Worcestershire. James Austin is a retired farmer.

By 1901, James Austin is living solely with his aunt, Theresa Blackburn, at Gorsty Common, Pembridge. Theresa Blackburn, is described as “living on own means”.

In the 1911 census both James and his aunt are still residing at Gorsty Common, Pembridge. At this time he is described as a “domestic gardener”.

In 1915 James Austin enlisted in the 13th Battalion, South Wales Borderers which had been formed in July 1915 at St. Asaph, Monmouthshire as a local reserve battalion for the 10th, 11th and 12th Battalions. Later that year, it moved to Rhyl and became 59th (Training Reserve) Battalion.

James Austin never served overseas. On 13th April, 1916, he died of pneumonia at Bangor Temporary Military Hospital.

Above photo: Bangor Military Hospital (2)

Given that Bangor is close to Rhyl where James Austin had been based, it is likely that he caught pneumonia in Rhyl and was then transferred to the military hospital in Bangor where he subsequently died at the age of thirty-seven.

The “UK British Army Register of Soldiers Effects” states that James Austin left the sum of £2 10s 10d (back pay) to his aunt, Teresa Blackburn.

Teresa Blackburn was refused a dependant’s war pension most likely because she was living on own means.

James Austin is buried at Broxwood Family Roman Catholic Church.

Above photo: James Austin’s headstone and grave (Lee Oxenham, CWGC)

James Austin’s father, Joseph Francis Austin, who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1882, married again, in 1888, this time to a woman named Mary Sproule. They had three children. Joseph Francis Austin worked as a storekeeper in Northland, Auckland.

Above photo: Mary Austin, Joseph Austin’s second wife (3)

Joseph Austin died intestate in Auckland in 1917, a year or so after his first born son, James, had died.

It wasn’t until 1933 that Mary Austin (Joseph Francis Austin’s second wife), not being aware of any possible inheritance from her husband, took legal advice to obtain Letters of Administration so that his estate (under £200) could be granted to her. In a sworn affidavit drawn up by an Auckland solicitor, Mary Austin stated the following -

 “That the delay in making such Letters of Administration was due to ignorance on my part as to the necessity for doing so and that it was only after being informed by the solicitors for the Blackburn estate in England that there is £134 15s 6d coming to me and my three children….that I first considered a solicitor in the matter of the said estate (her husband’s estate) and learnt of the legal requirements to be complied with and, in particular, the necessity for applying for Letters of Administration. Therefore I took the necessary step in the matter.” 

On another page of the affidavit, she states on oath -

“That the said deceased at the time of his marriage with me was a widower and that he left his surviving children by his former marriage.”

Though younger than James Austin, Mary Austin’s three children were in their early thirties when Mary Austin’s husband died. If James Austin had been alive in the year that Theresa Blackburn’s estate had been executed, it is more than likely that he would have been the sole beneficiary which, in today’s money, would have amounted to about £12,200.

Rory MacColl

Sources

1/ https://www.ancestry.co.uk/mediaui-viewer/tree/120699925/person/372385372145/media/105e4f60-0182-429c-87af-683742bfee9f

2/ https://madnessofnorthwales.com/1920-st-davids-military-hospital/

3/ https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/120699925/person/372432361634/facts