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Ralph Tittley was born in Smethwick on 29th June 1872. His parents were Joseph Tittley & Sarah Maria Horsfall. The 1871 census, 15 months before Ralph was born, shows Joseph & Sarah Maria living in Oldbury Road, Smethwick and Joseph was employed as an “engine trimmer”. They already had six children and the birthplaces of both parents and the early children are interesting. Joseph senior, aged 43, was born in Bilston in the Black Country; Sarah Maria (41) was born in Spitalfields, Middlesex; John Henry (17) was born in Derby; Sarah junior (15) was born in Grantham in Lincolnshire; Ada (11) was born in Birmingham. Thereafter the family seem to have settled down with Gertrude (7), Joseph junior (4) & Alfred (1) all born in Smethwick like Ralph was to be. Ada was to play an important part in Ralph’s post Boer War life.

In 1878 when Ralph was six years old his father died and his mother remarried a John Simpson. The 1881 Census shows the family living at 110 Oldbury Road, Smethwick but they were all listed with the surname Simpson. The census return showed that John was a “hairdresser”. Only the three youngest children are listed and Joseph junior (14) was an “errand boy”, whilst Alfred & Ralph were still at school.

On 19th February 1889 in nearby Dudley, sixteen year old Ralph, attested for 12 years’ service in the army – the usual 7 on active service followed by 5 years in the army reserve. Obviously he lied about his age claiming he was 18 years and 8 months old, in other words he had added exactly two years on. The lie held and I wonder if it was challenged as Ralph at sixteen was already a couple of inches above average height for a British male at the time, he was 5ft 8inches tall and weighed a healthy 125lbs (8st 13lbs). He had a “sallow” complexion and we can presume both his eyes were blue as “blue” was repeated on the attestation form. He had dark hair and some tattoos but exactly what tattoos is hard to make out. He seems to have reported the same day for service with the Worcester Regiment at their “Depot” (presumably Norton Barracks) at Worcester. He was assigned the regimental number of 2348. At the time he attested he was employed as a “glass cutter” which probably meant he worked for Chance Brothers, one of the most philanthropic employers in the town of Smethwick. So, one can’t help wondering if he was in a hurry to escape from an overbearing stepfather who had imposed an alien name on him. He attested in his own name and gave his mother “Sarah Simpson” of 404 Oldbury Road, West Smethwick as his next of kin.

After one year and ten months of home service Ralph was posted to the “East Indies” on 2nd January 1891. Five years and ten months later he arrived back in England. Five days after that on 17th November 1896 he was discharged to the Army Reserve having completed 7 years and 8 months of active service. Whilst in the East Indies he had been awarded a Good Conduct Badge and pay rise on the second anniversary of his joining the regiment but forfeited it fifteen months later to have it restored another six months later. On 17th April 1894 he forfeited it for a second time and again it was restored six months later. So not a blemish free service record, the reason for the forfeitures was not recorded.

What Ralph did for the next eighteen months is not known but his service records show that he “re-joined the colours” on 23rd July 1898 and received his second Good Conduct Badge and pay rise on 16th February 1899. On 18th March 1900, Ralph embarked for South Africa as part of the 1st Battalion and returned one year and eleven months later on 11th February 1902. He appears on the 1st Worcesters QSA medal roll which shows he received the “Cape Colony” & “Orange Free State” clasps but he does not appear on their KSA medal roll which I find mystifying as, according to his service records, he spent at least 19 months on South African soil and almost certainly his time in South African would have run into 1902 unless he had an exceptionally long voyage home. His colleague & fellow Smethwickian whose regimental number was 16 less than Ralph’s at 2332 (because he enlisted 12 days earlier), did exactly the same service in the East Indies, went to South Africa with Ralph but arrived back home a week earlier. Besides a QSA with the same two clasps as Ralph he also received the KSA with both date clasps. So, it appears Ralph was short-changed medal wise.

What did the 1st Worcesters do in South Africa? Quoting from the ABW Forum unit information: “Throughout the war the battalion had no opportunity of gaining distinction in any big engagement, although constantly in little affairs, and enduring very great hardships. Two companies of the battalion helped form the garrison of Ladybrand when that town was surrounded by a force of 3000 Boers, with nine guns and two machine guns, on 2nd September 1900. The little garrison held out until relieved by Bruce Hamilton on the 5th, having suffered but slight loss - an instance of the value of well-constructed intrenchments. In October 1900 the battalion was put into Bethlehem as garrison, but some portion was always marching and fighting down to the end of the war.”

So what of Ralph after 18th February 1902 when he was fully discharged from the army after 13 years of service of which all but two were on active service? The 1911 census found him living in Swansea, South Wales. The postal address given on the return is “Jersey Dry Dock” and it is signed off by 44 year old Robert Cude who worked as a labourer in one of Swansea’s dry docks. The Jersey Dry Dock was the first to be constructed at Swansea but had been closed down two years before the 1911 census. Presumably the buildings associated with the now disused dry dock were used for housing dock workers. Robert Cude was Ralph’s brother-in-law having married his older sister Ada three years after Ralph became a soldier. By 1911 they had had six children of whom only three were still living. Ralph was listed as a “Boarder” and was working as a “coal trimmer”. This means he worked at the docks and was responsible for making sure, by using a shovel, that the coal was evenly distributed on barges and in the holds of ships. Interestingly, Ralph’s place of birth was given as Birmingham which suggests he was not present when the form was completed and Robert assumed he had been born in the same place as his sister.

The 1921 census shows Ralph was still living with his sister and family but they had moved a bit away from the docks to 2 Monger Street in the Hafod district of the town (Swansea did not become a city until 1969). The two eldest children had left home but a granddaughter was occupying one of the empty beds. Robert, Ralph’s brother-in-law, was still a dry dock labourer but we can identify which of the several dry docks, that were in operation at the time, he worked at - the Ocean Dry Dock. This dock closed in 1938 and used to be where there is now a Sainsbury’s car park which the author has parked in more than once. Ralph was still a coal trimmer but out of work at the time of the census and whoever filled out the form got his place of birth correct.

On 8th June 1924, 52 year old Ralph married a 50 year old spinster, Edith Alice Marquiss, at St John’s Church, Swansea. The marriage record does Edith’s father down a bit, claiming he was a “decorator” but he seems to have been a man of some standing in the town with one newspaper report referring to him as an estate agent and another as an investor in a local company.

The 1939 Register shows Ralph & Edith living at 14 Lon Mefus, Swansea and Ralph’s occupation was given as “Dock’s Coal Trimmer (Heavy Work)”. By 1950 they had moved to 57 Odo Street nearly next door to the church where they had married a quarter of a century earlier. Ralph passed away there on 25th November 1950 aged 78 and Edith on 19th January 1954, aged 80.

One could say a mundane war and life. However, sailing to the East Indies aged only 17, seeing animals in the wild people back home would only have seen in zoos if they could afford the entrance fee, marching across the veldt for more miles than most people back home could imagine was really not mundane at all. In South Wales did he entertain his nephew and nieces to tales of Africa and further afield and of Mauser bullets whizzing over his head? Did he spend his Sundays in South Wales exercising his lungs in St John’s Church or exercising his legs ascending the Brecon Beacons and exploring the beauty of the Gower peninsula? If the latter did those forced marches stand him in good stead compared to his fellow ramblers? One thing is for sure in Wales at that time on a Sunday - he would not have been able to exercise his arm in the Queen’s or King’s Head. I hope he and Edith were able to celebrate their silver-wedding anniversary with sincerity.