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Isaac Tynan was born in Smethwick on Christmas Eve 1872.

His mother, Mary Ann Tynan, was of Roman Catholic Irish descent and never married. So not an auspicious start for young Isaac.

The 3rd April 1881 Census found 29 year old Mary & 8 year old Isaac as inmates of the Kings Norton/Selly Oak Workhouse along with Isaac’s two younger sisters Selina (4) & Jessie (2).

On 29th August 1881 Isaac was admitted to Crocketts Lane School in Smethwick and his home address was given as Crocketts Lane. It also showed his mother had obtained employment in the local screw works. Sadly, this escape from the Workhouse was not permanent as Isaac left the school on 4th November 1881 and the school register recorded his future schooling was to be the responsibility of a Workhouse.

On Saturday 9th February 1889 the Birmingham Daily Post reported that 17 year old Isaac, along with three other similarly aged inmates of the Kings Norton/Selly Oak Workhouse, had appeared the previous day before the Balsall Heath (Birmingham) Police Court Magistrates. They “were charged with neglecting to perform their allotted task. The Master of the Workhouse said the prisoners were required to pick 4lb of oakum each every day, but since Monday they had daily refused to pick more than half that quantity. Tynan and Newman were the worst of the offenders. When spoken to they were defiant and insolent. They had run away from service several times. Tynan and Newman were sent to gaol for seven days with hard labour, and the others were discharged with a caution.”

Two months later, on 10th April 1889, Isaac attested in Oldbury (neighbouring Borough to Smethwick). He was assigned to the Royal Artillery as Driver 72586. A Driver being a driver of horses.

So how did Isaac adjust to the discipline of the Army? – very well it would seem as after two years of service he received his first Good Conduct pay award and a year later his second. After seven years of active service, all at “home”, he was transferred to the Army Reserve on 10th April 1896 and his conduct was given as “very good”.

We need to pause and consider his mother and siblings who were all given as next of kin when he attested. Firstly, Isaac now had a brother William who was born in 1882. Isaac gave their address as Lodge Road, Harborne which appears to have been a fictitious address. This may have been a desire to cover up that they were still in the Kings Norton/Selly Oak Workhouse because that is where Selina, Jessie and William were inmates at the time of the 1891 census. I suspect his mother had passed away by 1891. The deaths of Selina & Jessie were registered in 1896 when they would have been 19 and 17 years old respectively. What happened to William is a mystery.

It would appear that Isaac did not adjust well to the freedom of civilian life. On 3rd September 1896, less than 5 months after he had been discharged to the Army Reserve, he attested again in Birmingham in the name of Henry Murray and was assigned as Private 4083 to a cavalry regiment, the 11th Hussars. This deception lasted for nearly six months when on 11th March 1897, according to his Henry Murray service record, he confessed. He was held in confinement until 29th March 1897 when it was decided that he should be “relegated” to the Army Reserve and this duly happened the next day.

Moving on nearly two years, his Isaac Tynan service record tells us he re-joined the Royal Field Artillery (as it had become known) “colours” at their depot on 3rd March 1899 under a Special Army Order dated 14th May 1898.

His service record shows his “home” service ended on 12th November 1899 and his South African service started on 13th November 1899. Consulting the ABWF Shipping Records the only fit I can come up with is Transport Ship No.59 SS Canning leaving Tilbury at 3pm on 12th November 1899 with the RFA 65th (Howitzer) Battery on board, consisting of 8 Officers, 250 Men, 219 Horses, 6 Guns and 14 Wagons. If he did serve in South Africa with the 65th Battery they seem to have acquitted themselves well being involved in the Battle of Magersfontein and “did great work” at Paarderberg.

Isaac sailed back to England during February 1901 and reached there on 2nd March 1901. He spent another 14 months on “home” service until his recorded Army service ended on 1st May 1902. Unfortunately, a page seems to be missing from his “Statement of Services” record and no details about his conduct in S Africa and back home or his discharge are available but something seems to have gone horribly wrong as shown by his Military History sheet below. This indicates he forfeited his army pension and any medals due regarding his Boer War service. The latter is confirmed by his lack of appearance, as far as I can ascertain, on the RFA Medal Rolls.



Well, the Army might not have thought much of Isaac but Isaac was not done with the Army. On 1st October 1902 he attested for a third time. This time, as a part-time soldier to join the Militia for 4 years and he was assigned as Private 7032 to the 3rd Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment. He admitted to his previous 13 years of service in the RFA and the form recorded he was “discharged time expired”. The form also has “Re-enlistment” hand-written in red at the top. At the time he was living in Spon Lane on the West Bromwich/Smethwick border and working as a Labourer at nearby Chance’s Glassworks in Smethwick. The Statement of Services sheet adds one further comment of interest – “No training 1905” – perhaps Isaac did finally tire of being a soldier.

His death, aged 36, was registered in early 1909 in the nearby Bromsgrove Registration District. The location of his death suggests he may have found employment at the newly opened (1905) Austin Car Works at Longbridge.

Out of interest I have collated below his personal details given at the three attestations. The “error” regarding the age given in 1889 is understandable, the others are mysterious.

Attestation date True age Age given Height Weight Eyes Hair Tattoos Religion
10/04/1889 16y 4m 18y 0m 5ft 4¼in 8st 7lbs Brown Brown None CofE
03/09/1896 23y 9m 19y 10m 5ft 5¾in 9st 7lbs Brown Brown Cross cannons CofE
01/10/1902 29y 10m 31y 0m 5ft 5⅞in 9st 9lbs Hazel Black Cross cannons CofE

Hopefully you can make some sense of the above!

Footnotes:

One of the Workhouse Guardians was the Rev George Astbury who was also the Vicar of Smethwick’s oldest church. One of his sons volunteered at the start of the Boer War and served in the Worcestershire Company of the Imperial Yeomanry. He contracted Typhoid Fever and in November 1901 was hospitalised in Mafeking. He was subsequently invalided home and discharged medically unfit in April 1902. After the war he became a Director of Barclay’s Bank and ended his days in 1959 living in luxury in Bournemouth. Bit of a contrast to Isaac.

Isaac’s service in the RFA would have brought him into daily contact with horses and his love of them may have been a driving force in his frustrated attempt to join a cavalry regiment. It is a shame he apparently never received a medal – if so, he could have pinned it on his chest and marched up to the Workhouse entrance and given the Master a thing or two to think about. The Kings Norton/Selly Oak Workhouse underwent considerable expansion about the time of Boer War allowing it to hold 1,000 inmates! An infirmary was added and gradually the infirmary side took over and at the time of the creation of the NHS in 1948 the buildings and facilities all became part of Selly Oak Hospital. Selly Oak Hospital closed in 2011 and the site is now occupied by modern housing although I believe some of the attached alms-houses have survived.