Part 7 Return to Shore

Part 7 Return to Shore

The next record we have of Horace is him living in Burton upon Trent working as a railway labourer. He would have helped to maintain the rail lines by which Burton transported its famous beers to all the corners of the world. His sister Isabella Hollands already lived in Burton, her husband Samuel Redfern worked on the railways and was listed as a railway stockman in 1891.

My mother is named Isabel Alice, after his daughter Alice Isabella. We always presumed that there was a Spanish connection with the name Isabella, but I have been unable to find one. Alice Isabella would have been named after Horace’s sister Isabella.

Sadly only four months after leaving the navy Horace was dead. Horace passed away in Burton upon Trent in april 1880, aged 42. He died at 47 Wellington Street, with his sister Isabella and his family by his side.  The death certificate records his death as due to pleuro-pneumonia, which he had had for six days.

47 Wellington Street, Burton on Trent

The family story of his demise was that one night he had been out drinking and had fallen over drunkenly into a puddle. He had subsequently become ill and later died. It’s Ironic that he had spent his life at sea, survived the tough naval life, battles with the Japanese, firing arrows and cannons at him, his ship running aground, outbreaks of smallpox, cholera and dysentery, but then died in a water related accident in Burton on Trent, which is about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK.