Chris's Grandfather
Arthur's father was Henry Rickman, his mother was Mary Anne Bennet. He was born at 72 Charlotte Street, Landport on December 1st 1882
Arthur, Harry's dad was married to his first cousin Jesse Emily Robbins. They were first cousins was because their mothers were sisters. They shared a mutual grandfather in George Bennet.
Arthur was 6 years older than Jesse .
Arthur was one of five children born to Henry Rickman and Mary Anne Bennet. In 1901, aged 18, he was an apprentice Blacksmith living next door to his cousin Jesse, daughter of Mary Anne's sister Leah Kesiah Robbins nee Bennet. Jesse was one of four children. Although only 12 in 1901, before she moved away to London (aged 25), after the death at sea of her father Harry Claude Robbins, Arthur had fallen in love with Jesse.
It must have been a great blow to Arthur when Jesse met, fell in love and married Syd Minns a travelling salesman in Stoke Newington.
Arthur continued to work in the Dockyard as a Blacksmith. His identification at the Dockyard was - A Rickman, Yard Number 3287 Registered Number 271. This will be an interesting avenue to follow up in the future.
I know very little about my Grandad's working life. I know he suffered two serious injuries. One, in falling from a crane he sustained a "dry tear" in which his arm was almost severed under his armpit with no loss of blood. The other where he was holding the hot metal for a sledge hammer striker and somehow was struck in the face. He always had one eye lower than the other after that.
By the time I remember him, he was an old man. He slept most of the time in front of his fire. In the fifties it was popular to heat one's house with an Alladin paraffin fire. Being flueless these poured the products of combustion into the room. Grandad not knowing any better also compounded the problem by making extensive use of draft excluder. The resultant cocktail of moisture and carbon monoxide caused him to sleep and led inevitably to the death of many brain cells. It was not surprising that his mind failed during his 70's and by age 80 he was dead.
The good thing from Arthur's point of view was that on 15th Nov 1916 he was able to marry his first cousin and childhood sweetheart Jesse. Her brief and unfortunate marriage to Syd being all to soon over when he died of Kidney failure only 18 months after they had married.
Arthur was to suffer other tragedies in his life. His brother Harry who was also his next door neighbour and Dockyard workmate, died aged of pneumonia aged only 54 in 1939
His other brother William Ernest died two years later in January 1941. I don't know the cause of death but he was 64 years old. He was a boiler maker's labourer also in HM Dockyard.
So Grandad lost two brothers and two workmates in quick succession.
I remember him with much affection. He was gentle and kind and doted on Jesse untill the end.
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