~ Chapter Twelve ~
In His Brother's Footsteps
Stephen Charles Gisby, the second son of Charlie and Amy, was born in October 1894, two years after George and about the time when Charlie gave up his life as a fisherman to work full-time as a fruiterer and greengrocer in the shop at Market Street.
In the year of Stephen’s birth, Queen Victoria opened the Manchester Ship Canal and Docks. Her good friend, Lord Rosebery, embarked on his short-lived and ineffectual term as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister. And along the eastern borders of the distant Ottoman Empire, in an act that would be repeated at intervals for the next quarter of a century, the slaughter of their Armenian neighbours was begun by the Turks, the soon-to-be sworn enemies of Britain whom Stephen was destined to encounter in another conflict in another far-flung land.
Stephen’s schooldays, like those of his big brother, would have been brightened by the exciting stories to emerge from South Africa, where the Boer War was being fought out on the vast, sun-scorched plains of the Transvaal. The national outpouring of grief that followed the passing of Queen Victoria in January 1901 is also bound to have left an impression on Steve’s young mind. The momentous impact of the latter event in Britain and elsewhere is perhaps best illustrated by this extract from On the Death of Queen Victoria, the famous speech by Sir Wilfred Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, which he delivered to his Parliament shortly after Victoria’s funeral:
In the year of Stephen’s birth, Queen Victoria opened the Manchester Ship Canal and Docks. Her good friend, Lord Rosebery, embarked on his short-lived and ineffectual term as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister. And along the eastern borders of the distant Ottoman Empire, in an act that would be repeated at intervals for the next quarter of a century, the slaughter of their Armenian neighbours was begun by the Turks, the soon-to-be sworn enemies of Britain whom Stephen was destined to encounter in another conflict in another far-flung land.
Stephen’s schooldays, like those of his big brother, would have been brightened by the exciting stories to emerge from South Africa, where the Boer War was being fought out on the vast, sun-scorched plains of the Transvaal. The national outpouring of grief that followed the passing of Queen Victoria in January 1901 is also bound to have left an impression on Steve’s young mind. The momentous impact of the latter event in Britain and elsewhere is perhaps best illustrated by this extract from On the Death of Queen Victoria, the famous speech by Sir Wilfred Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, which he delivered to his Parliament shortly after Victoria’s funeral:
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While it is unlikely that the six year-old Steve would have been overly touched by the “universal sorrow” described by Sir Wilfred, it is certain that he would have been deeply shocked by the awful death of his mother five years later. Still suffering that loss, he was probably as resentful as George was to the association between his father and Elizabeth Holmes and to the family’s subsequent move from Market Street to Addington Street.
In 1911, at the age of seventeen and still living at Addington Street, Steve was employed as a bread baker, an occupation, like that of pastry cook, which would have been common in the kitchens of Margate’s grand hotels. We’d like to think that he worked alongside George in the same establishment, perhaps even assisting his brother and learning from him the skills required of a pâtissier.
While that may be conjecture, we do know for sure that Steve followed in his big brother’s footsteps, enlisting in The Buffs as soon as the call for volunteers in “the war to end all wars” was raised in 1914. But Steve’s War was to take a different course from George’s and was to have an entirely different outcome.
In 1911, at the age of seventeen and still living at Addington Street, Steve was employed as a bread baker, an occupation, like that of pastry cook, which would have been common in the kitchens of Margate’s grand hotels. We’d like to think that he worked alongside George in the same establishment, perhaps even assisting his brother and learning from him the skills required of a pâtissier.
While that may be conjecture, we do know for sure that Steve followed in his big brother’s footsteps, enlisting in The Buffs as soon as the call for volunteers in “the war to end all wars” was raised in 1914. But Steve’s War was to take a different course from George’s and was to have an entirely different outcome.