George Harborow INKSON, b: 29 Sep 1873 Burnham, Norfolk
His Story
George Harborow was the eleventh child of Thomas Harborow b. 16 Dec 1834 and Martha [eighth to survive to adulthood]. His birth was registered in Docking district in Q4 1873. His exact date of birth is known from family records.
He was, of course, living at home in Burnham Sutton at the time of the 1881 census, aged 7, but he then went to sea aged 16 so did not always appear in the census after that.
George Harborow went to sea in 1889, working for what was then the Castle Line. His first ship was the Norham Castle and he sailed as Saloon Boy. The family still have the full set of his discharge papers so we are able to set out that service in full. The full story is set out in a separate part of the domain - The Union Castle Connection [the Castle Line having merged with the Union Line].
He was initially on the London to Capetown run but in 1903 switched to the Southampton - South Africa ['Cape'] run in the purser's department from the beginning, working his way up to 2nd Steward in the first few years. It was in that capacity that he served on Royal Mail Ship Saxon from May 1904 to Feb 1908. Bridget Mary Keating, an Irish girl from Kingstown, more correctly Dún Laoghaire, had been to work as a Nanny in South Africa [for the Cullinan family of diamond fame]. She must have come home in 1907 or 1908 on RMS Saxon because George Harborow first courted her on board and married her in October 1908. [His pattern of sailing changed when he left the Cape mail run in February 1908 and joined a Mediterranean cruise until that July. He did not return to sea until February 1909, again on the Cape mail run.]
George Harborow was at home on Apr 2, the night of the 1911 census, living at 48 Avenue Rd, Lewisham, London with Bridget Mary and their daughter. He is said to be a 38 year old Chief Steward for Union Castle on the S/S Corf. The mention of S/S Corf is strange : there was a Corfe Castle but GHI's log book shows that he had just come off the Guelph and was about to sail on the Gascon.
In the census record Bridget Mary declared that they had been married 3 years and that they had had 1 child still living. Although that was correct she would have known that that was soon to change as she was pregnant again : their oldest son was born in September that year.
During the Great War George Harborow was Chief Steward on the Dunluce Castle, initially trooping but then a hospital ship. In his war diary, he records that 48,945 patients were carried between Aug 1915 and Dec 1918.
By the time of the 1921 census he was certainly at sea as the Chief Steward on RMS Kinfauns Castle. By that stage he and Bridget Mary had had 4 children, a girl and three boys. Bridget Mary with three of the children were boarding with Thomas and Alice Walters Plumb née Inkson at 69 Catford Hill, London SE6. Alice Walters was George Harborow's sister, 10 year's his senior. The family was preparing to move down to Southampton to their 'forever' home at 320 Bitterne Road. The house was just below the Lances Hill Toll Gate. The mystery is that we don't know the whereabouts of John Cherry, the family's third child. He would have been 4 year's old and may have been in Dún Laoghaire staying with relatives.
As it happened, the move coincided with the opening of St. Mary's College, a catholic school run by a French Teaching Order and the 11th birthday of the oldest of George Harborow and Bridget Mary. He was one of the first pupils registered at the school, a relationship that lasted for another 50 years in one form or another.
George Harborow was Chief Steward on the Walmer Castle when he was invalided ashore in January 1928 after 40 years service. He spent 103 days in the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich before returning to 320 Bitterne Road. The hospital Admissions ans Discharges book doesn't give and reason for admission and the 'How Disposed of' column (!!) is illegible. He eventually died on 4 Dec 1929, at the age of 56, never seeing any of his grandchildren.
He died relatively young and Bridget Mary was 10 years younger than him : in the end she carried on for another 35 years. During those years she maintained a close relationship with St Mary's, the brothers popping in for tea whenever they felt like it.
At the time of the 1939 register she was living at 320 Bitterne Road with most of her family : her recently married daughter and son in law, two of her three sons, a more distant relative, a boarder and 'Mary', who seems to have been the family factotum. Only the second son was missing and that may well be because he was at sea - he certainly followed his father to sea on Union Castle, at least until WWII took over. The other two sons were also Union Castle but shore staff, not sea-going.
Bridget Mary eventually died 16 Apr 1964 in Southampton General Hospital. She was buried with George Harborow in Butts Road cemetery, Southampton.