Sculpher /Sculfor / Sculfer:
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Research into the family history (undertaken by others) has traced
the family back to 1530 - when parish records first started to be kept.
During that time many different variations of the Sculpher name have
been found, including Sculford, Sculforde, Sculforthe, Scullfer,
Sculthrop, Sculthrope, Skilpher and Skulfer! |
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William Thomas Sculpher was my grandfather on my mothers side. He
was born on the 2nd November 1888 and had a twin sister called Mary Ann
Sculpher. William enlisted in the Royal Navy on the 23rd November
1915, gave his place of birth as Rotherhithe, London and his occupation
as Barge Builders Labourer. He is recorded as being 5ft 7 inches tall
with a 39 inch chest, brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. As
far as I am aware no photographs exist in our family of either William Thomas Sculpher
or his wife, my grandmother Ellen. Ellen died on the 23rd August 1941 of
pulmonary tuberculosis.
William was a Chatham rating (unlike the son-in-law he never met, Ernest
HW Barnes, who was a Portsmouth rating) and record J46960 shows
the ships he served in as follows;-
Pembroke I List 15 2 (?) No 5906 Ordinary Seaman from 23rd November 1915
to 28th December 1915
Dwarf List 5 2 (?) No 48 Ordinary Seaman from 29th December 1915 to 31st
December 1916
Pembroke I List 15 (2) No 11634 Ordinary Seaman from 1st January 1917 to
25th April 1917
Actaeon (Cygnet) List 28 2 / 12 No 176 Ordinary Seaman from 26th April
to 30th June 1918
as above List 12/29 No 27 3 Able Bodied Seaman from 1st July 1918 to
14th March 1919 (Demob)
HMS
Pembroke was the name given to the shore barracks at Chatham. HMS
Pembroke was commissioned in 1883, moved ashore in 1903 and paid off in
1983. HMS Dwarf was one of four Bramble class gunboats designed to
protect the far-flung outposts of Great Britain's colonial empire. HMS
Dwarf was launched in 1898 and in 1914 played a prominent role in the
Allied Naval Campaign against German West Africa. Dwarf was paid off in
1925 and scrapped in 1926. HMS Cygnet was laid down in 1896 and
commissioned at Chatham in 1900. Having two funnels and a 30 knot top
speed she was in 1913 designated as a 'D' Class Destroyer. In August
1914 she was based at Sheerness tendered to HMS Actaeon, the gunnery
school. She remained in this assignment for the duration of the 1st
World War. In 1919 she was paid off and sold to Thomas W Ward of
Sheffield on the 29th April 1920. She was broken up at Rainham, Kent on
the Thames Estuary. HMS Actaeon was paid off in 1922. HMS Actaeon was
originally called HMS Vernon, which was a 50 gun fourth rate launched in
1832 and was the tender ship to HMS Excellent. In 1886 HMS Vernon was
replaced by HMS Donegal; Donegal was renamed Vernon and HMS Vernon was
renamed as HMS Actaeon. However, in 1904, Actaeon was renamed Vernon IV
and HMS Ariadne, part of HMS Vernon since 1876 was renamed as Actaeon.
The Royal Navy record for William Thomas Sculpher, from the Public
Record Office ADM/188/740 (click on image for a larger picture). He
would have received the 14/15 Star, the War Medal and the Victory medal.
It is not obvious from the record as to his service number, it may have
been 98621. He was awarded a Badge on the 22nd November 1918, no other
information is shown, although it may have been his promotion to Able
Bodied Seaman.
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William Thomas Sculpher was found drowned in the Grand Surrey Canal
at the Old Kent Road Bridge on the 3rd September 1941. He was 52 years
old. The coroner, W H Whitehouse recorded his death as an open verdict. |
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Mary Ann Sculpher married James Roach in 1915 and had a son
William G Roach on the 22nd February 1920 (March quarter Hackney, volume
1b, page 945). William married Catherine Owen in 1945 and he died in 1976.
They had two children, Michael William (born 1946) and James (born
1964). I believe James and Mary Ann another two children, Ethel M
Roach born in the June quarter of 1921 (Hackney, volume 1b, page 685)
and Joyce L Roach, born in the December quarter of 1925 (Hackney, volume
1b, page 494). |
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When researching the Sculpher family, I did find it confusing at
times as I would find a death certificate for a child that was before
what appeared to be their birth! I discovered that the Sculpher family
were in the habit of reusing the names of children that had died in
childhood. For example, Charles Sculpher, born on the 14th March 1831
died on the 31st May 1831, however the name Charles reappears six years
later on the 14th February 1837! This, second Charles survived his
childhood and died in 1890 age 53.
Another very confusing family is that of George Sculfer and Susanna
Chubock. They married in 1710 and had seventeen children, including four
daughters named Mary, two sons called William and two sons called
Samuel. The latter named Mary, William and Samuel apparently survived as
the names didn't appear again. |
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Some have speculated that the name is Norse in origin - it is not.
It is an Old English name that is topographical in nature - "the dweller
in the hut by the ford". In the 1891 census, fifty-nine families with
the name Sculpher were to be found living in Norfolk. This represented
64% of all the recorded Sculpher's in the UK with another 20% living in
London. In the 1881 census, Sculpher's were likely to be farmer workers
but a small percentage (5%) were boot and shoe makers. Source:
Ancestry.co.uk. |
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