John James Colsey (1865-1929) draper; Elizabeth Jane Colsey nee Derrick (1867-1911) his wife, draper’s assistant
John was a draper and the proprietor of the Bristol Drapery Company at 5 Fore Street, Bridgwater, for about twenty years. His wife Elizabeth had years of experience working in draper’s shops prior to her marriage.
The Colsey Family
John was born in Toddington, Gloucestershire. His father Thomas Colsey (1834-1881) was a road contractor who at one time employed 38 men and ten boys. When John was a small boy, Thomas was a farm bailiff at Toddington. John’s mother was Eliza nee Walker (c1831-1883), the daughter of a Tewksbury publican. Thomas and Eliza had three children, Thomas junior, John and Rose. When their children were teenagers, Thomas and Elizabeth had the King’s Head pub in Barton Street, Tewksbury. The family were living at the pub when Thomas died in 1881. Eliza died two years later and her children all went out to work. Thomas junior was a newspaper reporter and was soon doing well in his career. John found work as a draper’s warehouseman and Rose became a draper’s assistant.
John and Elizabeth
Meanwhile Elizabeth Jane Derrick, who was born near Newport, Wales, had come to Bristol with her sister to work as draper’s assistants. They had lodgings in Clifton. John was also boarding in the same general area and perhaps they met when he was delivering goods to their place of work. They were married in Newport on the 25th July 1892. John’s brother Thomas was a witness. The following year Thomas went to London to join the staff of the controversial magazine Truth.
In due course John was promoted to the position of draper’s buyer, still in Bristol. Their elder children John W. T., George and Hilda were all born in Bristol. Sometime after 1901, John and Elizabeth took a huge step. John left his job in Bristol and they moved to Bridgwater to set up their own business. It was the Bristol Drapery Company at 5 Fore Street, Bridgwater. They were close to the centre of town and living above the shop. George started at Dr Morgan’s School in 1904 and Derrick and Edna were born in Bridgwater in 1905 and 1907 respectively. As well as John and Elizabeth and their children, there were five young female draper’s assistants and two young maids, all under the same roof. That was in April 1911. Elizabeth was already unwell. Later that year she died of liver disease aged 46. She was buried in the Wembdon Road Cemetery.
World War I
War was declared in August 1914 and John’s eldest son, John W.T., was quick to enlist in the army. He joined the Bridgwater Company of the 5th Territorial regiment, Somerset Light Infantry (S.L.I.) and by November was on his way to India. John W.T. was twenty-one so he could enlist and serve abroad without his father’s consent. Normally the territorials would remain in the UK, but they were sent to India to free up a regular army regiment on garrison duty to fight in Europe. John W.T.’s letters home were published in the Bridgwater Mercury. In May 1915 he was chosen with three others from Bridgwater to fight the Turks in the Persian Gulf with the Indian Expeditionary Force. It was June and the weather was very hot. John W.T. was admitted to hospital in Basra with heatstroke and again with a minor wound of his right hand. All John could do was pray that he would return home safely and keep the family business going through the disruptions and difficulties of wartime.
As the fighting and the loss of lives continued, Britain needed more men for the army. In January 1917, Cadet George Colsey, 21, was gazetted as a second-lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry. He was sent to France where he was a bombing officer in command of a small group of men with bomb (grenade) throwers. They walked along throwing grenades from side to side to clear enemy trenches and dugouts. In August 1917 George was wounded and sent to hospital in Normandy. He spent the last months of the war in the RAF. Fortunately both brothers survived. In September 1918 John W.T. was transferred from the South Wales Borderers to the Indian Army and so became a career army officer.
Hilda had also enlisted. In June 1918 she joined the WRAF and was posted to No. 3 Aircraft Repair Depot at Yate, near Bristol, as a motor transport driver. Early biplanes were made of canvas stretched over a wooden frame which was then painted. Wire was used to hold the wings in place. They were fragile and easily damaged. The women stitched canvas and repainted where necessary. Hilda collected damaged aircraft parts and supplies. She was demobilized in mid-1919.
John and Daisy
Meanwhile in Bridgwater, John married for a second time. His new wife was Daisy Hooper, who was only a few years older than John’s elder sons. John and Daisy had three children; twin boys born in 1919 and Pauline born in 1920.
John and Daisy lived above the shop at 5 Fore Street with Hilda and Edna, the three babies, a cook, a maid and a nursery maid. George had come home and made a name for himself playing rugby for Bridgwater. He joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1920. Derrick had been at school all during the war and in 1921 was an apprentice draper in London. He emigrated to Australia.
John died on the 7th May 1929 at Bridgwater aged 64. He was buried with Elizabeth in the Wembdon Road Cemetery. Daisy and Pauline moved to Lancashire. Hilda and Edna both married but moved to other parts of Somerset. The twins both served in the army in WWII.
There is one other family member to mention. John’s elder brother Thomas Colsey (1863-1938) was editor of Truth magazine for eight years until his retirement in 1936.
by Jillian Trethewey and Clare Spicer 14/10/2024
Sources
British Newspaper Archive
Census returns, directories and parish registers.