Cousins meet for the first time at the Bugle
WHEN Bugle reader Chris Pedley came to see us at the end of October he could never have expected to meet a distant relation he knew nothing about five weeks later.
His story, published on October 3, was about a great uncle Robert Gonderton whom he never knew, who fought in the Great War. Robert hailed from Pensnett and was a Private in the 46th Battalion Machine Gun Corps. He was badly wounded in October 1918 and brought back to England to a military hospital in Sheffield where he died of his wounds on Sunday October 27. His body was returned to the Black Country and he was buried in the graveyard at St Mark’s Church in Pensnett.
Ultimate
He was only 23 when he died and Chris wanted to pay tribute to Robert Gonderton for the part he played in the First World War and the ultimate sacrifice that he made. The day after the article was published another Bugle reader Mike Devonport contacted us with intrigue and excitement in his voice. He told us: “As a regular Bugle reader I was suddenly confronted with a name I recognised from my own family history and as you don’t often see the surname Gonderton in print, I wondered whether this soldier could be a distant relation. Courtesy of the Bugle I was quickly on the blower to Chris Pedley, and after the briefest of chats we both realised we were second cousins so many times removed. It was an exciting moment and a meeting was hurriedly arranged. As it turned out previous engagements delayed that meeting but eventually we decided to meet here at the Bugle where we came face to face for the first time.”
There have been occasions in the past when a story published in the Bugle has brought distant family members together for the first time and family history was high on the agenda as Chris and Mike swapped details of family names. Mike added: “I have to say that even though I’ve known Chris for just the briefest of times, it feels as if I’ve known him all my life.”
Same era
The two cousins then produced photos of family members that could be linked to the same era as Robert Gonderton. Robert had two sisters, Mary Maria and Annie. Annie was Chris’ grandmother and Mary Maria Mike’s great grandmother. Therefore Robert was Chris’ great uncle and Mike’s great great uncle. Annie went on to marry William Henry Grainger and they appear together at the bottom of the page. The slightly faded and much worn photograph of a soldier on his horse is of William Devonport, Mike’s grandfather, from WW1.