Last week I received this mail from a reader of the site
"Hope that you remember me. We corresponded some time ago about an
article you published about my wife's mother -
Blanche Deffley We
hope that you are still OK these days and still "exploring " the history
of Sheffield. I look at your website regularly and get engrossed with
the fascinating stories.
As you are now considered the font of all knowledge I wondered if you
had any idea how I could find another photo. I think that I told you
last time that my grandfather was killed on the 1st July at the Somme. I
have often wondered what he looked like and the anniversary of the
battle last week made me decide to make another attempt. Is it just my
faulty memory but I seem to remember that I once saw a Sheffield Star
with all the photos of Sheffield men who died that day but I wasn't that
interested in those days. I wondered if you could advise me of the best
way to find any information. His name was Arthur Malia and he was in the K.O.Y.L.I's. Please don't let this interfere with your work but if you could point me
in the right direction I would be most grateful. But maybe I'm just
clutching at straws and there is no chance after 100 years"
I replied
"The reference to the 10thBtn KOYI rang a bell straightaway. Have a look at this article I posted last year.
Albert
Wright served in the same battalion as Arthur Mali and sadly met the same fate on the
same day. I met one of his descendents earlier this year.which was
an enlightening experience.I then attached the following three census forms for Arthur and his family
1891 Census
1901 Census
1911 Census
I also contacted a friend who has a large collection of WW1 photos/images. This is his reply
"I
have looked through all my 'stuff' and I can't see an image for Arthur.
This includes my database of all images that appeared in the
Independent and the Telegraph. That's not to say there isn't one
somewhere! "
I
also closely checked Ancestry with the same results - there is no
service record just the attached.medal cards and panel reference.
The only other avenue I can suggest is the
KOYLI Museum in Doncaster - there is the outside chance they may have a photo.
I
did find something that may interest you re the family history. The
surname changed sometime between 1908 and 1911 from Melia to Malia.There
is info on the Melia's on Ancestry that I can access for you if you
want me to. And there may be an explanation as to why there are no
photos of Arthur and his family
The
only cutting I could find is from 01.07.1936 Sheffield Independent
(20th Anniversary - In Memorium). I have attached the full sheet. It
looks as though it was placed by his daughter Ethel who was just a baby
when he died. Very sad notice
I passed on this information and received the following reply
"Once again thanks for all your efforts looking into my past.
It's a pity that we can't find any photo but it's what I feared after all these years.
But thanks for all the other information that you sent which I have
never seen before. I didn't even know that there used to be a Sheffield
Independent newspaper. Judy, my wife, vaguely remembered it because she
worked in the Teleads at the Star in the late 1950's.
Arthur's wife, Ethel, my grandmother, remarried to a Glossop and went on
to have 5 more children. The crazy thing is that the youngest of these
children, Gary, is younger than me so is my uncle.
The Ethel who put the notice in the paper was, obviously, my mother,and
I was born a few months after the date of the notice in Feb 1937.I do remember that when I was young we had a framed photo of a man in
our back bedroom in , I think, uniform. I guess this was Arthur. My
mother and father divorced and my dad remarried. As is usual,
apparently,my step mother moved house and threw everything away that was
anyway connected to my mother .
I do remember that he was a very good looking man and I obviously take after him !!!! If only!
I also guess that my step grandad threw all Arthurs letters to Ethel
away as we have asked around all my step aunts and uncles with no
result.
If I had only been interested in Arthur when I was young I might have
been able to meet someone who was with him at the Somme as , after all,
when I was 10, say, there must have been survivors of that battle who
were only in their 40s or 50s. Even later if I'd thought about it but by
then I was too busy playing football, watching
Wednesday, drinking beer and chasing girls.
Chris, once again thank you for all your efforts for me.
What fascinating work you do. How do you manage to not get sidetracked down all the blind alleys ?"
And I then received this ver interesting follow-up
" Thanks for your efforts again. My brother and I got our thinking
hats on to see if there was any other way to find any information about
Arthur and saw, maybe, another way.
Arthur's parents were from
County Mayo in Ireland and were staunch Catholics. We wondered if the
church had any records going back that far so I contacted St Marie's Church in
Sheffield where we think the Malia family attended. We a1so believed
that his name was on a memorial somewhere in Sheffield.
The receptionist told that they had a Deacon who was now researching into the archives and might just have something. So I phoned
He
is in the process of compiling histories of St Marie's and has just
finished the time period including the WW 1. Last week he also preached
at a service for the catholic soldiers of Sheffield who died at the
Somme. He took the names from the memorial for his book and the sermon
and mentioned each one in turn. Some he could find no information about.
Amongst the few that he could not expand upon was an Arthur Melia and has
never been able to find any records about him.
Deacon Bill
Burleigh was amazed and delighted that I had contacted him as he can now
tie up (we think) a loose end. I thought that you wouldn't mind him
having the information that you gave me so I have just emailed him your
e-mail. Did I do right and was that OK ?
He is now going to search his archives to see what he has about Arthur Malia so I'll let you know if he finds anything."
