Person

Mr Paterson was Frank Paterson, who was the proprietor of the laundry business and who was being prosecuted for over-working some of his employees.

He succeeded his father, William Paterson, who died in June 1918, just a few months before the court hearing, aged 57. William had been born in 1861 in Aberdeenshire. He married Jane Annie who also worked in the laundry, and had three daughters and one son, Frank. Originally William had been superintendent of dyes and later, by 1900, was being described as the manager of the Steam Laundry Company. In that year he faced proceedings by local authorities when it was discovered that his laundry employees regularly lunched in the cemetery grounds and left a great deal of rubbish. By 1902 William was a local councillor. When he died in June 1918 he left his wife the sum of £87.

We know that his son Frank succeeded him for he described himself as a laundry proprietor when he enlisted in the British army in September 1916. The newspaper article covering the court case makes no mention of his military service, however, but refers to him simply as Mr Paterson.

Frank joined the Royal Garrison Artillery (number 157675) and was eventually promoted to corporal. He served in France and Flanders between February 1918 and February 1919 but died in Gravesend of influenza and pneumonia in February 1919. His wife of only two years, Mary Rose, was with him when he died. He had one son, Frank William, born in 1918. Frank left over £1000 to his widow and unmarried sister, Florence. The sources dated after Frank’s death seem to show that Mary moved to 54 Grosvenor Street in West Hartlepool after her husband died.

Civil Parish: West Hartlepool

Birth date: 1890

Death date: 20-Feb-1919

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: 33 Brougham House, Brougham Terrace, West Hartlepool (1911 census, 1917 attestation)
31 Brougham Terrace, West Hartlepool (1918 AVL)
“Dinsdale House”, Brougham Terrace, West Hartlepool (Probate calendars)

Education: Durham School 1903-1907

Religion: Presbyterian (Army Service Record)

Family: Parents: William Paterson, Jane Annie Paterson
Siblings; Agnes Yeats Paterson, Florence Paterson, Jennie Paterson (1911 census)
Wife: Mary Rose Cuncliffe (married 1917, BMD index)
Son: Frank William Anderson Paterson (born 1918, BMD index)

Military service:

Attested: Hartlepool 9 December 1915
Mobilized: 15 April 1917
157673 Royal Garrison Artillery (1918 Absent Voters List)
324th Siege Battery (CWGC)

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Hartlepool North Cemetery
Memorial Book of the Men of the Hartlepools, Durham County Record Office (states he was a sergeant)
Elswick Road Senior Boy’s School, Hartlepool, plaque
Saint Oswald’s Church, Brougham Terrace, Hartlepool, calvary in churchyard
Saint Oswald’s Church, Brougham Terrace, Hartlepool, book of remembrance
Victory Square, Hartlepool, obelisk

Gender: Male

Contributed by Mel Brown, Durham