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In due course, like Dick, he learned the cobbler’s trade in his father William’s shop at 278, Oldham Road. He eventually inherited a second shop that his father had established by 1901, at 108 Ashton Road East, where he maintained a successful business throughout his life.

Early in 1912 Harry married Dora Heald at Holy Trinity church in Failsworth. They must have been in rather a hurry because on 14th July of the same year their first child was born and named William after his paternal grandfather. However he was later known as Bill. On 24th November of the following year Bill got a brother, this time called James after his uncle. Completion of the family by the addition of a third son had to wait until September 1923, when Harry arrived. Harry was perhaps named after his great uncle Henry or Harry Tuson, who had been closest in age to his grandfather William when they lived together at Brindle, near Preston.

The family seems to have lived in the house at number 1, Burnley Street in Failsworth, which adjoined the shop at 108 Ashton Road East and had been in the possession of Harry’s father since at least 1910.

It might have been the outbreak of the First World War that stopped Harry and Dora from enlarging their family after the birth of Jim. We know, at least, that Harry served in the army for three years during that conflict when, presumably, his father William kept the business running. Of Harry’s wartime experiences I have no information, but I have never heard any mention of him having suffered injury.

It appears that William kept the boot and shoe repairing business going while Harry was in the army, but on his discharge Harry presumably resumed its control. Like his brother Dick, he would have been reliant on the cotton industry that dominated Failsworth for much of his trade. He would also have been affected by the post-war speculative share price boom of 1918 to 1921 (which you can read about here) and the subsequent disastrous slump and attendant despair. No doubt he cut his suit according to his cloth and scaled back activity when necessary in order to cover costs and remain profitable.

At some time the family moved to Wright Street in Failsworth, possibly number 13, which is where William was registered in 1926. However by 1927 they were living at number 78 Wrigley Head, to the west of the main Oldham-Manchester Road.

Harry opened a second shop, at number 588 Oldham Road, Failsworth in 1936 or 1937 where he used to sell accessories for shoes and take in repair work that was then forwarded to 108, Ashton Road East.

At some point Harry became a member of the Failsworth Conservative party where my paternal grandfather, William (Billy) Dunkerley had been a substantial figure, and together with Leonard Lunn stood for election to the council in 1936. ‘The Standard’, a local Oldham paper, said on April 3rd 1936: “Mr. Tuson was born in Failsworth, and with the exception of three years service in the army during the war he has been in business in both wards for twenty years as an employer of labour. He favours no wild cat schemes which would send up the rates, but would support sound business combined with efficiency.” Evidently ‘The Standard’ sympathized with the Conservative cause for it concluded: “These are the two men for Lower Ward”. However the council at that time had passed to Labour control and Harry did not get in.

In time Harry took his sons, Bill and Jim, into his business (apparently somewhat against the wishes of Dora) and had up to eight workers on the premises at Ashton Road East, including a clogger. Like his older brother Dick, he made important investments in machinery that improved productivity and gave the business a competitive edge. The shop was so well known that the adjacent bus stop came to be called ‘Tusons’.

Harry must have done rather well. I have been told that he owned a Jowett car, although it was his son, Bill, who drove it. The family enjoyed making visits through Bolton and over the hills at Belmont to Blackpool on the Lancashire coast. On their way they would stop at either the Bay Horse Inn or the Sea View Hotel to visit relatives from the Tuson side of the family who still lived there.

When Harry died in 1950 he left the business to his three sons. Bill and Jim bought out the interest of Harry, their youngest brother, and it continued operations, run by Bill’s wife, Alice. It eventually closed in 1991, squeezed, like that of their cousin Richard, by changes such as the advent of rubber, trainers and disposable fashions in shoes.

Harry and Dora’s boys
William: William, usually called Bill, was born in 1912. He went to St. John’s school in Failsworth and then attended Pittman’s school for shorthand and typing in Manchester. Just as a commercial career seemed to beckon, Harry decided that his son could be more profitably employed in the shoe and clog trade so Bill ended up in the family shop in Ashton Road East.

He married Alice Simms in 1936 at St. John’s church in Failsworth and they had one son (still living). Alice worked in the family business until it closed in 1991. Her father was apparently a Conservative member of Failsworth council and a friend of my paternal grandfather Billy Dunkerley.

Alice told me that the shop at Ashton Road East installed a Keats and Bexons sewing machine that stitched leather soles to men’s’ welted footwear. This did away with the process of nailing the soles on, and provided an important advantage. Bill used this machine until he died, after which it was largely unused; on one occasion Alice was offered £1,000 for it, but turned the offer down. The clogger employed at the shop was called Harry Chapman.

Bill seems to have been active at St. John’s church, Failsworth. During the Second World War he worked in codes and deciphering in the RAF. He died on 28th October 1978 and Alice lived on until 24th November 2002.

James (Jim): Jim was born in Failsworth on 24th November 1913. He also attended St. John’s school and is shown in a photograph of the class of 1925 in ‘Failsworth Place and People’. Like his brother Bill, Jim was ‘persuaded’ by his father to work in the family business and he eventually became co-owner with Bill following their father’s death.

Jim married Marjorie Leigh in the second quarter of 1940 at St. Thomas’ church in Werneth, Oldham. They had no children and eventually divorced. He then married Edith Morris, whose maiden name seems to have been Platt, in 1969.

During the Second World War Jim was called up and went by boat to France as a member of the Royal Artillery, Parachute Regiment (the Red Devils). He rose to the rank of Battery Sergeant Major.

He eventually died on 13th December 1980.

Harry: Harry and Dora’s third son was born in 1923 and continues to live in Oldham. He married and had a daughter who also lives locally.

James (Jim) Tuson
Jim was the youngest son of William Tuson and Annie Edmondson and it was as in the aftermath of his birth on 11th January 1891 that Annie died.

Like his brothers Jim was therefore brought up by William’s third wife, Mary Schofield, and there is evidence that he thought of her as his real mother. Jim would have grown up in the rough-and-tumble of a home with three lads, and being the smallest he probably had to learn to get what he wanted more by initiative than by force. He must also have known what it was to receive ‘cast-off’ clothes! Jim would have gone to school in Failsworth and is listed there on the 1901 census. He probably spent some time in his father’s boot and shoe repair business, but Jim had a restless nature and clearly did not see himself as slipping into a stable lifestyle. He seems to have learned to drive his father’s car, and to have visited his cousins in west Lancashire. He remained in Failsworth up to at least his 21st birthday, when he was sent a greeting from a friend called ‘William Booth’. It read:

     Sunny be your birthday,
     Not a sigh nor tear,
     Glad the years before you,
     Never cloud nor fear;
     Friends so true and many,
     Pleasures day by day, 
     Much to bring you gladness
     All along life's way.

 

Not long Jim’s wanderlust got the better of him and decided he would sail to New Zealand. He travelled on the ship RMS Corinthia which sailed in late November or December 1912. It was a leisurely journey and Jim enjoyed stops at Tenerife and Cape Town from where he sent home postcards (some of which have been preserved) relating his experiences. Jim seems to have lived in North Island, where he was prepared to turn his hand to various types of work, including milking cows on a farm and working as a porter in a hotel in 1913 (for which he earned £1 per week plus board). He lived at Ohakune at one time where he seems to have helped a boat maker. He also lived at a place called Danniverke near Wellington. There is evidence that other members of the Tuson family, notably the slightly mysterious ‘E. Tuson’, were also in New Zealand at this time.

Unfortunately, while Jim was in New Zealand, the First World War broke out and he decided he would enlist as a volunteer in the Wellington Regiment with which he travelled to France. From France it seems that Jim was able to make at least one home visit to his family in Failsworth, but he was back in France, in northern Picardy, in March 1918. From March to July the Germans attempted to advance along the sector of the front where Jim was situated and there was fierce fighting in March and April. The German attack was repulsed by the Third New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade who held their trenches before the village of Colincamps, about ten miles north of Albert. Sadly the Brigade suffered severe casualties, among whom was Jim Tuson.

His record in the War Graves Commission reads:

‘Tuson, James, Private, Service No. 20462, died 30/3/1918, age 27.
Wellington Regiment N.Z.E.F., of New Zealand nationality,
Grave Memorial ref.: Special Memorial B.4.,
Cemetery/Memorial Name: Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps.’

He was a member of the 1st Battalion and the war Graves Commission records him as the son of William & Mary Tuson of 846, Hollins Road, Hollinwood, Oldham.

Family members, including both Mary and Irene, made several visits to the grave in later years. Jim was not forgotten by the community of Failsworth and his name is recorded on the war memorial inside St. John’s church.

Jim was a good looking and enterprising young man and the pointless loss of his life is a tragedy in itself. The loss of literally millions of other healthy young men for no good purpose should simply magnify the incredulity that we feel for the collective madness of the so-called political leaders of the time. Had the First World War put an end to such political failure one might perhaps justify being an apologist for it. But, inexplicably, man’s inhumanity to man, sanctioned by political legitimacy, continues to this day.

The wishes of Jim’s friend William Booth are worth repeating to blow a breath of the youth and optimism which Jim no doubt felt as he prepared to leave behind his small corner of England and explore the wide reaches of his world:

 

"Sunny be your birthday,
Not a sigh nor tear,
Glad the years before you,
Never cloud nor fear;
Friends so true and many,
Pleasures day by day,
Much to bring you gladness
All along life's way".