walter john mallandaine + ann rouse
Walter was born in Fort Pitt, Rochester on 27 February 1865, to Isaac Mallandaine and his second wife Jane Cook, and baptised at the garrison church in Brompton on 5 March. His father was stationed at Fort Pitt while serving with the Army Hospital Corps but several years after Walter’s birth, Isaac was transferred to Nassau in the Bahamas. The whole family travelled with him but sadly, two years later, Walter’s mother died of Yellow Fever when he was just four years old.
His father remarried within months to Caroline North and they went on to have five children. By 1873, Walter and his family had returned to England living first in Sandown on the Isle of Wight before returning to the Chatham and Rochester area of Kent. When his father retired in 1876, he moved the family to the north-east and settled in Salford where Walter spent the rest of his life.
In 1881, sixteen year old Walter was living with his father and step-mother at 35 Bigland Street and working as a Sweet Maker. Also living in the household was his younger brother William, his five step-siblings and Caroline North’s son from her first marriage, Alfred Keene. His father died three years later and on 4 August 1890, Walter married Ann Rouse at St Bartholomew in Salford with his sister Mary Isobel standing as a witness along with Ann’s half-brother Giles Marsden. Ann was born in Manchester on 26 October 1861, to George Rouse and Mary Ann Hibbert, and baptised at Manchester Cathedral on 28 September. Her father died shortly after her birth and in 1866, her mother remarried to Richard Marsden.
When they married, Walter was working as a Musician and Ann as a Winder, likely in one of the nearby cotton mills. They moved into the Mallandaine family home at 20 Oxford Street and several months later, his step-mother, Caroline North, married again to James Holden, a fellow musician. The following year, Walter and Ann moved to 20 King Street where they lived in four rooms with her widowed mother, widowed uncle and half-brother Giles. Walter may have had difficulting finding enough work as a musician as his occupation was listed as Porter but in later records, it was almost consistently listed as musician.
The first of their six children, Florence, was born on King Street on 25 June 1891 and baptised at 19 July at St Bartholomew. By the time their son George Frederick was born on 6 May 1893, the family had moved to a home of their own at 22 Rodney Street. George was baptised at St Bartholomew on 18 June but he died the following spring. Walter was born on 9 July 1896 and baptised on 26 August followed by Nellie who was born on 23 December 1898 and baptised on 1 January 1899.
In 1901, they were living in four rooms at 67 Doddington Street with their three young children and Ann’s widowed mother, Mary Ann Marsden. Walter’s step-mother and her husband were living down the street at 43 Doddington Street and his half-sister, Ellen, and her family were at number 45. Seven months after the census, on 10 October, their son Harold was born and finally, son Percy arrived on 16 December 1903.
By 1909, they had left Doddington Street and settled in a larger house further west at 32 Smyrna Street in the Weaste area of Salford. When the census was taken two years later, Walter was listed as a Musician but the form also contained the additional information that he was working in ‘theatres etc.’. Their eldest daugther Florence was working in a cotton mill as a Cop Winder who was responsible for monitoring the machine that spun the thread from the skein to the bobbin used for weaving. Sixteen year old Walter was working as an Office Boy in a solicitor’s office while the three youngest children were still in school.
1896 - 1917
Tragedy struck the family when their son Walter was killed in action in Flanders on 19 October 1917 and buried at the Coxyde Military Cemetery in Koksijde, Belgium. A notice of his death appeared in the Manchester Evening News:
Signaller Walter Mallandaine Lancashire Fusiliers, killed in France on October 9 was the son of Sergeant and Mrs Mallendaine, 32, Smyrna Street, Weaste. He was 21 years of age and was mobilised with the 1st 7th Lancashire Fusiliers (Territorials) in August 1914, being sent to Egypt soon afterwards. In January last, he was drafted to France. In civil life Signaller Mallandaine was employed by Messrs Morris and Co, Cross Lane, Salford.
On 5 September 1925, Nellie married Stanley Stephens at St Luke in Weaste with her father signing the register as one of the witnesses. Stanley was born on 22 December 1897 in Plymouth, Devon but grew up in Pendleton, Salford. He was a Fitter’s Mate working on locomotives and lived a few doors down at 28 Smyrna Street. They had one son born in 1931 and lived on Levens Street in Pendleton. Nellie died in Manchester in 1954.
Two years after Nellie’s wedding, the family celebrated a second time when son Harold married May Goodwin at Christ Church in Denton on 3 September 1927. May was born in Denton on 4 October 1899 to Evan Goodwin, a Hat Maker, and Elizabeth Marsh. When they married, Harold was living in Denton, 5 miles east of Manchester, at 37 Elizabeth Street and working as an Engineer while May was working as a Hat Trimmer and living at 5 Princess Avenue. Harold and May had three daughters and by 1939, they were living at 33 Lulworth Road in Eccles, east of Salford where Harold worked as a railway locomotive fireman. Harold died in Eccles in 1968 and May died in Salford in 1977.
In 1928, an article in the Melody Maker magazine under the Dance Band Diary heading asked:
Who is the oldest saxophone player in the country? wonders the Melody Maker who nominates Walter John Mallandaine, sax-clarinettist in the pit band at Salford Palace, who is 63, has been playing 40 years and using the same instrument for 33 years!
Walter died the following year in Salford aged 64 years.
Walter and Ann’s youngest son, Percy was the last to marry to Josephine Barratt in early 1931. Josephine was born in Salford on 14 September 1902, one of 13 children born to Thomas Barratt and Mary Jane Crawley. Two years after their marriage, Percy appeared in the Kelly’s Directory at 2a Langston Street and his occupation was listed simply as Packer. They had two children and in 1939, they were living at 141 Brisdon Street in Salford where Percy worked as a Roller Man in a Provender mill (one that made food or fodder for animals). They lived on Brisdon Street for the next 35 years; Josephine died there in 1968 and Percy six years later.
Ann Rouse died in Salford in 1935. Their eldest daughter, Florence, never married and in 1939, she was living alone at 18 Wadsworth Street in Manchester and working as a Corset Binder Machinist. She died in Manchester in 1970, aged 79 years.