Lives of the First World War

The Hounam Family Of course, many from the Valley had perished by war’s end and among them was one of six brothers from the Hounam family of Prospect House, Rothbury, who served during the War. This obviously close family, although separated by great distances in peace and in war, kept in touch, especially by writing to their sister, Dorothy. A short article in the Alnwick & County Gazette dated 15th May 1915 told some of the story of the Hounam family of Rothbury under the heading A Loyal Family. It read: Out of nine members of the family of Mrs Hounam, of Rothbury, no fewer than seven are at this moment aiding in one capacity or another in the defence of their country. Her daughter Dorothy is a Red Cross Nurse; one of her six sons, John, is at sea in a naval transport vessel and Harry is in the St. John Ambulance Corps. Robert is in the Australian Army and Emmerson is working in a munitions factory in Tasmania. Leslie and Hugh are serving in the 7th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. Although other families have done their best, the above, we imagine, is a record number from one household for this district. Little is known about the wartime careers of the two oldest Hounam brothers, John and Henry (Jack and Harry), although both were at some time seafarers. Jack was born in Rothbury in 1881and, thirty years later was living with his wife, Beatrice Mary, in South Shields and working as a carter. His brother Emmerson, at that time a joiner, lived with the family. In 1915, Jack was reported to be at sea but, by the time of his brother Bob’s death on the Somme in 1916, was said to be in the Army in France. Harry was a year or so younger than Jack and enlisted in the Royal Navy in October 1914. At that time he was employed as a railway gangman for the North Eastern Railway, married to Teresa with two children and living in Blaydon on Tyne. On enlistment he was described as being 5’5” tall with dark brown hair and blue eyes and distinguished by a scar above his left eye and a tattoo on his left arm of H H. He served first in HMS Vivid, a shore training establishment in Devonport, before being drafted to HMS Albion which took part in the Dardanelles campaign. He was reported as having been ‘on a hospital boat’ at the time of the Dardanelles, but returned to HMS Vivid in 1916 and appears to have left the Navy at that point.

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