Martin James Lamb, my great-grandfather, is pictured here with his three daughters, in 1918. Doris, my grandmother, is the child seated on the right of the photo.
Martin James Lamb was born in 1889, son of Marcus Lamb and Charlotte Neylon. He was the youngest child, with two elder sisters, Elizabeth (b1883) and Charlotte (b1885). When he was aged two, his mother died in childbirth.
By the time of the 1901 census, Martin and his father and sisters were living at 2 Abbey Crescent, after Marcus moved back into his mother Elizabeth's home.
He worked in manual occupations, at one time as a Rulleyman, later as a Gas Stoker.
Martin James (named after his grandfather, also Martin James) married Annie Helena Higinbotham on 2 March 1908, at St Thomas's, Hull. Witnesses were William Higinbotham (Annie's father) and Amy Crown.
Annie left her husband Martin, and her daughters. Family lore says she ran off to London with a drummer called Jack, and that her husband Martin didn't see her for 30 years.
There's a separate page on this site on Annie Higinbotham.
I love this photograph. I think the original was more sepia-toned, and it's been copied at least once from the original. I've been told it was taken in 1918, and Martin is in uniform, having served in the war. Martin Lamb was one of the lucky ones, in that he made it home.
Martin James Lamb - summary of dates, places and occupations
In the early 1990s my mother and her brother and sister wrote down their memories of early life in Hull, in the 1930s. My aunt remembers that "Grandad Martin lived along the Dyke" (at Abbey Crescent, by the Cottingham Drain). She says that he made her laugh, and that of all the relatives they went to visit she "loved Grandad Martin the best".
Martin James Lamb died in 1959, in Hull, aged 70.
Documents from the time of the First World War (a birth certificate from 1916, and his medals card) show that Martin James Lamb was in the York and Lancaster Regiment (a "7" on this part of the medal card suggests I think the 7th battalion of this regiment).
Military history is not my strong point, but I've tried to figure out information from the medals card (downloaded from the National Archives website). Martin Lamb landed overseas on 13 July 1915, and first fought in France. It would seem, from the dates, that he was one of the many men who volunteered for war service, prompted by Kitchener's campaign.
When I mentioned the WW1 medal rolls card to my mum, wondering where the service medals would have gone, she said that she had them once, but they are long lost. She recalled Grandad Martin giving them to her, in a rather offhand manner that suggested he had no great attachment to them. Mum let my older brother and sister play with them, when they were young children, and the medals seem to have disappeared.