Hello Agooly,
Welcome from Jarrow - the town immediately to the west of South Shields on the south bank of the River Tyne (the County Durham side).
As you can imagine I was pleasantly surprised and, indeed, delighted - almost five years after my initial post re. Arthur Hoy - to read your recent reply. It was lovely to hear at last from my Hoy relatives in Australia; I had effectively given up on ever receiving a positive response and thought I would never find out what happened to Arthur Hoy.
My Dad, Anthony Hoy (born in the Tyne Dock area of South Shields on 14 July 1930), is your grandad's yougest cousin. He was the youngest of either twenty-one or twenty-two cousins and, sadly, is the only one still alive. His only remaining cousin, Michael Hoy, died in South Shields' General Hospital on 25 October 2010, aged 80. Just to give you an example of the age gap between all these cousins, his eldest cousin, Matthew, was born in 1902 and had already married and started his own family by the time my Dad was born!
Arthur Hoy left England for Hobart, Tasmania, on his own on 13 March 1913. He travelled aboard the steamship Ruapehu and is listed as a miner under the name of A. Hoey (ironically the original spelling of the family surname when they lived in the Monaghan-Co. Louth area of Ireland). His wife, Ellen (nee Ditchburn), and only son, Arthur Joseph, followed him shortly afterwards, leaving England on 19 December 1913 aboard the steamship Otway bound for Melbourne. Michael Hoy, who I knew well, told me that it was his dad - Frederick William Hoy - who had given Arthur (known as Arty) the money for the fare
I have no evidence that Arthur ever returned to England but Ellen and Arthur Joseph arrived back in London on 3 June 1923 aboard the Largs Bay. I don't know when Ellen returned to Australia but do know that young Arthur (then only fifteen and already working as a miner) returned aboard SS Balranald, sailing on 9 July 1925, his destination being Sydney. He had been living with his maternal grandparents, the Ditchburns, for this two-year period at 30 Lord Nelson Street, Tyne Dock. Sadly, this street, like the street in which he was born (Frost Street), no longer survives, having been replaced by modern housing about forty years ago.
What confused me for years was the fact that accompanying his April 1910 baptismal entry at Saints Peter and Paul R.C. Church in Tyne Dock, was the additional later stamped entry: '1918 CONFIRMED'. This suggested that he was confirmed when he was about eight in his local R.C. church, the church his parents had married in on 5 October 1909 (the best-man/first witness being Arty's younger brother, James - killed at Gallipoli on 13 July 1915, aged 25). It was only at the beginning of 2010 that the penny dropped: the parish priest in 1918 had simply stamped EVERY entry in the parish register for baptisms in exactly the same manner, not caring whether this was true or not! For years I believed that Arthur's family could only have emigrated AFTER the Great War because his son had been confirmed in SS. Peter and Paul in 1918. You can imagine my relief when I at last worked out the truth of what had really happened. So much for the veracity of Roman Catholic priests! If this false stamp had not been in the baptismal register I could have worked out the truth of the matter years ago.
The earliest reference I have for the Hoys in Australia is a 1936 reference to their living in Allendale Road, Cessnock, New South Wales. Michael told me that his Uncle Arthur had gone to work in the Kurri Kurri mines of the South Maitland Coalfield.
Arthur Hoy died of stomach cancer on 8 April 1955, aged 68, at Cessnock District Hospital. His address was given as 1 Chapman Street, Cessnock. The informant was R. Steele of 17 Subiaco Avenue, Cessnock (presumably a close friend). He was buried on 12 April 1955 in the R.C. cemetery of Cessnock.
Arthur was the longest-lived child of Matthew and Ann Hoy (nee Martin). He was their third child/son and the first to be born in South Shields - at 130 Maxwell Street on 8 February 1887. Matthew and Ann had ten children in total, nine being boys. Six of these boys grew to manhood: Matthew and Patrick (both born in Sunderland, Co. Durham), Arthur, James (Jim), Frederick William (Fred) and Thomas (all born in South Shields, the latter being my grandfather). The other four all died as infants. I have a good photograph of Matthew and Ann Hoy, a photo of Matthew and his youngest son Thomas (taken late in his life - he lived to be 84) and the following photos of Arty's brothers: Matthew and his wife, with him wearing his Border Regiment Great War uniform; James in his uniform of the Nelson Battalion, Royal Naval Division; Frederick in his West Yorkshire Regiment uniform; and a few photos of my grandfather, Thomas. I will try to send copies of these these to you when I (hopefully) receive your e-mail address.
Do you have any photos of Arthur and Ellen Hoy or of your grandfather Arthur? Do you know where and when your great grandmother Ellen died? Do you have any stories you could pass on relating to any of the above?
That's all for now, Agooly (Michael, Caroline, Yvette or Craig?). Speak to you very soon to pass on A LOT more info. I hope this message reaches you and that you're glad to hear from a reasonably close relly still living on Tyneside.
Regards.
Peter Hoy.
