Women’s History Month: Incredible stories of immigration

Three years later in 1924, Beatrice and her sons emigrated from England to Canada. The little family left on 13 Jan 1924 on the SS Samaria traveling third class, destined for Halifax, Canada.

According to Beatrice’s Declaration of Passenger to Canada record, her object in going to Canada was “to join her sister and help in domestic work.” The name of her nearest relative that she left in England was her cousin, Roger Bagnall. Her passage to Canada was paid for by the Ministry of Pensions, likely to help her, as a war widow, get on her feet and find success in her emigration. At the time of her arrival with her sons to their new home in a new country, Beatrice had about 20 pounds on her person and was headed to Saskatchewan to join her sister and her sister’s family.

Six months after arriving in Canada, Beatrice remarried a widower named Nathaniel Waterfield, who was born in Derbyshire, England. An Ancestry member posted a copy of their marriage record that they received from the local archives. That same Ancestry member added a photo of Beatrice to their tree, as well as a photo of Beatrice with her second husband, Nathaniel, and Beatrice’s two sons, Albert and Fredrick, who both, following in the footsteps of their late father, served in the military.

England to Australia – Florence L. Harper Pascho Sharpe & Richard Rollo Sharpe

Florence Louisa Harper was born in 1890 in Plymouth, Devon, England. In 1909, she married a local boy, Alfred Pascho, when she was 19. Florence and Alfred had two children, Colin and Dorothy, and remained in Devon. At the outbreak of WWI, Alfred left home to serve in the Rifle Brigade. Unfortunately, Alfred was never to return home. He died during the German Spring Offensive on 25 Jul 1918, not long before the end of the war. Now a widow with two small children, Florence was still living in Devon and had “house duties” at home, which was a standard term used in the census of the time for a housewife. On the 1921 England Census, under “Orphanhood,” next to the name of the children was listed “Father killed in action.”

Three years after the death of her husband, Florence remarried to a dairy farmer named Richard Rollo Sharpe, a veteran of WWI from Herefordshire. In 1924, Florence, her second husband, Richard, and their children, both Paschos and Sharpes, emigrated from England to join the “Pilgrams of 1924.” Twenty families from Devon and Cornwall were chosen to immigrate to Australia as part of a “Group Settlement Scheme.” The idea was to establish English dairy farms in Western Australia to boost the economy in the west. The plan ultimately failed due to poor soil and farming conditions overall, which forced Richard to later become a miner.

The family left England on 30 Jan 1924 on the SS Sophocles headed for Western Australia. The family made a life there and remained in that area. Florence’s son, Rollo Sharpe, later went on to serve in the Australian Air Forces in WWII. His ending was much happier with his safe return home at the close of the war.