The Turnbulls

The Turnbull branch of my tree tells the story of a lady who undoubtedly shaped the family as we know it today, influencing huge elements of my DNA and adding so much to the family history I was so familiar with when growing up in the village. Her name is, Margaret Jane Turnbull. my Great Grandmother.

NOTE: Our Margaret (Smiles) and her Mum (my Aunty) Peggy Owen were named after her.

She was born in 1871, in Woodburn, Northumberland, the fifth child of George Turnbull and Jane Lillie my Great, Great, Grandparents. George, her father, was a police officer, unfortunately in 1886, he was dishonourably discharged from the service for being drunk on duty. Obviously, a bit of a lad, and it appears he stretched his authority as an officer of the law with the local pubs and landlords. By 1891, all the Turnbulls had moved to Whitburn. Margaret was married to Joseph Owen in March that year when she was 20 years old, and they lived in Mill Lane next door to George and Jane. Great Gran had three children with Great Grandad Joseph – Georgina, Evelina (my Nanna) and Joseph. By 1901, they had moved to 77 Elder’s Buildings, now living next door to Joseph’s mother Jane my Great Great Gran. By April 1902, Margaret and Joseph’s marriage was in trouble with a notice of separation being placed in the South Shields Gazette. By this time, Joseph had moved to Rupert St, Sunderland, leaving my Great Gran, Margaret, in the family home. Soon after this separation from Joseph, she met Robert Gibson who worked in Whitburn Paper Mill and they had two children together, Elvina (Big Aunt Vina) and Robert, (Big Uncle Bob).

NOTE: My cousin Ann Bowley, has suggested that Robert and Great Gran were probably having an affair for a number of years, which led to the breakup of her marriage to Joseph.

Unlike the rest of the family, Robert was born and bred in the village. Robert’s original name was White, but after his mother’s remarriage he adopted his stepfather’s name i.e., Gibson. By 1914, Robert and his four brothers volunteered for the Great War. Robert joined the Royal Navy, Hood Battalion, Tyneside Division. He would see action throughout the war, but, on 24 August 1918, Able Seaman Robert Gibson was killed at the Battle of the Somme. He is remembered, with honour, at the Vis-En-Aristos memorial, Haucourt, France (a British War Memorial for soldiers with no known grave). He is one of the poppies we buy every Nov 11th. He is also honoured on the Whitburn War Memorial.

The loss of Robert, understandably, had a devastating impact on the young Owen/Gibson family, a dark and sad period. Robert would be remembered with each first son of the next generation being named Robert Gibson; Robert ‘Gibson’ Owen (the footballer), Robert ‘Gibson’ Ventress (my Dad) and Robert Gibson (Uncle Ginger).

By 1916, Evelyn (my Nanna, aged 16) was working in the munitions factory in Newcastle where she met a young man, her “first love” she told me. In 1918, she fell pregnant, with Aunty Peggy, but Great Gran (Margaret) would not allow her to marry and forbid them to meet each other ever again. She never told me his name, but I understand Aunty Peggy traced her father sometime later, but I have no further details on Nanna’s WW1 sweetheart. So, my Nanna was compelled to have Aunty Peggy out of wedlock, and Margaret stepped in to raise Peggy until her formative years. Thankfully for me, some years later, she ‘approved’ the marriage of my Nanna and Grandad (Harry Ventress) and, by the 1930s, Margaret had moved to 18 Rackley Way, living next door to my Nanna. In 1936, once again tragedy struck with the death of Aunt Alice Gibson, Big Uncle Bob Gibson’s wife. Aunt Alice and Uncle Bob had two small children, Tom and Robert (Ginger), but once again Great Gran stepped up and assumed the role of raising her Grandchildren. She moved back to Mill Lane to help Uncle Bob raise Tom and Ginger, largely assisted by Aunty Peggy and my Nanna I am led to understand. Margaret died in 1942, aged 72 and is buried in Whitburn Cemetery.

I didn’t know my Great Gran, but from what I have unearthed through research together with what I have been told, she was undoubtedly a formidable woman. In her lifetime she had 12 children, seven of which died. She saw the tragedies of two World Wars, with personal sufferance in WWI with the loss of her young husband; he was her ‘toy boy’, being 11 years his senior. In my mind she was the very image of a Victorian matriarch, who controlled and managed the family at a number of levels, probably born out of having to raise two young families, on her own, notwithstanding being a surrogate mother to a number of her grandchildren. So, she is part of all of us whose village family name is linked to either, Turnbull, Ventress, Owen, Gibson, Lillie, Purvis, Wells, Howie or Reed.

So, if you can add to this story, We would love to hear from you, and once again we make an appeal for photos and records.