TOPIC:

7357 PRIVATE SAMUEL BAILEY: 1ST VOLUNTEER BATTALION ROYAL WELSH FUSILIERS.

Samuel Bailey was born in Hawarden, North Wales on 31st October 1877 to parents Thomas and Elizabeth Bailey. He was christened on 25th November 1877 at Hawarden, a small town situated right on the border of the English county of Cheshire.
The Bailey family was a large one consisting of Samuel, his parents and siblings Gordon, Sarah, Mary, John, William, Thomas, George, Herbert, Elizabeth, and Agnes!

The family resided at the Castle Inn, which was run by the family. Father Tom, an ex-soldier of the Denbighshire Hussars was one of the great characters of the village as can be deduced from the following tale.

A local Hawardian farmer by the name of Paul Jones had been to Chester on 29th August 1892 and purchased a bull (most likely a Hereford) walked it back to Hawarden the same day. Somehow the bull found it's way into the grounds of Hawarden Castle, which was the home of the Prime Minister William Gladstone. Mr.
Gladstone taking his usual constitutional stroll encountered the bull which was in a very agitated state. Gladstone lay down against a tree in his own protection, but the animal attempted to gore him! Fortunately, Paul Jones had purchased an animal with defective horns! They curled inwards rather than outwards, so preventing Gladstone being injured. Gladstone managed to escape this dangerous situation and upon returning to the castle, sent a message into town to a dependable fellow to deal with the situation, one Tom Bailey of the Castle Inn!
Tom Bailey came to the castle grounds with a rifle and dispatched the beast with a shot to the shoulder and head.
Paul Jones turned up on the scene and decided to take the corpse to a butcher in Chester.
Tom returned to the pub, and hearing the pub chatter regarding the incident, went straight to Chester to recover the head of the cow realising that this could draw folk into his pub. Hence he had it mounted and displayed in his establishment.


Samuel's father Tom Bailey


A picture of Tom Bailey with rifle and head of the beast displayed in the Castle Inn. No doubt Samuel would have seen this exhibit every day!
The Castle Inn was demolished in the 1950s and the head was then relocated to the Glynn Arms Hotel in Hawarden. I wonder if it is still there?

Back to Samuel , amazingly for a casualty, his attestation document remains extant, but severely damaged presumably by damage sustained during bombing in the blitz. Therefore, not all details are legible.
He was described as a joiner who had worked as an apprentice with Bailey Brothers for seven years. His father was a builder and his uncle ran a joinery workshop.
The attestation document tells us Samuel died of enteric fever on 23rd June 1900 and his next of kin was his father at Castle Inn, Hawarden.

He met his fate at the Military Hospital, Potchefstroom on 23rd June 1900 and was buried at Olien Park Cemetery, Potchefstroom where he is commemorated on the Wall of Remembrance there.
Also commemorated on the Royal Welsh Fusiliers memorial in St. Giles Church, Wrexham and the Welsh National South Africa Memorial, Cathays Park, Cardiff.

Queen's South Africa medal awarded posthumously to 7357 Private Samuel Bailey of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.


Number, rank and name officially impressed to the rim.


Regimental naming.

RIP the son of a huge local character and continuer of a family soldierly tradition.


References:

Findagrave
Findmypast
Ancestry
People's Collection Wales website
Mason, P. F.; Rolfe, Phyllis (not dated); "Historic Hawarden "