Joseph Wordsworth Tindale (1896 - 1964)

Born 23 Mar 1896 in Gateshead

Descendants

Died 4 Oct 1964 at age 68 in Dunston

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Pauline Tindale [send private message]

Biography

Joseph Tindale was born on March 22 or 23, 1896, in Gateshead,^[1] an industrial and coal mining area in County Durham. His father John Abbott Tindale, was a quiet, hard working man, who had been employed as a chain maker at Hawkes Engineering for most of his working years and who often travelled throughout Britain teaching the the Hawkes Engineering methods to other manufacturers. John was on the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Union of Engineers and was asked to stand for election as the first Member of Parliament for Gateshead, but declined as he preferred working for the union. Joe’s mother, Dora Wordsworth Tindale, was the daughter of Joseph Wordsworth an ironworker from Yorkshire. She was said to have been a very strong woman who ruled her family with an iron hand.

Margaret Gettings who was married to one of Dora’s grandsons provided the following memory of Dora:

“I didn’t know Dora of course, but from the stories I heard she was a very strong character. They had at some time acquired a corner shop in Dunston-on-Tyne. It was a very successful business, due I gather to Dora’s acumen. She supported her family during the depression. I remember my husband telling me that their neighbours had to go to soup kitchens, but his family never had to, thanks to Dora. For years and years the family gathered at her home on Sundays. She cooked a huge joint - they had to eat in relays - and the day would always end with a sing-song around the piano. John was much quieter, he was quite happy for Dora to manage everything and everybody. He was a very learned looking gentleman, with snowy white hair and a goatee beard. He used to sit upright in a chair in the corner of the room and was always reading. I didn’t know him very well, I doubt if anyone did, Dora was always the one that people remembered.” Dora died in 1923 at the age of 55, leaving behind three school aged children.

At the start of the First World War, Joe, who had been an apprentice at Vickers Armstrong, a munitions factory enlisted in the army. Although he had believed that he had signed only for the duration of the war, he discovered after signing his application papers that he had been signed on as a regular soldier in the Royal Horse Artillery (the senior branch of the British Army) for a six year period.

Joe’s Service Record

Served in the 22nd County of London Battalion, No. 2, No. 7 Platoon, Home Guard.

Gunner in the Royal Horse Artillery. Reg. No. 26080. He was awarded a Star medal for “Theatre of War” operations in France on 1-4-1915.

Steward in the Merchant Navy. His first voyage to sea was aboard the Pensacola out of Sunderland on April 4, 1922. His Continuous Certificate of Discharge (No. 1061795) indicates he was 6 foot tall, had blue eyes, black hair, and was fair in complexion.

In February 1922, Joe married Dorothy Burn^[2] who he had met at Vickers Armstrong, and his first son John was born seven months later. His second son James, followed three and a half years later. In the years following World War One and preceding World War Two, there were large numbers of men who were unable to find employment in Britain, especially in the heavily industrial areas such as Gateshead and Newcastle. Joe was one of the victims of the economic and social depression that affected not only Britain during those years, but many areas throughout Europe and North America as well. Joe was under-employed for the greater part of 18 years, and it was not until the start of the second world war that he was able to find work again.

Joe’s views on spiritualism echoed those held by Dorothy, and according to his son Jim, Joe had the ability to heal others by the ‘laying on of hands’. In a letter to his son John, written at the end of 1940, Joe tries to explain the concept of autogenic writing.

“. . . I would very much like to read the thoughts which you have written down for they are from spirit, and I wish you will continue to receive and write them. Thoughts are living things for it is by transmission that we contact spirit and contact each other. Thoughts such as you have expressed in your letter transmitted through the ether will find mind’s inquiring on the same transmission the answer to their problem and will give comfort and solace to strangers and to you as far as physical is concerned, but closely connected in spirit . . “

Joe Tindale died of cancer at the end of 1964.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Name: TINDALE, Joseph Wordsworth Registration district: Gateshead County: Durham Year of registration: 1896 Quarter of registration: Apr-May-Jun Volume no: 10A Page no: 898
2. ↑ Name: BURN, Dorothy Registration district: Gateshead County: Durham Year of registration: 1922 Quarter of registration: Jan-Feb-Mar Spouse's last name: Tindale Volume no: 10A Page no: 1297
3. ↑ Name: TINDALE, Joseph W Registration district: Durham North Western County: Durham Year of registration: 1964 Quarter of registration: Oct-Nov-Dec Age at death: 68 Volume no: 1A Page no: 583

• Birth and death dates from Potts Trust

• Further information from Pauline Gashinski

Footnotes

• According to the Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland, the level of unemployment in the North of England was between thirty and seventy percent higher than the national average of 17.7% unemployment during the 1930's.