Thomas Miles Bloomfield (known as Miley)

Introduction

Graham White is another follower of the Friends of Teignmouth Cemetery who contacted us again after the post about our “Celebrating Five Years”.  He has done considerable research into the lives of his grandparents, Thomas Miles Bloomfield and Mary Ann Phillips Bloomfield.  There is remarkable resonance between Thomas’ story and that of Samuel Brokensha, the distant cousin of Mike Brokenshaw who gave his story in an earlier recent post – both served in the navy and subsequently the coastguard service ….. but 80 years apart!

Most of the stories we publish are based on standard historical research from documented sources.  So it is wonderful to be able to present this story with its unique personal family details that can only come from the family directly.

This is Thomas’s story, as told in Graham’s own words, with some limited editing to fit within this blog.  There are two partners in a marriage and Graham has produced an equally fascinating biography of his grandmother, Annie, which will feature in an upcoming post.

In Summary

Thomas Miles Bloomfield grew up in a close-knit working-class family which, while not well off, would have been considered reasonably comfortable with a grace and favour railway house and two incomes.

He was the only one in the family to take the services as his career and this was dominated by The Royal Navy and The Coastguard service. From the time he left his home in 1900 his life was about service, the sea and travel until he arrived in Teignmouth in 1928 when he settled down with his family. Annie passed away when she was young in 1935 leaving him to bring up the children.

Family stories suggest he was much loved and was well respected in his adopted town and in particular around the fishing community in Ivy Lane (Editor’s Note: Samuel Brokensha also lived in Ivy lane!)

Childhood

Thomas Miles Bloomfield was born in the village of Burnham Sutton or Dale Hole Holkham, Norfolk, England. His father, Thomas Miles Bloomfield (snr), was the licensee of the Victoria Inn from 1881-1883 (and a butcher and cattle dealer at the same time) which was in Burnham Westgate, a village that is now a part of Burnham Market. His parents (my great grandparents) were recorded as publicans at this address in the 1881 and held the licence to 1883.

There is some confusion arising from Thomas Miles’s birth certificate contradicting all other known information about him. It records the family surname, including his, as Blomfield, his birth place as Burnham Overy, and his birthdate as 1^st October 1884.

The surname could be explained by misspelling but this version was used as the family surname in previous generations including at some time his parents. In all other known documentation about him, his parents and his siblings, the family name is given as Bloomfield.

His birth certificate in 1884 records his birth place as Burnham Sutton but he was baptised in Holkham in July 1885. However, his younger sister and brother, Lucy Bridget and John William were registered as being born in Holkham, which was the village (and part of the Holkham Hall Estate) located close to the Great Eastern Railway (GER) gatehouse, where the family moved to around 1885/6 when the railway was first opened. The residence of his father; Thomas Miles senior, on the birth certificate, is stated at Burnham Overy and his occupation is shown as a Platelayer, which confirms his change in job from publican to railway worker. So, Thomas Miles (jnr) was probably either born in Burnham Sutton at the Victoria pub when his father had relinquished the licence and changed his job or in the Dale Hole GER railway gatehouse.

The family had definitely moved to Dale Hole GER railway gatehouse, Holkham, by 1885 – 1886.  His father’s occupation was still Platelayer and his mother’s occupation was Gatekeeper (railway) by the time of the next census in 1901. The move would have coincided with the railway opening in 1886.

His parents lived at the railway gatehouse address for over 20 years and were registered living there in the 1901 and 1911 Census with the same occupations on the railway. This remote house now sits between the junction of the A149 and the B1155 immediately adjacent to the north west boundary to the Holkham Hall Estate. Today, the building still exists and is called Snuggles Cottage.

The cottage is very remote, sitting in the lee of a small hill which must have formed part of the railway embankment on a blind bend on the A149 road, being almost equidistant between the villages of Holkham, Burnham Overy and Burnham Overy Staithe. The land lying to the north is flat leading to low lying fields and the salt water marshes and the expansive beaches of Norfolk on the North Sea. It is very open to the easterly on shore gales.

The house is only 1.3 miles away from Burnham Thorpe where Horatio Nelson was born and a few hundred metres from the Norfolk Coast. Maybe this was the inspiration for Thomas Miles going to sea! One thing clear is that he had a love of trains, which was inspired by being brought up in a railway crossing gatehouse. This was passed onto myself and my elder brother when he took us regularly to watch the trains on the Teignmouth seafront promenade leading towards Spreypoint close to where the whale bone was positioned alongside where a pill box defence emplacement was erected during WWII.

The whole family of 7 lived in this very small railway gatehouse. The children would have been real-life ‘railway children’. They would also have spent much time on the vast beaches, close by, and collecting shoreline shellfish which is abundant there. I always remember great Aunt Grace, wife of sibling John William, sending to my mother, in the post, samphire, which grew in the salt marshes around the Norfolk coast.

The family also must have been intrigued by the gentry living in Holkham Hall. There is no evidence that any of them worked in the hall or its estate but as some of the children were christened in the Holkham Estate church it suggests that they were allowed into the lower village.

Thomas Miles started his schooling in the Holkham Village School, a part of the Holkham Hall estate, in July 1892. His elder brother Harry had started at the same school in July 1890 and his younger sister, Lucy in July 1894. There are no records of when any of the family left the school but Thomas Miles would most likely have left when he was 14.

Royal Naval Service

His service record shows that he enlisted in the Royal Navy on the 16^th January 1900 when he was 16. He was previously employed as a labourer. His service career (not taking into account his coastguard career when he was posted, for a short while, to South Ventnor in 1914 as a Coastguard Boatman) was almost 19 years.

He appears to have signed up for a 12 year commission, on his 18^th birthday, in 1902. He was due to leave the Royal Navy in 1914 and clearly was already contemplating a new career in the coastguards’ section which was, at that time a part of the Admiralty. (The ownership was not relinquished by the Admiralty until 1923 when it’s role was redefined as a coastal safety and rescue service and thereafter overseen by the Board of Trade).

Bearing in mind the outbreak of WWI was July 1914, he was reposted to Victory 1 in Portsmouth on 1^st of August 1914. It is reasonable to assume that he was either requisitioned back to ship service, or he volunteered, as a part of the war effort.

For details of his postings see the attached Service Record and Postings record in Appendix 2.

After his training, his career until WWI appears to have been mainly around the manning of mothballed or reserved ships, primarily around Portsmouth. He was promoted through the ranks to Petty Officer.

On his return to Royal Naval service in 1914, at the commencement of WW1, he was first posted to The Empress of Japan, and then HMS Lunka which patrolled the east coast of Africa, Tanzania and Zanzibar in the south and up to the Yemen and India in the north. He remained in this area for the rest of the war. The photo shows him in Aden in 1916 and bears the inscription “To my dear little daughter Eva Mary from her loving father at Aden on her dear little birthday 10.11.16″

The log book of HMS Lunka does not suggest a lot of active engagement with the enemy but the mission of this ship, being stationed in the area, would have been to stop the enemy or their allies’ shipping reaching or leaving the German Colonies in and around East Africa, and thus stopping troop and supply movements. HMS Empress of India did engage in some direct enemy action in the Red Sea.  It is thought that his short attachment to HMS Empress of Japan was only to take him to his permanent posting on HMS Lunka.

Marriage, family and death

He met his wife; Mary Ann Phillips Hutchings (known as Annie) in Ventnor in 1913. She was a Devon girl from East Prawle, Chivelstone, and was living in one of the coastguard cottages looking after her brother-in-law, William George Eastman, and his 3 children (1911 Census only shows two children as the eldest daughter, Melita, was sometimes sent to relatives due the illness of her father). William George was married to Betsy Eva who was Annie’s elder sister. She had died in June 1909. Annie had moved to live with her sister and her family either when their mother died in 1901 or when her sister became ill sometime before 1909. (This cannot be confirmed but circumstantial evidence suggests that she was with her sister from 1901).  It is understood that William George also became ill shortly after his wife Betsy died and he passed away in 1913, a month before Thomas Miles met Annie.

Thomas and Annie married in Ventnor Holy Trinity Church on the 1^st of June 1914 and their first child; Eva Mary (Mary) Bloomfield, was born on the 10^th November 1915. Thomas would not see his daughter until 1919 when he came back from his Indian Ocean war service in the Royal Navy. Annie and Eva Mary stayed in West Street Ventnor until his return.

They eventually had 5 children, but only Eva Mary was born in England.

Annie passed away on 12^th December 1935 at their coastguard station home at no 1 Ivy Lane, Teignmouth.

Thomas Miles passed away at Teignmouth Hospital on 28^th June 1953.

Coastguard Career

On return from his WWI service, Thomas Miles was posted initially to Victory I Portsmouth and then reposted to Ventnor as a Leading Boatman in the Coastguards on the 28^th May 1919. He did not stay long and on the 26^th August 1919, he was posted to Belmullet, County Mayo, Eire and the family moved with him. This was at the time that the Irish War of Independence had commenced after the Soloheadbag ambush in January 1919 (which by coincidence involved the death of an R.I.C. Constable who was born in Belmullet).

Thomas Miles was stationed at Bellmullet, Blacksod Point and Buncrana all in the same area until 23^rd February 1921. During this time the ‘Troubles’ were spilling over into this region. In October 1919 a young boy was shot by a sentry guarding the local wireless station. In June 1920 an R.I.C. constable was killed and three injured during a riot on the main street. In late August 1920 a local coastguard station (undetermined) was attacked. The raiders were interrupted by a police patrol and shots were exchanged. The raiders escaped but not before the coastguard station was destroyed.

It is not known if Thomas Miles or his family were directly involved, or how they were affected by any of these conflicts, although they were inescapably in the middle of everything going on. The only known reference to the dangers of the job, at this time, was that he carried a gun for protection. This information has been passed down through the family. The Coastguards were particularly disliked because they not only represented the ‘oppressive British’ but they inhibited the smuggling activities, much which was more to do with local crime rather than a part of the political differences.

On the 24^th February 1921 he was posted to Cloghy (Cloughy) near Portaferry, in Northern Ireland.

The next period of his career and the location of his family is not clear. Information thereafter is not on his service record, as by now the Coastguards were transferred to the Board of Trade, as mentioned earlier, and his Royal Naval Service career was now finally over, but his Coastguard Service continued. However, he was certainly still at Cloghy on the 6^th June 1925 as my mother, Vera Ellen, was born in Portaferry on this date.

Sometime between June 1925 and July 1926 he was posted to Drummore near Stranraer Scotland. Records have not been found relating to this posting. However, Eric Bloomfield, his son, recalled going to school in Stranraer. In one of the two post card albums in existence, originally owned by Annie, his wife and then by her daughter Eva Mary Bloomfield, there is a page dedicated by A Galloway of 36 St John Street, Stranraer dated 12^th July 1926. They therefore had moved sometime in the preceding 12+ months from my mother’s birth place.

A Coastguard in Teignmouth

On the 4^th December 1928 Thomas Miles was posted to Teignmouth Coastguards as HM Coastguard. He was promoted to Station Officer on 1^st November 1942 and retired on 1^st June 1946 so his service at Teignmouth covered the entire second world war.

There are three Coastguard commendations for him during his time at Teignmouth:

All of these events received considerable national press coverage.

Other instances of his actions were recorded in the Teignmouth Post and Gazette of 24 April 1936:

In a sequel to the Bundle Head Rescue, the following report appeared on May 1^st 1936:

World War II

There is no known information recorded of any specific Coastguard activity, associated with him, at Teignmouth during the War although there are some references to actions involving Teignmouth Coastguards in the press.

PHOTO SELECTION FROM 1942/43

In the Viv Wilson book, ‘Teignmouth at WAR 1939-45’ she writes:

The following anecdotal information has been handed down through the family:

On VE day a coastguard rocket was fired in celebration by Thomas Miles Bloomfield together with his future daughter-in-law (Sheila) who was on leave from the ATS.

Retirement

Thomas Miles retired from the Coastguard Service on 1^st June 1946. He moved from the Coastguard House in Ivy Lane and bought East Cliff Cott, Mere Lane Teignmouth. He clearly still wanted to live right next to the sea. He lived there with his daughter, Vera Ellen White, her husband Leonard and subsequently their two first children; Norman Miles and Graham Lennard. He would take his grandchildren to watch the trains at the end of the promenade close to East Cliff Bridge.

He pursued his hobbies being a member of The Den Bowling Club, watching the horseracing at Newton Abbot Races and following from afar his Norwich City football team, ‘The Canaries’.

He also opened a Weighing Machine kiosk on the east side slope outside Teignmouth Pier which he operated during the summer until his death in 1953. The scales were given to the boxing club after his death.

Dedicated to my grandfather.

“The more I learnt about him the more I understood what made him the man he was. I just wish I could have had the chance to know him.“

Graham Lennard White, grandson and son of Vera Ellen White (nee Bloomfield) 13^th June 2020

Thomas’s funeral was marked in the local paper:

Thomas and his wife Annie are buried in plot KK74 in Teignmouth Old Cemetery.

Original photo plus recent images

Graham has compiled some other notable interesting facts about Thomas and his family which are included in Appendix 1 to this story.  Appendix 2 includes a genealogical summary and pertinent documents.

Graham’s Thanks, Acknowledgments, Sources and References:

• Alan Bloomfield Grandson
• Diane Hook – Teign Heritage
• The Wilson Archive – (Teignmouth at WAR 1939-1945)
• Holkham Hall Archives
• Newspaper archives
• Wikipedia – Belmullet
• Service Record
• www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/utility
• Family archives and photo albums
• Naval History Archives
• HMS Lunka Service Log Web page: https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-09-HMS_Lunka.htm
• HMS Empress Of India Log Web page: https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-08-HMS_Empress_of_Japan.htm

Appendix 1:  Notable Interesting Facts

• His mother, Elizabeth Caroline, was also employed by the GER railway company as the gatekeeper for the railway crossing at Dale Hole, near Holkham, Norfolk. She would have been only one of a handful of women employed on the UK railways for such a job.
• A part of his Coastguard duties was to daily turn the lights on and off on the Teignmouth promenade Lighthouse. It is thought that at one stage it was gas lit.
• His sister; Bessie Bloomfield, became the servant of Andrew Bonar – Law MP in the 1911 Census when she was 30 years old. Bonar – Law became the UK Prime Minister 1922-23 (even though he was Canadian) and was the Leader of the Unionist Party. He formed an alliance with Lloyd George in 1916 and became the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a member of the War Cabinet.
• His brother, Harry Bloomfield, was killed on the 16^th August 1917 during the 3^rd Ypres Offensive (The Battle of Passchendaele). Interestingly Bonar-Law was pro the Passchendaele Offensive. History has subsequently questioned this decision.
• Actions at Blacksod Coastguard Station, in 1944, where the Thomas Miles Bloomfield was stationed in the 1920’s, contributed to the course of the Second World War, not that Thomas Miles or anyone else outside the top brass military would have known.
  
  One of the duties of the Coastguard, which my grandfather would have done when he was stationed there, was to take regular weather readings and transmit these back to a central control, in England, for collation.  Blacksod sits at the most westerly position on the British Isles. Ted Sweeney was the Coastguard man and Lighthouse keeper, at Blacksod on the 3rd June 1944 where he sent his hourly met reports, direct by phone, to London. His 2.00am report contained an ominous warning of a Force 6 wind and a rapidly falling barometer at Blacksod. It was his report from this Coastguard station, which convinced General Dwight D Eisenhower to delay the D-Day invasion for 24 hours to the 6th June. This was after Ted Sweeney’s forecast had been double checked by telephone from London at 11.00 am later the same day. He was asked to re-read the whole report over the telephone. Then at 12.00 pm on June 4th Ted sent a latest report that predicted an improving weather forecast that was immediately passed to Eisenhower and the allied commanders. In the early hours of the 5th June, following this report from Blacksod, the D Day invasion order was given. The rest is history, as they say!
  
  The Irish Independent reported that evidence from Met Eireann forecasters reveals how the Blacksod day forecast changed the course of history. Despite years of planning, in the days leading up to the attack, the Allied invasion would depend on one crucial and uncontrollable factor – the weather. Although separate observations were taken at various locations by Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and the United States Army Air Force meteorologists, an accurate forecast from the Irish Meteorological Service, based on observations from Blacksod on Mullet peninsula would be the most important. The D-Day Museum in Portsmouth was presented with Sweeney’s original Blacksod observation sheets, collated by the Irish Met Service, and including the actual weather observations which proved so crucial to the invasion.
• Friday 11^th March 1938 Thomas Miles Bloomfield was one of a number of Coastguard Station Officers who was called to give evidence at Brixham Police Court at the trial of former district coastguard officer; Harry Evans. Mr Evans pleaded guilty to the charge of false taxi expenses and was fined £20, with £30 costs and £4.11s 8d restitution.

Appendix 2:  Genealogical Summary

Thomas Miles Bloomfield:  1^st or 5^th October 1884 (records differ) – 28^th June 1953

Born: Burnham Sutton, Norfolk, England

Parents: Father:   Thomas Miles Bloomfield 1846 – 1927

               Mother: Elizabeth Caroline Bloomfield nee Smith 1845 – 1927

Siblings:

• Eliza b 1877 married and lived locally in Brancaster. Died?
• Lucy b 1879 died 1884 aged 5
• Bessie b 1881 died? – became the servant to Andrew Bonar- Law Prime Minister, WWI War cabinet, First lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
• Lucy Bridgit b 1887 – Servant and parlour maid to Charles C Scott KC Died 1956
• Harry b 1883 – killed at the 3^rd battle of Passchendaele in WWI 1917
• John William b 1890 – milkman. Died Banbury 1951

Marriage: Mary Ann (Annie) Phillips Bloomfield nee Hutchings at Holy Trinity Church, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England on 1^st June 1914.

Children:

• Eva Mary (known as Mary) (b) 1915 Ventnor, I.O.W. England
• Richard Miles (b) 1920 Blacksod, County Down, Eire
• Eric Malcolm (b) 1921 Cloughy, Port-a-Ferry, Northern Ireland                
• Norman (b) 1924 Cloughy, Port-a-Ferry, Northern Ireland
• Vera Ellen (b) 1925 Cloughy, Port-a-Ferry, Northern Ireland

Teignmouth Residences:

• 1 Coastguard Cottages, Ivy Lane
• East Cliff Cottage, Mere Lane

Death: Teignmouth Hospital

Resting Place: Teignmouth Cemetery with his wife Mary Ann (Annie) Phillips Bloomfield

IMAGES OF OFFICIAL CERTIFICATES