William Lewis was born in Minchinhampton in 1886, the son of an agricultural labourer. He married Rosina Gardiner in July 1911. Rosina already had a daughter, Winifred, from a previous relationship. The family then moved to the Forest so William could get better-paid work in the mines. At some stage, after this Wiliam joined the military.
In May 1918, Rosina Lewis from Ruardean Hill was sent to prison for seven days for aiding her husband, William, a sapper in the Royal Engineers, to desert. This was not the first time William had deserted while on home leave; on three occasions in the past, he had to be fetched by a military escort. He was due back in France in February, but did not arrive and had apparently disappeared. Eventually, a thorough search was made of his house and William was found sewn up inside the mattress cover on which his mother and four children were lying. He was arrested and returned to the trenches.[1] Rosina struggled to cope and was forced to enter the workhouse with her four children for a short period in the Autumn of 1918.
The Lewis family survived the war but not the poverty of post war Britain. William returned to work as a labourer at Foxes Bridge colliery near Cinderford, and by 1921, the family included six children. Labourers in Forest collieries were very badly paid compared to some of the more skilled workers who were on piece rates or were craftsmen and so the family struggled to feed their children.
In 1921, the response from the government and the owners to a depression in the coal trade was to allow ruthless competition to take its toll. They argued they had no alternative but to resolve the economic crisis in the coal industry by radically reducing labour costs, translated into wage cuts of up to 50 per cent. The miners refused to go to work under these new terms and downed tools. As a result, on 31 March 1921, one million British miners, including many war veterans, were locked out of their pits; this included over 6,000 miners from the Forest of Dean. After three months, the miners returned to work defeated and had to accept the severe wage cuts, while others became unemployed.
In July 1921, William was caught stealing four cabbages from Westbury Court Gardens valued at one shilling. Soon after, William and Rosina were brought to court, charged with neglecting their children, despite the court acknowledging they were well nourished. The parents were both sentenced to two months in prison and the children were taken into care. In addition, William was fined 20s for the theft of the cabbages.[2]
Rosina’s fourteen-year-old daughter Winifred died in 1922. Rosina died in 1927, aged just forty.
[1] Gloucester Journal 25 May 1918.
[2] Gloucester Citizen 30 July 1921.