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Record #16773

Name :: : Walter Ambrose BAGLEY (1892 - 1946)
Father: :
Mother: :

BMD and other details

Date of Birth: : 2 Sep 1892
Marriage (1): :
Marriage (2): :
Date of Death: : 1946

Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Warwickshire, Birmingham

Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialUnited States of America, Wayne, Detroit

Sailing Information

Date of Arrival: : 10 Jun 1903
Country: : Canada
Ship: : Siberian
Placement Family: :

Homes / Agencys

Institution (GB): :
Agency: : Middlemore

NotesA birth registration was found for Walter Ambrose Bagley: Date: Oct-Nov-Dec 1892; District: Birmingham; County: Warwickshire; Volume: 6d; Page: 79. Parents: Richard Bagley [1854 ? 1902] and Leah Stocks [1867 ? 1934], married November 1891 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.

A death registration was found for Richard Bagley: Date: Apr-May-Jun 1902; Age: 47; District: Birmingham; County: Warwickshire; Volume: 6d; Page: 32. [EDITORS NOTE: Richard Bagley died of apoplexy (stroke) at the table while eating breakfast with all of his family. The story is related on Leonard Bagley Fraser's database listing.]

Richard, Walter and sister, Annie, were admitted to Middlemore Homes on July 17, 1902. William and Leonard were placed in the Middlemore home in October, 1902.

In 1903, Walter A. Bagley, 11; arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in a group of 124 Middlemore children.

Walter Ambrose Bagley married Ila Mae VanOrder (daughter of Edward F. VanOrder and Carrie May West) in Michigan, USA, about 1920.

At least one child was born of this marriage: Arthur Miles Bagley, born September 3, 1921, in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA, died January 17, 2000, in Inkster, Wayne, Michigan, USA.

From Walter's great-granddaughter:

"I know my Great-Grandfather was an interesting man. So here are the very few details I remember getting while visiting my Great-Grandmother.

He and his siblings (3 brothers and one sister) were taken from their mother who was unable to care for them. Or at least, the British government thought as much. So at the ages of 13, 11, 9, 6 and 4 they were shipped off on a steamer bound for Canada. Once there, the children were split up and sent to live with different families.

I think Richard and William settled down in Canada. I know Annie Dorothy met with "unhappy" circumstances with the family she ended up with. There was abuse and much else I have come to understand. What happened to her I don't know.

Walter Ambrose on the other hand, couldn't take the living conditions. He mentioned to my Great-Grandmother of having to sleep in the barn with the animals etc.. He stayed a few more years then ran away, crossing the American border into Maine. There he fell asleep under a hedge which happened to belong to a local Potato farmer. The farmer hired him on as a "hand". How long he stayed there I don't know. Later, he moved to Boston I think and from there, joined the US Cavalry.

He served in France during WW I, was wounded and eventually came home having earned his American citizenship.

He eventually found odd jobs after the war, but nothing suited him. He then set off for California where he worked in Hollywood as an extra in several silent films. The producers and directors were intrigued by his accent which he still carried with him. Though, I don't think he made it into the "talkies". He even played bit parts in a few "Keystone Cops" serials.

The wound he received in WWI caught up with him and he developed serious crippling Arthritis. He died in 1946. Never having forgiven England for stripping him of his family.

I think his brothers came to see him a few times. His youngest sibling changed his last name as he was adopted by his host family in Canada. He moved to the US sometime later. I think the ONLY child out of the 5 that had a decent childhood."

Interview recorded the Summer of 1984

At the time the last remaining child of Richard Charles & Leah Bagley, Leonard Bagley Fraser was recorded at the Bagley Family Reunion held in Sheffield, New Brunswick, Canada:

" ... and then Walter landed over here in Oromocto and wound up with someone with a livery stable. And I guess he didn?t have a very good life. First thing I heard was that he ran away. To the state Maine and fell in with somebody over there with a livery stable and work with horses. Always around horses. I don?t know how long he stayed there or where he went from there. The next thing I knew he was in the state of Washington in the Calvary, the American Calvary. No wait a minute. I take that back. He worked as an extra for a while in Hollywood doing pictures.

I don?t know how long that was. He was in Birth of a Nation [1915].

[Grace: He was an extra? Oh, I saw those pictures!]

So? he went overseas with the Calvary, the U.S. Calvary. Just a month to the day, that they left New York he was back. The first day out he was showered with [Words that follow are unintelligible]. The rest of them were all killed. And he was disabled, in a wheelchair, blind, too. [Words that follow are unintelligible]

[Grace: When did Walter marry? When he was in the States?]

Yeah. He married Ila Van Orton. They had one son. Miles. [Words that follow are unintelligible]

He had a marvelous memory. He loved to play cards. I remember one night we were playing poker. Five or six of us. He was blind at the time. And we were playing stud poker. All he wanted to know was who had sat where. Grace sat there, and on. [Someone would tell him what was in his hand. Each player would say what they were playing.] Anyway, they dealt the cards out. Grace got the ace of diamonds. [Words that follow are unintelligible] That one night in particular it cam to a show down. We were all arguing. He said, ?What the hell are all you people arguing about? I got the best hand of all of you!? And he was right!

[Grace interrupts with reminiscing bits about her impressions of Walt.]

He sold more poppies [VA poppies] then anybody else. And he did that year after year. He did that all over the phone."

Walter Ambrose Bagley died in 1946 in Michigan, USA.

Ila Mae VanOrden Bagley died on May 28, 1997, in Inkster, Wayne, Michigan, USA, at the age of 101.

ContributorsCreated : 2012-09-19 16:49:20 / From original database

Last Updated : 2012-10-25 22:34:40 /

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Readers Comments

Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 30 Entries

Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 1495 Entries

ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links
5126	ABBOTT, Emily	1886	ENG,	May 1898 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
3011	ABBOTT, Frederick	1896	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1906 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
3012	ABBOTT, George	1893	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1906 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
3058	ABBOTT, Herbert William	1893	ENG, WAR, Aston, Erdington	Jun 1906 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
3140	ACKROYD, Frances May	1899	M__,	Jun 1915 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
3143	ACKROYD, Mabel Emma	1904	IRL,	Jun 1915 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
3144	ACKROYD, William Henry	1906	IND, , Quetta	Jun 1915 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
6924	ADAMS, Ann Elizabeth	1867	ENG,	Jun 1878 : Sarmatian	CAN	Middlemore
8778	ADAMS, George	1875	ENG,	Jun 1887 : Lake Ontario	CAN	Middlemore
8128	ADIE, Dorothy May	1914	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jul 1928 : Newfoundland	CAN	Middlemore
10057	ADIE, Henry	1896	ENG, WAR, Aston	Jun 1906 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
10056	ADIE, Mary	1895	ENG,	Jun 1906 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
5834	ADKINS, Edith May	1907	ENG, WAR, Alcester	Jun 1910 : Mongolian	CAN	Middlemore
9641	AGAR, John	1905	ENG,	Jun 1911 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
8129	AGER, Arthur Charles	1915	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jul 1928 : Newfoundland	CAN	Middlemore
23376	ALEXANDER, Walter	1906	ENG,	May 1920 : Minnedosa	CAN	Middlemore
4645	ALLDRIDGE, Arthur	1897	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1904 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
4640	ALLDRIDGE, Francis	1889	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1896 : Corean	CAN	Middlemore
4644	ALLDRIDGE, Harry	1892	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1904 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
4639	ALLDRIDGE, John Leonard	1884	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1896 : Corean	CAN	Middlemore
4641	ALLDRIDGE, Ruth Rebecca	1890	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1896 : Corean	CAN	Middlemore
4643	ALLDRIDGE, Violet	1893	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1904 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
4642	ALLDRIDGE, William Henry	1886	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1896 : Corean	CAN	Middlemore
9650	ALLEN, Dorothy	1903	ENG,	Jun 1911 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
17060	ALLEN, Edward	1887	ENG,	Jun 1899 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore	hlomiller
3860	ALLEN, Florence Elizabeth	1891	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jun 1902 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
4703	ALLEN, Thomas Henry	1899	ENG, WOR, Kings Norton	May 1907 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
12871	ALLEN, Walter Harry	1883	ENG, WOR, Kidderminster	Jun 1895 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
16328	ALLMAN, Sophia Mary Ann	1875	ENG, MDX, St. George in the East	Jun 1885 : Lake WWnnipeg	CAN	Middlemore
6925	ALLSUPP, Eliza Matty	1865	ENG, , Upton on Severn	Jun 1878 : Sarmatian	CAN	Middlemore
ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links

Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 1495 Entries

Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 30 Entries

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