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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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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  7 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
16771 BAGLEY, Annie Dorothy1894ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1903 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
10905 BAGLEY, John 1901ENG,     Apr 1912 : Corinthian CAN Barnardos  
16774 BAGLEY, Leonard 1899ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1903 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
16772 BAGLEY, Richard Charles1889ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1903 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
6862 BAGLEY, Walter 1889ENG,     Apr 1900 : Cambroman CAN Barnardos  
16773 BAGLEY, Walter Ambrose1892ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1903 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
16770 BAGLEY, William Henry1896ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1903 : Siberian CAN Middlemore