Let us Talk of Many Things; of Books and Queens and Pirates, of Mystery and Kings...: My Weekend Spotlight guest: The Line of Sixteen: Searching for my children’s great, great grandparents by John Rigg

About the Book

Title: The Line of 16: Searching for my children’s great, great grandparents

by: John Rigg

non-fiction (genealogy)

Publisher: ‎ SilverWood Books

Publication date: ‎ 28 April 2025

Pages: 444

available: Kindle and Paperback

John Rigg talks about his book:

The Line of 16: Searching for my children’s great, great grandparents is based around the cohort of direct ancestors who were 4 steps back in the generational lines that have led directly to the two children (who are now adults) in our family. Their years of birth cover the period from 1836 to 1869 with their places of origin ranging across England, Scotland and Ireland as well as Malta and Germany.

However, the book’s presentation of some of the lines within the family story goes back much further in time. In other words, I have not restricted my research to the period from the middle years of the 19th Century onwards - for example, I report on the named ancestors who have been identified in 16th Century Yorkshire and Hannover and 17th Century Suffolk.

But the exercise has not simply been one of finding as many pieces as possible of the (never-ending) jigsaw puzzle. I have also been keen to reflect on the circumstances of the lives being led by the various members of the cast-list.

There are no Prime Ministers in this narrative – no Admirals of the Fleet or Poets Laureate or Knights of the Realm (though a son-in-law of my own great, great grandfather did play rugby for England in the 1890s !). But there are a host of “ordinary” people whose resilience, courage and determination – on both my side and my wife’s - have taken the family story through to the present day. Ordinary and heroic. They were the ones who raised their families and worked hard and migrated in order to better their prospects. They were the ones who experienced the Great Famine in the Ireland of the 1840s and the horrors of the First World War trenches and the perils of service in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War – and whose personal stories deserve to be told.

Of course, any family history of this type risks having a limited interest for those not in the family itself. However, by also discussing the detailed research methodology that has underpinned The Line of 16: Searching for my children’s great, great grandparents, the book provides valuable insights on the sources to be explored and the pitfalls to be avoided when compiling any family history.

The family history book maintains a theme which is prevalent in the 3 sports books: namely, an interest in the way in which an individual or event is placed within the overall context of the place or time. This breadth of perspective is also to be found in my experience as an “ordinary spectator” watching a range of sports - at various levels - for over 60 years.

Order Your Copy

John Rigg’s books are available from Amazon, SilverWood Books and book retailers.

Family History:

The Line of Sixteen: Searching for my childrens’ great grandparents

Sport:

An Ordinary Spectator Returns: Watching Sport Again

Still An Ordinary Spectator: 5 More Years of Watching Sport

An Ordinary Spectator: 50 Years of Watching Sport

Amazon Author Page UK

Amazon Author Page US

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOHN RIGG was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a First Class degree in Economics, later completing a Ph.D. He worked as an economic consultant in London and in the Senior Civil Service in Scotland.

John has been researching his family history for nearly 40 years and has published several articles for the Cleveland Family History Society Journal. His non-family history articles include those on economics and statistics for the Scottish Economic Bulletin and Scottish Economic Statistics.

John has written extensively on watching sport. An Ordinary Spectator: 50 Years of Watching Sport was published by SilverWood Books in 2012 and Still An Ordinary Spectator: Five More Years of Watching Sport in 2017. The third book in the series – An Ordinary Spectator Returns: Watching Sport Again – was published in 2023. He has also written sport-related articles for the magazines Backpass (football), Backspin and The Nightwatchman (cricket), the Rugby League Journal and Forty-20 (rugby league) and (co-authored with Richard Lewney) the International Review of the Sociology of Sport.

John’s fiction is written under the name of JR Alexander. The novels - Shouting at the Window (2020) and On the Carousel (2021) – are published by High Ridge Publishing and available on Kindle and other online platforms. Long Forgotten Events will be published in 2025.

He is married with two children and lives in Scotland.

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Website - http://www.anordinaryspectator.com

News: http://www.anordinaryspectator.com/news-blog

read an excerpt

Arthur Joseph English, 1892-1970.

In this extract I refer to part of the First World War experience in the Royal Navy Reserve (RNR) of Arthur Joseph English (1892-1970) – my wife’s paternal grandfather. Arthur had entered the Merchant Navy as a 15 year-old Ordinary Apprentice and later rose to the rank of Captain. The details of his time in the RNR were contained in the family records passed on by him to his son and my father-in-law, Denis English.

Among the papers were two lengthy articles from The Sunday Times Weekly Review in January 1963 by an author called Don Everitt, respectively entitled “The Astonishing History of the K Boats” and “Ordeal in K13”. These were accompanied by a review of Everitt’s book (The K Boats published by Harrap at 18 shillings) by David Holloway in the Daily Telegraph later the same month: “White Elephants at Sea”. Denis’s file also included a short hand-written note from his father, dated 5 January 1970, which referred to another press cutting (which was not with the papers), though with a caveat – “[It] may be of interest to you, though [I] expect you’re sick of the whole subject”.

All sorts of questions arose. Why had Denis kept these particular press cuttings, which were nearly half a century old? What was “the whole subject”? And what was the family connection to it? As so often with family stories, the immediate reaction was one of regret that Denis was not around to ask in person. There was now a mystery to solve.

The solution to the puzzle emerged from two separate strands of enquiry: the detailed career of Arthur Joseph English and the truly “astonishing” story of the development of Britain’s submarine capability in the First World War.

By November 1916, Arthur was a Lieutenant (Temporary) in the RNR serving on HMS H2. On his discharge from that vessel, in April 1918, his captain reported that he was “a most energetic and efficient navigating officer of his submarine”. Following a period of service on HMS Maidstone, it was what came next for Arthur that draws the two strands of our story together.

Don Everitt’s 1963 book described how, in 1915, the Admiralty secretly laid down a class of submarines of revolutionary design. In response to the German U-boats successes in the early stages of the war – three cruisers were sunk in the English Channel in one particular attack – Britain’s new submersible destroyers were to be the largest, heaviest and fastest submarines in the world. Between August 1916 and May 1918, 17 of these steam-powered vessels were commissioned, designated as the K class.

It is difficult to summarise the full extent of the K class’s deficiencies, though, in his contemporary review of Everitt’s book, Holloway made a good attempt: “K boats had a habit of sinking of their own accord, diving out of control or merely failing to go down when required”.

Modern analysts offer no kinder judgement. In the Winter 2013 edition of Undersea Warfare, the official magazine of the US submarine force, Edward C Whitman stated that “the K boats compiled an almost unbroken record of disaster and death, unredeemed by even a single instance of combat effectiveness”. Among the technical deficiencies, in 1917, were “fuel leaks, explosions, fires, boiler flashbacks, hydraulic failures and groundings”. The article also noted that “loss of depth control was common and nosing into the bottom was a regular occurrence”.

Everitt drew on Admiralty papers and interviews with the (then) surviving participants to catalogue the series of tragedies, disasters and ill-luck that befell the K class of submarines. These included the so-called Battle of May Island in January 1918 (so-called because it took place on the way to fleet exercises, rather than being an actual battle), when two submarines were sunk, three others badly damaged and 105 lives lost.

Back to Arthur English’s wartime records and it is the next entry in his RNR Training Certificate Book that jumps off the page. From October 1918 until May 1919, he was the “navigating officer of a K class submarine (K11)”.

We cannot be sure how much Arthur was aware of the K class’s characteristics as an underwater death-trap when he joined K11. It is reasonable to assume, however, that, among the officers and crew, there would have been some well-informed speculation and insider knowledge about the severe difficulties that the K class had experienced by that stage of the war. Indeed, Undersea Warfare magazine states that “[the] wretched living conditions, coupled with a growing reputation for crew lethality, made the K class unpopular boats to serve in, and morale was a recurring problem”.

The Great War had only a month or so to run when Arthur was first exposed to the dangers of K11. He was not to know that, of course. Moreover, the remaining duration of combat was only partly relevant to Arthur’s survival prospects. The six sinkings within the K class were all due to accidents of various types; only one of the K class ever engaged an enemy vessel (when its torpedo failed to explode on hitting a U-boat) and none of the class’s death toll was attributable to enemy action. As late as 1921, K5 was lost with all hands during fleet exercises and K15 sank at Portsmouth.

When the war started, Arthur Joseph English was 22 years old. In 1918, having survived four years at sea, he was given a position of huge responsibility in a type of vessel that was almost certainly known to have had an appalling track record. What must he have thought? What must his expectations have been? How had he reconciled himself to the increased possibility of death by drowning or fire or asphyxiation?

Of course, there was no question of Arthur turning his back on what was required. He did his duty and this was recognised, in October 1919, with the award of the Mercantile Marine Medal. Nonetheless, one can only wonder at a bravery which – as with that of countless others across the different theatres of the Great War – evokes strong emotions of pride and gratitude, even a century on.

My thoughts

This is one of those books that you dip in and out of, maybe reading only a chapter or two at a time - at 444 pages, it is a big book. It isn't fast-paced action, but offers detailed observations and is carefully constructed.

Anyone interested in the history of the late 1800s, the Great War and Second World War, or the history behind the ordinary people of England, Scotland, Ireland, Malta and Germany as well as Suffolk and Yorkshire in the 16th and 17th centuries would appreciate the research that the author has diligently undertaken. It would also be especially appealing to anyone interested in tracing a family history and genealogy. This descriptive and informative book is fascinating as a descriptive record of the past.

I read on Kindle, so couldn't confirm the formatting and layout for the paperback edition, but I have known the publisher, Silverwood Books Ltd, for many years now, and have always found their books to be professionally produced - the e-book edition certainly is.

**** 4 stars

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