William George Alfred Belling   1909 - 1992

Happy 103rd Birthday Dad

William (Bud) George Alfred Belling

Happy Birthday 103^rd Dad

In cold hard genealogist terms he would be my Step Grandparent, but in actual fact he was far more than that.  He was a Grandparent, a friend, a fellow bookworm, a joker and a hero of mine as well.  (no disrespect meant for my real paternal Grandpa Lee, we loved him equally, we were lucky to have too awesome granddads around)

When I was at Sheridan College in either first or second year Animation, we had mandatory English classes.  The English classes were geared for the more creative, we had a class whose major project was to produce a Comic Book, or based on real Canadian Heroes.  One English course I took was taught by an eccentric little man who’s name escapes me (he hitchhiked daily from Toronto to Oakville) had one project which we had to interview someone over the age of 70, to learn about his parents, grandparents, memories and experiences, the idea being you would experience stories that spanned a century.  I interviewed Dad because at the other grandparents were under 70 then.  I called him at his home in Dundas and told him about the project, he agreed to be interviewed. 

Dad told me about the his Grandfather Palmer that died the year he was born, who was a sheriff in Branchton, Ontario.  He also told me about his grandfather Laing, who was a HSR conductor, who used to let him ride on the roof of the trolleys (I questioned this, but they were more care free, less litigious days).  Year later, when I started my genealogy research I mined this vein of family information and come up with Gold.  Indeed his maternal grandfather Albert Laing was a conductor for the HSR, and his maternal Great Grandfather Palmer was Jonathan Palmer, who was Sheriff of Branchton, and also a UEL, his family were connected to the Woolvertons and Pettit families of Grimsby.           

On January 25, 1909 Bud Belling was born to Gordon Belling and Essie Laing in Hamilton, Ontario. His parents both died when he was young, his father, a TH&B engineer was walking up from the tracks at Locke Street when he had a heart attack and died at their side walk in 1921 when Bud was only 9, and his mother passed away of cancer in 1928.  Bud and his younger sister Frances were split, Bud living with his Laing Grandparents and Francis with her Belling Grandparents.  He grew up near my Lee family and became best friends with my Grandpa Ken Lee and his brother Allan.  He also stayed on the beach strip  where the Laings had a home at Station 9. During the depression, he would scramble to find odd jobs, from peeling potatoes for restaurants to repairs. 

Bud joined the Navy before the war and was on the HMSS Skeena when it went aground in Iceland.  One story he told about that always fascinated me.   Bud’s maternal Grandmother, Lulu Lavisa Palmer, was by family accounts a medium, and seemed to have a gift for predictions.  Bud was stationed on the HMSS Skeena when it went aground in Iceland.  IN the black of night when the ship hit the rocks it listed and many of the men left the ship and drowned in the freezing waters, not seeing where they were.  A number of men decided to stay aboard and not take their chances in the water at night.   Dad was about to get off the ship when he heard his grandmothers voice telling him to stay on the ship.  When the light of morning come the rest of the men were able to leave the ship safely.   He credited his Grandmother for saving his life.   Meanwhile back at home in Hamilton,  his grandmother called his best friend Ken Lee to see if she had heard from Bud at all.   The only injury Bud sustained from that night is a stiff knee he blamed the cold Icelandic waters for when he left the ship in the morning.   

He married my Grandmother Rosa Lee (nee Hubard) in July 1946 , (Rosa and my Grandfather Ken Lee divorced in the 30s. )  They had their reception at Paddy Greens on Main Street, Hamilton.  Rosa’s father, George Hubard, a carpenter at Stelco, was locked in at Stelco due to the infamous Stelco strike, and unable to attend.  As he was a carpenter on their payroll, he would not have enjoyed Union protection and would have lost his job should he have joined the picket lines.   Bud and Rose built a house in Millgrove, he tool a job at the Ontario Psychiatric Hospital which he held until retirement, and they had two children Gordon and Marilyn. 

When my parents sold their home in Greensville in anticipation of buying my Grandpa Hubards home Flamborough (now Dundas), they stayed at the belling Home in Millgrove. It was during this time my sister and I were born.   As we were exposed to hearing my uncle and Aunt calling our Belling grandparents Dad and Mum, the names stuck, and that’s what we called them until they passed.  He loved to drive.   Once when I was in my teens we were once driving around and he asked me if I wanted a coffee.  I would never refuse a coffee and said of course. He would then drive to my parents place and ask my mother to put the kettle on. 

Dad passed away in May 1992, the same day his Great granddaughter Shayla was born, a week before his great grandson Chris was born, and 6 months before my daughter Julia arrived.  

Happy Birthday Dad.  We miss you. 

My First Post

On January 9, 2012 I was kindly mentioned in Jeff Mahoney's article in the Hamilton Spectator in reaction to an email I had sent him, that one reacting to a story of a woman who grew up in the Hamilton  Jail.  My mention was in regard to a story my Grandpa Lee (Howard Kenneth Lee) told me about 15 years ago as I was gearing up my genealogy research.  I always joke how I would often 'interrogate' my poor grandparents about the past, almost to the point of shining a light in their eyes and demanding the truth.  This was grounded in a kernel of truth.

One day when asking my Grandpa Lee what he remembered about his grandparents, he was always a little cagey about what he would give me, maybe because he honestly didn't know that much, but more likely I had to earn the info.  Grandpa admired a good work ethic. I would ask him about his Grandfather on his mothers side, William Berry one day.  I knew he was a turnkey at the Barton Street jail, and I remembered my dad saying he had a steel plate in his head from an injury sustained in an attempted jailbreak. I don't remember where we were when we had this conversation, possible the Moose Lodge on Barton Street, or maybe at my dad's, but I asked him if he remembered if he recalled when his Grandfather was injured.  He said he did, he was pretty young and at the time didn't know exactly what was going on, other than he and his mother were on an HSR Trolley downtown and a police officer told his mother about the jailbreak.  His mother left with the policeman to be at the Hospital for her father.

Keep in mind, this is how I remember the conversation between Grandpa and I, time does funny things to the memory.

"Grandpa, do you recall how old you were at the time? "

" I dunno, I was young, pretty little"

'Did your Mother know the policeman?"

"yeah, maybe a guy from the Witness" (My great grandparents were staunch Johovah Witnesses, My Great Grandpa Percy Lee was an Elder)

"Do you recall if there was snow on the ground? "

"Why do you need that?"

"I'm trying to establish when to look for this in the paper, I assume it would have been in the Spectator"

"Yeah, it' was cold, it was around my birthday" (Bingo, Grandpa was born in Nov 1912)

"How did you get home? "

"My mother told the (HSR) driver to drop me off at Main and Margaret" (where they lived at the time, and where the trolleys used to loop from King to Main Streets). "and he did. "

I never did ask Grandpa if his brothers were with him at this time, he never mentioned them,  but that would have made more sense, his eldest brother Al would have been around 4-5 years older than Grandpa.   It seemed like a different era where trolley Drivers and police acted differently than today, and it is entirely likely the trolley drive did exactly that without complaint.   I'm told thats how people did things back then.

In my research at the Hamilton Public Library, special collections, I learned they have scrap books all indexed for all the major stories in Hamilton, and they had a scrap book or two on Hamilton Jail.  through their kindly existence i found many articles from the Spectator and the Hamilton Herald, including a picture of my 2 X Great Grandfather, William Berry, Turnkey.  I made photocopies of all I could find and returned to my Grandfather.   I felt like I earned that information, I think he did too.