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Billy Barker was born in March in 1817. He was the son of Samuel
Barker, a waterman who plied the canals between March and Kings
Lynn. Billy also worked the barges. In 1839 he married Jane Lavender
and their only daughter Jane was born the following year. In the
mid 1840s the railway arrived in March and it is thought that Billy
left the barges to become a navvy on the railway. This new development
displaced the waterway as the main carrier of goods and work on
the barges declined. It is probable that this was the time Billy
decided to go to America to work as a navvy. He is said to have
joined a group of Cornishmen who decided it would be more lucrative
to join the rush to the Californian gold fields. In 1858 he arrived
in British Columbia during the Fraser River Gold Rush gradually
moving north and east into the Cariboo. By 1860 Billy’s wife
Jane had died and after a nostalgic meeting with Bishop George Hill
he re-established contact with his daughter in March.
Early in 1861, after good prospects were being reported further
north Billy joined up with five other men and formed Barker and
Company.
Their first insignificant claim was filed in 1861. The Company’s
second claim was registered in August 1862 and around that time
Billy sold his interest in it much to the disgust of his contemporaries.
The new mine was far down and the men were forced to dig deeper
shafts than any other built in the area. After two fruitless attempts,
he and his partners found rich deposits at a depth of 40 feet and
in bedrock that was 52 ft lower. His claim, 800 ft by 100 ft, yielded
around 37,500 oz of gold.
Billy, then a rich man, went on to enjoy an affluent life in Victoria.
In 1863 he married Elizabeth Collyer, who may have been part of
the “brideship” scheme brought about to ease the loneliness
of the predominately male colonies. In the summer of 1863 Elizabeth
went with Billy to Williams Creek where a Free Miner’s Certificate
was registered in her name. A boomtown, soon to be known as Barkerville,
sprang up round the rich strike made by Billy and his partners.
The Barker marriage was short lived as Elizabeth died in 1865 at
the age of 38. Billy may have thought he had enough money to live
on but his fortunes declined and it may have been his generosity
that caused this. A census taken in 1891 found him living in a one-room
cabin with two other miners. Some years later, suffering from cancer
of the jaw, he was persuaded to seek refuge in The Old Men’s
Home in Victoria where he died on July 11, 1894 and was buried in
an unmarked pauper’s grave in Victoria. It was the efforts
of Dorothy Sweet, a Cornish lady, who proved he came from March
and had a plaque erected on his grave.
Sir Anthony Hansart, who lived in March, is commemorated on a brass
plate in St. Wendreda’s Church. He was appointed High Sheriff
of Cambridgeshire in 1523, and the Isle of Ely and Huntingdon in
1529 and later became counsellor to both Henry VII and Henry VIII.
Martin Pierson was born in March in 1572 the son of Thomas and Margaret
Pierson. His parentage is traced through his will and the March
marriage registers. His parents married in 1570 and his father must
have died soon afterwards as his mother remarried in 1574. Nothing
is known of his early life but it is believed that he came under
the patronage of Sir Fulke Greville the first Baron Brooke. Sometime
before 1609 he married Amy Wiles, a widow, and lived with her at
Stoke Newington. She died in 1633 and he later remarried but both
wives were childless. Martin Pierson took his music degree, at Lincoln
College Oxford in 1613, and became Master of the Choristers at St.
Paul’s Cathedral; a position he held for the rest of his life.
He published many songs, airs and madrigals. When he died he left
considerable money and property to his second wife and £100
to buy land to provide money to enable the distribution of 2lb loaves
for the poor of Doddington, in the Isle of Ely, which included the
parish of March. He is buried in St. Faith’s Chapel under
St. Paul’s Cathedral. In modern times there has been a renaissance
in the works of this talented musician and much of it is now available
in CD.
March Heroes
Ben Gimbert was a wartime hero who risked his
life to save the town of Soham. In June 1944 a fully laden ammunition
train caught fire as it approached Soham station. The fire started
immediately behind the engine, which Ben was driving. Realising
the danger Ben and his fireman disconnected the blazing wagon. As
they were slowly pulling away the wagon exploded ripping a 65 ft
crater in the railway line. Jim Nightall, the Littleport fireman,
was killed but Ben survived and was awarded the George Cross for
his bravery. He was also awarded the Order of Industrial Heroism,
instituted by the Daily Herald, the London North Eastern Medal for
Heroism and in 1953 the Coronation Medal by Queen Elizabeth II.
James Nightall was awarded the George Cross posthumously.
James Hocking. On July 27th 1944 at 23.30 hours a Stirling Bomber
took off from Wratting Common near Cambridge on a scheduled routine
navigational exercise. Laden with fuel the Stirling climbed northwards
towards the North Sea. March was just ahead in its flight path.
A fire began in the inner starboard engine and all attempts to extinguish
it failed. Without warning the other three engines stopped and the
plane began to lose height rapidly. Pilot Officer J.W. Hocking R.A.A.F.
ordered his crew to bale out and fellow Australian, Flight Sergeant
Tebbut remembered seeing his skipper struggling with the controls
and yelling at him to get out, saying that he would follow when
he had stopped, ‘This damn thing hitting that town.’
The Flight Sergeant parachuted into the night. The crash was timed
at 0002 hours on 28th July. It crashed into an open field in Knight’s
End Road, three quarters of a mile south of St. Wendreda’s
Church and close to a Royal Observer Corps observation post. The
two observers who were on duty at the time were both badly burned
by exploding fuel. Pilot Officer James Hocking, aged 21 years, remained
on the plane and lost his life preventing a major disaster for March.
He is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s plot
at Newmarket Road cemetery, Cambridge. A memorial to Pilot Officer
Hocking can be seen at St. Wendreda’s Church.
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Welcome to March
