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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 this fact recorded on his grave. In 2008 a new memorial
was unveiled to mark his achievements by the people of Barkerville.
Sir Anthony Hansart, who
lived in March at Eastwood Hall, 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 he was one of a network of receivers of land revenues to feed
the royal coffers and ‘Master of the Revels’. His first
wife Kathryn was the sister of Sir Robert Southwell.
Sir Robert Southwell lived
at Hatchwood Manor in March and was described as a loyal servant
of Edward IV who was the earl of March. Sir Robert was later appointed
to the court of both Henry VII and Henry VIII where he took on the
duties of advisor, receiver, general surveyor and auditor of the
exchequer and the chief butler of England who was responsible for
coronation banquets.
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 was
the pilot of a Stirling Bomber that took off on July 27th 1944 at
23.30 hours from Wratting Common near Cambridge on a scheduled routine
navigational exercise. Laden with fuel the Stirling climbed northwards
towards the North Sea with March 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 and information
about him can be found at March Museum.
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