Wearside expat in Australia needs help on his ancestors with links to Monty, coal mining, El Alamein, and the Sunderland Empire

A former Wearside man has shared his fascinating family history – including one relative’s links with the stage.
John Bates, who was born in West Rainton and now lives in McLaren Vale in Australia, would love to know more about a show that his grandmother Peggy Wilson starred in on a Sunderland stage.John Bates, who was born in West Rainton and now lives in McLaren Vale in Australia, would love to know more about a show that his grandmother Peggy Wilson starred in on a Sunderland stage.
John Bates, who was born in West Rainton and now lives in McLaren Vale in Australia, would love to know more about a show that his grandmother Peggy Wilson starred in on a Sunderland stage.

John Bates, who was born in West Rainton and now lives in McLaren Vale in Australia, would love to know more about a show that his grandmother Peggy Wilson starred in on a Sunderland stage.

John’s grandmother Peggy went by the stage name Peggy Mayne and John has unearthed a photo from a show which he believes was in around 1919-1920.

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John understands it was called Maid of the Mountain or Movie Maid and said it came to light on a postcard which said ‘Miss Peggy Wilson whilst on the stage with the Movie Maid’.

The old photo of Peggy Mayne.The old photo of Peggy Mayne.
The old photo of Peggy Mayne.

To support his quest for information, John shared his family history which showed Peggy wasn’t the only relative with a fascinating story.

John, 73, said: “My mother, formerly Margaret Appleby, had been born in 1923 in Durham and had served in the ATS where she had met my Dad who was originally from Lambeth London.

“My Dad had been orphaned at 16 and had lied about his age to get into the Army. Most of his Army life he had spent in the trouble spots of the British Empire ... Palestine then India and when war broke out in 1939, was sent from India to North Africa with Montgomery's Seventh Battalion Eighth Army (Desert Rats). He was wounded in the second battle of El Alamein.”

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John added: “After marrying on January 1, 1945 then being demobbed after the war, my parents moved to Durham.

The postcard which John has kept of his grandmother's stage days.The postcard which John has kept of his grandmother's stage days.
The postcard which John has kept of his grandmother's stage days.

“My Dad, who had never worked in a coal mine before, got employment at Cocken Drift pit and as I remember him telling me, the coal seams were sometimes no bigger than 18 inches and you had to lie on your side to pick axe the coal out with water running from the roof.

“The war must have seemed relative to that... risking your life every day. The coal face was the front line, and the enemy were the constant sources of danger.”

After a brief move to Middlesex, the family moved to Leamside and one photo shows John in Grainger Terrace aged three in 1950.

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He added: “In 1952, at the age of 5, my parents moved to Kingsbury, Warwickshire, as my Dad had transferred to a colliery there, the job came with a council house. So that is where I lost close contact, other than the occasion holiday with my Grandparents.”

John playing in Leamside when he was three.John playing in Leamside when he was three.
John playing in Leamside when he was three.

His grandmother, he said, was ‘born Margaret Wilson in 1903 at Hetton le Hole. On the 1911 census she is described as the oldest child of James Wilson & Janet Wilson (nee Craggs) with brother Robert, six, sister Mary Ann, four, and stepbrother Thomas Craggs Nicholson, aged 11.”

Margaret, said John, ‘was strong willed and must have had some gumption, as it is told that she ran away to join the land army at an early age and was brought back by her father as she was under age.

“Grandma decided that she wanted to go on the stage and at 16 she appeared at the Sunderland Empire in the ‘Movie Maid’ (1919).

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John’s grandad – William Arthur Appleby – was six years older than Margaret but he ‘frequented the stage door of the Sunderland Empire infatuated with an actress, a stage-door Johnny,” said John.

“So the story goes that handsome William Appleby vied for the beautiful ‘Peggy’ Wilson’s affection and they fell in love.”

The couple eventually married in 1921 when Margaret was 18 and William was 24. They went on to have 14 children although three died at birth.

Margaret passed away in 1966 and William in 1971.

John added: “I have always been fascinated by the picture of my Grandma when she was on the stage. If anyone has information relating to the stage play, perhaps an old photo, a poster or even a program from an ancestor I would be delighted to hear from them.”

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Can you help? Anyone with information can send it to [email protected].

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