In its time our “People and Faces” spotlight has fallen in many places.

We have featured sportsmen and musicians, tradesmen and actors even councillors, licensees, policemen. We have looked from many angles, as many walks of life.

On this occasion, without apology, we turn the spotlight on one of our colleagues – journalism’s elder statesman in Nelson and Colne.

To us in this remarkable profession compounded of facts and more facts, imagination, printers ink, type metal, hot tea and more sweat on the brow than most people give us credit for he is “Joe” – Mr Joseph Sunter.

Joe Sunter, though, is more than a journalist. He is a man of determination, and a man of no mean literary ability. Under the surface, he is something of wit and raconteur. Without a doubt, he is a character .

To his younger colleagues, he is a friend and counsellor.

To all, he can be a mine of information about almost any facet of journalism – and Colne -one cares to mention. In this respect it is enough to say that when he has been troubled by ill-health as has too often been the case in recent years, the office has been strangely lacking in something without the rattle of the typewriter from his desk.

The story of Joe Sunter the journalist must, of course, predominate in any review of his life , for he has been one of us 50 years . It was in 1911, when he was 16, that he started as a junior reporter on the “Darwen News”.

There is little in common between the polysyllable journalism of those days and that of 1962. Hours were long, wages were low, and the best that could be said of the good reporter in those days was that he was a capable stenographer, able to start at the beginning of the story and make a full note until the end of it.

For good or ill, the whole concept of reporting has changed in Joe’s lifetime-but what applies as much today as it did then is the fact that journalism is more than a job. To those who love it, it is a way of life.

Three years on the “Darwen News” were sufficient to develop that the love of the life in Mr Sunter But when the course of history started to change in 1940 he had no hesitation in volunteering for service ; he joined the Army in September of that year, and served until 1919.

Discharged from the Army, he joined the “Nelson leader,” then under the editorship of the late Mr Tom Morgan. Two years later he moved to the “Lancashire Daily Post,” as district reporter, with an office in Railway Street, Nelson.

From there he went to the Burnley office of the “Northern Daily Telegraph,” transferred some time later to the Accrington office, and then in 1929 at the age of 34, moved to Colne to take the editorship of the “Colne Times.”

Whilst at Burnley, week in week out in the season, he covered Burnley football during the golden years of Dawson, Bob Kelly, Cross and Weaver. At Accrington his job brought him in close touch with Accrington Stanley, at a time when ex-Nelson player Joe Eddleston was with the team.

Earlier still, working at Nelson, he was one of the Pressman covers Blacko Bar disaster, which remains to this day one of the worst accidents local roads have ever seen.

Joe Sunter, as an editor was one who worked with his staff. He could command intellectual respect, yet he was always available to give help and advice. And he was as much accessible to his readers as he was to the staff.

He was, of course, principally a literary type of editor. He specialised in a well turned leading article or some concise note on the towns affairs, and he took it upon himself to become closely associated with the life of Colne.

He was a founder member of the Colne Rotary club, in fact. He was a committee member of the old Literary Society, giving papers before the society as well as regularly attending meetings. He made it his job as an editor to keep in close touch with the town’s civic affairs.

For more than 30 years, Mr Sunter was editor at Colne. Last year, at the age of 66, he retired from the position, but without the necessity of laying down his pen. In a part-time capacity he still writes regularly if not so voluminously as before.

There are, of course, other aspects of Joe Sunter. Side issues, as it were, at all bound up in some way with his journalistic career.

He is a man who is very well read, with a tremendously wide knowledge of literature, able to quote accurately, aptly and with discrimination from an astonishing range of authors.

What may surprise even his closest friends is that, in this respect, his is almost wholly self-taught. From the age of 12 he was brought up in an orphanage near Bolton, for the Thornaby-on-Tees family of ten to which he belonged broke up on his father’s death.

Orphanage life, if tolerable, was spartan, and admitted of none but the barest necessities – of which literature was hardly one. A book of poems which he received whilst there possible sowed the seeds of a love of books and reading, but that love was nurtured solely by himself and his devoted reading in years to come.

Possible too, three early assignments in his “Darwen News” days helped. G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, and George Bernard Shaw were three of the distinguished speakers whose lectures he reported as a junior, and one would expect men of this calibre to have some effect on a young man with a thirst for knowledge.

His shorthand he learned from an assistant in the governor’s office at the orphanage and it was this man who first introduced him to Esperanto. This apart, however, it has been left to Joe Sunter’s determination and courage to carry him to a post of responsibility.

His joining the Army in those first days of the war could possibly be put down to that wave of patriotism which swept the country immediately after August, 1914. But not his subsequent conduct.

With the Royal Irish Regiment he took his part in the Gallipoli landings. Then he was sent to France and was wounded at Ypres. He was still in hospital blue in 1918 when he married.

Even then, a life which had given him more than his share of ups and downs, was reserving the cruellest blow. Soon after becoming editor of the “Colne Times” at a time when he had achieved considerable success at an early age, he found his wife was suffering from an incurable disease.

For 26 years, whilst carrying on with his job, and through the second world war when the newspaper’s staff was reduced to two and A.R.P. duties had to be carried out as well, he nursed her.

Courage of a different sort from that needed to wade ashore at Sulva Bay and face the enemy guns in Flanders, but courage all the same.

He displayed that wiry toughness of his later, when he broke his leg and crawled for help – and then insisted on going to the office on crutches. He has displayed it since then when….notwithstanding, he has insisted on remaining associated with his newspaper.

With his memories and a life-time’s accumulation of books for company, Joe now lives alone in a small cottage in Keighley Road, Colne. Not far away lives his son Barry, a teacher, and from time to time he visits his daughter Dorothy, at her home in Cheshire.

Any regrets after a lifetime in journalism?

Can there possible be? Journalism is a way of life, and the most bewitched and attractive calling in the world. Joe Sunter knows that as well as us.

Roger Siddall.

JWS A Family Remembers

Originally uploaded by timsunter

Address is given as High Street, Howden. Isabella was 32 years old when she died and cause of death is given as “Phthisis 3 months”. Joseph Sunter is the informant and also gives his address as High Street Howden.
Phthisis is the old term for TB.
The certificate is evidence which would indicates Joseph and Isabella were living in Howden in 1883 – just a few hundred metres from where Jane had given birth to Charles Hull Snowball.
When Isabella died Charles must surely have known Jane with her young son. I now suspect it was at Howden, rather than Bishop Auckland where Jane Ann and Charles met.

1877 Hannah Pedley Sunter Birth

Originally uploaded by timsunter

Hannah Pedley Sunter was born to Joseph and Isabella Sunter in 1877 in Bishop Auckland.
I ordered this certificate to find out where the Sunter’s were living in Bishop Auckland and to further investigate what the relationship was to Jane Ann Snowball and the Hulls. There had been a suggestion that the Hull family set up Joseph as a furniture salesman in return for taking Jane off their hands.
Isabella died early in 1883. Joseph remarried to Jane Ann Snowball later that year. This certificate shows that before the marriage Joseph was working as a ‘Grocer’s Warehousman’ and living in Edward Street, Bishop Auckland.

1939 – Lofty’s sister Amy gets married to Arthur Stephenson. The marriage was to remain childless.
Amy worked for ASDA and lived in South Shields. Towards the end of her life Lofty got back in contact with her and went to visit on several occasions, enjoying some nights in the local Labour Club.
On this marriage certificate Robert Main again appears as a witness – did Amy Main look after her other neice as well (Jennie was discharged from the children’s home to her care)?

Christmas Eve, 1932 – at 21 years old Auntie Jennie gets married to Uncle Jim Matthews in Solihull.

Jim is an ‘ashman’ by occupation.

Interesting to note that one of the witnesses is Robert Main. Research from Durham Record Office indicated that Jennie was placed in the care of her aunt, Amy Main, a cook at Scorborough Hall, when she left the children’s home. The only Amy I can manage to trace is Emma’s sister, listed in the 1911 census as Amy Dawson – I have not been able to trace Amy and Robert Main getting married though.

In the search for Charles Sunter, Jennie lists her father’s occupation as ‘gardener’. This is the first time I have seen this occupation given for Charles.

Sunter, Charles – 1907 Workhouse Entry

Originally uploaded by timsunter

At 5 minutes past 8 on Christmas Eve 1907, Charles Sunter entred the Middlesbrough workhouse. The entry lists Charles as a labourer, a Wesleyan, and living at the home of his sister in Thornaby. It appears that Charles was not well at the time as he was sent to the hospital.
The Creed Register shows that Charles was discharged from the warehouse on 24th January 2008.
The workhouse admissions register was being searched for signs of the Sunter family being admitted following census (1911) evidence which showed that Lofty’s uncles Joseph and Edward had been admitted to the Edgeworth National Children’s Homne and James was being fostered.
Jane Ann Snowball was working as a relief foster mother at Middlesbrough workhouse childrens home.
No record of any Sunter, other than Charles, could be found.

Dear Mr. Sunter,

Further to your telephone call to this Office today I have established that a William Sunter, born 1917, son of Charles and Emma, was admitted to Stockton Union Children’s Homes in January 1921.  As discussed over the telephone, if you require any further searches of our holdings for the Homes and Stockton Poor Law Union, you will need to use our research service (see attached details and application form) and supply proof of your relationship to William Sunter.

In the event that you make use of the research service it would be useful to know if William had any siblings.

Yours sincerely,

County Archivist

Papers relating to individuals are confidential for 100 years.  I have therefore sent proof of my relationship and the relevant fee to enable one of the archive’s researchers to find the information I would be asking for.

Both the birth and death certificates for Lofty’s mother Emma arrived today, and, as ever there is some sadness.

First the good news…

The birth certificate shows that Emma was born on 16th August 1893 to John William Marsh and Jane Marsh (formerly Spencer). John William Marsh was a Pit Sinker and the family was living at Hickleton Main Cottages, Thurnscoe.

Hickleton Main was a colliery and the cottages were provided for its workers:

Victorian Countryside, by G. E. Mingay – Google Books

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jil6nzqbZz8C&pg=RA2-PA360&lpg=RA2-PA360&dq=Hickleton+Main+Cottages&source=bl&ots=oJi1qm1fRV&sig=plarNIYJXvoeo1GwUl7NbYgVC84&hl=en&ei=gd9FSuKCCNqrjAfDx9D8AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1

The birth certificate gives confirmation that Emma’s mother’s maiden name was Spencer.

The death certificate adds to the evidence that Emma became institutionalised.

Her death was recorded as taking place at Winterton Hospital, Sedgefield, Durham on 16th January 1978. Loft is given as the informant.

Winterton Hospital appears to have been an asylum. There is no indication of how long she had been in the institution.

In the nineteen seventies, when Lofty was researching his own family history, he asked me to drive him up to see his rediscovered mother.

We tried to go up on a Winter’s morning, but we had to turn back because of fog on the motorway (my first experience of motorway madness). The radio was broadcasting that Graham Hill, the racing driver had died in a plane crash the day before. So this must have been 30th November 1975 (I wonder why I was off school?). The visit was rescheduled for early the following year.

I remember sitting in a bay window, the light behind me, when they wheeled in Emma. Lofty gave her a hug and looked towards me with tears in his eyes – clearly moved.

The nurse said to Emma “here’s your son Emma”. Her response was “Billy? Is it Billy?” and, sadly, that was about the extent of the conversation.

Lofty was stoic on the way home and explained that when his father disappeared she had been put in a workhouse and had never really left institutions in one form or another.

On Emma’s death the state, having stolen her life, having pushed her from one institution to another, having placed Lofty in a children’s home at the age of 3, sent him the bill for the funeral.