Our Vancouver Genealogy of the Hales family starts with CLIFFORD WALTER HALES (Nov 3 1889 - Jan 29 1978) - youngest of Stephen Richard Hales & Lena Emily Perrett's sons, from the Hales Bakery at Henley on the Thames, in Oxfordshire. His direct paternal genealogy stretches back for centuries in Kent, where most of Cliff's family farmed the land. We know less of his mother's family, aside from the fact her father Thomas Perrett (1806-after 1881) was a labourer/shepherd in the village of Cholderton, Amport parish, Hampshire.
HENLEY ON THE THAMES
Several stories of Clifford's childhood have passed down through the generations.
Clifford is said to have bought some spread imitation "ink" in the town's joke shop and spread it on his father's ledger. His sisters Lillian and Florence sometimes escorted Cliff to the train that took him to school. Only he didn't always want to go and on at least one occasion he went on board one side and ran out on the other. HIs sisters found Cliff back at home, eating cake!
Most of the time, his father Stephen is said to have had little to say to his Cliff, and his mother Emily perhaps doted on him as a form of compensation. Clifford would remain close to his mother throughout her lifetime. Prior to marrying Nellie Armstrong, he assigned the $20 monthly pay cheque he received as an artillery driver in the First World War to his mother Emily.
When Stephen died, years later, Clifford is said to have quietly disappeared into his room, laid down, and contemplated the ceiling for the rest of the day. Nothing more was said of the matter. (He received an inheritance of 212 English pounds.)
TO CANADA
Unlike his brothers Thomas and Richard, Clifford did not become a baker. According to the 2021 census, Cliff emigrated to Canada in 1905. My father, Roy A Hales, believes that Cliff turned down a position selling insurance for a Scots London firm and instead became a clerk for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The 1911 census lists 22-year-old Clifford Hales, a bank clerk, and Frank Barlow, who did odd jobs, as "partners" in a house they occupied in South Vancouver.
BACK TO ENGLAND FOR THE WAR
World War I broke out in August 1914. On July 14, 1915, Clifford joined a militia artillery battery. Two weeks later he was attached to the 2nd battery in Shornfcliffe, Kent, where Cliff to become part of the hastily thrown together Canadian Second Division. His unit slept in borrowed British tents and many of the officers attended military school while the unit was being assembled.
We do not know if Cliff visited (or ever met) his grandparents Stephen and Anna Hales, who were living 35 miles to the north in Maidstone, Kent.
His brother Richard's grandson wrote me about Cliff's "kindness and generosity during his visits home" to Henley.
Clifford was visiting Henley, during the Christmas season of 1915, when he found it necessary to report to the war hospital at Reading. His case sheet notes that Cliff's appendix was "long and curled up." The doctors removed it, noting that the "wound rather red at the lower end." This should have been a simple procedure, only the wounds reopened after he left the hospital.
He was sent to Reading Convalescent Hospital, where one of the nurses caught Cliff's eye. Nellie Armstrong came from Bury, in Lancashire. She is said to have taken up nursing, at the age of 16, to escape from her father's second wife. Clifford is not the first man to enter her story: there was a hospitalized German prisoner and an English major who gave her a painting. However her relationship with Clifford was more serious and on July 1, 1916, they were married at Reading.
When he applied for permission to marry, Clilff discovered that while he was the hospital his unit had crossed over to France. He had been tried and sentenced as a deserter. This was subsequently cleared up and the notation "above entry cancelled" appears in his record.
Cliff was discharged from the hospital on August 22, 1916. The entry in his record states he was "troubled with vomiting" but "he is a good clerk." A quarter of the Canadian troops in England were being held back to serve as orderlies, mess waiters and bandsmen at that time. The army regarded Cliff's experience in the bank as a valuable asset and he was attached to the administration staff in Folkestone, Kent, as a clerk.
TO THE FRONT
Clifford was attached to the 8th Howitzer brigade, Second Division in time for the battle of Passchendaele (July - November 1917). He was one of the artillery drivers who brought 587 guns and their ammunition to the front. This sometimes entailed 5 or 6 hour treks through mud that was up to their animal's bellies. For the duration of the war Cliff would pull cannons and ammunition through the muck of Flanders.
He would later insisted that mules had a sixth sense. Sometimes his mules would abruptly halt and nothing he did could make them go farther. After a few experiences of German shells dropping where he would have been had the mules not stopped, Cliff learned to trust his animals. Horses, however, would have walked right into the dropping bomb and been blown up.
Cliff found the Christmas of 1917 was especially horrifying. Up until that time, he had thought of the war in terms of a faceless enemy. His attitude changed after crawling into a trench to sleep one night. The morning light revealed a dead German across from him. The man had received a parcel from home just prior to being killed. He remained sitting upright, with the present in his lap. This image would haunt Cliff’s memory for years to come.
He emerged with only minor injuries. Twice he was treated for scabies, a parasite which flourished in the filth infested battlefields and burrows beneath its' victim's epidermis to cause severe itching. His only prolonged hospital stay, for 11 days, occurred after one of his mules sniffed a horse's rump during watering time. The following letter, testifying to his innocence, appears amidst his records:
Feb 4th 1918
To (writing illegible) 2nd 6DAC
Sir:
Relative to kick sustained by Dr(iver) Hales today.
I witnessed accident and my version is as follows.
Men had dismounted and removed their bits preparatory to watering, but as trough cannot accommodate horses of entire section, animals are watered in batches. It was during a move-up after a batch left trough that accident happened.
The entire column was moving filling up at trough, and it having become full the column suddenly halted with the result that one of the two mules that driver Hales was holding by means of one hand on each head collar, touched the rump of the horse immediately in front. The horse displayed his antipathy for mules by kicking vigorously but unfortunately his heel landed on Dr Hales thigh.
Cpl. Wm. Stewart 49749 I corroborate the above evidence A Lawlor The lieutenant’s report, filled out the same day, alludes to Corporal Stewart’s letter and confirms that Clifford was “injured accidentally.”
He returned to action, but was granted two weeks leave on October 19, 1918.
Years later Cliff would speak of a public bathhouse he and his mates visited in England. The owners had probably seen many a dirty soldier return from the front, and labeled individual towels “head”, legs”, “arms” etc. Cliff found the incident amusing.
The last Canadian battle took place on November 11th, at Mons in Belgium. Some Germans opened fire from the town’s outskirts, and 11 Canadians died before they withdrew. Cliff returned to his unit five days later.
GOING HOME
The Second Division was sent into Germany, as part of the occupation army. They entered Bonn in December. The troops were billeted in homes until they joined the rest of the corps in Belgium, on January 27 1919.
Cliff's mother was no longer alive, when he returned to Henley on leave. Lena died on Aug 4th 1918, just as the second wave of Spanish Flu broke out. Her doctor, J.F. Windsor, diagnosed the cause of death as “bronchial asthma”, “chronic bronchitis” and “emphysema.” She was probably one of the 225,000 British victims of the Spanish Flu.
There was no one to ease the lack of communication between Clifford and his father. Though Vera and Floss were both pleased to see their brother, Stephen virtually ignored his youngest son.
Other than letters, Clifford appears to have lost contact with the family after that. On July 10th 1930, a letter announcing Stephen's death and Cliff’s inheritance of 212 English pounds, arrived. Clifford took the day off, quietly disappeared into his room, lay down and stared at the ceiling for the rest of the day. Any remorse he had was never spoken. Clifford would continue to correspond write his sisters Vera and Floss for the next four decades.
The only visitor his son Roy remembers is "Uncle Willy", a banker from Long Beach California, who visited Vancouver in 1927. However Cliff would collect a number of books about the town where he was born.
Decades later, Cliff’s younger sister Vera would write: “I often think about you and wonder how you are getting along. I don't suppose we should know each other if we met in the street after all these years. It must be 51 years ago since you left England for the last time. I think it was in 1919, just after the 1914-1918 war. Things have changed considerably since then eh?"
Clifford boarded the Canadian destroyer Buxton on May 13,1919. He was in Quebec for at least two weeks, prior to being discharged on July 8th 1919. Nellie Hales left Liverpool on board the Canadian Pacific Railway Atlantic Steamship 'Grampion' on June 23, 1919. She disembarked at the port of Quebec. They would have travelled to Vancouver on the railway.
They rented a house in Vancouver, where Clifford became a clerk for the “Giant Powder Company” (now C.I.L.).
Their early friendship with the Baileys shortly is engraved in their daughter Betty’s memory by a peculiar accident. Nat Bailey helped Cliff buy his first suit, and years later Nellie was still complaining about the fact it didn’t fit properly!
2021 Census - 3409 Barker Street, Burnaby
Clifford Walter Hales - (Head - Born England, entered BC in 1906) - Bookkeeper and clerk - Wesleyan denomination
Nellie Hales (wife - Born England, entered BC in 1919) - Wesleyan denomination
Roy Hales - son - Wesleyan denomination
THEIR HOME IN BURNABY (1921-1931)
Cliff used a special veteran’s mortgage to build the house at 3409 Baker street in Burnaby. It was a one story bungalow with shake walls and a front porch.
His son Roy especially remembers the low walls in the basement, because Cliff often hit his head on the heating ducts when he went downstairs to shovel coal into the furnace. A stream of oaths would accompany his endeavours.
His daughter Bettie, who was born in that house, remembers Nellie doing the yard work except for the raspberries growing in a corner of their triangular lot. That was Clifford’s favourite fruit! Bettie refused to eat them after discovering the bugs inside. Every time she crunched down on something, she imagined it was an insect!
Burnaby was then a bedroom community and Cliff took public transit to the Giant Powder company's offices in the Birk's building, Vancouver. Nellie would go shopping across the street at the Bay and sometimes stopped at the Honeydew to buy her daughter Bettie a drink. They also went to a butcher shop on Granvillle.
One of Bettie's earliest memories is the Christmas the Hales family purchased a crystal radio set. She was 3 or 4 at the time, which means it was 1927 or 28. Cliff and Nat Bailey stayed up all night listening to the different stations. Young Roy remembers bursting into the house while his parents and the Baileys were huddled around the crystal set trying to listen. There was no speaker, only headphones, and he was promptly hushed!
When Roy was sick another Christmas, Cliff decided to surprise him by placing the fully decorated tree in his room. The gesture was spoiled when Cliff tripped, while wrestling the tree into his son's room. Roy woke up at the crash and found his now embarrassed father lying on top of the tree on the floor.
Cliff liked to play memory games and would often bring trays with 30 or more items for people to study. After two minutes, he would take the tray away and see who could remember the most details. Roy remembers many evenings when he was given a list of 10 items to remember. Bettie has similar memories from their walks together. She would be asked to name everyone and everything she saw.
Cliff was one of the first men on the block to purchase an automobile, a 1927 Chevrolet. Not to be outdone, his neighbour Sam Fiddler bought a used Dodge and then asked Cliff to teach him how to drive. Only the stick shift was set up in reverse to Cliff's Chevy and they "had an awful time."
Now that he had a car, Cliff drove to work.
So during the summer, Nellie sometimes took the interurban to Spanish banks. She and the kids would swim, enjoy a picnic lunch and Cliff would pick them up after work.
Bettie was exposed to too much sun one day, but insisted on going to the movies with the rest of the family that evening. She threw up on the man seated in front of her, then spent the next three days in bed with a fever. When Bettie regained consciousness, she heard footsteps on the roof. There had been a chimney fire while she was unconscious!
She also remembers a time when Roy sent her in to get them some cake. Nellie gave her a large piece for her brother, and a smaller one for herself. “So the big one’s for Roy, and the little ones’ for me”, Bettie asked her mother. “That’s right”, Nellie replied. Hearing that, Bettie took a bite out of her brother’s piece and then gave it to him.
1931 Census 3409 Barker Street, Burnaby
Clifford W Hales - (head, age 41, born England) 5 room house, earned $2,500, worked at Canadian Industries - United Church
Nellie Hales - (wife, age 40, born England)
Roy Armstrong Hales - (student, age 11, born BC)
Betty Armstrong Hales - (age 7, born BC)
DEPRESSION ERA VANCOUVER (1933-37)
The Hales family was comfortable during the depression. Clifford earned more than enough money for the family’s survival. Prices were dropping, and Nellie could buy a blouse downtown for 99 cents, or eggs for 5 cents a dozen. In 1929 or 1930 they purchased a Rogers Battery-less radio/record player: which came complete with a speaker!
Though he didn't attend church, Clifford listened to Reverend Andrew Rodden’s program religiously. He was the minister of Vancouver’s First United Church and took to the airwaves proclaiming the need to look after the disadvantaged. His congregation to set up soup kitchens and tent cities.
Nellie used to feed the unemployed men who came to her door. Some helped her with chores; others simply received a free meal. The hoboes marked their house as a friendly home.
Cliff and Nellie were disgusted about their friend Nat Bailey was selling insurance to “mobsters, pimps and prostitutes.’’ My father thinks they were jealous of his success. The situation was exasperated by the fact Nat Bailey was Roy's idol. Unlike Cliff, he owned a greenhouse, kept a well-stocked tool room that Roy had access to and attended seances. On the other hand, Nat's son Ray Bailey admired Cliff because he had been one of the first in the area to own a radio, and a car.
THE MOVE TO 44TH
Shortly after that Nellie won $2,800 in the Irish Sweepstakes. It is not certain whether Cliff sued her, took the money and she sued him, or they only threatened each other. The money was used to purchase a much larger house at 2928 on 44th, in Vancouver. Their new place had two apple trees and Cliff's beloved raspberries, but Nellie was angry with her husband for a long time.
HOLIDAYS
Nat finally purchased a Ford with one of those new V8 engines in 1932, and took his family to California on vacation. This was the first time that Roy ever heard of someone driving so far. (Cliff didn't like driving far, as it bothered his ears!)
The family holidayed at Horseshoe Bay for a month during the summer. At first, they took the train up. After the road went in, Cliff drove up. He used to take his two week vacation there and then commute to and from work for the rest of this period. Young Roy would sometimes coax his father into going fishing, but Cliff would leave after an hour or so saying " I don't have any patience for that stuff."
Both children were allowed to bring friends, which meant there were often 3 or 4 kids on the Nellie maintained discipline and, as Bettie explained, "You didn't get too rowdy because mom would make you swallow a spoonful of castor oil."
My mother, Dell Cross, started dating Roy in 1936 and took part in their summer vacation. One day, as she and Bettie were returning to the cabin, Bettie saw a bull approaching. Dell was wearing a red blouse! Bettie yelled “Run for it!” They dashed for the fence, where Dell got hung up on the barbed wire. It was only then that she realized the “bull” was actually a cow.
NANAIMO (1937/8-1954/5)
In 1937 or 1938 Clifford was put in charge of explosive department in Nanaimo - essentially a one man operation. Dell remembers visiting the Hales' Nanaimo home & being sent out to pick mushrooms. She now wonders about some of the fungi that went into the pan, but can't remember anyone getting sick. In fact, Nellie gave the culinary teaching that she was not receiving at home.
Bettie Hales sleeping in her friend Doris Bailey’s bedroom on September 10, 1939, when her father came upstairs to say Canada was once again involved in a World War. He was upset! The first war had been nothing but a waste of human lives. Nellie remembered some of the phoney past propaganda, such as the rumour that the Germans were killing POW’s and melting their bodies down to produce fat. How much of the present propaganda could they believe?
Nanaimo became a garrison town during the second world war (which meant there were lots of men for young Bettie to dance with).
As for Clifford and Nellie, they eventually decided Hitler was a madman who must be stopped.
MAPLE RIDGE (1954/5-1984)
Cliff retired in 1954 or 1955 and purchased the house at 11394 17th avenue, in Maple Ridge.
I remember Clifford and Nellie’s home as warm, cosy and sleepy all at the same moment. It was filled with the lingering scent of an often used fireplace and other aromas common to old houses. Clifford loved books, and collected many about his hometown of Henley. The ticking of an old mantle clock, which Roy gave his parents in 1938 or 39, was at times the only noise piercing the silence. We sometimes accompanied him on his after supper walks through the neighbourhood.
There are many stories of his antics. Bettie calls her father the last of the gentlemen, who used to raise his hat to the ladies. Dell says this would sometimes send Nellie into fits of jealousy. I remember how he used to dress up in a woman's dress and wig when family played charades in later years.
He was a tease. If a pimple broke out on her face, Dell knew that Cliff would be sure to point at it and ask "what's that thing?"
He went too far, when commenting on a supper Dell cooked. Cliff dismissed the main course: "I don't like ham" and "Just scalloped potatoes?" She was simmering, when he made a disparaging remark about her pumpkin pie. "Well, would you like some?" she demanded. "Alright", he muttered. So she pushed the pie in his face. Almost everyone, including Cliff, laughed. I was about four and, am told, screamed, "Do it again Mom!" Dell retreated into the kitchen, where she started to cry. Nellie followed her to say, "I've wanted to do that for years!"
LETTERS FROM HIS SISTERS FLOSS & VERA
Cliff continued to correspond with his sisters over the years. When his sister Lillian died on June 18th, 1967, she left him an inheritance of 100 English pounds. Cliff's sisters Florence (Floss) and Vera wrote many letters between 1968 - 1973:
Oct 11 1968: "Yes Cliff my dear we are all getting old, I was 83 last July. Yes I think you are wise to sell your house the upkeep is so expensive & there is a lot of work to keep a place nice." - From Floss
Feb 10 1969: "I am pleased to say Floss is very much better. She is taking the pills. Yes Nell, your symptoms were right! There was a blockage which prevented the blood flowing through the heart properly, but the doctor has not recommended a diet, she eats normally, which is a good thing, as she can eat anything she fancies..." - Much love, Vera
Feb 15 1970: " I hope this letter will reach you, I have been expecting to hear from one of you regarding your new address, as Cliff, when last he wrote, said you were selling your house and going to live in an apartment building. Hence the delay in writing you before. I shall send this to the old address, hoping that it will reach you." - From your kid sister, with love, Vera (letter announcing Floss' death)
May 24 1970: " I was glad to receive your letter & know mine arrived safety Hope you are both settled down in your new apartment and are comfortable and happy there... Well dears, thanks for your kind invite, regarding the three months visit, but I do not feel able to take the trip, as much as I should like to see you both. I shall be 78 next August and sometimes feel very old. So my plans are to stay put..." - With love to you both, Vera
Dec 8 1970: " Once more Christmas has come upon us, as I grow older it seems to roll round more quickly, I wonder how many more we shall live to see? Hope you both and the family are all keeping well through these difficult times. I expect by now (you have) got used to living in your new apartment house & I hope living among nice folk and having no regrets for the move. Well dears I am really writing this to let you know you will no doubt be hearing from the bank, in due course, regarding a little Xmas gift. Hope you will be having a nice Xmas. I expect you will be spending it with Son Roy and family and having the family gathering, which is very nice. I often think about you and wonder how you are getting along. I don't suppose we should know each other if we met in the street after all these years. It must be 51 years ago since you left England for the last time. I think it was in 1919, just after the 1914-1918 war. Things have changed considerably since then eh?" - With much love to you both, Vera
Jan 17 1971: "Thank you very much for your very generous Xmas gift of 10 pounds ... I don't know whether I should scold you, or thank you for sending so much, as I am sure your expenses must be heavy without sending generous gifts to me. But I thank you again & also for the sketch of your apartment. It looks a very nice and compact little place, easy to run. I should think, glad you are comfortably settled in, much better than having a house to run, although I expect you miss the garden in the summertime. but we can't have everything in this world. Well I hope you are both getting along alright & keeping reasonably fit and don't find life too difficult. You mentioned in your letter about flying over, you will find a great change here in Britain & not for the better Everything is frightfully expensive. The hotels are charging 15 guineas, bed and breakfast, for one night - 200 pounds per week. I am sorry I should not be able to put you up, as I have only the one bedroom, as you know the upstairs is let off Of course you could come to me for meals, but I must warn you , I am not a good cook, as Floss did most of the cooking. She did not like my cooking, I did the cleaning up" - Love to all, Vera
Dec 5 1971: "This is to wish you both a peaceful and happy Xmas. You will I expect be going to the usual family gathering with nephew Roy and Dell, if you both feel able to. I hope Nell is keeping better in health and does not find life too over-powering. We are all living in such difficult & worrying times, nothing seems secure. Sorry you were unable to fly over last Spring. Not having heard further from you I guesses you had changed your minds, but I quite understand, the journey and travelling over would have been very tiring. We are not young anymore. I have arranged with the bank about the usual 5 pounds for Xmas gift, so you will be hearing from Barclays Bank in due course. Sorry I cannot make it more. If you are thinking of sending me anything PLEASE DON'T: I should like just a letter, telling me all about yourselves, when you feel like letter writing..." - All the best, Vera
Jan 14 1973: " I was sorry to see Cliff has had a spell in the hospital & hope now the rest has done good ... I am really writing this to thank you both for enclosed Xmas card, also the cheque, but I wish you had not sent the cheque, as I am sure your expenses must be very heavy, one way or another, but thanks again, no doubt I shall find it useful but please not again, I am quite well provided for, just a letter, letting me know how you are faring would be nice..." with love to you both. - Vera
DEATH
Clifford died on 29 Jan 1978.
Nellie suffered from dementia during her later years and died in 1984.
CHILDREN OF CLIFF & NELLIE HALES
(1) unnamed girl who died shortly after birth
(2) Roy A Hales (Feb 5 1920 Vancouver - 2009) married (A) Della May Cross in 1942 (B) Ingrid Wilschewski after 1972 (C) Gwen Cherry around 1991.
(3) Bettie Hales (Aug 20 1924) m (A) Douglas Lee (B) Alvin Smith - see Doll House