Barney Samuel Sayer

  General Notes:

Amy Sayer sent a photo of herself to Barney in about 1914, when Barney's details were as follows: Private B. Sayer, 687, 62 Field Bakery AJC, British Expeditionary Force, Havre, France. From Nigel Cooper, "The Sayer family of Saxlingham...": "All the relatives I have had correspondence with or talked to say that Barney Sayer was partial to the bottle and would often come home quite drunk, and his known to have thrown cakes from the bakery shop out into the street... At times when he was really drunk when he came home, Amy would take herself and the children off to the Bungay workhouse and only come home when he had sobered up... According to Doris Lord, when her parents lived in Great Yarmouth before moving to Wolverhampton, and whilst Barney and Amy were living at 49, Olive Road, all the lads, her father, Russell Lambert and Barney would play cards. One night they were playing, and Barney who hated to lose, hit a losing streak, he decided enough was enough and he would go off to drown his sorrows!! Ten minutes later he was back and looking like a drowned rat, he'd come back for his raincoat as it was raining 'cats and dogs' outside and he'd nearly drowned himself, but not the way he thought he would when he first went out. Doris recalled in her letter to me of other tales her parents told her about Barney. Once when they were living in the bakery in Bridge Street, Bungay, Barney woke Amy one night saying there were burglars in the cellar. They both crept downstairs and Amy laughed at him when they found no-one at all in the cellar. Amy went quickly back upstairs into the house, only to hear Barney call out "Quick! Mother! They've got me!" When Amy got back down into the cellar, again she had the last laugh being greeted with the most hilarious sight. There was Barney, absolutely petrified, thinking someone had grabbed him from behind, and he dared not look round, but in fact all that had really happened was that he'd shut the tail of his night-shirt in the door he had opened! Doris' memories of her grandfather was that he was a very mean man who swore a lot. However, she adored him and could remember him buying her a box of poster paints (the only ones available in wartime) and hiding them under a cushion on her mother's chair. She said she was about 9 or 10 years at the time, and the paints were one of the best presents she had ever had, especially as they came from Barney, who never bought anyone any presents. Dad (Eric Cooper) when recalling memories of the 1940s with particular reference to Barney Sayer, his grandfather, said that in 1940 whilst he was on a course at RAF Cosford (just outside Wolverhampton) he would spend most of his weekends at his aunt Marjorie's. He added, that Barney would be on the corner of the street each Friday night, waiting for him to arrive from RAF cosford, so that they could both go into the local pub for a drink, which of course Dad bought. As he recalled, he was Barney's favourite grandson at that time!"

  Noted events in his life were:

• Alt. Birth: Alt. Birth, 20 Oct 1865, Bungay, Suffolk England.

• Alt. Death: Alt. Death, 23 Sep 1943, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire England.

• Baptism, 19 Nov 1865, Bungay Holy Trinity, Bungay, Suffolk England.

Barney married Amy Watson, daughter of Walter (John) Clutten Watson and Elizabeth Lydia Howard, on 22 Apr 1889 in Bungay, Suffolk England. (Amy Watson was born on 17 May 1866 in Peasenhall or Ditchingham, Suffolk England ?, died on 28 Nov 1940 in 376 Wolverhampton Rd, Heath Town, Wolverhampton, West Midlands England U.D. and was buried in Jeffcock Rd Cemetery, Wolverhampton England (Unmarked).)