Herbert Mundin - His Early Years (1898 - 1918)
She was born Jane Lewis in Greenfield, North Wales on May 11th, 1861 and was the daughter of Thomas and Eliza Lewis (née Jones). By 1881 Jane was recorded as living at Sutton in St. Helens, Lancashire along with her parents and four siblings. Thomas was a copper roller and during the nineteenth century, many Welsh people moved to Sutton to work in the local Copper Works and Rolling Mill factory.
On New Year's Day, 1884 at Christ Church in Eccleston, St.Helens, Jane married 24-year-old hairdresser Thomas Groves. The couple lived at his barbershop in Duke Street and in 1885, Jane gave birth to a daughter called Clara. However, Thomas had mental health problems and had previously been committed to Rainhill Asylum.
At 2.10am on November 14th, 1895, Groves woke in what the St.Helens Reporter described as "a maniacal state" and his wife Jane "fled in terror" from him and ran for the police. Upon their arrival, Groves threw a gold watch and furniture at them from his window, so Sergeant Strong used a hatchet to break down the bedroom door. This prompted Groves to leap through his window, breaking an arm and damaging his spine. He died five days later from his injuries. You can find out more of this story here and read the newspaper reports here.
Herbert's father William Mundin on his motorised bicycle pictured in 1921
Shortly after her husband's demise, widow Jane Groves and ten-year-old daughter Clara initially returned to Sutton before moving to 44 Mill Street, close to the barber's shop. She didn't remain single for long, however, as on September 18th, 1897, at the age of 36, she became 50-year-old William Mundin's fourth wife.
William was a missionary employed by the Police Court and Prison Gate Mission of the Liverpool Diocesan Church of England Temperance Society. During the late 19th century he had various nicknames including 'The Converted Navvy', 'Reformed Drunkard' and the 'Lincolnshire Navvy'. By 1890 he was employed as a missionary to the men employed on the Manchester Ship Canal at Runcorn, where William lived with his third wife Mary. Having been a labourer and alcoholic himself, he could relate to the workers and their families in ways that men of the cloth couldn't.
William's missionary work in St.Helens involved the provision of social and pastoral care to people in trouble or enduring marital difficulties. His duties included attending police court sessions, speaking to prisoners in court rooms and cells and subsequently at their homes, where possible. Some were provided with employment which might involve wood chopping at a firewood factory in St.Helens, where the mission had an arrangement. Others were provided with clothing to enable them to obtain employment. Vulnerable people - often wives from broken homes - were taken to their relations or placed in homes. As William was employed by a temperance society and believing alcohol was the root of many ills, he also took some abstinence pledges from those he counselled.
On January 27th 1898, William Mundin appeared in court to support Alice Foulkes of 30 Clyde Street, St.Helens. She’d obtained a silk handkerchief on approval from Mr. Pollitt's shop in Bridge Street, promising to return with the money within a few minutes. Instead Alice went instead to Mr. Moxon's pawnshop in Claughton Street where she got 1s 9d for it. When arrested she said she couldn't remember doing it, adding "I must have been in drink". In court William Mundin said he had had a lot to do with her in the past and it was a very bad case. Alice had been away for six months but upon her return had taken to drink again and become reckless. However she had promised to go under William's care once again and go into a home for a year. On that basis the charge against Alice was dismissed.
Not all of William Mundin's efforts were successful. On March 1st 1895, St.Helens Rugby League star Tommy Foulkes appeared in court charged with deserting his wife Alice. After enduring a difficult 18 months of marriage, they were now living apart and Mundin had been charged with helping them reach an amicable agreement. He arranged for Alice to go into a home and Foulkes had agreed to pay towards her support but at the last minute changed his mind.
Then on January 21st 1898, William Price of Elephant Lane, Thatto Heath in St.Helens appeared in court. He was charged with aggravated assault and persistent cruelty to his wife, despite only been married for eleven weeks. William Mundin described to the magistrates how as a result of a previous summons, he had persuaded Price to sign the pledge and acknowledge his cruel behaviour. He was penitent and made promises to treat his wife better in future, so the missionary Mundin advised Mrs. Price to return home. However William Price soon broke the promises that he made and now found himself back in court.
Windleshaw Road in St.Helens c.1910 where Herbert had been born in 1898
William Mundin is only listed in one edition of the electoral register (1898-99) as residing in Windleshaw Road. He also seemingly owned or resided at properties in College Street, North Road, Oxford Street and Hardshaw Street, but is not listed at any of these addresses in successive registers. The family almost certainly left St.Helens within months of Herbert being born, moving to St.Albans in Hertfordshire. In one newspaper report from October 1899, William Mundin is described as the 'Police Court Missionary of St. Albans.'
William and Jane lived at St.Helens Villa in Paxton Road, apparently naming their house in St.Albans after the town where they first met and where their son Herbert had been born. In February 1908, William became the first probation officer in the county of Hertfordshire. He rode his motorised bicycle around the countryside until well into his seventies before his death in 1924.
It's very often stated in biographies that Herbert Mundin was brought up on a Lancashire farm, however there is no truth in this. Although he did have relatives in the St.Helens district and may have spent some summer holidays away from his Hertfordshire home doing agricultural work.
After leaving school, Mundin began training to become an electrical engineer but he took his first opportunity during WWI to join the Wireless Section of the Royal Navy. The young sailor became a wireless operator on a minesweeper which had been assigned to protect the English Channel. Not much is known of Herbert's war service, although after his death, sister Clara Smith wrote in a letter that her brother had had a "charmed life" whilst serving in the navy.
In David Niven's second book, Bring On the Empty Horses, published in 1975, the actor described Herbert's war-time service. Referring to him as a "great entertainer of legendary conviviality", he wrote of him on his ship encased in an uncomfortable cork life-jacket:
Herbert Mundin grew to loathe that life-jacket with a passion, but, this hatred notwithstanding, for four years, day and night, he was trapped inside it. On November 11, 1918, in the middle of the North Sea he was called on deck with the rest of the crew and after triple rum rations had been issued, the Captain announced that the War was over. In the midst of the general excitement, the cheering, the back-slapping and the sobbing, Herbert Mundin quietly looked down at his detested life-jacket, his prison for four years, then he left the group and very deliberately undid its canvas straps one by one. Next he slid the loathsome garment over his head and approached the rail, smiling secretly to himself, and savouring the delicious moment. Holding it in both hands, with the grip and narrowed eyes of a strangler he looked it right in the eye. "F*** You!" he said quietly and flung it into the cold, grey northern waters. The life-jacket sank like a rock.
Herbert Mundin served in the Royal Navy during the 1st World War and became a wireless operator
During his years of naval service, Herbert had discovered that he had a talent for making his shipmates laugh. He'd also performed in a concert party and had clearly loved the experience. Although engineering and radio did appeal to young Herbert, he now had theatrical ambitions. Soon after the signing of the Armistice, his dream would be realised.