School news and aggressive sons
1885 – Humber National School
The school was said to have done extremely well – Her Majesty’s Inspector said that 92% of the children passed their standard.
The Excellent Merit grant was obtained and the full grant for class subjects was awarded.
The results very much reflect the efforts of the new Master, Mr. T.S. Annandale, as well as his predecessor Mr. F.H. Erye who left at Easter
1896 – Sons Accused of Assaulting Father at Humber
John and George Parry, labourers of Humber, aged 23 and 18, were charged with assaulting and beating their father George Parry.
George Parry had gone into Leominster in order to take out a summons against his sons, and on returning home ordered them out of the house saying that he had the backing of the police. They refused to go, and pushed him out then locked the door.
George went round to the back door, but that too was locked so he set off to go to the police; suddenly a gun went off behind him and he saw that his youngest son was holding the gun and assumed that he had fired at him, but he knew that here was no shot in it, only powder.
A neighbour stated that she heard the commotion and saw an axe outside the door and the two boys were at the window……she said that George Parry asked her to go and find a policeman, but the son George said that if she did he would put out her bloody lights, and his father’s. After that she heard the gunshot.
It seems that the boys had been increasingly difficult since the loss of their mother, and although George Parry had tried to be both father and mother, they were aggressive and difficult to live with – hence the summons to order them out of the house.
At the hearing, father George was a rather unwilling witness despite being in “bodily fear”. The Bench considered that the charge of assault was proved against both boys, and said that the charge of firing a gun at their father was serious – and that it was lucky that it wasn’t loaded.
The sentence in the end was lenient, just 14 days hard labour.