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HomePort is pleased to provide information related to the Ayre
family of St. John's, Newfoundland which traces its ancestry to
Sarah Badcock and John Ayre, a joiner (builder) of Exeter, Devon,
UK.
The
couple married in Exeter, in 1812 and had eight children, with
three of their girls dying young. John himself died in 1824 when the
five remaining children were aged 3 to 15.
During the mid-1800's six of John and Sarah's children and
grandchildren individually emigrated from England to Newfoundland,
establishing the family in St. John's. This included one daughter,
a son and four granddaughters. Family traditions tell of young
women who came out to Newfoundland to visit relatives, or in the
case of Annie Ayre (1853-1935), to work in the household of her
wealthy Aunt Amelia Steer. Eligible young women often met young
men and married, establishing another branch to the growing St. John's family.
The original Ayres who migrated from England to Newfoundland were:
- Hon. Charles Robert Ayre
(1819-1889), married Hannah Mary Bray (c.1821-1911) - (7
children)
- His sister Amelia Ayre
(1825-1912), married John Steer (1824-1918) - (5
children)
- Their nieces:
- Rose Emma Cole (1839-1919), on New Year's day 1863 she
married John Edgar P. Peters (1839-1919) - (11 children)
- Sarah Jane Cole
(1847-1925), married Alexander Robertson (1854-1932) - (6
children)
- Catherine Cole
(1849-1922), remained single.
- Annie Ayre
(1853-1935), married Edwin John Knight (1848-1927) - (4
children)
The Exeter area family had moved
to Birmingham, England beginning in the 1850's with John and
Sarah's son John Jr. establishing his young family there. In the
1870's prior to 1874, another migration was begun from England to
Toronto, Ontario. This included two of Hon. Charles Robert Ayre's
nephews (sons of his brother John Ayre Jr.) who relocated there
with their wives and children. They were:
- Charles Ayre (born
c.1845) married Mary Ann ------- in 1869 - (4 children)
- John Ayre (born c.
1843) married in 1866, Mary A. Beevers - (5 children)
A third migration in 1884 began
in another direction, this time to Australia:
- George John Coles
(1840-1916) had 7 children with his first wife Elizabeth Emma
Fraser. Elizabeth died in 1880 and George married in 1884,
Josephine Augusta Norris. They set sail almost immediately on
the Duke of Argyll to
Brisbane, settling permanently in Ipswich, Queensland.
In Newfoundland, Charles Robert Ayre originally worked in Benjamin
Bowring & Sons, learning the merchants trade, until he was
able to establish Ayre & Steer in 1859 with his
brother-in-law, John Steer. In 1884, Arye & Sons was
incorporated with three sons in the firm: Hon. John Bray
Ayre, Frederick William Ayre and Hon. Robert Chesley Ayre. In
1889, a fourth son, Hon. Charles Pascoe Ayre became a partner.
In 1916, the Ayre name sadly
appeared in headlines when the world, reeling from the devastation
of WW I, learned that a family in St. John's Newfoundland had lost
four boys in battle, all grandsons of the late Charles Robert
Ayre. In a wall of machine gun fire, at Beaumont Hamel on
July 1, 1916, the four young officers paid the ultimate sacrifice.
While the Ayre family suffered a great loss, the grief of one
family was only a microcosm of the grief of all Newfoundlanders.
Of the 801 members of the Newfoundland Regiment who had gone into
battle that day, only 68 were able to respond at roll call the
following morning. Families and communities in Newfoundland felt
the impact and to this day July 1, 1916 and the heroic sacrifices
of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment are remembered on Memorial Day
which now coincides with Canada Day on July 1st.
Newfoundlanders, despite having the
greatest loss for any regiment, were only a tiny portion of these
grieving losses as the battle saw 100,000 Allied troops go into
battle on a day when there were 57,470 casualties, 19,240 of them
fatal. While the name Beaumont Hamel resounds for all
Newfoundlanders, most Canadians remember the battle as part of the
larger campaign to capture the River Somme. The larger Somme
campaign eventually claimed 620,000 Allied casualties. Ironically
the name of the river comes from a Celtic word meaning
tranquility.
The Canadian
Virtual
War Memorial and Newfoundland
and the First World War, help to commemorate the memory of
those who paid the supreme sacrifice, including the four Ayre
cousins:
- Captain
Eric
Stanley Ayre, age 27, son of Robert Chesley Ayre and
Lydia Gertrude (Pitts) Ayre, of St. John's. Husband of Janet
Morrison Ayre, of
St. John's, Newfoundland.
- Captain
Bernard
Pitts Ayre, age
24, son of Robert Chesley Ayre and Lydia Gertrude
(Pitts) Ayre, of St. John's. Brother of Eric, he was educated
at Methodist College (St. John's) and Leys School, Cambridge.
He took an Honours degree in Medicine at Jesus College,
Cambridge University.
People have reflected on the loss of
so many young men from one small community. Some have
suggested that WW I was for Newfoundland, what Vietnam was for the
American nation, a coming of age and a loss of innocence at the
same time. It is clear that Beaumont Hamel was a defining
point for Newfoundland when as a player on the world stage,
Newfoundlanders stood tall, and also learned the price of freedom. Their service has not been
forgotten.
Do you have
information that could be helpful in correcting or adding to the
contents of HomePort ? We appreciate your
comments, suggestions and additions. We also appreciate making
contact with other descendants and researchers involved with
family history research.
