Joseph Bunyan

William Charles Joseph Bunyan’s birth was registered at Alverstoke, Hampshire in 1900. His parents were Charles Joseph and Jane Ellen Bunyan, nee Heath, and his place of birth was Gosport. In the 1901 census at a year old, he was resident with his parents and 3 week old brother, Sampson, at 40 Marecroft, Worksop. His maternal grandparents, Sampson and Elizabeth Heath, also lived in Marecroft at number 53. By 1902, it is registered that brother Sampson had died whilst living with his parents in Southwark, London. His mother died in 1905 at the same place. It is unclear if William went with them to Southwark, but in 1911, for reasons unknown, he had been placed as a resident at the Abbeyhurst workhouse children’s home, Cheapside age 12, (recorded Joseph Bunyon). As stated in his Worksop Guardian obituary, he was taken to Canada for a new start in life. Whilst living at Birtle Manitoba he was attested and passed his medical as fit on the 22 Oct 1915 stating his birth as 1/10/1898 and giving his next of kin as Mr S Heath, grandfather, of 8 Vernon Street, Worksop, England. It was whilst in the army that he dropped the ‘William Charles’, and called himself plain ‘Joseph’ Bunyan