Seeking Henry Bailey
Henry Bailey 1898
Lorraine Van der Spuy nee Bailey has spent many years trying to find out who her grandfather Henry Bailey’s parents were. Writing and visiting various archives and other repositories has taken up much of the research time. Numerous birth certificates have also been ordered, in trying to find that missing and vital clue to this fascinating story. This story has captured my interest and I hope that someone out there can help. In my correspondence with Lorraine I even discovered that her grandfather and my grandfather’s brother Samuel Hindson Penrith were colleagues in the Cape Town Branch of the Musicians Union of South Africa.
Henry Bailey was born on 4th July 1873 somewhere in London.
He wrote in his memoirs that he had been orphaned at an early age, and was confirmed in c.1886 by the Bishop of London (who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury). When Lorraine was a child he told her that he had been placed in a home by an “uncle”. This could of course have been some government official. He left school just after his confirmation and “walked to London” where he met the Philanthropist Sir Quentin Hogg, who took him in his care and arranged that he complete his education at the Regent Street Polytechnic, one of his subjects being science. He then joined the Army Medical Services (which later became known as the Royal Army Medical Corps) at Aldershot, studied medical subjects and was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Southampton. Here he studied bacteriology at the Army Medical College.
The Professor of Surgery took him to London to learn a new discovery, and he became the first man in the
Henry Bailey - Vaccine Institute, Rosebank
British Army to learn and work the Röntgen Rays, now accepted as X-Rays. (Lorraine has obtained a copy of his service in the Royal Army Medical Corps from the National Archives in Kew). He then joined the Army Medical Corps in 1893, spent four years at the Royal Infirmary, Netley and was then sent to Malta for three years.
He came to South Africa with his X-Ray equipment from around 1900 until the end of the Anglo-Boer War, which ended in 1902. He was with a mobile Field Hospital in General French’s charge, scouring the Eastern Transvaal. Soon he was promoted as Sergeant in charge of the Surgical Division in Natal until 1902. Because of the bubonic plague in Cape Town shortly after the War he was seconded by the Army to the Cape Town health authorities to help combat the bubonic plague epidemic.
We found the baptism of Henry Bailey’s first born in our records.
Having no known living relatives he decided to settle in Cape Town and sent for his future wife, who had been waiting for his return to England, and they were married in Cape Town in 1903. From 1906 to 1933, until he retired, he was the Superintendent of the Government Vaccine Institute in Rosebank, first under the Cape Government and later under the Union Department of Health. In 1918 he founded the Dellville Wood Service, which was then a musical service, before it took its form of a religious service. He was a cornet and trumpet player and occasionally played with the Cape Town Orchestra during the 1920s. He founded the Cape Musicians’ Association before World War 1. Henry became an Honorary Bacteriologist to the Free Dispensary of the Cape Town Hospital Board, examining specimens for rapid diagnostic purposes.
See the Bailey Family Tree
He died in Pinelands, in 1958, still not knowing who his parents were.
Lorraine would love to find out not only who his parents were but also would like someone to identify the uniform in the video clip below. If you can help her please email us.