Mary Besford (née Turnbull) (1865–1951)
Mary Turnbull met David Besford while he was preaching in the street. They married in 1887 and had twelve children, eight of whom survived childhood.
Ashington
Ashington is a town in Northumberland 15 miles (24 km) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, bordered to the south by the River Wansbeck. It was a colliery town, and claimed to be the largest mining village in the world. Woodhorn closed in 1981 and Ashington Colliery in 1988.
Many inhabitants have a distinctive accent and dialect known as Pitmatic, which varies from the regional Geordie dialect. The painting class the miners started in 1934 became known as the Ashington Group, or the Pitmen Painters, and the town produced the footballers Jackie Milburn and Jack and Bobby Charlton.
Besfords lived across the colliery rows and streets of Ashington and Hirst.
Janet Besford (later Partland) (1902–1994)
Janet Besford married Albert Edward Partland in 1925. In 1928, Janet gave birth to a son, also named Albert Edward Partland. The family later moved to Wakefield and Motherwell.
Emily Maud Carter (1893–1970)
Emily Maud Carter was born in Highgate, London, and married George Besford in 1920 at Gateshead Registry Office. They had one child, Henry, in 1921.
William Lyons (1926-)
Willy Lyons worked as a milk roundsman and subsequently as the driver of the funeral hearse. He was a sportsman who earned money as both a professional footballer and a professional sprinter.
Agnes Jane Hewit (later Besford) (1890–1958)
Agnes Jane Hewit grew up in Ashington, and married Jack Besford in 1914, supporting the family through Jack’s trade union and political activities.
Margaret Alice Dodds (1901–1986)
Alice Dodds married Tommy Besford in 1925. They and their children emigrated to Australia in 1928.
Rhoda Barkwell Websell
Rhoda Websell married David Besford in 1920. They and their children emigrated to Australia in 1925.
Alf Besford
Alf Besford moved to Australia with his parents at the age of 2. He went on to be officer in charge of Bonegilla Police Station.
Harry Besford (1921–1992)
Henry Besford, always known as Harry, went to school in Bedlington and then studied Physics, becoming a Senior Medical Physicist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
Albert Edward Partland (1901–1974)
A coal miner at Ashington, Albert Edward Partland married Janet Besford in 1925. Their son, also Albert Edward, was born in 1928.