RFA West Lancs Bdes
680936 PTE. I. HENDRICKSON. M.M., R.F.A.
Isaac Hendrickson was born on 17 December 1882 in West Derby, Liverpool. His father was Isaac Hendrickson (b. 1843 in Kivik, Sweden). Isaac Snr was a seaman, working out of Liverpool, and in 1888 he was working on the SS City of New York when she made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. In 1870, Isaac was married to Julia Logan (b. 1850 in Liverpool) and the couple had 7 children, losing 2 in infancy. The survivors were: Mary (b. 1871), Martha (b. 1876), Elgina (b. 1880), then Isaac, and finally William (b. 1885). While Isaac snr was working on the transatlantic steamers, Julia lived for some of the time with her mother, Julia Hearty (née Smith, b. 1821 in Meath, Ireland), who in the 1880s was living in Bamber Bridge (School Lane). When Isaac left the merchant navy in about 1895 the Hendricksons moved to Brandiforth Street, Bamber Bridge, and Isaac got a job as a mill labourer.
In 1909, Isaac jnr married Harriet Morton (b. 1889 in Bamber Bridge) and they had two children before the War – Christopher (b. 1909) and Mary (b. 1912). In 1911, they were living at 6 Withy Place, Bamber Bridge, and Isaac was a coal carter and Harriet was a frame tenter in a cotton mill. Isaac enlisted in May 1915 but he was posted to “A” Battery rather than “C” Battery where most of the other Briggers ended up. (Francis Schultz was one of the “A” Battery Sergeants so you can read about their military service on his biography.)
The announcement of the Military Medal award to Isaac Hendrickson was made in the London Gazette on 24 January 1919. This indicates that the award was probably made for bravery during the campaign to capture Cambrai in October 1918.
Isaac would have been demobilised in the spring of 1919. After the War, he and Harriet had three more children: John (b. 1919), Isaac (b. 1926) and Kathleen (b. 1933). He died in 1939. At the time the family was living at 164 Station Road, Bamber Bridge.