Ernest Callaghan was born on Thursday, 19th September 1901, in Birmingham, Warwickshire. ^{[6, 9, 21-24]}

He was the son of Joseph Valentine Callaghan and Lizzie (Elizabeth) Boulton.

Ernest served in the Royal Navy on 22nd August 1917 ^{[21, 25]}

On 13th September 1931 he joining the Royal Navy Reserve.^[22]  

In 1932 Ernest worked as a Postman in Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[26]

He was called up and re-joined the Royal Navy and served during WWII between 1938 and 1945. ^[22]

Ernest again worked as a Postman in Birmingham, Warwickshire from 1945 until he retired.

He died in Birmingham, West Midlands, in September 1973 at the age of 71. ^[6]

Ernest's parents, Joseph Valentine Callaghan and Lizzie (sometimes called Elizabeth) were my grandparents. Elizabeth wanted them to change their surname from Callaghan to Mason to avoid the Irish surname associating them with the Irish, at a time of civil unrest in the Irish revolutionist period against British rule.

It is not illegal to change one’s name without government approval, making it difficult to trace ancestors who have changed their names. In the modern computerized world, it is still not illegal, but difficult to do so without going through a legal process.

Their three children, William, Ernest (my father) and Percy were all born and officially registered as Callaghan, however on census and electoral documents already using the name Mason.

William and Percy kept the name of Mason and were known as Mason, but my father Ernest on learning of the name change at age 15 insisted on reverting to his original surname and being known as Callaghan.

On the death certification for William the correct surname Callaghan was used, however Percy's death was registered as Mason. Jill Shaver nee Callaghan.

My first recollections of my grandparents were of their rented house in Birmingham. A dismal place with no hot water, only two electric lights on the ground floor and candle lighting in the bedrooms. The house was demolished as part of a government housing improvement program and they were transferred to a new modern council house in 1960.

I remember my grandfather as a stern no-nonsense person. He worked as a postman and used to get up very early to go to work. At 12.30 he would arrive home and expect lunch to be ready, cooked by my grandmother. Unfailingly the meal would be either fresh fish or meat bought that morning (no refrigeration), potatoes, veg and gravy or sauce, followed by home-made hot desert.

After lunch he would go to bed and get up again around 3.30 and go back to the post office for overtime.

At 6.30 he would return for dinner which would again be a fully cooked meal. I remember that when I stayed with my grandparents, they always had plenty of food and that the council house they lived in was always warm with a good coal fire.

Granddad was a regular beer drinker, and was often in the pub with his friends, although I do not recall hearing that he was ever drunk.

He had little time for any of his children, who I think he was generally disappointed in. His second child Terence died in a house fire as a baby, in which my mother as elder sister aged 7 survived.

Ernest Alfred his third child was in the Royal Navy as a Batman, a position I suspect my grandfather despised.

Jill, his youngest child, as a teen and twenties girl was very much obsessed with film and fashion and imaginings of a glamorous life.

A keen horse racing follower he always used to place bets on the races, but was never an excessive gambler. On Thursday nights he used to fill in the football pools. He had a bag with bingo style numbered counters which he would shake and then offer round whoever was there to dip for numbers that he would then enter on the form. I don't think he ever won anything but there was always a chance!

After he retired on a small pension, he and my grandmother used to work together part time in the early evenings as cleaners in a small office building to supplement their income. Charles Birch

• British Postal Service Appointment Books, 1737-1969 about Ernest Callaghan. Name: Ernest Callaghan. Date Appointed: Feb 1932 Place Appointed: Birmingham.

Ernest Callaghan Royal Navy Service.

• 1917/18 HMS Impregnable - (Boy II, Boy I) shore-based Davenport
• 1918 HMS Victory I - (Boy I) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1918/19 HMS Leviathan - (Boy I) Drake-class armoured cruiser
• 1919 HMS Victory I shore based establishment Portsmouth.
• 1919/21 HMS Southampton - (Boy I, Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman) Town-class cruiser
• 1921 HMS Dartmouth - (Able Seaman) Town-class cruiser
• 1921 HMS Victory I - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1921/23 HMS Fisgard - (Able Seaman) shore-based training school
• 1923/24 HMS Victory XI - (Able Seaman) Naval depot Portland
• 1924 HMS Victory I - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1924/26 HMS Tiger - (Able Seaman) Battle cruiser
• 1926/27 HMS Victory I - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1927 HMS Excellent - (Able Seaman) Gunnery School Whale Island off Portsmouth
• 1927 HMS Victory I - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1927 HMS Dartmouth - (Able Seaman) Town-class cruiser
• 1928 HMS Constance - (Able Seaman) C-class light cruiser
• 1928 HMS Concord - (Able Seaman) C-class light cruiser
• 1928 HMS Victory I - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1929 HMS Victory I - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1929 HMS Egmont (Able Seaman) shore based, Malta
• 1930 HMS Victory I - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1930 HMS Victory 1-3 - (Able Seaman) shore Based establishments Portsmouth and Crystal Palace
• 1930 HMS Frobisher - (Able Seaman) Heavy Cruiser - Cadet training ship
• 1931 HMS Constance - (Able Seaman) Light Cruiser
• 1931 HMS Victory 1-3 - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishments Portsmouth and Crystal Palace
• 1931 Completed service and joined the Royal Navy Reserve.
• 1938 Mobilised.
• 1938 HMS Victory 1-2 - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishments Portsmouth and Crystal Palace
• 1939 HMS Victory 4 - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1939 HMS Victory 1 - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1939 HMS Excellent - (Able Seaman) Gunnery School, Whale Island off Portsmouth
• 1940 HMS Pembroke - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Chatham
• 1940 HMS Pyramus - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Orkney
• 1940 HMS Caroline - (Able Seaman) Light Cruiser used as a training ship Belfast
• 1941 HMS Victory 1 - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Portsmouth
• 1941 HMS Cochrane 2 - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Rosyth
• 1941 HMS Drake - (Able Seaman) shore-based establishment Devonport
• 1945 Released from service.

Note: I believe that my grandfather was a gunner and was involved with gunnery training. Charles Birch

More facts and events for Ernest Callaghan:

• Residence: 2nd April 1911. Back of Number 17 Blythe Street, Ladywood, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[23] Relation to Head of House: Son. Listed as Ernest Mason on the 1911 census
• Residence: 1928. 4 back of Number 179, Summer Lane, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1930. 4 back of Number 179, Summer Lane, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1935. 5 Court 2 Ford Street, Hockley, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1939. 5 Court 2 Ford Street, Hockley, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1955. 2 Back of Number 10, Ford Street, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1960. Rupert Street, Nechells, Birmingham, Warwickshire. With the government back-to-back housing demolition program, the family was rehoused in a new modern 3 bedroom ground floor maisonette. 

At the age of 24, Ernest married Ivy Blanch Lovell on Sunday, 4th April 1926, at St Edward Church, New John Street in Birmingham, Warwickshire, when she was 26 years old. ^[24]

They had four children: Jean, Terence, Ernest Alfred and Jill.

Ivy Blanch Lovell was born in Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, on Sunday, 24th September 1899. ^{[6, 8, 9, 24, 27-29]}

She was the daughter of Henry Joseph Lovell and Elizabeth Jane Busst.

Ivy was baptised at St Pauls in Birmingham, Warwickshire, on 11th October 1899. ^[29]

Ivy reached 87 years of age and died in Clitheroe, Lancashire, in April 1987. ^[6]

More facts and events for Ivy Blanch Lovell:

• Residence: 1901. 14 Regents Row, St Pauls, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[27] Relation to Head of House: Daughter.
• Residence: 2nd April 1911. 4 Back of 180 Summer Lane, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[28] Marital Status: Single. Relation to Head of House: Daughter.
• Residence: 1930. 4 Back of 179, Summer Lane, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1935. 5 Court 2 Ford Street, Hockley, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1939. 5 Court 2 Ford Street, Hockley, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^{[8, 25]} Marital Status: Married
• Residence: 1945. 2 Back of 10, Ford Street, Hockley, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1955. 2 Back of 10, Ford Street, Hockley, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[25]
• Residence: 1960. Rupert Street, Nechells, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[2] With the government back-to-back housing demolition program, the family was rehoused in a nice 3 bedroom ground floor maisonette. 
• Residence: about 1975. 48 St Pauls Street, Low Moor, Clitheroe, Lancashire ^[2]

Children of Ernest Callaghan and Ivy Blanch Lovell:

f 1. Jean Callaghan was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, on 27th May 1927. ^{[1, 4, 8]}

She died in Blackburn, Lancashire, on 2nd February 2009, at the age of 81. ^[2]

m II. Terence Callaghan was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, on 7th November 1932. ^130] He was baptised in Birmingham, Warwickshire, on 4th December 1932. ^[31]

Terence died in Birmingham, Warwickshire, between January and March 1934. ^{[ 30]}

My brother Terrence unfortunately died in a house fire. Jill Shaver nee Callaghan

• Name Terrance
• Event Type Baptism
• Event Date 04 Dec 1932
• Event Place Birmingham
• Birth Date 07 Nov 1932
• Father's Name Ernest Callaghan. Mother's Name Ivy Callaghan
• Parish Registers, 1535-1963

m III. Ernest Alfred Callaghan was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, on 2nd December 1934. ^{[6, 8,32]}

He served his military National Service in the Royal Navy in 1952.^[2]

Ernest Alfred signed on for extended service in the Royal Navy in 1954. ^[2]

He died in West Midlands, Birmingham, in April 1993 at the age of 58. ^[6]

Uncle Ernie, as we called him, was a talented child who was seriously interested in European History especially the reign of Charlemagne. So much so that he entered an essay contest in one of the Birmingham evening papers for schoolchildren.

He won a prize and was then contacted and met by a History Department Professor at Birmingham University who had read and been impressed with the essay. He offered him an unpaid assistant position at the university from school leaving age of 15 until National Service at age 17 and then fully paid from 18½ after national Service. His father however refused to allow this saying that after leaving school he had to earn his keep.

He therefore joined the Post Office as a Postman, and following National Service in the Royal Navy signed on for extended service, later re-joining the Post Office.

A real opportunity missed. This information from his mother Ivy Blanch, his aunt Violet Lovell and his sisters Jean and Jill.

Ernie was a heavy drinker and smoker, and also had a good singing voice and used to be a popular singer around the local Birmingham pubs. As life progressed his drinking became heavier and he also became overtly racist, joining the BNP. He used to subscribe to Little England type magazines that gave an idealised view of what England once was, and could be made into again. I read some of them, they were utter rubbish.

Charles Birch

Married with 2 children, Ernie was working unplanned overtime as driver's helper in a registered mail delivery van, which was hi-jacked and robbed. Both Ernie and the driver were charged by the police for being part of the gang to have carried out the robbery, although no others were arrested or charged. They were imprisoned for a short while until the Post Office Union stood bail for them. Suspended on pay they reported to the police station weekly and were treated atrociously by the policemen that they reported to.

The stress of many months under threat of imprisonment took its toll. Ernie began drinking even more heavily and became alcoholic, his colleague unable to withstand the stress and consequent marital difficulties committed suicide.

The police force concerned were the infamous West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, disbanded after being found to be totally corrupt, fabricators of evidence, writing false confessions, torturing suspects etc., resulting in many miscarriages of justice.

The case against Ernie was dismissed in 1988 ("without a stain on his or his now deceased colleague's characters" - Judge) and he was told he could claim compensation.

Compensation was too late now for the dead driver, also Ernie was now a serious alcoholic, extreme racist, and also in poor health. He died in 1993 without, as far as anyone knows, having made any claim against the police.

Jean Birch nee Callaghan, Charles Birch

• Accused: Ernest Callaghan
• Problem: Original Interview Notes Lost, Fabricated Forensic Evidence
• Result: Judge directed acquittal
• Year: 1988

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_Serious_Crime_Squad

And

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_failed_and_overturned_convictions_involving_the_West_Midlands_Serious_Crime_Squad#List_of_failed_prosecutions

After his acquittal, Ernie's alcoholism became worse and his racism more extreme, so much so, that I refused to have any further contact with him. Charles Birch

More facts and events for Ernest Alfred Callaghan:

•  Residence: 1939. 2 Court 5, Ford Street, Hockley, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[8] Son. Under School Age.

f IV. Jill Callaghan was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, on 7th February 1938. ^{[1, 33-35]}

She emigrated about 1975. ^[2] from the UK and Immigrated to the USA.

Jill died in the USA, Michigan, Battle Creek, in 2013 at the age of 74. ^{[33, 34]}

Jill married Laurence (Larry) Edward Shaver in 1966 in Birmingham, Warwickshire. 

Larry had a previous Marriage to Patricia Ellen Scannell. They married in Boise, Idaho in 1943.

I first met Uncle Larry as a child when he visited Clitheroe with Aunty Jill. He was wearing his USA military uniform - an unusual sight in rural Clitheroe. I remember he bought me my first Coca Cola.

Larry had a previous marriage, prior to marrying Jill. Could this be the reason for the delay between the birth of his son Curtis and the marriage to Jill? I can't find any record of a divorce relating to his first marriage, and his first wife lived in to the 1980's, dying in South Korea, where Larry often served whilst in the military.

Larry, Jill, Curtis and Cindylou lived in Birmingham in a nice semi-detached house in a pleasant suburb. I visited them and stayed for a holiday when I was 18. I found Larry to be nice and easy going. He was working for a vehicle repair garage and also used to buy second-hand cars, do them up and resell them.

After my grandfather Ernest Callaghan died, they sold their house and moved to a larger rented house, and my grandmother Ivy lived with them.

When they decided to emigrate to the USA, Ivy came to Clitheroe and my parents arranged a sheltered accommodation bungalow for her on the next street to them.

Jill, Curtis and Cindylou all obtained USA citizenship, and because it is not possible to lose UK citizenship, became dual citizens.

I saw Jill a couple of times and Curtis once after that, when they visited my parents in Clitheroe. My mother Jean, visited Jill and Larry in Battle Creek in 1988 for a holiday. Charles Birch

• OBITUARY Jill (Callaghan) Shaver
• Battle Creek
• Jill (Callaghan) Shaver, age 75, of Battle Creek passed away Monday, May 20, 2013 surrounded by family. She was born in Birmingham England on February 7, 1938. Jill was the youngest child of Ernest Callaghan and Ivy (Lovell) Callaghan.
• She was preceded in death by her husband, Lawrence Shaver, who passed away December 18, 1997; parents; brothers, Terrence, Ernest; and sister, Jean. Jill is survived by her children, Curtis (Marie) Shaver, Cindy (Scott) Kruger; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren.

The family of the late Jill (Callaghan) Shaver wish to thank the following people for their friendship, help, and love at this time. Wanda Meyers, neighbors and friend Kathy Foster, Jerry Lyman for her ability to make Jill laugh, many circumstances. Dona Verga, Sharon Alma Gwipe, Dean Shaw, Reverend James Spohn, Pastor Aaron Thacher for great conversations and so many laughs. Reverend Jim Codde, Hospice Chaplain for his visits. Dana Angie Shaver for providing a loving home for Jill's little dog, Triki. Grandson, Ian Kruger for all of his support and physical help he provided for Jill. Cindy Kruger for all of her help to Jill over the last two years. Lifespan hospice nurses, social workers, and Dr. J. Galonsky. Wendell Diggs for providing great care for Jill for over twenty years. God's blessings upon all of you, Friends may send condolences or share a memory at baxterfuneral.com Arrangements by the Baxter Funeral & Cremation Service. (269)788-9800 Published in Battle Creek Enquirer on May 26, 2013

More facts and events for Jill Callaghan:

• Residence: 1945. 2 Back of Number 10, Ford Street,
• Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[2]
• Residence: 1955. 2 Back of Number 10, Ford Street, Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[2]
• Residence: 1968 - 1975 Birmingham, Warwickshire ^[2]
• Residence: 1976. USA, Michigan, Battle Creek, Six Mile Road, 10450, Number 10 ^[35]
• Residence: 1989. USA, Michigan, Battle Creek, Six Mile Road, 10450, Number 10 ^[35]