George Swatton Mansbridge
GEORGE AND GEORGINA (MILLS) MANSBRIDGE
Georgina Mills Mansbridge
The story of Mary’s family is best started with George Swatton Mansbridge (1849-1917) her maternal grandfather and one of the most interesting characters in the family. Unfortunately she never met him. To date, we know little about his ancestors. He writes in an autobiography that he was born in Bantry Bay, Ireland in 1849. Yet he also noted that his father was a head dock maker in Birkenhead England and mentions himself visiting and training there. We are hoping to connect the dots.
George started working on ships in Great Britain as a boy and by twelve he was a “bound apprentice,” traveling the globe. His own accounting of his adventures is exciting and highly recommended. See below for a link. Ultimately, he settled in Japan where he worked for 28 years as the Foreman at the Mitsubishi Shipyard in Nagasaki. He was decorated by the Japanese government for work he had previously performed in the China Sea. By all accounts and photographs, he was a loving husband and doting father. He and his wife Georgina Mills married in 1894 and lived in an English expat community where they raised six children. Those happy years were described in detail by Rose, Mary’s mother. (See link below.)
In 1981, Mary, her brother Peter and their mother Rose visited Japan so that Rose could revisit her childhood and connect with her father’s legacy at Mitsubishi. The Company greeted and treated them as royalty. The trip is well documented in an album created by Rose. See link below.
The little we know about Georgina Mills (Born 1864), through Rose’s memoirs and photographs, reveal a quiet, loving wife and mother. Georgina had been adopted by Henry and Elizabeth Mills (perhaps in Macau, off the coast of China.) Some sources report Georgina’s ethnicity as Japanese, but DNA tests have confirmed she was Chinese.
How and when Georgina met George is unknown but they raised a family of five girls and one son in a thriving English expat community in Nagasaki. Much has been written about such communities in Japan by researchers. For photos of that time and an accounting by Rose (Mary’s mother) in her memoirs, see the links below.
Five of the six children ultimately left Japan for Canada, England or the United States. George and Georgina’s tombstones remain standing in Nagasaki despite the bombing in 1945.
George and Georgina Mansbridge, 1884
The Mansbridge family. Top row: Elizabeth, George, Alfred, Georgina, Georgina. Bottom row: Louise and Rose. The youngest Daisy, had yet to be born.