Dorchester Illustration no. 2403 Herbert Hilman Ainsley
At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we will be featuring servicemen in a number of short biographies throughout the year. At the culmination of the project, we hope to produce an online exhibit which highlights these men and their service to our country.
Our next biography features: Herbert H. Ainsley – 1924.0001.058
Written by: Camille Arbogast
Herbert Hilman Ainsley was born on December 17, 1897, at 86 River Street in Lower Mills. His mother, Annie, immigrated from Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1885. His father, Charles, worked as a paper machine operator, perhaps at the nearby Tileston and Hollingworth paper factory. Herbert had four older siblings: a sister, Persis, and brothers Clarence, Malcolm, and Howard, as well as two younger sisters, Alida and Alvina, and a younger brother, Spencer. In 1903, Malcolm accidentally drowned in the Neponset River. By 1910, the family had moved up River Street to number 117 and Charles was working as a chocolate maker, presumably at the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory. In 1917, they lived at 65 Bearse Avenue.
On September 10, 1917, Herbert joined the Navy, enlisting at the Chelsea Naval Hospital and entering as a Hospital Apprentice Class 2. At the age of 19 and eight months, he was too young for the draft, which at the time was for men ages twenty-one to thirty; so, by enlisting, he was volunteering to serve. He was sent to the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island for his first assignment. At the end of November, he was made an Apprentice Seaman; three months later he made Seaman Second Class.
In March 1918, Herbert entered the U.S. Naval Radio School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a training program for Morse Code operators on the Harvard University campus. When Herbert arrived, enrollment was near peak and barracks had been constructed on the Cambridge Common to house the 3,400 students. The course covered the basics of electrical work and radio operation, including lessons on current, batteries, generators, circuits, and transmitters. When students could transmit twenty-five words a minute, they graduated to active duty. Some students were kept on as teachers in the program. Herbert was still at the Naval Radio School when the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918. He was released from duty in April 1919.
That September he wed Gladys E. Kent of Mattapan. They were married by Reverend Wilbur George Chaffee, the pastor of the Stanton Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. The couple moved to Flint, Michigan. There, Herbert worked as an electrician forBuick, in what was at the time the largest automobile factory in the world. He remained at Buick for 43 years. Beginning in the 1930s, Flint city directories list him as a maintenance man, sometimes specifying foreman or supervisor. When they first arrived in Flint, the Ainsleys boarded with an insurance agent and his wife, who was an inspector in an auto factory, perhaps the same factory as Herbert. Later, they owned their own homes, first at 2222 Adams Avenue and later at 1907 Prospect. They had four daughters, Pearl born in 1920, Florence in 1924, Elaine in 1926, and Patricia in 1935, and a son, Alan, born in 1941.
They retired to a home on Lake Huron in Port Austin, Michigan where they became active members of the Port Austin Senior Citizen Club, hosting potlucks and picnics. Winters were sometimes spent in Florida. Gladys died in 1991. Seven years later, Herbert died at the age of 100. He is buried in Flint Memorial Park, Mount Morris, Michigan.
Sources:
Birth Certificate via FamilySearch.org
Charles Ainsley Household, 1900, 1910 Census via Ancestry.com
Malcom C. Ainsley, Death Record via Ancestry.com
Herbert Hillman Ainsley, Service Card, Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.
Gates, Alfred L. “The U.S. Naval Radio School.” The Recruit: A Pictorial Naval Magazine July 1919: 15-19, 44; via googlebooks
Herbert H. Ainsley and Gladys E. Kent, Marriage certificate via FamilySearch.org
Herbert Ainsley in the household of Carlton Stoner, 1920 Censusvia FamilySearch.org
Herbert H Ainsley, 1930, 1910 Census via Family Search
70th wedding anniversary clipping, attached to Gladys E. Kent, Roberts Family Tree, Ancestry.com
Flint City Directories, multiple years 1921-1958, via Ancestry.com
“33 Persons Enjoy Senior Citizens Annual Picnic,” Times Herald Port Austin, MI 20 August 1968: 13, via newspaper.com
Social Security death record via FamilySearch.org
Herbert H Ainsley, Michigan, United States, 05 Aug 1998; from “Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 – Today),” database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Flint Journal, The, born-digital text.