What do the Cardiff docklands, a boarding house, a declaration of war and international Rugby legend Gus Risman have to do with my husband’s family?
Well, after being gone for almost a year on a sailing job to Australia and back, in the autumn of 1914, Andrejs Blezurs found himself stranded in the Welsh city of Cardiff. He was meant to head back to Antwerp and then either on another long-distance mission or back home to Riga. But only days before making landfall the unthinkable happened. Britain and Russia were now at war with Germany and getting back to mainland Europe was impossible. Andrejs would not return to his Latvian homeland for 9 years.
Cardiff was not a bad location for a strong young sailor as there were plenty of jobs aboard steam ships delivering coal to Britain’s allies such as France, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. These sailors needed places to live and in Cardiff that meant the Butetown section of the city near the docks. This seedy and dangerous part of Cardiff was known locally as ‘Tiger Bay’. Tiger Bay was an intensely multi-ethnic community, hosting sailors, workers and immigrants from over 50 nations. Incidentally, the famous singer Shirley Bassey grew up in Tiger Bay in the 1930s and 40s.
Andrejs’s first job out of Wales was on the iron screw steamer the Speedwell. This mid-sized cargo ship had a crew of about 20 men and went between Cardiff and the port of Nantes on the west coast of France. Andrejs and any other Latvians would have been used to finding a local sailor’s home and it wouldn’t have taken long for him to find the Latvian boarding house at 1 Sophia St., run by Augustus Risman (Rismanis) and his wife Annette. There were heaps of boarding houses for sailors in and around the docks, and many of them catered to different ethnicities or languages.
Here is an excerpt from the book I am writing that tries to bring this moment to life (note that I have ‘Anglicised’ Andrejs to ‘Andrew’ as that is the name he would go by during his time in the UK):
“After gathering their belongings, many of the crew headed to Butetown to find lodging and food. Butetown was the neighbourhood adjacent to the Cardiff Docks. This area had been nicknamed ‘Tiger Bay’ by visiting sailors, referring to its infamous reputation as a rough and seedy place. Tiger Bay welcomed seamen and immigrants from dozens of countries and was a true melting pot of languages, religions and cultures. As Andrew headed down Bute St. with his ragged but sturdy ditty bag slung over his shoulder, he was bombarded by a strange mix of aromas and sounds. There were people everywhere. There were tall black-as-night Africans in colourful native costumes, loud plump Greeks with huge moustaches running food stalls along the side of the road, secretive-looking Arab men wearing white dresses paired with formal suit jackets and exotic fast-talking Chinamen selling things around every corner. There were women of all shapes and colours offering their services to the newly arrived sailors while lively children chased each other half-clothed through the crowd. Andrew had been to many port cities and had spent time in the working-class neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires and Western Australia. But he had never experienced anything like the vibrancy and excitement of this colourful Welsh enclave.
Finally, Andrew reached his destination, a 3-story brick boarding house at 1 Sophia St. This rooming house had been recommended to him by other sailors familiar with Cardiff. The boarding house at 1 Sophia St was run by Latvians, and it was a home away from home for men from Latvia and other Baltic lands like Estonia, Finland and Lithuania. The proprietor was Augustus Rismanis and his wife Annette. Augustus was a bit older than Andrew’s 26 years and had also been a merchant sailor in his youth. His adventures had eventually led him to this little corner of the United Kingdom. He had traded in his days of sailing the seas for a domestic life with his wife and children. Business was always good and life was certainly never boring. Andrew was just glad to be able to speak in his native language for a change and have a countryman to talk to about the new situation the world found itself in. Augustus happily led Andrew to a room. When asked how long he would be staying, Andrew wasn’t sure how to answer.”
Revolution and Rugby
In researching this boarding house, I found an interesting connection with Cardiff history. The proprietor, Augustus Rismanis, was from the small coastal village of Pavilosta, about halfway between the major ports of Liepāja and Ventspils. The story is that he was of Baltic German descent and was one of 15 siblings. He spent his younger years as a sailor in the Russian Imperial Navy and merchant marine. In 1905, the failed Communist Revolution caused chaos and destruction across western Latvia. Augustus and his new wife decided to leave their home for a safer and more stable life and ended up in Wales, where they Anglicised their name to Risman.
The couple was running a Latvian sailor’s home at 1 Sophia St. in 1911 when their first child was born. Named Augustus after his father, he would have been just a small boy during WWI when Andrejs lived there. The 1911 Census records Augustus, his wife Annette, their new baby Augustus, a female relative of Annette’s from Latvia named Lisette Strasdin and eight sailors boarding there, most of them from Riga. Although the Risman family ran a business, life was hard and most people in Butetown were constantly fighting poverty and disease. Augustus and his wife had a total of five children, two of which died of disease before adulthood.
The younger Augustus Risman became known by the nickname ‘Gus’. He would go on to become an international hero in the world of Rugby League. His rugby career spanned four decades, from the 20s to the 50s and he was coaching into the 1970s. He played both nationally and internationally and was inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 1988. Gus had two sons, Bev Risman and John Risman, who were also both famous rugby players in their own right. Gus Risman is considered one of the best players of all time.
Augustus Risman Sr. died of diabetes in 1931 and Gus Risman died in 1994 at the age of 83. In 2015, a statue was erected at Wembley Stadium to honour the 120th birthday of Rugby League. Gus Risman was one of the five Rugby legends to be depicted. And in 2023, a memorial statue to Risman and two other legendary rugby players was unveiled at the Cardiff Docks.
Gus’s grandson, MIke, has spent many years researching his family history. Before the death of his grandfather, he asked him where his parents had come from. Grandpa Gus told him ‘They came from a place where all roads lead to the sea’. Mike ended up travelling to Latvia and visiting the small village of Pāvilosta. There he found a sign that said, ‘Welcome to Pavilosta where all roads lead to the sea…’. (from the newspaper article ‘Recalling when all roads led to the sea’, The Rugby Paper, 2-July-2023). What a journey for the Risman family from that small Latvian village, through revolution and war, fighting poverty and tragedy, to rise to international acclaim and even now, in the 21st century to have a permanent memorial. I bet Andrejs would have been amazed to know what became of that little boy from the boarding house.
Everyday Life on Sophia Street
I used the website British Newspaper Archive to research Sophia Street. I was able to find heaps of interesting people and events that helped to add colour and texture to what life was like in this unique place. 7 Sophia was a coffee shop, 9 Sophia was an inn, 19 Sophia was the home of a mining family, 32 Sophia was the home of Mr. & Mrs. Neads, 38 Sophia was a famous pub called the Marchioness and 29 Sophia was another boarding house. There were also butchers, pubs, shops, Chinese laundries and a chemist. There was a police station on Sophia St. that dealt with the dark side of life there. Women fined for ‘shebeening’, or selling beer illegally, especially to the local sailors. Sailors arrested for being ‘disorderly’. Shopkeepers fined for overcharging ‘coloured’ people. Residents found dead in their homes from alcoholism and heart attacks. Fights breaking out constantly, sometimes resulting in major injury or even death. In 1919, there were major race riots in the streets of Butetown. And during the war, young men were often coming back to their homes in Butetown maimed and in shell-shock. And some didn’t come home at all and were reported dead, missing or taken prisoner.
In November 1917, Polly Bryant, who had had a history of run-ins with the police, was found dead in her residence at 15 Sophia St. She had been seen in the company of three ‘Scandinavian’ sailors the previous evening, all of them drunk, including Polly. The next morning she was found dead with her throat cut. There was a thorough police search examining every ship at dock looking for the culprit. But no one was ever found. Was Andrejs around at this time? Did he know those sailors or did he know Polly?
We have the crew lists for a few of Andrejs’s jobs during this time listing sailors from exotic places such as Yemen, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Cape Verde, Chile, Spain, England and Germany. Quite a melting pot. It is no wonder that Andrejs ended up being proficient in several languages!
By 1920, with the war in the west long over, Andrejs had left Cardiff and was once again sailing out of Antwerp. Augustus Risman and his family had also left their boarding house and had moved to the nearby port town of Barry. The original boarding house building was still standing in the mid-20th century. But in the 50s and 60s parts of Tiger Bay were demolished in a controversial attempt to rid the city of ‘slums’. Sophia St. no longer exists but the name is used for the nearby Sophia Walk and Sophia Gardens.
A Note on the Importance of Historical Context in Genealogy
I feel like the story presented in this post perfectly exemplifies the importance of researching every angle of a family history question. Do you have a street name? An address? The name of a landlord, neighbour or employer? Research it! Don’t leave any stone unturned. Search in old newspapers or Facebook groups dedicated to a particular historical place. The more you uncover, the richer your family story will be and the more you will understand the world your ancestor lived in. You never know what interesting parts of history you will uncover…