JOSEF HAVELKA

Josef Augustín Havelka, born 27. 8.1888, died 22. 8. 1947, 

grave in Humpolec (the grave has been desecrated and vandalised in about 2016).
The following is extract from Childbirth register at catholic parish in Humpolec

Wife Julie née Škrábová
Children Gustav, Marie (my mother) and Otylie.
Extract from his entry in the Czech Legions History (my translation in Italics).

Education: měst'anka. 3 (3 years of lower secondary school, normally 4 years)

Employment: holič (a hairdresser)

Political leaning: soc.dem. (social democrat)

Compulsory military service in austro-hungarian army: 21.p.pl. (21st foot regiment)

Unit in austro-hungarian army at the time of becoming P.O.W.: 66.p.pl. (foot regiment)

Date of becoming P.O.W.í: 8.7.1917

Place of becoming a P.O.W.: Stanislaw (Poland)

Rank at the time: četař (3 ranks above Private)

Where applied for membersip in the Legion: Bobrujsk

Date of admission: 20.7.1917

Initial unit: 9.stř.pl. (LR) (9th rifles regiment)

Initial rank in the Legion: vojín (Private)

Ended in Legion: 22.4.1920 (V)

Last unit in Legion: 3.stř.pl. (3rd rifles regiment)

Last rank in Legion: desátník (2 ranks above Private)

Source of information:

Legionářský poslužný spis (A discharge document from Czech legions)

Osobní karta legionáře (A legionare's identification card)

Databázi spravuje Československá obec legionářská

na základě dat poskytnutých VÚA-VHA PRAHA.

__________________________________________________

Here he is in his Czechoslovak Legionary uniform:

He was my mother’s father. I remember him since my early childhood. Stocky, maybe even a bit fat, with raspy voice with a French sounding 'r' (very similar to one of the Czech presidents, Havel’s). There is bust of a Kelt in the Czech National Museum in Praha - it has uncanny likeness of him, including something which almost looks like his glasses, and the mouth puckered in a whistle, which he was also fond of (see the middle picture below):

Compare the above with this:

Top picture l-r: Frantisek Hatvani, Marie nèe Havelková, Krasava Nedvědová, Josef Havelka

Middle l-r: Julie Havelková, Krasava Nedvědová, Josef Havelka, Marie, Josef Nechanicky

Bottom l-r: Marie, Ruzen Hatvaniová, Josef Havelka, Krasava Nedvědová, Karol Hatvani, Julie Havelková, Otka Nedvědová nèe Havelková

 Origin of his surname is from the word Havel, which was Czech name of Kelt; Havelka is a diminutive of Havel (= rooster in the language of Boii, a Keltic tribe living in the area of Bohemia>>Boiohaemia). I can see some of his features in the faces of my mother and my son John.
Between 1906 and 1909 he served as a soldier in the Austrian army in Krakow, Poland, and in 1914 he also served some 3 months with the same army in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Osijek he spent some time in a hospital with a "problem with his nose", according to a postcard he sent to his parents in Humpolec. From there he returned to spend some time in hospital at Kutná hora (ailment untraceable, but in his later years a polyp was removed from his nose) and eventually he was dispatched via Hungary to Poland to fight against the Russians. 

Fighting in the Austrian army during the first world war he fell prisoner to the Russians in 1917 (see type-written book in my possession called 'Moje pamĕti'). Joined the newly formed Czechoslovak Legionnaires Army where he served for 3 years as a "desátnik" (two ranks above the Private) in the 3rd Rifles' regimental orchestra. Crossed Russia mostly by train via Bobrujsk, Odesa, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Slyudyanka, Chita, Harbin, Ussurijsk, Vladivostok (where he lived for about 5 months on the Russian Island), and then back home on the american ship Madavaska (spelling uncertain) via Singapore, Port Said and Trieste. In his house at Humpolec there were many artefacts hand-made from bits of ammunition during the war years. The picture below is of one such ship being boarded by the legionnaires in Vladivostok.

After returning from the first world war in April 1920 he lived in Bratislava with his family from early twenties until 1939, when many Czechs were expelled from the new state of Slovakia after Czechoslovakia fell apart.

    In Bratislava he worked as a (probably payroll) clerk at the main railway station, living in a block of flats a few hundred metres downhill from the station. In 1946, during a brief visit in Bratislava, he took me along to his old office where he talked with his pre-war colleagues. From there we travelled by train to his home at Humpolec; my parents joined us there a few weeks later. He was a barber by trade and inflicted on me quite a few very short haircuts.
     
    I discovered the first draft of his hand-written application for a job of taxation clerk in Humpolec, dated 1920, shortly after his return from the 1st World War. In it he states the years of his service in the armed forces (1903-1906 in Cracow, 1913 Bosnia for 3 months, 1914-1917 Austrian Army, 1917-1920 Czech Legionaries in Russia) ending as corporal in the military band, his being unable to work in his profession as a barber and the dire financial situation he found himself in after the war:

The letter is addressed to the "Famous (or Glorious) taxation department", etc., signed J. H., Russian legionary presently on leave...

An accomplished musician, he played several instruments (he mentions violin, bassoon & percussions) in a variety of orchestras; I do not recall of hearing him play, though. This is the entire family in their flat in Bratislava:

In Bratislava, with his son Gustav, he played in the Railwaymen orchestra (Gustav is not in this picture):

    One viola (replica of a Stradivari) and one violin (original by Stainer of Absam) that were acquired before 1914 by him at a place now unknown are still in the family possession (the viola itself is mentioned in his book Moje pamĕti, page 136, where it is being played by him with an orchestra in Petropavlovsk). In his bookshelf there were many children's books, a few books about the Czech legionnaire army in Russia he was part of, a complete edition of the 1001 nights, the Good soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hasek, bound volumes of Czech general knowledge magazines, Brehm's Life of animals, Czech version of Alice in wonderland (one Czech version of the Jabberwocky is called Tlachapoud, and is equally as charming) and many others.

    On a few occasions I travelled with him on a steam train from Bratislava to Humpolec and back. We always stopped in Kuty (visiting a friend called Koula) and slept in a hotel in Brno where he visited some old wartime friends. I wish I could remember who it was and what they were talking about.

    He died of complications probably caused by too much fatty food (diabetes, high blood pressure, and emphysema) - fairly common ailments among the Czechs. And again, I do not recall anything bad said about him by anybody, and I remember him fondly. The tone of his book, Moje pamĕti (Reminiscences of my army years 1914-1920), although showing his lack of formal education, is measured, impartial, and he does not put himself forward in any way.

He was very fond of writing letters and sending postcards. Here is one of them addressed to my parents who lived in Bratislava. He writes from Prague about his preparation for trip to Karlovy Vary to take a spa cure for his malady (never disclosed, but I heard the word emphysema being uttered at home). He is urging my parents to write to him as soon as he is able to send them his spa address, and especially to write about their then 3 years old daughter Hanka (my sister). He was accompanied by his wife and the daughter Otka, who both added a few words of greetings. The card is dated 16. 5. 1947; he died a few months later (22. 8. 1947).

    His son, Gustav, I remember as a friendly man; in Bratislava, in about 1936, he married a woman called Hansi. When the Czechs were forced to leave the newly formed state of Slovakia in 1939, they moved to Humpolec but Hansi with their daughter Helenka returned to Bratislava, allegedly unable to bear ethnic taunts by the locals. He later married Anna Sirucková, a pretty, tallish woman. With Anna they had no children. Gustav, a heavy smoker, died in 1973 after a short and painful fight with stomach cancer. While visiting Anna with George in 2004 I asked her if she had any knowledge of Helenka's whereabouts. Anna replied rather angrily and tersely "none whatsoever!".

    Otylie (a.k.a. Otka), born 1916, a slim, petite woman, married in Bratislava to a Czech man called Robert Nedvĕd; in Bratislava in about 1932 a daughter Krasava was born to them. Robert (called Róba by everybody) left for England in 1939, became a soldier in the British army and was killed by a land mine on 15. 3. 1945 near Loon-Plage. Buried at Bourbourg, in 1959 exhumed and re-buried at La Targette. Through a French organization Memorial du Souvenir and the Czech outfit below I managed to have his name included on the wall of the war memorial at Dunkirk.

https://vets.estranky.cz/clanky/vpm-francie/dunkerque.html

Probably as a result of his not returning from the war Otka became a bit distraught and impulsive; after WW2 she left Humpolec for Praha where she married a much older man called Stary, a high ranking public servant and a keen philatelist. Krasava (died about 1992), with whom I was quite good friends during my holidays in Humpolec, was brought up since 1940 by her grandmother Julie, married a man called Karel Kalina, went to live in Pisek and had two sons one of whom was named Karel. With Karel I was in internet contact until he died in about 2018. With his daughter Katka I am still in internet contact.

l to r: Gustav Havelka, Julie Havelková, Josef Havelka, Otylie Havelková-Nedvĕdová, Krasava Nedvĕdová, Robert Nedvĕd, Marie Havelková, Otylie Štĕpková nee Škrábová.

    The picture was taken in the early 19-thirties in a flat at Bratislava, Zabotova ul.

    In the bottom picture it is him standing on the right, with his wife Julie next to him. Standing third from the left is his sister Emilie; the little blond girl standing in the middle is his daughter Marie (my mother). The year is 1920 approx.