The population of Nassington 1911
Acreage - 2507, 517 - 242 men, 257 women, 141 families. 121 men went to war - 21 killed.
Acreage - 2507, 517 - 242 men, 257 women, 141 families. 121 men went to war - 21 killed.
Barr
The Barr Family were a large family of 12, who in 1911 were all living in a four roomed house. They appear to have been re-housed, and were at one time living in two houses on each side of the passage into Barrack Yard, off Church Street, Nassington. Mr & Mrs Barr had eight surviving children. Three had died by the 1911 census. The children's names were Frank, Jack, Gertie, Rose, Dolly and Bert, nicknamed Heifer, and the one who married Cyril Fenn. Bert enlisted into the Labour Corps at just 18 years on August 9th 1914. He became a qualified gunner but was wounded in action on April 9th 1915 and appears to have continued fighting. He was wounded in action again on July 30th 1916, this time more seriously. He was taken to Boulogne and later transferred to Woburn Military Hospital where his 3rd finger on his left hand was amputated. He ended the war in the Agricultural Corps and was discharged on February 26th 1919. He was awarded £25 for the loss of his finger and received £10 army pay. Fred, his brother was quite naughty at school and was only fifteen at the outbreak of war. The date when he enlisted into the 9th Battalion Norfolk Regiment is not recorded, but he would have been very young. He was killed on 15th April 1918 probably at Passchendaele when the Germans recaptured it in April 1918. He is named on the Tyne Memorial, Belgium. Percy Crane enlisted in Oundle into the Northamptonshire Regiment no 200838, but was killed in action in Palestine. We have no other information about him. He may have been deployed to Egypt in 1915 and then to Palestine where he was killed. Hudson’s Charles Herbert Hudson born in 1881 was a farmer’s son, and was thirty-three at the start of the war. He enlisted to the 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment. He was killed in action at the end of the war on September 24th 1918 in Flanders, in one of the battles of the Hindenburg line His wife Annie was left to bring up her family of three boys and three girls. The Hudson family lived in a row of houses, now gone, in Church Street to the N of the Church, and before the entrance into Barrack yard. The Hoare’s Mr Hoare was the Nassington village school master in 1890 until December 1919. His wife played the organ in the parish church. His second son died when young and is buried in the Nassington cemetery. His third son Robert William was killed at Passchendaele Ridge on October 9th 1917. His fourth son was teaching at St Georges College Buenos Aires, which he gave up in 1914 to join the army. He was seriously wounded and unable to return to teaching, and subsequently worked as a fruit farmer in Hertfordshire. Mr Hoare also had a daughter called Ruth. During the ‘grow more food campaign’ Mr Hoare, and his school boys dug up the pound (in Church Street) and grew vegetables in it. Lance Lock remembered very large marrows growing there and also Evening Primrose. A ditty that was chanted behind Mr Hoare’s back! Old Daddy Hoare six foot four, Legs like a donkey, He He Haw, With his cane he would make you dance Out of England into France Out of France into Spain Then over the hills and back again. On an occasion when the war news was very bad Mr Hoare made all the children line up outside the school and salute the Union Jack flying from the flag pole. Mr & Mrs John Blake. John Blake worked as a platelayer on the railway and cultivated a garden near the railway line. He was described as a nice old man. His wife apparently always wore a man’s cloth cap and an arden apron. She seems to have been a good cake maker since there was a ditty which went:- ‘Mrs Blake baked a cake, Gertie Wooding made a pudding, and John Ball came and ate it all’. Their daughter Lilly a apprenticed to a dressmaker, also helped in the village school with the juniors, and to earn more money gave private lessons. Percy Blake, their son, was sixteen at the start of the war. He enlisted in Peterborough into the Buffs East Kent Regiment 8th Battalion G/18839. He was killed on August 30th 1917 aged nineteen. Probably in the third battle of Ypres at Pilckem. He is remembered in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. Did he enlist in 1914 as a child soldier or was he conscripted in 1916 at the age of 18? Charles Bream Charles Bream was born in Nassington in 1884. His father, Charles William Bream was a plate-layer on the railway and would have had a reasonable income. He may have died at the age of 64 and his wife who is not mentioned in the 1911 census remarried a woodman named Mr Veasey. on of Charles William Bream, of Nassington co. Northants, born Nassington 5th Dec 1883; educated there; joined the 1st Northampton’s (D company), 1903 and saw active service on the Indian Frontier in 1904, for which he received two medals and two bars. He afterwards became a police constable in the Durham County Constabulary, and was stationed at South Moor, in the Lancashire and Consett Petty Sessional Division, when he was called up on the outbreak of war. He left with his Regiment for France, 17th August 1914, taking part in the retreat from Mons and several other engagements, and was killed in a bayonet charge at Festubert, 21st Dec 1914. In a letter to a friend in South Moor he said: "You will have heard about the battle on the Aisne. We were in the trenches for a month, and the first week it never ceased raining, and we had to stick it." Later writing from Festubert, he said that they had had several engagements with the Prussian Guard, but had got through them doing six bayonet charges in ten days. He married at Yarwell, Nassington, 8 Oct 1913, Carrie, daughter of Mr Mould, of Nassington. The 1911 census lists two sons Charles, who was the eldest son became a professional soldier, prior his army career he had laboring jobs. Charles appears to have been in army at the age of 19 and from August 1904 to April 1911 served in India for a period of six years. He was rejected from the Grenadier Guards due to having stiff joints and instead joined the 1stBattilion Northamptonshire Regiment. (7248). He married Carrie Mould in Yarwell on October 10th 1913. He was given a few days leave and then on August 12th 1914 he was sent on an expeditionary force to France but was killed in Action on December 21st , probably during the Winter Operations at Wytschaete in Flanders. He is remembered at Le Touret Military Cemetery. His widow Carrie received a pension of 10 shillings a week from the August 26th 1915, a wait of eight months. (It amounts to £8. 71p per week now). His younger brother Harry was also a laborer by the age of fifteen. Unfortunately Harry Bream was killed in Nassington when a pony and cart in which he was tipped over and threw him out onto the road. ‘Driver William Bream of the 118 Battalion R.F.A, the son of William Bream a platelayer, was wounded in action and is now lying in Westminster Hospital. He was wounded in the hip; it is not thought to be serious’. The Crick’s Lived in Station Road, near the Congregational Chapel. Mr Crick delivered the newspapers around Nassington and Yarwell helped by his step daughter Hilda Ashling. Mrs Crick who originally came from Elton and her first husband died. Mr Crick used to drive a three wheel motor called a Morgan with an air cooled JOA.P engine. He received a head wound in the war. Arthur Porter Munton born in 1886 was 28 at the start of the war. He enlisted to the Army Service Corps M/320528, but was killed on August 1st 1917 probably during the 3rd battle of Ypres. Poor Mrs Munton lost a son in the first war and her second son, Walter Leslie born 1916 a year after the death of Arthur was killed in the second war on May 22nd 1943 in North Africa at the age of 27. He had been married to Ivy. Mrs Munton lived in the thatched cottage next to the Queen’s Head, Station Road. The Parkinsons The sons of Henry and James Parkinson, Nassington Ernest Parkinson, Sergeant Joined the 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment no 7062 He was killed on November 14th 1914 during the The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders fighting for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium in October and November 1914. The week that he was killed appears to have been a relatively quiet time at Ypres with only intermittent shelling and attacks on various areas of the trenches. He is remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. James Parkinson was born in 1876 and enlisted at Portsmouth into the Hants Regiment aged 41 and then to the 13th Battalion Devonshire Regiment, regimental numbers of 15079 and then 142475. He was killed on the 25th August 1917 possibly in the third battle of Ypres at Pilckem and is remembered at Plymouth (Efford ) Cemetery. Arthur Parkinson R 161 Enlisted on August 1st 1914 at Winchester ‘for the duration of the war’ into the 10th Battalion Kings Royal Rifle, at the age of 33. Prior to enlisting he was living a married life employed as cowman in Holloway, Middlesex His army records provide no further information until January 3rd 1916 when seven days pay was deducted for being unshaven for the G. C. O. inspection. On the second of March 1916 he was wounded in the field, but by the March 11th declared fit for duty. He killed himself on November 12th 1917 while drunk when off duty. By now his brother Ernest, and more recently his other brother James had been killed. The army decided not to have a post mortem because the reason of his death was known and there was no doubt about his injury. He was taken to the Canadian Stationary Hospital, but it is not recorded if his body was returned to England, or if he was buried at Wardrecques, near Calais. William Blades worked as a brick layer on the railway. His eldest son Walter was a railway porter. Harry Blades the youngest son, who was born in 1892 had been a farm labour before he joined the Manchester Regiment 245089. He was killed in action in Flanders on the July 20th 1918, probably on the first day of the battle of Marne which occurred from July 20th to August 2nd 1918. He is remembered in the Bertrancourt Military Cemetery. His parents William and Salina received his victory medal. He had a sister who was 13 in 1901 but she is not recorded in the census of 1911. William Blades may have been in this family. Walter the father of Harry was 60 in 1911. William who was a private in the 9th Sussex Royal Regiment was killed in action on September 25th 1915. He is remembered on Loos Memorial. He was probably killed on the opening day of the Battle of Loos. Arthur Samuel Herbert who was born in 1896 came from a family of six. He had two brothers and a sister and in 1911 he was working aged 15 as a forester’s labourer. His father Samuel William was a farmer and dairyman working for himself in Nassington. They lived in a property with six rooms at Shortwood Lodge on the outskirts of the village. Arthur was killed in Action on September 27th 1915 aged 19 years. Percy Edward Herbert was born in Burton Latimer in 1886, but by 1911 he was living in Nassington and working as a Carter. He married Alice Reid but they appear to have been childless. He joined the Army Veterinary Corps but he was accidently kicked in the right leg by a heavy horse and severely injured. He was transferred to the Labour Corps and then to the Agricultural Corps in Northamptonshire. It is not known if he and his wife had children after he was discharged from the army. |
Joseph Thomas Scotney was married to Susannah and they had two daughters. Prior to the war he was a farmer and butcher, who used to deliver his meat around the villages. He was elected treasure of the coal club in 1914. Because he did not enlist at the start of the war he was probably conscripted. He enlisted into the Northamptonshire Regiment as a signaller on November 31st 1916.
He seems to have had disciplinary issues. In April 1918 he was absent from fatigue, on another occasion he forfeited 4 days pay and was later ordered to pay for a new pair of trousers. For ‘loosing through neglect’, and for ’5 rounds of ammunition three days pay’. On March 3rd 1918 he is recorded as missing but was later listed as a Prisoner of War on 25 March 1919 . William Scotney, possibly his father, seems to have owned the Three Mill Bills, which he sold on his retirement. Alfred Parish was badly wounded in the war and always walked with a limp. His Nassington nick name was ‘ready money’. John Thomas Gynn was born in 1896 had an older sister Sarah who was born in 1892. His father was also called John Thomas. Both his parents appear to have died. His sister then went into service at the Black Horse, Nassington, and John Thomas jnr, enlisted aged nineteen in Oundle on Dec 11th 1915. He was drafted into the Machine Gun Corps 35812 and was posted initially to France. He seems to have suffered from ill health because he was in hospital during November 1917 with constipation but discharged for duty in December 1917. On January 1st 1918 he was posted to the Suez. However he was taken to hospital on April 4th 1918, where a few days later his illness was diagnosed as malaria. He returned to Boulac, Cairo for duty on the 25th July but was back in hospital again for almost all of August. Compensation for his malaria was not granted but he was awarded the Victory War medal which he received in 1922. George Leigh Was born in 1879 was 35 years at the start of the war. He was a horse dealer who lived with his wife, Sarah and two young children at Frog Hall, Nassington. He probably had no intention of enlisting but may have been conscripted into the Northamptonshire Regiment on August 8th 1916. He was discharged a few months later due to ill-health. He was hardly able to walk and was described by his commanding officer as being ‘useless in the army’. His Wife Sarah Leigh (nee Rowlatt) had a brother who became the Prime Minster of Saskatchewan. John Elija Fenn, his father born in 1849, was a widower by the 1911 census and a road labour. His daughter Charlotte Annie had to act as the house keeper and all her brothers were farm labours. John, Charles, and Alfred were all eligible to enlist in 1914. The youngest brother Neville was only seventeen at the outbreak of war. Both Charles and Neville were killed, but there are few details. Charles, who was born in 1894 in Nassington, died of his wounds on April 2nd 1915 aged 21. He enlisted to the East Surrey Regiment and had been in France and Flanders. He might have been killed during the second battle of Ypres. He was awarded the Star Champagne for his service to the war. Alfred Fenn born in 1893 was twenty one at the start of the war. He joined the Army Service Corps. Although he is listed as a labour in 1911 his occupation was a horse keeper when he enlisted at Bradford on October 11th 1914 he appears to have been passed as a driver. He embarked to Alexandria, probably on April 8th 1916, but disembarked in Marseilles on April 15th of the same year. His service record is littered with incidents such as ‘late falling on early parade morning stables and insolence to the NCO’ in April 1916. A week later ‘not complying with an order instruction’, and in 1918 ‘being absent from guard for a time without permission’. He received the Star Medal for his war service in 1914/15. There is no discharge date and he appears to have survived the war. It is not surprising that he had disciplinary issues; both his brothers had been killed earlier in the war. Herbert Mee, whose dog tag and regimental shoulder badge were recovered during the archaeological excavations at the Prebendal Manor, enlisted into the East Surrey Regiment. His dog tag provides his regimental number and his religion but not the date of enlisting. So many discs were required at the start of WWI that there was not enough aluminium to manufacture. The British army issued all soldiers with fibre discs which were worn around the neck. Some soldiers fearing the disk would not survive in the event of death made their own metal ones. Herbert Mee may have made his and worn it as a bracelet. William McNess whose father was a railway signalman was living in Nassington with his parents and his bother John and sister Maggie. Before the war William had been a farm labourer. He enlisted into the Northamptonshire Regiment on August 9th aged 28 and was passed as fit. However he was recommend to be discharged on October 28th having been in the army for only 36 days due his bunions and hammer toes. Stanley Edward Hodson was born in Nassington in 1886. At the time of the 1911 census he was living in Peterborough with his parents Charles who was a signalman and his mother Elisabeth. He had been a coach builder from the age of 15. He enlisted into the 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment and became a Corporal. He was killed on the July 14th 1916 aged 20, probably on the first day of the battle of Bazentin Ridge. He is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial, Nord-pas-de-Calais. Thomas Newton Shrive was born in 1895 and was 19 at the start of the war. His father Tom Shrive was a platelayer on the railway. Thomas was the eldest son and he had 6 other siblings. This huge family were all living in a four roomed house in Nassington. By the age of 16 he was working as a baker’s assistant. He enlisted into the Army Service Corps and it seems that he was moved into the Royal Irish Rifles Regiment Number S/4/06047 & 147621. He must have been in the campaigns in Flanders because he was awarded a service medal. He appears to have survived the war. Wilfred Pell Crowson was born in 1899. His father was a wood dealer in Nassington. He was the only son but he had four sisters called Mable, Dolly, Ida and Muriel. Wilfred enlisted into the 7th Battalion Buffs and East Coast Kent Regiment but was killed in Flanders on March 23rd 1818 aged 19 on the first day of the Spring Offensive. Arnold Lock was born in Nassington in 1887 and emigrated to Canada in 1910.
When the war started he signed up to the Canadian army, rising through the ranks to become a Regimental Sergeant Major. He was sent to France where he worked on railway construction at the front. While riding as a passenger in a sidecar he hit a pocket of gas, possibly in the second battle of Ypres, during which time the Germans launched a gas attack. During this battle the Canadians suffered 6000 causalities in 48 hours. The gas damaged Arnold’s eyes and he was eventually discharged from the army. Unable to obtain good treatment for his eyes in Canada he returned to England and Nassington in 1924. He died in 1953 aged 66 and is buried in the Nassington/Yarwell cemetery. Briggs
Mr & Frederick Mrs Edith Annie Briggs had seven children. Frederick Briggs was a horse keeper. The Briggs family lived in a three roomed house and would have had little space for privacy. The other children were called Gladys, Lillian, Mabel, Frederick and Sam who was born in 1911. Mabel probably worked for the Mould’s grocery business when she was old enough. Ernest Briggs was born on 5th December 1896 in Yaxley, Peterborough . He often stated that he had “peat at his feet and brick dust in his eyes” ‘He remembered the move from Clipston to Nassington, when he was about 8 years old. They moved in a convoy of carts with his Dad in the front with a wagon containing the furniture followed by all the farm implements. Ernest sat on the drill with a horse called Farmer. Ernest loved the country life and often talked about working on the farm with the horses, fishing, catching eels and swimming in the river. He enjoyed all sports and was captain of the cricket team for 2 years, being a good left handed bowler’. On August 9th 1914, aged 17 he enlisted at Northampton for 6 years into the Army Reserve (Special Reservists, Northampton Regiment, 10076). On the enlistment form it was recorded that he was only 5ft 3.5ins. He was sent to France with the Expeditionary Force on March 25th 1915, but was severely wounded on the first day of the Battle of Aubers Ridge by gun shot to both legs on May 9th 1915. He returned to England on May 15th 1915 and was sent to Stroud General Hospital, widely used for the care of wounded and sick soldiers. In 1916 he was considered no longer physically fit for War Service and was discharged from the Army on August 23rd 1916. His injured leg gave him pain and reduced mobility for the rest of his life but it did not stop him achieving a full life. George Briggs who was born in 1899 was the second son. He was killed in Flanders aged 19, probably when the Germans mounted the Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. He is remembered on the memorial at the St Soupet British Cemetery. His brother Edward Briggs (Ted) born in 1903, worked for Mr Tyler who made him sweep the cow dung from the paths adjoining the Mould’s house right up to the chapel. The Briggs family lived in a three roomed house and would have had little space for privacy. The other children were called Gladys, Lillian, Mabel, Frederick and Sam who was born in 1911. Mabel probably worked for the Mould’s grocery business when she was old enough. Mr & Mrs John Blake.
John Blake worked as a platelayer on the railway and cultivated a garden near the railway line. He was described as a nice old man. His wife apparently always wore a man’s cloth cap and an arden apron. She seems to have been a good cake maker since there was a ditty which went:- ‘Mrs Blake baked a cake, Gertie Wooding made a pudding, and John Ball came and ate it all’. Their daughter Lilly a apprenticed to a dressmaker, also helped in the village school with the juniors, and to earn more money gave private lessons. Percy Blake, their son, was sixteen at the start of the war. He enlisted in Peterborough into the Buffs East Kent Regiment 8th Battalion G/18839. He was killed on August 30th 1917 aged nineteen. Probably in the third battle of Ypres at Pilckem. He is remembered in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. Did he enlist in 1914 as a child soldier or was he conscripted in 1916 at the age of 18? The Fosters
|