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Aston Parish Church WW1 Memorial

Hi Anne,
Do not come on often so only just saw this thread.

My Maternal Gran's 1st husband is on the memorial - Walter Edwin Knight. (I am from her 2nd husband)
His surviving son Wilfred Henry George emigrated to Australia in 1956 with his family. One of his son's (David Knight) eventually came back home and his ashes are scattered at the rear of the church. Many years ago 2 of his grand daughters visited and I took them into the church to see the memorial, as well as to what remains of Pugh Rd, where Wilfred had lived prior to emigrating.
Theses are the notes on my family tree for him -
KNIGHT, WALTER EDWIN ROBERTS
GRO Reference: 1890 D Quarter in ASTON Volume 06D Page 381

10/5/1891 Baptised in Aston, Warks.
Address 23ct 10h, Victoria Rd. Father - Carpenter.
1891 Census, aged 4 months, living at Victoria Road, Aston, born Birmingham.
1901 Census, aged 10, address Clifton Road, Aston Manor, born Aston.
1911 Census, aged 20, address 14 Brantley Road, Witton, Rubber cover lapping, born Birmingham.

Address at marriage 25/12/1911 22 Trevor Street, Occupation Rubber worker.
Witnesses George Henry Hodgkins & May Barron
1912 Rate books - 5ct Park Lane, Aston
Occupation 31/8/1912 Railway Goods Porter when daughter Nellie May born (and at 26/9/1912 upon her death).

1918 list of absent voters shown as both 38261 & 35201, Pvte, F A, R.A.M.C.

UK, Commonwealth War Graves, 1914-1921 and 1939-1947
Knight, Walter Edwin. Pvte, 38261 50th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps. Died 26/8/1918, Aged 27. Son of the Late George Knight, of Witton, Birmingham; Husband of Emily Knight of 168 Witton lane, Aston, Birmingham.
Service No: 38261 KIA 26 August 1918 - 50th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, rank Private. Grave memorial reference: Panel 12 Cemetery: Vis-en-artois Memorial.
Shown as son of late George Knight, of Witton, Birmingham. Husband of Emily Knight of 168 Witton lane, Aston, Birmingham.
26/11/1918 Soldiers Effects - £10 9s 3d paid to Widow Emily E. Shown as Walter "Edward"
4/12/1919 War Gratuity - £18 10s paid to Widow, Emily E
UK, World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
Walter Edwin Knight
Emily Elizabeth Knight - Widow
Wilfred Henry George Knight


Its a good project - Good luck with it.
Brian
 
Key Hill Brian said:
Hi Anne,
Do not come on often so only just saw this thread.

My Maternal Gran's 1st husband is on the memorial - Walter Edwin Knight. (I am from her 2nd husband)
His surviving son Wilfred Henry George emigrated to Australia in 1956 with his family. One of his son's (David Knight) eventually came back home and his ashes are scattered at the rear of the church. Many years ago 2 of his grand daughters visited and I took them into the church to see the memorial, as well as to what remains of Pugh Rd, where Wilfred had lived prior to emigrating.
Theses are the notes on my family tree for him -
KNIGHT, WALTER EDWIN ROBERTS
GRO Reference: 1890 D Quarter in ASTON Volume 06D Page 381

10/5/1891 Baptised in Aston, Warks.
Address 23ct 10h, Victoria Rd. Father - Carpenter.
1891 Census, aged 4 months, living at Victoria Road, Aston, born Birmingham.
1901 Census, aged 10, address Clifton Road, Aston Manor, born Aston.
1911 Census, aged 20, address 14 Brantley Road, Witton, Rubber cover lapping, born Birmingham.

Address at marriage 25/12/1911 22 Trevor Street, Occupation Rubber worker.
Witnesses George Henry Hodgkins & May Barron
1912 Rate books - 5ct Park Lane, Aston
Occupation 31/8/1912 Railway Goods Porter when daughter Nellie May born (and at 26/9/1912 upon her death).

1918 list of absent voters shown as both 38261 & 35201, Pvte, F A, R.A.M.C.

UK, Commonwealth War Graves, 1914-1921 and 1939-1947
Knight, Walter Edwin. Pvte, 38261 50th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps. Died 26/8/1918, Aged 27. Son of the Late George Knight, of Witton, Birmingham; Husband of Emily Knight of 168 Witton lane, Aston, Birmingham.
Service No: 38261 KIA 26 August 1918 - 50th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, rank Private. Grave memorial reference: Panel 12 Cemetery: Vis-en-artois Memorial.
Shown as son of late George Knight, of Witton, Birmingham. Husband of Emily Knight of 168 Witton lane, Aston, Birmingham.
26/11/1918 Soldiers Effects - £10 9s 3d paid to Widow Emily E. Shown as Walter "Edward"
4/12/1919 War Gratuity - £18 10s paid to Widow, Emily E
UK, World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
Walter Edwin Knight
Emily Elizabeth Knight - Widow
Wilfred Henry George Knight


Its a good project - Good luck with it.
Brian
Click to expand...
Dear Brian
It is always nice to hear from families, and thank you for the comprehensive information. I have used the Witton Lane address on the Memorial Listing (on AstonWW1Memorial.com), but feel inclined to change this for the 1912 address of 5Court Park Lane as I know he will definitively have lived there.
At some point the Church will do a formal launch of the project, so keep on the lookout for a date, as you may want to come along.
Kind regards
Ann
 
Next we have George Price's memorial disk ( I cannot think of a better word) Often called a "death Penny" they were given to the relatives of everyone who lost their lives in the World War. It wasn't known as the first as they didn't know there would be a second and " Great war" seems somewhat contradictory .

GP Penny.jpg
 
Hi Ann
I have a few more names for you to ponder, I have been searching through the pensions records on Fold3 over the past couple of weeks , I have found some of the names on the list and a few of the address which are missing off the main list.

Davies, Herbert MS/885 16/08/1916 308 Albert Road
Davies, Herbert 23663 17/04/1918 54 Gerrard Street

Douglas, William 29486 07/11/1918 1/79 Clifton Road

Fletcher, George Alfred 4577 29/10/1916 132 Hospital Street

Hutton, A?, Frederick S/1257 20/10/1916 35a Pool Street

Jay, Richard 118482 22/11/1918 158 Brantley Road

Morris, Walter 39976 22/06/1918 251 Park Road
Morris, Walter 5670 24/09/1916 14 Parliament Street (born David Morris )

Tonks, Leslie J R 2nd Lieutenant 11/04/1918 61, Carlyle Road

Townsend J ?, Ernest 3037 14/09/1918 3bk 38 Tower Street

Williamson, George E 1680 04/02/17 100 Vicarage Road

Wells, William B/1797 09/03/1916 43 Pugh Road (hints on Ancestry are incorrect to this person )

Willis, C 4456 14/10/1916 28 court 4 house Vicarage Road

Wood, Arthur 6938 21/01/1917 118 Wainwright Street

Caldicott, George 7995 15/06/1917 4 Laurel Terrace Trinity Road

Below are the address missing off the main list

Caldicott, George 39 court 7 house Summer Lane
Hopkins, Frank 10 Charles Road
Illidge, George 181 Crompton Road
Pickering, Ernest Arthur 1/204 Tower Road
Whitehouse, Joseph Charles 17 Paddington Street
Withey, Cornelius 2 Village Road

Hope these people will be of some help
 
aston lad said:
Hi Ann
I have a few more names for you to ponder, I have been searching through the pensions records on Fold3 over the past couple of weeks , I have found some of the names on the list and a few of the address which are missing off the main list.

Davies, Herbert MS/885 16/08/1916 308 Albert Road
Davies, Herbert 23663 17/04/1918 54 Gerrard Street

Douglas, William 29486 07/11/1918 1/79 Clifton Road

Fletcher, George Alfred 4577 29/10/1916 132 Hospital Street

Hutton, A?, Frederick S/1257 20/10/1916 35a Pool Street

Jay, Richard 118482 22/11/1918 158 Brantley Road

Morris, Walter 39976 22/06/1918 251 Park Road
Morris, Walter 5670 24/09/1916 14 Parliament Street (born David Morris )

Tonks, Leslie J R 2nd Lieutenant 11/04/1918 61, Carlyle Road

Townsend J ?, Ernest 3037 14/09/1918 3bk 38 Tower Street

Williamson, George E 1680 04/02/17 100 Vicarage Road

Wells, William B/1797 09/03/1916 43 Pugh Road (hints on Ancestry are incorrect to this person )

Willis, C 4456 14/10/1916 28 court 4 house Vicarage Road

Wood, Arthur 6938 21/01/1917 118 Wainwright Street

Caldicott, George 7995 15/06/1917 4 Laurel Terrace Trinity Road

Below are the address missing off the main list

Caldicott, George 39 court 7 house Summer Lane
Hopkins, Frank 10 Charles Road
Illidge, George 181 Crompton Road
Pickering, Ernest Arthur 1/204 Tower Road
Whitehouse, Joseph Charles 17 Paddington Street
Withey, Cornelius 2 Village Road

Hope these people will be of some help
Click to expand...
Thank you, I will work my way through these and let you know how I get on. I am just doing an update at the moment on the Listing, of the ones found over the last few weeks, so I will complete that first before doing these.
Ann
 
pjmburns said:
I think this Ernest (effects name Mother Alice) had a brother Thomas who also ded in the war. I wonder if the entry shoud have read E and T Tranter and got mistranscribed as E T?
I was confused by this entry until I realised it meant Thomas and Ernest.
View attachment 167877
Click to expand...
I have decided to put both brothers on the Memorial Listing. I can't imagine for one minute that their mother, or similar, would have given just one name.
 
On the memorial there is a Ernest William Pickering which states ( Address in Aston unknown ) after searching through different records I have found he has almost no connection to Aston what so ever, he was born in Nottinghamshire in the July quarter of 1891, he married Dora Lavender born in Derbyshire 1889, they were married in Ashby de la Zouch on the 14th May 1910, he joined the army in Sept 1914 and was discharged I think as unfit for service a few months due to being insane, his regiment number 13456 ( but looking at his pension record that is incorrect 13436 ). I am not sure how he was able to relist and I don't know when, but he did and probably based at the Witton barracks, his wife Dora moved to 8 Laurel Place Upper Thomas Street so she could see him, she later lived at 3/398 Victoria Road for many years after Ernest's death, she died in Sutton Coldfield in 1969....My thinking is that some of the names on the memorial were probably given to the church by a officer based at the barracks. Ernest and Dora never had any children as far as I am aware, and Dora did not remarry either. His name should not be taken off the memorial, he should be remembered, the point of this posting is to show how hard it is sometimes to get the correct person in the correct location at times, Ann is doing a great job
 

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Trying to trace F W Wells
I think this is him .
I can't at the moment link him to Aston but next of kin on effects reg is Aunt Nellie West and I suspect the link may be to her. As yet, I haven't found her.
 

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Good afternoon everyone.
Thanks for the recent posts, which I will look at in detail on Monday.
With regards to an up to date list for who we are looking for, it will be avaiable shortly. I did a full update to the listing on 6th April, but I am just working on a scrolling bar, of names of those not yet found, for the site. I won't have time to produce a list today (I will be at Villa Park!:)) but it will be done by Monday. On my reckoning, we have around 22 to find!

Regarding Ernest William Pickering, my notes are "Parents in PE record, wife in pension. Pension states resident Aston. Enlisted Bham. Married in 1910 in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, living Mansfield Woodhouse 1911, says married under 1 year. Coal miner. Can trace in early census and birth. Moving for work?" So yes, thin on the ground for being in Aston, although residence of his wife in Aston (which I didn't have) is good enough reason to think she would have notified the Church, I think.
By the way, after your Aston lad's latest long list of possibles I can confirm that Douglas, Fletcher, Jay, Morris, Williamson, Wood, and a different Caldicott to the one I had orginally, are now all in the listing as the information provided an excellent starting point for follow through. So, a big thank you.
Ann
 
pjmburns said:
Trying to trace F W Wells
I think this is him .
I can't at the moment link him to Aston but next of kin on effects reg is Aunt Nellie West and I suspect the link may be to her. As yet, I haven't found her.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. I had noted only that F W might be a duplicate of W Wells ( a separate listing) but this is worth following up. I will have a look too.
Added note: Had a good look but I can't find any further details. Can't trace Nellie West or his father T.D. Wells. A pension record has Clara Maria Wells, mentioned on a pension record, who I have found in Bham, but can't establish his link with her anyway. Frustrating!
 
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Hi Ann...I think I have found the correct A E Wilson, but its not A E but A C Wilson...Alexander Clark Wilson reg 27452, lived at 173 Aston Lane when he married Harriett Maria Rowe, he died 21/10/1916
 
aston lad said:
Another one...Thomas Potts 35994 died 23/08/1918 94 Witton Lane wife Susannah
Click to expand...
Thank you. He appears to have married Susannah Derby in 4Q 1917 in Aston. Their son was born in Aston in 2Q 1918.

Our man was born Kidderminster (from UK war dead listing), although can't definitively track him in censuses. I am happy to use the Witton Lane address for the Listing. Don't know his age though.
 
aston lad said:
Hi Ann...I think I have found the correct A E Wilson, but its not A E but A C Wilson...Alexander Clark Wilson reg 27452, lived at 173 Aston Lane when he married Harriett Maria Rowe, he died 21/10/1916
Click to expand...
Thank you. I am going to add him to the Listing. Married in Aston, born Falkirk, living Manchester by 1911. His sister Janet also married in Aston, and it looks like she remained there, so she could have given the Church his name.
 
As promised, here is the updated listing of where we still have queries. I have attached it as a file, for ease of printing, but if anyone wants it posted into the text just let me know.
It's in three sections. The first lists those men, 19 in total, who we haven't located yet. The second are those men I don't have an Aston address for (in all but one case I have evidence that they have an association with Aston, just not an address. The odd one out is a chaplain). The third section is the duplicates / possible duplicates, which I have put in for completeness; I intend to keep these under review as at least some of them could still turn out to be entries in their own right.
We've done a cracking job over the last four weeks, so thank you.
Ann
 

Attachments

AnnieH55 said:
Thanks for this. I had noted only that F W might be a duplicate of W Wells ( a separate listing) but this is worth following up. I will have a look too.
Added note: Had a good look but I can't find any further details. Can't trace Nellie West or his father T.D. Wells. A pension record has Clara Maria Wells, mentioned on a pension record, who I have found in Bham, but can't establish his link with her anyway. Frustrating!
Click to expand...
There is something odd.
I found a birth which I thought was right and a baptism but Mother was Emily (Gilks) not the Clara on the pension record. Also a possible Father but D T Wells on baptism cert.

Haven't found Nellie but...
1901 Daniel T and Emily Jane living with Frederick and a daughter Gladys.
1911 Daniel T now widowed living with daughter Gladys.

1920 eroll Daniel T with Clara Maria at 5 Norton Terrace (as on CWGC record). Is Clara a stepmother? Is that why Nellie is named on effects reg.
Marriage Daniel T to Clara M Hunt in 1914.

So that is the one on CWGC but no Aston link.
 
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Hi Ann....I think I may have solved the Vigus W.H puzzle, the name I believe him to be is Harry Sidney Vigurs 129885 (Vigors on the list ), his parents were Walter and Ada Vigurs who were living at 60 Upper Sutton Street in 1911, and then 68 Aston Lane , I cannot find another Vigus/ Vigurs that has links to Aston
 
pjmburns said:
There is something odd.
I found a birth which I thought was right and a baptism but Mother was Emily (Gilks) not the Clara on the pension record. Also a possible Father but D T Wells on baptism cert.

Haven't found Nellie but...
1901 Daniel T and Emily Jane living with Frederick and a daughter Gladys.
1911 Daniel T now widowed living with daughter Gladys.

1920 eroll Daniel T with Clara Maria at 5 Norton Terrace (as on CWGC record). Is Clara a stepmother? Is that why Nellie is named on effects reg.
Marriage Daniel T to Clara M Hunt in 1914.

So that is the one on CWGC but no Aston link.
Click to expand...
Another great bit of detective work. The Aston link might of course be Nellie West - I wish we could find her! I had wondered myself whether that Clara Maria Wells was someone born with that name c1878 in Trevor Street Aston, who had perhaps taken him in, but your evidence of a marriage to Clara Hunt put paid to that. I think you're
right, this is the right person.
Just doing a bit more digging and I have found a Nellie Gilks married Thomas West in King's Norton 1912. Some relative of Emily Jane Gilks? Will investigate.
 
pjmburns said:
That Gilks link sounds promising.
Click to expand...
Got it! Emily Jane Gilks and Nellie are sisters. That 1901 census you referenced - Emily's mother Harriet Gilks is living next door along with Nellie. Icing on the cake is that Gladys Wells is living with Nellie and Thomas West in the 1939 census. Still can't find an Aston link though, although there are lots of Wells familiies in Aston. I'll see if I can find a relative....:)
:joy:
 
And I've found the Aston link. Nellie and Thomas West live in Aston - in 1920 at 27 Lichfield Road, 1922 at 27 Park Road, 1939 at 87 Vicarage Road. So, I'd have thought there is every chance Frederick lived with them whilst he was alive. But as a minimum we probably know who gave his name to the church.

Thanks for encouraging me to look again at this. It's tempting sometimes to think we might have duplicate entries, but this shows just how careful you need to b.
 
That is brilliant. :D I planned to have another look but do think it is useful for someone else to look. They might spot something new.
Great teamwork.
Will see if I can find anyone else.
 
Mr Tonks is giving me nightmares, I have found two that may fit the bill, one lad who lived all his young life in Aston and had family connections to Aston Church but his initials are slightly different, L R J ( Leslie Robert John ) Tonks, Second Lieutenant, South Staffordshire Regiment, which is the person I believe to be on the memorial, But I have also found a Jesse Reuben born 1867 in Aston, baptised 17th July 1870 along with his sister Caroline Ann at St Stephens Church Newton Row, address states Brook St Aston, which I think is Aston Brook Street, and that is all I can find of him and his family until I found an entry for 10th July 1898 when he baptised his son Oliver Jesse Tonks, living on Victoria Road at that time, but by 1901 they were living in Heath Town Wolverhampton, 1911 80 Walsall Street, Willenhall, which is the address on his pension cards his regiment number 100875, He and his family seemed to move to and from the Walsall/Wolverhampton areas quite often, probably chasing work as a builders labourer. I have tried to find his sister to see if she still lived in Aston, but I have been unable to trace her, and what makes matter worst are the Ancestry hints, there was another Jesse Tonks born around the same time in the Nuneaton area and the hints are mainly for him..spent the last three days searching for our Mr Tonks
 
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