Wednesday 27 December 2017

Boveney New Town Census 1911

The United Kingdom Census of 1911 was taken on 3rd April, that year and was the eighth of the UK censuses to include details of household members. The total number of persons returned as living in England and Wales at midnight on Sunday, April 2nd, 1911, was 36,075,269. This shows an increase of 3,547,426 upon the number enumerated on March 31st, 1901, and gives a decennial rate of increase of 10.9 percent. It is the first census that has the returns for each household as completed by the head of the house are available

Details collected include:

Place: street name, house number or house name.

Houses: inhabited, uninhabited or a building and the number of rooms.

Names of each person who was resident in the house on the night preceding the census.

Age and sex of each person: The actual age in years or months for babies under one year are recorded in the 1911 census.

Particulars as to Marriage: married, single (persons 15 years and upwards) or widowed; years married, the number of children, living and who had died.

Profession or Occupation.

Birthplace and nationality.

Infirmity.

The Superintend Registrar's District was Eton, Bucks and the Registrar's district was Burnham. Enumeration District No. 1. The enumerator was not recorded on the cover of the Census records.

The area for the 1911 census included was the entire parishes of Dorney and Boveney.

The 1911 Census reveals that there were 125 households, one house was unoccupied and 503 people in residence in the parish of Boveney at midnight on the 2nd April. In Lower Boveney (Boveney New Town) there were 94 households and 389 people recorded. The oldest person, Ann Grimes at the age of 91, she was born in 1820. There were two residents in their 80’s. Arthur Lea was youngest at one-month-old, he was the third child of Thomas and Martha. There had been two children born in the first three months of 1911.

Click on this link to see our transcription of the 1911 census records for Boveney.. We will be looking deeper into what the census reveals about the growing village and publish our findings in future articles.

Saturday 23 December 2017

Eton Wick WI - Our Community Today & Tomorrow

The Eton Wick and Boveney WI was started in the 1930's by Edward L. Vaughan and his wife. Mr Vaughan was an Eton College master who lived in the village. The village WI ran for 72 years until Christmas 2006, here are some photographs from the final meeting.

Mrs Joan Ballhatchet, a long time member of the village WI told Windsor and Eton Express "We were determined to keep going until 2006 so we could have our Christmas party and go out with a bang. We brought out all our trophies that the branch had won over the years and former members came back especially."




One of the scrapbooks on display was Our Community Today & Tomorrow that was produced and entered into the Berkshire Federation of the Women's Institue Golden Jubilee Cup Competiton in 1992. The Eton Wick and Boveney WI entry came 1st. To read the full report click here or copy the URL and paste it into your web browser: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mn7PXZieX69ypFxkUNJqQ0-hXS1GHNPJ 



Thursday 21 December 2017

1897 - 1997 Centenary of Victoria's Jubilee

On April 30th 1997 the History Group meeting covered how Eton Wick celebrated Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The talk was researched and given by John Denham.

June 21st, 1997 was the centenary of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. 

Celebrations for both Jubilees, Golden and Diamond, had similar programs in Eton and Windsor.

Although Eton Wick became a parish with about 800 inhabitants within the Eton Rural District in 1894, for the Jubilee celebrations the village joined Eton, who in turn joined with Windsor in the organisation for both occasions.

The ten years between the Golden and Diamond Jubilees saw an increase in the number of village traders.

From Kelly's trade directory for 1887 only eleven premises are listed as commercial. (Farms, Beerhouses, a laundry, Three Horseshoe P.H) the two shops for provisions etc. were Arthur Bennett and Thomas Lovell, baker and Post Office.

For 1897, 24 premises are listed as commercial, Eton Wick now had shopkeepers, Charles Ayres, Alma Road, Edward Wilkins, butcher, Thomas Lovell, baker and grocer, Dairymen, a florist, market gardener, boot and shoe maker, draper and boot retailer, cabinet maker, plumber, carpenter and smith, and builders, but in 1897 the village relied on Eton for many domestic requirements. The increasing wealth was altering the way life was pursued by many parishioners. This brought forth the comment from the Reverend Donalson speaking at a Deanery conference at Slough on the subject of Sunday Observance that the neglect of this began with the leisured classes who robbed their servants of the privilege of Sunday worship by dinner parties, concerts and other amusements and was influencing all classes generally.

For the Diamond Jubilee celebrations public meetings were held in January 1897 at Eton and Eton Wick to consider ideas and arrangements for the sixieth anniversary. But other events of local interest were also being discussed by the Parish.

The new year commenced with the children's Christmas party given by Mr Vaughan and others for the 235 children attending the day schools in the parish., which brought the remark from the vicar that, when compared, the number attending Sunday school was miserably poor.

Temperance and thrift both got their due mention in the parish records. A decision by the local school governors in 1897 to encourage thrift introduced a savings bank for children of the parish Church of England schools. The collected monies were deposited with the Post Office savings bank.


Sunday 12 November 2017

Remembrance Sunday 2017


The Eton Wick History Group laid its first wreath on the village War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday 1999. They have continued to do this each year since then and will be doing so again today.

During 1917 11 men who called Eton Wick their home died in the service of the country.

Private Herbert Pithers - Killed in action at Ancre and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

James John Newell (Trooper No. 1232) - 10th Brigade 4th Division (Formerly Trooper No. 3831 - The Life Guards) - Killed in action at Arras and he is buried in the Athies Communal Cemetery Extension in France.

John Carfrae Clark (Gunner No. 630936) - Killed in action at Roeux and he is buried in the nearby cemetery of Anzin-St-Aubin. 

Joseph Newell (Private No. 9534) - 1st Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry - 17th Brigade - 6th (Poona) Division - He died in a Turkish Prisoner of War camp and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq.

Charles Miles (Stoker 1st Class K25314) - H.M.S. Vanguard Royal Navy - Killed when HMS Vanguard blew up and sank with its entire crew. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial in Kent.

Arthur Bunce (Private No. 39794) - 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment - 7th Brigade - 25th Division - Killed in action at Messines Ridge and he is buried in the Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Messines, Belgium.

Alfred Brown (Private No. 11811) - 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards - 4th (Later 1st) Guards Brigade - Guards Division - Killed in action at the start of the Third Battle of Ypres and he is buried in Artillery Wood Cemetery at Boesinghe. 

Henry Charles Hill (Stoker 1st Class No. 1/18991) - H.M.S. Pembroke - Chatham - Royal Navy. He was killed during an air raid at Chatham Naval Barracks and he is buried in the Gillingham Naval Plot.

Robert Thomas Hobrough M.M. (Sergeant No. 40782) - Royal Engineers - No. 7 Signal Section Royal Engineers - Killed in action during the Third Battle of Ypres and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing, Panel 8, at Tyne Cot in Belgium.

Ernest Brown (Private No. T/202287) 3rd/4th Battalion The Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment – 62nd Brigade – 21st Division - Killed in action during the Third Battle of Ypres and is commemorated on a wall plaque in the Tyne Cot Cemetery.

Cyril Arthur Ashman - (Private No. 746) 2nd Battalion Honourable - Artillery Company 22nd Brigade - 7th Division - Killed in action at Gheluvelt and is buried in the military cemetery known as Tyne Cot.




Wednesday 8 November 2017

Eton Wick History Group Programme of Talks for 2018

The Eton Wick History Group has been meeting regularly since 1992. Eton Wick and the surrounding area is rich in history and the village has a heritage dating back to 1217.

Meetings are held at 7.30 pm in Eton Wick Hall, Eton Wick, and everyone is welcome. Refreshments are served, and there is a charge of £1.50 to cover costs.

Visitors and new members are always very welcome.


The 2018 programme of talks:


            17th January        

‘Rogues and Vagabonds, Prisons and Punishments in 19th Century Windsor’ with Dr. Brigitte Mitchell

28th February     

‘Sir Sydney Camm and The Hurricane’ 
with Malcolm Lock

18th April              

‘The History of Baylis House Slough’ 
with Elias Kupfermann

30th May              

‘The Curious Disappearance of Major Glenn Miller’ 
with Tony Eaton

18th July                

‘The Berkshire Lieutenancy’ 
with John Handcock LVO, DL

19th September  

‘The Changing Face of Farming’ 
with Malcolm Kinross 

31st October       

‘The History of the Poppy Appeal’ 
with Geoff Hayes

12th December  

‘A Walk Around Eton Wick with Frank Bond’: 
as filmed by Peter Tarrant

Thursday 26 October 2017

Cyril Ashman Hon Artillery Company

Cyril Arthur Ashman - (Private No. 746) 2nd Battalion Honourable
Artillery Company 22nd Brigade - 7th Division

Cyril was born on April 17th, 1897 at about the time the family is believed to have moved to Eton Wick from Tidworth in Hampshire. In September 1910 he left the Eton Porny School to complete his education at the Windsor County Boys' School. During his school years he frequently helped on his father's farm until April 1914 when he left school to become a banker's clerk for Barclays at Southall. He joined the Army in April 1916 when he was just 19 years old and served with The Honourable Artillery Company.


He was a very likeable lad and probably more outgoing than his older brother, Douglas. Eight months before Cyril enlisted, his 23-year-old brother was killed in the Gallipoli offensive. It is not known whether this loss influenced his own decision to join the army, but it is not difficult to understand the apprehension of his parents as their one remaining son went off to war.


Edwin and Alice Ashman
with their children
Dorothy, Cyril and Douglas
As a boy he often called on Mrs Roll Bond of I Palmer Place and jokingly asked for titbits from her larder. In return he would take her a pail of skimmed milk and said it would only be given to the animals if she did not use it. Mrs Bond was very fond of young Cyril and she is said to have named a son after him. When Cyril had completed seven months of military training he was posted to the Western Front and in the late summer of 1917 he was serving in the Ypres Salient, Belgium.

He was wounded on October 7th and suffered Trench Fever, but was soon back in the front line. It was late Autumn and the battle had raged for three months with the aim of breaking out from the Salient and capturing the distant high ground known as the Passchendaele Ridge. Intense shelling had destroyed all the network of drainage ditches and the heavy rains made the terrain a glutinous, oozing quagmire.


The name of Passchendaele became synonymous with mud and slush, mud that drowned 
both men and horses. From the beginning of August 1917, the army had pressed painfully, slowly onward, until on
November 10th the ridge was finally taken at the appalling price of an estimated 250,000 casualties of whom 42,000 were never to be recovered. Cyril was killed here at Gheluvelt on October 26th, 1917, while trying to rescue a wounded comrade. Unlike his brother, he has a grave and is buried in the nearby massive military cemetery known as Tyne Cot. The cemetery is situated five miles northeast of Ypres and it contains 11,000 graves. Memorial walls there name nearly 35,000 other soldiers, who have no known graves. This total of approximately 46,000 British men were all killed in the Ypres Salient between August 1917 and the Armistice of November 1918.


Cyril's grave is number 21; Row C; plot 55. Mr and Mrs Ashman received a letter from their son's commanding officer which read: It is with the greatest regret that I am writing to inform you of the death of your son, Private Cyril Ashman of this Company, who fell on the 26th October while performing his duty under heavy shell fire. His officers regret the loss of a good soldier and his comrades mourn one of their most popular comrades, and it is the wish of all that I should convey to you their deepest sympathy in the great loss which you have sustained.In little more than two years, Edwin and Alice Ashman had lost both their sons in the Great War.

They left Eton Wick and the farm to live in Lansdowne Avenue, Slough. Their one remaining child was Dorothy. She lived until 1956 and was buried in the Eton Wick Churchyard. Her grave headstone bears the names of her two lost brothers along with her own.


Cyril's name is the second on the village memorial. He is also commemorated on the Eton Church Gates and on his old school memorial in Windsor. Cyril was single and 20 years of age.




This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  
and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

* The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records the death
of Private Cyril Ashman as 28th October 1917. 

Ernest Brown: There is no information about him on Lives of the First World War as yet.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website.

Cyril Ashman is also recorded in the Barclays Bank WW1 Roll of Honour. Private Ashman was one of 645 Barclays employees who died in the service of the country during the First World War.




Documents from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website 


Tuesday 24 October 2017

The Village News viewed from Eton Wick

I have lived for over 40 years in and have been part of the life of two villages, Eton Wick and West Chiltington Common so when Tom Fort's “The Village News” came out I felt that I should get a copy. It is a fascinating collection of village stories that takes the reader on a meander through rural England both geographically and historically. From Twyford where his parents moved to when he was a year old in 1952 to Sonning Common where he currently lives his book looks at how villages have survived and what they need to make them work as communities.

His journey from Twyford to Sonning Common takes in Eversley, Luccombe and Chelsfield in the South of England to Troutbeck and Chopwell in the North. He chose his villages with care as most of the places that he has written about have either literary connections or researched histories written about them; these are referred to throughout the book.

Eton Wick may not get a mention, but villages across much of Berkshire are from Chieveley* in the west, home of Miss Read via Three Mile Cross, Miss Mitford and Sonning Common (used to be in Berkshire) to Twyford are covered and the changes that the passing of time has brought them. Eton College does get a mention as it is part of the history of Juniper Hill in Oxfordshire.

Juniper Hill was the village that Flora Thompson called Lark Rise in the novel of that that she wrote about rural life in the   North Oxfordshire community in the 1890's. One part of Juniper Hill's history is the experience of the area being enclosed by the landlord, Eton College. Mr Fort writes

"when it was enclosed the people would lose their rights to graze and take wood, and much more alarmingly would risk losing their homes."

Eton Wick had its own experience with the threat of enclosure when John Penn attempted to gain the necessary legislation through Parliament which was defeated on 1st May 1826. Eton Wick is still surrounded by open fields, Lammas land and commons. And of course, Eton College is Lord of the Manor.

The story of Three Mile Cross contrasts with Eton Wick as both villages are close to major urban centres, but so far have different futures. Three Mile Cross which is part of the Parish of Shinfield* the area was subject to several Enclosure Acts between 1856 and 1863.  The village lies immediately south-east of the M4 – A33 junction and is being developed. There is a website for the Shinfield plan that shows where the national house builders are adding the new homes. 

The Village News illustrates that every village is different and that actions and decisions taken in the past can bring about very different futures for the communities that live in villages. Eton Wick had a major growth phase from the early 1880’s with the development of Boveney Newtown starting on former farmland on the north side of the Eton Wick Road and west of Bell Lane. The growth continued through to the early 1970’s when the Wheatbutts was built on.

Mr Fort suggests an asset mix that can make a village successful. This includes in no particular order:

The village school, Church, shops and Post Office, sports and other clubs, families with young children and people how are prepared to be actively involved in making the community thrive. He also adds that finding space for small developments is important, Eton Wick offers all those. I think that as someone who has a keen interest in Eton Wick and looking through the lens of The Village News I would say that the village community has much to be proud of and some issues to be wary of.

Some notes on the growth of Eton Wick.

The census records for the older part of the village in 1861 show that there were 78 occupied dwellings with a population of 276.   By 1911 the village had gained a neighbour, Boveney Newtown on what had previously been farmland immediately to the west. The two communities, they both had their own Parish Council totalled 248 houses and 1026 inhabitants.  The population of the village at the 2011 census was 2260. 

During 100 years between 1861 and when my parents brought their family to the village in 1960,  it gained a new school in 1888 and extended several times since to cope with a larger population. A Post Office arrived in the mid-1880’s as well as other shops. A new parade of shops was built by the local authority in the early 1950’s  and a second parade was added in the early 1970’s. The Village Institute/Hall, Scout Hut, Youth Club, St. Gilberts RC Church and Football & Social Club were added to the south side of the village between 1900 and the end of the 1970’s.

*Author's note: my own 3x great-grandparents, Richard and Asenath Povey lived in Chievely and had nine children including my 2x great-grandfather also called Richard.

Elizabeth Povey, a granddaughter of Richard and Asenath is recorded as having stayed at the Wheatsheaf Inn, Shinfield on the 1901 Census.



Wednesday 4 October 2017

E. Brown - The Queens

Ernest Brown (Private No. T/202287) 3rd/4th Battalion The Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment – 62nd Brigade – 21st Division

Ernest (Ernie) Brown was born on December 17th 1894 and spent most of his early years in


the family home at 2, Curlew Cottages, Northfield Road, Boveney Newtown. He was not related to the other Boveney Newtown casualty of the Great War with the same surname. However he did have a brother William who served in the Dardanelles in 1915 and later on the Western Front. William survived the war. They had five sisters and all except the two eldest of the seven children were born in Northfield Road. The two eldest were born in London and came to Eton Wick on account of their father's work as a horse coachman. Unfortunately the father died of cancer in 1905 leaving a widow to bring up the large family.

Two houses comprised Curlew Cottages, and another of the village's Great War fatalities, George Bolton, had spent part of his early life in the other house. 

Ernie attended the Eton Wick Infant School from 1899 until at the age of six years and nine months he left the village school to attend Eton Porny. In 1908, when he attained his 14th birthday, he left school to start work. By this time the family had moved a few houses along the road and were in No. 2, Oak Villas

On at least two occasions Ernie was mentioned in the Parish Magazine for good school attendance and good work. It is believed he found employment with Tom Lovell the local baker, Postmaster and general stores who traded at Ada Cottage, next to the Three Horse Shoes public house. Tom was a much-esteemed village man, for apart from being the principal trader he was also a school governor and frequently sang in Eton Wick concert groups. His son, Frederick Lovell was the village draper and boot dealer. 

No reference has been found to the date Ernest enlisted into the army, although it was probably 1915, when he was 20 years old. Certainly the 3rd/4th Battalion The Queens was formed at Windsor in June 1915. The following month they went to Tunbridge Wells as a unit of the 200th Brigade, 67th Division. In October the Battalion moved to Reigate in July 1916 to Westbere and in November to Ramsgate. On June 1st 1917 they embarked for the continent and landed at Havre. In all probability Ernie last saw Eton Wick and home during May 1917, prior to sailing to France. 

When the time came for Ernie to return to his unit, he started to walk the village road to catch his Windsor train. A local trader gave him a lift on his horse and cart, and with a parting gesture said "Cheerio! Ern' all the best and I will see you next time you get home". Back came the reply "Thank you Bert, but you will not see me again". This chilling expression or premonition was quite common among men who knew so much about the battlefield carnage. As privates they could not expect to survive 18 months before their next home leave was posted. 

Ernie arrived in the war zone in time for the bitter fighting of the Third Battle of Ypres that commenced on July 31st and raged on through the treacherous and drowning mud of Passchendaele. Almost tantalisingly the tiny place of that name, standing on marginally higher ground, became the objective of thousands upon thousands of weary, struggling soldiers. By October the battle had raged for nearly three months and British and Empire units became involved in an attack on the Broodseinde sector. 

The 3rd/4th Battalion of The Queen's Royal West Surreys were expected to attack and capture "Fudge Trench" allowing the 1st Lincolnshires to pass through their positions to further the planned advance. Other regiments, together with Australian and New Zealand units, were to simultaneously attack on the flanks. 


Advancing was very slow as the troops were obliged to file forward over duck boards which spanned the mud filled shell holes, all the time being subjected to intense enemy fire. It was during this action, on October 24th*, that Ernest Brown was killed. There are no details, his body was never identified and consequently there is no known grave. He is commemorated on a wall plaque in the Tyne Cot Cemetery along with approximately 35,000 other men who have no known graves and who fell in the battle in this sector. 

Additionally there are 11,000 graves in the same cemetery. Tyne Cot is situated five miles north east of the Belgian city of Ypres. 

In the local newspaper dated November 24th 1917 we read: 

Ernest Brown of 2, Oak Villas, Eton Wick, second son of Mr Brown and Mrs Brown, aged 22 years, Faithful Unto Death, Grant Him Eternal Rest. 

Ernest was a single man. His name is sixth on the Eton Wick War Memorial and is also on the bronze tablets attached to the Eton Church Memorial Gates.



 This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  
and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

* The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records the death
of Private Ernest Brown as 4th October 1917. 

Ernest Brown: There is no information about him on Lives of the First World War as yet.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website.






Saturday 30 September 2017

R.T. HOBROUGH - ROYAL ENGINEERS

Robert Thomas Hobrough M.M. (Sergeant No. 40782) - Royal Engineers No. 7 Signal Section Royal Engineers
The family home of Robert Thomas Hobrough was in 25, Clifton Cottages, Eton Wick, although an address given for his widow at the time of his death was The Crescent, Slough. There was at least one younger brother, H.F., living with R.T.'s parents at 25, Clifton Cottages, who also served in the army as a Staff Sergeant with the Royal Garrison Artillery on a siege battery.
Robert was born in 1881 and was a regular soldier who saw considerable active service before the 1914—1918 war. He joined the Royal Engineers when he was 18 years old (1899) and served for a term of seven years, with a further three years on the reserve. He served in the South African war and also with the Somaliland Expedition, for which he received the Somaliland medal. He then went to Egypt and saw service in the Sudan for three years. After this he was engaged in the inspection of telegraphs on the West Coast of Africa.
With the outbreak of the Great War he rejoined his old regiment as a corporal. For service in 1916 he was awarded the Military Medal. The remainder of his service can best be given by quoting from the letter from his officer, received by his wife after his death, on September 30th 1917.
I am writing to offer you my sincerest sympathy in your great loss. Although I feel that little I can say will help to make up for the great sacrifice you have made, I should like you to know that in Sergeant Hobrough's death I have lost one of my best Brigade Signal Sergeants. I have had well over two years' experience in the Signal Service out here, and amongst all the many N.C. O. 's I have had under me, none have carried absolute fearlessness, combined with complete efficiency, to such a high, or anyway, to a higher standard. But perhaps his chief asset was his reliability. Never once in the ten months we worked together and under the most trying circumstances, did he let me down, and I had the most implicit faith in him, which was justified time after time.
However, apart from the technical loss which his death entails, I feel a very great personal loss, and so I can understand in some slight degree how much more you must be suffering from your bereavement. But it must be no inconsiderable consolation to you to know that he had died the most noble death a man can die, and you can have nothing but the happiest memories and greatest pride in him. He had an excellent command of men, all too rare an accomplishment nowadays, and about a month ago I recommended him for a Company Quartermaster Sergeants' position, which had been endorsed by the higher authorities.
He died instantaneously and entirely painlessly as the result of a nearly direct hit from a shell, and five other priceless men of my small section with him. We buried them all near the spot, and have erected a cross, simple, but suitable, to commemorate the resting place of six heroes who could ill be spared.
Allow me, therefore, once more, to offer you at the same time my sincerest sympathy in your bereavement, and heartiest congratulations in having had such a fine man for a husband in which sentiments all the section join me.
In The Windsor and Eton Express, seven months later dated April 27th 1918 we read:
Bravery In The Field Mrs Hobrough has now received from the King the Distinguished Conduct Medal awarded to her husband, the late Sergeant R. T. Hobrough (of Eton Wick) of the 7th Signal Company, Royal Engineers for bravery in the field. In 1916 when the same paper reported the award of the Military Medal, he was in No. 4 Signal Section; R.E.
Two days before the Armistice, on November 9th 1918, Robert's parents had more bad news when they were notified that their second son, Staff Sergeant H.F. Hobrough, was in a serious condition having been wounded in the arm and left leg, and that he also had a fractured hip. Fortunately these did not prove fatal. The injuries had been sustained on October 21st.
Robert's last active service was in the series of battles that came to be known as Third Ypres or Passchendaele, and the phase of the battle being fought on Tyne Cot Memorial and Cemetery September 30th 1917 was the Battle of Polygon Wood.
The fact that he and his five comrades were killed by a near direct shell hit means it would have been very
unlikely that their remains could be identified. Perhaps the common grave they shared could not be found, due to subsequent obliteration. Whatever the reason, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing, Panel 8, at Tyne Cot in Belgium. He is also commemorated locally on the Eton Wick Memorial and on the Eton Church Gates.
Thorough searching in The London Gazette Indexes have failed to find any mention of Robert Hobrough being awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the newspaper report to that effect was probably inaccurate. The Gazette however did record the M.M. award and was dated 1.9.1916. A medal collector remembers purchasing the African General Service Medal awarded to Robert and subsequently researching his service career. The collector cannot recall mention that a D.C.M. had been awarded.
The Eton Wick address of 25 Clifton Cottages refers to the first house on the left hand side of The Walk, from the Eton Wick Road. Houses in The Walk were at that time known as Clifton Cottages, as were the terraced row of 15 houses on the Common Road between The Walk and Sheepcote Road. Robert was 37 years old and left a widow, Isobel (Dot), who continued to live in Slough. The Tyne Cot Memorial and Cemetery is in the Passchendaele area, five miles northeast of Ypres. The Wall Memorial commemorates nearly 35,000 soldiers without known graves and the cemetery contains nearly 12,000 graves.
 This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  
and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

Robert Hobrough: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission page.
Robert Hobrough: The For King & Country page.

Robert Hobrough: Lives of the First World War as yet.






Monday 11 September 2017

Eton Wick Census 1901

The United Kingdom Census of 1901 was taken on Sunday 31st March, that year and was the seventh of the UK censuses to include details of household members. The total number of persons returned as living in England and Wales at midnight on Sunday, March 31st, 1901, was 32,526,075. This shows an increase of 3,523,550 upon the number enumerated on April 5th, 1891, and gives a decennial rate of increase of 12.17 percent.

Details collected include:

Place: street name, house number or house name.

Houses: inhabited, uninhabited or a building and the number of rooms.

Names of each person who was resident in the house on the night preceding the census.

Age and sex of each person: The actual age in years or months for babies under one year are recorded in the 1901 census.

Rank, Profession or Occupation.

Birthplace, county and country.

Whether Blind, Deaf or Dumb.

The Superintend Registrar's District was Eton, Bucks and the Registrar's district was Eton. Enumeration District No. 6. The enumerator was John Langridge.

The area for the 1901 census included was the entire parish of Eton Wick comprising The Eton College Sanatorium, Eton Pumping Station, The village of Eton Wick, Bell Farm, Saddocks Farm, Manor Farm and Eton Great and Little Commons and half the River Thames between Deadwater Cut and the point opposite Clewer Mills.

The 1901 Census reveals that there were 104 households and 414 people in residence in the village at midnight on the 31st March. The oldest person, Mary Greenwood at the age of 83, she was born in 1818. There was one other resident in their 80’s. Florance Giles was youngest at one month, she was the only child of William and Ada. Sarah Ann was the only baby born in the first three months of 1901 within the civil parish of Eton Wick.

Click on this link to see our transcription of the 1901 census records for Eton Wick. We will be looking deeper into what the census reveals about Eton Wick and publish our findings in future articles.

Consolidated Census spreadsheet.

Sunday 3 September 2017

Henry Hill - H.M.S. Aster

Henry Charles Hill (Stoker 1st Class No. 1</18991) - H.M.S. Pembroke
Chatham - Royal Navy

Henry Hill was born on July 16th 1894 and it is believed he attended the Eton Wick Infants' School until at the
age of seven he went to Eton Porny. His parents were Alfred and Sarah and their home was No. I Albert Place, Common Road. When Henry was 10 years old the family moved beyond Dorney Common and he then left the Porny School and his school chums and presumably attended the Dorney Village School.

Sometime later they returned to Eton Wick and lived in 12, Castle View Terrace, Victoria Road. Father, Alf, was very well known and generally referred to as General Hill. Apparently, this was a nickname accorded him on account of being a handyman or tinker and was in no way a military achievement. His workshop was across the road from Castle View Terrace and a few years later it became William Hearn's garage-cum-workshop and bungalow home. This established the rights for later industrial use.

A register in the Kew Public Record Office records Henry as joining the Royal Navy for an engagement of 12 years in April 1913, 16 months before the Great War started. His age was given as 19 years, his height as 5 feet 3¾ inches and his civilian occupation as a cycle fitter.

Initial training was at Chatham Naval Barracks H.M.S. Pembroke before being posted to H.M.S. St. George. Four months later, in April 1914, he joined the battleship King George V. In January 1915, with the war five months old, Henry returned to H.M.S. Pembroke (Chatham) for further training. From May 1915 until July 1917 he served on H.M.S. Aster. The village memorial misleadingly records "H. Hill. - H.M.S. ASTER" perhaps inferring it was on Aster he lost his life. In fact, H.M.S. Aster was sunk on 4th July 1917 and almost certainly Henry was on the ship but survived the tragedy. Another man named Henry Hill was also a crew member, but he was a Devonshire man and 35 years old - he did not survive. On 26th July Henry returned to the familiar shore base of H.M.S. Pembroke.

An Eton Wick lady remembered Henry who she thought may have joined the Navy together with her brother Roland Bond and Arthur Morrell. She said that he was killed in an air raid on Portsmouth. There was in fact no air raid on Portsmouth causing Navy casualties during the Great War, but there was such a raid on Chatham on 3rd September 1917. The raid was by four giant Gotha bombers, each carrying a 300 pound bomb load, at first attacking Margate and causing little damage before altering course for Sheerness and Chatham. About Il p.m. a bomb fell on the Chatham Naval Barracks killing 131 sailors and injuring a further 90. It was with a touch of irony that the village man escaped death at sea in July only to be killed in an air raid a few weeks later. It has not been established that the three young men did join together. Certainly in 1913 when Henry Hill enlisted Roland Bond was only 15 years old. He could have joined, but he was four years younger than Hill. He was amongst the guard of honour when the Eton Wick Memorial was unveiled in 1920 and it is not difficult
to imagine his thoughts as he stood proudly at one corner of the memorial and the haunting call of the Last Post rang out.

Henry was one of Eton Wick's and Boveney's two air raid fatalities of the Great War, both killed by German Gothas, and he was also one of the village's two sailors to lose their lives. The headstones in the Gillingham Naval Plot are very different to most C.W.G.C. headstones, being grey in colour and appreciably larger.

Henry's grave is No. 16 Row 837. He is commemorated on the Eton Wick and Boveney Memorial and on the bronze Memorial Plaques attached to the pillars of the Eton Church gates. He was single and 23 years old.


This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  

and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

Henry Hill: There no record of Henry Hill on the Lives of the First World War as yet.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website