The Great War



Ernest Brown (Private No. T/202287) 3rd/4th Battalion The Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment


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.  You can read the whole article here.....


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. You can read the whole article here.....

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. You can read the whole article here.....



Alfred Brown (Private No. 11811) - 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards


Alfred was a regular serving soldier whose family home had been in Aylesbury. It was probably as a married man he came to live at Violet Villas, Alma Road, Boveney Newtown, and this decision was undoubtedly influenced by his Grenadier Guard service at Windsor.

At the outbreak of the Great War the 2nd Battalion was stationed at Chelsea as part of the 4th (Guards) Brigade. Eleven days later, August 15th 1914....... You can read the whole article here.....


Charles was a local lad, born on December 22nd 1896 to Alfred and Emily. He had at least two brothers and was probably the eldest. The family was well known in Eton Wick where his father had a small building business and for many years was also the village undertaker. Later on, during the 1930s, undertakers were increasingly expected to have proper premises, limousines instead of hand pushed biers and later still, even a chapel of rest. Alf's income increasingly depended on the building work. You can read the whole article here.....

Arthur Bunce (Private No. 39794) - 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment 


Arthur lived with his parents at No. 3 Gordon Place, Alma Road, Boveney Newtown and was their eldest son. There was no apparent relationship to Harry Bunce, the local farmer and councillor, who lived on the Eton Wick Road. One Bunce family did move from Boveney Newtown to Somerville Road, Eton, in the 1920s, and perhaps these were related to Arthur. He was born in Slough around 1896, moved to Eton Wick  You can read the whole article here.....

Joseph Newell (Private No. 9534) - 1st Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry 

Joseph Newell was an Eton Wick man; having been born in the village on October 12th 1892, he attended the Infant School in Sheepcote Road until at the age of seven years he went to Eton Porny.

He left school three months before his 14th birthday to go to work. The family home was No. 1, Hope Cottages, Common Road, and his grandparents lived in the next house, No. 3, Hope Cottages. You can read the whole article here......




John Carfrae Clark (Gunner No. 630936) - C Battery 255th Brigade Royal Field Artillery




John was not a local lad; he had been born in Aberdeen around 1898, spent much of his life in Montgomery Street, Edinburgh and returned to Aberdeen to enlist. We know very little of his life before he joined the army, except that The Windsor and Eton Express dated 22.5.17 stated he was the second son of Mr & Mrs W.G. Clark of 2, Ada Cottages, Eton Wick, and after two years service in France he was killed in action on the 23rd April 1917 at the age of 19 years. You can read the whole article here.




James John Newell (Trooper No. 1232) - Household Battalion - 10th Brigade 4th Division (Formerly Trooper No. 3831 - The Life Guards)




James (Jim) Newell was most probably born in the village, and continued to live there until he joined the Army during the Great War. He was born on May 21st 1896 and would have attended the Eton Wick Infant school until, at the age of seven years, he went to Eton Porny school, starting there in September 1903. He left school one month before his 14th birthday, at Easter, 1910, and the reason he gave for leaving is recorded in the register as "intention to work in a garden". You can read the whole article here.



Herbert Pithers (Private No. 24307) - 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry - 5th Brigade - 2nd Division

Herbert was born in Burnham, Bucks in 1885, and probably did not move to Eton Wick until he was a married family man. No record has been found in the Porny School registers of him having attended school there. Home was at "Farm Cottages", You can read the whole article here.


Charles William Hammerton (Rifleman) - 1/9th London Regiment (Queen Victoria Rifles) - 169th Brigade - 56th Division - 1st London Territorial Army

Charlie's youth was spent as an Eton Wick boy in a family of three brothers and two sisters. He was born on June 14th, 1894 as the oldest son, but second child of Mr & Mrs Edward Hammerton. You can read the whole article here


Alfred Thomas Iremonger (Sergeant No. 7937) - A Company 1st Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment - 6th Brigade - 2nd Division


Alfred was born in Eton Wick around 1890, although no early trace has been found of him in the records checked. His parents were Arthur and Catherine Annie Iremonger, and when they moved to the village they lived at No. 1, Tilston Villa, Tilston Lane, Boveney. This is now known as the Eton Wick Road, Eton Wick. You can read the whole article here




Ernest Jordan (No. 33180) - Signal Company - Royal Engineers - 13th Division


Ernest was born in 1884 and was one of a family of nine children: seven girls and two boys.Home was a small terraced house known as Prospect Place and situated between The Three Horse Shoes and The Grapes public houses. The 10 houses in the row were mainly of one room downstairs and one room upstairs, but because the Jordan family rented an end house next to The Grapes, they were blessed with a second small bedroom. You can read the whole article here.

Frank Reginald Church (Lance Corporal No. 3760) - 2nd/4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment - 184th Brigade - 61st Division


Frank was born in Windsor in 1887, the fifth child of Thomas and Alice Church. The family home was at 64, Oxford Road, Windsor. He attended St Stephens School, Vansittart Road, Windsor and after leaving school he trained as a French Polisher. He married Sarah Ann Barrett on 24th December 1910. They had 2 children. Sarah was the daughter of Mr & Mrs Barrett of Brook Villa, Boveney.  You can read the whole article here.

Walter William Payne (Sergeant No. 12050) - 11th Battalion Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) - 27th Brigade - 9th Division

Billy was born on December 20th, 1893 and attended the Clewer St. Stephen's School until moving to Eton Wick at 11 years of age. He then attended Eton Porny and left school at Christmas 1907 when he was 14 years old. For the next six years he was in the employ of Sir Courtauld Thompson until he joined the army at the outbreak of war in 1914. ... You can read the whole article here.



Peter Leo Knight (Gunner No. 30958) - Ammunition Column - Royal Field Artillery - 29th Division.

Peter was born in 1888, and married an Eton girl, Ellen Eliza Sable, on August 5th 1911 when he was 23 years old. He apparently gave the army his parents' address at 108, High Street, Cheriton, Kent. You can read the whole article here.



George Edward Bolton (No. 7993) - 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry - 5th Brigade - 2nd Division

George was born on July 28th 1889, the second son of William and Louisa Bolton. It was about this time the family moved home from Curlew Cottages in Northfield Road, Boveney Newtown, to Clyde Place, a semi-detached house along the main village road and near to the Three Horse Shoes public house. You can read the whole article here.

Henry Douglas Ashman (No. 1993) - A Squadron Berkshire Yeomanry 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade - 2nd Mounted Division

Douglas, as he was usually known, was born at Tidworth in Hampshire in 1892. It is believed that his family came to Eton Wick in the late 1890's when his father Edwin went into partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr Nottage, as farmers at Dairy Farm, Common Road. Read more here......



A. Richards - South Wales Borderers

Arthur was born on January 26th 1889, and probably did not move to Eton Wick until 10 years later. He attended the Windsor National School until he was 10 years old, and first registered at Eton Porny on February 7th 1899, leaving there on March 15th 1903 to take up farm work. No evidence has been found to suggest that Arthur was anything other than an early war time volunteer. Read more here......


Gallipoli 100 years on

The community of Eton Wick shared in toll of the Gallipoli campaign and the War Memorial at St John the Baptist Church records the names. We will be publishing the stories of Arthur Richards, Henry Ashman and Peter Knight on the 100th anniversary of their deaths. 





For King & Country is coming to Eton Wick



The Royal Borough's King & Country team will be at Eton Wick Village Hall of Saturday, 25th April from 9.30 am to 1.00 pm. Read more here......







F.T. Buckland - The Queens

Frederick (Fred) was unmarried and lived with his parents at No.1, St. Leonard's Place, Eton Wick. He was born in July 1891 and had a younger brother, Edwin, who in later years became a well-known village man as both a cricketer and by profession a signwriter. Read more here......


T.A. Bryant - Royal Berks

Thomas Arthur Bryant (Private No. 9813)
2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment - 25th Brigade - 8th Division
Thomas was born in 1894 and lived at the family home at 15, Castle View Terrace, Victoria Road, Boveney. The Bryant family was one of the largest village families, and despite several very early deaths still raised nine or ten children. Five were boys, and it is believed that they were all educated locally.  Read more here......



Further information about Sergeant Albert Caesar of the Grenadier Guards

With the information about Albert Caesar on the RBWM For King and Country website we have been able to find some further information about Albert Caesar to add to the research that Frank Bond undertook in the writing of Their Names Shall be Carved in Stone. His birth is in the register for the January to March quarter of 1884. Read more here.......


 For King and Country

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead are remembering The Great War with their For King and Country project. The website says read more here.




A.J. CAESAR - GRENADIER GUARDS 

Albert John Caesar (Sergeant No. 12472) 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards - 4th (Guards) Brigade - Guards Division - I Corps

The Caesar family are not mentioned in early records of Eton Wick and it is believed they came to live in the village a few years before the Great War. Albert is recorded as being born in St. Pancras, London. Albert was a reservist, having served as a Sergeant with the peacetime Grenadier Guards. Read more......



Their names shall be carved in stone


It is a book about the 34 men who were killed in the Great War or World War 1 as it is now called. These particular 34 men called Eton Wick their home and are the men whose names are remembered on the village War Memorial. Read more......





Websites for local War memorials


There are a number of websites that have information about war memorials in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. There is also the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which is based in Maidenhead. Read more......

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