Diseworth War Memorial
The dedication of the Diseworth War
Memorial, 1921
The Memorial in November 2007
Researching the names on the War Memorial
This research started in a chance conversation with Barry Smith between Christmas and New Year 2005/06. Barry mentioned that the Vicar had commented on the large number of names on the Diseworth memorial relative to the size of the village. This started him thinking about whether the names that were commemorated each year on Remembrance Sunday were correct and he started checking. Did some of them return? Barry also told me that there was a mystery about a grave in the churchyard for a John Allcroft, as nobody knew why he was buried here. This is the story of what we found ....
This is the full memorial:
This is the central panel headed ‘RIP’ which we assumed contains the names of those who did not return:
These are the names on the two side panels who we assume did return:
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I needed to check from original sources whether
the men on our Memorial centre panel died in the First World War. I
also wanted to check that the men were local, by seeing if I could
find them in the 1901 census for the village, as most of them should
have been born by then. To do this I looked at websites for:
• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission at http://www.cwgc.org/
• The Royal British Legion at
http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Databases/#WW1
• BBC Radio Leicester website for those in the Leicestershire
Regiment at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/aroundleicester/history/rememberance/leicestershire_regiment/world_war_one/world_war_one_a.shtml
• 1901 census online to search for ‘village names’ at
hhttp://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
To try to find the graves of others on the
Memorial who had more common names, I also looked at the Radio
Leicester website to try to find our men and also at the British
Legion website connected with the Leicestershire Regiment, although
of course not all were in this regiment. Through these various
websites I managed to find war graves for the following names on the
Memorial, although in some cases I remain unsure if I have found the
correct person:
• John Allcroft
• Harry Barnes
• Bernard Barnett
• George Frisby
• Norman Hicklin
• George Howe
• Albert Mee
• Giles Morgan
• Arthur Orridge
• Isaac Orridge
• Wallace Orridge
• Bert Palmer (possible)
• William Palmer (possible but there are 61 in CWGC)
• Arthur Sowter
• Arthur Thompson
• Benjamin Tomlin
• David Wain
I was unsuccessful in definitively finding the war graves of the
following people, mostly because there were too many possible
candidates:
• Frank Bexon – there were 8 Bexons in CWGC, 2 in Leicestershire
Regiment but no Frank
• George or G Howe – there were 29 in CWGC, and 2 in Leicestershire
Regiment
• A Mayes – there were 20 in CWGC but Barry was unable to supply a
first name
• W Mayes – there were 16 in CWGC but again I had no first name
• S Nunn – there were 7 in CWGC but again I had no first name
It is important to note that none of those who are named on the
sides of the Memorial have war graves, confirming that they
did return.
One curiosity was G Frisby who seems to be buried
in one place but remembered in another. If it is the same person,
according to the records he is buried in the Wymondham (Leics)
graveyard but is not commemorated on the memorial there. The records
state:
FRISBY Charles George. Private 6029, 12th Training Battalion,
Depot, Leicestershire Regiment. Died at home 21st February 1917.
Born ymondham, enlisted Loughborough, resident Diseworth,
Derbyshire. Buried in ST PETER CHURCHYARD, WYMONDHAM,
Leicestershire.
Researching village names in the 1901
Census
Having confirmed that the War Memorial did indeed commemorate both
the War Dead and those who returned safely, I then set about
searching for ‘village names’. My sources for this were:
• The 1901 Census, which can be accessed at
http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ which is the
official genealogy site of the Welsh & English census information
for 1901 and operates on a pay per view basis.
• The Genealogy Website Ancestry at
hhttp://www.ancestry.co.uk/
which is a subscription website, which now has all the censuses from
1841 to 1901, as well as a wealth of other material.
In the end, of the men named on the War Memorial,
I managed to find the following, although I would appreciate
confirmation that they are correct as only initials are given on the
Memorial.
| NAME | Approx year of birth | NAME | Approx year of birth |
| Harold Bradley | 1896 | Ronald Arthur Mee | 1896 |
| Percy Will Cartright | 1897 | Ernest William Moore | 1891 |
| William Ferguson | 1891 | Herbert Rodvers Moore | 1900 |
| Jessie Wm Hanford | 1891 | Thomas Alfred Moore | 1898 |
| Arthur Joseph Harris | 1896 | Walter Moore | 1894 |
| John F Harris | 1892 | John Victears Morgan | 1891 |
| Charles Harris | 1896 | John Orridge | 1887 |
| Dimmock Howe | 1896 | Samuel Orridge | 1900 |
| Thomas A Howe | 1897 | Bertram Orridge | 1883 |
| Richard Lester | 1890 | Albert Poxon | 1898 |
| Jos W Kirby Locke | 1888 | George Poxon | 1897 |
| Oliver William Mee | 1894 | Arthur Edward Screaton | 11896 |
There were a number of men that I couldn’t find in
the1901 census. In some cases I could find the families in the
village but the men named on the memorial were not in the 1901
census so they may have been born later than March 31st 1901 when
the census was taken, not be related or moved into the village
later. Until we have the 1911 Census, which we have now been told
will be released in 2009, it’s not possible to check further. The
families I found were:
• Barnetts living in Grimes Gate,
• Blackwells who kept the Plough,
• Bexons living in Lady Gate, although I found Frank in Derby
• Hudsons living in Hall Gate
There remained 7 surnames that were not represented in the 1901
Census and these were:
• Baines
• Brisco
• Burton
• Hubbard
• Jackson
• Padwick
• Rushton
and it would be useful to have any information on these families.
The Mysterious Private Allcroft
And now the mysterious Private Allcroft, who you recall is buried in
the churchyard, but does not appear to be a "local". This is what we
have from his death record. We also know he claimed to be 21 when he
died giving us a year of birth of about 1894.
• ALLCROFT: John Frederick
• Rank: Private
• Serial No: 9435
• Battalion: 1st.
• Cemetery or Memorial: Died of wounds
• Country: 1st.
• How Died: Died of wounds
• Date of Death: 31 May 1915
• Conflict: World War 1
• Born: West Ham, Surrey
• Enlisted: Leicester
• Resident: Melbourne, Derbyshire
• Biographical Details: France & Flanders
National Archives, Catalogue Reference:
WO/372/1
Image Reference:8973
Now one problem with this birthplace is that West Ham isn’t in Surrey:
it’s either in Greater London or Essex. In trying to find out more
about him I looked at the 1901 census and found that there was no
John Frederick Allcroft at all in the census, but there were 2
possible John Allcrofts born between 1893 and 1896. One gave almost
no information and the other seemed to be a John J Allcroft although
with transcription errors this could have been an F. However,
neither was born in West Ham.
On looking in more detail at the two entries it became apparent that John J wasn’t 5 years old at the time of the census but 5 months and his year of birth had been wrongly transcribed. This revelation seemed to put him out of the frame unless of course he lied about his age and he was not 21 when he died but only 16.
I therefore attempted to research this boy, but
found that his family had no connection with Diseworth, or indeed
Leicestershire. His father Peter had been born in Manchester in 1868
and following him back, his grandfather was Joseph, also born in
Manchester in 1836, and his great grandfather was Peter, born in
Staveley in 1810. I then found the registration of the boy John J’s
birth in the December quarter of 1900 in Croydon and he was clearly
registered as John Thomas Allcroft (so not J) and certainly not
Frederick. So that was the end of him as a candidate.
I therefore turned to the other John Allcroft, born around 1895
according to the 1901 census. His entry is annoyingly brief with no
indication of where he was born.
George Harrington was a shepherd by occupation and
even he is a bit of a mystery man, as he has a wife named Alice and
family in the previous censuses, but by 1901 Alice has been replaced
by Sarah and his two youngest daughters, Alice aged 12 and Rebecca
aged 14 are living with separate relatives. His young son George,
who would have been 10 by 1901 seems to have disappeared, probably
dying in infancy.
But back to John Allcroft. In fact, despite the name sounding fairly
common there were only 120 male Allcrofts in the whole of the 1901
England census and so I could look at all of them for possible
matches, but there were no other candidates. I then checked all
Allcroft births registered between 1893 and 1897 and found 23
Allcroft boys but non registered in West Ham and none of them
registered as John Frederick. There is one John Malcolm Allcroft but
he was registered in Rhayader in Wales in September 1896.
In the 1901 census there are 9 Allcrofts in Leicester, but none in
Essex, so I can’t follow up on his background on this basis. I then
looked for other Allcroft connections to the village in the 1901
census, and found a James Allcroft living in Hodnet in Shropshire
with his daughter, who had been born in Diseworth in 1832. He was a
gamekeeper and I followed him back through the censuses until I
found a whole family of them living on The Green, Diseworth in the
1841 census. Father, Edward, who wasn’t born in the county, was also
a gamekeeper. There is no sign of the family in the village by 1851
and I can’t find them elsewhere either, but I picked up the threads
of the children in later censuses as they moved around the country.
There is little evidence of most of them by 1901 and there seems to
be no connection with John Frederick. This therefore looks like
another dead end and a simple coincidence.
There does remain one remote possibility about the origins of John
Frederick but they don’t help to attach him to Diseworth. In the
1891 Census there was a Richard Allcroft (born in Preston in1861)
living in West Ham.
The entry states that in 1891 he was:/>
• Married, but was lodging there alone
• a boiler smith
• born in Preston.
However he was also included with his family at home in Lancashire:
I am sure it is the same person, as by 1901 he had returned to his
home county of Lancashire and his family and the same names appear.
Is it possible Richard was leading a double life? There is a gap in
his children between Hannah born in 1890 and Richard born in 1894.
Was he away from home a lot in the intervening years? Could he be
the father of John Frederick?
Whilst looking for possible mothers for John Frederick I did find
the death of a Fanny Allcroft in the December quarter of 1896, at
which time John would have been about 2. She was aged about 44 so it
is possible that she was John Frederick’s mother and after she died
he went into a children’s home or the workhouse and this is why he
was with the Harringtons in 1901, with very little idea of where he
came from. Unfortunately I can’t trace Fanny in the earlier censuses
to explain why her death was registered in West Ham.
I also tried to find an Allcroft connection with Melbourne which is
where John Frederick was resident before he signed up in Leicester.
There were a total of 3,580 residents in Melbourne in the 1901
census but no connection with Allcroft or any name that could be
confused with it so, again, this drew a blank.
As an aside, I also failed to find a entries for Cornelius Giddens
in either the register of births or the 1891 census when he might
have been present. There are no other Cornelius Giddens in any of
the censuses although Giddens is not quite such an uncommon name as
Allcroft with around 400 of them in the 1901 census. There were 198
boys called Cornelius born between 1899 and 1901 but no Giddens or
anything like it. I also checked to see if he had died in the war
but there were only 13 Giddens who died and he wasn’t one of them.
There was a C Giddings but he was too young to have been Cornelius.
Yet another dead end.
From information from Annie Fletcher we do now believe that whoever
John Frederick Allcroft was, he was in the area prior to the war
working for the Jarrom family. Annie also said that they sent him to
college to learn about agriculture. I tried to follow this up and
started by assuming that he had been sent to what is now the part of
Nottingham University located at Sutton Bonnington but which was
originally in Kingston upon Soar. I discovered that in 1900 the
agricultural department of University College, Nottingham, moved to
Kingston and merged with the existing Dairy College to form “The
Midland Agricultural and Dairy College”. It provided various general
and special courses to meet the requirements of different types of
students. In addition much was done by consultations, analyses, and
a travelling Dairy School was set up to advance these industries in
the co-operating counties. I contacted the archivist but
unfortunately all records from the early days have been destroyed,
so there is no way of finding out more about John Frederick from
this source.
I have racked my brain to find ways of discovering who John
Frederick Allcroft was and why he came to Diseworth but I have to
admit defeat, at least until the 1911 census is available and we
possibly find him there.
Conclusions
My research has come up with a number of
conclusions:
1.
All of the people on the War Memorial ‘belong’ to Diseworth with the
possible exception of John Allcroft,
2. The men listed in the centre panel headed ‘RIP’ died in service,
3. The men listed on the outer panels returned home safely,
4.
John Allcroft was, most probably a ‘foundling’ or some other
orphaned child, of which there were very many around that time, my
grandmother included. He was probably farmed out to learn a trade,
in his case agriculture,
5. John Allcroft may have worked for the
Jarroms before enlisting and may also have attended the Midlands
Agricultural and Dairy College in Kingston upon Soar. It would be
very nice to have more information from anyone who knows about the
college early in the 20th century.
6.
Never trust anything without checking for yourself !!
If anybody has any further information, or can shed light on any of
the remaining questions, I would be pleased to hear from them.
Meg Galley, September 2007
Addendum: The Orridge Family and the War Memorial
On the War Memorial in Diseworth there are 6 Orridge men
mentioned, 3 in the central RIP panel and 3 in the outer panel.
They are respectively:
A (Arthur)
I H (Isaac Henry )
W (Wallace)
G (George)
J (John)
S (Samuel)
However, after posting the original article on the Heritage Trust
website, I was contacted by Mark Orridge from Melton Mowbray who
believes that the names have been wrongly placed. He says in his
email:
“I really enjoyed the fascinating article on the memorial. I
have some information which I hope may help. In the centre RIP
section of the memorial I have grave details for Isaac Harry Orridge
who was killed 21/03/1918 and Arthur Orton Orridge who was killed
20/07/1916 but I have no grave records or medal details for Wallace
Orridge. In the outer panels I have details of George Orridge
being demobbed from the Navy in 1919,John W Orridge is listed as
Leicestershire Regt. then Labour Corps so I assume he survived.
Now here is the odd one out. Samuel Wallace Orridge, here are his
details: Pte. 241598 5th Battalion Leics. Regt. died Sunday 11th
February 1917 age 20.Grave D18 St Pol cemetery extention, Pas de
Calais,France. It looks like the names of Wallace Orridge and
Samuel Wallace Orridge have been mistakenly placed in the wrong
panels! Their Father Samuel (brother to my Great Grandfather) was
born in Wysall and became a Farm servant at the Jarrom Farm at
Diseworth. He went on to marry the Farm owners daughter Mary
Jarrom.”
I have therefore gone back and re-looked at various sources to check
out what he says. When I researched the names originally I
thought that Wallace Orridge was W O Orridge who was killed on 17
June 1917 and was with the Leicestershire Regiment. However I have
now checked W O Oridge in the 1901 census and it looks as if he is
William Oliver and would probably have been a cousin of the Disworth
Orridges as he lived in Wysall with his parents John and Agnes which
is where the father of the Diseworth Orridges, Samuel came from. I
looked at the records for war deaths in the Army (other ranks) for
1917 to 1921 and got the list shown below.
It does not have a Wallace Orridge as the
only other W was W F Orridge who turned out to be 44 and had been a
miner from Derbyshire. This added further confirmation to Mark’s
information that Wallace survived the War. I also checked again on
the War Graves website and found Samuel, although I am not sure why
I didn’t find him before. All of the three Orridge sons who died
are shown on the table below :
| No | Surname | Rank | Service no. | Date of Death | Age | Regiment | Nationality | Cemetery/Memorial Name |
| 1 | ORRIDGE, ISAAC HENRY | Private | 88649 | 21/03/1918 | Unknown | The King's (Liverpool Regiment) | UK | Pozieres Memorial |
| 1 | ORRIDGE, A O | Private | 11810 | 20/07/1916 | Leics Regt | UK | St Sever Cemetery, Rouen | |
| 1 | ORRIDGE, S W | Private | 241598 | 11/02/1917 | 20 | Leics Regt | UK | St Pol Communal Cemetery extension |
The records of the Orridge Deaths from the Commonwealth War Graves
and on the Certificate from the War Graves Commission S W Orridge is stated as being the son of Samuel and Mary Ann Orridge of Page Lane, Diseworth so there is not doubt about it.
In Memory of
Private S W ORRIDGE
241598, 5th Bn., Leicestershire Regiment
who died age 20
on 11 February 1917
Son of Samuel and Mary Ann Orridge, of Diseworth, Derby.
Remembered with honour
ST. POL COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission
I am therefore left with the conclusion that Mark is correct and Wallace Orridge survived and should be on the outer panel whilst Samuel did not and should be in the Central ‘RIP’ panel. I thought it would be a nice gesture if Samuel’s name could be added to the list that is read out on Remembrance Sunday and I am pleased to say that it happened in November 2007 thanks to Barry Smith. What I do find odd is that nobody said anything at the time. Perhaps they did and it has just not been passed down to us. Perhaps the family had all left the village by the time the Memorial was erected. Perhaps someone knows.
Meg Galley-Taylor Nov 4, 2007
Addendum: Frank Bexon and the War Memorial
When I did the original research for the War Memorial I reported that I had been unsuccessful in definitively finding the war grave of Frank Bexon as there were 8 Bexons in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2 in Leicestershire Regiment but no Frank. However, since then I have been contacted by Richard Taylor whose wife was a Bexon and he confirmed that Frank was living in Derby by 1901, which I had found out, and that in August 1913 he emigrated to Canada. I have found the record of his voyage and he went out with his mother Sarah and his sisters Lois and Dora. His brother Edwin had already emigrated in 1911.
Original Entry showing Frank and his family emigrating to Canada
Name: Frank BEXON
Date of departure: 5 August 1913
Port of departure:
Age: 18
Marital Status:
Sex: Male
Occupation: Butcher
Notes:
The following people with the same last name travelled on this
voyage: -
Dora BEXON
Lois BEXON
Sarah BEXON
Ship: TUNISIAN
Official Number: 111248
Master's name: G
Steamship Line: Allan Line Steamship Co
Where bound:
Details of the ship on which Frank and his family emigrating to Canada
I could find no record of his father emigrating
and on checking deaths I note that he died in 1903, something
confirmed by Richard Taylor.
Frank then joined the Canadian Expeditionary Forces and sadly was
killed at Passchendaele on 6 November 1917. This is recorded on the
CWGC website with the following certificate that confirms that his
father is dead at the time.
In Memory of
Private FRANK BEXON
138750, 3rd Bn., Canadian Infantry (Central
Ontario
Regiment)
who died age 21
on 06 November 1917
Son of the late William George and Sarah Kelham Bexon.
Remembered with honour
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission
The Bexon Family
Richard also supplied some photographs of the Bexon family. This is a family group including Frank’s father William George Bexon and mother Sarah Kelham Adkin taken about 1892, 3 years before Frank was born.
The Bexon Family around 1892
There is also a photograph of William Bexon working on a building
but we have no idea where it is. Bexon family history says it is
Diseworth Chapel but it clearly is neither the Lady Gate nor the
Hall Gate Chapel.
William Bexon (centre with trowel) on a building site
If anyone knows where it is we would love to know.
Meg Galley-Taylor August 5, 2008