First World War in Headington & Marston
Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield

Harold Thomas DENNIS (1882–1918)

(Dennis is also listed on the St Andrew’s Church Roll of Honour and thus appears twice in the “tour”)

Harold Thomas Dennis was born in Oxford in 1882, the son of Henry Absalom Dennis (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 5 July 1857) and Ellen Thomas (born in Kidlington and baptised there on 10 December 1854).

His parents were married at St Andrew’s Church in Headington on 29 March 1880, and had the following children:

• Florence Gertrude Dennis (born in Headington in 1880, registered fourth quarter and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 31 October 1880)
• Harold Thomas Dennis (born in Rectory Road, Oxford in 1882, baptised at SS Mary & John Church on 25 December 1882)
• Ernest George Dennis (born at Rectory Road, Oxford on 28 December 1889 and baptised at SS Mary & John Church on 23 February 1890).

At the time of his marriage in 1880, Harold’s father was described as a clerk in a brewery, and the census the next year shows him in the same job, living in Old High Street in Headington with his wife and baby daughter.

By the time of Harold’s birth in 1882 his parents had moved down to east Oxford and were living at Rectory Road (then called Pembroke Street). They were still there in 1890, but by the time of the 1891 census had moved to Hurst Street. Harold (8) was at school, and his father was now a booking clerk & cab proprietor.

Things must have gone very wrong for the Dennis family shortly after the census, as early the next year they appear to have been in Headington Workhouse, where Harold’s mother Ellen died at the age of 36. She was buried at Headington Cemetery on 27 February 1892.

Harold attended Headington National School (now St Andrew’s), and in both April 1893 and August 1894 he was commended for the Diocesan Prize.He would have been one of the first group of children to move into the new school buildings, below, opened in 1894.

Harold’s father married his second wife, Annie Page (born in Guildford, registered in first quarter of 1866) in Steyning, Sussex in the fourth quarter of 1897, and they had three children:

• Violet Winifred A. Dennis (born in Newbury in 1898, registered fourth quarter)
• Richard Douglas B. Dennis (born in Newbury in 1900, registered second quarter)
• Herbert Henry Dennis (born in Newbury in 1901/2, registered first quarter of 1902).

At the time of the 1901 census Harold’s father was living at 29 Northbrook Street in Newbury with his new wife Annie and their first two children: he was a sewing machine agent, and his wife was a sewing machine saleswoman. The only child from his first marriage still living with him was Florence (20), who was working as a nursery governess at a school. Harold (18) was now a tailor’s apprentice, living with his grandparents, Thomas and Mary Ann Dennis, back in Headington in Jeffcoat’s Row, which ran between St Andrew’s Lane and Larkins Lane in Old Headington. His younger brother Ernest (11) was also living with relations in Old Headington, his uncle and aunt, George & Mary Anne Cousins (formerly Dennis), in Church Lane (probably also Jeffcoat’s Row).

In 1911 Harold’s father was still working as a sewing machine salesman, and was living with his second family at 8 Park Street, Horsham. Harold (28) was now a tailor: he was unmarried and living in Jeffcoat’s Row with his grandparents: both Thomas (78) and Mary Ann (82) were now described as old age pensioners.

♥ In the first quarter of 1913 Harold Thomas Dennis married Annie Elsie V. Stanton (born in 1888/9, registered Headington District first quarter of 1889) in the Oxford Registration District. They lived at 36 Holyoake Road (then 14 Western Road, the west side of which was in Highfield parish) and had one child:

• Carola M. Dennis (born in Headington in the first quarter of 1914).

Harold’s grandfather, Thomas Dennis, died in Church Lane at the age of 82, and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 7 January 1914.

In the First World War Harold Dennis served as a Serjeant in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 200012). He died at the age of 35 on 4 July 1918 in the Dudley Road Hospital in Birmingham, and was brought back home to be buried in Headington Cemetery four days later (9. X. I).

He is listed on the roll of honour of two Headington parishes: Highfield (where he lived in with his wife in Holyoake Road) and Old Headington (where he grew up with his grandparents in Jeffcoat’s Row).

Above: Grave of Harold Thomas Dennis in Headington Cemetery, photographed in 2010.

The text along the right side of the grave (facing the camera) reads: HAROLD THOMAS DENNIS, WHO DIED AT THE 2/1ST SOUTHERN GENERAL MILITARY HOSPITAL, BIRMINGHAM, JULY 4TH, 1918, AGED 35 YEARS.

The text along the front side reads IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY DEAR HUSBAND and the words on the
cross read LOVED ONE SLEEPING.

Administration was granted in Oxford to his widow, Annie Elsie Violet Dennis, on 13 December 1918. He left £204 11s. 6d. His last address was given as 21 Western Road.