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

Francis John JEFFREYS (1894–1917)

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

Francis John Jeffreys or Jeffrey (known as Frank) was born in Headington Quarry in 1894, the son of John William Jeffreys or Jeffrey (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 7 June 1874) and Edith Mary Pratt (born in Headington Quarry and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 25 April.1875).

His parents were married at St Andrew’s Church on 11 November 1893 and had three children:

• Francis John Jeffreys (born on 26 August 1894 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 21 October 1894)
• Cicely Alice Maria Jeffreys (born on 15 February 1895 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 12 April 1896)
• Edith Margery Winifred Jeffreys (born in New High Street on 14 March 1898 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 17 April 1898).

Frank’s father John (always known as Jack) was the son of a butcher of New High Street and had been apprenticed to Peter Fisher, a chimney sweep in Lime Walk, At the time of the 1891 census Frank’s father was aged 18 and living in his employer’s household.

Just ten years later in 1901, Jack Jeffreys is shown in the census as a married man with three children (including Frank, aged six). He was then living in New High Street and working as a chimney sweep on his own account.

Frank’s father suffered from asthma and had to give up sweeping chimneys, and so his wife Edith (who was the daughter of a Quarry basket-maker) became the main breadwinner. She did sewing, ironing, and cooking for undergraduates in Merton College so that she could save up and buy a plot of land to build a shop, and she achieved this by early 1911. The shop (below left) was at 58 Windmill Road, and had a long back garden (now occupied by new houses on the north side of Bateman Street).

Frank Jeffreys with his mother and two younger sisters, c.1899

Mrs Jeffreys’ shop at 58 Windmill Road

♥ On 17 February 1917 Francis John Jeffreys married Harriet Kennedy (known as Hetty), a domestic servant living in Headington, at St Andrew’s Church. He was to die just seven months after their marriage, but he had one posthumous child, born to Harriet at Tayford, Windmill Road:

• Irene Phyllis Jeffreys (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 20 January 1918).

In the First World War Francis John Jeffreys joined as a volunteer in 1915 and went out with the Territorials, becoming a transport driver. He served as a Private in the ill-fated 1st/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 200073). He came home on leave in January 1917 and returned three months later in April just after his marriage. His obituary states that he was fond of horses and won third prize in a Brigade horse show just before his death.

He died in Belgium at the age of 23 on 27 September 1917 and has no known grave.

He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 96 to 98). He is also listed on the Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield and of St Andrew’s Church, Old Headington.

 

 

Left: Photograph of Frank Jeffreys’s name (spelt Jeffrey as on his war record) on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium, kindly supplied by British War Graves.