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

Stanley John NORGROVE (1898/9–1917)

Stanley John Norgrove was born at 1 Western Road in south Oxford in 1898/9, the son of William James Norgrove (born in Oxford in 1862, registered third quarter) and Hannah Rebecca Harper, known as Annie (born in Eynsham in 1862/3, baptised at St Leonard’s Church there on 1 March 1863).

His parents were married at St Aldate’s Church on 10 October 1892 and had the following children:

• William George Norgrove (born at 1 Western Road, Oxford in 1894); died aged 9 months, with funeral at St Aldate’s Church on 19 August 1895
• Hubert James Norgrove (born in Oxford in 1895/6, registered first quarter 1896)
• Percival Charles Norgrove (born at 1 Western Road, Oxford on 22 October 1897 and privately baptised via St Aldate’s Church on 6 November 1897); died aged 17 days, with funeral at St Aldate’s Church on 9 November 1897)
• Stanley John Norgrove (born at 1 Western Road, Oxford in 1898/9, registered first quarter of 1899).

At the time of the 1891 census Stanley’s father William James Norgrove (28) was a baker, working for his mother Charlotte (61) at 4a Charles Street in East Oxford, while his future wife Hannah Harper (27) was living with her mother at Eynsham and worked as a governess who kept a school.

By the time of their marriage the following year, Stanley’s father had his own baker’s shop at 1 Western Road in Grandpont, south Oxford and his mother was staying at Holy Trinity vicarage in St Ebbe’s.

Stanley’s mother lost two of her four children in 1895 and 1897, and then Stanley’s father died at the age of 36: his funeral was at St Aldate’s Church on 25 May 1899.

The 1901 census shows that Stanley’s mother Hannah had taken over the business, and was living over the baker’s shop with her two surviving sons, plus a boarder and a servant girl. Stanley was then just two.

In the first quarter of 1902 Stanley’s mother Hannah married her second husband, Frederick Percy, in the Oxford Registration District, and they had two children, who were Stanley’s half-brothers:

• Ronald Frederick Percy (born in Oxford in 1905, registered fourth quarter)
• Eric John Percy (born in Oxford in 1907/8, registered first quarter of 1908).

In 1909, seven years after her second marriage, Stanley’s mother, now Mrs Hannah Percy, died at the age of 44 (death registered third quarter in Headington district). Thus Stanley was orphaned at the age of ten.

The two boys did not remain with their stepfather. Stanley came up to Headington to live with his uncle and aunt in Lime Walk, and the 1911 census shows him as a twelve-year-old schoolboy living with his mother’s brother, the market gardener George Harper and his family. His only surviving full brother, Hubert (15), was living with another relation, Edward Heritage, at his pub, the Druid’s Head at 35 George Street, Oxford.

Stanley’s stepfather Frederick Percy, who was a baker & confectioner, married his second wife Annie within three months of Stanley’s mother’s death, and early in 1911 his wife gave birth to a daughter in Oxford. Shortly afterwards at the time of the 1911 census the family (including Stanley’s half-brothers Ronald and Eric) had moved to Evesham, and the baker’s shop at 1 Western Road was occupied by George E. Weeks & Co.

In the First World War Stanley John Norgrove served as a Private first in the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars (Service No. 3178) and then in the 2nd/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 203625). He was killed in action in Belgium at the age of 18 on 16 August 1917.

He has no known grave, and is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial, and on the Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield.

 

Left: Photograph of Stanley Norgrove’s name on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium, kindly supplied by British War Graves.