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

Ralph NUTT (1888–1914)

Ralph Nutt was born at Stowood on 19 January 1888, the son of John Edgar Nutt (born in Great Milton and baptised there on 29 June 1851) and Ann King (born in Brill, Buckinghamshire in 1854/5, registered first quarter of 1855).

His parents were married at Waterstock on 18 October 1875 and had ten children:

• Mary Ann Nutt (born at Waterstock and baptised there on 17 September 1876;
  but the family was described as being “of Forest Hill”)
• Lizzie Nutt (born at Beckley and baptised there on 1 September 1878)
• John Nutt (born at Beckley and baptised there on 8 August 1880)
• Edgar Nutt (born at Stowood and baptised at Beckley Church on 23 July 1882);
  died AT 42 New High Street at the age of 17 and buried at Headington Cemetery on 25 January 1899.
• Sarah Ann Nutt (born at Stowood and baptised at Beckley Church on 23 March 1884;
  died aged 13 months and buried at Beckley on 11 March 1885)
• Kate Nutt (born at Stowood and baptised at Beckley Church on 14 February 1886)
• Ralph Nutt (born at Stowood on 19 January 1888 and baptised at Beckley Church on 4 March 1888)
• Frank Henry Nutt (born at Stowood and baptised at Beckley Church on 6 October 1889)
• Thomas William Nutt (born at Stowood in early 1891)
• Herbert Nutt (“Bert”) (born at Stowood, registered in first quarter of 1893).

Ralph’s father was originally an agricultural labourer, and he and his wife Ann began their married life at Forest Hill, moving to Beckley/Stowood) by 1878. At the time of the 1881 census they were at Lodge Farm, Stowood with Mary (4), Lizzie (2), and John (9 months).

By the time of the 1891 census their address in Stowood is given more precisely as Lodge Hill in Murcot, and they now had seven surviving children, including Ralph himself, aged three.

By the time of the 1901 census the family had moved to Headington and were living at the present 42 New High Street (then 1 Southill Cottages). Ralph’s father was now working as a gardener, his sister Lizzie (22) was a cook, and his brother John (22) was a mechanic. Two of his sisters had left home: Mary Ann (24) and Kate (15); the latter was working as a general servant in a household in New Maldon, Surrey.

Soon after this Eliza Nutt, probably Ralph’s great aunt, appears to have come to live with the family, as she died in New High Street at the age of 64 and was buried at Headington Cemetery on 5 January 1894. (She was not Ralph’s grandmother: that was Sarah Nutt, later Mrs Joseph Shepherd, who was unmarried when John Edgar Nutt was born.)

Between 1901 and 1911 Ralph left home to make a career in the Royal Navy.

Ralph’s father, John Edgar Nutt died at the age of 59 in the second quarter of 1910. His widowed mother Ann Nutt is shown in the 1911 census as a widow of 56. She was now living at 46 Windmill Road in All Saints’ parish, where she had her own market garden. Two of her sons Thomas (20) and Herbert (18) were living with her and working as her assistants. There were also two of her grandchildren with her, both born in Headington: Reg Nutt (16), who was engaged in farm work, and Mabel Nutt (4), who was John’s daughter.

♥ In the first quarter of 1911 Ralph Nutt married Florence Mabel Sharp, an older woman who already had a child, in the Portsmouth Registration District. The 1911 census shows him as a seaman gunner aged 25 living at 12 Stapleton Road, Copnor, Portsmouth with his wife (32) and his stepson William Harry Sharp (16), who was born in Brighton. By 1914 the family had moved to 3 Cleve Road, Fratton, Portsmouth.

In the First World War Ralph Nutt served as an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy (Service No. 233798) on the destroyer HMS Falcon, which was part of the Dover Patrol. Nutt’s ship was hit on 24 October 1914 by a German eight-inch shell, which killed the captain and 24 members of the 60-man crew. Nutt died four days later at the age of about 29 on 28 October 1914, probably at the Haslar Naval Hospital in Gosport.

Sue Mott (the great-granddaughter of Ralph’s brother John Nutt) remembers her grandmother Mabel talking of the family travelling from Oxford to say goodbye to Ralph on the boat, and by the time the family returned to Oxford they received word that Ralph had died.

Ralph Nutt is buried at the Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery in Hampshire (E. 22. 1) and is listed on the Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield.

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Postscript

Ralph’s widow

• The Florence M. Nutt who married Charles Spearman Nutt in the Portsmouth District in the fourth quarter of 1918 may have been Ralph’s widow.

Ralph’s mother

• Ann Nutt died at the age of 90 in 1945 (registered Oxford district, fourth quarter).

Ralph’s siblings

• Thomas William Nutt (born in 1891) remained in Headington with his brother Herbert, and by 1912 they had turned their mother’s market garden into a coal merchant’s business. Thomas married Elsie M. Pill in the Headington registration district in the fourth quarter of 1917. Their son Leslie Thomas Nutt (known as Tom) was killed in 1944 in the Second World War: CWGC information. His other son John Henry Nutt (known as Jack) lived at No. 39A New High Street until 2009.
• Herbert Nutt (born in 1893) married Mabel Steer at All Saints’ Church on 7 February 1915. Their son Herbert J. Nutt was born on 13 July 1915 and baptised at Tyndale Road Wesleyan Chapel on 14 September 1915.