Thomas Charles DEARLOVE (1888–1915)
Thomas Charles Dearlove was born in New Marston in 1888, the son of James Dearlove (born in Oxford in c.1853) and Mary Ellen Rogers (born in Cowley and baptised at St James’s Church on 7 May 1854).
His parents were married in the Headington Registration District in the second quarter of 1873 and had twelve children, of whom eleven survived:
- Stanley Dearlove (born in Oxford on 26 September 1875, with a late baptism at St Clement’s Church on 27 June 1880 at the same time as his younger sister Louisa)
- Matilda Ellen Dearlove (born at St Clement’s, Oxford in the second quarter of 1878 and registered under that name, but baptised as Ellen Matilda Dearlove at St Clement’s Church on 30 June 1878)
- Louisa Dearlove (born at St Clement’s, Oxford and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 27 June 1880)
- Annie Elizabeth Dearlove (born in New Marston and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 28 May 1882)
- Gertrude Eva Dearlove (born in New Marston in 1883/4, registered Headington district first quarter of 1884)
- James Dearlove (born in New Marston in c.1886/7, registered Headington district first quarter of 1887)
- Thomas Charles Dearlove (born in New Marston in 1888, registered fourth quarter as Charles Thomas Dearlove and also baptised with that name at St Clement’s Church on 27 January 1889)
- Herbert (Bertie) Dearlove (born in New Marston in 1890, registered in Headington district fourth quarter)
- Hilbury Lewes Dearlove (born in New Marston in 1893, registered as Louis Hilbury Dearlove second quarter and baptised with that name at St Clement’s Church on 30 April 1893)
- William Edwin Dearlove (known as Edwin, born in William Street, New Marston in 1895 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 30 June 1895)
- Rosa Lucy Dearlove (born in New Marston in 1897, registered second quarter and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 27 June 1897).
Thomas’s father was a house carpenter. At the time of Matilda’s baptism in June 1878 the family was recorded as living in Cross Street, St Clement’s.
By the time of the 1881 census (where they are hard to find, as the enumerator has ditto’d them all with the surname of the previous entry), the family had moved to New Marston and were living in William Street, next door to Thanet Cottage at the present No. 21, where they remained until the 1930s.
Thomas was two years old at the time of the 1891 census, and his eldest brother Stanley (16) was working as a bookbinder.
Ten years later Thomas (recorded with his forenames transposed) was a schoolboy of 12. Of his ten silbings, six were still at home: Gertrude (now a housemaid of 17), James (14), Bertie (9), Hilbury (8), Edwin (5), and Rosa (3). His brother Stanley (26) had left home and was a married man with two children of his own; Matilda (22) was in service as a parlourmaid in Warwickshire; Louisa (20) was in service as a cook at Mendip House on Headington Hill; and Annie; (18) was at the Marcham Road Isolation Hospital in Abingdon (probably working as a kitchenmaid but marked as a patient in the census).
In 1911 Thomas’s father (57) was still a carpenter & joiner living at 21 William Street, while Thomas (22) was still at home and employed as a bootmaker.
♥ In the third quarter of 1911 Thomas Charles Dearlove married Florence Elsie Harris in the Headington Registration District, and they had three daughters:
- Elizabeth M. Dearlove (born in 1911, probably in east Oxford, registered Headington district in fourth quarter)
- Eva E. Dearlove (born in 1912, probably in east Oxford, registered Headington district in third quarter)
- Kathleen N. E. Dearlove (born in 1914, probably in east Oxford, registered Headington district in second quarter).
Thomas Charles Dearlove volunteered to serve in the First World War and was a Private in the 5th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 18259). He was killed in action at Ypres in Belgium at the age of about 27 on 25 September 1915.
He has no known grave, but is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 37 and 39), and on the New Marston War Memorial on the Marston Road, Oxford.
Left: Thomas Charles Dearlove’s name on the Ypres (Menin Gate) War Memorial, kindly supplied by British War Graves
Postscript
Thomas’s widow
- Mrs Florence Elsie Dearlove lived at 120 Howard Street in east Oxford after her husband’s death. In the last quarter of 1920 she married Charles J. Harley in the Headington registration district. She died at the age of 84 in the Oxford registration district in 1965.
Thomas’s parents
- Mrs Ellen Dearlove died at 21 William Street at the age of 64 and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 18 October 1917
- James Dearlove died at 21 William Street at the age of 78 and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 21 October 1931.
Thomas’s children
- Elizabeth M. Dearlove (born 1911) married Thomas A. Williams in the second quarter of 1935 in the Oxford district.
- Eva E. Dearlove (born 1912) married Timothy J. Winter in the third quarter of 1937 in the Oxford district, and the birth of their son Peter J. Winter was registered in the Oxford district in the first quarter of 1939.
- Kathleen N. E. Dearlove (born 1914) married Ronald C. Pipkin in the third quarter of 1942 in the Oxford district.
Thomas’s brother
- Stanley Dearlove (b.1875) was a bookbinder. He and his wife Louisa lived at 15 Bateman Street, New Headington, and they had three children: Stanley Arnold Soanes Dearlove (b.1897), Frank Harold James Dearlove (b. 1900), and Violet Louisa Dearlove (b.1904).
See also
- CWGC: Dearlove, Thomas Charles
- Oxford Journal Illustrated, 20 October 1915, “Heroes of the War”: photograph of T. Dearlove of New Marston, published the month after he was killed (shown above with kind permission of Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire History Centre)
- Wikipedia: Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry