Ernest Wooltorton SHRIMPTON (1885–1918)
Some of this information is repeated under the next entry for Ernest’s brother Richard Shrimpton
Ernest Wooltorton Shrimpton was born in Beckley in 1885, the son of John Shrimpton (born in Latchford/Great Haseley in 1856/7, registered first quarter of 1857) and Louisa Mary Tirrell (born in Woodeaton and baptised at Holy Rood Church there on 26 July 1857).
His parents were married in the Bicester registration district in the second quarter of 1879 (apparently in haste) and they had fifteen children over the next nineteen years (of whom ten were still alive in 1911). These included:
- Christina Mary Shrimpton (born at Stonehouse Farm, Bletchingdon and baptised at St Giles Church, Bletchingdon on 16 November 1879)
- John Arthur Shrimpton (born at Stonehouse Farm, Bletchingdon and baptised at St Giles Church, Bletchingdon on 24 October 1880)
- Frank Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 23 July 1882)
- Mabel Susanna Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 18 November 1883)
- Kathleen Louisa Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 12 October 1884)
- Ernest Wooltorton Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 25 October 1885)
- Thomas Alfred Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 24 October 1886; died aged 5 and buried at Beckley on 11 June 1891)
- Dorothy Helen Shrimpton (born in Beckley in and baptised at the church there on 5 October 1888; died aged 7 (death registered in Headington District third quarter of 1895)
- Alice Caroline Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 15 December 1889)
- Richard Tirrell Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 5 April 1891)
- Marian Shrimpton (born in Beckley and baptised at the church there on 15 May 1892)
- Alfred Shrimpton (born in Old Marston and baptised in St Nicholas’s Church on 12 January 1894)
- Ethel Shrimpton (born in Marston, baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Headington on 26 October (?November) 1896, and buried in its churchyard on 26 October 1896)
- Hilda Shrimpton (born in New Marston, baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Headington on 16 March 1898, and buried in its churchyard on the same day).
Ernest did not live with his parents, who were then farmers in Beckley, for long. By the time of the 1891 census Ernest (5) and his brother Thomas (4) were living with his widowed grandmother Mary Shrimpton (66), who was farming in Great Haseley with her unmarried children Frances (40) and Arthur (32). The next year Thomas died at the age of five, so Ernest was then the only child at the farm.
Ernest (15) was still in Great Haseley in 1901 but by this time his grandmother must have died, and his Uncle Arthur (42) had the farm, accompanied by a different unmarried sister, Margaret Shrimpton (42).
On 26 April 1907 a labourer named Ernest Shrimpton sailed on the Virginian to Montreal, and this may be the Ernest Shrimpton from New Marston, as he ended up in the USA. At the time of the 1911 census, however, Ernest (26) was in England, employed as a butler to a widowed Irish lady of independent means, Mrs Sarah Mary Ann Hammersley (84), and her unmarried daughter Florence (48) at The Grange in Ash, Surrey. In any event, he must have emigrated to the USA between 1911 and 1917.
His parents were living now living in New Marston, at the present 46 William Street.
Around the time of the First World War Ernest Shrimpton enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve Force in New York on 10 November 1917. He was a 2nd class seaman in the Third Naval District, New York and at the age of 32 died of respiratory disease (probably Spanish flu) on 5 January 1918.
He was presumably buried in New York, but is remembered on the New Marston War Memorial on the Marston Road, Oxford.
For more information about the life of Ernest’s parents in New Marston between 1891 and 1911, see the page on his brother Richard, who died at the Somme seven months after Ernest’s death.
Postscript
Ernest’s parents
- Mrs Louisa Shrimpton died at 46 William Street, New Marston at the age of 82 and was buried at Headington Cemetery on 6 May 1940
- John Shrimpton (described as a retired tram driver) died at 46 William Street at the age of 84 just three months after his wife and was buried with her on 27 August 1940.
Ernest’s siblings
- Mabel Susanna Shrimpton (born in 1883) never married. She died at 205a Cowley Road at the age of 57 and was buried at Headington Cemetery on 11 March 1941.
- Richard Tirrell Shrimpton (born 1891) also died in the First World War: see separate page.
- Marian Shrimpton (born in 1892) never married. She was found drowned in the Thames near Nuneham at the age of 32 and was buried at Headington Cemetery on 12 November 1924.