First World War in Headington and Marston
New Marston War Memorial

Percy James SMITH (1887–1914)

Percy James Smith was born in Headington in 1887, the son of James Smith (born c.1862, date and birthplace uncertain) and Emily Walker (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 2 November 1856).

Percy’s mother had two illegitimate children before her marriage, and initially both took her surname of Walker:

• James William Walker (born in Headington on 6 March 1874 and privately baptised via St Andrew’s Church on 12 June 1876). On 30 January 1875 in a bastardy case at Bullingdon Petty Sessions Miss Emily Walker was granted an Order of Affiliation against the groom Amos Hunt for James.
• Ethel Walker (born in Headington and baptised privately via St Andrew’s Church on 26 June 1881); later known as Ethel Smith, and so likely to be a full sister of Percy.

Percy’s father, James Smith, came to Marston as a child to live in Church Lane with his uncle and aunt, Samuel & Sarah Hornsby, and can first be seen with them in the 1871 census, when his age is given as ten (but his age varies, as does his place of birth, which in different censuses is given as Marston, Uxbridge, and London).

At the time of the 1881 census Percy’s father James (now stated to be 18) was still living with his uncle and aunt in Marston and working as an agricultural labourer. Meanwhile Percy’s mother Emily was aged 24 and living in New Headington with her widowed mother (both were laundresses), her two sisters, and young James William (5).

Soon after this census Miss Emily Walker (24) gave birth to her second illegitimate child, Ethel, but there was no order of affiliation this time, and it seems likely that James was the child’s father, but that they had to wait three years for James’s 21st birthday before they could marry

Percy’s parents were married in the Headington district in the fourth quarter of 1884. They began their married life in Headington, but settled in Marston by early 1890. They had at least four children after their marriage (they declare six children of the marriage in the 1911 census, but this may have included Emily’s two earlier children):

• Annie Alicia Elizabeth Smith (born in Headington on 26 September 1885 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 28 February 1886)
• Percy James Smith (born in Headington in 1887, registered fourth quarter and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 6 April 1890, at the same time as his younger sister)
• Florence Emily Smith (born in Marston in 1890, registered fourth quarter and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 6 April 1890, at the same time as her older brother)
• Mabel Eugenie Adelaide Smith (born in Marston in 1893, registered second quarter and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 8 July 1893).

The 1891 census shows Percy’s parents living in Marston: Percy was then three years old, and his father was a general labourer. Ethel (9) was still recorded as Ethel Walker, and along with her sister Annie (5) was at school; Percy’s younger sister Florence was just four months old.

In 1901 the address of Percy’s parents is specified as Tilehurst Cottages on the Marston Road. Percy, who was 13 years old, had probably just left school; his sister Ethel (19) was now using the surname Smith and was working elsewhere as a housemaid; and his two younger sisters were at school.

At the time of the 1911 census Percy James Smith (23) was a Private in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry living in Cowley Barracks (with his place of birth wrongly given as St Thomas’s, London). His army record states that he later served in India. Meanwhile Percy’s father was working as a labourer, and his mother was a laundress, and they were living in Ferry Road, New Marston with their youngest daughter Mabel (17) and their adopted son Freddy Winkworth (6). (Frederick Horace Winkworth and his twin brother Horace Frederick Winkworth had been born to a single woman in New Marston, Lily Louise Winkworth, on 12 September 1904 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 26 September 1904, but Horace died before the end of the year.)

In the First World War Percy James Smith served as a Private in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment (Service No. 8068). He was killed in action in Belgium at the age of 26 on 1 November 1914.

 

He has no known grave, but is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 45) and on the New Marston War Memorial on the Marston Road, Oxford.

 

 

Left: Percy James Smith’s name on the Ypres (Menin Gate) War Memorial, kindly supplied by British War Graves.