Ernest Victor BIOVOIS (1886–1916)

Victor's grandparents: Victor Biovois (c.1823–1907) and Hannah Prew

(Ernest) Victor's grandfather, Victor Biovois, was French, and was born in Aire sur la Lys near Calais in about 1823. At the time of the 1861 census he was a bachelor of 38 living at Banbury Road Villa in Oxford where he was employed as the servant of Mrs Flavia Dayman, a clergyman’s widow who had herself been born in France. His future wife Hannah Prew (37), who was born in Steventon in c.1824, was also a servant of Mrs Dayman and lived in the villa’s lodge.

In the first quarter of 1862 Victor’s grandfather Victor Biovois, described as a butler, married Hannah Prew, and their first child, Victor Celestin Biovois (Victor's father) was born at their Banbury Road home on 3 July 1862.

After his marriage Victor’s grandfather initially continued working as Mrs Dayman’s servant and lived in Dayman’s Lodge with his wife. They can be seen there at the time of the 1871 census. Victor (48) was then described as a butler and valet, and they had two children, Victor (8) and Mary (3).

On 20 January 1872 it was announced that the licence of the Marston Ferry public house (as the Victoria Arms was more commonly known) had been transferred from William Bateman to Victor Biovois and he duly moved there with his family. Victor's grandfather had to haul people across the River Cherwell as well as run the pub, and it became known as Frenchman’s Ferry. The 1881 census shows him living at the “Marston Ferry” with his wife Hannah and son Victor Celestin Biovois (17), who was a boat builder

Victor's grandfather retired from the Marston Ferry and pub in about 1890 and his son, Victor's father, took over.

At the time of the 1891 census Victor's grandfather was described as a retired publican and was living with his wife Hannah and daughter Theresa (25) at 49 Plantation Road in north Oxford.

In 1901 he was described as a retired publican and was living with his wife Hannah at 33 Islip Road, Summertown.

Victor Biovois senior died at 33 Islip Road at the age of 83 on 17 September 1907 and was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery (A2/52). His effects came to £250.

His widow Hannah Biovois then came to live with her son Victor Celestin Biovois and his wife Emma (Victor's parents) at the Victoria Arms. She died at the age of 92 near the end of 1914 and was buried in the same grave as her husband. .

Victor's parents: Victor Celestin Biovois (1862–1936) and Emma Bustin

Victor’s father, Victor Celestin Biovois, operating the Marston ferry.

Victor’s father Victor Celestin Biovois was a boatbuilder. He originally worked for Salter’s in Oxford, and at the time of their marriage in 1883 both he and Emma Bustin were living in Fisher Row. In 1883 the couple moved to Staines in Middlesex, where their four children were born.

In about 1890, when Victor was about four years old, his father came back to Marston to take over Victor's grandfather’s pub and ferry. The 1891 census shows Victor Celestin Biovois (29), described as a publican, living at “Marston Ferry” with his wife Emma (31) and their children Hannah (6), (Ernest) Victor (4), Percy (3), and Adèle (1)

Victor himself: Ernest Victor Biovois (1886–1916)

Victor was living at the pub at the time of the 1891, 1901, and 1911 censuses (see above), and when his parents retired, he moved with them to Fern Cottage, Old Marston

In 1899 when Victor was 15 he played in the Victoria Quoits Club. He became a carpenter & joiner by trade.

Above: Photograph probably taken in about 1892
of Victor Biovois, with three siblings behind:
(Hannah) Theresa, Percy, and Adèle,

Left: Victor Biovois as a young man: probably around 1905

In the First World War (Ernest) Victor Biovois joined the 11th Battalion of the Gloucester Regiment as a Private on 15 April 1916, and was transferred to the 8th Battalion on leaving for the Front (Service No. 27809).

He was severely wounded in the leg and was brought from France to the 2nd Southern General Hospital at Westbury-on-Trym near Bristol. After initially making good progress he died there at the age of 30 on 2 December 1916. He was engaged to be married at the time of his death.

Postscript

Victor’s parents

At the time of the 1921 census Victor senior (59) was working as a punt-builder & carpenter for Salter's Bros. at Folley Bridge and living at 33 Islip Road, Oxford with his wife Emma (62) and their boarder.

• Mrs Emma Biovois died at 33 Islip Road, Oxford on 9 April 1935 at the age of 76 and was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery (F4/87)..
• Victor Celestin Biovois was described as a boat-builder in 1920 when his daughter was married from 33 Islip Road. He died at the home of his daughter, 2 Kings Road, Henley-on-Thames, at the age of 74 on 28 October 1936, and he was buried in the same grave as his wife. His effects came to £474 10s. 6d.

Victor’s siblings

• (Hannah) Theresa Biovois (born 1886) married Herbert Edward Ward at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 27 April 1911, and their daughter Adèle Theresa Ward was born at Old Marston on 30 May 1912. The 1939 Register shows Hannah living at 418 Marston Road with Herbert, who was working as a gardener. She died there at the age of 56 on 21 February 1941 and was buried in the same grave as her brother Victor. Her husband was also buried there when he died at the age of 86 on 12 October 1966.
• Percy John Celestin Biovois (born 1887) married Ada Lucy Rawlins on 27 December 1913 at St Barnabas's Church in Jericho, Oxford. They initially lived in his mother's house at 33 Islip Road, Sunnymead when their son Victor Percival Celestin Biovois was born on 2 March 1915: he was baptised at Marston on 4 April 1915. The 1921 census shows Percy (33) working as a carpenter for T. H. Kingerlee & Sons in Abbey Road and living at 16 Cranham Terrace in Jericho, Oxford with his wife Ada and their son Victor (6). He was still working as a joiner at the time of the 1939 Register and living at the same address with his wife Ada and their son Victor, who worked as a trimmer for Prestcold refrigerators. Victor was working as a milling machinist when he married the glovemaker Winifred M. Hall on 4 May 1940 at St Paul’s Church. Percy died in 1963.
• Adèle Constance Fanny Biovois (born 1890) married William Ewart Brain, a policeman, on 17 April 1920 at Summertown Church, and they had just one child, Theresa Constance Biovois Brain,* born on 5 April 1921. The 1921 census shows Adèle (31) living at Bledlow Road, Chinnor with her husband William (30), who was working as a police constable at Chinnor, and their baby daughter Theresa. By the time of the 1939 Register William was retred and he and Ada were living at 1 Ouseley Close in Marston with Theresa (21), who worked as a shorthand typist. Adèle died at “Cranmer”, Elsfield Road, Old Marston on 7 February 1963.

* Theresa Constance Biovois Brain, Mrs Prickett (1921–2015) supplied the photographs shown on this page of her grandfather Victor Celestin Biovois and of her uncle (Ernest) Victor Biovois.

See also

• CWGC: Biovois, Victor
• Oxford Journal Illustrated, 10 January 1917, “Heroes of the War”: photograph of Victor Biovois of Marston, who had died five weeks earlier (shown above with kind permission of Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire History Centre)
• Wikipedia: Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
• War Memorial to the soldiers of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry at Rose Hill, Oxford
• Newbigging & Wood, The Changing Faces of Marston, Book 1, p. 54

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