First World War in Headington and Marston
Roll of Honour of St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston

Albert John DREWITT (1896–1917)

Some of this information is repeated under the next entry for Albert Drewitt’s brother Arthur

Albert John Drewitt was born in Marston in 1896, the youngest son of William Drewitt (born in Old Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 18 June 1848) and Rosa Hewlett (born in Old Marston in 1856, registered fourth quarter, and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 23 November 1856).

His parents were married at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 24 December 1877, two and a half years after the birth of their first child and as soon as Rosa came of age, and had seven children:

• William Richard Hewlett, later Drewitt (born in Marston in the second quarter of 1875 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 6 June 1875, described as the son of Rosa Hewlett, “single woman”)
• Ellen Louisa Drewitt (born in Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 14 July 1878)
• Henry Thomas Drewitt (born in Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 1 May 1881)
• Arthur Drewitt (born in Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 27 July 1884)
• Mary Drewitt (born in Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 4 July 1886)
• [The Albert Drewitt who died aged six months and was buried at St Nicholas’s Church on 25 January 1894 may be the missing child]
• Albert John Drewitt (born in Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 9 August 1896).

Albert’s father was an agricultural labourer all his life. The 1881 census shows him living in Main Street, Marston with his wife and first three children, and his sister-in-law Clara Hewlett.

Albert first appears in the 1901 census, as a child of four. His father (52) was a carter, and his older brothers were all working: William Hewlett (25) was a bricklayer’s labourer, and Henry (20) and Arthur (16) were carters on a farm. His sister Ellen had already left home to marry, and Mary was a general servant.

At the time of the 1911 census, Albert (15) was working as a labourer on a farm. He was still living in Old Marston with his parents: his father (63) was still working as a farm labourer himself, while his mother (54) was running a grocer’s shop on her own account: she was still listed as a shopkeeper in Kelly’s Directory for 1915. Their house had only three rooms, including the kitchen, but as well as Albert and his single brother Henry (30), who was a carter on a farm, his parents were looking after their daughter Ellen’s illegitimate daughter and had a lodger.

 

In the First World War Albert John Drewitt joined the army on 21 June 1916 and served as a Private in 2nd/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 203867).

He was killed in action in Belgium at the age of 21 on 22 August 1917. He has no known grave, but is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 96 to 98) and on Roll of Honour of St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston.

Albert’s older brother Arthur was killed nine months earlier in the First World War, on 13 November 1916. William John Walton, who had married their sister Mary Drewitt in the third quarter of 1907, was also killed.

 

 

 

Left: The grave of Albert’s parents in St Nicholas’s churchyard, Old Marston also remembers their two sons who died in the First World War.

First Arthur is remembered, and then Albert (see detail below) with the words:

AND ALBERT JOHN YOUNGEST SON OF ABOVE
KILLED IN ACTION
AUG. 22^ND. 1917 AGED 21 YRS.