Richard Charles Frederick KNIBBS (1891–1917)
Richard Charles Frederick Knibbs was born in Oxford in 1891, the son of Richard Knibbs (born in New Hinksey, Oxford in 1859, birth registered fourth quarter) and Mary Fidler (born in Oxford in 1852/3).
At the time of the 1881 census Richard’s father, Richard Knibbs senior, was a young man of 21 working as an agricultural labourer and living with his parents at Ayers Yard, in St Ebbe’s, Oxford.
Richard and Mary were married at St Frideswide’s Church, Oxford on 27 August 1888: Richard (31) was living at 8 Russell Street and Mary (34) at 1 West Street: neither was able to sign their name. They had two children:
- Florence Mary Knibbs (born at 11 Arthur Street, Osney, Oxford in 1889, registered third quarter, and baptised at St Frideswide’s Church on 28 July 1889)
- Richard Charles Frederick Knibbs (born at 1 Bown’s Yard, George Street, Oxford on 28 December 1891 and baptised with his two middle names reversed at St Mary Magdalen Church on 24 January 1892).
The couple started off their married life in New Osney. Richard’s father was a labourer (but was described as a brewer at the baptism of his first daughter). By 1891 they had moved to 1 Bown’s Yard, off George Street, and the census that year shows Richard Knibbs senior and his wife Mary with Florence (1) shortly before Richard Knibbs junior’s birth. Also living with them is Sidney Fisher (10), who was born in Oxford and is described as Richard Knibbs’s son: this is probably the Sydney Percy Fisher, born to Mary Fisher, a single woman of 1 West Street in 1880, and baptised at St Frideswide’s Church on 6 September 1880.
In 1899 when Richard was just eight, his mother Mary Knibbs died at the age of 46 in Russell Street and was buried at St Frideswide’s Church on 8 February 1899.
On 14 April 1901 Richard’s father married his second wife, Emma Monk (born in Ducklington in 1874, registered fourth quarter) at St Frideswide’s Church: he was still unable to sign his name, but Emma signed hers. They were both living at 1 Russell Street, the home of Richard’s grandparents, at the time of their marriage, and they continued to live there afterwards. The 1901 census shows Richard (9), his father Richard (39), his stepmother Emma (28), and his sister Florence (11) living there with James Knibbs (70) and his wife Eve (73).
Richard’s father and his second wife Emma had five children:
- Joe Knibbs (born at 1 Russell Street, St Thomas’s, Oxford on 25 January 1902 and baptised at St Frideswide’s Church on 20 February 1902)
- Elizabeth Knibbs (born at North Hinksey on 19 March 1904 and baptised there on 10 April 1904)
- Emily Knibbs (born at 4 Hollybush Row, Oxford in 1905, registered fourth quarter)
- Evelyn Annie Knibbs (born at 19 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford in 1908, registered fourth quarter)
- Doris A. Knibbs (born in 1915, registered Abingdon district, which includes Binsey, in the third quarter).
They evidently lived with Richard’s grandparents until at least 1902, but had moved to North Hinksey by 1904, and to 4 Hollybush Road by the end of 1905 before moving to Binsey by 1911.
At the time of the 1911 census, Richard Knibbs junior (19) was working as a farm labourer and living or staying with his sister (now Mrs Florence Bishop) and her husband William at 5 Bucknell, Bicester. Meanwhile his father and stepmother were living at Church Cottage, Binsey with their four children: his father was also still a farm labourer.
♥ In the third quarter of 1914 Richard Charles Frederick Knibbs married Myrtle Bennett (possibly the Myrtle Sophia Bennett whose birth was registered in the Abingdon district in the first quarter of 1893, but the marriage register gives her name as Myrtle Madge Bennett). They were married in the Headington registration district and settled in Old Marston. He was described as a soldier at the time of the baptism of their only child:
- Stanley Charles Knibbs (born at Old Marston on 30 April 1916 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 14 May 1916).
In the First World War Richard Charles Frederick Knibbs served as a Driver in the 2nd/1st (Warwick) Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery (Service No. 614520). He was killed in action in Belgium at the age of 26 on 18 August 1917.
He is buried in the Track “X” Cemetery there (D.29), and is remembered on the Roll of Honour of St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston.
Postscript
Richard’s father
- Richard Smith senior died at the age of 72 in the third quarter of 1930 in the Oxford registration district.
Richard’s widow
- Mrs Myrtle Madge Knibbs married Francis Smith in the second quarter of 1919 in the Headington registration district. He died in 1936 and she appears to have married a third time, as a Myrtle M. Smith married a Thomas R. Collins in the first quarter of 1937 in the Wycombe registration district.
Richard’s son
- Stanley Charles Knibbs married Gwendoline M. Richardson in the third quarter of 1938 in the Oxford registration district.