Charles Henry WEBB (1868–1917)
Charles Henry Webb was born in St Clement’s, Oxford in 1868, the son of Arthur Webb (born in Stonesfield and baptised at St James the Great Church there on 30 May 1841) and Jemima Trinder (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 27 April 1845).
The 1861 census shows Charles’s father, Arthur Webb (19), who was an agricultural labourer, as a visitor in the New Headington home of his future wife's parents, Joshua and Sarah Trinder (a farm labourer and a laundress). Their daughter Jemima Trinder was then 15 years old, and four years later on 24 December 1865 she and Arthur were married at St Paul’s Church in Walton Street: Arthur was described as a brewer of Jericho Street, and Jemima signed her name with a cross. They began their married life in New Headington, probably with Jemima’s parents, and had the following children:
- Arthur Edward Webb (born in New Headington in1866 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 12 August)
- Charles Henry Webb (born in Brewery Street, St Clement’s, Oxford in early April 1868 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 5 April)
- Ellen Ann Webb (born in Brewery Street, St Clement’s, Oxford in late 1869 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 25 December); died aged ten months on 2 October 1870 and buried four days later)
- Bessie Webb (born in Brewery Street, St Clement’s, Oxford in 1871 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 6 August)
- Ellen Ann Webb (born in Cherwell Street, St Clement’s, Oxford in 1873 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 30 November)
- Albert Victor Webb, born in Cherwell Street, St Clement’s, Oxford in 1876 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 25 December); died aged sixteen months on 6 April 1878 and buried six days later)
- Herbert William Webb (born at 5 Cherwell Street, St Clement’s, Oxford in 1878/9 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 26 January 1879)
- Ada Jane Webb (born in William Street, New Marston in 1880/1 and baptised at St Clement’s Church on 27 March 1881).
By the time of Charles's birth the family had moved to Little Brewery Street in St Clement’s, and the 1871 census shows Charles (3) living there with his father Arthur (29), his mother Jemima (25), and his older brother Arthur (4). His younger sister Ellen born at the end of 1869, died of measles and convulsions at the age of ten months on 2 October 1890.
The family moved from Little Brewery Street to 5 Cherwell Street in St Clement's in about 1872, and were still there in 1879. Charles's younger brother Albert died of pertussis (whooping cough) on 6 April 1878.
By March 1881 Charles’s father, still described as a brewer’s labourer, had moved with his wife and children to “Lucky Cottages” in William Street (then sometimes described as “Marston Road”). The 1881 census shows them living at William Street, and Charles was still at school at the age of 13.
On 19 October 1882 Charles’s father Arthur Webb died of cancer at the age of 40 at William Street, and was buried in St Clement’s churchyard five days later.
On 12 June1884 at St James's Church in Cowley, Charles’s mother Jemima Webb (40) married her second husband, the widower, Arthur Lewis Jeffs (63), who was a greengrocer: both were living in Cowley at the time of their marriage.
In 1886 when he was aged 18 Charles enlisted in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, and was probably abroad at the time of the 1891 census.
Charles's mother Jemima Jeffs spent the census night of 1891 with her youngest daughter, Ada Jane Webb, at the Half Moon boarding house in Aylesbury, she was listed as a tramp and wrongly described as single. Later in 1891 Jemima and her second husband Arthur Lewis Jeffs (latterly described as a hawker) and her daughter Ada Webb were all at Oxford Workhouse. Arthur Jeffs died at the workhouse at the age of about 70 on 24 October 1891 and Jemima at the age of 41 on 19 December 1891, and both deaths are recorded in the burial register of St Thomas’s Church.
♥ On 30 October 1893 at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston Charles Webb (25), described as a labourer of Old Marston) married Amelia Ann Ward, who was born in Old Marston in 1864 and baptised there on 10 April, the daughter of the labourer Richard Ward and his wife Emma. At the time of the 1891 census Amelia was living with her parents and working as a machinist, and her father was now the Parish Clerk. They had six children:
- Charles Henry Webb junior (born in Old Marston on 12 January 1894 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 13 April 1894)
- Eugene Arthur Webb (known as Arthur; born in Old Marston in 1896; reg. first quarter of 1896: St Nicholas’s register has a gap)
- George Albert Webb (born in Old Marston in 1898; reg. third quarter; St Nicholas’s register has a gap)
- William Colenso Webb (born in Old Marston in 1900 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 25 November)
(The Battle of Colenso in the Boer War occurred on 15 December 1899, around the time of his conception) - Bessie Verna Webb (born in Old Marston on 2 March 1903 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 28 June 1903)
- Ellie May Webb (born in Old Marston and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 26 January 1908).
At the time of the 1901 census Charles Webb was a general labourer at a nursery and was living with his wife and their first four children in one of the cottages opposite the Red Lion in Old Marston.
By the time of the 1911 census Charles Webb was working as a jobbing gardener and still living with his wife in Old Marston. They now had six children ranging in age from four to seventeen, and the eldest two, Charles Henry (17) and Eugene Arthur (15), were working as errand boys.
In the First World War Charles Henry Webb served as a Bombardier in the 128th Heavy Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (Service No. 104). He died of wounds at Poperinghe in Flanders, Belgium at the age of 49 (not 52 as stated on his gravestone) on 6 February 1917.
He is buried in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in West Flanders (XI.A.7A). His headstone (right) reads:
104 BOMBARDIER
C. H. WEBB
ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY
6TH FEBRUARY 1917 AGED 52
[Emblem of Royal Horse Artillery, with its motto
UBIQUE QUO FAS ET GLORIA DUCUNT
(“whither right and glory lead”) ]
He is remembered on the Roll of Honour of St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston.
His wife, Amelia Ann Webb, formerly Ward, also lost two of her nephews in the war: Henry Ward in 1916 and Ernest Ward (both also remembered on the memorial in St Nicholas's Church)
Below: Two images of Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, where Charles Ward is buried
Charles Webb's widow Amelia Ann Ward died fifteen years later at the age of 67 on 20 March 1932, and the following words were added to her grave in Marston Cemetery (right):
ALSO OF HER HUSBAND
BDR C. H. WEBB, R.G.A.
DIED OF WOUNDS FEB. 6. 1917,
AGED 50 YEARS.
INTERRED AT POPERINGHE,
BELGIUM.
WORTHY OF EVERLASTING REMEMBRANCE.
Postscript
Charles’s widow
- Mrs Amelia Ann Webb died at the age of 67 on 20 March 1932 and is buried in Marston (Elsfield Road) Cemetery (grave shown above).
Charles’s children
- Charles Henry Webb (born 1894) died at the age of 53 on 7 June 1947 and is buried in St Nicholas’s churchyard in Old Marston
- Eugene Arthur Webb (born 1896 and known as Arthur) married Caroline Edwards in the Neath registration district in the third quarter of 1918. He worked for the Great Western Railway, and in 1940 got transferred back to Oxford, where they lived at 121 Marlborough Road. They had five of their children, ranging in age from 2 to 22) all baptised together at St Nicholas’s Church, Old Marston on 24 May 1942: Raymond Charles Webb (born 1 March 1920); Allan George Webb (born 9 July 1926); Gerald Gwyn Webb (born 8 September 1932); Haydn John Webb (born 29 March 1935); and Clive Webb (born 6 April 1940); the sixth son, Gordon Webb (born 1921/2) was away in Canada in the RAF. Eugene Arthur Webb and his wife Caroline are buried together in St Nicholas’s churchyard: she died at the age of 73 on 18 December 1969, and he died at the age of 77 on 19 October 1973. Their son Raymond Charles died on 27 February 2001 and his wife Margaret Joan on 10 November 1980, and they are also buried at St Nicholas’s churchyard.
- George Albert Webb (born 1898): hard to trace after 1911.
- William Colenso Webb (born 1900) married Winifred Ivy Durham (who lived in Magdalen Road, Oxford and was the daughter of the fruiterer William Alfred Durham) at Cowley St John Church on 2 August 1926.
- Bessie Verna Webb (born 1903) married John Edward Akers (the brother of Albert Akers of New Marston, who also died in the First World War) at St Nicholas's Church, Old Marston on 1 August 1927. He was a motor fitter, and they lived in Ferry Road. Their first child Keith Akers (born 9 February 1930) was baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 16 March 1930. At the time of the 1939 Register Bessie & John Akers were living at 63 Ferry Road in New Marston with their son Keith. Her first husband John Akers died in Oxford at the age of 44 in 147, and in the fourth quarter of 1960, when she was aged 57, she married her second husband Herbert Lewis Howson (a bachelor of 62 born in St Saviour in 1898). He died in 1967 at the age of 69 in the Oxford area, and Bessie died in 2000 at the age of 97 in the Abingdon district. Her son Keith married Gillian J. Smith in the Ploughley registration district in the fourth quarter of 1951, and died in the Abingdon district in 2000.