First World War in Headington & Marston
Roll of Honour of Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry

Joseph HERITAGE (1886/7–1915)

Joseph Heritage was born in Sandford-on-Thames in 1886/7, the son of William Heritage (born in Cowley in c.1863) and his first wife Elizabeth Anne or Anne Elizabeth Sellard or Sellar, known as Annie, born in Garsington in 1861, birth registered third quarter).

His parents were married in haste at Garsington Church on 28 June 1884 and had the following children:

• William Frederick Heritage (born at Sandford-on-Thames in about August 1884 and baptised there on 25 December 1884); died aged four months and buried there on 8 February 1885
• Ernest James Heritage (born in Sandford-on-Thames in 1885, registered fourth quarter)
• Joseph Heritage (born in Sandford-on-Thames in 1886/7, registered first quarter 1887 and baptised there on 8 May 1887)
• Annie Heritage (born and baptised in Sandford-on-Thames on 15 August 1888); died aged one day and buried there on 16 August 1888.

Joseph’s father William Heritage was a gardener, and he and his first wife Elizabeth Ann lived in Sandford-on-Thames.

Joseph’s mother died at the age of 28 in 1889 (registered fourth quarter in Headington district) when Joseph was just two years old.

Just six months later, in the second quarter of 1890, Joseph acquired a new stepmother when his father William Heritage married his second wife, Alice Hodgkins (born in Cowley in 1868) in the Headington Registration District. They had fourteen children in seventeen years:

• William David Heritage (born in Sandford-on-Thames in 1891, registered fourth quarter)
• Annie Elizabeth Heritage (born in Garsington in 1892/3, registered first quarter of 1893)
• Charles Heritage (born in Garsington in 1894, registered third quarter)
• Beatrice May Heritage (born in Garsington in 1895, registered second quarter, death registered third quarter)
• Alice Agnes Heritage (born in Garsington in 1895/6, registered first quarter of 1896)
• Miriam Kate Heritage (born in Garsington in 1896, registered fourth quarter; died aged one, death registered first quarter of 1898)
• Iris Violet Heritage (known as Violet, born in Garsington in 1897, registered second quarter)
• George Heritage (born in Horspath in 1899, registered third quarter)
• Victoria Daisy Heritage (born in Horspath in 1901, registered second quarter)
• Rose May Heritage (known as May, born in Horspath in 1903, registered second quarter)
• John Harold Heritage (born in Horspath in 1905, registered third quarter)
• Sarah Lilian Heritage (born in Horspath in 1906/7, registered first quarter of 1907)
• Beatrice Violet L. Heritage (born in Horspath in 1907, registered second quarter; death registered third quarter)
• Gertrude Dorothy Heritage (known as Dorothy, born in Horspath in 1908, registered fourth quarter).

Soon after the birth of his first step-sibling in 1891, Joseph’s father and stepmother moved away from Sandford-on-Thames: first to Garsington, and then to Horspath in about 1898.

The 1901 census shows the family living at Blenheim in Horspath: Joseph (14) was working as a carter boy on a farm in Horspath, and his only surviving full sibling Ernest (15) was a carter. At this point he had seven surviving step-siblings.

♥ On 17 May 1908, at the age of 21, Joseph Heritage married Sarah Anne Dandridge (18), the daughter of the Headington Quarry brickmaker Abraham Dandridge, at Holy Trinity Church. The couple had four children:

• Beatrice Maria Heritage (born at Headington Quarry, baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 27 February 1910)
• George Thomas Joseph Heritage (born at Headington Quarry on 16 September 1911, baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29 October 1911, died aged 2 years 5 months, buried in the churchyard on 8 March 1914)
• Daisy Myrtle Heritage (born at Headington Quarry on 12 September 1913, baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 28 December 1913)
• Ernest Joseph Wilfred Heritage (born at Headington Quarry on 29 August 1915, baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 21 September 1915).

Joseph became a brickmaker, probably working for his father-in-law Abraham Dandridge, and settled in Headington Quarry. The 1911 census shows Joseph with his wife and first child living “Near the school”. Living with them was his father-in-law and his wife’s niece Rosie Dandridge, aged  (4).

Meanwhile Joseph’s father William Heritage (49) was still living back in Horspath in 1911 working as a roadman for the county council. He was living with his second wife Alice (43) and Joseph’s full brother Ernest (26), who was now a jobbing gardener, and seven children from his second marriage. Four of Joseph’s step-siblings were not at home: William (who was married and living at Wheatley), Charles (who was visiting James & Mary Heritage in Chipping Norton, Alice, and Iris Violet (who was a servant in Osney).

By the time his youngest son was baptised on 26 August 1915, Joseph Heritage had already volunteered to serve in the First World War and was described in the register as a soldier. He served as a Private in the ill-fated 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 17782), and was killed in action in France aged 29 on 24 September 1915

Joseph Heritage is buried in the Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy (I. E. 1), and is listed on the stone plaque in the porch of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.

---

Postscript

Joseph’s widow

• Mrs Sarah Anne Heritage appears to have had an illegitimate daughter after her husband’s death: Ruby May Heritage, born on 29 May 1917 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry on 29 July 1917. Sarah later married Arthur Godfrey Sumner, who was a roadman, and their son Arthur John Alfred Sumner was born on 31 April 1925 and baptised the next month at Holy Trinity Church. The couple lived at 6 Vine Cottages, Pitts Road with the children from both marriages.

Joseph’s children

• Beatrice Maria Heritage (born 1910) married William Alfred Evans of 4 Ferry Road, New Marston on 20 December 1930 at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry. Their son Malcolm James Evans was born on 31 March 1940 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 12 May 1940. They were then living at 43 Fettiplace Road, Barton.
• Daisy Myrtle Heritage (born 1913) married Reginald Fry, a corporation worker of 11 New Cross Road, on 3 December 1933 at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry. They had two children whose births were registered in Oxford: John R. Fry (1935) and Josephine Fry (1936).
• Ernest Joseph Wilfred Heritage (born 1915) married Marjorie V. New in the Oxford registration district in the second quarter of 1938, and they had one son, Brian J. Heritage, whose birth was registered in the Abingdon district in the first quarter of 1940. Both mother and baby died soon after the birth, and Ernest married his second wife, Dorothy J. Buncombe, in the third quarter of 1946.

Joseph’s full brother

• Ernest James Heritage married Annie L. Batten in the Headington registration district (which included Horspath) in the second quarter of 1918.