First World War in Headington & Marston
Roll of Honour of St Andrew’s Church, Old Headington

John Edward CRAWFORD (1897–1916)

Middle initial wrongly printed

John Edward Crawford was born in New Headington (probably Bateman Street) on 7 December 1897, the son of Thomas James St Swithin Crawford (born at Shotover and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 30 November 1873) and Ada Kate Cordrey (born in Iffley and baptised there on 8 June 1873).

His parents married when they were each 19, apparently in haste, on 12 March 1892 at Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry. They had the following children:

• Ann Matilda Crawford (baptised in Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 30 October 1892, died aged 5 and buried at Headington Cemetery on 4 July 1898)
• Kate Elizabeth Alice Crawford (born in Headington Quarry and baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Old Headington on 25 August 1895, died at the age of ten and buried Headington Cemetery on 7 October 1905)
• Thomas James William Crawford (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 29 November 1896; died age 14 weeks and buried at Headington Cemetery on 19 January 1897)
• John Edward Crawford (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 6 February 1898)
• Phyllis Gertrude Crawford (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 22 April 1900)
• Rose Crawford (born in Headington and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 9 June 1902).

John’s parents were both living separately in Church Street, Temple Cowley at the time of the 1891 census, a year before their marriage: Thomas Crawford (then aged 17) was living at No. 1 with his parents and working as a carter on a farm, while his mother wife Ada Cordrey (then aged 18) was a live-in domestic servant three doors down at No. 4. Shortly after the census Thomas’s parents moved with him to Seed Piece Road in Headington Quarry shortly, and he married Ada there the next year.

Thomas & Ada Crawford lived in Headington Quarry for the first few years of their marriage, probably with Thomas’s parents, but in about 1895 moved to a house of their own in New Headington. The 1901 census shows the family living in Bateman Street in New Headington. John’s father, who was a builder’s carter, was not at home and Ada Kate Crawford (27), described as married, was looking after her daughter Kate (6), John himself (3) and Phyllis (1).

By the time that Crawford’s youngest sister, Rose, was born in June 1902, the family had moved to Church Lane (probably Jeffcoat Cottages) in Old Headington.

John’s father Thomas Crawford died in 1904 at the age of 31 (registered third quarter in the Headington District). The next year, in 1905, John’s sister Kate (10) also died.

The 1911 census shows John’s widowed mother Ada (37) working as a laundress and looking after her three surviving children. John (13) was a printer boy, while his sisters Phyllis (11) and Rose (8) were still at school. Their address is given as Jeffcoat Cottages, which ran between St Andrew’s Lane and Larkin’s Lane in Old Headington.

John Edward Crawford served as a Private in the 1st/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 5075). He died in France at the Somme on 19 July 1916 at the age of 18, and has no known grave. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 10A and 10D) and is listed on the roll of honour of St Andrew’s Church in Old Headington.

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Postscript

John’s mother

• Ada Kate Crawford married the widower Walter Louch (whose son Albert Louch is also on the St Andrew’s war memorial) at Oxford Registry Office on 4 August 1919. Ada died in 1950 and Walter in 1955, both at Wood Farm.

John’s sister

• Rose Crawford married Herbert Thomas Hibbard, a car fitter of Gardiner Street, at St Andrew’s Church on 19 April 1924. She was then 21 and working as a shirt maker, and lived at 13 Church Lane in Old Headington. They lived at the present 285 London Road, and had two children: John William Hibbard (born on 1 October 1926 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 5 December 1926) and Gill Rosemary Hibbard (born on 31 December 1938 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 2 April 1939).