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

Gerald JUDGE (1890–1916)

Gerald Judge was born at Ardley near Bicester in 1890. He was the son of Charles Henry Judge (known as Henry and born at Fewcott in Oxfordshire in 1857, registered fourth quarter) and Mary Hannah Harris (born at Ardley in 1859, registered second quarter).

His parents were married in the Bicester registration district in the fourth quarter of 1879 and had eleven children:

• Cyril Judge (born at Ardley in 1880/1, registered first quarter of 1881)
• Aubrey Judge (born at Ardley in 1882, registered third quarter)
• Lawrence Judge (born at Ardley in 1884, registered second quarter)
• May Judge (born at Ardley in 1886, registered second quarter)
• Arthur Herbert Judge (born at Ardley in 1888/9, registered first quarter of 1889)
• Gerald Judge (born at Ardley in 1890, registered fourth quarter)
• Everard Judge (born at Ardley in 1892, registered second quarter)
• Ronald Melville Judge (born at Ardley in 1893/4, registered first quarter of 1894)
• Nesta Olive Judge (born at Ardley in 1896, registered second quarter)
• Evelyn Judge (born at Ardley in 1898, registered third quarter)
• Winifred Judge (born at Ardley in 1901/2, registered first quarter of 1902).

At the time of the 1881 census Gerald’s parents were living at Upper Heyford with their first child, Cyril, and his father was described as a carpenter.

By the time of the 1891 census, when Gerald was a five-month-old baby, his father was a wheelwright, and the family was living in Somerton Road, Ardley, the home of Mrs Hannah Judge (75), Gerald’s widowed great-aunt. They already had six children, but two of them were staying with grandparents who lived nearby: Cyril (10) was with his maternal grandmother, and Aubrey (8) with his paternal grandparents.

In 1901 when Gerald was ten years old, his father was now the head of the household in Ardley and described as a farm carpenter. Gerald’s brother Lawrence (16) was working as a plough boy, and his two oldest brothers had left home: Cyril (20) was a railway porter, and Aubrey (18) was a metal worker, and they were both boarding with William Ellis in Edgbaston. His sister May (15) was in service as a nursemaid to the family of George Colborne, a surgeon, at 133 Woodstock Road, Oxford.

At the time of the 1911 census Gerald was living at 5 Prince’s Gate in Mayfair as footman to the shipowner James Henry Scott. Gerald’s parents were still at Ardley in 1911 with three of their children, namely Lawrence (26), who was a farm labourer, and Evelyn (12) and William (9), who were still at school.

Gerald must have volunteered for the army, because he was already a soldier and based in Horsham at the time of his marriage in early 1915.

♥ On 6 February 1915 Gerald Judge married Ethel Florence Taylor at St Andrew’s Church. Ethel (born in Headington on 2 February 1887 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 27 March 1887) was the daughter of the Headington carpenter William Taylor and his laundress wife Sarah: she grew up in New Headington, first at 7 Bateman Street and then at Brendon House at 49 Windmill Road. Although the latter address was in the parish of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, the wedding indicates that the family favoured St Andrew’s Church.

As Judge was already serving in the war, his wife continued to live at her parents’ house, 49 Windmill Road, after her marriage. They were only married for a year and do not appear to have had any children.

In the First World War Gerald Judge served as a Private in the 22nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (Service No. 904), and was killed in action in France at the age of 26 on 24 May 1916. He is buried at the Zouave Valley Cemetery in Souchez (II. D. 12).

Although Judge is listed on the roll of honour of St Andrew’s Church, he never really lived in Headington for any length of time, and his army records give his residence at the time of his death as his parents’ home in Ardley.

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Postscript

Gerald’s widow

• Mrs Ethel Florence Judge initially remained with her parents at Brendon House, 49 Windmill Road. On 17 July 1921, when she was 34, she married Rufus Bertie Allsopp (a 30-year-old single man who was a metal worker of Aston Road in Birmingham) at Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.

Gerald’s parents

• Charles Henry Judge died at the age of 83 (death registered in the Chipping Norton registration district first quarter of 1941)
• Mary Hannah Judge died at the age of 79 (death registered in the Ploughley registration district in the first quarter of 1939)