Roll of Honour of All Saints’ Church, Highfield

Edwin HUDSON (1897–1917)

Edwin Hudson was born in Oxford in 1897, the son of the farm labourer Edwin Hudson senior and his first wife Rosina Willis.

His father Edwin Hudson senior was born in Bicester on 8 September 1867, the son of William Hudson, a farm labourer, and his wife Clara Watts. At the time of the 1881 census Edwin’s father was a fishmonger’s lad aged 13, still living at 4 Albert Terrace in Bicester with his parents.

His mother Rosina Willis was the daughter of Timothy & Eliza Willis and was baptised at Pillgwenlly, Newport, Monmouthshire on 6 March 1873.

In the third quarter of 1894 Edwin's parents were married in the Keynsham district of Somerset and had the following children:

• Clara Elizabeth Hudson (born in Combe Martin, Devon on 16 March 1895)
• Edwin Hudson (born in Oxford in 1897, reg. last quarter)
• Gladys May Hudson (born in Oxford on 15 April 1900)
• William Gladstone Hudson (born in Oxford on 26 October 1903)
• George Henry Hudson (born in Oxford in 1907, reg. Headington district fourth quarter);
  died at the age of one and buried at Headington Cemetery on 31 March 1909.

(The family cannot be traced in parish records, as they were Salvationists.)

It appears that Edwin Hudson junior's parents were living at Combe Martin in Devon in 1895 when their first child was born, but by the time of Edwin's birth in 1897 they had moved to Oxford, and are listed at 90 Percy Street in Cowley St John parish in 1899. The 1901 census shows Edwin at the age of three living at that address with his parents and his sisters Clara (6) and Gladys (11 months). Edwin’s father was then a coal & oil merchant, employing a yard man, who lived with them.

Soon after that census Edwin's father returned to the fish trade, and he ran a fried fish shop at 49 St Clement's Street.

Edwin's youngest brother George was born in 1907 in either St Clement's or Headington, but died at the age of one and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 31 March 1909, suggesting that the family was now in Headington. Edwin’s mother Rosina Hudson, née Willis died at the age of 35 less than a month after George, and she was buried in Headington Cemetery on 26 April 1909.

Kelly's Directory for 1909 and 1910 lists Edwin’s father as a fishmonger in New Headington village, but the address is not given.

About six months after his first wife’s death, in the third quarter of 1909 in the Headington district (which included east Oxford), Edwin Hudson senior married again: his second wife was Mrs Rose Gertrude Agnes Elston, née Holloway: born in Barnet, Hertfordshire in c.1871, she had married her previous husband George Joseph Elston in the Headington registration district in 1893, and her two sons were born there: David George Elston (1896) and Talbot Bevan Elston (1898). Her first husband had died in Oxford at the age of 41 in 1901.

At the time of the 1911 census Edwin (13) was still attending Headington National School. He was living in Holyoake Road (then called Western Road), probably at the present No. 26 with his father Edwin (43), who described himself as a fishmonger and employer, and his stepmother Rose (39). Also living with them were Edwin's three surviving siblings: Clara Hudson (16), who was an apprentice dressmaker, Gladys Hudson (10), and William Hudson (7), plus his stepbrothers Daniel Elston (14) and Talbot Elston (12).

 

 

Soon after the census, the Hudson family moved to 1 New High Street in Highfield parish, and Edwin Hudson senior’s fish shop is listed there in directories from 1915: during the First World War the Government made safeguarding supplies of fish & chips a priority. Meanwhile Edwin Hudson senior's older brother Alfred (born in Bicester on 2 October 1865) was in charge of the fried fish shop at 49 St Clement's Street.

Edwin served as a patrol leader in the 8th Oxford Boy Scouts, which met in the former Mission Chapel in Perrin Street (where they still meet today). He won a medal and a silver cup for shooting with his patrol of scouts in Scotland.

 

Left: Detail from a postcard showing New High Street before the First World War. The low building on the left is No. 1A, which was probably the fish shop, and the narrow semi-detached house next to it is No. 1, the house where the Hudson family lived during the First World War.

Below: 1A and 1 New High Street in 2009. No. 1A on the left (the former fish & chip shop) has now been built up to the same height as No. 1 on the right

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Postscript

Edwin’s father and stepmother

• Edwin Hudson senior (53), described as a general labourer at the Ordnance Office at Didcot, was living at 1 New High Street at the time of the 1921 census with his son William (17), who worked as a plumber for Arthur Richings of Hythe Bridge Street, plus a housekeeper. He and his second wife Rose appear to have separated, as she was the head of the household at 129 London Road (then numbered 51) where she lived with Talbot Elston, her youngest son by her first marriage. Edwin senior continued to be listed in directories as a private resident at 1 New High Street until 1958. His estranged second wife Rose died in Oxford at the age of 87 near the beginning of 1959. There was a feature on Edwin senior celebrating his 99th birthday in the Oxford Mail on 18 October 1966, p. 6. He died in Oxford at the age of 100 in 1968. and his funeral is described in the Oxford Times of 1 March 1968, p. 11.

Edwin’s grandfather

• William Hudson must have come to live with Edwin’s family, as he died at 1 New High Street at the age of 95. He was buried at Headington Cemetery on 6 December 1930.

Edwin’s full siblings

• Clara Elizabeth Hudson (born 1895) married Frank Gilbert Whitbread in the Headington registration district in the fourth quarter of 1918. At the time of the 1939 Register she was living at 10 Cranmer Road, Cowley with her husband, who was a traffic foreman at the Central Ordnance Depot, and their children Basil (born 11 December 1919) who was a publicity department clerk, and Gordon (born 30 May 1923), who was an aircraft assembly labourer.
  Their son Basil Edwin Whitbread served in 158 Squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War. He was a radio operator and air gunner in a Wellington bomber that crashed into the North Sea to the east of Ostend on 10 April 1942, killing all five crew members (CWGC entry).
• Gladys May Hudson (born 1900) married Cyril H. East in the Headington registration district in the third quarter of 1920. At the time of the 1939 register she was living at 26 New High Street with her husband, who was a lorry driver and fruit salesman, and their son Cyril (22), who was unemployed. Her husband died in Oxford at the age of 45 near the beginning of 1943. Gladys married her second husband, John J. Fisher, in Stratford-upon-Avon near the end of 1946.
• William Gladstone Hudson (born 1903) married Nora E. Shayler in the Headington registration district in the second quarter of 1925. He was a plumber, and was listed at 1 New High Street in 1925 only. At the time of the 1939 Register they were living at 28 Lime Walk with their children Hazel Hudson (b. 18 August 1927) and Edwin Hudson (b. 15 October 1934).

The Hudsons’ house in New High Street

In 1923 Headington Cinema was built next door but one to the north of Edwin Hudson senior’s house at 1 New High Street, and by 1927 Walter Henry Abbey had opened a fish & chip shop in the part to the north numbered 1A, where he stored the bicycles of cinema patrons as well as feeding them. This shop survived until 1956.