Richard John KIMBER (1899–1917)
Richard John Kimber was born in Titup in Headington Quarry in 1899. He was the son of Richard Kimber (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 14 May 1872) and Anne Elizabeth Coppock (born on 16 August 1975 and baptised at that same church on 31 October).
His parents were married at Holy Trinity Church on 30 July 1898, and had the following children:
- Richard John Kimber (born in Quarry in 1899 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 2 April)
- Eric Jack Coppock Kimber (born in Quarry in 1901 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 26 May)
- Doris Annie Kimber (born in Quarry on 18 November 1902 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 28 December)
- Cicely Rebecca Jane Kimber (born in Quarry on 2 February 1905 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 23 April)
- Harry Thomas Joyce Kimber (born in Quarry on 27 April 1906 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 27 May)
- Herbert Arthur Kimber (born in Quarry on 23 June 1909 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 1 August)
- Charles Ernest Kimber (born in Quarry on 10 March 1912 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 7 April).
At the time of the 1901 census Richard John Kimber (2) was living in Old Road at Titup with his father Richard (29), who worked for the Corporation as a yard foreman in Oxford, and his mother Ann (25).
In 1911 Richard (12) was a schoolboy (almost certainly at Headington Quarry National School), living at Wood View, Titup (now numbered 125 Old Road) with his father Richard (39), described as a drainage foreman with Headington Rural District Council; his mother Ann (35); and his five younger siblings Eric (9), Doris (8), Cicely (6), Harry (4), and Herbert (1). His sixth sibling, Charles, was born the following year.
By the start of the war, Richard was working for Oxford University Press as a feeder in the Machine Room (Miehle).
In the First World War Richard John Kimber enlisted on 2 April 1917, just after his eighteenth birthday, and because soldiers were not sent to the front until they were 19, he began his service in England as a Private in the 95th Battalion of the Training Reserve (Service No. TR7/13498). Just over a month after starting his training, on 11 May 1917, he died of cerebrospinal fever at the age of 18 at Tidworth Hospital in Wiltshire.
He was buried at Holy Trinity churchyard (SF 8). His parents must have set up his grave marker (a cross on a plinth with a surround, shown right) soon afterwards, as he did not get a war grave headstone.
The text on the plinth (shown below) reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY
OF
RICHARD JOHN
ELDEST SON OF
RICHARD & ANNE E. KIMBER
WHO DIED MAY 11 1917 AGED 18 YEARS
He is remembered on the stone plaque in the porch of Holy Trinity Church, and on the Oxford University Press war memorial (below):
Postscript
Richard’s parents
The 1921 census shows Richard Kimber (49), a drainage foreman for Headington Rural District Council, still living at Wood View in Old Road with five of their children.
- Richard Kimber died at the age of 64 at 125 Old Road (then numbered 111) and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 2 May 1936
- Anne Elizabeth Kimber was living at 125 Old Road with her unmarried sons Harry and Charles at the time of the 1939 Register. She died at 125 Old Road at the age of 74 and was buried with her husband on 2 November 1949.
Richard’s six siblings
- Eric Jack Coppock Kimber (born 1901) was a driller & fitter at the Morris Motor Works at the time of the 1921 census and was still living with his parents in their Old Road home. He married Margaret May Bowerman at Holy Trinity Church on 9 August 1924, and at the time of the 1939 Register he was a motor chassis worker living at 19 Salegate Lane in Cowley with his wife Margaret and their son David, and Harry Bowerman. He died in Oxford near the beginning of 1977.
- Doris Annie Kimber (born 1902) was a domestic servant at the Morris Motor Works at the time of the 1921 census and was still living with her parents in their Old Road home. She married Edwin Arthur Caleb Harris at Holy Trinity Church on 1 August 1925. At the time of the 1939 Register she was living at Hill View, Littleworth Road, Wheatley with her husband, who was a dairyman working on his own account. She died in Oxford in 1977 at the age of 74.
- Cicely Rebecca Jane Kimber (born 1905) was working as a shop assistant and married Edward Arthur Hinton at Holy Trinity Church on 21 September 1929. The 1939 Register shows her living at the Queen's Head in Horspath with her husband Edward, who was a motor erector. She died at that address on 5 April 1973.
- Harry Thomas Joyce Kimber (born 1906) was aged 15 and living with his parents and working for the market gardener Albert Smith of Shotover at the time of the 1921 census. The 1939 Register shows him working as a mason & machinist and living at home with his widowed mother. He was still living at 125 Old Road in 1976. He died on 26 April 1979 and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard.
- Herbert Arthur Kimber (born 1909) married Ivy Laura Hilsdon in the Ploughley registration district in 1934. At the time of the 1939 Register he was a bricklayer living at 15 York Avenue with his wife Ivy. He died at that address on 14 July 1977 and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard.
- Charles Ernest Kimber (born 1912) was a storekeeper at the motor works at the time of the 1939 Register and was living at home with his widowed mother. He was Verger and Sacristan of Holy Trinity Church in Quarry for fifty years. He died on 27 February 1999and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard in the same grave as his brother Harry who had died twenty years earlier.
Richard’s brother Charlie Kimber,
and his famous cousin William Kimber
The picture on the right (© Trevor Coppock) was taken in 1994 and shows Richard’s youngest brother Charlie Kimber (1912–1999) when he was Churchwarden of Holy Trinity Church.
He is crouched beside the grave of his and Richard's famous cousin, the morris-dancer William Kimber. The stone has a concertina on top of a pair of bells pads (worn by morris-dancers around the shins).
See also
- CWGC: Kimber, R J
- Oxford Journal Illustrated, 1 August 1917, “Heroes of the War”: photograph of Richard Kimber of Headington, who had died about three months earlier (shown above with kind permission of Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire History Centre)
- War Record of the Oxford University Press (1923), entry for KIMBER, R. J.
Back to Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry roll of honour