Lance Corporal Ernest Berry 24764, 4th Battalion Grenedier Guards died of wounds on 27 November 1917. From the Register of Soldiers’ Effects 1901-1929 I know that his parents were William and Eliza Berry and I have identified the family in the 1911 and 1901 censuses, although the birth places are very different in the two documents.
In 1901 the family were in Wandsworth and they all had different birthplaces in with Alfred’s being Godalming in Surrey. That fits with the information on Ancestry’s Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919. In 1911 Ernest was said to have been born in St Mary Hoo, his father in Allhallows and his mother in Stoke.. That fits with his memorial being in Allhallows church.
Ernest’s father was William Berry born about 1862-1863 in Leatherhead (or Allhallows)
His mother was Eliza born Berry born about 1852-1853 in Kingston (or Stoke)
His sister Amelia was born in Stratford, West Ham District, Q4 1893 vol 4a page 34. In 1911 she was living in Strood as a domestic servant. Her mother’s maiden name was Pithers
I have been unable to find Ernest’s birth registration; possibly the family were moving around a lot and it just got overlooked. I have also been unable to find a William Berry & Eliza Pithers marriage. Given that Eliza was about ten years older than William it’s possible that she had been married previously but again I cannot identify any other suitable Eliza Pithers marriage.
In 1901 living with the family was an 8 month old grandson George Cox, but without either of his parents. George was described as an imbecile; that type of disability may easily have been caused by a difficult and prolonged labour.
Little George was born Q2 1901, Wandsworth District vol 1d page 530 and he died Q2 1902 in Wandsworth district, vol 1d page 404. His mother’s maiden name was Nash, so was he really a grandson of William and Eliza, and thus a nephew to Ernest? or was he one of the many babies farmed out to wet nurses for the first couple of years of life?
Sometime between 1901 and 1911 the family moved out of London into rural Kent. Ernest’s sister found work as a domestic servant in Strood and Ernest and his parents found work as farm waggoners living at Brickhouse Farm cottage, Allhallows. Although this meant that Ernest had experience of working with horses, his army experience at the Battle of Cambria would have been with tanks and heavy artillery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cambrai_(1917)
I have not been able to locate an obvious death record for Ernest’s mother Eliza but I think I have found William Berry in the 1939 register living in Princes Street, Gravesend. It looks to be a lodging house with a landlady as head of the household and three single male lodgers, the oldest of whom was 72 year old William, described as a farm labourer. William died aged 81 in Chatham district (which then included Gravesend) in Q1 1944 vol 2a page 1720.
Given the lack of records, coupled with the varying birth places I think that the family were semi-itinerant. I also think that William and Eliza were not legally married; this theory is supported by Alfred’s effects being left to them jointly rather than just to his father. Also, his Victory medal was returned under Paragraph 1743 of Kings Regulations and broken up in February 1828. This indicates that they could not be delivered to the next of kin because he was no longer living at the last notified address, and maybe not literate enough to cope with paperwork.
Alfred’s sister Amelia married William Keates in April 1912 in Hoo Register Office but sadly she died aged 25 in Q2 1918 Hoo Registration district, vol 2a page 1655, leaving three very young children, Ivy born Q1 1913, Ernest born Q3 1914 and Arthur born Q2 1917. Her widower remarried in 1920 t St Mary Hoo to Ada Mary Tassell and they had another two children.
Allhallows Remembers
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