FREDERICK HARRY ANTRAM
We shall probably never know why some names appear on one memorial rather than another, particularly when it comes to the church they, or their next of kin, chose to attend. Frederick Antram's is a case in point.
The Antram family originated in Gosport with Frederick's grandfather James Antram being born there. James was a shipwright who moved to Portsmouth some time before 1881 as the Census that year records him living at 11, Union Street, Portsea with his wife Mary Jane and four children, the second of whom was George William (b. 1864), Frederick's father.
In 1886 George married Harriett and they moved into 111, St. Mary's Road where they had two sons, Alfred (b.1887) and Frederick Harry (b. 1890). At the time George was described as a Ship's Cook in the Royal Navy. By 1901 the family had moved the short distance to 29 Woodland Street, off St. Mary's Road, and later next door to No. 27 which had formerly been vacant.
Frederick Antram followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and went to sea with the Royal Navy in 1908. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was serving aboard HMS Ardent in the North Sea. He took time off from his duties in 1915 in order to marry Daisy Timpson, a laundry clerk living with her widowed mother at 35 Frogmore Road, in the shadow of Fratton Park Football Stadium. It seems likely that Frederick and Daisy never had the chance to set up home together as the only addresses related to them belong to their parents.
Back on board HMS Ardent after the wedding Frederick continued to serve in the North Sea with the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla until 1st June 1916 when, during the Battle of Jutland, Ardent was hit by gunfire from the German dreadnought SMS Westfalen and sunk with all hands.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission list Leading Signalman Frederick Harry Antram (232071), Royal Navy, serving on HMS Ardent, died 01/06/1916, age 26. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial (Panel 14). Son of George and Matilda Antram, of Portsmouth; husband of Daisy Antram, of 35, Frogmore Rd., Milton, Portsmouth.
Frederick Antram is also remembered on the St. Simon's Church WW1 memorial (where his name is written as "Antran" and the Cenotaph. His listing in the 'National Roll of the Great War' Section X, is on page 260 where his address is given as 27 Woodland Street.
Tim Backhouse
January 2014
RESEARCH NOTES
Addressing the issue raised in the first paragraph above, Frederick was nominally living at either 27 Woodland Street or 35 Frogmore Road, neither of which is very close to St. Simon's Church. Woodland Street is no more than a stone's throw from St. Mary's Church, the mother church of Portsea, and the most logical place for the family to attend. Frogmore Road, however, is set some distance from any church. There was St. James's in Milton, the newly completed St. Margaret's at the south end of Haslemere Road or even St. Mary's to the north - they were all closer than St. Simon's. We can only assume there was a personal issue involved.