PEOPLE IN PORTSMOUTH

 

Lives Lived and Lives Lost - Portsmouth and the Great War

WILLIAM GARNETT DAYSH
 
The 1911 census reports that both William Garnett and his father Henry Daysh were born in Southsea. The two previous censuses also record both father and son living in Portsmouth but there are no earlier records that conclusively place the family in the Borough. There are many other persons named Daysh in the earlier censuses but they present no obvious connection to William and Henry. There are also persons named Dash who could be related but nothing conclusive.
 
The earliest definitive record comes from the 1874 marriage records which lists the union between Henry Daysh and Matilda Gauntlett but both are missing from the 1881 census. Before Matilda married Henry she had been living at 33 Albert Road in Southsea, next door to the Royal Albert Arms, with her widowed mother Louisa, a market gardener, and her brother Frederick. In the 1891 census Henry and Matilda are recorded living at 75 Adames Road, Kingston in Portsmouth with their four children Henry J.H. (b. 1876), William Garnett (b. 1883), George Edwin (b. 1887) and Alfred (b. 1891). Henry snr. was then described as a tobacconist.
 
The 1901 census shows the family still at the same address and that Henry snr. was a labourer at Gunwharf, Henry jnr. had left the household and William Garnett was a Draper's Porter. William must have left the household shortly after wards to join the army as in the 1911 census he was described as an ex-soldier. That census also described Henry snr. as a spinner in the tobacco manufacturing business.
 
At the outbreak of the Great War William would have been recalled to his regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers, but he may not have joined them immediately as the 1st Battalion were then in India. They returned to Britain in January 1915 and sailed for Gallipoli two months later. After heavy fighting there they were withdrawn to Egypt and thence to Marseilles and the Western Front where William Daysh was killed a few weeks before the Armistice.
 
FURTHER INFORMATION
 
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists William Garnet Daysh, Private (33184), 1st Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, died, 30/09/1918, aged 36 years. Buried at the Cantaing British Cemetery, (Grave Ref: D.10.). Son of the late Harry and Matilda Daysh, of Portsmouth.
 
William Daysh is commemorated on the Cenotaph, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth. He is not listed in "The National Roll of the Great War", Section X.
 
Tim Backhouse
January 2015