EDWIN WESTALL EARWICKER
The branch of the Earwicker family to which Edwin Westall belonged had lived in Portsmouth for at least four generations by the beginning of the Great War, during which three brothers died.
The earliest reference to the family is in the 1841 Census which recorded John (b. 1821) and Charlotte Earwicker sharing a house at 23 Daniel Street, Portsea. John was a joiner by trade and had been born in Portsea. He and Charlotte had been married that same year in Gosport, presumably because that's where Charlotte lived. By 1851 they had four children, John, William, Amos Bowyer and Charlotte. Amos was Frederick Gennyes' father.
After leaving school Amos trained as a printer and bookbinder and in 1861 was still at home with his widowed mother Charlotte which was then at 13 St. Paul's Square. In 1870 Amos married Mary Ann Hansford (b.1844, Isle of Wight) and by census time the following yesr they were living in Southsea Street, Portsea and their first child Mary had arrived. The family does not appear in the 1881 census and by the time the following one came round Amos had died (in 1890).
Mary Ann had moved her family to 109 Grosvenor Street by the 1891 census and was bringing up four sons, Frederick Gennyes (b. 1876), Edwin Westall (b. 1877), Alfred Stewart (b. 1880) and George Henry (b. 1885). Her father Jacob Hansford and three lodgers were also present. By 1901 the family had moved again, this time to 92 Goodwood Road, Southsea though by this time Edwin had left the household. He had enlisted into the Yorkshire Regiment at Portsmouth on 21 January 1893 and was drafted into the 2nd Battalion in Burma in February 1895. He served with them in Burma, India and Africa and returned home with the battalion in 1908.
At the 1911 Census Edwin is recorded as being at the Fulford Road Army Barracks in York and in 1912 he was awarded the L.S.& G.C. Medal, with gratuity. He married Elsie G. Wearn on the Isle of Wight in late 1914. In the Great War he left Liverpool on 3rd July 1915 and arrived at Gallipoli on 6 August where he was killed in action at Suvla Bay on 9 August.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists Lance Corporal Edwin Westall Earwicker, (3/9309), 6th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, died on 09/08/1915, aged 37 years. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Panels 55-58. Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Son of the late Amos and Mary Ann Earwicker; husband of Elsie G. Earwicker, of "Ebenezer," 40, Week's Rd., Ryde, Isle of Wight. Served years.
Edwin Earwicker is also remembered on the Cenotaph in Portsmouth and the Ryde Great War Memorial and the County War Memorial at Carisbrooke Castle Chapel on the Isle of Wight. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War', Section X.
SEE ALSO
The articles on brothers Frederick Gennyes and Alfred Stewart who also died in the Great War.
Tim Backhouse
February 2014