PEOPLE IN PORTSMOUTH

 

Lives Lived and Lives Lost - Portsmouth and the Great War

FREDERICK GENNYES EARWICKER
 
The branch of the Earwicker family to which Frederick Gennyes 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 1891 and was bringing up four sons, Frederick Gennyes (b. 1876), Edwin Westall (b. 1878), 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 when Edwin had left the household and the eldest child Esther (b. 1873) had moved back in. Frederick was then described as a baker.
 
The following year Frederick Gennyes married Annie Sarah Clay (sister of Rosa Florence who married Frederick's brother Alfred) in Droxford and the couple moved to Hollow Lane, Hayling Island in time for the 1911 census. The returns that year show that Frederick had taken up a job as a milk roundsman and three children had been born - Frederick, Edwin and Esther.
 
By the outbreak of the Great War Frederick was 38 years old so there would have been no pressure to enlist straight away. Whenever he did so he was posted to the 1st Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment as a replacement for casualties. Of his experiences we know nothing but the end when he died in April 1917.
 
FURTHER INFORMATION
 
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists Private Frederick Gennyes Earwicker, (14472), 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, died on 18/04/1917, aged 41 years. He is buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France, grave ref. II.B.5. Husband of Annie Sarah Earwicker, of World's End, Hambledon, Hants.
 
Frederick Earwicker is remembered on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'.
 
SEE ALSO
The articles on brothers Alfred Stewart and Edwin Westall who also died in the Great War.
 
Tim Backhouse
February 2014