JOHN HARRY GLANVILLE
Some of the people whose stories are told on these pages appear courtesy of the flimsiest circumstantial evidence, their physical presence in Portsmouth being entirely hidden from view. John Harry Glanville falls into that category.
The only record of a John Harry Glanville which can definitely be linked to the World War 1 casualty by that name is from 1896 when he married 24 year old Edith Sanders in Stoke-Damerel, Plymouth. At the 1901 census Edith is shown living in Stoke Damerel with her parents and two children, Hilda Florence (b. 1898) and Gladys Irene (b. 1900). Ten years later there is still no clear sign of John but Edith has moved to a family home in Devonport and a third child, George Harry (b. 1909) has been born.
At the outbreak of war John Glanville was aboard HMS Pegasus. In September 1914 Pegasus was with her squadron off the coast of South Africa when engine trouble forced her to anchor in Zanzibar harbour. There she was spotted by the German light cruiser SMS Königsberg which launched a surprise attack, incapacitating Pegasus which sank later that day. 38 members of the crew were lost, including John Glanville.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website lists John Harry Glanville, Chief Engine Room Artificer (269246), Royal Navy, HMS Pegasus, date of death, 20/09/1914. Buried at Zanzibar (Grave Island) Cemetery. Husband of Edith Glanville, of 41, Lynton Grove, Copnor, Portsmouth.
John Glanville is remembered on the St. Wilfrid's Church WW1 Memorial and on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in 'The National Roll of the Great War'.
RESEARCH NOTES
There is one other reference to a John Glanville, who, in the 1901 census, appears as a member of the Royal Navy aboard HMS Niobe. His rank is shown as Engine Room Artificer which matches the CWGC record but his age is given as 21 which would have made him 16 at the time of the marriage to Edith. This may mean that his age was incorrectly recorded. There is no one else called John Glanville at the 1901 census who seems a more suitable candidate.
It is not known what brought Edith Glanville to Portsmouth unless her husband had been posted ashore as otherwise he would have been at sea. No 41 Lynton Grove probably didn't exist in 1911 as houses were still under construction there and it didn't appear in the census. Kelly's Directory for 1913 does not list anyone named Glanville living in Lynton Grove.
St. Wilfrid's Church is some distance from Lynton Grove. The only churches nearer would have been St. Alban's on Copnor Road (built 1913/14) or St. Cuthbert's on Hayling Avenue (built 1915).