PEOPLE IN PORTSMOUTH

 

Lives Lived and Lives Lost - Portsmouth and the Great War

TOM FORBES JEFFERY
 
At the 1901 census the two year old Tom Forbes Jeffery was listed as living with his grandmother, Eleanor Walker Forbes (b. 1828) at 13 Worthing Road, Southsea. His parents, Thomas George and Constance Lillie Jeffery do not appear to have been in the country at the time.
 
At the census ten years later Tom is once again separated from his parents, though this time they were in the UK. Tom was at boarding school at Northwood Park, Crawley, Winchester, whilst Thomas and Constance were living on High Street, Alton where Thomas was a Bank Manager.
 
There are few online details of Thomas George's life except that he was born in India in 1857. It's also known that he and his wife Constance Forbes were married at Portsmouth in 1897. Constance had been born in Valparaiso, Chile in 1866, to parents Charles and Eleanor Forbes. Charles served with the Royal Navy until he retired in the 1870s with the rank of Captain, after which thefamily settled in the south of England, firstly at Elphinstone Road in Southsea, then at Southlands House in Funtington and later back in Portsmouth at Worthing Road.
 
When the Great War broke out Tom Jeffery was 15 years old and would therefore not have enlisted in the first wave of enthusiasm. The date he did join up is unknown as is any information about his military career apart from the fact that he lost his life in April 1918, probably at the Battle of the Lys.
 
FURTHER INFORMATION
 
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission list 2nd Lieutenant Tom Forbes Jeffery, Royal Field Artillery, died 16/04/1918, age 19. Buried at Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Poperinghe, Belgium (Grave Ref: IX.F.32). Son of Thomas George and Constance Lillie Jeffery, of 3, Elphinstone Mansions, 2, Elphinstone Rd., Southsea, Portsmouth.
 
Tom Jeffery is commemorated on the St. Jude's Church WW1 Memorial but not on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in "The National Roll of the Great War", Section X.
 
Tim Backhouse
August 2014