WALTER ERNEST GODFREY LOCKYER
The grandparents of Walter Ernest were born in London and Portsmouth. Henry Lockyer seems to have hailed from the Poplar area of the capital whereas his wife Frances Elizabeth Connolly whom he married in 1865 was from a Portsmouth family.
The earliest confirmed record of either of them was in the 1851 census when Frances's mother, also known as Frances, ran a greengrocers shop on Havant Street, Portsea. With mother and daughter there were two other children in the household, Joseph and Catherine. Ten years later Frances (the daughter) was working as an assistant to a boot and shoe maker on Queen Street, Portsea before appearing in London for her marriage to Henry.
Neither Henry nor Frances have been found in the 1871 census, but at the next, in 1881, they were living at 42 North Street, off Queen Street, where they seem to have taken over from France's mother and become greengrocers. From the birthplaces of their children the couple seem to have moved around a lot in the intervening years; Frances was born in Portsmouth in 1866, Henry and Catherine in London in 1868 and 1870, Algernon at Portsmouth 1872, Frank at Reading in 1875, Stanley at Plymouth in 1878 whilst Ernest, Joseph and Cecil were born at Portsmouth between 1878 and 1886.
Of the children we are interested in Algernon who was to become Walter Ernest's father. He left home to marry Kate Maria Higgins in 1896. She was the 20 year old daughter of Edward and Margaret Higgins of 33 Central Street. The couple were found at 3 Wingfield Street, Landport, by the 1901 census and at 22 Waltham Street, also in Landport, in 1911. They had two children, Algernon jnr. born in 1897 and Walter Ernest Godfrey in 1899.
Walter Ernest would have been 15 years of age at the outbreak of the Great War and therefore ineligible to enlist. He probably didn't join up until 1916 as when he did so he was posted to the Worcestershire Regiment rather than one of the Portsmouth Battalions. He was killed in action in France in April 1918.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) list WEG Lockyer, Private (43844), 14th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, died 12/04/1918. Buried at Forceville Communal Cemetery and Extension (Grave Ref: Plot 3. Row E. Grave 14.). Son of Algemon (sic) Arthur and Kate Lockyer, of 22, Waltham Street, Landport, Portsmouth, Hants.
Walter Lockyer is remembered on the Cenotaph in Guildhall Square. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War' Section X.
Tim Backhouse
March 2015