WALTER PERCY SNELLGROVE
The Snellgrove family were late arrivals in Portsmouth, having all been born on the Isle of Wight. Indeed they had dwelt on the island for at least three generations before moving to the mainland.
Walter Percy's father Frank Snellgrove was born at Newport in 1853 and married Emma Gladdiss in 1878. She had been born at Newbridge in 1858. From their home at Carisbrooke they began a family which in 1891 consisted of Frank, Emma and six children, Ethel, John, Douglas, Claude, Walter Percy (b. 1888) and Gwendoline. By 1901 the family had left the island and moved to Fareham where they were joined by two more children, Eva May and Howard.
The move to Portsmouth took place sometime in the 1900s and by 1911 they were living at 49 Hatfield Road, Eastney. Frank was working as a house painter and Walter Percy as an assurance agent.
At the outbreak of the Great War Walter Percy was 26 years old and may have joined the Hampshire Regiment in September 1914 when the 11th Battalion were forming in Winchester. If so he would have served in Ireland and England until December 1915 when the Battalion was sent to France. In September 1916 the Regiment were taking part in the Battle of the Somme when Walter Percy lost his life.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) list Private Walter Percy Snellgrove, (18939), 11th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, died 09/09/1916, age 28. Buried at Quarry Cemetery, Montauban (Grave Ref: I.J.3.). Son of Frank and Emma Snellgrove, of Southsea; husband of Emily Adelaide Snellgrove, of 98, Reginald Rd., Southsea, Portsmouth.
Walter Snellgrove is commemorated on the Trinity Methodist Church WW1 Memorial and the Cenotaph. He is not listed in "The National Roll of the Great War", Section X.
Tim Backhouse
September 2014