PEOPLE IN PORTSMOUTH

 

Lives Lived and Lives Lost - Portsmouth and the Great War

JOSEPH BERNARD COLLINS STARKEY
 
The Starkey family moved to Portsmouth around 1908 so that Joseph Bernard's father could take up a job as a Private Schoolmaster at St. Catherine's Preparatory School for Boys at 7 Salisbury Road, Southsea. The family initially lived at 27 Auckland Road East in Southsea but later moved into the school itself.
 
His father, Joseph Collins Starkey, had been born in London in 1860 and married Katherine Emily Innocent at Faringdon, Berkshire in 1891. By 1893 he was working as a schoolmaster at Fairford in Gloucestershire when in the same year the first child was born to Joseph and Katherine. That was Dorothy and she was followed by Joseph Bernard, Phyllis Anne and Nina Florence in 1894, 1895 and 1906 respectively, all born at Fairford.
 
Joseph Bernard was not educated at St. Catherine's but instead went to Portsmouth Grammar School but he does not appear in any records there. When he left school he took up a post of Bank Apprentice but enlisted in the army in September 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the Great War. He initially joined the 14th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment and then under circumstances that are unclear transferred to the Highland Light Infantry. He died in November 1916 and has no known grave.
 
FURTHER INFORMATION
 
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists (CWGC) Lieutenant Joseph Bernard Collins Starkey, Highland Light Infantry, 3rd Battalion, attached to 2nd Battalion, formerly 14th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, died on 13/11/1916. Remembered on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 15 C). Son of Joseph Collins Starkey and Katherine Emily Starkey, of 7, Salisbury Rd., Southsea, Portsmouth. Born at Fairford, Glos. Enlisted Sept., 1914. Gazetted Jan., 1915.
 
Joseph Starkey is remembered on the St Jude's Church WW1 Memorial, the Portsmouth Grammar School WW1 Memorial but not on the Cenotaph in Portsmouth (unless he was listed as 'Starkey JE'). He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War'.
 
Tim Backhouse
July 2014