On the 16th July 1918, Sergeant William Lovegrove, who was serving with the 52nd Royal Warwicks died of Pneumonia whilst at home. His death was reported in the Reading Mercury the following week.
Reading Mercury 27th July 1918
Sunninghill – Military funeral – Sergt. William Lovegrove 52nd Royal Warwicks, was buried with military honours at Sunninghill Churchyard on Saturday the coffin was carried on a motor aeroplane trailer and firing party was provided by the Royal Air Force, the band of the depot also being in attendance. The deceased was one of the eight solider sons of Mr & Mrs T. Lovegrove, and although he died while on home duty, he had been wounded in action on two more occasions. Three of his brother had been previously killed in action.
It was also reported in the Western Times that Mr & Mrs Thomas Lovegrove, of Kildare, Sunninghill had received a letter of congratulations from the King on their having eight sons in the army.
Sergeant William Charles Lovegrove died on the 16th July 1918, He was aged 30 and was the Son of Thomas and Marguerite Lovergrove, Sunninghill and the Husband of Ethel Lovegrove of St. Georges Cottages, Oriental Road, Berks.
William had married Ethel Emily Ellis in 1914 in Dorking, Surrey with their daughter Phyllis A R Lovegrove being born later that year. Their second child Joffre Douglas J Lovegrove was born in Windsor in 1916 and was obviously named after the French Commander in Chief - General Joseph Joffre. William and Ethel had a third child Trevor born in Portsmouth in 1917
Joffre Lovegrove would become the son in law of Annie and James Othen (My Great Grand Aunt / Uncle in law) when he married their daughter Edith Othen in 1938.
William’s brothers were
• Leslie Lovegrove (born 1881)
• Percy Dixon Lovegrove (born 1884)
• Preston Darry Gordon Lovegrove (Born 1885)
• Henry Lasam Herbert Lovegrove (born 1887)
• Horace Leonard Lovegrove (born 1896) died 22nd November 1915 (Basra Memorial)
• Francis George Lovegrove (born 1890)
• Samuel Ernest Lovegrove (born 1892) died 26th October 1917 (Tyne Cot Memorial)
• David Lovegrove(born 1896)
• Maurice Hestor Lovegrove(born 1897)
Another brother Roberts was born in 1900 and William also had a sister Hilda Dorothy born in 1896.
It has not as yet been possible through research to positively identify the seven other brothers mentioned in the letter from King George V. or the third brother mentioned in the paper as being killed in the War.
Hi Tony,
ReplyDeleteI recently stumbled upon your very interesting family war history and I think I can add a few details - My name is Richard Lovegrove, David Lovegrove was my Grandfather, so William Charles was my Great Uncle - in fact my dad William Roberts Lovegrove was named after his uncle
Bill.
I knew about the letter from the king. The other brother that was reported killed was Henry Leon Herbert Lovegrove, his name was recorded on several memorials in the Ascot and Sunninghill area and was also commemorated at the school which they attended St Peters in Earley near Reading. However, Henry (known as Toby for some reason turned up a couple of years after the war - family legend has it that he had married a foreign woman, either Russian or even German! We have no other details only that he lived on until 1946 and died in Coventry. The sad thing was that when he did return both his father and mother had died.
The 8 boys that fought in the war were as follows...
Percy Dixon
Preston Darry Gordon
Henry Leon Herbert (Toby)
William Charles
Francis George (Jack) - Lost an eye
Samuel Ernest (Ernie) - Killed at Passchendaele
David (Joe) - Shot in back Battle of Arras
Horace Leonard - Killed Battle of Ctesphon, Iraq
It was a very big family 17 children - 14 boys and 3 girls.
Not only were these boys being killed in the war but their younger brothers who were too young to enlist also tragically died at this time - Maurice Hector died of an illness at Windsor Hospital in 1915 aged 18 and his younger brother Roberts Redvers Dundonald (Bob) died of Lockjaw in 1919. Their dad Thomas William also died in 1918.
My Aunt born in 1929 is still very much alive and can clearly recall Joffre and Trevor visiting her mum and dad when she was a teenager at their house in Sunninghill.
Kind regards
Richard Lovegrove
Hi Richard - Thanks very much for the additional information - fascinating. Hope you enjoyed the blog. Cheers Tony
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