Persons, parent category.
Tuesday 4th February 1941
Gravestone inscription in the churchyard of St. Mary The Virgin, West Knoyle:
In Proud Memory of
David Warburton
Flying Officer, R.A.F., V.R.
killed on active service
February 4th 1941
Aged 21 years.
“We thank God for every remembrance of you.”
Re: Frances Ella Freeman of 22 Portway, Warminster, Wiltshire, widow, died 7th July 1940. Probate was granted at Winchester on 7th October 1940 to Florence Emily Savage, spinster, and Amy Herbert Stidston, widow. Effects: £371 15s. 11d.
Danny Howell writes:
Ernest Warren’s successor as Postmaster at Warminster was Arthur James Bartholomew – a son of Mr. and Mrs. F. Bartholomew of Carlton Villa, Portway, Warminster, and uncle of Freddie Bartholomew, the little boy who left Warminster for Hollywood and film star fame.
Arthur James Bartholomew’s appointment as Postmaster at Warminster in 1935 marked his return to the town after an absence of 23 years. He had been at one time a sorting clerk and telegraphist at Warminster Post Office but in 1912 left for the Central Telegraph Office in London. He held several subsequent appointments and prior to coming to Warminster was, from 1926, at the Highbridge Sub-Office, Bridgwater, Somerset.
Mr. Bartholomew resided at 11 Bath Road, Warminster. He left Warminster in July 1940 to be Head Postmaster at Blandford in Dorset. Mr. Read (Post Office Supervisor) continued the duties of Head Postmaster until a successor to Mr. Bartholomew was appointed (W. Smart).
From a list of items in Harold Nelson Dewey’s diaries 1919-1947 (list made by Percy Trollope):
February 1940
Obit of Mr. J. Scane, late schoolmaster, Maiden Bradley.
A List of Horse Dealers in Warminster in 1938, names just the one:
Leonard Smith, 33 Marsh Road, Warminster.
At the Town Hall, Warminster, on Tuesday 30th March 1937, commencing at 7.00 p.m., Messrs. Dart & Son, conducted a sale by auction of freehold properties, acting on instructions from the executors of the late Uriah White. A large company was present and all 11 lots on offer were disposed of. The solicitors were Ponting & Marshall, of High Street, Warminster.
Lot 1.
Nos. 16, 17 and 18 Marsh Street, Warminster, were sold to Mr. N. White for £175.
Lot 2.
Nos. 5 & 6 Marsh Street, Warminster, were sold to Mr. J. Saunders for £100.
Lot 3.
No. 1 Marsh Street, Warminster, was sold to Mr. W.F. Pearce for £55.
Lot 4.
No. 9 Hillwood, was sold to Mr. N. White for £15.
Lot 5.
Nos. 28 & 29 Brook Street, Warminster, were sold to Mr. N. White for £55.
Lot 6.
2 and a half acres of pasture land at King Street, Warminster (at present let for £10 per annum), was sold to Mr. W.J. Holton for £195.
Lot Nos. 7 to 11.
Various cottages and gardens with demolition orders upon them, realised £50. (Nos. 13 & 14 Marsh Street, Nos. 18 & 19 King Street, and Nos. 26, 27 & 47 Brook Street).
Danny Howell writes:
The Warminster Postmaster George Strode Manley
Edmund and Charlotte Manley’s son, George Strode Manley, was nominated Postmaster at Warminster by Treasury letter on 19 April 1875 and took up his duties on 31 May. He had previously been postal clerk for nine years.
George Strode Manley was responsible for 17 sub-offices and he periodically visited, inspected and tested postman’s walks, and even measured the whole distance to Imber using a measuring chain (six and a half miles), the villages of the Wylye Valley as far as Steeple Langford, and Horningsham and Kingston Deverill.
George Strode Manley retired in 1915 after 40 years service as Postmaster. No pension was granted on the grounds that a private business had been operated from the Post Office premises at the same time. Thus ended the Manley family connection with Warminster Post Office.
Following a well-earned retirement in good health, George Strode Manley passed away after a sudden heart attack on Tuesday 7 January 1936. His death occurred at his home at 42 Boreham Road (later re-numbered No.35), Warminster. He left a family of three sons and a daughter – William Manley who resided at Capetown; Frank Manley who worked for the post office in Bristol; schoolteacher Victor Manley; and Miss Manley who resided with her father.
George Manley’s wife, Charlotte Emma, who was the eldest daughter of Mr. Toomer, the postmaster at Salisbury, predeceased him on 10 December 1923. She was of a retiring disposition, rarely taking part in public life. She enjoyed remarkable health, retained by long country rambles, which were her chief delight. A repetition of a short but serious illness she suffered during the winter of 1922 occurred in October 1923 during which she battled bravely. She died of heart trouble, aged 68. Her funeral at St. John’s Church, Boreham Road, Warminster, was conducted by the Rev. Canon Jacob. Mrs. Manley’s obituary referred to her as “A quiet, unobtrusive character, whose meekness and singular purity of heart, combined with much virility displayed in the management of home life, made her indeed saintly in the eyes of her intimate friends and acquaintances.”
DR. ROBERT LEWIS WILLCOX, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.
A short biography by Danny Howell.
Written in 1994.
Dr. Robert Lewis Willcox, the son of Mr. C. Willcox of Wareham, Dorset, practised in Warminster for the lengthy span of 44 years. He came to the town in 1870, taking over the practice of Dr. G. T. Vicary. On arriving in Warminster Dr. Willcox took up residence at Melrose (No.5 High Street), a property which had been used as a doctor’s house for nearly 150 years previously.
Robert Willcox married Louisa C. Young, daughter of the late Mr. A. Young of Melbourne, at Christ Church, Kensington, on 30th March 1871. The Venerable Archdeacon Sinclair officiated. Mr. and Mrs. Willcox had five children: Mr. Linzey Willcox (who became an engineer in Newcastle), Hilda Willcox (who died, aged two months, in January 1874), Major Edwy Willcox (who served in the Welsh Regiment), Hubert Liston Willcox (who qualified as a doctor and was eventually in partnership with his father), and Claude Willcox (who became the proprietor and managing director of the Warminster Motor Company).
Robert Willcox soon became closely associated with the daily life of Warminster and was held in high esteem by local residents. In his early days in Warminster he was an enthusiastic bell-ringer at the Parish Church of St. Denys (The Minster). He was the President of the Warminster Volunteer Fire Brigade from its establishment in April 1886 until 1913 when the Brigade was taken over by the Urban District Council. His forced resignation was much regretted by the firemen with whom he was very popular.
Dr. Willcox was the Medical Officer at Warminster Cottage Hospital and was largely instrumental in gathering the funds for the enlargement of the hospital in 1892. He was also active in improving the welfare of the Warminster community, and the town’s waterworks at Crockerton (now replaced) were once a memorial to Dr. Willcox’s support to the scheme proposed by William Frank Morgan. Dr. Willcox and Mr. Morgan were the two chief promoters of the project but were met with considerable opposition from the Local Board (the forerunner of the Urban District Council). Willcox and Morgan won the day and the waterworks they campaigned so hard for provided Warminster with a splendid supply – an example of the foresight of Dr. Willcox.
In 1901 Robert Willcox commissioned the building of a house incorporating a small surgery at Portway, Warminster, a year before his son Hubert passed his medical exams and joined him as an assistant to the practice. Hubert later became a partner in the practice, and a third doctor, Wilfred Lawrence Hogan, joined in 1912. Unfortunately, Hubert died, after contracting blood poisoning from a patient, in 1913.
Robert Willcox resided at the house and surgery at Portway, near the corner with George Street, from 1901 onwards. The property featured his initials “RLW” and the date “1901” on a stone between the ground-floor bay windows on its east facing front. The property remained as a surgery for the town’s doctors until 1990, when a new surgery was built between the Avenue and the Central Car Park. The Portway Surgery was afterwards demolished and its site is now occupied by the residential dwellings known as The Grove.
Dr. Willcox retired (nearly one year after the death of his third son, Dr. Hubert Liston Willcox, with whom he was in partnership with), in November 1914. The practice passed to Dr. W. L. Hogan and Dr. H. L. Blackley.
Dr. Willcox and his wife then moved to Salisbury. On his departure he was presented with an address from the people of Warminster, signed by Lord Bath, which read: “Your many friends in Warminster and the neighbourhood cannot permit you to bid them good-bye after your forty-five years’ residence and work among them without offering some tangible proof both of the warm friendship they feel towards you personally and of their appreciation of your professional skill and unselfish devotion to their welfare. Therefore, they beg you to accept the enclosed cheque for one thousand five hundred guineas, together with their most sincere wishes.” Several hundred people had donated towards Dr. Willcox’s farewell cheque.
Although in retirement at Salisbury Dr. Willcox often assisted the surgeons at Salisbury Infirmary, gave first-aid classes to Salisbury Boy Scouts, and lectured on first-aid to Salisbury Police. He continued to be a trustee of Warminster Hospital and was Honorary Consulting Surgeon to it. A link between Dr. Willcox and Warminster was also maintained because his son, Claude, was the Managing Director of the Warminster Motor Company at George Street.
Dr. and Mrs. Willcox were a devoted couple and were able to celebrate not only their golden wedding but also their diamond wedding anniversary (30th March 1931), on which occasion they received a congratulatory telegram from King George V.
Robert Willcox died during the early part of the afternoon of Wednesday 20th November 1935, at his home, 97 London Road, Salisbury. He was 89 and had been ailing for some years. His funeral service and interment took place at the London Road Cemetery, Salisbury, on Saturday 23rd November 1935. The Vicar of St. Mark’s, Salisbury, officiated, assisted by Canon H. R. Whytehead of Salisbury (a former Vicar of Warminster). Among the mourners were Lord Bath and representatives of Warminster Urban District Council.
Thursday 29 August 1935
POPULAR FARMER AND LANDOWNER.
WELL-KNOWN IN DEVERILLS.
MR. T.N. COLES’ DEATH AT WINTERBOURNE STOKE.
Many of his old friends in Warminster and the Deverills will have learned with regret of the death of Mr. Thomas Newbery Coles, of The Hill, Winterbourne Stoke.
Mr. Coles comes of a well-known family of farmers and landowners in South Wilts, being a son of Mr. John Newbery Coles, who was a farmer and landowner at Teffont and Brixton Deverill.
There were a number of people from the Warminster district at the funeral on Thursday 29 August 1935 at Winterbourne Stoke Parish Church.
Mr. Coles, who was 74 years of age, passed away on Monday 26 August 1935 in a nursing home in Aberdeen following a sudden illness and an operation.
He recently went up to Scotland, as he had done for several years, for the purpose of grouse-shooting, and it was whilst he was staying at Stonehaven that he was taken ill.
Mr. Coles had always enjoyed remarkably good health, and until a year ago, despite his advancing years, he was able to play a good game of tennis, participated in shooting, and busied himself about his farm with out showing signs of fatigue.
Quite recently he had been considering retiring from business, and had been in negotiation with Mr. J. V. Rank for the sale of his farm at Winterbourne Stoke. He had arranged to take a house at South Newton.
Earlier in his business career, Mr. T.N. Coles in conjunction with his brother, Mr. Carey Coles, farmed Manor Farm, Winterbourne Stoke. He also occupied and farmed for some years Manor Farm, Berwick St. James, leaving there in 1916 to take over his property, Hill Farm, Winterbourne Stoke. Prior to the war he was farming 2,500 acres in the parishes of Winterbourne Stoke, Berwick St. James and Stapleford. He also owned a large farm at West Knoyle.
He went in extensively for sheep farming and corn growing, and was a pioneer in the district in the adoption of modern scientific methods of cultivation. He was greatly respected, and his advice upon the branches of agriculture of which he had had life experience was largely sought and greatly valued. He was one of the most familiar figures in Salisbury market, having attended there regularly since he was ten years of age. In his early days he bred Hampshire Downs, but changed to other breeds during the war. He was a member of the South Wilts branch of the National Farmers’ Union, and took a special interest in the work of the Farmers’ Benevolent Association.
He took little part in public life as a member of secular authorities, but he was a devoted Churchman, and was churchwarden and a school manager at Winterbourne Stoke for many years. He was a Conservative in politics.
He married Harriett Louisa, eldest daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Mark Wallis, of Stapleford, and they had three sons and two daughters. One daughter died in childhood.
The funeral service was taken by the Rev. W.C.N. Coles, of Natal, South Africa (a nephew of Mr. T.N. Coles), assisted by the Rev. S.W. Wayet, vicar of Winterbourne Stoke. The service was choral, and the hymns were “Peace, perfect peace,” and “Abide with me.” As the cortege was borne from the church the organist (Miss Lockyer) played Handel’s “Dead March” in “Saul.”
The family mourners were:- Mrs. T.N. Coles (wife), Mr. and Mrs. G.W.N. Coles (son and daughter-in-law), Mr. D.N. Coles and Mr. G. Coles (sons), Miss J. Coles (daughter), Mr. H.E.N. Coles (brother), and Mrs. Alexander Baker.
Included in the large and representative congregation were members of the principal agricultural families in the district. There were present Sir James Macklin, Mr. and Mrs. M.S. Waters, Mr. G.C. Waters, Messrs. M. Egremont, D. Egremont, J.G. Egremont, B. Crook, W.H. Dean, F. Wallis, M.R. Read, S.S. Stiles, Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Hayward, Mr. G. Combes, Mr. J.W. Miles, Mr. and Mrs. G.C. Alexander, Mr. and Mrs. G.R. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. W.P. Hayter, Mr. and Mrs. G. Gauntlett, Mr. and Mrs. S. Dean, Mr. and Mrs. R. Long, Mr. G. Long, Mrs. Marshman, Mr. W. Marshman, Mr. R. Hayward, Mr. J. Coles, Mr. C. Coles, Mrs. R.E.N. Coles, Mr. and Mrs. C. Parrott, Mr. T. Talbot Taylor, Mr. F. Way, Mrs. D. Langford, Mr. J. Combes, Mr. L. Combes, Mr. P. Waters, Mr. H.J. Sainsbury, Dr. A.G.B. Lory, Mr. H.L. Pile, Mr. E. George (representing the National Farmers’ Union), Mr. F. Andrews, Mr. H.E. Vincent.
Brigadier O.S. Cameron, Group Captain M. Henderson, Mr. A. Long-Brown, Mr. J.J. Street, Mr. M.C. Street, Mr. and Mrs. T.W. Genge, Messrs. J. Swanton, P. Swanton, C. Sandell, C.F. Sandell, G.R. Read, P. Wallis, C.M. Leslye, C.H. Williams, F.W. Wallis, D. Wallis, E.R. Grant, E.W. Grant, Wilfred Dean, K. Hurst-Brown.
The Rev. R.W. Sutcliffe (Bishop’s Fonthill), the Rev. Arthur Robins (Shrewton), Miss Applin, Mr. W.D.C. Hayter, Mr. G.H. Barnes, Mrs. Robins, Miss M. Williams, Mr. G. Lee, Mr. A. Rigler, Mr. P. Sutton, Mr. I.B. Hankey, Mrs. H. Fry, Mrs. Maggs, Mr. G. Norris, Mrs. Grant, Mr. J. West, Mrs. Dyer, Mrs. Charlton, Mrs. Haines, Miss Petty, Miss Moody, Mr. H.J. Lockyer, Miss F. Crouch, Mrs. Dawkins, Mrs G. Sanger, Mrs. W. Fry, and Mr. B. Fry.
In addition to the floral tributes from members of the family and friends, the employees on Mr. Coles’ farm sent a beautiful wreath, on which was a verse composed by one of the employees. It read as follows:- “Dear Master, Thou hast taken The one we loved so well, For ever to be with Thee; In Thy blest home to dwell. His pilgrim journey’s ended; He rests in Peace with Thee, Where tears and death and sorrow And pain shall never be.” Also amongst the wreaths was one from the Committee of the Shrewton and District Nursing Association.
Mary Symes, aged 93, pictured at the gate to Well Cottage, 14 Grange Lane, Boreham, Warminster, in 1935.
