So I was telling you that there was trouble ahead for the Marriotts when they were all pictured together in 1908 at Claude’s wedding.
But not for them all. Six of the ten Marriott children survived WW1.
Arthur Weatherley Trevenan Marriott did not marry and did not serve in WW1. Like two of his brothers, he followed his Father Into the Civil Service and became, like his Father, an Admiralty Clerk.
Arthur and his sister Madeleine were made co-Executors of their Uncle’s Will in 1924 and Arthur seems to have lived his life after receiving this inheritance in a hotel in West Kensington in London.
Arthur died from heart failure in Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith in 1943 aged 64 . You will recall from Part I that he is buried in Nunhead Cemetery along with his sister, Madeleine. Arthur was the seventh and last burial in the family plot.
Madeleine Delano Marriott also did not marry and after receiving her half of her Uncle’s estate, she bought a guest house in Hammersmith in West London.
Madeleine died in Hammersmith Hospital aged in 1941 aged 61 from “Acute Bacterial Food Poisoning due to consumption of contaminated food at her home”. Post Mortem Verdict – Misadventure. Goodness.
Madeleine was the sixth burial in the family plot in Nunhead Cemetery.
Claude Randolph Marriott also became an Admiralty Clerk (like his Father and brother, Arthur) and latterly an Engineer. He married a Naval Architect’s daughter and lived rather grandly it seems in large houses in Surrey. Claude died in 1959 aged 77.
Ethel Clara Marriott married twice. Her first marriage produced a daughter who went on to be Headmistress of the International School in New Delhi, India from 1954 – 1980. Ethel was widowed in the early 1950s, remarried in 1953 and she and her husband travelled frequently to see her daughter in India.
Widowed again in 1969, Ethel lived out her life with her daughter who had come back to the UK after her retirement. Ethel died aged 99 in 1982.
Kathleen Mabel Marriott married and had two sons. She died aged 80 in South Africa. I have no idea how this came to be but there it is.
Weatherley Sidney Mortimer Marriott served in WW1 in the 25th London (Cyclists) Regiment. Weatherley married twice. His second wife died in 1950 and left him a substantial amount of money. Afterwards he is to be found travelling extensively around India and the Far East. Weatherley died in 1969 aged 81.
But the four youngest children of the Marriott family, all boys, all died in WW1.
Shirley Verdon William Marriott (no clue about why he was named Shirley …) married a Hilda Maybury on 5 November 1913 in Wandsworth Register Office. The very next day the two of them got on the steamer, SS Ballarat and sailed for a new life in Adelaide, Australia where Shirley became a Woollen Warehouseman’s Assistant. Shirley and Hilda had two sons born in 1914 and 1916.
In that same year, Shirley enlisted in the Australian Army and embarked overseas in April.
Shirley was sent to France and died in the Somme Valley in Northern France on 9 August 1918 aged 27. He is buried in the Heath Commonwealth War Graves Military Cemetery, Harbonnieres, Department de la Somme in the Picardie Region of France. But before he was buried in this cemetery, his colleagues (presumably) buried him in the Somme Valley in the mud and filth that the soldiers had to endure. This is Shirley’s original grave in the Somme. Such a tragically sad photograph. His hat seems particularly poignant.
Roy Dudley Marriott boarded a ship to Cape Town, South Africa when he was 19 in 1913 to start a new life as a Farmer.
In 1916, he joined the South African Army and was sent with Allied troops to attack the Germans in the heart of their territory known as German East Africa. Roy died in June 1916, aged just 23, in Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika) and is buried in the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in its capital, Dar es Salaam.
Osborne Delano Marriott served as a Cyclist in the 25th London Regiment (as had his brother, Weatherley), then as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Prince of Wales Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment before being promoted to Captain in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment.
Osborne was sent to France in 1915 and died in August 1917 also aged 23. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial in West-Vlaanderen in Belgium, a monument to the missing of WW1 who have no known grave. Most of these casualties died in or around the fighting in Ypres, Belgium.
Kenneth Melbourne Hugh Marriott was the youngest of the Marriott children.
Kenneth served in WW1 in 25th London (Cyclists) Regiment (as had his brothers Weatherley and Osborne) then the 1st West Riding Regiment and then the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force where he attained the Rank of 2nd Lieutenant.
Kenneth died, aged just 22, in Palestine (now Israel) which was then part of the Turkish Empire. Kenneth is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Military Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Gosh, didn’t the Marriott boys get flung far and wide? The World War really was the World War for them wasn’t it? From Australia to France, South Africa to Tanzania, London to Belgium and Palestine. And in all the four. locations that are their final resting places, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission keeps the graves looking pristine, ordered and dignified. Never Forget.
But what about their parents? What happened to them? And how did they cope with this devastating sorrow and loss of their four. youngest sons?
Part III coming soon.
Linda Swinburne Family History Blog 