Private EDWIN WALTER WHITCHER

Avenue Road, Winchester
Service number 30267. 2/1st Derbyshire Yeomanry
Died, Canterbury, Kent, 24 September 1918

Life Summary

Edwin Whitcher was born in Winchester in 1880, one of eight children. For much of his life Edwin and his family lived outside the parish of Fulflood and Weeke and it was not until 1915 that he moved with his wife and children to 2, Avenue Road. Edwin joined the Army late in the war and died less than a month into his military service. His surname has various spellings in official records (including Whicher in the Winchester War Service Register) but this biography uses Whitcher.

Family Background

Edwin’s father, Frederick, was born in Up Somborne, near Winchester, in 1852. He spent most of his working life employed as a bricklayer. Edwin’s mother was born Mary Elizabeth Goodchild (she was known in the records by either her first or middle name or both) in Winchester in 1852 and baptised on 23 May that year at St Peter’s Church, Cheesehill.

Frederick’s father, Charles (1823-1885), had also been born in Up Somborne. In the 1871 Census he was working as a labourer and living at 83, Cheesehill Street, Winchester (now 36, Chesil Street), with his wife Ann who had been born in Eldon, near King’s Somborne, in 1824. In the 1881 Census, a Thomas Bignell was staying as a visitor at No.83. During the Great War, Thomas lost a son, Jesse, whose name also appears on the Fulflood and Weeke memorials. Jesse Bignell’s biography is on pp. 32.

Charles and Ann Whitcher had three children, including Frederick who in 1871 was employed as an errand boy.

Edwin’s other grandparents were John and Ann Goodchild. John (1812-1891) was born in Woodmancote, near Emsworth, near Portsmouth, and worked as an agricultural labourer and later as a gardener. Ann (1821-1888) was born in Otterbourne and worked as a laundress. In the censuses of 1851, 1861 and 1881 the Goodchilds were recorded living in Cheesehill Street, Winchester, a short distance from the Whitcher family.

Frederick Whitcher and Mary Goodchild married in Winchester in 1872 and by 1881 were living at 46, Cheesehill Street, a few doors away from Ann’s parents. They already had at least four children – Elizabeth Annie (also known as Ann and Annie), who had been born in 1872, Alice Jane (1874-1956), Frederick (1877-1957) and Edwin, who was probably born at No. 46. Behind the house stood Winchester Chesil railway station and one can imagine the younger Whitcher children being enthralled by the activities in the animal loading bay that served it and by the frequent passing of steam trains.

In 1885 Mary Whitcher gave birth to another son, William Alfred (known as Alfred), and then Arthur Henry two years later. (Rather confusingly, two more children – Charles John and Nelly – are shown living with Frederick and Mary Whitcher in the 1911 Census despite not having figured in any earlier official records. Nelly’s age was given as 28 which would mean she was born around 1883. Charles was 35 years old, making his date of birth around 1876. To add to the mystery the 1911 Census stated that although Mary Whitcher gave birth to eight children only six survived. To date it has not been possible to discover the identity of the two children who died before reaching adulthood, nor have any further records relating to Charles and Nelly Whitcher been uncovered.)

The Whitcher family moved to 6, Granville Place, Wharf Hill, Winchester, (same address today) in around 1884, remaining there until 1896. Edwin, aged four when they moved, probably went to St Peter’s Cheesehill Elementary School from age five to 13. Meanwhile, his two older sisters went out to work as domestic servants. In the 1891 Census Elizabeth Annie is listed living at 16, The Square where she was a domestic servant to Mrs Adelaide Joyce. Mrs Joyce, a widow, had a son, 30-year-old Samuel, who worked as a dispenser of medicines, possibly from his mother’s house.

In 1897 Frederick and Mary Whitcher moved a short distance to 10, Hillside Terrace, Winchester (later renumbered 71, Bar End Road). As the boys grew up, they followed their father into the building trade, as bricklayers and labourers. Edwin was working as a labourer when he married Annie Harriet Wild (1885-1964) in Winchester in 1908. Annie had been born in the city and grew up in St Clement’s Street. Her father, George, was a chimney sweep. Her mother, Harriet, passed away in 1894 at the age of 52. In the 1901 Census 16-year-old Annie was listed as a domestic servant working for surveyor Robert Piper and his family at their home in Foundry Lane, off Colebrook Street.

After marrying, Edwin and Annie lived at 12, Staple Gardens, Winchester, until 1914. The 1911 Census shows Annie’s father John Goodchild living with them at the property. The same census reveals that six of Edwin’s siblings were still living at home at 10, Hillside Terrace (now 71, Bar End Road). Annie and Alice were out of work, Frederick and Arthur were employed as labourers and then there were the mysterious Charles John and Nelly, mentioned above. Edwin’s other brother William was living at 8, Water Lane with his wife Daisy and their young son.

Edwin and Annie’s first child, Doris, was born on 22 August 1913. Two years later the Whitchers moved to 2, Avenue Road, Fulflood (the address then and now), which was to be home to the Whitcher family until the 1960s. On 13 November 1916, Annie gave birth to a second daughter, Gladys May. The Whitchers’ neighbours at 3, Avenue Road were Lot and Elizabeth Churcher whose sons Henry and Harry served in the Great War with the Hampshire Regiment. Henry was killed in action in September 1918, the same month that Edwin was to die. Henry’s name is also on the Fulflood and Weeke memorials and his biography appears on page 55.

Great War Record

According to the Winchester War Service Register (WWSR), Edwin Whitcher did not enlist for military service until 1 September 1918, more than four years after the start of the Great War. It is not known why he joined up so late as all his other brothers enlisted much earlier. From June 1916 Edwin would have been liable for call-up under conscription, but for some reason he avoided the call to arms until just two months before the war ended. Although by then in his mid-30s, age was unlikely to have been a factor – across Britain thousands of married men of a similar age were swept into the forces by conscription. Nor would his work have marked him out for exemption. It is possible that Edwin was deemed physically unfit in the early years of the war before the military authorities changed their minds.

In the end conscription probably did catch up with Edwin Whitcher. On 1 September 1918 he joined the 2/1st Derbyshire Yeomanry, a mounted Territorial unit who were serving on the home front at Ash, near Canterbury, Kent. The regiment had been formed in 1914 and for much of 1915 was based near King’s Lynn in Norfolk. The following year the unit was converted to cyclists and consequently dismounted. By 1918 it was stationed at Ash as part of the 5th Cyclist Brigade in The Cyclist Division. On 24 September, after just over three weeks’ service, Edwin died at Canterbury Military Hospital, aged 37. The cause of his death is not known, but possibly it was a result of Spanish flu which had reached southern England earlier that summer.

Family after the Great War

As stated above, all of Edwin’s brothers served in the war and survived. Frederick volunteered with the Hampshire Regiment in November 1915 but later transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps, serving in the Mechanical Transport section. He was wounded in France in August 1917. William Whitcher, whose address in the WWSR, is 8, Westgate Lane, Winchester (a road which ran from the High Street to Sussex Street and disappeared during the building of the Hampshire County Council offices) volunteered with the 4th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment in September 1914 and served in India and Mesopotamia. Arthur Whitcher is believed to have enlisted with the Royal Garrison Artillery in January 1916, possibly as an early conscript, and served as a gunner in Egypt. He is thought to have married Nina Street in the same year and his address in the WWSR is given as 12, St Catherine’s Road, Winchester.

After the war Edwin’s parents, Frederick and Mary, continued to live at 71, Bar End Road. Mary died in 1931, aged 79, and Frederick two years later at the age of 81. Annie Whitcher, Edwin’s widow, remained the householder for 2, Avenue Road until her death, aged 79, in Winchester in 1964. However, she is not to be found there in the 1939 Register, just her two daughters, Doris and Gladys. Doris, who was listed as a domestic servant, died in Basingstoke in 1958, aged 45. Gladys married William G. Edwards in Winchester in 1945 and remained in the city until her death in 2003, aged 87.

The 1939 Register recorded Edwin’s brother Frederick living with his wife Rose at 75, Milverton Road, Winchester (just around the corner from Annie Whitcher), and working as a general labourer/heavy worker. Frederick died in Winchester in 1957, aged 70.

William (Alfred) Whitcher was working as a bricklayer in 1939 and living with his wife Daisy at 69, Bar End Road, next door to where he had lived with his parents. The date and place of his death are unknown. Meanwhile, Edwin’s other brother Arthur had moved with his wife Nina to Birmingham where he was employed as a gardener. He died in Birmingham in 1960, aged 73.

Edwin’s elder sister, Alice, continued to live in Winchester and is believed to have not married. She died in the city in 1956 at the age of 69. It is not known for certain what became of Edwin’s eldest sister, Elizabeth Annie, but she possibly died in Manchester in 1943, aged 71.

Medals and Memorials for Edwin Walter Whitcher

Private Edwin Walter Whitcher was not entitled to any military service medals because he never served in a theatre of war. After his death, his body was returned from Canterbury to Winchester and buried at St Giles Cemetery on the Alresford Road – headstone pictured above. Edwin’s name appears on the memorials at St Matthew’s Church, Weeke, St Paul’s Church, Fulflood (where it is spelt Witcher), St Peter Chesil, Winchester (held at All Saints, Winchester) and the Methodist Church, Parchment Street, Winchester (held at the United Church, Jewry Street). As yet, the family’s connection with that Methodist church is not known.

Researchers – GERALDINE BUCHANAN, DEREK WHITFIELD and JENNY WATSON