Name
William George Fensom
10 May 1877
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/12/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Petty Officer
F/2606
Royal Naval Air Service
R.N. Air Station (Dunkerque)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
IPSWICH OLD CEMETERY
BA. IA. 19.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, Ipswich War Memorial, Suffolk
Pre War
William George Fensom was born on 10 May 1877 in Hemel Hempstead, the son of William and Eliza Fensom, and baptised there on 21 June 1878 at St Mary's Church with his younger brother Charles. He was one of eleven children, although four died in childhood.
On the 1881 and 1891 Censuses the family were living at the White Lion, Queen Street, Hemel Hempstead, where his mother was an Inn Keeper and his father was a Wood Turner. His father was listed as a Beer Retailer and Carpenter in the Post Office Directory from 1882 to 1890 and on the 1891 Census, William George was recorded as a Builders Apprentice. In 1901 William's parents were recorded as living at 25 Queen Street, next door to The White Lion which was then being run by William Abbiss.
William moved to London to work and in 1901 he was a boarder at the home of Robert Carey, at 27 Moreton Place, Pimlico, London. Robert was also a carpenter. William was admitted to the Chelsea branch of the Amalgamated Union of Carpenters and Joiners in 1906.
He married Annie May Soffie in Chelsea in 1903 and on the 1911 Census they were living with their five children at 30 Beaconsfield Road, Acton Green, Middlesex, where he was working as a carpenter with a building firm. One of their children had previously died in infancy but In 1913 they had another child, Norah.
They later lived at 37 Reading Road, Ipswich.
Wartime Service
William enlisted into the Royal Navy on 8 December 1914 and served as an air mechanic on the shore based Pembroke III and President, rising to Petty Officer. The shore based establishment of President II transferred to Dunkirk in March 1917.
He spent eight months in France at the Dunkirk Air Base with No. 10 Naval Squadron, with a nine day period of home leave beginning on 1 November. After returning from home leave he was admitted to no. 35 General Hospital, Calais (reason unknown) on 4 December, and was transferred back to England on 12 December, however, either during the crossing to Dover, or after his arrival, he took his own life.
His service record states that he committed suicide on 12 December 1917, with an inquiry giving a verdict of suicide during "temporary insanity brought on by active service", however the Royal Navy and Royal Marine Graves Roll gives the cause of death as "killed or died as a result of an accident" at the Royal Naval Air Station, Dunkerque.
He was 40 years old and is buried in Ipswich Old Cemetery, Suffolk.
Additional Information
His widow received a pension of £2 4s 7d a week for herself and her six children. She did not remarry and died in Chiswick in June 1953 aged 74. When his father died in 1924, aged 72 he was said to be resident in The Shanty, Queen Street, Hemel Hempstead and left effects of £2204 12s 4d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
www.ipswichwarmemorial.co.uk, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemeleroes.com., pubwiki.co.uk/HertsPubs. Hemel Hempstead/White Lion,
