Name
John Frederick Pope
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
29/07/1917
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
876591
Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery
"D" Battery, 190th Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KLEIN-VIERSTRAAT BRITISH CEMETERY
II. F. 5.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath
Pre War
Born in Bushey on 8 September 1887 and baptised on 9 October 1887, John Frederick Pope was the youngest of eight children of William and Sarah Maria (nee Bolton) Pope of ‘Caldecote Cottage’, Caldecote Hill, Bushey Heath. His father was a farm labourer and his mother worked as a laundress. His parents were married in 1866 in the Watford registration district.
At the 1891 Census, John was 3 years old and living with his parents and seven siblings in Elstree Road, Bushey. His father was 48 years old and working as a general labourer, and his mother is 46 years old. Their birthplaces are given as Aldenham for William and Watford for Sarah. John’s siblings include William, George, Margaret Sarah, Arthur, Annie and Kate, whose ages are 21, 18, 16, 13, 11, 8 and 7 respectively. They were all born in Bushey, apart from William, George and Sarah, who were born in Caldecote Hill in Hertfordshire. William and George are also working as general labourers and Arthur, Annie and Kate are at school.
By the time of the 1901 Census, the family had moved to Caldecote Cottage, Caldecote Hill in Bushey Heath. John’s age is difficult to read but appears to have been recorded as aged 11, which doesn’t correlate with either his registered birth or the 1891 census. His father was now employed as a farm labourer, as was eldest brother William (Jnr.). His mother and three of the daughters, Sarah, Annie and Katie, were working as laundresses. Also present were three boarders, who were all working as general labourers.
At the 1911 Census, John was 23 years old and living at 80 Graham Road with his wife, Florence Norah, and son Frederick William, who was 2 years and 6 months old. Florence is 24 years old and was born in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. The record states that the couple had been married for 3 years but it has not been possible to find any record of the marriage. However, using her age and birthplace from the 1911 Census, it is likely that Florence’s surname was Garrett. She was born in Chesham in the first quarter of 1887 and at the 1901 Census, was 14 years old and living with her grandparents, Charles and Caroline Brandon, at 2 Wentworth Place, Waterside in Chesham. She was working as a brush hand.
John and Florence had two sons, Frederick William and Trevor, and the baptism record for Trevor at Holy Trinity Church, Wealdstone, on 19 October 1913, gave the family’s address as 25 Claremont Road.
Wartime Service
When war broke out, John enlisted in Harrow with the Royal Field Artillery and served in the 190th (Territorial Force) Battalion as Driver 876591 on the Western Front.
He died of wounds on 29 July 1917, aged 28, and was buried at Klein-Vierstraat British Cemetery in Belgium. The Inscription on his Headstone Reads; “Absent but not Forgotten”.
He is commemorated on the Bushey Memorial and at St Peter’s Church, Bushey Heath. His wife, Florence, later moved to Primrose Gardens, School Lane, Bushey.
The Register of Soldiers’ Effects names Florence as the sole recipient of his effects and shows payments of £4 10s. 10d. on 7 November 1917, and a war gratuity of £14 0s. 0d. on 10 February 1920.
John’s pension card gave the address for Florence as 28 Primrose Gardens, Merry Hill in Bushey and her date of birth as 10 January 1887. It also gave the date of birth for Frederick William as 6 August 1908 and for Trevor as 5 April 1913. A pension of 22s. 11d. per week was awarded with effect from 25 February 1918.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, Stuart Osborne
