Name
William Hoye
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
NA
Biography
The Hertfordshire Express of May 19th 1917 reveals that three sons of Elijah and Eliza Taylor Hoye (née Holes) served. Baptism and census records list twelve children, but by 1911, one had died; Emma (bapt 1866), James (bapt 1867), Ann (bapt 1869), Harry (bapt 1871), Charles (bapt 1875), Albert (b 1877), Arthur (b 1873, d 1881, aged eight), Ellen (b 1880), William (b c1883), Lois (b 1884), Arthur (b 1888) and Elizabeth (b 1891). Albert and Arthur were two who served, but the third was uncertain until Jen Szatkowski from Texas made contact. She provided the photograph of the Hoyes that served, her grandfather and his two younger brothers in their army uniforms: “I've studied the photograph and from my memory of my two great uncles, I'm pretty sure that the brother on the left is William Hoye and the one on the right is Arthur Hoye (I knew him as Uncle Darby), with my grandfather, Albert, kneeling in front.”
In 1911, William was living, with his parents Elijah and Emily, who were retired, in Workhouse Yard (somewhere near the junction of the High Street and Walnut Tree Road). Peter Sexton their grandson also shared the property.
Albert was recorded as in the Suffolks and then the Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment in 1918; Arthur as in the Bedfords, William’s regiment has not been identified. Interestingly the photograph shows them all with the same cap badge, that of the Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment.
Jen Szatkowski remembers that “Uncle Will used to grow daffodils and some vegetables on the patch of land that now belongs to Ruby Wild, adjacent to The Bury. I believe that small parcel of land used to go with Ruby's house(*1) during the time that Albert and Emily Hoye lived there and raised their family (my father was born in that house, as were his brothers and sisters)”.
*1 The land and house are divided by the footpath to the Bury from the High Street.
Additional Information
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
Acknowledgments
Jen Szatkowski. Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission.
