Name
Jesse Titmuss
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
'D' Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Jesse appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. Parish records suggest only one man of this name who could have served, and he was born on July 9th 1892 to Charles and Eliza Mary Titmuss (née Weeden). He would have been twenty-two at the outbreak of war. Baptism records list eleven children: Emma (bapt 1872), Anne Maria (bapt 1874), Ellen (bapt 1876), Alice (b 1879), Lizzie (b 1882), Minnie (b c1883), Frederick (b 1886), Jesse (b 1892), Bertram (b 1889), Ethel and Mary (twins? bapt 1895).
By the 1911 census all the children had left their parents home, given as near the Baptist Chapel. Jesse is missing, so he was either living or working away from Pirton.
Jesse is recorded in the Parish Magazine of September 1915 as enlisting sometime during 1914, but after July, and serving in “D” Company, 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.
Two newspaper cuttings, unfortunately undated, provide further information on Jesse. The first reports a letter written by Jesse on December 22nd (another newspaper report suggests that this must be 1914). In it he says he is getting on well and hopes all the Pirton boys at the Front are likewise; he adds ‘I have not seen any of them since I have been out here. I have been in the trenches many times.’ He describes the rough weather, the mud and the slush in the trenches, but adds ‘But we keep sailing on. As we marched from the trenches the other day we could see the houses that had been blown to pieces by shell fire. Never seen such sights in my life. The big guns rattle out like thunder. I don't think it will last much longer. We are about 300 yards from the German trenches. We get plenty of food out here.’ and concludes with ‘a happy new year to all at Pirton.’
The second cutting confirms that he had been wounded, shot in the face, which fractured his jaw and as a result he had returned to England, landing in Southampton, and he had then gone to the Clearing Station at Eastleigh, Hants. A newspaper report confirms that this injury had been received on October 1st, and that must have been in 1915.
The North Herts Mail of April 6th 1916 reports that he had written, saying that he had to again see a doctor, was back in hospital and that there was a probability of his getting his discharge. That seemed likely, given the content of the rest of the report. He arrived home on or about the third week of March, but he must still have been suffering; ‘He was shot through the jaw at Loos, the bullet going in at one side and coming out at the other. His jaw bone was splintered and he had undergone an operation for the removal of the bones. He was returning on Monday, three weeks ago, when he fainted in the train, and was taken very bad. Dr Charles, of Hitchin, was in the same train, and he examined him on arrival at King’s Cross. The police brought a hand-stretcher and the soldier was removed. This gallant solder has seen a lot of fighting. He went out with the earlier contingents, coming from South Africa in August 1914 with his Regiment. After twenty-four hours leave they went off to France. He went through several big battles before Loos. He finishes his time with the Army next October.'
The Parish Magazine of June 1917 confirmed that he was discharged from the army as a result of his wounds.
At some point he married and his wife’s name was Rose. A memorial in St. Mary’s churchyard records that Jesse died in 1954, when he would have been about sixty-two, and that Rose died in 1972.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
