A Family in Wartime

Mike's investigations into two of the local soldiers we will be commemorating at this FoBLC event for Remembrance Sunday

The Military records of Ernest Talbot are typically concise; Talbot, Ernest., Company Quartermaster Sergeant (CQMS), Number 3305, 4th London (Royal Fusiliers), Born 6 July 1890, St Olave Southwark,

died of Malignant Endo Carditis, 4 January 1917, at Seaford Camp, Seaford. The son of James and Mary Ann Talbot, husband of Margaret Alice Talbot, 61 Whitbread Road, Brockley; Child, Ernest James, born 24 July 1917.

Other records give a clearer picture; in the 1911 Census he is recorded as a bank clerk living at 2 Erlanger Road, New Cross, with his family; father James, a builders’ merchant, mother Mary, four brothers and three sisters. In 1915, Ernest married Margaret A Pett at Lewisham. Margaret is recorded in the 1911 Census as living at 148 Brockley Road with her family: father Ernest, a grocer; mother Alice; five brothers, and her sisters Helen and Celia. By 1914, the family had moved to 61 Whitbread Road. That same year Margaret’s sister Helen had married John Philip Grant, another bank clerk, of 37 Dalrymple Road Brockley.

In May 1917, the Brockley News announced, ‘On April 24th at 61 Whitbread-road, Brockley to Mrs A M Talbot, of CQMS Ernest Talbot: a son.’ The boy was named Ernest James Talbot. A brief look at the military records reminds us that CQMS Talbot had died in January, four months before the birth of his son. He is buried in Lewisham Cemetery.

This was not the only tragedy in the Pett family. In 1916, Margaret’s sister Helen gave birth to a daughter, Phyllis May; then on 16 November 1917. The Forest Hill Examiner reported; ‘Sergeant J Philip Grant, London Regiment, who has died of wounds received on October 16th, leaves a widow and one child, and was the son-in-law of Mr & Mrs Ernest Pett of 61 Whitbread Road, Brockley.’ After the war, Philip’s name was recorded on the St Cyprian’s Church War Memorial. This memorial was destroyed, along with the Church itself, on the first night of the Blitz in September 1940.

The 1921 Census shows the two sisters living together, with their two children at 56 Fermor Road Lewisham.