Elias and Jane Webb married in 1854 and by 1871 they were living in Alfred Street, Westbury.
They had nine children. Edward, John, James, Elias, Daniel, Mark, Albert, Frederick and Annie. By 1911 their family had spread around the country, but four of the children were still living in Westbury. In the last article we learnt what happened to John’s sons. Now we look at Daniel’s family.
Daniel was born in 1869 and the 1911 census shows him living at Prospect Place Buildings, Westbury with his wife Lily [known as Rose]. Daniel is described as a cloth worker dresser and Lily a glove maker. They had nine surviving children, Florence, working as a servant for Mr William Love, Blast Furnace and Colliery Manager, living at Cradlebridge, Westbury. The other children still live at home. Llewellyn is described as a cloth weaver, Edward, as a grocers and bakers assistant and Dora as a cloth weaver’s assistant. Edith, Oliver, Bessie, Elise and Eleanor are still at school. With the outbreak of war Llewellyn, Edward and Oliver all enlisted and went to war.
Llewellyn was born in July 1894. At the outbreak of WW1 Llewellyn was employed as a cloth weaver at Bitham Mill. Family memories recall he enlisted in Trowbridge during 1914 and was attached to the 2nd/4th Wiltshire Regiment. Early in December 1914 The regiment sailed to India and Llewellyn sent a postcard home stating that they arrived in Bombay on the 5th January 1915. They were then leaving for Poona. He was batman to Robert Laverton of Westbury. Robert promised him a better job, at the mill, if they returned safely to England This promise was honoured on their return as Llewellyn was upgraded to an office job. His name appears on the Laverton Roll of Honour. No service records remain but his medal records show him as serving with the Wiltshire Regiment as a private. He went on to be a commercial clerk
Edward was born in October 1895. Edward enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment and served in France. Family memories recall that at some point he returned to England, as he was in hospital with pleurisy. On his return to the front he was involved in the battle around Passchendaele. No service records remain but his medal records show him as serving as a private with the 6th and 2nd Wiltshire Regiments and then the 11th Hampshire Regiment.
Oliver was born in October 1899. His service record still exists, and on that his occupation is given as a ‘clerk in charge of a book stall. He enlisted on 2nd October 1917 in Trowbridge and started his service in the training reserve of the Wiltshire Regiment but was transferred to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in May1918 and was demobilised in February 1920 but in July of that year he re-enlisted for a further year with the 4th Wiltshire Defence Force. But it would appear that he continued to remain with them until December 1924. On these records his occupation is given as a leather worker and a timber merchant. We believe he married in 1927 and died in 1974
Jean Davis, from Warminster, contacted the Westbury Family History WW1 Project with information on the Webb family and we must thank her for the photographs used in this article.
In the next article we will tell you about other members of the family
Do you know anything about Herbert, Harold or Earnest or do you know anyone from this area who served in WW1? If so, the Westbury Family History Group would like to hear from you. They can be contacted on westbury@wiltshirefhs.co.uk
