With Armistice Day tomorrow it seems appropriate to write a short blog about an ancestor who we know very little about other than that he died fighting for his country almost exactly 100 years ago on 20th November 1915.
Victor Bradshaw Haskins, my great uncle, was born on 21st October 1891 in Clapham, the son of an architect and surveyor.
When he was 9 years old he and his parents plus his older siblings were living at 51 Bromfelde Road, Clapham with a live in general servant. Ten years later, in 1911, he had a job as an ironmonger's assistant but was still living with his parents, a brother plus now two domestic servants at the 14 roomed house called Kenmore in Thrale Road, Streatham Park. He was a young man from a reasonably wealthy family and had the rest of his life to look forward to.
Unfortunately, as for many like him, the Great War got in the way of "the rest of his life" and hit him head on.
When he was 9 years old he and his parents plus his older siblings were living at 51 Bromfelde Road, Clapham with a live in general servant. Ten years later, in 1911, he had a job as an ironmonger's assistant but was still living with his parents, a brother plus now two domestic servants at the 14 roomed house called Kenmore in Thrale Road, Streatham Park. He was a young man from a reasonably wealthy family and had the rest of his life to look forward to.
Unfortunately, as for many like him, the Great War got in the way of "the rest of his life" and hit him head on.
There is a notice in The London Gazette on 7th April 1915 of his appointment as Second Lieutenant, on probation, in the 3rd Battalion, East Surrey Regiment. Although his service records are presumed destroyed, we know from his medal card that he entered France on 5th September 1915 and ten weeks later on 20th November he was dead.
The Dorking & Leatherhead Advertiser reported : "Second Lieutenant Victor Bradshaw Haskins of the 3rd East Surrey Regiment was killed in France on November 20th. The youngest son of Mr and Mrs William A. Haskins of Kenmore, Thrale Road, Streatham. He was born on October 21st 1891 and educated at the City of London School. When war broke out he was an engineering student and a cadet in the University of London 0.T.C. (Officer Training Corps) from which Corps he qualified for his commission in March and went out to France in August last."
The Dorking & Leatherhead Advertiser reported : "Second Lieutenant Victor Bradshaw Haskins of the 3rd East Surrey Regiment was killed in France on November 20th. The youngest son of Mr and Mrs William A. Haskins of Kenmore, Thrale Road, Streatham. He was born on October 21st 1891 and educated at the City of London School. When war broke out he was an engineering student and a cadet in the University of London 0.T.C. (Officer Training Corps) from which Corps he qualified for his commission in March and went out to France in August last."
The record of the Roll of War Service, Officers Training Corps, University of London, says he was killed in action in the Ypres salient. I have not been able to pinpoint any particular battle for that day but he was probably hit by an enemy shell while in one of the muddy trenches on the edge of no-mans-land. He has no known grave and is remembered in the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery.
He was too young to die, like many others, at just 24.
He was too young to die, like many others, at just 24.