Through the Trees: 59.2 Paternal Cousins of Alfred Squire

Alfred and Agnes Squire had eight children in Barnsley. Their children are Alfred Squire's siblings and first cousins.

53.1.1 - John Traviss Squire (1855-1894)

See Chapter 59

53.1.2 - Annie Squire (1858-1932) m Henry Green (1856-1928)

Jessie Green (1883-1962)

1911: At home in Eccleshall. No occupation (28)
Married George Goodinson Elliott (1867-1933?) in Dore, Derbyshire [now Sheffield]

Marjorie Green (1886-1887)

Died in infancy

53.1.3 - Sarah Ellen Traviss (Nellie) Squire (1860-1939) m Alfred Harris (1846-1917)

Robert Cyril (stepson, 1879)
Alfred Reginald (stepson, 1880)
Francis George (stepson, 1883)

William Greening Harris (1889-1971)

1911: At home in Packwood, Warks. Bank clerk
Married Ada Goodyer (1889-1961) in Nuneaton in 1912
1914: Volunteered for WWI. Home address was Dorridge.
1916: Caught scarlet fever in January; Joined BEF in November, British Salonika Force (BSF) in December.
1917: 43rd Siege Battery, Salonika
1918: 138th? Siege Battery, Salonika
1919: Home in March, demobbbed in April
Later went to Sheffield and worked as a builder's wages clerk

John Bertram Harris (1893-1918)

Went to King Edward VI Grammar School, Birmingham
1911: With his grandmother in Barnsley. Joiner's apprentice at a joinery and shopfitting works.
Volunteered at the outbreak of war but was rejected three times. Accepted October 1914, and enlisted with 16th Warwickshire Regiment in October. Transferred to 3rd Special Company, Royal Engineers as a sapper, and served from November 1915. These companies were formed (with volunteers) to respond to the German use of poison gas, specifically to handle gas discharge from cylinders, and gas shells fired from 4-inch mortars, using chemicals developed at Porton Down. The British Army used poison gas for the first time in September 1915, and 98 times during the Battles of the Somme. The use of poison gas by all major belligerents throughout World War I constituted war crimes as its use violated the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which prohibited the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.
Died of pneumonia caused by accidental gas poisoning, 24 October 1918. Buried at Etaples. Remembered on the War Memorial at Knowle Church, and in the Soldiers' Chapel at the church. By extraordinary coincidence, his first cousin's grand-daughter married at the church in 1963.

Edgar Squire Harris (1896-1970) m Barbara

Volunteered for WWI in 1915, and enlisted with the RGA as a Corporal. Arrived in France in March 1915. Discharged in May 1916, probably as a result of Scarlet Fever. There is a record in the London Gazette of a cadet of the same name to be a temporary 2nd Lieutenant in October 1918.
1933: Sailed on the Athenia to Canada from Glasgow, giving UK address as Union Jack Hostel, Waterloo Road, London SE1. Returned two months later on the same ship, giving 281 Friern Road, E Dulwich as UK address but country of last permanent residence India. He is an engineer on the way out, and an officer on the way back.

Agnes Muriel Mary Harris (1904-1968)

No records found other than death, in Birmingham

53.1.4 - William Squire (1860) m Louisa Mary Hattersley (1864)

53.1.5 - Agnes Squire (1861-1952) m Alexander Brown Bell (1861-1939)

Alexander Bell (1890-1985)

1911: At home in Gloucester. Bachelor of Arts student (20)
Married Doris Mary Holden (1896-1937) in Edmonton in 1927
Children:

Jeremy H Bell (1934)
Three other children

Later, they moved to Peterborough where he was a secondary school teacher. My photos of Peterborough are here.

Peterborough (my photo)

Robert Wallace Bell (1891-1965)

1911: At home in Gloucester. Arts student (19)
Emigrated to India where he was a police officer.
Retired to Melford nr Sudbury, Suffolk. JP.
In July 1949, Robert Wallace Bell, Justice of the Peace of Colts Crofts, Acton, Suffolk, refused to pay his assessment on the national insurance scheme. He is a retired officer of the Indian police. He declared that many persons - clergymen and pensioners who are not yet 65 - suffer the utmost hardship from this act because they literally cannot find the money to pay the levies. He refused to pay as a protest. He was arrested, and fined. (From a book cautioning against America following England into socialism by John T. Flynn. Also reported by the Guardian.)

Long Melford (my photo)

Dorothy Bell (1894-1975)

Died in Harrogate. No other record found after 1911.

Edgar Allan Bell (1896-1918)

Attended Central Secondary School, Sheffield, and Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester.
Studied at the Leeds School of Architecture, passed the RIBA Intermediate Examination.
Volunteered for WWI. Joined the Yorkshire Hussars in the autumn of 1913
Transferred to the 1/6 Territorial Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment in France from February 1915.
He would have been present at the first battle where the Germans used flamethrowers "500 yards of British trenches penetrated" - the 'liquid fire attack at Hooge' in July 1915; and the 'useless slaughter' of the Attack at the Hohenzollern Redoubt in October.
They were briefly deployed to Egypt in early 1916 but this was countermanded, and they returned to France. Joined actions of Gommecourt, on the Ancre, and at Rettemoy Graben, and the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line
Edgar was wounded when on duty near Angres on 10 May 1917
Medical evacuation to the UK. Died of his wounds on 3 January 1918 at Queen Alexandra's Hospital, Millbank. Buried at the Military Cemetery, Brookwood.
"You will be pleased to hear that he behaved splendidly, and did not so much as make a sound that he had been wounded until I turned and saw him. He was one of my best Section Commanders, and was most reliable and hard working while in the trenches", wrote his commanding officer.
A blogger on epitaphs picked up not only the above line but also noticed the apparently unique inscription on his grave, selected by his father: Ave! Morituri Salutamus (Hail, Caesar! Those about to die salute you).
There is also a short article by Keith Rowntree, archivist at Leeds Beckett University Edgar's parents donated a volume of “Building Construction” to the library in his memory. "...perhaps in the end they believed a book, relevant to his chosen profession, would best bear their son’s memory to future generations."