Saturday 23 April 2011

R C Ennor

Reginald Charles Ennor

Born 1891 in Newquay, Cornwall.  Died of wounds 10 October 1916, Leeds Hospital, Leeds.  
No. 6468 Pte 3/7th City of London Regiment (formerly No. 24601 9th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

Reginald Ennor was a part of a well-known Newquay family.  I believe that his grandfather was John Ennor Snr who was responsible for the building of a great deal of Victorian Newquay.  His father was John Ennor Jnr (who I had problems finding on Census returns - a transcriber has mistaken "Jnr" for the surname "Jrit" and indexed it accordingly!) and his mother Maria.  On the 1881 Census John and Maria are intriguing living at "Fancy Shop" - Maria being the proprieter of the establishment. 

Reginald enlisted in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and was attached to the 9th Battalion.  This was a Reserve Battalion, raised at Falmouth in October 1914.  In September 1916 the Reserve Battalions were reorganised and as a result the 9th was absorbed into the Training Reserve of the 10th Reserve Brigade. Presumably at this point Reginald was attached to the 3/7th Battalion of the London Regiment.

The 7th Battalion was nicknamed the "Shiny Seventh" and arrived in France in March 1915 with 4th London Brigade, 2nd London Division.  If Reginald joined them in September 1916 and died the following month it is likely he received his wounds at either the Battles of High Wood or Butte de Warlencourt - as he had time to be evacuated to the military hospital at Leeds, it seems likely to have been the former.

Reginald's family brought his body back to Newquay for burial; he lies in the town cemetery.  His mother died the following year, his father continued to live on Tower Road (this is misspelt on the Commonwealth War Graves site as "Lower Road") for a number of years. 

There are still a number of Ennors living in Newquay.

Update 18 July 2011

I have found some more information about Reginald from the Cornish Guardian dated 20 October 1916.  According to the article Reginald was "highly respected by all who knew him".  He apparently excelled as a high diver and football player.  His death at Leeds Military Hospital was due to wounds received in battle.  Reginald's brother Hubert was at the front serving as a QSM with the Durham Light Infantry.

There is a photograph of Reginald, which I will obtain when I visit the Cornish Studies Library.


8 comments:

  1. Great start! Keep up the good work

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  2. Wonderful blog concept. Best wishes!

    Welcome to the Geneabloggers family. Hope you find the association fruitful; I sure do. I have found it most stimulating, especially some of the Daily Themes.

    May you keep sharing your ancestor stories!

    Dr. Bill ;-)
    http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/
    Author of "Back to the Homeplace"
    and "13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories"
    http://www.examiner.com/x-53135-Springfield-Genealogy-Examiner
    http://www.examiner.com/x-58285-Ozarks-Cultural-Heritage-Examiner

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  3. Thanks for the encouragement Dr Bill and Helen!

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  4. Welcome to the genealogy blogging community. This is an excellent concept for a blog and a wonderful to memorialize the men who fought in that awful war. I'll be posting something soon about my grandmother's brother who fought in the Battle of Galizia in August, 1914, just at the war began. He was from a tiny town in Transylvania (now Romania, but then Austro-Hungary. All sad. Looking foreward to more.

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  5. Many thanks Linda - I will look forward to hearing about your great-uncle too.

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  6. This was interesting to read as Reginald's elder sister (Amelia) was my great-grandmother.

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  7. Hi Patrick - glad you found this information interesting. If you would like any other information, eg copies of the Census returns I found, copy of Medal Index Card or photo of grave, let me know. Kind regards Judith

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  8. Hi Judi.

    Thanks for the offer (and for doing all this research in the first place). I did a bit of research on the Ennor family a month ago on Ancestry (census returns, etc) and I came across your site when doing a Google search on "John Ennor" Newquay.

    It would be very interesting to see the press cutting you mention. My email is pvincent9999@yahoo.co.uk.

    The war memorial also lists a 'J H Ennor' and I assume that this is Joseph Hooper Ennor, Reginald's elder brother?

    If you have any more info about Hubert, that would also be very interesting.

    Best wishes,

    Patrick

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