First World War Commonwealth War Grave - Lieutenant Edward Norkett, Royal Army Service Corps

 

 

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them".

 

 

 

Edward Norkett was born in Maidenhead Berkshire in 1880 to Edward Norkett, an Art Metal worker and his wife Harriet Bissley.

Edward first appears on the 1881 census aged just a year old, living with his parents and maternal aunts Catherine, and Mary, at Broadway, Maidenhead. By 1891 the family had moved to All saint's Avenue in Maidenhead.

 

On the 1901 census, Edward is listed living with his parents and siblings at 6 All Saints Avenue, Maidenhead Berkshire.  Edward's occupation is listed as a blacksmith.

 

On 28th July 1904 Edward married Amy Ann Pattisson at St Mary's Le Park Chapel of ease in Battersea London, where Amy was living at the time in Bolan Street.  They celebrated the birth of their first child, a son, Ernest in 1905, sadly Ernest was to pass away that same year.

 

Edward Norkett was an active member in St Luke's Church in Maidenhead, playing violin there as a child and later dedicating a wrought iron and gold leaf screen, made by himself, to the church in 1910. 

Decorative Wrought Iron Scene made by Edward
St Luke's Church, Maidenhead, Berkshire

On the 1911 census Edward is listed as the manager of an Art Metal Works, he is living at 16A King Street, Maidenhead with his wife Amy, and her younger brother Walter Lawrence Pattisson, who is Edward's Apprentice.

 

Sometime after the outbreak of World War I, Edward enlisted with the Royal Army Service Corps.  The Royal Army Service Corps were responsible for land, coastal and lake transport; air dispatch; supply of food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores such as clothing, furniture and stationery; administration of barracks; the Army Fire Service; and provision of staff clerks to headquarters units.

Lieutenant Edward Norkett (right)
and his son Walter

 

Unfortunately, I cannot trace Edward's Military Service Records.  He died from sickness on 25th March 1919.  His World War I Medal Card suggests that Amy applied for his Territorial Forces Medal after his death on 3rd May 1920.  The Territorial Force War Medal was a campaign medal awarded to members of the British Territorial Force and Territorial Force Nursing Services who served overseas in World War I; it is the rarest of the five British Great War medals.

 

Edward and Amy's only surviving child Walter Edward Norkett was to serve with the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II, sadly he died during service sometime between 31st May and 4th June 1940, just two years after the death of his mother.  He is buried in Dunkirk Cemetery in France.

 

Maybe it was some small mercy that Amy died before Walter after losing her Edward to war service.