Henry Edwards Wingfield

Henry Edwards Wingfield was born in 1896. His father, William Henry Wingfield, was 57 when he was born. William’s first wife, Eliza Keyworth née Gilson, whom he married in Crookes in 1875, had died in 1890; there appear to have been no children from this marriage. William married Henry’s mother, Louisa Ruth Edwards, in 1892. They had five children: Mary Frances (b c 1894), Dorothy Margaret (b c 1895), Henry (b 1896), Muriel Maud Nancy (b c 1899), and Kathleen Faith (b 1900). Kathleen was born and baptised in Dore, but Sheffield is recorded in the censuses as the birthplace of the four oldest siblings.

William Wingfield came from a Sheffield family. He was a manufacturer of cutlery, saws, and files like his father John, but had retired by the time of the 1901 census when the family was living on Abbeydale Park Rise. Louisa’s background was more colourful: her mother Amelia was the daughter of John Köhler, a manufacturer of brass musical instruments based at 33 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, while her paternal grandmother had been the proprietor of the Old Hummums Hotel in the Little Piazza, Covent Garden Piazza which she continued to run following the death of her second husband, John Rockley.

By 1911, the Wingfields had moved to Brookside (probably number 144), Totley Brook Road; Henry was away at boarding school in Southport. After William died in 1914, the family continued to live on Totley Brook Road.

When war broke out, Henry Wingfield was eager to enlist. Documents survive relating to his attempt to join the 4th (Hallamshire) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment, part of the Territorial Force, as a private at Sheffield on 28th November 1914. He was 18 years old, but claimed to be 19 years and 3 months. He was 5’ 10¼” tall and weighed 142 lbs. He was given the regimental number 3048, but was discharged the next day in consequence of para 156(5) of TF Regulations 1912, relating to under-age enlistment.

When he became 19, Henry again presented himself for recruitment. On 21st August 1915, he attested for the 12th Battalion (the Sheffield City Battalion) of the York and Lancaster Regiment, and was given the regimental number 12/1602. He had grown 1½“ to 5’ 11¾”, since his previous attempt at enlistment. He was now an engineer’s apprentice, living at 76 Archer Road, Millhouses, presumably in lodgings; his mother and sisters had moved to live with his grandmother, Amelia Edwards, at Lullington Cottage, Bexley, Kent.

On 23rd August 1915, Henry joined his regiment at Redmires, and was ‘absorbed’ into the 15th (Reserve) Battalion, which had been formed in July 1915 from the depot companies of the 12th, 13th and 14th Battalions of the York and Lancaster Regiment. He was later transferred to the 14th Battalion, with whom he went to France on 5th April 1916.

He was killed in action in Flanders on 22nd July 1916, and is buried in Rue-du-Bacquerot no.1 Military Cemetery, Laventie, Pas-de-Calais.