Story
An old disability, which he had suffered from since the age of three, led to Sapper Henry Fred Brown being discharged as being no longer physically fit for war service. He was suffering from a dislocated right shoulder. He served for 133 days with the Royal Engineers' Inland Waterways and Docks division, having been assessed as being in the medical category C3 – fit for sedentary work, not active service – when he was called up at the age of 35 years and 11 months. Previously, he had worked as a 'Road Foreman' for the corporation. Henry, whose address was the 'Post Office' in Sterte Road, Poole, had been born in Semley, Wiltshire in 1881. He was christened there on 6 September. His father, Andrew Brown, who was 49 and had been born at Holt, Wimborne, worked as a sawyer and lived in a cottage in the village with his wife Ann Elizabeth Brown and their eight-year-old daughter Bertha. Ann Elizabeth was 30 and was born in Shaftesbury, where her husband had once lodged. Ten years later, the Browns were living at a house called Wardour at Semley. Father Andrew was now employed as an under-gardener… possibly at Wardour Old Castle (the location that English Heritage suggests was the 'inspiration for the Kevin Costner film, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.') Henry Fred had two older brothers living with the family - Tom, 14, was a farm labourer and William was 12 and still at school. By 1901, the Browns had moved to Winton in Bournemouth, where Andrew Brown, now 69, worked as a labourer at a laundry. Son, Henry Fred, 19, was working as a shop porter at a poulterers and another sister, Edith Kate, aged 26, worked as a machinist, cashier. They lived at 212 Wimborne Road in the suburb. It would not be long before Henry got married. His bride was a woman called Emma Justina Haskell and the ceremony took place in the Bournemouth on 21 September, 1909. Emma, 24, and born on 11 February 1885, came from Donhead St Andrew in Wiltshire and was the daughter of a stone quarry labourer. Two years later, Henry and Emma were still living in Wimborne Road, Winton (at a property called St Gates, number 151.) Henry was working as a carman at the laundry. The couple's first child, a girl, was born just before Christmas in 1912, on 23 December. They called her Eileen Lucy Mary. Their second child, another girl whom they named Katherine Joyce Gilberte, came into the world on 21 April 1917… just three months before Henry was called up for service in the First World War. Sapper Henry Fred Brown served for 133 days with the Inland Waterways and Docks division of the Royal Engineers. He joined the regiment on 20 July 1917. His medical record shows that he stood at just under 5ft 2ins, was relatively stocky for his height with a 34.5ins chest and had a fresh complexion, dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was discharged as being physically unfit for service on 29 November 1917 when his military character was recorded as being 'Good'. He was given the Silver Badge for men who were honourably discharged. It was a circular badge bearing the words: 'For King and Empire – Services Rendered'. Although his disability was not down to his military service, not aggravated by it and would not require out-patient treatment, he was awarded a pension, evidently for the upkeep of his children. The pension board's decision was for '£25 grat.' – possibly a one-off payment. (The equivalent purchasing power in 2019 would be about £1,500.) After the war, Henry and Emma and the children, were still living with Henry's by now widowed mother, in Sterte Road, Poole. Henry, his wife and mother were all registered as electors in 1921 at St John's, 30 Sterte Road. Sadly, it would not be very long before Henry passed away. He died in the spring on 1928 in Poole at the age of 46. When the Second World War broke out 11 years later, his widow, Emma, was still living at 30 Sterte Road, Poole, along with her two daughters, Katherine, a warehouse assistant and checker [?] at an art pottery, and Eileen, as well as Eileen's husband, Arthur Sturmey who worked as a chauffeur-gardener. (They shared with address with three other men.) Eileen had married in 1937 and her younger sister, Katherine, would marry soon after the war ended. Katherine"s husband was Raymond Love and the ceremony took place on 23 December 1946 (which was her older sister's birthday.) Henry's wife, Emma, was still living at St John's 30 Sterte Road, Poole, when she died on 14 December 1960 at the age of 77. She left estate to the value of £ 2,778 1s 7d and probate was granted to her daughter Eileen.