This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in Dec 2004/Jan 2005, and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett. Further acknowledgments appear at the end of the article.

Albert John Titmuss

Thirty times to Pirton came the telegrams to tell the families of the death of a loved one on the foreign fields of the First World War. Each Remembrance Sunday we rightly remember those 30 brave men inscribed on our village War Memorial. Their deaths, their sacrifices were truly tragic, yet perhaps we ponder too little on the loved ones who were left to grieve – parents, sisters and brothers, sweethearts, wives, extended family and friends. Perhaps, this is nowhere clearer than with the death of Corporal Albert Titmuss. He died in 1917 aged 32; his widow bore her grief at his death for 53 years.

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Albert, born in 1884, was one of the six children of George and Emma Titmuss (nee Cherry) whose families had lived in the village for many years. Albert was christened at St. Mary’s on 3rd August 1884. Like his brothers and sisters he attended the village school, but by the turn of the century was working on the land of one of the several farms in and around Pirton.

Like the majority of villagers, the family was poor; his father often away where seasonal work could be found, his mother earning a few pence a day by straw-plaiting. In spite of many large families, two thirds of the homes in the village had no more than four rooms. In 1901, when the Census man came knocking on their door, George was away working. Emma was at home with Albert, then 16, together with older sister Peggy who worked locally as a domestic servant, 12 year old Sidney, a sister aged 10 and six year old Freddie. Fred Titmuss was to become a professional footballer, playing for Southampton and England. in the 1920’s.

Whilst in that census, the family lived in the ‘Burge End’ (meaning somewhere in ‘downtown Pirton’ below The Fox), George and Emma had moved to Church Walk by the start of the First World War. Their cottage was part of Middle Farm, demolished in 1969, where now 10-14 Crabtree Lane and part of Docklands now stands.

By the time the war machinery of Germany was moving across Europe in 1914, Albert was 30 years of age. He may have been living in Ickleford although possibly spending living weeknights near his work at Finsbury Park. It was there he worked for the Great Northern Railway (amalgamated to become the LNER in 1923). He had probably known his future wife, Elsie Goldsmith, for some time; certainly Elsie’s father, Fred, worked at Finsbury Park too, staying with his sister during the week.

On 16th August 1915, Albert enlisted in Hitchin with the Royal Field Artillery. Seven months later, when he and Elsie married on 20th March 1916, there began that all too frequent tragedy of a lifetime of intended family life cut short by the bloodiness and death of war. Elsie Goldsmith was only 23; one of eight children living at what is now 5 Walnut Tree Road, then a small 2up and 2down cottage. Years later the cottage was extended and is now the home of Janet Brown. Indeed the house has been in the same family for over a century, as Janet’s mother, Effie, was the sister of Elsie Goldsmith. Elsie was the third oldest in this family, Janet’s mother three places younger.

When Albert and Elsie married on 20th March 1916, they probably had no time to make a family home, delaying that until the War was over. Albert was away at war most of the time and his young wife may well have gone on living with her own family. With war deaths soaring into the hundreds of thousands, Albert left England for France in May 1916, less than two months after his marriage to Elsie. By now he was Corporal Albert Titmuss, L/37084, of B Battery 169th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.

No doubt Elsie and Albert wrote to each other as often as they could, their first wedding anniversary passed with them having shared so little married life together. In September of that year he was back on leave in the peacefulness of Pirton, away from the horrors of the trenches. When he returned to France on 7th October, he had seen his home village and young wife for the last time.

Two weeks later he was dead, Elsie a widow. On 23rd October, his battery had been getting their guns in action when a shell exploded nearby. Colleagues got him to a place of safety, but he died before they managed to get him to the dressing station.

The grief to Elsie must have been intense. A young Pirton wife receiving the news that she dreaded; the end to dreams of a family life carved together when this terrible war was over. It is unlikely that she even received much comfort from the letter that she received from a Sergeant Gay: ” We respected him as a brave and fearless man. He had not been long with us in the battery, but we found him a true and honest comrade, respected by all the NCOs and men in the battery’. He was buried at the Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Leper, Wrest-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Ref VI.J.7

Albert Titmuss’ war and life was over, but Elsie’s grief was to last a further 53 years. Janet recently recalled how her mother, Elsie’s sister, told her that the distress shown by Elsie on learning of the death of her husband was profound. “She seemed to turn white overnight and would not leave her room for days and meals, mainly uneaten, were taken to her.”

She continued to live in the same house with her parents, her brothers and sister moving on elsewhere in the village and beyond. The rest of the family felt so sorry for her tragedy and allowed her to help choose the names of her brothers’ and sisters’ children. It was her choice that Janet was so baptised. In 1941 her mother, Prudence died and her father, Frederick, five years later. Elsie then lived on alone in the house where she had received the news of her husband’s death so many years earlier. She never remarried and so brief was her marriage, that she was still known by some of her friends as Elsie Goldsmith.

But whilst not having the life of which she must have dreamed of when she married in 1916, Elsie lived a life of great service to the community. She became a tireless worker for the St. Mary’s and, often working with her closest friends Minnie & Millie Walker, did great things for the village church and other groups, not least the W.I. She played a great part in raising raising money for the present blue carpet that runs down the full length of the aisle. This she helped choose and, with Cyril Goldsmith her nephew, subsequently purchased it. It was said at the time that ‘Elsie left her own memorial’ in the form of the carpet. She was also a teacher at St. Mary’s Sunday School in the 1930’s & a Bishop’s Messenger (an emissary of the Bishop to raise funds for the Diocese) in the 1940’s

After a lifetime of village service, Elsie died in July 1969, aged 76. Ensuring that the house in Walnut Tree Road stayed in the family, it was purchased by Janet and Bill Brown and Janet still lives there; the house in which the tragic news had reached her aunt nearly 90 years ago.

In the Parish Magazine of September 1969, the Rev. Canon Arthur Suffrin wrote: The death of Mrs Elsie Titmuss after a long illness which she fought bravely, removes from our sight a faithful worshipper and worker in church and village. She was a widow for half a century, and kept flowers on the war memorial window throughout the year in memory of her husband and other Pirton men who lost their lives in war. This was only one of a long list of good works which could be compiled, and the beautiful blue carpet in the church was one of the many money-raising efforts into which she, with others put much energy. May she rest in peace.

In St. Mary’s Garden of Rest there is a stone marking where the ashes of Elsie Titmuss were placed. Not far away in the churchyard is a gravestone on which is inscribed: George Titmuss died 16 Nov 1916 age 62, also son Albert killed in action in France 23 Oct 1917, aged 32, also Mary Wright died 20 January 1929 age 52, also Emma Juliana Titmuss died 1 Feb 1909, age 53.

Albert’s parents, George and Emma, died without learning of the death of their son, but his wife Elsie carried that tragic news for over half a century. As Pirton men’s names were inscribed on the War Memorial, so it was often left to their war widows, sweethearts, mothers and family to grieve.

• For their help with this article and series we thank: Janet Brown, Clare Baines, Michael Newbery, Brenda Dawson, Linda Smith, Denise Marshall and Jonty Wild
• The words ‘Thou leavest me to grieve’, Shelley 1816

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Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk

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