The Moore Family of 29 Tennyson Road, Bath, Somerset (1905-1970)

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While researching the former residents of my own family home at 7 Tennyson Road, Bath, I came across a newspaper clipping about a young soldier from the house opposite at number 29. The clipping described the wartime exploits of Corporal W. Moore of the 1st Scots Guards, and it was compelling enough to send me down a research path I had not anticipated. What began as curiosity about a neighbour from across the road became a much deeper investigation into the Moore family, who lived at 29 Tennyson Road for 65 years, from 1905 to 1970. At the centre of that story is Willie Moore — athlete, tank officer, oil engineer and twice a soldier — but the family around him proved equally worth knowing.


Willie’s father, Heber Willie MOORE, was born on 3 August 1871 at 3 Newland Street, Kingsholm, Gloucester, the youngest of seven children of gardener Henry MOORE and his wife, Ann BYARD (or BYETT), a domestic servant. Two of his siblings died in infancy and one as a teenager. On 31 July 1892, Heber married Eliza Alice DAVIS (known as Alice) at St Mary de Lode, Gloucester. Alice was born on 21 December 1866 in Upleadon, Gloucestershire, the fourth of ten children of agricultural labourer George DAVIS and his wife, Elizabeth GOODE. Alice’s father died a few days before her brother was baptised in 1879, leaving her mother with a large family to support. She took in laundry and performed general labour while the children took on work when old enough.

Heber was employed as the manager of a boot shop when he married Alice, and had already had a varied career, including roles as a beer brewer and horse breaker. His employment in the boot trade took the family through Newport, Nottingham, Worcester, Bristol, and finally Bath. The couple had two children born in close succession in Nottingham (Emily “Millie” Alice in April 1893, and Willie in July 1894) before moving to Worcester.

When the 1901 census was taken, the family was living on Worcester High Street. Four years later, they had moved to 29 Tennyson Road, Bath. Curiously, when the 1911 census was taken, Alice and daughter Emily were home at No.29, while Heber (age 39) was boarding across the road at 3 Tennyson Road. Like many residents of the street, the Moore family let out one of their rooms, advertising a large front bedroom and sitting room situated near the trams and botanic gardens, with “good cooking,” a piano and bathroom. In 1911, the room was let to 85-year-old John JENNINGS, a retired bootmaker from Bath.


Meanwhile, son Willie, aged 16, was working as a page at Manor House in Bredon’s Norton, Gloucestershire, soon after progressing to footman. He had studied at the Bathforum School and was an athlete of some note, being captain of the school’s rugby team, a leading member of the football and running teams and a champion swimmer, winning the school several shields and cups. Athletic ability clearly ran in the family — in his younger days, Heber had competed in rugby, boxing and racing.

On 10 September 1914, five weeks after war was declared in Britain, twenty-year-old Willie enlisted in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Scots Guards at Caterham, Surrey. His service papers recorded he had a “sallow complexion, light brown eyes and dark brown hair.” Caterham was the standard depot for Scots Guards recruits at the time, and it was where his initial training would have taken place.  He was appointed an unpaid Lance Corporal on 20 January 1915. After seven months of training, Willie was transferred to the 1st Battalion Scots Guards on 22 April and arrived in France at Le Havre the following day. The battalion participated in the disastrous Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May, a costly failure with very high British casualties and no ground gained. They were then involved in a follow-up offensive at the Battle of Festubert from 15 to 25 May. By early June, the battalion was engaged in constant trench rotation in the Givenchy and Cuinchy sectors. During this time, they faced heavy German shelling and conducted dangerous night work on communication trenches.

On the evening of 13 June 1915, Willie had a narrow escape from serious injury when a shell burst near a group of soldiers. In a letter to his mother, published in the Bath Chronicle, he described how “four or five of us were standing chaffing over our tea, which was boiling on a brazier, when a shell burst nearby. Three were hit. I bandaged one fellow’s head and sent them off to the dressing station. Later in the evening, I was issuing rations and noticed a hole in my coat pocket. Inside, I found enclosed a piece of shrapnel, buried in a roll of rifle rag. Had it not been for this, I should have been hit in or near the groin.” Four days later, he was appointed as a paid Lance Corporal.

Corporal Moore Wounded

In late August, the 1st Battalion Scots Guards began their deliberate advance towards the Loos sector as the British Army concentrated its forces for the upcoming offensive. The Battle of Loos officially began at 6:30 am on 25 September 1915. By the following day, the battalion had advanced into the heavily contested terrain between the Lone Tree and the village of Hulluch. Amid intense machine-gun fire and counter-attacks, Willie was badly wounded after being struck by a bullet in the right thigh on 26 September and arrived at a Canadian hospital at Le Tréport in France on 28 September. He was transported back to England and admitted to Mansford House, a Voluntary Aid Detachment auxiliary hospital and convalescent home for wounded soldiers in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, on 1 October before being transferred to Margate Hospital the following day. He remained there until 17 December, administratively attached to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Scots Guards. The only surviving records of his service in 1916 note his appointment to Acting Corporal and Acting Lance Sergeant on the same date, 1 May 1916.

On 30 January 1917, Willie was granted a temporary commission in the Machine Gun Corps at Pirbright, Surrey, where he had been training with No. 2 Machine Gun Cadet Battalion. He was subsequently sent to No. 3 Officer Cadet Battalion in Bristol for specialist instruction, where he was promoted to Second Lieutenant. Tank training followed at Bovington Camp in Dorset, the main training centre for armoured units. At the time, the “Tank” units did not yet officially exist as an independent corps and were organised as the Heavy Branch of the MGC. This changed on 28 July, when it officially separated to form the Tank Corps. 

By August, Willie was part of the force preparing for the Battle of Cambrai, which saw the first-ever large-scale massed tank attack in history. The battle began on 20 November 1917, shortly after which Willie was seriously wounded in the thigh. His parents received a War Office telegram stating that their son was admitted into a stationary hospital in France on 25 November, suffering from a severe gunshot wound to the left thigh. It was later recorded that he fought his tank with great determination and skill, exposing himself fearlessly throughout the action. In another attack, he inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, and when his tank was put out of action, he transferred his crew to another under intense fire. Willie had been home in Bath only a few weeks before, where he spoke with keen enthusiasm of the effective work done by the tanks.

Willie arrived in England on 2 February 1918 and was admitted to a hospital in Exeter. The following week, he was transferred to Beaufort Hospital in Bristol, where it was confirmed that he had been awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during the Battle of Cambrai. A local newspaper reported that his left thigh had been so severely smashed that it would be permanently shorter than his right thigh, ending the athletic career for which he was well known, both during his schooling and later as his battalion’s Sports Officer. He was officially gazetted in July.


New Zealand Rugby Footballers At Bath

The Bath Chronicle’s report on Willie’s sporting chances was incorrect. On Saturday 1 March 1919, the Bath Rugby team, of which Willie was a member, played the second match of their post-war revival against the New Zealand (Command Depot) team from Codford. The newspaper recorded that the visitors won “by a dropped goal, a penalty goal and two tries (13 points) to a penalty goal (3 points).”

In January 1920, Willie was also recorded as participating in “a very successful boxing tournament” held at Bovington Tank Corps Camp, near the village of Wool in Dorset. Over 100 bouts took place, in which Willie beat Captain Hedderwick, M.C., on points in the Middleweights final. Cups were presented at the end of the tournament by Brigadier General Sir Hugh Elles, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., Commanding Tank Corps.

Willie completed his military service on 15 May 1920 aged 26, retaining the rank of Lieutenant. Along with the Military Cross, he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. Three months later, on 30 September, he departed from Dover aboard the Crynssen, a Royal Netherlands West India Mail vessel bound for Curaçao, travelling first class and listing his occupation as engineer.


The Body In The Shop

Willie’s father, Heber, also appeared in the local newspapers in 1919 as an eyewitness to the sudden death of tailor William Ernest MOTTRAM. Heber arrived at Mottram’s shop at 46 Walcot Street around 5:45 pm, discovering the premises in total darkness. Receiving no answer to his calls, he entered the shop and moved towards the workbench where Mottram usually sat. While navigating the darkened room, Heber stumbled over Mottram’s body, which was lying face down on the floor with his head under the counter. Upon turning him over, Heber discovered that the tailor was still breathing and immediately sought assistance, leading to the arrival of P.C. Simmons and a Fire Brigade Ambulance. Despite Heber’s swift intervention and the subsequent transport to the Royal United Hospital, Mottram was pronounced dead upon arrival.

By the time of the 1921 census, Heber (age 49) was employed as a shop assistant at The Don, a gentlemen’s outfitters at 3 Burton Street, while Emily (age 28) was working as an elementary school teacher at Twerton Paradise Green Infants School, where she had been since 1914. Alice (age 54) was simply recorded as performing “household duties.” The family had one boarder, Edwin Leslie LEES, the son of the late Sir Harcourt Lees, 4th Baronet of County Dublin, and one visitor, Edith COLLETT. Edwin was a former actor and theatrical stage manager, working as a temporary civil servant for the Ministry of Pensions. His wife, Annie Monica (nee CHARTON), was a former actress, and their six daughters also took to the stage and studied music in their younger years. The Lees family spent time between Bath and their home in Chantry near Frome, Somerset, during the 1910s and 1920s. Edwin spent long enough boarding at 29 Tennyson Road to be listed there in the 1922 electoral register, before taking up residence at 15 Pulteney Gardens with his family the following year.

Willie was now established in Venezuela with British Controlled Oilfields, Ltd. He had returned to England by the spring of 1922 at the latest, as passenger records show him departing Dover again on 10 June 1922 aboard the Oranje Nassau, another Royal Netherlands West India Mail vessel, this time listing himself as an assistant oil engineer. The title suggests he was working his way up within the company at this stage. His specialised training and military leadership made him a perfect candidate. He arrived just as Venezuela’s oil industry was beginning its dramatic transformation, a process accelerated by events such as the famous Barroso No. 2 blowout of December 1922.

In January 1926, the engagement was announced of Willie (age 31) to “Miss Molly LEES” (Kathleen Mary LEES, age 22), daughter of Edwin Leslie LEES and a member of the Bath Playgoers’ Society. One month later, on 13 February, Willie departed Dover aboard the Stuyvesant, a Royal Netherlands West India Mail vessel, bound for Venezuela, having risen to production superintendent — a seniority reflected in his travelling without needing to state an occupation at all. For reasons unknown, the marriage never took place, and Molly later married motor driver Frederick Joseph EXCELL in 1937. On 13 August 1928, passenger records show Willie departing Plymouth aboard the Macoris, a Compagnie Générale Transatlantique vessel, once again bound for Venezuela. It was to be his final crossing; his work subsequently took him to Iraq.

Scene In A Playground

In June 1929, it was Emily’s turn to appear in the local newspaper. During a court hearing in Bath, Emily, who had continued to teach at Twerton Infant’s School, provided evidence regarding an altercation with Mrs Hilda BODY, a local parent with a reputation as a “firebrand.” Emily explained that on 24 April, she had found it necessary to caution Mrs Body’s son several times due to his conduct. When the warnings were ignored, Emily administered what she described as “two light taps” to the boy’s hands and knuckles using a thin, foot-long cane — a tool she demonstrated in court to show the mildness of the correction.

The situation escalated at midday when the boy’s mother arrived at the school. According to the prosecution and the headmaster, Mrs Body adopted a threatening attitude towards Emily inside the building. The conflict turned physical at 12:10 pm as Emily attempted to leave the school for lunch. She testified that Mrs Body was waiting at the school gate and rushed toward her, “raining blows” upon her face and shoulders while shouting, “I am giving you what you deserve.”

Under cross-examination, Emily defended her disciplinary methods, explicitly denying that she had boxed the child’s ears, though she admitted she might occasionally tap a student on the head with her hand. Despite the defence characterising the incident as a “storm in a teacup” fuelled by parental instinct, the magistrates ruled in favour of protecting school staff, noting that a by-law existed specifically to ensure teachers like Emily could perform their duties without being subjected to disorderly conduct or physical assault. Mrs Body was ordered to enter into a recognisance for £10 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour and to pay 5 shillings costs.

Policing Czechoslovakia

On 6 October 1938, Willie, along with another of the thirty British Legion volunteers from Somerset, offered himself for police work in Czechoslovakia as part of the short-lived British Legion Volunteer Force. The force was established following the Munich Agreement, in which Britain, France, Germany and Italy agreed to the German annexation of the Sudetenland (a mostly German-speaking border region of Czechoslovakia). It was formed to provide an impartial, non-military presence during the transition of territories from Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Around 1,000–1,200 ex-servicemen were recruited to act as special constables. Volunteers, including Willie, reported to Olympia in London on 7 October, where they were sworn in as special constables and issued equipment. Despite the high level of preparation, the force never performed its duties in Czechoslovakia. On 13 October, while waiting at Tilbury Docks to sail for Germany on the ships SS Naldera and SS Dunera, the International Commission in Berlin decided that it was unnecessary. The force was officially disbanded on 15 October, just ten days after its formation. Only a tiny advance party of three members ever reached Czechoslovakia to scout billeting arrangements; the main body of men, including Willie, never left British waters. Willie and his fellow volunteers were praised for their public-spiritedness, and the German government even issued a message of thanks for their willingness to assist in the settlement. However, by mid-October 1938, he would have returned home. Eleven months later, the diplomatic settlement Willie had volunteered to support lay in ruins. Britain was once again at war. 

When the 1939 Register of the civilian population was taken on 29 September, Heber (age 68) had been working as a second-hand furniture dealer at Bath Market for four months, employed by Mr FERRIS. He slightly upgraded his career in the register, describing himself as a “retail shop manager.” Alice was now 73, and their daughter, Emily, was 46 and working at Widcombe Junior School. Sharing the Moores’ home at this time were Alice’s niece, Mrs Alice Elizabeth STANLEY, and two of her children, Alice Lillian and Malcolm John. Willie does not appear in the register, suggesting he was abroad working at this time.

Bathonian’s Escape

Heber made the local newspaper again in November 1939, when he was the subject of a remarkable report following a near-fatal accident on Upper Bristol Road. While crossing the street, Heber (aged 68) was suddenly confronted by an oncoming car. With no time to move out of the way, he made a split-second decision to leap onto the vehicle’s bonnet. He was carried in that precarious position for several yards before the car came to a halt. Reflecting on the incident, Heber noted, “If I had not done that, I should have been under the car.” The report also highlighted Heber’s exceptionally diverse career:

“At 13, he was an office boy in Gloucester. Subsequently, he worked as a beer brewer, horse breaker, shop assistant in Bath, and has managed shops in Bath, Nottingham, Worcester and Bristol. Among other occupations, he has taken a turn as a ticket collector, insurance agent, political agent, canteen waiter, night porter, cellarman, painter and letter sorter at the G.P.O.”

In early June 1940, Heber once again found himself called upon as a witness at a neighbour’s inquest. When residents of Tennyson Road noticed that 72-year-old Miss Emily Ada DYER of number 31 had not been seen for some time, Heber entered the house and discovered her dead in her bed. She had suffered a fractured wrist in a fall days earlier and had apparently passed away in her sleep from heart failure, the shock of the fall having proved fatal.

Bath Blitz

On 1 June 1940, at the age of 46, Willie was appointed Lieutenant with the South Wales Borderers. In early 1941, the War Office actively “combed out” skilled men from infantry regiments to move them into technical corps where their civilian skills could be better utilised, and on 18 May 1941, Willie was transferred to the Royal Engineers, retaining his rank. His service records are not available to view online, so where he was posted and the extent of his active service remain unknown.

While Willie was serving away in the military, Heber died peacefully at home after a long illness on 10 February 1942, at the age of 71. Just six weeks later, in the early hours of 26 April, Tennyson Road sustained major damage during a bombing raid by the German Luftwaffe, part of the Baedeker raids, which targeted historical rather than strategic sites. Over 400 people died in the Bath Blitz, and more than 1,000 were injured. For Alice and Emily, still raw from Heber’s death, the destruction of their street must have been almost unbearable.

A 500kg bomb directly hit the road, destroying five houses (in red—21, 22, 23, 24, 25). Seven were so badly damaged that they were demolished (in orange—6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 26, 27). Five were unusable (in yellow—5, 8, 9, 10, 17), leaving fewer than half the houses habitable. Number 29 was one of the houses to remain standing. The whole line of houses from 18 to 26 was demolished before being rebuilt after the war, as were numbers 5 to 8 between Westhall Road (which was also flattened).


On 29 December 1942, amid the war and personal grief, Willie married 52-year-old spinster Claribel Mary YOUNG at Skipton Register Office, Yorkshire. Claribel had also lost her father in 1942. Their marriage notice stated he was “Capt. Willie Moore, M.C., R.E.“, but no further records have been found to confirm this promotion, which was possibly an acting or temporary rank. The Royal Engineers were stationed around Skipton during WWII, specifically units tasked with quarrying stone for wartime infrastructure, but whether he was attached to any of these units is unknown.

Claribel was born on 20 January 1890 in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, the fifth of nine children of accountant and company secretary William Henry YOUNG, and his wife, Rose Anne NICHOLLS. At age 36, Claribel became a qualified midwife and was listed as practising in Fulham up to 1937. By 1939, she was living with her widowed father and nephew in Ealing. How she and Willie met remains a mystery. Claribel knew the cost of war all too well, having lost her two youngest brothers during WWI. Harold Alaric YOUNG, serving with the London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), was killed at Loos on 25 September 1915 — the day before Willie was wounded on the same battlefield. Lawrence Hubert YOUNG died on 9 March 1918, also aged 19, having arrived in Belgium barely three weeks before his death.

Death Of A Bath Engineer

Willie served for the duration of the conflict and was released in August 1945, shortly after the war in Europe ended, but his post-war life was brief. On 29 May 1946, Willie underwent a gastrostomy due to oesophageal cancer, but just two months later, on 18 August 1946, he died in Claribel’s family home in Ealing with his wife by his side, aged 52. His life serves as a remarkable example of the “citizen-soldier” of the 20th century: a celebrated athlete who became a decorated war hero, and an engineering pioneer in the global oil industry who answered the call to serve in both World Wars. Claribel survived him by less than eight years, dying at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Ealing on 21 April 1954, aged 64. No burial records have been discovered for either Willie or Claribel.

Despite his twenty-year career as an oil production engineer and prospector, and his decorated service in both World Wars, he died intestate (without a will). His effects were valued at £173 9s 9d, a relatively small sum for a professional engineer and career officer (the equivalent of just over £6,000 today). It suggests that despite his seniority, he did not accumulate significant liquid wealth or property in his own name by the time of his death.

Alice lived for nearly seven more years after her son’s death, dying on 25 February 1953, aged 86, and was buried two days later. With both parents now gone, Emily was left as the last of the Moores at number 29 — the quiet constant of the family story, outliving them all and remaining at the house through bombing, bereavement and the slow transformation of the street around her. Now approaching 60, she continued to live at 29 Tennyson Road. It has not been possible to confirm how long she worked in education, or whether she took in lodgers for income and company. No further records have been found until her death on 2 May 1970 at age 77. Curiously, and for reasons that remain unclear, her death was registered in Nottingham, the city of her birth. Her probate confirmed her address as 29 Tennyson Road, and her estate was valued at £5,007 (roughly equivalent to the estimated value of her house at the time).

Emily’s burial took place five days after her death, and she was laid to rest with her parents at St. Michael’s Cemetery, located at the bottom of Tennyson Road, where she had lived for sixty-five years. Willie’s name also appears on the family’s commemorative central urn, but whether he was interred there is not recorded. The urn itself has become buried under turf over time, their names barely visible — a quiet end for a family whose story was anything but quiet.



RESOURCES & REFERENCES

I use a wide range of resources for my research, most of which are online. For this project, I used:

Newspaper articles reproduced with the permission of the British Newspaper Archive and The British Library Board. Maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

I regularly consult the Essex Record Office and other local repositories. I am available for hire to trace family trees, research the history of buildings or assist with local heritage projects. If you have any questions about this research or would like to suggest any additions or amendments, please get in touch with me.

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