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

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 article 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 across the road became a much deeper investigation into the Moore family, who lived at 29 Tennyson Road for sixty‑five years, from 1905 to 1970. At the centre of their story is Willie Moore — athlete, tank officer, oil engineer and twice a soldier — but the family around him proved equally worth knowing.

The Moore Family

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). Two of his siblings died in infancy and one in adolescence. On 31 July 1892, Heber married Eliza Alice Davis (known as Alice) at St Mary de Lode, Gloucester. Alice, born on 21 December 1866 in Upleadon, was the fourth of ten children of agricultural labourer George Davis and his wife, Elizabeth Goode. Her father died days before the baptism of her youngest brother in 1879, leaving her mother to support a large family by taking in laundry and general labour.

By the time of his marriage, Heber was managing a boot shop, having already worked as a beer brewer and horse breaker. His employment in the boot trade took the family through Newport, Nottingham, Worcester, Bristol and finally Bath. Two children were born in Nottingham in quick succession — Emily “Millie” Alice in April 1893 and Willie in July 1894 — before the family moved to Worcester.

When the 1901 census was taken, the Moores were living on Worcester High Street. Four years later, they had settled at 29 Tennyson Road, Bath, the house that would remain their home for the next six decades.

The 1911 census presents a small domestic puzzle. Alice and Millie were recorded at home, while Heber, aged 39, was boarding across the road at No. 3. Like many residents of the street, the Moores let out a room, advertising a large front bedroom and sitting room “near the trams and botanic gardens,” with “good cooking,” a piano and a bathroom. In 1911 the lodger was John Jennings, an 85‑year‑old retired bootmaker from Bath.

Meanwhile, sixteen‑year‑old Willie was working as a page at Manor House in Bredon’s Norton, soon progressing to footman. He had attended Bathforum School, where he excelled as an athlete — captain of the rugby team, a leading member of the football and running teams, and a champion swimmer. Athletic ability clearly ran in the family: Heber had competed in rugby, boxing and racing in his youth.

The First World War

On 10 September 1914, five weeks after Britain entered the war, twenty‑year‑old Willie enlisted in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Scots Guards at Caterham. His service papers described him as having a “sallow complexion, light brown eyes and dark brown hair.” Caterham was the standard depot for Scots Guards recruits, and it was here that he received his initial training. He was appointed unpaid Lance Corporal on 20 January 1915.

After seven months’ training, Willie was transferred to the 1st Battalion and arrived in France at Le Havre on 23 April 1915. The battalion immediately entered a period of intense operations. They fought at the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May — a costly failure with heavy British casualties and no ground gained — and then 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, facing heavy German shelling and conducting dangerous night work on communication trenches.

A Narrow Escape

His first months at the front were marked by constant danger. Willie narrowly avoided serious injury when a shell burst near a group of soldiers. In a letter to his mother, published in the Bath Chronicle, he wrote:

“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 promoted to paid Lance Corporal.

The Battle of Loos

In late August, the 1st Battalion Scots Guards advanced toward the Loos sector as British forces concentrated for the upcoming offensive. The Battle of Loos began at 6:30 am on 25 September 1915. By the following day, the battalion had advanced into the heavily contested ground between the Lone Tree and the village of Hulluch. Amid intense machine‑gun fire and counter‑attacks, Willie was badly wounded in the right thigh on 26 September.

He was evacuated to a Canadian hospital at Le Tréport on 28 September, then transported to England and admitted to Mansford House, a Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital in Birchington‑on‑Sea, on 1 October. He was transferred to Margate Hospital the following day and remained there until 17 December, administratively attached to the 3rd Battalion during his recovery. Surviving records for 1916 note his appointment as Acting Corporal and Acting Lance Sergeant on 1 May.

On 30 January 1917, Willie was granted a temporary commission in the Machine Gun Corps at Pirbright, where he had been training with No. 2 Machine Gun Cadet Battalion. He was then sent to No. 3 Officer Cadet Battalion in Bristol for specialist instruction and was promoted to Second Lieutenant. Tank training followed at Bovington Camp, the main training centre for armoured units. At this time, tank units were still part of the Heavy Branch of the MGC; they became the independent Tank Corps on 28 July 1917.

Cambrai and the Military Cross

By August, Willie was part of the force preparing for the Battle of Cambrai, which saw the first large‑scale massed tank attack in history. Shortly after the battle began on 20 November 1917, he was seriously wounded in the left thigh. His parents received a War Office telegram stating that he had been admitted to a stationary hospital in France on 25 November with a severe gunshot wound.

Reports 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, then transferred to Beaufort Hospital in Bristol. It was here that he learned he had been awarded the Military Cross for his bravery at Cambrai. A local newspaper noted that his left thigh had been so badly smashed that it would be permanently shorter than the right, ending the athletic career for which he had been 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

Despite predictions that his injuries had ended his sporting life, Willie returned to competition. On 1 March 1919 he played for Bath Rugby against the New Zealand Command Depot team from Codford, the second match of their post-war revival. The visitors won 13-3.

In January 1920 he won the middleweight final at a “very successful” boxing tournament at Bovington Camp, where over 100 bouts were held. 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, retaining the rank of Lieutenant. Three months later, on 30 September, he sailed from Dover to Curaçao aboard the Crynssen, travelling first‑class and listing his occupation as engineer, marking his return to civilian life.

The Body In The Shop

Back in Bath in 1919, Heber appeared in the local newspapers as an eyewitness to the sudden death of tailor William Ernest Mottramm at 46 Walcot Street. He discovered the shop in total darkness, and on entering, stumbled over Mottram’s body, which was lying face down on the floor with his head under the counter. Realising that the tailor was still breathing, Heber immediately sought assistance, leading to the arrival of P.C. Simmons and a Fire Brigade Ambulance. Despite the swift intervention and the journey to the Royal United Hospital, Mottram was pronounced dead upon arrival.

By the time of the 1921 census, Heber (49) was employed as a shop assistant at The Don, a gentlemen’s outfitters at 3 Burton Street. Millie (28) was working as an elementary school teacher at Twerton Paradise Green Infants School, where she had been since 1914. Alice (54) was simply recorded as performing “household duties.” The family at 29 Tennyson Road had one boarder, Edwin Leslie Lees, and one visitor, Edith Collett.

Edwin Leslie Lees was the son of the late Sir Harcourt Lees, 4th Baronet, of County Dublin. He had previously worked as an actor and theatrical stage manager and was, by 1921, employed as a temporary civil servant with the Ministry of Pensions. His wife, Annie Monica (née Charton), was also a former actress, and their six daughters had all been involved in the theatre or music in their younger years. During the 1910s and 1920s, the Lees family divided their time between Bath and their home at Chantry, near Frome. Edwin boarded at 29 Tennyson Road long enough to appear there in the 1922 electoral register, before moving with his family to 15 Pulteney Gardens the following year.

Meanwhile, Willie had embarked on a very different path. He was now established in Venezuela with British Controlled Oilfields, Ltd. Passenger records show that he had returned to England by the spring of 1922 at the latest: on 10 June 1922 he departed Dover aboard the Oranje Nassau, a Royal Netherlands West India Mail vessel, describing himself as an assistant oil engineer. The title suggests that he was working his way up within the company. His technical training, wartime leadership experience and proven resilience made him a strong candidate for advancement at a time when Venezuela’s oil industry was undergoing rapid transformation, accelerated by events such as the spectacular Barroso No. 2 blowout of December 1922.

In January 1926, the engagement was announced of Willie (31) to “Miss Molly Lees” — Kathleen Mary Lees (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, another Royal Netherlands West India Mail vessel bound for Venezuela. By this point he had risen to production superintendent. For reasons that remain unknown, the marriage never took place. Molly later married motor driver Frederick Joseph Excell in 1937.

Willie’s final recorded voyage to Venezuela took place on 13 August 1928, when he departed Plymouth aboard the Macoris, a Compagnie Générale Transatlantique vessel. After this, his work took him further afield, to Iraq, as the global oil industry continued to expand.

Scene In A Playground

Back in Bath in June 1929, it was Millie’s turn to appear in the local newspaper. During a court hearing she gave evidence about an altercation with Mrs Hilda Body, a local parent with a reputation as a “firebrand.” Millie, who was still teaching at Twerton Infants’ School, explained that on 24 April she had found it necessary to caution Mrs Body’s son several times because of his conduct. When her warnings were ignored, she administered what she described as “two light taps” on the boy’s hands and knuckles with a thin cane about a foot long—a tool she brought into court and demonstrated 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 Millie inside the building. Matters came to a head at 12:10 pm as Millie attempted to leave for lunch. She testified that Mrs Body was waiting at the school gate and rushed towards her, “raining blows” upon her face and shoulders while shouting, “I am giving you what you deserve.” The incident, played out in front of children and passers‑by, turned a routine act of classroom discipline into a public confrontation over the authority of teachers.

Under cross‑examination, Millie defended her disciplinary methods. She explicitly denied that she had boxed the child’s ears, though she admitted that she might occasionally tap a pupil on the head with her hand. The defence tried to characterise the affair as a “storm in a teacup” driven by maternal instinct rather than malice, but the magistrates took a different view. They stressed the importance of protecting school staff and pointed out that a specific by‑law existed to ensure that teachers could perform their duties without being subjected to disorderly conduct or physical assault. Mrs Body was ordered to enter into a recognisance of £10 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, and to pay 5 shillings in costs.

Policing Czechoslovakia

The domestic concerns of 1929 gave way, in time, to the rising tensions of Europe in 1930s — and Willie found himself drawn into them. On 6 October 1938, Willie was one of thirty British Legion volunteers from Somerset who offered themselves for police work in Czechoslovakia as part of the short‑lived British Legion Volunteer Force. The force was created in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, under which Britain, France, Germany and Italy agreed to the German annexation of the Sudetenland, a mostly German‑speaking border region of Czechoslovakia. Its purpose was to provide an impartial, non‑military presence during the transfer of territories from Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany.

Around 1,000–1,200 ex-servicemen were recruited to serve 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 level of preparation, the force carried out its duties. On 13 October, while the men were waiting at Tilbury Docks to sail for Germany on the ships SS Naldera and SS Dunera, the International Commission in Berlin decided that their services were 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 had returned home. Eleven months later, the diplomatic settlement he had volunteered to support lay in ruins, and Britain was once again at war.

Bathonian’s Escape

When the 1939 Register of the civilian population was taken on 29 September, Heber, aged 68, had been working for four months as a second‑hand furniture dealer at Bath Market, employed by a Mr Ferris. In the register he slightly upgraded his role, describing himself as a “retail shop manager.” Alice was now 73, and their daughter Millie, 46, was teaching 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 that he was abroad on oil work at this point.

Heber returned to the local newspaper in November 1939, in a striking report of a near-fatal accident on Upper Bristol Road. While crossing the street, he was suddenly confronted by an oncoming car. With no time to step aside, he made a split-second decision to leap onto the bonnet. He was carried in that precarious position for several yards before the car came to a halt. Reflecting afterwards, he remarked, “If I had not done that, I should have been under the car.”

The article also highlighted his 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 again appeared in the record as a neighbour‑witness at an inquest. Residents of Tennyson Road had become concerned that Miss Emily Ada Dyer, aged 72, of number 31, had not been seen for some time. Heber entered the house and found her dead in bed. She had fractured her wrist in a fall several days earlier and had apparently died in her sleep from heart failure, the shock of the fall proving fatal.

Bath Blitz

On 1 June 1940, at the age of 46, Willie was commissioned as a lieutenant in the South Wales Borderers. In early 1941 the War Office began “combing out” skilled men from infantry regiments and transferring them into technical corps where their civilian experience could be better used. As part of this process, on 18 May 1941 Willie was posted to the Royal Engineers, retaining his rank. His service records are not available online, so his postings and the extent of his active service remain unknown.

While Willie was away on military duty, life at Tennyson Road changed irreversibly. On 10 February 1942, Heber died peacefully at home after a long illness, aged 71. Just six weeks later, in the early hours of 26 April, the street suffered major damage during a Luftwaffe bombing raid on Bath—part of the Baedeker raids, which targeted historic rather than strategic sites. More than 400 people were killed in the Bath Blitz and over 1,000 injured. For Alice and Millie, still raw from Heber’s death, the devastation of their own street must have been almost unbearable.

A 500 kg bomb fell directly on Tennyson Road, destroying five houses (in red: 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25). Seven more were so badly damaged that they were demolished (in orange: 6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 26 and 27). A further five were left unusable (in yellow: 5, 8, 9, 10 and 17), leaving fewer than half the houses habitable. No. 29, the Moores’ home, was one of the houses that remained standing. The entire run from 18 to 26 was demolished and rebuilt after the war, as were 5 to 8, and Westhall Road itself was also flattened.

Marriage in Wartime

On 29 December 1942, in the midst of war and recent bereavements, Willie married 52‑year‑old spinster Claribel Mary Young at Skipton Register Office, Yorkshire. Claribel had also lost her father earlier that year. The marriage notice described him as “Capt. Willie Moore, M.C., R.E.”, though no surviving records have been found to confirm this promotion; it was likely an acting or temporary rank. During the war, Royal Engineers units were stationed around Skipton, particularly those involved in quarrying stone for wartime infrastructure, but it is not known whether Willie was attached to any of these units.

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 36 she qualified as a midwife and was recorded as practising in Fulham up to 1937. By 1939 she was living in Ealing with her widowed father and a nephew. How she and Willie met remains unknown. Claribel was already deeply acquainted with the cost of war: her two youngest brothers had been killed in the First World War. 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 been in Belgium for barely three weeks.

Death Of A Bath Engineer

Willie served for the duration of the conflict and was released from the army in August 1945, shortly after the end of the war in Europe. His post‑war life, however, was brief. On 29 May 1946 he underwent a gastrostomy for oesophageal cancer, and less than three months later, on 18 August 1946, he died at Claribel’s family home in Ealing, aged 52, with his wife at his side. His life stands as a striking example of the twentieth‑century “citizen‑soldier”: 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 fewer than eight years. She died at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Ealing on 21 April 1954, aged 64. No burial records have yet been found 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, Willie died intestate. His effects were valued at £173 9s 9d, a modest sum for a professional engineer and career officer—equivalent to just over £6,000 today. This suggests that, despite his seniority, he had not accumulated substantial liquid assets or property in his own name by the time of his death.

The Last Years at Tennyson Road

Alice lived for nearly seven years after her son’s death. She died on 25 February 1953, aged 86, and was buried two days later. With both parents gone, Millie was left as the last of the Moores at number 29—the quiet constant of the family story, outliving them all and remaining in the house through bombing, bereavement and the slow transformation of the street around her. Approaching 60, she continued to live at 29 Tennyson Road.

Millie took in a steady succession of lodgers after her mother’s death, nearly all young, recently married couples: Michael and Margaret Bray were at No. 29 in 1956, followed by Kenneth and June Thomas in 1958. Henry and Florence Payne were lodging there in 1962 (the only retired couple), with Peter and Anne Norman replacing them in 1963. Anthony and Susan Vines were in residence in 1966, and John and Margaret Butler in 1969. The following year, only Millie appeared on the electoral register.

Millie died on 2 May 1970, aged 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 the house at the time.

Millie’s burial took place five days after her death. She was laid to rest with her parents at St Michael’s Cemetery, 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, though whether his remains were interred there is not recorded. Over time, the urn has sunk beneath the turf, their names now barely visible—a quiet end for a family whose lives were anything but quiet. What began with a newspaper clipping about a neighbour across the road ends here, in the ground below Tennyson Road, where the Moores’ long story finally comes to rest.

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RESOURCES & REFERENCES

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

• Ancestry – www.ancestry.com
• Britain From Above – www.britainfromabove.org.uk
• Find A Grave – www.findagrave.com
• Find My Past – www.findmypast.co.uk
• General Register Office – www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
• National Library of Scotland (maps) – maps.nls.uk 

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.

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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.