University of Oxford
Browse
DOCUMENT
Lest We Forget Project_Full story of William Francis Charles Stone .pdf (148.03 kB)
IMAGE
5fde2a3decb5afc529b041998bf107ce88478563.jpg (2.1 MB)
IMAGE
a226568a5c4d15b550670cfa72515068a9426480.jpg (1.83 MB)
IMAGE
a0509a73d38299c6d180e58f5bc94749a018f638.jpg (1.94 MB)
IMAGE
ee6909df7cc3b69b34aac790f5dd1c462f2abf59.jpg (2.02 MB)
IMAGE
9e591ecc5b3de7ca0613b0e7bcfca2e4cafc89c0.jpg (2.06 MB)
IMAGE
07772abaabe4d683f419d72b1042fa1ab48e73b6.jpg (2.22 MB)
IMAGE
20dbd075d55d5efc0dd0af2f4c1354506318a35a.jpg (2.32 MB)
IMAGE
f6af5ed96fa9bb99874359f76728920eff9ba3bf.jpg (1.83 MB)
IMAGE
6561cf8966546ee19eb6435c215757233295a2de.jpg (1.71 MB)
IMAGE
06725e6ebf5f2eb0639d18976c3e2c4cedca7193.jpg (2.11 MB)
IMAGE
aab07777bf1039505dcf2aa4b0660e8d35163620.jpg (2.69 MB)
IMAGE
06d4873a42c515987cb8a8385e0830d434832296.jpg (2.15 MB)
IMAGE
37fe55693fe18f6790b696bfd6d8e8f0993b1b56.jpg (2.13 MB)
IMAGE
1d359f2c9af9139322b3922b2b3ac410c39ee275.jpg (1.71 MB)
IMAGE
f31d389a689c3f94d68e00a0728cd69ae30b9558.jpg (2.27 MB)
IMAGE
e3a8ecd948036ef05623d36d4543f3af86f6ab65.jpg (1.61 MB)
IMAGE
2396604ea9757ca957bf9ae7f83af04b3ce5ea23.jpg (1.71 MB)
IMAGE
5e545a5584cb34300f7a569073cfead041f98398.jpg (2.43 MB)
IMAGE
35b63bfd8543dea3c48435f2b1eb4c4ed5e97f55.jpg (1.8 MB)
1/0
325 files

5247: William Francis Charles Stone

online resource
posted on 2024-01-12, 09:29 authored by Lest We Forget Project Team

Please see document for full story. A brief overview is included below.

William Francis Charles Stone was born in 1898 at 68 Highfield (subsequently renamed Lime Walk) Headington, Oxford.

His story reflects the changing tides of war and family life. His father, William Francis Randall Stone is understood to have worked on the construction of a factory for Coleman’s Mustard. William was one of six children and his mother, Kate Lillian Stone (nee Knight), ran the general store at 53 Pitts Road, Headington Quarry right through until the First World War.

William attended Headington Quarry School and completed his full-time schooling at the age of twelve. After leaving school, William worked for Mrs Osborne at 63 High Street, Oxford. At some point between 1910-1915 he must have started training as a woodcutting machinist because this is stated as his “trade or calling before enlistment” on his Certificate of Employment during the war.

William joined the army on 4th May 1915 aged sixteen,
having lied about his age, stating that he was nineteen. The letters from his
mother (see full document) show she attempted to intervene.

William was first sent to France in March 1916 and service records, and information from the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Archive, illustrate his journey through various battalions. He was a Lewis Gunner. Lt Col. Cross described him as "a very clean and capably young soldier. Trustworthy and hard working."

William was gassed in September 1918.

His mother did not only have the worry of her eldest son fighting in the war. During the same period, her husband was in the Royal Army Service Corps and the Labour Corps serving in France, Salonika, Alexandria and maybe elsewhere. She was also bringing up five other children and running the general store in Pitts Road, Headington.

William was discharged on the 24th April 1919. He received Victory and British War Medals. In October 1920 he re-enlisted in the Army Reserve. He rarely spoke about his experiences throughout the rest of his life. They must have left deep psychological scares and, at least in the early years, he suffered traumatic nightmares.

From his letters to his mother it is clear that he had aspirations to have a smallholding or to become a poultry farmer. Clearly those dreams did not become reality and he returned to his trade of woodcutting machinist, a trade that he pursued until retirement.

William was still enlisted as a reservist and he was called up to be deployed during a miners' strike in the early 1920s when he was based in Tamworth in Staffordshire.

William married Lilian Clara Elmore Durran (born 11th December 1901) in 1923 at St Andrew's Church in Old Headington and moved into one of his father's houses at 55 Pitts Road.

William became a pattern maker and was involved on the production of the iconic Bull Nosed Morris using all his skills learnt as a woodcutting machinist.

William was keen on a range of sports and drew particular pleasure from following Headington United (later to become Oxford United) football team. At Morris Motors he was an enthusiastic darts player, for which he won a medal. He also regularly played darts at the Headington Conservative Club. William, like many former soldiers, also became a member of a Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.

William and Lilian's first child, Edwin Francis William, was born on the 23rd December 1923. Almost three years later on the 17th September 1926 they had a daughter, Kathleen Margaret. In May 1928 William purchased a plot of land in Bickerton Road from Mrs E. K. Wilbraham for £138. In 1929 they moved into a house built by William's father on that plot of land, numbered 33 Bickerton Road, in the heart of the rapidly growing 'New' Headington. Their new home was a relatively large three-storey house with five bedrooms, a bathroom, two large reception rooms and a large kitchen/dining room. It was here that Lilian let rooms to Oxford University students (see note two below) right through to the 1960s, usually three at any one time, cooking their meals, undertaking their laundering and generally acting as their 'term-time mother'.

William worked tirelessly growing most of the produce to feed his family and student lodgers. The house had a fairly large garden but, in addition, William had purchased a plot of land at 7 Bickerton Road which he used as an allotment (he also rented a further allotment just off the Old Road on the site of what is now Town Furze Estate). To spread this produce through the seasons Lilian bottled fruit in Kilner jars, salted down runner beans in large stone jars, made jam and laid out apples in racks in the shed. To supplement this, chickens were kept in the garden of the house to provide a constant supply of eggs and the occasional meal.

Before many more years had lapsed, the country was plunged into war again with Germany. Lilian said it was the only time she had seen her husband cry. This emotion was stirred by the prospect of his son, Edwin, having to endure the harrowing experiences he had faced in the earlier conflict. Within about two years Edwin was called up and joined the Royal Engineers. He had learned to speak German at school and further perfected this to the point that he was called upon as an interpreter. He became a very fluent speaker of the language and continued serving in the British Army of the Rhine for several years after the war.

William had gone beyond the age of being called upon for active service but he did join the Home Guard with lookout duties on Shotover Hill and fire watch duties at the factories. In 1939, William and Lilian also had a still born daughter.

In 1943, in the midst of the war, William and Lilian had a son, Bernard Denis, who was born on the 8th August of that year and weighed in at 10lbs. The name given to him came about because his older sister Kathleen was engaged to a flight engineer in the RAF by the name of Bernard Hadfield. When he knew that Lilian was expecting a baby, he made a request saying that "if you have a boy would you name him after me so that if I am killed in the war he will be in memory of me."

Whilst on leave, Edwin, probably when stationed in the Dartford area of Kent, met Mabel Shorter at a dance. Mabel was, at that time, working at Woolwich Arsenal. They were married in a bomb-damaged church in Dartford in the early summer of 1945.

Whilst away in Dusseldorf Edwin met and had a relationship with Annemarie Steinhauer, who had previously been married and whose maiden name was Leuber. Edwin very honestly (some may say too honestly) confessed this to Mabel and asked her to forgive him. She refused to do so, a decision that she later regretted, and they were divorced in around 1949.

Edwin proposed marriage to Annemarie, she came to England in 1949, and they were married at the Oxford Register Office towards the end of that year.

Following the sad death of her fiancé, Kathleen started to rebuild her life and in due course was courted by Allen Eastes, who she had known for some years as they lived in nearby roads. When the relationship blossomed Allen was serving in the Royal Navy. They were married on the 2nd June 1949 at Highfield Church in Headington and then initially lived in a flat at 137 Windmill Road.

During the Second World War, Lilian, like many women, filled jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight. She worked in the factory at Cowley that had been converted from car production to the manufacture of munitions.

On retirement William undertook a part-time job at the Technical College, which later became Oxford Brookes University.

He died very suddenly in 1969 of a massive heart attack whilst working at the Technical College.

History

Name of contributor(s)

Bernard Stone, William Stone's son.

Subject of the story/individual the object(s) relate to

William Francis Charles Stone (1898-1969)

Date(s) the event(s) in the story took place

1898-1969

Location(s) where the event(s) in the story took place

Headington, Malmedy, Metz, Bouzincourt, Albert, Cheltenham, Catterick.

Object(s)

All items relate to William Francis Charles Stone and include postcards, family photographs, small booklets, a medicinal container, medals and service record, discharge letters and post-war service record, letters between William and his mother, Christmas cards and William's certificate of employment.

Community Collection Day

Submitted online

Usage metrics

    Lest We Forget

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC