Name
Robert Francis Duley
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/05/1915
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Able Seaman
KP/391
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Anson Bn. Royal Naval Division
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HELLES MEMORIAL
Panel 8 to 16
Turkey (including Gallipoli)
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Croxley Green memorials
St. John the Baptist Church Memorial, Egham
Pre War
Duley is not listed on the Croxley Green war memorial, but was remembered at the All Saints’ service in November 1915. The Watford Observer mentioned him on their ‘local patriotic roll‘ of those enlisting on 3 October 1914. According to the paper he lived at 285 New Road. Robert Duley was born on 18 January 1888 at Warborough, Oxfordshire, the son of Robert and Phyllis Duley.
In 1891 the family was living in Old Windsor. In 1901 they were still in Old Windsor, Robert had three siblings and he was working as a farm boy, aged 13. His mother died in 1904, aged 39 and the following year his father married Mary Ware. His father died in 1907. In 1911 he was living as a boarder at 43 New Road with the Taylor family. He worked as a domestic gardener.
When he was killed, his next of kin was his step-mother, Mary Duley, who lived in Egham, Surrey.
Recorded as enlisting in Crystal Palace, London.
Wartime Service
Enlisted in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry as Private No.13945 7/9/14 & transferred to the RNVR at Crystal Palace 10/9/14 ; Anson Bn. 16/1/15-3/5/15 DD.
Able Seaman Robert Francis Duley died at Gallipoli on 3 May 1915. He fought as an infantryman in the Anson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division.
In April 1915 the Division landed alongside Australian and New Zealand forces and experienced heavy fighting. Duley does not have a grave but is remembered on the Helles Memorial to the missing, Gallipoli.
Acknowledgments
Brian Thomson Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014, Brian Thomson, Mike Collins
