Name
Joseph Spyer
28/02/1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/10/1918
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
R/13464
King's Royal Rifle Corps
9th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BELGRADE CEMETERY
IV. D. 6.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
DEARLY LOVED BY FATHER, MOTHER BROTHERS & SISTERS
UK & Other Memorials
Chipperfield Village memorial, St. Paul's Church Memorial, Chipperfield, Bicester War Memorial
Pre War
Joseph Spyer was born on 28 February 1897, in Highclere, Hampshire, son of Josiah Spyer, a Shepherd, and Alice (nee Wheeler) Spyer. One of seven children.
1901 Census records Joseph aged 4, living with his parents, and five siblings in, Highclere Street, Highclere, Hampshire.
1911 Census records Joseph aged 14, working as a Farm Labourer, living with his parents, and four siblings at, Pale farm, Chipperfield, Herts.
Wartime Service
Joseph enlisted at Watford, Herts, on 31 May 1915, posted to the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, with the service number R/13464, joining his Battalion at Winchester, Hampshire, the following day, 1 June 1915.
Serving on the Western Front. He died of Dysentery and Influenza while a prisoner of war. His service record records he was buried on 23 October 1918, at Belgrade Cemetery, Namur, Belgium, this has been accepted as the official date of his death. The Germans had a prisoner of war hospital at Namur, Belgium. (Namur was held by the Germans from 24 August 1914, until the end of the war in 1918).
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs. A. Spyer, Whitelands Farm, Bicester, Oxon., ordered his headstone inscription: "DEARLY LOVED BY FATHER, MOTHER BROTHERS & SISTERS". His effects of £40-9s-7d, went to his mother Alice Spyer, this includer a War Gratuity of £20. He is recorded as Spyers on the Chipperfield Village Memorials and Spyer on St Paul’s Church Memorial Plaque, Chipperfield. His parents moved from Chipperfield, to Whitelands Farm, Bicester, Oxfordshire, where his father was a Shepherd.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
