Name
Henry Joseph Boaler
10 November 1892
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal/Private
610163
London Regiment 19th Battalion
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Leonard's Church Lychgate (Survivors), Sandridge
Pre War
Henry Joseph Boaler was born on 11 November 1892 in St. Pancras area of London. His first name that of his father and his middle name that of his maternal grandfather Joseph Knight.
His parents Henry Blenkin Boaler had been born in 1859 in Scarborough , Yorkshire and his mother Ellen Sarah nee Knight born in 1860 in Bunwell, Norfolk. However the couple were living at 19 Hartland Road, London when they married at Holy Trinity Church, Havelock Hill, Camden on 18th March 1883.
Henry Blenkin Boaler was a Postman, an occupation that Henry Joseph, his only son, would also follow after the Great War .
Henry Joseph had six sisters Nellie ( Ellen), Beatrice, Florence, Maud, Gertrude, and Doris.
Henry and his four older sisters were all christened on the same day 5th March 1893
In 1901, Henry Boaler senior still in London living at 11 Chamberlain Street, the address which was also on the baptismal record back in 1893. His two younger daughters Gertrude and Doris had been born in London and the youngest Doris was baptised aged 5 in 1908 in Primrose Hill – so it is likely that Henry and Ellen did not move to Sandridge till after 1908. Yet by 1911 Henry and Ellen, and his youngest daughters are living in Sandridge north of St. Albans. Henry was the publican at the Rose and Crown public house. This is how the family are linked to the village and why Henry Josephs’ name is on one of panels of the Great War Returners boards on the parish church lychgate.
In 1911 Henry Joseph is found living with his eldest sister Nellie (Ellen) now married to Mr. Lockerby, a solicitors clerk, at 98 Hewitt Avenue, Wood Green London. He was working as a telegraph boy. Also in the household were his sisters Florence , Maud.
In 1913 Henry Joseph married May Selina Felstead Blake who had been born in 1891 in Hampstead. and their daughter Norah Beatrice Ellen was born later that year on October 25th 1913. She was baptised a year later on 2 September 1914.
In August 1914 the postal service appointment books record him as a postman in NW3 Hampstead area.
Wartime Service
Henry Joseph served with the London 19th Battalion of the London regiment (St. Pancras) Territorial force
His number was 610163 as both private and lance corporal.
On the medal records it states he entered the war on 10 March 1915 and served in France.
He received the Meritorious service award, British and Victory and Star medals.
As yet no attestation papers have been found.
Additional Information
By 1921 the Boaler family are spread out geographically. Henry Joseph with his wife and young daughter now aged seven at 10 Worsley Road, Hampstead. His parents and youngest sister Doris continue to live at the Rose and Crown in Sandridge. Doris is working as a dispatch clerk for the Ryders Limited ( Samuel Ryders seed Company based in St. Albans) she marries Stephen Outram in 1937 in St. Albans. Also at the Rose and Crown in 1921 are Nellie’s daughters Marjorie aged 15 and Vera aged seven . These are the nieces of Henry Joseph. Henry Josephs’ other sisters in 1921: - Nellie is a widow – working as a housekeeper at 2 Belsize Park , Palmers Green – this maybe the reason her daughters are living with Henry’s parents at the rose and Crown. Nellie remarries George Noad in 1927. Beatrice with her husband Alfred Hills living in Tottenham, London. Maudie is possibly married or deceased as yet cannot find her marriage/ death records. Florence married to Percy Smith living in Norfolk, with three children. Gertrude married in 1919 now living in Croydon with her husband Mr. Richard Cory. Further electoral roll records show Henry Joseph living at 10, Wolsey Road in 1922 through to 1925. From 1935 until 1937 he is recorded living at the same address as Beatrice and her husband Alfred Hill at 88 Colin gardens Hendon. In 1937 his parents died in Sandridge, Henry Boaler senior died on 22nd February 1937 and Ellen a few months later on May 5th , a headstone with their names in the churchyard also commemorates their daughter Florence Victoria Smith who died aged 34 in 1922 in Norfolk, a married woman with three children at the time of her death. In the 1939 Register at the start of World War 2, Henry Joseph, now aged 47, is living as a boarder in a shared house at 41 Agincourt Road Hampstead. He is still working as a Postman. His wife May and daughter Norah (with her husband Frank Richards) are living with Nellie and George Noad (his eldest sister) at 10 The Walk, Potters Bar. After the war , in subsequent electoral roll records 1952 through to 1960 Henry Joseph is living at 22, Lambolle Road, Belsize Park, without May Selina his wife. May Selina was living in Harrow in 1968 at the time of Henry Josephs death in Sandridge – perhaps there had been a separation in previous years. Henry Joseph died on 6th August 1968, aged 75 years, his address at time of death was 22, House Lane, Sandridge, so he had returned to the village to live prior to his death. His place of burial / interment of ashes not yet discovered. The house is a few hundred yards from the Rose and Crown public house in which his father had worked as publican. Henry Joseph’s’ daughter Norah , married in 1935 a Mr. Stride, and a Frank Richards in 1938 and is listed in the 1939 register with her husband and mother living at the house of her aunt Nellie in Potter Bar. Norah died in 1982 in the Chichester area. It is possible she and Frank had children, but this is to be confirmed with further research. His wife May Selina, died in 1979 in the Brent area of London.
Acknowledgments
Sarah Burns
