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Francis Cecil Dewey

Rank: Private

Lifetime: 1889-1917

Reference: 736176

Dewey

The Thiepval Memorial on which Private Francis Cecil Dewey is commemorated

Private Francis Cecil Dewey (736176) of the 1st Battalion of the London Regiment (Artists’ Rifles) died on 30 December 1917. He has no known grave but his death is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

His Service Record reveals that he enlisted at St George’s Hall in Liverpool on 14 January 1916. He was an unmarried Lay Preacher living at ?19 Barlow Lane, Kirkdale, Liverpool. At the time of his enlistment he was 26. He was 5’5” tall with a 35” chest and weighed 132lbs and appears to have slight varicose veins. He initially joined the 28th Lancashire Regiment as part of the Army Reserve. On 30 October 1916 following the losses on the Somme he was mobilised to a regular unit and then sent to France on 20 March 1917.

He was connected to Hampton Wick because his father, George Dewey, lived at The Ivy House Cottage, Hampton Court at least from the date of Private Dewey’s enlistment. There is also a note in his Service Record, dated 27 May 1918, that his personal effects are to be sent to that address. Private Dewey must have died without leaving any form of will as his Record also includes a statement completed by his father on 12 September 1919 setting out details of all his living relatives. By this time his father, however, had moved from Hampton Wick to live with his eldest son George Albert Dewey (37) at Hillbrow, Wablaton, Emsworth. Private Dewey was survived in addition by two other brothers, Alfred Dewy (35) and Herbert Guy Dewey (33) as well as by a half-sister, Fanny Orton (45) who lived at [?] Gardens, Abberley Hall, Great Witley, Worcester.

He was born in Chichester. According to his family tree published on Ancestry.com his parents were George Dewey (1848-1936) and Mary Jane Sendall (1856-1919). According to the details published with the family tree, he had moved by 1891 to Horsham but returned to Chichester by 1901.

The first phase of this Project is to gather information about the men commemorated on the Hampton Wick War Memorial who fought in the Great War, also known as World War I, WWI or the First World War.

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