Arthur Frederick Noakes

Private Arthur Frederick Noakes of the 13th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers died on 5 May 1918. He is buried at Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt. He is not listed on the Hampton Wick War Memorial but his Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) entry refers to him as the son of Albert John and Elizabeth Noakes of 238 Kingston Road, then within the postal district of Hampton Wick.

The Noakes family was a long established Hampton Wick family with members born in the village from at least 1814. However, Arthur Frederick Noakes appears to have been born on the other side of the River Thames in Kingston on 29 October 1898 where he was duly baptised the following month on 29 October 1898 at St Peter’s, Norbiton. In 1901 the family lived at 14 Hudson Road, Kingston. His father, Albert John (32), was a Painter and Paper Hanger. His mother, Emily Elizabeth (32), came from Sussex. The family comprised four children living at home: Albert E (10); Ellen G (8); Arthur Frederick (2) and Percy R (1). All the children had been born in Kingston as had their father (although as births in Hampton Wick were recorded as being in Kingston this does not necessarily rule out a village connection).

By the time of the 1911 Census, the Noakes family had moved to 3 Deacon Road, Kingston. The eldest child, Albert had moved out of the house (or possibly died as the Census reveals that of the couple’s ten children born alive two had died). The Noakes had the following family members (plus two boarders) living in their presumably crowded six room property: the parents; Ellen Gertrude (18), working as a bookbinder; Arthur Frederick (12); Percy Reginald (11); William John (8); Elsie May (5); Winifred Amy (3) and Rose Caroline (1).

Private Noakes’ entry in UK Soldiers who Died in the Great War states that he enlisted in Kingston and was originally enrolled as a Private (11552) in the East Surrey Regiment. He must have subsequently been transferred to the 13th Battalion of the London Regiment (L/17157). He died of his wounds on 5 May 1918 aged only 19 at the 56th Casualty Clearing Station in France.

His parents must have moved from Deacon Road sometime between 1911 and 1918 when his parents’ address in the notice of his death in The Surrey Comet dated 15 May 1918 is given as “Kingston Road”, Hampton Wick, the address also given for them on his CWGC Entry. However, other than a historic family connection to the village the connection may have been too tenuous for him to be commemorated on the Hampton Wick War Memorial.

Private Noakes is listed on the Teddington War Memorial and on the war memorial in St Mark’s Church, Teddington. He also has an entry on the Online WW1 War Memorial for Teddington.