No.139421, Sapper, Francis PETTITT
Aged 31
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Francis Pettitt was born in Kirtling in 1885 (Newmarket Q4-1885 3B:526), son of George and Ruth PETTITT, (née CLAYDON).
The transcription of the Kirtling baptismal record unfortunately has no date and gives Francis as 6 years old.
1891 census...Aged 5, he was at Cottage, The Green, Kirtling with his father George PETTITT [45] general labourer; mother Ruth [51]; sisters Margaret [19], Alice [8] and Salome [7] and brothers Alfred [13] farm labourer, and Roger [2]. All the family were born in Kirtling. There were other siblings, Sarah born 1866, Elizabeth [1867] George [1869], William [1871] and Ada [1874]. 1901 census...Aged 15, a farm labourer, he was at Cottage, The Green, Kirtling with his widowed mother Ruth PETTITT [56] a pauper, born Kirtling; his sisters Alice [19] and Salome [16] and brother Roger [12]. All the children were born in Kirtling. His father had died in 1895. 1911 census...Aged 25, a farm labourer, he was still at the Green, Kirtling with his mother, sister Alice and brother Roger (milkman on farm). His mother had borne 10 children and all survived according to the 1911 census but there was apparently one "forgotten" child as previous census make it 11 children. Throughout the census there are serious discrepancies in the ages of his parents, sometimes his father is older than his mother, other times younger On the pension card his mother is at Charing Cross, Kirtling. His brother Roger was killed in the war, in November 1916 in France see here . |
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He enlisted in Newmarket. "Soldiers Died" has his number as 130121 In the absence of his Army records it is impossible to find out where he was wounded. Being in the tunnelling section of the engineers he could have been anywhere along the front line at the time, and even the time is not known. Glasgow was home to several military hospitals and a port heavily used in supplying the BEF |
photo; Patricia Lewis photo; Commonwealth War Graves Commission
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