The Great War: A–M · Story 26

Arthur James Fox (1900-1970)

In writing these brief biographies, I have sometimes discovered interconnections between families which were not at first obvious. When we consider all the men, we see that there was a web of family and friendship ties, leaving few in the village untouched.

One man in this network was Arthur James Fox, who was born on 14th May 1900, the son of Frederick and Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth, (often just Elizabeth), was the older sister of Charlotte Gray who had married Herman Baker, another Great War soldier. The Grays were a Yorkshire family, who lived for a time in Northamptonshire. In 1901 Frederick and Elizabeth Fox were living at 5 Carlow Road in Ringstead. With them was their first child, Arthur who was just 10 months old. The couple had four more children, Albert, Agnes, Walter and Elsie.

It was not a happy marriage, however, and in April 1907 Frederick was summoned for persistent cruelty to Mary. She said that he had abused her and threatened her with a carving knife. The court adjourned the case to see if the “parties could come to terms”. Mary Elizabeth refused to be reconciled and in May the Bench ordered Frederick to pay her eleven shillings a week. She had been staying with her parents who only lived a few doors away in Carlow Street. It seems that she went north with them when they moved back to Hull. She died there in 1908.

In the 1911 Census, widower Frederick was 32 years old, and an unemployed handsewn bootmaker with children, (Arthur) James 10, Albert, 8, and Agnes 5 years old. Walter was with his grandparents in Hull. The last daughter, Elsie Clorinda, was not with the family and I cannot find her elsewhere in the Census. In 1926 she emigrated to Canada on the SS Canada. She was 18 years old and was described as a “Vaudeville Artist”. As we have seen, in the Herman Baker biography, Charlotte Baker (her mother’s sister) was a talented musician. Her former address was given as Division Street in Hull where her grandparents had lived. On the same ship was Harry Mobley who she married in Canada that same year..

Despite his violent attitude to his wife, we must acknowledge that Frederick seems to have prospered by dint of hard work and imagination. Jon Abbott has written that he was said to have designed and patented removable spikes for running shoes. He also built up a successful boot making business employing several men. His family would take the orders to Ringstead Station for delivery to his clients. By 1939 he could describe himself as a “Boot Manufacturer”.

Arthur James Fox would only have been fourteen when war was declared in 1914. He could not have imagined that he would have to play a part in it. He would not have been eighteen until May 14th 1918 and we cannot be certain just what his service record was. We know from the Ringstead Roll of Honour that he was serving with the Army of Occupation at the end of the war. It also gives his unit as the 52nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.

Arthur would have been too young to vote so was not included in the 1918 Absent Voters’ List for Ringstead. The Representation of the People’s Act of 1918 tripled the number entitled to vote from 7.7 million to 21.4 million by the ned of the year. There was a proviso in the Act that men, who had turned 19 while doing war service, were also entitled to vote. This explains why Arthur is on the Autumn 1919 Absent Voters’ List. It also confirms that he was also in the 52nd Royal Sussex Regiment and gives his Regimental Number as 28273.

The 52nd Battalion served in northern Germany as part of the Army of Occupation from March to August 1919. Previously to this it had been a training unit and had been based from April 1918 in Thetford. We must presume that Arthur joined the Battalion in Thetford and went with it to Germany in March 1919. This would explain why he does not have a Medal Card, as his service was after the Armistice on 11th November 1918.

After he was demobilised, he returned to Ringstead and lived with his father, Frederick, in Carlow Street. In the third quarter of 1922 he married Florence Doris Pentelow. Florence was a Raunds’ girl, the daughter of Ralph and Polly (née Skinner) Pentelow. They lived in Rotten (or Rotton) Row and Ralph had been a riveter in a local shoe factory when Florence was christened on July 16th 1899.

We have shown that Arthur’s father, Frederick, was something of an entrepreneur. Is it possible that he helped set up his eldest son in business? Certainly by 1939 Arthur was living at 26 Linden Avenue in Kettering and was now a “General Shop Keeper”. At the time of the 1939 Register of England and Wales Herman and Lotte (Charlotte) Baker were staying with the Foxes. As we have said, in Herman Baker’s biography, Charlotte was the sister of Arthur’s late mother. The couple now lived near Hull but obviously had kept their links with their Northamptonshire relatives.

In the same year, on 19th July 1939, Arthur advertised in the Evening Telegraph:

CARAVANS for hire at Skegness. – Apply Fox General Stores, Linden Avenue, Kettering. Booked August week.

It must have seemed that the world was more settled after the traumas of the Great War and the Depression Years but, of course, another World War was about to start which would be even longer than the first and shook civilisation by the terrible toll of civilians across the World.

Florence died on 21st February 1966 and Arthur followed her on the 25th May 1970.