Robert Howard Bishop was born on the 15 March 1894; the eldest of the six children of Robert Bishop (b.1864) and Annie Bishop née Howard (1873-1919) and his birth was registered in 2nd quarter of 1894 in the Lambeth registration district. On 28 March 1897 he was baptised at St Matthew's Church, Brixton. The baptismal register shows the family living at 52 Nursery Road, Brixton and that his father was a coachman.
The 1901 census shows him living at 55 Nursery Road, Brixton with his parents and his brother James Bishop (1898-1959). Postal Service Appointment Books show him listed as an assistant postman in September 1910 and this is confirmed in the 1911 census where he is shown as a telegraph messenger living at 51 Nursery Road, Brixton, with his parents, five siblings: James, Horace Albert Bishop (1901-1978), Helena Annie Bishop (1904-1986), Leonard Bishop (1906-1995), Amy Dorothy Bishop (1909-2003) and a cousin Nellie Eva Bishop (b.1892).
In 1911 he enlisted in the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), service number 1393, a Territorial Force. In January 1914 he is shown in the Postal Service Appointment Books as a postman at the Western District Office. Upon the outbreak of World War One he was embodied full time with the Regiment and arrived in France on 18 March 1915. He was killed in action, aged 21 years on 25 May 1915 and was buried in Plot 2, Row C, Grave 6 at The Post Office Rifles Cemetery, 673 Rue de Béthune, Festubert, Pas-de-Calais, France.
By 22 October 1915 his army effects totalling £4-16s-4d had been sent to his father who was also sent his £3-0s-0d war gratuity on 24 June 1919. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as BISHOP. R. H. on the Western Postal District war memorial in Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on Page 36 in the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance Memorial Book and in the World War One Online Memorial which also tells the story of the Battle of Festubert in which he lost his life.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
