Subject

Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers who died in WW1.

Andrew Behan has kindly provided this research: Second Lieutenant Heriot Baker Roe was born on 10 October 1880 in Church Row, Fulham, the second son and the third of the four children of Matthew Thomas Roe (1831-1906) and Margaret Anne Roe née Husband (1848-1929). His father was a Paper Merchant. 

The 1881 census shows him living at 6 Church Row, Fulham with his parents, his sister Mary Cicely Roe (1875-1958), his elder brother Harold Husband Roe (1878-1967), a cook, a nurse, an under-nurse and a housemaid. On 23 March 1883 his younger brother, Cyril Kenneth Roe (1883-1904) was born. The 1891 census shows him living at Latchmore Cottage, Gerrards Cross Common, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, with his parents, his brother Harold Husband Roe, a housekeeper and a parlour-maid. 

He was educated at Newcastle High School, Mount Pleasant, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

The 1901 census shows him residing at 80 Lexham Gardens, Kensington, with his parents, his sister, a cook, a parlour-maid, 2 housemaids and a kitchen-maid. Both he and his father were shown as Wholesale Stationers.

On 5 November 1901 he was admitted into the Freedom of the City of London by patrimony in the Worshipful Company of Stationers.

The 1911 census shows him back at Latchmere Cottage, Gerrards Cross, with his widowed mother, a housekeeper and a housemaid. His occupation was recorded as a Paper Merchant.

In March 1915 he joined the Honourable Artillery Company, an infantry regiment, as a private and his service number was 3297 and he entered France on 22 July 1916. He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the East Surrey Regiment on 17 December 1917 and this was confirmed in the Supplement to the London Gazette dated 18 January 1918. He was killed in action, aged 37 years, on 23 August 1918, and was buried in Aghiet-le-Petit, Pas de Calais.

On 14 March 1919 probate records show that his mother was granted administration of his estate. It showed his last address was 93 Philbeach Gardens, Earls Court and that his effects totalled £9,967-18s-10d. She was also sent his army effects totalling £71-4s-6d on 7 April 1919 and a war gratuity payment of £15-10s-0d on 9 January 1920. Following the war his body was exhumed and reburied in Plot IV, Row E, Grave 24 of the Adanac Military Cemetery, Miraumont, Somme, France. (Adanac is the reverse spelling of Canada and this cemetery contains the bodies of mainly Canadian soldiers). He was posthumously awarded The British War Medal 1914-1918 and The Victory Medal but it was not until 22 May 1928 that his mother applied for them to be sent to her. On 22 November 1929 his brother, Harold Husband Roe reapplied for probate, together with that for their late mother's estate. Administration was re-granted showing the address of 17 Walbrook, London and the effects totalled £2,499-7s-2d. He is also commemorated on the WW1 board in the Memorial Hall of Newcastle High School listing the 91 former pupils who died in the Great War.