Member of the staff at the Public Record Office.
Andrew Behan has researched Sexton: Private Roland Oscar Sexton was born in Hampstead and his birth was registered in the second quarter of 1886. He was the younger son and the youngest of the three children of William Sexton and Elizabeth Sexton née Page. The 1891 census shows the family living at 1 Lindfield Gardens, Hampstead and his father was shown as a Police Constable, but by the time of the 1911 census the family had moved to 204 Droop Street, Queens Park, Paddington and his father's occupation had changed to that of a Messenger at the Public Record Office, whilst he had gained employment as a Railway Clerk.
On 8 September 1914 he enlisted at Camden in the 19th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (St Pancras), service number 2782, and later that year on 27 December 1914 he married Alice Elizabeth Godfrey at The Parish Church of Christ Church, Greenwich. The marriage register shows them living at 24 Halstow Road, Greenwich and his occupation was given as a Searcher, Public Record Office.
He entered France on 9 March 1915 and was killed in action attached to C Company of his regiment, aged 29 years, on 25 September 1915. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Panel 134A of the Loos Memorial, Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos-en-Gohelle, Lens, France. On 19 January 1916 his widow received his army effects totalling £3-15s-7d and on 1 May 1916 she was awarded a ten shillings per week pension. She also received a £3-10s-0d war gratuity on 28 August 1919. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal and these were sent by post to his widow on 15 March 1921.
