Victor John Mead - Early Life

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Colin from Ickleford who had come across this blog (one of a select few!) whilst researching the names that appear on the Ickleford First World War memorial. He is looking to put together a commemoration to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.

I wrote a post about my Grand Uncle, Victor John Mead and way back then had promised to complete his story. Inspired by Colin's phone call, this is, I promise, the first of several posts which tell his story.

Victor John Mead, known as John, was born on 27th May 1897 in Ickleford. When I first saw the photo below, I had no idea who was in it until I asked my parents, who told me it included my Great Uncle and my Grandfather. I wonder how many others in the photo fought in the First World War?

The enlargement below shows my Great Uncle on the left, and my Grandfather Denys on the right. My Grandfather also fought in the First World War, but despite being injured twice he survived

The census entry below shows the family living in Ickleford in 1911.

We think the picture below shows the family home. The Cottage is next to the Cricketers pub.

My next post will cover Victor's enlistment and his service in the First World War.

Victor John Mead 1897-1915

This is the first of several posts about my Grand Uncle, Victor John Mead. I knew he had died in WW1 and was keen to find out more. Whilst searching to see if FLA had served in WW1, I had joined The Great War Forum. The people on there were incredibly helpful and if anyone wants to know about WW1, I would highly recommend the forum and its sister site The Long, Long Trail as good places to start.

My local library had a copy of the index to the National Roll of the Great War. The National Roll of the Great War is a 14 volume series of short biographical sketches of British soldiers who served, including some who died, in World War 1. The volumes are arranged geographically according to where the soldier was from. To buy the books is very expensive but I discovered that there were members on the forum who had access to some of the volumes, or had downloaded pages from Military-Genealogy. I posted a message asking if anyone had a copy of the page with my Grand Uncle on and was delighted to receive a reply the following day offering to send me a copy of the page! Pushing my luck I asked if he had the page before which would feature my paternal Grandfather, Denys Mead. Incredibly, he had only ever downloaded 5 pages from Military-Genealogy, none featuring the people he wanted, but he had both pages that I wanted - amazing! In future posts I'll write about where he died, where he is buried, his medals and his age.