9 Oxford Road, Anerley House

History of 9 Oxford Road

1891 Anneley House [sic]

George J Smee, 54, tailors foreman, b Cambridge

Eliza, 50, b Cambridge

Lila, 22, mothers help, b Cambridge

Ernest G, 18, tailors apprentice, b Cambridge

Alice, 16, pupil teacher, b Cambridge

Ethel, 13, scholar, b Cambridge

Percival, 11, scholar, b Cambridge

1901 Annerley House

George G Smee, master tailor

Eliza, 60,

Lilla, 32,

Percy G F, 21, school teacher

1911

Percival G F Smee, 31, assistant master elementary school Willesden Educ Com,

Minnie Lilian, 30, wife, assistant mistress elementary school London County Council, b London

Jessie Mabel Calthorpe, sister in law, 25, secretary dentist, b Northants

1913

Mrs Smee

The Smee family moved here from 2 Victoria Road. Percival, b 1880, studied to be a teacher at St Peter’s Training College Peterborough 1902-3. A note from P D Mitchell in 2023 states the following:

Gunner Percival George Frederick Smee (146962) 387th Siege Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery.

On 22nd July 1909 he married Minnie Lillian Calthorpe at St Mark’s Church, Hamilton Terrace in London.  (This is the church that was severely damaged by an unexplained fire on 26th January of this year).  The census of 1911 shows Percival employed by the Willesden Education Committee as an Assistant Schoolmaster and living with his wife at 33 Alma Square, St John’s Wood, not far from the church where thry were married.

During the Great War Percival’s unit was assigned to serve in Palestine.  There he contracted dysentery and pneumonia, possibly linked to influenza, and died on 29th October 1918 at age 38 years.  He is buried at Gaza War Cemetery.  

Percival is commemorated on a plaque in Peterborough Cathedral that is dedicated to the students of his former college who fell in WW 1, as well as on the memorial in the Cambridge Guildhall.  In addition, he is remembered on the memorial of Dudden Hill School [1] in Willesden Green, London, where he worked as a highly respected teacher before joining the armed services.  The central plaque of the Dudden Hill School memorial was rescued during its destruction in the 1960s and was recently returned to the Brent Archives where it awaits restoration and then public display [2].

[1] warmemorialsonline.org.uk/ Dudden Hill School

[2] Quest for Remembrance: a personal story of Dudden Hill School.  Journal of the Willesden Local History Society, No 56, Winter/Spring 2023.

1918

Gunner Percival Smee aged 38 reported to have died of dysentery and pneumonia in Gaza serving with the RGA. Probably influenza linked.