Loxston

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Alfred Loxston (1858-1921)

Alfred, born in 1858 at Spaxton near Bridgwater in Somerset, married Elizabeth Hill (1860-1957) in 1888 and they had four children (see later). In 1911 the family were living at 4 Frankley Buildings, Camden Road, Bath. Alfred and Elizabeth moved to Kingston around 1912/13 so he could take up the post of Foreman at the Estate Carpenter’s Shop.

During the Great War, Alfred played the organ in the Old Church until the regular organist, Gilbert Dorey had recovered from injuries sustained on active service. Alfred died in 1921 aged 63 and Elizabeth died in 1957 at the ripe old age of 97. Both are buried in the Old Lower Churchyard although only Elizabeth’s grave is marked with a headstone.

elizabeth loxston grave
Elizabeth Loxston’s headstone in the Old Lower Churchyard. Unfortunately the metallic lettering has been damaged by use of a strimmer in the churchyard. Some of the buckled letters lie in the soil.

Children of Alfred & Elizabeth:

1.   Mary Loxston (1889-?)

In 1911, Mary was an Elementary School Teacher in Bath.

2.   George Hugh Loxston (1891-1978)

In 1911, George was an Assurance Clerk. He signed up in 1915 and initially served with the 2nd King Edward’s Horse Regiment and then later in the newly formed Tank Corps achieving rank of Acting Colour Sergeant. George was living at Kingston with his mother after his father’s death in 1921. George married Hilda Maisie Marsh (1902-1957) of The Square, Corfe Castle in 1926. He later moved to Cowley, Oxfordshire where he was a leading fitter. Three years after Hilda died, in 1960, George married Sarah Emily Bradshaw (1907-1995). George died in 1978 and his ashes were interred at Kingston in 1983. Sarah died in 1995 in her birth county of Derbyshire.

3.   Alfred Gerald Loxston (1893-1985)

In 1911 ‘Gerald’ was a Builder’s Clerk in Bath. During World War 1, Gerald who was 5 feet 9½ inches tall, served as a Gunner with the Royal Field Artillery initially in France. After leaving service in 1919 he lived at 3 Sunnybank, Lyncombe Vale, Bath. In 1940, Gerald Loxston married Kingston resident Lilian Matilda Bartlett neé Allen (1900-1978), widow of the late George Edward Bartlett (1903-1939). George Bartlett’s mother, Georgina, was publican at the Eldon Arms for almost 50 years. Lilian’s mother was Beatrice Mary Allen neé Bydder (1871-1940) who taught at the School in Kingston.

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Gerald & Lilian Loxston

Gerald and Lilian played an important role in the life of Kingston. Not only was Gerald the Clerk of Works for the Encombe Estate, but he was also:

  • Secretary of the Kingston Reading Room
  • Secretary of the ‘Kingston Cricket Team’, winners of the Dorset Cricket Cup Div II in 1929
  • Treasurer of the Church Fête and Flower Show in 1935
  • ‘Trinculo’ in the 1937 open-air production of ‘The Tempest’ at Encombe
  • ‘Churdles Ash’ in the 1946 production of ‘The Farmer’s Wife’, while wife Lilian played ‘Sarah Smerdon’

Meanwhile Lilian was secretary of the Women’s Institute and during the Second World War helped serve refreshments in the Reading Room which had been converted to a canteen for troops billeted at Kingston House and Encombe House.

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Lilian & Gerald Loxston standing in the front garden of their home in West Street. The names of the two ladies in the gateway are not known.

Gerald and Lilian lived in West Street opposite the School House. They did not have any children.

workshop greyscale
The old cobbler’s shop in the back garden of Gerald & Lilian’s home in West Street

4.   William Robert Loxston (1896-1976)

In 1911, William was an Auctioners & Estate Agents Clerk in Bath. In 1926 he married Hilda Grace Seager (1898-1956) and they had two sons,  Alfred Robert Loxston (1928-2003) and Bernard George Loxston (1930-1997). William was a Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths from 1930 to 1942.  Hilda died in 1956 aged 58 and William died in 1976 aged 80.

Photographs of the Loxston brothers together…

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The Loxston brothers c. 1913 – Gerald, George & William
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The brothers again, this time in uniform c. 1914 – Gerald, George & William

We are grateful to Neil Loxston, Gerald’s great nephew, for giving permission to publish all of these photographs.

If you have any further information, memories, photographs etc. about the Loxston family then please contact us.

Page last updated: 6 January 2016

1914: December: Parish Magazine

Vicar: Arthur Napier

Church Services

I hope to have the usual Lantern Services on the first three Wednesdays in Advent, namely – December 2nd, 9th and 16th, at 7 p.m.

There will be no Mid-day Service of Communion on the third Sunday of the month, but two Celebrations on Christmas morning at 8 and 11. The collections on this day will be made for the Church of England Society for Waif and Stray Children.

Confirmation

The Lord Bishop of the Diocese held a Confirmation Service at Corfe Castle on Thursday, November 26th, at 3 o’clock. Three candidates were presented from Kingston: George Caines, Seymour Tatchell and Lillian Allen.

O.H.M.S

We have now, I am proud to say, twelve (in addition to E. J. Collins, at present a prisoner of war) connected directly or indirectly with our village who are serving with the Colours.

May God protect them and enable them to be a credit to their King, their Country and their village home:

William Cooper            Fred Bullen

Walter Hunt                  Robert Grant

James Medd                 Jesse Marsh

Robert Dorey                George Davis

Jack Caines                  Alan Travers

Parish Almanacs

These Almanacs for the New Year can be had after any of the Lantern Services in December.

Baptism

Nov. 15.            Mary Geraldine de Courcy Cooper

1914: November: Parish Magazine

Vicar: Arthur Napier

Our monthly collection, taken on October 25th, amounted to the sum of £3 3s. 0d. The Rev. A. C. Nickol pleaded the cause of Foreign Missions. He is the Secretary for the Church Missionary Society. Next month, November 29th (Advent Sunday) we shall have the Rev. H. Macknight once more with us to ask for our collection towards the Missions to Seamen; but, as last year, he will preach at Morning Service only.

Band of Mercy

The annual competition, in which last year our Kingston Band of Mercy was so successful, took place on Wednesday, October 14th. The names of those who have entered are: May Speck, Lillian Allen, Winnie Munden, Eva Speck, Elizabeth Fricker, Annie Travers, Annie Hunt; Edward Travers, Ralph Hunt and Albert Fricker. We all had tea after School at Mrs. Bartlett’s and went thence to the Schoolroom again for essay-writing. The result may be looked for in the early part of the New Year.

Parish Bounds

I have been here for three years, and have only just discovered that what I thought was a part of my parish is not so. I refer to Hill Bottom; I have hitherto been given to understand that the cottages on the right-hand side (as one goes towards Chapman’s Pool) and the old coastguard cottages belonged to Kingston, but on investigation of the Worth Tithe Map, I find that all these cottages, together with those on the left-hand side, are in the Parish of Worth. The only difference that this discovery will make will be that I shall cease my periodical visitation of these cottages, and (in the New Year) my issue to them of the Parish Magazine, but I shall retain in the future for the dwellers in the cottages there the same interest and affection that I have had for them in the past.

Club Room

Our excellent Club Room is now open and in use. It is another sign of Lord Eldon’s generosity. He has given us the Room and the billiard table, a handsome present, and, as time goes on, we shall appreciate it more and more. Thanks to Mr. Candy’s interest in pressing matters on, we were able to make our first evening’s use of it on Monday, October 19th.