5247: William Francis Charles Stone
Creators: name: Project Team, Lest We Forget
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430304
subject: British history
classificationCode: 430308
subject: European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
classificationCode: 430316
subject: International history

description: Please see document for full story. A brief overview is included below.William Francis Charles Stone was born in 1898 at 68 Highfield (subsequently renamed Lime Walk) Headington, Oxford.His story reflects the changing tides of war and family life. His father, William Francis Randall Stone is understood to have worked on the construction of a factory for Coleman’s Mustard. William was one of six children and his mother, Kate Lillian Stone (nee Knight), ran the general store at 53 Pitts Road, Headington Quarry right through until the First World War.William attended Headington Quarry School and completed his full-time schooling at the age of twelve. After leaving school, William worked for Mrs Osborne at 63 High Street, Oxford. At some point between 1910-1915 he must have started training as a woodcutting machinist because this is stated as his “trade or calling before enlistment” on his Certificate of Employment during the war.William joined the army on 4<sup>th</sup> May 1915 aged sixteen,<br>having lied about his age, stating that he was nineteen. The letters from his<br>mother (see full document) show she attempted to intervene. William was first sent to France in March 1916 and service records, and information from the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Archive, illustrate his journey through various battalions. He was a Lewis Gunner. Lt Col. Cross described him as "a very clean and capably young soldier. Trustworthy and hard working."William was gassed in September 1918.His mother did not only have the worry of her eldest son fighting in the war. During the same period, her husband was in the Royal Army Service Corps and the Labour Corps serving in France, Salonika, Alexandria and maybe elsewhere. She was also bringing up five other children and running the general store in Pitts Road, Headington.William was discharged on the 24<sup>th</sup> April 1919. He received Victory and British War Medals. In October 1920 he re-enlisted in the Army Reserve. He rarely spoke about his experiences throughout the rest of his life. They must have left deep psychological scares and, at least in the early years, he suffered traumatic nightmares.From his letters to his mother it is clear that he had aspirations to have a smallholding or to become a poultry farmer. Clearly those dreams did not become reality and he returned to his trade of woodcutting machinist, a trade that he pursued until retirement.William was still enlisted as a reservist and he was called up to be deployed during a miners' strike in the early 1920s when he was based in Tamworth in Staffordshire.William married Lilian Clara Elmore Durran (born 11th December 1901) in 1923 at St Andrew's Church in Old Headington and moved into one of his father's houses at 55 Pitts Road.William became a pattern maker and was involved on the production of the iconic Bull Nosed Morris using all his skills learnt as a woodcutting machinist.William was keen on a range of sports and drew particular pleasure from following Headington United (later to become Oxford United) football team. At Morris Motors he was an enthusiastic darts player, for which he won a medal. He also regularly played darts at the Headington Conservative Club. William, like many former soldiers, also became a member of a Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.William and Lilian's first child, Edwin Francis William, was born on the 23rd December 1923. Almost three years later on the 17th September 1926 they had a daughter, Kathleen Margaret. In May 1928 William purchased a plot of land in Bickerton Road from Mrs E. K. Wilbraham for £138. In 1929 they moved into a house built by William's father on that plot of land, numbered 33 Bickerton Road, in the heart of the rapidly growing 'New' Headington. Their new home was a relatively large three-storey house with five bedrooms, a bathroom, two large reception rooms and a large kitchen/dining room. It was here that Lilian let rooms to Oxford University students (see note two below) right through to the 1960s, usually three at any one time, cooking their meals, undertaking their laundering and generally acting as their 'term-time mother'.William worked tirelessly growing most of the produce to feed his family and student lodgers. The house had a fairly large garden but, in addition, William had purchased a plot of land at 7 Bickerton Road which he used as an allotment (he also rented a further allotment just off the Old Road on the site of what is now Town Furze Estate). To spread this produce through the seasons Lilian bottled fruit in Kilner jars, salted down runner beans in large stone jars, made jam and laid out apples in racks in the shed. To supplement this, chickens were kept in the garden of the house to provide a constant supply of eggs and the occasional meal.Before many more years had lapsed, the country was plunged into war again with Germany. Lilian said it was the only time she had seen her husband cry. This emotion was stirred by the prospect of his son, Edwin, having to endure the harrowing experiences he had faced in the earlier conflict. Within about two years Edwin was called up and joined the Royal Engineers. He had learned to speak German at school and further perfected this to the point that he was called upon as an interpreter. He became a very fluent speaker of the language and continued serving in the British Army of the Rhine for several years after the war.William had gone beyond the age of being called upon for active service but he did join the Home Guard with lookout duties on Shotover Hill and fire watch duties at the factories. In 1939, William and Lilian also had a still born daughter.In 1943, in the midst of the war, William and Lilian had a son, Bernard Denis, who was born on the 8th August of that year and weighed in at 10lbs. The name given to him came about because his older sister Kathleen was engaged to a flight engineer in the RAF by the name of Bernard Hadfield. When he knew that Lilian was expecting a baby, he made a request saying that "if you have a boy would you name him after me so that if I am killed in the war he will be in memory of me."Whilst on leave, Edwin, probably when stationed in the Dartford area of Kent, met Mabel Shorter at a dance. Mabel was, at that time, working at Woolwich Arsenal. They were married in a bomb-damaged church in Dartford in the early summer of 1945.Whilst away in Dusseldorf Edwin met and had a relationship with Annemarie Steinhauer, who had previously been married and whose maiden name was Leuber. Edwin very honestly (some may say too honestly) confessed this to Mabel and asked her to forgive him. She refused to do so, a decision that she later regretted, and they were divorced in around 1949.Edwin proposed marriage to Annemarie, she came to England in 1949, and they were married at the Oxford Register Office towards the end of that year.Following the sad death of her fiancé, Kathleen started to rebuild her life and in due course was courted by Allen Eastes, who she had known for some years as they lived in nearby roads. When the relationship blossomed Allen was serving in the Royal Navy. They were married on the 2nd June 1949 at Highfield Church in Headington and then initially lived in a flat at 137 Windmill Road.During the Second World War, Lilian, like many women, filled jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight. She worked in the factory at Cowley that had been converted from car production to the manufacture of munitions.On retirement William undertook a part-time job at the Technical College, which later became Oxford Brookes University.He died very suddenly in 1969 of a massive heart attack whilst working at the Technical College.