Chailey Parish Magazine
lists Ernest James Fenn only once and this is in a special list of attested men published in January 1916.
Ernest was born at Fletching, Sussex around
1868, his birth registered in the district of Uckfield in the March quarter of that year.
He appears on the 1881 census living with his family at 4, Camden Crescent, Dover. The household comprised Edwin Fenn (head, married, aged 42, a Colchester born General Medical Practitioner),
his wife Alice Anne (or Annie) Fenn (aged 42, born in Ardleigh, Essex) and five children: Ernest (aged 13), Edwin Anthony
Fenn (aged 11), Alice Kathleen Fenn (aged four), William C Fenn (aged four) and Leonard H Fenn (aged one). The two older boys had been born in Fletching (as had a sixth child, Grace Fenn, born about 1870); the
other children had all been born in Dover. Lending a hand at the house were 18 year old Alice Watson, a general servant and 14
year old Ellen McPay, a nursemaid.
In 1891 he is noted
as a 25 year old servant working at a hotel at 24/25 Arlington Street,
Piccadilly, London. His trade is given as “Institute
Electrical Engineers” which presumably means that he – and another man who has the same occupation listed –
was the resident electrician there. I have been unable to find him on the 1901
census.
It seems reasonable
to assume that Ernest Fenn was not called to the colours on account of his age. He
would have been about 48 in January 1916, well past the upper age limit of 41 for men who were compelled to enlist under the
Military Service Act of 27th January 1916.
I am uncertain where
Ernest was living in 1916 but his sisters Jessie and Kathleen Fenn were certainly living within or close to Chailey Parish boundaries and were active members of Sussex 54 VAD.
Sources and Acknowledgements
- 1881 Census of England and Wales
- 1891 Census of England and Wales
- Chailey Parish Magazine
