Gerard Edmund Rosingrave Oakes

Gerard Edmund Rosingrave Oakes was born 1894, in London, to Gerard Roseingrave Oakes Colliery Proprietor & Iron Master and Margaret Ethel Oakes née Peel. Gerard senior was born in September 1861, in Riddings and is buried there, and Margaret Ethel Peel was born in March 1874, in Kensington, London. Gerard married his wife Margaret Ethel Pell in 1892 , their marriage was recorded in St George Hanover Square District, London. On the 1911 census Gerard Edmund is at Harrow School he is aged 17 yrs and his parents are living at Felley Priory, Jacksdale Notts. His probate was proven on 12th September 1918 in London and shows him as Gerard Edmund Rosingrave Oakes Lieutenant HM Army died 19th April 1918 in France or Belgium, his effects of £9136 15 shillings and 6 pence were left to his widow Margaret Ethel Oakes.

Lieutenant Gerard Edmund Rosigrave Oakes joined the 3rd battalion West Yorkshire Regiment in August 1914. He went to Sandhurst College in 1915 and was gazetted to the 1st battalion West Yorkshire Regiment. In September 1915 he went to France and saw service in the Ypres Salient, he was invalided home twice once with trench fever and the second time to undergo an operation on his foot. He returned to the front for the third time on 5th April 1918. On the 19th April he was wounded by a shell and died as a result of his wounds. He is buried in Brandhoek Military Cemetery.

He is also commemorated on the Underwood war memorial. An article published on 7th June 1916 in the Nottingham Evening Post reads :- The suicide of a local colliery owner, Gerard Oakes who lived at Felley Priory, was reported on 7th June 1916. “NOTTS. MAGISTRATE FOUND SHOT. “TRAGIC DISCOVERY IN A WOOD NEAR RIDDINGS. “A sensation was created in the Riddings district, and in a wider circle in Notts. and Derbyshire, when the discovery of the dead body of Mr. Gerard Rosengrave Oakes, J. P., of Felley Priory, was made late last night [6th June 1916] in a wood some distance from Hollyhurst, Riddings, the residence his brother, Ald. James Oakes, J.P., who is the chairman of the Derbyshire County Council. The deceased was shot, and the circumstances are said to point to a case of suicide. “He had been missing from home since Monday. [4th June 1916] It seems that for some time he had been in bad health and depressed, although there were not the least indication in his condition of such a tragic happening. He was 55 years of age, and was the second son of the late Mr. C. H. Oakes, Hollyhurst, Riddings, and a member of the well-known firm of Messrs. James Oakes and Co., coal and iron masters, who own the Alfreton Ironworks and several collieries in the counties of Derby and Nottingham. He leaves a wife and family, including one son, who is in the army. He was magistrate of Notts., and a member of the Notts. County Council, representing the Selston electoral division, and being a member of the Education, Public Health, Food and Drugs Committees. He also served on the Eastwood Old Age Pensions Committee. “The deceased gentleman was not so well known as his eldest brother, Ald. James Oakes, but was a keen and earnest business man.” Above article is courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918