Private Joseph Ezekiel DESBROW
Sherwood Forresters 330890
Although Joseph was resident at Haynes Terrace in Oundle at the time he joined the army in December 1915, he was actually born in Woodnewton and lived there until he started working as a grocer’s assistant in Oundle after he left school.
Joseph, born on 26th January 1882, was one of five children of Ezekiel Sculthorpe Desbrow and Jane Elizabeth Landin. The Desbrow family can be traced back to 1676 through the Woodnewton Parish Baptism Registers and the Landin family also have been found living in Woodnewton from 1805.
Florence Mary Spademan, daughter of Sydney Spademan, who lived at the Mill in Woodnewton, married Joseph on 7 March 1916, at St Mary’s Church, just 13 days before he was mobilised to join the Sherwood Foresters as a Private under regiment number 330890 in Derby. His papers show that Joseph was only 5’5” in height and 132lbs in weight, so his physique was ideal for his work as a military ‘runner’.
During the following two years Joseph was transferred between the Sherwood Foresters Battalions ending up with the 1/7th Battalion (Robin Hood). He sailed from Folkestone to Boulogne on 6th September 1917, and saw active service with this Battlion around the Etaples area of France. On return to England he was transferred to the Army Reserve on 3rd January 1919. He received the British War and Victory Medals for serving his country.
After the war, Joseph continued with his work of working at a Grocers Shop and the 1939 Register shows him living at 227 Harborough Road, Kingsthorpe, Northampton, where he still resided when he died on 1st May 1948.