The terrible price family paid in First World War

Arthur, Francis, Maurice and Joseph Hirons died in action after leaving their home in North Street to fight for King and Country. The sole survivor was William, the eldest.

The terrible price they paid has been uncovered by nephew Albert Parker, of Woodfield Road, Bicester, who has been researching the family’s contribution to the war.

The first to die was Maurice, 21, killed on November 7, 1914, just three months after the war started.

He had joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1913 and he was sent to France when war broke out. He died near Ypres.

Francis, 26, was killed in August 1915, also near Ypres. He was a bugler with the Third Rifle Brigade which he had joined in 1908.

He suffered a bullet wound in the chest and survived for four days but died from his injuries. He was the only brother to be married – his wife, Kate, nee Nugent, from Tipperary, gave birth to a son, named Arthur, in the same year his father died.

• William Hirons, who was born in 1887 and died in 1971, Arthur Hirons, killed in Flanders in 1918, Francis Hirons, killed near Ypres in 1915, Joseph Hirons, killed in Flanders in 1917, Maurice Hirons, killed near Ypres in 1914

Joseph, a member of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, was reported dead, but it proved to be a mistake. He had lost an eye and a finger in battle, returned to Britain to recover and went back to war, only to be killed in Flanders in 1917, aged 20.

The second eldest son, Arthur, a farm labourer before the war, joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and was killed in Flanders in March 1918.

He was 28.

Maurice and Francis are buried near Ypres, but Arthur and Joseph have no known graves.

Another brother, George Hirons, who joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1909, died in Littlemore Hospital aged 27 in 1918, but nothing is known about his war record.

Their mother, Keziah, had seven sons and one daughter with her husband, Arthur.

She suffered the loss of not only five of her sons, but also Arthur, who died aged 36 in 1898. She was expecting her daughter, Kate Margaret, at the time.

She spent eight years bringing up her family alone, before marrying her second husband, Felix Parker, in 1906. She had three more children – two boys and a girl.

Meanwhile, eldest son William returned safely to Bicester after serving throughout the war with the Royal Engineers.

He left the village school at Chesterton School at the age of 11 to work on a farm at Duns Tew and after a spell as a shepherd’s boy, was trained to handle farm horses.

His experience with animals proved valuable in war – he controlled the horses which pulled the Allied gun carriages in France and Belgium.

He showed no ill-effects after returning from war at the age of 30. He worked on farms before spending 30 years as a labourer at brickworks at Calvert, near Buckingham. He retired when he was 83, after a working career which spanned 72 years.

In an article recording his retirement, our sister paper, the Bicester Advertiser, said: “Mr Hirons doesn’t look his age. A long and hard-working life doesn’t seem to have harmed him.”

Memory Lane this week

Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.