Herbert BUNCE (1894–1916) and Sidney BUNCE (1896/7–1918)

At the time of the 1881 census the grandparents of Herbert & Sidney, John & Mary Ann Bunce, were already living at 4 Russell Street in west Oxford. John was a blacksmith, and the boys’ father Frederick (19) was working as a blacksmith’s striker.

By the 1891 census Herbert & Sidney’s mother Jane (28) was at 4 Russell Street with her firstborn son, Frederick (1); her husband was away.

At the time of his children’s baptisms in the 1890s, the boys’ father was described as a blacksmith, but by the time of the 1901 census he was working as a builder’s labourer. The family was living at 4 Russell Street with their six surviving children, including Henry (6) and Sidney (4), all at home.

By 1911 Herbert (16) was a shop porter and Sidney (14) was dividing his time between school and working as a newsboy. Their two younger siblings, Harold (12) and Hector (10) were at home, but their three older ones had left home: Rose (22) was married and living in Jericho Gardens; Frederick (21) was a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps working as a servant at the Royal Victoria Hospital at South Stoneham, Hampshire; and Arthur (19) was a boy soldier in the 16th Lancers at the Cavalry Barracks, Norwich.

Herbert and Sidney Bunce’s father, Frederick John Bunce, died at 4 Russell Street in 1913 at the age of 51, and his funeral was at St Frideswide’s Church on 16 July.

The two eldest sons, Frederick and Arthur Bunce, were already in the army when the First World War broke out, and survived. Arthur, who was in a cavalry regiment, was invalided out after being kicked in the head by a horse.

Their two younger brothers who died, Herbert and Sidney, were volunteers. The Oxford Journal Illustrated of 10 November 1915 published the photograph below in its “Patriotic families” section. The caption reads:

(Second row) The four sons of Mrs. F. J. Bunce, Russell-street, Osney: (left to right) Tpr. A. Bunce (16th Lancers);
Pte. H. Bunce (1/4th O.B.L.I.); Pte. S. Bunce (2/4th O.B.L.I.); Pte. F. J Bunce (R.A.M.C).

A fifth brother, Harold Bunce, also went to war. He lied about his age, and was only 17 when he joined the Royal Flying Corps, where he acted as an observer; and he also went to Russia.

Reproduced by kind permission of Herbert's great-niece Susan Browning

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Aftermath

Herbert & Sidney Bunce’s widowed mother

• Jane Bunce (born 1862) was living at 10 Castle Street just after the war. She died in Oxford at the age of 82 and was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery on 8 |March 1945 (Grave E4/95).

Herbert & Sidney Bunce’s siblings

• Rose Bunce (born 1888/9) married Jack or John Denton in Oxford in the first quarter of 1907. At the time of the 1911 census they were living in Jericho Gardens with their daughter Gladys Rose Denton (3). John was a newsagent at 16 Magdalen Road when their daughter Sylvia Denton (born 28 December 1921) was baptised at St Frideswide’s Church on 19 February 1922.
• Frederick John Bunce (born 1889/90) was described as a waiter when he married Edith Dora Ellen Bossom at St Aldate's Church, Oxford on 3 July 1912. Their two children were born in Oxford: Cyril F. J. Bunce (1913, reg. third quarter) and Bertha I. Bunce (1914, reg. fourth quarter).
• Arthur Bunce (born 1891) married Lilian Bertha Mabel Hunt at Cowley St John Church on 20 September 1919. He was working as a motor driver and still living at 4 Russell Street with his wife when their son Donald Arthur Bunce was born on 27 May 1921 (baptised at St Frideswide’s Church on 10 July 1921). The birth of their daughter Daphne A. Bunce was registered in Oxford in the first quarter of 1925.
• Harold Bunce (born 1899) married Edith May in Oxford in the first quarter of 1923. They had four children in Oxford: Harold E. Bunce (1924), Sidney J. Bunce (1925), Brian Bunce (1931), and Roy A. Bunce (1933).
• Hector Macdonald Bunce (born 1901) was working as a machinist when he married Mary Victoria Rose Webb at St John the Evangelist Church, New Hinksey on 24 November 1923. They had five children in Oxford: Eileen J. Bunce (1924), Philip M. Bunce (1931), John F. Bunce (1934), Terence K. Bunce (1935), and Alan M. Bunce (1939). They were living at 36 Church Street, New Hinksey (now renamed Vicarage Road) in 1930, at 579 Church Cowley Road in 1935, and at 35 Bartholomew Road in 1939.