Augustus was born in Dalston, East London on 20th September 1892. He was one of William and Susan Balaam’s five children. The 1901 and 1911 census show that the family were living at 524 High Road, Goodmayes.
Augustus is registered as joining the Park Higher Elementary School on 8th July 1901, aged 9, alongside his older brother, William (who was 12 at the time). He was still attending the school in 1904 when it changed its name to the Ilford County High School (Ilford County High School).
After leaving school in 1905, Augustus followed his father into the tailoring trade and became a trimmer. In August 1912, he is reported within the Chelmsford Chronicle newspaper as having pleaded guilty to driving a motor cycle without a light to illuminate the identification plate. According to the report, P.C Moss spotted him at Bochum on August 5th 1912, called out for him to stop and he instead increased his speed. The policeman chased him on his motor cycle for 2 or 3 miles before he stopped. As a result, Augustus was fined 10 shillings (50 pence) which was about a third of a trimmer’s weekly wage.
In the war, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion Suffolk Regiment and newly formed Royal Flying Corps. He died, aged 25 on 24th October 1917. Unlike many of the casualties on the school memorial, he had married before the war and so left a widow, Ellen. He was buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension in Pas-de-Calais (VI. H. 12).
Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Note
Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.