Edwin Roy Hodnett was born in West Ham on 5th January 1894 and attended Ilford County High School between 15th January 1906 and 26th July 1909.
In 1901, the 7 year old Roy lived in West Ham with his parents, Edwin and Ethel and two brothers, Frank and Brian. His father was a gentleman’s outfitter (Master) and could afford to employ a domestic servant, Beatrice Webb.
At the time of his ‘secondary’ education, his family lived in Cavendish Gardens in Ilford. Prior to studying at Ilford County High School, he attended Southend Council Elementary School and Forest Gate Grammar School.
When Roy left school, he followed his father into the gentlemen’s outfitting trade. The 1911 census records his occupation as ‘tailor’s cutter learning’.
Although Roy was reportedly invalided home in the summer of 1915, he was soon recovered and back at the front. He was to become one of the many young men to die on the bloodiest day in British military history- the first day of the Somme- when serving as a private in the London Regiment (Queen Victoria Rifles), service number 3801. Army records suggest that he was a prisoner of war briefly before dying of his wounds. His name is recorded upon the Thiepval Memorial.
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.