Grenville was born in Hornsey on 21st January 1900 and joined Ilford County High School from Goodmayes Elementary School in September 1912. He studied at the school for three years, leaving in March 1915 in order to take up an apprenticeship in the Merchant Navy.
Grenville was the younger of two children of Reuben and Florence Renwick. His older brother was Henry. His family lived at 78 Wellwood Road, Ilford and his father was a commercial traveller (specialising in rubber goods for export).
He died just 18 years old on 10th February 1918 when the merchant ship that he was on, the SS ‘Romford’ was torpedoed by a German submarine. He drowned. As a result, his name is on the Tower Hill Memorial alongside the names of 35,799 other merchant navy and fishermen who lost their lives in the war and had no known grave.
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.