Born on 19th November 1890 at Bromley by Bow, son of Robert (Tea Blender/Grocer) and Eleanor Merry. 1891: With his parents at 28, Knapp Road, Bromley by Bow. In 1900 his father died. The 1901 Census showed his mother and two children living at 76 Rounton Road, Bromley by Bow. On the other hand, Richard (10), Florence (9) and William (9) were at the Forest Gate District School - a Workhouse School - at 95 Forest Lane, Forest Gate. 1911: The Census that year found Richard, now a Dental Mechanic, back with his mother and three siblings at 79 Rounton Road. During 1913 he married Dorothy Beck, and their daughter, also named Dorothy, was born in 1914. Their family home was at 30 Waverley Road, South Woodford.
Robert Merry enlisted in the Essex Regiment at Woodford, and was allocate to the First Battalion. It is known that he served at Arras. On 16th May 1917 he Died of Wounds while a Prisoner of War at the Niederzwehren Camp at Kassel, Hessen in Germany, and was buried there in a cemetery begun in 1915 by the Germans for Prisoners of War killed by an outbreak of typhus.
Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian
Sources:
Ancestry.com