Horace Bobbin

Private - Service No.10311 - 8th Battalion Norfolk Regiment

(Later - Lance Corporal - Service No.42097 Leicestershire Regiment)

Horace was born on 7th March 1888 in Horning, Norfolk, the son of William Bobbin and his wife Ann (Adcock). He was the youngest of eleven children, Geoffrey (1870), James (1872), Edith (1874), Charles (1875), Jane (1877), Gertrude (1880), Henry (1881), Elizabeth (1882), Herbert (1884) and Clara (1886). William and Ann married on 19th November 1869 in Burnham Thorpe and lived there for a number of years, William initially working as an agricultural labourer and later as a vermin killer. Around the end of 1885 the family moved to Horning, Norfolk, where Clara and Horace were born, before moving to Swardeston, some time in the 1890s, to live in a cottage by the turnpike where William worked as a warrener and vermin destroyer. Ann died on 6th November 1911 and William on 11th June 1937, both were still living in Swardeston at the time of their deaths.

Having been educated at Horning and Swardeston, Horace left school and became a gardener working in and around Swardeston. In May 1906, at the age of 18, he decided to join the 4th Volunteer Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment with which he served for almost two years until March 1908 when he returned to being a gardener.

In early 1915 Horace married Constance Susie Ellis in Norwich. Constance was born in Bunwell, Norfolk on 16th December 1891 the second of six children of George Ellis and his wife Emily (Tuffs). Horace and Constance had just one daughter, Sylvia, born in 1920 who died at the age of 17 in 1937.

Horace died on 17th June 1953 while living in Wood Lane, Swardeston while his widow, Constance, died in 1980.

Following his earlier service with the Volunteer Regiment Horace joined the 8th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment, with the rank of private, and disembarked for France on 27th July 1915. He later transferred to the 7th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, with the rank of lance corporal, before finally being transferred to the reserve on 22nd March 1919. His army records do not survive but we know he was awarded the 1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

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