George Robert Aldwinckle

Name	George Robert Aldwinckle
Corps	Mercantile Marine
Rank
Service No.	689925
Date/Place of entry
Date of death
Memorial/Grave

George Robert Aldwinckle was born in 1887 in Grays, near Thurrock in Essex. Grays is on the north bank of the Thames, close to Tilbury. He was the eldest of seven children born to Harry Aldwinckle and his wife Harriett, formerly Barnes. Both Harry and Harriett had two sons from previous marriages.

Harry was a labourer at Grays Dock in the late 1880s. He’d been born in 1850 in Rothwell, the third of eight children. His father Vincent was from Cottingham, the twin brother of farmer Bartholomew Aldwinckle and thereby a great uncle of John Bartholomew Aldwinckle. Vincent got married in 1845 in the City of London by special licence and then kept an inn on Rothwell market place. It appears his fortunes declined as in subsequent censuses he was employed as a labourer in Corby and Weldon, and on one occasion was convicted of laying snares.

Harry married Sarah Bailey at Corby and had two sons there before moving to Poplar in London’s East End. Sarah died there in 1883 and three years afterwards Harry married widowed Harriet Barnes.

In 1901 the fourteen year old George Robert was a labourer in the local brickfields. I have not found him in the 1911 census and suspect he was away at sea; at least two of his brothers were merchant seamen by then. WW1 Medal rolls show George Robert served in the merchant navy during the war and was discharged in 1921, but there no further details of his service. His brother Walter Aldwinckle and half-brothers Thomas Aldwinckle and Harry Aldwinckle were also in the merchant navy; Harry was killed in 1918. So far George Robert’s whereabouts after 1921 remain a mystery.

For an account of the historic extended Aldwinckle family see John Bartholomew Aldwinckle. The following list gives the names of all known servicemen who were descended from Aldwinckles living Cottingham and Middleton in the nineteenth century.

(I also have information on a further five servicemen descended from the Aldwinckle family of Drayton in Leicestershire whose ancestors moved there from Cottingham in the eighteenth century. They are Ernest Aldwinckle, George Harry Aldwinckle, William Harold Aldwinckle, Herbert Aldwinckle and William James Aldwinckle. Please contact me <cottinghamsoldiers@gmail.com> if you would like to know more.)

Servicemen descended from Thomas Aldwinckle (1816-1899):
William Augustus Aldwinckle, Ralph Aldwinckle and Ernest Henry Aldwinckle.

Servicemen descended from Henry Aldwinckle (1770-1842):
John Bartholomew Aldwinckle, Charles Henry Aldwinckle, Arthur Edwin Aldwinckle, Frederick Wade Coles, Albert Edward Aldwinckle, Archibald Aldwinckle, Frank Aldwinckle, Harry Aldwinckle, William John Aldwinckle,  Harry Aldwinckle, George Robert Aldwinckle, Thomas Aldwinckle and Walter Aldwinckle.

Servicemen descended from William Aldwinckle (1807-1891):
Bartle Essex Aldwinckle, Charles Reginald Burdett, Alfred Norman Burdett and William Edward Burdett.

Servicemen descended from John Aldwinckle (1817-1884):
John Aldwinckle, Percy Aldwinckle, Henry Aldwinckle and Bernard Aldwinckle.