Gunner Albert Victor Dixon, 208th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, died of wounds in France on 27th December 1916, aged 38.
He was born in Honiley, Warwickshire in 1878 and was the fourth of eight children born to parents, Thomas (a gamekeeper from Norfolk) and Harriet (née Piper), who was born in Essex. Two of the children had died by 1911.
The couple’s eldest child, Oliver Bridgeman Dixon, was born in Dunmow, Essex in 1873 but the family had moved to Warwickshire by 1874 when their second child, John Henry, was born. By 1886, when daughter, Lilian Louisa, was baptised at Temple Balsall, the family had moved to Springfield, Knowle. They were recorded as living at Elvers Green Farm, Knowle at the time of the 1891 census.
By 1894, the family had moved to Swaffham, Suffolk, where they remained until at least 1939.
Albert followed his father’s occupation and became a gamekeeper. He married Rosetta Oakley in 1906 and their daughter, Grace Olive (1907-1988) was born in Lowestoft on 2nd April 1907. By the time of the 1911 census, Albert and his wife and daughter were living in Lound, Suffolk, which was also recorded as his address when he joined the Army at Lowestoft.
Gunner Albert Victor Dixon is buried at Grove Town Cemetery, Meaulte. He is also commemorated on the war memorial at Lound. With the family having moved away from Knowle by 1894, he is not commemorated on a local war memorial.
His widow, Rosetta, remarried in 1925 and lived in Beccles, Suffolk. Her second husband, William Smith, had died by 1939, and she was recorded on the 1939 Register as living with her daughter in Beccles.
If you have any further information, please let us known.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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