27th June 1919

Private George Harold Timms Poole, Royal Army Veterinary Corps, died on 27th June 1919 when he accidentally drowned whilst serving with the 4th Cavalry. He is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial to the Missing. Researchers in Meriden have discovered that he was buried 150 yards south-west of Homs Railway Station, Syria, but the grave must have been lost, hence his commemoration on the Jerusalem Memorial.

George was born in Meriden and baptised there as George Harold Timms on 13th October 1889.  His mother, Charlotte Timms, was unmarried and was working as a general servant by the time of the 1891 census. She married James Poole on 1st November 1891 and it seems that her son, George, then took the surname Poole.

George’s baptism entry appears to have been first entered as George Harold Timms Webb, son of George (blacksmith) and Charlotte. This is crossed through and annotated “mistake” with the baptism then written underneath of George Harold Timms, son of Charlotte. This suggests that George’s father may have been George Webb, blacksmith.

By the time of the 1911 census, the family was still in Meriden and George was working as a farm labourer. He married Mabel Frances King, a parlourmaid from Eastleigh, Hampshire, in 1916. Their only child, Percy George Poole (1916-1986) was born in Warwickshire on 28th October 1916.

It seems that Mabel and her young son returned to Hampshire sometime between 1916 and the early 1920s. They were living together in 1939 at 10 Floating Bridge Road, Southampton with 22-year-old Percy working as a metal machinist. Mabel never remarried and died in Southampton in 1981, aged 89.

George Harold Timms Poole is commemorated on Meriden war memorial and is the last of the village casualties to die during war service.

If you have any further information, please let us know.

Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian

tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk