In 1891 the Lawrence family was living at 29 Frank Street and was made up of the Father, Joseph Lawrence from Earl Shilton, who was a Railway Guard and his wife Mary White, at the time they had four children, Minnie born in 1885 Joseph born in 1887, Ellen born in 1889 and Albert born in 1891.
By 1901 the family had moved to 11 Sheridan Steet and now included another son, Thomas who was born in 1894. The father was now a Railway Foreman and oldest son, Joseph was working as a Telegraph Messenger.
Later the two oldest sons, Joseph and Albert were working as Postmen and youngest son Thomas, was a Shoe Clicker according to the 1911 census, which also showed that originally there were nine children in total but four had died in childhood. Their older brother Joseph died in 1913 and is buried at St Mary’s Church Knighton.
Albert was working as a Rubber Hand when he enlisted to the Cheshire Regiment on 8th December 1915. He was fighting in France from the 3rd May 1917 until he was killed in action on 1st August 1917 aged 27. His paperwork dated 28th February 1918 states that he was ‘killed, but no definate evidence possed’.
As there is no known grave his Burial Commemeration is at Ypres on the Menin Gate Memorial in Belgium, which is one of the best known war memorials in the world, and lists more than 54,000 soldiers.
Thomas died on 10th July 1916 Aged 22 in Mesopatamia. He was buried at Basra War Cemetery in Iraq. In 1935 all the headstones were removed as they had deterioted due to the salty soil. All the Commonweath casualties are commemorated on a Memorial Screen Wall built the same year.
Both brothers are remembered on the Vernon Road Methodist Church Memorial, which is also held by the At Risk War Memorials Project.
