People on board

PROBERT, Samuel William

Samuel William Probert was born in London in 1876 to William Probert and Maria Howard. William died in early 1881 at the age of forty-three and in the census of that year his widow Maria was living in a tenement in Horseferry Road with Samuel. Also with them was ten year old William Probert, possibly a son of William’s by an earlier marriage. Maria’s occupation was ‘Charwoman’.

On the 10th of June 1890, at the age of fourteen, Samuel enlisted in the York and Lancaster Regiment. He gave his trade as ‘Musician’, and in the 1901 census he was listed with the Regiment in Pontefract, Yorkshire, as a ‘Drummer’. He was discharged in 1902 having completed his agreed twelve years with the regiment. His records do not show where he served though the regiment was in Sudan and South Africa during the time he was engaged.

Samuel Probert married Louisa Annie Hallford in Walworth, London in February 1904 and that year a son, William James, was born. At the time of the 1911 census Samuel, Louisa and William were living in Upper Garden Street, Westminster, with her four brothers and a sister. Samuel’s occupation was given as ‘Window Cleaner’. A second son, Frederick George was born in 1905 but died the following year.

Original military records for the WW1 period are not available for Samuel Probert, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records state that he was with the Middlesex Regiment. He is later recorded as being with the Royal Defence Corps. In October 1918 he was in Ireland with the 462nd Protection Company of the R.D.C. and was returning to England on leave with several others from that Company on the 10th. He did not survive the sinking of the RMS Leinster but his body was recovered and he was buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Dublin.

Louisa Annie Probert lived in Bessborough Place, Pimlico with her son William James and his wife Louisa Maud, who he married in 1927. He worked as a Cabinet Maker. Louisa Annie died in London in 1949 aged seventy-four.