Selected Biographies

Nunn, Bertie – Born: March, Cambridgeshire in 1893.  Parents: Leonard Nunn of Long Melford (Railway Porter) and Elizabeth [née Jackson].  Family Connections: Brother to Harry Frost Nunn [b1882] and Robert Nunn [b1889].  Home: 25 Justice Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1901), 77 Coare Street, Macclesfield (1911).  Occupation: Labourer at Mrs Leech’s Dyeworks [1914].  Service Record: Bertie enlisted in Macclesfield in September 1914 as Pte.2338 with 1/7^th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, being posted to Suvla Bay, Gallipoli from 8.8.1915 as part of 159^th [Cheshire] Brigade, 53^rd [Welsh] Division.[1]  Died: Private Nunn died on 9.9.1915 on board the hospital ship HMHS Navasa, while being treated for shrapnel wounds to his back which he had received the day before.  He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial [panel 76 to 78], Gallipoli, Turkey, and the Macclesfield Roll of Honour.[2]

Nunn, Charles Edward – Born: Mildenhall, Suffolk on 6.4.1884.[3]  Parents: Walter Charles Nunn (Inspector of Police for Long Melford) and Mary Agnes [née Jarrold].  Home: Police Station, West Street, Mildenhall, Suffolk (1891), 2 Jumps Walk, Walsoken, Norfolk (1901), lodging with Charles Yaxley at 111 King Street, Hoyland, Yorkshire (1911), West Row, Mildenhall [1918], 152 Green End Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (1939), 36 Fallowfields, Cambridge [1971].  Occupation: Railway Clerk (1901), Police Constable (1911 to 1939).  Married: Beatrice Heffer in 1914.  Service Record: Charles was conscripted on 2.5.1918 as Gnr.2954/S with the Royal Marine Artillery, receiving his discharge in February 1919.[4]  Died: Cambridge on 2.9.1971.[5]

Nunn, Harry Frost – Born: Brixton, London on 1.4.1882.[6]  Parents: Leonard Nunn of Long Melford (Railway Porter) and Elizabeth [née Jackson].  Family Connections: Brother to Robert Nunn [b1889] and Bertie Nunn [b1893].  Home: Wisbech Road, March, Cambridgeshire (1891), 25 Justice Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1901), 77 Coare Street, Macclesfield (1911 to 1939).   Occupation: Railway Clerk (1901), Labourer (1911), Stone Quarry Man (1921), Incapacitated (1939).  Married: Kate Mollard in 1904.  Service Record: Harry enlisted as Pte.290698 with the 2/7^th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, later transferring as Pte.285282 to 13^th [Service] Battalion [2^nd Rhondda], Welsh Regiment as part of 114^th Brigade, 38^th [Welsh] Division.  This unit moved to France in late 1915 seeing action at the Battles of the Somme in 1916, Third Ypres in 1917 and against the Hindenburg Line and the Final Advance in Picardy in 1918.[7]  Died: Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1940.

Nunn, James – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 21.6.1884.[8]  Parent: Elizabeth Nunn (Horsehair Weaver).  Home: Back Lane, Long Melford [1884], Westgate Lane, Long Melford (1891), 5 Church Row, Long Melford (1901 to 1911), The Green, Long Melford (1921), 7 Royston Villas, Radiator Road, Great Cornard, Suffolk (1939) to [1952].  Occupation: Groom (1901 to 1911), Calf and Cattle Dealer, and Smallholder [1916], Motor Engineer for Dixons Engineering Company (1921), House Painter (1939).  Married: Florence Edith Griggs of Long Melford in 1911.  Service Record: At the Melford Military Service Tribunal in July 1916 James Nunn was granted fourteen days exemption from conscription.  He took his case to the West Suffolk Appeal Tribunal in Bury St Edmunds in August on the basis that as he ran a business, he should be exempt from military service.  The military representative’s counter argument was that Nunn ‘was more of a commission agent than a calf dealer and had no business premises at Melford’.  The panel agreed and dismissed the appeal.[9]  James Nunn was attested on 6.11.1916 as Dvr.T/4/276135 with 662^nd [Horse Transport Depot] Company, Army Service Corps, stationed at Park Royal in London.  There is no extant Service Record for James, however testimony by his grandson suggests that, as an expert in horse flesh, he was tasked with assessing and buying horses on the Army’s behalf, from centres as far apart as Dover and Berwick-upon-Tweed.  This would have been a vital job, with the British Expeditionary Force in France alone needing a constant supply of beasts to pull artillery pieces, equipment and ammunition wagons, and a host of other purposes.[10]  Died: Great Cornard, Suffolk on 6.4.1952.[11]

Nunn, Robert – Born: March, Cambridgeshire on 17.11.1889.[12]  Parents: Leonard Nunn of Long Melford (Railway Porter) and Elizabeth [née Jackson].  Family Connections: Brother to Harry Frost Nunn [b1882] and Bertie Nunn [b1893].  Home: Wisbech Road, March, Cambridgeshire (1891), 25 Justice Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1901), 77 Coare Street, Macclesfield (1911), 9 Station Street, Macclesfield (1921), 77 Coare Street, Macclesfield (1939).  Occupation: Vanman [1915], Builder’s Labourer (1921), Club Steward (1939).  Married: Mary McGowan in 1913.  Service Record: Robert was conscripted on 11.12.1915 as Dvr.195369 with the Royal Engineers, being posted to the Salonika Expeditionary Force, attached to XVI Corps Signals Company.  He contracted Malaria during the campaign against Bulgaria spending two months in 1918 at N^o.28 General Hospital.  He received his discharge in October 1919.[13]  Died: Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1942.

Notes – [1] Additional information courtesy of research undertaken by Rosie Rowley of Macclesfield.  See also his Medal Roll [WO 329].  [2] British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929 and Commonwealth War Grave Commission.  [3] Date of birth from the 1939 Register.  [4] Royal Marine Record [ADM 159/100], RM Medal Roll [ADM 171/170].  [5] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  [6] Date of birth from the 1939 Register.  [7] Medal Roll [WO 329] and Medal Index Card [WO 372].  See also http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/ for more information on the 13/Welsh.  [8] Date of birth from the Baptism Register 7.9.1884, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  [9] For the Tribunal’s rulings see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 5.7.1916 and 2.8.1916.  [10] Military information is taken from James’s Army Pay Book.  My sincere thanks to his grandson John Nunn of Long Melford for bringing this record to my attention, and for sharing his family’s anecdotes about James’s time in the Army.  [11] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  [12] Date of birth from the 1939 Register.  [13] Soldiers’ Documents and Pension Claims, First World War [WO 364]. Medal Roll [WO 329], and Medal Index Card [WO 372]