He was posted to their 6th (Service) Battalion, one of a number of new battalions raised by the regiment in 1914 to take the rush of new recruits. Will had joined the local regiment, the Royal Berkshires. Mrs Povey says she is proud of them, but would be happier if they were all at home again around her table. One is on duty with the RAMC at the Front, and on the outbreak of war one joined the Royal Berks, another the Norfolks, a third in the Berks Reserves, and the fourth in the National Reserves. Mrs Povey, of Northampton Terrace, has five sons in His Majesty’s Forces. Newbury Weekly News, 10 December 1914 – Local War Notes When war arrived on 4 August 1914 the Povey family responded en-masse – before long all five of the boys were in uniform. The happy couple set up home together at 9 Railway Road. The firm is still in business having merged with Alfred Camp’s Drapery Bazaar to form the Camp Hopson department store. Later in 1911 William married Fanny Hillier from Chisbury, Wiltshire, who was living in Newbury as a servant in the household of Frederick Hopson, whose furniture business on the corner of Northbrook Street and West Street was a Newbury landmark. By this date there were five children at home, all working, so their mother appears to have been able to take a rest from charring – she is recorded as having no occupation. The two addresses are very close together on the London Road to the east of Shaw Road.
The 1911 census records the family living at 4 Northampton Terrace, Newbury, previously they had been living at 2 Kennet Place. He worked at Plenty & Sons’ Eagle Ironworks in central Newbury (much of the Kennet Centre was built on the site of these works). If this was the situation it is not surprising that he gave up baking and took a labouring job for the sake of a regular pay packet.
Will became a baker this was recorded as ‘journeyman baker’ in the 1901 census – suggesting that he may not have had a full-time employer and was working on day rates as and when he could find work. When the children left school and were able to contribute to the family income life must have become somewhat easier. She worked as a charwoman, doing her best, hopefully with the support of the wider family. Hannah was left with seven children to raise, the eldest aged only eleven. Shortly after Ellen was born her father died aged only 39, she would never know him. He was the eldest of their seven children his arrival was followed by Benjamin (born 1885), Arthur James (1887), Harry Christopher (1889), Elizabeth (1891), Frederick John (1893), and Ellen Annie (1895). William (Will) was born in Newbury in 1884, the son of James Povey and his wife Hannah, née Nicholls.
Private 15403 William Robert Povey, 6th (Service) Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regt
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