Ordinary Seaman Horace White
B.Z./7523 Ordinary Seaman Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve
Horace was born on 9th January 1900 Codnor Park, Derbyshire son of Thomas White a Midland Railway Company canal labourer born in Yorkshire and his wife Lucy (nee Parkin) born Greenhills, Derbyshire. They had 11 children in all, of whom 9 survived. Children were John, Herbert, Florrie, Mabel, Mary, Thomas, Wilfred, Horace and Denis. In 1911 the family was living at No 1, Pottery Row, Codnor Park, Derbyshire.
Some time later the family moved to Sedgwick Street, Jacksdale as, in 1918/1919, Horace appears on the Absent Voters Roll as absent from Sedgwick Street. Horace enlisted on 4th March 1918 at Bristol, late in the war, due to his younger age. He gave his civilian occupation as collier. He was trained at HMS Victory a naval shore base at Portsmouth, later moving to HMS Vivid another training base at Devonport, Plymouth. By the time Horace had been trained the war was over and he was demobbed on 11th February 1919, probably surplus to requirements. Horace’s brother Wilfred is also listed on the Jacksdale War Memorial as serving and surviving WW1. Horace was a recipient of the British War Medal.
Horace married Mabel Wright in Yorkshire in 1924 and they had a son named Eric. Just a few years afterwards, Horace’s mother Lucy died suddenly at her home in Sedgwick Street in 1929, aged 66 years. The Nottingham Evening Post of 29th December 1929 published a short obituary. Lucy had fallen down in the yard and fractured her right thigh and wrist. Her husband told the coroner that three years before she had suffered a stroke and had not been steady on her legs since. Medical evidence showed that her death was due to heart failure and the shock sustained by her injuries.