Available onlineNineteenth Century
(page 9 of 13)| Image : | Hopcraft and Norris Brewery, Bletchley |
| Date: | 1900 |
| Image : | Flesquieres Hill British War Cemetery |
| Date: | 2020 |
Tenants of Walton Hall (cont)
Ernest Hopcraft (1849-1930)
Ernest Hopcraft was born in Brackley, Northamptonshire. His father Alfred Hopcraft founded Hopcraft Brewery there in 1842. Ernest became the sole proprietor of the Brewery in 1890. In 1895 the firm was registered as Hopcraft and Norris Ltd., Brewers and Spirit Merchants. Ernest became the Senior Partner. He also served as Justice of the Peace. The first image on this page (from Living Archive MK) is a postcard showing the Hopcraft and Norris Brewery building and The Eight Bells pub in Bletchley, probably c.1900.
Ernest married Mary Thomson in Kensington, London in 1883. They had two children – Mary Evelyn and Ernest George de Lathom. In 1891 the family were living at Walton Hall, having taken the lease over from William Schoolcroft Burton. Several servants, including a governess for the children, were recorded living at the Hall in 1891. However the family’s time at Walton was short-lived. Fanny Maria Pinfold was discharged from Hurst House asylum in December 1892 and returned to live at Walton Hall in 1893.
Ernest and Mary Hopcraft moved to ‘The Holt’, a large house in Middleton Cheney near Banbury. Mary died in 1900 and Ernest and his two children continued to live at ‘The Holt’ with their housekeeper and servants. In 1901 his son Ernest George was employed at his father’s brewery, having attended Harrow and Cambridge, gaining a BA there in 1909.
Sadly, tragedy befell the family again a few years later. Ernest George joined the army in 1915 and served as a Lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment. He was posted to France the following year but, following a physical altercation with a local woman, he was court marshalled in 1917. Both Ernest George and his father appealed to the War Office for the case to be reconsidered and his position reinstated but to no avail. He later re-enlisted as a Private in the Rifle Brigade. He was killed in action aged 32 at the battle of Flesquieres near Cambrai in September 1918, less than two months before the Armistice. He is buried at Flesquieres Hill British Cemetery in Northern France. A photograph of the cemetery is shown on this page. Ernest Hopcraft Snr. installed a brass inscription in the Chancel of All Saints Church, Middleton Cheney in remembrance of his son:
‘He gave his life, his all, for his King and Country
After having fought in Palestine he fell in action, at the assault on the German
Hindenberg Line at Marcoing near Cambrai…
At the battle of Flesquieres near Marcoing he gallantly attacked,
single handed a German Machine Gun Post and was killed.
Gone but never forgotten.’
A more detailed account of Ernest George de Lathom Hopcraft’s life and World War I experience may be read here. His story is also told in the book 'Great War Lives: a Guide for Family Historians' by Paul Reed, published in 2010.
Ernest Hopcraft and his two children had moved to Brighton, possibly before the outbreak of the War. Following Ernest George’s death, his father and sister remained there together until Ernest’s death in 1930 at the age of 82. Mary Evelyn died in Brighton in 1954. She had remained unmarried and left an estate worth £35,900.
