Notes
The Oxford History website (See References) offers this extra information courtesy of Headington.org.uk: 'Richard John Kimber was born in Titup in 1899. He was the son of Richard Kimber (baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 14 May 1872) and Anne Elizabeth Coppock (baptised at the same church on 31 October 1875).
His parents were married at Holy Trinity Church on 30 July 1898, and had the following children:
Richard John Kimber (born in Quarry in 1899 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 2 April)
Eric Jack Coppock Kimber (born in Quarry in 1901 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 26 May)
Doris Annie Kimber (born in Quarry in 1902 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 28 December)
Cicely Rebecca Jane Kimber (born in Quarry on 2 February 1905 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 23 April)
Harry Thomas Joyce Kimber (born in Quarry on 27 April 1906 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 27 May)
Herbert Arthur Kimber (born in Quarry on 23 June 1909 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 1 August)
Charles Ernest Kimber (born in Quarry on 10 March 1912 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 7 April).
At the time of the 1901 census Richard John Kimber (2) was living in Old Road at Titup with his father Richard (29), who worked for the Corporation as a yard foreman in Oxford, and his mother Ann (25).
In 1911 Richard (12) was a schoolboy (almost certainly at Headington Quarry National School), living at Wood View, Titup (now numbered 125 Old Road) with his father Richard (39), described as a drainage foreman with Headington Rural District Council; his mother Ann (35); and his five younger siblings Eric (9), Doris (8), Cicely (6), Harry (4), and Herbert (1). His sixth sibling, Charles, was born the following year.
By the start of the war, Richard was working for Oxford University Press as a feeder in the Machine Room (Miehle). In the First World War Richard John Kimber enlisted on 2 April 1917, just after his eighteenth birthday, and because soldiers were not sent to the front until they were 19, he began his service in England as a Private in the 95th Battalion of the Training Reserve (Service No. TR7/13498). Just over a month after starting his training, on 11 May 1917, he died of cerebrospinal fever at the age of 18 at Tidworth Hospital in Wiltshire.
He was buried at Holy Trinity churchyard (SF 8). His parents must have set up his grave marker (a cross on a plinth with a surround, shown right) soon afterwards, as he did not get a war grave headstone. The text on the plinth (shown below) reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY
OF
RICHARD JOHN
ELDEST SON OF
RICHARD & ANNE E. KIMBER
WHO DIED MAY 11 1917 AGED 18 YEARS'