William James Fairbeard 1887 – 1965
William, son of Julius Horatio and Susan Ann (née Arnold), was born on 29th December 1887 in Teynham, Kent, although his birth wasn’t registered until the 1st quarter of 1888. His father was a gardener and William was baptised at St Mary, Teynham, on the 1st April 1888.
William was recorded with his parents and four older siblings at Barrow Green Cottages, Barrow Green, Teynham in the 1891 Census, and most of the family were still there in 1901. In 1906, he was playing football for Teynham when they won the Sittingbourne League, which was in the first year of its existence. By 1911, William was a boarder with the Norwood family in Norton Cottages, Chart, Sutton, near Maidstone; at the age of 23, he was ‘working on a farm’.
He joined the Kent County Constabulary on 24th February 1912, training at the headquarters in Maidstone. He was then stationed in Deal but after a week was transferred to Shepherdswell as a ‘temporary man’ as shafts were being sunk at Guildford Colliery.
During his time in the village, he noticed a blazing thatched cottage over at Woolwich Green. He and another man ran the 2 miles from Shepherdswell to help but sadly a man, his wife and 3 children perished in the fire. One son and the lodger escaped to safety through a window.
After being in the police force for 20 months, he enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery in September 1915, serving as a bombardier with service no. 358419. Unfortunately, only his medal roll and awards have been found to date, however from an article in the Thanet Advertiser on 10th February 1939, William said that he had been sent to France in 1916 and had fought at the 1st Battle of the Somme and at the Battle of Cambrai. He then had taken part in the ‘big drive’ at the end of the War and was demobbed on Christmas morning in 1918, arriving back in England on New Year’s Eve.
He returned to his police work in January 1919 and was sent back to Deal. He married Mary Anne Maude Bere in Romford, Essex, during the early part of 1919. They had two daughters; Eileen was born in 1920 and Doris in 1923. The year that Doris was born also saw his transfer to Ebbsfleet for three years. Following this, he went to work in St Peters in January 1926.
He was a keen cricketer and captained a winning side in the Wingham Division in the Chief Constable of Kent’s Cricket Shield in 1925, 1926 and 1927. During his 13 years as a police constable at St Peters, he travelled his patch by bicycle and was known as ‘Fairy’. He was also a bell-ringer and was the secretary for St Peters bell-ringers. The 1939 Register recorded him and Mary, together with their two daughters and his father, a widower, at 31 Mayfield Road in St Peters. He retired that year, following a 26-year career in the police force.
The Thanet Advertiser gave the information that he was a keen gardener and was planning to stay in Mayville Road “for a short time at any rate”.
He died in 1965 in Waltham Forest, Essex, aged 77.