Ambrose Leverett was born on the 13th August 1885 in Forncett to Frederick (originally from Bunwell) and Emma (nee Briggs from Aslacton). He had a younger sister Polly. His father worked on farms and for many years was employed as a teamsman for William Bowles Colman at Kendal Lodge. In 1901 the family were living at The Warren in Old Buckenham and Ambrose was a domestic gardener. He joined the Army (Suffolk Regiment 2nd Battalion) in 1904 and served in Egypt, leaving the army after 7 years’ service. Ambrose remained a reservist with the Suffolk Battalion and would have been required to spend two weeks each year on training exercises.
Ambrose’s family have moved to The Gates on Rode Lane by 1911. On the 24th February 1912, Ambrose married (Ethel) May Palmer, sister of Robert Palmer. The couple moved to Banham Road, Kenninghall and had two children. Louise Mary was baptised in May 1913 and Robert was baptised in August 1914.
In spring 1914, the 2nd Suffolks were based in Ireland and became involved in the Curragh Mutiny (British soldiers refused to follow the government’s instructions). When war broke out in August 1914, all regiments involved in the Curragh Mutiny were sent to Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Ambrose was immediately recalled as a Lance Corporal. He fought at the first major British action in the war at Le Cateau and was wounded and captured. He spent the rest of the war in Prisoner of War camps in Germany from where he kept in contact with his wife by postcard.
Ambrose sent a letter to his wife dated 26th September 1914 from Crefeld POW camp. The letter was published in the EDP. At some point during the war, May moved to Crown Street, Banham.
Ambrose spent the rest of the war in captivity. He was interned at Recklinghausen where he developed pneumonia and died on the 16th October 1918, just a few days before the Armistice, and was buried in the camp cemetery. However, after the war all British soldiers who had died in in this area were reburied in Cologne Southern Cemetery.
Tragically, his wife May died on the 6th December 1918, aged 28, and is buried in Carleton Rode. At this point, an entry in the Parish Magazine regarding her death makes it clear that the village was unaware that Ambrose had also died. The two orphaned children were taken in by their grandmother, Mrs Palmer who lived on King Street (now part of Rode Lane). In February 1920, as the children’s guardian, Mrs Palmer received Ambrose’s back pay and war gratuity of £105, 8 shillings and 10d (approximately equivalent in today’s money to £3,000). The wills of both Ambrose and May collectively came to £125, 10 shillings and 10d.
Having been in contact with descendants of both Ambrose Leverett and Robert Palmer’s family, we have discovered further information about what happened to the children. Robert Leverett, Ambrose’s son, joined the Royal Navy in 1934 and went on to fight in the Second World War. We are grateful to Robert’s daughter, the late Sue Hartsharn, and her family for providing us with many photographs and allowing us to display them.
Louise Leverett, Ambrose’s daughter, continued to live with her grandmother and Aunt Minnie Palmer (attending Carleton Rode School), moving to Hellesdon in Norwich where she is recorded on the 1939 register working as a wholesale draper’s assistant. We believe that her grandmother died the following year and although Minnie continued living in Norwich until her death in 1982, Louise moved south to the Chatham area where her brother was living.
In the Suffolk Battalion Museum, there is an unnamed diary of a POW captured at Le Cateau and donated by a Mr Palmer. (We thought that this might have been Ambrose’s diary which had been returned to the Palmer family. However, there were also three men named Palmer in the same regiment who were captured at Le Cateau.)
