CFHS code : ED72
Parish : St Edward
Inscription : In Ever Loving Memory of Our dear mother MARY AMELIA WARD d Sept 17th 1946 aged 62 Pte PERCY CHARLES PILGRIM of the RAMC d June 6 1915 aged 28
Monument : Headstone/Kerb stones/Urn
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.203243 0.13713589 – click here for location
Monument 1
This family grave, with small headstone, kerb stones and urn, in the parish area of St Edward, is located approximately equidistantly between the western path and the central path, and near to the CWGC grave of Leonard Sparkes.
Monument 2
This Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone which once stood beside the western path close to the Lodge has now been removed. A new stone was erected within the family grave set in October 2024.
Inscription
[family grave:]
[headstone:]
‘In ever loving memory of
our dear mother Mary Amelia Ward who died Sept 17th 1946 aged 62 years’
“Ever in our thoughts”
[kerb stone:]
‘Pte Percy Charles Pilgrim of the R. A. M. C.
died June 6 1915 aged 28 years’
[CWGC headstone:]
[regimental badge]
1805 Private P. C. Pilgrim
Royal Army Medical Corps
died 5th June 1915
[cross]
Relationship – husband and wife
Percy Charles Pilgrim (1887–1915) – WW1 soldier – see also Life Story page
Percy was born in 1887 in Cambridge. He was the only surviving child of William Charles Pilgrim and Jane Pilgrim (née Parker). However, he had two older surviving half-siblings by his mother: Lily Louisa Parker (1875–1940); and William John Parker (1878–1959). His mother had actually had six children of whom only three survived. His father worked as a barman, labourer and then a tram driver of horses. The family grew up at 5 Nelson Street and then 84 Fitzroy Street, Cambridge. Percy became a driver with the Cambridge Tramway Company like his father.
Percy married Mary Amelia Beales in 1910 in Cambridge. They had two daughters: Mabel Phyllis Beatrice (1910–70); and Ivy Jeanette Mae (1912–99). Percy enlisted as Private (1805) in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was attached to the 1st Eastern General Hospital in Cambridge. He died of “scarlatina malinga 5 days” (scarlet fever, which is treated with antibiotics today) at the Sanatorium on 6 June 1915. The funeral took place with full military honours at Mill Road Cemetery on Wednesday, 9 June 1915.
Mary Amelia Ward (formerly Pilgrim née Beales) (1884–1946)
Mary was known as Polly and was born in 1884 in Cambridge. She was the fifth of seven children of John Robert Beales and Ann Beales (née Level). Her father was a shunter (pointsman) and then a railway guard for the Great Eastern Railway. The family grew up at 78 Great Eastern Street, Romsey Town, Cambridge. Polly was a domestic servant before she married Percy Charles Pilgrim in 1910 in Cambridge. They had two daughters: Mabel Phyllis Beatrice (1910–70); and Ivy Jeanette Mae (1912–99). After Percy died Polly had another child: Douglas Owen Hughes Pilgrim (1917–91). She married widower Fred Ward (1886-1961) in 1920 and they lived at 47 Great Eastern Street. Fred worked as an iron worker for Great Eastern Railway and had three young daughters when they married.
Sources:
War Grave Photographic Project
Cambridge First Eastern Hospital Roll of Honour (with photographs)
Census returns for England: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911
England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837–1915
England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837–1915
London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754–1921
England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837–1915
England & Wales, Death Index, 1916–2007
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966
UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914–1919
By Emma Easterbrook, Mary Naylor, Robin Mansfield and Ian Bent