Samuel Fytton's Story.
EARLY LIFE
Samuel Fytton (or Fitton) Crowder was baptised on 29 May 1887 at St Peter's Church, Macclesfield, the son of Emma and Joseph Crowder, a clogger of 77 Chestergate. In 1901, thirteen-year-old Samuel was employed as a stable boy and living at 14 Copper St with his widowed mother and older sisters Sarah (34), Emma (23), Eliza (21) and Mary (18).
In 1907 Samuel married Mary Elizabeth Cooper at St Thomas Church, Henbury, stating that he was employed as a groom and lived at 114 Vincent Street, Macclesfield. By 1911 the couple had a two-year-old son, Albert, and were living at 96 Chester St, Blackburn; Samuel was empolyed as a labourer.
WW1 SERVICE
Samuel enlisted with the Grenadier Guards in Manchester, and after training was drafted to France.
COMMEMORATION
Private Samuel Crowder has no known grave and is commemorated on panel ref. 2 on the Cambrai Memorial, France. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private Samuel Crowder, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War website.
In Macclesfield, Private Samuel Crowder is commemorated on the Park Green, Town Hall and St Michael’s Church war memorials.
An 'In Memoriam' notice was printed in the Macclesfield Times on 29 November 1918 by his wife, in remembrance of the first anniversary of Samuel's death:
CROWDER - In ever loving memory of Pte Samuel Fytton Crowder, 1st Batt Grenadier Guards, who was killed in action Dec 1st 1917. "Duty nobly done." From his loving wife, Mary. 3 Fletcher St, Hulme, Manchester.
SOURCES
Cheshire Parish Baptism Registers (Find My Past): St Peter’s Church, Macclesfield
Census (England & Wales): 1901, 1911
CheshireBMD: Marriages
WWI British Army Medal Rolls Index Cards
Soldiers Died in the Great War (Find My Past)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Lives of the First World War website
Macclesfield Times: 29 November 1918
Research by Rosie Rowley, Congleton.
Research by Rosie Rowley, Congleton.