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Quorn WW1 Roll of Honour - Victor Rennocks
Died 23rd April 1916, aged 26
Hinckley Hospital
Family background
The Rennocks were an old Quorn family, and Victor was one of eleven children of Thomas and Harriet Rennocks, who lived at 52 Leicester Road, just a few doors away from the Village Hall. More family details and a photograph of the house can be seen under the entry for Victor’s brother Albert, Artefact 2287.
Before the war
Victor Rennocks had married Maud Harding from Mountsorrel, on 3rd August 1912, in Quorn Church, at which time he was working at Mountsorrel Quarry along with his father and brother. The young couple settled into married life in a cottage on Soar Road, and their daughter, Harriett May, known as May, was born there on 17th April 1914. She was baptised a month later, but sadly on 25th September 1914, she died aged 5 months and was buried in Quorn Churchyard.
The war and failing health
When war came, Victor joined the Coldstream Guards. It would seem that before the war he had suffered with health problems, and when he began his training, he became ill again. He was discharged from the army and died shortly afterwards from TB and complications. The family and the village always considered the loss of Victor’s life as a war death, although it wasn’t recognised as such by the Army and the War Office.
Tributes to Victor
Quorn Parish Magazine for May 1916 recorded:
“Victor Rennocks died in hospital in Hinckley on Easter Monday. The complaint from which he had been suffering previous to enlistment, returned during the period of training, and he only for a short time survived his discharge from the Army. He was laid to rest in Quorn on April the 27th April [1916]”
Victor is buried in Quorn Churchyard and his grave is in quite an unusual position for that time. It occupies a larger than normal plot, but is in inserted in a very cramped manner, between two rows of older graves, close to the Church, to the right of the main door. It only consists of grave kerbstones and doesn’t seem to have had a headstone. The two inscriptions reads:
“In loving memory of my dear husband Victor Rennocks died April 23rd 1916 aged 26 years.”
And
“Also of May Rennocks daughter died Sep 25th 1914 aged 5 months”
In October 1918 as the war was drawing to an end, the family faced tragedy again, when Victor’s younger brother killed at St Quentin in France. He was only 22 years old (Artefact 2287).
What became of Maud?
In April 1918, Victor’s widow Maud remarried. She was living in Leicester and working as a nurse, when she met and married John Hyatt, a Canadian soldier from Ontario. When the war was over Maud joined John and emigrated to Canada. It is to be hoped that they had a happy life after Maud’s heart-breaking loss of both her baby daughter and her husband.
Below:
1) The Rennocks family still own this brass memorial vase which is thought to be made out of a shell case. The inscription reads:
“IN MEMORIAM
VICTOR RENNOCKS
ALBERT EDWARD RENNOCKS”
2) Victor’s grave in Quorn St Bartholomew’s Churchyard.
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Missing information: |
Can anyone provide a photograph of Victor Rennocks?
Please email us at:
team2024@quornmuseum.com |
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Submitted on: |
2020-01-12 |
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Submitted by: |
Sue Templeman with many thanks to Anna Draper |
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Artefact ID: |
2286 |
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Artefact URL: |
www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=2286 |
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Print: |
View artefact in printer-friendly page or just on its own (new browser tab). |
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