SHAKESPEARE James Stanley

James Stanley Shakespeare was born in 1895 in Worcester, the son of James Henry and Selina Elizabeth Shakespeare (nee Fellowes) who had married in 1893.  The couple had 6 children 5 of whom were still alive in 1911, when the family resided at 57 Astwood Road, Worcester.  On the 1911 census, James is recorded by his second name of Stanley and it is probable that this was the name he was known as by family and friends in order to avoid confusion between himself and his father who was also called James.  Stanley was employed as a surveyor’s clerk, his 4 younger siblings were all still at school while James senior was a self employed plumber and decorator.  Stanley enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery as James Stanley Shakespeare and these details appear on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and his medal index card.  He does not appear in the Soldiers Died in the First World War records under either name or spelling variations of his surname.

A photograph of Gunner S. Shakespeare of Worcester can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 6th January 1917, available at Worcestershire Archives.