Millennium Project
| David Bliss (1890*-1964) was the son of David (1859-1944) and Elizabeth
(1860-1926) Bliss who lived on St Thomas Street. A full account of the
history of Bliss families in Deddington can be found HERE. He
attested that he was willing to serve his country before a Banbury
Magistrate in December 1915 and was recruited nto the Reserves. He was mobilised as a Gunner (Service Number. 73470) into No.12 Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery(RGA) whose HQ was at The Citadel in Plymouth. The RGA handled the big guns. *There are differences between documents regarding his year of birth. His Identity card gives 1888 but the certificate of his marriage in 1925 to Frances Hawtin gives his age as 35 i.e.1890. The latter also accords with census records so this has been used. |
His Service Documents can be accessed via the links below:
Identity (Z11)
Service Record (B2512)
Disability (Z22)
Casualty (B103)
Medical 1 (B104-53)
Medical 2 (B178a)
Return Discharge (D400a)
His Casualty record shows he was 'sick' (not specific) from 25 July to 6 November 1917. He must then have been sent to the front in France/Belgium (no mention of where and when) because he was admitted to hospital 'wounded' on 5 April 1918 as a casualty of a gas attack. This would be during the German's 'Spring Offensive'. It cannot have been assessed as too serious because he was sent to a Rest Camp 11 days later but he did suffer from lung problems throughout his lfe.
He was discharged in the spring of 1919 - date is unclear on the Discharge form which has some strange anomalies. It says he served abroad in India and South Africa and that his mother's name was what appears to be Mary. In reality she was Martha Elizabeth known as Elizabeth and he did not serve anywhere abroad other than France/Belgium to the best of the family's knowledge.
After the war David returned to his pre-war occupation of running the family farm with his brother Charlie who had kept the farm running through the war.
In 1935 he married Frances Hawtin and they had two children: David John Charles (1928-2 002) - always know by the familiar version of his middle name John as 'Jack' - and Emily Mary (known as Mary) who was to marry into the Wallin family in 1952. (see Bliss family story)
The 1939 Register recorded David & Frances' household including his father and children at the start of WWII.
click on thumbnail for larger image
David died in 1964 aged 74 and Frances in the 1990s - date not known.