Dawlish World War One Project

Philip G Pope applied for a ‘Temporary Commission in the Regular Army for the Period of the War’ on 26th November 1915 and he was gazetted and placed in the Special Reserve on 3rd December.

Philip expressed a preference for serving in the Field Artillery and he was serving with the Royal Field Artillery when he was killed in action.

He made a Will on 12th February 1916, and Probate was granted to Madeleine Pope (his widow) and as executors John Pope, uncle of the deceased and Reginald Henry Pope, Clerk in Holy Orders, the uncle also.

A telegram announcing his death was sent from the War Office to his widow on 19th October 1917 and a formal letter from the War Office on 6th November 1917 gave details of his grave in the Huts Military Cemetery, Dickebusch, South West of Ypres. It stated that it was marked ‘by a durable wooden cross with an inscription bearing full particulars’.

See 'Documents' below for further family and service detail.

Philip Gladstone Pope was the son of Sydney Philip Pope (1859-1937) and Jessie Gladstone (1863-1958). The Pope family had been solicitors in the 19th century.

Sydney’s father, John Pope, was practising in Exeter in 1861 when the census showed, living at Langam Villa, Pennsylvania Road, Exeter:

Ten years later John and Jane Pope were living at Hills Court, St David’s, Exeter with Sydney, 11, Jessie E, 9 amd Reginald H, 7. The later children were also born in Exeter.
In 1881 Sydney Pope was a lodger at 11 Duchess Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham where he was shown as a solicitor’s clerk.

Sydney P Pope married Jessie Gladstone in Birmingham in the Oct-Dec quarter of 1886 (GRO ref vol 6d, p 315).

By 1891 Sydney and Jessie Pope had moved to Exeter, and were living at 43 Manston Terrace, Heavitree with their first child, Philip Gladstone Pope who was born in Wellington, Somerset in 1887. He was baptised in St John’s Church, Wellington on 14th September, 1887. They went on to have another child but it had died by the census of 1911, by which time they had moved to Howden, Tiverton.
Philip Gladstone Pope was sent to boarding schools, first to Looker’s Park in Hemel Hemstead (1901 census) and then to Rugby School. He left school ca 1905 and studied law, as an articled clerk to a solicitor, most probably Hesketh W Jelp, 12 Norfolk Street, Strand, London.

P G Pope was boarding at New Hampton Court Club, East Molesey, Surrey in 1911 at the age of 23. From here a journey by Southern Railway would take him to work.

Also in 1911, the census shows that Madeleine Roissier was a visitor from Jersey at Sydney and Jessie Pope’s home at Tiverton.
Philip Gladstone Pope married Madeleine Roissier in St Helier, Jersey on 17 April 1912. Madeleine’s father also was a solicitor. Philip Alfred Roissier (1957-1926) and Florence Jessie Valentine Ouless (1860-) had one son and a daughter, Madeleine (1890-1964).

Philip and Madeleine had a son Philip William Gladstone Pope who was born to them in Exeter on 25 April 1913. (GRO ref Apr-Jun 1913, Exeter, vol 5b, p 122) See later material on his life in 'Documents' below.