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First World War memorialsJoseph Farmer - Essex County Constabulary.
He served at Brentwood until 7th March 1908 when a health problem forced his removal from there to Great Clacton, where he stayed for the next eight months, until 18th November. He then transferred to Lambourne End, and was serving in Tilbury when he married Florence Ellen Pavitt of 15, Railway Cottages, Tilbury, Essex, the 23-year-old daughter of Samuel Pavitt, an engine driver. The couple married at St John the Baptist church, Tilbury Docks, on 21 August 1912. Subsequent service took him to Rochford, although he, his wife and their two young children kept their house at 6 Railway Cottages in Tilbury. Farmer never saw his son, Joseph Charles, who was born on 12 November 1914. He served with Essex County Constabulary from 7th December 1905 until the outbreak of the war on 4th August 1914. As Private 4901 in the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, Farmer was posted missing at the Battle of the Aisne before the war was barely a month old. He had in fact been taken prisoner and sent a postcard from a POW camp at Doeberitz in Germany informing Police Superintendent Scott at Rochford that he was quite well and enjoying more privileges than he had been. Joseph Farmer died of wounds in captivity on 15 April 1917 at the age of 33. A letter, in which he also complained of the difficulty of working with two frostbitten toes, was published posthumously in the Essex County Chronicle:
He was buried originally in Mitau; after the war his body and those of 35 Allied soldiers were reburied in grave II. A. I. at the Nikolai Cemetery in what is modern-day Latvia. Police Constable 256. Serial Number 2540. September 21, 2004 - Article updated with additional information compiled by Mr. Adrian Jones. Additional information taken mainly from the Essex County Chronicle and Essex Weekly News.
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