Gilbert Waterhouse

• Born      22 January 1883 at Chatham, Kent
• Died       1 July 1916, killed in action at the Battle of the Somme, France
• Burial     1917 at Serre Road Cemetery No.2. (1 K 23) France

 Born on 22 January 1883, Gilbert Waterhouse was the third of seven children and was the eldest son of John Walter and Louisa Margaret Waterhouse of Thames Ditton, Surrey. The family lived for some years at 44 Forest Drive, Leytonstone, before moving to Westcombe Park, Blackheath. Gilbert’s father John was a shipping broker. Gilbert Waterhouse was educated at Bancroft’s School 1894-1900 and in 1901 had become a ship’s draughtsman, still living with the family in Forest Drive.  Details of his further education and training are unclear. He is said to have attended London University and trained as an architect. However, the RIBA Kalendar of 1913/14 contains no record of his membership in any category. On his enlistment in he gives his profession as “architect and surveyor.” Little is known of his architectural activities save for an unexecuted scheme for a Garden Suburb in Rochdale and a house in Hampstead Garden Suburb.

He enlisted on 8 September 1914 in the 18th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, immediately applying for a commission. In May 1915 he was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the Essex Regiment and was then posted as a junior officer reinforcement in the 2nd battalion. By the winter of 1915/1916 the battalion was concentrated in the Somme region north of Amiens with Gilbert joining it on 4th December 1915. He was killed on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. His body was finally discovered in the summer of 1917 and laid to rest in Serre Road Cemetery No.2.

Gilbert Waterhouse achieved some distinction as a war poet when a volume of his poems Rail-Head and other poems (including the poems Rail-Head and Bivouacs) was published posthumously in 1916. His sonnet ‘Coming in splendour thro’ the golden gate’ had already been published in The English Review in October 1915.

Address
1910        22 Hardy Road, Westcombe Park, Blackheath, London
1910        Middleton Lancashire (BN 23 Dec 1910)

Residence
1891-1901    44, Forest Drive, Leyton, Essex
1911             22 Hardy Road, Westcombe Park, Blackheath, London