Christopher Templar Spratt was born on 23rd August 1889 in Streatham, Surrey. The youngest of three children, his parents were James and Elizabeth. James was an electrician by trade, and the 1891 census recorded the family as living at 58 Limes Road, between Selhurst and West Croydon.
The Spratts seem to have been a divided family. By the time of the 1901 census, James appears to have emigrated to Australia, presumably to earn money in the burgeoning country. Elizabeth and their younger two children were visiting Worthing, West Sussex.
At this point, and the decision seems to have been made for them to move to Sussex permanently, as the 1911 census found her and Christopher living at 87 Westcourt Road, Worthing. Elizabeth was noted as living on her own means; Christopher was working as a solicitor’s clerk, and they had a boarder, governess Nettie Buckler, to help bring in some additional money.
In January 1912, Christopher married Edith Green, a dressmaker from just along the coast in Goring-by-Sea. The couple moved in with Elizabeth, and went on to have two children: Florence, who was born that June; and Christopher Jr, who was born in November 1916.
By this point, war was raging across Europe, and Christopher stepped up to serve his King and Country. He had enlisted the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 9th December 1915, but was not formally mobilised until the following June. Given the rank of Ordinary Seaman, Christopher’s service records note that he was 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion. He was also noted as having a mole on his left thigh.
Christopher was assigned to the Nelson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division, and sent to Dorset for training. While details of his service as more haphazard than usual, it seems that he served time overseas, and was promoted to Able Seaman on 1st October 1916. He became unwell in February 1917, as was admitted to the 18th General Hospital in Dannes-Camiers, on the French coast.
Suffering from cellulitis, Able Seaman Spratt was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, and ended up as a patient in the 2nd Western General Hospital in Manchester. The condition was to prove fatal: he passed away on 12th February 1917, at the age of 27 years old.
The body of Christopher Templar Spratt was brought back to Sussex for burial. He was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Mary’s in Goring-by-Sea.
Elizabeth went on to re-marry and, by the time of the 1921 census, was living in East Preston, Sussex, with her new husband, Edward Neal, Christopher Jr and her new daughter, Enid. There is no evidence of Elizabeth’s older daughter, Christopher, although there is a Florence Spratt recorded as a patient in White Oak Schools (Homes for Ophthalmic Children) in Swanley, Kent.
Christopher Jr went on to marry Phyllis Bennett in the autumn of 1946. They remained in the Worthing area until his death in March 1993: he was laid to rest alongside the father he would not have remembered, in St Mary’s Churchyard. When Phyllis died seven years later, she was buried alongside her husband and father-in-law.
Death and Service 