William Sydney Denyard Christopher

Story:
William Sydney Denyard Christopher was born with the surname Foot at Thornford, Sherborne, Dorset, on 4 Apr 1899 and baptised there on 7 May 1899 the son of Phyllis Louise Foot.   She married a James William Christopher in Thornford on 6 Aug 1905 and William adopted the surname of his step-father thereafter.    By 1911 the family had moved to Crockers Farm, Ashmore, Shaftesbury, Dorset.  William had enlisted and joined the 6th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps as a Private (Service No. 137344).  It is not known in which theatre of war he served but on his discharge on 5 Feb 1919 he was awarded the Victory and British War Medals.  Though his residence was recorded at Ashmore up until 1920 the 1921 Census shows he had moved with his mother and step-father to Divizes Road, Bemerton, Wiltshire, where he is shown as a Farm Carter (out of work).  He married Edith May Bessant on 5 May 1926 at the Parish Church, Bramshaw, Hampshire.   By the time of the 1939 Register he was living at Brook Bushes, Brook, New Forest, Hampshire, working as a Farm Labourer.   He died at Fenwick Hospital, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, on 26 May 1982.