Robert Common

Forename(s):
Robert

Surname:
Common

Initial(s):
R

Service Number:
17028

Rank:
Private

Regiment:
Northumberland Fusiliers, 20th (Service) Battalion (1st Tyneside Scottish)

Died:
11/04/1917

Aged:
33

Buried:
Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension

Service History:
Enlisted at Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland.

First served in France 17 October 1915.

Died of wounds received.

Background:
Born 1884, at Ashington, Northumberland, the youngest son of Edward (born at Warkworth; lived in Brewery Lane; a Slater / Plasterer) & Sarah Common (b. about 1849, at Hauxley, Northumberland).

Common's six siblings were all born in Northumberland. He had three brothers - Thomas (b. about 1871, at Warkworth); William (b. about 1874, also at Warkworth; in 1891, a Coal Miner); & Edward (b. about 1878, at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea; in 1891, a Coal Miner; by 1911, he was working above ground) - & three sisters - Elizabeth (b. about 1889, at Togston); Jane (b. about 1892, also at Togston); & Sarah A. (b. about 1879, at Acklington). (N.B. The 1881 Census refers to a daughter, May, born in 1875 but there's no further mention of her in subsequent censuses.)

From at least 1881 the family lived in & around the Acklington area; in 1891 they were at Togston Wood Houses. In 1901 Common worked as a Stockman on a farm at Wallsend-on-Tyne. In 1911 he was living with his widowed mother & siblings in three rooms at 6, Acklington Street, Amble.

Pre-enlistment occupation: Coal Miner.
(Source: 'Portraits of War...'; Edited & compiled by June Watson; Wildgoose Press; 2016; p. 126)

At the time of Common's death his mother had returned to Ashington & lived at 96, Hawthorn Road, Hirst, Ashington.

Local Memorial:
Ashington, Memorial Statue, Memorial Garden, Kenilworth Road (Source: newmp.org.uk)