Lionel Harry Gordon Collinson

Full name, according to the 1911 Census, Lionel Harry Gordon Collinson, born 1 April 1896 in Birmingham, son of Harry Collinson and Amelia nee Smith. In 1901 he was boarding at the Crown Road, Wheatley home of Charles and Sarah A. Gomm. Ten years later he was still a boarder there, but now employed as a telegraph messenger. It seems that his third forename was Weedon rather than Gordon and that he was later known as Lionel Gomm. The Oxford Chronicle of 17 December 1914 reported that he had been accepted into the Royal Navy. He was closely acquainted with Lady Ottoline Morrell and her circle at Garsington: photos of him, including one in Naval uniform (H.M. S. Minesweepers) and two taken by her, are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. In the 1921 Register of Electors a Lionel Collinson was living at The Chequers, Wheatley. Described as a builder, he died in 1922. See also references to him in the Wheatley in a World at War chapter.