| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Maurice Stanley Craike Pickering was born in Beverley the 30 Dec 1885, the youngest child of Seth and Mary Pickering, nee Craike. He had three brothers, Albert William, Harold Ambrose, John Alfred and a sister, Mabel Annie. Seth was a cabinet maker and latterly also a furniture shop owner. Maurice was baptised at St Mary's Church the 24 Mar 1886, he was educated at Beverley Grammar School. At the time of the 1901 Census he was apprenticed as a cabinet maker to his father. Maurice's mother died in Mar 1904 and his father in Jul 1905. Albert became a bank manager with Messrs Beckett and Company - The East Yorkshire Bank, Maurice also found employment with that company.
Maurice left Southampton on 8 Nov 1910 on S.S. 'Goeben' bound for Singapore to become a rubber planter for the Kapoewas Rubber Company Ltd, in Mengkaloo, Pontianak, Dutch Borneo where he was to work for the following four years. In 1914 he responded to Lord Kitchener's appeal and travelled almost half-way across the world to join the Army. He married Jean Estelle Bonar on 24 Nov 1915 at St Matthew's Church, Morningside, Edinburgh.
Maurice Pickering served as Corporal in 'A' Coy, 7th Battalion, Cameron Highlanders. He was commissioned from the ranks to 2nd Lieutenant in the 13th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry then transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on 19 Dec 1915. He disembarked in France on 11 Mar 1916 and joined the 11th Machine Gun Company, 11th Brigade in the 4th Division. On 15 Sep 1916 he was seriously wounded and repatriated to England. The London Gazette of 14 Nov 1916 announced the award of the Military Cross to 2nd Lieutenant Maurice Stanley Craike-Pickering and the citation reads:
'For conspicuous gallantry in action. He fought his machine gun with great determination, repulsing an enemy counter-attack at a critical time.'
2nd Lieutenant Pickering died of his wounds on 14 Apr 1918 in the Herbert Samuelson Hospital, 22 Sussex Square, Brighton and was buried in a Commonwealth War Grave in the Downs Cemetery, Brighton, Sussex. Mrs Jean Estelle Craike-Pickering, his widow, lived in Barnes, London, for a while before returning to Scotland. She died in Edinburgh on 2 Mar 1962.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |