TOFT Joseph Horace. (M.B.E.) died 18th January 1968 aged 79. He was the husband of Maggie Norbury, nee Warburton.
He is at rest with his wife (who he married in 1939), in Knutsford Cemetery, Cheshire.
He was awarded the M.B.E. in the 1952 Birthday Honours. Joseph Horace Toft, Registrar, Nottingham North Sub-District Census Office, 1951.
Some notes from his very badly damaged army record.
He joined the army on the 10th June 1916 aged 27 years and 2 months. He was native of Knutsford but lived with 24, Alberta Terrace, Nottingham. He was employed as Poor Law Clerk. His father, Thomas, was his next of kin which he changed at a later date to his mother, Louisa, who was living at Holme Park Road, Aston-on-Mersey. (1901 census shows his parents as Joseph and Mary, In 1911 he was a boarder at the home of Alfred and Lillie Pinder at 43, Birrell Road, Nottingham and was employed as a law clerk aged 23.) He was posted as Private 20/225, 20th Reserve West Yorkshire Regiment then posted as Private 53644, 19th Durham Light Infantry, and later with the 20th Durham Light Infantry and finally as Private R50799, 1st Royal Berkshire Regiment. On the 21st December 1916 he embarked for France. He was gassed in France, The records that would have shown the date, location and places treated have not survived. On the 15th November 1917 he is recorded as being in Garwood Convalescent Hospital in Aston-in-Makersfield suffering from the effects of being gassed. He was discharged from the army on the 30th August 1919.
