The George Carter on the Hough on the Hill War Memorial may be Clarke Henry Marvin, who was born in Morton (near Bourne) in 1896. His mother, Ann Elizabeth Marvin was unmarried and he was brought up by her parents (Robert and Ann) in Keisby/Folkingham as their son, where he was known as ‘Jack’.
Meanwhile, Ann Elizabeth (known as Annie Elizabeth or Elizabeth Anne or Lillian Ann) married John Carter (born Yorkshire) in 1898. The family had a tendency to switch names.
They lived in the Wisbech area (Tydd St Mary and Gedney) before moving to or near Hough sometime after 1911, where John was a labourer. In July 1916 John was in court for not sending their children to school regularly. The children were at school in Carlton Scroop but were waiting for a place in Hough (suggesting they’d either moved from Carlton Scroop, or perhaps lived between the villages). John said he had 6 children, including some serving in the Army, although his children (John Robert, Ernest Leslie, George Stanley and Walter Charles) wouldn’t have been old enough; so it may be that older relations had been staying with them.
On 28th April 1917 Private Clarke Henry Marvin of 10th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment was killed in France. The Grantham journal reported his death (as Clarke Henry ‘Jack’ Marvin of Folkingham) and also the death of Clarke Henry Carter of Hough, with a very similar story. We’re now 99% certain these are the same man and that while staying with his mother (Mrs Carter) in Hough he was known as Carter. Whilst in Hough he’d worked for Mr Farnsworth at Lodge Farm, but in May 1915 he was working as a horseman in Bradmore, Notts (probably staying with other relations) when he volunteered for the Army at Grantham.
It’s not clear why the name on the Hough Memorial is ‘George’. Perhaps he was known as George in Hough, or perhaps after the war (by which time the family may have moved away) his name was confused with George Marvin from Bourne who’d been killed the same week while serving with 7th Lincolnshires and this George (a relation from Morton) had also lived with them in Hough.
