Ambrose Gillot was the son of John Henry Gillot, a labourer, and his wife Laura, nee Spicer, who also had five daughters. Ambrose was born on 14 November 1896 and baptised at St Anne, Poole’s Park (a church demolished after World War Two) on 23 April 1895.

In 1901 the family lived at 13 Athelstan Road in Upper Holloway but by 1911 they had moved to 90 Campbell Road (since 1937 Whadcoat Street.) This was a notorious slum, known locally as ‘Campbell Bunk’ from the number of furnished rooms and lodging houses it contained. The historian Jerry White described it as ‘the worst street in north London.’ The eight members of the Gillot family lived in just two rooms. In 1911 Ambrose is described in the census as ‘at school’.

It is difficult to be certain what Ambrose did in the war as records are scant. His unusual first name and relatively unusual last name mean that he is likely to be this soldier on the website ‘Forces War Records’: 15782 Private Ambrose Gillot of the Middlesex Regiment, and 601411 Private Ambrose Gillot of the Labour Corps. Many of the local young men joined the Middlesex Regiment, and it was not unusual to serve in two regiments. Perhaps more information about his military service will emerge.

New Court Congregational Chapel ran a mission in Lennox Road, which was very close to Campbell Road where the Gillots lived in 1911. Perhaps this is how Ambrose came to be associated with the Chapel and his name inscribed on the plaque to soldiers who returned from the war erected in 1920. Unfortunately his name was mis-spelt on the plaque as Gillott.

On Christmas Day 1920 Ambrose married Mabel Violet Hussey at St Anne, Poole’s Park, but she sadly died in 1924. He married again, to Winifred May Jerkins, on 31 May 1925, and lived until 1983.

Also see ‘Meet the Soldier: Campbell Bunk Soldiers’ blog post.