Rowland Swallow
Rowland Swallow was born in North Muskham about 1899. His parents Richard William (a joiner/carpenter from Cromwell) and Emma (nee Blackbourn, from Thorpe on the Hill) had married in 1895.
By the 1911 the family had moved from North Muskham to Claypole. In 1917 Rowland was an apprentice stone mason when, aged 18, he was conscripted into the Army. Initially signed up for the Sherwood Foresters he was transferred to the (Grantham based) Machine Gun Corps where he joined the fledging anti aircraft section. He was home on leave in November 1917. Private Swallow was killed in action on 23rd Mar 1918 (aged 19) during the Battle of St Quentin, part of the German spring offensive. He was buried at Lebucquiere Communal Cemetery.
When his father Richard died in 1959 he’d been living at Rowland Cottage in Claypole (on the corner of Welfen Lane and Chapel Lane). As Rowland had been born before the family moved to Claypole it seems that the cottage was named after him. Richard’s executor was Rowland’s younger brother Reginald, a joiner and undertaker.