Frederick Jacob Harris was born in Wadeford, near Chard in Somerset, on 28th August 1887. The fourth of eleven children, his parents were William and Grace Harris. William was an agricultural labourer and carter, but the busy lace and weaving industry in the area is what provided Frederick and his siblings with work when they finished school.
It may have been through his work in the factory that Frederick met Alice Dowell: she was the daughter of a lace hand from Chard. The couple married on 20th October 1906, and settled in a house near the centre of the town. They went on to have four children, two boys and two girls.
War was closing in on Europe by this point, although there is little specific information about Frederick’s service. He initially joined the Somerset Light Infantry, although he soon made the move to the Royal Fusiliers. He received the Victory and British Medals, as did everyone else who served in the Great War, but there is no confirmation of whether he saw action overseas or not.
However and wherever Private Harris served, he survived the conflict, and was demobbed on 25th May 1919. His discharge record suggests that, at the point of being released from duty, he had no injuries or disabilities, and nothing that could be attributed to his time in the army.
Frederick appears to have returned to Chard, and spent the next six months adjusting to civilian life. However, something changed, as, on 10th December 1919, he passed away at home. No cause of death is evident, and nothing in the contemporary local media suggests that he died of anything other than natural causes. Whatever led to his passing, he was taken early, as he was only 32 years of age.
Frederick Jacob Harris was laid to rest in Chard Cemetery.
Harry Ashford was born in Sidford, Devon, on 2nd June 1880, the oldest of seven children to Samuel and Fanny Ashford. Samuel was a mason and Fanny worked as a lace worker managing this at the same time as raising her children. The family left Devon in the late 1880s, settling instead in Chard, Somerset.
After initially working as an errand boy, when Harry finished school he found employment as a house painter. He had met lace worker Ada Hancock by this point, and the couple married in Chard’s Methodist Church on 4th May 1901. The couple set up home in the same road as Harry’s parents, and went on to have a daughter, Nora, the following year.
By this point, storm clouds were brewing over Europe, however, and Harry felt the need to play his part. On 22nd September 1915, at the age of 35, he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps. His service record shows that he stood 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall and was of good physical development.
Private Ashford served on the Home Front, and was based at the Tweseldown Camp near Farnham, Surrey. He served there for a little over a year before he contracted nephritis – inflamed kidneys – and was admitted to hospital. Sadly, the condition proved too severe, and he died on 31st October 1916 from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 37 years of age.
Harry Ashford’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the cemetery of his adopted home town, Chard.
Both of Harry’s parents passed away not long after he died – Samuel in 1919 and Fanny in 1920. Ada never remarried, and lived a reasonable life, passing away in Nottinghamshire in the autumn of 1932, at the age of 53 years old.
Sidney John Budd was born in the spring of 1888, the middle of three children to Abel and Mary Budd. Abel was a gardener from Tiverton, Devon, and this is where the family were born and raised. In the late 1890s, the family moved to West Monkton, near Taunton in Somerset.
When he finished school, Sidney found work as a house painter, and, by the time of the 1911 census, was boarding in a house near Minehead. Within a few years, he had moved again, this time to Chard, and had met Florence Moulding, the daughter of a shepherd from the town. The couple married on 1st August 1914, just days before the outbreak of war.
There is little information available relating to Sidney’s military service. He enlisted before the end of 1917, joining the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry as a Private. This was a wholly territorial troop, and Private Budd would have served in Somerset and Devon.
One of the downsides to being in close proximity to servicemen from other parts of the country in tightly-packed barracks was the ease with which disease could spread. Sadly, Private Budd was not immune from this and, in the spring of 1917, he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. He was admitted to the Ford House Hospital in Plymouth, but his condition deteriorated and he passed away on 31st May 1917. He was just 29 years of age.
Sidney John Budd’s body was brought back to Chard for burial: he lies at rest in the town’s cemetery.
Florence went on to marry again, wedding Harry Golesworthy in the spring of 1918. Sadly, her happiness was to be short-lived: she passed away just two years later, at the age of 28 years old.
Sidney’s older brother, named Abel after his father, was an interesting character. When he left school, he found work as an apprentice to a photographer.
In July 1909, though, he was brought to court for stealing a bicycle. It seems that he had rented one from a dealer in West Monkton in order to visit friends in Cullompton, but not returned it at the end of the day, as expected.
The dealer contacted Abel’s parents, and he was found to have stayed over in Cullompton. It seems that while there, he had run low on funds, and had sold the bicycle to a dealer in the town. A week later, he returned to the Cullompton dealer, asking to buy the bike back, but hadn’t brought any money with him.
Eventually, Abel’s father went to Cullompton, bought the bicycle, then took it to the original dealer in West Monkton. By this point, however, Abel had been charged with theft, and pled guilty. His father stood witness, and, according to the Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser [Wednesday 14th July 1909], admitted that Abel “was rather weak of mind” and had not intended to steal the bicycle.
Abel was bound over for twelve months, with his father standing surety of five pounds.
The later parts of Abel’s life seem a mystery. There is a record of him travelling to Brisbane, Australia, in the spring of 1914, where he was to work as a farm labourer. He must have returned home, possibly as part of the war effort, and five years later he married Annie Talbot in Taunton, Somerset.
At this point, however, he falls off the radar, and there is no further information about him.
Joseph William Soper was born at the start of 1876, the third of eleven children to John and Elizabeth Soper. Both of his parents had been born in Dorset but it was in the Devon town of Axminster that their children were raised. John was a labourer, but, when he finished school, Joseph found work as an ostler or groom.
John passed away at the end of 1894, just months after his youngest son, Arthur, was born. Joseph, by this point, had found work as a postman, and, in the spring of 1897, he married Charlotte Annie Lee in his home town. The couple moved across the border to Somerset and settled in Chard. They went on to have a son, Arthur, who was born in the summer of 1900.
Postal work seemed not to have suited Joseph, and he made the move to labouring for a mason. Money appears to have been tight: the 1911 census recorded Charlotte working as a charwoman, while her younger brother, Herbert, was also lodging with them, and working as a grocer’s porter.
War was coming to Europe, but much of Joseph’s military career is a mystery. He had joined up by the autumn of 1916, and was assigned to the 13th (Works) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. He was based in Saltash and Plymouth, and served as part of the territorial force.
The only other documents available are Private Soper’s pension ledger and his entry on the Register of Soldier’s Effects. Both confirm that he died on 12th April 1917, and that the cause was “accidental injury received on active service“. Sadly, there is no further information about this. He was 41 years of age when he passed.
Joseph William Soper’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He lies at rest in Chard Cemetery, walking distance from where his widow and son still lived.
Albert William Cook was born on 29th August 1887, in the Somerset village of Chaffcombe. He was the oldest of six children – of which only three survived infancy – to William and Harriet Cook. William was a thatcher by trade, and moved his young family to nearby Chard when Albert was a youngster.
When he finished school, Albert found work as a wagoner for the local coal depot, Jarman & Co. War was on the horizon, however, and, at the start of 1915, he signed up to play his part for King and Country.
Private Cook joined the Somerset Light Infantry. While full details of his service are not available, his troop – the 1st Battalion – were heavily involved in the Second Battle of Ypres in the spring of 1915. While he seemed to have survived this, he was later injured, receiving a fractured skull and becoming paralysed on one side.
Albert was admitted to the Canadian No. 2 Stationary Hospital in Le Touquet, but subsequently evacuated to England for further treatment. He was operated on in a hospital in Birmingham, but his injuries proved too severe. He passed away on 3rd September 1915, and had just turned 28 years old.
Albert William Cook’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Chard Cemetery, not far from his family’s home.
Joseph William Vickery was born in the spring of 1865 in the Somerset village of Isle Abbots. He was the older of two children to farm carter James Vickery and his wife Sarah. James died when Joseph was around six years old, and Sarah remarried, going on to have five children with her new husband, John Kitch.
The new family moved to North Curry, where Joseph found work as a farm labourer when he finished school. The years passed and, on 15th September 1894, Joseph married Elizabeth Ann Saturday, a labourer’s daughter from Chard. The couple settled in the town, and went on to have five children.
By the time war broke out in 1914, Joseph was approaching 50 years old. He still felt a duty to play his part, however, and enlisted towards the end of the following year. Little information survives of Joseph’s military career, but he enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry and was assigned to the 1/5th Battalion.
Sent to Salisbury Plain for training, Private Vickery was billeted at Tidworth, Wiltshire. While there, he contracted bronchitis and was admitted to hospital. Sadly, the lung condition was to prove too much for his body to bear, and he passed away on 12th December 1915, at the age of 50 years old.
Joseph William Vickery was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Chard Cemetery.
Joseph and Elizabeth’s son Victor also played his part in the conflict.
Born in 1900, he was too young to enlist at the start of the war, but, by April 1918, he had joined the Scots Guards as a Private. There is no evidence of him serving overseas, and his service seems to have passed uneventfully. He was demobbed in February 1919, and returned to Somerset to continue his work as a furnaceman.
Thomas Harris – known as Tom – was born on 13th October 1876, the only son of Edmund and Mary Harris. Edmund was an agricultural labourer from the Somerset village of Seavington St Mary, and this is where Tom was born and raised.
Mary had married Edmund in the spring of 1876, but had been married before; she was widowed when her previous husband, Alfred Vickery, died ten years before. They had had seven children of their own, half-siblings to Tom.
Edmund died in the Wells Lunatic Asylum when Tom was only six years old. When he left school, he found work as a farm labourer, but sought bigger and better things, even though he was now the only one of Mary’s children still living at home.
Tom enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry in January 1893, and soon found himself overseas. During his sixteen years’ service, he spent seven years in India and six months fighting in the Second Boer War. Corporal Harris seems to have had a sickly time of it, and while in India, was admitted to hospital a number of times for fever, ague and diarrhoea, as well as a bout of conjunctivitis.
When Tom’s contract came to an end in 1909, he returned to Britain, setting up home in Newport, South Wales, where he found work as a sheet weigher at the local steel works.
Mary died of senile decay and cardiac failure in May 1910. She was 74 years old, and sadly passed away in the Chard Workhouse, in similar circumstances to her late husband.
In October 1913, Tom married Ada Long in Chard. She was the daughter of a shopkeeper, and the couple set up home in South Wales, where Tom was still working.
War, by now, was closing in on Europe, and Tom wanted to use his previous experience to serve his country once again. He enlisted on 20th August 1914 in Newport, joining the Devonshire Regiment as a Private, although he was quickly promoted first to Corporal and then to Serjeant. His service records show that he was 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, had blue eyes, brown hair and a tattoo of a Spanish girl on his right forearm.
After a year on the Home Front, Serjeant Harris was sent to Egypt in September 1915. On the way out, he contracted a severe cold, which left him deaf in his left ear. He was also suffering from varicose veins, which left him in pain in his right leg. He was treated for both conditions, and put on light duties for three months.
In November 1916, Serjeant Harris was supporting a food convoy when it came under attack. Buried in sand and wounded, he was laid up in a hole for two days and nights before help came. He was initially treated for shell shock in the camp hospital, but was eventually evacuated to Britain for treatment.
The incident had put too much of a strain on Tom, and he was medically discharged from the army in April 1917. While his medical report confirmed that the general paralysis he was suffering from was a result of the attack, it also noted on six separate occasions that he had previously suffered from syphilis, suggesting this may also have been a contributing factor to his mental state.
Tom was discharged initially to an asylum in South Wales, before returning home to Ada. The couple were soon expecting a child, and a boy, Sidney, was born in February 1918. By that summer, however, Tom’s condition had worsened enough for him to be admitted back to the Whitchurch Military Hospital in Cardiff.
It was here that Tom passed away, dying from a combination of chronic phlebitis – an extension of the varicose veins he had previously complained of – and general paralysis on 8th August 1918. He was, by this point, 41 years of age.
Tom Harris was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest – finally at peace – in Chard Cemetery.
Arthur Wellman was born in the spring of 1891 and was one of nine children. His parents – road builder Thomas and collar machinist Eliza – were both born in Somerset, and it was in Chard that they married and raised their family.
Arthur and his siblings found work in the local lace industry – the 1911 census recorded him living with his family in Chard, working as a lace hand, minding the machinery in the mill.
In the summer of 1915, Arthur married Daisy Jane Slade, the daughter of an agricultural labourer from North Curry, Somerset. They went on to have a daughter, Beryl, who was born in May 1916.
By May 1916, Arthur had seen two of his brothers serve and die in the war: Private Bert Wellman had been killed serving with the Somerset Light Infantry in Mesopotamia, while Gunner William Wellman died from tuberculosis having served with the Royal Field Artillery. Whether through a sense of duty or a sense of guilt, he put his name forward to play his part. Full details are not available, but he enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry that autumn.
Private Wellman was assigned to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion, and was sent for training. Sadly, while in barracks, he contracted cerebrospinal meningitis; he died in hospital on 20th March 1917, at the age of just 25 years old.
Arthur Wellman’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Chard Cemetery, not far from his brother, William.
William Wellman was born in March 1890 and was one of nine children. His parents, road builder Thomas and collar machinist Eliza were both born in Somerset, and it was in Chard that they married and raised their family.
William and his siblings found work in the local lace industry – the 1911 census recorded most of the family in Chard, but William was boarding in Stapleford, Derbyshire, with his older brother Fred; both were working as lace hands.
War was coming to Europe, and, as a previous member of the territorial force of the Somerset Light Infantry, William was keen to play his part. In February 1915, he enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery: his records show that he was 5ft 7ins (1.69m) tall, had light brown hair, grey eyes and a slender build, weighing 129lbs (58.5kgs).
Gunner Wellman was sent to Wiltshire for training but, while in barracks, he fell ill. Having contracted tuberculosis of the kidney, he was admitted to a hospital in Sutton Veny. After two months’ treatment, his health did not improve sufficiently enough, and he was discharged from the army on medical grounds in February 1916.
William returned to Chard, but was not to get any better. He passed away at home on 1st April 1916; he was just 26 years old.
William Wellman was laid to rest in the cemetery of his home town, not far from his brother, Private Arthur Wellman.
William and Arthur were not the only two of the siblings to fight in the Great War.
Their youngest brother, Private Bert Wellman fought with the Somerset Light Infantry, and died in fighting in Mesopotamia on 22nd November 1915. He was just 20 years of age.
Edward Welch was born in Chard, Somerset, at the start of 1899. His parents were Edward and Sarah and he was one of five children, although he also had three half-siblings from Sarah’s previous marriage.
Edward Sr was a gardener who passed away in 1910, leaving Sarah a widow for a second time. She was already working as a lace maker, and this was a trade that Edward Jr’s older siblings also followed.
War was coming to Europe and, while he was too young to enlist when it was first declared, Edward was keen to play his part when he could. He enlisted in the Royal Berkshire Regiment at some point after October 1916, and was assigned to the 9th (Reserve) Battalion. Private Welch was part of the territorial force, and so did not see any action overseas.
There is little additional information about Private Welch’s life: all that can be confirmed is that he passed away “of disease” in hospital on 10th April 1917. He was just 18 years of age.
Edward Welch’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Chard Cemetery, not far from his family home.
Death and Service 