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Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Dorsetshire Regiment, Great War, history, injury, Lance Corporal, photography, story, war, Wiltshire Regiment

Lance Corporal Harold Russell

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Lance Corporal Harold Russell

Harold Stanley Russell was born in 1895, the third of six children to carpenter Henry Russell and his wife Mary. The family lived in Sherborne, Dorset, and this is where Harold grew up; by the time of the 1911 census, he was working as a hairdresser in the town.

While Harold’s military records are not readily available online, his last few weeks can be determined through the local press of the day.

He enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment in the summer of 1915, but was attached to the Wiltshire Regiment when battalions went to France in May 1916.

Lance Corporal Russell’s Lieutenant wrote to his parents to report on Harold’s injury:

[He] was wounded by a bomb on the morning of July 28th while on duty in the trenches. “At the moment of writing I do not know if it is a very serious case, but I do know he will lose the use of his left hand. He was a most popular fellow, and always willing to do his part nobly with a brave heart, and nothing grieved me more than to see him in pain. His wants were immediately attended to, and I suppose by now he is under treatment in the hospital. He is being well cared for, and the authorities will let you know how he is progressing.

Western Gazette, Friday 4th August 1916

A week later, the newspaper reported an update:

Lance-Corporal Harold Russell… is now at the Leicester Military Hospital in a critical condition. His parents were telegraphed for on Friday last, and visited him. They found he had been very seriously wounded by a bomb whilst on duty in the trenches in France. His injuries are in the chest and right arm, while his left hand has been amputated. [He] was acting platoon-sergeant at the time he was wounded, and had taken part in three battles. After being wounded he walked one and a-half miles to the dressing-station, but afterwards collapsed. His parents returned to Sherborne on Tuesday as he was slightly better, but were telegraphed for again on Wednesday.

Western Gazette, Friday 11th August 1916

The day of the second article, Lance Corporal Harold Russell lost his fight for life, dying in a Military Hospital in Leicester. He was just 21 years old.

The next week, the young soldier featured in the newspaper again, with an 80-line report on his funeral being featured on the Roll of Honour page.

Harold Stanley Russell lies at rest in the cemetery of his home town, Sherborne.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, war, West Somerset Yeomanry

Private Gilbert Drew

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Private Gilbert Drew

Gilbert Victor Drew was born in Dinder, Somerset in 1898, the youngest of the eight children of James and Theresa Drew, a groom/coachman and laundress respectively.

Gilbert initially enlisted in the West Somerset Yeomanry on 11th December 1915, serving on the Home Front.

Private Drew then transferred to the 1st Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry and was shipped overseas as part of the British Expeditionary Force on 1st August 1916.

He first reported to a medic in mid-November 1916; his records pick up the story from there:

First noticed he was passing a larger quantity of water than usual and was also feeling very thirsty.

2nd December 1916, caught influenza and was sent to England. Thirst has been great and urine very large in quantity since November. General condition good. Passes from 14 to 17 pints of urine each 24 hours – large quantity of sugar contained. No evidence of other disease. No improvement since admission.

Result of AS[?] Prolonged strain – especially during Somme offensive.

Medical Records

Private Drew was discharged from the army on 3rd February 1917 as “no longer physically fit for war service” due to diabetes.

Gilbert Victor Drew died on 1st July 1917; he was just 19 years of age. He was buried in the graveyard of the Church of St Michael in his home village of Dinder, Somerset.

He was one of six villagers to fall during the Great War.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Lance Corporal, photography, Private, Somerset, South Staffordshire Regiment, story, war

Private Quinton Wyatt

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Private Quinton Wyatt

Quinton Charles Wyatt was born in the Gloucestershire town of Northleach in 1893 to William and Elizabeth. His mother died when he was a toddler, leaving William to look after Quinton and his older sister Agnes.

By the time war was declared, Quinton was working as a farm labourer and waggoner in the Gloucestershire village of Hampnett.

Quinton enlisted in the 8th Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment on 22nd November 1915. Appointed Lance Corporal just two months later, he was posted to France in March 1916.

Neglect of duty in June meant that Lance Corporal Wyatt was demoted to Private four months later. His battalion was caught up in a German gas attack in the autumn of 1917, and he was injured; ultimately, he was medically discharged from the Army on Boxing Day 1917.

Quinton Charles Wyatt finally succumbed to his injuries on 11th November 1918 – Armistice Day. He was 25 years old.

He is buried in St Mary’s churchyard in the village of Charlton Mackrell in Somerset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Somerset, story

Private Roberts Hallett

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Private Roberts Hallett

Private Roberts Pretoria Hallett was born in the summer of 1900, to Frank – a shepherd from Charlton Adam in Somerset – and Emily, who came from the neighbouring village of Charlton Mackrell. Roberts (the correct spelling) was the youngest of eleven children.

Roberts was just twelve when his father died, and, when war came, he enlisted in Taunton, along with his brothers, Francis and William.

Private Hallett was assigned to the 5th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. While his records don’t identify exactly when he saw battle, by the last year of the war the battalion would have been involved in the fighting in northern Italy.

What we can say for certain is that he was shipped home at some point towards the end of the war. He was admitted to the No. 1 Northern General Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in October 1918. Private Hallett’s records show that he died “of disease” on 16th October.

Roberts Pretoria Hallett lies at rest in the churchyard of St Mary’s in his home village of Charlton Mackrell, Somerset.

The Great War was not kind to Emily Hallett: having lost her husband in 1912, her son William died while fighting in India in 1916 and that is where he was buried. Her other son Francis died in the Third Battle of Ypres in June 1917 and lies at rest in Belgium.

Roberts Hallett, therefore, is the only one of the three brothers to be buried local to her.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Worcestershire Regiment

Private Stanley Counsell

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Private Stanley Counsell

Stanley John Counsell was born in September 1896 to George and Ellen, farmers in Glastonbury.

The youngest of five children, Stanley was an apprentice carpenter by the time he enlisted with his brothers Lawrence and Wilfred.

Private Counsell joined the Worcestershire Regiment in 1915 and was sent into action in France in September 1916.

He suffered medically during the war, succumbing to tonsillitis and diarrhoea during his time in France. A bout of tuberculosis in late 1918 saw Stanley shipped back to the UK and admitted to a hospital in Newcastle-upon Tyne.

The end of the Great War came and went, and Stanley was finally discharged from the army in March 1919, as no longer medically fit for war service.

On 2nd May 1919, less than six weeks after being discharged, Private Stanley Counsell passed away. He was 23 years old and was a victim not of the war, but of the subsequent influenza pandemic, which killed 250,000 people in the UK alone.

Stanley John Counsell lies at peace in the cemetery of his home town, Glastonbury.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Royal Navy, Somerset, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 2nd Class Frederick Pople

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Stoker Frederick Pople

Frederick Richard Pople was the second of three children – all sons – of Frederick and Emma Pople, born in 1887 in Street, Somerset.

He married Beatrice Cox in 1910 and, by the following year the newlyweds had moved to South Wales, when Frederick found work on the railways. The couple had one child, Frederick Alonzo Pople, who was born in 1912.

Sadly, Beatrice passed away a couple of years later; Frederick married again, to Beatrice Salmon, in November 1914; the couple had a son, Edward George Salmon Pople, who was born on Valentine’s Day 1918.

Frederick enlisted relatively late in the war – he was 30 when he signed up on 25th January 1918, and is likely to have missed the birth of his son.

He enrolled in the Royal Navy and his training took place at HMS Vivid II in Devonport. By March of that year, he was serving as a stoker on the HMS Attentive III, part of the Dover patrol.

Stoker Pople continued to work on the HMS Attentive after the conclusion of hostilities in November 1918. Sadly, he contracted pneumonia and passed away 11th February 1919, leaving Beatrice with a son of less than a year old.

Frederick Richard Pople is buried in the Cemetery of his home town, Glastonbury.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, Somerset, South African Infantry, story, war

Private Edwin Hann

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Private Edwin Hann

Edwin Robert Hann was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Albert Edward and Jemima Jane Hann in around 1900. Albert had been born in Glastonbury, Somerset, but had emigrated by the 1890s, where he met and married Jemima.

Research has led me to numerous dead ends regarding Edwin’s life. Hann’s tombstone shows that he enlisted in the 2nd Regiment of the South African Infantry.

The 2nd Regiment served in numerous key battles on the Western Front, including Ypres, Passchendaele, Marrieres Wood and Messines. Their last major engagement was at Le Cateau in early October 1918. Given how soon afterwards Private Hann passed away, it seems possible that he was fatally wounded – or at least suffered trauma – during this battle.

His war pension records suggest that he died at a military hospital in Woking, Surrey. A little research suggests that, unless this was the medical wing of the local army barracks, then it is likely that Hann was treated at the former Brookwood Hospital (at the time known as Brookwood Asylum or the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum).

While I can find nothing concrete to confirm this, other Brookwood records suggest that fellow patients were either suffering the effects of shell shock or mustard gas. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that Private Hann passed away as an indirect result of the fighting on the front, rather than a direct one.

Edwin Robert Hann died aged just 18 years old. His body was brought back to his grandparents, and he lies at rest in the cemetery in Glastonbury, Somerset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Machine Gun Corps, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war

Private Walter Hartnell

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Private Walter Hartnell

Walter Ernest Hartnell was born in 1888 to William and Jane Hartnell in Charlton Musgrove, on the outskirts of Wincanton in Somerset.

One of eight children, it appears he could have been a bit of a tearaway in his youth; in October 1905, the Shepton Mallet Journal reports on a “Hobbledehoy Nuisance” in Evercreech, when a Walter Hartnell was caught with nine of his friends causing a disturbance close to the church.

They were shouting, racing after each other up and down the road, using obscene language, and smoking cigarettes. This continued till 7.15, about half an hour.

Shepton Mallet Journal – Friday 20th October 1905

Hartnell was fined 5/- and 2/6 costs, or would face ten days in prison.

Things looked up for Walter and, by the time his call to enlist came, he was working on the railways. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry and the Machine Gun Corps (MGC), while his brother Fred fought in the Royal Artillery.

The MGC was a particularly brutal part of the armed forces. Of the 170,500 officers and men who served in the corps, 62,049 became casualties, including 12,498 killed, earning it the nickname ‘the Suicide Club’.

Details of Private Hartnell’s death are sketchy; his company saw action at Ypres and Arras. However, records suggest that he died in Colchester; the Military Hospital there was used to dealing with troops straight from the Front. It is likely that he was injured at Ypres and shipped back home to recuperate, but died of his injuries.

This is all conjecture on my part, of course, but either way, Private Walter Hartnell lies at peace in a quiet cemetery at Evercreech in Somerset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, North Somerset Yeomanry, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war

Private Thomas Moody

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Private Thomas Moody

Thomas Edward Moody was born in 1890, the second of five children for Thomas and Emily.

By the start of the war, “Little Tommy Moody” was working with his father in the quarries around Shepton Mallet and was the eldest son living at home.

He joined the North Somerset Yeomanry and was shipped out to France, where he was badly injured. An article in the Shepton Mallet Journal, included after his funeral, says as much about the life of this young man as it does about the Edwardian approach to military matters.

DEATH AND FUNERAL OF A SOLDIER – The death has taken place of Thomas Edward Moody, son of Thomas Moody, of Stoney Stratton, Evercreech, at the age of 18, and who as a 1914 man, joined the North Somerset Yeomanry and went out to France. He was badly wounded, resulting in the loss of an eye, and after some time in hospital and a short leave at home, he was sent back to rejoin his regiment, the 3rd Reserve Cavalry, in France. This was about two years ago. He spent his last leave home at Christmas. After a time in hospital at Devonport, he was removed to Bath early last month, discharged from the army as incurable, and there he died on May 5th, the cause of death being consumption of the brain. The funeral, on Saturday afternoon last, was of military character. The corpse, brought from Bath the day before, was borne from the deceased’s home at Stratton on a hand bier, attended by a bearer party of eight men from Taunton Military Barracks, to the Parish Church, where the first portion of the service was taken. The Union Jack enshrouded the coffin, on and around which a number of floral tributes rested. Sixty members of the Evercreech Branch of the Comrades of the Great War, and a couple of marines, joined the funeral cortege at the home, and on leaving the Church lines up on either side, as the body of their dead comrade was borne hence on the shoulders of four of their number to the cemetery. The vicar, Rev. RY Bonsey, officiated. The Last Post was sounded by Bugler Tucker, of Shepton Mallet, and another bugler from Tauton Barracks. “Little Tommy Moody”, as he was familiarly called amongst his chums, was a conspicuous member of the Evercreech Football Club previous to the War.

Shepton Mallet Journal – 9th May 1919.

(It is interesting to know that the date of death in the article does not match that on the gravestone. I would be inclined to believe the latter.)

Private Moody was obviously a fighter and a strong character – returning to the front after losing an eye, some time in hospital and a short leave – and you can guarantee he was missed in the village.

Thomas Edward Moody lies at rest in the cemetery of his home town, Evercreech.

Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war

Private Herbert Andrews

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Private Herbert Andrews

Herbert Arthur John Andrews was born in July 1896, the eldest of seven children of Hugh (known as Henry) and Jane Andrews from Evercreech, Somerset.

By the time war broke out, Herbert was helping out on his grandfather’s farm in nearby Thornford. He enlisted into the army on 15th November 1915, joining the Gloucestershire Regiment.

Private Andrews served in France from March 1916, eventually spending eighteen months on the front line (not counting leave), and received a gun shot wound to the face on 27th August 1917. (He was treated in France, and remained there for a further five months.)

Herbert seems to be the only member of his family to have seen active service. His brother Norman was the only one of his siblings to have been old enough to enlist and, while he did so in 1917, he was assigned to the Experimental Company of the Royal Engineers, testing munitions and gases in Porton.

It appears that while Herbert was on leave in February 1918 he fell ill. Ultimately, he was discharged as medically unfit for service on 7th September. Just three days later, he passed away three days later, succumbing to a combination of chronic Bright’s disease and haemoptysis. He was just 22 years old.

Private Herbert Andrews lies at rest in the graveyard of St Peter’s Church in his home village of Evercreech.