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Commonwealth War Graves, Egypt, Great War, history, illness, India, Lance Corporal, photography, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, war

Lance Corporal Alfred Sowden

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Lance Corporal Alfred Sowden

Alfred Edward Sowden was born in the autumn of 1883, in Bath, Somerset. He was the youngest of seven children to Robert and Mary Sowden. Robert had died by the time of the 1891 census, and Mary turned to charring to bring in money for the family.

In the summer of 1904, Alfred married Harriet Sumsion, a baker’s daughter also from Bath. The couple set up home in a small cottage on the main road to Bristol, and had a son, William, who was born the following year. Alfred was working as a house painter by this point, and the young family had a lodger, William Gabb, who was a local chef.

When war came to Britain’s shores, Alfred stepped up to play his part. He may have had some previous military experience, because he joined the Somerset Light Infantry as a Lance Corporal. Assigned to the 2nd/4th Battalion, by August 1915, he was on his way to India. His troop remained there for two years, before moving to Egypt in the autumn of 1917, then on to France the following June.

With the end of the conflict, the Empire’s forces were slowly demobbed. While he was waiting to be stood down, Lance Corporal Sowden fell ill. He developed influenza and septic pneumonia, and the combination was to prove fatal. He passed away on 30th January 1919, at the age of 35 years old.

Alfred Edward Sowden’s body was brought back to Bath for burial, where he was laid to rest in the city’s St James’ Cemetery.

Alfred’s widow had had a tragic few years. Her father, Walter, had passed away in February 1916, and her mother died just three months after Alfred.

Harriet never remarried after her husband’s passing. She remained in the family home for the rest of her life and, by the time of the 1939 Register, had a boarder, billiard marker James Jones. She was close to family, however, as her brother William lived just three doors away.

Harriet died in September 1941 at the age of just 56. She was laid to rest near her husband, reunited after 22 years.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, London, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, Surrey, unknown, war, Wiltshire

Private George Hutchings

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Private George Hutchings

George Robert Hutchings was born towards the end of 1883 in Forest Gate, Essex. He was the oldest of four children to George and Mary Ann Hutchings. George Sr was a labourer for the railways, and this led to the family relocating to Swindon, Wiltshire, in the 1890s.

George Jr took up work with the Great Western Railway when he left school, while his father switched employment and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was working as a collector for a clothing supply company.

On 13th July 1911, George Jr married Daisy Smale in the Sanford Street Congregational Church, Swindon. Daisy was a school teacher, and was the daughter of an iron moulder. It is likely that the couple met through George’s workplace. The newlyweds had a son, Raymond, who was born in 1914 and, at some point moved to Bath in Somerset.

When war came to Europe, George stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps and, unsurprisingly, given the work he was doing, was assigned to the Mechanical Transport division. Little information about his military service remains, but is it clear that he had enlisted in the second half of 1915.

The next available record for Private Hutchings is that of his passing. He had been admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich, South East London, and died there on 15th December 1915. No cause for his death is evident, but he was 32 years of age.

George Robert Hutchings was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Bath’s St James Cemetery.

When her husband died, Daisy was pregnant. In March 1916 she gave birth to a daughter, Winifred, who was never to know her father.

Daisy never remarried. By the time of the 1939 register, she was living in Northampton Street, Bath, sharing the house with a Mr and Mrs Spreadbury. Her employment was listed as unpaid domestic duties.

Daisy and George’s son Raymond was focused on his education. He made an eventual move to Birmingham, where, at the outbreak of war, he was working as a research chemist. He died in Bath in 1982, at the age of 68.

Winifred married grocer Kenneth Batten in Bath in 1938. The couple had three children and emigrated to Australia after the war, and settled in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Kenneth died in 1988, at the age of 72; Winifred died in 2003, aged 87.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, war

Private Sydney Ridewood

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Private Sydney Ridewood

Sydney Ridewood was born in Bath, Somerset, on 31st March 1891, and was one of eleven children. His parents were labourer and sometime butcher James Ridewood and his wife Mary.

When Sydney left school, he found work as a baker, although this seems to have been as piecemeal a job as his father’s.

In January 1910, Sydney married Kathleen Scudamore. She was the daughter of a carpenter from the Twerton area of Bath and had a bit of a chequered background herself.

On 10th June 1896, Kathleen had married Edward Edwards, who was twelve years older than her seventeen years. Their marriage certificate suggested he was a clerk, although the 1901 census – which included their two children, Charles and Percy – recorded him as being a draper’s porter. Beyond that document, there is no record of Kathleen’s husband and, by the time of her marriage to Sydney, she had reverted to her maiden name.

By the time of the 1911 census Sydney and Kathleen were living in central Bath, with their nine-month old daughter, Olive, and Kathleen’s two sons. Kathleen’s widowed father, Edmund, her brother Claude and sister-in-law Nora were also in the household.

The document recorded Sydney as still employed as a journeyman baker, while his wife was a cook for the Post Office. Edmund was working as a carpenter, Claude was a sawyer, Nora a shop assistant and 14-year old Charles was a messenger boy, also for the Post Office. Six pay cheques coming in to support the extended family in the four-roomed house.

An additional member of the Ridewood family came along on 22nd October 1913, when Kathleen gave birth to a second child, Sydney Jr.

War was on the horizon by this point, and, on 20th April 1915, Sydney stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Service Corps, and was assigned to the Mechanical Transport Corps. There is little detail about Private Ridewood’s service, although his records show that he was 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall, with auburn hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion.

Sydney was sent to France a month after enlisting, and his may role seems to have been that of a driver. He remained on the Western Front for a little over two years, before contracting pleurisy. He was initially treated in France, but soon returned to Britain to recuperate. The lung condition, however, was to get the better of him, and he passed away at home on 26th November 1917, weeks before he was to be medically discharged from service. He was just 28 years of age.

Sydney Ridewood was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, a few minutes’ walk from his family home.

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

Private Albert Townsend

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Private Albert Townsend

Albert Henry Townsend was born on 7th November 1890 in Bath, Somerset. One of thirteen children, his parents were George and Annie Townsend. George was a painter by trade, but when he died in the autumn of 1895, Annie was left to take in laundry to earn money to support her and the four of her children still living at home.

By the time of the 1911 census, Albert was 21, and had found work as a baker. He was still living with his mother, two siblings and a nephew in a house in the centre of the city. All but Annie’s grandson were earning money by this point, and, with five rooms, the family were in a better position than some of their neighbours. Next door was Albert Smith, a coal carter, who had to support a family of ten people.

In the summer of 1914 war broke out, and within months, three of the Townsend brothers – Albert and his older brothers Arthur and Charles – had enlisted.

Arthur Townsend had joined the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry earlier in the year, and within weeks of conflict being declared, he was on the Western Front. He was to be one of the early casualties of the conflict, and was killed in action during the Battle of the Marne on 9th September. He was just 29 years old and, while his body was never identified, he was commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial.

Albert’s service records have been lost to time, so it is not possible to identify when he enlisted. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion, who set sail for India in October 1914. Private Townsend was not to travel with them, however as he had contracted septicaemia while camped on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. He was transferred to the Royal United Hospital in Bath for further treatment, but his condition was to prove too severe. He passed away while still admitted on 19th October 1914. He was just 23 years of age.

Albert Henry Townsend was laid to rest in the St James’ Cemetery in his home city, Bath.

Annie Townsend had now been a widow for nearly twenty years and, within a matter of weeks, had lost two of her sons. Tragically, the war was not done with her family yet.

Charles Townsend was still serving, having enlisted in the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. He arrived in France in July 1915, and over the next year, wascaught up in some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. On 1st July 1916, the Battle of the Somme began, the darkest day in history for the British Army. Twenty thousand soldiers were killed, and Private Charles Townsend was amongst the fallen. He was just 30 years of age. He was commemorated on the Theipval Memorial.

Annie had lost a third son to the conflict in a little under two years, and her pain must have been unimaginable. She lived on until 1923, when she died at home in Bath. She was laid to rest close to her husband and Albert, a family partly reunited once more.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devonshire Regiment, Great War, history, photography, Private, Somerset, story, Suffolk, unknown, war

Private Ernest Whatley

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Private Ernest Whatley

Ernest James Victor Whatley was born in the spring of 1899, the youngest of three children to George and Clara Whatley. Clara passed away in 1908, and George remarried the following year, to a woman called Sarah. Ernest’s brothers were sixteen years older than him, and so by the time of the 1911 census they had moved out of their father’s home. By that point, Ernest living with his father and stepmother in their house in Bath, Somerset.

Little further information is available about Ernest. With war raging across Europe, he enlisted in the army, but this was not before September 1916, and it is likely that he came of age before joining up.

Private Whatley served in the 1st/7th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, and was based in Suffolk. It is while he was billeted that he was admitted to a hospital in Ipswich, although the cause of his admission is unclear.

Whatever befell Private Whatley, it was to prove his undoing. He passed away in the Ipswich hospital on 9th March 1917, at the tender age of just 18 years old.

Ernest James Victor Whatley’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, Bath, not far from his mother, Clara.

Carmarthenshire, Chaplain, Commonwealth War Graves, County Durham, Great War, history, illness, London, photography, Royal Army Chaplain's Department, Shropshire, Somerset, story, war, Yorkshire

Reverend Charles Jefferys

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Reverend Charles Jefferys

Charles Thomas Claude Jefferys was born on 23rd August 1880 in the small Carmarthenshire town of Laugharne. One of five children, his parents were naturalist Charles Jefferys and his wife Adeline.

Charles’ Jr’s life was to be one of education, and his father’s standing allowed for the best. He studied at Ellesmere College, Shropshire, then attended Durham University and Durham Theological College. By the 1901 census he was passing that education on to others: he was listed as a schoolmaster at Stow Wood College in Hampshire.

By 1908 Charles had returned to Wales, and was living in Monmouth. On 2nd January he married Eva Pride, an estate agent’s daughter from Tetbury, Gloucestershire. The marriage certificate confirms that, by this point, Charles was a clerk in holy orders, on his way to his true calling.

The 1911 census showed what a transient life the church could lead to: Charles and Eva were listed as living in a house in Oswaldkirk, North Yorshire. Their two young children, George and Charles, born in 1909 and 1910 respectively, were living with Eva’s sister, back in Tetbury.

When war came to Europe, Reverend Jefferys must have felt compelled to play his part. He joined the Army Chaplains’ Department, and by May 1916, he found himself in France. His role – providing pastoral care to the troops – would have led him to some of the darkest places of the Front Line. He remained there for the next couple of years, only returning to the family home – now in Chelsea, London – towards the end of the conflict.

Reverend Jefferys had contracted pneumonia, and he had returned from the continent to recuperate. Sadly, the condition was to prove too much, and he succumbed to it on 20th November 1918, at the age of 38.

Charles Thomas Claude Jefferys was taken to Somerset for burial – there were close family connections in the Bath area. He was laid to rest in the family plot, alongside his paternal grandmother in the city’s St James’ Cemetery.

Further tragedy was to strike in June 1925 when Eva also passed away. Details of her death are unclear, but this left George and Charles as orphans in their early teens.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, killed in action, London, Malaysia, photography, Royal Air Force, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, Surrey, war

Lieutenant Gilbert Rippon

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Lieutenant Gilbert Rippon

Gilbert Harold Earle Rippon was born in Paddington, London, in the spring of 1887. The third of seven children, his parents were coal merchant Frederick Rippon and his wife, Eugenie.

When Gilbert left school, he found work as a clerk for a building firm. He was an ambitious young man, however, and, after his mother died in 1903 and his father a few years later, he took on work at a rubber plantation in Jementah, Malaysia.

When war broke out, “he came home on six months’ leave in order to enlist, having an exciting voyage owing to the activities of submarines. He was refused at first owing to a slight physical defect, but after an operation learnt to fly and was given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps.” [Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 9th June 1916]

Second Lieutenant Rippon gained his wings at Brooklands in Surrey on 16th January 1916. By the summer he was attached to a flying school in Gosport, Hampshire, and this is where he was based by the early summer of 1916.

On 7th June, Gilbert was flying a de Havilland DH2 aircraft, when an accident occurred. According to a newspaper report: “Evidence showed that the machine, when 300 feet [91m] up, made a double turn, as though the aviator was trying to return. It then slipped and made a nose-dive to the ground, killing the pilot instantaneously. He had only been in the air three minutes. The previous evening the same monoplane had ascended 14,000 ft [4267m].” [Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 9th June 1916]

Second Lieutenant Rippon was 29 years of age. The same report confirmed that he was the older brother of two Bath and Somerset cricketers – twins Dudley and Sydney Rippon – and that his oldest brother, New York-based Secretary of the Board of Correction Frank Rippon, “had the unhappy experience of being in the aerodrome when the accident occurred, and saw his brother fall to the ground.”

Gilbert Harold Earle Rippon was laid to rest in the family plot St James Cemetery, Bath, Somerset. There seems to have been a family connection with the city: this is where both Frederick and Eugenie were buried, and where, after their parents’ deaths, the twins and the youngest Rippon son, Percy, were taken to live.

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

Private Sidney Warren

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Private Sidney Warren

Sidney Charles Warren was born in the spring of 1894, and was one of a dozen children to William and Eliza Warren. William was a farm labourer and shepherd from Somerset, and it was in the village of Combe Florey, near Taunton, that Sidney was born. The Warrens’ sons all followed William into farm work, and the 1911 census found the family – then eight strong – living in a three-room cottage in the village.

When war broke out, Sidney was quick to enlist. He joined the 5th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry on 16th December 1914, and which was based in Prior Park, near Bath.

The following month, Private Warren became unwell. His father later reported that he had “from childhood… suffered from his chest, and if he caught the slightest cold he became very short of breath. He could not run and jump about like other boys.” [Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 6th February 1915]

On 27th January, Sidney reported sick to Captain Brimblecombe of the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was suffering from a cold, and was given quinine. He reported sick again on the 28th, and the medical officer, gave him more quinine. The following day, Private Warren returned to duty.

That afternoon, after drill duties, Sidney and a couple of friends, George Berry and George Lewis, went into Bath for a few hours. They went to the White Hart Public House and had a drink and a meal. The two of them then made their way back to Priory Park around 8pm.

On the way up the hill [Sidney] called to [his friends]… “Come quick.” They went back, and caught hold of him, and he said “I’m dying.” They laid him down on the road, and [George Berry] went up to Priory Park for a doctor. A Red Cross man came down with a stretcher, and [Sidney] was conveyed to the Police Station and then to the Hospital.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 6th February 1915

Private Warren passed away while at the hospital. A post mortem was held, which found that all of his organs were healthy, and that his lungs were “voluminous, but showed no signs of disease. The heart appeared perfectly healthy.” The coroner attributed Sidney’s passing to syncope after “a large undigested meal and walking up-hill”. He was just 20 years of age when he passed.

Sidney Charles Warren was laid to rest in the St James’ Cemetery in Bath, the city in which he passed away.

Private Sidney Warren
(from britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, London, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Worcestershire Regiment

Private Alfred Lansdell

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Private Alfred Lansdell

Alfred John Edward Lansdell was born on 25th October 1882 in Fulham, London. The fourth of six children, his parents were James and Matilda Lansdell.

James was a trunk maker, working in his father’s business. By the time of the 1901 census, he was recorded as living by his own means, while Alfred had taken up employment as a hotel porter in Chelsea.

By 1902, Alfred had moved to Somerset and set up home in Bath. He married local woman Alice Stevenson, and the couple went on to have a daughter, Lena, who was born in November 1904.

The 1911 census found the family living in central Bath, Alfred continuing his portering work, with one of his colleagues, lift operator Thomas Ward, boarding with them.

War came to Europe and on 9th December 1915, Alfred stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment, and was formally mobilised the following June. Alfred’s service records confirm that he was, at the time of his review, he was 35 years old and 5ft 6ins (1.67m) tall.

Private Lansdell was assigned to the 1st/7th Battalion and by October 1916, he was shipped to France. He was very much on the Front Line, and was wounded on 19th August 1917, while at Ypres. His casualty record notes that “while waiting in a shell hole for a further move on he was wounded… in the back”. He has been shot, and the bullet penetrated his kidney.

Initially treated in a hospital in France, Private Lansdell was transferred to England on 25th October. He was admitted to the Norfolk War Hospital and remained there for some time.

Alfred’s injuries were too severe for him to continue in the army, and he was formally discharged on 20th March 1918. He eventually returned home to Bath, but in the end his poor health was to get the better of him. He passed away at home on 28th September 1918, at the age of 35.

Alfred John Edward Lansdell was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, Bath. Alice lived on until 1961, when she was buried with her late husband, a couple reunited after more than four decades.

Colour Sergeant, Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Egypt, Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, India, injury, Lance Corporal, Malta, photography, Private, Royal Defence Corps, Sergeant, Somerset, South Africa, Sri Lanka, story, war

Serjeant Major Frederick Pearce

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Serjeant Major Frederick Pearce

Frederick Charles Pearce was born in the spring of 1873 in the Gloucestershire town of Thornbury. The youngest of six children, his parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Pearce. Thomas was an agricultural labourer and, when he finished school, Frederick found work as a ‘rural messenger’.

This was only a step towards the career that Frederick sought, however, and on 12th July 1892, he enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment a a Private. His service records show that he was 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall and weighed 128lbs (58kg). He was noted as having a fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.

Private Pearce spent twelve years in the army, serving in Malta, Egypt, India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He had two stints in South Africa, including the 1899-1900 campaign, during which he was wounded in his chest in the battle at Farquhar’s Farm.

By the time he was discharged on 11th July 1904, he had risen through the ranks to Sergeant, his service records noting that his conduct had been “very good” (in capitals and underlined).

Thomas had died in 1896, and Frederick’s widowed brother William moved back in with his mother to help support her. Frederick also returned to Gloucestershire and, on 30th March 1905, he married Mary Rugman in the parish church in Olveston. The couple may have been childhood sweethearts, as the Pearces and Rugmans were Thornbury neighbours.

The marriage certificate noted Frederick as a groom, and it is likely that he was able to turn his hand to any role after his army career. The couple had a son Leslie, who was born in 1909, and, with the new responsibility of fatherhood, Frederick sought a more permanent career.

The 1911 census found the family living in Somerset, where Frederick was employed as a gardener at the Kingswood Reformatory School. This was a boarding school on an estate to the north of Bath, set in 57 acres of grounds, and again it seems likely that his military career stood him in good stead for such a prestigious role.

When war came to Europe, Frederick felt the pull of his military career once more. While his age did not compel it, on 20th November 1914, he re-enlisted in the Gloucester Regiment. He was enlisted with his previous rank, but within a year has been promoted to Acting Colour Sergeant.

In the spring of 1916, the Royal Defence Corps was formed, and, given his experience and age, Frederick was transferred across to the new regiment. Colour Sergeant Pearce was based in London and, over the next eighteen months served in four troops: 109, 149 and 150 Protection Companies and the 10th City of London Volunteers’ Regiment.

Frederick’s age and the demands of his role were beginning to take their toll by this point, and by the end of 1917, he had developed nephritis, or inflamed kidneys. The condition was severe enough to warrant his discharge from service, and the now Sergeant Major Pearce’s military career came to an end on 17th January 1918.

Frederick returned home to Bath, to the bosom of his family. He and Mary three children by this point, Violet and Freddie being two younger siblings to Leslie. Tragically for the Pearces, however, the family life was not to to last for long: Frederick’s condition was to get the better of him just three months later. He passed away on 18th April 1918, at the age of 44 years old.

Frederick Charles Pearce was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery in Bath; a man of duty resting at last.

Tragedy was to strike again for poor Mary, when just six months later her youngest child, Freddie, also passed away. Details of his death are vague, but he was buried with his father, the two Fredericks reunited too soon.