William Newman was born in Dorset in 1880, the oldest of six children to George and Margaret Newman. George worked as an agricultural labourer and a carter, and, after leaving school, William followed suit.
William’s life has been a challenge to piece together; however, I have managed to sketch together some information from a number of sources.
By the 1911 census, he was living with his now widowed father and three of his siblings. Listed as single, he was working as a labourer.
When William joined up, he enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment, before being transferred over to the Labour Corps. He was assigned to 652 Agriculture Company, serving on the home front, presumably somewhere close to home.
There are no details of Private Newman’s death – contemporary newspapers do not highlight anything out of the ordinary or sudden about his passing. I can only assume, therefore, that he passed through natural causes, perhaps influenza or pneumonia.
He died on 29th October 1918, in the village of Martock, Somerset. He was 37 years old.
It appears that William did not marry – his war pension was allocated to his sisters Edith, Alice and Louisa and no spouse is mentioned (nor is his father).
William Newman lies at rest in the quiet churchyard of St Margaret’s in the Somerset village of Tintinhull.
Henry Luke Lucas was born in September 1888, in the quiet Somerset village of Tintinhull. His father Luke worked as an agricultural labourer, while his mother, Ellen was a glovemaker. Henry had three siblings – Kate, Beatrice and Edwin – and two half-siblings – Martha and Eli – from Ellen’s previous marriage (she was widowed in 1880).
Henry married Gertrude Woodman in 1909 having set himself up as a groomsman in the village. Henry Jr, was born the following year and the young couple went on to have three further children, Ellen (born in 1913), Edwin (born in 1915, who sadly died shortly afterwards), and a further son, called Edwin, born in 1916.
The 1910s proved a tragic decade for the Lucas family. Henry’s father Luke had passed away in 1912, and his Ellen had also died four years later.
It may well have been the death of his parents or the promise of continuous paid employment that spurred Henry into enlisting; he joined the Royal Navy on 26th July 1916 as a stoker.
Initial training was carried out on HMS Vivid II in Devonport, Stoker Lucas was assigned to HMS Liverpool for an eight month tour of the Adriatic. While on this tour, Henry was promoted to Stoker 1st Class.
Returning to England, Stoker Lucas was assigned to HMS Egmont II, an accommodation vessel based in Chatham. His move here may have been due to health reasons; within a few weeks Henry was transferred back to HMS Vivid II, from where he was invalided out of service on medical grounds.
The reasons for Henry’s discharge from the Royal Navy was tuberculosis; the local newspaper gave more details when it reported on his funeral:
The death has occurred of Henry Lucas (31) from tuberculosis, which he contracted while serving as a stoker in the Navy. Deceased served abroad during the period of the war and was in Eastern waters when he contracted the disease. He was removed to hospital at Malta, where he remained until his discharge. [This differs from his service records.] In health Lucas was a fearless man, and he maintained this spirit all through his trying illness.
Western Chronicle: Friday 2nd April 1920
Henry Luke Lucas died on 23rd March 1920; he was 31 years old. He lies at rest in the grounds of St Margaret’s Church in his home village of Tintinhull in Somerset.
Albert Edward Matthews was born in October 1901 in the Somerset village of Tintinhull. His father James was a glove maker, and he and his wife Mary had three children in all, Percival, born in 1897, Clementina, born in 1898, and Albert, the youngest.
Sadly, Clementina died in 1909, aged just 11 years old. Percival also passed away six years later, aged just 17. James and Mary must have been distraught when Albert announced his decision to do his bit for King and country.
He enlisted almost as soon as he was able to, joining the Royal Navy on 14th September 1918, and you can almost sense his enthusiasm to get involved before missing out on the glory of military service.
Boy Matthews was assigned to HMS Impregnable, the ship based in Devonport, Plymouth, where he was to receive his training. Standing at 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, with brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion, he was recorded as having a very good character and satisfactory ability.
Sadly, however, Albert was not destined to meet his full potential. Shortly after beginning his training, he contracted influenza and pneumonia, succumbing to the disease on 27th October 1918.
He had just turned 17 years old.
Albert Edward Matthews lies at rest in the graveyard of St Margaret’s Church in his home village of Tintinhull.
The story of this family continued to be tragic. By the time of Albert’s death, the Spanish Flu pandemic was sweeping the world and his tiny part of Somerset was in no way immune.
Just four days after Albert Matthews passed away, his mother, Mary, also fell victim to the illness.
In the space of just nine years, poor James Matthews had buried all three of his children and his wife. A newspaper reported on Mary’s funeral, recognising the “very heavy trials” he had undergone.
The same paper, reports that the influenza pandemic is fizzling out.
A large number of parishioners have been attacked with “flu”, but the epidemic is now on the wane. The school has been closed for the last fortnight.
Francis George Richards (or Frank) was born in 1889, the oldest of five children to William and Rhoda Richards. William was an agricultural labourer and the family lived in his home village of Long Sutton in Somerset.
Frank followed his father into agriculture, and, by the 1911 census, was working as a carter.
And that is where the trail of Private Richards goes cold.
What records do exist confirm that he enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment, serving at its depot in Devizes. This suggests he was part of the 7th (Service) Battalion, raised through the Kitchener Scheme.
The battalion were shipped to France in September 1915, before being moved on to the Balkans, where they fought in the Battle of Horseshoe Hill and the Battles of Dorian. As there are no records of Private Richards’ service, it is not possible to confirm how involved in the fighting in Europe he was, or whether he remained on the Home Front.
Frank’s death also remains a mystery. All that can be said for sure is that he died in hospital on 11th April 1917, in a hospital in England. He was 27 years old. He does not appear to have married, and his pension was assigned to his father.
Frank George Richards lies at rest in the quiet graveyard of Holy Trinity Church in his home village of Long Sutton.
George William Burroughs was born in 1899, the eldest of two sons to harness maker Stratton Burroughs and his wife Alexandra. George was born in Warminster, Wiltshire, but the family soon moved closer to Alexandra’s family in Somerton, Somerset.
The 1911 census found the young family living in Market Place in the centre of Somerton, with a visitor, fancy goods seller Joseph Cazes from Constantinople.
George seems to have enlisted almost as soon as he was old enough to do so, giving up his job as a school teacher (surprising given he was only 17 at the time). He signed up for the Royal Engineers in January 1917, gaining the role of Pioneer.
Sadly, his time in the services was very short. Within weeks of being posted, Pioneer Burroughs was admitted to hospital with meningitis, an illness that was becoming more widespread within the armed forces.
Tragically, after a month in the Norton Barracks Military Hospital in Worcestershire, George passed away from the disease. He was just 18 years old.
George William Burroughs lies at rest in the cemetery of his home town of Somerton.
Robert Edward Nichols Hunt was born in Somerton, Somerset in 1894. One of five children to Charles and Rose Hunt, his father was a bootmaker.
By the 1911 census, however, things had taken a different turn; Charles and two of his sons were working for a brewer, Rose was working as a shop assistance in Boots, and the youngest of the family, Kate, was apprenticed to a dressmaker.
It was against this backdrop that war came, and, within a year, Robert had enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps. His sign-up documents confirm that he was short sighted, although this was corrected with glasses and he was deemed fit for active service.
Sent to the Western Front in October 1915, Private Hunt definitely found himself in the thick of the action.
In August 1916, he was supporting the fighting at High Wood on the Somme, when a gas shell exploded near him. He fell and, when he woke, he remembered little of what happened. Robert had inhaled a lot of gas, however, and was left coughing with difficulty breathing. He was transferred back to England by train and ship to recover, arriving back on the 2nd September.
There is no record of Robert having gone back to the front. The impact of the gas appears to have been severe and long-lasting. At the end of October 1918, he was admitted to the Becket House Auxiliary Hospital in St Albans with influenza and bronchial pneumonia. Sadly, this was to be a battle he would not recover from, and he passed away on 4th November 1918. He was 24 years old.
Robert Edward Nichols Hunt lies at rest in the cemetery of his home town, Somerton.
When carrying out research on the Commonwealth War Graves, information remains tantalisingly elusive.
Sometimes just you can chance upon one document and the life of the person behind the name is laid out in front of you.
But in the majority of cases, the someone’s history has to be pieced together from a combination of sources.
Henry Harry Trevitic was born in around 1879 in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.
There are no records of Trevetics in and around that area at that time, nor are there any permutations of his surname – Trevethick or Trevithick, for example.
The first evidence I have found of Harry is on his military service records. He enlisted in the King’s Royal Rifles in August 1897, listing himself as a ‘cycle fitter’. The document asks if the applicant has previously served in the armed forces; Harry’s reply is that he is in the militia – the 4th Worcestershire Regiment.
Rifleman Trevetic’s military career is extensive; his records show continual service in the King’s Royal Rifles from 1897 to his death in 1915. This included three years in South Africa, two in India and eight months as part of the British Expeditionary Force within weeks of the outbreak of World War One.
The 1901 census finds Rifleman Trevetic at a convalescent home in Hanbury, near Droitwich, along with eleven other soldiers. He is marked as a Visitor, rather than a Resident, so it can be assumed that the owner of the home, whose brother is party of the military party, has put them up for the night (or longer).
Harry next turns up in 1902 when, in December, he married Frances Boyes in Southampton. His military career continued, however, and moving to the 1911 census, and Rifleman Trevetic is barracked in Woolwich. He is listed as married, while Frances is also based in the town, in female quarters.
While the details of his early life are pretty scarce, those surrounding his passing are much more in depth. Because of the circumstances, an inquest into his passing was ordered into his death; this included four pretty in-depth witness statements.
In January 1914, Rifleman Trevetic was appointed as an assistant to Captain Adjutant Makins in Winchester. In August of that year he was shipped with Makins to France and remained his servant.
On 14th September, Captain Makins was badly injured, and Harry helped carry him to the church in the village of Soupir in France, which was acting as a dressing station.
In Makins’ own words “there were 300 wounded closely packed, occupying the whole of the floor space. The groans and the smell, night and day were most distressing. Fresh wounded were constantly being carried in and dead carried out. Shell fire was constant and the general conditions were such as would severely try a highly strung man. During all this time, [Rifleman Trevetic] was my only attendant.”
Makins was moved to various hospitals in France, always accompanied by Rifleman Trevetic and eventually invalided home. Given the seriousness of Captain Makins’ injury, he was permitted to bring Harry back home with him.
On 1st March 1915, Captain Makins was passed fit for general service, and rejoined his battalion, along with his servant. Conscious that he may be sent back to the Front at any point, he warned Harry to be prepared for France again.
Captain Makins’ testimony takes up the tragic story.
On March 9th, he came to me and asked if I would see the Doctor on his behalf privately. He told me that every since his time in the dressing station at Soupir, his nerves had been ajar, and that he could neither eat nor sleep. He asked whether I could get the Doctor to do something for him, as he feared if he went sick in the ordinary way, he would be passed unfit for the front, and be unable to accompany me there, which he was very keen on doing.
Later in the day he came to me and asked me to take no notice of what he had said in the morning, that as a matter of fact he had taken to drink, which was the true cause of his trouble, and that he was entirely giving it up and would be right within a week.
His whole manner was strange and he appeared under the impression that I had discharged him. This was the first intimation I had of any strangeness in his manner.
Being busy I did not pay the attention to it that perhaps I should, more especially as I knew him to be a thoroughly sober and reliable man.
The following day he called me as usual.
About 8:30 am I was called from the mess and asked to proceed to my room at once. On arrival, I found the door locked, and various Officers’ servants outside. The key was on the inside of the door but so turned that the body of Rifleman Trevetic could be seen through the keyhole lying on the floor.
I broke open the door and found Rifleman Trevetic shot through the heart, my revolver lying by his side. The revolver contained one empty shell, I cannot say where this was obtained. There were a few rounds of ammunition in the room, but the marks did not correspond nor am I able to trace any similar ammunition in the Fort.
Captain G Makins’ statement, Inquest from Rifleman Trevetic’s service records
Three other servicemen gave statements into the tragic events of that day, and all summed up Harry’s demeanour in the same way as Captain Makins.
Rifleman Trevetic has throughout his service to me, been a model servant, and had during my time in hospital not only been invaluable to me, but also to the hospitals themselves. He was very happily married, and constantly spoke affectionately of his wife and as far as I can tell, was in no financial difficulties.
Captain G Makins’ statement, Inquest from Rifleman Trevetic’s service records
The inquest found that his death was self-inflicted and “at the time he shot himself he was temporarily insane, and that his mental condition was clearly caused by what he saw and went through when on Active Service in France, and that there was no other contributory cause.”
Temporary insanity, shell shock, war neurosis, combat stress, cowardice; however it was badged Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is commonly recognised these days, but was frowned upon in the Great War.
Sadly, while appearing eager to accompany his superior, it seems that the thought of actually returning to the Western Front was so terrifying to Rifleman Trevetic, that he felt there was only one route out. He was 36 years old.
Harry Trevetic lies at rest in the quiet graveyard of St James’ Church on the Isle of Grain, metres from the fort where he ended his life.
Harry’s widow Frances lived on. Whilst there was no mention of her husband’s death in the newspapers of the time, she received a handsome war gratuity and a pension that reflected Harry’s long service. She went on to marry again in 1917, to Jack Finch, a Sergeant in Harry’s battalion.
Given the stigma around mental health in the early twentieth century, and, it is amazing that the documents have survived as part of the Harry’s military records. The inquest into his death was carried out within days of his passing, and I find the findings of the report forward thinking in the way that it was written.
Harry was obviously a man who experienced way more than his mind was able to cope with – the trauma of that dressing station must have been so much worse than he had seen before during his two decades’ military service. But the report is clear in that it apportions blame for his death on the fighting and bloodshed in France; this was clearly out of character for Harry, and it was his experiences in the field of battle that drove him to his death.
What is less clear is how much Frances was told of his death. While the inquest was decisive, suicide was as much of a stigma as shell shock at that time. Would the King’s Royal Rifles have be honest with her about how he died? Or, while they where internally open, would they have pulled ranks around their own and protected Frances from the truth and themselves from rebuke?
Edwin Herbert was born in 1864, the third of three children to Moses and Melina Herbert of Hove in East Sussex. Moses worked in the cement industry as a labourer, a job that had taken him from his home in Kent to Sussex, and which, by the 1871 census, would return him to his home county.
Edwin married Amelia Charlotte Titus in 1885 and the couple’s first child – a daughter, Nelly – was born a year later.
By the 1891 census, Edwin was also labouring in the North Kent cement industry, something he continued to do for at least the next twenty years, as confirmed in the following two censuses.
The Herberts’ second child, Amelia, was born in 1901, the year after Edwin’s mother passed away. The family were, by then, living in Cuxton, just to the south of Rochester. The cement industry was one of the large employers in the Medway valley, and it is not surprising that the family lived in and around that area for so long.
In 1910, Edwin’s father also died, at the age of 69. After the death of Melina, Moses had moved in with his daughter – Edwin’s older sister – in Rochester, and the family were also still labouring in the cement and brickmaking industry.
Edwin’s military records are sketchy. Piecing the evidence together, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps.
It is likely that he did so on a voluntary basis. The cement industry was not protected by exemption. Kitchener’s initial conscription in March 1916 excluded married men. When this was extended in May 1916, there was still a maximum age limit of 41 (Edwin was 52 year old by this point).
By whichever means he had enlisted, Edwin served as a Corporal (there is nothing to confirm whether he was promoted from Private, or if he went straight into service at that rank). He was discharged on 30th July 1918, and it is likely that this was on a medical basis.
Corporal Herbert’s pension documents record that he passed away on 30th October 1918, as a result of carcinoma of the liver and exhaustion. He was 54 years old.
Edwin Herbert lies at peace in the quiet churchyard of St Helen’s in Cliffe, Kent.
The majority of the the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the UK are made from Portland stone, although, in face, over 50 different natural stones have been used.
Corporal Cornell’s headstone is one of two in St Helen’s Churchyard that have been fashioned from dark grey slate.
Charles Cornell was born in July 1885, the youngest of six children to Philip and Martha Cornell, from Ashdon in Essex. Philip was an agricultural labourer, and Charles and his older brother Daniel followed their father into the trade.
Charles was keen to further himself, however, and enlisted in the army. The 1911 census records him as a Private soldier at the Salamanca Barracks in Aldershot.
Private Cornell married Elizabeth Fanny Hoare in Strood, Kent, in October 1913. Beyond this there is little information on either Charles or Elizabeth.
Charles was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment and was promoted to Corporal. This reserve battalion was initially based in the town of Beverley, before moving to Hull and then nearby Withernsea. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Corporal Cornell saw active service on the Western Front.
His passing seems to have been sudden; his pension record shows that he had been admitted to the Military Hospital at Wharncliffe with nephritis (inflamed kidneys). He passed away on 27th January 1918, aged 32 years old.
Corporal Charles Cornell is buried in the graveyard of St Helen’s Church in Cliffe, Kent, the village his widow’s family were from. He is also commemorated in his own family’s village of Ashdon in Essex (where the memorial states he had attained the rank of Sergeant).
The majority of the the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the UK are made from Portland stone, although, in face, over 50 different natural stones have been used.
Corporal Cornell’s headstone is one of two in St Helen’s Churchyard that have been fashioned from dark grey slate.
William Joseph Hagger was born in the spring of 1885, one of thirteen children to William Henry Hagger and his wife Emily Ann. The family lived on the Isle of Grain in Kent, where William Sr worked as a labourer in the local cement works.
William Jr was evidently keen to travel. On the 1901 census he is listed as a navyman on HMS Lion, a training vessel in Devonport, Plymouth.
His First World War records state that he officially joined the Royal Navy in 1906, travelling to West Africa as an Able Seaman. While there, he contracted a fever, and was invalided out of the service the following year.
William married Esther Elizabeth Reed in May 1909; by the 1911 census, she was living in Northfleet, Kent, working as a cartridge maker for the local arsenal. William himself is not recorded at the same property, and I have been unable to locate him at this point.
He next appears on the enlistment papers for the Royal Engineers. He joined up very early in the war – December 1914 – and after his training, Driver Hagger embarked for the Western Front in August 1915.
While serving, it seems that his previous affliction resurfaced, and William was dogged by colds and coughs. In the autumn of 1916, he was admitted to a field hospital with haemoptysis (coughing up blood), eventually returning to his unit three months later.
Driver Hagger’s health was fair until, in October 1917, his unit was gassed; he was sent back to England and hospitalised in Aldershot, and this time was discharged from the army six months later.
It seems that William did not recover from his illness and passed away on 22nd November 1918. He was 33 years old.
William Joseph Hagger lies at peace in a quiet corner of St Helen’s Churchyard, in Cliffe, North Kent.
William’s gravestone also acts as memorial to two of his brothers, Henry and Leonard.
Henry Alfred Hagger was born two years after William. He was also keen to make a name for himself, emigrating to California, and working as a streetcar conductor in Oakland. Initially declaring himself exempt from draft as he had a wife to support, he subsequently joined the British Columbia Regiment on 31st July 1917.
Henry was attached to the Forestry Depot of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, who were to be shipped to Europe to harvest trees for use on the Western Front. However, at the point of his medical – in September 1917 – he was discharged as unfit for active service due to his asthma.
Henry Hagger died on 13th February 1919, presumably of his lung condition. He is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery in British Columbia.
Leonard Dealimark Hagger was born in 1899. He enlisted as soon as he was able to, just short of his 18th birthday. Joining the York & Lancaster Regiment, he was posted in 1918.
His battalion saw some of the fiercest of the battles in the closing months of the war – Estaires, Messines, Bailleul, Kemmel Ridge, Scherpenberg, Selle, Valenciennes – and it is likely that Leonard was involved in some of these engagements.
Private Hagger was wounded in the closing weeks of the war, and passed away in a hospital in Liege, Belgium on 15th November 1918. He had just turned 19 years of age.
Private Leonard Hagger lies at peace in the Robermont Cemetery in Belgium.
Death and Service 