George East was born in 27th May 1879 to George and Agnes East. Agnes was George Sr’s second wife, which led to George Jr having four siblings and a further eight half-siblings. George’s father was a painter and handyman, who sadly passed away when his son was only seven years old.
Sadly, a lot about George remains a mystery, as a lot of documentation about him no longer exists. The snippets that are available give a tantalising glimpse into his life.
He married a woman called Jessie, and they had a daughter, Vera, who was born in July 1912.
George enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry on 29th September 1915, and served at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. Private East was based there for most of the war, but fell ill, succumbing to stomach cancer on 22nd June 1918. He was 39 years old.
George East lies at peace in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent.
There are some people whose stories just don’t want to be unearthed. It’s rare, but occasionally the brick walls come up and you just can’t find a crack through them.
Private A Lewis seems to be one of those people.
The gravestone is in Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent. The inscription reads:
G/39918 Private
A Lewis
Middlesex Regiment
11th April 1919
Military records for the service number are scarce, which is not unusual, but unearth two things. Private Lewis’ first name was Alfred, and he was married to a woman called Amelia.
Further research leads to his wife’s full maiden name, Amelia Florence May Courtney, and that she was the daughter of a draper’s assistant, born in London. The couple married in December 1909.
Frustratingly at this point, the trail goes cold. There is a record for an Alfred and Millie Lewis living in Gillingham in the 1911 census, but I am not convinced that they are the same couple.
Alfred Lewis is too common a name to be able to pinpoint any life before his marriage with any certainty, particularly as their marriage record does not give his parents’ names.
All I can say is that Alfred Lewis enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment, although there is no confirmation of when he enrolled. He gained both the Victory and British Medals, but there is nothing to confirm whether he service abroad or part of a territorial force.
Alfred was admitted to the War Hospital in Whitchurch, which was a psychiatric hospital to the north of Cardiff. He was recorded as suffering from paralysis, though whether this was the result of a physical or mental trauma is not clear.
Sadly, Private Lewis passed away on 11th April 1919; his age is unknown. He lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham.
Charles Frederick Caleb Miller was born on 12th December 1887 in Gillingham, Kent. His parents were Charles and Harriet Miller, and he had two younger siblings, Mabel and Harriet.
Tragically, Charles Jr’s mother died when he was only three years old; his father went on to marry again – to his widow’s younger sister, Jane – and the couple had two further children – Jane and Beatrice – who were Charles Jr’s half-sisters.
Charles Sr worked as a ship’s rigger in the Military Dockyard in Chatham, and naval life obviously caught his son’s eye. In 1903, having left school, he enlisted in the Royal Navy, started as a ‘boy artificer’, working in the engine and boiler rooms of ships.
His initial service was for twelve years, and he worked on a number of vessels, as well as being assigned to HMS Pembroke, the shore base in Chatham. He worked his way through the ranks to Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class by 1915.
In June of that year, Charles married Ellen Holden. the daughter of a dairyman from Chelsea. The couple went on to have a daughter, Joan, who was born in 1918. At the time of their wedding, Charles was based on HMS Lance, and his military service was to continue.
His period of service extended until the end of the war, Charles served on a number of other vessels, including HMS Surprise, Blenheim and Prince George and rose to Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class.
It was while he was assigned to HMS Ganges in January 1920 that he became unwell, however. He had contracted bronchial pneumonia, and died of a combination of that and heart failure on 9th February 1920. He was 32 years old.
Charles Frederick Caleb Miller lies at rest in Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.
Aubert Charles Smith was born in 1893, the eldest of eight children to Charles and Mary Ann Smith. Charles worked at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, and the family lived not far away in Gillingham, Kent.
When he left school, Aubert found work as a labourer in a ‘provision warehouse’, which may have been connected to the dockyard at which his father worked.
In July 1915, aged 22, he married Lucy Cox, who was the daughter of a mess cook at the naval base. The young couple went on to have a son, also called Aubert, in 1917.
At this point, the First World War was raging, but little documentation remains of Private Smith’s service. He enlisted in the East Kent Regiment (also known as The Buffs), but there is nothing to confirm when he enrolled or where his duty took him.
The next record for Private Smith shows that he was admitted to Fulham Military Hospital, suffering from testicular cancer. Sadly, he succumbed to the condition, and he passed away on 29th December 1917. He was just 24 years old.
Aubert Charles Smith lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.
Herbert Stevens was born in Lincolnshire in 1873. Little record of his early life remains, but his mother, Rachel, was born in Cambridgeshire.
Herbert had at least two siblings; Arthur was ten years older than him, and had been born in Liverpool. Alice, who was six years Herbert’s junior, was also born in Lincolnshire.
By the time of the 1891 census, Rachel had been widowed. She was living with her three children in Chatham, Kent, and working as a laundress. Arthur was a labourer in the Naval Dockyard, which may be what brought the family so far south. Herbert, aged 18 by this point, was a stable hand, while Alice was still at school. To help make ends meet, the family had also taken in two lodgers, Joan Kitteridge, who was a tailoress, and her daughter, two-year-old Florence.
On Christmas Day 1898, Herbert married Sarah Beed. Her father was a ship’s carpenter, based in the Dockyard, and the couple set up home in neighbouring Gillingham. The young couple went on to have seven children.
Herbert went on to become a labourer in the Dockyard, but then found employment for the local council, working as a carman, or carter (presumably his work in the stables and his affinity with horses stood him in good stead).
War was on the horizon, however. He enlisted in May 1915, enrolling in the Royal Army Service Corps, and gave his trade as a groom. Private Stevens was assigned to the Remount Depot in Romsey, Hampshire, where he would have been partly responsible for the provisioning of horses and mules to army units both in England and abroad.
Split across ten squadrons, at times there were as many as 4,000 horses and mules stables at the Romsey Remount Depot, so Herbert’s life would have been a busy one. It seems, however, to have been a strenuous life too an, on 23rd March 1918, after nearly three years’ service, Private Stevens died of heart failure. He was 45 years old.
Herbert Stevens lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his adopted home of Gillingham, Kent.
Albert Arthur Shrubsall was born in Deptford, South London, in April 1896. He was the youngest of three children – all boys – to ironmonger George Shrubsall and his wife Jessie.
While his brothers continued to live at home after they had left school and got jobs, Albert found live-in work as a pageboy, or servant, for Wilfred Lineham, who was a professor of engineering for a London college. It was while he was working here that his mother, Jessie, passed away. She died in 1913, aged just 43.
Details of Albert’s military service are a bit scant. He enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, although I have been unable to confirm when he joined up. He was assigned to the Chatham Division, and was based at the Naval Dockyard in Kent, ultimately being promoted to Corporal.
Albert married Gertrude Spoore – affectionately known a ‘Ginty’ – in Deptford in October 1917. Sadly, the marriage was to las less than six months, as, on 9th April 1918, Albert passed away, having contracted pneumonia and septicaemia. He was just 22 years old.
Albert lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his adopted home town of Gillingham in Kent.
Albert’s two brothers George and Alfred were also involved in the First World War.
George, had gone on to become a tailor’s assistant when he left school. He married Emily Hawkes in 1911, and the couple went on to have a son, also called George, the following year.
When war broke out, he enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps, and served on the Western Front. Sadly, he was caught up in the fighting, and was killed in action on 22nd August 1917. He was buried at the Tyne Cot Memorial in Flanders.
When he left school, Alfred went on to become a butcher’s assistant. War came along, and he enlisted straight away.
Enrolling in the Royal Field Artillery, Gunner Shrubsall was assigned to the 95th Brigade. Sadly, he had recorded less than six months’ service, as he passed away on 8th January 1915, aged just 21 years old. His brigade did not go to France until the following year, so, while no cause of death is recorded, it is likely that he died from a communicable disease like influenza or pneumonia.
Alfred is buried in the family grave in Deptford, South London.
Within a period of just three years, George had lost all three of his sons to the Great War. Given the previous death of his wife, you can only imagine the heartbreak he was going through.
Walter Vaine Bromley was born in March 1877, one of seven children to Frederick and Jane Bromley. Frederick was a gardener, and the family lived in Maidstone, Kent. Sadly Jane died when Walter was only two years old; while the cause of her death is not noted, she passed away in the Barming Lunatic Asylum in Kent.
Things must have been tough for Frederick; his maternal aunt, Sarah, came to live with the family to help raise his children, but further support seems to have been needed and, by the time of the 1891 census, Walter was a student at the Kent County Industrial School, which was, in effect, a boys home, near Ashford.
By the end of that year, having left school, he enlisted in the army, joining the Royal West Kent Regiment. He served most of his twelve years’ enrolment in India, although he suffered numerous hospital admissions for dysentery, ague and orchitis (a swelling of the testicles, often brought about by a sexually transmitted bacterial infection), amongst other ailments.
On being demobbed, Walter became a postman; he moved to Gillingham, and was given a round serving the Eastcourt area of the town. A year later, he married Rose Brenchley, and the couple went on to have four children; Ada, Violet, Frederick and Hilda.
Hostilities began, and, in July 1915, Walter enlisted in the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles). Rifleman Bromley served as part of the Territorial Force for his first year, before being sent to France in August 1916.
His time there was cut short, however, as he received a gunshot wound in the left ankle. William was repatriated to England for treatment, and was eventually medically discharged from the army on 22nd August 1917.
Surprisingly, it seems not to have been the ankle wound that led to Rifleman Bromley’s passing, however. His pension records, instead, give his cause of death as a goitre contracted whilst on active service. Either way, he passed on 9th July 1918, at the age of 41 years old.
Walter Vaine Bromley lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his adopted home town of Gillingham in Kent.
William Brighton was born on 13th August 1877 in Peterborough, Northamptonshire. Sadly, details of his early life are lost to time, so his parents’ names, and details of any siblings are a mystery.
William chose a military life early on; he enlisted in the Royal Navy in October 1899 for twelve years’ service. Working as an Engine Room Artificer, he was an engine fitter and repairer on a number of vessels in his time, including the battleship HMS Repulse and the cruisers HMS Andromache and Scylla.
William married Lily Franklin in the autumn of 1904, and the couple went on to have three children; Mona, Lily and John. With William away at sea a lot of the time, Lily set up home in Gillingham, Kent, close to the shore facility – HMS Pembroke – where her husband was based.
The uncertainty around potential conflict meant that William extended his service when it initially came to an end in November 1911. He continued to serve on a number of vessels during the war and was based on a ship off the Scottish coast when he fell ill in May 1918.
William was transferred to the US Hospital in Strathpeffer, near Inverness, suffering from an abdominal aneurysm. Sadly the treatment did not work, and he passed away on 26th May 1918. He was 40 years old.
William Brighton lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent.
Edward James McIntosh was born in January 1899, the youngest of four children to Henry and Caroline McIntosh from Gillingham in Kent. Henry and Caroline ran a greengrocer’s and their eldest son, Harry, followed them into the business when he left school. One of Edward’s sisters Beatrice became a dressmaker, while the other, Gertrude, became a servant for the secretary to an engineering company.
Sadly, little else remains of young Edward’s life. He enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps when war broke out; given his age, it is unlikely that he signed up before 1917, although there is no record to confirm this.
Edward achieved the rank of Air Mechanic 2nd Class (although his gravestone gives his rank as Second Airman), but there is little more documentation to flesh out his military service.
Edward was admitted to the Military Hospital in Aldershot in January 1918, suffering from meningitis. Sadly this was to take his life, and he passed away on 10th January 1918, having just turned 18 years old.
Edward James McIntosh lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.
Harry Bruce Paterson was born towards the end of 1893, one of two children to John and Jane Paterson. John worked at Chatham Dockyard fitting ships’ engines, and the family lived in a small terraced house close to the centre of Gillingham in Kent.
When Harry left school, he became a plumber’s apprentice, soon qualifying as a full plumber.
He married Ellen Keeler in 1906, and the couple lived a short walk away from his parents’. They went on to have four children, Lilly, Harry Jr, Mabel and Kathleen.
War was on the horizon, but Harry’s military service records are a bit sketchy.
He enlisted as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers on 14th July 1915, and served in France. He attained the Victory and British Medals as well as the 1915 Star.
Sadly, Sapper Paterson’s health seems to have been impacted by his service. In January 1918 he was invalided back to England and admitted to the military hospital at the army camp in Thetford, Norfolk. Diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, he quickly succumbed to the disease, and passed away on 4th February 1918. He was 34 years old.
Harry Bruce Paterson lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, just a few minutes’ walk from both his parents and his widow and children.
Death and Service 