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accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Lancashire, London, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, story, Surrey, Sussex, war

Private Arthur Westby

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Private Arthur Westby

Arthur William George Westby was born in the spring of 1895, the only child to Arthur Henry Westby and his wife, Emma. Arthur Sr was a Corporal in the Scots Guards, but, beyond the fact that his son was born in Clapham, South London, there is little further information about Arthur Jr’s early life.

His father’s military career must have taken him across the country – the 1901 census lists Emma and Arthur Jr living in Bolton, Lancashire, even though there seem to be no connections with the county for them.

The records for Arthur Jr go quiet until 1920. At this point, documents hint at his military service during the Great War.

The death notices in the Sussex newspapers confirm his passing:

On November 19th 1920, at The Cedars, 13 Browning Road, Worthing, Arthur WG Westby (late MT, RASC), beloved husband of Ethel Westby, and only son of Ex-RQM Sergeant and Mrs Westby, 34 Wenban Road, Worthing. Patiently suffered to the end, result of Active Service.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 24th November 1920

There is no further information available about Ethel, and no marriage records to confirm a date for their wedding.

From a military perspective, Arthur enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps, and was attached to the Motor Transport division. Again, there is nothing to evidence when he enlisted or for how long he served. It seems that Private Westby was injured in the line of duty, and was medically discharged in April 1918. The injury appears to have been life-changing, and it affected him until the end of his life.

Arthur William George Westby passed away in Worthing on 19th November 1920, aged just 25 years old. The specific cause of his death is unknown. He was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in the town, close to his parents and widow.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, unknown, war

Private John Blake

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Private John Blake

John George Blake was born early in 1878, and was the oldest of seven children. His father, Job, was a general labourer, and, with Eliza, John’s mother, brought the young family up in the West Sussex town of Worthing.

Job died in 1898, ages just 36 years old; Eliza found work as a housekeeper, while John was employed as a carter for the railway. By the 1901 census, the family were living in a terraced house near the centre of town, Eliza living there with her three sons, two daughters, son-in-law and granddaughter.

In October 1904, John married Alice Attwater, a labourer’s daughter from mid-Sussex. The couple moved into a house close to the station and went on to have four children; John Jr, Ernest, Bertha and Dorothy. John was by now working as a porter for the railway, a role he continued through to the outbreak of war.

John enlisted in November 1914; he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, working as a member of the depot staff. Private Blake was shipped overseas, arriving in France in March 1916.

Almost exactly a year after landing in France, John was injured in the line of duty. The medical report confirmed that a “scald on the left arm and neck [had] occurred while on duty on March 1st 1917, in France. He was preparing hot soup for his company in the front line at midnight. He was not to blame. Injury caused by enemy shelling the company kitchen“.

Private Blake was shipped back to England for treatment, and admitted to Netley Hospital near Southampton. While there, he contracted phthisis (tuberculosis), which left his totally incapacitated. He was medically discharged from military service in August 1917.

Further details of John’s life are scarce. He returned home to his family, although whether he took up his job again is unknown. He passed away on 22nd June 1919 at the age of 41. The cause of his death is unknown, although it seems likely to have been related to the tuberculosis.

John George Blake lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery of his home town, Worthing.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Lincolnshire Regiment, photography, Private, Royal Lancashire Regiment, Somerset, story, Surrey, war

Private Arthur Rousell

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Private Arthur Rousell

Arthur Edward Rousell was born in the summer of 1898, one of five children to Henry and Lucy Rousell. Henry was a police constable in Worle, near Weston-super-Mare, and this is where he initially raised his family. By the time of the 1911 census – when Arthur was a schoolboy of 12 years old – the family had moved to the village of Huish Episcopi, on the outskirts of Langport.

Details of Arthur’s military career are sketchy. Initially enlisting with the Royal Lancashire Regiment, he was soon transferred over to the 1st Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He certainly saw action abroad, and was caught up on the Western Front.

Private Rousell was injured on 27th May 1918, this the first day of the Battle of Aisne. His battalion was certainly involved in the battle, but whether this was where he was injured, and what his injuries actually were, cannot be confirmed.

Evacuated back to England for treatment, Private Rousell was admitted to the South African Hospital in Richmond. Whether he was there for a long time, is not recorded, but he was certainly there in nine months after he was wounded.

It seems that his injuries left him susceptible; his pension record confirms that he died of sickness, and it seems likely that this was one of the lung conditions – pneumonia, influenza – that was prevalent following the cessation of hostilities.

Private Arthur Edward Rousell died on 22nd February 1919, at the age of 20 years old. His body was brought back to Huish Episcopi, and he lies at rest in the family grave in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church.

UPDATE : 19th April 2022

An article on Arthur’s passing sheds more light onto his life:

We regret to record the death of Pte. AE Rousell, of the 1st Lancs. Regt., eldest son of PC and Mrs HJ Rousell of Newtown, which occurred at Richmond Hospital on Saturday morning. Deceased, who was 20 years of age, had been seriously ill a week with influenza, death being due to septic pneumonia, which followed.

The late Pte. Rousell, was a member of the staff of “The Langport and Somerton Herald” where he served his apprenticeship, when war broke out, and joined up early in 1917, his regiment being the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. After a period of training he proceeded to the front and took part in several engagements. He was gassed, and in the winter of that year was invalided home with trench feet. On recovery he was transferred to the Lancs. Regt., and again proceeded to the front.

On May 27th last he was severely wounded in the right leg by shrapnel, the bones being badly splintered. He was sent to a military hospital in this country and had been in hospital ever since. He had made a fairly good recovery and his parents were expecting him home shortly, when on Thursday last week a wire was received, informing them of his serious illness. Mrs Rousell at once proceeded to Richmond and was able to see her son before he passed away.

Deep sympathy is extended to the relations in their sad bereavement.

Langport & Somerton Herald: Saturday 1st March 1919
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Lance Corporal, photography, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Lance Corporal Edgar Godden

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Lance Corporal Edgar Godden

Edgar Godden was born in the summer of 1892, one of eight children to John and Alice Godden. John came from Littlehampton, and Alice from Worthing, and this is where they raised their family.

John was a bricklayer, and it was this trade that Edgar went into when he left school. War was coming to Europe, however, and, within weeks of the conflict breaking out, he had volunteered his services.

Edgar joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, and was assigned to the 7th (Service) Battalion. Details of his military service are a little sketchy, but a newspaper article, written after his death, gives a hint about what happened to him.

Mr Edgar Godden… who was twenty-five years of age and leave a widow and a little child, enlisted on the 1st September 1914, and was wounded in the arm in September of the following year. In October 1916 he was blown up and buried by an enemy mine. Last February he was taken out of the trenches and sent to a hospital in France, and last April he came home to England and had an arm amputated. Since his discharge from the Seventh Royal Sussex Regiment, he had been a member of the staff of the Post Office, and was known as “The One-armed Postman”.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 10th January 1918.

In the autumn of 1916, and recovering from his injuries Lance Corporal Godden married Emily Owers. They lived with John and Alice, but I have been unable to find details of the child mentioned in the newspaper report.

It seems that his injuries had left Edgar in a weakened state, and, after a ‘short and painful illness’ [Worthing Gazette: 2nd January 1918], he passed away on 22nd December 1917. He was just 25 years of age.

Edgar Godden was laid to rest, finally at peace, in the Broadwater Cemetery in his home town of Worthing, West Sussex.

The newspaper report above gave a little more information about a couple of Edgar’s siblings.

Mr & Mrs [John] Godden had one son killed in action in November 1916; and still another – the eldest – is now in France, as a member of the Royal Engineers.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 10th January 1918

Edgar’s oldest brother – also called John – survived the war, but it was his younger brother, Charles, who was killed in action.

A Corporal in the 11th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, Charles was caught up in the Battle of the Somme. It was while fighting in the Battle of the Ancre on 13th November 1916, that he was killed. He is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial in Northern France, and is also commemorated on Edgar’s own headstone.

One last aside to Edgar’s story is his address in the last few years of his life. John and Alice were living in Worthing, specifically at a house called “Chiswick” in Tarring Road, to the west of the town.

Coincidentally, when researching another soldier, Private Ernest Parsons, this turns out to be the address where he also died, just ten months later on 4th October 1918. There is no apparent other link between the two men.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Lance Corporal, London, photography, Royal Army Service Corps, South Africa, story, Sussex, war

Lance Corporal Thomas Marston

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Lance Corporal Thomas Marston

Thomas Henry Robert Marston was born on 12th February 1876, the son of Frederick and Elizabeth Marston. Frederick was a police constable who raised his family in the Paddington area of London.

Sadly, details of Thomas’ early life are tantalisingly scarce. He was not baptised until October 1881, on the same day as his brother, Frederick, who was four years younger.

Thomas seems to have had a sense of adventure; his Commonwealth War Graves Commission records confirm that he served in the South African Campaign – this would put him out of the country during the 1890s, and reinforce why documentation for that time is missing.

The next confirmed information for Thomas is his marriage record. He wed Bessie Ponder by banns in August 1909. The ceremony was at Christ Church in Marylebone, and the couple went on to have two children, Doris, born in 1911, and Hettie, born in 1912.

By the time of the 1911 census, with his military service by now complete, Thomas and Bessie were living on the Caledonian Road in Islington. Still childless at this point (although Bessie was undoubtedly pregnant), Thomas was working as a butcher.

The census gives their address as 54 Wallace Buildings, a Victorian tenement block, and the couple lived in two rooms. Their neighbours at No. 53 were fellow butcher Ralph Bonest, his wife Isabel and their three children, who also all lived in two rooms. On the other side newlywed cab driver William Barnes, lived with his wife Florence and her sister. The Barnes’ had the luxury of No. 55 being a three-roomed flat.

When the Great War broke out, it seems evident that the 38 year old Thomas was either re-mobilised or voluntarily re-enlisted. While the dates are not certain, he had joined the Army Service Corps by March 1917 and was assigned to the Remount Depot at Romsey in Hampshire. This section of the regiment was involved in the provision of horses and mules to other parts of the army.

No further details of Lance Corporal Marston’s military career remain. Sadly, the next record of his life confirm his death. He was admitted to the Hursley Camp Hospital with rupture of viscera (possibly an aneurysm), but died from his injury on 31st October 1917. He was 41 years old.

At some point after the 1911 census, the family had moved to Worthing in West Sussex. The body of Thomas Henry Robert Marston was brought back home, and he was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in the town.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, injury, photography, Royal Garrison Artillery, story, war

Gunner Charlie King

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Shaftesbury

Charlie Stephen King was born in Dorset on 18th October 1888, one of six children to Stephen and Virtue King. Stephen was a painter, glazier and paperhanger from Gillingham, and this is where he and Virtue raised their children.

When Charlie left school, he also went on to become a painter, but specifically for the railways, but whether this was on the rolling stock or stations, is not certain.

In October 1909, Charlie married Bessie Imber, a postman’s daughter from Shaftesbury. The couple set up home in Gillingham, before moving back to Bessie’s home town; they went on to have three children.

War was coming, though, and Charlie enlisted in December 1915. He was not formally called up until August 1916, and was assigned a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery. After initial training, he was sent to the Western Front in March 1917.

Exact details of Gunner King’s service are not available. He was certainly involved in fighting during the summer of that year, and, in September, was wounded. Evacuated back to England with a gunshot wound to his left ankle and shell shock, he was admitted to the War Hospital in Sunderland. Sadly, septicaemia set in, and he passed away on 15th September 1917, at the age of just 28 years old.

Charlie Stephen King’s body was brought back to Dorset, where he was laid to rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in Shaftesbury.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, Hampshire Regiment, history, illness, injury, killed in action, London, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, story, war

Private Sidney Alner

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Private Sidney Alner

Sidney William Alner was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, in March 1899, one of eleven children to Sidney and Ellen Alner. Sidney Sr was a grocer’s porter, and the family lived on the celebrated Gold Hill in the town.

War was to come when Sidney Jr was only young – he had just turned 15 when it broke out. He saw his older brothers go off to war and was obviously keen to do his bit as well. Until he was old enough, however, he worked as an errand boy for his father’s employers, Stratton Sons and Mead.

His time would come, of course, although dates for Sidney’s enlistment are not clear. A contemporary newspaper record confirms that he arrived in France in January 1918, so it is likely that Private Alner joined up at some point during the previous year.

He joined the Hampshire Regiment, and was assigned to the 1st Battalion. Heavily involved during most of the conflict, the battalion was seen as key to the Final Advance of the autumn of 1918. Private Alner was caught up in the fight to break the Hindenburg Line, fighting on the River Selle and capturing the town of Monchaux.

It was while his battalion was advancing on the village of Préseau on 2nd November, that Private Alner was injured. Shot in the arm, he was evacuated back to England, and admitted to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot. He would have survived his injuries, had pneumonia not set in, and it was to this that he would succumb on 19th November. He was just 19 years old.

Sidney William Alner’s body was brought back to Dorset. He lies at rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in Somerset, within walking distance of his family’s home.

Sidney was the second member of the Alner family to die as a result of the Great War.

His older brother Harry, who had become a chauffeur and went to live in London, joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1915. Private H Alner had served three years in France when he was killed on the front line just three weeks before his brother. He was 32 years old, and left a widow and two children.

When researching Sidney Alner in newspaper articles, an interesting report surfaced.

An unfortunate accident has happened to a little girl, not quite four years old, the daughter of Sidney Alner, who resides in Gold Hill. Heals’ steam hobby horses visited the town on Friday and Saturday in last week, and on the evening of the former day, Alner took his little girl for a ride on the horses.

Whilst they were in motion, the bolt that kept the horse on which Alner sat with his child attached to the connecting rod came out, and he and the little girl were precipitated to the ground.

Alner escaped without injury, but his daughter had one of her legs fractured above the knee. She was taken home, and Dr Evans set the injured limb. Later in the evening she was removed to the Westminster Cottage Hospital.

Salisbury and Winchester Journal: Saturday 31st October 1891

This Sidney Alner was Private Alner’s father, and the daughter would have been his older sister Sarah. Nothing more is reported of the incident, and Sarah went on to live until 1945, when she was 57 years old.

Bugler, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Royal Engineers, Sapper, Somerset, story, war

Corporal Harold Mattick

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Corporal Harold Mattick

Harold Mattick was born in the spring of 1895, the youngest of four children to Walter and Augusta. Walter was a harness maker and brought the family up in his home town of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

When he left school, Harold found work as a plumber. He seemed to had sought a life of adventure, however, and, in 1908, aged just 14, enlisted in the Wessex Division of the Royal Engineers as a Bugler. He served for five years, fulfilling his duties at the same time as carrying out his plumbing work.

When war broke out, Harold immediately re-enlisted. As a Sapper, he was assigned to the 1st/2nd (Wessex) Field Company. After initial training, he was sent to the front as part of the British Expeditionary Force just before Christmas in 1914.

Sapper Mattick was caught up in some of the fiercest fighting on the Wester Front, including the First and Second Battles of Ypres. On 30th September 1915, at Loos, he received a gunshot wound in his right leg, which fractured his tibia. The Germans were also using gas to attack the Allied front lines, which also affected Harold.

Medically evacuated to England for treatment on 9th October, his condition was such that he was discharged from the army on health grounds six months later, on 30th March 1916.

Sadly, while Harold’s leg healed, the injuries he sustained in the gas attack were too severe for him to recover from. He died at home from a lung condition on 24th July 1917, aged just 22 years old.

Harold Mattick was laid to rest in the Milton Cemetery of his home town, Weston-super-Mare.

Berkshire, Commonwealth War Graves, Cornwall, Great War, history, injury, photography, Private, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, war

Private Montague Palmer

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Private Montague Palmer

Montague Ashley Palmer was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in 1886, one of five children to Alfred and Martha. Montague’s father was a postman in the town for 25 years, retiring through ill health in February 1898. Sadly, Alfred’s retirement was not to last long, and he passed away that July aged 48, when his son was just 12 years old.

When he left school, Montague found work as a bus conductor and was now the oldest of Martha’s children to still be living at home. He was obviously an ambitious and inventive young man; by the time of the 1911 census, he had started work for the Ordnance Survey, and had moved to Didcot in Berkshire where he was boarding with Frances Battison, a suiter and greengrocer.

At this point, details of Montague’s life become a little hazier. At some point, he married a woman called Matilda, who either came from, or would go on to live in, Helston, Cornwall.

With war on the horizon, Montague enlisted – documented dates for this, again, are missing. He joined the 12th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, which initially served in Egypt, before transferring to France in May 1918.

Where and for how long Private Palmer served is not clear, although he was definitely caught up in the fighting, and injured, towards the end of the war. Details of his wounds are not clear, but they were enough for him to be repatriated to England, and he was admitted to the Royal Hospital in Salford.

Private Palmer’s injuries appear to have been too severe for him to survive; he passed away in hospital on 5th January 1919. He was just 32 years old.

Montague Ashley Palmer’s body was brought back to Somerset, and he was laid to rest in the Milton Cemetery in Weston-super-Mare.

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

Private Peter McDonald

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Private Peter McDonald

Peter McDonald was born in Tullamore, King’s County (now Offaly County), Ireland, on 28th May 1893 and was one of eight children to Michael and Mary McDonald. Michael had been in the army, and this seems to have been the route that Peter wanted to follow as well.

When he left school, however, he found work as a domestic servant at St Stanislaus College in his home town. War, by this time, was on the horizon, and so Peter was called on to other things.

Unfortunately, a lot of the documentation around Peter’s military service is no longer available. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps; while an exact date for his enrolment is not available, this would appear to have been at some point in the first year of the conflict.

Private McDonald was assigned to the 341st Mechanical Transport Company. This was formed in May 1915, and was designated an Ammunition Park (which was in essence a fleet of lorries and a workshop for maintaining them). While full details of his time with the RASC is not available, Peter certainly came to be based in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Considerable sensation was created at Weston-super-Mare on Friday evening, by a rumour which prevailed that a member of the Army Service Corps billeted in the town had been shot and another man wounded.

Inquiries revealed the fact that the rumour had some foundation, and it appears that some half-dozen members of the corps were attending their motor-bicycles in a shed at headquarters in Beach Road, when Lance Corporal Goldsmith produced an automatic Colt pistol, which he handed to Private McDonald for inspection.

In the course of the examination the weapon went off, and Goldsmith was shot in the leg. He at once took the revolved from McDonald, observing that he was unaware that it was loaded, and was apparently in the act of unloading it when it was again discharged, the bullet entering the lower part of McDonald’s abdomen, severing the main arteries.

Medical aid was at once procured. The unfortunate man died as the result of internal haemorrhage about an hour later.

Goldsmith was removed to hospital, but his injuries are not regarded as serious.

Somerset Standard: Friday 28th January 1916

Private Peter McDonald has passed away from a gunshot wound on 21st January 1916, at the age of just 22 years old. His body was laid to rest in the Milton Cemetery in Weston-super-Mare, where he had met his fatal accident.

Private McDonald’s pension record gives his cause of death as ‘explosion’, something of a misinterpretation of the evening’s events.