Frederick John Francis was born on 15th February 1893, to Henry and Mary Francis. One of nine children, the family lived in the Somerset village of Curry Rivel.
Henry was a labourer, but Frederick had his sights set on a new life and, at some point in his teens, he emigrated to Canada to work as a farmer. Details of his life in North America are scarce, but it is clear that he was in Manitoba when war broke out back in Europe.
Frederick stepped up to serve his King and Country, enlisting at Camp Sewell on 5th April 1915. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall, and weighed 145lbs (65.8kg). He was assigned to the 53rd Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. His service papers also note that he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on 30th April 1915, although whether the date is correct, or whether Frederick had previous military experience is unclear.
Sergeant Francis boarded the SS Empress of Britain to make the journey back to Europe, little knowing that he was not going to see his home again. On 9th April 1916, just one day from docking in Hampshire, he passed away from quinsy, or throat abscess. He was just 23 years of age.
The body of Frederick John Francis was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in the village of his birth, Curry Rivel.
Frederick’s younger brother, Charles, had also made a life in Canada. He enlisted at Camp Sewell just two months after his brother, joining the same battalion.
Charles, who had the rank of Private, arrived in Europe before Frederick and, and was sent to the front line in February 1916. In June, he was involved in the fighting at Mount Sorrel, on the Ypres Salient, and it was here, on 6th June 1916, that he lost his life. He was just 21 years of age.
Charles Arthur Francis is commemorated on the Menin Gate in Ypres. His parents had to mourn the loss of two sons within two months.
Cyril Talbot Burney Croft was born on 28th January 1891 in Streetsville, Ontario, Canada. He was the only child of Dorset clergyman Otho Croft and his Canadian-born wife, Lucy.
Otho brought his young family back to England when Cyril was a boy. The 1901 census found him and Lucy living in South Cadbury, Somerset, where he had taken the role of the local rector. Their young son, meanwhile, was boarding at a school in St Leonard’s in East Sussex.
Education was key to Cyril’s development. He was sent to King’s College in Taunton and St Boniface College in Warminster, and enlisted in the Officer’s Training Corps for three years.
During this time, he and Lucy had travelled back to Canada, and there was an obvious draw for the young man as, in 1913, he made a move to Quebec, becoming the Assistant to the Commissioner of Harbour Works in the city.
When war broke out, Cyril was quick to step up and play his part. Joining the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 23rd September 1914, his service records show that he was 6ft 1in (1.85m) tall, with black hair, grey eyes and a dark complexion.
Cyril was initially assigned to the 12th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry, where he held the rank of Lance Corporal. On arriving in England, however, he took his leave of the Canadian force, and accepted a role in the King’s Royal Rifles. Within a few months, he transferred again, gaining the rank of Second Lieutenant in the 8th (Service) Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry.
Details of Cyril’s actual service are vague, however, as his British Army service records are no longer available. It appears that he did not serve any time overseas, as his battalion was raised in Taunton, Somerset, and did not move to France until the end of 1915.
Second Lieutenant Croft had made a further transfer by this point, joining the Royal Flying Corps in the summer. He gained his wings on 27th October 1915 at a Military School in Birmingham.
On 8th December 1915, he was a passenger in an aircraft being piloted by a Lieutenant McDonald at Castle Bromwich.
The weather was “bumpy” but not bad… They went towards Birmingham, and then made a turn to the left. [McDonald] noticed that the engine was missing fire when he was at a height of 1,500ft [460m], and decided to land. He turned off the petrol, but did not switch off the electric ignition. He made a right-hand turn, so as to reduce the height, the machine then being at a normal angle, when, owing to the wind, the aeroplane banked. To put the machine back again he put the control lever over to the left, but finding that the machine did not answer to the control, he put on the right rudder, and Lieutenant C Black, of the Royal Flying Corps, who had instructions to watch the aeroplane, stated that shortly after eleven o’clock in the morning it ascended to a height of 1,500ft. Shortly afterwards he saw the machine coming down: it made a short spiral, then a complete circle, and while turning to make another at a height of 500ft [150m], fell straight to the ground, nose downwards. The aeroplane was in proper working order, and the witness was of the opinion that the accident was due to wind disturbances.
De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour
Croft and McDonald were both killed. Cyril was just 24 years of age. His Colonel wrote to Otho and Lucy, noting that Cyril “did so well that it makes one feel the loss all the more of such a promising young officer. He is, indeed, a great loss to our country, especially in these times.” Cyril’s Major noted “he had a most charming, lovable character, and was thoroughly popular with all his brother officers. He was exceedingly keen at his work, and in him the service has lost a most promising and capable officer.”
Cyril Talbot Burney Croft was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of his father’s church: St Thomas a Becket’s in South Cadbury.
Second Lieutenant Cyril Croft (from ancestry.co.uk)
Norman David Roberts was born on 3rd November 1886 in the North Wales town of Llangollen. He was the youngest of three children to weaver John Roberts and his wife, Emma.
When he left school, Norman found work as a clerk on the railways and, by the time of the 1911 census, he had moved over the English border to Chester, and was boarding with an Emma Matheson.
The move to England may have spurred Norman on to other things. At some point after the census, he made the decision to seek a better life overseas. He emigrated to North America and settled in the town of Everett, to the north of Seattle. He continued his trade, however, and recorded himself as doing clerical work in transportation.
War was coming to Europe by this point and, in December 1917, Norman stood up to play his part. He made the crossing to Victoria, in the Canadian state of British Colombia, and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Private Roberts’ service records show that he was 5ft 11ins (1.80m) tall, had blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion. He had no distinguishing marks, but was recorded as having 20/20 vision. His religion was also recorded as Baptist/Congregationalist.
Norman was assigned to the 53rd Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps, and arrived back in Britain on 26th January 1918. Based in Shorncliffe, Kent, he was involved in felling and trimming trees and wood for the war effort.
Private Roberts was given a couple of periods of leave – five days in July 1918, and nine days in December that year. The latter leave was granted so that he could marry Claudia Griffiths back home in Wales.
While the Armistice had been declared, by January, Norman was back in Kent helping the post-war effort. Things were to take a turn, however, as he caught a severe cold, and a nagging cough. Unable to shake it, he grew progressively weaker and, over the next six months, lost 20lbs (9kg) in weight.
Admitted to the camp hospital in June 1919, Private Roberts was diagnosed with bronchitis. He was moved to another hospital in Orpington, Kent, where his diagnosis was upgraded to tuberculosis. Invalided back to Canada that August, within a matter of weeks he was medically discharged from service. His discharge papers noted that was weighed just 122lbs (55.3kg) and has a long flat chest with prominent clavicles. Norman’s once fair complexion was now dark (a combination of his work outside and his health).
Now out of the army, Norman made the journey back to North Wales, and settled in Llangollen with Claudia. The couple went on to have a daughter in 1920, but Norman’s health was deteriorating. He passed away at home on 23rd February 1921, at the age of 34 years old.
Norman David Roberts was laid to rest in Fron Cemetery in his home town of Llangollen. His was a family plot, and he was reunited with Claudia when she passed away.
Richard Eldon Bush was born on 16th June 1891 in Keynsham, Somerset. The second of four children (all of whom were boys), his parents were Philip and Maria Bush. Philip was a solicitor, and with that status came opportunity for his children.
The 1911 census recorded the Bush family living in Keynsham with two servants – cook Clara Jones and parlour maid Laura Day. The two older boys – Richard and his older brother, Whittington, were both listed as Cambridge undergraduates, while his two young brothers were boarding at a private school in Repton, Yorkshire.
Richard had aspirations for a good life. In March 1914, he set sail for a life in Canada, looking to take up architecture in the colony. His time overseas wasn’t to be long, though, and, when war broke out in Europe, he returned home.
Full details of Richard’s military service are not available, but he joined the Royal Naval Air Service and, on 20th August 1915, he gained his wings. Richard rose to the rank of Flight Lieutenant, but tragedy was ahead.
On 24th April 1917, he was piloting a scout seaplane around the harbour in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.
[He] failed to clear some overhead wires, and the seaplane swerved against the cliff with considerable violence, smashing the machine, which the petrol set alight, and crashed to the earth. When liberated from the blazing machine Lieutenant Bush rolled and extinguished his burning clothes.
Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 27th April 1917
Sadly, Flight Lieutenant Bush’s injuries proved too severe. He passed away a couple of days later, on 24th April 1917, at the age of 25 years old.
Brought back to Somerset for burial, Richard Eldon Bush was laid to rest in the cemetery of his home town, Keynsham.
Flight Lieutenant Richard Bush (from astreetnearyou.org)
The same newspaper report noted that Richard’s brother Graham was an officer in the Royal Flying Corps. He had also been badly injured in a flying accident, but was, according to the report, “flying again now.“
Rendle Anthony Pike was born on 9th May 1895 in Newfoundland. He was one of nine children to Lewis and Mary Pike, but there is little additional information about his early life.
Lewis was a fisherman, and it seems likely that Rendle would have had experience of seafaring when he was growing up. When war broke out, therefore, it made sense that he enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve.
Again, full details of his service was unavailable, but Seaman Pike joined up within the first year of the war and, by the summer of 1915, he was based at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent.
Tragically, Rendle’s time in the navy was to be a short one. The next record available for him is that of his passing. According to his service documents, he died ‘of disease‘ on 29th August 1915. He was just 20 years of age.
Rendle Anthony Pike was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the dockyard at which he had been based.
Joseph O’Hara was born in Manchester on 30th May 1882, the son of John and Kate O’Hara. There is little information available about his early life, although it is clear that at some point the family emigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto.
When war broke out, Joseph enlisted, joining the 1st Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. By 1916 Private O’Hara was not only back in Europe, but fighting on the Western Front. Details are scarce, but a contemporary newspaper sheds a little light on what happened to him next.
A contingent of 132 wounded men was detrained at Faversham last Friday morning. Forty-four of the number were taken to The Mount, seventy-one to Lees Court, and seventeen to Glovers (Sittingbourne).
With one exception the cases were all “sitting up” cases and were in a separate train by themselves. This train, however, was preceded by a train of “cot” cases which was going through to Chatham, but owing to the serious condition of one of the men – Joseph O’Hara, of the Canadian Expeditionary Force – the train was stopped at Faversham for his removal to the Mount Hospital. O’Hara had been badly wounded in both legs and he died at the Mount a few hours after his arrival there.
Faversham News: Saturday 23rd September 1916
Private Joseph O’Hara was 34 years of age when he passed away. He was laid to rest in the Faversham Borough Cemetery.
Albert Cluett was born on 2nd August 1896, one of three children to fisherman Richard Cluett and his wife, Johanna. The couple were third generation immigrants to North America, and had made their home on the remote Fogo Island, to the north of Newfoundland.
There is little concrete information about Albert’s life; given his father’s occupation, it seems likely that he would have had a good working knowledge of seafaring, and this led him to enrol in the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve when war broke out.
Details of Seaman Cluett’s military life are scant. All that we know is that, by the summer of 1917, he was based at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. He was billeted in the Drill Hall, which had been set up with temporary accommodation because the barracks themselves had become overcrowded.
On the night of the 3rd September 1917, the German Air Force carried out an air raids on Chatham. The town was heavily bombed and the Drill Hall received a direct hit. Seaman Cluett was badly injured and died of his wounds in hospital the following day. He had just celebrated his 21st birthday.
Albert Cluett was laid to rest, along with the other victims of the Chatham Air Raid, in the Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham.
Seaman Albert Cluett (from ancestry.co.uk)
Another young man from Fogo, Seaman Thomas Ginn, also died during the bombing raid; given the remoteness of the Newfoundland town, it seems very unlikely that he and Albert did not know each other.
Arthur Hopkins Tett was born on 22nd August 1881 in Bedford Mills, Ontario, Canada. He was one of six children to lumberjack John Tett and his wife, Harriet. Both sets of Arthur’s grandparents had moved to Canada in the 1830s – John’s from Somerset, Harriet’s from Ireland – and his paternal grandfather had gone on to represent the county of Leeds in Ontario’s first parliament.
Arthur wanted to see the world, and viewed the army a a way to do that. After leaving school, he attended the Royal Military College, and was subsequently appointed a Signaller in the 3rd Canadian Mounted Rifles. He spent time in South Africa and, on returning to his home country, he took work as a bank clerk with the Union Bank, where he worked his way up to Head Office in Winnipeg.
He soon sought another challenge, and set up business in Outlook, Saskatchewan. In January 1913, Arthur married Bessie Kearns, an artist from back in Westport, Ontario. The couple settled in a detached property on Bagot Street, Kingston, Ontario and went on to have a son, John, who was born in 1917.
Arthur was still active in military circles at this point, playing a part in the local 14th Regiment. When war was declared, he again stepped forward to play his part, taking up a role of Lieutenant in the 253rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force: this was a regiment made up mainly of students from the Kingston area, and it is likely that Arthur’s expertise would have been welcomed.
Having initially enlisted on 1st November 1916, Lieutenant Tett was declared fit a few months later and sent to Europe in May 1917. Based in Somerset, Arthur was not far from where his paternal grandparents had come from, nor where his cousins still lived. Sadly, however, his time in England was not to be a long one.
Lieutenant Tett was admitted to the Military Hospital attached to Taunton Barracks, suffering from pneumococcal meningitis. Sadly, this was to get the better of him, and he passed away on 26th August 1917, days after his 36th birthday.
Arthur Hopkins Tett was brought to the village of Kingstone in Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of his second cousin George’s local church, St John and All Saints.
Bessie Tett did not marry again after her husband’s passing. She remained in Ontario for the rest of her life, passing away in October 1974, at the age of 89.
Arthur and Bessie’s son, John, was a babe-in-arms when his father died. He also remained in Ontario for much of his life, although he served in Europe during the Second World War. He married Sylvia Bird in September 1941; the couple went on to have two children. They returned to Canada when the war was over, and remained in Ontario until August 1974, when he passed away.
Neil Mackay was born on 16th September 1888 in Stornoway, Scotland, the son of Murdoch and Johanna (known as Murdo and Annie) Mackay.
Sadly, little information remains about his early life; most of what can be gleaned comes from his Royal Naval Reserve records. The document confirms that he was 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, had blue eyes, a dark complexion and a scar between his eyes.
Neil enlisted as a Seaman on 3rd September 1912 and, over the next couple of years, he travelled the world, visiting Maine in the United States, New Zealand and Newfoundland on his voyages.
When war broke out, he was assigned to HMS Northbrook, a troopship taking soldiers to India; he returned to the United Kingdom on HMS Dalhousie, in 1915, before making the same round trip, this time on HMS Lawrence, later that year.
In April 1916 Seaman Mackay returned to England, and was based at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, for around eighteen months.
The summer of 1917 was to prove a busy time at HMS Pembroke, and Neil found himself billeted in temporary accommodation in the barracks’ Drill Hall. On 3rd September 1917, the town came under fire from a German air raid; the Drill Hall received a direct hit and Neil was killed. He was just shy of his 29th birthday and had completed five years’ service that day.
Neil Mackay was among 98 servicemen to be killed during the Chatham Air Raid that night. The victims were laid to rest in a mass funeral at Woodlands Cemetery in nearby Gillingham a few days later.
Knight Cooke was born in Vancouver, Canada, on 10th December 1892. He was one of nine children to John and Mary Cooke. John was a tallyman, selling goods by instalments. Knight, however, preferred working with his hands, and when he left school, found a job in a wood mill, as a planer.
When war came to Europe, those in the Commonwealth were asked to play their part. Knight enlisted, joining the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 22nd April 1916. His service records show that he stood 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall and weighed 135lbs (61kg): he had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion.
When he arrived in England, Knight was initially transferred to the 72nd Regiment of the Seaforth Highlanders, although he was quickly moved again to the 13th Field Ambulance. Within a matter of weeks, Knight was discharged under the King’s Regulations that suggested he would not become an efficient soldier.
At this point, Knight’s trail goes cold. It seems that he remained in England, and it seems that he was still keen to play his part. What is clear is that he enlisted in the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve at some point in the months after being discharged from the army.
Knight was given the rank of Ordinary Seaman, and was, by the summer of 1917, based at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham in Kent. This was a busy, overcrowded place at that time, and Knight found himself billeted in temporary accommodation at Chatham Drill Hall.
On the 3rd September 1917, the German Air Force carried out its first night-time air raid: Chatham was heavily bombed and the Drill Hall received a direct hit; Ordinary Seaman Cooke was among those who were killed. He was just 24 years of age.
Knight Cooke was laid to rest alongside the other victims of the Chatham Air Raid, in the Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the Dockyard in which he finally managed to serve.
Knight’s headstone gives his surname as Cook, although his service records – and signature – give the spelling as Cooke.
Death and Service 