Henry Percy Harris was born in the Devon village of Combpyne in the spring of 1893. The oldest of eleven children, he was one of five sons to Eli and Amelia Harris. Eli, who was known by his middle name, Charles, and was employed as a carter on a farm. In a similar vein, Henry was known as Percy, and he also took up farm work when he completed his schooling.
When war was declared, Percy was one of the first to join up. Joining the Devonshire Regiment as a Private, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion. His service papers have been lost to time, but during the opening months of the conflict, his unit fought at Marne, Aisne and Messines, amongst other fierce battles.
One record confirms that Private Harris was wounded in the thigh on the 20th June 1915. Details are unclear, but the 1st Battalion were fighting near Ypres at the time. Percy’s wound healed, and he would soon be back in the fray.
Percy seemed to impress his superiors, and he rose to the rank of Sergeant. By the autumn of 1917, he was caught up in the fighting at Passchendaele, and was injured again. Medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, his luck was not to hold a second time. he died from his wounds on 17th November 1917, at the age of 24 years old.
The body of Henry Percy Harris was taken back to Devon for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful setting of St Mary’s Churchyard in his home village of Combpyne.
Harold Francis Ford was born on the 12th November 1896, and was the older of two children to George and Alice. George was a domestic gardener, and the family were raised in Buckland, Somerset.
When Harold completed his schooling, he joined his father in the gardening business. The 1911 census recorded that the family had moved to Axmister, Devon, and were living in Old Park Cottage (although Alice and Harold were actually staying with her brother in Buckland St Mary when the return was taken).
By the time war broke out, Harold had found work as an assistant mechanic. He was keen to play his part, however, and enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in May 1915. His service papers show that he was 5ft 10ins (1.77m) tall, with brown eyes and dark brown hair.
Sent to Devonport for training, Harold seemed to impress his superiors. On 4th February 1916, he was made an Acting Lance Corporal, and this rank was formalised just a week later.
In April 1916, Lance Corporal Ford came down with bronchitis, and was hospitalised for two months. During that time he developed a heart condition, and this would prove severe enough for him to be discharged from military service. He was formally stood down on 14th June 1916.
At this point, Harold’s trail goes cold. He appears to have returned home, as this is where he died, on 16th December 1918. He had not long celebrated his 22nd birthday.
The body of Harold Francis Ford was laid to rest in the tranquil setting of St Michael’s Churchyard in Musbury, close to where his family were living. His headstone remembers “Frank”, an affectionate nod to what he was known as to family and friends.
William Bernard Lethbridge was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in the summer of 1886. The seventh of eight children, his parents were Robert and Mary Lethbridge. William’s baptism record gives his father’s profession as gentleman, while the 1891 census return gives him as being an indigo merchant.
The family were living in Bedford by this point, in a large house on Shakespeare Road. The oldest of the children was 13, but the family had two live-in servants, and shared their neighbourhood with army surgeons, wine merchants and barristers.
Robert died in 1897, and at this point, the family’s trail goes frustratingly cold. Mary and three of her daughters pop up in 1911, living in Kensington, Middlesex, but of William there is no sign. It may be that he travelled abroad, either with the army, or for business, but with no documentation to support this, it remains speculation.
Lieutenant Lethbridge’s probate record confirms that, at the time of his passing, he was living in the Devon village of Musbury, but passed away in the village of Murtle, near Aberdeen, Scotland. The CWGC documentation states that he died on 14th May 1920 from a sickness contracted in German East Africa. During the war he was connected to the 61st King George’s Own Pioneers, and this unit of the Indian Expeditionary Force was based in Africa during the conflict.
The body of William Bernard Lethbridge, who was 33 years old, was taken back to Devon for burial. He was laid to rest in the tranquil setting of St Michael’s Churchyard, Musbury.
William’s younger brother, Patrick, also served in the First World War. A former medical student, he went on to become a Captain in the King’s Own Scottish Borders.
Captain Lethbridge was killed on 25th September 1915, during the Battle of Loos. Just 27 years of age, he is commemorated on at Dud Corner Cemetery.
Patrick Thomas O’Neill was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 2nd March 1888. Little information is available about his early life, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirms he was the son of Jane O’Neill, and the family lived at 151 Taranaki Street.
When he completed his schooling, Patrick found work as a driver for Munt, Cotterell & Co. A large transport and cartage company, when the First World War broke out, they became involved in transporting supplies to the military camp at Trentham. Because of this connection, many of the company’s workers – Patrick included – enlisted.
Patrick’s service papers show that he joined up 22nd August 1916. His medical confirms that he was 5ft 4.5ins (1.64m) tall and had fair hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.
After his training at Trentham, Private O’Neill’s unit – the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps – left Wellington for Europe. After a week’s break in Simon’s Town, South Africa, their ship – the Walmer Castle – arrived in Devonport, Devon, on 27th March 1917. During the second part of the voyage, Patrick was admitted to the ship’s hospital, for an infestation of pubic lice.
The voyage from New Zealand to Britain had taken nearly three months, so when the regiment finally arrived at their camp in Sling, Wiltshire, it must have been something of a relief. For Private O’Neill, however, it marked the beginning of a regular pattern of misdemeanours.
In April 1917, Patrick moved to a base in Tidworth. A matter of weeks later, he went AWOL, and forfeited three days’ pay as a result. Private O’Neill was then sent to Grantham, Lincolnshire, where the ANZAC united had their machine gun training base. Over the next two months, he went AWOL on four separate occasions, resulting in him losing a total of 10 days’ pay and, for the final absence, 96 hours’ detention.
Private O’Neill disappearances seem to have been those of a lad about town: a couple of days after his final return, he was admitted to the venereal section of the camp hospital in Grantham. His condition – and probably his behaviour – was such that he was transferred back to Wiltshire, and admitted to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital near Codford.
Private O’Neill was not done, however. On 6th December 1917, and having been discharged back to his unit just a day before, he went AWOL again, this time in spectacular fashion. He was arrested by military police in Edinburgh on 14th January 1918. Taken in handcuffs back to Codford, he forfeited 71 days’ pay – plus a 2s fine for his arrest – and punished with 90 days in the cells.
Patrick’s imprisonment began on the 1st March 1918, but it was a sentence he would not complete. On 16th May, he was taken from his cell and admitted to the camp hospital, once again to the venereal section. Less than a week later, he was dead, having suffered an embolism. Private O’Neill was 30 years of age when he passed, on 21st May 1918.
The body of Patrick Thomas O’Neill was laid to rest in the extension to St Mary’s Church, Codford, not far from the base in which he had been incarcerated and hospitalised.
Charles John Harvey was born in Nelson, New Zealand, on 30th May 1892. Little information is available about his early life, but documents give his parents as George and Eleanora Harvey.
Charles was working as a general labourer when war broke out, and was called upon to play his part on 19th October 1916. Attached to his country’s Canterbury Regiment, his medical report showed that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, and weighed 11st 2lbs (70.8kg). An Anglican, he was recorded as having dark brown hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion. He was noted as having no vaccination marks.
This fact that Private Harvey hadn’t been vaccinated would come back to haunt him. Sent to an army camp in Trentham, near Wellington, within a matter of weeks he was hospitalised with measles. He remained admitted until 13th December 1916, when he was discharged back to his unit.
It was not until 2nd April 1917, that Private Harvey would set sail for Britain. The journey from Wellington to Devonport would take ten weeks, and Charles was marched in to camp at Sling, Wiltshire, on 10th June that year.
Assigned to the 2nd Company of the 2nd Battalion, Private Harvey finally arrived in France on 27th August 1917. He served on the Western Front for a couple of months, before falling ill again. This time it was influenza that had incapacitated him, and he was admitted to a hospital in Le Tréport for a month while he received treatment.
Charles’ recovery was to be a slow one and, in the end, he was medically evacuated to Britain for ongoing medical support. By February 1918, he had spent time in four different hospitals and, intriguingly, had forfeited three days’ pay for going AWOL while a patient in a medical facility in Hornchurch, Essex. By the start of April 1918, Private Harvey was discharged to the ANZAC camp in Codford, Wiltshire.
His health issues were not over, however, and, on 21st April, Charles was taken in to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital in near the Codford camp. He was suffering from acute nephritis, and this would ultimately prove fatal. Private Harvey died on 7th May 1918: he was 25 years of age.
The body of Charles John Harvey was laid to rest in the graveyard extension of St Mary’s Church, Codford.
Thomas Patrick Perwick was born in Balfour, a town on New Zealand’s South Island, on 19th August 1889. There is little information available about his early life, but his parents were Australian Alfred Perwick and his Irish-born wife, Catherine.
When Thomas completed his schooling, he took up agricultural work, and was working as a farmer when he received the call up to join the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Private Perwick’s service records show that he enlisted on the 18th October 1916. Standing 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, he weighed 11st (69.9kg). His medical report shows that he had light brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. The papers also note Thomas’ religion as Roman Catholic.
Sent to Trentham for training, Private Perwick would be assigned to the New Zealand Otago Regiment. His unit left Wellington on 15th February 1917, making the ten-week voyage to Britain. Thomas disembarked in Devonport, Devon, on 2nd May, and was marched in to camp in Sling, Wiltshire, the same day.
Private Perwick was attached to the 2nd Battalion, and was sent to France on 9th June. Straight into the fray, his unit fought at Messines, but was wounded in the head and arm during fighting at Passchendaele. Medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, he was admitted to hospital in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, before being moved back to the Wiltshire ANZAC camps at Sling and Tidworth.
Thomas was discharged to duty on 7th January 1918, but was not out of the woods. He fell ill with mumps, and was sent to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital in Codford, Wiltshire, for treatment. While admitted, he contracted tuberculosis, and, over the next four months, his health deteriorated. Private Perwick’s body finally succumbed on 4th May 1918: he was 28 years of age.
Thousands of miles from his home, Thomas Patrick Perwick was laid to rest in the graveyard extension of St Mary’s Church, Codford, not far from the hospital in which he had breathed his last.
Albert Alsop Hillman was born in Islington, Middlesex, on 22nd September 1895. He was the second of five children to Alfred and Harriet Hillman. Alfred was a builder’s labourer from Hoxton, and, at the time of the 1901 census, the family had rooms at 36 Affleck Street, not far from King’s Cross Station.
The next ten years showed a downturn in the family’s fortunes. They had moved to rooms at 19 Chapel Street, but Alfred was no longer bringing in a wage, and was recorded as being an invalid. In fact, unusually, none of the household of seven – including Albert and his older brother, Alfred Jr, both of whom were of age to have left school – were recorded in any trade, and it is not clear what, if any, money was coming in.
This changed in 1913, when Albert joined the Royal Navy. He had been earning money as a van guard, but a life at sea offered a career and a regular wage. Sent to HMS Vivid, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Devonport, Devon, he spent the next five months learning the skills he would need as a seaman. Being below the age to formally enlist, however, he was given the rank of Boy 2nd Class.
On 15th November 1913, Boy Hillman was given his first assignment, on board the battleship HMS Venerable. She would remain his home for the next few months, during which time he was promoted to Boy 1st Class.
Albert was formally enlisted in the Royal Navy on 18th February 1914, and was given the rank of Ordinary Seaman. His service papers show that he was 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion. His papers also note that he had a scar on his right cheek, and a number of tattoos on his left forearm.
After a short spell at Chatham Dockyard in Kent – also known as HMS Pembroke – Albert was given his second assignment, aboard the destroyer HMS Liberty. In August 1914, she was involved in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and, in a skirmish with the German 5th Flotilla. She was hit by the enemy cruiser Mainz, which landed a direct hit on the bridge, killing the ship’s commander, Nigel Barttelot, and a number of other crew. Albert was wounded, and the ship made its slow way back to port.
When Liberty reached Pembroke once more, Albert was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, and would remain there for the next more than a year.
The death has taken place in the RN Hospital, Chatham, of Able Seaman Albert Hillman, who sustained terrible injuries whilst serving in HM destroyer Liberty in the sea fight in the Bight of Heligoland on August 28th, 1914. For sixteen months the young fellow – he was only 19 years of age – suffered, but he bore his pain unflinchingly and without a murmur, winning the admiration of the medical and nursing staff. It will be remembered that Lieut.-Com. Nigel Barttelot and six members of the crew of the Liberty were killed in the action, one died from wounds, and eleven others were wounded.
[Sheerness Guardian and East Kent Advertiser: Saturday 15th January 1916]
The newspaper report includes a couple of errors – Albert held the rank of Ordinary Seaman, and was 20 years of age when he died – and has a stoic and heroic sense of how the injured man bore his wounds with grace and calm.
The body of Albert Alsop Hillman was laid to rest in the naval section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the Kent hospital in which he had been tended for so long.
Thomas Roland Wilson was born on 2nd December 1871 in Hythe, Kent. His parents were Thomas and Sarah, but there is little information available about his early life.
The 1881 census recorded Thomas as living with his uncle and aunt in Deptford, Kent. Ten years later, he was living with his parents in Finchley, Middlesex. Thomas Sr was living on his own means, while his son, now 20 years of age, was a mercantile mariner.
On 18th November 1895, Thomas Jr was awarded a certificate of competency as being able to be a master of his own vessel. Five years later, he married Charlotte Chichester. She was the daughter of a master mariner, and the couple appeared to settle in her home town of Braunton, Devon.
When war broke out, Thomas was assigned to the Royal Naval Reserve. Details of his time during the conflict are hazy, but, by 1917, he was in charge of HMS Yacht Vagrant. Built in Jarrow, she had been hired by the Admiralty at the start of the war to act as an anti-submarine vessel, with Captain Wilson leading the crew.
Little further information is available about Thomas’ life, and while the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and his headstone give his rank as Lieutenant Commander, other documents note he was a Captain.
The next available record for him relates to his passing:
The regretted death has occurred of Capt. Wilson, in his 47th year, at Fern Lea, Braunton, the residence of his mother-in-law, Mrs Chichester.
[North Devon Journal: Thursday 18th October 1917]
No cause of death is evident, but Thomas Roland Wilson passed away on 17th October 1917. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Brannock’s Church in Braunton, Devon.
The funeral of Mr Williams… of South-street, took place on Saturday, the interment being made by the Vicar of Braunton (Rev. JH Prince) in the St Brannock’s Churchyard. There were many manifestations of sympathy, and blinds were drawn all along the route to the Churchyard. The Vicar, in the course of a sympathetic and short address to the bereaved relatives, related a touching incident at an interview he had had with the deceased a few days before his death. The Vicar asked him if he would not rather die peacefully at home than out with his comrades, who were keeping the silent vigil on the seas and in conflict with the enemy. The dying sailor replied in the negative, and said he would sooner be with his comrades, fighting for his King and Country. This, said the Vicar, struck the key-note of Mr Williams’ unselfish life, and by his death they had lost an upright and steady inhabitant.
[North Devon Journal: Thursday 22nd March 1917/
John Williams was born on 4th May 1886 in St Agnes, Cornwall. Details of his early life are a challenge to confirm, but the newspaper report goes on to name two of his brothers as Alfred and Cecil, and one of his sisters as Olive. Piecing this information together with census documents, it seems likely that his parents were William and Elizabeth (his pension record gives Mrs B Williams, which may be Bessie).
The 1891 census records the family as living in St Agnes. William is missing, although it is possible that he was away at sea when the return was taken. John does not appear on the 1901 census, but his trail can be picked up again a year later, when he enlisted in the Royal Navy.
John was working as a butcher when he chose a seafaring career path, and he was sent to HMS Impregnable, the training ship moored at Devonport, Devon, for his induction. He was below the age to formally join up, and so was given the rank of Boy 2nd Class.
Over the next two years, John learnt the tools of his trade. He was trained at three Devon bases – Impregnable, HMS Lion and HMS Vivid – and was promoted to Boy 1st Class in February 1903. On 4th May 1904 he came of age, and officially enlisted in the Royal Navy, given the rank of Ordinary Seaman. His service records note that he was just 5ft 1in (1.55m) tall, and had dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.
Ordinary Seaman Williams was on his first formal posting by this point, and was serving on board the gunboat HMS Harrier. By November 1904, however, he was transferred, and became part of the crew of the armoured cruiser, HMS Suffolk. She remained his home for the next eighteen months, during which he was promoted again, to Able Seaman.
Over the next decade, John would serve on a further six ships, returning to HMS Vivid in between assignments. The work, particularly after the outbreak of war, was taking a strain on his health, however, and, on 3rd May 1916, he was medically discharged from duty, suffering from tuberculosis.
By this point, John’s mother had moved to Devon and was living in the village of Braunton. Following his discharge, he returned to live with Elizabeth – Bessie – and remained there until his death some nine months later. John died on 12 March 1917, aged 29.
The body of John Williams was laid to rest in St Brannock’s Churchyard, Braunton.
Thomas Bidder was born on 10th April 1893 on Lower Winsham Farm, Braunton, Devon. One of twelve children, his parents were farmers John and Eliza Bidder.
Thomas sought a life away from the farm and he enlisted in the army, joining the prestigious Coldstream Guards. The 1911 census recorded Private Bidder as being in barracks in a camp in Chertsey, Surrey.
When war broke out, Thomas was mobilised, and soon found himself on the Western Front. It is unclear exactly when or how he served, but a later report suggests that he was wounded in February 1915, and medically evacuated to Britain for treatment.
After being treated in different hospitals, he was sent home to convalesce, but here (no doubt as the indirect result of the wounds) tuberculosis developed, and death was due to this cause.
[Western Times: Thursday 19th August 1915]
Thomas Bidder died on 16th August 1915, at the age of 23 years old. The newspaper report noted that he “was a man who was greatly admired for his soldierly and other qualities, and at Braunton he will long be held in the fondest remembrance.”[Western Times: Thursday 19th August 1915]
Thomas was laid to rest in St Brannock’s Church in his home town of Braunton.
Thomas was not the first of the Bidder siblings to die during the war. His younger brother, Walter, served in the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. Private Bidder was killed on 18th December 1914, aged just 19 years old. He is commemorated on the Le Touquet Memorial in France, and on the family headstone in Braunton.
