Category Archives: Essex

Commonwealth War Graves, Devonshire Regiment, Essex, Great War, history, illness, Lance Corporal, London, Military Police Corps, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Worcestershire

Lance Corporal Ernest Phillips

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Lance Corporal Ernest Phillips

Ernest Algernon Phillips was born at the start of 1879 in the Somerset village of Winscombe. One of nine children, his parents were Arthur and Elizabeth Phillips. Arthur was a gardener, and Ernest followed suit when he finished his schooling.

By the time of the 1911 census, he was boarding with his younger sister Rose and her family – brother-in-law Leonard and nephew Leslie. Just a couple of weeks later, on 11th May 1911, Ernest married Winifred Carey. She was a coachman’s daughter from Winscombe, and the couple set up home in a cottage on the outskirts of the village.

When war broke out, Ernest felt a need to play his part. He enlisted in Bristol on 8th December 1915, but was not formally mobilised until the following June. Initially assigned to the Devonshire Regiment, he was transferred to the Worcestershire Regiment and attached to the 6th Battalion.

Private Phillips’ troop was based on home soil, and he was barracked in the garrison in Harwich, Essex, for the next six months. On 31st January 1917, he was transferred to the Military Police Corps, and given the rank of Acting Lance Corporal. Full details of his service from this point on are lost to time, but it is clear that he remained on home soil until the end of the war.

By November 1918, Ernest had fallen ill. He was admitted to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital in London on 20th November, suffering from pneumonia. Within a matter of hours, while this seemed to have cleared, his pulse was ‘rapid, irregular and compressible.’ He was medicated, but did not respond to treatment, and passed away the following day. His death was noted as apparently being caused by clots of blood in the heart, but, at the request of his family, no postmortem examination was carried out. He was 39 years of age.

Ernest Algernon Phillips was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St James the Great Church in Winscombe.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Essex, Essex Regiment, Great War, history, illness, Kent, London, photography, Somerset, story, war

Corporal Charles Fernley

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Corporal Charles Fernley

Charles Edward Fernley was born on 28th November 1874 in Stepney, East London. One of thirteen children, his parents were Richard and Eliza Fernley. Richard was a sluice keeper, who worked his way up to be an inspector of sewers and drains for London County Council. By 1888, he had been able to move his family out of the East End, to suburban Bromley, south of the river in Kent.

By the time of the 1891 census, Charles had finished his schooling, and had found work as a printer’s labourer. Ten years later, however, he was employed as a packer for a millinery warehouse. There seems to have been more need for this back in the East End, however, as he was living in Bow in the summer of 1901.

On 21st August 1901, Charles married Hannah Weston in St Faith’s Church, Stepney. She was three years younger than her husband, and was the daughter of a boatbuilder. The couple settled in a small terraced house in East Ham and had a son, Leonard, who was born in 1908.

When war came to Europe, Charles was keen to play his part. He enlisted in the Essex Regiment, and was assigned to the 1st/4th Battalion. Sent to the Balkans in August 1915, it is likely that he was caught up at Gallipoli and, in December 1915, evacuated with his battalion to Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos.

By this point, the now Corporal Fernley had contracted dysentery, and was repatriated to Britain for treatment. He was admitted to the Newton Park VAD Hospital on the outskirts of Bath, but was to succumb to the condition on 31st December 1915. He was 41 years of age.

Charles Edward Fernley was laid to rest in the quiet Holy Trinity Churchyard in Newton St Loe, Somerset.

While Charles’ headstone is dedicated to Sergeant Fernley, all other documentation suggests that he held the rank of Corporal when he died.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, London, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, Surrey, unknown, war, Wiltshire

Private George Hutchings

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Private George Hutchings

George Robert Hutchings was born towards the end of 1883 in Forest Gate, Essex. He was the oldest of four children to George and Mary Ann Hutchings. George Sr was a labourer for the railways, and this led to the family relocating to Swindon, Wiltshire, in the 1890s.

George Jr took up work with the Great Western Railway when he left school, while his father switched employment and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was working as a collector for a clothing supply company.

On 13th July 1911, George Jr married Daisy Smale in the Sanford Street Congregational Church, Swindon. Daisy was a school teacher, and was the daughter of an iron moulder. It is likely that the couple met through George’s workplace. The newlyweds had a son, Raymond, who was born in 1914 and, at some point moved to Bath in Somerset.

When war came to Europe, George stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps and, unsurprisingly, given the work he was doing, was assigned to the Mechanical Transport division. Little information about his military service remains, but is it clear that he had enlisted in the second half of 1915.

The next available record for Private Hutchings is that of his passing. He had been admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich, South East London, and died there on 15th December 1915. No cause for his death is evident, but he was 32 years of age.

George Robert Hutchings was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Bath’s St James Cemetery.

When her husband died, Daisy was pregnant. In March 1916 she gave birth to a daughter, Winifred, who was never to know her father.

Daisy never remarried. By the time of the 1939 register, she was living in Northampton Street, Bath, sharing the house with a Mr and Mrs Spreadbury. Her employment was listed as unpaid domestic duties.

Daisy and George’s son Raymond was focused on his education. He made an eventual move to Birmingham, where, at the outbreak of war, he was working as a research chemist. He died in Bath in 1982, at the age of 68.

Winifred married grocer Kenneth Batten in Bath in 1938. The couple had three children and emigrated to Australia after the war, and settled in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Kenneth died in 1988, at the age of 72; Winifred died in 2003, aged 87.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, illness, London, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, photography, Private, Somerset, story, Surrey, war

Private Arthur French

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Private Arthur French

Arthur John French was born on 3rd September 1889 in the Somerset village of Merriott. He was the youngest of three children to John and Annie French. John was a miller and baker in the village, and Arthur’s older brother Edward helped his father with the business. Arthur, however, followed a different path and, with Annie passing away in 1903, he had moved to London for work.

The 1911 census recorded Arthur boarding with his maternal aunt and uncle, who were both schoolteachers. He had found employment as a clerk in the head office of the National Telephone Company and shared the large terraced house with the couple, their son Alfred and their servant, Esther.

When war was declared, Arthur was in the first wave of those enlisting. He joined the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry and, as a Private, was assigned to the 2nd/4th Battalion. Initially sent to Northampton for training, his troop soon came south again and, by April 1915, was based just outside Chelmsford, Essex.

Tightly-packed barracks, housing men from across the country soon became hotbeds for illness and disease, and Private French was not to be immune. He contracted meningitis, and was admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital in Wandsworth for treatment. Sadly he was to succumb to the condition, and he breathed his last on 16th April 1915, at the age of just 25 years old.

Arthur John French’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of All Saints’ Church in his home village, Merriott.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, Leading Stoker, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Leading Stoker Ernest Brown

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Leading Stoker Ernest Brown

Ernest William Brown was born on 5th April 1889 in Halstead, Essex. One of twelve children, his parents were carpenter Edward and silk weaver Elizabeth Brown.

Ernest initially found work as an errand boy, then as a house painter. He wanted bigger and better things, however, and the Royal Navy offered him that opportunity. He enlisted as a Stoker 2nd Class on 12th March 1908 for a period of twelve years’ service.

Ernest’s early service records are lost to time, but he received a promotion to Stoker 1st Class on 12th March 1909, exactly a year after a joined up. At this point he was assigned to the dreadnought battleship HMS Russell, on board which he served until August 1912.

After a short period at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, Stoker 1st Class Brown was transferred to the Apollo-class cruiser HMS Iphigenia. She was to be his home for the next two-and-a-half years, during which time he was promoted again, this time to Leading Stoker.

Returning to HMS Pembroke in March 1915, this was to be his shore base for the next couple of months. On 27th May, Leading Stoker Brown was helping out on the steamer Princess Irene. Tragically, while on board an explosion ripped through the ship, while moored off Sheerness, Kent and he was one of the 352 souls killed. He was just 26 years of age.

Ernest William Brown was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent. His body having been identified, he was given his own grave, unlike those who were buried in a mass grave nearby.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, injury, London Regiment, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war

Private George Woodforde

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Private George Woodforde

George Augustus Woodforde was born on 21st April 1892 in Leyton, Essex. He was one of six children to George and Harriet Woodforde, although, tragically, George had died shortly before his son was born.

George Sr had been born in Ansford, Castle Cary, Somerset and this is where he was laid to rest. He was a theological student in his twenties and, according to the 1891 census, he was living on his own means. This is something that Harriet was fortunate enough to be able to do once she was widowed.

George Jr studied into his late teens and, by the time war was declared in 1914, he was employed as a schoolmaster. He enlisted in April 1916, but was not mobilised until 17th November 1917. He served as part of the 28th Battalion (Artists’ Rifles) of the London Regiment and his records show that he was 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall and was of a slight build, weighing in at only 110lbs (50kg).

Private Woodforde soon found himself in France, and fought on the front line for a while. He was caught up in the Battle of the Canal du Nord in late September 1918, and was badly wounded. He was medically evacuated to England, and admitted to the East Leeds War Hospital. He had received gunshot wounds to both thighs and feet, and had fractured the tarsal and metatarsals of his right foot.

Private Woodforde’s left leg became infected, and he then developed double pneumonia. It was this lung condition that he was to succumb to: he passed away at the hospital on 11th November 1918 – Armistice Day. He was just 26 years of age.

George Augustus Woodforde was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in Ansford, Somerset, close to where his father had been buried all those years before.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, East Kent Regiment, Essex, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, photography, Private, South Africa, story, war

Private Albert Dowsett

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Private Albert Dowsett

Albert Dowsett was born in the Essex village of Sible Hedingham in the spring of 1868. He was the fourth of six children – all of them boys – to Stephen and Susan Dowsett. Stephen was an agricultural labourer, while his wife worked as a straw plaiter to bring in a little extra money.

Albert seems to have been a bit of a tearaway. In July 1877, a local newspaper reported that:

Ezekiel Rulton and Albert Dowsett, boys each nine years of age, were indicted for breaking into the dwelling house of Matilda Jaggard, at Sible Hedingham, and stealing two books, value 1s, on the 20th June. Rulton, having once before committed burglary was sentenced to 10 days’ hard labour and five years in a Reformatory School. Dowsett was acquitted.

Essex Standard: Friday 6th July 1877

Stephen died in the autumn of 1884, while Susan died in March 1892. By this point Albert was 23 years of age, and had found solid work in the army. Full details of this early service no longer remain available, but he fought in South Africa in the 1890s.

By 1897 he returned to England and moved to Stone, near Greenhithe, in Kent. It was here that he met and married Anna Davis, the daughter of a local brewery man. The couple set up home in the village, and went on to have three children, William, Dorothy and Margaret.

The 1911 census recorded the family living in a small terraced house close to the railway station in Greenhithe. Albert was working as a labourer in the wash mill of the local cement works, and the family had a boarder, widower William Davies, who was a weighman at the same works.

Away from work, Albert had also found another calling, and was employed as a verger at St Mary’s Church, just a few minutes’ walk from home.

War was now encroaching on Europe, and, with his previous army service, Albert was perfect to resume his military role. Given the age limitations for new recruits early on in the conflict, it is likely that he volunteered for this role. He willingly took up a post with the 3rd Supply Company of the 2nd/4th Battalion of The Buffs (East Kent Regiment).

Private Dowsett was given a guard’s role, and was part of the team given the duty of patrolling two explosives factories near Faversham. He was on duty on the afternoon of Sunday 2nd April 1916 when a fire near one of the factory buildings set off a series of massive explosions. More than a hundred people were killed; sadly this included Private Dowsett. He was 48 years of age.

Albert Dowsett was laid to rest, along with the other victims of the Faversham Explosion, in a mass grave the town’s Borough Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Leading Stoker, Petty Officer, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, Suffolk, war

Stoker Petty Officer Christian Belsey

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Stoker Petty Officer Christian Belsey

Christian Belsey was born on 12th February 1884 in the village of Preston, Kent. He was one of fourteen children to Joseph and Jane Belsey. Joseph was a farm labourer, and Christian followed suit on leaving school.

He wanted bigger and better things, however, and after his older brother Charles had sought out a life in the Royal Navy, he followed suit. Christian enlisted on 28th June 1904; his service records show that he was 6ft (1.83m) tall, had brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion.

Stoker 2nd Class Belsey was based out of HMS Pembroke, the Royal aval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, and this is where he returned to in between voyages. His first posting was on board the destroyer HMS Acheron, on board which he spent six months.

Over the twelve years of his initial service he was assigned to six different ships, rising through the ranks to Stoker 1st Class (in 1906), Leading Stoker (1911) and Stoker Petty Officer (1912).

When war broke out in August 1914, Christian was back in Chatham; he was soon assigned to HMS Laertes, a destroyer based out of Harwich, which patrolled the North Sea. She was involved in the attempt to head off the German attack on Yarmouth and Lowestoft in April 1916, during which, two of Christian’s colleagues, Stoker Ernest Clarke and Stoker Petty Officer Stephen Pritchard, were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for their bravery under fire.

After three years on board Laertes, Christian was transferred to HMS Redgauntlet. He served on board for eighteen months until, in October 1918, he fell ill.

Admitted to a hospital in Samford, near Ipswich, Suffolk, Stoker Petty Officer Belsey was suffering from pneumonia. Sadly, the lung condition was to get the better of him, and he passed away on 25th October 1918, at the age of 34 years old,

Christian Belsey was brought back to Kent for burial. He was laid to rest in Faversham Borough Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, Hampshire, history, killed in action, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war, Yorkshire

Stoker 1st Class Michael Brown

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Stoker 1st Class Michael Brown

Michael Brown was born on 25th October 1891 in Kirkdale, Lancashire, one of four children to James and Julia Brown. James was a sailor who died when Michael was just a boy. While Julia tried to make ends meet by taking in washing, it must have worried her when her son then fell into a sea-going life when he left school.

Michael enlisted in the Royal Navy on 19th February 1910, by which time he was already a seaman in the merchant fleet. His service records show that he was 5ft 4.5ins (1.64m) tall, had bark brown hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. He also had a number of tattoos on his forearms, including a shamrock and a cross.

Recruited as a Stoker 2nd Class, Michael served on a number of vessels in the lead up to the outbreak of war, including the scout ship HMS Patrol, which served from Harwich Harbour, Essex. It was here that he gained promotion to Stoker 1st Class in February 1911.

When not at sea, Stoker Brown was based at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. When war broke out in 1914, however, he was in the middle of a three-year stint on board HMS St George, a cruiser that went on to guard the Humber Estuary on the east coast of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

By the spring of 1916, he was back in Chatham and from this point on, remained firmly on dry land, with assignments in Kent and at HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire. By the summer of 1917, though, Stoker Brown returned to HMS Pembroke once again.

The naval base was particularly busy and cramped at that point in the war, and temporary overflow accommodation was set up in the barracks’ Drill Hall. This is where Michael came to be billeted.

On the night of the 3rd September, the German Air Force conducted the first night time raid on England. Chatham came in the firing line, and the Drill Hall received a direct hit. Stoker 1st Class Brown was among those to be killed. He was just 24 years of age.

Michael Brown was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in nearby Gillingham, along with the other victims of the Chatham Air Raid.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Essex, Great War, history, injury, Ireland, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Worcestershire Regiment

Private Alfred Beake

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Private Alfred Beake

Alfred Beake was born in December 1898 and was one of nine children to Alfred and Charlotte Beake. Alfred Sr was a baker from Westonzoyland in Somerset, but it was in Chard that he and Charlotte had set up home and raised their family.

There is little documented about Alfred’s life. He played his part in the First World War, and had joined the Worcestershire Regiment by November 1918. His troop – the 5th (Reserve) Battalion – was a territorial force, and he would have split his time between Harwich, Essex, and Plymouth, Devon.

Private Beake survived the war and, by the spring of 1919 had been moved to Dublin. It was here on 18th May that he met with colleagues Private Simpson and Swindlehurst in the centre of the city. The trio caught a tram to the coastal town of Howth for a day out, where tragedy struck.

The Dublin Evening Telegraph reported on what happened next:

Private Sydney Simpson, Royal Engineers, stated… when they got to Howth, they walked along the Cliff Walk for about a mile, when they saw some seagulls down the cliff. [Beake and Swindlehurst] went out of witness’s sight for a while, when he heard a shout from Swindlehurst for help. On hurrying back, he saw Swindlehurst looking towards the sea, and he said the deceased had slipped down. The cliff was so steep that, although they tried to get down, they could not do so. Witness sent for help. None of the party had taken any drink.

Private Swindlehurst… said that he and deceased climbed down the grassy slope to get some seagulls’ eggs, but that the deceased suddenly slipped down. There was no horseplay going on at the time when the accident took place.

Captain Wynne, Royal Army Medical Corps, who made a post mortem examination, described the terrible injuries which the deceased had sustained. Death must have been instantaneous.

Dublin Evening Telegraph: Wednesday 21st May 1919

Private Beake had suffered a fractured skull from the fall. He was just 20 years of age.

Alfred Beake’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in Chard Cemetery.

Alfred’s oldest brother, Walter George Beake, had also served in the First World War.

Private Beake fought with the 7th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, and was involved in some of the key skirmishes of the Somme. But it was at Ypres that he was buried alive during an attack, and the resulting shell shock left him totally incapacitated.

Walter was discharged from the army on medical grounds in September 1916. He returned home to try and piece his life together again. He never married, and passed away in December 1978, at the age of 87 years old.