Arthur Edward Crisp was born in 16th March 1899 in the Norfolk village of South Creake. The youngest of six children, his parents were blacksmith Henry Crisp and his wife, Sarah.
When war broke out across Europe, young Arthur had already had some experience of seamanship, and was keen to play his part. He joined the Royal Navy on 7th April 1915 and, given his age, he was assigned the rank of Boy 2nd Class. Initially sent to HMS Powerful, he was trained there for three months, rising to the rank of Boy 1st Class.
On 26th July 1915, Arthur was assigned to the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand, and would remain on board for the next two years. During this time, he came of age, and was formally inducted into the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman. His service records show that he was 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.
His stint on New Zealand also exposed him to naval warfare, as she was heavily involved in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. Ordinary Seaman Crisp came through, however, and remained part of the battlecruiser’s crew for a further year.
After a short time on shore, where he was based at HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Arthur’s next posting was on board HMS Wallington. A former trawler, she had been converted to a boom defence vessel, she protected the dockyard in Grimsby. In November 1917, while based in the Lincolnshire town, Arthur was promoted again, rising to Able Seaman.
The following March, Arthur moved again, and was assigned to HMS Attentive, the shore base for the Dover Patrol. He would not remain there for long, however, and was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, Kent. He passed away on 17th March 1918, from an intriguing combination of gunshot wounds to his chest and pneumonia. He had turned 19 years old the day before.
The body of Arthur Edward Crisp was taken to nearby Gillingham for burial. He was laid to rest in the military section of the town’s Woodlands Cemetery.
In the military section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, is a headstone marking the grave of Leading Seaman Reuben William Pearce. Little information is available about his early life, although later records suggest that he was born on 30th January 1875 in Plymouth, Devon.
When he completed his schooling, Reuben found work as a hawker. He had his heart set on bigger and better things, however, and, on 3rd June 1890, he signed up to the Royal Navy. Just fifteen years of age, he was too young to formally enlist, but he was accepted with the rank of Boy 2nd Class, and sent off to HMS Impregnable, the training ship based in nearby Devonport, for his induction.
Over the next two-and-a-half years, Boy Pearce learnt his trade. On 4th June 1891, he was promoted to the rank of Boy 1st Class, and the following February he was assigned to his first ship, the corvette HMS Boadicea. It was while he was on board the corvette that Reuben came of age, and he was officially inducted into the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman. His service records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a ruddy complexion. He was noted as having an anchor and his initials tattooed on his left arm, with another anchor tattoo on his right.
Reuben enlisted for a twelve-year term of service. During this time, he served on nine vessels, returning to HMS Vivid, the Royal Naval Dockyard in between voyages. He had a mixed career, and, on 1st February 1894, was promoted to Able Seaman. In January 1896, he spent three days in cells, for an unrecorded offence.
In January 1900, whole aboard the gunvessel HMS Rambler, Reuben was promoted to Leading Seaman. Within a day, however, he was back in the cells, where he spent the next 72hrs. This led to an immediate demotion, and he found himself back as an Able Seaman.
When his contract came to an end, Reuben immediately re-enlisted, and he would go on to serve for another thirteen years. In July 1906, he was promoted to Leading Seaman once again, and seemed to have learned the error of his ways, retaining the rank until his passing.
On 15th September 1916, Leading Seaman Pearce was mentioned in despatches. for his service during the Battle of Heligoland Bight. The ship on which he was serving at the time, the battlecruiser HMS Tiger, was heavily involved.
Reuben remained on the Tiger for three-and-a-half years, and during this time, his valour was recognised again, when he was awarded the Medaglia di bronzo al valor militare (Bronze Medal for Military Valour) by the King of Italy. Again, details are unclear, but he was again mentioned in despatches for his service.
By the spring of 1918, Leading Seaman Pearce was billeted on board HMS Hindustan, which was being used as barracks ahead of a planned raised on Zeebrugge and Ostend. On 13th April an accident occurred, and he received a gun shot wound to his leg. This fractured his femur, and, despite being rushed to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, Kent – not far from the dockyard where the Hindustan was moored – he passed away from his injuries later that day. Full details of the incident are unclear, but he was 43 years of age.
Reuben William Pearce was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the port which had served as his final base.
Harry Alfred Holder was born in the summer of 1899, and was the older of two children – both boys – to Harry and Kate. Harry Sr had been widowed a couple of years before, and the extended family included four half-siblings for his new family.
The family had rooms at 16 Warner Street in Southwark, Surrey. By the time of the 1911 census, gad fitter Harry Sr had been widowed a second time, and he and three of his sons were sharing the house with William and Hannah Gayzer and widower Edward Maude.
Harry Jr would have been 15 years old when war broke out, and so too young to serve. He would eventually enlist, however, and had joined the Royal Marine Light Infantry by the spring of 1918. The only documentation relating to his service is his entry on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Register: Took part in the operations against Zeebrugge on board HMS “Iris II” on 23rd April, 1918.
One of two Mersey ferries to take part in the Zeebrugge raid – the other being called Daffodil – Iris attempted to come alongside the port’s mole, or breakwater, to offload the troops she had on board. An initial attempt to boor failed, and when she came alongside again, a shell burst through the deck where nearly 60 marines were preparing to land. Forty-nine were killed and the rest, including Private Holder, were badly injured.
Iris managed to make her way back to Chatham, Kent, where the Royal Navy had a major dockyard. Most of the survivors were moved to a Royal Naval Hospital in London, but Harry’s injuries were to prove too severe: He succumbed to them on 10th May 1918: he was just 19 years of age.
The body of Harry Alfred Holder was laid to rest in the Naval section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent, not far from the port in which he had come ashore.
Robert Kennedy Grogan Graves was born on 1st January 1878. An announcement in the local newspaper confirmed that “at Baronne Court, County Tipperary, the wife of Lieutenant-Colonel W. Grogan Graves, 82nd Regiment, of a son (prematurely).” Robert was the older of two children, while his parents were William Graves, a Justice of the Peace in Ireland, and his wife, Georgianna Graves.
William died in 1890, and Georgianna moved the family to London. The 1891 census found her residing at the Golden Hotel in St Martin in the Fields, while her two boys, Robert and his younger brother, Geoffrey, were boarding students at Francis Napier’s classics school on Shooter’s Hill Road in Kidbrooke, Kent.
Robert found his calling through education. He studied medicine, and by January 1896 he was a student at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Surrey.
By 1906 Robert had set himself up in an infirmary on Southgate Street in Gloucester, Gloucestershire. That same year, he married Kathleen Schofield: the couple went on to have two children, Robert Jr in 1912, and Bernard the following year.
Graves, Robt. Kennedy Grogan, Scison Lodge, Clevedon, Somerset (Tel. 11 Y Clevedon) – MRCS, LRCP London 1904; (St Geo.); Hon, Med, Off. Clevedon Cott. Hosp.; Med. Off Mutual Insur. N.Y. & Clevedon Hydro. Estab.; late Sen. Ho. Surg. & Asst. Ho. Surg., & Surg. Gloucester Co. Infirm., & Asst. Med. Regist. & Obst. Clerk St Geo. Hosp.
[The Medical Directory, 1910]
Robert had set himself up well during his life. The 1911 census found him and Kathleen – who was better known by her middle name, Gladys – living in their 17-room house on Linden Road in Clevedon. They afforded themselves three servants, including a housemaid, a cook and a motor driver. By the outbreak of war, Robert has an entry in the town’s Kelly’s Directory, and seemed to be a focal member of the community, joining the local Grand Lodge in September 1908.
Robert’s time in the army, is hard to piece together. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Captain, and appears to have been connected to the air force. His headstone suggests that he served in Mesopotamia, but when and exactly where, however, is lost to time.
After the war, Robert returned to Britain. Leaving the Somerset coast, however, he and Kathleen appear to have set themselves up in Dorset. He died, through causes not detailed, on 12th December 1920, at 42 years of age. His entry on the probate register states:
GRAVES Robert Kennedy Grogan of 1 Charnwood Chambers Seabourne-road West Southbourne Hampshire died 12 December 1920 at The Grange Buckfastleigh Devonshire…
It is unclear whether Charnwood Chambers was his working address, with The Grange being the family’s official home, or if Buckfastleigh served as a place of convalescence.
Robert Kennedy Grogan Graves left an estate totalling £370 14s 7d (approximately £21,100 today) to Kathleen. He was buried in the graveyard of Holy Trinity church, Buckfastleigh.
Arthur Henry Shute was born on 13th February 1893 in Buckfastleigh, Devon. The younger of two children, he was the only son to Henry and Elizabeth Shute. Henry was a baker, and this trade soon took the family to Cirencester, Gloucestershire, where they had set up home by the time of the 1901 census.
Cirencester certainly suited the Shute family, and they remained at 107 Dyer Street for at least ten years. Arthur was set on learning the business, and the 1911 census found him as one of four apprentices to George Cox, a flour confectioner based in Hastings, Sussex.
New things were on the horizon, however, and Henry was evidently set on a better life for his family. On 10th May 1912, the family boarded the SS Victorian, destined for a fresh start in Canada. The Shutes eventually set up home at 118, 4 Avenue West in Calgary, Henry becoming a chef, and Arthur a baker.
Within a few years, the world was at war, and Arthur would step up to play his part. He enlisted on 13th September 1915, and wold be assigned to the Canadian Army Service Corps. His service records show that he was 6ft 0.5ins (1.84m) tall, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. The document also highlighted three years’ voluntary service with the 5th Gloucestershire Regiment.
Private Shute’s unit arrived back in Britain on 6th November 1915. Sent to a base in Shorncliffe, Kent, Arthur was transferred to the 3rd Field Bakery, taking up a role suited to his skills. In March 1916, his unit was sent to France, and he remained there for the next five months.
Arthur’s time in the army seems to have been beset by illness. He was admitted to hospital on 12th August 1916, having come down with influenza, and he was medically evacuated to Britain to recuperate. Arthur would not be discharged for another six weeks, and only returned to the base in Shorncliffe on 3rd October.
From this point on, Private Shute remained on British soil, and he would remain in Shorncliffe for the remainder of the conflict and beyond the Armistice. In January 1919, he was admitted to the No. 14 Canadian General Hospital in Eastbourne, again suffering from influenza, but this time the condition would prove to be fatal. He passed away on 5th February 1919, a week short of his 26th birthday.
With his immediate family living thousands of miles away in Canada, Arthur Henry Shute’s body was taken back to the town of his birth for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church in Buckfastleigh.
The early life of Charles Miles, whose body lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, is a challenge to unpick, and the starting point is the last document relating to him.
His military Pension Ledger confirms that he died on 13th May 1918, from empyema, a bacterial infection affecting the lungs. The document cites his next-of-kin as Miss Hilda Miles, of 15 St John’s Road in Gillingham. She is noted as being the guardian of two children – Ada, born in 1905, and George, born the following year – because their mother, Charles’ wife, had passed away on 30th May 1912.
An online search for Ada and George gives an entry in the 1911 census. This finds them as the youngest two of six children to Charles and Elizabeth Miles. The document also gives a clue about their future guardian, Hilda: she is their older sister.
The Miles family were living at 45 Commercial Street in Whitechapel, East London. Charles, at 39, was recorded as a Royal Marines Pensioner and schoolkeeper. His wife, Elizabeth, was assisting with this role, and the couple had two other surviving children, Charles Jr and Walter.
While it is still difficult to piece together Charles’ childhood, his Royal Marine service records do shed a little light onto it. Born in Hampstead on 23rd November 1871, he was working as an ironmonger’s assistant when he enlisted. He joined up on 23rd August 1889, the document showing that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. He also had a tattoo on his right forearm.
Private Miles had joined up in London but, as with most Royal Marine recruits, he was sent to the base in Walmer, Kent, for his initial training. In the spring of 1890 he moved to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, and this would become his regular port for the remainder of his service.
Charles’ service proved to be a committed one. Over the next decade he would serve on five ships, and would rise through the ranks. In October 1894 he was promoted to Lance Corporal, making full Corporal less than a year later. On 1st January 1899 he was promoted to Sergeant, and by the start of 1908, he held the rank of Colour Sergeant. Formally stood down to reserve status on 22nd November 1910, he was noted as having a very good character.
Away from the service, there is no record for Charles and Elizabeth’s marriage. She had been born in Sheerness, Kent, and was a year younger than her husband. It is likely that they were married by 1897, as this is when their oldest child was born. The 1901 census recorded them living on Manor Street in Gillingham, but, once Charles had been stood down, the school keeper’s position in the East End came up.
When war broke out, Charles was called upon to play his part once more. He returned to Chatham, leaving his younger children in Hilda’s care. By September 1914 he had moved to HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and he would remain there for the next eighteen months. His shore base and naval experience suggest that, at 43 years of age, his was more of a training or mentoring role, although there is nothing in his records to confirm this.
In February 1916, Colour Sergeant Miles returned once more to Chatham, and the naval base there would be his home for the next few years. He was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in the spring of 1918, and passed away from the infection on 13th May 1918. He was 46 years old.
Charles Miles was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham.
After their father’s death, the Miles siblings found their own way in life.
By the time of the 1921 census, Ada, now 16 years old, was working as a domestic servant for Henry Chapman, a ship’s surveyor, and his family. They were living at 73 Milton Street in Fleetwood, a short stroll from the Lancashire coast.
Hilda, into whose care Charles had given his youngest children, was now 22 years of age. She had married William Swift, a pattern maker for the Admiralty, in the summer of 1918. They would not have any children, and the 1921 census found the couple living at 15 Milner Road, Gillingham. She too was just a short walk from the shoreline, but was also within walking distance from the cemetery in which her father had been buried.
Walter Marsh was born on 17th April 1891 in Beckenham, Kent. The fifth of thirteen children, his parents were Harry and Louisa Marsh. Harry was a bricklayer from Doncaster, Yorkshire, while his wife was from Enfield, Middlesex. By the time their first child was born, however, they had moved to Kent, and the 1901 census found the family living in a small terrace at 77 Birkbeck Road.
In such a large family, it would have been a challenge to find your place. It seems that Walter wasn’t able to make his mark on the world within the constrains of his siblings and so, on 11th August 1910, he enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion. He was also noted as having a scar on his back, and passed his swimming exam when he was tested on 4th November.
Private Marsh’s initial training was undertaken in Deal, Kent, but over the following eight years, his main base was to be the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham. In six separate postings, he would spend more than three-and-a-half years at sea, including a year on the battleship HMS Russell and the submarine depot ship HMS Cyclops.
In January 1915 Walter was promoted to the rank of Corporal, and it was around this time that he got married. In the summer of that year, he tied the knot with Gertrude Crozier, a domestic servant, and daughter of a Chatham flour mill labourer.
Corporal Marsh would continue in the Royal Marine Light Infantry until January 1918. Medically discharged, he was seen to no longer be fit for military service, although it is unclear what condition or injury led to the end of his eight year career.
As this point, Walter’s trail goes cold, and the next record relates to his passing. He died in Chatham on 30th June 1918, at the age of 27 years old. Gertrude had given birth to their first child, a daughter named after her mother, just six months before.
The body of Walter Marsh was laid to rest in the naval section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent, not far from the base that had become a home from home.
After the loss of her husband, Gertrude would go on to marry again, wedding Royal Navy Petty Officer Frederick Harris on 1st January 1920. The couple went on to have a child of their own, daughter Florence, towards the end of that year.
Robert Reginald Atkins was born in the Kent village of Sarre, on 8th January 1900. The younger of two children, his parents were carter Reginald Atkins and his wife, Alice. Alice died in 1908, aged just 30, and her widower moved the family to the village of Martin, near Dover, where he took up work as a miller.
Robert found work as a grocer’s assistant when he completed his schooling. Being so close to the English Channel, the conflict in Europe must have seemed unavoidable. On 7th August 1917, he stepped up to play his part, and enlisted in the Royal Navy.
Boy 2nd Class Atkins was sent to HMS Powerful, the training ship in Devonport, Devon, for his initial instruction. After just two months he was promoted to the rank of Boy 1st Class, and given a posting to the battleship HMS Dominion.
Robert’s time on board was to be brief. By 3rd November he stepped ashore at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. He would remain there for the next few months, during which time he came of age. His service records show that Robert was 5ft 7ins (1.71m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.
While stationed at Pembroke, Boy 1st Class Atkins fell ill. He was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, but his condition, pulmonary tuberculosis, was to prove fatal. He died on 21st April 1918, at just 18 years of age.
Robert Reginald Atkins was laid to rest in the Naval section of the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the dockyard he had briefly called home.
Following Alice’s death, Reginald re-married. By the time of the 1921 census, he was living in Ashford, Kent, with his new wife, Rosa, and their two children, William and Frank. He was still employed as a miller, but this time was working for Mersham Mills.
According to the same census, Robert’s older sister, Monica, was employed in domestic service. She was working for stockbroker Frank Newton-Smith and his family, in their Dover home.
Sydney Broughton was born on 21st November 1872 in the Lincolnshire village of East Halton. The sixth of nine children – of whom eight were boys – his parents were William and Emma Broughton.
William was a boot an shoe dealer, and his older sons were destined to follow him into the business. Sydney, however, sought bigger and better things and, on 13th November 1888, he joined the Royal Navy. Being only 15 years of age, he wasn’t able to full enlist, and was taken on as a Boy 2nd Class.
Sydney was sent to Devonport, Devon, for his training. Assigned to the training vessel HMS Impregnable, she would become his home for just over two years. On 12th March 1890 he was promoted to Boy 1st Class and on his eighteenth birthday, he was formally enlisted in the Royal Navy.
Ordinary Seaman Broughton’s service records show that he was 5ft 4ins (1.63m) tall, with dark brown hair, light grey eyes and a fair complexion. He was also noted as having a slight scar under his right eye. Now of age, Sydney was moved to barracks at HMS Vivid, onshore at the heart of Devonport itself.
On 28th January 1891, Ordinary Seaman Broughton was given his first posting, on board the cruiser HMS Tauranga. He would remain there for only six months, however, as the ship was in the process of being transferred to the Australian Navy. His new assignment would be the survey sloop HMS Penguin, and she would be his home for the next two years.
Shortly before leaving Penguin, Sydney was promoted to the rank of Able Seaman. He spent the next nine months split between HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, and HMS Excellent, a base that was also connected to the dockyard.
On 26th January 1894 Able Seaman Broughton was posted to the cruiser HMS Galatea. He remained there for the rest of the year, including fourteen days spent in cells for an unknown offence that April. He then moved to the battleship HMS Edinburgh, with whose crew he would spend the next two years.
In September 1896, Sydney transferred to what would become his home base, HMS Pembroke, also known as the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. Over the remaining six years of his twelve year contract, he would keep returning there, also spending time in the dockyard’s training base, HMS Wildfire.
On 10th February 1901, Able Seaman Broughton was imprisoned for 42 days for misappropriating mess funds, while based in the Dockyard. Surprisingly, the misdemeanour seems not too have impacted his career too adversely, however, and when his contract came up for renewal the following year, he voluntarily remained with the navy.
Sydney was on board the cruiser HMS Amphritite when his new term of service began. In March 1902 he was promoted to Leading Seaman and, over the next five years, he would go on to serve on a further five ships. In October 1907 he was reduced in rank to Able Seaman once more, although his service records don’t confirm whether this was through his own choice or not.
Over the next six years, Sydney would serve on three further ships. When was formally stood down to reserve status on 19th January 1913, his home was HMS Actaeon, the navy’s torpedo school in Chatham: he had been assigned there for nearly three years, and in the Royal Navy as a whole for more than 24 years.
When war broke out in the summer of 1914, Able Seaman Broughton was called back into action. He remained on solid ground, however, and split the next three years between HMS Pembroke and HMS Wildfire, places he knew well. Sydney’s health may have been a factor in his lack of seaworthiness: in the spring of 1917 he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, suffering from mouth cancer. The condition was to prove fatal: he passed away on 24th June 1917, at the age of 44 years old.
Sydney Broughton’s body was laid to rest in the naval section of Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from his beloved dockyard.
Sydney’s next-of-kin was noted as being his wife, Edith Mary Broughton. There is no record of their marriage, but her details on his records correspond to an entry on the 1921 census.
The document recorded Edith living in Sittingbourne, Kent. 45 years and seven months old, she was sharing her home with her widowed mother, Harriett Pearce, and her two-year-old granddaughter, Edith May.
Further digging suggests that Edith had been a widow when she and Sydney exchanged vows: the 1911 census found her married to Herbert Busbridge, the couple having a daughter, Edith Nellie, who had been born in 1896.
Widowed twice, Edith Mary carried on as best she could: she passed away in the spring of 1963, at the age of 87.
Charles Percival Churchill was born on 31st January 1892 in Marylebone, London. The oldest of three children, his parents were Charles and Annie Churchill.
Charles Sr was a farrier, and was 18 years his wife’s senior. When he died in 1904, at the age of 54, Annie got married again. At this point, Charles Jr found work as a houseboy to John and Florence Cassley-Whitaker, a couple living on their own means in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex.
When war came to Europe, Charles would be called upon to play his part. Conscripted in the autumn of 1916, he enlisted in the Royal Navy, and was given the rank of Ordinary Seaman. His service records show that he was 5ft 6.5ins (1.69m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion.
Ordinary Seaman Churchill was initially sent to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, for training. He remained there until March 1917, when he was assigned to the battleship HMS Hibernia. Part of the Nore Command she helped patrol the Thames Estuary and protect the north Kent coast.
Charles’ time at sea was not to be a lengthy one. In July 1917 he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, Kent, having contracted anthrax. The condition was to ravage his body, and he died on 18th July: he was 25 years of age.
The body of Charles Percival Churchill was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent, not far from the naval base he had so briefly called home.
It was reported to the Chatham Town Council on Wednesday that a fatal case of anthrax had occurred at the Royal Naval Hospital. The deceased bought and used a cheap shaving brush from a shop in the borough, and a similar brush purchased at the same shop for experimental purposes was found at the Royal Naval Laboratory to contain a bacillus similar to the anthrax bacillus. The Medical Officer took possession of the whole of the stock of brushes and sent some to the County Council Laboratory and others to the Local Government Board for examination. Some of the brushes had been found to contain anthrax spores, and further tests were being made.
South Eastern Gazette: Tuesday 18th September 1917
While Ordinary Seaman Churchill’s name is not mentioned in the article, the severity of the condition, and the timing of the report would suggest that this was how Charles had met his fate.
Death and Service 