In the First World War section of St Peter and St Paul’s Churchyard in Aylesford, Kent, is a headstone dedicated to T4/174339 Private W Johnstone of the Royal Army Service Corps. Little other immediate information is apparent, and there are no military records available based on his service number.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website confirms that Private Johnstone transferred across to the 697th Agricultural Coy of the Labour Corps. He was given another service number – 440640 – and this allows access to a few more strands of his life.
Private Johnstone’s first name was William, and he had a dependent, Mrs CM Gunn, who lived at Moss Fall in Linwood, Paisley. The records, however, add a little more confusion to the story – Mrs Gunn is recorded as U/Wife and a guardian is also noted: Mrs Catherine McDree.
The waters are muddied further by the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects. While this confirms that William had enlisted by the spring of 1918, it also highlights that his effects and war gratuity were not actually claimed.
With no date of birth for William, it is impossible to narrow down any further details of his early life: there are too many combinations of William and Catherine in the Paisley area to be able to identify them with any confidence.
The only thing that can be confirmed is that Private William Johnstone died from a combination of influenza and pneumonia on 5th November 1918, at the Preston Hall Military Hospital in Aylesford, Kent. He was buried in the nearby churchyard.
Henry Charles Dyer was born in January 1865 in the Devon town of Ivybridge. The oldest of five children, his parents were carpenter James and dressmaker Mary Dyer. When he left school, Henry found work as a cordwainer’s apprentice but, after James died in 1886, he sought out a career that would help support his mother.
Henry enlisted in the Army Service Corps on 10th July 1886 and, by the time of the next census was based at barracks in Woolwich, South London. His service records note that he was 5ft 4.5ins (1.64m) tall and weighed 124lbs (56.25kg). He had a dark hair, grey eyes and a dark complexion. He was also noted as having a tattoo of a cross on his left forearm.
Private Dyer served in the regiment on home soil for more than thirteen years, qualifying as a horse collar maker and saddler during this time and rising through the ranks. He was made a Driver in 1889, Corporal in 1895 and Staff Sergeant in October 1899.
Trouble was afoot on the other side of the world by this time and his promotion was linked to Henry being sent to South Africa. He was there for eighteen months, and was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal, as well as clasps for service at Tugela Heights, the Relief of Ladysmith, Laing’s Nek, Transvaal and Orange Free State.
Staff Sergeant Dyer went back to Britain in April 1901, where he remained for a further six years. On 4th July 1907, reached the end of his term of service and having completed 21 years with the Army Service Corps he returned to civilian life.
Henry moved back to Devon, moving back in with his mother and younger brother. Mary had remarried after James passed, but her second husband had also passed away, and so having two of her sons home would have been of comfort to her. The 1911 census records the family as living in three rooms of a house in Grenville Street, Plymouth. They shared the property with the Smith family, a husband, wife and two children. Henry was recorded as an army pensioner (saddler), while his brother Ernest was listed as being a watchmaker, while also in the army reserve.
War was on the horizon again, and, Henry was one of the first to step up when it was declared. He was 49 years old by this point, and so technically exempt from enlisting, but as an army life had served him well before, it must have seemed fit for him to serve King and Country once more.
Staff Sergeant Dyer’s new service records noted that he was formally employed as a saddler, and that he had put on 18lbs (8kg) since he initially signed up.
Henry was based firmly on home soil this time round, and while he was initially based in Aldershot, Hampshire, he seems to have been moved to barracks in Kent. He served for more than two and a half years, but his health seems to have been suffering by this point. At a medical on 24th July 1917, he was deemed to be no longer fit enough for war service and was discharged from the army.
It is likely that this discharge came while he was admitted to the Preston Hall Military Hospital in Aylesford. While Staff Sergeant Dyer’s earlier military service is fairly detailed, his later career is not. What is clear is that, four days after being discharged, he passed away. He was, by this time, 52 years of age.
A lack of funds may have prevented Mary from bringing her son home to Devon. Instead Henry Charles Dyer was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter and St Pauls Church in Aylesford, not far from the Kent hospital in which he passed.
Albert Edward Rumbelow was born in 1879 in Wycombe Marsh, Buckinghamshire. One of eleven children, his parents were Suffolk-born paper maker Philip Rumbelow and his wife, Jane.
Little information is available about Albert’s early life, although by the time of the 1901 census, he is recorded as being a Private in the Rifle Brigade. The family had moved to the village of Little Chart in Kent by this point, where his father was still continuing in the manufacture of paper.
Private Rumbelow’s military service is evidenced in later documents. He served with the 1st Battalion from 1895 to 1907, was awarded the South Africa medals for 1901 and 1902: he was also granted the clasp for his involvement in the defence of Ladysmith. He appears to have been wounded at this point, and was invalided out of full military service and placed on reserve.
In 1904, Albert was back in England, and living in London. That year he married Ellen Sillis, a cordwainer’s daughter from Norfolk. The couple set up home in Fulham, and went on to have five children: Abert Jr, Iris, Florence, Doris and Hilda.
By the time of the 1911 census, Albert was working at the local Public Hall, as a labourer, hall attendant and cleaner. The family were living at 9 Crabtree Lane in Fulham, sharing the property with the Fitzgerald family.
War was closing in on Europe by this point, and, once again, Albert stepped up to plat his part. He enlisted within days of conflict being declared, and within weeks had been given the rank of Corporal. His service records note that he was 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, weighed 156lbs (70.8kg), had brown hair and blue eyes. He was also recorded as having a tattoo of crossed rifles and a crown on his right forearm, and scared on his left calf, knee and eyebrow.
By the spring of 1915, Albert had been promoted again, to the rank of Serjeant. He was sent to France on 19th May, having been assigned to the 7th (Service) Battalion. Serjeant Rumbelow was involved at the Somme and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for conspicuous gallantry” on 3rd June 1916. “He exposed himself to machine-gun and rifle fire when going across the open to rescue a wounded man. Later he went under fire to fetch a stretcher.”
Serjeant Rumbelow appears to have been injured in the skirmish, and was invalided to the UK later that month. When he recovered he was posted again, this time to the 18th (London) Battalion of the Rifle Brigade.
The following February he made the transfer across to the Labour Corps, and by March 1917, Serjeant Rumbelow was back in France. In August he was promoted to Company Sergeant Major, but was invalided back to England with bronchitis in February 1918.
When he recovered Albert was assigned to the 364th Area Employment Coy. in Kent, and seems to have voluntarily taken a drop in rank – back to Serjeant – in doing so. His health was dogging him by this point and in the late summer of 1918, he was admitted to Preston Hall Military Hospital in Aylesford, suffering from VDH, or heart disease.
Sadly, the strain of his military service was to be his undoing. He passed away from the heart condition on 21st September 1918, at the age of 39 years of age.
Albert Edward Rumbelow was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter & St Paul’s Church in Aylesford, not far from the hospital where he had breathed his last.
Now widowed, Ellen was left with the unenviable task of raising five young children on her own. She married again, to Private William Lake, on 8th June 1919, and the family moved to Essex. She lived until the age of 79, and was laid to rest in Sutton Road Cemetery in Southend.
Harold Wheeler was born on 22nd May 1898 in Gloucester. One of nine children, his parents were George and Emma Wheeler. George, who worked as a telegraphist and clerk for the Post Office, was from Rugby, but by the time he and his Swansea-born wife has their second child, they had settled down in Gloucestershire.
There is tragically little information on Harold’s life and it is impossible to know what he did between leaving school and enlisting in the army. War broke out in 1914, and, while too young at the time, he had joined up by early 1917.
Private Wheeler was assigned to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Based in Kent, he was billeted in Maidstone. The only other record available for him is that of his passing. He had been admitted to the Military Hospital in Aylesford, and died, through causes unknown on 24th June 1917. He had just turned 19 years of age.
Harold Wheeler was laid to rest in the graveyard of the nearby St Peter’s & St Paul’s Church in the Kent village where he had passed.
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.
William Samuel King was born in the summer of 1880, and was one of four children to Richard and Elizabeth King. Richard was a railway worker from Totnes, Devon, and this is where the family were born and raised.
When he left school, William found work as a house painter, and this is a job he continued to do through to the outbreak of the Great War. On 8th June 1908 he married Minnie Edmunds: the couple went on to have a son, Leslie, who was born in 1912. William and Minnie had, by this point, moved to Swansea, West Glamorgan, presumably as work was more plentiful here than in their Devon home. His work as a decorator seems to have been recognised, and he was admitted to the National Association Partnership, Swansea South.
On 1st December 1915, William enlisted and his service records show that he was 5ft 2ins (1.57m) tall. While it is clear that he spent his time on home soil, his service seems a bit disjointed.
Private King wasn’t formally mobilised until September 1916, when he was assigned to the 2nd/2nd Battalion of the Monmouthshire Regiment. In December he was transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment before returned to his original battalion in February 1917. A month later, he moved to the Bedfordshire Regiment, before moving to the Middlesex Regiment a few weeks later. This also seems to have been a temporary move as, three weeks later, he was assigned to the 337th Works Company of the Labour Corps (although this was still part of the Middlesex Regiment).
The potential reason behind Private King’s haphazard service seemed to become a little clearer when, in September 1917, he was referred to Fort Pitt Hospital in Rochester, Kent. He was noted as being “very talkative, noisy [and] in a state of mental disease… he has… exalted and grandiose ideas and is difficult to restrain.” His mental health was obviously suffering, and he was discharged from military service in December 1917.
William returned home, although it was not to be for long. He passed away on 13th April 1918, at the age of 37 years old. While no cause of death is evident, it seems likely to have been connected to his ‘mania’, which had been exacerbated by his army service.
William Samuel King was laid to rest in Totnes Cemetery, not far from his parental home.
Albert James Harvey was born on 23rd May 1894 in the Gloucestershire village of Warmley. One of eleven children, his parents were James and Alice Harvey. James was a bootmaker, and most of Albert’s siblings followed him into shoemaking, but Albert bucked the trend, and found work with a baker when he left school.
He wanted bigger and better things, however, and so, on 26th April 1911, he enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. His service records record that Private Harvey was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall, with blue eyes, auburn hair and a fresh complexion. It also suggests that he added a year to his age, to ensure that he was accepted for duty.
After initially enlisting in Deal, Kent, Albert was sent to Plymouth, Devon, where he served for most of 1912. On 18th November that year, he was assigned to the dreadnought battleship HMS Conqueror, on which he was to serve for the nearly five years.
It was during his time on board Conqueror that Albert married Ethel Brewer. The daughter of a pressman, the couple exchanged vows at St Barnabas Church in their shared home village, Warmley.
Private Harvey remained serving throughout the war and, in April 1918, he was involved in the Zeebrugge Raid. This was an attempt by the Royal Navy to block the Belgian port by sinking obsolete ships in the canal entrance. During the operation, more than 200 men were killed and over 300 – including Albert – were wounded.
Private Harvey was medically evacuated to England for treatment, but his injuries were to prove too severe. He passed away in a hospital in Plymouth on 28th June 1918. He was just 24 years old.
Albert James Harvey was brought back to Gloucestershire for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Barnabas’ Church, where he has been both baptised and married.
John Connolly was born on 7th April 1887 in Liverpool, Lancashire. There is little information available about his early life, although his parents were Thomas and Marianne Connolly. A Roman Catholic, he was baptised at St James Church and went on to marry a woman called Bridget, although details for the wedding are lost to time.
John must have had a level of proficiency when it came to ships and sea-faring as, when war had broke out, he was call up for service with the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR). He enlisted as a Stoker on 1st October 1915, using the surname Campbell. His records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, had blue eyes and a fair complexion.
Stoker Campbell was based at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. His time in service, however, does not seem to have been a happy one. In fact, within a few months of being conscripted, John had absconded and made his way back to Liverpool.
John was caught and was being brought back to Kent under escort, when the unimaginable happened.
John Connolly, a stoker of the RNR, attached to the Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham, was found dead on the railway near Warren House Crossing, between Sole Street and Cuxton, on Wednesday, with terrible injuries to his head.
Connolly, who is known also as Campbell, had been arrested as a deserter at Liverpool, and was returning to Chatham under escort on Tuesday… The train was very full, and deceased, with his escort, stood in the corridor, where several soldiers were also standing.
Some time after the train had left Herne Hill the escort, Leading Stoker John Edward Craig, left his prisoner to proceed to the lavatory, and when he returned one of the soldiers shouted “Jack, your prisoner had gone out the window.” The train was stopped, but the guard suggested that Craig had better proceed to Rochester instead of searching for the deceased, as the night was very dark. At Rochester Bridge the matter was reported to the military authorities, and a search along the line, then ordered, resulted in the discovery of the body of deceased…
A Lance Corporal of the 2/5th King’s Liverpool Regiment, one of the soldiers in the corridor, gave evidence at the inquest… He said he was standing close by deceased, but did not see him go out of the window, which was open at the time.
It was stated that is was usual in the Navy for one man only to act as escort, as all expenses connected with desertions had to be paid by the prisoners.
The jury found the death resulted from injuries received by deceased in a fall from the train, but that there was not sufficient evidence to prove whether the fall was intentional or otherwise.
South Eastern Gazette: Tuesday 8th February 1916
Whether John had intended to throw himself from the train will never be known. All that can be confirmed is that he died of his injuries on 1st February 1916, aged just 28 years old.
John Connolly was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the dockyard at which he had been based. His epitaph mentioned both of the names he chose to go by, and the inscription: “Beloved husband of Brigid, her one and only love. Re-united RIP. Jesus mercy Mary help.“
Alexander Maguire was born on 28th March 1880 in Glenarm, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Little is known about his early life, apart from his parents’ names – James and Ellen.
Glenarm is a coastal village, and it is likely that Alexander would have had experience of seafaring from an early age. This seems to have spurred him into building a career and, on 16th December 1903, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve as a Stoker.
With war getting closer, Stoker Maguire was called into formal service, and was assigned to the steamer SS Rathlin Head. He sailed the Atlantic in March 1914, and disembarked an New Orleans. It seems, however, that he missed his passage back home, although at this point, his whereabouts become a bit hazy.
Alexander was back in Britain by 13th January 1915, as his service papers record him in Liverpool. He then travelled to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. This looks to have been his last move, however, as he passed away just two days later. The cause of death is simply recorded as ‘disease’: he was 34 years of age.
Alexander Maguire was laid to rest in the Roman Catholic section of Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the dockyard to which he had been assigned.
George Herbert Reardon was born on 29th March 1890 in St Pancras, Middlesex. The second of four children, his parents were tailor Thomas Reardon and his dressmaker wife, Mabel.
When he left school, George worked as an errand boy, presumably for his parents’ business. However, he wanted bigger and better things and, on 6th April 1906, he enlisted in the Royal Navy.
Initially underage, George was given the rank of Boy 2nd Class, and was sent to the training ship HMS Impregnable. After nearly a year there, he was promoted to Boy 1st Class and, on 5th March 1907, was given his first sea-going assignment. Over the following nine months, Boy 2nd Class Reardon served on five ships, the last being the battleship HMS Venerable.
It was while he was assigned to this ship that George came of age, and was formally inducted into the Royal Navy, on a twelve year contract. His service records show that he stood 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall, had brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. He was also noted to have two moles, one on his right upper arm and another on the third finger of his left hand.
The now Ordinary Seaman Reardon remained on HMS Venerable until 1st February 1909, when he was transferred to another battleship, HMS Implacable. He was to spend the next eighteen months on board, and, while there, was promoted again, to Able Seaman.
In September 1910, George came on shore, and was assigned to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, Kent. This was to be his base for the next few years, and he would return there in between voyages.
Over the next four years, he served on four more vessels – HMS St George, Vindictive, Forte and Ganges. Able Seaman Reardon’s last trip, however, was to be on HMS Arethusa, which he boarded on 11th August 1914, just a week after war had been declared.
The Arethusa was a light cruiser built at HMS Pembroke, and was the lead vessel of the Harwich Force, whose aim was to patrol the North Sea. On 28 August 1914, a fortnight after leaving port, she fought at the Battle of Heligoland Bight, and was seriously damaged by two German cruisers, SMS Frauenlob and Stettin.
Eleven souls were lost in the incident, Able Seaman Reardon among them. He was just 24 years of age.
The extent of the damage to HMS Arethusa meant she had to be towed back to England. Once on dry land, George Herbert Reardon was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the dockyard at which he had been based.
Death and Service 