Category Archives: Kent

Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire, Great War, history, injury, Kent, photography, Private, story, Suffolk Regiment, war

Private Harry Pullen

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Private Harry Pullen

What I have discovered while researching the Commonwealth War Graves, is that, despite the general themes I find, the people behind the names always have an individual story to tell. Sometimes that story raises an eyebrow, or produces a gasp.

Such was the story of Private Harry Pullen.

What raised the eyebrow? Two words, written on the Army Records of Soldiers’ Effects.

Accidentally Drowned.

Harry Pullen was born in Shirehampton, Gloucestershire in 1886. His father, Robert Edward Pullen, was a carpenter; he and his wife Hannah Presulga Cissy Pullen had three other children, Gwendoline, Herbert and John.

By the time of the 1901 census, Robert is boarding in a house in Bristol with his three sons; Hannah and Gwendoline are not listed (nor do they appear on any other census records I have been able to locate).

Harry is listed as a Telegraph Boy, as is his brother Herbert, but he seemed to have wanted to take up a trade; by 1910 he had moved up to London.

In March of that year, Harry married Harriet Critchell, a spinster fifteen years his senior. On their marriage records for Christ Church, St Pancras, Harry lists himself as a tradesman. The census a year later confirms this – head of the household, he is an Agent for the Provident Clothing Supply Company. (Founded in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Provident’s mission was to help working-class families provide for themselves through the use of vouchers. These were exchanged for goods in local shops, and paid for in affordable instalments.)

Harry enlisted at some point after 1916. His regiment, the 1st (Reserve) Garrison Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, was not formed until March of that year, and, after starting in Buckinghamshire, it moved to Tilbury in Essex and Gravesend in Kent. The battalion was finally settled in Grain, North Kent in 1918, and it was here that he served.

Here the trail goes frustratingly cold…

Private Pullen’s enlistment and service records are not available, so research is limited to the Army Register of Soldier’s Effects and the Pension Ledgers.

All we have about his death are those two words – Accidental Drowning. There are no contemporary news reports of his passing, which you might expect given the circumstances, so the circumstances surrounding his death are elusive.

Private Pullen died on 10th July 1918. He was 31 years old.

His records confirm that Harriet was entitled to a weekly pension of 15s for the duration of the war and twelves months after.

Harry Pullen is buried in the graveyard of St James’ Church in Grain, Kent, close to where he was stationed.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Royal Army Service Corps, story, Sussex, war

Corporal Edwin Herbert

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Corporal Edwin Herbert

Edwin Herbert was born in 1864, the third of three children to Moses and Melina Herbert of Hove in East Sussex. Moses worked in the cement industry as a labourer, a job that had taken him from his home in Kent to Sussex, and which, by the 1871 census, would return him to his home county.

Edwin married Amelia Charlotte Titus in 1885 and the couple’s first child – a daughter, Nelly – was born a year later.

By the 1891 census, Edwin was also labouring in the North Kent cement industry, something he continued to do for at least the next twenty years, as confirmed in the following two censuses.

The Herberts’ second child, Amelia, was born in 1901, the year after Edwin’s mother passed away. The family were, by then, living in Cuxton, just to the south of Rochester. The cement industry was one of the large employers in the Medway valley, and it is not surprising that the family lived in and around that area for so long.

In 1910, Edwin’s father also died, at the age of 69. After the death of Melina, Moses had moved in with his daughter – Edwin’s older sister – in Rochester, and the family were also still labouring in the cement and brickmaking industry.

Edwin’s military records are sketchy. Piecing the evidence together, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps.

It is likely that he did so on a voluntary basis. The cement industry was not protected by exemption. Kitchener’s initial conscription in March 1916 excluded married men. When this was extended in May 1916, there was still a maximum age limit of 41 (Edwin was 52 year old by this point).

By whichever means he had enlisted, Edwin served as a Corporal (there is nothing to confirm whether he was promoted from Private, or if he went straight into service at that rank). He was discharged on 30th July 1918, and it is likely that this was on a medical basis.

Corporal Herbert’s pension documents record that he passed away on 30th October 1918, as a result of carcinoma of the liver and exhaustion. He was 54 years old.

Edwin Herbert lies at peace in the quiet churchyard of St Helen’s in Cliffe, Kent.

The majority of the the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the UK are made from Portland stone, although, in face, over 50 different natural stones have been used.

Corporal Cornell’s headstone is one of two in St Helen’s Churchyard that have been fashioned from dark grey slate.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, East Yorkshire Regiment, Essex, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, story, war

Corporal Charles Cornell

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Corporal Charles Cornell

Charles Cornell was born in July 1885, the youngest of six children to Philip and Martha Cornell, from Ashdon in Essex. Philip was an agricultural labourer, and Charles and his older brother Daniel followed their father into the trade.

Charles was keen to further himself, however, and enlisted in the army. The 1911 census records him as a Private soldier at the Salamanca Barracks in Aldershot.

Private Cornell married Elizabeth Fanny Hoare in Strood, Kent, in October 1913. Beyond this there is little information on either Charles or Elizabeth.

Charles was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment and was promoted to Corporal. This reserve battalion was initially based in the town of Beverley, before moving to Hull and then nearby Withernsea. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Corporal Cornell saw active service on the Western Front.

His passing seems to have been sudden; his pension record shows that he had been admitted to the Military Hospital at Wharncliffe with nephritis (inflamed kidneys). He passed away on 27th January 1918, aged 32 years old.

Corporal Charles Cornell is buried in the graveyard of St Helen’s Church in Cliffe, Kent, the village his widow’s family were from. He is also commemorated in his own family’s village of Ashdon in Essex (where the memorial states he had attained the rank of Sergeant).

The majority of the the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the UK are made from Portland stone, although, in face, over 50 different natural stones have been used.

Corporal Cornell’s headstone is one of two in St Helen’s Churchyard that have been fashioned from dark grey slate.

Commonwealth War Graves, Driver, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Royal Engineers, story, war

Driver William Hagger

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Driver William Hagger

William Joseph Hagger was born in the spring of 1885, one of thirteen children to William Henry Hagger and his wife Emily Ann. The family lived on the Isle of Grain in Kent, where William Sr worked as a labourer in the local cement works.

William Jr was evidently keen to travel. On the 1901 census he is listed as a navyman on HMS Lion, a training vessel in Devonport, Plymouth.

His First World War records state that he officially joined the Royal Navy in 1906, travelling to West Africa as an Able Seaman. While there, he contracted a fever, and was invalided out of the service the following year.

William married Esther Elizabeth Reed in May 1909; by the 1911 census, she was living in Northfleet, Kent, working as a cartridge maker for the local arsenal. William himself is not recorded at the same property, and I have been unable to locate him at this point.

He next appears on the enlistment papers for the Royal Engineers. He joined up very early in the war – December 1914 – and after his training, Driver Hagger embarked for the Western Front in August 1915.

While serving, it seems that his previous affliction resurfaced, and William was dogged by colds and coughs. In the autumn of 1916, he was admitted to a field hospital with haemoptysis (coughing up blood), eventually returning to his unit three months later.

Driver Hagger’s health was fair until, in October 1917, his unit was gassed; he was sent back to England and hospitalised in Aldershot, and this time was discharged from the army six months later.

It seems that William did not recover from his illness and passed away on 22nd November 1918. He was 33 years old.

William Joseph Hagger lies at peace in a quiet corner of St Helen’s Churchyard, in Cliffe, North Kent.

William’s gravestone also acts as memorial to two of his brothers, Henry and Leonard.

Henry Alfred Hagger was born two years after William. He was also keen to make a name for himself, emigrating to California, and working as a streetcar conductor in Oakland. Initially declaring himself exempt from draft as he had a wife to support, he subsequently joined the British Columbia Regiment on 31st July 1917.

Henry was attached to the Forestry Depot of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, who were to be shipped to Europe to harvest trees for use on the Western Front. However, at the point of his medical – in September 1917 – he was discharged as unfit for active service due to his asthma.

Henry Hagger died on 13th February 1919, presumably of his lung condition. He is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery in British Columbia.

Leonard Dealimark Hagger was born in 1899. He enlisted as soon as he was able to, just short of his 18th birthday. Joining the York & Lancaster Regiment, he was posted in 1918.

His battalion saw some of the fiercest of the battles in the closing months of the war – Estaires, Messines, Bailleul, Kemmel Ridge, Scherpenberg, Selle, Valenciennes – and it is likely that Leonard was involved in some of these engagements.

Private Hagger was wounded in the closing weeks of the war, and passed away in a hospital in Liege, Belgium on 15th November 1918. He had just turned 19 years of age.

Private Leonard Hagger lies at peace in the Robermont Cemetery in Belgium.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, story, war

Private Ernest Austin

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Private Ernest Austin

Ernest George Austin was born in early 1888, one of four children – all boys – to Edward Austin and his wife Harriett. The Austin family lived in the village of Cliffe, in the North Kent countryside, where Edward was a carpenter.

Ernest’s older brother Edward worked as a telegram messenger when he left school, and Ernest followed suit, becoming a postman by the time of the 1911 census. The four boys all lived with their now-widowed mother, their father having died seven years earlier.

Duty soon called, however, and Ernest enlisted in July 1916, joining the Army Service Corps. After training in England, he was shipped overseas that autumn.

Private Austin was discharged from the army just over a year later, and the medical report from that time sheds a lot more light onto this young man’s life:

Father [Edward] died of “consumption”.

Has had a chronic cough since a boy. Developed tubercle of lung in 1907. Went to Chile same year, where all symptoms disappeared. Put on weight and lost his cough completely. Returned to England and joined Army July 1916.

Has been in Mesopotamia three months. Cough has returned. Lost weight. Night sweats. Admitted to [military hospital] with sore throat; TB found present.

Admitted to this hospital 14th June 1917 with above symptoms. High temperature, evidence of infection.

In my opinion, the relighting of a latent infection is entirely attributable to active service in Mesopotamia.

Private Ernest Austin’s medical board record, 23rd Jun 1917

Ernest had been hospitalised in the Cumballa War Hospital, Bombay. He was sent home and ultimately discharged from active service on 8th October 1917.

Demobbed, Ernest married Antoinette Gurton at the start of 1918. The marriage was to be short-lived, however, as Ernest appears to have finally succumbed to his illness less than a year later.

Private Ernest Austin passed away on 14th November 1918. He was 31 years old. He lies at rest in the graveyard of St Helen’s Church in his home village of Cliffe, Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, war

Private Edward Carver

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Private Edward Carver

Edward Carver is one of those soldiers whose details have been lost in the mists of time.

From the information I have been able to gather, Edward was born in Kent in 1887, although I have been unable to track down his parents or any firm census records.

Edward married Violet Ethel Caroline Belsey in April 1918 and enlisted in the Royal West Kent (Queen’s Own) Regiment, although he later transferred to the Labour Corps. I have nothing to confirm, however, in which order these three events happened.

The Army Register of Soldier’s Effects records that Private Carver died at home – Chestnut Street in Sittingbourne – and confirms that this was on 20th November 1918, around six months after he and Violet married.

Nothing in contemporary media suggests that his passing was unusual, so it can only be assumed that something like pneumonia or influenza was the cause of his death. (It might also had had something to do with his transfer of regiments, although, again, I have nothing to confirm that this might be the case.)

Edward Carver lies at rest in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Newington, Kent. He was 31 years old.

As an aside, Edward’s widow, Violet, married an Arthur Beaumont in December 1919, and the couple went on to have two children.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, Kent, photography, Royal Field Artillery, story, war

Gunner Thomas Holloway

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Gunner Thomas Holloway

Thomas Charles Holloway was born in Chatham, Kent in 1893. The fourth of five children, his parents were Joseph, a domestic coachman, and Caroline Holloway.

By the time of the 1911 census, Thomas had left school and was working in a corn warehouse.

Thomas presented a bit of a challenge when I was researching his history.

His military records show that he enlisted on 31st December 1914, signing up to the Royal Field Artillery. However, Gunner Holloway’s service records show that he was posted on 9th January 1915, before being discharged as medically unfit just a week later. The records confirm that he served for 16 days.

The medical attestation states that he was discharged because of cardiac dilation and hypertrophy, a systolic murmur and dyspnoea, all heart-related conditions.

Despite only serving for just over a fortnight, he was afforded a Commonwealth War Grave when he died.

Searching the local newspapers of the time, a bigger story was unveiled.

The death of Bombardier Thomas Holloway, aged 24, of the RFA… occurred in a hospital at Cambridge. He was kicked by a horse in the course of his training, nearly two years ago, and had practically been on the sick list ever since. On recovering from the effects of the accident, he was seized with spotted fever at Seal, and ultimately succumbed to paralysis of the brain.

East Kent Gazette: Saturday 21st July 1917

The discrepancies between the original discharge and the newspaper report are intriguing. Either way, this was a young life cut far too short: he was 24 years old.

Gunner Thomas Holloway lies at rest in St Margaret’s Churchyard, in his home town of Rainham in Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Mechanic, photography, Royal Air Force, story, war

Air Mechanic Reuben Hadlow

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Air Mechanic Reuben Hadlow

Reuben Victor Stanley Hadlow was born in the spring of 1898. He was one of thirteen children to John Charles Tarpe Hadlow and his wife Gertrude, publicans at the Star pub in Whitstable, Kent.

When war broke out, Reuben was working as a blacksmith; he enlisted in the army in the summer of 1914, serving on the home front.

In February 1916 Private Hadlow transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a Air Mechanic 2nd Class, and was assigned to the 65 Training Squadron in Croydon. He was promoted to Air Mechanic 1st Class six months later.

When the RFC became the Royal Air Force, Air Mechanic Hadlow moved across to the new institution. He moved to support 156 Squadron in November 1918, then the 35 Training Depot Station shortly after.

Air Mechanic Hadlow contracted phthisis (tuberculosis) towards the end of that year, which led to his being discharged from the RAF on 22nd January 1919.

Reuben’s health did not recover after returning home – his parents were running the King’s Arms pub in Boxley near Maidstone by this point. He passed away on 17th September 1919, aged twenty-one.

He lies at rest in the churchyard of St Mary and All Saints, in his parent’s village.

Poignantly, his gravestone is not a traditional war grave. Instead it states that he died “after a painful illness and serving his country 4 1/2 years”.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Kent, Lance Corporal, photography, Royal Defence Corps, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, war

Lance Corporal William Larkin

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Lance Corporal William Larkin

William Larkin was born in 1863, the eldest son of Alfred and Frances Larkin from Cranbrook in Kent.

He disappears off the radar for a few censuses – there are too many variations on his surname to identify exactly where he was on the 1881 and 1891 documents.

From later documents, however, we can identify that he married Eliza in around 1886; the couple had no children. By the 1901 censes the couple were living to the north of Maidstone; ten years later, they were running the Fox & Goose pub in Weavering, Kent.

Private Larkin’s military service is also lacking in documentation, but some information can be pieced together.

Originally enlisting in the Royal West Kent Regiment, he (was) transferred over to the Royal Defence Corps, and served on home soil.

On Sunday 2nd April 1916, Lance Corporal Larkin was on guard at a gunpowder factory in Faversham, Kent. As the Ministry of Munitions reported at the time:

During the weekend a serious fire broke out in a powder factory in Kent, which led to a series of explosions in the works.

The fire, which was purely accidental, was discovered at midday and the last of the explosions took place shortly after two in the afternoon.

The approximate number of casualties is 200.

Thanet Advertiser: Saturday 8th April 1916.

William was not killed during the Faversham Explosion, but Boxley Parish Council (who covered the Weavering area) carried out research on the names on the village war memorial. According to that research, William “developed cancer after the ‘Faversham Powder Works’ explosion”. He died two months later, on 8th July 1916. He was 53 years of age.

Lance Corporal William Larkin lies at rest in the graveyard of St Mary & All Saints Church in Boxley, Kent.

More details of the Faversham Explosion, along with the servicemen who died there, can be found here.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, Kent, Kent Royal Garrison Artillery, photography, story, war

Gunner Frederick Brooks

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Gunner Frederick Brooks

Frederick Brooks was born in the spring of 1897, the ninth of eleven children to Stephen and Grace Brooks. Stephen worked as a woodsman in Bredhurst, Kent, a trade his eldest sons followed him into.

Yewtree Cottages in Bredhurst, home to the Brooks Family

Frederick’s service records show that, when he enlisted in nearby Rainham, he was working as a fence maker. He was 5ft 6ins (168cm) tall, weighed 143lbs (65kg) and had fair physical development. He joined up in September 1915 and was assigned to the 2/1 Company Kent Royal Garrison Artillery.

Gunner Brooks’ early service was on home soil as part of the Territorial Force. However, he was transferred overseas as part of the British Expeditionary Force on 10th March 1917, where he served for nearly two years.

Frederick fell ill in January 1919, and was brought back to the UK for treatment. He was admitted to the Weir Red Cross Hospital in Balham, London, with bronchial pneumonia. He succumbed to heart failure just a few days later, on 4th February 1919. He was just 21 years old.

Gunner Frederick Brooks lies at rest in a peaceful corner of the secluded graveyard of St Peter’s Church in his home village of Bredhurst.

Frederick’s life throws a couple of coincidences my way. I used to live within spitting distance of his village, Bredhurst, and, indeed, have driven past his family home countless times. I also happened to have been born in the same hospital – the Weir in Balham – where Frederick had passed away 53 years earlier.