Category Archives: London

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Labour Corps, London, photography, Private, Royal Garrison Artillery, story, Sussex, war

Gunner Percy Gast

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Rustington

Percy Cyril Edward Gast was born in the West Sussex village of Nutbourne in 1889. His parents were William and Eliza Gast and he was one of sixteen children, seven of whom survived.

William was an agricultural labourer, and farming was the line of work the whole family went into; by the time of the 1911 census, they had moved to Rustington, near Worthing, where Percy was working as a cowman.

When war broke out, Percy enlisted, joining the Royal Garrison Artillery. His skillset soon identified, he was transferred over to the 696th Agricultural Company of the Labour Corps.

While full details of his time in the army are not readily available, Private Gast served his time on home soil. Towards the end of the war he contracted influenza and pneumonia and was admitted to the Mile End Military Hospital in Newham, East London.

Sadly, the lung conditions were to prove his undoing; Private Gast passed away on 20th November 1918, at the age of just 29 years old.

Percy Cyril Edward Gast’s body was brought back to Rustington for burial. He lies at rest in the graveyard of St Peter and St Paul’s Church in the Sussex village.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Ireland, Kent, London, Officer's Steward, photography, Royal Navy, story, war

Officer’s Steward Gerald Connolly

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Officer’s Steward Gerald Connolly

Gerald Sidney Connolly was born in the spring of 1899, one of eleven children to Thomas and Mary Connolly. Thomas was a retired soldier who had been born in Malta, while Mary had come from Portsmouth. The couple had lived in India for a while, but, by the time Gerald was born, had settled in Kildare, Ireland.

Retirement from the armed forces left Thomas needing to financially support his family, and so they made the move to London in 1910. According to the following year’s census, the family had settled in Manor Park, to the east of the city, where Thomas was working as a storekeeper for a local hostelry.

Military service was obviously in young Gerald’s blood and, in April 1916, he gave up work as an errand boy for a life in the Royal Navy. Initially taken on as a servant boy at HMS Pembroke and HMS President – the shore-based establishments in Chatham, Kent – he subsequently served on HMS Shannon, a cruiser that patrolled the North Sea for German warships.

It was while he was aboard the Shannon that Gerald came of age, and was given the rank of Officer’s Steward (3rd Class). During the next few years, he served short periods on five further vessels, before returning to HMS Pembroke in December 1918.

Officer’s Steward Connolly was still serving in Chatham two months later, and he kept himself active. It was while he was making use of the barracks’ swimming baths that an accident befell him. His service record confirmed that he was found drowned in the baths on 26th February 1919 and a subsequent inquest identified that no foul play was to blame. Gerald had ‘accidentally drowned whilst bathing’. He was just 19 years of age.

Gerald Sidney Connolly’s body was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the Naval Dockyard where he was based.

Able Seaman, Commonwealth War Graves, County Durham, Great War, Hertfordshire, history, illness, Ireland, Kent, London, photography, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Navy, Scotland, story, war

Able Seaman Michael Goulding

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Able Seaman Michael Goulding

Michael Joseph O’Neill Goulding was born on 5th May 1884, the oldest of six children to Michael and Ellen Goulding (née O’Neill). Michael Sr worked for the inland revenue and his job took him around most parts of the British Isles.

Michael Jr had been born in Limerick – both of his parents came from Ireland – but his subsequent three siblings (Patrick, Margaret and William) had all been born in Scotland. His second youngest sibling, Lily, was born in County Durham, the youngest back in Scotland, while, by the time of the 1901 census, the whole family were living in Forest Gate, East London.

The census also shows that Michael Jr, having left school, was working at Customs House (presumably where his father was employed), as a boy copyist on tea accounts. The inland revenue at that time was a career for life; by the next census in 1911, the family had moved to Hertford, where Michael Sr was a customs and excise supervisor, and Michael Jr was an assistant clerk at the same place of employment.

War was on its way, but Michael seems not to have enlisted immediately. While specific dates for his joining up are not available, it appears that he was still working for the Inland Revenue when he got married in Shoreditch, in April 1917. His wife was called Bridget Mary Gough (known as Bryde), and she had also been born in Ireland. The couple went on to have a daughter, Ellen (or Eileen), the following year.

By this time, Michael had definitely enlisted. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and was based at HMS Pembroke, the shore-based establishment in Chatham, Kent. This was the location for the Navy’s main accounting base, so it is likely that he was employed for financial, rather than his military, skills.

Able Seaman Goulding served through to the end of the war and beyond, and it was while he was based in Kent that he became unwell. Admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, he succumbed to a combination of bronchitis and pneumonia on 22nd February 1919. He was 34 years of age.

Michael Joseph O’Neill Goulding was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in nearby Gillingham. His family were still in Hertford, while his widow and daughter moved back to Ireland.

Michael Joseph O’Neill Goulding
(courtesy of ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, Kent, London, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 1st Class Cornelius O’Brien

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Stoker Cornelius O’Brien

Documentation on the early life of Cornelius Edward O’Brien is pretty scarce, so it is impossible to build a picture of him before the First World War. He was born in the late 1890s in Whitechapel, East London and was working as a carman when he received his enlistment papers.

Cornelius joined the Royal Navy as a stoker on 27th November 1915 and was sent to HMS Vivid II, the shore-based establishment in Devonport that served as the Stokers and Engine Room Artificers School. He trained there for a couple of months before being assigned to HMS Drake, where he spent most of 1916.

Returning to Devonport, Stoker O’Brien spent a further year on board HMS Vivid II, gaining the rank of Stoker 1st Class. By the end of 1917, however, he was back at sea, having been sent to HMS Vixen, a naval destroyer that served in the Thames Estuary, performing anti-submarine patrols and counter mining operations there.

In mid-November 1918, with the war officially over, Cornelius was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, suffering from influenza, pneumonia and pleurisy. Sadly these were to prove too much of a challenge for him and he passed away on 21st November 1918.

Cornelius Edward O’Brien was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, not far from the Naval Dockyard in Chatham.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, London, Ordinary Seaman, photography, Private, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Navy, story, unknown, war

Ordinary Seaman William Stanley

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Ordinary Seaman William Stanley

William Alfred Stanley is one of those names that seems destined to be lost to the annuls of time. Little documentation exists for his early life, but what there is gives some hints at a determined young man.

William was born in London to an Annie Stanley, who lived in the Kentish Town area of the city. At some point, he emigrated to Canada as, according to his wartime enlistment papers, he joined up in Ontario.

William enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 5th November 1915, and was initially assigned to the 44th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. His troop embarked for England in July 1916, and, on his arrival he was transferred to the 98th Battalion.

It was at this point that things too an unusual turn. With a few months, Private Stanley was again transferred, this time to the 19th Battalion, and then again to the 4th Reserve Battalion from where he was discharged from the Canadian Infantry in February 1917 for being underage.

At this point, William seems to have been undeterred.

The next record for him – in fact the memorial to him – is his headstone. This confirms that he had enlisted in the Royal Naval Canadian Voluntary Reserve as an Ordinary Seaman. He was based at HMS Pembroke, the shore establishment at Chatham Dockyard, but there is no other information for him.

Ordinary Seaman Stanley died on 28th December 1917, at the age of 21. (His previous military discharge might suggest that he was, in fact, younger than this, but that is conjecture on my part.) There is no record of a cause of death and nothing in contemporary newspapers to suggest anything out of the ordinary.

William Alfred Stanley was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the Naval Dockyard where he had been based.

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

Private Daniel Norman

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Private Daniel Norman

Daniel Britton Norman was born in Yeovil, Somerset, in early 1891, the youngest of four children. Joseph and Eliza Norman, Daniel’s parents, ran the Blue Ball Inn in the town centre, something Eliza took over when her husband died.

There is little information on Joseph’s passing, but a report in the local newspaper may allude to what led to his death:

On Friday [16th January 1891], Mr J Norman, of the Blue Ball Inn, was riding in a waggon through the Borough when he was jerked off onto the road. One of the wheels passed over his right leg, breaking a vein.

Western Chronicle: Friday 23rd January 1891

By the time of the 1911 census, Eliza too had given up the reins of the Blue Ball Inn. At the age of 59, she was living with her two sons in a house on the outskirts of the town; Daniel was listed as a motor mechanic, while his older brother Rowland was a cabinet maker.

War broke out and Daniel enlisted in April 1916. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps and was assigned to the Motor Transport Division. Based in London, Private Norman had received three weeks’ training, when he was taken ill.

Admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich with cerebro-spinal meningitis, Private Norman quickly went downhill. He died in the hospital on 26th May 1916, aged just 26 years old.

Brought back to Yeovil, Daniel Britton Norman was buried in Yeovil Cemetery, alongside his father.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, London, photography, Private, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, war

Private James Plympton

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Private James Plympton

James Plympton was born in the spring of 1875, one of four children to Richard and Mary Plympton from Yeovil, Somerset. They raised the family in a cottage to the south of the town centre, where Richard was a labourer and Mary a glover. When they left school, James and his two brothers followed in their father’s footsteps, finding labouring work in the local area.

In the summer of 1899, when James was 24, he married Elizabeth Maria Holt, an agricultural labourer’s daughter from the village of Misterton, near Crewkerne. The couple would go on to have six children, but, according to the 1901 census, they had set up home near the centre of Yeovil, with their first born, Dorothy, and James’ recently widowed mother.

Mary, at 69, was no longer working, and so Elizabeth found employment as a cloth ripper – presumably for the local glove industry – earning a little extra money to support James’ labouring work. This was a job that he continued to do: the 1911 census found James and Elizabeth living in a five-roomed cottage in Yeovil; Mary had by this time passed away, as had young Dorothy, but the couple were surrounded by their other five children, Elizabeth looking after them and James working as a jobbing mason.

By now war was imminent, and James enlisted to play his part. While full details of his service are no longer available, it is evident that he had joined up by the summer of 1915. He was a Private in the Somerset Light Infantry and was assigned to the 7th (Service) Battalion. He was shipped to France on 24th July 1915, and, for his service, was awarded the 1915 Star and the British and Victory Medals.

Private Plympton returned from France at the start of 1916; he was suffering from nephritis – inflamed kidneys – and was admitted to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Sadly, it seems that his treatment came too late; he passed away on 31st January 1916, at the age of 41.

James’ body was brought back to his home town; he was laid to rest in Yeovil Cemetery.

A local newspaper, the Western Chronicle, reported on James’ funeral; interestingly it gave his rank as Sergeant, although none of the official military documentation corroborates this.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, Labour Corps, London, photography, Private, story, unknown, war

Private Percival Peacock

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Private Percival Peacock

Percival William Peacock was born in early 1888, the son of Thomas and Louisa Peacock. Little information survives about Percival’s early life, other than that he was one of two children, and that, like his parents, he had been born in Gillingham, Kent. Thomas was a sexton and gravedigger, but Percival found work as a hairdresser.

The 1911 census shows him as head of the household in a cottage in the village of Stone, near Dartford; he was living there with his cousin James and his family.

On 21st April 1913, now living in Kensal Green, North London, Percival married Clara Milton, a labourer’s daughter from just a few doors up.

War was now imminent, but again there is limited information about Percival’s involvement. He did enlist, joining the Labour Corps as a Private, but this seems to have been later in the war. He appears to have served on home soil, although there is nothing to confirm this either way.

The next concrete evidence for Percival is the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects. This confirms that he passed away on 5th December 1918 at the Paddington Military Hospital in London. No cause of death is provided, and the beneficiary given is his father, Thomas. Private Peacock was just 30 years old.

Percival William Peacock was laid to rest in the Grange Road Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent. Hs is commemorated in the nearby Woodlands Cemetery.

Tragedy was not far from the Peacocks’ life. Clara’s mother, Bessie, had passed away just a couple of weeks before Percival. Clara herself died on 5th March 1919, three months after her husband.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Lance Corporal, London, photography, Royal Engineers, Sergeant, South Africa, story, war

Serjeant Albert Romain

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Serjeant Albert Romain

Albert William Romain was born in Gillingham, Kent, at the start of 1888, the middle of three children to Henry and Florence. Henry was a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers and is seemed inevitable that his son would follow suit.

Henry died in 1896, and was buried in the Grange Road Cemetery, Gillingham (now a public park). The 1901 census recorded Albert as a pupil at the Duke of York’s Royal Military Asylum in Chelsea. This was, in fact, a school for the children of soldiers, and it is likely that Albert was sent there to be educated when his father died.

The Royal Engineers obviously proved too great a lure for the young Albert. While full details of his service are not available, he had definitely enlisted early on, and was listed as a Lance Corporal in the Tempe barracks in Bloemfontein, South Africa in the 1911 census.

When war broke out, he was called back to Europe, as was on the Western Front by November 1914. Little further information on Albert is available – during the conflict he was assigned to D Company of the Royal Engineers, but the end of the war, he had become a Sergeant in the 1st Reserve Battalion.

In November 1918, back on UK soil, he was admitted to the Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Chatham, Kent. His condition is unclear, but sadly it was to be one to which he would succumb. Sergeant Romain died on 8th November 1918; he was just 30 years old.

Albert William Romain was laid to rest with his father in the Grange Road Cemetery. He is commemorated in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Kent, London, photography, Private, story, war

Private William Ridley

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Private William Ridley

William Frederick Ridley was born on 7th April 1887 in the New Brompton area of Chatham/Gillingham, Kent, one of eight children to John and Elizabeth Ridley. John was an engine fitter in the nearby naval dockyard and, as the key employer in the area, William followed in his father’s footsteps.

Sadly, John died in 1904, and this seems to have been what spurred his son on to a better life. In 1907 William emigrated to Canada, settling in the town of Wentworth, on the banks of Lake Ontario.

It was in Ontario that William met his future wife. Edith Wass was the daughter of a local labourer; the young couple married on 5th June 1909, and went on to have two children, John, born in 1910, and Wilfred, who was born five years later.

During this time, William was putting his engineering skills to the test; his marriage banns confirm he was a machinist. While there is nothing to confirm any specific trade, given his proximity to the coast, dockyard employment seems probable.

On the other side of the Atlantic, war was breaking out; keen to do his part for King and Country, William enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 28th July 1915. Initially enlisting in the 76th Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Infantry, he was shipped to England a year later and transferred across to the 4th Battalion.

Once on the Western Front, Private Ridley was thrown right into the thick of things. His battalion fought at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette – part of the Battle of the Somme – and it was here, on 18th September 1916, that he was wounded.

William received shrapnel wounds to his head, hand and right leg. Initially treated on site, he was quickly evacuated back to England, and admitted to the 2nd London General Hospital in Chelsea. Sadly, however, his wounds appeared to have been too severe; Private Ridley passed away from them on 30th November 1916, aged just 29 years old.

With his widow and children still in Canada, William’s body was taken back to Kent. He lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, close to where his mother was still living.

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Private William Ridley
(from findagrave.com)