Category Archives: London

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Kent, London, Middlesex Regiment, photography, Private, story, war

Private Alfred Lewis

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Private Alfred Lewis

There are some people whose stories just don’t want to be unearthed. It’s rare, but occasionally the brick walls come up and you just can’t find a crack through them.

Private A Lewis seems to be one of those people.

The gravestone is in Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent. The inscription reads:

G/39918 Private

A Lewis

Middlesex Regiment

11th April 1919

Military records for the service number are scarce, which is not unusual, but unearth two things. Private Lewis’ first name was Alfred, and he was married to a woman called Amelia.

Further research leads to his wife’s full maiden name, Amelia Florence May Courtney, and that she was the daughter of a draper’s assistant, born in London. The couple married in December 1909.

Frustratingly at this point, the trail goes cold. There is a record for an Alfred and Millie Lewis living in Gillingham in the 1911 census, but I am not convinced that they are the same couple.

Alfred Lewis is too common a name to be able to pinpoint any life before his marriage with any certainty, particularly as their marriage record does not give his parents’ names.

All I can say is that Alfred Lewis enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment, although there is no confirmation of when he enrolled. He gained both the Victory and British Medals, but there is nothing to confirm whether he service abroad or part of a territorial force.

Alfred was admitted to the War Hospital in Whitchurch, which was a psychiatric hospital to the north of Cardiff. He was recorded as suffering from paralysis, though whether this was the result of a physical or mental trauma is not clear.

Sadly, Private Lewis passed away on 11th April 1919; his age is unknown. He lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, Lance Corporal, London, photography, Royal Marines, Sergeant, story, unknown, war

Sergeant Christopher Faulkner

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Sergeant Christopher Faulkner

Christopher William Thomas Faulkner was born in 1881, one of five children to William and Harriet Faulkner. There is little information about Christopher’s early life, but the 1891 census shows him living with his mother and siblings in the St George’s Barracks in St Martin in the Fields in central London. William is not listed, so it can only be assumed that he was away on duty when the census was completed.

Christopher attended the military school; his record confirms that he was born on 17th June 1881, and spent four months at the school when he was ten years old. William is listed as a Sergeant and the family were living at the St George’s Barracks, which were located in the site now occupied by the National Portrait Gallery.

The military life was indelibly in Christopher’s life by this point. Whilst the records are sparse, he had certainly enlisted by the time he was 25. On Boxing Day 1904 he married a woman called Essie Brant, the daughter of a tailor from Croydon.

On the marriage certificate, Christopher was listed as a Lance Corporal in the Royal Marine Light Infantry and was based at the barracks in Chatham, Kent.

The young couple went on to have four children together and, by 1911, Essie was living in Gillingham, not far from the naval base in Chatham. The majority of Christopher’s career was served here, although when war broke out, he also saw conflict overseas.

By 1916, he was promoted to Sergeant and was assigned to HMS Dominion, which patrolled the North Sea. Ill health must have taken hold, however, and by the end of 1917, Sergeant Faulkner was reassigned to Chatham, before being medically discharged at the beginning of the following year.

Sadly, there is no record of the cause of his release from duty, but it appears to have been something to which he would eventually succumb. The next record is of Sergeant Faulkner’s death, on 5th January 1920, at the age of 39 years old.

Christopher William Thomas Faulkner lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent.

Christopher’s grave also acts as a memorial to his son.

Leslie Albert Gerald Faulkner was born on 9th June 1910. On leaving school, he sought military service like his father, and enlisted in the Royal Navy for a period of twelve years’ service.

Unusually, details of his service appear to end after just three years, in January 1929. However, later records confirm that he continued to serve at HMS Pembroke, the on-shore vessel in Chatham, through to the Second World War, achieving the rank of Chief Petty Officer.

Chief Perry Officer Faulkner’s military records did thrown up some further information, though. Surprisingly, his death records give specific details of the cause of his passing, stating that it was a “rupture of the liver due to secondary neoplasm of the liver, due to primary seminoma of testis”. In effect, Leslie had suffered testicular cancer, which then spread to his liver.

Leslie Albert Gerald Faulkner died on 28th November 1945, at the age of just 35 years old. He was buried in the same grave as his father, in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, history, illness, Kent, London, photography, Royal Marines, story, war

Corporal Albert Shrubsall

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Corporal Albert Shrubsall

Albert Arthur Shrubsall was born in Deptford, South London, in April 1896. He was the youngest of three children – all boys – to ironmonger George Shrubsall and his wife Jessie.

While his brothers continued to live at home after they had left school and got jobs, Albert found live-in work as a pageboy, or servant, for Wilfred Lineham, who was a professor of engineering for a London college. It was while he was working here that his mother, Jessie, passed away. She died in 1913, aged just 43.

Details of Albert’s military service are a bit scant. He enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, although I have been unable to confirm when he joined up. He was assigned to the Chatham Division, and was based at the Naval Dockyard in Kent, ultimately being promoted to Corporal.

Albert married Gertrude Spoore – affectionately known a ‘Ginty’ – in Deptford in October 1917. Sadly, the marriage was to las less than six months, as, on 9th April 1918, Albert passed away, having contracted pneumonia and septicaemia. He was just 22 years old.

Albert lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his adopted home town of Gillingham in Kent.

Albert’s two brothers George and Alfred were also involved in the First World War.

George, had gone on to become a tailor’s assistant when he left school. He married Emily Hawkes in 1911, and the couple went on to have a son, also called George, the following year.

When war broke out, he enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps, and served on the Western Front. Sadly, he was caught up in the fighting, and was killed in action on 22nd August 1917. He was buried at the Tyne Cot Memorial in Flanders.

When he left school, Alfred went on to become a butcher’s assistant. War came along, and he enlisted straight away.

Enrolling in the Royal Field Artillery, Gunner Shrubsall was assigned to the 95th Brigade. Sadly, he had recorded less than six months’ service, as he passed away on 8th January 1915, aged just 21 years old. His brigade did not go to France until the following year, so, while no cause of death is recorded, it is likely that he died from a communicable disease like influenza or pneumonia.

Alfred is buried in the family grave in Deptford, South London.

Within a period of just three years, George had lost all three of his sons to the Great War. Given the previous death of his wife, you can only imagine the heartbreak he was going through.