A verdict of drowned was returned at the inquest at Dartmouth on Saturday evening on James Lineham (18), a seaman, whose body was recovered from the sea. Lineham was bathing in Dartmouth harbour nine days ago. He called for help, and a comrade with him caught him by the hair, but could not retain his hold. The skipper found the body drifting towards the ship on Saturday.
[Western Times: Tuesday 13th August 1918]
Beyond the newspaper report on James Lineham’s death, there is tantalisingly little information about him or his life. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirm he was a Deck Hand in the Mercantile Marine Reserve, and that he was assigned to the HM Drifter Niedra.
James’ pension record add a little more light and a little more confusion to the matter. This names Miss Beatrice Lineham as his dependant, and confirms she was in the care of Mrs Buchly of 22 Vera Road Fulham.
The document has another name on it, written in red, that of a Acting Corporal Thomas Lineham of the Army Service Corps, who died from disease on 7th February 1917. The word daughter is also written in red, so it would seem that Beatrice was Thomas’ child, and potentially James’ niece.
Frustratingly, Thomas’ service number is the same as Deck Hand Lineham’s so it is not possible to trace any more information about his army service.
A more general search of census records draws a blank too: there is no combination of James and Thomas Lineham, with or without Beatrice, in the Fulham area in the 1901 or 1911 records.
It would seem, therefore, that the life of Deck Hand James Lineham , who drowned in the River Dart on 2nd August 1918, is destined to remain lost to time. His secrets were buried with him in St Clements’ Churchyard, Dartmouth, Devon.
James McLeod was born on 15th April 1893 in Dunedin, New Zealand. There is little further information about his early life, although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission give his father’s name as Samuel, and his service records note his next-of-kin as his brother, George McLeod.
James was employed by A&T Watt as a French polisher. However, he gave that up on 25th January 1915, when he enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. His service records show that he was 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall, and weighed 166lbs (75.3kg). He was recorded a having fair hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.
Private McLeod was assigned to the New Zealand Otago Regiment, and undertook his initial training on home soil. He evidently showed some promise as, on 1st May, he was promoted to Lance Corporal. Six weeks later his unit was heading for Europe, and by the summer James was in Egypt.
On 20th August 1915, Private McLeod was admitted to the New Zealand and Australian Convalescent Hospital in Mena with a gun shot wound to his finger. He remained there for three weeks, returning to his unit in time for them to leave for the Dardanelles on 7th November 1915.
What happened to James over the next couple of months is uncertain. Certainly he was on the Greek island of Moudros by 18th November and in the Dardanelles on 7th December 1915. Just 20 days later he was back in Alexandria, and he would remain there for the next few months. There is, however, nothing in his medical record to suggest that his return to Egypt was on health reasons.
On 6th April 1916, Private McLeod was on the move again, this time to France. He was wounded again on 14th July 1916, and medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. Details of this injury are not clear, but he was admitted to the 2nd London General Hospital in Chelsea, Middlesex. After a month recuperating, James was released from hospital and sent to camp in Hornchurch, Essex. At this point he was also demoted to Private, although, again, the reason is unclear: it may have been a personal choice, or the reversion may have been connected to his injuries.
In September 1916, Private McLeod was transferred to the ANZAC Camp on the outskirts of Codford, Wiltshire. That winter he contracted pleurisy, and he was admitted to the No. 3 New Zealand Hospital, which was connected to the camp, on Christmas Day. His condition worsened, and James passed away from pneumonia on 28th December 1916. He was just 23 years of age.
Thousands of miles from home, James McLeod was laid to rest alongside his fellow soldiers in the extension to the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Codford.
Alexander Albert Sturrock was born in the autumn of 1877. The second of two children, he was the only son of Alexander and Elizabeth Sturrock. Alexander Sr was a plasterer from Scotland, while his wife had been born in Bristol. It was in the Pimlico area of Middlesex, however, that the couple would raise their two children: Alexander and his older sister Eleanor.
The 1891 census found the family living at 253 Wellington Buildings, on Ebury Bridge Road. According to the next census, however, they had taken rooms at 52 Warriner Gardens, south of the Thames in Battersea.
By 1901, the Sturrocks had moved north again, and were living at 7 Fulham Place in Paddington. One of three families in the house, Alexander Sr and Elizabeth shared the rooms with their son and Eleanor’s son, Leslie. Alexander Sr was still working as a plasterer, while his son was now employed as a clerk.
Alexander Jr married Edith Concanen in 1910. A widow, she had a son, Douglas, and the three of them lived in her family home on Camden Road, Sutton, Surrey. Alexander was working as a commercial accountant, and at some point in the next five years, the family moved to Paignton, Devon.
When war came to Europe, Alexander stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in Exeter on 17th November 1915, and joined the Devonshire Regiment. His service records note that he was 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall and weighed 185lbs (83.9kg). He was also recorded as having Edith’s name tattooed on his left forearm.
Private Sturrock was mobilised the following June, and was attached the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in August 1916, and transferred to the 8th (Service) Battalion. Shipped to France in December, he would spend the next eighteen months overseas.
Alexander had ongoing issues with his health, however, and was hospitalised at least three times with diarrhoea. In July 1918, he was transferred to the Labour Corps, and reassigned to home soil. Promoted to Corporal by this point, he was attached to the 114th unit, although it is unclear where he served.
Corporal Sturrock’s health continued to dog him. The Armistice signed, he was medically discharged with nephritis on 14th June 1919, and returned home. Sadly, his reunion with Edith was not to be a lengthy one. Alexander passed away on 25th July 1919: he was 41 years of age.
Alexander Albert Sturrock was laid to rest in Paignton Cemetery, overlooking the town he had most recently called home.
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.
Arthur Wellesley Harcourt was born on 18th June 1895 in Brentford, Middlesex. He was the youngest of five children to Charles and Eliza Harcourt.
The son of a Baptist minister, Charles was a banker’s clerk, but “practically the whole of [his] leisure in a busy life [was] spent in mission work, mainly in Middlesex…” [Middlesex & Surrey Express – Saturday 13 October 1900] When he died in 1900, at the age of 57, Eliza was left to raise her younger children alone.
Arthur’s young life was to be one of travel. The 1901 census, taken just six months after his father’s death, found him living in Walton le Soken (now Walton-on-the-Naze), Essex. Eliza had taken rooms for the family in a lodging house at 9 New Pier Street, yards from the town’s stony beach.
The next record for Arthur is from 1908. Surprisingly, for the grandson of a Baptist minister and the son of a missionary, he seems not to have been baptised when he was born. The document shows that he was christened on 26th April, at St Mary’s Church in the village of Sporle with Palgrave in Norfolk. There is nothing to confirm why he was in Norfolk, or why he chose to be baptised there: the 1911 census found Eliza and his siblings living back in Middlesex.
By this point, Arthur was on the move again. Now fifteen years of age, the same census found him visiting George and Amelia Kerswill at their home in Exeter, Devon. George was a retired nurseryman and florist from Hendon, and it seems likely that the couple were friends of the family.
By the time war broke out, the Harcourts had moved once again, this time setting up home in Reculver, Kent. Arthur was working as a surveyor’s assistant, but felt drawn to play his part. On 8th March 1917, he enlisted, joining the Army Service Corps as a Private. His records show that he was 5ft 4.5ins (1.61m) tall, and weighed 96lbs (43.5kg). He was of fair physical development, but it was noted that he had an understandard chest, but was deemed fit for military service.
Private Harcourt was sent to Somerset for training. Tragically, however, his health was to take a dramatic downturn. Admitted to the Bath War Hospital on 1st April with influenza, this quickly developed into double pneumonia and pleurisy. The strain was to be too much for his young body to bear: Arthur passed away on 18th April 1917, at the age of just 21 years old.
Surprisingly, Eliza, whilst able to live on her own means, did not chose to lay her son to rest close to home. Instead, Arthur Wellesley Harcourt was buried in Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, not far from the hospital in which he had breathed his last.
Herbert – or Bertie – Smart was born on 9th February 1885, and was the middle of five children to John and Lucy. John worked as a gardener and the family were raised in the Kent town of Sidcup.
By the early 1900s, Bertie had moved to London, and had settled in Islington, Middlesex. He was working as a fruiterer and, on 19th May 1907, he married Lucy Purton, a policeman’s daughter from the east of the capital.
The couple set up home in Kensington, and went on to have four children: Frank, Herbert, Kathleen and Frederick. The 1911 census found the family renting three rooms in a tenement at 36 Netherwood Road. They were sharing their home with Lucy’s younger brother, Frederick.
When war broke out across Europe, Bertie was called upon to play his part. Full service details have been lost to time, but it is clear that he enlisted in the second half of 1916, and was assigned to the Northumberland Fusiliers. Attached to the 2nd/4th Battalion, it seems that he may have been sent to the South West for training.
Private Smart’s time in the army was not to be a lengthy one. He came down with cerebrospinal meningitis, and was admitted to the War Hospital in Bath, Somerset. The condition was to get the better of him: he passed away was still admitted, on 11th January 1917. He was 31 years of age.
Herbert Smart was laid to rest in the sweeping grounds of Bath’s Locksbrook Cemetery.
These were tragic times for the Smart family. Lucy’s brother died just four months after her husband, and Lucy herself passed away in February 1918. In just over a year, the four children – Frank, Herbert, Kathleen and Frederick – had become orphans.
John Adams Boura was born in the spring of 1868 in Kensington, Middlesex. The middle of three children, his parents were Julien and Esther Boura. Julien was the son of a French immigrant, who had built up two businesses as a dyer and cleaner (the first business having failed).
John followed in his father’s line of employment, and, by the time of the 1891 census, he was living with business partner Isabel Knight, at 3 St Mark’s Place in Wimbledon, Surrey. Work and pleasure were obviously mixing, though, and, on 3rd October that year, the couple married in the nearby Queen’s Road Chapel.
The newlyweds would go on to have a son, also called John, in March 1895. By the start of the new century, the family has moved out of the capital, relocating to Aldershot, Hampshire, where they set up a new business at 111 Victoria Road, in the town centre.
Within the next decade, however, the Bouras had moved back to the London suburbs, setting up home and business in Merton, Surrey. A new alliance was forged at 106 Kingston Road, with the three sharing their home with Henry and Adelaide Shelley. All four adults were involved in the business, while the now 16-year-old John Jr was employed as a dentistry improver.
Julien – who was also known by his middle name, Aimé – and Esther had moved to Maidenhead in Berkshire by this point, and in September 1910, it seems that their son visited them. An argument seems to have erupted, and John was arrested. Taken before the Maidenhead Petty Sessions, he was tried for unlawfully and maliciously damaging the glass of certain windows, exceeding he amount of £5 to wit £8 6s., the property of Aimé Boura. John was find a total of £10 for the damage.
When war broke out, John stepped up to serve his country. While his service documents are long since lost, other records suggest that he had enlisted by the summer of 1916, and likely volunteered, give he was in mid-40s by this point. Private Boura was assigned to the Royal Army Service Corps, and was to be based at the Supply Depot in Bath, Somerset.
It is probable that John’s dying and cleaning background meant that he was involved in uniforms in some way, although nothing concrete remains to document his time in the army. During the early part of 1917, he fell ill, coming down with bronchitis. He was admitted to Bath War Hospital, but the condition was to get the better of him. Private Boura passed away on 9th February 1917, at the age of 48.
The body of John Adams Boura was laid to rest in Bath’s majestic Locksbrook Cemetery, not far from the hospital in which he had passed.
Victor George Evans was born in the autumn of 1882, one of eleven children to George and Charlotte Evans. George was a woodsman from Aldworth in Berkshire, and it was here that he and Charlotte raised their growing family.
There is little concrete information about Victor’s early life. While his family were living on Bethesda Street in Basildon, Berkshire, at the time of the 1901 census, Victor is noticeable by his absence.
On 29th January 1910, Victor married Edith Rains in Kensington, Middlesex. She appears to have been a dressmaker’s apprentice, and had been born in Moulton, Lincolnshire. The next year’s census recorded Victor employed as a butler for the Clutton family. His boss, Ralph Clutton, was a lawyer, and the family resided at 5 Vicarage Gate, not far from Kensington Palace. This time, however, it is Edith who is missing from the census record and, given that she had given birth to their one and only child, Phyllis, the year before, it is likely that she was recuperating elsewhere, possibly with the support of her family.
When war broke out, Victor was called upon to serve his country. On 22nd December 1916, he enlisted, joining the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Gunner. His service records show that 34 years of age and stood 5ft 7.5ins (1.71m) tall.
Victor was recorded as being a messenger, and he and Edith were living with his older sister, Rachel, at 17 Adeney Road in Hammersmith, Middlesex. The document suggests, however, that Phyllis was in the care of Edith’s parents in Lincolnshire, possible to enable both her and Victor to work.
Gunner Evans was assigned to the 270th Siege Battery, and he was soon sent to France. While based near Rouen in April 1918, he was badly injured through a number of shrapnel wounds, and medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. Admitted to a hospital in Paignton, Devon, there was little that could be done, other than being made comfortable. Victor succumbed to his wounds on 28th April 1918: he was 35 years of age.
It is likely that Edith would not have been able to afford for her husband to be brought back to Middlesex for burial. Instead, Victor George Evans was laid to rest in the ground of Paignton Cemetery.
Albert George Knieriem was born in Bromley-by-Bow, Middlesex, on 1st January 1892. The eighth of nine children, his parents were German-born Gottliept (anglicised to George) Knieriem, and his London-born wife, Caroline.
George was a labourer at the local gas works, and the family had rooms at 3 Hancock Road. Their home has long since gone, but the Knieriems shared the property with the Richard and Eliza Bone and their four children.
George passed away in March 1906, with Caroline dying less than eighteen months later. Albert found himself an orphan at just 15 years of age. It seems that his oldest brother, also called George, found him employment as a local iron foundry. By the time of the 1911 census, he was boarding with the Fryatt family, at 29 Hancock Road, not far from the old family home.
Albert sought bigger and better things for himself, however, and was drawn to a life at sea. On 14th July 1911 he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall, and that he has light brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.
Stoker Knieriem was initially sent to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, for his training. He remained there for four months, before being given his first posting, on board the cruiser HMS Intrepid. She would be his home for the best part of a year, during which time Albert was promoted to Stoker 1st Class.
In September 1912, Albert transferred to HMS Acteon. A former hulk, she was based at Sheerness, Kent, as was used as a torpedo school. Albert would remain there for more than two years, attached to the school’s tender, HMS Kestrel.
On 18th January 1915, Stoker 1st Class Knieriem’s service records note one word: “Run”. Albert had absconded, remaining at large for two months. He was apprehended on 23rd March, and sentenced to 28 days’ detention for going AWOL. Put back on duty on 28th April, he was reassigned, to the former cruise liner, HMS Princess Irene.
The Princess Irene had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy on the outbreak of war and converted into a minelayer. On the morning of 27th May 1915, she was moored in the Medway Estuary and was being loaded with mines. A faulty primer set off a series of explosions, destroying the ship and killing more than 250 crew, Stoker 1st Class Knieriem among them. He was 23 years of age.
Albert’s name comes up in a newspaper article about one of the subsequent enquiries. The Coroner’s inquest on 18th June focused on the bodies in coffins 29 to 34.
No. 32 body was very much shattered. It was dressed as a stoker. The name “A. G Knieriem” was no the band of the trousers.
The body was identified as that of Albert George Knieriem, aged 23, stoker, 1st class, of Bromley-by-Bow.
[Sheerness Guardian and East Kent Advertiser: Saturday 19th June 1915]
Albert’s body was laid to rest in the naval section of Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent. He was buried alongside some of the other crew whose bodies had been rescued and identified.
William Charles James was born on 12th September 1893, the ninth of ten children to John and Isabella James. John was a sawyer from Shoreditch, Middlesex, and this is where he and his Surrey-born wife raised their family.
By the time of the 1911 census, John and Isabella were living in four rooms at 36 Falkirk Street, Hoxton, Middlesex with three of their children – including William – and Isabella’s brother, Charles. The building was inhabited by 17 people in total, four families renting out the nine rooms of the house.
The James family had three wages coming in. In addition to John’s work at the wood mill, his brother-in-law was employed as a casual winder cleaner. William was also in work, serving as an office boy a a draper’s warehouse. Isabella would have been running the household and looking after her youngest, schoolboy Thomas. William’s 27-year-old sister, Rachel, completed the household: she was not working, but was noted as having been suffering from a chest disease for at least four years.
Whether seeking a life away from London’s East End, or to bring in a more permanent wage for his family, William sought a more stable and financially lucrative career. On 8th January 1913, he enlisted in the Royal Navy for the standard twelve-year contract. His service records show that he had progressed from an office boy to a clerk, and confirm his physical features: he was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall, with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. His records also highlight a scar on his left forearm and another above his right eye.
William was given the rank of Stoker 2nd Class, and sent off to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, to be trained. After six months he was given his first assignment, on board the cruiser HMS Forward, which would remain his home for the next two years.
During his time on Forward, William, rising to Stoker 1st Class in January 1914. The ship was assigned to patrol the eastern coast of England, and, in December that year, bore witness – but was not directly involved in – the German bombardment of Hartlepool.
In April 1915 Stoker James was moved to HMS Princess Irene, an ocean liner requisitioned on the outbreak of war and converted to a minelayer. On the morning of 27th May 1915, she was moored in the Medway Estuary and was being loaded with mines in preparation for a mission. At 11:14am, a faulty primer on board set off a series of explosions, and she blew apart and sank. More than 250 crew – including Stoker 1st Class James – were killed. He was just 21 years of age.
The body of William Charles James was brought ashore and laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent. He was buried alongside some of the other crew whose bodies had been rescued and identified.
Death and Service 