Category Archives: Oxfordshire

Commonwealth War Graves, East Lancashire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Lancashire, Lance Corporal, Manchester Regiment, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Sergeant, story, Sussex, Training Reserve Battalion, war, Wiltshire

Sergeant Charles Chown

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Sergeant Charles Chown

Charles Allen Chown was born in the Sussex village of Lyminster, at the start of 1882. The tenth of eleven children, his parents were Samuel and Mary Chown. Samuel was a general labourer, and when he passed away in 1898, Charles and his siblings rallied to support his now widowed mother.

The 1901 census found Mary, Charles and his brother Jesse living at 32 Lennox Road, Worthing, West Sussex. Jesse was employed as a brickmaker, while Charles had found work as a solicitor’s clerk. The family had two boarders, Helen and Rosie Bulbeck, and Charles’ niece, Minnie, was also staying with them.

Away from work, Charles was a music lover, and joined the local operatic society. In 1904 he appeared in a local version of Iolanthe, his “piece of portraiture being described as one of the successes of the occasion, for his facial play was good, and the drolleries of the character were displayed in an each and natural manner.” [Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 12th September 1917] In the following year’s Mikado, he took the role of the Lord High Executioner, and he was noted as being a “born comedian, with the most mobile countenance and a singularly dry form of humour…” [Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 12th September 1917]

By the time of the 1911 census, Charles had moved on with work, and moved out of home. Taking a room at 7 Tarring Road, Worthing, his landlords were Harold and Rose Ward. Still employed as a clerk, he was now employed by one of the estate agents in the town, although it is clear that his passion was elsewhere. When he joined up in the autumn of 1914, he gave his trade as musician.

Charles enlisted on 7th October 1914 in Ashton-under-Lyme, Lancashire. What took him north is unclear, although a theatre tour is a possibility. His service records note that he was 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall and weighed 138lbs (62.6kg). He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a sallow complexion.

Initially assigned to the Manchester Regiment, Private Chown was soon transferred to the 8th (Service) Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. He was obviously dedicated to his job: by the end of October 1914 he had been promoted to Lance Corporal, and within six weeks he rose to Sergeant.

In July 1915, Charles’ unit was dispatched to France. That autumn, they remained based near Tilques, in Northern France, but Sergeant Chown’s health was beginning to suffer. After just three months overseas, he was medically evacuated to Britain to receive treatment for pleurisy, and was hospitalised in Chatham, Kent.

When he recovered, Sergeant Chown was reassigned to the 10th Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment, before being transferred to the 47th Training Reserve Battalion in September 1916. That winter, however, his health received a setback, and he contracted tuberculosis. He would spend the first half of the following year in hospitals in Aldershot in Hampshire, Sutton Veny in Wiltshire and, from May 1917, the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford.

Sergeant Chown’s health would continue to deteriorate, and he was formally discharged from the army on 6th July 1917. He returned to Worthing, and his mother’s home, 2 Montague Place. Charles would eventually succumb to his medical condition, and he passed away on 31st August 1917, at the age of 35 years old.

The body of Charles Allen Chown was laid to rest in the family plot in Broadwater Cemetery, Worthing.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, Kent, killed in action, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Royal Marines, story, war

Private Thomas Neale

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Private Thomas Neale

Thomas Neale was born in the Botley, Oxfordshire, on 3rd June 1876. One of eight children, his parents were George and Mary Neale. George was an agricultural labourer and the family would settle in Cumnor, just over the Berkshire border.

Thomas was keen to make a life for himself and, on 29th December 1898, he enlisted as a Private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. HIs service papers show that he had been employed as a general labour and the point he signed up, and give an indication into the man he was becoming. He was noted as being 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, with grey eyes, brown hair and a fresh complexion. He was also recorded as having a small scar on his right knee.

Private Neale was initially sent to the Royal Marines barracks in Deal, Kent, for his training. Over the next sixteen years, he would serve on eight ships, each time returning to what would become his home base, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in between voyages. While never outstanding, his annual reviews reported his good or very good character, and very good ability.

When war broke out in the summer of 1914, Private Neale was serving on board the battleship HMS Bulwark. Part of the Channel Fleet, her role was to patrol and protect the English Channel and south coast.

On 26th November she was moored up in the lower reaches of the River Medway, not far from Sheerness, being re-stocked with ammunition. That morning, a number of cordite charges overheated, detonating the shells stored nearby. The resulting explosion ripped through the battleship, and more than 740 crew were killed. Thomas was amongst those whose bodies were recovered and identified: he was 38 years of age.

The bodies that were recovered from the tragedy were taken to the Woodlands Cemetery in nearby Gillingham and laid to rest. Thomas Neale was buried alongside his colleagues in a marked grave, while those whose remains had not been identified were laid to rest in a mass grave nearby.

Private Thomas Neale
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, London Regiment, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Warwickshire

Private Wilfred Butler

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Private Wilfred Butler

Wilfrid Hinton Butler was born on 11th June 1895 in Cowley, Oxfordshire, one of four children to Alexander and Mary Butler. Alexander was a foreign stamp importer who, by 1899, had moved the family to the outskirts of Clevedon, Somerset.

The 1911 census found Alexander and Mary living in Clevedon, with Wilfrid’s two younger siblings. Wilfrid himself is missing from the document and, intriguingly, his parents are noted as having only two children: this is likely an misunderstanding over the number of children, and the number residing at home.

At this point, Wilfrid drops off the radar completely, and it is only through later documentation that we can identify what became of him. When war broke out, he joined up, enlisting in the London Regiment. Initially assigned to the 15th (County of London) Battalion (Prince of Wales’s Own Civil Service Rifles), he moved across to the 13th (County of London) Battalion (Kensington) at some point during the conflict.

Private Butler was firmly ensconced in northern France by 1916 and his unit fought in some of the bloodiest battled of the Somme. He was not to come out unscathed, however, and it is likely that he was wounded during the Battle of Morval.

The injuries Private Butler had received were severe enough for him to be medically evacuated back to Britain for treatment. He was admitted to hospital in Kings Norton, Birmingham, but his wounds were to prove fatal. He passed away on 2nd October 1916: he was 21 years of age.

Wilfrid Hinton Butler was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Walton Clevedon.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Channel Islands, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Jersey, Kent, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, story, Surrey, Sussex, war

Private Philip le Cornu

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Private Philip le Cornu

Philip Francis le Cornu was born on 29th July 1894 in St Peter’s, Jersey. The youngest of five children, his parents were Philip and Mary le Cornu. Philip Sr was a farmer, but it seems that both he and Mary passed away not long after his youngest son’s birth. By the time of the 1901 census the children had been split between family members, and Philip Jr was living with his maternal grandparents.

Philip finished his schooling, and seems to have sought a purpose in life. He emigrated to Canada and, by the time war broke out, was living in Grande-Mère, Quebec. He found employment as a clerk, but with conflict raging on the other side of the Atlantic, he responded to the call to arms.

Philip enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 12th September 1916. His service records show that he was 22 years and 2 months old and stood 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall. He had black hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion. Private le Cornu sailed to Britain, and arrived there on 7th April 1917.

Billeted in Shoreham, West Sussex, Philip was attached to the 14th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. Within weeks he was sent to France, and, on 15th August 1917, was caught up in the Battle of Hill 70 near Lens.

During the skirmish, Private le Cornu was badly wounded in the thigh and sent to the 58th Casualty Clearing Station. Within days he was moved to the 4th General Hospital in Camiens, but his condition necessitated medical evacuation to Britain.

Over the next year, Philip had three operations on his leg, and spent time at the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford, the Manor War Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, and the 16th Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent. Tragically, all of the medical treatment was to prove to no avail. Private le Cornu passed away from his injuries on 14th September 1918, more than a year after Hill 70. He was 24 years of age.

Philip Francis le Cornu’s body was taken back to the Channel Islands for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Mary’s Church on Jersey.

X-ray of Private Philip le Cornu’s left femur
(from uk.forceswarrecords.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lieutenant, Oxfordshire, photography, Royal Air Force, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, war

Lieutenant David Slocombe

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Lieutenant David Slocombe

David William Slocombe was born on 9th November 1893, the oldest of seven children to William and Kate. William was a tin worker from Huntspill, Somerset, and it was in nearby Highbridge that the family were born and raised.

David appears to have been a bright lad, receiving a sponsorship from the King James Foundation to attend Dr Morgan’s School in Bridgwater. He spent six years there, from September 1906 to July 1912, and went on to become a customs and excise clerk when he left.

When war arrived in Europe, David was called upon to play his part. He initially enlisted on 1st December 1915, but was placed on reserve for nearly a year. His service records show that he was 22 years of age and 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall. When he was finally mobilised, he was given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps.

At this point, David’s trail goes cold. Later documents confirm that he transferred across to the Royal Air Force when it was founded in April 1918, and that he rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He served in France and Italy and, by the end of the war, was attached to the 44th Training Depot Station in Oxfordshire.

By the autumn of 1918, Lieutenant Slocombe had come down with pneumonia. He was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Bicester, and this is where he was to breathe his last. David died on 24th October 1918, aged just 24 years old.

David William Slocombe was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Highbridge Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Essex Regiment, Great War, Hertfordshire, history, illness, Lieutenant, Mauritius, Oxfordshire, photography, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Lieutenant Arthur Devas

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Lieutenant Arthur Devas

Arthur Edward Devas was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, on 29th July 1877. One of ten children, his parents were Reverend Arthur Devas and Louisa. Arthur Sr was chaplain at the County House of Correction, the prison a short walk away from the family home, over the Kennet and Avon Canal. The 1881 census showed the Devas’ were living to the south of the town centre, and were supported by three servants.

Arthur standing as a vicar’s son earned him an education. He was sent to the prestigious Haileybury College in Hertfordshire. When his father died in 1901, he felt a pull to see more of the world, and joined the army. Enlisting in the Essex Regiment in September 1902, he was taken on as a Second Lieutenant.

Promoted to the rank of full Lieutenant in January 1906, the next census, in 1911, recorded Arthur at the Warley Barracks in Billericay. When war broke out in August 1914, he was based in Mauritius: he remained there for the next five months, before his battalion – the 1st – were brought back to England.

Setting up camp in Banbury, Oxfordshire, the aim was to train the battalion in readiness for an assault in Gallipoli. For Lieutenant Devas, however, this was not to be. He had fallen ill on the journey back to Blighty and, having contracted typhoid, he was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford. He died at the hospital on 15th February 1915, at the age of 37 years old.

Louisa and some of her children had moved to Minehead, Somerset, after her husband’s death, and this is where Arthur Edward Devas’ body was brought for burial. He was laid to rest in the extensive Minehead Cemetery, to be reunited with his mother when she passed away some eighteen years later.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Middlesex Regiment, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, West Somerset Yeomanry

Private Gilbert Hurford

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Private Gilbert Hurford

Gilbert Henry Hurford was born in the spring of 1896, the second of five children to George and Elizabeth. George was a farmer from North Petherton, Somerset, but it was on Parsonage Farm, in nearby Kingston St Mary, that the family were raised.

Gilbert was helping his father on the farm when war broke out. At the time he was also a volunteer in the West Somerset Yeomanry, and in May 1916, he stepped up to play a full part in the conflict. His service records confirm that he was assigned to the 22nd (Service) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.

Private Hurford spent the first six months of his service on home soil, before being shipped off to Europe on 1st December 1916. He had not been in France for long when, on 10th February 1917, he was injured. His documents confirm this was a gun shot wound to his head, but, as he was treated on site, it thankfully appears not to have been too serious an injury.

Trouble struck a second time, however, on 4th September 1918, when Gilbert was injured again. This time his records confirm multiple gun shot wounds, and he was medically evacuated home for treatment. He was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford, and remained there for some three months.

This time, Private Hurford’s injuries proved too severe for his body to overcome. He passed away on 29th December 1918, at the age of just 22 years old.

Gilbert Henry Hurford’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful churchyard of St Mary’s Church, in his home village of Kingston St Mary.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, history, Oxfordshire, photography, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Somerset, story, suicide, war

Private Robert Gillo

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Private Robert Gillo

Robert Cogle Gillo was born in December 1880 in Bridgwater, Somerset. He was the only child to Jane and Robert Gillo who, in the 1881 census was listed as a wholesale photographer, employing four male and four female assistants.

The following census, a decade later, found the family living in Walcot, Bath, where Robert Sr was listed as living on his own means. The household also included Jane’s sister, Elizabeth, and a certified nurse, Jane Moreton.

When he left school, Robert Jr found work as an auctioneer’s clerk. By the time of the 1901 census, both of his parents had passed away, and he was boarding at Hanover House, Hanover Street in Bath. The document, however, throws up an anomaly, however, in that the house’s three other occupants are listed as Edna and Majorie White, who are identified as Robert’s daughters, and Lily Holvey, who was a servant. Whether the head of the household was not there at the time of the census return is not known, but given that ages of Edna and Marjorie were 9 and 5, to Robert’s 20, it is extremely unlikely that they were actually his children.

By the following summer Robert had taken up employment as an auctioneer in Dorset. On 4th June 1902 he married Kathleen Seward, an agent’s daughter from Bath. The couple would go on to have two children, Molly, in 1904, and Robert in 1911.

By the time Robert’s son was born, the family were living back in Bath. He was, by now, listed as living on his own means in his own right, and the family occupied a seven room house in a quiet cul-de-sac within spitting distance of the city’s Alexandra Park.

When war came to Europe, Robert stepped up to play his part. He had enlisted in the Army Ordnance Corps by the autumn of 1915, and was stationed in Didcot, Oxfordshire. When he wrote to Kathleen, he complained of not being able to sleep in the barracks, and this insomnia led to him suffering from headaches.

Sent home on sick leave in March 1916, he was quite depressed and worried, his short term memory was affected, and he had to write even the simplest tasks down, including remembering to shave. He was seen by his doctor, who had written to his commanding officer, suggesting that an extension to this leave was be beneficial. Whether this was granted or not is unknown, but after a short period back in camp, Private Gillo returned to Bath on 17th April.

Kathleen had gone out at about 5pm the following day and when she returned home just after 7pm, she was told that Robert had just left. This was not unusual, as far as she was concerned, because he often went out for a walk in the evening. Sadly, she was not to see him alive again.

Terrible Railway Fatality

On Wednesday morning last week [18th April] the much-mutilated dead body of Mr R Gillo… was picked up on the Great Western Railway at Bathampton… He was home on leave from Didcot. Deceased suffered from neurasthenia, and was depressed at times.

Central Somerset Gazette: Friday 28th April 1916

Robert had walked the five miles east to Bathford and, made his way to the railway track over the river in the village. He got onto the tracks as the express train from Paddington was coming through at around 10:30 that evening, and never stood a chance.

The the following morning the alert was raised by a signalman at Bathampton and the gruesome discover was made of parts of Robert’s body over the half-a-mile from Bathford Bridge. His glasses were found on the bridge itself and a note to Kathleen was found in his pocket. Blood was subsequently found on the front of the railway engine, although the driver was oblivious to anything out of the ordinary having happened the previous night.

An inquest found that Private Gillo had committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity. He was just 35 years of age.

Robert Cogle Gillo was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery in Bath, a short walk from the family home.

Private Robert Gillo
(from ancestry.co.uk)

Robert’s headstone notes the burial of Adelaide Julia Seward, Kathleen’s mother, who died in March 1936.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Kings Royal Rifle Corps, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, suicide, war, Yorkshire

Second Lieutenant Cedric Pepper

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Second Lieutenant Cedric Pepper

Cedric William Pepper was born in 1895 in South Kirkby, Yorkshire. He was the middle of three children to William and Harriette Pepper. William was a colliery owner from Leeds, and the family lived in some comfort in Rawdon Hill in Wharfdale. The 1901 census records show that they employed a governess, cook, two housemaids, a kitchen maid and a page.

By the time of the next census, in 1911, the Pepper family had moved to Shipton in Oxfordshire, where they lived in the 27-room Shipton Court. Cedric, by this time, was still studying, having been taught at Winchester College, where he lasted only a year, Tonbridge School, and then Worcester College in Oxford.

When war broke out, he had taken time away from his studies, and was working on a ranch in Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). He returned to Britain at the start of the conflict and enlisted in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, Private Pepper arrived in France in November 1914, and was wounded in his thigh the summer of 1915.

Private Pepper returned to Britain to recuperate and, when he had recovered, he was given a commission in the 3rd Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. It was while he was training in Oxfordshire that the now Second Lieutenant Pepper met his end.

The evidence at the inquest… suggested that the death from a bullet wound… was accidental.

Second-Lieutenant William Eric Warburton… stated that early last week Lieutenant Pepper told him he was in some difficulty with a woman, but he did not explain it. Lieutenant Warburton did not think that this caused him to take his life. In his opinion Lieutenant Pepper knew nothing of the working of an automatic pistol he possessed.

The medical evidence was that a bullet entered the centre of the forehead. The doctor said that if the wound was self-inflicted it was quite possible that it was accidental.

The jury returned a verdict of Death from a bullet from an automatic pistol, but that there was no evidence to show how the wound was inflicted.

Central Somerset Gazette: Friday 29th October 1915

Second Lieutenant Pepper died from the bullet wound on 21st October 1915. He was just 20 years of age.

Pepper Family Memorial

Cedric William Pepper’s family were, by this time, living in Redlynch House, near Bruton, Somerset. He was cremated, and his ashes immured in the wall of St Peter’s Church in the hamlet.

Second Lieutenant Cedric Pepper
(from findagrave.com)

In researching Cedric’s life, there is a definite sense of a young man desperately looking to please his father. A successful Yorkshire colliery owner, he may have expected more from his oldest son, a drop out from Winchester College, possibly sent to Southern Africa to find himself. While an immediate return to Britain to serve his country would have been commonplace, the suggestion of difficulty with a woman and the subsequent accident with his gun just adds to the sense of a need for Cedric to not disappoint his father.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, Kent, Oxfordshire, photography, Royal Field Artillery, Royal Garrison Artillery, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Gunner Fred Meatyard

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Gunner Fred Meatyard

Fred Radford Meatyard was born in Penselwood, Somerset, in September 1882. The son of Henry and Ellen Meatyard, they seem to have been distant in his life. Fred was raised by his paternal grandparents, Henry and Caroline, in nearby Wincanton.

Fred was an intelligent young man. The 1901 census found him boarding with printer and stationer Walter Eaglestone and his family, on Erith High Street, in Kent. He was working as a compositor himself, pulling the type together for his boss to print. This appeared to be a springboard for him, and he soon moved to Oxford finding similar work there.

In 1907 Fred briefly returned to Penselwood, where he married Lily Extence in the parish church. The marriage certificate showed that Fred was living in William Street, Oxford, and was still employed as a compositor, working for the local newspaper, the Oxford Chronicle. His father, Henry, is listed as deceased, and as having been employed as an engineer. Lily was the same age as her new husband, and was the daughter of labourer Francis Extence.

The couple moved back to Oxford, and went on to have three children: Linda (born in 1908), Joan (born 1913) and Frances (born in 1915). The 1911 census record found them living in an end of terrace house in Boulter Street, the River Cherwell flowing past the bottom of their cul-de-sac. Theirs was a five-room house, and they had a boarder, Mancunian William Murphy, who was employed as a vocalist and guitarist.

When war came to Europe, Fred stepped up to play his part. He enlisted on 30th August 1916, but was not formally mobilised into the Royal Field Artillery until the following January. Gunner Meatyard’s service records show that he was a wiry man, 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, and weighing 126lbs (57.2kg).

In June 1917, Fred was transferred across to the Royal Garrison Artillery, and was sent to France. Aside from a couple of periods of leave, he remained overseas until the end of the war, and was attached to a couple of the regiment’s Siege Batteries.

When hostilities ceased, Gunner Meatyard finally returned to Britain in the summer of 1919. Based on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, while waiting to be demobbed, he fell ill, and was admitted to the Fovant Military Hospital. He was suffering from acute appendicitis, and the condition came on so quickly, that any treatment did not come soon enough. Fred passed away at the hospital on 16th October 1919, at the age of 37 years of age.

Fred Radford Meatyard was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Michael’s Church in Penselwood. The newspaper for which he had worked for so long noted that “he was buried with full military honours… Deceased was on the printing staff of the ‘Oxford Chronicle’ for some years… He was a member of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade. Some time ago he returned from the Rhine, having previously fought in France. Much sympathy is felt with the widow and three children, two of whom, it will be remembered, took a prominent part as dancers in the pagent.” [Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette: Friday 24th October 1919]