John Francis Turner was born on 24th March 1899 in the St Ouen region of the Channel Island of Jersey. He was the only surviving child of Francis and Eugenie Turner, his older brother, Francis Jr, having passed away before John was born.
Francis was a farm labourer, but when John finished his schooling, he found work as a carpenter. When war broke out across Europe, he was conscripted to play his part and, on 31st March 1917, he enlisted in the army.
Private Turner was noted as being 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall and weighing 115lbs (52kg). His medical records show that his vision was defective, but not so bad as to exclude him from service, but he was also found to have flat feet.
John was assigned to the Royal Army Medical Corps, and was sent to Blackpool, Lancashire, where he was attached to the local depot. He spent the next two years in the army, although his time was not without incident.
In December 1917, he was confined to barracks for five days for overstaying his pass by more than eight hours. This seems to have been Private Turner’s only misdemeanour, however, and there is nothing to suggest anything other than good service.
John’s time in the army does not seem to have been limited to home soil, and, in the spring of 1919, he was attached to one of the Russian convoys ferrying aid and supplies overseas. On his return, however, he fell ill, and on 2nd February, he was admitted to hospital in Edinburgh, suffering from pleurisy.
Private Turner was to remain in hospital for the next few months. He slowly recovered, but then contracted meningitis, and, with his body already weakened by illness, this was to prove his undoing. He passed away on 23rd June 1919, aged just 20 years of age.
John Francis Turner’s body was taken back to Jersey for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful churchyard of St Ouen’s.
Ernest Roye Hewett was born on 18th April 1898 and was the third of twelve children to Alfred and Ada. Alfred was a coachman and groom and, while both he and Ada were born in Cornwall, it was in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, that the family were born and raised.
When he finished his schooling, Ernest found work as a butcher’s boy, but when sought bigger and better things. His oldest brother, Ralph, had enlisted in the army by the time of the 1911 census and, by that October, his next oldest brother, Leslie, had enlisted in the Royal Navy. Ernest felt a career in the military was his destiny and, on 12th September 1913, he also joined the navy.
As he was under age at this point, he was given the rank of Boy 2nd Class, and sent to HMS Impregnable, the training establishment in Devonport, for his induction. His service records show that he was 5ft 2.5ins (1.59m) tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion.
Ernest spent nine months training, moving from Impregnable to HMS Powerful, and gaining a promotion to Boy 1st Class in the process. In June 1914, he was assigned to the cruiser HMS Edgar, remaining on board for six months, by which point war had broken out.
On 18th December 1914, Lance Corporal Ralph Hewett was killed in action, aged just 20 years old. Attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, he was caught in fighting in Northern France, and is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial.
Ernest, by this point, had been assigned to another ship, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Viknor. Patrolling the seas off Scotland, towards the end of the month, she was tasked with locating and detaining the Norwegian ship Bergensfjord, on board which was a suspected German spy.
The vessel was located and escorted to Kirkwall in the Orkneys, and the suspect and a number of other prisoners, were taken on board the Viknor to be transported to Liverpool. The ship and crew were never to reach their destination. On 13th January 1915, she sank in heavy seas off the Irish Coast: no distress signal was made and all hands were lost.
BODY WASHED ASHORE – Another body has been washed ashore at Pallntoy Port, about six miles from Ballycastle. The body was that of a man of about 5ft 10in. in height. He was dressed in a blue jacket, and wore a service blue webbed belt, on which was the name E. F. Hewett. In the pocket of the trousers was a boatswain’s whistle.
[Freeman’s Journal: 24th February 1915]
Already in mourning for Ralph, Alfred and Ada were unable to bring 16-year-old Ernest Roye Hewett back home. Instead, he was laid to rest in Ballintoy parish church, County Antrim.
The heartbreak was to continue for the Hewett family. Leslie’s career had gone from strength to strength and, by the time of his older brother’s death, he had been promoted to Able Seaman. In the summer of 1915, he was assigned to the cruiser HMS Europa, remaining aboard for the next year as it patrolled the Mediterranean. In July 1916 he fell ill, having contracted malaria. This was to prove his undoing: he passed away from the condition on 21st July, at 20 years old.
Able Seaman Leslie Hewett was laid to rest in the Mikra British Cemetery in Greece. His parents had now lost their three oldest sons, and had no way to reach their final resting places.
Richard George Dale was born Padstow, Cornwall, in the summer of 1889, the oldest child to Alice Dale. She married Frederick Bryant in March 1894, but and went on to have two children – Frederick and Albert – but, by the time of the 1901 census, her husband has passed away. The document gives Richard’s surname as Bryant, but there is no real indication that he was Frederick’s son.
Alice had been living with her greengrocer parents, but the 1901 census in a small cottage off Lanadwell Street, a couple of door away from them. As a widow at 31 years old, she is noted as being on parochial relief.
Details of Richard’s later life are a challenge to track down. Absent from the 1911 census, it was around that time that he married Agnes MacKintosh. While she was born in Edinburgh, the wedding took place in St Columb, Cornwall.
When war broke out, Richard was working as a farmer. He enlisted the day after hostilities were declared, and joined the Royal Garrison Artillery. Gunner Dale was, according to the records, 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall, with medium colour hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He had a scar between his eyebrows.
Gunner Dale served for nearly four years, all the time being based on home soil. He suffered from epilepsy, however, and this is what led to his eventual discharged from armed service in March 1918.
Richard returned home, but his health was compromised. He passed away on 11th October 1918, from a combination of influenza and pneumonia. He was 29 years of age.
Richard George Dale was laid to rest in Padstow Cemetery, in sight of his younger brother Albert, who had passed away eleven years before.
Samuel Robert Graham was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1895. He was one of six children to Samuel and Alice Graham. Samuel was a postman from Liverpool, while Alice had been born in St Helier, Jersey.
Information about Samuel Jr’s early life is scarce: the 1901 census found Alice and the children visiting her mother in Jersey, while he husband is missing from census records. The next return in 1911 recorded Samuel Sr, Alice and three of their children living in the Trinity area of Jersey, but Samuel Jr is missing.
On 9th September 1913, Samuel Jr enlisted in the Royal Navy. He had been working as a blacksmith, and sought a career at sea. His service records show that he was 5ft 5ins (1,65m) tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion.
Stoker 2nd Class Graham signed up for a period of twelve years’ service. Based at HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, his first formal posting was on board the cruiser HMS Bristol. He remained on board for nearly two years, and was promoted to Stoker 1st Class in the process.
During the First World War, Samuel served on two more ships and, by the end of the conflict, he was based at HMS Columbine, the naval base at Port Edgar on the Firth of Forth, Scotland. He fell ill while barracked there, and was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in nearby Queensferry. Whatever Stoker 1st Class Graham’s condition, it was to prove too severe: he passed away on 1st December 1918, at the age of 23 years old.
Samuel Robert Graham’s body was taken back to Jersey for burial. He was laid to rest in Trinity Churchyard, not far from where his family still lived.
Angus MacIver was born in 1887 in the isolated hamlet of Geshader (Geisiadar), on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. His parents were Murdo and Marion MacIver, and he was one of seven children.
Detail of Angus’ early life are a challenge to uncover. It would seem that he worked with boats when he completed whatever schooling he undertook. Given Geshader’s proximity to the coast, it is likely that Murdo was a fisherman, and that his three sons – Angus included – followed suit.
By the time war broke out in 1914, Angus had joined the Canadian Merchant Navy. He held the rank of Sailor: records suggest that he would have been an Able Seaman, had he been in the Royal Navy.
In the spring of 1918, Sailor MacIver was serving on board the SS Tagona, a Canadian steamer, ferrying goods across the Atlantic. The ship was en route for Glasgow, having sailed from Bilbao, Spain, and, on 16th May she was passing close to the North Cornish coast. Five miles (8km) from Trevose Head, Tagona was torpedoed by the German submarine U-55, and sank. Eight crew members, including Angus, drowned. He was 31 years of age.
The body of Sailor Angus McIver washed ashore in the Camel Estuary: the remains were identifiable, but his family were unable to bring him back to Lewis. Instead, he was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Menefreda’s Church in St Minver, Cornwall.
John Dwelly Chambers was born on 21st August 1846, in Holborn, Middlesex. The second of four children, his parents were John and Sarah Chambers. John Sr was a tailor, and this was a trade into which his oldest son followed.
Unusually, John Jr travelled widely with his work and, by the late 1860s, he was based in Devon. It was here that he met and, on 5th March 1870, married Isabella Smith. She was born in Exeter, and couple initially made a life for themselves there.
The 1881 census return shows just how far the family moved in the coming years. John and Isabella were to have nine children: their first, Louise, was born in Exeter a hear after their marriage. The second child, son John, was born in Armagh, Ireland, though; their third, Emily, was born in Glasgow; while their fourth, George, was born in Surrey. It was only by the time their fifth and sixth children, Thomas and Charles, were born that they family returned to Devon. Their youngest three children – Percy, Victoria and Ivor, were all born in Somerset, when the family had settled in Taunton.
The reason for these moves seem to have been because his tailoring work was for the army. The 1891 census found the family living in army barracks, where John was listed as being a soldier. Ten years on, and John was recorded as being a Lance Sergeant in the Somerset Light Infantry, the Chambers’ still being billeted in barrack accommodation in Taunton.
By this point, Percy, now 17 years of age, was employed as a gunsmith, and a later photo suggests that all six of John’s sons went into the army.
Isabella died in 1906, at the age of 58: the following year, John married Elizabeth Dunning, a widow with her own children to raise. The 1911 census found the extended family living in the barracks: John, Elizabeth, Ivor and Elizabeth’s two daughters, Kate and Beatrice. John, by now, was listed as being a master tailor (military), Ivor was now a gunsmith, and the two girls were employed as a book binder and dressmaker respectively.
John had officially been discharged from the army by this point, but it seems likely that the outbreak of war brought him back into service. His life over the next few years is largely undocumented, but it is fair to assume that Serjeant Chambers was called back to the army, possibly to train newer recruits in the trade he had been working in for decades.
John Dwelly Chambers died of a heart attack on 2nd August 1915: he was just short of his 69th birthday. John was laid to rest in the sprawling St Mary’s Cemetery in Taunton, not far from the barracks to which he had devoted his life.
Serjeant John Chambers (seated middle, with his sons) (from ancestry.co.uk)
Thomas Collins was born in the Blackfriars area of Glasgow on 12th March 1877. His was a common name, and it is a challenge to find identify much about his early life. He did, however, have a brother called Andrew, and, when he finished his schooling, he found work as a carpenter and joiner.
Thomas sought new opportunities and, on 21st January 1899, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. Working as a Carpenter’s Crew, he was initially assigned to HMS Vivid, the Royal Naval Barracks in Devonport, Devon. His service records show that he was 5ft 5ins (1,65m) tall, with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a dark complexion.
Devonport was to become Thomas’ base, but, over the twelve years of his initial navy contract, he went on to serve on eight separate vessels. He records suggest that he was good at what he did, and his moved up through the ranks as a result. However, he seemed to have another side to him, which occasionally revealed itself.
Thomas was promoted to Leading Carpenter’s Crew on 19th December 1901, but what had been noted as a very good character seemed to take a downturn at this point. He was committed to cells for two weeks in January/February 1903, while serving on HMS Highflyer, with an incident leading to his demotion to Carpenter’s Crew once more. This also appears to match with a drop in his character: noted as Very Good in his reviews of 1899 to 1901, he slipped to Good in 1902 and fair in 1903 and 1904.
His imprisonment seems to have been the shake up Thomas needed. From here on in, his character was consistently recorded as Very Good and, by August 1909, he had regained the rank of Leading Carpenter’s Crew. There was, however, a serious blip in this good behaviour, noted in his service records:
This man was tried for the manslaughter of Richard Ernest Bell, blacksmith, on [illegible date], who died from injuries received in a fight with Collins on HMS Cambridge. Verdict of Jury at Assizes: “Not guilty”. Judge in summing up stated that he considered Collins was technically guilty of manslaughter.
Thomas had been on the mess deck of HMS Cambridge on 26th August 1905, when he became embroiled in a fight with Petty Officer Bell. Medical evidence showed that Bell died as a result of a blow behind his ear, the punch delivered by Leading Carpenter’s Crew Collins. While it seems likely that he unintentionally caused the Petty Officer’s death, he was cleared by the jury, and remained assigned to HMS Cambridge until November 1905.
Thomas’ initial term of service came to an end on 20th January 1911, and he had no hesitation in re-enlisting. On board HMS St George at the time, his new contract brought with it the rank of Shipwright 2nd Class. Over the next five years, he served on four more ships, and rose a rank to Shipwright 1st Class.
On 8th January 1916, Thomas married Flora Peacock. Little information is available about here, although the wedding took place in Harwich, Essex. Thomas was serving on board the cruiser HMS Conquest by this point, and was based out of the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent.
On Tuesday evening, March 28th, a cutter belonging to HMS Conquest, which was taking forty liberty men off to the ship, was caught in a blizzard and nothing was seen or heard of her again till the morning, when she was found cast up on shore many miles away. All hands were drowned.
The cutter was being towed out by a steam-launch. The hawser broke and the boat drifted away ad capsized.
Westerham Herald: Saturday 8th April 1916
Shipwright 1st Class Thomas Collins was one of those lost from the cutter. He had not long turned 39 years of age. He was laid to rest in the Roman Catholic section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, not far from the dockyard at which he had been based.
Thomas’ headstone incorrectly gives his surname as Collings.
Robert Frederic Dodds was born in 1874 in Darlington, Country Durham. The third of nine children, his parents were Robert and Elizabeth Dodds. Robert Sr was a carter and furniture remover and, when he finished his schooling, Robert Jr joined his father in his work.
Robert Sr died in 1898, at the age of 61. Whether this was a catalyst for his son to move on is unclear, but by the following year, Robert Jr was working as a labourer in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. On 16th September 1899, he married Elizabeth Counsell, a fisherman’s daughter from the town.
It seems that Robert was keen to build a life for his new wife: the next census, taken in 1901, found the couple living in Cardiff, Glamorgan, where he was employed as a stone mason. The Dodds remained in Wales for the next decade, having three children – Lily, William and Rosie – there. By the spring of 1911, however, they were back in Somerset, living in a three-roomed cottage in Castle Street. Elizabeth had had a fourth child just a month before the census, with a second son, Bertie, adding to the family.
When war came to Britain, Robert stepped up to play his part. He initially joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps as a Private, and found himself in France on 6th March 1915. Elizabeth, meanwhile, remained at home in Somerset, seeking support from her family. With four children to look after, her workload was to increase again when, just a week after Robert arrived on the Western Front, she gave birth to their fifth child, the patriotically named Frederick Gordon Kitchener Dodds.
Robert remained in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps for the next four years, rising to the rank of Serjeant. Details of his time in the service are unclear, but he survived the war and, on 11th July 1919, he transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps.
Little further information is available about Robert’s life. By the winter of 1919/1920, he was based in Midlothian, Scotland. He was admitted to the 2nd Scottish General Hospital, Edinburgh, although his condition is unclear. Whatever it was, it was to be fatal: he passed away on 6th January 1920, at the age of 45 years old.
Robert Frederic Dodds’ body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Highbridge Cemetery.
John Henry Wimble was born in the autumn of 1870, in Bathampton, Somerset. One of seven children, his parents were William and Charlotte Wimble. Charlotte had been married before, but her husband, John Eastment, had died in 1862, leaving her with three children to raise. She remarried in 1864, and William helped support the growing household.
John sought an escape to adventure and, when he finished his schooling, he enlisted in the army. Full service records are not available, but by the time of the 1891 census, he was noted as being a Private in the Somerset Light Infantry, and was living in barracks in Farnborough, Hampshire.
In the autumn of 1891, John married Eliza Hammond. She had been born in Calne, Wiltshire, and, at the time of their wedding, which took place in Bath, she was working as a parlour maid. The couple would go on to have two children, Percy and Victor.
John completed his army service and, according to the 1911 census, the family had settled in Cheddon Fitzpaine, to the north of Taunton. He was noted as being an army pensioner and that he was working as a warehouseman in the government stores. By the time war broke out, the family had moved to Burnham-on-Sea, where John had taken up the role of caretaker at the local Institute.
The war has cost another gallant local soldier, in the person of Sergt.-Major Wimble, of the Somersets, his life. This brave man re-joined the Army when war broke out on condition he could go to the Front. He was wounded, and died in a hospital at Edinburgh. The War Office had the remains sent to Burnham on Tuesday, where they were placed in St Andrew’s Church, and a large attendance of the public and the [Volunteer Training Corps] attended the funeral on Wednesday.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 17th November 1915
John had been assigned to the 6th (Service) Battalion on re-enlisting, and was quickly sent to the front. Caught up in the Action of Hooge and the Second Attack on Bellewaarde, he was medically evacuated to Britain in the autumn of 1915, and passed away on 4th November, at the age of 45.
Here, though, accounts differ slightly. While the newspaper report suggests that he died of his wounds, the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects gives the cause of death as gastritis.
After the funeral at St Andrew’s Church, John Henry Wimble’s body was laid to rest in Burnham Cemetery.
Regimental Serjeant Major John Wimble (from findgrave.com)
On the main road between Glastonbury and Wells, on the outskirts of the village of Coxley is the old Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. Now converted to a house, its back garden contains the remains of Private WR Parsons, who died in January 1919.
William Reginald Parsons was born on 22nd February 1895 in the hamlet of Chilton Burtle, near Bridgwater. The second of eight children, his parents were Wallace and Harriet Parsons. By the time of the 1901 census, the family had moved to Wells, where William was employed as a platelayer by Great Western Railways.
When he left school, William found employment as a paper maker, and was employed by the St Cuthbert’s Paper Mill to the west of the city. He wanted bigger and better things, however, and, on 11th April 1912, he enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry.
Private Parsons’ service records show that he was 5ft 6.5ins (1.68m) tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion. It was also noted that he had a small scar on the right side of his back. Initially sent to the regiment’s depot in Deal, Kent, this is where he was tested for his swimming ability: he passed on 24th June 1912.
William remained in Deal until the end of the year. After seven months in Portsmouth, Hampshire, he embarked on a number of postings that lasted for the next six years. Initially assigned to the battleship HMS Bulwark, Private Parsons’ main posting was on board another battleship, HMS Zealandia.
Primarily based guarding the North Sea Coast, Zealandia also served in the Mediterranean, sailing as far as the Dardanelles towards the end of 1915. In all, Private Parsons spent more than three years on board the battleship.
William’s next posting was on board the cruiser HMS Royalist, on which he served until the end of the First World War. While he was on board, it appears that he became unwell, and he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Granton, near Edinburgh. Details of his condition are not readily available, but they were serious enough for him to succumb to them: he passed away on 30th January 1919, at the age of just 23 years old.
The body of William Reginald Parsons was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet churchyard of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Coxley.
(c) Sharky Ward 2025
As the chapel is now a family home, its garden is not readily accessible. The photo of Private Parsons’ grave was taken by Commonwealth War Graves Commission volunteer Sharky Ward, to whom I am indebted for its use.
Death and Service 