Gwyn Lewis Thomas was born in Llanrhian, Pembrokeshire, in 1894, and was the youngest of five children to George and Jane Thomas. George was a farmer, and by the time of the 1911 census, his son had been sent to work with another farmer, William Miles, in Mathry, four miles to the east.
When war broke out, Gwyn stepped up to serve his country. He enlisted in the Royal Engineers as a Sapper and, while little information about his service, it is clear that he was sent to France on 23rd August 1915. By the end of the conflict, he had achieved the rank of Corporal, and when the Armistice was declared, he returned home to Wales.
The only other documents connected to Corporal Thomas are those relating to his passing. He died from disease on 2nd March 1920, at the age of 25 years old. His death was registered in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, which would suggest that he either passed there, or that that was the registry office to his home.
Gwyn Lewis Thomas was laid to rest in Mathry Congregational Chapelyard in Rehoboth, midway between his parents’ farm and that of his former employer. His headstone is inscribed with the words Bu farw o effaith y Rhyfel Mawrth (He died from the effects of the Great War).
George Bailey was born in Bedminster, Somerset, on 20th August 1871. One of six children, his parents were George and Anna (or Hannah) Bailey. George Sr was a labourer and, when he died in 1876, Anna moved the family to Clifton, near Bristol.
The 1881 census found the family living in a small cottage at 5 Crosby Row in the then village. Hannah was listed as a late general labourer’s wife, while her three older children were all working for a dairy.
When George finished his schooling, he sought out a career. Joining the Royal Navy, this would prove a long-term role, bringing in a relatively decent wage for him and his family, but also gave him some adventure, not surprising given the number of ships he would have seen going to and fro from Bristol.
George was only 15 years old when he joined up on 25th September 1886, and so was below the age to formally enlist in the navy. Taken on with the rank of Boy 2nd Class, he was sent to HMS Impregnable, the training ship based in Devonport, Devon. Over the next three year he learnt his craft, and served on a few ships, including the battleship HMS Iron Duke.
In October 1887, George was promoted to Boy 1st Class and, on 20th August 1889, while assigned to the Iron Duke, he came of age, and was formally inducted into the Royal Navy. Ordinary Seaman Bailey’s service records show that he was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall, with auburn hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He was also noted as having a spot tattooed between the finger and thumb of his left hand, a scar on his left leg and another in the centre of his back.
Over the next seven years, George served on a total of ten ships, and saw the world. In between voyages he returned to HMS Vivid, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Devonport. In 1895 he married Elizabeth Bull, from Burrington, Somerset, and the couple went on to have six children.
George’s naval career continued, and he rose through the ranks, to Able Seaman in September 1890, Leading Seaman in June 1895, and to Petty Officer 2nd Class and 1st Class the following year.
In January 1899, George’s life took a different direction. After some time training at HMS Collingwood in Hampshire, he joined the Coastguard service, and would spend the next twelve years serving on the coast of Southern Ireland. This opportunity allowed him to have his family with him, and his and Elizabeth’s four youngest children were born in County Clare and County Cork.
By 1911, the family returned to Britain, setting up home in Brixham, Devon. That year’s census found the Baileys living at 6 Coastguard Station on the waterfront. The family remained there through to October 1913, when George was transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve, having served for 26 years.
George found work as the caretaker of the Electric Theatre in Tiverton, Devon, and this is where he and Elizabeth settled down.
Petty Officer Bailey’s time out of active service was to be limited, however, as, just nine months later, war was declared. Called back into action, he was sent to Western Stack Fort in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.
An interesting personality has passed away in First-Class Petty Officer George Bailey, who died suddenly on Tuesday… He came home about a fortnight ago on sick leave, and seemed to be improving in health, and on Tuesday went out for a walk. After retiring to bed his death came suddenly as a result of heart failure.
[Crediton Gazette: Saturday 24th March 1917]
George Bailey died on 13th March 1917: he was 45 years of age. He was laid to rest in Tiverton Cemetery.
Frank Sloman was born in the autumn of 1887, and was the youngest of five children to Frank and Emma. Frank Sr was a mason from Jersey, in the Channel Islands, but it was in Tiverton, Devon, that he and Emma made their home and raised their family. The 1891 census found the family living on Castle Street, but by 1901 they had moved down the road to St Peter’s Street.
Frank Jr found work as a painter when he finished his schooling, but he sought adventure and a career. He was already a volunteer for the Devonshire Regiment, and, on 7th May 1904, he officially enlisted as a paid member of the troop. Private Sloman’s records show that he was 5th 10.5ins (1.79m) tall, and weighed 129lbs (58.5kg). He was noted as having brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.
Private Sloman spent two years on home soil. He quickly extended his contract, and this led to more opportunities. By December 1906 his unit was in India, and he would go on to spend five and a half years there.
In December 1907, Frank transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery. He initially held the rank of Gunner, before being promoted to Bombardier in January 1912, and Corporal just three months later. In October, Frank returned to Britain, and was stood down to reserve status. He returned to Tiverton, and found work as a porter at the local station.
War was on the horizon, however, and when conflict broke out, Frank was called upon to play his part once more. Initially taking up the rank of Corporal in the Royal Field Artillery, he reverted to the role of Gunner at his own request. By this point, his unit was in France, and he would remain there for the next eight months.
On 6th May 1915, Frank returned to Britain, and was attached to 2B Reserve Brigade. He was based at the training facility in Bettisfield Park in Clwyd, and would spend the next eighteen months there. In June 1916, he was once again promoted to the rank of Bombardier.
Love was on the cards, and, on 17th June 1916, Frank married Frances Hadlow. There is little information available for her, but the couple exchanged vows at the Register Office in Windsor, Berkshire.
By the autumn of 1916, Frank’s health was becoming an issue. He contracted phthisis, or tuberculosis, and was sent to the the south coast for recuperation. His condition would ultimately render him unfit for continued military service, and Bombardier Sloman was discharged from the army on 17th December 1916.
His papers show that he had grown to 6ft 2.5ins (1.89m) in height, and, while physically unfit, he was a steady, sober and reliable man. He and Frances had taken rooms at 7 Hawley Street, Margate, Kent, but it seems that the couple soon moved back to Devon. Their new home was a small cottage at 3 Westbrook Place in Tiverton.
At this point, Frank’s trail goes cold. It is unclear whether he took up work again – or was able to do so – but his lung condition was ultimately to get the better of him. He passed away on 3rd June 1918, at the age of 30 years old.
Frank Sloman was laid to rest in Tiverton Cemetery, on the outskirts of the town in which he had grown up.
In the peaceful Congregational Chapelyard of Berea, St Davids, Pembrokeshire, is a headstone dedicated to Willie Howells, grandson of Benjamin and Mary. The inscription – in Welsh – confirms that he died on 26th November 1918, at the age of 23.
The 1901 census records the couple living at Rhos y Gorse with four of their eleven children and two of their grandchildren, including William. There is no documentation to confirm which of their children was his parent.
Tragically, Willie’s military records are also lost to time. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission give his name as Private BW Howells. They suggest that his first regiment was the South Wales Borderers, and that he transferred to the Northern Command Labour Centre of the Labour Corps. His service numbers for both units draw a blank, however.
The life of Willie Howells is destined to remain a mystery, one of the many whose stories were buried with them.
William James Thomas was born in Manordeifi, Pembrokeshire, in 1894. The older to two children his parents were Benjamin and Ellen Thomas. Benjamin was a groom, and, at the time of the 1891 census, the family were living at Cilwendeg Lodge at the entrance to the Welsh estate.
The family moved to Aberporth on the Cardigan coast by the 1901 census. Benjamin had become a farmer, and William, now 17 years of age, was helping out.
Something changed dramatically for William, however, and by 1914, he was living in the West Sussex village of Ferring, some 200 miles (320km) from his birthplace. By this point he was working as a motor driver and, on 25h March, he married Winifred May Knight at St Mary’s Church in Goring-by-Sea.
William stepped up to serve his country when war broke out, enlisting on 18th February 1915. His service records show that he was 5ft 4ins (1.63m) tall, and weighed 138lbs (62.6kg). He was noted as having a mole on his right cheek, and that several teeth were missing. The document confirms his marriage to Winifred, but also gives details of a child, Evelyne Winifred, who had been born in 1905: there is nothing to confirm whether she was his, or was born to Winifred before the couple met.
Private Thomas was assigned to the Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport Division, and sent to nearby Worthing for his training. His time in the army was to be tragically brief, as within a fortnight he had been admitted to the town’s Red Cross Hospital, suffering from cerebrospinal fever.
On 23rd March, William was transferred to Worthing Civil Infections Hospital, but any treatment he was receiving was to prove ineffective. He passed away on 31st March 1915, at the age of 31 years old.
The body of William James Thomas was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Goring, where just over a year before he and Winifred had been married.
The early life of James Payne is a challenge to piece together. The first document that can be properly attributed to him is his marriage certificate from 27th May 1901.
This confirms that he was 21 years old, and working as a labourer. His father’s details are noticeable by their absence. The document also gives his wife’s name, Kate Bessie Warr, and information about her father – labourer Sydney Warr. James was also working as a labour at this point, and the two of them were living in Pulham, Dorset.
By the time of the 1911 census, the newlyweds had moved to the village of Yetminster. James was working as domestic gardener, and the couple had two children – Cyril and Louis. James’ place of birth is given just as Somerset, further clouding his past.
When war came to Europe, James stepped up to play his part. Full details of his time in the army are lost to time, but documents suggest that he had enlisted by October 1917 at the latest. Private Payne joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, and was attached to the 1st Battalion. His unit service on the Western Front throughout the conflict, although there is no evidence that James spent any times overseas himself.
Piecing the sparse number of documents together suggest that in March 1918, James was admitted to the 3rd Western General Hospital in Cardiff, Glamorganshire. He was suffering from nephritis and pneumonia, but it is unclear whether he was serving in Wales at the time, or was taken there for treatment. Either way, his condition was to prove too severe. Private Payne passed away on 20th March 1918: he was 38 years old.
James Payne’s body was taken back to Dorset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in his adopted home of Yetminster.
Details of Fred Maynard’s early life are a challenge to piece together. His First World War service records give his age as 44 years old when he enlisted in September 1914, and confirm his place of birth as Melksham, Wiltshire.
A newspaper report of his funeral gives the name of three brothers – Charles, Frank and Arthur – while only one census return, from 1881, provides a potential match for the family. This suggests Fred’s parents were iron fitter Alfred Maynard and his wife, Deborah, and gives the family’s address as Waterworks Road in Trowbridge.
Fred joined the army in the autumn of 1888. Initially assigned to the Gloucestershire Regiment, he had transferred to the Wiltshire Regiment by the following spring. Private Maynard showed a commitment to duty: in December 1890 he was promoted to Lance Corporal, rising to Corporal in the summer of 1893.
Fred was stood down to reserve status after his seven years’ active duty, but was recalled to the army in December 1899, when war broke out in South Africa. Promoted to Serjeant, he was sent to fight in the Boer War, and was mentioned in dispatches on 2nd April 1901 for special and meritorious service in South Africa. He was stood back down to reserve status in October 1901.
On 21st November 1895, Fred had married Louisa Card. The couple set up home in Trowbridge, but soon moved to London. They went on to have six children: Ernest, Nora and Leslie, who were all born in the London; and Arthur, Martha and Stuart, who were born in Cardiff, the family having moved to Wales by 1910.
The army was not finished with Fred, however, and, within weeks of war breaking out in the summer of 1914, he was called back into service. Given the rank of Serjeant again, he was attached to the South Wales Borderers. Fred was 44 years of age by this point, his service records confirming that he stood 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, weighed 164lbs (74.4kg) and had brown hair and hazel eyes.
Attached to one of the regiment’s depots, it seems unlikely that Fred saw service overseas this time around. He was discharged from the army on 1st September 1916 and this seems to have been on medical grounds. Later documents suggest that Serjeant Maynard had been diagnosed with carcinoma of the pylorus, or stomach cancer.
Fred returned to Cardiff, but his time back home was to be short. He was admitted to the Lansdown Road Military Hospital, and passed away on 23rd November 1916. He was 46 years of age.
It seems that Fred’s brother’s had some sway in his funeral. Instead of being laid to rest in Cardiff, where Louisa and the children were living, he was, instead, buried in the Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, Somerset. His sibling Charles, who was a sergeant in Bath City Police, lived in the city, as did another brother, Frank.
Fred’s headstone also commemorates his and Louisa’s son, Leslie. He had joined the army in the 1920s and, in the summer of 1943, was in Yorkshire, undergoing officer training.
The death of an officer cadet through the accidental discharge of a rifle whose bolt had jammed was described at an inquest…
Captain WH Price said he was in charge of an exercise on the moors which involved the used of small arms and the firing of live ammunition. A squad of cadets lay on the ground in front of a trench firing over a range. All finished firing except Cadet Frank Holroyd, who said his bolt had hammed while firing a second round. [Price] told him to release the bolt by knocking the cocking piece up and back.
This attempt failed, and he told Holroyd to get back into the trench, turn the rifle magazine upwards, place the butt on the side of the trench, and kick the bolt down with his foot. While Holroyd was doing this he noticed Maynard standing in the trench about 4ft away from Holroyd and on his right-hand side.
Captain Price said he saw the rifle was pointing down the range when Holroyd kicked the butt. The cartridge suddenly exploded and Maynard dropped into the trench, shot in the head, and was dead when they reached him.
[Bradford Observer: Saturday 19th June 1943]
Officer Cadet Leslie Maynard was 36 years of age when he was killed. His body was taken back to Somerset for burial: he was laid to rest in the same grave as Fred, father and son reunited after 27 years.
Louisa remained somewhat elusive as time wore on. Fred’s military records confirm that she had moved from Cardiff to the Isle of Wight by 1922. By the time of her son’s death, she was living in Sidcup, Kent.
Daniel Rees Davies was born on 10th August 1887, one of eight children to Daniel and Katherine Rees. Daniel Sr was a coal miner, born in Brecon, South Wales, and it was in Aberdare that the family were born and raised.
By the time of the 1901 census, five of the Davies family were working as coal miners. However, something changed dramatically over the following decade. The next census return, taken in 1911, found Daniel Sr working as a butcher, with Daniel Jr employed as his assistant. The two Daniels and Katherine were living in a six-roomed house with Daniel’s younger brother, Moses, his older sister, Margaret, and her husband, another Daniel.
In the autumn of 1913, Daniel Jr married Daisy Loud. She was a milliner from Bath, and it was in the Somerset city that the couple exchanged their vows. The couple set up home in Bath, and went on to have two children, Maurice and Norman. He continued working as a butcher and, by the time war was declared, he was employed by Larkhall.
When war came to Europe, Daniel stepped up to play his part. Sadly, full details of his service have been lost to time, but it is clear that he enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in the spring of 1917 and he was attached to the 88th (Howitzer) Brigade.
Gunner Davies served in Northern France and was badly injured on 3rd June 1918. He was initially hospitalised in Rouen, but then medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. Admitted to Netley Hospital in Hampshire, the wounds he had received to his arm and shoulder were to prove too severe. A telegram was sent to Daisy for her to come to the hospital, but her train was delayed, and she arrived too late to see her husband before he passed away. He died on 17th June 1918, at the age of 30 years old.
The body of Daniel Rees Davies was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Bath’s majestic Locksbrook Cemetery.
William Kennedy Blundell early life seems anything but ordinary. Born in Cardiff, Glamorgan, in the summer of 1890, he was the only child to bank clerk Edmund Blundell and his wife, Annie. Edmund was born in Staplegrove, Somerset, while Annie had grown up in Lahore, India.
The 1891 census found William living with his maternal grandparents James and Edith Kennedy in the Walcot area of Bath, while his parents were firmly based in Cardiff. Edmund died the following year, so it is possible that he was placed out of the way while Annie tended to her husband (along with her sister-in-law and a domestic servant).
By the time of the next census return, Annie and William were reunited, and were living in Avenue Road, Wimborne Minster, Dorset. Anne was living off her own means, and had a servant, Emily Chaffey, to hep look after the home.
Both Annie and her son disappear from the 1911 census. It is likely that William had embarked on a military career by this point, and may have been serving overseas. Sadly, his trail goes cold, but scraps of later information help identify some of what became of him.
By the outbreak of the First World War, he was serving in the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was based in Egypt from January 1916, and rose to the rank of Captain by the end of the conflict. By 1918, he was attached to the 12th (Transport Workers) Battalion, and was back in Britain.
Captain Blundell was in Sussex by the time of the armistice, and it was here that he fell ill, contracting pneumonia. He was admitted to the General Eastern Hospital in Brighton, but the condition was to prove too severe. He passed away on 13th December 1918, at the age of 28 years old.
William Kennedy Blundell’s body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the sweeping grounds of Locksbrook Cemetery in Bath.
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.
Death and Service 