Category Archives: Labour Corps

Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Cornwall, Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry, Gloucestershire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, killed in action, Labour Corps, photography, Private, story, Wales, war

Private Arthur Cock

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Private Arthur Cock

Arthur Cock was born in around 1885 in Wadebridge, Cornwall. One of eleven children, he was the son of mortar mason William Cock, and his wife, Louisa.

When he left school Arthur helper his father out in the business, but when war came to Europe’s shores, he stepped up to play his part. Sadly, his service records are lost to time, and it is a challenge to piece together his time during the conflict from a confusion of other documents.

It is clear that Arthur enlisted in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, as this is what is engraved on his headstone. However, his Medal Roll suggests that he also served in the Gloucestershire Regiment and the Labour Corps. He seems not to have fought overseas, and was awarded the Victory and British Medals for doing his duty.

Private Cock’s entry in the Army Register of Soldier’s Effects confirms that he must have enlisted before February 1919, and that he passed away at Whitchurch Hospital.

An entry in the local newspaper, reporting on his death, reads as follows:

In loving memory of Pte. Arthur Cock, son of William, and the late Louisa Cock, of Wadebridge, who died August 5th, at Whitchurch War Hospital, Cardiff.

Cornish Guardian: Friday 8th August 1919

Interestingly, the facility Arthur had been admitted to was a psychiatric hospital, but with no other confirmation as to his passing, it is only possible to assume the cause of his death. He was 34 years old when he passed away.

Arthur Cock’s body was brought back to Cornwall for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful, wooded graveyard of St Breoke’s Church, next to the family grave in which Louisa had been buried three years previously.

The family grave, by this time, was tragically quite full. William was able to mourn his son, wife and six of Arthur’s siblings – Mary, William, John, Fred, Charles and Ernest – who had all passed in childhood and were laid to rest there.

Arthur’s younger brother – another William – also fought in the First World War. His service records reveal a lot about his life.

Private Cock enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 7th September 1914. At the time he was working as a railway porter in Morphettville, now a suburb of Adelaide, Australia. His records confirm that he was 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall, and weighed 158lbs (72kg). He had brown hair, brown eyes an a fresh complexion.

William left Australia for the battlefield on 20th October 1914, and soon found himself in the Eastern Mediterranean. Sadly, this was to be the end of the line for him: he was killed on the battlefields of Gallipoli on 23rd March 1915, aged just 28 year of age.

William Cock was laid to rest in the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery in Gallipoli. He is commemorated on the headstone of the family grave back in St Breock.

Commonwealth War Graves, Cornwall, Great War, history, illness, Labour Corps, photography, Private, story, war

Private William Julian

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Private William Julian

William Julian was born in the spring of 1879, in the Cornish village of St Breock. He was one of five children to agricultural labourer John Julian and his wife Mary. Mary appears to have died when William was young as, by the time of the 1891 census, John was married to an Emily Julian, whose 10-year-old daughter, Fanny Jane Pinch, was also living in the family home.

At this point, it becomes difficult to accurately track young William’s life. The surname Julian is not uncommon in Cornwall at this point, and, while the 1901 census confirms he had moved out of the family home, gives a couple of potential alternatives. The most likely is a William Julian, boarding in St Germans, Cornwall, who working as a waggoner, although it is impossible to categorically connect the census return to this William Julian.

The next census, however, gives more confirmation of William’s location. He was working as a tin miner, and lodging with Richard and Jane Sweet in Withiel, Cornwall.

It is not long after this that he married Maud Brenton. The couple set up home in the hamlet of Burlawn, to the south of Wadebridge, and went on to have four children: William, born in 1912, John, born in 1914, and twins Jeremiah and Samuel, who were born in 1915.

By this point war was raging across Europe, and, while, as a miner William would have been in a protected profession, his time came to step up and serve King and Country. In the spring of 1917, he did just that, joining the Labour Corps as a Private. Little detail of his military service survives, but is is likely that he did his duty on home soil.

Private Julian’s time in the army was not to be a long one, however, and he developed haemoptysis, possibly as a result of a lung condition. This was to lead to his passing; he died on 29th August 1917, at the age of 38 years old.

William Julian was brought back to Cornwall for burial. He was laid to rest in the tranquil graveyard of St Breoke’s Church, the parish in which he was born and lived

Commonwealth War Graves, East Kent Regiment, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Labour Corps, Machine Gun Corps, photography, Private, story, war

Lance Corporal Ernest Green

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Lance Corporal Ernest Green

Ernest Green was born on 31st March 1881 – four days before that year’s census – in the Kent village of Aylesford. The middle of eleven children, his parent were William and Sarah Green. William was a labourer in the local clay works, and this is employment that Ernest and his brothers also entered into.

On 10th December 1904, Ernest married Emily Chapman. She was the daughter of another labourer, and the couple went on to have seven children, the oldest of whom was born in May 1905.

The family set up home in Aylesford, not far from Ernest’s parents, and life would have been set, had it not been for the intervention of the First World War.

Ernest enlisted early on, joining The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) in December 1914. His service records confirm that he was 33 years old when he enlisted, and stood 5ft 4ins (1.63m) tall. Sadly, Private Green’s service records are a little sketchy, and it is unclear whether he ever saw action overseas, although it is likely that he did at some point.

Private Green transferred to the Machine Gun Corps in February 1916, and then moved again – to the Labour Corps – in the summer of 1918. He joined the 426th Agricultural Coy, and was based in Canterbury.

Working outside through the summer and autumn, it seems that Ernest’s health may have begun to suffer and he was admitted to the Canterbury Military Hospital in December 1918, having contracted influenza. Sadly, the lung condition was to prove his undoing: Private Green passed away at the facility on 20th December 1918. He was 37 years of age.

Ernest Green was brought back to Aylesford for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter & St Paul’s Church, although the exact location of his grave is not longer known. Instead, he is commemorated on a joint headstone in the First World War section of the graveyard.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Royal Defence Corps, story, unknown, war

Private Michael Barton

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Private Michael Barton

Michael Barton was born in the spring of 1863 in the Kent village of Hadlow. The youngest of three children, his parents were farm labourer William Barton and his wife Annie. Michael became a farm labourer when he left school and, when William died in 1890, he remained at home to support his mother.

Annie passed away in 1905, and this proved a turning point for Michael. By the time of the next census in 1911, he was recorded in the Tonbridge Union Workhouse, one of its 600 inmates.

Michael’s trail is harder to pick up at this point. Despite his age, it seems that he sought a way out of his situation when war broke out and had certainly enlisted in the army by the last year of the conflict. Initially joining the Royal Defence Corps, Private Barton was soon transferred to the Labour Corps, and was assigned to 572nd Agricultural Coy.

The next document relating to Michael is that of his passing. He died on 17th December 1918 at the Preston Hall Military Hospital in Aylesford, Kent, although the cause of his death is not readily available. He was 55 years of age.

Michael Barton was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter & St Paul’s Church in Aylesford, not far from the hospital in which he had passed.

The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects records that Michael’s belongings passed to a Miss Kate Burley when he died. Not one of his immediate relatives, it is likely that she was a friend or other relation.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devonshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, story, war

Private Arthur May

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Private Arthur May

The life of Arthur May is a difficult one to uncover. Born in Aylesford, Kent, in the summer of 1879, he was baptised on 10th August, and only his mother’s name – Eliza May – recorded.

There is a record of an Arthur May from Aylesford in the 1881 census, but that gives his mother’s name as Ann (and the father’s as labourer William May). Twenty years later, the same Arthur may is listed as boarding with his sister and brother-in-law’s family in Halling, Kent, where he was working as a labourer in the local cement works. Again, however, it is impossible to confirm that this Arthur May is the one being sought.

Further records identify Arthur’s wife as a woman called Annie, although no marriage records remain to confirm a union.

Details of Private May’s war service is pretty limited, but he seems to have enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment in February 1917. He subsequently transferred to the 167th Coy Labour Corps and was sent to France, but returned to Britain a month later, having fallen ill. His condition turned out to be tuberculosis and he was medically discharged from the army in August 1917.

Private May’s medical report adds some tantalising detail to his military service. He is recorded as being 39 years and one month old, 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, with a pale complexion, blue eye and light brown hair. He had a tattoo on his left forearm and was working as a labourer, while living in Ditton, near Maidstone, in Kent.

The report also suggests that Arthur had initially enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in November 1915. It notes that he was frequently disabled with shortness of breath and a cough during his fourteen months with the navy.

Arthur returned home after his discharge. While his trail goes cold, it is likely that his lung condition continued to dog his civilian life. On 6th July 1919, he passed away and, although no cause is freely recorded, as there is a lack of comment in contemporary local newspapers, illness would be a possible cause. He was 40 years of age.

Arthur May was laid to rest in the graveyard of his local church, St Peter’s & St Paul’s in Aylesford, Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Renfrewshire, Royal Army Service Corps, Scotland, story, war

Private William Johnstone

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Private William Johnstone

In the First World War section of St Peter and St Paul’s Churchyard in Aylesford, Kent, is a headstone dedicated to T4/174339 Private W Johnstone of the Royal Army Service Corps. Little other immediate information is apparent, and there are no military records available based on his service number.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website confirms that Private Johnstone transferred across to the 697th Agricultural Coy of the Labour Corps. He was given another service number – 440640 – and this allows access to a few more strands of his life.

Private Johnstone’s first name was William, and he had a dependent, Mrs CM Gunn, who lived at Moss Fall in Linwood, Paisley. The records, however, add a little more confusion to the story – Mrs Gunn is recorded as U/Wife and a guardian is also noted: Mrs Catherine McDree.

The waters are muddied further by the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects. While this confirms that William had enlisted by the spring of 1918, it also highlights that his effects and war gratuity were not actually claimed.

With no date of birth for William, it is impossible to narrow down any further details of his early life: there are too many combinations of William and Catherine in the Paisley area to be able to identify them with any confidence.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Private William Johnstone died from a combination of influenza and pneumonia on 5th November 1918, at the Preston Hall Military Hospital in Aylesford, Kent. He was buried in the nearby churchyard.

Bedfordshire Regiment, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Labour Corps, Middlesex Regiment, Monmouthshire Regiment, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, war

Private William King

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Private William King

William Samuel King was born in the summer of 1880, and was one of four children to Richard and Elizabeth King. Richard was a railway worker from Totnes, Devon, and this is where the family were born and raised.

When he left school, William found work as a house painter, and this is a job he continued to do through to the outbreak of the Great War. On 8th June 1908 he married Minnie Edmunds: the couple went on to have a son, Leslie, who was born in 1912. William and Minnie had, by this point, moved to Swansea, West Glamorgan, presumably as work was more plentiful here than in their Devon home. His work as a decorator seems to have been recognised, and he was admitted to the National Association Partnership, Swansea South.

On 1st December 1915, William enlisted and his service records show that he was 5ft 2ins (1.57m) tall. While it is clear that he spent his time on home soil, his service seems a bit disjointed.

Private King wasn’t formally mobilised until September 1916, when he was assigned to the 2nd/2nd Battalion of the Monmouthshire Regiment. In December he was transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment before returned to his original battalion in February 1917. A month later, he moved to the Bedfordshire Regiment, before moving to the Middlesex Regiment a few weeks later. This also seems to have been a temporary move as, three weeks later, he was assigned to the 337th Works Company of the Labour Corps (although this was still part of the Middlesex Regiment).

The potential reason behind Private King’s haphazard service seemed to become a little clearer when, in September 1917, he was referred to Fort Pitt Hospital in Rochester, Kent. He was noted as being “very talkative, noisy [and] in a state of mental disease… he has… exalted and grandiose ideas and is difficult to restrain.” His mental health was obviously suffering, and he was discharged from military service in December 1917.

William returned home, although it was not to be for long. He passed away on 13th April 1918, at the age of 37 years old. While no cause of death is evident, it seems likely to have been connected to his ‘mania’, which had been exacerbated by his army service.

William Samuel King was laid to rest in Totnes Cemetery, not far from his parental home.

Boy, Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire, Great War, history, illness, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Royal Navy, story, war

Private Frank Mayo

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Private Frank Mayo

Francis James Stephen Mayo was born on 24th November 1894 in Oldland, a small Gloucestershire village near Bristol. One of eight children, his parents were collier Samuel Mayo and his wife, Diana.

Frank, as he was known, sought a life of adventure from the start. In July 1911, not content with life as a farm labourer, he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class. His service records show that he was 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall, had light hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Sent to the training ship HMS Impregnable, Boy 2nd Class Mayo’s time there was short. When Samuel found out what his son had done, he paid £10 (the equivalent of around £1250 in today’s money) for his discharge.

Frank went back to farm work, but, with storm clouds brewing on European shores, his time was to come again. On 8th September 1914, just a month after war was declared, he enlisted. His service records show that he had gained an inch (2.5cm) in height since his attempt to join the Royal Navy.

Again, Frank’s attempt to escape what he presumably felt to be a humdrum life were thwarted. His service records confirm that he was discharged on medical grounds because he was deemed not likely to become an efficient sailor.

On Christmas Day 1915, Frank married Martha Sweet, the daughter of a chimney sweep. The couple settled down in Keynsham, not far from either of their families, and had a son, Henry. Frank, by this time, seemed to have given in to the inevitable, and looking for a regular wage, began working at one of the local collieries.

Frank still had a dream to fulfil, though, and with no end to the war in sight, he again enlisted, joining the Training Reserve in June 1917. His records show that he had gained another inch in height, and has a number of tattoos on his right forearm. His records this time show that he had a slight heart problem, and was also suffering from a touch of rheumatism.

Private Mayo was assigned to the 440th Company of the Labour Corps, and seemed, at last, to be fulfilling the role he had wanted to be doing for the last six years. As time went on, however, his health seems to have been failing him and, in the summer of 1918, he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. He passed away from the condition on 30th August 1918, while at camp, aged just 23 years of age.

Brought back to Gloucestershire for burial, Francis James Stephen Mayo – or Frank – was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Anne’s Church in his home village of Oldland.

Commonwealth War Graves, East Surrey Regiment, Great War, history, Labour Corps, Middlesex, photography, Private, story, Sussex, unknown, war, Wiltshire

Private Thomas Perrett

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Private Thomas Perrett

Thomas William Perrett was born in October 1878, the seventh of eight children to Lewin and Ann Perrett. Lewin was an agricultural labourer from Wiltshire, and it was in Aldbourn, near Marlborough, that the family were raised.

Initially finding work as a farm labourer, Thomas was soon drawn to the bright lights and big city. By the early 1900s he had moved to London, and it was here that he met, and in 1909 married, Mary Sterry, a labourer’s daughter from Middlesex. The couple went on to have three children, Elsie, Rose and Alice.

Thomas, by this point, had found work on the railways: the 1911 census records him as a railway porter, presumably at Paddington Railway Station, which was within a few minutes’ walk of where the Perrett family were living.

War came to Europe, and Thomas was keen to play his part. Full details of his service are not available, but he enlisted in the East Surrey Regiment, where he was assigned to the 2nd/5th Battalion. This was a second line unit, and Private Perrett remained on home soil for the duration of the war.

This territorial role was reinforced when he transferred across to the 696th Agricultural Company of the Labour Corps. Details of his work are not available, but it seems likely that he was assigned to farm work in the mid-Sussex area.

This too is where Private Perrett remained after the war and where, on 24th February 1919, he was to pass away. Details of his death are vague and the cause is unknown, but he was 40 years of age.

Thomas William Perrett was laid to rest in the cemetery in Cuckfield, West Sussex.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Labour Corps, Lincolnshire, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Private Harry Etherton

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Private Harry Etherton

Harry Etherton was born in Ansty, near Cuckfield, West Sussex on 3rd April 1872. The oldest of five children, his parents were Edwin and Louisa Etherton. Edwin was an agricultural labourer, and this was work in which his son followed his father.

On 29th April 1899, Harry married Annie Eliza Pennifold, a labourer’s daughter who was also from Ansty. The couple set up home in Cuckfield, and went on to have five children. Harry was, by this point, working as a road labourer for the local council, and this was a job he was to continue doing until the outbreak of the war.

Harry enlisted in 1915, joining the Royal Sussex Regiment as part of the National Reserve. As Private Etherton, he was then transferred across to the Labour Corps, and was assigned to the 409th Labour Coy. which was based at the Infantry Depot in Lincoln.

It was while Private Etherton was here, in the spring of 1918, that he contracted meningitis, and was admitted to the Northern General Hospital in the city. Sadly, he was to succumb to the disease, passing away on 30th June 1918, at the age of 46 years old.

Harry Etherton’s body was brought back to West Sussex for burial. He was laid to rest in Cuckfield Cemetery, not far from where his widow and children still lived.