Herbert Victor Creed was born in Warminster, Wiltshire, towards the end of 1898. One of eight children, his parents were David and Mary Creed. Davis was a railway porter, and, at the time of the 1911 census, the family were living at 41 Vicarage Street, to the west of the town centre.
When he finished his schooling, Herbert – who had begun to be known by his middle name – found employment working alongside his father. When war broke out, however, he stepped up to play his part. His service papers have been lost to time, but it is clear that he enlisted by the spring of 1918, and he was attached to the Machine Gun Corps.
Private Creed was sent to the Western Front. Where and when he served is not known, but he would definitely have been in the thick of it.
Victor Hubert Creed [sic] (21), third son of Mr and Mrs DJ Creed… who was attached to the Machine Gun Corps, was seriously wounded in action on October 21st. He was taken t a hospital in Manchester, where he passed away on Friday.
[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 9th November 1918]
Herbert Victor Creed – plain Victor to his friends – was 21 years of age when he died on 1st November 1918. His body was taken back to Wiltshire for burial and he was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Denys’ Church.
The news of the death of ex-Gunner JC Lethaby, who passed away early on Monday morning last. was received… with deep regret. On the outbreak of war he was only 16 years old, but when the call came for volunteers, he put his age to 19 and enlisted. He proved his worth on the battlefields of Flanders and after being wounded, was gassed, his work as a first class machine gunner calling him into much danger. He recovered from his injuries to some extent, but after demobilisation, his health broke down and he gradually sank. His pain and suffering during the past months were borne with much patience. Last week he earnestly begged to be removed to his home… and he was brought by motor car.. on Sunday afternoon, but he passed away the next morning. He leaves a wife and child to mourn their loss, and sympathy is expressed with them as also with his mother, father, brothers and sisters… Always of a cheerful disposition deceased had a host of friends, especially among the young men of the parish. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and was entitled to the 1915-1915 Bronze Star.
[Tiverton Gazette (Mid-Devon Gazette): Tuesday 15th June 1920]
Despite the John Charles Lethaby’s obituary, there is little additional information about his early life. He does not appear on the 1901 or 1911 census returns, and there is no obvious sign of a birth or marriage certificate.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives his wife’s name as Clara, and a later military record suggests that she moved to Hitchin, Hertfordshire, after her husband’s death. The 1921 census noted that she was living with her parents, Arthur and Eliza King, and had her daughter, Ada, with her.
The newspaper report suggests that John was born in 1898, which would have made him 22 when he died on 7th June 1920. His headstone gives his age as 25, which would fit in with the obituary commenting that he had added three years to his age in order to enlist. He appears to have joined the 3rd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, before transferring across to the Machine Gun Corps.
John Charles Lethaby was discharged from army on medical grounds on 19th April 1919. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis just over a year later, and was laid to rest in All Saints’ Churchyard, North Molton, Devon.
Ernest Arthur Pointing was born on 21st March 1896 in Goring-by-Sea, Sussex. The second-to-last of thirteen children, his parents were William and Kate. William was a baker from Brighton, but by the time of the 1901 census, the family were living at The Cottage, next to Goring Hall.
When Ernest left school, he found work as a stable boy. The next census, taken in 1911, found him and his parents – William now having retired – living at 1 Elm Tree Cottages in the centre of Goring itself. The three of them shared the house with Ernest’s older sister, Louisa, and his nephew, seven-year-old Herbert.
Alongside his paid work, Ernest also volunteered for the Royal Sussex Regiment and, within a week of turning eighteen, he stepped up to enlist with them. His medical report, undertaken on 18th March 1914, show that he was 5ft 4.5ins (1.64m) tall, and weighed 112lbs (50.8kg). He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. He as noted as having two scars on his left thumb, and two more on his right knee.
Assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, Private Pointing would spend the next nine months training on home soil. By the middle of January 1915, however, he was sent to France. Intriguingly, he was to spend only two months overseas, before returning to home soil. There is no evidence of him being injured, but it would not be until September 1915 that he returned to the fray.
In January 1916, Private Pointing transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. He remained overseas until March 1916, at which point his health seemed to have become affected. Ernest returned to Britain, and was ultimately discharged from military on 28th March 1917. He was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, the condition that would ultimately take his life less than six months later.
Ernest Arthur Pointing died on 5th October 1917. He was just 21 years of age. He was back in Sussex by this point, and he was laid to rest in the family plot in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Goring. He was buried alongside his father, William, who had died two years earlier.
Sidney Powell was born in the Walcot area of Bath, Somerset, in the spring of 1892. One of five children, his parents were corporation gardener Albert Powell, and his wife, Mary. The family lived at 2 Hedgemead Terrace for at least fifteen years, presumably as it was close to the park where Albert worked.
By the time of the 1911 census, Sidney had completed his schooling, and was employed as a draper’s porter. His was one of four wages being brought into the household: his father was gardening, his younger brother Frank was a law clerk, while his older step-brother, Mary’s son William, also worked as a draper’s porter.
When war came to Europe, Sidney stepped up to play his part. Sadly, details of his service have been lost to the mists of time, but it would appear that he enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry no later than April 1916. Private Powell soon moved to the Machine Gun Corps, although documents do not confirm whether he spent any time overseas.
In the autumn of 1916, Private Powell was admitted to Birmingham War Hospital, having contracted pneumonia. The condition was to prove his undoing: he died while still admitted on 30th October. He was 24 years of age.
The body of Sidney Powell was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the majestic grounds of the Bath’s Locksbrook Cemetery.
James Ellery was born in the autumn of 1889, and was the middle of seven children. His parents – Frederick and Mary – were born in Dorset, and the family were raised in the hamlet of Lillington. Frederick was a farm labourer, but James found his way into building work when he finished his schooling.
When war came to Europe, James stepped up to play his part. Full details of his military service have been lost to time, but it is clear that he had enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment and was attached to the 1st/4th Battalion.
Private Ellery’s unit served in India and Mesopotamia during the conflict, but it is unclear whether James saw any action overseas. Certainly by early 1919 he was back in Britain, as he was hospitalised in Sherborne following a bout of influenza. This developed into pneumonia, and he was admitted to the town’s Yeatman Hospital.
James’ immune system had become weakened during the conflict, and the pneumonia turned septic. It proved to be fatal, and James passed away on 1st March 1919. He was 29 years of age.
James Ellery’s body was taken back to Lillington for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Martin’s Church.
James was not the first of the Ellery siblings to die during the Great War. His eldest brother, Frederick, had enlisted in the 2nd Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps Cavalry. He was killed in action on 21st August 1918, leaving behind a widow and three children. He was 36 years of age and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois British Memorial in Haucourt. France.
Philip Mauger was born in 1893 in the St Peter’s area of Jersey, Channel Islands. He was the oldest of six children to Albert and Jane Mauger. Albert was a labourer, alternating between road-building and farm work, depending on the time of year. When he finished his schooling, however, Philip fund work as a wheelwright’s assistant.
On 10th February 1917, Philip married Florence Dimmick, a shoemaker’s daughter from St Ouen. Their marriage certificate confirms Philip was a farmer by this point, and it seems likely that the young couple tied the knot ahead of his conscription the army.
Full details of his military service are lost to time, but it is clear that Philip enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps. Private Mauger survived the conflict, but here his trail fades. All that can be confirmed is that he passed away on 2nd March 1919, at the age of 26 years old. He was laid to rest in St Ouen’s Churchyard.
After her husband’s passing, Florence did not remarry. The couple had not had children, and it appears that she reverted to her maiden name. Husband and wife were reunited, however, when Florence passed away in 1937, and she was buried alongside Philip.
William Eric Tyler was born in the spring of 1888 in Carhampton, Somerset, the older of two children to farmers William and Nina Tyler. The details of William Jr’s early life are a bit sketchy: he was sent to a private school in Minehead, where he boarded for a while.
William Sr died in 1908, and Nina re-married, to farmer George Risden a couple of years later. Of William Jr there is no trace in the 1911 census, and the next record for him relates to his military service. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry when war broke out, but transferred to the Machine Gun Corps in May 1918, receiving a commission to Second Lieutenant when he did so.
Again, details of Second Lieutenant Tyler’s time in the army are scarce. The only other document relating to him is that of his passing. He died, on 28th October 1918 at Belton Park Military Hospital near Grantham, Lincolnshire. He was 30 years of age.
Belton Park was primarily a facility to treat wounded soldiers returning from the Front Line, but it was also treated Machine Gun Corps personnel connected to the neighbouring camp. It is not possible, therefore, to identify the cause of his death.
William Eric Tyler’s body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in the graveyard of St John the Baptist Church in his home village, Carhampton. Buried alongside his father, he was reunited with his mother, when Nina died in 1946.
Henry George Yard was born on 25th October 1884 in the Somerset village of Burnham-on-Sea. The second of seven children, his parents were John and Elizabeth Yard. John was a railway porter, but Henry chose a different route, becoming a mason’s labourer.
Henry’s work took him to South Wales, where he took up a position as a pit mason. The 1911 census recorded him as boarding in a six-roomed house in Abertillery, Monmouthshire. From the document there can be no mistaking that this was a mining community. The head of the household for 70 New Gladstone Street was 28-year-old Albert Francis, colliery banksman. He lived there with his wife, Martha, who was fifteen years older than him, and her three children: William, Herbert and Horace.
Martha had been married previously, to coal miner Walter Mutter. Both had been born in Somerset, and had come to South Wales like so many other families, because of the work. Walter died at the beginning of 1909, leaving his widow to raise three children on her own. It seems likely that this is where Albert stepped up: it was not unknown for mine workers to support each other in times of dire need. He married his former colleague’s widow in the autumn, securing a future for her and her family.
According to the census record, the Francis family had one other boarder and all but Martha and Horace worked in the local colliery in one way or another.
There seemed to have been money in Henry’s career move, as it set him up to marry Gertrude Coombes on 6th August 1912. She was a gardener’s daughter from Berrow in Somerset, and eight years younger than her husband. The couple married at St Mary’s Church, Berrow, and appeared to settle back in South Wales. They went on to have two children: Gertrude, who was born the following year, and Daisy, who came along in 1916.
When war came to Europe, Henry was called upon to play his part. He enlisted in October 1915, and was initially assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the Welch Regiment. His service records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, and weighed 133lbs (60.3kg). He was noted to be of good physical development, although dental treatment was required.
Private Yard transferred to the Machine Gun Corps at some point, and by the autumn of 1916 was sent to Greece. He remained there for nearly two years, but became dogged by malaria in later months there. Initially coming down with the condition in August 1917, he spent the remainder of the war in and out of hospital as attacks of the condition came and went.
Initially returning to home soil and placed on reserve status, Henry was eventually discharged on medical grounds at the end of 1918. He returned to the family home. He was not to be there for long, however: debilitated by malaria, Henry passed away in Bedwellty on 23rd March 1919, at the age of 34 years old.
With strong family connections in Somerset, Gertrude took her husband back there to be laid to rest. Henry George Yard was buried in the tranquil graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Berrow.
Arthur Ernest Selway was born on 30th October 1898 in Wellow, Somerset. The oldest of six children, his parents were Frederick and Mary Selway. Frederick was a coal miner, and this is likely to have been the line of work for Arthur to follow, had war not intervened.
Arthur enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps on 19th April 1918 and was assigned to the 44th (Reserve) Battalion. Sent to the Rugeley Camp in Staffordshire for training, Private Selway’s time in the army was not to last long, however. While his service records are lost to time, he is recorded as having passed away while at the camp on 3rd October 1918.
Private Selway was just 19 years of age and, having been in the army for just five months and two weeks, this meant that his family were not eligible to receive a war gratuity from the army, as he had not completed six months’ service.
Arthur Ernest Selway’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful Wellow Cemetery.
Edgar George Bowditch was born in the spring of 1887, in the Dorset village of Melbury Osmond. One of seven children, his parents were William and Sarah Bowditch. William was an agricultural labourer turned gamekeeper, and Edgar helped his father out when he left school.
William passed away in 1911, and Edgar fell off the radar until March 1914, when he married local mason’s daughter Rosetta Morris. The couple settled down in her home village of West Coker, Somerset.
When war was declared, Edgar stepped up to serve his King and Country, and enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps as a Private. He was assigned to the 37th Battalion, and certainly saw action overseas. He “came through without a scratch and in good health until demobilised in France.” [Western Chronicle: Friday 21st February 1919]
Private Bowditch was unwell when he arrived back in West Coker on 4th February 1919. While his condition is unclear, it worsened, and he passed away at home ten days later. He was 32 years of age.
Edgar George Bowditch was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Martin’s Church in his adopted home of West Coker.
Rosetta married again in 1921, to a John Axe. The couple remained in the same part of Somerset, John dying in 1947. Rosetta lived on, passing away in Yeovil in 1963, at the age of 77 years old.
Death and Service 