Henry Cummings was born in the village of Wembdon, near Bridgwater in Somerset in 1876. The son of agricultural labourer John and his wife Jane, Henry was one of six children.
When he left school, Henry followed his father into agricultural labouring, as his older siblings had done before him. Jane had died when Henry had just reached his teens, so he continued to live with his widowed father, and was recorded there as late as the 1911 census.
On 4th August 1912, he married Sarah Palmer in Wembdon Parish Church; Henry was 36 by this point, and his new wife was 30. They couple may not have thought they could have children, as they went on to adopt a girl, Edith, who was six years old when they had married.
From a military perspective, it appears that Henry had initially tried to enlist in 1908. Based on his service records, it seems that he was not accepted at that point, but when war broke out, things were a different matter. He joined the Army Service Corps on 6th January 1915, attaining the rank of Sergeant.
Henry’s service was to be cruelly short, at just 85 days. Hospitalised in Rugby, Sergeant Cummings passed away from cerebrospinal meningitis on 6th April 1915. He was 38 years old.
Henry Cummings was brought back to Bridgwater for burial, and lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery there.
In September 1915, Sarah gave birth to a baby girl, Irene. Henry was never to see his little girl, and, tragically, may not even have known he was to be a father.
Stanley Arthur Robert Pearce was born in September 1895, the fourth of five children to Edwin and Rosetta Pearce from Bridgwater, Somerset. Edwin was a painter and sign-writer, and it was in the creative trades that his children followed.
Stanley’s eldest brother Clifford became a gardener; his next oldest Edwin Jr was a mason’s labourer; while his older sister Dorothy became a cardboard box maker. By the time of the 1911 census, when Stanley was 16, he was listed as a painter’s errand boy, presumably helping out his father.
War was on the horizon, and Stanley was keen to do his bit. In October 1914, he enlisted, becoming a Driver in the Royal Army Service Corps. Assigned to the 662nd Heavy Transport Company, he was based in London. There was still time for visits home, however, and the local Bridgwater newspaper reported on an ASC football match in which Driver Pearce was involved in October 1915.
By this time, Stanley had met Flossie Vickery, from nearby North Petherton. The couple married the following year, and had two children, Ada and Geoffrey.
In 1916, Driver Pearce’s battalion was shipped off to Salonica in Greece, as part of the British Expeditionary Force in the Balkans. While there, he contracted malaria and dysentery, and was evacuated back to England for treatment in September 1918.
Driver Pearce recovered well enough to enjoy a month’s recuperation, but fell ill again, with a recurrence of malaria, combined with influenza and pneumonia. He was admitted to the Brook War Hospital in South East London, but sadly not recover, and passed away on 10th November 1918, a day before the Armistice was signed. He was just 23 years old.
Stanley Arthur Robert Pearce lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater.
Stanley’s older sister Dorothy – the cardboard box maker – contracted influenza around the same time as her brother and, tragically, died just five days after him. The siblings were buried in a joint funeral at the cemetery.
Rudolph Clifford Symons was born in the autumn of 1887, one of ten children to Clifford and Clara Symons. Clifford ran a brick and tile manufacturer’s and later became a town councillor in the family’s home of Bridgwater in Somerset.
By the time of the 1911 census, Rudolph had become the works manager for his father, but war soon beckoned.
Sadly, Rudolph’s full military record has been lost to time, but he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps early on in the conflict and was promoted to Lieutenant at the end of September 1914. He was involved in recruiting new soldiers, and it was following one of these meetings that he was involved in an accident.
The local media picked up the story:
On Friday night, while riding through St Jon Street on his motorcycle, to which a side-car was attached, he collided with a horse and light waggon… Lieutenant Symons appears to have been struck by one of the shafts in the region of the heart, and was rendered unconscious. He was at once conveyed to his home, where he was medically attended and was subsequently removed to the nursing home on Friarn Street. On the following day a specialist was called in, and an operation performed, but the injuries were of so severe a character that death ensured on Monday.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 22nd September 1915
The coroner reported that Rudolph had died from an internal haemorrhage and the inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death, and exonerated the waggon driver – a dealer caller Wyatt – from all blame.
Lieutenant Symons was a popular man, a vocalist in the Bridgwater Amateur Operatic Society, and was also heavily involved in the local annual Guy Fawkes celebrations.
He died on 13th September 1915, aged 27 years old, and lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his home town.
Clarence Vivian Clements Fry was born in November 1898 to William and Rosa Fry. William was a ‘provisions merchant clerk’, who went on to become a ‘cheese and provision dealer’, or grocer. Sadly, Rosa passed away in 1904, at the tender age of 31, leaving Clarence without a mother at just six years old.
William remarried in 1908, and he and new wife Amy had a daughter, also called Amy, a year later. By the 1911 census, the family of four were living in a three storey Victorian Terraced house to the south of Bridgwater town centre.
Sadly, little of Clarence’s military career remains documented. Initially joining the Royal Army Service Corps, Private Fry soon transferred over to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Wiltshire Regiment.
The 1st Battalion found in some of the key battles on the Western Front, including Mons, Ypres, Messines and Vimy Ridge. As his enlistment date isn’t known, it’s impossible to say whether Private Fry was involved in these conflicts or not.
What is likely is that Private Fry was involved in the Battle of the Selle, which took place near the towns of Cambrai and Valenciennes in northern France in October 1918. Clarence was certainly injured at this point, and was evacuated to England for treatment.
Admitted to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, it seems that his injuries were too severe and he succumbed to them on 5th November 1918, just a week before the Armistice was signed. Private Fry was just 19 years old.
Clarence Vivian Clements Fry lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater in Somerset.
Walter Ricks Treliving was born in Bridgwater, Somerset, in 1876, the middle of three children to James and Elizabeth Treliving. James was a commercial traveller in the drapery trade, and this is something his son followed him into.
According to the 1891 census, Walter was a pupil at the Commercial Traveller’s School in Pinner, Middlesex, which was, in effect, a boarding school-cum-children’s home for the children of commercial travellers and orphans.
Commerce was obviously engrained into Walter by this point and, after leaving school, he followed his father into the trade of trading. He travelled with his work, frequently boarding with others; in 1901, the census recorded him as living lodging with his maternal aunt Annie Ricks.
Love beckoned, however, and in 1904, Walter married Mabel Broadrick, the daughter of a Unitarian Minister from Worcestershire. The couple set up home in Weston-super-Mare and had a daughter, Beryl, two years later.
Things were not to go smoothly, however, as an article in the Western Daily Press were to show:
In the Divorce Court yesterday, a case was heard in which Mr Walter Treliving, a commercial traveller of Weston-super-Mare, petitioned for a divorce from Mabel Annie Treliving, on the ground of her misconduct with Mr Charles E Rust, an engineer. The case was undefended.
Mr Treliving said he was married on the 13th August 1904 at Bridgwater, and afterwards lived at Weston-super-Mare. There was one child of the marriage. The married life was happy until May 1913, when his wife told him that she cared for someone else.
In July 1913, his wife went away to Manchester on a visit, and when she came back she told him she had stayed with Mr Rust at the Grand Hotel… He forgave her for that, and took her away for a holiday to Lynton. He then discovered that she was still corresponding with the co-respondent, and afterwards that she was meeting him again.
On the 13th September his wife left him, and he heard that she had gone to Khartoum with the co-respondent. He received a letter from her, in which she said:
“Dear Walter. The divorce papers have come. Of course I cannot defend the case, nor he. So you have it all in your power. I hope you will be happy now you are free. If eve I came back to England, may I see Betty [sic]? I cannot marry Mr R. She will not divorce him. I do not know what I shall do now. I hope you will be happy if you marry again, as I hear you will. Oh! if you had only held out one hand to save me, how different it might have been. I am a broken woman. Yesterday, when the petition came, I realised it. You are fully paid back for all your sufferings. Enjoy your victory. Your wife.”
Petitioner said it was not his intention to marry again, as his wife suggested. He had done everything in his power to induce her to remain with him.
Western Daily Press: Thursday 1st April 1915
A decree nisi was granted to Walter and he was awarded costs.
Sadly, it has not been possible to track Walter’s military history. That he enlisted is evident; he joined the Royal Army Service Corps, and rose through the ranks to become Second Lieutenant Treliving. The divorce proceedings did not identify him as serving in the army, so it seems likely that he joined up at some point after April 1915 – his age and his status as a single father seem further proof of this assumption.
Walter returned to Bridgwater in October 1918 to attend his mother’s funeral. Elizabeth had contracted influenza and, sadly, after returning home Walter also caught and succumbed to it. He died on 11th October 1918, at the age of 42.
His probate confirms two beneficiaries; his sister Hilda Treliving, and another woman, Kate Symons, presumably as guardians and trustees for Beryl.
Walter Ricks Treliving lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater, Somerset. He had been buried on the same day as Elizabeth, the mother whose funeral he had returned to attend.
Stanley Hugh Russ was born in 1888, the youngest of five children to Alfred and Elizabeth. The family lived in Wells, Somerset, where Alfred worked as Clerk to the Guardians of the local workhouse. They were doing well for themselves, as they had two domestic servants at the time of the 1891 census.
Stanley seems to have been a studious young man, and by 1911 was boarding in London, where he was a dental student.
Details of Stanley’s military service are scant, but he obviously did well at his job, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. The local newspaper gave a good overview of his life when reporting on his funeral:
The deceased gentleman was a dentist by profession, and served his apprenticeship with Mr Goddard of Wells. He afterwards went to London, where for some years he had been following his profession at Guy’s Hospital.
At the outbreak of was he joined the Middlesex Yeomanry as a trooper. He was later given a commission in the same regiment… After much service in France, he was, by reason of a physical disability incurred whilst on service, transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps (Mechanical Transport).
He again went to France and was attached to the North Somerset Yeomanry. He was invalided home, but went out a third time, being attached to a Canadian Siege Battery. He took part in the great push around Arras and Vimy Ridge.
He returned to England in October 1918, suffering from heart trouble, severe shell shock, and slight gassing. He was discharged from hospital in January 1919 and demobilised in the following March.
His health gave way, and he was subsequently operated on by a Harley Street specialist. He derived little benefit, and was afterwards removed to a nursing home, where he died.
The deceased gentleman, who was unmarried, was of a very bright and happy disposition, and enjoyed a wide circle of friends.
Wells Journal: Friday 5th November 1920
Stanley Hugh Russ died on 28th October 1920. He was 32 years old. He lies at rest in the cemetery of his home city of Wells.
Francis George Smith was born in Glasgow in 1890. Records are scattered, but some of the pieces pull together to give an outline of his life.
The son of William and Mary Smith, Francis was the fourth of six children. His tombstone confirms that William had worked as an optician, but passed away when Francis was a young man.
Francis was an electrical engineer, and had assisted Mary in her business in Glasgow before signing up.
Private Smith enlisted early on in the war, “on February 24th of this year [1915], when he left his native city for London, where he joined the motor transport section of the Army Service Corps” [Wells Journal, Friday 12th March 1915].
Billeted in Wells, he had been assigned to the 133 Mechanical Transport Company. Within weeks of moving there, however, it seems that Francis fell ill. Sadly, his was a life cut too short, and he passed away from pneumonia on 6th March 1915, aged just 25 years old.
Francis George Smith lies at rest in the cemetery in Wells.
William James Waterhouse was born in 1875, the eldest of seven children to Richard and Elizabeth Waterhouse. The family lived in Cumberland, where Richard initially worked a grocer before becoming a music teacher.
William followed his father into food retail, working initially as a butcher’s boy in Barrow-in-Furness, before moving 400 miles to the south coast and settling in Eastbourne. Travel was definitely on William’s mind, however, as, by the 1911 census, he was a butcher’s manager at a hotel in Leicester.
William’s service records are limited; he was 39 when war broke out, and enlisted in the Eastern Mounted Brigade, before transferring Army Service Corps. During his time, he was promoted to Serjeant, and according to a newspaper report of his funeral “was most popular among the men.” [Wells Journal: Friday 9th July 1915]
It seems that, as part of his service, Serjeant Waterhouse had been assisting with haymaking in the Wells area, and it was after this that he fell ill. He developed pneumonia, and passed away on 30th June 1915. He 40 years old.
William James Waterhouse lies at rest in the cemetery of his adopted home town of Wells, in Somerset.
Joseph Wilkinson was born in the village of Greystoke, Cumbria in the summer of 1888. His parents were John and Margaret Wilkinson, and he had two siblings, also called John and Margaret. Joseph’s father worked as a railway signalman, and the industry employed a large number of people in the village.
Joseph’s life was to take a different turn, however, and it was likely the railway that took him there. He next appears on the 1911 census, boarding in a house in the village of Wedmore in Somerset. At 23 years old, he is listed as a Solicitor’s Cashier.
As with so many other fallen men and women, Joseph’s trail goes cold. There is not enough evidence to detail his military career – he joined the Royal Army Service Corps as a Driver and was promoted to Sergeant.
The UK Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects show that he was married to a woman called Ethel, although there are no records of their wedding. The document also confirms that he died at the Union Hospital in Winchester, Hampshire on 17th October 1918, but there is no cause of death given. He was 31 years old.
“He did his duty” says his impressive gravestone, but it is tragic that that duty is lost to time.
Sergeant Joseph Wilkinson lies at rest in the churchyard of St Mary’s in Wedmore, the Somerset village that came to be his home.
Albert Victor Bond was born in 1887, the only child of John and Sarah Bond. John was an engine driver, with a steam roller, and the family lived in the Somerset village of Butleigh.
Albert started working for the local baker and, by the time of the 1911 census, when his parents were celebrating their 25th Wedding Anniversary, this is the job he was doing.
He enlisted in March 1915, joining the Royal Army Service Corps. While his full service record is not available, Private Bond’s service was relatively short lived. He was discharged as medically unfit in February 1916, having served for just 332 days.
He was discharged with pneumonia, and this seems not to have cleared up and he was eventually admitted to the military hospital in Wool, Dorset. Albert passed away from the disease on 4th November 1918, just a week before the Armistice. He was 30 years old.
Albert Bond lies at rest in the graveyard of St Leonard’s Church in his home village of Butleigh.
Death and Service 