Category Archives: Wiltshire Regiment

Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Frank Holloway

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Private Frank Holloway

Frank Roland Holloway was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, early in 1896. One of five children, he was the only son to Frederick and Emily Holloway. Frederick was a general labourer, and by the turn of the century, the family had moved to Hilperton, Wiltshire.

When Frank completed his schooling he found work in a local cloth mill. The 1911 census record the family living on Marsh Road, Hilperton, with four – albeit meagre – wages coming into the household. Frederick was employed by the Anglo Swiss Milk Company as a labourer, while his daughter, Frank’s older sister Edith, was also working in the factory’s tin shop. Emily was helping other people with their laundry, bringing in a few extra pennies.

War broke out in the summer of 1914, and Frank would step up to play his part. His service papers show that he was employed as a rubber worker by this point, and that he was a volunteer with the local militia. He formally enlisted on the 20th February 1915, and was assigned to the 8th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment as a Private.

Private Holloway remained with his unit for four months, before being discharged from military service, having contracted tuberculosis. Interestingly, his service papers include a statement from Frederick about his son’s health:

I am making an application on behalf of my son. He had been ill now for over 12 months. He served 2 years 175 days in 4th Wilts and 129 days in 8th Wilts. He had not any illness for some years and had been in good health and passed several military doctors for active service, but having left Salisbury Plain he came to Trowbridge where they slept in damp straw also under [a] bad roof in [an] old disused factory. He was a lad in good health and is now suffering with consumption.

Sadly, any response to Frederick’s request for compensation would come too late. Frank passed away on 21st June 1916: he was just 20 years of age.

The body of Frank Roland Holloway was laid to rest in St Paul’s Churchyard, in village of Staveron, the parish church for his home in Hilperton.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Frederick Kyte

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Private Frederick Kyte

Frederick George Kyte was born on 23rd January 1899. The youngest of five children, his parents were Wiltshire-born market gardener John Kyte, and his wife, Esther. Frederick’s mother had been born in Chelsea, Middlesex, but it was in John’s home county where the family lived, on 16 Wine Street, Bradford-on-Avon.

Education was important to John and Esther. The 1911 census found his older brothers working a clerks, one to a rubber works, the other to a solicitor.

In his spare time, Frederick was a chorister and the local parish church, and was ‘an enthusiastic member of the Church Lads’ Brigade’ [Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 13th December 1919] When he completed his schooling, he also found work as a clerk, and was employed by a local insurance broker.

On 13th January 1915, Frederick joined the Wiltshire Regiment, and, as a Bugler, was attached to the 8th Battalion. He was only 15 years of age, but remained with the unit for the next two years, until he was invalided out of the army for medical reasons.

After some time he partially recovered, and resumed his occupation as an insurance agent, but took to his bed some three months ago.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 13th December 1919]

The lung condition Frederick had contracted would be the one to which he would ultimately succumb. He passed away in the family home on 7th December 1919, aged just 20 years old.

The body of Frederick George Kyte was laid to rest in the family plot in Bradford-on-Avon cemetery.

The newspaper report provides some further information about Frederick’s brothers. Both also served in the army, and both rose to the rank of Serjeant.

The eldest [Edward] is now with HM Forces in Palestine, whilst the younger, Herbert, who was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Medal for good work during the retreat, is demobilised.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 13th December 1919]

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Thomas Morris

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Private Thomas Morris

Thomas Morris was born on 12th November 1880 in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. One of thirteen children, his parents were Henry and Eliza Morris. Henry was a chimney sweep, and this is a trade that Thomas would also go into, unsurprisingly, from a very young age. The family lived to the north of the town centre, initially at 57 Newtown, before moving round the corner to 5 Wine Street.

By the turn of the century, love was beckoning for Thomas. On 29th March 1903, he wed Annie Britten, a labourer’s daughter, who also lived on Wine Street. The marriage certificate noted that Thomas had changed jobs, and was employed as a labourer.

The 1911 census return shows the family home that had been set up. Henry and Eliza were still at Wine Street, although now at No. 44. Thomas and Annie were also living there, crammed into the four-roomed cottage with their four children as well. Henry was still working as a chimney sweep, while Thomas had found employment as maltster’s labourer.

Annie would go on to have six children in all, and when war broke out, she was left to raise the family with the help of her father-in-law (Eliza having passed in May 1914). Thomas enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment early on in the conflict and, according to later reports, had seen a lot of service on the Western Front. He survived the conflict, however, and returned to a base in the garrison town of Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

At the start of 1919, Private Morris came home on leave, but while there, he fell ill. He was admitted to the military hospital in Sutton Veny, also in Wiltshire, but succumbed to the influenza he had contracted. He passed away on 11th January 1919, aged the age of 38 years old.

The body of Thomas Morris was taken back to Bradford-on-Avon to be buried. He was laid to rest in the town’s cemetery.

Annie was now a widow with children to raise. Henry had also passed away in 1918, and so she remarried, wedding William Bishop in December 1919. The couple went on to have a child of their own, Phyllis, in March 1921.

Annie would live a peaceful life, passing away in Trowbridge in 1943, at the age of 60.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Howard Rees

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Private Howard Rees

Howard Stephen Rees was born in the spring of 1895 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. He was the second of six children – and the older of two sons – to Stephen and Annie. Stephen was an engine driver, and the 1901 census found the family living in a small terraced house at 18 Gloucester Road, a show walk from the town’s railway station.

By the time of the next census, the family had moved to a larger house, and were living at 15 Innox Road, to the north of the town centre. Stephen was still employed as an engine driver, while there were too further wages coming into the household. Howard’s older sister, Catherine, was working as a rug weaver, while he himself was employed as a page boy, a bell hop for one of the hotels in the town.

By the time war broke out, Howard had moved from page boy to cellarman. The pull to serve his country was strong, though, and he gave up his job to enlist in the army on 7th September 1914, just a month after the start of the conflict.

Private Rees was assigned to the Wiltshire Regiment. His service papers show that he was 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall and weighed 120lbs (54.4kg). He was noted as having brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. Howard’s medical examination was to conclude that he was not fit for army service, due to a ‘very poor physique and.. an impediment of speech’. He was recorded as being quite unfit for a soldier. His time in the army was to last just 20 days.

Howard was not deterred by this setback, however, and it seems that he tried to enlist again at some point, and this time succeeded. Full details have been lost, but from the documents that remain, he had joined the 2nd Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment by the spring of 1917.

The funeral took place on Monday a the cemetery of Private Howard Stephen Rees, Wilts Regiment, aged 22 years, who passed way after a painful illness lasting five months, at the Bath War Hospital on Wednesday September 26th from wounds received in action in France on April 23rd.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 6th October 1917]

Howard Stephen Rees received his injuries during the Arras Offensive of 1917, his eagerness to be included in the war having led to his death. His body was taken back to Wiltshire, and was laid to rest in Trowbridge Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, India, Mesopotamia, Middlesex, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private William Cockerton

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Private William Cockerton

William John Cockerton was born in the autumn of 1896 in Holloway, Middlesex. The older of two children, his parents were baker John Cockerton and his wife, Elizabeth.

The 1901 census found the family living at 28 Highbury Station Road. The house is long since gone, but the Cockerton’s neighbours included a horse keeper, porter and a police constable.

By the time of the 1911 census, William had left London, and was living with his paternal uncle and aunt, Fred and Amy, in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Fred was an ironmonger, and his nephew had taken an apprenticeship with him. The census notes two visitors to the property – 22 Clarendon Villas – William’s mother and sister, Elizabeth and Dolly.

In his spare time, William started volunteering with the local militia. When war broke out, he was quick to enlist, formally joining the Wiltshire Regiment as a Private. Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, by December 1914, he found himself in India. A later newspaper report detailed how his military service unfolded:

..after a period of garrison duty in India, he volunteered for duty with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, and took part in some of the biggest engagements against the Turks, being eventually wounded, captured and reported dead. For some two years he was held in captivity, during which he ensured great hardships that seriously undermined his health.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 26th April 1919]

William was reported missing in February 1917, with an understandably grief-stricken John and Elizabeth later being informed that he had been severely wounded in the chest, succumbing to his injuries half-an-hour later. His name was placed on the roll of honour at Trowbridge, but in July 1917, William’s parents received a card from Turkey in his handwriting, explaining that he was a prisoner of war.

Private Cockerton was released on 16th November 1918, and returned to Britain.

Early in March, he went to Harrow-on-the-Hill for a holiday, staying with his uncle. Here he was taken ill with malarial fever and pneumonia, which resulted in his death.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 26th April 1919]

William John Cockerton was just 22 years of age when he passed away on 20th April 1919. His body was taken back to Wiltshire for burial, and he was laid to rest in Trowbridge Cemetery. He lies at rest in the family plot, alongside his father, who had passed away in the autumn of 1916.

Private William Cockerton
(from britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, India, Lance Corporal, Military Provost Staff Corps, photography, Private, Sergeant, South Africa, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Serjeant Frederick Bewley

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Serjeant Frederick Bewley

Frederick John Edwin Bewley was born in Calne, Wiltshire, on 10th May 1882. Noticeably absent from the 1891 and 1901 census records, his parents were Chelsea pensioner John Bewley, and his wife, Annie.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Frederick was drawn to a life in the army. Having already been a volunteer in the local militia, on 20th November 1900, he enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment. His service papers show that, at 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, he weighed 125lbs (56.7kg). He sported brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. He was also noted as having a scar on his right thigh and calf.

Private Bewley’s contract was for 12 years. During that time, he travelled the world spending three years in South Africa, and more than five in India. He was back in South Africa when his initial term of service came to an end, and he re-enlisted without thinking about it.

In May 1904 Frederick has been promoted to Lance Corporal, a rank he would hold for the next 12 years. During his second term of service, war broke out, but he would only spend short periods of time overseas.

…a member of the regular army, [Frederick] crossed to France with Lord French’s Expeditionary Force in August, 1914, and was wounded in the thigh at the battle of Mons. After a short period at Netley Hospital he went to Flanders in the following November. The awful conditions prevailing in the trenches was responsible for an attack of frost-bite, and tuberculosis following, he was treated at Winsley and Harnwood Sanatoriums…

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 27th December 1919]

From 1th January 1915, Lance Corporal Bewley would remain on home soil. The sharp clarity of near-death experiences, along with a reconnection with home life, led to love blossoming and, on 6th May, he married labourer’s daughter Lilian Fidler. Both were living in Holt, Wiltshire, by this point, and it was in the village’s church that the couple exchanged vows.

Back on home soil, a new opportunity had opened up for Frederick, and he transferred to the Military Provost Staff Corps, a unit set up to police the army. In January 1916, he was promoted to Corporal; just weeks later, Vivian gave birth to their first child, Eric. and he rose to Sergeant eighteen months later.

On 1st August 1917, Corporal Bewley was promoted again, taking the rank of Serjeant. By this point, however, his bouts of poor health were coming back to haunt him, and, just six weeks after his promotion, he was medically discharged from the army.

After returning to Holt, Frederick welcomed a second son with Lilian on New Year’s Eve 1918, when Vivian was born. The following winter, his tuberculosis struck again, and this time it was clear the illness would prove fatal. He passed away on 21st December 1919, aged 37 years old.

The body of Frederick John Edwin Bewley was laid to rest in Hold Old Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, India, Lance Corporal, photography, Private, story, war, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Lance Corporal Stanley Gosnell

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Lance Corporal Stanley Gosnell

Joseph Roger Stanley Gosnell was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, in the autumn of 1895. He wad the only child to William and Florence Gosnell. William was a draughtsman, who died when his son was just 4 years old.

Florence was left to raise her son on her own and moved back to Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, where her family lived. On 14th April 1903, she remarried, her new husband being head teacher of Holt Congregational School, John Longstaff. The 1911 census found the family living at Eglington Villa, not far from the school.

When war broke out, Joseph was quick to step up and play his part. Now going by Stanley, he enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment on 17th September 1914, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion. His service papers show that he was 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. He was noted as having normal vision and good physical development.

Private Gosnell seemed to impress his superiors, and, on 12th December 1914, he was promoted Lance Corporal. The following day his unit was dispatched oversees, and he was sent to India. He would go on to spend the next eight months in Pune, but not in the way he might have hoped.

On 27th February 1915, Stanley was admitted to hospital, suffering from pneumonia. He would remain admitted for nearly three months. Sent back to his unit in mid-May, he was taken back into hospital just three weeks later with tuberculosis. This time, he would only be there for three weeks before being sent back to his unit.

Lance Corporal Gosnell was sent back to Britain in August 1915, and he would remain on home soil for the next year. During this time his health deteriorated, to the point that, no 25th August 1916, he was medically discharged from the army.

At this point, Stanley’s trail goes cold, and it is only a later newspaper report that confirms what happened:

Mrs Longstaff, of Eglington Villa, who a short time since was called upon to mourn the loss of her husband, Mr JC Longstaff, was on Wednesday further bereaved by the death of her only son, Mr Stanley Gosnell. Mr Gosnell’s constitution was never of the most robust kind, and though he volunteered for service and proceeded to India with the Territorials, he was unable to withstand the climate and the work entailed, and was invalided home. His death so soon after reaching manhood’s estate is a heavy blow to his mother and the utmost sympathy will go out to her in her irreparable loss.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 10th May 1919]

Details of John’s passing are unclear, but he died just a few months before his stepson. Joseph Roger Stanley Gosnell was just 23 when he died on 7th May 1919. He was laid to rest in Holt Old Cemetery, not far from where his twice-grieving mother lived.

Florence had now been widowed twice, on top of losing her only child. She found some solace in her grief, however, and, in the autumn of 1923, she married for a third time. Her new husband, Joseph Scarisbrick, was a widow thirteen years her senior, and worked as a customs and excise man.

Joseph died in 1938, at the age of 85: Florence had outlived all three of her husbands. She passed away on 4th October 1954, at the age of 88 years old.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, India, photography, Sergeant, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Serjeant William Loder

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Serjeant William Loder

William James Nelson Loder was born in the summer of 1893 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. The oldest of seven children, his parents were Harry and Rosina. Harry was an engineer at a wool mill, and his son obviously followed in his father’s practical footsteps: the 1911 census found him employed as a coach builder’s apprentice.

The document found the Loder family living at 1 Canal Road, a five-roomed cottage on the outskirts of town. Alongside Harry and his son, William’s younger sister, Ethel was also working as an apprentice dress maker.

Away from work, it seems that William also joined the local militia, with a later document showing that he enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment on 4th February 1909. When war broke out, he was called upon to play his part. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, and was sent to India in September 1914. While his service papers have been lost to time, it is clear that he rose to the rank of Serjeant, but by the start of 1917, he was back in Britain.

On 27th January 1917, William married Angelin Gliddon. She was a coachman’s daughter from Holt, Wiltshire, and was working as a draper’s assistant when she and her husband exchanged vows.

William’s health was failing by this point and, on 21st May 1917, he was formally discharged from the army on medical grounds. His trail goes cold as this point, and it is only three years later that documents confirm his passing. He died on 24th April 1920 at the age of 26 years old.

The body of William James Nelson Loder was laid to rest in Holt Old Cemetery, not far from where his grieving wife still lived.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, Uncategorized, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Joseph Barnes

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Private Joseph Barnes

Joseph Arthur Barnes was born in the spring of 1887, and was the youngest of four children to George and Hannah Barnes. George was a farm labourer from Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire, and this is where he and Hannah – or Anna – raised their family.

When he completed his schooling, Joseph found work as a horseman on the farm, alongside his older brother, George. On 30th July 1913, he married Minnie Ring, a furniture maker’s daughter from the village. The couple exchanged vows in the parish church.

War was on the horizon, and a little over a year after their marriage, Joseph stepped up to play his part. He joined the Wiltshire Regiment and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion. Private Barnes was sent to Dorset for training, but his time in the army would not be a lengthy one.

Joseph contracted pneumonia, and was admitted to hospital in Weymouth. The condition would provide to severe, however, and he passed away on 9th April 1915: he was 27 years of age.

The body of Joseph Arthur Barnes was taken back to Wiltshire for burial: he was laid to rest in the tranquil surrounds of St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Longbridge Deverill.

Joseph’s brother George also served in the First World War. Assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment, he served on the Western Front. Private Barnes was killed in action on 5th August 1917, at the age of 33. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lance Corporal, photography, Rifle Brigade, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Lance Corporal Alfred Newman

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Lance Corporal Alfred Newman

Alfred James Newman was born in around 1874 in Westbury, Wiltshire. One of six children, his parents were coke burner and agricultural labourer James Newman and his wife, Virtue.

Alfred followed his father into farm work, and would remain living with his parents until they were in their seventies. The 1911 census found the family living in Westbury Leigh, to the south of Westbury itself, James and Virtue as pensioners and Alfred as a general farm labourer. Also living with them was adopted child James Ellery, although it isn’t clear who had adopted him, and whether he had any other familial connection to them to the Newmans.

When war broke out, Alfred stepped up to play his part. Full details of his military service have been lost to time, but it is clear that he joined the Wiltshire Regiment, and was attached to the 4th Battalion. He was then transferred to the 22nd (Wessex and Welsh) Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. It is unclear whether he spent time overseas, but, by the spring of 1916, he had been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal.

On Tuesday last week, Mr James Newman… received a telegram from the military authorities stating that his son, Lance-Corporal Alfred James Newman had died the same day in the 2nd Southern General Hospital at Bristol… He, having obtained leave, went to Bristol to pay a visit to some friends and evidently caught a chill. His death took place on Tuesday morning. He was conveyed to his home on Friday, and the funeral took place on Saturday afternoon.

[Wiltshire News: Friday 14th April 1916]

Alfred’s Pension Ledger Index Card suggests that, rather than a chill, he had, in fact, died following the rupture of an aortic aneurysm. He passed away on 4th April 1916, and was 47 years of age.

The body of Alfred James Newman was laid to rest in the peaceful setting of the Provident Baptist Chapelyard in Penknap, to the south west of Westbury.