Category Archives: Private

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Ireland, photography, Private, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Alfred Lane

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Private Alfred Lane

Alfred Frederick Lane was born on the 8th August 1899 in the Wiltshire village of Edington. The third of three children, his parents were Alfred and Ada Lane. Intriguingly, Alfred’s older brother, Percy, who was both the year before, is not recorded as living with his family, the 1901 and 1911 census returns show him as living with his maternal grandparents in Newbury, Berkshire.

Alfred Sr was an innkeeper, and the family lived in the White Horse Inn, one of four pubs in the village. His tenure as landlord did not seem to last for long, however, and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was recorded as being a dairy farmer. With two children to support, he and Ada had taken in a lodger, railway servant Ambrose Perrett.

When war came to Europe, Alfred Jr would eventually be called upon to serve his country. He did not, however, go willingly.

Alfred Frederick Lane (18, single), of White’s Farm Edington, had been refused exemption by the local tribunal, also by the War Agricultural Committee.

The father appeared, and said he was told to get a substitute, but this boy helped on his grandmother’s farm and she did not want a substitute, as she could hardly get about.

Captain Morley: Then I should think she does want one.

Mr Lane said his mother-in-law’s land was five miles away, near Heywood Church, and his son cycled there every morning after he had helped milk the cows at home. He had nine cows in milk and could not milk them all himself, as sometimes he did not get about very early, being “a bit bronchial.”

Captain Morley: How long have you been “touched in the wind?”

Mr Lane: A long time. Dr Willcox, of Warminster, only gave me six months to live – that was four years ago (laughter).

The Tribunal refused exemption and the Chairman said “You must tell your mother-in-law she must get a substitute.”

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 2nd March 1918]

Alfred Sr’s attempt to get his son off the hook seemed a desperate measure, and he was not afraid to lie to do so. His mother-in-law, Ada’s mother, had lived in Berkshire and had died seven years earlier. Alfred Sr’s own mother, Hannah, had indeed helped on a farm, but she had passed away in 1900. He may have been suffering from bronchitis, but that was not going to save his son from joining the army.

Private Lane joined the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, and was sent to Ireland for training.

On Sunday last week Mr [Alfred] Lane, of The Farm, Edington, received the sad news that his only son had been fatally shot in a military camp near Dublin. It is only about three months that he joined up, being attached to the Cycling Corps of the Wiltshire Yeomanry.

[Devizes and Wilts Advertiser: Thursday 18th July 1918]

Alfred’s time in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry had been cut tragically short. In Dublin, a trial was held for the man accused of his killing.

At a general court-martial held in Ship Street Barracks, Dublin, Private Walter H Lester, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, was charged with the manslaughter of Alfred Frederick Lane at Kilbride Camp, Co. Wicklow, on the 6th July. There was a second charge under the Army Act of having negligently fired a military rifle which fatally wounded Lane.

Mr Smylie, defending, submitted that a charge of manslaughter was not one for trial before a court-martial, and that there was no additional offence disclosed in the second charge.

The Judge-Advocate said that in his opinion the particulars set out in the second charge were the same as those in the first charge. It would only be necessary for the Court to find on one charge, and if they found accused guilty on the second charge he would advise the Court to refer the question of the validity of that charge to the convening officer.

This was agreed to, and evidence was then taken.

Lance-Corporal McCullagh stated that he was in a bell tent on the morning of July 6 with seven others, including the accused and the deceased. The deceased and Private Seansbury were wrestling on the floor. Witness heard an explosion, and they all rushed out, except deceased, who was lying on the floor. His face was covered with blood.

Private Haire said the accused was standing near the two men, who were wrestling. He had a rifle in his hand. He put his hand into his trouser pocket, and took a “round,” which he placed in the rifle, and pointed at the two boys, who were wrestling, and then pulled the trigger. When they heard the explosion they ran out.

Private Bannerin said he could not explain where the accused got the “round,” which was in the rifle.

The accused stated that he put what he took to be a “dud” cartridge in the rifle, which he raised to his shoulder to try. He did not believe it would go off.

His counsel also pleaded that the affair was purely accidental.

Accused was found not guilty on both of the counts.

[Belfast Telegraph: Friday 16th August 1918]

Alfred Frederick Lane was just 18 years of age when he died. His body was brought back to Wiltshire for burial, and he was laid to rest in the graveyard of Ss. Mary and Katherine and All Saints’ Church, not far from where his family still lived.

Private Alfred Lane
(from ancestry.co.uk)

The loss of their son, particularly after their personal plea for him to be excused service, dealt Alfred and Ada a savage blow. Alfred Sr died a year after his son, at the age of just 56 years old.

Ada continued with the running of the farm, with her daughter Elsie and son-in-law William, to help. Ada passed away in 1924: she was 52 years of age.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Frank Farmer

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Private Frank Farmer

Frank Baden Farmer was born in the summer of 1892 in the Wiltshire village of Semington. The twelfth of thirteen children, his parents were groom and gardener John Farmer and his wife, Jane.

When he completed his schooling, Frank – who was known as Toby to his family and friends – found work as a labourer in a local iron foundry. War broke out in the summer of 1914, and he gave up his job to enlist. He joined the Army Service Corps as a Private and, by early August 1915, he was in France.

Details of Private Farmer’s life in the army have been lost to time, but he certainly survived the war, and returned home to Wiltshire. At this point, Frank’s trail goes cold. The next documents for him relate to his passing – from disease, on 1st February 1921. He was 27 years of age.

The body of Frank Baden Farmer was laid to rest in the graveyard of St George’s Church in his home village of Semington.

Interestingly, The Wiltshire News of the 18th February (thirteen days after Frank’s funeral) included a photograph of the newly installed war memorial tablet in St George’s. Unveiled the week before, it is likely that Private Farmer’s passing came to late for his name to be included on it.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, Lincolnshire, New Zealand, New Zealand Machine Gun Corps, photography, Private, Scotland, South Africa, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Patrick O’Neill

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Private Patrick O’Neill

Patrick Thomas O’Neill was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 2nd March 1888. Little information is available about his early life, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirms he was the son of Jane O’Neill, and the family lived at 151 Taranaki Street.

When he completed his schooling, Patrick found work as a driver for Munt, Cotterell & Co. A large transport and cartage company, when the First World War broke out, they became involved in transporting supplies to the military camp at Trentham. Because of this connection, many of the company’s workers – Patrick included – enlisted.

Patrick’s service papers show that he joined up 22nd August 1916. His medical confirms that he was 5ft 4.5ins (1.64m) tall and had fair hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

After his training at Trentham, Private O’Neill’s unit – the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps – left Wellington for Europe. After a week’s break in Simon’s Town, South Africa, their ship – the Walmer Castle – arrived in Devonport, Devon, on 27th March 1917. During the second part of the voyage, Patrick was admitted to the ship’s hospital, for an infestation of pubic lice.

The voyage from New Zealand to Britain had taken nearly three months, so when the regiment finally arrived at their camp in Sling, Wiltshire, it must have been something of a relief. For Private O’Neill, however, it marked the beginning of a regular pattern of misdemeanours.

In April 1917, Patrick moved to a base in Tidworth. A matter of weeks later, he went AWOL, and forfeited three days’ pay as a result. Private O’Neill was then sent to Grantham, Lincolnshire, where the ANZAC united had their machine gun training base. Over the next two months, he went AWOL on four separate occasions, resulting in him losing a total of 10 days’ pay and, for the final absence, 96 hours’ detention.

Private O’Neill disappearances seem to have been those of a lad about town: a couple of days after his final return, he was admitted to the venereal section of the camp hospital in Grantham. His condition – and probably his behaviour – was such that he was transferred back to Wiltshire, and admitted to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital near Codford.

Private O’Neill was not done, however. On 6th December 1917, and having been discharged back to his unit just a day before, he went AWOL again, this time in spectacular fashion. He was arrested by military police in Edinburgh on 14th January 1918. Taken in handcuffs back to Codford, he forfeited 71 days’ pay – plus a 2s fine for his arrest – and punished with 90 days in the cells.

Patrick’s imprisonment began on the 1st March 1918, but it was a sentence he would not complete. On 16th May, he was taken from his cell and admitted to the camp hospital, once again to the venereal section. Less than a week later, he was dead, having suffered an embolism. Private O’Neill was 30 years of age when he passed, on 21st May 1918.

The body of Patrick Thomas O’Neill was laid to rest in the extension to St Mary’s Church, Codford, not far from the base in which he had been incarcerated and hospitalised.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Essex, Great War, history, illness, New Zealand, New Zealand Canterbury Regiment, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Charles Harvey

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Private Charles Harvey

Charles John Harvey was born in Nelson, New Zealand, on 30th May 1892. Little information is available about his early life, but documents give his parents as George and Eleanora Harvey.

Charles was working as a general labourer when war broke out, and was called upon to play his part on 19th October 1916. Attached to his country’s Canterbury Regiment, his medical report showed that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, and weighed 11st 2lbs (70.8kg). An Anglican, he was recorded as having dark brown hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion. He was noted as having no vaccination marks.

This fact that Private Harvey hadn’t been vaccinated would come back to haunt him. Sent to an army camp in Trentham, near Wellington, within a matter of weeks he was hospitalised with measles. He remained admitted until 13th December 1916, when he was discharged back to his unit.

It was not until 2nd April 1917, that Private Harvey would set sail for Britain. The journey from Wellington to Devonport would take ten weeks, and Charles was marched in to camp at Sling, Wiltshire, on 10th June that year.

Assigned to the 2nd Company of the 2nd Battalion, Private Harvey finally arrived in France on 27th August 1917. He served on the Western Front for a couple of months, before falling ill again. This time it was influenza that had incapacitated him, and he was admitted to a hospital in Le Tréport for a month while he received treatment.

Charles’ recovery was to be a slow one and, in the end, he was medically evacuated to Britain for ongoing medical support. By February 1918, he had spent time in four different hospitals and, intriguingly, had forfeited three days’ pay for going AWOL while a patient in a medical facility in Hornchurch, Essex. By the start of April 1918, Private Harvey was discharged to the ANZAC camp in Codford, Wiltshire.

His health issues were not over, however, and, on 21st April, Charles was taken in to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital in near the Codford camp. He was suffering from acute nephritis, and this would ultimately prove fatal. Private Harvey died on 7th May 1918: he was 25 years of age.

The body of Charles John Harvey was laid to rest in the graveyard extension of St Mary’s Church, Codford.

Private Charles Harvey
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, New Zealand, New Zealand Otago Regiment, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Thomas Perwick

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Private Thomas Perwick

Thomas Patrick Perwick was born in Balfour, a town on New Zealand’s South Island, on 19th August 1889. There is little information available about his early life, but his parents were Australian Alfred Perwick and his Irish-born wife, Catherine.

When Thomas completed his schooling, he took up agricultural work, and was working as a farmer when he received the call up to join the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

Private Perwick’s service records show that he enlisted on the 18th October 1916. Standing 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, he weighed 11st (69.9kg). His medical report shows that he had light brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. The papers also note Thomas’ religion as Roman Catholic.

Sent to Trentham for training, Private Perwick would be assigned to the New Zealand Otago Regiment. His unit left Wellington on 15th February 1917, making the ten-week voyage to Britain. Thomas disembarked in Devonport, Devon, on 2nd May, and was marched in to camp in Sling, Wiltshire, the same day.

Private Perwick was attached to the 2nd Battalion, and was sent to France on 9th June. Straight into the fray, his unit fought at Messines, but was wounded in the head and arm during fighting at Passchendaele. Medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, he was admitted to hospital in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, before being moved back to the Wiltshire ANZAC camps at Sling and Tidworth.

Thomas was discharged to duty on 7th January 1918, but was not out of the woods. He fell ill with mumps, and was sent to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital in Codford, Wiltshire, for treatment. While admitted, he contracted tuberculosis, and, over the next four months, his health deteriorated. Private Perwick’s body finally succumbed on 4th May 1918: he was 28 years of age.

Thousands of miles from his home, Thomas Patrick Perwick was laid to rest in the graveyard extension of St Mary’s Church, Codford, not far from the hospital in which he had breathed his last.

Private Thomas Perwick
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lancashire, New Zealand, New Zealand Otago Regiment, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Frank Morris

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Private Frank Morris

Francis Kemp Morris was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 29th September 1884. The older of two children, his parents were William and Fanny Morris. London-born Fanny, had been married twice before, and Francis – who was better known as Frank – had two half-siblings from each of those marriages.

There is little information about Frank’s early life. On 22nd March 1910, he married Lavinia Edwards. The couple went on to have three children – Albert, Ivy and Mavis – and Lavinia had had a son, William, two years before their wedding.

Fanny died in February 1915, at the age of 63. Tragically, Lavinia would also pass away in December 1916: she was just 26 years of age. Frank now had children to raise. He was employed as an engineer, but was called upon to serve his King the following summer.

Assigned to the New Zealand Otago Regiment, Private Morris’ service papers note that he was 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, and weighed 148kbs (67.1kg). He was recorded as having dark hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. He had a scar in the middle of his back, and tattoos on both of his forearms and his left knee. Deemed fit for service, Frank was sent to Trentham, near Wellington for training.

On 21st November 1917, Frank’s unit left New Zealand for the ten week voyage to Britain. Arriving in Liverpool, Lancashire, on 8th January 1918, he was marched in to Sling Camp, Wiltshire, the same day, in preparation for his unit’s move to France.

Private Morris, however, would not spend any time fighting the enemy. On 12th April 1918, he was admitted to a military hospital in Tidworth, Wiltshire, suffering with hypertrophy of the tonsils. The following day he was moved to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital near Codford with gonorrhoea. Over the coming days he contracted bronchitis, and this would be the condition that ultimately claimed his life. Frank died on 20th April 1918, at the age of 33 years old.

Thousands of miles from home, Francis – Frank – Kemp Morris was laid to rest in the graveyard extension to St Mary’s Church, Codford, not far from the hospital in which he had spent the last few weeks of his life.

Frank’s next of kin was noted as a friend, E Biddle, while his war pension was given to Henry Holbrook of St Mary’s Industrial School, Auckland, the guardian of the now orphaned children.

Private Frank Morris
(from findagrave.com)
Coldstream Guards, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, story, war

Private Thomas Bidder

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Private Thomas Bidder

Thomas Bidder was born on 10th April 1893 on Lower Winsham Farm, Braunton, Devon. One of twelve children, his parents were farmers John and Eliza Bidder.

Thomas sought a life away from the farm and he enlisted in the army, joining the prestigious Coldstream Guards. The 1911 census recorded Private Bidder as being in barracks in a camp in Chertsey, Surrey.

When war broke out, Thomas was mobilised, and soon found himself on the Western Front. It is unclear exactly when or how he served, but a later report suggests that he was wounded in February 1915, and medically evacuated to Britain for treatment.

After being treated in different hospitals, he was sent home to convalesce, but here (no doubt as the indirect result of the wounds) tuberculosis developed, and death was due to this cause.

[Western Times: Thursday 19th August 1915]

Thomas Bidder died on 16th August 1915, at the age of 23 years old. The newspaper report noted that he “was a man who was greatly admired for his soldierly and other qualities, and at Braunton he will long be held in the fondest remembrance.” [Western Times: Thursday 19th August 1915]

Thomas was laid to rest in St Brannock’s Church in his home town of Braunton.

Thomas was not the first of the Bidder siblings to die during the war. His younger brother, Walter, served in the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. Private Bidder was killed on 18th December 1914, aged just 19 years old. He is commemorated on the Le Touquet Memorial in France, and on the family headstone in Braunton.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal North Devon Hussars, story, war, Yorkshire

Private Ernest West

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Private Ernest West

Ernest West was born in the autumn of 1894 in Barnstaple, Devon. The middle of seven children, his parents were Charles and Eliza. The 1901 censes recorded Charles as being the innkeepers of a pub on North Street in Braunton, but ten years later he had changed career, and was a corn and manure merchant. The family had moved to Scur Farm to the north of the town centre.

War broke out in the summer of 1914, and Ernest stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal North Devon Yeomanry, and was attached to the 1st Battalion. Full service details have been lost to time, but by the autumn of 1915, Private West was in the Balkans, and was among those to land at Sulva Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Ernest survived the fighting, but contracted dysentery. He was medically evacuated back to Britain, and admitted to the 3rd North General Hospital in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Sadly, the condition was to get the better of him, and he passed away on the 13th February 1916, at the age of just 21 years old.

The body of Ernest West was taken back to Devon for burial, and he was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Brannock’s Church, Braunton.

Ernest was not the only West sibling to die during the First World War. His older brother William enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment and, in the autumn of 1917, found himself in the fighting at Passchendaele. He was killed in action on 4th October, at the age of 27. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

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

Private Ernest Shambrook

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Private Ernest Shambrook

Ernest Shambrook was born in the parish of Heanton Punchardon, Devon, in the autumn of 1889. The youngest of six children, he was one of four sons to Robert and Fanny Shambrook. Robert was a miller’s waggoner, and the family lived at Heddon Mill in nearby Georgeham.

When Ernest completed his schooling, he took up work as a tailor, something his older brother, James, had previously gone into. The 1911 census found that Ernest had left home and was boarding with the Heath family in Ottery St Mary, where he was employed in tailoring.

When war broke out, Ernest stepped up to play his part. His service papers have been lost to time, but it is clear that he enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment at some point after September 1914. Private Shambrook was assigned to the 2nd/5th Battalion, and sent to Newton Abbot for training.

His time in the army, however, was to be a brief one. Ernest contracted pneumonia, and had to be admitted to the VAD Red Cross Hospital in the town. His condition, however, was to prove fatal, and Private Shambrook passed away on 4th March 1915: he was 25 years of age.

The body of Ernest Shambrook was taken back to the family church, St Brannock’s in Braunton for burial. The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, reporting on his funeral, notes one of the mourners as “Miss Wotton (deceased’s fiancée)” [Thursday 11th March 1915]. There is no further information on Ernest’s intended.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment), Great War, history, killed in action, London, London Regiment, photography, Private, Second Lieutenant, Sergeant, story, war

Second Lieutenant Arthur Phripp

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Second Lieutenant Arthur Phripp

Arthur Frederic Thornton Phripp was born in Gillingham, Dorset, in the summer of 1894. The middle of three children, and the only son, his parents were Frederick and Kate Phripp. Frederick was a farmer, and the family lived in Slaughter Gate, to the west of the town centre.

The 1911 census recorded Frederick and Kate managing the farm, and raising their youngest child, daughter Lucy. Arthur, however, is missing, and it seems that he had taken started working for the Post Office as a boy clerk. Where he was living is unclear, but later documents suggest that he may have moved to London.

When war broke out, Arthur stepped up to play his part, joining the 1/21st (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment, which was also known as the First Surrey Rifles. Private Phripp arrived in France on the 16th March 1915 and, over the next couple of years, fought at Loos, the Somme and Messines. He rose through the ranks, reaching Sergeant and, in the autumn of 1917, he was awarded a commission to Second Lieutenant.

Arthur returned to Britain to formally take the commission, and was transferred to the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment. Back on home soil, it was a chance to see family again, but tragedy was to strike.

A painful sensation was created in the town when it became known that Mrs Kate Phripp, 65, of Slaughtergate Farm, and her son, Arthur TF Phripp, 23, had been killed in the Zeppelin raid on Friday.

At the inquest on seven of the victims on Monday evidence was given that Mr Phripp was stopping with some friends, and his mother went up from Gillingham on Friday to see him. Evidence given by the police showed that warning had been given in every principal thoroughfare in the district where the fatalities occurred, and the theatres had been warned. The bomb came quite unexpectedly. Besides the killed nine people were seriously injured and nine slightly injured. A great amount of glass was smashed. It was mentioned that Mrs Phripp and her son had been attending the theatre, where is was announced that the warning had been given, and that the play would continue until the guns were heard. The play was continued to the end, and the deceased left at their own risk. The Coroner observed that it was clear that some people took the optimistic view that the raid was over. If people went out into the street after a warning they did to at their own risk. A formal verdict was returned, and they commended the work of the police, special constables and ambulance workers, who, they said, had acted promptly and pluckily…

[Bridport News: Friday 26th October 1917]

The Zeppelin that raided London that night had originally been one of eleven aircraft tasked with attacking Britain’s northern industrial towns. But strong winds disrupted the operation, and one airship – L45, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kölle – was blown south instead.

Meanwhile, Second Lieutenant Phripp and his mother had just left His Majesty’s Theatre in the Haymarket, where they had been watching the comedy Chu Chin Chow, and were making their way across Piccadilly Circus, returning to their friend’s house.

By ill twist of fate, at that moment Kölle released a 100kg (220lb) bomb, which exploded in the road outside the Swan & Edgar department store. The resulting explosion destroyed the building’s frontage and left a crater in the road some 10ft (3m) across and 4ft (1.2m) deep. Seven people were killed: this included Kate and her son.

The bodies of Kate and Arthur Phripp were taken back to Dorset for burial. They were laid to rest together in Gillingham Cemetery, not far from where Frederick and Lucy were grieving.

[Note: My thanks go to Tony Otton for his insight into the event that led to the passing of Arthur and his mother.]