Category Archives: Private

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, photography, Private, Royal Marines, Sergeant, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, Surrey, war

Sergeant Albert Ferris

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Sergeant Albert Ferris

Albert Edward Ferris was born in the spring of 1884, one of six children to Charles and Juliana. Charles was quarryman turned farm labourer from Gloucestershire, but it was in the village of Claverton, near Bath, that the family were born and raised.

When he finished his schooling, Albert found work as a baker, but soon sought out a career in the military. On 2nd January 1903 he enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry as a Private. His services records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Based out of Plymouth, over the next nine years Private Ferris served on four different ships and was recognised as having a very good character and an ability to match.

In 1910, Albert married Eliza Jane Warren, a mason’s daughter from Monkton Combe. The 1911 census found Albert on board the armoured cruiser HMS Cumberland, while Eliza was living with her parents. Military life was taking a toll on married life and, on 6th December 1911 bought an end to his naval career and was ‘discharged by purchase’.

Returning to Somerset, Albert found employment as a motor-man with Bath Electric Tramways. He and Eliza settled into married life, but war was on the horizon and things were to change.

At the outbreak of war, [Albert] promptly responded to his country’s call, and enlisted in the [Somerset Light Infantry], as a Private. When his battalion was sent to France, he distinguished himself in a short time by his excellent work as a sniper, speedily earning his first stripes as a consequence. With his battalion he participated in the heavy fighting around the Ypres district, over an extended period, without sustaining any serious injury. Later his battalion was moved further down the line to take part in the “Great Push,” where, for meritorious conduct, he was… promoted to Sergeant in the field…

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 7th October 1916

Sergeant Ferris’ luck was not to last, however, and things took a turn in September 1916.

In the… fighting around Delville Wood… Sergt, Ferris was severely wounded in the right thigh by a machine-gun bullet. One of his officers gave him the best first-aid treatment possible under the circumstances, and later he crawled nearly three miles in an endeavour to reach the nearest field dressing station. Through loss of blood, shock, and general exhaustion he was on the point of collapse when picked up by a field ambulance, after which he was transferred to the base and later to Tooting Military Hospital, where, despite skilled treatment and the greatest care, septic poisoning intervened and he passed away…

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 7th October 1916

Sergeant Ferris died while admitted in the Surrey hospital on 4th October 1916. He was just 32 years of age.

The body of Albert Edward Ferris was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Michael’s Church, Monkton Combe.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorsetshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Yorkshire

Corporal Frank Crew

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Corporal Frank Crew

Frank George Crew was born in Twerton, Somerset, on 25th January 1886. The fourth of five children, his parents were nurseryman and market gardener William Crew and his laundress wife, Fanny.

When Frank finished his schooling, he followed his father into the nursery trade, and this is how he was employed when war was declared. He enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment on 19th July 1915, and was assigned to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion. Private Crew’s service records are limited, but his medical report shows that he was 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, weighing around 10st (63.5kg).

On 6th October 1918, Frank, who had been promoted to Corporal by this point, was admitted to the Military Hospital in York with a bullet wound to his right forearm. Given that his battalion remained on home soil for the duration of the conflict, it is unclear whether this was an accidental injury at camp, or if he transferred to another troop when he recovered.

Little additional information for Frank remains. He remained in hospital until 8th November 1918 and it is unclear if he continued with his army service once he recovered – although given the Armistice was declared three days later, it is unlikely that he did.

On 11th November itself, Frank married Kate May, a mason’s daughter from Limpley Stoke, to the west of Bath. By this point he recorded his profession as gardener, so it seems his army career was indeed behind him. The couple went on to have a daughter, Peggy, who was born a year later.

William died in 1920, and by the time of the following year’s census, Frank, Kate and Peggy were living with Frank’s now-widowed mother. The extended family had a home on Padleigh Hill, to the south west of Bath city centre, and Frank seemed to be the main breadwinner, working as a labourer for Stothert & Pitts Ltd, a crane company on the River Avon.

Sadly, Frank was only to survive the census by a couple of months. He passed away on 21st August 1921, dying from a combination of influenza and epilepsy. He was 35 years of age.

Frank George Crew was laid to rest in the quiet Englishcombe Churchyard, close to the family home.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, London, photography, Private, Somerset, story, unknown, war, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Henry Mitchell

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Private Henry Mitchell

Henry Mitchell was born in the summer of 1892, the second of three children – and the only son – to George and Selina Mitchell. George was a gardener from Saltford, Somerset, and this is where he and Selina raised their young family.

By the time of the 1911 census, Henry had finished his schooling, and had followed his father into gardening for work. War was calling at England’s shores, however, and he was soon to take up a post in the army.

Full details of Henry’s military service are lost to time, but from his gravestone it is clear that he enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment as a Private. From other documents it is possible to determine that he joined up by April 1917, and that he did not serve overseas. Instead, while his battalion – the 1st – fought at the Somme, Messines and Ypres, Private Mitchell was assigned to the regiment’s depot.

Henry seems to have been based in London, and he was certainly here in the summer of 1917. He was admitted to a hospital in Bethnal Green, and it was here that he breathed his last. He died on 14th October 1917, through causes unknown. He was just 25 years of age.

Henry Mitchell’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in the graveyard of the Blessed Mary Church in his home village of Saltford.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, India, Kent, Mesopotamia, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, Somerset, story, Sussex, war

Private Walter Lane

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Private Walter Lane

Walter Frederick Lane was born in Sidcup, Kent, in the early part of 1893. The younger of two children, his parents were Frederick and Caroline Lane. Frederick was a carman and the transient nature of his work meant that the family moved on a regular basis.

The 1901 census found them in Eltham, Kent, while ten years later the family of three – Walter’s older sister having moved on – were boarding in Harton Street, Deptford. By this point, Walter was 17 years of age, and he was also working as a carman. (It is interesting to note that the earlier census recorded Walter’s parents by their first names, while the 1911 document used their middle names – Walter and Kate: transient work allowing for reinvention, perhaps?)

Walter sought a more permanent career, and, on 17th March 1913, he enlisted in the army. Full details of his military career have been lost to time and, in fact, most of his service details come from his discharge papers.

Walter enlisted in the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), although, as Private Lane, he was not formally mobilised until March 1914. When war broke out, his battalion, the 1st/5th, was sent to India, and he remained there for the duration of the war.

Private Lane’s time in the army was not without incident. He contracted malaria in 1915, and while he initially recovered, the condition was to continue to dog him over the following years.

By 1917 Walter’s troop was based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, but in December that year, the battalion set sail from Bombay for Basra, Mesopotamia.

While in Iraq, he had a couple of run-ins with his superiors. On 22nd December 1917 he was stopped a week’s pay for ‘disobeying an order: putting his equipment on a transport waggon’ and ‘losing by neglect his equipment.’ On 18th February 1918, a further 28 days’ pay was deducted for ‘making away with regimental necessaries (1 towel)’ and ‘neglecting to obey an order.’

During this time, though, Walter’s health was regularly impacted when malaria caught up with him. His discharge documents recorded that he had an attack about once a month, which lasted four or five days each time. In the end, he was released from active service, and left the army on 19th February 1919.

Walter had been discharged while admitted to the Dispersal Hospital in Brighton. His health did not improve, however, and he was soon moved to Somerset for respite care. It was here that he passed away on 7th August 1919. He was 26 years of age.

Walter Frederick Lane was laid to rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard, Newton St Loe, Somerset.

My thanks go to Liz at the local parish office for her help in unpicking the details of Walter’s passing.

Thanks also go to Tim Hill, who has been researching the graves in the Newton St Loe churchyard.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Kent, photography, Private, Royal Marines, Somerset, story, war

Private Henry Barnes

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Private Henry Barnes

Hunstrete, Pensford was plunged into sorrow, not unmixed with pride, when is became known that one of its lads Pte. HC Barnes, RMLI… had played a hero’s part in the now famous Zebrugge raid, where he was severely wounded in the head and shoulder, from which wounds he subsequently succumbed in Chatham Naval Hospital. Before joining up at the age of 17 years and two months he was employed to look after the famous poultry of Mr HLF Popham, of Hunstrete House, taking all the honours at the Crystal Palace during one show. He was first sent to Salonika but was invalided home with malaria and was on board the Iris during the raid. The deceased lad, who was 19, was brought home and his body laid to rest at St Peter’s, Marksbury.

Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 10th May 1918

Henry Charles Barnes was born on 5th December 1898 in the Somerset village of Hunstrete. Also known as Harry, he was the oldest of six children to coal hewer Samuel Barnes and his wife Elizabeth, who was better known as Bessie.

After his recovery from malaria, Private Barnes was assigned to HMS Iris, a Mersey ferry requisitioned by the Royal Navy for support in the planned raid on Zeebrugge.

On 23 April 1918, Iris was towed across the English Channel to Zeebrugge by HMS Vindictive; she was carrying a couple of platoons of the 4th Battalion of the Royal Marines as a raiding party. When the Vindictive neared Zeebrugge she cast the ferry aside. Iris tried to pull up to the breakwater under heavy fire in order to off-load the raiding parties which were on board. She sustained heavy fire and a shell burst through the deck into an area where the marines were preparing to land. Forty-nine men were killed, while others, including Harry, were badly injured.

Medically evacuated to Britain, Private Barnes was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, Kent, but his injuries were too severe, and he died on the day after the raid.

Henry Charles Barnes was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter’s church in Marksbury, the parish church for the family’s home in neighbouring Hunstrete.

Commonwealth War Graves, County Durham, Gloucestershire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Yorkshire

Private Arthur Turner

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Private Arthur Turner

Arthur Turner was born in East Brent, Somerset, in the spring of 1892. The younger of two children to Thomas and Lucinda Turner, his older sister had passed away while Lucinda was pregnant with him. Thomas was a vicar for the Church of England, and baptised both children, although the records suggest that he did not lead his daughter’s funeral service.

In 1900, the Turners had moved on to a new parish, setting up home in the rectory in Chelwood, to the south of Bristol. They settled in well, and Thomas remained vicar of St Leonard’s Church there until the summer of 1914, when he passed away after a short illness, at the age of 64.

Conflict had not long darkened Europe by this point, and Arthur felt compelled to play his part. Full details of his military service are not available, but records suggest that he had enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment by March 1915.

Assigned to the 12th (Service) Battalion, Private Turner was sent north for training. Billeted in a camp in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, Arthur would have moved south to Salisbury Plain with his troop, had he not fallen ill. He was admitted to a hospital in Darlington, in neighbouring County Durham, suffering from typhoid. The condition was to get the better of him, and he passed away on 9th September 1915. He was just 23 years of age.

Arthur Turner was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in St Leonard’s Churchyard, Chelwood, alongside his father, Thomas.

Whatever her late husband’s calling, Lucinda’s own faith must have been strong. Having lost her eldest child young, she then stood witness to the burials of her husband and son within eighteen months.

The 1921 census recorded Lucinda living with her sister, Charlotte, in Bromley, Kent. Eighteen years later, the 1939 Register found her back in Somerset, where she was living in Clutton, providing support and companionship to Letty Collinson, a retired kindergarten mistress.

Lucinda passed away in March 1942, at the age of 88 years old. She was brought back to Chelwood, and buried alongside her husband and son, the family reunited at last.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, London, London Regiment, photography, Private, Rifleman, Somerset, story, Training Reserve Battalion, war

Private Harry Izzard

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Private Harry Izzard

Harry Izzard was born early in 1900, in Chiswick, London and was one of six children to Albert and Florence Izzard. Albert was a groom, but when he died in 1905, Florence, left with a young family to raise, remarried. Things seem not to have gone well between Harry and his stepfather, Richard Warren, and he soon found himself resident of the Church Army Home in London.

In 1914, his schooling complete, he was sent to the village of Clandown in Somerset, where he was employed at the local colliery. He seemed to have flourished in his new life, and he “made friends with all he came in contact with, being of a bright and cheerful disposition and associated with the football club, Wesleyan Young Men’s Bible Class and an ardent temperance worker.” [Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 26th April 1918]

Harry was one of the village’s batch of miners passed for the Army ballot, but seemed eager not to wait to be officially called up. On the day of the ballot, he instead joined up voluntarily, enlisting in the 86th Training Reserve Battalion.

On enlistment he was sent to Clipstone Camp, Notts, where he quickly made friends. He, however, was placed on the sick list… and underwent [an] operation for appendicitis from which operation he never recovered.

Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 26th April 1918

Private Izzard died on 20th April 1918, aged just 19 years old, a life of new promise cut tragically short. His connection with Clandown, and his disconnection from his family in London, was such that his body was brought back to Somerset for burial.

Harry Izzard was laid to rest in the quiet Holy Trinity Churchyard, his sister Mabel being the only family member represented at the service.

Harry’s older brother Herbert Izzard also served in the army. He had found work as a laundry labourer when he left school, and went on to marry Maud Woodage on 14th February 1915. The couple had a daughter, Winifred, later that year.

Herbert enlisted in the London Regiment as a Rifleman, and was assigned to the 17th Battalion, also known as the Poplar and Stepney Rifles. He soon found himself in France and was killed at the Somme on 19th April 1916. He is buried at the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery in Souchez.

Tragically, Herbert’s widow died in Oxfordshire in December 1918, leaving young Winifred an orphan at just three years old. She went on to live a long life, dying in 1997, at the age of 81.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorsetshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, North Somerset Yeomanry, photography, Private, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, war

Private Reginald Day

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Private Reginald Day

Reginald Charlie Day was born in the spring of 1891, the sixth of thirteen children. His parents – George and Charlotte Day – were born and raised in Gloucestershire, but had moved to Wellow in Somerset by the time Reginald was born.

George was originally a shepherd, but Wellow had two key industries – mining and the railways – and it was into the former that he went, presumably to bring in a regular wage for the expanding Day family.

When he left school, Reginald initially followed his father to the pit, but in April 1913, he opted for a more prestigious career, and enlisted in the army. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry as a Private but, because of his profession, he was not formally mobilised until 1916. His service records give away little about his stature, only that he was 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, with good vision and good physical development.

In January 1916, Private Day was moved to the North Somerset Yeomanry and, within a matter of weeks was bound for France. By that October, however, he was moved again, and became attached to the 5th (Service) Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment. He was assigned to one of the regiment’s depots, and remained close to the Western Front until the end of July 1917.

At this point, Reginald’s health was beginning to suffer, and he was moved back to the UK for treatment. He was admitted to hospital suffering from a pelvic abscess, and this was later diagnosed as carcinoma of the rectum. No longer fit for military service, he was dismissed from the army on 17th February 1918, his medical records noting that he had been fitted with a colostomy belt.

At this point, Reginald’s trail goes cold. It is likely that he returned home, but whether he was able to take up his previous employment – or work at all – is unclear. His headstone records that he died in Bath War Hospital, although again it is uncertain whether he was admitted from the point of leaving the army, or only in later months as his condition deteriorated. He passed away on 18th October 1919, at the age of 28 years old.

Reginald Charlie Day was laid to rest in the family plot in the peaceful Wellow Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, photography, Private, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, unknown, war

Private Alfred Creese

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Private Alfred Creese

Alfred Isaac Matthew Creese was born in Wellow, Somerset, in the summer of 1889, and was the youngest child to Jacob and Elizabeth Creese. Jacob was a wagon builder for the Somerset & Dorset Railway, working in the village’s station. When Alfred left school, however, he found employment as a farm labourer.

When war came to Europe, Alfred stepped up to play his part. Sadly, few of his military records remain, and those that do give little information away. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry as a Private and, as a result of his war service, he was awarded the Victory, British and Territorial Force War Medal.

Private Creese survived the conflict, but, according to his headstone, he passed away at the Rock House Hospital in Bath. While this does not appear to be a dedicated hospital, there are a number of locations called Rock House in the Bath area, and it is likely to have been a house used for convalescent purposes. Whatever the location, this is where Private Creese passed away on 18th April 1919, at the age of 29 years old.

Alfred Isaac Matthew Creese was brought back to Wellow for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in the village’s peaceful cemetery, to be joined there by his mother in 1930, and his father in 1932, a family reunited once more.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Machine Gun Corps, photography, Private, Somerset, Staffordshire, story, unknown, war

Private Arthur Selway

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Private Arthur Selway

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.