Category Archives: Private

Commonwealth War Graves, Driver, Great War, Hampshire, history, injury, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, Surrey, war

Private Albert Taylor

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Private Albert Taylor

Albert Edward Taylor was born in the autumn of 1887 and was the fifth of eight children to John and Mary Taylor. John was a mason and both he and Mary came from Crewkerne, Somerset, which is where they raised their family.

Albert worked as an errand boy when he left school, but he sought a career and, enlisted in the Army Service Corps in July 1904. He lied about his age to join up, suggesting he was nearly 22, where he was actually just 17 years of age.

Driver Taylor’s service records confirm that he was 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall and weighed 115lbs (52.2kg). He was noted as having brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He had a mole between his shoulder and the back of his neck, and his religion was recorded as Baptist.

Albert’s contract was for two years’ service, followed by ten years in the Army Reserve. While a military career was what he sought, he seems to have had a disregard for rules, and regularly had run ins with authority, as his Regimental Defaulter Sheet testifies.

On 19th December 1904, while based in Woolwich, Surrey, he was absent without a pass from 6am until 12:15am on 30th December. He was confined to barracks for eight days.

The following year, Driver Taylor had moved to Bordon in Hampshire. On 28th November 1905, he was absent without a pass, from midnight until 8:30am on 1st December. He was again confined to barracks, this time for ten days.

A third offence came on 29th May 1906, by which time Albert had moved to Aldershot, Hampshire. He was found in neglect of duty ‘in allowing dirty pudding cloths to be deposited in the cupboards of the cookhouse’ and being ‘absent from work from 1:30pm till found in his barrack room at 9:20pm.’ For these, he was confined to barracks again, this time for eight days.

Within a matter of weeks, he was found in neglect of duty again, having broken out ‘of barracks after tattoo and remaining absent till apprehended by the Military Police at about 10:50pm’ and being ‘drunk and improperly dressed.’ This time the punishment was more severe and he was detained in prison for 96 hours.

Unsurprisingly, Albert’s military career didn’t go much further than this. When his two-year contract came to an end, he returned to Somerset and found employment as a mason.

In July 1910, Albert married Mabel Wallbridge, the daughter of a carman, also from Crewkerne. The couple set up home on the outskirts of the town, and went on to have a son, Frederick, who was born later that year.

The 1911 census found the young family living in a cottage in Lye Water, with Albert listing himself as a ‘mason (army pensioner)’. While the military reference may have been added with a sense of pride, irony or bloody mindedness, Albert was not to fully leave his army career behind. When war came to Europe in 1914, he was still within his reserve status, and was called up to play his part.

Private Taylor was to leave his family behind: son Frederick had now been joined by daughters Kathleen and Joyce, and Mabel pregnant with another daughter, Rosaline, who was born in January 1915. Albert was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry and, in contrast to his previous tenure on the Home Front, he soon found himself in the thick of things.

Albert’s regiment was involved in some of the fiercest opening skirmishes of the First World War, and he would have been caught up on the Battles of Le Cateau, the Marne, the Aisne and Armentières. By the spring of 1915, the battalion was entrenched at Ypres, and it was here during the Battle of St. Julien that Private Taylor was injured.

Albert has received a gun shot wound to the left side of his skull and was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. He was admitted to the Beechfield House Hospital in Southampton, but his wounds proved too severe, and he passed away on 14th May 1915, at the age of 27 years old.

The funeral of Private Albert Edward Taylor, of the Somerset Light Infantry… who died from wounds received at the Front, took place with military honours at the Cemetery [in Crewkerne] on Tuesday afternoon, and attracted a large attendance. As a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased soldier blinds were drawn at the private and business houses en route to the Cemetery, while the flag erected outside the Victoria Hall for the children’s Empire-day celebration was lowered to half-mast.

Rev. J Street (Unitarian Minister)… spoke of the painful circumstances and the heroic conduct of the deceased, who had sacrificed his life for others. Although death was attended with pain and sorrow, yet in after years deceased’s children would look back with pride to the part their father took in the present war.

Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 26th May 1915

Albert Edward Taylor was laid to rest in the cemetery of his home town, Crewkerne.

Private Albert Taylor (from findagrave.com)

Albert’s headstone gives his initials as AC Taylor. They should be AE Taylor.

Bombardier, Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Devonshire Regiment, Glamorganshire, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Royal Field Artillery, Royal Garrison Artillery, Sergeant, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Albert Lowman

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Private Albert Lowman

Albert Lowman was born in Crewkerne, Somerset, in the autumn of 1876. He was the younger of two children to Charles and Sarah Lowman. The 1881 census recorded the family – Charles, Sarah and their boys Charles Jr and Albert – living in Back Lane. Charles Sr was noted as being a labourer, although in the column highlighting any medical conditions (‘deaf-and-dumb’, ‘blind’, ‘imbecile or idiot’, ‘lunatic’), is one word: “afflicted”.

Charles Sr passed away in 1886, when Albert was just 9 years old. The next census, in 1891, found Sarah working as a charwoman, while her youngest, who had left school by this point, was employed as a labourer. Mother and son also had a lodger, Alice, who was a dressmaker. Charles Jr, by this point, had left home, and was living in Penarth, Glamorganshire, where he was apprenticed to his paternal uncle, who was a tailor.

On 28th November 1896, Albert married Sarah Ann Dodge, a weaver’s daughter who was also from Crewkerne. Albert recorded his job as a drayman, although this seems to have been piecemeal employment.

The next census found more permanent work, as he was cited as being a shirt factory packer, while Sarah was employed by the factory as a machinist. Making up the household was young Charles Lowman, the couple’s first son, who was just a month old although sadly, he survived only a couple of months more before dying.

Further tragedy is highlighted by the 1911 census, as it highlights that the couple had had a further child, who had also died when just a babe-in-arms. The Lowmans were now living on Hermitage Street near the centre of the town. Albert was still a shirt packer, and, even though their cottage was small, they had two boarders and a visitor staying. The lodgers brought the couple a little rent, which meant that Sarah no longer had to work.

War was closing in on Europe and, while his full military records are lost to time, it is clear that Albert had stepped up to play his part. He had enlisted by January 1918, and was attached to the Devonshire Regiment, through which he served with the 380 Company of the Labour Corps.

Private Lowman was barracked on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, and in July he was admitted to the military hospital in Salisbury itself, suffering from appendicitis. He was operated on, but died following complications. He passed away on 10th July 1918, at the age of 41 years old.

Albert Lowman was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the cemetery of his home town, Crewkerne.

Private Lowman’s pension ledger record shows the beneficiaries of his army service. The document identified Sarah as his widow, but also Phillis Annie Matilda Denning, the couple’s adopted daughter, who had been born in August 1904.

Sarah was not to outlive her late husband for long, however.

The death occurred with tragic suddenness on Sunday afternoon, January 7th, at her residence in Hermitage-street, of Mrs Sarah Ann Lowman… The deceased, who was of middle age, was about as usual attending to her ordinary household duties in the morning. Just before dinner hour, however, she complained of not feeling well and went upstairs to lie down. Her niece took her up a cup of how water, and she then apparently went to sleep. She awoke about 3:40pm, and then had to get out of bed owing to sickness. Upon going back into bed again she expired almost immediately. Dr Wolfenstein was called, but he could only pronounce life extinct.

Langport & Somerton Herald: Saturday 20th January 1923

Sarah was 47 years of age when she passed away. It is likely that she was laid to rest near her husband, although records to confirm this have been lost.

Albert’s brother, Charles, survived his sibling by less than six months. He had left tailoring behind him in South Wales, and instead embarked on a military career. He joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1895 and, over the course of his twelve years’ service, served in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.

Charles married Florence Dodge in 1908, and the couple went on to have two children – Cecil and Freda. When war broke out in 1914, he stepped up once more. Having already risen through the ranks from Gunner to Bombardier and Corporal, he re-entered service as a Sergeant in the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Based in Le Harve, Northern France, Sergeant Lowman was admitted to a hospital in Harfleur, having contracted bronchial pneumonia. Sadly, he passed away while admitted, on 8th November 1918, just three days before the end of the conflict. He was 43 years of age.

Charles Lowman was laid to rest in the Sainte Marie Cemetery, near the centre of Le Harve.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, injury, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war

Private William Pinney

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Private William Pinney

The details of William Pinney’s life seem destined to remain a mystery. His headstone – in Crewkerne Cemetery, Somerset – confirms that he was a Private in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and that he died on 14th August 1919.

The British Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects expands a little on this, identifying that he was in the 2nd Battalion of the regiment. The document states that he died of wounds and had been admitted to the War Hospital in Southampton, Hampshire (this is likely to have been the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley). It also confirms that his effects were to be passed to his widow, Sarah Pinney.

From this point on, some elements of supposition come in to the research.

There is a marriage certificate for a William Pinney and Sarah Jane Witheyman at the parish church in Crewkerne on 6th January 1911. This record gives William’s age as 23, and shows that he was a weaver and the son of weaver William Pinney Sr. Sarah, meanwhile, was five years older than her new husband, worked as a factory hand, and was the daughter of another factory hand, George Witheyman.

The same year’s census gives more information about William Pinney. He was one of eleven children to William and Mercy Pinney, and every member of the family over school age was involved in weaving and spinning. It should be noted, however, that the census was taken on 2nd April 1911, three months after William’s marriage and, while the ages on the document match, the document states that he is single.

The same census for Sarah tells a similar story. She is noted as being one of twelve children to George and Amelia Witheyman. George is noted as being a ‘hand ackler’, or handyman, while Sarah and the two of her teenage brothers still at home are all working as mill hands. The same anomaly arises as William, however, as she is also noted as being single.

Returning to the marriage certificate, an answer to the anomaly in the dates seems to resolve itself, however. The marriages are noted in chronological order, and the previous wedding to be solemnised in Crewkerne Parish Church was on 26th December 1911, while the following one was on 14th February 1912. It would appear, therefore, that Leonard Jackson, the curate of the church, entered the incorrect date on the certificate.

The census records and marriage certificate all seem to fit the William and Sarah Pinney who were separated by William’s death in 1919. There are certainly no documents suggesting another William Pinney in the Crewkerne area around that time period. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that they do all connect to the gravestone in the town’s cemetery.

Private Pinney’s military records are missing, or no longer available, so it is not possible to trace his actions during the First World War. The 2nd Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment served in India during the first half of the conflict, moving to Egypt in 1917 and to France the following year. It is not possible to confirm where William served, but wherever he fought, he was wounded, and these injuries were to prove fatal. He passed away in the Southampton hospital on 14th August 1919, nine months after the end of the war, aged around 31 years old.

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

Private William Harris

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Private William Harris

The life of William Henry Harris is destined to remain shrouded in the mists of time. His headstone, in the Townsend Cemetery in Crewkerne, confirms he was a Private in the Essex Regiment, and that he died on 19th April 1911, at the age of 31 years old.

The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects confirms that he was attached to to the 1st/5th Battalion and that he died of sickness in Rugeley Camp, Staffordshire. His widow, who is noted as Ada Harris, received a war gratuity, which suggests that he had enlisted prior to October 1918.

Private Harris’ Pension Ledger shows that Ada was living in Hermitage Street, Crewkerne, and that the couple did not have any children.

While William’s name is too common to try and identify family links through census records, his marriage index provides Ada’s maiden name, Furzer, which is easier to track.

Ada Furzer was born in Crewkerne on 22nd November 1887, the second of eight children to James and Ellen Furzer. James was a haulier, while Ada and her older sister Mabel, found work as machinists in a local shirt factory when they left school.

Ada did not remarry when William passed away: she died in Yeovil in the autumn of 1971, at the age of 83.

accident, Berkshire, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, London, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, war

Private Reginald Bainton

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Private Reginald Bainton

Reginald Thomas Bainton was born in Bath, Somerset, in the spring of 1889. The second of five children, his parents were bakers and confectioners Thomas and Mary Bainton.

While Reginald’s older brother Robert followed in his father’s trade, the 1911 census recorded that he had followed a different route, and was working as a hairdresser and tobacconist.

On Christmas Day 1913, Reginald married Henrietta Skinner, who was the daughter of a farmer. The couple went on to have a son, Reginald, who was born in July 1916.

War was, by this point, raging across Europe, and Reginald stepped up to play his part for King and Country. He enlisted in the autumn of 1916, and was assigned to the Royal Army Service Corps. Initially stationed in London, he moved to a camp near Reading, Berkshire, in March 1917.

One evening towards the end of that month, tragedy occurred.

[Private Bainton] was missing from his company, and when his service cap was found on the banks of the Thames there were fears that the worst had befallen him. On receipt of the news of his disappearance his wife proceeded to Reading in the hope of getting some information respecting him, and she remained there until the discovery of the body in the Thames on Monday. During the short period he was in the Reading camp, Private Bainton acted as the storekeeper.

At the inquest… the much-decomposed body was identified by [Reginald’s] father, and medical evidence was given that it had probably been in the water for three weeks to it is highly probable that Private Bainton was drowned on the first day he was mussed. There was not the slightest evidence as to how he got into the river, and the jury returned a verdict of “Found drowned”.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 28th April 1917

The date of Private Bainton’s death was recorded as 23rd April 1917 – the day he was found. He was 27 years of age.

Reginald Thomas Bainton’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery in his home city of Bath.

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

Private Edward Horwood

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Private Edward Horwood

Albert Edward Horwood was born in Bath, Somerset, in the spring of 1864. The middle of five children, his parents were Joseph and Agnes Horwood. Joseph was a stone mason and, when Agnes passed away in 1872 he married again, this time to a woman called Elizabeth.

When he left school Albert – who became better known as Edward – found work in a local foundry. Joseph died in 1888, and just two years later, Edward married Emily Wheeler. She was the daughter of labourer from North Bradley, Wiltshire, and it was in the parish church that the couple exchanged vows.

The couple set up home in the Lyncombe area of Bath, and went on to have nine children, all but one of them girls. Edward continued with labouring work for the next twenty years, as his children grew in the family home in Cheltenham Street.

Despite his age, when was broke out in Europe, Edward stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry on 6th November 1914, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion. His service records show that he was 44 year of age and 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall.

Attached to one of the regiment’s supply companies, Private Horwood remained on the Home Front. He remained on active duty for more than eighteen months until, in June 1916, he was medically discharged because of a large ulcer and epithelioma (lesion) on his tongue. Edward’s medical notes suggest that he was offered an operation to remove the potentially malignant growth, but that he had declined.

At this point Edward’s trail goes cold. He returned home, and passed away on 28th March 1917 and, while the cause is not publicly documented, it seems likely to have been related to the growth in his mouth. He was 52 years of age.

Albert Edward Horwood was laid to rest in the St James Cemetery in his home town of Bath.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, London, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, Surrey, unknown, war, Wiltshire

Private George Hutchings

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Private George Hutchings

George Robert Hutchings was born towards the end of 1883 in Forest Gate, Essex. He was the oldest of four children to George and Mary Ann Hutchings. George Sr was a labourer for the railways, and this led to the family relocating to Swindon, Wiltshire, in the 1890s.

George Jr took up work with the Great Western Railway when he left school, while his father switched employment and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was working as a collector for a clothing supply company.

On 13th July 1911, George Jr married Daisy Smale in the Sanford Street Congregational Church, Swindon. Daisy was a school teacher, and was the daughter of an iron moulder. It is likely that the couple met through George’s workplace. The newlyweds had a son, Raymond, who was born in 1914 and, at some point moved to Bath in Somerset.

When war came to Europe, George stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps and, unsurprisingly, given the work he was doing, was assigned to the Mechanical Transport division. Little information about his military service remains, but is it clear that he had enlisted in the second half of 1915.

The next available record for Private Hutchings is that of his passing. He had been admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich, South East London, and died there on 15th December 1915. No cause for his death is evident, but he was 32 years of age.

George Robert Hutchings was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Bath’s St James Cemetery.

When her husband died, Daisy was pregnant. In March 1916 she gave birth to a daughter, Winifred, who was never to know her father.

Daisy never remarried. By the time of the 1939 register, she was living in Northampton Street, Bath, sharing the house with a Mr and Mrs Spreadbury. Her employment was listed as unpaid domestic duties.

Daisy and George’s son Raymond was focused on his education. He made an eventual move to Birmingham, where, at the outbreak of war, he was working as a research chemist. He died in Bath in 1982, at the age of 68.

Winifred married grocer Kenneth Batten in Bath in 1938. The couple had three children and emigrated to Australia after the war, and settled in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Kenneth died in 1988, at the age of 72; Winifred died in 2003, aged 87.

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

Private Sydney Ridewood

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Private Sydney Ridewood

Sydney Ridewood was born in Bath, Somerset, on 31st March 1891, and was one of eleven children. His parents were labourer and sometime butcher James Ridewood and his wife Mary.

When Sydney left school, he found work as a baker, although this seems to have been as piecemeal a job as his father’s.

In January 1910, Sydney married Kathleen Scudamore. She was the daughter of a carpenter from the Twerton area of Bath and had a bit of a chequered background herself.

On 10th June 1896, Kathleen had married Edward Edwards, who was twelve years older than her seventeen years. Their marriage certificate suggested he was a clerk, although the 1901 census – which included their two children, Charles and Percy – recorded him as being a draper’s porter. Beyond that document, there is no record of Kathleen’s husband and, by the time of her marriage to Sydney, she had reverted to her maiden name.

By the time of the 1911 census Sydney and Kathleen were living in central Bath, with their nine-month old daughter, Olive, and Kathleen’s two sons. Kathleen’s widowed father, Edmund, her brother Claude and sister-in-law Nora were also in the household.

The document recorded Sydney as still employed as a journeyman baker, while his wife was a cook for the Post Office. Edmund was working as a carpenter, Claude was a sawyer, Nora a shop assistant and 14-year old Charles was a messenger boy, also for the Post Office. Six pay cheques coming in to support the extended family in the four-roomed house.

An additional member of the Ridewood family came along on 22nd October 1913, when Kathleen gave birth to a second child, Sydney Jr.

War was on the horizon by this point, and, on 20th April 1915, Sydney stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Service Corps, and was assigned to the Mechanical Transport Corps. There is little detail about Private Ridewood’s service, although his records show that he was 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall, with auburn hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion.

Sydney was sent to France a month after enlisting, and his may role seems to have been that of a driver. He remained on the Western Front for a little over two years, before contracting pleurisy. He was initially treated in France, but soon returned to Britain to recuperate. The lung condition, however, was to get the better of him, and he passed away at home on 26th November 1917, weeks before he was to be medically discharged from service. He was just 28 years of age.

Sydney Ridewood was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, a few minutes’ walk from his family home.

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

Private Albert Townsend

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Private Albert Townsend

Albert Henry Townsend was born on 7th November 1890 in Bath, Somerset. One of thirteen children, his parents were George and Annie Townsend. George was a painter by trade, but when he died in the autumn of 1895, Annie was left to take in laundry to earn money to support her and the four of her children still living at home.

By the time of the 1911 census, Albert was 21, and had found work as a baker. He was still living with his mother, two siblings and a nephew in a house in the centre of the city. All but Annie’s grandson were earning money by this point, and, with five rooms, the family were in a better position than some of their neighbours. Next door was Albert Smith, a coal carter, who had to support a family of ten people.

In the summer of 1914 war broke out, and within months, three of the Townsend brothers – Albert and his older brothers Arthur and Charles – had enlisted.

Arthur Townsend had joined the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry earlier in the year, and within weeks of conflict being declared, he was on the Western Front. He was to be one of the early casualties of the conflict, and was killed in action during the Battle of the Marne on 9th September. He was just 29 years old and, while his body was never identified, he was commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial.

Albert’s service records have been lost to time, so it is not possible to identify when he enlisted. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion, who set sail for India in October 1914. Private Townsend was not to travel with them, however as he had contracted septicaemia while camped on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. He was transferred to the Royal United Hospital in Bath for further treatment, but his condition was to prove too severe. He passed away while still admitted on 19th October 1914. He was just 23 years of age.

Albert Henry Townsend was laid to rest in the St James’ Cemetery in his home city, Bath.

Annie Townsend had now been a widow for nearly twenty years and, within a matter of weeks, had lost two of her sons. Tragically, the war was not done with her family yet.

Charles Townsend was still serving, having enlisted in the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. He arrived in France in July 1915, and over the next year, wascaught up in some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. On 1st July 1916, the Battle of the Somme began, the darkest day in history for the British Army. Twenty thousand soldiers were killed, and Private Charles Townsend was amongst the fallen. He was just 30 years of age. He was commemorated on the Theipval Memorial.

Annie had lost a third son to the conflict in a little under two years, and her pain must have been unimaginable. She lived on until 1923, when she died at home in Bath. She was laid to rest close to her husband and Albert, a family partly reunited once more.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devonshire Regiment, Great War, history, photography, Private, Somerset, story, Suffolk, unknown, war

Private Ernest Whatley

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Private Ernest Whatley

Ernest James Victor Whatley was born in the spring of 1899, the youngest of three children to George and Clara Whatley. Clara passed away in 1908, and George remarried the following year, to a woman called Sarah. Ernest’s brothers were sixteen years older than him, and so by the time of the 1911 census they had moved out of their father’s home. By that point, Ernest living with his father and stepmother in their house in Bath, Somerset.

Little further information is available about Ernest. With war raging across Europe, he enlisted in the army, but this was not before September 1916, and it is likely that he came of age before joining up.

Private Whatley served in the 1st/7th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, and was based in Suffolk. It is while he was billeted that he was admitted to a hospital in Ipswich, although the cause of his admission is unclear.

Whatever befell Private Whatley, it was to prove his undoing. He passed away in the Ipswich hospital on 9th March 1917, at the tender age of just 18 years old.

Ernest James Victor Whatley’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, Bath, not far from his mother, Clara.