Category Archives: Private

Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire, Great War, history, injury, Kent, photography, Private, story, Suffolk Regiment, war

Private Harry Pullen

Leave a comment
Private Harry Pullen

What I have discovered while researching the Commonwealth War Graves, is that, despite the general themes I find, the people behind the names always have an individual story to tell. Sometimes that story raises an eyebrow, or produces a gasp.

Such was the story of Private Harry Pullen.

What raised the eyebrow? Two words, written on the Army Records of Soldiers’ Effects.

Accidentally Drowned.

Harry Pullen was born in Shirehampton, Gloucestershire in 1886. His father, Robert Edward Pullen, was a carpenter; he and his wife Hannah Presulga Cissy Pullen had three other children, Gwendoline, Herbert and John.

By the time of the 1901 census, Robert is boarding in a house in Bristol with his three sons; Hannah and Gwendoline are not listed (nor do they appear on any other census records I have been able to locate).

Harry is listed as a Telegraph Boy, as is his brother Herbert, but he seemed to have wanted to take up a trade; by 1910 he had moved up to London.

In March of that year, Harry married Harriet Critchell, a spinster fifteen years his senior. On their marriage records for Christ Church, St Pancras, Harry lists himself as a tradesman. The census a year later confirms this – head of the household, he is an Agent for the Provident Clothing Supply Company. (Founded in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Provident’s mission was to help working-class families provide for themselves through the use of vouchers. These were exchanged for goods in local shops, and paid for in affordable instalments.)

Harry enlisted at some point after 1916. His regiment, the 1st (Reserve) Garrison Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, was not formed until March of that year, and, after starting in Buckinghamshire, it moved to Tilbury in Essex and Gravesend in Kent. The battalion was finally settled in Grain, North Kent in 1918, and it was here that he served.

Here the trail goes frustratingly cold…

Private Pullen’s enlistment and service records are not available, so research is limited to the Army Register of Soldier’s Effects and the Pension Ledgers.

All we have about his death are those two words – Accidental Drowning. There are no contemporary news reports of his passing, which you might expect given the circumstances, so the circumstances surrounding his death are elusive.

Private Pullen died on 10th July 1918. He was 31 years old.

His records confirm that Harriet was entitled to a weekly pension of 15s for the duration of the war and twelves months after.

Harry Pullen is buried in the graveyard of St James’ Church in Grain, Kent, close to where he was stationed.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, East Yorkshire Regiment, Essex, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, story, war

Corporal Charles Cornell

Leave a comment
Corporal Charles Cornell

Charles Cornell was born in July 1885, the youngest of six children to Philip and Martha Cornell, from Ashdon in Essex. Philip was an agricultural labourer, and Charles and his older brother Daniel followed their father into the trade.

Charles was keen to further himself, however, and enlisted in the army. The 1911 census records him as a Private soldier at the Salamanca Barracks in Aldershot.

Private Cornell married Elizabeth Fanny Hoare in Strood, Kent, in October 1913. Beyond this there is little information on either Charles or Elizabeth.

Charles was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment and was promoted to Corporal. This reserve battalion was initially based in the town of Beverley, before moving to Hull and then nearby Withernsea. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Corporal Cornell saw active service on the Western Front.

His passing seems to have been sudden; his pension record shows that he had been admitted to the Military Hospital at Wharncliffe with nephritis (inflamed kidneys). He passed away on 27th January 1918, aged 32 years old.

Corporal Charles Cornell is buried in the graveyard of St Helen’s Church in Cliffe, Kent, the village his widow’s family were from. He is also commemorated in his own family’s village of Ashdon in Essex (where the memorial states he had attained the rank of Sergeant).

The majority of the the Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones in the UK are made from Portland stone, although, in face, over 50 different natural stones have been used.

Corporal Cornell’s headstone is one of two in St Helen’s Churchyard that have been fashioned from dark grey slate.

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

Private Ernest Austin

Leave a comment
Private Ernest Austin

Ernest George Austin was born in early 1888, one of four children – all boys – to Edward Austin and his wife Harriett. The Austin family lived in the village of Cliffe, in the North Kent countryside, where Edward was a carpenter.

Ernest’s older brother Edward worked as a telegram messenger when he left school, and Ernest followed suit, becoming a postman by the time of the 1911 census. The four boys all lived with their now-widowed mother, their father having died seven years earlier.

Duty soon called, however, and Ernest enlisted in July 1916, joining the Army Service Corps. After training in England, he was shipped overseas that autumn.

Private Austin was discharged from the army just over a year later, and the medical report from that time sheds a lot more light onto this young man’s life:

Father [Edward] died of “consumption”.

Has had a chronic cough since a boy. Developed tubercle of lung in 1907. Went to Chile same year, where all symptoms disappeared. Put on weight and lost his cough completely. Returned to England and joined Army July 1916.

Has been in Mesopotamia three months. Cough has returned. Lost weight. Night sweats. Admitted to [military hospital] with sore throat; TB found present.

Admitted to this hospital 14th June 1917 with above symptoms. High temperature, evidence of infection.

In my opinion, the relighting of a latent infection is entirely attributable to active service in Mesopotamia.

Private Ernest Austin’s medical board record, 23rd Jun 1917

Ernest had been hospitalised in the Cumballa War Hospital, Bombay. He was sent home and ultimately discharged from active service on 8th October 1917.

Demobbed, Ernest married Antoinette Gurton at the start of 1918. The marriage was to be short-lived, however, as Ernest appears to have finally succumbed to his illness less than a year later.

Private Ernest Austin passed away on 14th November 1918. He was 31 years old. He lies at rest in the graveyard of St Helen’s Church in his home village of Cliffe, Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Labour Corps, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, war

Private Edward Carver

Leave a comment
Private Edward Carver

Edward Carver is one of those soldiers whose details have been lost in the mists of time.

From the information I have been able to gather, Edward was born in Kent in 1887, although I have been unable to track down his parents or any firm census records.

Edward married Violet Ethel Caroline Belsey in April 1918 and enlisted in the Royal West Kent (Queen’s Own) Regiment, although he later transferred to the Labour Corps. I have nothing to confirm, however, in which order these three events happened.

The Army Register of Soldier’s Effects records that Private Carver died at home – Chestnut Street in Sittingbourne – and confirms that this was on 20th November 1918, around six months after he and Violet married.

Nothing in contemporary media suggests that his passing was unusual, so it can only be assumed that something like pneumonia or influenza was the cause of his death. (It might also had had something to do with his transfer of regiments, although, again, I have nothing to confirm that this might be the case.)

Edward Carver lies at rest in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Newington, Kent. He was 31 years old.

As an aside, Edward’s widow, Violet, married an Arthur Beaumont in December 1919, and the couple went on to have two children.

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

Private Gilbert Drew

Leave a comment
Private Gilbert Drew

Gilbert Victor Drew was born in Dinder, Somerset in 1898, the youngest of the eight children of James and Theresa Drew, a groom/coachman and laundress respectively.

Gilbert initially enlisted in the West Somerset Yeomanry on 11th December 1915, serving on the Home Front.

Private Drew then transferred to the 1st Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry and was shipped overseas as part of the British Expeditionary Force on 1st August 1916.

He first reported to a medic in mid-November 1916; his records pick up the story from there:

First noticed he was passing a larger quantity of water than usual and was also feeling very thirsty.

2nd December 1916, caught influenza and was sent to England. Thirst has been great and urine very large in quantity since November. General condition good. Passes from 14 to 17 pints of urine each 24 hours – large quantity of sugar contained. No evidence of other disease. No improvement since admission.

Result of AS[?] Prolonged strain – especially during Somme offensive.

Medical Records

Private Drew was discharged from the army on 3rd February 1917 as “no longer physically fit for war service” due to diabetes.

Gilbert Victor Drew died on 1st July 1917; he was just 19 years of age. He was buried in the graveyard of the Church of St Michael in his home village of Dinder, Somerset.

He was one of six villagers to fall during the Great War.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Lance Corporal, photography, Private, Somerset, South Staffordshire Regiment, story, war

Private Quinton Wyatt

Leave a comment
Private Quinton Wyatt

Quinton Charles Wyatt was born in the Gloucestershire town of Northleach in 1893 to William and Elizabeth. His mother died when he was a toddler, leaving William to look after Quinton and his older sister Agnes.

By the time war was declared, Quinton was working as a farm labourer and waggoner in the Gloucestershire village of Hampnett.

Quinton enlisted in the 8th Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment on 22nd November 1915. Appointed Lance Corporal just two months later, he was posted to France in March 1916.

Neglect of duty in June meant that Lance Corporal Wyatt was demoted to Private four months later. His battalion was caught up in a German gas attack in the autumn of 1917, and he was injured; ultimately, he was medically discharged from the Army on Boxing Day 1917.

Quinton Charles Wyatt finally succumbed to his injuries on 11th November 1918 – Armistice Day. He was 25 years old.

He is buried in St Mary’s churchyard in the village of Charlton Mackrell in Somerset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Somerset, story

Private Roberts Hallett

Leave a comment
Private Roberts Hallett

Private Roberts Pretoria Hallett was born in the summer of 1900, to Frank – a shepherd from Charlton Adam in Somerset – and Emily, who came from the neighbouring village of Charlton Mackrell. Roberts (the correct spelling) was the youngest of eleven children.

Roberts was just twelve when his father died, and, when war came, he enlisted in Taunton, along with his brothers, Francis and William.

Private Hallett was assigned to the 5th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. While his records don’t identify exactly when he saw battle, by the last year of the war the battalion would have been involved in the fighting in northern Italy.

What we can say for certain is that he was shipped home at some point towards the end of the war. He was admitted to the No. 1 Northern General Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in October 1918. Private Hallett’s records show that he died “of disease” on 16th October.

Roberts Pretoria Hallett lies at rest in the churchyard of St Mary’s in his home village of Charlton Mackrell, Somerset.

The Great War was not kind to Emily Hallett: having lost her husband in 1912, her son William died while fighting in India in 1916 and that is where he was buried. Her other son Francis died in the Third Battle of Ypres in June 1917 and lies at rest in Belgium.

Roberts Hallett, therefore, is the only one of the three brothers to be buried local to her.

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

Private Stanley Counsell

Leave a comment
Private Stanley Counsell

Stanley John Counsell was born in September 1896 to George and Ellen, farmers in Glastonbury.

The youngest of five children, Stanley was an apprentice carpenter by the time he enlisted with his brothers Lawrence and Wilfred.

Private Counsell joined the Worcestershire Regiment in 1915 and was sent into action in France in September 1916.

He suffered medically during the war, succumbing to tonsillitis and diarrhoea during his time in France. A bout of tuberculosis in late 1918 saw Stanley shipped back to the UK and admitted to a hospital in Newcastle-upon Tyne.

The end of the Great War came and went, and Stanley was finally discharged from the army in March 1919, as no longer medically fit for war service.

On 2nd May 1919, less than six weeks after being discharged, Private Stanley Counsell passed away. He was 23 years old and was a victim not of the war, but of the subsequent influenza pandemic, which killed 250,000 people in the UK alone.

Stanley John Counsell lies at peace in the cemetery of his home town, Glastonbury.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, Somerset, South African Infantry, story, war

Private Edwin Hann

Leave a comment
Private Edwin Hann

Edwin Robert Hann was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Albert Edward and Jemima Jane Hann in around 1900. Albert had been born in Glastonbury, Somerset, but had emigrated by the 1890s, where he met and married Jemima.

Research has led me to numerous dead ends regarding Edwin’s life. Hann’s tombstone shows that he enlisted in the 2nd Regiment of the South African Infantry.

The 2nd Regiment served in numerous key battles on the Western Front, including Ypres, Passchendaele, Marrieres Wood and Messines. Their last major engagement was at Le Cateau in early October 1918. Given how soon afterwards Private Hann passed away, it seems possible that he was fatally wounded – or at least suffered trauma – during this battle.

His war pension records suggest that he died at a military hospital in Woking, Surrey. A little research suggests that, unless this was the medical wing of the local army barracks, then it is likely that Hann was treated at the former Brookwood Hospital (at the time known as Brookwood Asylum or the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum).

While I can find nothing concrete to confirm this, other Brookwood records suggest that fellow patients were either suffering the effects of shell shock or mustard gas. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that Private Hann passed away as an indirect result of the fighting on the front, rather than a direct one.

Edwin Robert Hann died aged just 18 years old. His body was brought back to his grandparents, and he lies at rest in the cemetery in Glastonbury, Somerset.

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

Private Walter Hartnell

Leave a comment
Private Walter Hartnell

Walter Ernest Hartnell was born in 1888 to William and Jane Hartnell in Charlton Musgrove, on the outskirts of Wincanton in Somerset.

One of eight children, it appears he could have been a bit of a tearaway in his youth; in October 1905, the Shepton Mallet Journal reports on a “Hobbledehoy Nuisance” in Evercreech, when a Walter Hartnell was caught with nine of his friends causing a disturbance close to the church.

They were shouting, racing after each other up and down the road, using obscene language, and smoking cigarettes. This continued till 7.15, about half an hour.

Shepton Mallet Journal – Friday 20th October 1905

Hartnell was fined 5/- and 2/6 costs, or would face ten days in prison.

Things looked up for Walter and, by the time his call to enlist came, he was working on the railways. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry and the Machine Gun Corps (MGC), while his brother Fred fought in the Royal Artillery.

The MGC was a particularly brutal part of the armed forces. Of the 170,500 officers and men who served in the corps, 62,049 became casualties, including 12,498 killed, earning it the nickname ‘the Suicide Club’.

Details of Private Hartnell’s death are sketchy; his company saw action at Ypres and Arras. However, records suggest that he died in Colchester; the Military Hospital there was used to dealing with troops straight from the Front. It is likely that he was injured at Ypres and shipped back home to recuperate, but died of his injuries.

This is all conjecture on my part, of course, but either way, Private Walter Hartnell lies at peace in a quiet cemetery at Evercreech in Somerset.