In the graveyard of St Augustine of Hippo Church in Penarth, Glamorgan, lies the Commonwealth War Grave for Serjeant Frank Carter. The headstone confirms that he had died on 31st August 1915 and that he was in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment.
Little further information is available about him, apart from a few scattered details from a number of documents.
Frank’s burial record shows that he had been residing in The Fort, Penarth, a garrison constructed on the cliffs near the entrance to the harbour and Cardiff Bay. The record, written by George Turner, confirms that his burial was on 2nd September 1915, and that he was 51 years old when he passed.
Serjeant Carter’s record in the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects confirm that he was in the 2nd/4th Battalion of his regiment, and that he must have enlisted at some point before February 1915. The document states that he died in the Western Hospital in Cardiff, and that his beneficiary was Miss M Smithson.
These few documents add up to very little, and do not provide enough information to concretely uncover anything else of Frank Carter’s life. His is a story that is destined to remain lost to time.
Frank shares his grave with another member of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, Private Edward Savage. Read his story here.
Alexander Popham Spurway was born on 8th April 1891 in Newbury, Berkshire. He was the second of six children to Edward and Gertrude Spurway. Edward was a clergyman, and the family moved to Heathfield in Somerset when Alexander was a small boy. Education was key to Edward and, the 1901 census records show Alexander as being a boarder at the Portmore School in Weymouth, Dorset.
Reverend Spurway set the family up well in Heathfield: by the time of the next census in 1911, the family were living in the village rectory, with five members of staff.
Alexander, meanwhile, had taken a different route, entering the Royal Naval College at Osborne on the Isle of Wight in January 1904. He was a keen sportsman and, while there, he represented the college at both cricket and football.
In September 1908, he passed out from the college as a Midshipman, and served on HMS Canopus in the Mediterranean. His career continued, and he was made Sub-Lieutenant in December 1911, and Lieutenant two years later.
Reverend Spurway died at home in February 1914 and, by the time war broke out, Lieutenant Spurway was assigned to HMS Achilles. He remained on board the cruiser for the next two years and it was during this time that he developed diabetes: something that was to prove an ongoing issue for him.
Returning home in the autumn of 1915, the condition was to prove too much, and he passed away on 29th November 1915, at the age of 24 years old.
Alexander Popham Spurway was laid to rest in the graveyard of his late father’s church, St John the Baptist in Heathfield.
Lieutenant Spurway (from findagrave.com)
Sadly, Alexander was not the only member of the Spurway family to lose their life as a result of the war.
Richard Popham Spurway, Alexander’s older brother, was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry, and was attached to the Hampshire Regiment, when it was moved to Gallipoli in 1915. He was killed on 13th August 1915, and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial at Canakkale, Turkey.
Alexander’s younger brother, George Vyvyan Spurway, joined the Royal Fusiliers, before transferring to the Machine Gun Corps. He had arrived in France in September 1916, and was killed while fighting on the Western Front on 28th March 1918. He was laid to rest at Arras and is commemorated on the memorial there.
William James Pole was born on 22nd July 1892 in the Somerset village of Halse. He was the third of six children to shepherd and farm labourer William Pole and his wife, Harriet. When he left school, William Jr also found work on a relative’s farm in Herefordshire.
William Jr was still working on the farm when war broke out. He enlisted in the spring of 1915, joining the Royal Army Service Corps as a Private. There is no evidence of whether he served overseas, although it seems likely that he would have done, if only for a short while.
By September 1915, however, he was back on English soil, having been admitted to Netley Hospital in Southampton, suffering from enteric fever, also known as typhoid. Sadly, his illness was to get the better of him, and he passed away in the medical facility on 12th September 1915. He was just 23 years of age.
William James Pole’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He lies in the graveyard of St James’ Church, Halse. His parents would also be buried there: William Sr in 1935, and Harriet in 1949.
Albert Edward Blackwell was born in Corfe, Somerset, in the autumn of 1872. He was the third of eight children to Francis and Harriet Blackwell. Francis was a farm labourer, while Harriet supplemented their income by taking in washing. Albert didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps, however, but found work as a ropemaker when he left school.
On 21st September 1905, Albert married Mabel Hellen Fry, a factory hand and porter’s daughter from Wellington, Somerset. The couple began their married life living with Mabel’s parents, and went on to have five children. By the time of the 1911 census, Albert was working as a carter for a local coal merchant, but war was on the way.
There is little information available about Albert’s military service. He enlisted at the start of the conflict, joining the 9th Service Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment by September 1914. Private Blackwell was based at Aldershot, Hampshire, but his service was not to be a long one.
Albert was admitted to the Connaught Military Hospital near Marlborough, suffering from tuberculosis. This became bronchitis, and the lung conditions proved too much for Private Blackwell’s constitution to take. He passed away at the hospital on 6th March 1915, at the age of 42 years old.
Albert Edward Blackwell was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Wellington Cemetery, not far from where Mabel was still living.
Now widowed, Mabel still had children to raise. In the spring of 1916, she married Alfred Barnfield, a greengrocer from Bath. He had served in the Coldstream Guards for two years, before he was discharged for misconduct in May 1911. Sadly, no further information is available for him and Mabel’s trail also goes cold at this point.
Willie Francis Taylor was born early in 1895 and was one of six children to James and Louisa. James worked as a miller in a wool factory in Wellington, Somerset, and this is a job that Willie and his siblings went into when they left school.
At this point, Willie’s trail goes cold. He had enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery by the spring of 1915 – given that he gained the rank of Acting Bombardier, it is likely that he joined up early in the conflict. He never saw active service overseas: Bombardier Taylor’s troop – the 48th Brigade – was sent to France in May 1915, a few weeks after Willie himself passed away.
There are no records pertaining to Willie’s death: all that can be confirmed is that he died at home on 25th April 1915, aged just 19 years old.
Willie Francis Taylor was laid to rest in Wellington Cemetery, close to where his mother, Louisa, had been buried three years earlier, and not far from where James still lived.
Bert Bennett Adley was born in the spring of 1895, the youngest of eleven children to George and Alma Adley. George was a brickmaker’s labourer from Canterbury, Kent, but it was in nearby Faversham that he and Alma raised their family.
Bert – who was affectionately known as Bertie – found work with a local baker when he left school, and this stood him in good stead when war broke out. He was called up in June 1915, and joined the Army Service Corps as a Private. His service records give little personal information, but they do give his height as 5ft 5ins (1.65m) and his weight as 9st 2lbs (58kg).
Private Adley’s military life was to be tragically short. Based in Aldershot, Hampshire, it is likely that the sudden mixing of recruits from across the country was key in his contracting pneumonia. He was admitted to hospital on 26th June, and died two weeks later, on 11th July 1915. He was just 20 years of age, and had been in the Army Service Corps for just 28 days.
Bert Bennett Adley’s body was brought back to Kent for burial. He was laid to rest in his home town, in the Faversham Borough Cemetery.
Thomas Charles Wilson was born in the summer of 1897 in South London, His parents were John and Ellen Wilson, and they appear to have passed away when their son was still young. He had a sister – also called Ellen – but there is little more concrete information about Thomas’ early life.
In fact, the bulk of the information available about Thomas comes from the newspaper article reporting on his funeral:
The death occurred at The Mount Hospital [Faversham] of Private Thomas Charles Wilson of the [3rd Battalion of The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)]. The deceased was a medical case admitted from Fort Pitt Hospital, Chatham, on July 1st. He had not been to the Front; as a matter of fact he only enlisted in April, and was only 19 [sic] years of age.
The deceased, who belonged to Bermondsey, seems to have had very few friends. His nearest relative, a sister, is at present in a hospital.
Faversham News: Saturday 31st July 1915
There is little further detail to add to this life cut short. Private Wilson seems to have been a loner, with no family other than his sister, and the army may have been an opportune escape from his life. He passed away on 18th July 1915, and was just 18 years of age.
Thomas Charles Wilson was buried in the Borough Cemetery of the town in which he passed away, Faversham, Kent. The newspaper report does not mention many mourners, but he would have been proud to have been afforded full military honours as he was laid to rest.
Thomas Townsend was born in Maidstone, Kent, in around 1864. Details of his early life are sketchy, but his mother was Mary Townsend, and he had an older brother, Henry.
Thomas worked as a labourer, mainly in brickyards, and, at the turn of the century, was living in to the north of Maidstone. The 1901 census records him as sharing his home with his wife, Lydia Townsend, her son, George Andrews, and a visitor, seven-year-old John Lassam.
The next census, in 1911, Thomas and Lydia are both shown as living in the same house, although it notes they had been married for eight years. John Lassam is still living at the property, by now as a boarder, while he was also working as a labourer.
Conflict was closing in on Europe and, despite being 50 when war was declared, Thomas was keen to play his part. He initially enlisted in the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, but soon transferred across to The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Full details of his service as unclear, but it seems he was assigned to the National Reserve Guard at Faversham, Kent.
Private Townsend’s role was guard duty, possibly at the munitions factory in the town. While carrying out this role in the autumn of 1915, he caught a chill, which then became pneumonia. He was admitted to the Faversham Military Hospital, but the lung condition was to get the better of him, and he passed away on 28th November 1915. He was 51 years of age.
Thomas Townsend was laid to rest in Faversham Borough Cemetery, not far from where he carried out his military role.
The life of Edward Hopson looks likely to remain a mystery, and what can be pieced together is done from a few fragmented documents. His gravestone sits in the Faversham Borough Cemetery in Kent.
A local newspaper, contemporary to his passing in January 1915, acts at the starting point:
Edward Hopson, a Maidstone [Kent] man, belonging to the National Reserve Guard doing duty at the Explosives Works at Faversham, died suddenly while proceeding on duty on Tuesday night.
Evidence of identification was given by Joseph Cornelius, a Lance Corporal in the Guard, who stated that so far as was known, the deceased’s only relative was a half-brother. The deceased gave his age as 49 when he enlisted, but witness believed his correct age was 61. He was apparently in good health when passed for duty on Tuesday at the works of the Explosives Loading Company at Uplees.
Charles John Link, engaged on patrol duty at the works, stated that about 10:30 on Tuesday night he was accompanying deceased to the point where he was to do guard duty. On the way deceased complained that he could not see, and shortly afterwards, as they came to a style, he exclaimed “Oh! dear,” and then, dropping his rifle, he fell into the witness’s arms and expired.
South Eastern Gazette: Tuesday 26th January 1915
The cause of death was given to be heart disease, and, at the inquest, a verdict of “Death from Natural Causes” was given.
The report suggests that Edward was born either in around 1866 or 1854. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission give his parents as Jack and Annie Hopson, but there are no surviving census records from the 1800s that would corroborate this.
The 1911 census records an Edward Hopson, aged 57 and from Maidstone, Kent, residing in the Maidstone Union Workhouse. He is listed as a former farm labourer, and his marital stated us given as widowed.
If this is the Edward Hopson commemorated in Faversham Cemetery, it seems likely that he used the outbreak of war – and the opportunity to enlist – as his escape route from the workhouse.
He joined The Buffs (The East Kent Regiment), and was assigned, as a Private, to the 4th Battalion. This particular troop was dispatched to India in October 1914, and it seems likely that Private Hopson was reassigned to the National Reserves Guard, and posted to Faversham.
This is all conjecture, of course, but, either way, Private Hopson died of a heart attack on the night of the 19th January 1915, aged approximately 61 years old.
Edward Francis Wakeford was born in Rottingdean, near Brighton, Sussex, in February 1881. He was the younger of two children to curate William Wakeford and his wife, Eliza.
The family home was always a busy one; the 1881 census records one visitor, four boarders and a servant. Ten years later, confirms one boarder and two servants.
By 1901, William had taken up a post in St Peter’s Church, Henfield. This seems to have been a step up: helping look after the family and a visitor were four servants – a gardener, a cook, a housemaid and a kitchenmaid.
In March 1907, Edward married Annie West Thornton; she was the daughter of a well-to-do family – the census records show that her father, William West Thornton, lived by private means, while Annie was sent to Surrey to attend a boarding school.
Edward and Annie couple set up home on the Sussex coast, and, when William passed away in 1912, were soon also living by private means. They went on to have three children: two girls, Olive and Iris, and a boy, who they named William after both of their fathers.
War was coming to Europe by this point. While full details of Edwards military service are not available, he appears to have given a commission in the Royal Sussex Regiment. Initially serving as a Lieutenant, but October 1914, he was promoted to Captain.
Edward was assigned to the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion, and served in East Anglia. It seems that he fell ill while there, and was admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich Military Hospital, suffering with appendicitis. Sadly the condition proved too much, and Captain Wakeford passed away following the operation. He died on 23rd February 1915, not long after his 34th birthday.
Edward Francis Wakeford’s body was brought back to Sussex. He was laid to rest in Henfield Cemetery, not far from the church where his father had served for so long.
Captain Edward Wakeford (from findagrave.com)
The now widowed Annie wed again, marrying Reverend John Gurney in October 1917. Tragedy was to strike again, though, when she passed away just a year later, on 20th October 1918. She was laid to rest Henfield Cemetery, in the plot next to her late husband, Edward.
John Gurney went on to live a full live. He never married again, and settled in Buxted, near Uckfield. He passed away in November 1956, at the age of 76 years old. He was also laid to rest in Henfield Cemetery, where he was buried in the same plot as Annie.
Edward and Annie’s children also went on to have full lives, despite the early loss of their parents.
Olive never married, and passed away in Nottingham in 1986, aged 78 years old.
Iris married in Liverpool in 1934, and went on to have two children. When the marriage failed in the 1940s, she got wed again in 1949. She passed away in Cheltenham in 1965, at the age of 54.
William got married in 1940, at which point he was serving as a Lieutenant in the 1st King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. He saw action in Italy towards the end of the war, and was awarded a Military Cross for his service. When peace came to Europe again, he and his wife settled into a normal life, before emigrating to Australia. William passed away in May 1967, at the age of 54 years old.
Death and Service 