Tag Archives: 1918

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, history, illness, Kent, London, photography, Royal Marines, story, war

Corporal Albert Shrubsall

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Corporal Albert Shrubsall

Albert Arthur Shrubsall was born in Deptford, South London, in April 1896. He was the youngest of three children – all boys – to ironmonger George Shrubsall and his wife Jessie.

While his brothers continued to live at home after they had left school and got jobs, Albert found live-in work as a pageboy, or servant, for Wilfred Lineham, who was a professor of engineering for a London college. It was while he was working here that his mother, Jessie, passed away. She died in 1913, aged just 43.

Details of Albert’s military service are a bit scant. He enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, although I have been unable to confirm when he joined up. He was assigned to the Chatham Division, and was based at the Naval Dockyard in Kent, ultimately being promoted to Corporal.

Albert married Gertrude Spoore – affectionately known a ‘Ginty’ – in Deptford in October 1917. Sadly, the marriage was to las less than six months, as, on 9th April 1918, Albert passed away, having contracted pneumonia and septicaemia. He was just 22 years old.

Albert lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his adopted home town of Gillingham in Kent.

Albert’s two brothers George and Alfred were also involved in the First World War.

George, had gone on to become a tailor’s assistant when he left school. He married Emily Hawkes in 1911, and the couple went on to have a son, also called George, the following year.

When war broke out, he enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps, and served on the Western Front. Sadly, he was caught up in the fighting, and was killed in action on 22nd August 1917. He was buried at the Tyne Cot Memorial in Flanders.

When he left school, Alfred went on to become a butcher’s assistant. War came along, and he enlisted straight away.

Enrolling in the Royal Field Artillery, Gunner Shrubsall was assigned to the 95th Brigade. Sadly, he had recorded less than six months’ service, as he passed away on 8th January 1915, aged just 21 years old. His brigade did not go to France until the following year, so, while no cause of death is recorded, it is likely that he died from a communicable disease like influenza or pneumonia.

Alfred is buried in the family grave in Deptford, South London.

Within a period of just three years, George had lost all three of his sons to the Great War. Given the previous death of his wife, you can only imagine the heartbreak he was going through.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Kent, London Regiment, photography, Post Office Rifles, Rifleman, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, war

Rifleman Walter Bromley

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Rifleman Walter Bromley

Walter Vaine Bromley was born in March 1877, one of seven children to Frederick and Jane Bromley. Frederick was a gardener, and the family lived in Maidstone, Kent. Sadly Jane died when Walter was only two years old; while the cause of her death is not noted, she passed away in the Barming Lunatic Asylum in Kent.

Things must have been tough for Frederick; his maternal aunt, Sarah, came to live with the family to help raise his children, but further support seems to have been needed and, by the time of the 1891 census, Walter was a student at the Kent County Industrial School, which was, in effect, a boys home, near Ashford.

By the end of that year, having left school, he enlisted in the army, joining the Royal West Kent Regiment. He served most of his twelve years’ enrolment in India, although he suffered numerous hospital admissions for dysentery, ague and orchitis (a swelling of the testicles, often brought about by a sexually transmitted bacterial infection), amongst other ailments.

On being demobbed, Walter became a postman; he moved to Gillingham, and was given a round serving the Eastcourt area of the town. A year later, he married Rose Brenchley, and the couple went on to have four children; Ada, Violet, Frederick and Hilda.

Hostilities began, and, in July 1915, Walter enlisted in the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles). Rifleman Bromley served as part of the Territorial Force for his first year, before being sent to France in August 1916.

His time there was cut short, however, as he received a gunshot wound in the left ankle. William was repatriated to England for treatment, and was eventually medically discharged from the army on 22nd August 1917.

Surprisingly, it seems not to have been the ankle wound that led to Rifleman Bromley’s passing, however. His pension records, instead, give his cause of death as a goitre contracted whilst on active service. Either way, he passed on 9th July 1918, at the age of 41 years old.

Walter Vaine Bromley lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his adopted home town of Gillingham in Kent.

Walter Bromley (from ancestry.co.uk)
Artificer, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Northamptonshire, photography, Royal Navy, Scotland, story, war

Artificer William Brighton

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Artificer William Brighton

William Brighton was born on 13th August 1877 in Peterborough, Northamptonshire. Sadly, details of his early life are lost to time, so his parents’ names, and details of any siblings are a mystery.

William chose a military life early on; he enlisted in the Royal Navy in October 1899 for twelve years’ service. Working as an Engine Room Artificer, he was an engine fitter and repairer on a number of vessels in his time, including the battleship HMS Repulse and the cruisers HMS Andromache and Scylla.

William married Lily Franklin in the autumn of 1904, and the couple went on to have three children; Mona, Lily and John. With William away at sea a lot of the time, Lily set up home in Gillingham, Kent, close to the shore facility – HMS Pembroke – where her husband was based.

The uncertainty around potential conflict meant that William extended his service when it initially came to an end in November 1911. He continued to serve on a number of vessels during the war and was based on a ship off the Scottish coast when he fell ill in May 1918.

William was transferred to the US Hospital in Strathpeffer, near Inverness, suffering from an abdominal aneurysm. Sadly the treatment did not work, and he passed away on 26th May 1918. He was 40 years old.

William Brighton lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent.

William Brighton (from ancestry.co.uk)
Air Mechanic, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Royal Air Force, story, war

Air Mechanic 2nd Class Edward McIntosh

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Air Mechanic 2nd Class Edward McIntosh

Edward James McIntosh was born in January 1899, the youngest of four children to Henry and Caroline McIntosh from Gillingham in Kent. Henry and Caroline ran a greengrocer’s and their eldest son, Harry, followed them into the business when he left school. One of Edward’s sisters Beatrice became a dressmaker, while the other, Gertrude, became a servant for the secretary to an engineering company.

Sadly, little else remains of young Edward’s life. He enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps when war broke out; given his age, it is unlikely that he signed up before 1917, although there is no record to confirm this.

Edward achieved the rank of Air Mechanic 2nd Class (although his gravestone gives his rank as Second Airman), but there is little more documentation to flesh out his military service.

Edward was admitted to the Military Hospital in Aldershot in January 1918, suffering from meningitis. Sadly this was to take his life, and he passed away on 10th January 1918, having just turned 18 years old.

Edward James McIntosh lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Norfolk, photography, Royal Engineers, Sapper, story, war

Sapper Harry Paterson

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Sapper Harry Paterson

Harry Bruce Paterson was born towards the end of 1893, one of two children to John and Jane Paterson. John worked at Chatham Dockyard fitting ships’ engines, and the family lived in a small terraced house close to the centre of Gillingham in Kent.

When Harry left school, he became a plumber’s apprentice, soon qualifying as a full plumber.

He married Ellen Keeler in 1906, and the couple lived a short walk away from his parents’. They went on to have four children, Lilly, Harry Jr, Mabel and Kathleen.

War was on the horizon, but Harry’s military service records are a bit sketchy.

He enlisted as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers on 14th July 1915, and served in France. He attained the Victory and British Medals as well as the 1915 Star.

Sadly, Sapper Paterson’s health seems to have been impacted by his service. In January 1918 he was invalided back to England and admitted to the military hospital at the army camp in Thetford, Norfolk. Diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, he quickly succumbed to the disease, and passed away on 4th February 1918. He was 34 years old.

Harry Bruce Paterson lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, just a few minutes’ walk from both his parents and his widow and children.

Sapper Harry Paterson
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Lance Corporal, photography, Royal Engineers, Sapper, story, war

Corporal Richard Langley

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Corporal Richard Langley

Richard Frederick Langley was born in January 1897 in Chatham, Kent. He was one of seven children to Albert Langley, who was a bricklayer, and his wife, Elizabeth.

Richard enlisted almost as soon as he was able to. His papers, dated 18th October 1914, show that he was 17 years and 10 months old, as was working as an apprentice boilermaker. He was assigned to the Royal Engineers.

Sapper Langley’s war service was spent in England. Initially based in Kent, he was promoted to Acting Lance Corporal in October 1915. Transferring to the Royal Engineers Anti Aircraft Battalion in July 1916, Richard was again promoted to Corporal.

Corporal Langley was injured while serving for the Royal Engineers AA; he was admitted to the General Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, and has a hernia operated on. After two months recovering in hospital, he re-joined his battalion.

Richard was transferred again in January 1918, this time being assigned to the London Electrical Engineers. It was here that he saw out the remainder of the war.

It was while he was serving in Sheerness that Richard contracted influenza. Hospitalised on the island on 28th November 1918, he sadly did not recover. Corporal Langley passed away from pneumonia on 5th December 1918. He was just 21 years of age.

Richard Frederick Langley lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.

Richard’s older brother Albert was also involved in war service and was a skilled labourer at Chatham Dockyard. In February 1916, he boarded the SS Maloja, a steamship bound for Bombay with over 400 passengers and crew on board.

At around 10:30am on Sunday 27th February, the ship was sailing through the Straits of Dover when it struck a mine. The vessel sank within 24 minutes. Over 150 people died in the explosion, from drowning or from hypothermia.

Sadly, Albert’s body was not recovered. He was just 21 years old. He is commemorated on the Naval Memorial in Chatham, Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Kent, photography, Royal Fusiliers, Sergeant, story, war

Serjeant George Whittell

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Serjeant George Whittell

George Henry Whittell was born in the spring of 1891, the son of engine fitter William and his wife, Florence. George was the oldest of two children, both boys, but sadly lost his mother in 1897, at just six years old.

William remarried two years after her death, and, with his new wife, Frances, he had two further children, Gladys and Leslie.

By the time of the 1911 census, the family were living in Gillingham, Kent, and George and his brother Frederick were both working as boiler makers in the largest employer in the area, the naval dockyard in Chatham. War was on the horizon, and William was also working there as a torpedo fitter.

In 1915, George married Minnie Baker; they went on to have a son, Ronald, who was born in the September of that year.

I have not been able to track down all of George’s military records; he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers, and was assigned to the 10th (Service) Battalion. While his date of enlistment is not recorded, his troop set off for France at the end of July 1915. If George had been involved from that point, he would have departed shortly after his marriage, and would have been at the Front when his son was born.

Little is known of Serjeant Whittell’s service; he was wounded in May or June 1918, and was repatriated to England for treatment. Admitted to the Western General Hospital in Manchester, he sadly did not recover from his wounds, and passed away on 5th June 1918. He was 27 years old.

George Henry Whittell lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.

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

Private Frank Perrett

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Private Frank Perrett

Frank Herbert Perrett was born in January 1880, the tenth of thirteen children. He was the son of Thomas and Thirza Perrett, bakers and grocers from Bridgwater in Somerset.

When he left school, Frank worked as a chemist’s assistant, and boarded with the chemist – a Frank Sanguinetti – in Ealing, London.

In around 1908, having moved back to Somerset, he married Bessie Hutchings, who was also from the Bridgwater area. The couple went on to have a son, Douglas, who was born in 1910. A year later, the census sees him working as a commercial traveller for a chemist.

War was on the horizon and, although exact details of his military service are not available, it is evident that Frank enrolled in the Dorsetshire Regiment.

Assigned to the 6th Battalion, Private Perrett’s troop would have been involved in the Battles of Ypres, Arras and Passchendaele, amongst others (although I have not been able to find confirmation of how involved he was in these skirmishes).

At some point, Private Perrett fell ill and he was admitted to the Tidworth Military Hospital near Andover. Sadly, he succumbed to the condition, and he passed away on 13th July 1918. He was 39 years old.

Frank Herbert Perrett lies at peace in the St John’s Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater in Somerset.

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

Private Sidney Warren

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Private Sidney Warren

Sidney John Warren was born in January 1890, one of eleven children to shipwright George Warren and his wife Elizabeth. The family lived in Salmon Parade, on the riverside in Bridgwater, where George would have plied his trade. By the time of the 1911 census, Sidney had found work as a grocer’s assistant, and was living with his parents and the youngest of his brothers, Edward.

While exact details of Private Warren’s military career are not available, documents confirm that he enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry. Assigned to the 4th Battalion, he was based in India and Mesopotamia during the conflict. No details are available of his time there, but at some point, he transferred to the Labour Corps back in Somerset.

And there Sidney’s trail goes cold. He survived the war, but passed away on 27th November 1918, suffering from pneumonia. He was just 28 years old.

Sidney John Warren lies at rest in the family grave at St John’s Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater in Somerset.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, Royal Navy, Somerset, Stoker, story, war

Private Oliver Chubb

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Private Oliver Chubb

Oliver Job Chubb was born on 3rd December 1884 in the village of Smallbridge in Devon. He was one of six children to Job Chubb, who was an agricultural labourer, and his wife Louisa. Oliver did not seem to be one for settling down; after his parents had moved the family to Ilminster in Somerset when he was just a child, by 1901 he was living in Lyme Regis, working as a carter in a market garden.

In 1902, at the age of 17, Oliver enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry. Eighteen months later he transferred to the Royal Navy, serving as a Stoker on a number of ships during what would become twelve years’ service, including the Royal Oak, Skirmisher and Newcastle.

In 1906 he married Rosina Keirle, a brickmaker’s daughter from Somerset. The wedding was in Bridgwater, and the couple went on to have three children, Olive, Albert and Cecil.

There is a sense that Oliver either had perpetually itchy feet, or that he was always running from something. The 1911 census found him aboard HMS Suffolk in the Mediterranean, where he listed himself as single. By the end of his naval service in November 1915, however, Stoker Chubb disembarked in the port of Victoria, British Colombia, and immediately signed up for military service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Again, however, indecision seems to have set in. He listed his marital status as ‘single’ and confirmed his next of kin as his sister Elsie, but on his military will, he left everything to Rosina.

Private Chubb was assigned to the 29th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry; they served on the Western Front from early in 1915 through to the end of the war. He was involved in the fighting at Ypres, and, in September 1916, was treated in England for an inguinal hernia. After three months’ recover, he returned to the front.

While Private Chubb seems to have had a good overall manner, there were blips in his character. In May 1917, he was sentenced to three days’ field punishment for being absent without leave for 21hrs. In March 1918, he was sentenced to another five days’ field punishment for going AWOL for 48 hours. On 11th April 1918, Private Chubb received 14 days’ field punishment for drunkenness on duty.

In December of that year, Oliver was invalided back to England for medical treatment; he was admitted to the Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Chatham with lymphatic leukaemia. Sadly, Private Chubb passed away shortly after being admitted, dying on 17th December 1918. He was 34 years old.

Oliver Job Chubb lies at rest in St John’s Cemetery in Bridgwater, where his family still lived.