Tag Archives: 1920

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, Lance Corporal, London, photography, Royal Marines, Sergeant, story, unknown, war

Sergeant Christopher Faulkner

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Sergeant Christopher Faulkner

Christopher William Thomas Faulkner was born in 1881, one of five children to William and Harriet Faulkner. There is little information about Christopher’s early life, but the 1891 census shows him living with his mother and siblings in the St George’s Barracks in St Martin in the Fields in central London. William is not listed, so it can only be assumed that he was away on duty when the census was completed.

Christopher attended the military school; his record confirms that he was born on 17th June 1881, and spent four months at the school when he was ten years old. William is listed as a Sergeant and the family were living at the St George’s Barracks, which were located in the site now occupied by the National Portrait Gallery.

The military life was indelibly in Christopher’s life by this point. Whilst the records are sparse, he had certainly enlisted by the time he was 25. On Boxing Day 1904 he married a woman called Essie Brant, the daughter of a tailor from Croydon.

On the marriage certificate, Christopher was listed as a Lance Corporal in the Royal Marine Light Infantry and was based at the barracks in Chatham, Kent.

The young couple went on to have four children together and, by 1911, Essie was living in Gillingham, not far from the naval base in Chatham. The majority of Christopher’s career was served here, although when war broke out, he also saw conflict overseas.

By 1916, he was promoted to Sergeant and was assigned to HMS Dominion, which patrolled the North Sea. Ill health must have taken hold, however, and by the end of 1917, Sergeant Faulkner was reassigned to Chatham, before being medically discharged at the beginning of the following year.

Sadly, there is no record of the cause of his release from duty, but it appears to have been something to which he would eventually succumb. The next record is of Sergeant Faulkner’s death, on 5th January 1920, at the age of 39 years old.

Christopher William Thomas Faulkner lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent.

Christopher’s grave also acts as a memorial to his son.

Leslie Albert Gerald Faulkner was born on 9th June 1910. On leaving school, he sought military service like his father, and enlisted in the Royal Navy for a period of twelve years’ service.

Unusually, details of his service appear to end after just three years, in January 1929. However, later records confirm that he continued to serve at HMS Pembroke, the on-shore vessel in Chatham, through to the Second World War, achieving the rank of Chief Petty Officer.

Chief Perry Officer Faulkner’s military records did thrown up some further information, though. Surprisingly, his death records give specific details of the cause of his passing, stating that it was a “rupture of the liver due to secondary neoplasm of the liver, due to primary seminoma of testis”. In effect, Leslie had suffered testicular cancer, which then spread to his liver.

Leslie Albert Gerald Faulkner died on 28th November 1945, at the age of just 35 years old. He was buried in the same grave as his father, in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham.

Artificer, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Royal Navy, story, war

Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class Charles Miller

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Artificer Charles Miller

Charles Frederick Caleb Miller was born on 12th December 1887 in Gillingham, Kent. His parents were Charles and Harriet Miller, and he had two younger siblings, Mabel and Harriet.

Tragically, Charles Jr’s mother died when he was only three years old; his father went on to marry again – to his widow’s younger sister, Jane – and the couple had two further children – Jane and Beatrice – who were Charles Jr’s half-sisters.

Charles Sr worked as a ship’s rigger in the Military Dockyard in Chatham, and naval life obviously caught his son’s eye. In 1903, having left school, he enlisted in the Royal Navy, started as a ‘boy artificer’, working in the engine and boiler rooms of ships.

His initial service was for twelve years, and he worked on a number of vessels, as well as being assigned to HMS Pembroke, the shore base in Chatham. He worked his way through the ranks to Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class by 1915.

In June of that year, Charles married Ellen Holden. the daughter of a dairyman from Chelsea. The couple went on to have a daughter, Joan, who was born in 1918. At the time of their wedding, Charles was based on HMS Lance, and his military service was to continue.

His period of service extended until the end of the war, Charles served on a number of other vessels, including HMS Surprise, Blenheim and Prince George and rose to Chief Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class.

It was while he was assigned to HMS Ganges in January 1920 that he became unwell, however. He had contracted bronchial pneumonia, and died of a combination of that and heart failure on 9th February 1920. He was 32 years old.

Charles Frederick Caleb Miller lies at rest in Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.

Charles Miller (from ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, photography, Private, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, unknown, war

Private Fred Hobbs

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Private Fred Hobbs

Occasionally I have found that some people are destined to remain hidden. No matter how much research you try and do, details stay lost, and the name on a gravestone will remain just that.

Private Fred Hobbs is one of those people.

He was born in around 1891; he enlisted in the 1st/5th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. Private Hobbs’ service records are not available, but he was awarded the Victory and British Medals for his actions.

His pension record gives Mrs Ellen Louisa Hobbs as his next of kin; there is no confirmation of whether this was his mother or his wife – research has uncovered nothing to identify either.

Private Hobbs does not appear in the contemporary media – this would seem to suggest nothing out of the ordinary about his passing.

All we know for certain is that Fred Hobbs passed away on 12th June 1920, aged 29 years old. He lies at rest in St John’s Cemetery in Bridgwater, Somerset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Ireland, photography, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, Staff Sergeant, story, unknown, war

Staff Serjeant William Coggan

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Staff Serjeant William Coggan

William Reginald Coggan was born in Twerton, near Bath, at the end of 1882. His father, also called William, was a railway guard, and with his mother, Annie, he would go on to raise nine children, six of them girls.

William Jr became known as Reginald, presumably to avoid confusion with his father. He didn’t follow his father onto the railways, but found a way to serve his country. In the 1901 census, he was working as a baker for the Army Service Corps, and was based at the Stanhope Lines Barracks in Aldershot (along with more than 1800 others).

Ten years later – by the time of the 1911 census – William had left the army but continued his trade. He was listed as a baker of confections in Glastonbury, was living above the bakery with his wife of four years. I have been able to find little information about his wife, Kate, other than that she came from Dublin.

William Coggan’s former bakery in Glastonbury, Somerset.

William’s life becomes a little vague after the census. A newspaper report confirms that he had served in the South Africa war (1899-1902), and that he had seen five years’ service in France. The report – and William’s pension records – confirm that he had continued in the Army Service Corps, gaining the rank of Staff Sergeant.

William had died in Ireland, and his death registered in Fermoy, thirty miles to the north of Cork. The report confirmed that:

Nothing is yet known of how he came by his death, although a request was made for a post-mortem examination.

Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 11th August 1920.

I can find no further information about his death and, unusually, his Pension Record gives the date, but not the cause. Staff Sergeant Coggan died on 29th July 1920, aged 38 years old.

William Reginald Coggan’s body was brought back to England for burial. He lies at rest in St John’s Cemetery in Bridgwater, Somerset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, photography, Royal Garrison Artillery, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, unknown, war

Second Lieutenant William Bradbeer

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Second Lieutenant William Bradbeer

William James Bradbeer was born in the spring of 1888, the youngest of eight children to Alfred and Jane Bradbeer from Bridgwater in Somerset. Alfred was a carriage trimmer, fitting out the train coaches for the local railways.

Sadly, William lost both of his parents in 1910; by this point he was 22, and was working as a schoolmaster along with his older brother Alfred. Five of the Bradbeer siblings were living together by this point, along with Sidney Palfrey, a photographer, who was boarding with them.

On 27th December 1911, William married Selina Nurse, who was also from Bridgwater, and whose father was a master mariner. The couple did not have any children together.

There is little evidence of William’s life after his marriage. He was enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the war, although no details of his military service are available. The battalions provided support in key forts primarily along the south coast of England, but also in places like the Channel Isles, Malta and Sierra Leone. Without Second Lieutenant Bradbeer’s records, it is impossible to know specifically where he served, but it would seem likely that he remained in England during the war.

The last years of William’s are also shrouded in mystery; he passed away on 8th August 1920, at the age of 32. I have been unable to uncover a cause of death, but it seems likely to have been an illness, as there is nothing in the contemporary media to suggest anything unusual or untoward.

William James Bradbeer lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater. Sadly, though, his grave is also lost to time, and I was unable to pinpoint its location. In death, as in his later years, William remains a mystery.

Note: The grave at the top of this page, however, is of a couple of his Bradbeer relatives, buried in the same cemetery.

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

Private Ernest Hector

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Private Ernest Hector

Ernest Edward Hector was born in 1875, one of six children – all boys – to Thomas and Mary Hector. Thomas was a farm labourer, and this was a trade Ernest and his brothers all followed their father in.

Ernest was keen for a better life, however, and enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry in May 1896, aged 21. After initial training and service in England, Private Hector was off to the East Indies, arriving there just after Christmas 1897.

Six years abroad followed, after which Ernest returned to England to serve another four years. He completed the 12 years of his military career in May 1908.

By this point, Ernest had married Eliza Humphries, a young lady seven years his junior, who came from his home village of North Wootton in Somerset. The couple went on to have six children and, by the time of the 1911 census, Ernest had settled his family in West Pennard, near Glastonbury, and was working as a farm labourer.

Ernest’s service during the Great War remains tantalisingly hidden. Given that he was 39 when hostilities broke out, it is unlikely that he was called up again straight away; his gravestone confirms that he was assigned to the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), but research on his service number provides little other detail.

There is nothing in the media of the time reporting on his death or funeral either, so no concrete cause of death can be confirmed. All that is known is that Private Hector died on 9th May 1920, aged 45 years old.

Ernest Edward Hector is buried in the graveyard of St Peter’s Church in North Wootton.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Gunner, history, photography, Rifle Brigade, Sergeant, Somerset, story, unknown, war

Serjeant Ernest Morris

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Serjeant Ernest Morris

Ernest George Morris was born in September 1879, one of six children to John and Eliza Morris. John was a carter for the railways, and this was a trade his son was to follow.

Ernest married Sarah Garrett in Bristol on Christmas Eve 1904, and the young couple went on to have two children, Charles and William.

Ernest’s father died in 1907, and Ernest became head of the family. He moved them in with him in Bristol, and by the 1911 census, the household consisted of Ernest, his mother Eliza, his brothers Frank and William, sister Lily and his own son William.

The census also lists Ernest as a widow; I have not been able to track down any records of when Sarah died. Their eldest boy, Charles, passed very early on, however, so this is likely why Ernest set up home with his family.

By this time, Ernest was working as a carman in the Bristol Goods Yards, and it appears that had a strong character. In September 1912, he was cautioned for “smoking whilst on duty and refusal to give an undertaking to refrain from doing so in future.” He cited his reason that the rulebook “did not prohibit men from smoking when not with a load.”

Ernest was suspended for two days, and was only allowed back to work when he promised to follow instructions in the future. This, it seemed he may not have done, as he was dismissed just three months later.

Ernest’s military service records are hard to piece together. He enlisted in the Rifle Brigade as a Gunner, going on to achieve the rank of Serjeant. He was awarded the Victory and British medals – the standard awards for men involved in the Great War.

Serjeant Morris survived the war, but there is little information for him after that. He passed away on 28th June 1920, aged 40 years old, although there is no record of how he passed. His war pension was awarded to his mother, who was acting as guardian for his son William.

Ernest George Morris lies at rest in the cemetery of his home town of Langport.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lieutenant, Middlesex Yeomanry, North Somerset Yeomanry, photography, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, war

Lieutenant Stanley Russ

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Lieutenant Stanley Russ

Stanley Hugh Russ was born in 1888, the youngest of five children to Alfred and Elizabeth. The family lived in Wells, Somerset, where Alfred worked as Clerk to the Guardians of the local workhouse. They were doing well for themselves, as they had two domestic servants at the time of the 1891 census.

Stanley seems to have been a studious young man, and by 1911 was boarding in London, where he was a dental student.

Details of Stanley’s military service are scant, but he obviously did well at his job, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. The local newspaper gave a good overview of his life when reporting on his funeral:

The deceased gentleman was a dentist by profession, and served his apprenticeship with Mr Goddard of Wells. He afterwards went to London, where for some years he had been following his profession at Guy’s Hospital.

At the outbreak of was he joined the Middlesex Yeomanry as a trooper. He was later given a commission in the same regiment… After much service in France, he was, by reason of a physical disability incurred whilst on service, transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps (Mechanical Transport).

He again went to France and was attached to the North Somerset Yeomanry. He was invalided home, but went out a third time, being attached to a Canadian Siege Battery. He took part in the great push around Arras and Vimy Ridge.

He returned to England in October 1918, suffering from heart trouble, severe shell shock, and slight gassing. He was discharged from hospital in January 1919 and demobilised in the following March.

His health gave way, and he was subsequently operated on by a Harley Street specialist. He derived little benefit, and was afterwards removed to a nursing home, where he died.

The deceased gentleman, who was unmarried, was of a very bright and happy disposition, and enjoyed a wide circle of friends.

Wells Journal: Friday 5th November 1920

Stanley Hugh Russ died on 28th October 1920. He was 32 years old. He lies at rest in the cemetery of his home city of Wells.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Role, Royal West Surrey Regiment, Somerset, story, war

Private Arthur Vernoum

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Private Arthur Vernoum

Arthur Edward Vernoum was born in 1874, the second of seven children to David and Sabina Vernoum. David worked on the railways, while Arthur went into labouring, as a stonemason.

He married Elizabeth Parker in 1896, and the couple settled in Wells, Somerset. They had four children – William, Samuel, Richard and Winifred.

Arthur’s military service records are a bit scarce; he enlisted in the Royal West Surrey Regiment (The Queen’s). Given his age – he was 40 when war broke out – if is likely that this was towards the end of the conflict.

While is troop served in many of the key battles of the Great War, there is no evidence whether Private Vernoum was involved – again, because of his age, it may well have been that he served as part of a territorial, rather than European force.

Arthur’s pension records show that he passed away on 14th April 1920, of a carcinoma of the tongue and a haemorrhage. He was 46 years old.

Arthur Edward Vernoum lies at rest in the cemetery of his home town, Wells in Somerset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Royal Navy, Somerset, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 1st Class Henry Lucas

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Stoker Henry Lucas

Henry Luke Lucas was born in September 1888, in the quiet Somerset village of Tintinhull. His father Luke worked as an agricultural labourer, while his mother, Ellen was a glovemaker. Henry had three siblings – Kate, Beatrice and Edwin – and two half-siblings – Martha and Eli – from Ellen’s previous marriage (she was widowed in 1880).

Henry married Gertrude Woodman in 1909 having set himself up as a groomsman in the village. Henry Jr, was born the following year and the young couple went on to have three further children, Ellen (born in 1913), Edwin (born in 1915, who sadly died shortly afterwards), and a further son, called Edwin, born in 1916.

The 1910s proved a tragic decade for the Lucas family. Henry’s father Luke had passed away in 1912, and his Ellen had also died four years later.

It may well have been the death of his parents or the promise of continuous paid employment that spurred Henry into enlisting; he joined the Royal Navy on 26th July 1916 as a stoker.

Initial training was carried out on HMS Vivid II in Devonport, Stoker Lucas was assigned to HMS Liverpool for an eight month tour of the Adriatic. While on this tour, Henry was promoted to Stoker 1st Class.

Returning to England, Stoker Lucas was assigned to HMS Egmont II, an accommodation vessel based in Chatham. His move here may have been due to health reasons; within a few weeks Henry was transferred back to HMS Vivid II, from where he was invalided out of service on medical grounds.

The reasons for Henry’s discharge from the Royal Navy was tuberculosis; the local newspaper gave more details when it reported on his funeral:

The death has occurred of Henry Lucas (31) from tuberculosis, which he contracted while serving as a stoker in the Navy. Deceased served abroad during the period of the war and was in Eastern waters when he contracted the disease. He was removed to hospital at Malta, where he remained until his discharge. [This differs from his service records.] In health Lucas was a fearless man, and he maintained this spirit all through his trying illness.

Western Chronicle: Friday 2nd April 1920

Henry Luke Lucas died on 23rd March 1920; he was 31 years old. He lies at rest in the grounds of St Margaret’s Church in his home village of Tintinhull in Somerset.