Jeremiah West was born in the spring of 1892, the oldest of eight children to John and Laura West. John was an agricultural labourer from Somerset, and it was in the village of Bleadon that the family were born and raised.
When he finished his schooling, Jeremiah followed in his father’s footsteps. By the time of the 1911 census, he was working as a servant on the nearby Shiplette Farm, where he was employed by Kate Poole.
War came to Europe in 1914, and Jeremiah stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry in 1915, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion. Private West set sail for India that August, and seems to have remained overseas for some time.
Records are not clear, but it would appear that Jeremiah returned to Britain at some point, and became attached to the 3rd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. This was a garrison troop, based in Harwich, Essex, and Jeremiah found himself part of the battalion’s Labour Corps.
Private West survived the war, but came down with pneumonia in the autumn of 1919. He passed away on 24th November 1919: he was 27 years of age.
Jeremiah West was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Peter and St Paul’s Church in his home village of Bleadon.
Hamlyn Horwood Perham was born in the autumn of 1872, one of seven children to William and Margaret. William was a solicitor from Wrington in the north part of Somerset, but it was in the village of Flax Bourton that the family settled.
Expectations were high for Hamlyn, who was the Perhams’ oldest son: the 1881 census found him boarding as a student in a private school in Weston-super-Mare. Ten years later, he was back home, but listed as a law student. The 1901 census recorded him as living with his family, but a practicing solicitor, presumably alongside his father (who, the document notes, was a solicitor and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Somerset Light Infantry).
Colonel WE Perham, the commanding officer of the 3rd Volunteer Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, had just been retired, after a connection with the corps dating from the year 1861, when he joined as a private. His retirement will occasion within the regiment universal regret, for he deservedly held the esteem and respect of all ranks. That Colonel Perham was well qualified to command is shown by the high state of efficiency in which he leaves the 3rd Battalion. He had taken the higher examinations, and in tactics passed with distinction. An officer who has worked through all grades from private to commander should, indeed, be a practical administrator and leader, and Colonel Perham was essentially both, and his knowledge of military matters singled him out for the important divisional and other commands. Latterly he was foremost in organising officers’ rides through the West Country – an instruction much valued at the War Office.
Somerset Standard: Friday 15th February 1907
The next census, taken in 1911, found Hamlyn still living with his parents and older sister. The family were supported by three live-in staff: a cook, a parlour maid and a housemaid. Hamlyn’s younger brother, Herbert, had also followed their father into law and, according to the same census, had set up a practice in Nailsea, where he lived with his wife of three years.
When war came to Europe, Hamlyn quickly stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers as a Private, and was assigned to the 23rd Service Battalion, also known as the 1st Sportsmen’s. Based at a camp in Hornchurch, Essex, Private Perham’s service was not to be a long one. He contracted meningitis, and was admitted to the South Western Hospital in Southwark. Sadly, the condition was to get the better of him: he died in hospital on 20th February 1915, at the age of 42 years old.
Hamlyn Horwood Perham’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in St Michael’s Church, Flax Bourton.
Frank Ernest Harvey was born at the start of 1892, the youngest of seven children to George and Clara Harvey. George was from Bethnal Green, London, and worked as a telegraphist clerk for the Post Office. By the time Frank was born, the family had moved to Leytonstone, while the 1901 census records them as living in Ilford.
On the day of the next census, in 1911, George and Clara were visiting friends in Guildford, Surrey. The four of their children who were still living with them were all at the family home. Ida, their daughter, was not listed as having any employment, while her three brothers were all working a clerks: one for an ironmonger, one for a stockbroker and Frank for an electrical engineer.
When war broke out, Frank stepped up to serve his king and his country. Little information is available about his military career, and, while his headstone confirms he was in the Suffolk Regiment, other records suggest that he had transferred to the regiment from the Royal Army Service Corps.
There is also little information about Private Harvey’s passing. Based on the fact that he was laid to rest in the Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, it is likely that he had been admitted to the city’s War Hospital. This did not specialise in any single condition or set of conditions, so it could be that Frank was sent there to recuperate from an injury, or to recover from an illness.
Sadly, neither was to be the case, and Private Frank Ernest Harvey passed away on 9th February 1918. He was 26 years of age.
Much of the life of William Charles Taylor is destined to remain lost to time. His Commonwealth War Grave Commission and military records give his father as Henry Taylor, while another document suggests his mother’s initial was E, but no birth, baptism or census records match the three names given.
The document that can be directly attributed to William is his military service records. They confirm that he enlisted in Bath, Somerset, on 18th February 1916, joining the Somerset Light Infantry. The document notes that he was 21 years and 7 months old when he enlisted, and stood 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall.
Initially assigned to the 10th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, within a couple of months, Private Taylor was transferred across to the Durham Light Infantry in July 1917. He remained on home soil for the duration of his time in service, and was moved across to the Labour Corps in March 1918.
By May that year, William had become unwell. He was based in Essex at this point, and was admitted to the Warley Military Hospital in Brentwood, suffering from tuberculosis. He spent six weeks in hospital, before finally being discharged from the army as he was no fit for military service.
At this point, William’s trail goes cold once more. He seems to have returned home to Bath, finally succumbing to tuberculosis on 15th September 1918. He was just 24 years of age.
William Charles Taylor was laid to rest in Bath’s Twerton Cemetery.
The youngest of three children to William and Annie, Walter Harold Fry was born in the summer of 1897 in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. William’s job as a railway guard and porter meant the family moved around the area and, by the time of the 1901 census, they had settled in Twerton, to the west of Bath.
Little information is available about Walter’s early life and, indeed, documents from that time seem to record him as both Walter Harold and Harold Walter. When war came to Europe, He was keen to serve his country, presumably because his older brother, William Jr, was already serving overseas in the Somerset Light Infantry.
Walter enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment, and, as a Private, was assigned to the 4th (City of Bristol) Battalion. His initial training took place in Wiltshire and Essex, but by March 1915, the battalion had been sent to the Western Front.
Private Fry’s service records no longer exist, by his headstone, in the family plot, suggests that he was injured in France in March 1916. He was medically evacuated back to Britain, although, again, details are sketchy, and admitted to a military hospital in Aldershot, Hampshire.
At this point, Walter’s trail goes cold. The next record for him is that of his passing, while still admitted to the hospital, on 31st December 1916. He was just 19 years of age.
The body of Walter Harold Fry was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Bath’s Twerton cemetery, a short walk from the family home.
Walter’s brother William had enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry by 1911. That year’s census recorded him as being billeted at St Andrew’s Barracks in Malta, but by the time war broke out, his troop, the 2nd Battalion, was based in Quetta, India.
He remained based in this far outpost for the duration of the conflict and, while his service records are no longer available, he seemed to have been dedicated to his job as, by October 1918, he had risen to the rank of Sergeant.
William was based in Rawalpindi by that point, and it was here that he died, through causes unknown, on 31st October 1918. He was 26 years of age.
Buried in Rawalpindi Military Cemetery, Sergeant William Fry is also commemorated on the family grave in Twerton.
Hidden away above the busy A371 to the north of Axbridge, Somerset is an unassuming graveyard. Overgrown and haunting, with headstones lining the boundary of the copse, this is the cemetery for the former St Michael’s Sanatorium, now the St Michael’s Cheshire Home. In the middle of the plot, next to the central memorial, is a headstone dedicated to Sidney Gordon, notably buried somewhere else in the grounds.
Sidney Vincent Gordon was born in Upton Park, Essex, on 7th May 1897. There is little information about his early life, other than his mother’s name, May.
The 1911 census recorded Sidney as being an inmate at the Scattered Home for the West Ham Union, the workhouse that covered the area. At 13 years of age, he was one of the older of the thirteen students boarding in the home, which was overseen by Emma Caroline Simpson, the House Mother.
When Sidney completed his schooling, he managed to find employment as an undertaker’s boy. But he sought out bigger things and, on 8th June 1914, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. His service records note that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.
Being under-age when he enlisted, Sidney was given the rank of Boy. He was first sent to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, for training, and remained there for a couple of months. In August 1914, Boy Gordon was moved down the coast to HMS Actaeon, a torpedo school based in Sheerness, Kent.
After five months, he moved to HMS Wildfire, another part of the Sheerness base, and it was while there he turned 18, and could formally join the Royal Navy. He was given the rank of Officer’s Steward 3rd Class and remained at Wildfire until the end of 1915. After a short stint back in Chatham, Sidney was given a new posting on board the supply ship HMS Tyne, where he remained until the following May.
Officer’s Steward Gordon returned to HMS Pembroke once more, and was assigned to his final sea-going ship, the newly launched monitor, HMS Erebus. She was to be his home until June 1917, when, having become unwell, he was posted back to HMS Pembroke.
Sidney had contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, which led to him being invalided out of the Navy on 1st August 1917. At this point his trail goes cold once more, but it is likely that, by the start of 1919, his condition had led to his admission to St Michael’s.
When he died there, on 5th March 1919, Sidney was just 21 years old. Given his background, it seems probable that his mother, if she was still alive, would not have been able to afford for his remains to be brought back to Essex. Sidney Vincent Gordon was laid to rest in the sanatorium’s cemetery, in the foothills of the Mendips, finally at peace.
Ernest Algernon Phillips was born at the start of 1879 in the Somerset village of Winscombe. One of nine children, his parents were Arthur and Elizabeth Phillips. Arthur was a gardener, and Ernest followed suit when he finished his schooling.
By the time of the 1911 census, he was boarding with his younger sister Rose and her family – brother-in-law Leonard and nephew Leslie. Just a couple of weeks later, on 11th May 1911, Ernest married Winifred Carey. She was a coachman’s daughter from Winscombe, and the couple set up home in a cottage on the outskirts of the village.
When war broke out, Ernest felt a need to play his part. He enlisted in Bristol on 8th December 1915, but was not formally mobilised until the following June. Initially assigned to the Devonshire Regiment, he was transferred to the Worcestershire Regiment and attached to the 6th Battalion.
Private Phillips’ troop was based on home soil, and he was barracked in the garrison in Harwich, Essex, for the next six months. On 31st January 1917, he was transferred to the Military Police Corps, and given the rank of Acting Lance Corporal. Full details of his service from this point on are lost to time, but it is clear that he remained on home soil until the end of the war.
By November 1918, Ernest had fallen ill. He was admitted to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital in London on 20th November, suffering from pneumonia. Within a matter of hours, while this seemed to have cleared, his pulse was ‘rapid, irregular and compressible.’ He was medicated, but did not respond to treatment, and passed away the following day. His death was noted as apparently being caused by clots of blood in the heart, but, at the request of his family, no postmortem examination was carried out. He was 39 years of age.
Ernest Algernon Phillips was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St James the Great Church in Winscombe.
Charles Edward Fernley was born on 28th November 1874 in Stepney, East London. One of thirteen children, his parents were Richard and Eliza Fernley. Richard was a sluice keeper, who worked his way up to be an inspector of sewers and drains for London County Council. By 1888, he had been able to move his family out of the East End, to suburban Bromley, south of the river in Kent.
By the time of the 1891 census, Charles had finished his schooling, and had found work as a printer’s labourer. Ten years later, however, he was employed as a packer for a millinery warehouse. There seems to have been more need for this back in the East End, however, as he was living in Bow in the summer of 1901.
On 21st August 1901, Charles married Hannah Weston in St Faith’s Church, Stepney. She was three years younger than her husband, and was the daughter of a boatbuilder. The couple settled in a small terraced house in East Ham and had a son, Leonard, who was born in 1908.
When war came to Europe, Charles was keen to play his part. He enlisted in the Essex Regiment, and was assigned to the 1st/4th Battalion. Sent to the Balkans in August 1915, it is likely that he was caught up at Gallipoli and, in December 1915, evacuated with his battalion to Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos.
By this point, the now Corporal Fernley had contracted dysentery, and was repatriated to Britain for treatment. He was admitted to the Newton Park VAD Hospital on the outskirts of Bath, but was to succumb to the condition on 31st December 1915. He was 41 years of age.
Charles Edward Fernley was laid to rest in the quiet Holy Trinity Churchyard in Newton St Loe, Somerset.
While Charles’ headstone is dedicated to Sergeant Fernley, all other documentation suggests that he held the rank of Corporal when he died.
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.
Victor Jordan was born on 20th November 1893 in Beeston Regis on the north Norfolk coast. The second of four children, his parents were school teachers Albert and Melletta Jordan.
By the time of the 1911 census, the family had moved from one coast to another, setting up home in Bognor Regis, Sussex. Albert had given up teaching, and had become an insurance agent for Prudential. Victor had left school and found work as a wheelwright, while his older sister, Emily, had taken up where her father had left off, teaching in an elementary school, The family of six was expanded by the inclusion of Albert’s mother, Emily, who had moved in with them.
By 1914, war was on the horizon, and Victor sought out a career beyond wheel work. On 21st May he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class. His service records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.78m) tall, had light brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.
Stoker Jordan was initially sent to HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, for training. After an initial six-month period, he was assigned to the battleship HMS Indomitable, on board which he was to serve for the next four years.
During his time on board, Victor proved to be a disciplined and determined worker. He was promoted to Stoker 1st Class in July 1915, and reached the rank of Leading Stoker in the summer of 1918. HMS Indomitable was involved in some of the key naval battles of the First World War – including Dogger Bank and Jutland – and Victor would have been on the forefront of maintaining the vessel’s power.
By October 1918, Leading Stoker Jordan was back on dry land, and was based once again in Portsmouth. As the war came to a close, however, he became unwell, and was admitted to Haslar Naval Hospital in nearby Gosport, suffering from acute tonsillitis.
Tragically, the condition was to get the better of him: Leading Stoker Jordan died of heart failure on 8th December 1918, having not long turned 25 years old.
Victor Jordan’s family were, by now, living in the Somerset hamlet of Brewham, and this is where his body was brought for burial: he was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St John the Baptist’s Church.
Leading Stoker Victor Jordan (from findagrave.com)
Scandal was set to rock the grieving family. Albert, who was now teaching again, was charged with indecently assaulting a nine-year-old girl three times over the winter of 1918/19. He denied the accusation and a jury found him not guilty after only a few minutes’ deliberation.
Albert and Melletta seem to have found it impossible to remain in the quiet corner of Somerset, and moved to Essex. The couple took up new teaching posts, Albert eventually becoming the headmaster of Doddinghurst Church of England School, near Brentwood, while his wife worked as a school mistress for one of the classes.
Melletta died in February 1931, and at this point, Albert came back to Somerset to live with his daughter and her family in Cheddar. He was 75 years old when he passed away at Emily’s family home – called Melletta after her mother – and was laid to rest in St Andrew’s Churchyard, Cheddar.
Death and Service 