The life of William Henry Harris is destined to remain shrouded in the mists of time. His headstone, in the Townsend Cemetery in Crewkerne, confirms he was a Private in the Essex Regiment, and that he died on 19th April 1911, at the age of 31 years old.
The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects confirms that he was attached to to the 1st/5th Battalion and that he died of sickness in Rugeley Camp, Staffordshire. His widow, who is noted as Ada Harris, received a war gratuity, which suggests that he had enlisted prior to October 1918.
Private Harris’ Pension Ledger shows that Ada was living in Hermitage Street, Crewkerne, and that the couple did not have any children.
While William’s name is too common to try and identify family links through census records, his marriage index provides Ada’s maiden name, Furzer, which is easier to track.
Ada Furzer was born in Crewkerne on 22nd November 1887, the second of eight children to James and Ellen Furzer. James was a haulier, while Ada and her older sister Mabel, found work as machinists in a local shirt factory when they left school.
Ada did not remarry when William passed away: she died in Yeovil in the autumn of 1971, at the age of 83.
William Henry Dyer was born on 26th March 1895, in Bath, Somerset. He was the only child of William and Elizabeth Dyer. Elizabeth had had a son prior to her marriage to William Sr, and so William Jr had a half-brother, Sidney.
Elizabeth tragically passed away in December when her youngest was only a toddler. William Sr went on to marry again, to a Sarah Chivers. The couple went on to have a family of their own, giving William Jr and Sidney a further five half-siblings.
William Sr was a carman and, when his son left school, he also found carting work, the 1911 census recording him as being a milk carrier. He wanted bigger and better things, however, and, on 8th April 1913, a fortnight after his eighteenth birthday, he joined the Royal Navy.
William’s service records show that he was working as a van guard on the railway at the time of his enlistment. He was 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, with light hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. He joined as a Stoker 2nd Class, and was initially assigned to HMS Vivid, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Devonport.
After six months’ training, William was assigned to the dreadnought battleship HMS Ajax. She became his home for the next four years, patrolling the North Sea during the conflict and, in June 1916, was involved in the Battle of Jutland. During his time on board, William rose through the ranks, becoming Stoker 1st Class in August 1914, Leading Stoker in August 1916 and Petty Officer Stoker in October 1917.
In January 1918, William returned to HMS Vivid for a few weeks He was then given a new posting, on board HMS Sandhurst, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. Petty Officer Stoker Dyer was to spend the next ten months here, albeit with a short break that autumn.
It was during this period of leave that William married Lily Sarah Bethia Durbin. She was the daughter of a miner, and the couple married in Clutton, Somerset. Their time together was to be brief, however, as William soon returned to Scotland.
It was while Petty Officer Stoker Dyer was back at HMS Sandhurst that he developed pneumonia. Sadly, the condition was to get the better of him. He passed away on board on 27th November 1918, at the age of just 23 years old.
William Henry Dyer’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery in Bath.
Lily had been a wife for just a matter of weeks, and was now left a widow. In 1926 she remarried, to baker and confectioner Albert Farmer. The couple lived a long and happy life, celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary before Albert died in 1985. Lily lived on, passing away in January 1997, at the ripe of age of 98 years old.
Algernon Carlyle Graham Spurge was born on 27th August 1891 in Bath, Somerset. The middle of five children, his parents were Algernon and Ida Spurge.
Algernon Sr was a portrait photographer, based in the Twerton area of the city, and this was very much a family business. The 1901 census recorded the Spurges as living in Victoria Road, Bath, with Ida’s brother, Tom Leaman, who was working as a photographic reloader.
Later that year, however, things were to take a turn for the worst. Algernon Sr seems to have been having some business worries and, on the morning of 16th December, he set off for work as usual. His and Ida’s daughter, also called Ida, arrived at the studio to find her father in some distress, a bottle of potassium cyanide – used as part of the photographic process at the time – next to him. He asked Ida to fetch him some water and salt, but when she returned, he declared it was too late, and lost consciousness. A doctor was called, but Algernon passed away shortly after he arrived.
A note was found, which read “My dearest wife, I really cannot stand the worry and anxiety of another day, to say nothing of weeks and perhaps months. Ask Mr Ashman and Mr Withy to be kind enough to help you straighten out matters a little. My best love to you and all my dear ones. AS” [Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer – Saturday 21 December 1901] Ashman and Withy were family friends, who were also in the photography business.
An inquest was held and a verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was recorded.
The family rallied round, and Algernon’s widow and children moved in with Ida’s widowed mother in Bristol. Algernon’s daughter Ida continued working in photography, and Algernon Jr also took up the business. The 1911 census found him boarding with, and working for, his uncle Tom in Bath.
War was closing in on Europe by this point and, when it was declared, Algernon stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service on 4th June 1915 as a Leading Mechanic (Photography). His service records show that he was 5ft 5ins (1.66m) tall, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion.
Algernon was initially assigned to the shore establishment HMS President in London for three years, rising to the rank of Petty Officer Mechanic (Photography). In April 1918, when the Royal Air Force was created he transferred across to HMS Daedalus in Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, and rising to the rank of Sergeant Mechanic.
That autumn, with the end of the war in sight, Algernon fell ill. He contracted influenza, and this developed into pneumonia. He was admitted to the Military Hospital in York, but the conditions were to prove too much for his body to take. He died on 27th October 1918, aged just 27 years old.
The body of Algernon Carlyle Graham Spurge was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in St James Cemetery, Bath, not far from his father. When Ida passed away in 1926, she was buried in the same cemetery, father, mother and son reunited once more
Alfred Edward Sowden was born in the autumn of 1883, in Bath, Somerset. He was the youngest of seven children to Robert and Mary Sowden. Robert had died by the time of the 1891 census, and Mary turned to charring to bring in money for the family.
In the summer of 1904, Alfred married Harriet Sumsion, a baker’s daughter also from Bath. The couple set up home in a small cottage on the main road to Bristol, and had a son, William, who was born the following year. Alfred was working as a house painter by this point, and the young family had a lodger, William Gabb, who was a local chef.
When war came to Britain’s shores, Alfred stepped up to play his part. He may have had some previous military experience, because he joined the Somerset Light Infantry as a Lance Corporal. Assigned to the 2nd/4th Battalion, by August 1915, he was on his way to India. His troop remained there for two years, before moving to Egypt in the autumn of 1917, then on to France the following June.
With the end of the conflict, the Empire’s forces were slowly demobbed. While he was waiting to be stood down, Lance Corporal Sowden fell ill. He developed influenza and septic pneumonia, and the combination was to prove fatal. He passed away on 30th January 1919, at the age of 35 years old.
Alfred Edward Sowden’s body was brought back to Bath for burial, where he was laid to rest in the city’s St James’ Cemetery.
Alfred’s widow had had a tragic few years. Her father, Walter, had passed away in February 1916, and her mother died just three months after Alfred.
Harriet never remarried after her husband’s passing. She remained in the family home for the rest of her life and, by the time of the 1939 Register, had a boarder, billiard marker James Jones. She was close to family, however, as her brother William lived just three doors away.
Harriet died in September 1941 at the age of just 56. She was laid to rest near her husband, reunited after 22 years.
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.
Sydney Ridewood was born in Bath, Somerset, on 31st March 1891, and was one of eleven children. His parents were labourer and sometime butcher James Ridewood and his wife Mary.
When Sydney left school, he found work as a baker, although this seems to have been as piecemeal a job as his father’s.
In January 1910, Sydney married Kathleen Scudamore. She was the daughter of a carpenter from the Twerton area of Bath and had a bit of a chequered background herself.
On 10th June 1896, Kathleen had married Edward Edwards, who was twelve years older than her seventeen years. Their marriage certificate suggested he was a clerk, although the 1901 census – which included their two children, Charles and Percy – recorded him as being a draper’s porter. Beyond that document, there is no record of Kathleen’s husband and, by the time of her marriage to Sydney, she had reverted to her maiden name.
By the time of the 1911 census Sydney and Kathleen were living in central Bath, with their nine-month old daughter, Olive, and Kathleen’s two sons. Kathleen’s widowed father, Edmund, her brother Claude and sister-in-law Nora were also in the household.
The document recorded Sydney as still employed as a journeyman baker, while his wife was a cook for the Post Office. Edmund was working as a carpenter, Claude was a sawyer, Nora a shop assistant and 14-year old Charles was a messenger boy, also for the Post Office. Six pay cheques coming in to support the extended family in the four-roomed house.
An additional member of the Ridewood family came along on 22nd October 1913, when Kathleen gave birth to a second child, Sydney Jr.
War was on the horizon by this point, and, on 20th April 1915, Sydney stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Service Corps, and was assigned to the Mechanical Transport Corps. There is little detail about Private Ridewood’s service, although his records show that he was 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall, with auburn hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion.
Sydney was sent to France a month after enlisting, and his may role seems to have been that of a driver. He remained on the Western Front for a little over two years, before contracting pleurisy. He was initially treated in France, but soon returned to Britain to recuperate. The lung condition, however, was to get the better of him, and he passed away at home on 26th November 1917, weeks before he was to be medically discharged from service. He was just 28 years of age.
Sydney Ridewood was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, a few minutes’ walk from his family home.
Albert Henry Townsend was born on 7th November 1890 in Bath, Somerset. One of thirteen children, his parents were George and Annie Townsend. George was a painter by trade, but when he died in the autumn of 1895, Annie was left to take in laundry to earn money to support her and the four of her children still living at home.
By the time of the 1911 census, Albert was 21, and had found work as a baker. He was still living with his mother, two siblings and a nephew in a house in the centre of the city. All but Annie’s grandson were earning money by this point, and, with five rooms, the family were in a better position than some of their neighbours. Next door was Albert Smith, a coal carter, who had to support a family of ten people.
In the summer of 1914 war broke out, and within months, three of the Townsend brothers – Albert and his older brothers Arthur and Charles – had enlisted.
Arthur Townsend had joined the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry earlier in the year, and within weeks of conflict being declared, he was on the Western Front. He was to be one of the early casualties of the conflict, and was killed in action during the Battle of the Marne on 9th September. He was just 29 years old and, while his body was never identified, he was commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial.
Albert’s service records have been lost to time, so it is not possible to identify when he enlisted. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion, who set sail for India in October 1914. Private Townsend was not to travel with them, however as he had contracted septicaemia while camped on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. He was transferred to the Royal United Hospital in Bath for further treatment, but his condition was to prove too severe. He passed away while still admitted on 19th October 1914. He was just 23 years of age.
Albert Henry Townsend was laid to rest in the St James’ Cemetery in his home city, Bath.
Annie Townsend had now been a widow for nearly twenty years and, within a matter of weeks, had lost two of her sons. Tragically, the war was not done with her family yet.
Charles Townsend was still serving, having enlisted in the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. He arrived in France in July 1915, and over the next year, wascaught up in some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. On 1st July 1916, the Battle of the Somme began, the darkest day in history for the British Army. Twenty thousand soldiers were killed, and Private Charles Townsend was amongst the fallen. He was just 30 years of age. He was commemorated on the Theipval Memorial.
Annie had lost a third son to the conflict in a little under two years, and her pain must have been unimaginable. She lived on until 1923, when she died at home in Bath. She was laid to rest close to her husband and Albert, a family partly reunited once more.
Ernest James Victor Whatley was born in the spring of 1899, the youngest of three children to George and Clara Whatley. Clara passed away in 1908, and George remarried the following year, to a woman called Sarah. Ernest’s brothers were sixteen years older than him, and so by the time of the 1911 census they had moved out of their father’s home. By that point, Ernest living with his father and stepmother in their house in Bath, Somerset.
Little further information is available about Ernest. With war raging across Europe, he enlisted in the army, but this was not before September 1916, and it is likely that he came of age before joining up.
Private Whatley served in the 1st/7th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, and was based in Suffolk. It is while he was billeted that he was admitted to a hospital in Ipswich, although the cause of his admission is unclear.
Whatever befell Private Whatley, it was to prove his undoing. He passed away in the Ipswich hospital on 9th March 1917, at the tender age of just 18 years old.
Ernest James Victor Whatley’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, Bath, not far from his mother, Clara.
Gilbert Harold Earle Rippon was born in Paddington, London, in the spring of 1887. The third of seven children, his parents were coal merchant Frederick Rippon and his wife, Eugenie.
When Gilbert left school, he found work as a clerk for a building firm. He was an ambitious young man, however, and, after his mother died in 1903 and his father a few years later, he took on work at a rubber plantation in Jementah, Malaysia.
When war broke out, “he came home on six months’ leave in order to enlist, having an exciting voyage owing to the activities of submarines. He was refused at first owing to a slight physical defect, but after an operation learnt to fly and was given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps.” [Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 9th June 1916]
Second Lieutenant Rippon gained his wings at Brooklands in Surrey on 16th January 1916. By the summer he was attached to a flying school in Gosport, Hampshire, and this is where he was based by the early summer of 1916.
On 7th June, Gilbert was flying a de Havilland DH2 aircraft, when an accident occurred. According to a newspaper report: “Evidence showed that the machine, when 300 feet [91m] up, made a double turn, as though the aviator was trying to return. It then slipped and made a nose-dive to the ground, killing the pilot instantaneously. He had only been in the air three minutes. The previous evening the same monoplane had ascended 14,000 ft [4267m].” [Somerset Guardian and Radstock Observer: Friday 9th June 1916]
Second Lieutenant Rippon was 29 years of age. The same report confirmed that he was the older brother of two Bath and Somerset cricketers – twins Dudley and Sydney Rippon – and that his oldest brother, New York-based Secretary of the Board of Correction Frank Rippon, “had the unhappy experience of being in the aerodrome when the accident occurred, and saw his brother fall to the ground.”
Gilbert Harold Earle Rippon was laid to rest in the family plot St James Cemetery, Bath, Somerset. There seems to have been a family connection with the city: this is where both Frederick and Eugenie were buried, and where, after their parents’ deaths, the twins and the youngest Rippon son, Percy, were taken to live.
Alfred John Edward Lansdell was born on 25th October 1882 in Fulham, London. The fourth of six children, his parents were James and Matilda Lansdell.
James was a trunk maker, working in his father’s business. By the time of the 1901 census, he was recorded as living by his own means, while Alfred had taken up employment as a hotel porter in Chelsea.
By 1902, Alfred had moved to Somerset and set up home in Bath. He married local woman Alice Stevenson, and the couple went on to have a daughter, Lena, who was born in November 1904.
The 1911 census found the family living in central Bath, Alfred continuing his portering work, with one of his colleagues, lift operator Thomas Ward, boarding with them.
War came to Europe and on 9th December 1915, Alfred stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment, and was formally mobilised the following June. Alfred’s service records confirm that he was, at the time of his review, he was 35 years old and 5ft 6ins (1.67m) tall.
Private Lansdell was assigned to the 1st/7th Battalion and by October 1916, he was shipped to France. He was very much on the Front Line, and was wounded on 19th August 1917, while at Ypres. His casualty record notes that “while waiting in a shell hole for a further move on he was wounded… in the back”. He has been shot, and the bullet penetrated his kidney.
Initially treated in a hospital in France, Private Lansdell was transferred to England on 25th October. He was admitted to the Norfolk War Hospital and remained there for some time.
Alfred’s injuries were too severe for him to continue in the army, and he was formally discharged on 20th March 1918. He eventually returned home to Bath, but in the end his poor health was to get the better of him. He passed away at home on 28th September 1918, at the age of 35.
Alfred John Edward Lansdell was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, Bath. Alice lived on until 1961, when she was buried with her late husband, a couple reunited after more than four decades.
Death and Service 