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Able Seaman, Boy, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Leading Seaman, Ordinary Seaman, Petty Officer, photography, Royal Navy, Scotland, story, war

Petty Officer Albert Smith

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Petty Officer Albert Smith

Albert Septamus Smith was born in Maidstone, Kent, on 12th January 1881. The oldest of three children to George and Frances Ditcher, he may has been born before the couple married, and seems to have retained his mother’s maiden name throughout his life.

When he left school, Albert sought a life at sea, joining the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 12th January 1898, when he was just fifteen. Albert’s naval career was a long and varied one which began on board HMS Impregnable, a training ship. After a month’s training, he was assigned to HMS Lion, where he spent more than a year, gaining a promotion to Boy 1st Class in the process.

In October 1897, Albert transferred to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. In the four months that he spent on shore, he turned seventeen and, as a result, came of legal age to formally be enlisted in the navy. Ordinary Seaman Smith signed up for a period of twelve years, and his service records showed that he was 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, had brown hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. He was also noted to have a scar on his right wrist, and a tattoo of a flower and bracelet on the same wrist.

Ordinary Seaman Smith was dedicated to his career. Over the next twelve years he served on board nine different vessels, and rose through the ranks, gaining promotion to Able Seaman (in May 1899), Leading Seaman (January 1903), and Petty Officer 2nd Class (September 1903). He returned to the rank of Leading Seaman, doing so in August 1906, but this seems to have been a deliberate choice, as his service record appears unblemished.

In 1910, Albert’s initial period of service came to an end and he chose not to renew his contract. He had married Ellen Miles on 6th October 1900, and, with four young children, it appears that family had become more important to him. Returning to Maidstone, he found work on the railways, joining the South East and Chatham company as a platelayer. The family home was in Bearsted, a village to the east of Maidstone, now part of its suburbs, and they shared is with Ellen’s sister, Dorothy.

Life was going well for the Smith family, but war was coming to Europe and, with his previous naval experience, Albert was to be called upon again. He was called out of reserve on 2nd August 1914 and, after an initial couple of weeks at HMS Pembroke, Leading Seaman Smith was soon back at sea.

After a couple of years on board the seaplane tenders HMS Engadine and Campania, Albert was promoted to Petty Officer again, and assigned to HMS Sandhurst, a fleet repair ship based at Scapa Flow. He was on board when an explosion in the boiler room killed seventeen seamen on 27th February 1917, although he was not hurt.

It was while Petty Officer Smith was on board HMS Sandhurst that he contracted tuberculosis. He returned to Chatham Dockyard, but the condition was severe enough for him to be medically discharged from active service in February 1918.

Albert returned to civilian life again, and his trail goes cold for a couple of years. His lung complaint continued to haunt him, however, and he passed away from tuberculosis on 4th March 1921. He was 40 years of age.

Albert Septamus Smith was laid to rest in the graveyard of Holy Cross Church in Bearsted, not far from his family home.

Petty Officer Albert Smith
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Denbighshire, Great War, history, illness, Northern Ireland, photography, Rifleman, Royal Irish Rifles, story, Wales, war

Rifleman Joseph Collins

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Rifleman Joseph Collins

Much of Joseph Collins’ life is destined to remain a mystery. He was born in Northern Ireland on 8th November 1897, and was the son of William and Minnie Collins, who lived near Lurgan, in Armargh.

When war broke out, Joseph enlisted, joining the 16th (Service) Battalion – the 2nd County Down Pioneers – of the Royal Irish Rifles. Formed in Lurgan, the regiment moved from Northern Ireland to Seaford in East Sussex in July 1915. By that October, Rifleman Collins found himself on the Front Line in Northern France.

Joseph was invalided on 26th October, and medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. Admitted to the Brynkinalt Hospital in Chirk, Denbighshire, he was operated on, but this was to prove insufficient, and he passed away from his injuries on 8th November 1915 – his eighteenth birthday.

Rifleman Collins was well thought of in his regiment, as the comments in the Lurgan Mail [Saturday 20th November 1915] confirmed. Captain HF Sheppard, who commanded Joseph’s Company, noted “I need hardly say I was shocked, as I thought when he left us that the operation necessary for his complaint was certain to prove successful. I had always been attracted by his cheerful temperament, and I was always keenly interested in him as he was one of the first to join my Company.“

Lieutenant E Somerfield noted that Joseph “was a great favourite with the rest of his platoon, and a boy I had great regard for. I can assure you we all feel his loss very keenly.“

The most touching comments, however, come from one of Joseph’s colleagues, Rifleman R McKeown: “I am sending you these few lines to let you know I got a letter today which Joe wrote before he died. The nurse found it in his locker and sent it on to me I am sending you a copy of it and the nurse’s letter. I was never so badly struck in my life as when I heard of his death, for his could not have grieved me more has it been my own brother. The day he went away I never got bidding him good-bye, for the morning he went on the sick list I was on parade, and when I came in he was away. The boys in the platoon and company he was in were all greatly grieved at hearing about his death. You have my sincerest sympathy in your trouble. I don’t know how I am ever going to go home – if I ever do – without him. He was like a brother to me.“

Unable to bring their son back to Ireland, William and Minnie had to be content with the fact that their son was given a military funeral in the town where he died. Joseph Collins was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Chirk.

Commonwealth War Graves, Denbighshire, Great War, history, illness, London, photography, Royal Engineers, Sapper, story, Wales, war

Sapper James Tod

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Sapper James Tod

James Tod was born in the spring of 1891 in Chirk, Denbighshire, and was one of nine children. His parents were builder John Tod, who was from Scotland, and Margaret Tod, who had been born in Llangollen.

John passed away when James was in his teens and, when he left school, James found work as a joiner to help support his mother financially.

When war came to Europe, James was called upon to play his part. Full details of his military service are not available, but he had enlisted by the beginning of 1917. James joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper, and was assigned to the London Electrical Engineers.

It is unclear whether Sapper Tod served overseas, but he certainly would have been based in the London area, carrying out repair works as needed. The London Electrical Engineers were also pioneers in the use of searchlights to spot enemy aircraft and Zeppelins raiding the capital. A detachment was also sent to France to position and man searchlights on the Western Front, although, again, it is not clear whether James was one of those involved.

It is clear that James was back in Wales at the start of 1917, however, as, on 18th January, he married his sweetheart, Emily Mary Edwards, at the parish church in his home town. Emily was the daughter of a gamekeeper from nearby Pontfadog, but it was in Chirk that the coupler were to make their home.

Sapper Tod was soon back on duty, however, and the next evidence available for him is that of his admission to the Grove Military Hospital in Tooting, South London. He had contracted a combination of influenza and pneumonia, and these lung conditions were sadly to get the better of him: he passed away on Armistice Day, the 11th November 1918. He was just 27 years of age.

James Tod was brought back to Wales for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in the town.

It seems that James had been in some debt when he passed, as some of his war pension was held over to cover those costs.

Tragically, Emily was five months pregnant when James died. She gave birth to a son, who she named after his father, on 9th March 1919.

Emily never remarried, and, by the time of the 1939 Register for England and Wales, was recorded as the Lodgekeeper for Deer Park Lodge, which was attached to Chirk Castle. She passed away on 19th December 1973, at the age of 84 years old. She was laid to rest with her late husband, a couple reunited at last after more than five decades.

James Jr lived a long life, passing away in the spring of 1999, in his eightieth year.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lieutenant, photography, Royal West Surrey Regiment, story, Surrey, Sussex, war

Lieutenant Frederick Tugwell

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Lieutenant Frederick Tugwell

Frederick William Tugwell was born in Cuckfield, West Sussex, in the autumn of 1888. The youngest of three children to John and Mary Tugwell, his father was a tailor in the village.

Little more is known about Frederick’s early life, but, when war broke out, he wad there to play his part. He enlisted in The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) and, by July 1916 was in France. Frederick obviously made an impression in the army and rose through the ranks, reaching Lieutenant by the time the Armistice was declared in November 1918.

Lieutenant Tugwell remained overseas when the war ended and was based in Cologne. In March 1919, he returned home on leave, staying with his sister, Constance, who lived in Guildford, Surrey. It was here that he fell ill and here that he passed away, breathing his last on 2nd March 1919. He was just 30 years old.

Frederick William Tugwell was brought back to West Sussex for burial – he lies at rest in the cemetery of his home village, Cuckfield.

A mystery surrounds Frederick’s next of kin. His medal record suggests that it was his widow – Mrs FW Tugwell – who applied for that recognition. The address given for her is the same as for Constance. The newspaper report of his death gives no mention of a widow, only that he died at his sister’s home. There is also no clear evidence for Frederick getting married, although this may have been lost to the passage of time. His widow may, of course, have been living with her sister-in-law, but again, this cannot be confirmed either way.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, unknown, war

Private George Bennett

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Private George Bennett

George Ernest Bennett was born in 1895 in Cuckfield, West Sussex, the oldest of four children to Alfred and Annie Bennett. Much of his early life is a mystery – within eighteen months, his parents had moved to Kent, leaving George with his widowed paternal grandmother.

By the time of the 1911 census, both Alfred and Annie were dead, along with their only daughter. George’s two younger brothers were in a poor school back in Sussex, while George was living with one of his father’s sisters and her family, and working as an errand boy.

By the time war broke out, it seems that George had plans for an army career. He had certainly enlisted by September 1914, and joined the 1st/4th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. This was a primarily territorial force, and Private Bennett initially received his training on the East Sussex coast.

Full details of George’s military service aren’t available, but what is clear is that he was admitted to the Military Hospital in Newhaven in the spring of 1915, and this is where he died on 19th March. The cause of his passing is not known, but he was just 20 years old.

Brought back to Cuckfield, where his father’s family still lived, George Ernest Bennett was laid to rest in the village’s cemetery, within sight of Holy Trinity Church.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Private Frank Bates

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Private Frank Bates

Frank Bates was born on 29th June 1893, in Cuckfield, West Sussex and was the fourth of five children. His parents were tailor William Bates and his wife, Sarah.

Tragedy was to be a constant companion to the Bates family. Frank’s older brother, William, died in November 1907 after a protracted illness, at the tender age of just 19 years old. Four years later, his younger sister, Maggie, also passed away after an illness. She was just 21 years of age.

When he left school, Frank went into the service of the Messel family, who owned the Nyman’s estate close to where Frank and his family lived. When war was declared, however, he was keen to play his part, enlisting soon after hostilities were announced in August 1914.

Private Bates joined the 4th (Home Service) Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment and was sent to Newhaven for training. It was while he was here that he fell ill, and, having caught a chill, he returned to Cuckfield to recuperate. Sadly, his condition worsened, and he passed away at his family home on 31st January 1915. He was just 21 years old.

Frank Bates was laid to rest in Cuckfield cemetery, resting not far from his siblings.

Tragedy was to strike one more time for William and Sarah. Frank’s older brother Jack served as a Private in the 2nd/4th Battalion of the London Regiment. In the spring of 1918, he was caught up in that year’s Battles of the Somme, including fighting at St Quentin and Avre.

In May 1918, Private Bates was officially reported as missing, but it was later confirmed that he had died of injuries sustained in the fighting. He passed away on 16th April 1918, at the age of 29 years old.

Jack was laid to rest at the Chauny Communal Cemetery in Picardie, France, and is also commemorated in Cuckfield Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, injury, Merchant Navy, Ordinary Seaman, photography, Royal Navy, story, Wales, war

Ordinary Seaman William Radford

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Ordinary Seaman William Radford

William Richard Radford was born in the spring of 1900 in Cogan, on the outskirts of Penarth, Glamorgan. He was one of eight children to coal trimmer turned dock labourer Richard Radford and his wife, Susan.

Little information is available about William’s life. What is documented is that he enlisted in the Royal Navy, and, by the time he came of age in 1918, he held the rank of Ordinary Seaman. William was serving at HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard, by the end of the war.

At this point, details of Ordinary Seaman Radford’s life become a little unclear. He seems to have been stepped down to the Marine Mercantile Reserve, returning home in January 1919, when he passed away. His Pension Ledger Card gives the cause of death as a fractured shoulder, while another document states that he died from a sarcoma.

Whatever the cause of his passing, William Richard Radford was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Augustine’s Church in Penarth. He shared his grave with his mother, who had passed away the previous year. Richard Radford was also buried in the same plot when he passed away in 1926.

Berkshire, Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Lieutenant, Midshipman, photography, Royal Navy, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, war

Lieutenant Alexander Spurway

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Lieutenant Alexander Spurway

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.

accident, Captain, Commonwealth War Graves, Flight Lieutenant, Great War, history, photography, Royal Air Force, Royal Field Artillery, Royal Navy, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, South Lancashire Regiment, story, war

Flight Lieutenant Lewis Morgan

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Flight Lieutenant Lewis Morgan

Lewis Morgan was born on 22nd May 1892 in Plymouth, Devon. He was one of six children to former army officer and rector Lewis Harold Gilbert Morgan and his wife, Mary.

Growing up in Plymouth, it seems inevitable that the sea life would take hold in Lewis Jr. He first took up a post in the Merchant Navy, rising to Second Mate in December 1911.

By this point, however, he had set his sights on something more formal and soon enlisted in the Royal Navy. He served on a number of vessels over the years, and was re-engaged when war broke out. By the summer of 1915, he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service, earning his wings on 5th August that year.

The now Flight Lieutenant Morgan’s service grew as the war continued. The life of air crew at this point in the era of flight was notoriously dangerous, and Lewis was to meet his own fate. On 11th May 1917, he was flying with Probationer Flight Officer Randolph Seed around Edmonton, Middlesex, when an accident occurred. The local newspaper reported on the incident and the subsequent inquest:

Flight-Lieutenant Mitchell gave a graphic account of the accident. He said that about eight o’clock in the evening he was flying at a height of 1,000 feet, and the machine containing the deceased officers was just ahead, but 500 feet higher. The flying conditions were good, and at the time both machines were going steadily. Glancing upwards he notices that the other machine suddenly appeared to collapse, the front extension of the main plane crumpling up. The machine nose-dived, and a black object fell out of it. The machine continued its descent and fell into the Edmonton Sewage Farm… The machine was so entirely broken up that it was impossible to theorise upon the cause of the accident. Morgan was said to have fallen on a concrete path. The deaths were instantaneous.

Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 23rd May 1917

Lewis Morgan was just 24 years old, and days away from his 25th birthday. His body was brought back to Somerset, and laid to rest in the graveyard of Holy Cross Church in Sampford Arundel. By this point, his parents were living in the nearby Woolcombe House, so their son was, in a way, brought home.

The newspaper article went on to report that Flight Lieutenant Morgan was the third and last son to Lewis and Mary.

Francis Morgan – five years Lewis’ senior – enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery when war broke out. He rose to the rank of Captain, and was mentioned in Despatches for his actions. He was killed in the Dardanelles – potentially at Gallipoli – on 2nd May 1915, at the age of 28 years old.

Walter Morgan was a year younger than Lewis. He also played his part in the First World War, joining the South Lancashire Regiment, and rising to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Walter was also sent to fight in Gallipoli, and this is where he also lost his life. He was killed just three months after Francis, on 9th August 1915. He was just 22 years of age.

The loss of three sons in two years was to take a further toll on the Morgan family. Mary had suffered from poor health for a while, and the deaths of Francis, Walter and Lewis was to prove too much. She passed away at home on 15th July 1917, aged just 56 years old.

Flight Lieutenant Lewis Morgan
accident, Chaplain, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Dorset, Great War, history, London, photography, Royal Army Chaplain's Department, Somerset, story, war

Reverend George Sweet

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Reverend George Sweet

George Charles Walrond Sweet was born on 4th December 1889, the oldest of three children to Reverend Charles Sweet and his wife Maud. A Church of England vicar, Charles moved around with his work, and, when George was born, he was based in Winterborne Kingston in Devon.

George was sent away to school, and, by the time of the 1901 census, Charles and the family had moved to Milton Lilbourne in Wiltshire, to tend the local flock.

After school, George studied at Oxford, then followed in his father’s footsteps by taking holy orders, and was soon appointed rector of Symondsbury, Dorset.

When war broke out, his calling was to serve in the Royal Army Chaplain’s Department. Details of his time during the conflict are unclear, although by the spring of 1919, he was attached to the headquarters of the Army of the Rhine.

It was here that he met Phyllis Squire Hickson, who was serving as a Nurse in the Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corps. The couple fell in love and, in June 1919 they returned to England to marry. The wedding occurred on 6th August 1919, and the newlyweds set off on honeymoon the following day.

On his honeymoon tour, the Revd. George C Walrond Sweet… was drowned on Thursday evening in the Cherwell at Oxford, in the presence of his wife.

Mr and Mrs Sweet engaged a punt at Tims’s boathouse and went for a trip on the river. On returning about seven o’clock, when within 300 yards of the boathouse, the punt pole was embedded in the mud and, in attempting to dislodge it the pole broke.

Mr Sweet fell on the side of the boat and then over-balanced into the river. His wife tried to reach him, but without success, and then jumped into a second punt and from that into another boat, but failed to reach him, and he disappeared. The body was not recovered until a quarter of an hour had elapsed, and life was then extinct.

Mr Sweet, who was an MA of Keble College, was only married on Wednesday at St James’s Church, West Hampstead…

[Phyllis’ father] Mr William Hickson… said his daughter became engaged to Mr Sweet in France. He did not meet him until last Tuesday. They came to England to be married. Mr Sweet met with a bicycle accident some years ago and [he] understood from his daughter that her husband was unable to swim or take any active exercise, but while he had been in France his health had much improved.

It was stated [at the inquest] that Mr and Mrs Sweet had been married only one day when the accident occurred and Dr Brooks, a university coroner, said that the tragedy was one of the saddest that had ever come under his notice.

Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 13th August 1919

The inquest confirmed that the punt pole had broken about 2.5ft (0.76m) from the top. When George was dragged from the river, artificial respiration was carried out for around 50 minutes, but proved unsuccessful. The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. George was just 29 years of age.

Reverend George Charles Walrond Sweet’s body was brought to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of Holy Cross Church in Sampford Arundel, more than likely because he or his father had been vicars there.

This was the second tragedy to befall the Sweet family. George’s younger brother, Leonard, had been schooled in Sherborne, then at the Military College in Sandhurst. He joined the 1st Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment as Second Lieutenant on 5th February 1913, and was promoted to full Lieutenant in September 1914, and Captain in October 1915.

Captain Sweet was then attached to the 29th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, and gained his wings at the British Flying School in Le Crotoy, France, in August 1915. On 22nd June 1916, he was on patrol duty over the British lines, when he was involved in a skirmish, and his plane crashed, killing him instantly. He was just 23 years of age.

Captain Leonard Sweet was laid to rest at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Poperinge, near Ypres.

Captain Leonard Sweet
(from findagrave.com)

Phyllis Sweet never remarried. By the time of the 1939 England and Wales Register, she was living in Bridport, Dorset, and working as a political organiser and speaker. She passed away in August 1944 in Cannock, Staffordshire, at the age of 63 years old.