Tag Archives: Gallipoli

Stoker 1st Class Alfred Moss

Stoker 1st Class Alfred Moss

Alfred George Moss was born in West Ham, Essex, on 14th February 1885. One of eight children, his parents were John and Sarah Moss. John was a leather worker, but Alfred initially found work as a butcher’s assistant when he completed his schooling.

Butchery wasn’t the career that Alfred sought, however, and, on 12th November 1903, he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class. His service papers note that he was 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion. He was also recorded as having a scar on both knees.

Stoker Moss was sent to HMS Acheron, a training ship based on the Thames Estuary, for his initial service. He stayed there until July 1904, when he was given his first sea-going assignment, on board the cruiser HMS Terpsichore. She would remain his home for the next eighteen months, during which he was promoted to Stoker 1st Class.

Alfred seems to have been a steady worker, his annual reviews noting a very good character. In November 1908, having come to the end of his five year contract, he was stood down to reserve status. He had served on four vessels and, when not at sea, HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, became his home from home.

Alfred is missing from the 1911 census, but turns up on 21st December 1913. On that day he married Ellen Lipscombe in All Saints’ Church, West Ham. Nellie, as she was known, was the oldest of seven children to plasterer Tomas Lipscombe. The couple set up home on Grafton Road, Plaistow, and went on to have a son, Thomas, the year after exchanging vows.

When war was declared, Alfred was called back into service. He returned to Pembroke, and spent the next year split between there and HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire. In the summer of 1915, Stoker 1st Class Moss was assigned to the cruiser HMS Europa. For the next two years, he would be based in the Eastern Mediterranean, supporting the troops in and around the Gallipoli peninsula.

By the summer of 1917, Alfred was back at Pembroke, which, by this point in the war, was a busy and overcrowded place. The sinking of HMS Vanguard meant that her replacement crew were stuck in port waiting to be reassigned, and an outbreak of meningitis demanded more space to slow or stop its spread. Stoker 1st Class Moss found himself barracked in overflow accommodation set up in the dockyard’s Drill Hall.

On the night of the 3rd September 1917, German bombers launched an audacious raid on the North Kent Coast. Two bombs landed on the Drill Hall, shattering its glass roof, and killing dozens of sleeping servicemen beneath. Stoker 1st Class Moss was one of those who lost his life: He was 32 years of age.

The body of Alfred George Moss was taken back to Essex for burial. He was laid to rest in West Ham Cemetery, not far from where his grieving widow and young son were living.


[Note: the photo above is of the memorial to the Chatham Air Raid victims, close to the mass grave for those whose bodies were not identified, in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent.]


Lance Corporal Hugh Parmiter

Lance Corporal Hugh Parmiter

Hugh Norman Trivick Parmiter was born on 21st February 1898, and was the sixth of ten children. His father, James, was a Sergeant in the Dorsetshire Regiment, and the family travelled to where the army needed him. Hugh was the third of the children to be born in Bangalore, India, while his mother, Annie, gave birth to his oldest two siblings in Egypt.

By 1900 the Parmiters had returned to Britain, Annie and the children living in family barracks in Dorchester, while James was being trained in Hythe, Kent.

The 1911 census records the family living in the rural Dorset village of Gussage St Michael. Having been pensioned from the army, James was employed as a dairyman, and the family lived in a modest village cottage. At thirteen years of age, Hugh was still attending school, growing up in the peaceful surroundings of the Dorset countryside.

When war broke out, Hugh stepped up to play his part. Full details of his service have been lost to time, but from what remains it is clear that he enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment in the opening weeks of the war. By 11th July 1915, Private Parmiter’s unit was ensconced in the Balkans.

Hugh was caught up in the fierce fighting at Gallipoli, and rose to the rank of Lance Corporal. He would not come out unscathed, however, and was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. While details of his injuries are unclear, they were severe enough for him to be medically discharged from the army: he was formally stood down on 17th January 1916, a week after the final evacuations from the Dardanelles Strait.

At this point, Hugh’s trail goes cold. James had passed away in 1914, and Annie had moved to Pimperne, a village on the outskirts of Blandford Fordham. Hugh’s health still dogged him however, and he passed away on 6th May 1918: he was 20 years of age.

The body of Hugh Norman Trivick Parmiter was laid to rest in St Peter’s Churchyard in Pimperne.


Private James Cooper

Private James Cooper

Private James Cooper, a native of Kirkwall, died in the Red Cross Hospital at Netley last Thursday from a wound received at the Dardanelles. Private Cooper, who was 35 years of age, was a son of Mrs Cooper, School Place, Kirkwall (with whom much sympathy is felt), and of the late Capt. Charles Cooper. After being employed for some time in a shop in Kirkwall, he decided to follow his father’s vacation [sic] and went to see for some years, during which time he served in the Naval Reserve. He was in New Zealand when the war began, and at once enlisted in the 6th Hamaki Coy. With the New Zealand contingent he went to Egypt and took part in the fighting with the Turks near the Suez Canal. In April the contingent was sent from Egypt to the Dardanelles, and towards the end of that month Private Cooper received a gunshot wound in the left arm. With other wounded he was sent to the base hospital at Alexandria, and thence, after a few weeks, was sent home to the hospital at Netley. In all his letters home he wrote cheerfully and made light of his wound, but the nurse wrote that the wound was a serious one. At Netley the arm was amputated. Private Cooper gradually sank and died last Thursday.

[Orkney Herald: Wednesday 30th June 1915]

James Cooper was born on 9th October 1879 in Kirkwall, Orkney. He was one of seven children – and the youngest of three sons – to Charles and Jane Cooper. With her husband being away at sea a lot of the time, Jane was used to raising her family on her own.

In August 1905, tragedy struck the family:

At an early hour on Friday morning last, the town of Stromness was thrown into a stat of alarm by the report that a sad burning fatality had taken place on board the barquentine Brazilian on Ness patent slip. To accurately describe how the accident took place is impossible, but from careful enquiries we learn that on Thursday evening Captain Charles Cooper, belonging to Kirkwall, accompanied by an acquaintance, left the town and went on board the vessel, where they lit a fire and make a cup of coffee, after which friend left him. At that time the fire was very low, and no danger apprehended. At an early hour of the morning, the vessel was observed to e on fire, and an alarm given. In a short time the fire hose from the town was on the scene, and two two streams playing on the burning vessel. The fire was fortunately confined to the cabin and companion way, where the rescue party discovered the body of Capt. Cooper terribly burned and disfigured, to such an extent that it was quite unrecognisable… There can be no doubt but that death was caused by suffocation, but what led to the fire is not known. It is supposed, however, that after the friend left the vessel, Capt. Cooper had taken the paraffin oil flask to put some oil on the nearly burnt-out fire, when possibly an explosion took place, and the cabin got suddenly full of smoke.

[Orkney Herald: Wednesday 16th August 1905]

Charles was 64 when he died. Jane brought his body across the island, and he was buried in the family plot in the churchyard of St Magnus’ Cathedral.

By this point, James was serving in the Royal Navy. The exact details are unclear, but he seems to have bought his way out, after completing six years. He travelled to Australia, and worked as a cook for a while, before moving on to New Zealand, setting up home in the town of Thames, on the country’s North Island.

When war was declared, he was quick to step up, and, joined the Auckland Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. His service papers show that he was 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall and weighed 159lbs (72.1kg). He had brown hair, grey eyes and a medium complexion. He had a tattoo of a naval coat of arms on his right forearm, and one of a full length woman on the back of his left forearm.

Private Cooper’s unit left New Zealand on 16th October 1914, heading for Egypt. As the newspaper report stated, he moved from there to Gallipoli, before being medically evacuated to Egypt, and then to Netley Hospital, Hampshire.

After his passing, the body of James Cooper was taken back to Orkney for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot at St Magnus’ Cathedral, reunited with his father after ten years.


Private Thomas Kearse

Private Thomas Kearse

Thomas Walker Kearse was born in Westport, New Zealand, on 15th December 1891. One of seven children, his parents were British emigrant Thomas Kearse and his local-born wife, Rosanna.

There is little information available about Thomas’ early life. He found work as a general labourer when he finished his schooling, by which time his mother had passed away. By his mid-20s, he had relocated to Kaikohe, on North Island.

When war broke out, Thomas stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in Trentham on 16th February 1915, and was assigned to the New Zealand Canterbury Regiment. Private Kearse’s medical examination noted that he was just over 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, and weighed 139lbs (63kg). He had light hair, blue-grey eyes and a fair complexion. He was also noted as having a scar on his right shin.

Private Kearse would be in the army for two-and-a-half years, but would experience enough warfare for a lifetime. On leaving New Zealand his unit made for the Dardanelles, arriving there on 16th August 1915. He was wounded early on, and medically evacuated to Malta. His injuries would need further treatment, however, and he was shipped to Britain, and sent to hospital in Birmingham.

Thomas spent time recuperating at a base in Hornchurch, Essex, and it would seem that, while here, he met Catherine Goodwin. A romance started, but Thomas was sent to re-join his unit, who were barracked in Egypt. Within a month, however, he was on the move again, arriving in France in April 1916. While there, he went absent without leave for two days, and forfeited a month’s pay as a result.

In October, Private Kearse was wounded in the head and arm by gunfire, and, after initial treatment in Rouen, he was medically evacuated to Britain. Admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford, he would remain here for the next month. He was then sent to the ANZAC base in Codford, Wiltshire, again to recuperate, but, while there, he was admitted to the camp’s venereal unit for a fortnight.

Discharged again, his condition had not cleared up: Thomas was back in hospital on 5th December 1916, and he spent a further two weeks admitted.

On his latest discharge, Private Kearse was marched to Sling Camp, near Bulford, where he took up a role as cook. He would remain there for the next four months and, during this time, he and Catherine exchanged vows. She had given birth to a daughter, Ivy, the previous October, and this helped formalise their family unit.

Over the next few months, Thomas’ life repeated itself. He was admitted to hospital in Codford again in June 1917, and went AWOL for 26 hours on 27th/28th July (for which he was docked four days’ pay). Discharged from hospital on 4th September, he was marched back to the Sling Camp.

Within six weeks, however, he was sent back to hospital in Codford, this time suffering from pneumonia. This time, Thomas would not be as fortunate. The lung condition got the better of his, and he passed away on 25th October 1917, at the age of 25 years old.

The body of Thomas Walker Kearse was laid to rest in the ANZAC extension to St Mary’s Churchyard in Codford, not far from the hospital he had visited so many times.


Private Ernest Kendall

Private Ernest Kendall

Ernest George Kendall was born in December 1891 and was the fourth of five children to Charles and Mary Kendall. Charles was a farm labourer from Dorset, and the family were living at Shearstock Farm in the town of Gillingham when Ernest was born.

By the time of the 1911 census, Ernest had found work as a farm labourer, alongside his father. When war broke out, however, Ernest felt the need to serve his country.

Full details of Private Kendall’s military service have been lost to time, but he had enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment by the autumn of 1915, and was assigned to the 5th (Service) Battalion. His unit left Britain on 15th October, and headed for the Eastern Mediterranean and Gallipoli.

Over the next few months, Ernest was caught up in fierce fighting. He was evacuated to the Greek island of Mudros in December 1915, and spent the winter in Egypt. By the summer of 1916, his unit had moved to France, and fought at the Somme.

At some point, Private Kendall returned to Britain, and transferred to the Labour Corps. The move was likely to be due to an illness or injury, although there is no documentation to confirm this either way. Attached to the 477th Agricultural Company, he seems likely to have been based in Wiltshire. Ernest was admitted to the Military Hospital in Fovant for reasons unknown, and passed away there on 12th November 1918, a day after the Armistice was signed: he was 24 years of age.

The body of Ernest George Kendall was taken back to Dorset for burial. By this point his family had moved to East Stour, and he was laid to rest in the village’s Christ Church graveyard.


Lieutenant Frederick Hill

Lieutenant Frederick Hill

Frederick Charles Hill was born on 13th June 1882 in the Devon village of Marldon. One of seven children, his parents were William and Elizabeth Hill. William was a carpenter, and the 1891 census found the family living or boarding at the Royal Oak Inn.

When he finished his schooling, Frederick found work as a gardener. However, he sought a bigger and better life and, on 21st April 1897, he joined the Royal Navy. His service record suggests that he lied about his age to do so, giving his year of birth as 1881,

Frederick was below the age to formally enlist in the navy, and was given the rank of Boy 2nd Class. He was sent to HMS Impregnable, the training base in Devonport, Devon, spending the next eighteen months there. Promoted to Boy 1st Class in February 1898, he was given his first posting, on board HMS Agincourt, later that year.

In the autumn of 1898, Frederick was assigned to the cruiser HMS Leander. The following summer, and based on the date of birth he had previously provided, he came of age, and was formally inducted into the Royal Navy. His service records show that he was 5ft 2ins (1.57m) tall, with red hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. Hs was also noted as having a scar on his forehead.

The now Ordinary Seaman Hill remained on board HMS Leander for more than two years. He proved a worthwhile member of crew, and was promoted to Able Seaman in May 1900. He left Leander in January 1901, and was billeted at HMS Vivid, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Plymouth, Devon, which would become his base when not at sea.

Frederick’s contract was for twelve years, and during that time he would serve on four vessels. His dedication to the navy was evident by his promotions – he made Leading Seaman in October 1904, Petty Officer 2nd Class in October 1906, and Petty Officer 1st Class in March 1911. When his term of service ended, he immediately re-enlisted, and, at his annual reviews, was regularly noted for his very good character and superior ability. His career kept going from strength to strength, and, in 1914, he was promoted to Chief Petty Officer.

He was sent to Antwerp in September [1914] with the Royal Naval Division, and in 1916 went to the Dardanelles, there gaining his commission for bravery. After the evacuation he was sent to France and won the MC in the Ancre drive in 1916. In February 1918 he was sent for six months’ rest to England. Lieut. Hill volunteered to go to France again in November the same year, and contracted heart disease, from which he died. He returned to England early in June [1919], and, being on sick leave, went to Paignton Hospital, where his death occurred.

[Brixham Western Guardian: Thursday 7th August 1919]

Frederick Charles Hill was 37 years of age when he died on 2nd August 1919. His body was laid to rest in the family plot in St John the Baptist’s Church, Marldon.


Frederick’s headstone records his rank as Lieutenant Commander. However, Commonwealth War Grave Commission documents suggest his rank was Lieutenant.


Reverend Joseph Dathan

Reverend Joseph Dathan

Much regret has been felt… at the death of Rev. JD Dathan MA, chaplain to the Royal Marines, at the age of 50 years. His death was due to pneumonia, caused by catching a chill while doing temporary duty… at the [Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, Kent]. The eldest son of Captain JC Dathan RN, the deceased gentleman was educated at Christ’s Hospital and Cambridge, where he obtained the degree of MA. He entered the Royal Navy as a chaplain in 1896, and served on the China Station during the Boxer riots. For five years he was chaplain of Bermuda Dockyard and Hospital. He also served commissions in HMS Monmouth, Goliath and Russell. He was posted to the Royal Marine Barracks in July 1914, but on the outbreak of war he was appointed to HMS Formidable, and was transferred from the ship a week before she was lost. He was subsequently sent tot he Dardanelles for service in the Implacable at the first landing in April 1915. Later he joined the Italian Fleet, and was subsequently recalled to the Royal Marine Barracks. Three of the deceased officer’s brothers – Paymr.-in-Chief Ellis Dathan, Com. Hartley Dathan, and Eng.-Com. William Dathan – are serving in the Royal Navy.

[Naval & Military Record and Royal Dockyards Gazette: Wednesday 16th January 1918]

Joseph Duncan Dathan was born in 1866 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The second of seven children, his parents were Joseph and Emma Dathan.

By the time of the 1891 census, the Dathan family had moved back to Britain. Joseph Sr and Emma were living in Portsea, Hampshire, while the younger Joseph was studying at Christ’s Hospital. The next return, taken in 1901, found him having taken up a role as curate at St John’s Church in Ipswich, Suffolk. He was, by this point, living on Foxhall Road on the western edge of the town.

On 25th February 1904, Joseph married Alicia Cane. The daughter of a vicar, she lived in Ipswich, and the couple married in the local parish church. By this point, Joseph was based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and this is where the young couple set up home. Alicia gave birth to their first child, John, that November. The couple’s second son, Joseph, was born in 1906 and their third, daughter Alicia, was born in Bermuda while the family were stationed out there with Reverend Dathan’s work.

Joseph’s connection to the navy continued much as the newspaper reported. He died from pneumonia on 7th January 1918: he was 51 years of age.

Reverend Joseph Duncan Dathan was laid to rest in the naval section of Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, a place he would have known well, given its proximity to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, where he had been based.


Serjeant Richard Ford

Serjeant Richard Ford

Richard Oscar Ford was born in Williamstown, Australia, in July 1891. The oldest of four children – and the only son – his parents were Anthony and Mary Ford. Anthony was a soldier, but Richard chose a different route and took work as a labourer when he completed his schooling.

There is little information available about Richard’s early life, but when war broke out, he stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 9th November 1914.

By this point he was working as a bushman, and his service papers reveal something of the man he had become. Standing 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, he weighed 140lbs (63.5kg), Private Ford had auburn hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Assigned to the Light Horse Regiment, Richard left Australia for Europe on in March 1915. His unit arrived on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 15th July, and he would remain there for the next five months.

In December 1915, Richard came down with a bout of influenza, and was medically evacuated to the island of Mudros, then on to Alexandria, Egypt. In January 1916, he was admitted to hospital again, this time suffering from gonorrhoea and, after treatment, he re-joined his unit on 2nd February.

Private Ford’s unit spent that spring training in Egypt, but on 29th May, they set sail for the Western Front. Within a week they had disembarked in the French port of Marseilles and headed north to Etaples.

The next couple of years would prove a little disjointed. Richard switched units in August 1916, and given the rank of Gunner, but within two months his role had changed to Driver. His service records suggest that he managed to avoid injury during the fighting he was involved in, but that did not mean that he avoided hospital completely.

In January 1917 Driver Ford was admitted to the 51st General Hospital with a heart murmur, returning to his unit on 16th March. He had a second spell in hospital in February 1918, having come down with laryngitis.

In July 1918, having spent some time at the 4th Army Corporal School, Richard was reassigned to the 3rd Australian Field Artillery. This move seemed to have been the focus he needed. Initially promoted to Bombardier, within a month he rose to Lance Corporal, and by December 1918 he was a full Sergeant.

After the Armistice was signed, Richard was given three weeks’ leave, which he spent in Britain. By January 1919, however, his health was becoming an issue again, and he was admitted to the military hospital in Fovant, Wiltshire, suffering from influenza. The condition worsened, and Sergeant Ford passed away from bronchopneumonia on 4th February 1919. He was 27 years of age.

Richard Oscar Ford was laid to rest in Highgate Cemetery, Middlesex. While there seems to be no direct connection between the location and the man, his father, Anthony, had been born in Hackney, so it can be assumed that there was a family link to the area.


Second Lieutenant Dudley Weedon

Second Lieutenant Dudley Weedon

Dudley Harry Weedon was born in Islington, Middlesex in the spring of 1891. The second of two children, his parents were solicitor’s clerk Thomas Weedon and his wife, Frances.

When Dudley finished his schooling, he also found work as a clerk. The 1911 census recorded the Weedon family living at a prestigious address – an eight roomed Victorian villa at 59 Canonbury Park North, Islington. Thomas was still employed as a solicitor’s clerk, Dudley as a clerk for a corn merchant, and his older brother, Horace, as a clerk for a mining company.

War came to Europe in the summer of 1914, and Dudley was keen to step up and play his part. He enlisted early on, joining the 1st/2nd County of London Yeomanry, also known as the Westminster Dragoons. The regiment spent most of the war in the Middle East, and by November 1914, Private Weedon found himself in Egypt.

Dudley would spend the next year or so overseas, and was sent to, and evacuated from, Gallipoli. In February 1916, he received a promotion – to the rank of Second Lieutenant – this increase in rank coming with a transfer to the Northumberland Fusiliers. His new unit – the 8th (Service) Battalion – had also served in the Dardanelles, but by that summer they had moved to France.

Second Lieutenant Weedon spent the next eighteen months on the Western Front, fighting at Messines and at Ypres. It was here, possibly at the Battle of Polygon Wood, that Dudley was injured. Details are unclear, but his wounds were sever enough for him to be medically evacuated to Britain for treatment.

Dudley was admitted to a hospital in Roehampton, Surrey, but his injuries were to prove too severe. He passed away on 20th November 1917, at the age of 26 years old.

Dudley Harry Weedon was laid to rest in Highgate Cemetery, not far from his grieving family’s home.


Lance Corporal William King

Lance Corporal William King

William James King was born on 7th March 1883 in Kensington, Middlesex. He was the fourth of eight children to bricklayer and builder’s labourer John King and his wife, Hannah.

There is little specific information available about William’s early life. The 1891 census found the family living at 16 Burlington Mews in Paddington, but he does not appear on any census returns after this date.

On 4th August 1906, William married Marion Oliver. Born in Chelsea, she was the daughter of a house painter, and the couple exchanged vows in St Luke’s Church, Paddington. The marriage certificate noted William’s trade as a bricklayer, and the couple went on to have two children: daughter Gwendoline, born in 1911, and son Henry, born two years later.

When war came to Europe, William was quick to step up and play his part. He enlisted on 5th October 1914, joining the Royal Marines. His service records show that he was 5ft 4ins (1,62m) tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

Sent to Deal, Kent for training, Private King was initially assigned to the 2nd Field Company of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Appointed to the rank of Lance Corporal he soon found himself ensconced at Gallipoli. On 15th May he was medically evacuated to Britain with an injury to his spinal cord. Admitted to Charing Cross Hospital, London, he was discharged from the army on 27th March 1916.

William’s treatment was ongoing, and by the autumn of 1916, he had been admitted to Gillingham Hospital in Kent. It was here that he would died, passing away on 20th November: he was 33 years of age.

William John King was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent.