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CWG: Serjeant Fred Maynard

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Serjeant Fred Maynard

Details of Fred Maynard’s early life are a challenge to piece together. His First World War service records give his age as 44 years old when he enlisted in September 1914, and confirm his place of birth as Melksham, Wiltshire.

A newspaper report of his funeral gives the name of three brothers – Charles, Frank and Arthur – while only one census return, from 1881, provides a potential match for the family. This suggests Fred’s parents were iron fitter Alfred Maynard and his wife, Deborah, and gives the family’s address as Waterworks Road in Trowbridge.

Fred joined the army in the autumn of 1888. Initially assigned to the Gloucestershire Regiment, he had transferred to the Wiltshire Regiment by the following spring. Private Maynard showed a commitment to duty: in December 1890 he was promoted to Lance Corporal, rising to Corporal in the summer of 1893.

Fred was stood down to reserve status after his seven years’ active duty, but was recalled to the army in December 1899, when war broke out in South Africa. Promoted to Serjeant, he was sent to fight in the Boer War, and was mentioned in dispatches on 2nd April 1901 for special and meritorious service in South Africa. He was stood back down to reserve status in October 1901.

On 21st November 1895, Fred had married Louisa Card. The couple set up home in Trowbridge, but soon moved to London. They went on to have six children: Ernest, Nora and Leslie, who were all born in the London; and Arthur, Martha and Stuart, who were born in Cardiff, the family having moved to Wales by 1910.

The army was not finished with Fred, however, and, within weeks of war breaking out in the summer of 1914, he was called back into service. Given the rank of Serjeant again, he was attached to the South Wales Borderers. Fred was 44 years of age by this point, his service records confirming that he stood 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, weighed 164lbs (74.4kg) and had brown hair and hazel eyes.

Attached to one of the regiment’s depots, it seems unlikely that Fred saw service overseas this time around. He was discharged from the army on 1st September 1916 and this seems to have been on medical grounds. Later documents suggest that Serjeant Maynard had been diagnosed with carcinoma of the pylorus, or stomach cancer.

Fred returned to Cardiff, but his time back home was to be short. He was admitted to the Lansdown Road Military Hospital, and passed away on 23rd November 1916. He was 46 years of age.

It seems that Fred’s brother’s had some sway in his funeral. Instead of being laid to rest in Cardiff, where Louisa and the children were living, he was, instead, buried in the Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, Somerset. His sibling Charles, who was a sergeant in Bath City Police, lived in the city, as did another brother, Frank.

Fred’s headstone also commemorates his and Louisa’s son, Leslie. He had joined the army in the 1920s and, in the summer of 1943, was in Yorkshire, undergoing officer training.

The death of an officer cadet through the accidental discharge of a rifle whose bolt had jammed was described at an inquest…

Captain WH Price said he was in charge of an exercise on the moors which involved the used of small arms and the firing of live ammunition. A squad of cadets lay on the ground in front of a trench firing over a range. All finished firing except Cadet Frank Holroyd, who said his bolt had hammed while firing a second round. [Price] told him to release the bolt by knocking the cocking piece up and back.

This attempt failed, and he told Holroyd to get back into the trench, turn the rifle magazine upwards, place the butt on the side of the trench, and kick the bolt down with his foot. While Holroyd was doing this he noticed Maynard standing in the trench about 4ft away from Holroyd and on his right-hand side.

Captain Price said he saw the rifle was pointing down the range when Holroyd kicked the butt. The cartridge suddenly exploded and Maynard dropped into the trench, shot in the head, and was dead when they reached him.

[Bradford Observer: Saturday 19th June 1943]

Officer Cadet Leslie Maynard was 36 years of age when he was killed. His body was taken back to Somerset for burial: he was laid to rest in the same grave as Fred, father and son reunited after 27 years.

Louisa remained somewhat elusive as time wore on. Fred’s military records confirm that she had moved from Cardiff to the Isle of Wight by 1922. By the time of her son’s death, she was living in Sidcup, Kent.

Bedfordshire Regiment, Captain, Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Egypt, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, photography, Somerset, story, Sussex, Wales, war

CWG: Captain William Blundell

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Captain William Blundell

William Kennedy Blundell early life seems anything but ordinary. Born in Cardiff, Glamorgan, in the summer of 1890, he was the only child to bank clerk Edmund Blundell and his wife, Annie. Edmund was born in Staplegrove, Somerset, while Annie had grown up in Lahore, India.

The 1891 census found William living with his maternal grandparents James and Edith Kennedy in the Walcot area of Bath, while his parents were firmly based in Cardiff. Edmund died the following year, so it is possible that he was placed out of the way while Annie tended to her husband (along with her sister-in-law and a domestic servant).

By the time of the next census return, Annie and William were reunited, and were living in Avenue Road, Wimborne Minster, Dorset. Anne was living off her own means, and had a servant, Emily Chaffey, to hep look after the home.

Both Annie and her son disappear from the 1911 census. It is likely that William had embarked on a military career by this point, and may have been serving overseas. Sadly, his trail goes cold, but scraps of later information help identify some of what became of him.

By the outbreak of the First World War, he was serving in the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was based in Egypt from January 1916, and rose to the rank of Captain by the end of the conflict. By 1918, he was attached to the 12th (Transport Workers) Battalion, and was back in Britain.

Captain Blundell was in Sussex by the time of the armistice, and it was here that he fell ill, contracting pneumonia. He was admitted to the General Eastern Hospital in Brighton, but the condition was to prove too severe. He passed away on 13th December 1918, at the age of 28 years old.

William Kennedy Blundell’s body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the sweeping grounds of Locksbrook Cemetery in Bath.

Army Veterinary Corps, Commonwealth War Graves, County Durham, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, Midlothian, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Scotland, Sergeant, Somerset, story, unknown, Wales, war

CWG: Serjeant Robert Dodds

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Serjeant Robert Dodds

Robert Frederic Dodds was born in 1874 in Darlington, Country Durham. The third of nine children, his parents were Robert and Elizabeth Dodds. Robert Sr was a carter and furniture remover and, when he finished his schooling, Robert Jr joined his father in his work.

Robert Sr died in 1898, at the age of 61. Whether this was a catalyst for his son to move on is unclear, but by the following year, Robert Jr was working as a labourer in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. On 16th September 1899, he married Elizabeth Counsell, a fisherman’s daughter from the town.

It seems that Robert was keen to build a life for his new wife: the next census, taken in 1901, found the couple living in Cardiff, Glamorgan, where he was employed as a stone mason. The Dodds remained in Wales for the next decade, having three children – Lily, William and Rosie – there. By the spring of 1911, however, they were back in Somerset, living in a three-roomed cottage in Castle Street. Elizabeth had had a fourth child just a month before the census, with a second son, Bertie, adding to the family.

When war came to Britain, Robert stepped up to play his part. He initially joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps as a Private, and found himself in France on 6th March 1915. Elizabeth, meanwhile, remained at home in Somerset, seeking support from her family. With four children to look after, her workload was to increase again when, just a week after Robert arrived on the Western Front, she gave birth to their fifth child, the patriotically named Frederick Gordon Kitchener Dodds.

Robert remained in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps for the next four years, rising to the rank of Serjeant. Details of his time in the service are unclear, but he survived the war and, on 11th July 1919, he transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps.

Little further information is available about Robert’s life. By the winter of 1919/1920, he was based in Midlothian, Scotland. He was admitted to the 2nd Scottish General Hospital, Edinburgh, although his condition is unclear. Whatever it was, it was to be fatal: he passed away on 6th January 1920, at the age of 45 years old.

Robert Frederic Dodds’ body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Highbridge Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, Wales, war

CWG: Private Theodore Slade

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Private Theodore Slade

Theodore Slade was born early in 1885 in Buckfastleigh, Devon and was the second of two children to Frederick and Mary Slade. The 1891 census recorded the family four living with Frederick’s widowed mother and younger sister in Minehead, Somerset, where he had himself been born. Frederick was listed a a schoolmaster, while Mary was working as an organist.

Music definitely ran through the Slade family. The next census, in 1901, found Frederick now working as a gunsmith. Mary, meanwhile, was now noted as being a professor of music, while Theodore and his older brother, appropriately named Beethoven, were both employed as music teachers.

Ten years further on, and Beethoven had moved out of the family home, for a life with his wife and her widowed mother. Frederick was still working as a gunsmith, while Mary and Theodore were still teaching music. All three were self-employed, Theodore also working as an organist at St Andrew’s Church, Minehead, for more than a decade.

An interesting side note to the three document is how the census takers relied fully on the information they were given by residents. In 1891, Frederick gave his age as 41 and Mary 40; ten years later, Frederick was noted as being 56 and Mary 53; the 1911 census gave their ages as 71 and 63 respectively.

When war broke out, Theodore enlisted early on. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry, and was initially attached to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion. Private Slade was transferred across to the 1st Battalion, and soon found himself ensconced at Ypres.

Towards the end of 1915 Theodore came down with tuberculosis, and was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. He was admitted to St John’s Hospital in Penarth, Glamorganshire, and remained in hospital over the winter months. His lungs weakened, he contracted pneumonia, passing away from the condition on 23rd March 1916, at the age of 31 years old.

Theodore Slade’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to ret in the family plot in the sweeping vista of Minehead Cemetery.

Private Theodore Slade
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, Wales, war, Welch Regiment

CWG: Private George Stevens

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Private George Stevens

George Henry Stevens was born in Winscombe, Somerset, in the spring of 1869. The oldest of four children, his parents were blacksmith Joseph (or John) Stevens and his wife, Eliza.

When he finished his schooling, George found work as a collier. In 1893, he married a woman called Maria, and went on to have three children: Edward, Mary and Charlie. By 1900 the family had moved to South Wales for his work. They settled in Llanwonno, Glamorganshire, and went on to have three more children: John, Cyril and George Jr.

By 1911, George and Maria had been married for eighteen years. George was working as a repairer for the colliery, while Edward had followed his father into the mines.

When ware came to Europe’s shores, George stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Welch Regiment, and was assigned to the 1st/5th Battalion. While his full service records no longer exist, his troop served in Gallipoli during 1915, so it is possible that he spent times overseas.

By January 1916, however, Private Stevens was back in Britain, and had become unwell. Again, little specific information remains, but he passed away on 30th January 1916, having fallen into a diabetic coma. He was 47 years of age.

George Henry Stevens was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church in Cleeve, where Maria had moved back to with the family when her husband went to war.

Commonwealth War Graves, Driver, Egypt, Glamorganshire, Great War, Greece, Hampshire, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, South Wales Borderers, story, Wales, war

CWG: Driver Charles Shipp

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Driver Charles Shipp

The early life of Charles Shipp is a challenge to unpick. Born Charles Morgan in Bath, Somerset, in 1872, his father was also called Charles. He found work as a labourer when he finished school.

Charles sought a life of adventure, however, and on 7th January 1890, he enlisted in the army, joining the South Wales Borderers. Private Morgan’s service records show that he was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall and weighed 116lbs (52.6kg). He had brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion, with tattoos of crossed flags, a crown and VR on his left forearm.

Private Morgan spent three years on home soil, and is recorded as being based in North Camp Barracks in Farnborough, Hampshire, in the 1891 census. His battalion was sent to Egypt in December 1892 and spent the next three years overseas, moving to Gibraltar in the spring of 1895. The only details available for his time abroad relate to a couple of hospital admissions – for a fever in Cairo in August 1894, and for gonorrhoea in Gibraltar in the autumn of 1895. He returned to Britain at the end of November that year.

Charles appears to have been based in South Wales when he returned home and, on 20th December 1896, he married Lottie Walters in Llandough Parish Church. Interestingly, while the new bride’s father’s details are recorded – naval pensioner James Walters – Charles’ have been intentionally left blank. This is also the first document on which his surname is recorded as Shipp, so there seems to have been a deliberate distancing from his family at this point.

Charles was still committed to his military career. He served on home soil until January 1897, when he was placed on reserve, having completed seven years’ service. This respite was not to be for long, however, as he was recalled on three years later, and sent to South Africa, to fight in the Second Boer War.

Private Shipp, as he was now known, served in South Africa for more than two years, and was awarded the Johannesburg, Cape Colony, 1901 and 1902 clasps. In August 1902, he returned to Britain, and was formally stood down from army service.

Charles and Lottie moved to Bath, and set up home in a small cottage in Locksbrook Road. They went on to have seven children, all of them girls and, by the time of the 1911 census, Charles was working as a carter for the local gas works. His heart seems always to have been with his military career, however, and, when war broke out in 1915, he saw this as an opportunity to play his part once more.

On 25th October 1915, Charles enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps as a Driver. His was not to be a war fought on home turf, and within a month, he was in the Mediterranean, potentially back in Egypt again. In April 1916, his battalion moved to Salonika, and he spent the next three years in Northern Greece.

Charles contracted malaria in the autumn of 1917, and this resulted in a hospital admission for just over two months. He returned to his unit, but spent another couple of months in a Macedonian hospital the following year when the condition recurred.

Driver Shipp survived the war, and returned to Britain in April 1919. His health was again suffering, and he was formally discharged from the army on medical grounds on 29th April.

At this point, Charles’ trail goes cold. He returned home to Lottie and their daughters, but there is nothing to account for the the last eight months of his life. He passed away on 12th December 1919, at the age of 47 years of age.

Charles Shipp was laid to rest in Bath’s majestic Locksbrook Cemetery, not far from where his family lived.

Commonwealth War Graves, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, injury, photography, Sergeant, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, war

CWG: Serjeant Joseph Smith

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Serjeant Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith was born at the beginning of 1879 in Bath, Somerset. The fifth of six children – all boys – his parents were William and Sarah Smith. William was a carpenter and, while he did not follow in his father’s trade, Joseph found employment as a house painter when he left school.

Joseph married Alice May Martin in 1896: the couple were young, the groom being a year older than the bride, and they went on to have a daughter, Dorothy, who was born the following year. The newlyweds moved into a small, terraced house in Bath with Alice’s mother and sister, both of whom were widowed, and Alice’s nephew.

The 1911 census found the extended family living in larger home away from the centre of the city. Joseph was still employed as a house painter, Dorothy had left school and was apprenticed to a dressmaker. Alice looks to have been looking after the household, while her mother and sister were both living on their own means.

In his spare time, Joseph was also a member of staff at Bath’s Theatre Royal. He was sporty, with a keen interest in football and partial to a game of cricket. He was also very connected to St Stephen’s Church in the city, and was involved in parish life.

War was coming to Europe, and Joseph stepped up to play his part. Full details of his military service are lost to time, but from his gravestone and linked records, it is clear that he enlisted in the 6th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. Further details are outlined in a contemporary newspaper report:

Though married, he was anxious to enlist practically as soon as the war began: and on January 16th, 1915, he offered himself for service, and was at once accepted. He did not leave England till 16th August [1916]. He had been selected for inclusion in 32 drafts on various occasions prior to that date; but had been obliged to remain behind from illness or some other cause. When he actually sailed, it was not as a member of a draft, but as one of five sergeants who had volunteered for special service.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 28th October 1916

Sergeant Smith made it to the Western Front, and was entrenched at the Somme. The newspaper report picks up on what happened next:

He was wounded in September, being struck by a bullet while leaving the trench preparatory to advancing. The bullet struck him in the thigh, and severed an artery… After doing what he could with his first-aid dressing, Sergt. Smith crawled some three miles from the firing line amid bursting shells. After five hours of this painful progress he was picked up by a stretcher party.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 28th October 1916

Sergeant Smith was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, and was admitted to the 3rd Western General Hospital in Cardiff. Alice and Dorothy were a constant presence as his bedside, but the wound was to prove too severe, and he passed away at the hospital on 25th October 1916. He was 38 years of age.

Joseph Smith was brought back to Bath for burial. He was laid to rest in the Lansdown Cemetery, overlooking the city he called home.

Commonwealth War Graves, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, Lancashire Fusiliers, photography, Royal Air Force, Royal Engineers, Second Lieutenant, story, Wales, war

CWG: Second Lieutenant Francis Wakeford

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Second Lieutenant Francis Wakeford

Francis Reginald Steele Wakeford was born in the summer of 1893 in Penarth, Glamorgan. The middle of five children, his parents were Herbert – who was a master printer – and Mary Wakeford. When he left school, Francis became a stockbroking clerk, but when war broke out, he was quick to ensure he played his part.

Initially enlisting in the Royal Engineers, he was attached to the Glamorgan Yeomanry. By the time he was sent to France, however, he had been assigned to the Lancashire Fusiliers.

After eighteen months of fighting, in the spring of 1918, Second Lieutenant Wakeford transferred to the Royal Air Force and gained his wings. “During six months’ flying he had many encounters with enemy airmen, many of whom he brought down, and was also in several bombing raids over Germany.” [Western Mail: Monday 30th December 1918]

When the Armistice was declared, Francis returned to Wales. He has been suffering from an ongoing illness, and this was to be to what he was to succumb. Second Lieutenant Wakeford passed away in Cardiff on Christmas Day, 25th December 1918. He was just 25 years of age.

Francis Reginald Steele Wakeford was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Augustine’s Church in his home town of Penarth.

Second Lieutenant Wakeford (from findagrave.com)

Francis’ grave also commemorates the passing of his only brother, Charles Herbert Stanley Wakeford.

Four years Francis’ senior, Charles had enlisted in the 24th (Pembroke and Glamorgan Yeomanry) Battalion of the Welch Regiment. As the war moved through its final year, Lieutenant Wakeford found himself caught up in the fierce fighting of the Second Battles of the Somme.

Charles was killed on 7th September 1918, aged 28 years old. He was laid to rest in Tincourt British Cemetery, in Picardie, France. He is also commemorated on the family grave in St Augustine’s Church, Penarth.

Commonwealth War Graves, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, Machine Gun Corps, photography, Private, story, Wales, war, Welch Regiment

CWG: Private Charles Tucker

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Private Charles Tucker

Charles Wilfred Tucker was born in the summer of 1898 in Penarth, Glamorgan. He was the oldest of four children to Wilfred and Elizabeth Tucker, restaurant owners on Windsor Terrace in the centre of the town.

Little information is available about Charles’ early life. When war broke out, he enlisted in the Welch Regiment, before transferring to the Machine Gun Corps at some point during the conflict. In the autumn of 1919, Private Tucker was put on furlough while waiting to be demobbed, and he returned home.

Sadly, it was while here that Charles contracted pneumonia, and it was from the lung condition that he was to pass away. He breathed his last on 30th October 1919, at the age of just 21 years old.

Charles Wilfred Tucker was laid to rest in the family grave in St Augustine’s Churchyard in his home town of Penarth.

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

CWG: 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.