Tag Archives: Grenadier Guards

Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, Grenadier Guards, Guardsman, history, injury, photography, story, Sussex, war

Guardsman Frederick Madge

Leave a comment
Guardsman Frederick Madge

Frederick Walter Smith Madge was born on 29th April 1886 and was the youngest of three children to Walter and Elizabeth. Walter was a painter from Paignton, and it was in the Devon town that the family was raised.

When Frederick finished his schooling, he found employment as a errand boy. By the 1901 census, the family were living on Princes Street, and his older sisters were both working as domestic servants. The next census found Frederick as the only one of the Madge siblings still living at home: he was also now working a a painter, presumably assisting his father.

Early in 1913, Frederick married Sarah Bishop. Sadly, there is little information about her, but her father’s name was Nicholas, and she was living in Newton Abbot, Devon, at the time of the wedding, which took place in nearby Wolborough.

When war broke out, Frederick stepped up to play his part. His service records are long gone, but it is clear that he had enlisted before March 1917, and had joined the prestigious Grenadier Guards. Guardsman Madge definitely saw service overseas, and his unit was heavily involved in some of the key battles on the Western Front.

It was during this fighting, possibly at the Battle of Polygon Wood, that Frederick was injured. He was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, and admitted to the Kitchener Military Hospital in Brighton, Sussex.

The funeral took place, at Paignton, on Wednesday, Rev. AR Fuller officiating, of [Guardsman] FWS Madge, 31, Grenadier Guards, who died on October 6th in hospital at Brighton, following an amputation of the leg. Deceased, who was well known in Paignton, was a member of the town Fire Brigade, and highly respected.

[Western Times: Tuesday 16th October 1917]

Frederick Walter Smith Madge was laid to rest in Paignton’s sweeping cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, story, war

Private Frederick Pidgeon

Leave a comment
Private Frederick Pidgeon

Frederick Pidgeon was born on 18th December 1892 in the Somerset village of Lopen. One of four children – and the only son – his parents were Robert and Ellen Pidgeon. Robert was a baker and, by the time of the 1911 census, only Linda – the youngest of Frederick’s siblings – was not helping in the business.

When war broke out, Frederick – who was better known as Fred – wanted to play his part. He enlisted on 7th December 1916, joining the 5th Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. As his was purely a territorial troop, Private Pidgeon was sent to the regimental barracks in Caterham, Surrey, for training.

At a time of tremendous upheaval, with men from all over the country suddenly thrust together in tightly packed barracks, it is no surprise that disease sometimes took hold. Tragically, Fred was not to be immune to this, and, on the 15th January 1917, he was admitted to the camp hospital, having contracted pneumonia.

The lung condition took a swift hold, and, tragically, Private Pidgeon was to succumb just a few days later. He breathed his last on 20th January 1917, at the age of just 24 years old. He had been in the army for just 44 days.

Fred Pidgeon was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in the peaceful graveyard of All Saints’ Church, in his home village of Lopen.

Private Frederick Pidgeon

Ellen passed away in August 1919, aged just 54 years old, and was laid to rest alongside her son. Robert died some thirty years later, on 26th June 1949; he too was buried in the family plot, mother, father and son reunited once more.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Grenadier Guards, Guardsman, history, injury, Kent, London, photography, Somerset, story, war

Guardsman John Boucher

Leave a comment
Guardsman John Boucher

John Charles Boucher was born in East Coker, Somerset, in the spring of 1894. The youngest of five children, he was the son of Charles and Ann Boucher. Charles worked on the railways as a plate layer, while John found work in a local textile factory as a yarn dyer when he left school. He was a sporty young man, and became a prominent member of the nearby Stoford Football Club.

Ann died in 1914 and, when war was declared, John was keen to play his part. He had enlisted in the Grenadier Guards by the summer of 1917 and was assigned to the 5th Battalion. Full details of Guardsman Boucher’s military service are lost to time, but it is clear that he served abroad, and was wounded twice in the fighting.

John was based at Guards barracks in Kensington, London. It was here that he met Elsie Louise Vaughan, who was the daughter of a local insurance agent. The couple married at the Holy Trinity Church in Paddington on 28th June 1917.

Guardsman Boucher was soon sent to the Western Front again, however, and, in the spring of 1918, he was caught up in the Battles of the Lys. Wounded for a third time, he was medically evacuated to Britain, and admitted to the Military Hospital in Sidcup, Kent. Sadly, it was to be third time unlucky for John: his wounds proved too severe, and he died of his injuries on 13th April 1918. He was just 24 years of age.

John Charles Boucher was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the cemetery of his home village, East Coker.

Tragically, just three weeks after John’s death, Elsie gave birth to their first, and only, child, a son she named after his father. She went on to marry again in the spring of 1919, to a John Bellamy. The couple would go on to have a child of their own – a daughter called Iris – the following year. John Jr died in 1972, and Elsie followed five years later, at the age of 83 years old.