Percival James Parsons was born in the summer of 1898, and was the fourth of eight children to Henry and Emily. Henry was a railway labourer from Chilton Burtle, Somerset, and it was in the neighbouring hamlet of Chilton on Polden (now Chilton Polden) that the family were born and raised.
There is little documented about Percival’s short life. When war came to Europe, he was just 16 years of age. He was keen to play his part, however, probably spurred on by seeing his older brothers or friends step up.
Percival enlisted as soon as he turned 18 years old. He joined the Royal Field Artillery and was sent to Hampshire for training. Gunner Parsons was attached to E Battery of the 7th (Reserve) Brigade, a unit based ultimately in India during the confluct.
Gunner Parsons, however, was not to see service abroad. While he was training, he became unwell, contracting pneumonia. Admitted to the Frensham Hill Military Hospital, he was to succumb to the condition, passing away on 28th March 1917. He was just 18 years of age.
Percival James Parsons’ family had moved to Highbridge by this point, and it was here that Henry and Emily’s boy was taken for burial. He was laid to rest in the town’s cemetery.
Henry Gibbs was born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset at the start of 1871. The youngest of five children, he was the second son to John and Emma Gibbs. John was a farm labourer, but when he finished his schooling, Henry went in a different direction.
By the time of the 1891 census, Henry was boarding with his sister Lucy and her husband and young son. The extended family were living in Taunton, Somerset, where Henry was employed as a boot and shoemaker. This appears not to have satisfied him, however, and he soon found other work, enlisting in the Royal Field Artillery. While his army records are lost to time, he seems to have spent twelve years in service.
By the early 1900s Henry living back in Somerset, settling in Bishops Lydeard, to the west of Taunton. On 2nd May 1906, he married a young woman called Florence Gange. Fifteen years his junior – she was 20 years old to her husband’s 35, even though the marriage certificate gave his age as 30 – she a labourer’s daughter from the village, who was working at the Lethbridge Arms public house at the time of their marriage. The couple set up home in a small cottage, and went on to have four children: Ernest, Florence, Mabel and Arthur.
Henry’s work seems to have been transient. On his marriage certificate, he was noted as being a groom, but the next census return, taken in 1911, gave his employment as a labourer for a corn miller.
When war came to European shores, despite his growing family, Henry felt the pull to serve once more. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps in the summer of 1915, with the rank of Driver. As with his previous time in the army, details are scarce, but Henry seems to have been based in Aldershot, Hampshire, or at least this is where he was based towards the end of the conflict.
Driver Gibbs had become unwell by this point, and he was suffering from oesophageal cancer. He was admitted to the military hospital in Farnham Hill, but was to succumb to the condition. He passed away on 1st September 1918, at the age of 47 years of age.
Henry Gibbs was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Mary’s Church in his adopted home village, Bishops Lydeard.
Herbert Griffith was born in the summer of 1883 in the Somerset village of Crowcombe. One of eight children, his parents were coachman James Griffith and his wife, Selina.
Herbert’s early life is a challenge to piece together. The 1901 census recorded him as living at Weacombe House, West Quantoxhead, where he was employed as a footman.
On 16th December 1909, Herbert married Selina May Davies. Also born in Crowcombe, she was the daughter of a tailor. The couple’s marriage certificate confirms the wedding was conducted at the village church. The couple went on to have two children, Dorothy in 1912, and Geoffrey four years later.
Herbert, at this point, was living in Farnborough, Warwickshire, where he was employed as a valet. (While no document remains to confirm this, it seems possible that this was actually Farnborough Hall, home to generations of the Holbech family.)
When war broke out, Herbert seemed keen to serve his country. He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, although his full service records no longer remain, so it is not possible to confirm whether he served on home soil or overseas.
The next record relating to Private Griffith is that of his passing. He died in Southampton, Hampshire, on 22nd February 1916, as a result of a combination of bronchitis, asthma and cardiac failure. He was 32 years of age, and would never get to meet his son, who was born two weeks later.
The body of Herbert Griffith was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful surroundings of the Church of the Holy Ghost in his home village, Crowcombe.
George Bartraham was born in the autumn of 1868 in the Somerset village of Sampford Brett. One of seven children, his parents were George and Sarah Bartraham. George Sr was a farm labourer and, while his son initially followed suit, he sought a life of adventure in the wilder world.
George Jr had found work as a tailor, and was apprenticed to a Charles Taylor, who lived in the village. That bigger and better life was niggling away, however, and, on 11th June 1888, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers. His service records show that he was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall, with black hair, dark eyes and a fair complexion. Sapper Bartraham was also noted as having a scar on his left foot.
George initially signed up for seven years’ service, with an additional 5 years on reserve status once that was completed. The 1891 census recorded him as being based at Fort Blockhorse in Alverstoke, Hampshire. Early in 1894, he married Mary Bowden, in Portsmouth: the couple would go on to have two children, George and Albert. The following year, Sapper Bartraham opted to remain on full service with the Royal Engineers, partially, it is fair to assume, as the pay would be better to support his family than on reserve.
By 1901, George had been moved to barracks in Pembroke Docks, Wales. Mary and the children remained in Hampshire, living with her parents in Unicorn Street, close to the town’s naval base. Wales was not to be the last stop for George, however, and in October 1902, he was sent to Ceylon, where he remained for the next three years.
During his time in the army, George did not sit on his laurels. He received a certificate as a master tailor, became skilled in submarine mining, and also received a qualification in signalling. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in 1899, and full Corporal four years later.
George returned to Britain in January 1906, and seems to have returned to a base in Hampshire. It was here, on 28th December 1908, that an altercation led to him being convicted of assault. He was charged with ‘unlawfully and maliciously wounding one Albert Edward Bartraham, by stabbing him with a pair of scissors, at Aldershot… and counts for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault’ [Calendar of Prisoners, 1868-1929]
Albert was George’s older brother, and he was convicted to six months’ hard labour for the assault. Corporal Bartraham returned to base on 6th June 1909, and was discharged a few days later, having completed 21 years’ service in the Royal Engineers.
The next census record, taken in 1911, found a family divided by work or circumstance. Mary and the children remained firmly ensconced in Portsmouth with her parents, while George was living in Aldershot, where he was employed as a tailor. His employer is noted as being the Government, so it seems likely that he was still connected to the army camp there.
When war came to Europe, George was called upon to play his part once more. Promoted to the rank of Serjeant, he was attached to the 136th Fortress Company of the Royal Engineers. He arrived in Egypt in June 1915, although it is unclear how long he remained overseas.
By the start of 1916, Serjeant Bartraham was back in Britain, primarily because of ill health. He had come down with nephritis, or inflamed kidneys. Admitted to hospital in South London, he died from the condition on 14th January 1916, at the age of 47 years old.
Brought back to Somerset, George Bartraham was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St George’s Church in the village of his birth, Sampford Brett.
This was a time of tragedy for the Bartraham family.
George’s father, George, had died around the same time as his son, and was buried near him.
George and Mary’s son, George, had enlisted in the Hampshire Regiment when war was declared and, by the summer of 1916, was based in Iraq. He died on 23rd September 1916, through causes unclear, and was laid to rest in Baghdad War Cemetery.
Three generations of Bartrahams, all called George, had passed away within nine months.
In the summer of 1917, Sarah Bartraham also passed away. She was laid to rest with her husband and son in St George’s Churchyard.
James Gore was born on 13th May 1876 in Steart, a community on the Somerset coast near Bridgwater. An only child, his parents were Robert Brewer and Elizabeth Gore, but parental duties were shared with Robert’s family, and Elizabeth went on to marry Thomas Dibble when James was just 4 years old.
Robert was a fisherman, as was his father, and this was a life into which James would also follow. By 1891 he was working with his paternal grandfather, John Brewer, and within ten years he was running his own boat.
On 12th December 1901, James married Emily Chilcott at the parish church in Stogursey, Somerset. She was the daughter of Richard, Chilcott, a labourer employed on the expanding road network for the area. The couple initially set up home in Steart, but had moved to Burnham-on-Sea by the time of the 1911 census. They would go on to have four children – Harold, Reginald, Margaret and Olive – between 1905 and 1916.
When war broke out, James was 38 years old. He wasn’t called up immediately, but by the closing months of the conflict, the needs of the Royal Navy were strong enough for him to be conscripted. He joined up on 21st August 1918 and, having built a career as a fisherman, he was assigned to the Royal Naval Reserve. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 6ins (1.67m) tall, with a fresh complexion and blue eyes.
Deck Hand Gore was sent to HMS Victory, the Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, for his initial training. Here, billeted in cramped barracks, perfect breeding grounds for germs and disease, he quickly became ill. Having contracted pneumonia, James was admitted to the Haslar Hospital in Gosport. The condition was to take his life: he passed away on 10th September 1916, less than three weeks after enlisting. He was 40 years of age.
James Gore’s body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful cemetery in Burnham-on-Sea, not far from where Emily and the children were still living.
The death of Capt. James Wilson Pettinger has taken place in a military hospital at Aldershot. Captain Pettinger came to Kingsbridge [Devon] in 1903, entering into partnership with Dr D de Courcy Harston… He made a wide circle of friends, and was appreciated for his professional skill. Previously to coming to Kingsbridge, he was house surgeon at St George’s Hospital, London. In July 1915, Dr Pettinger volunteered for service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, being appointed Lieutenant to the Plymouth Military Hospital. He quickly gained promotion to captain, and was appointed to a hospital ship, and served in the Mediterranean for several months. He contracted blood poisoning in the arm, and was sent to Netley Hospital [Hampshire]. On recovery he was placed in charge of an infections hospital for several months at Salisbury. He was later ordered to France, and being taken ill was transferred to an Aldershot hospital, where he died from pneumonia. He leaves a widow and one son. Dr Pettinger was 43 years of age.
Western Times: Tuesday 16th October 1917
James Wilson Pettinger was born in the spring of 1874 in Moss Side, Lancashire. The youngest of four children, his parents were doctor and surgeon George Pettinger and his wife, Sarah.
James may have been a sickly child: the 1901 census recorded him as being a patient in community hospital in North Meols, near Southport, Lancashire. The oldest of only three patients, the facility was overseen by caretaker John Carr and his matron wife, Susan.
Having gone on to study at Cambridge University, James was carving a career for himself. By the time of the next census he was living in Shaftesbury, Dorset, he was recorded as being a medical practitioner, living on his own in a house near the centre of town.
As the Western Times was to report, James moved to Devon in 1903. On 8th January, he married Clara Risdon, a nursing sister seven years his senior. She came from the Somerset village of Old Cleeve, and the couple married in her local parish church. The couple set up home in Ewart House in Kingsbridge, and went on to have a son, Geoffrey, who was born that November.
James’ career continues to flourish. The 1910 medical directory noted that he was the Honourable Medical Officer for Kingsbridge & District Cottage Hospital, and noted that he had previously worked as an Honourable Physician, Honourable Surgeon, Ophthalmologist, Aural, Obstetric and Dental Assistant and Assistant Surgical Registrar at St George’s Hospital in London.
Little information relating to James’ time in the armed forces is available, and so it falls to his obituary in the Western Times to fill in the gaps. It would seem that Clara and Geoffrey moved to Minehead, Somerset, while James was serving overseas. The town was not far from where she had been born, and family connections may have helped with her husband’s absence.
When James Wilson Pettinger died, on 6th October 1917, his body was brought to Minehead for burial. He was laid to rest in the town’s sweeping cemetery, and was joined there by Clara when she passed away in 1945: a husband and wife reunited.
Leonard Lionel Floyd (or Floyde) was born in the Somerset village of Watchet in 1898. The eldest of five children, his parents were journeyman tailor Thomas Floyde and his wife, Louise.
Interestingly, at the time of the two censuses in 1901 and 1911, Leonard was away from the family home: the earlier document recorded him living with his maternal grandparents on the outskirts of Minehead. Ten years later he was back in Watchet, residing with his mother’s brother and sister.
Little additional information is available to document Leonard’s young life. With war raging across Europe, he appears to have joined up as soon as he came of age. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Princess Charlotte of Wales’ (Royal Berkshire Regiment) and sent to Portsmouth, Hampshire, for training.
Tragically, it seems that Private Floyd fell ill while billeted in the cramped barracks there. He was admitted to the 5th Southern General Hospital in the city, but died soon after. He breathed his last on 21st April 1917, aged just 18 years old.
Leonard Lionel Floyd’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the sweeping Minehead Cemetery, not far from where his parents lived, on the outskirts of the town.
Henry Edward Rowell was born on 22nd May 1898 in Southwark, Surrey. One of five siblings, of whom only three survived childhood, his parents were Henry and Jane Rowell. Henry Sr was a bricklayer’s labourer from Southwark, and the family were brought up in a small terraced house on Brandon Street, Walworth.
When he finished his schooling, Henry Jr found work as a turner’s improver but, when war came to Europe, he was called upon to play his part. He enlisted on 29th May 1915, and, as a Private, was attached to the 12th (Service) Battalion (Bermondsey) of the East Surrey Regiment. His service records tell a little of the man he was, confirming that he stood 5ft 3.5ins (1.61m) tall, and suggesting that he gave his age a 19 years old (he was just 16 at the time).
Henry seemed to have made an impression on his superiors as, in early October, he was promoted to Lance Corporal. His early service was based on home soil, primarily in Witney, Surrey.
In December 1915, Henry was temporarily released from military duty for munitions work. Sent to work for the engineering company Peter Hooker Ltd, in Walthamstow, Essex, Lance Corporal Rowell was to remain here for the next four months. On 25th March 1916, however, he was called back to service, as his battalion readied itself to move from its base, by that point in Aldershot, Hampshire, to Northern France.
Lance Corporal Rowell found himself in the thick of things very quickly. From 1st July, the 12th Battalion was caught up in the Battle of the Somme, and he remained entrenched there for the next couple of months.
On 15th September 1916, the British launched an attack on the German front line at Flers-Courcelette, mid-way between Albert and Bapaume. Lance Corporal Rowell was involved in the battle, which lasted until the end of the month, and was cut down on the very first day. He was just 18 years of age.
Henry Edward Rowell was laid to rest in the Bulls Road Cemetery in Flers, Picardie.
Henry Edward Rowell was my paternal grandmother’s first cousin.
Thomas Wood was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, in the summer of 1862. The third of ten children, he was the oldest son to Thomas and Emma Wood. Thomas Sr was a cabinet maker, but his son was not to follow in his father’s footsteps, seeking a life of adventure instead.
Thomas enlisted in the army and, while documents relating to his early life are not readily available, the 1891 census recorded him as being billeted at the Cambridge Barracks in Portsmouth, Hampshire. A member of the Royal Artillery, he seems to have been enlisted for a while, as he had risen to the rank of Corporal.
In 1894, Thomas married Leah Barrett, who was born in Oxfordshire. The army life underscored where the family would settle. They had four children and, according to their ages, the Woods were in Liverpool by 1895, Gosport, Hampshire, in 1896 and Cork in Ireland by 1899. The 1901 census found the family living in Wicklow, with Thomas having now achieved the rank of Company Sergeant Major.
Ten years later, and Thomas had stepped away from the army life. Now 48 years of age, he and Leah had been married for 17 years. The couple had settled in the Worle, on the outskirts of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, where Thomas had set himself up as a butcher, with Leah assisting him.
War came to Europe in 1914, and it seems that Thomas felt drawn to play his part once more. He joined the Royal Defence Corps as a Serjeant when it was formed in the spring of 1916, and was assigned to the regiment’s 263rd Company.
Little information is available about Serjeant Wood’s army service, but by the autumn he had been admitted to the Shell Shock Hospital (now the Maudsley Hospital) in Denmark Hill, London. His entry to the hospital, however, was actually due to kidney disease, and this was what would claim his life. Thomas died from a combination of nephritis and uraemia on 21st November 1916. He was 54 years of age.
Thomas Wood was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Martin’s Church in Worle.
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.
Death and Service 