Frank Ernest Woods was born in 1885, one of seven children to Thomas and Alice. Thomas was a labourer and he raised his family in Worcestershire.
Frank left home early – by the time of the 1901 census, he was living as a gardener for the Cornforth family, who were grain merchants in South Claines, near Worcester.
Frank’s work with the family continued; the 1911 census show that they had relocated to Kensington. The Cornforth family were now running the Eaton Court Hotel, a boarding house with nineteen rooms; the 25-year-old Frank had been elevated to the role of waiter.
Another of the Cornforths’ staff was a housemaid, 20-year-old Ethel Elizabeth James; within a matter of years, the couple were courting, and Frank and Ethel married in November 1915.
The Great War was already being waged across the Channel, and Frank enlisted, joining the Rifle Brigade in June 1916. Within three months, he was fighting on the Western Front.
Private Frank Woods was killed in action in Belgium on 10th October 1918. He was 33 years old. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Zonnebeke.
Frank Ernest Woods was the first husband of my Great Great Great Aunt, Ethel Elizabeth James.
Sidney Horace Hornby was born to John and Emily in March 1880. John was a tailor’s assistant from Paddington, and the family – Sidney was the eldest of six siblings – initially lived in the Greenwich.
Sidney enlisted in the army in 1898. He joined the East Kent Regiment for a short service of seven years and was sent to South Africa. In March 1900 he was wounded at the Battle of Driefontein. His service, though, saw him promoted through the ranks from Private to Sergeant.
Something must have happened during his enlistment, however, as on 2nd September 1901 Sergeant Hornby’s military record marks him as having deserted.
Sidney’s records pick him up again on 24th April 1908, when he is put on court martial. Found guilty of desertion, he is reduced to the ranks and sentenced to three years’ penal servitude (later reduced to two years’ hard labour).
His attitude seems to continue, however, as within a matter of months he was discharged due to misconduct and denied any pension for his previous service.
Sidney’s family had moved from Greenwich to Kent at some point before the 1901 census, and his father died three years later. By the 1911 census, he had moved back in with his mother, and worked as a labourer to help look after them.
The Great War called, however, and it seems that Sidney’s previous misdemeanours did not excluding him from fighting again. He joined the Royal West Kent Regiment although his full service for the 1914-18 campaign are not accessible. Again, his service seems to have been good, as he was elevated to the rank of Sergeant for a second time.
Hints of Sergeant Hornby’s rebellious nature remain, however, as he was court marshalled again in February 1916. He was convicted of drunkenness, and reduced to the rank of Corporal.
That was the summer of the Battle of the Somme, and by the autumn Hornby was one of the many who fell during that time. He died on 4th October 1916 and was 36 years old.
Corporal Sidney Hornby is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Sidney Horace Hornby was my 1st cousin, four times removed.
Born in 1871, Thomas Daines was one of fourteen children. His parents, Charles and Sarah, worked on a farm a few miles from Halstead in Essex.
After leaving school, Thomas followed in his father’s footsteps and, by the time of the 1891 census was also listed as an agricultural labourer. He married Kate Rawlinson in the spring of 1893, and they had two children – Matilda and Lewis – before relocating to South East London in around 1898.
The reason for the move was, more than like, job opportunities, and Thomas was soon working at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich.
Settling into their new city life, Thomas and Kate had five further children: Annie, Thomas, Alfred, Charles and Beatrice. Thomas continued as a labourer, before enlisting in the army within three months of war being declared in October 1914.
Sadly, Private Daines’ service was not to be a long one. Having suffered a bout of influenza, Thomas was admitted to a Red Cross Hospital in Sherborne, Dorset. He died of pneumonia on 22nd February 2015.
Private Thomas Daines lies at peace in the Sherborne Cemetery.
As a sad aside to Thomas and Kate’s story, their eldest son, Lewis, enlisted in the 16th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. He fought on the Western Front, and was killed in action in Pozières on 26th March 1918.
Sidney Herbert Stagg was born in 1901. The eldest child of bootmaker Sidney Stagg and his wife Frances, Sidney Jr was too young to fight in the when war broke out.
He enlisted in the Royal Navy at the beginning of 1919, and was assigned to HMS Powerful, a training vessel based in Plymouth.
Boy Petty Officer Stagg’s time in the navy was heartbreakingly short. Within a few weeks he had contracted pneumonia and succumbed to the disease on 27th February 1919. He was just 17 years old, and had been in service for 36 days.
The Western Gazette reported on his funeral:
[He] left Sherborne just over a month ago to join the Royal Navy, a career for which he had expressed a great liking, and was attached to HMS Powerful, being made Boy PO within a fortnight of his joining that ship. A short time afterwards he contracted influenza, and pneumonia supervening, he died on Thursday at the Royal Naval Hospital, at Plymouth.
A service was held in the Congregational Church, and continued at the graveside, where three volleys were fired by a firing party of the Volunteers [the Sherborne Detachment 1st Volunteer Battalion, Dorset Regiment], and buglers sounded the last post. The Rev. W Melville Harris (uncle of the deceased) officiated, and the principal mourners were Mr Stagg (father), Miss Joyce Stagg (sister), Mr H Hounsell (uncle), and members of the business establishment.
Western Gazette: Friday 7th March 1919.
Sidney Herbert Stagg lies at peace in the cemetery in his home town of Sherborne.
Sidney Ralph Pragnell was the eldest of two children of Edward and Ellen Pragnell. Edward grew up in Sherborne, before moving to London to work as a chef; he found employment as a cook in an officer’s mess, which took him and his wife first to Ireland – where Sidney was born – and then to the barracks at Aldershot.
By the time of the 1911 census, Edward had brought his family back to Dorset, and was running the Half Moon Hotel, opposite the Abbey in Sherborne. Sidney, aged 12, was still at school.
When war broke out, Sidney was eager to play his part, even though he was underage. An article in the local newspaper highlights his keenness and how he progressed.
…he was keen to serve his country and joined every local organisation his age would allow him to. He was an early member of the Sherborne VTC and Red Cross Detachment, and was actually the youngest member of the Volunteers to wear the uniform. Whilst still under age, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Division at the Crystal Palace and after a period of training was drafted as a qualified naval gunner to a merchant steamer carrying His Majesty’s mails and in this capacity went practically round the world. In February he joined the RNAS and after some air training in England went to France to an air station, where he passed all the tests with honours and gained the ‘wings’ of the qualified pilot. Lieutenant Pragnell then decided to go in for scouting and came back to England for advanced training in the special flying necessary for this qualification and it was whilst engaged in this that he met with the accident which resulted in his death.
Western Chronicle: Friday 16th August 1918.
The esteem in which Second Lieutenant Pragnell was held continues in the article, which quotes the condolence letter sent to his parents by his commander, Major Kelly.
It is with deep regret that I have to write you of the death of your son, Second-Lieutenant SR Pragnell. Your boy was one of the keenest young officers I have ever had under my command and was extremely popular with us all and his place will be extremely hard to fill.
The service can ill afford to lose officers of the type of which Lieutenant Pragnell was an excellent example and it seems such a pity this promising career was cut short when he had practically finished his training. May I convey the heartfelt sympathy of all officers and men in my command to you in this your hour of sorrow.
Western Chronical: Friday 16th August 1918.
What I find most interesting about this article is that the letter from Major Kelly detail how Edward and Ellen’s son died, and this this too is quoted by the newspaper.
Your son had been sent up to practice formation flying and was flying around the aerodrome at about 500 feet with his engine throttled down waiting for his instruction to ‘take off’. Whiles waiting your boy tried to turn when his machine had little forward speed. This caused him to ‘stall’ and spin and from this low altitude he had no chance to recover control and his machine fell to earth just on the edge of the aerodrome and was completely wrecked. A doctor was there within a minute, but your boy had been killed instantaneously.
Western Chronicle: Friday 16th August 1918.
Further research shows that the aerodrome Second Lieutenant Pragnell was training at was RAF Freiston in Lincolnshire, which had been designated Number 4 Fighting School with the specific task of training pilots for fighting scout squadrons. He had been flying a Sopwith Camel when he died.
Second Lieutenant Sidney Ralph Pragnell lies at rest in the cemetery of his Dorset home, Sherborne.
Edward (Teddy) Lewsley was born in 1894, the ninth of twelve children to James and Charlotte Lewsley from London.
James had worked with horses, and become a cab driver at the turn of the century; Edward started as a general labourer on finishing school.
Edward’s military history is a little vague. From his gravestone, we know that he joined the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and was in the 1st Battalion. The battalion fought at the Battles of Mons, Marne and Messines.
In the spring of 1915, Edward’s battalion fought in the Second Battle of Ypres and, given the timing, it seems likely that he was involved.
Whether he was on the Western Front or stationed in the UK, Private Lewsley was admitted to the Red Cross Hospital in Sherborne, where he passed away on 30th May 1915. He was buried in the town’s cemetery.
One of Edward’s brothers also enlisted in the Light Infantry.
Daniel Lewsley first joined the East Surrey Regiment in 1909 and continued through to 1928. This included a stint as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France.
William Crossan was born in 1892 in Ballinamore, Ireland. He was the fourth of five children to Patrick and Catherine Crossan.
William disappears from the 1911 Census of Ireland, but has joined the Irish Guards by the time war broke out.
Guardsman Crossan’s battalion was involved in the Battle of Mons, but it was during the fighting at Ypres that he was injured.
Shipped back to the UK for treatment, William passed away on 2nd November 1914. While details are scarce, presumably he died at one of the Red Cross Hospitals in the Sherborne area, as this is where he was buried.
Guardsman William Crossan lies at rest in Sherborne Cemetery.
Percy Wright Rodgers was born in June 1888 in Pilton, Somerset. He was the fifth of eleven children to Levi and Elizabeth Rodgers.
In the 1901 census Levi was listed as a butcher and publican; ten years later, he listed himself as a butcher, slaughter man and shopkeeper.
Percy followed in his father’s footsteps – by the time of the 1911 census, he was boarding with a family in Swanage, Dorset, and worked as a butcher’s assistant.
1913 was a busy year for Percy. He married Frances Bower, they had their first child, Percy Augustus, and he emigrated to the United States (Frances and Percy Jr followed a year later).
In the 1915 New York census, Percy and his family are listed in in the town of Cortland, around 200 miles north of New York City. Percy describes himself as a meat cutter – following in his father’s footsteps – and he and his wife now have a second child, Vera, who was born in the States.
Sapper Rodgers joined the Canadian Engineers in May 1918; he was shipped abroad, back to Europe, but his service appeared short-lived. He contracted pneumonia, and was admitted to the Canadian Hospital in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He passed away on 5th November 1918, at 30 years of age.
Sapper Percy Wright Rodgers lies at rest in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in his home village of Pilton. His grave is topped with a cross dedicated by his widow, Frances.
Richard William Elcocks was born in Wellington, Shropshire, the second son of foundryman Thomas Elcocks and his wife Emma. Born in June 1883, he was one of nine children.
After initially becoming a printer’s apprentice, he enlisted in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in May 1903. After his initial training and service, Private Elcocks was transferred to the Army Reserve in 1911.
In January 1914, Richard married Charlotte Shenton. Charlotte was a widow ten years his senior, and had two children, Albert and Fred.
When war broke out, Private Elcocks was again called up and shipped to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. His records confirm that he received a gunshot wound to the left arm on 31st October 1914; the injury was enough for him to be shipped back to the UK for treatment.
He was treated in the Yeatman Hospital in Sherborne, Dorset, and appears to have been there for some time. His records state that he died on 26th June 1915 from an ‘intestical [intestinal?] obstruction following gun shot wound of left humerous’. He was 32 years of age.
Private Richard Elcocks lies at rest in Sherborne cemetery.
Some of the research on the Commonwealth War Graves has been fairly straightforward – information has been readily available on sites like Ancestry, or the death has been unusual or sudden enough for it to have made contemporary newspapers.
Other times, the search goes on for a while and only the tiniest of leads manages to turn up some information.
Private Stanley Sansom falls firmly into the second category.
Private Stanley Sansom
In a corner of Sherborne Cemetery stands a gravestone. It is dedicated to 20023 Private S Sansom of the Dorsetshire Regiment. He died on 31st March 1921, aged 27 years.
Searching just on a surname doesn’t turn up a great deal, even for one as seemingly uncommon as Sansom.
My default first sites for this research are the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Find A Grave. Both sites, however, list the soldier’s name as Sanson, even though the stone clearly says Sansom.
The FAG site provides no other information, although the CWGC page does name the soldier’s father, Thomas Sanson of Sherborne. Again, an Ancestry search does not bring anyone by that name in Dorset.
My next option is usually the British Newspaper Archive; no Sansons are recorded, but the surname Sansom does turn up just after the date on the stone:
Mrs Sansom desires to thank all friends who have expressed sympathy with her in the sad bereavement she has sustained by the death of her husband.
Western Gazette: Friday 22nd April 1921
Nothing conclusive, but it did suggest that Sansom may be the correct spelling.
Back on Ancestry, Thomas Sansom doesn’t turn up anything, but a random check on the surname and specific date of death did show a few family trees for a Stanley Sansom, born in 1892. Again nothing conclusive here, particularly as none of the trees include any military records or spouses, but there was enough information to collate an overview of his life.
Stanley Sansom was born in September 1892 in Sherborne. He was one of six children to Thomas Sansom, a glove cutter, and his wife Jane.
The cloth business was a large employed in the Dorset town, and after leaving school, Stanley became an apprentice tailor.
There don’t appear to be any records of Private Sansom’s military service. However, he enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment, and his Service Number identifies that he served in the 1st/4th Battalion.
According to the Dorsetshire Regiment records, this battalion sailed for India on 9th October 1914, so Private Sansom must have enlisted at the outbreak of hostilities.
After a year’s training, his battalion moved to the Eastern Front, where soldiers saw action against the Turks in what is now Iraq. From what records there are, it can only be assumed that Private Sansom survived the war pretty much unscathed and returned to England in 1918 to be demobbed.
There is no record of Stanley marrying, so whether the Western Gazette’s article relates to him, or to another Sherborne Sansom is unclear.
All that can be confirmed is that Private Stanley Sansom died on 31st March 1921, aged 27.
He lies at rest in the cemetery of his home town in Dorset.
As I was writing this post, I happened to notice an additional inscription at the bottom of Stanley’s gravestone:
Also of Private J Sansom, Dorsetshire Regiment. Died at Basra June 1916
Stanley had a younger brother, Jack, who also enlisted in the 1st/4th Battalion. The brothers were shipped to India and Mesopotamia together; while Stanley came home, Jack died in battle and is buried in Basra War Cemetery. He was just 20 years old.
Death and Service 