George Henry Babb was born on 6th October 1900 in the village of Halberton, Devon. One of ten children, his parents were stonemason Clem Babb and his wife, Emily.
There is little documented about George’s life. The 1911 census records that he was still at school, and there is nothing to confirm the work he found when he completed his education.
George was not yet 14 years old when was was declared, and the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects suggests that he didn’t enlist until the late spring of 1918. He was assigned to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was attached to the 5th Battalion.
Private Babb was sent to the north east for training, and it seems that he became unwell while there. He was admitted to the 1st Northern General Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, suffering from a combination of influenza and pneumonia. The conditions were to prove fatal: Private Babb passed away on 8th November 1918, a month after his eighteenth birthday.
George Henry Babb was taken back to Devon for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in his home village of Halberton.
Reginald Payne was born on 27th January 1898 in Milverton, Somerset. He was the third of five children – and the oldest son – to Thomas and Mary Payne. Thomas was a dairyman, and both he and Mary were from Devon: the family moved back to the county after Reginald was born, and, by the time of the 1911 census, they had settled in the village of Halberton.
Reginald, at this point, was still in school, and there is little information about his life. When war broke out, he volunteered to serve his country, but, with no military records remaining, the only point of reference for him is a newspaper report of his funeral.
Quite a gloom was cast over Halberton when it became known that Pte. Reginald Payne, eldest son of Mr & Mrs T Payne, of Brimery Dairy, had passed away at the Military Hospital, Devonport. Deceased, who enlisted in 1916 in the Hussars, and was attached to the 1st City of London Yeomanry, proceeded to Egypt, and whilst there he underwent two operations for appendicitis. He returned to England after recovering, and was sent to Ireland, where he had a return of the old trouble, and was again operated on four times, and then sent to Devonport, where he passed away.
[Western Times: Friday 6th February 1920]
Reginald Payne was a day over 22 years of age when he passed away. He was taken back to Halberton for burial, and was laid to rest in the peaceful St Andrew’s Churchyard.
William Arthur Edward Harris was born in the spring of 1896 in Uffculme, Devon. The second of four children, his parents were William and Louisa. William Sr was a ganger on the railways, and by the time of the 1911 census, the family has moved to Halberton, near Tiverton, as that was where the work had moved to.
The same census return confirmed the work that William Jr had taken up, noting that he was an apprentice to an agricultural implement maker. This was not to last for long, however, as storm clouds were brewing over Europe.
When war broke out in the summer of 1914, William Jr was keen to play his part. He enlisted the following year, and his apprenticeship seems to have stood him in good stead. He joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper, and was attached to the 77th Field Coy. His unit arrived in France on 15th July 1915.
Details of William’s time in the army is lost to time, but a newspaper report of his funeral sheds a little light on his time overseas: “Sapper Harris was among the first from Halberton to join up, and had seen much active service in France, being wounded at Arras on Sept. 16, 1917.” [Tiverton Gazette: Tuesday 25th June 1918]
Sapper Harris seems to have returned to Britain by the summer of 1918, although it is unclear whether he was on leave, based back in the UK or was being medically treated here. “At the early age of 22, [William] passed away in Kempston Military Hospital after a brief illness” [Tiverton Gazette: Tuesday 25th June 1918]
William Arthur Edward Harris had died in hospital in Bedfordshire on 13th June 1918. His body was taken back to Devon for burial, and he was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Andrew’s Church, Halberton.
James Ellery was born in the autumn of 1889, and was the middle of seven children. His parents – Frederick and Mary – were born in Dorset, and the family were raised in the hamlet of Lillington. Frederick was a farm labourer, but James found his way into building work when he finished his schooling.
When war came to Europe, James stepped up to play his part. Full details of his military service have been lost to time, but it is clear that he had enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment and was attached to the 1st/4th Battalion.
Private Ellery’s unit served in India and Mesopotamia during the conflict, but it is unclear whether James saw any action overseas. Certainly by early 1919 he was back in Britain, as he was hospitalised in Sherborne following a bout of influenza. This developed into pneumonia, and he was admitted to the town’s Yeatman Hospital.
James’ immune system had become weakened during the conflict, and the pneumonia turned septic. It proved to be fatal, and James passed away on 1st March 1919. He was 29 years of age.
James Ellery’s body was taken back to Lillington for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Martin’s Church.
James was not the first of the Ellery siblings to die during the Great War. His eldest brother, Frederick, had enlisted in the 2nd Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps Cavalry. He was killed in action on 21st August 1918, leaving behind a widow and three children. He was 36 years of age and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois British Memorial in Haucourt. France.
Reginald William Lane was born in the autumn of 1886, the eighth of ten children to Joseph and Sarah. Joseph was an agricultural labourer and he and his wife raised their family in their home village of Thornford in Dorset.
When he finished his schooling, he found work as a gardener’s boy. He went on to make a career out of this and was employed as a gardener when he married Evelyn Sharp on 15th April 1914. The couple exchanged vows in St Swithun’s Church, Hinton Parva, Dorset, the marriage certificate noting that the groom’s father was now employed as a woodsman.
War came to Europe later that year, and Reginald enlisted to serve the King and Empire. Little information is available about his military career: he joined the Dorsetshire Regiment, but there is no confirmation that he spent any time overseas. Private Lane transferred over to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment, his new unit serving on home soil. Based in Kent, Reginald was part of the Thames & Medway Garrison.
Joseph died at the end of August 1915, and was laid to rest in the St Mary Magdalene Churchyard. Just weeks later, Reginald’s younger brother, Gilbert, a Private in the 3rd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, was killed during the Battle of Loos. He was commemorated on the Loos Memorial in Dud Corner Cemetery in France.
Private Reginald William Lane survived the war, but only by eleven days. While based in Kent, he contracted influenza and pneumonia. He died on 22nd November 1918, aged 32 years. His body was brought back to Dorset, and was laid to rest alongside his father.
There is no further information available for Evelyn.
Reginald’s mother, Sarah, however, only lived for another couple of months. She passed away on 25th February 1919, at the age of 69 years old. She was reunited with her husband and son in St Mary Magdalene Churchyard, the family headstone commemorating Private Gilbert Lane as well.
The early life of Ernest Brister is a challenge to piece together. His baptism record – at St Mary Magdalene Church in Thornford, Dorset – suggests that he was born in the summer of 1891, but gives only the name of his mother, Rosina Brister.
The 1901 census identifies the 9-year-old Ernest as a visitor to the house of Eliza Brister, a 65-year-old widow working as a laundress. There are several other Bristers in the village – including Eliza’s own to children – but Rosina is nowhere to be seen.
The next census, taken in 1911, sheds a little more light on the situation. Ernest is still living with Eliza, but he is now recorded as being her grandson. Aged 75, she was still taking in laundry, but Ernest was employed as a mason.
In the autumn of 1913, Ernest married Beatrice Chalker. She was a shepherd’s daughter from Dewlish in Dorset. The couple wed in Dorchester and went on to have two children, Doris and Edwin.
When war broke out, Ernest stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment, and found himself in France by the summer of 1915.
There is little information about Ernest’s time in the army, but later in the war, he seems to have transferred over to the Wiltshire Regiment. Attached to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, his new unit served on home soil and, based in Kent, was part of the Thames & Medway Garrison.
Private Brister was based in Maidstone in the autumn of 1918, when he contracted influenza and pneumonia. He was admitted to the military hospital in Aylesford, but the conditions were to prove to severe. He passed away on 24th November 1918, aged 27 years old.
Ernest Brister’s body was taken back to Dorset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary Magdalene Church. His grandmother, Eliza, passed away just a month later, at the age of 82. She was laid to rest close to her beloved grandson.
The 1910s were harsh for Ernest’s widow, Beatrice. Her youngest son was born in March 1915, her mother dying a couple of months later. She lost her brother, Edwin, to the war – he was serving with the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, when he was killed on 28th August 1916. He was just 19 years of age. Two years later, she was widowed when Ernest passed away.
Henry Ridler was born in Henbury, Gloucestershire, in the summer of 1862. He was the middle of three children to Abraham and Harriet Ridler. Abraham was a farm labourer who moved the family for work to the Weston area of Bath, Somerset, not long after Henry’s younger brother, John, was born.
The oldest Ridler sibling, Joseph, worked as a cabinet maker, and by the time of the 1881 census, both Henry and John were apprenticed to him. Henry married Emma Stone on Christmas Eve 1882, and the couple would go on to have seven children.
The 1891 census found Henry and the family living at 5 Comfortable Place in Bath, one of a row of terraced cottages then, but now sandwiched between the River Avon and the busy A4. Henry and Emma had four children by this point – all daughters – and the house was split between them and mother-and-daughter dressmakers Lucy and Lucy Batt.
By the time of the 1901 census, the family were growing up, and had moved literally just around the corner, to 2 Onega Terrace. Set slightly back from the main road, this terraced house had six rooms, and was better suited to the growing family. Henry was still working as a cabinet maker at this point, while his three oldest daughters – Mabel, Lilian and Maude – were all employed, as a corset fanner, a kitchen maid and a nurse girl respectively.
The next census return, taken in 1911, recorded the Ridler family still living in the same house. Henry and Emma had been married for 28 years by this point, and, while 2 Onega Terrace may have had six rooms, they would have become very cramped by this point. Six of the children – aged between 14 and 27 – were still living at home, with everyone in the household but Emma bringing in a wage of sorts.
War was closing in by this point, and, despite his advancing years, Henry was drawn to serve his King and Country. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps on 20th October 1915, a date that confirms he volunteered for duty, as conscription wasn’t introduced until the following year. Henry’s service records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with greying hair and blue eyes.
Private Ridler spent two periods of time overseas. In November 1915, his unit was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean, and he served in Salonika, Greece, for seven months. While there, he was hospitalised following an injury to his right knee. He was medically evacuated to Malta, before being posted back home in Britain to convalesce in Woodcote Park Hospital, Epsom, Surrey.
By the summer of 1916, Henry was deemed fit once more, and was sent abroad again, this time to the Western Front. Details of his time there are sketchy, although he seems to have been transferred tot he Labour Corps at some point. It appears that his previous injury flared up again, and he was eventually discharged from the army on medical grounds on 30th July 1918.
At this point, Henry’s trail goes cold. He returned to Bath, but it is unclear whether or not he was able to resume working. The next confirmed documentation for Henry’s life is that of his passing. While the cause is unclear, he breathed his last on 3rd June 1921: he was 58 years of age.
Henry Ridler was laid to rest in Bath’s sweeping Locksbrook Cemetery, a short walk from the family home in Onega Terrace.
Emma remained in the family home for the next 17 years. When she passed away in 1938, she was also laid to rest in Locksbrook Cemetery, not far from her late husband.
Rupert Gilchrist Whicker was born in Derby, Derbyshire, on 6th February 1873, one of eight children to Walter and Susannah Whicker. There is little information about the family’s early life, and it appears than one of both of Rupert’s parents had died by the time he was 14 years of age.
The Whicker siblings seemed to have gone their own ways at this point, emigrating to the United States and Australia, and it was to Ballarat in Victoria, Australia, that Rupert sailed in 1896. His trail goes cold for then nine years, at which point he married the Australian-born Ellen Ward. The couple would go on to have six children, eventually setting up home in Melbourne.
It is only Rupert’s military records – from when he enlisted on 21st September 1917 – that we discover more about what he had been doing. He gave his trade as miner, and the document suggests that he had tried to join up earlier in the war, but had been rejected as being under height: he was just 5ft 1.5in (1.56m) tall. Rupert’s medical also confirmed that he was 107lbs (48.5kg) in weight, and had auburn hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion. He was noted as having a birth mark on the side of his left foot and two scars on his left cheek, between the eye and the bone.
Sapper Whicker was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Australian Tunnellers. He left Australia on board the SS Indarra on 26th November 1917, bound for Europe. After leaving Port Said, Egypt, on 9th January 1918, Rupert’s unit landed in the south of France eleven days later. They travelled to Cherbourg by train, and finally landed in Southampton, Hampshire, on 2nd February 1918.
Rupert would remain on British soil until the beginning of April. His unit arrived in Caëstre in the middle of the month, and he then found himself on the Western Front. Sapper Whicker would serve there for the next four months, and it was only because of illness – a bout of gastritis – that he was brought back from the Front Line.
The stomach condition was severe enough to warrant Rupert’s medical evacuation to Britain for treatment, and he was admitted to Bath War Hospital in Somerset. What was initially thought to be an infection turned out to be far more serious. Sapper Whicker was diagnosed as having stomach cancer, and it has quickly taken hold. Sadly, it would prove fatal, and Rupert passed away on 14th September 1918: he was 45 years of age.
Rupert Gilchrist Whicker had died thousands of miles from his home. He was laid to rest in the military section of Bath’s Locksbrook Cemetery, not far from the hospital in which he had breathed his last.
Walter Soper Mitchell was born in the summer of 1878 in Newton Abbot, Devon. The fourth of nine children, his parents were Frederick and Mary. Frederick was a house painter and handyman, and records seem to suggest that he took the family to where the work was. The 1881 census found the family living in Chelsea, West London, and it seems that they stayed in London until 1890.
By the time of the 1891 census, the Mitchells were back in Devon, living at 10 Orchard Terrace in Paignton. Frederick was now working as a plumber, while Walter’s older siblings – brothers Frederick Jr, William and Alfred – were variously employed as a sailor, a painter and a plumber.
Walter, who was 12 years old by this point, was nearing the end of his schooling. When he left, he followed the family trade, and as soon employed as a house painter. The 1901 census found him as the oldest sibling still to be living with Frederick and Mary, although his circumstances were about to change.
In September 1903, Walter married Emily Jeffery. She was a couple of years younger than her new spouse, but, sadly, there is little information about her parents. The 1891 census found her living with her grandparents, while the 1901 return noted her boarding with her aunt and uncle.
Walter and Emily went on to have three children. By the time of the 1911 census, the family were living at 25 Norton Terrace in Paignton, Walter being employed as a house painter by this point.
War came to Europe in the summer of 1914, and Walter was called upon to play his part. Full details of his military service have been lost in the mists of time, but from what remains it is clear that he enlisted in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps at some point after July 1915. He was attached to the 67th Coy., but it is unclear whether he saw any action overseas.
Private Mitchell’s time in the army was not to be a lengthy one. He seems to have been based in Essex, and a later record confirms that he contracted bronchitis and anaemia. This would prove to be his undoing: he passed away in Colchester on 17th February 1916, aged 36 years old.
The body of Walter Soper Mitchell was brought back to Devon for burial. He was laid to rest in what would become the family plot in the sweeping Paignton Cemetery.
Edward Charles Brooke-Smith was born in Muizenberg, South Africa, on 2nd March 1892. The eighth of nine children, his parents were mariner Alfred Brooke-Smith and his wife, Louisa.
Little further information about Edward’s early life is available. The 1901 census recorded the family as having returned to Britain – where both Alfred and Louisa had been born. The family had set up home in a cottage in Woodbridge, Suffolk, but by the spring of 1911 Edward had moved again, emigrating to Canada to make a life as a farmer.
When war came to Europe, the empire was called upon to fight for peace. Edward, who was working as a merchant in Valcartier, Quebec, by this point quickly stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 17th September 1914 as a Private.
Edward’s service record give an insight into the man he had become. He was noted as being 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall, with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a dark complexion. Private Brooke-Smith was also noted as having vaccination scars on his left arm, a small scar on his right knee and two moles on the centre of his back.
Details of Edward’s travel back to Europe are lost to time, but he was attached to the 7th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry and, by the spring of 1915, he was in Northern France. In March he had a bout of bronchitis, which was quickly followed by influenza, and he was hospitalised in Rouen.
Private Brooke-Smith returned to his unit in May 1915, but he was dogged by flu for the next couple of months. Sadly, things were not to improve for him.
On 19th August 1915, Edward’s unit was fighting at Wimereux, France, when he was shot. The bullet shattered the top of his right thigh and pelvis, and, after treatment on site, he was evacuated to Britain for further medical support.
Edward was to spend the next sixteen months in hospital. He was initially admitted to the Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot, Hampshire, where his primary treatment took place. In November 1915, he was moved to the Duchess of Connaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital in Taplow, Buckinghamshire for ongoing recuperation.
On 13th March 1916, Private Brooke-Smith was moved to the Auxiliary Hospital in Torquay, Devon. Here further physiotherapy and recuperation took place, before an operation to correct the position of his thigh was undertaken 9th December. Despite the precautions that had been put in place, Edward did not come round from the procedure: he was 24 years of age.
Alfred and Louisa had settled in Paignton by this point – given the year their son had spent in the hospital, it seems likely that they had moved to be nearer to him. Edward Charles Brooke Smith was, therefore, laid to rest in the family plot in the town’s cemetery. When Alfred died nine months later, he was buried alongside his son.
Death and Service 