Tag Archives: Kent

Able Seaman, Commonwealth War Graves, County Durham, Great War, Hertfordshire, history, illness, Ireland, Kent, London, photography, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Navy, Scotland, story, war

Able Seaman Michael Goulding

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Able Seaman Michael Goulding

Michael Joseph O’Neill Goulding was born on 5th May 1884, the oldest of six children to Michael and Ellen Goulding (née O’Neill). Michael Sr worked for the inland revenue and his job took him around most parts of the British Isles.

Michael Jr had been born in Limerick – both of his parents came from Ireland – but his subsequent three siblings (Patrick, Margaret and William) had all been born in Scotland. His second youngest sibling, Lily, was born in County Durham, the youngest back in Scotland, while, by the time of the 1901 census, the whole family were living in Forest Gate, East London.

The census also shows that Michael Jr, having left school, was working at Customs House (presumably where his father was employed), as a boy copyist on tea accounts. The inland revenue at that time was a career for life; by the next census in 1911, the family had moved to Hertford, where Michael Sr was a customs and excise supervisor, and Michael Jr was an assistant clerk at the same place of employment.

War was on its way, but Michael seems not to have enlisted immediately. While specific dates for his joining up are not available, it appears that he was still working for the Inland Revenue when he got married in Shoreditch, in April 1917. His wife was called Bridget Mary Gough (known as Bryde), and she had also been born in Ireland. The couple went on to have a daughter, Ellen (or Eileen), the following year.

By this time, Michael had definitely enlisted. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and was based at HMS Pembroke, the shore-based establishment in Chatham, Kent. This was the location for the Navy’s main accounting base, so it is likely that he was employed for financial, rather than his military, skills.

Able Seaman Goulding served through to the end of the war and beyond, and it was while he was based in Kent that he became unwell. Admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, he succumbed to a combination of bronchitis and pneumonia on 22nd February 1919. He was 34 years of age.

Michael Joseph O’Neill Goulding was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in nearby Gillingham. His family were still in Hertford, while his widow and daughter moved back to Ireland.

Michael Joseph O’Neill Goulding
(courtesy of ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, Kent, London, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 1st Class Cornelius O’Brien

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Stoker Cornelius O’Brien

Documentation on the early life of Cornelius Edward O’Brien is pretty scarce, so it is impossible to build a picture of him before the First World War. He was born in the late 1890s in Whitechapel, East London and was working as a carman when he received his enlistment papers.

Cornelius joined the Royal Navy as a stoker on 27th November 1915 and was sent to HMS Vivid II, the shore-based establishment in Devonport that served as the Stokers and Engine Room Artificers School. He trained there for a couple of months before being assigned to HMS Drake, where he spent most of 1916.

Returning to Devonport, Stoker O’Brien spent a further year on board HMS Vivid II, gaining the rank of Stoker 1st Class. By the end of 1917, however, he was back at sea, having been sent to HMS Vixen, a naval destroyer that served in the Thames Estuary, performing anti-submarine patrols and counter mining operations there.

In mid-November 1918, with the war officially over, Cornelius was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, suffering from influenza, pneumonia and pleurisy. Sadly these were to prove too much of a challenge for him and he passed away on 21st November 1918.

Cornelius Edward O’Brien was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, not far from the Naval Dockyard in Chatham.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, London, Ordinary Seaman, photography, Private, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Navy, story, unknown, war

Ordinary Seaman William Stanley

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Ordinary Seaman William Stanley

William Alfred Stanley is one of those names that seems destined to be lost to the annuls of time. Little documentation exists for his early life, but what there is gives some hints at a determined young man.

William was born in London to an Annie Stanley, who lived in the Kentish Town area of the city. At some point, he emigrated to Canada as, according to his wartime enlistment papers, he joined up in Ontario.

William enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 5th November 1915, and was initially assigned to the 44th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. His troop embarked for England in July 1916, and, on his arrival he was transferred to the 98th Battalion.

It was at this point that things too an unusual turn. With a few months, Private Stanley was again transferred, this time to the 19th Battalion, and then again to the 4th Reserve Battalion from where he was discharged from the Canadian Infantry in February 1917 for being underage.

At this point, William seems to have been undeterred.

The next record for him – in fact the memorial to him – is his headstone. This confirms that he had enlisted in the Royal Naval Canadian Voluntary Reserve as an Ordinary Seaman. He was based at HMS Pembroke, the shore establishment at Chatham Dockyard, but there is no other information for him.

Ordinary Seaman Stanley died on 28th December 1917, at the age of 21. (His previous military discharge might suggest that he was, in fact, younger than this, but that is conjecture on my part.) There is no record of a cause of death and nothing in contemporary newspapers to suggest anything out of the ordinary.

William Alfred Stanley was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the Naval Dockyard where he had been based.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, Officer's Steward, photography, Royal Navy, story, Suffolk, war

Officer’s Steward 2nd Class Frederick Shiplee

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Steward 2nd Class Frederick Shiplee

Frederick John Shiplee was born on 15th November 1895 in the Essex town of Harwich. The oldest of eight children, his parents were Frederick and Matilda. Frederick Sr worked as a carter for the local railway, while his son found employment as a butcher’s errand boy when he left school.

In November 1913, having just turned 18, Frederick Jr enlisted in the Royal Navy as an Officer’s Steward, and spent three years training and serving on board HMS Ganges, the shore establishment at Shotley, near Ipswich.

From Suffolk, Frederick moved to Kent, and was based at the HMS Pembroke in Chatham. From here, he was involved in trips on HMS Spey, an old river gunboat that had been converted for use as a diving tender. It was during one of these trips that tragedy struck.

STORY OF A COLLISION IN THE THAMES

Mr CB Sewell resumed the inquest at Chatham, on Monday, on the 13 naval men who lost their lives after a collision between the London County Council steam hopper Belvedere and an old naval vessel in the Thames on March 7th [1917]…

The collision occurred shortly before four o’clock in the afternoon, the weather being bitterly cold and boisterous, and the sea extremely rough. The men, who had taken to a raft, were drifting about till 9pm before the raft was driven ashore. On the raft, when discovered, were a pile of dead men, who had been rendered unconscious by the cold and subsequently drowned through the raft being partly submerged. Lieutenant Humphreys, Royal Naval Reserve, and the other officers were all drowned. In all, 30 of the 37 members of the ship’s company lost their lived, and several bodies have not been recovered. Thirteen of the ship’s crew managed to get ashore at Sheerness in the cutter and three reached the shore at the Isle of Grain in the gig, while one was saved by the hopper.

Arthur George Chick, able seaman, said he was at the wheel of the naval vessel, which was steaming up river at six knots an hour to secure shelter from the weather. Lieutenant Humphreys and a warrant officer were on the bridge, and there were two look-out men. All were now missing. He saw the hopper coming down the river when she was two miles away. When the vessels were nearing each other, the hopper suddenly altered her course to starboard. The witness then altered his course to port by his officer’s orders, but the hopper crashed into his ship, stroking it a glancing blow in line with the forepart of the bridge on the starboard side. The ship sank in three minutes.

Alfred Rawlings, leading signalman, stated that the hopper changed her course when almost abreast of the naval vessel. The hopper’s alteration of course was, he considered, the cause of the collision.

Henry Davies, second officer, and Joseph Beard Hasdell, master of the hopper, gave evidence that they considered the collision was caused through the naval vessel’s error of judgment in starboarding, instead of going to port. The hopper, they stated, ported its helm in accordance with the ‘rule of the road’.

South Eastern Gazette: Tuesday 27th March 1917

While not mentioned in the newspaper report for security reasons, the ‘old naval vessel’ was, in fact HMS Spey. Annoyingly, I can trace no further report of the inquest, other than the conclusion that the deaths were due to drowning following a collision at sea.

Officer’s Steward Shiplee was one of the twenty men who died that day. He was just 21 years of age.

Frederick John Shiplee’s body was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, not far from the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, where he had been based.

Commonwealth War Graves, Cook, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Kent, Malta, Officer's Cook, photography, Royal Navy, story, war

Officers’ Cook Carmelo Ellul

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Officer’s Cook Carmelo Ellul

Carmelo Ellul was born in Valetta, Malta, on 26th May 1889. There is little information about his early life, other than the fact that he worked as a baker.

He came to England at some point in the early 1900s, and was living in Portsmouth. It was here that he met Selina Southcott, who had been born on the Isle of Wight, and the couple married in 1904. The couple would go on to have three children, all boys: Maurice, who was born in 1911; Alva, who was born in 1912, but who died as a toddler; and Edwin, who was born in 1916.

Carmelo seemed to want a life of adventure: in the summer of 1912, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. Over the next eight years, Officer’s Cook Ellul served on a number of naval vessels, including HMS Bacchante, which toured the North Sea, and was involved in the Battle of Heligoland in August 1914.

Carmelo’s naval life continued after the war ended, although he seems to have been more shore-based than before. He was serving on HMS Waterhen on 24th January 1920, when he collapsed with an epileptic fit, and died of heart failure. He was just 32 years old.

Carmelo Ellul was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, presumably as his ship was moored in the nearby Naval Dockyard in Chatham.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, Royal Marines, story, war

Private James Hayden

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Private James Hayden

James Hope Hayden was born in Shorncliffe Military Camp in 1875, the son of Mary Anne Hayden. The youngest of five children, James’ father appears to have died when he was just a toddler; there are no records for him, and Mary Anne – who preferred to caller herself Annie – was listed a a widow by the time of the 1881 census.

The document confirms that Annie was lodging in a house near the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, working as a seamstress. She was living there with her landlady Anne Roberts and her five children, John, William, Annie, Charles and James, who seems to have gone by the name of Mathew.

By the time of the nest census, Annie had moved and was lodging in another house in the same road. She was still employed as a seamstress, and was sharing the rooms with her two youngest children and her brother, William.

The 1901 census finds Annie living in an adjacent road to her previous houses. Head of the household this time, she was working as a laundress. Her brother William was also living there – he was listed as an army pensioner. Mathew is the only one of her children still living with her; he had, by this time, found employment as a labourer in the dockyard.

Moving forward another ten years, and the family have moved one street over. Annie, at 69 years old, remained the head of the household, while Mathew is living there with his wife and three children.

Mathew’s wife is listed as Florence, but there is no record of their wedding, other than the census document which confirms they have been marred for ten years. Mathew is listed as an ex-soldier although again, there is no longer any documentation to confirm this.

From this point, Mathew’s/James’ life goes a bit hazy. The next available record is his army pension document. This confirms that he was a Private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, under the name James Hope Hayden. By this time, he and Florence had had seven children, although it seems to suggest that they were not actually married.

Sadly, it also confirms that Private Hayden had passed away on 1st May 1917, having been suffering from pneumonia, contracted whilst on active service. He was 42 years old.

Mathew was laid to rest in the Grange Road Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, under the name James. The cemetery has since been turned into a public park, and he is commemorated in the nearby Woodlands Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Lance Corporal, London, photography, Royal Engineers, Sergeant, South Africa, story, war

Serjeant Albert Romain

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Serjeant Albert Romain

Albert William Romain was born in Gillingham, Kent, at the start of 1888, the middle of three children to Henry and Florence. Henry was a Sergeant in the Royal Engineers and is seemed inevitable that his son would follow suit.

Henry died in 1896, and was buried in the Grange Road Cemetery, Gillingham (now a public park). The 1901 census recorded Albert as a pupil at the Duke of York’s Royal Military Asylum in Chelsea. This was, in fact, a school for the children of soldiers, and it is likely that Albert was sent there to be educated when his father died.

The Royal Engineers obviously proved too great a lure for the young Albert. While full details of his service are not available, he had definitely enlisted early on, and was listed as a Lance Corporal in the Tempe barracks in Bloemfontein, South Africa in the 1911 census.

When war broke out, he was called back to Europe, as was on the Western Front by November 1914. Little further information on Albert is available – during the conflict he was assigned to D Company of the Royal Engineers, but the end of the war, he had become a Sergeant in the 1st Reserve Battalion.

In November 1918, back on UK soil, he was admitted to the Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Chatham, Kent. His condition is unclear, but sadly it was to be one to which he would succumb. Sergeant Romain died on 8th November 1918; he was just 30 years old.

Albert William Romain was laid to rest with his father in the Grange Road Cemetery. He is commemorated in the Woodlands Cemetery in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Kent, London, photography, Private, story, war

Private William Ridley

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Private William Ridley

William Frederick Ridley was born on 7th April 1887 in the New Brompton area of Chatham/Gillingham, Kent, one of eight children to John and Elizabeth Ridley. John was an engine fitter in the nearby naval dockyard and, as the key employer in the area, William followed in his father’s footsteps.

Sadly, John died in 1904, and this seems to have been what spurred his son on to a better life. In 1907 William emigrated to Canada, settling in the town of Wentworth, on the banks of Lake Ontario.

It was in Ontario that William met his future wife. Edith Wass was the daughter of a local labourer; the young couple married on 5th June 1909, and went on to have two children, John, born in 1910, and Wilfred, who was born five years later.

During this time, William was putting his engineering skills to the test; his marriage banns confirm he was a machinist. While there is nothing to confirm any specific trade, given his proximity to the coast, dockyard employment seems probable.

On the other side of the Atlantic, war was breaking out; keen to do his part for King and Country, William enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 28th July 1915. Initially enlisting in the 76th Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Infantry, he was shipped to England a year later and transferred across to the 4th Battalion.

Once on the Western Front, Private Ridley was thrown right into the thick of things. His battalion fought at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette – part of the Battle of the Somme – and it was here, on 18th September 1916, that he was wounded.

William received shrapnel wounds to his head, hand and right leg. Initially treated on site, he was quickly evacuated back to England, and admitted to the 2nd London General Hospital in Chelsea. Sadly, however, his wounds appeared to have been too severe; Private Ridley passed away from them on 30th November 1916, aged just 29 years old.

With his widow and children still in Canada, William’s body was taken back to Kent. He lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, close to where his mother was still living.

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Private William Ridley
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, Northamptonshire Regiment, photography, Private, story, unknown, war

Private Charles Debney

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Private Charles Debney

Charles William Debney was born in the spring of 1887, one of eight children to George Debney and his wife Susannah. George was a cooper for a cement works, who had brought his family from Norfolk to Kent in the mid-1890s, presumably for employment.

When Charles left school, he found work as a bricklayer; war was on the horizon, though, and when the call came, he signed up quickly.

While full details of Charles’ service are not available, it is evident that he had joined the Northamptonshire Regiment by November 1914. He was assigned to the 5th Service Battalion as a Private. Formed in Northampton, the battalion moved to Kent in the early months of the war, before moving to the Western Front at the end of May 1915.

Sadly, there is limited additional information available on Private Debney. He passed away on 29th May 1915, but there is no confirmation of the cause of his death. He was just 28 years of age.

Charles William Debney was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery, in his home town of Gillingham, Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, India, Kent, photography, Royal Garrison Artillery, story, Trumpeter, war

Gunner William Morgan

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Gunner William Morgan

William Francis Morgan was born on 22nd January 1884 in Bengal, India. The youngest of three children, he was the son of James Morgan and his wife Mary. Both came from Ireland, marrying in 1876. They moved to London, before James was posted to India as part of his role in the Royal Horse Artillery.

Sadly James died when William was just a toddler; this prompted Mary to move the family back to England. She married again in 1887, to Edward Curling, who was a carpenter in the Royal Artillery, and the family settled on the Isle of Grain in Kent, living in the fort where Edward worked.

Surrounded by those in military service and with an army heritage himself, is it no surprise that William felt drawn to the life. In September 1898 he enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery. Though not yet fifteen years old, he stood 5ft 11ins (1.69m) tall and weighed in at 101lbs (46kg). He had a fresh complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair and four distinctive marks were noted – three scars on his head and one on his right knee.

Trumpeter Morgan certainly got to see a lot of the world during his time in the army. After a period on home soil, he was sent to Egypt on Christmas Eve 1901, staying there for just over a year. He moved on to India, returning to England five years later, by which time he had achieved the rank of Gunner.

War was imminent, and in September 1914 he was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Barring a short period at home, Gunner Morgan remained on the Western Front for the remainder of the war, finally returning to the UK in January 1919.

William’s time in the army was one of two halves. He had several bouts of illness during his service, coming down with phimosis in 1901, scarlet fever and gonorrhoea in 1902, a fractured clavicle in 1903, pneumonia in 1904, rheumatism in 1906, ague in 1908, pleurisy in 1909, and had to return from France to England for an operation to remove a carbuncle between his shoulder blades in the summer of 1915.

Gunner Morgan was also pulled up for his conduct a few times too. He was punished for neglect of duty in August 1908, disobeyed orders in May 1909, was pulled up for being improperly dressed while in Portsmouth’s Highbury Arms Pub in November 1909 and went AWOL for ten hours on 31st July 1913.

There were positives to William’s service too, however. He was awarded the British and Victory Medals as well as the 1914 Star during the First World War. He was mentioned in dispatches and received the Military Medal in 1917 an the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal two years later.

Sadly, though, after Gunner Morgan’s positive and lengthy military service, his time out of the army was to be brief. Returning to England on 13th January 1919, he contracted influenza and pneumonia and succumbed to the lung conditions within weeks. He passed away on 27th February 1919, at the age of just 35 years of age.

William Francis Morgan was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent, just minutes’ walk from where his mother now lived.