Tag Archives: Lancashire

Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lancashire, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Frank Patience

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Private Frank Patience

Frank Nicholas Patience was born in Mullewa, Western Australia, on 6th March 1898. The tenth of fifteen children (of which four did not survive childhood), his parents were Joseph and Elizabeth Patience.

There is little concrete information about Frank’s early life. When he finished his schooling, he found employment as a farm hand, and this is what he was working as when he stepped up to serve his country.

Frank enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 18th June 1917. Within six weeks he left his homeland for Europe, arriving in Liverpool, Lancashire, on 3rd October. Assigned to the 16th Battalion of the Australian Infantry, he was barracked in Wiltshire, at a camp not far from the village of Codford.

Tragically, Private Patience’s time in the army, and in Britain, was to be brief. Within weeks of arriving in Wiltshire, he contracted pneumonia, and was admitted to the camp hospital. The condition was to prove his undoing, however, and he passed away on 27th October 1917. He was just 19 years of age.

Frank Nicholas Patience was 9,000 miles (14,500km) from home. He was laid to rest in the extended graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Codford, Wiltshire.

Private Frank Patience
(from findagrave.com)
Cheshire, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lancashire, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, war

Private Alfred Wallis

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Private Alfred Wallis

Alfred Edward Wallis was born on 7th February 1876, the youngest of five children to Charles and Mary. Charles was a carpenter and joined from Bruton in Somerset, but the family were born and raised in the Walcot area of Bath.

By the time of the 1901 census, Alfred was the only one of the Wallis siblings to remain living with his parents. They were living at 14 Belgrave Crescent, to the north of the city, and, at 25 years of age, Alfred had taken on work as a printer’s compositor.

On Christmas Day 1907, Alfred married Caroline Little. She was a farmer’s daughter from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and, at the time of their nuptials, the young couple were living at 8 Seymour Road, the next road over from his parents.

Alfred and Caroline would go on to have three children: Harold, Winifred and Lilian. The 1911 census found that they had moved again, and were now settled in a small terrace at 22 Cork Street, in the Weston area of Bath.

War broke out across Europe in the summer of 1914, and, in on 19th December 1915, Alfred enlisted in the Army Service Corps. His records noting that he was 39 years and 10 months old, stood 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall, and weighed 128lbs (58kg).

Private Wallis was not formally mobilised until the August 1916. Attached to the 19th Company, he was sent for duty to the Queen Mary’s Military Hospital in Whalley, Cheshire. Full details of his duties are unclear, although he would remain in the area for the next couple of years.

As the war progressed, it is likely that Alfred was exposed to the illness with which the patients were being admitted. In October 1918, he became unwell, and was admitted to hospital with a combination of influenza and pneumonia. The hospital he was sent to was the King’s Lancashire Military Convalescent Hospital in Blackpool, Lancashire, so it is likely that he had left Whalley by this point.

Private Wallis’ illness was to prove too much for his body to bear. He passed away while still admitted, on 29th October 1918. He was 42 years of age.

The body of Alfred Edward Wallis was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the majestic setting of Bath’s Locksbrook Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, Lancashire, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 1st Class William Eley

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Stoker 1st Class William Eley

William Charles Eley was born on 13th February 1890 in Liverpool, Lancashire. One of nine children, his parents were William and Ellen Eley. William Sr was noted as being a butcher on his son’s baptism record, but by the following year’s census, he was recorded as being a general labourer, and this is the line of work in which he continued.

When William Jr completed his schooling, he found employment as a carter. He sought bigger and better things, however, and, living so close to the Mersey dockyards, he was drawn to the sea. On 13th March 1908 he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 6.5ins (1.69m) tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He was also noted as having amole on his right cheek.

William was sent to HMS Acheron for his initial training. He spent six months on board, before moving to his first posting on board the battleship HMS Albermarle. She would be Stoker Eley’s home for the next eighteen months, and he gained a promotion to Stoker 1st Class during this time.

Over the next three years, William would serve on two more ships – HMS Victorious and HMS Lancaster. In between assignments, he was based at HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. On 15th March 1913, he completed his initial contract of five years’ service, and was transferred to reserve status.

This time back on civvy street would not last for long, however. On 2nd August 1914 William was mobilised once more and, after a few weeks back in Chatham, he was assigned to the battleship HMS Formidable. She was attached to the Channel Fleet, primarily guarding the south coast.

At 2:20am on Friday 1st January 1915, while off the Dorset coast, the Formidable was torpedoed by the German submarine U-24. Other ships in the convoy tried to assist, but after a couple of hours – and another torpedo strike – the damage was too great and she sank. 120 members of the crew were saved, but more than 540 officer and crew – including Stoker 1st Class Eley – were lost. He was just 24 years of age.

Luckily, William Charles Eley’s body was recovered and identified. His father had died a few years before, and it seems likely that Ellen could not afford to have her son brought back to Lancashire for burial. Instead, he was laid to rest in a communal grave in Lyme Regis Cemetery, Dorset, high above the seaside town where he had been brought ashore.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, India, Lancashire, photography, Private, Royal Defence Corps, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, war

Second Lieutenant Algernon O’Donoghue

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Second Lieutenant Algernon O’Donoghue

Algernon Leopold O’Donoghue was born on 4th June 1869 in Plymouth, Devon. The youngest of five children, his parents were Charles and Frances O’Donoghue. Charles had worked for the East India Company and the family travelled a lot while the children were growing up. He was in India when, in the spring of 1872, he passed away.

By the time of the 1881 census, Frances had moved the family to the Walcot area of Bath, Somerset. She was working as an assistant, and employed a servant of her own to help support the four children.

Over the next few years, Algernon’s trail goes cold. In 1900, he married Janette Hay, the daughter of a Justice of the Peace, who had been born in Ceylon. It seems likely that they met overseas: the 1911 census return records that she had been born in Ceylon, while he was a retired forest manager whose job had taken him to Burma (now Myanmar).

The census document found the couple living in a seven-room villa in Combe Down, on the outskirts of Bath. The had had a son by this point, with Algernon Jr making up the family.

Algernon was working for the Bombay Trading Company, and back out in India, when war broke out. He returned home, and stepped up to serve his King and Empire. While his service records have been lost to time, Private O’Donoghue joined the Royal Defence Corps, and quickly rose through the ranks: by the spring of 1917, he was a Second Lieutenant.

It was while serving in the north west of Britain that he fell ill: “[he got] wet while out in heavy rain, pneumonia following, and then double pneumonia.” [Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 26th May 1917] Second Lieutenant O’Donoghue was admitted to the Whitman Military Hospital in Manchester, but his condition was too severe. He passed away on 22nd May 1917, two weeks before his 48th birthday.

The body of Algernon Leopold O’Donoghue was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid in the family plot in Bath’s panoramic Locksbrook Cemetery, reunited with his mother, Frances, who had died a decade before.

Second Lieutenant Algernon O’Donoghue
(from findagrave.com)
Channel Islands, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Jersey, Lancashire, photography, Private, Royal Jersey Militia, story, unknown, war

Private Alexander Cain

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Private Alexander Cain

Alexander Bertram Cain was born on 31st July 1885 in Ormskirk, Lancashire. He was the ninth of eleven children to concert promoter Robert Cain and his wife, Sarah.

By 1901, Robert and Sarah had moved the family to Jersey, setting up home in St Saviour’s. Robert was noted as living off his own means, but Alexander, who would have been 15 by this point, is noticeable by his absence and, in fact, does not appear on that year’s census return.

Robert died in 1909, and on 26th January 1911, Alexander married a woman called Hilda Bedford. They settled down in St Helier, and went on to have two children, daughters Yvonne and Elizabeth. The census taken three months after the couple’s wedding recorded Alexander as living on his own means, so money appeared not to be an issue for the young family.

When war came to Europe, Alexander was called upon to play his part. On 12th March 1917, he enlisted in the Royal Jersey Militia, and was attached to the regiment’s Garrison Battalion, stationed on the island. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, and that he had a scar on his left cheek. The document also suggests that he had spent time in the Gloucestershire Regiment, but no further information about this is available.

Private Cain spent the next two years in the army. Towards the end of this time, however, his health appears to have been impacted, to the point that, on 6th May 1919, he was medically discharged from the Royal Jersey Militia.

Whatever his condition, it was to prove fatal. Alexander passed away at home on 31st May 1919: he was 33 years of age.

Alexander Bertram Cain was laid to rest in the family plot in La Croix Cemetery in Grouville, Jersey, Hilda left widowed and with two children – Elizabeth just four months old – to raise.

Channel Islands, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Jersey, Lancashire, photography, Private, Royal Army Medical Corps, Russia, Scotland, story, war

Private John Turner

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Private John Turner

John Francis Turner was born on 24th March 1899 in the St Ouen region of the Channel Island of Jersey. He was the only surviving child of Francis and Eugenie Turner, his older brother, Francis Jr, having passed away before John was born.

Francis was a farm labourer, but when John finished his schooling, he found work as a carpenter. When war broke out across Europe, he was conscripted to play his part and, on 31st March 1917, he enlisted in the army.

Private Turner was noted as being 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall and weighing 115lbs (52kg). His medical records show that his vision was defective, but not so bad as to exclude him from service, but he was also found to have flat feet.

John was assigned to the Royal Army Medical Corps, and was sent to Blackpool, Lancashire, where he was attached to the local depot. He spent the next two years in the army, although his time was not without incident.

In December 1917, he was confined to barracks for five days for overstaying his pass by more than eight hours. This seems to have been Private Turner’s only misdemeanour, however, and there is nothing to suggest anything other than good service.

John’s time in the army does not seem to have been limited to home soil, and, in the spring of 1919, he was attached to one of the Russian convoys ferrying aid and supplies overseas. On his return, however, he fell ill, and on 2nd February, he was admitted to hospital in Edinburgh, suffering from pleurisy.

Private Turner was to remain in hospital for the next few months. He slowly recovered, but then contracted meningitis, and, with his body already weakened by illness, this was to prove his undoing. He passed away on 23rd June 1919, aged just 20 years of age.

John Francis Turner’s body was taken back to Jersey for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful churchyard of St Ouen’s.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Gunner, history, Lancashire, photography, Royal Field Artillery, story, unknown, war, Wiltshire

Gunner Kei Marsh

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Gunner Kei Marsh

In a corner of the peaceful St Mary’s Churchyard in Codford, Wiltshire, is a headstone dedicated to L/17062 Gunner K Marsh. He served in the Royal Field Artillery, and passed away on 5th January 1916.

Gunner Marsh’s entry in the Army Register of Soldier’s Effects gives his first name – Kei – and that of his widow – Edith. The parish record for his funeral giving an age of 34 years old, and from here it is possible to piece together some of his family’s past.

Kei was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in the autumn of 1882, and was the son of engineer Alfred Marsh. He and Edith married in 1907, and were living with her widowed mother, Sarah, and their three children, John, Sarah and Edith, by the time of the 1911 census. The house – 30 Thorn Street in Burnley – was crowded. Along with the Marshes, Sarah also had her other six children living with her: a total of eight adults and four children sharing four rooms in the small terraced house.

Kei was working as a miner by this point, but had enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery by the summer of 1915. He acted as a Gunner in the 32nd Division Ammunition Column, although it is unclear whether or not he spent any time overseas.

By the end of 1915, Gunner Marsh had been admitted to the military hospital in Codford. The cause of his admission is unclear, but it was to be one that he was to succumb to: he passed away on 5th January 1916. Kei lies at rest in the quiet Wiltshire churchyard.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lancashire, Lancashire Fusiliers, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private James McEwan

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Private James McEwan

James McEwan was born towards the end of 1879 in Bury Lancashire. He was the older of two children to James and Mary McEwan. James Sr was a foundry worker, who died in the 1890s, leaving his widow to raise their two sons.

By the time of the 1901 census, all three members of the household were earning money: Mary was employed as a cotton card room hand in a mill; James was a wringing machine fitter, while his younger brother, Peter, was a printer’s apprentice.

The next census, in 1911, found James still living at home with his mother. He was now employed as a labourer in the local railway goods yard, and his maternal aunt, Annie, was living with them, working as a rover in the local mill.

When war broke out, James stepped up to serve his country. Full details are lost to time, but it is clear that he enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers, and was attached to the 4th/5th Battalion. This was a service and training unit, and Private McEwan did not spend any time overseas.

In the winter of 1915, James was based on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. While billeted there, he contracted bronchial pneumonia, and was admitted to a camp hospital. Sadly the condition was to prove too much for his body to bear, and he succumbed to it on 26th December 1915. He was 36 years of age.

It seems that Mary was unable to afford to bring her sone back to Lancashire. He was laid to rest in the peaceful St Mary’s Churchyard, in Codford, Wiltshire, not far from where he had breathed his last.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lancashire, Manchester Regiment, photography, Sergeant, story, war, Wiltshire

Serjeant Cecil Whitehead

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Serjeant Cecil Whitehead

Details of Cecil Whitehead’s early life as lost to time. Born in 1882, he was the son of Henry and Annie Whitehead, from Openshaw in Manchester. There are no census returns for the family, so it is not possible to discover any more of their background.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirm that Cecil wed a woman called Annie Ellis. His pension ledger notes four children: John, Cecil, Annie and Catherine, who died in 1917.

When war broke out, Cecil stepped up to serve his King and Country. He enlisted in the Manchester Regiment, and was assigned to the 3rd/8th Battalion. This was a reserve unit, based on home soil, and there is no evidence that Cecil spent any time overseas.

Cecil rose to the rank of Serjeant, by the winter of 1915, Cecil was billeted near Codford in Wiltshire. It was while he was here that he fell ill, contracting pneumonia. The condition was to prove too much for his body to bear, and he passed away on 13th February 1916, at the age of 33 years old.

Annie appear to have been unable to fund bringing her husband back to Manchester for burial. Instead Cecil Whitehead was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Codford.

Commonwealth War Graves, County Antrim, County Donegal, Great War, history, illness, Ireland, Lancashire, Northern Ireland, photography, Private, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, story, war

Private Rondaine Cary

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Private Rondaine Cary

Rondaine Tristram Cary was born in Lancashire in the autumn of 1896 and was the oldest of two children to Henry and Wilhelmina. Henry was an insurance agent, and, by the time of the 1901 census, the family had moved to the parish of Linsfort in County Donegal, Ireland. This is near where Wilhelmina had been born, so it seems likely that the draw of family had been partially responsible.

The 1911 census found the Carys living a few miles down the road, in Buncrana. Rondaine was listed as being a scholar, while his younger brother, five year old John, completed the family setup. John was employed as a commission agent, and all four members of the household were listed as being Episcopalian.

When war came to Europe in 1914, Rondaine was keen to play his part. He seems to have enlisted almost at once, joining the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Assigned to the 11th (Service) Battalion (Donegal and Fermanagh), Private Cary was sent to Ballymena, County Antrim, for training.

Rondaine had only been in the camp for a matter of weeks, when he contracted measles. He was admitted to a hospital in Ballymena on 17th February 1915, but his condition worsened, and his father came to visit. Private Cary passed away on 27th February 1915, aged just 18 years of age.

The Cary family seemed unable to afford the cost of bringing their son’s body back to Buncrana. Instead, the local authority paid for Rondaine Tristram Cary’s coffin and funeral at Ballymena Cemetery, while his army colleague funded his headstone.