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Able Seaman, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, London, Ordinary Seaman, photography, Royal Navy, story, Suffolk, war

Able Seaman Gregory Wootton

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Able Seaman Gregory Wootton

Gregory Ernest Wootton was born on 28th October 1898, the only child of Henry and Isabella Wootton. The family lived in East London, and the year of Gregory’s birth was a challenging one. His parents married that year, and Henry also passed away, leaving Isabella to raise her son on her own.

She was made of stern stuff, however, and moved back in with her father, Joseph, while finding employment as a florist, working with artificial flowers. By 1909, Isabella had remarried, wedding policeman Harry Mee, and moving to South London, where the couple had a child of their own, Gregory’s half-brother, Leonard.

War was edging close to Europe, although Gregory was underage when hostilities broke out. By late 1916, however, this was no longer the case, and he was drawn to the Royal Navy. On 6th November, he gave up his job as a case maker, and enlisted as an Ordinary Seaman. His sign-up papers show that he stood 5ft 4ins (1.62m) tall, had brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion.

Ordinary Seaman Wootton’s first posting was at HMS Pembroke, the shore-based establishment at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. After a couple of months, he was moved north, to HMS Ganges, which was a similar training base in Suffolk. While here, he was promoted to Able Seaman.

In June 1917, Gregory was on the move again, returning to Chatham. While here, at a particularly crowded time for the dockyard, he was billeted at the nearby Drill Hall. On the night of the 3rd September, while resting, the first German night raid dropped bombs on Chatham, directly hitting the Drill Hall. Able Seaman Wootton was killed instantly. He was just 18 years of age.

Gregory Ernest Wootton was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in nearby Gillingham. He was buried with the other 97 victims of the Chatham Air Raid.

Coldstream Guards, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, Guardsman, history, illness, London, photography, story, unknown, war

Guardsman Alfred Moist

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Guardsman Alfred Moist

Alfred Charles Moist was born early in 1887 in the Devon village of Chudleigh Knighton. His parents were William and Mary Moist, and he was the youngest of eight children. William was a clay miner and his neighbours – who included the young Thomas Willcocks – all worked in the same trade.

William died in 1899, leaving Mary to raise the family alone. By the time of the 1901 census, her widowed daughter Emma had moved back in with her son, and was working from home as a dressmaker. Alfred, meanwhile, and his two older brothers Frank and Reginald were all employed as brick dressers and together they earned enough to keep the family going.

The next census – compiled in 1911 – found Alfred still living with Mary, but the household had a different set up. Emma had remarried and was living in nearby Ilsington with her publican husband. Another of Alfred’s sisters, Bessie, had moved in with her daughter, Florence, and was keeping house for her mother. Reginald was also still living at home and was still employed by the brickyard. Alfred, however, had found now work as a police constable.

Mary passed away in the spring of 1913, by which point, Alfred had met Edith Mary Sampson, a labourer’s daughter from North Devon. The couple married in Broadhempston, near Totnes, on 21st November 1913.

War came to Europe, and Alfred enlisted in December 1915. His job in the police force, however, meant that he was initially placed on reserve, and he was not formally mobilised until April 1918, when he joined the Coldstream Guards. His enlistment papers show that he stood 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall and weighed in at 10st 4lbs (65kg).

Guardsman Moist was barracked in London, but fell ill in September 1918. He was admitted to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital with a haematoma and renal calculus (kidney stones). He spent a total of four months in hospital before being discharged back to duty.

At this point, Alfred’s trail goes cold. The next record for him comes in the form of the record of his death, which was registered in Hampstead, London. This suggests that he was either still in the Coldstream Guards or that he had been hospitalised again because of his previous illness. Either way, he died on 28th August 1919, at the age of 32 years old.

Alfred Charles Moist’s body was brought back to Devon. He lies at rest in the Graveyard of St Paul’s Church in his home village of Chudleigh Knighton.

Able Seaman, Boy, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, London, Ordinary Seaman, photography, Royal Navy, story, war

Able Seaman Hubert Banks

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Able Seaman Hubert Banks

Hubert Philip Banks was born on 13th September 1896 in Tottenham, London and was one of eight children to Wilfrid and Mary Banks. Wilfrid was a gas engineer, but when he left school, Hubert found work as a clerk. By the time of the 1911 census, the family had moved to Edmonton.

Hubert had a sense of adventure, and wanted a career that reflected that. On 23rd September 1913, he enlisted in the Royal Navy; as he was underage at this point, he was given the role of Boy. Within a year he turned 18 and was formally given the rank of Ordinary Seaman.

After initial training at HMS Pembroke – the shore-based establishment at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent – he was assigned to HMS Cornwallis, a dreadnought class vessel that served in the Mediterranean. Hubert spent two years on Cornwallis, during which time he was promoted to Able Seaman.

Over the next few years, Hubert served on three more vessels – HMS Quernmore, HMS Agamemnon and HMS Europa. In between times, he was based back in Chatham before moving back to HMS Pembroke on a more permanent basis in July 1918.

It was while he was back in Kent that Hubert fell ill. He was admitted to the Naval Hospital in Chatham with pneumonia, and was to succumb to the lung condition on 30th October 1918. He was just 22 years of age.

Hubert Philip Banks was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the naval base he called home.

accident, Cambridgeshire, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Kings Royal Rifle Corps, Lieutenant, London, Machine Gun Corps, photography, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, Surrey, Wales, war

Lieutenant Basil Scott-Holmes

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Lieutenant Basil Scott-Holmes

Basil Scott-Holmes was born on 2nd February 1884 in the Somerset village of Wookey. The oldest of two children, his father was Liverpool-born Thomas Scott-Holmes and his wife, Katherine. When Basil was born, Thomas was the vicar of St Matthew’s Church, Wookey, but by 1901, he had risen to the role of clergyman – and subsequently Chancellor – at Wells Cathedral.

Basil’s pedigree stood him in good stead. Initially educated in Llandaff, South Wales, he subsequently attended Sherborne School in Dorset. Sent up to Cambridge, he studied history at Sidney Sussex College.

After leaving university, Basil spent time in Europe learning German and French. He was then assigned the role of Assistant Commissioner in North Nigeria but, after a year there he was invalided home taking up a teaching role at the Bristol Grammar School in 1912.

In July 1913, Basil married Barbara Willey, a surgeon’s daughter from Reigate, Surrey. The marriage record shows that Basil was registrar for an architectural association by this point; the couple went on to have two children, daughters Annette and Prudence.

When the war broke out, he was obviously keen to do his bit. In September 1914 he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps, before gaining a commission in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps a couple of months later. In the spring of 1916, Lieutenant Scott-Holmes had been seconded to the Machine Gun Corps, although it is unclear whether he served abroad during any of his time in the army.

On the evening of 24th October 1916, Lieutenant Scott-Holmes was riding in a motorcycle sidecar through central London, on the way back to camp. A local newspaper picked up the story:

…they stopped when going through Wandsworth to re-light the near light, and in the dark a motor omnibus ran into them, and Lieutenant [Scott-Holmes], who was strapped in the side-car, was, with the car, flung across the road. He died as he was being taken to Wandsworth Hospital. At the subsequent inquest, a verdict of “accidental death” was returned.

Central Somerset Gazette: Friday 3rd November 1916

Basil Scott-Holmes was just 32 years old. His body was brought back to Somerset; he was laid to rest in the cemetery at Wells Cathedral.

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Basil Scott-Holmes
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Ireland, Kent, London, Private, Royal Marines, story, war

Private Henry Teahen

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Private Henry Teahen

Henry Teahen (or Teahan) was born in around 1898 in Castlegregory, County Kerry, Ireland. One of twelve children – eight of whom survived infancy – his parents were John and Catherine Teahan.

John was a wayman (or road surveyor), who was born in Kerry. Catherine was born in Wandsworth and it was in London that the couple met and married. By the time Henry was born, the family had moved back to Ireland, although Catherine had made the journey back to England in the early 1900s, after John passed away.

The 1911 census found the family living in Forest Gate in the east of the capital; Henry’s oldest brother, Joseph, was head of the household and, at 24, was working as a police constable. Schoolboy Henry was there, as was his mother, two more of his brothers, one of his sisters and his niece and nephew.

War was imminent, though, and, within a week of hostilities breaking out, Henry – who had been working as a waiter – enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. Private Teahen’s service records show that he was 5ft 8ins (1.72m) tall, had a fair complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. They also give his date of birth as 22nd June 1896, although he may have adapted this, as he would have been underage at the point he joined up.

Over the next few years, he served on a number of ships, switching between the Plymouth and Chatham divisions of the regiment. Full details of his duties are not immediately apparent, although is seems that he was injured while on board HMS Valiant in February 1916 – six months before her involvement in the Battle of Jutland – receiving a contusion to his right knee.

By the closing months of the war, Private Teahen had transferred back to the Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. It was while here, early in 1919, that he fell ill. Details of his condition are lost to time, but it is known that he succumbed to them, passing away on 1st March 1919; he was 21 years old when he died.

Henry Teahen was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, within walking distance of the dockyard at which he was based.

Henry’s older brother James, also fought in the First World War. Full details are not clear, but documents show that he enlisted in the 6th City of London Regiment (also known as the City of London Rifles).

James’ regiment fought in many of the fiercest battles on the Western Front, including Loos, Vimy, High Wood and Messines, but it was at Ypres in the late summer of 1917, that he was injured. He died of his wounds on 30th September, aged just 23 years old.

Private James Teahan was laid to rest at the Mendinghem Military Cemetery in Poperinghe, Belgium.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, London, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 1st Class Henry Wate

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Stoker Henry Wate

Henry Wate was born on 15th June 1897, the youngest of seven children (four of whom survived) to Henry and Norah Wate. Henry Sr was from the East End of London. He raised his family in a three-room tenement in White Horse Alley, just off Cowcross Street, next to the busy Farringdon Station.

By the time of the 1911 census, Henry Sr and Norah had been married for thirty years. The head of the household, Henry was working as a rad dealer, while Norah was a housewife. Of their children, William (the eldest) worked as a labourer for a bike dealer, Annie was a packer in a chocolate factory, Nellie was a waitress and Henry Jr was still at school, though only just. Henry’s niece Julia was also staying with them, and was employed as a fancy leather worker.

When war broke out, Henry Jr was working as a carman, carting goods to and from the nearby railway. When the call came, however, he joined up, enlisting in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class. After a couple of months training at HMS Pembroke – the shore establishment at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham – he was assigned to HMS Wallington. This was a trawler, requisitioned by the Royal Navy to act as a boom/balloon vessel, presumably to tether barrage balloons.

In January 1917, Henry received a promotion to Stoker 1st Class. He returned to Chatham six months later. That summer, HMS Pembroke was becoming crowded and he was billeted at the Chatham Drill Hall.

On 3rd September 1917, the building took a direct hit from a German bomber. Stoker Wate, along with 97 others, was killed instantly. He was just 20 years old.

Henry Wate was laid to rest – along with the others who perished that night – in a mass funeral on 6th September 1917 at the nearby Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham.

Full details of the night raid on Chatham Drill Hall can be found here.

Henry’s older brother William also served in the Great War. Twelve years older than his brother, William joined the Royal West Surrey Regiment in January 1915 as a Private. He was posted to France in July, and ended up serving on the Front Line for nearly four months.

In September 1915, Private Wate fell ill with heart palpitations. Shipped back to England for treatment, he was admitted to the Brook War Hospital in Greenwich, South London. The medical report confirmed that William had had rheumatic fever as a child, and had had an attack of ‘sycope’ (low blood pressure and a loss of consciousness) in 1911. The report concluded that he had heart disease and he was discharged from military service in 1916, as a result of this.

Little is known about Williams post-army life. All that can be confirmed is that he passed away from his heart condition on 23rd November 1918 aged 33. He was buried in St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green, North London.

Able Seaman, Boy, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Leading Seaman, London, Ordinary Seaman, Petty Officer, photography, Royal Navy, story, Suffolk, war

Petty Officer William Coughlan

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Petty Officer William Coughlan

William Henry Coughlan was born on 16th November 1891, one of thirteen children to William and Catherine Coughlan. William Sr was a labourer, born and bred in the East End of London, who raised his family in Hackney.

William Jr seemed keen for a way to improve himself and in May 1909, enlisted in the Royal Navy. Initially given the rank of Boy, this was due to his age; on his eighteenth birthday a few months later, he was formally enrolled in the navy as an Ordinary Seaman.

To begin with, he was billeted at HMS Ganges II, the shore-based training ship in Harwich, Suffolk, but within a matter of weeks he was on board a sea-going destroyer, HMS Antrim.

Ordinary Seaman Coughlan was obviously a keen young man; by the time the Great War broke out, he had served on four further ships, as well as another shore base, HMS Pembroke I. He rose through the ranks to Able Seaman and, by 1915, had reached the role of Leading Seaman.

Most of his service was spent upon HMS Agamemnon, initially in the Channel, but was then moved to the Mediterranean. On the night of the 5th May 1916, the ship was moored in the harbour at Thessaloniki (Salonika). A Zeppelin, the LZ55, made a bombing raid, but when the searchlights caught it, the Agamemnon fired on it and hit the aircraft, breaking it in two. It crashed in the swamps around the Vardar river and its crew were captured.

Leading Seaman Coughlan remained on the Agamemnon, before returning to England in November 1917, where he received further training at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham. He was promoted to Petty Officer a couple of months later, and began three years of shore- and ship-based service.

In the summer of 1921, while again based in Chatham, he contracted pneumonia, succumbing to the lung condition in a matter of weeks. Petty Officer Coughlan died on 26th July 1921, aged just 29 years old.

William Henry Coughlan was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham; within walking distance of the naval base that had become his home.

Army Veterinary Corps, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, London, photography, Private, story, Sussex, war

Private Frederick Finch

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Private Frederick Finch

Frederick Henry Harvey Finch was born in 1876 in the Sussex village of Ripe. He was one of eleven children, born to James and Eliza Finch. James was an agricultural labourer, a trade into which most of his children, Frederick included, followed.

In the spring of 1900, Frederick married Ellen Maloney. She had been born in Fareham, Hampshire, and, by the time of the 1891 census, ages just nine years old, was recorded in the Union Workhouse in Portsea. The couple wed in Hailsham, and went on to have three children, Frederick Jr, Hilda and Herbert.

By now, Frederick had moved on from farm labouring, and was working as a groom and a gardener. Within ten years, however, he had moved the family to the coast and the village of Angmering; he had found new employment, working as a carter for a coal merchant.

Frederick continued in this line of work as war broke out, but was one of the first to join the village’s contingent of the Voluntary Training Corps. He seemed to be content with this and at the start of 1917, he enlisted in the armed forces, joining the Army Veterinary Corps.

Private Finch was sent to Woolwich for training, but within a matter of weeks fell ill. Admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital, he passed away on 24th January 1917, at the age of 40. No specific cause of death is recorded, but a local newspaper report of his funeral suggests, rather disingenuously, that “his health, which was never very robust, proved unequal to the strain of Army life”. [Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 7th February 1917]

Frederick Henry Harvey Finch was brought back to Angmering for burial He lies at rest in the graveyard of St Margaret’s Church in the village.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Labour Corps, London, photography, Private, Royal Garrison Artillery, story, Sussex, war

Gunner Percy Gast

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Rustington

Percy Cyril Edward Gast was born in the West Sussex village of Nutbourne in 1889. His parents were William and Eliza Gast and he was one of sixteen children, seven of whom survived.

William was an agricultural labourer, and farming was the line of work the whole family went into; by the time of the 1911 census, they had moved to Rustington, near Worthing, where Percy was working as a cowman.

When war broke out, Percy enlisted, joining the Royal Garrison Artillery. His skillset soon identified, he was transferred over to the 696th Agricultural Company of the Labour Corps.

While full details of his time in the army are not readily available, Private Gast served his time on home soil. Towards the end of the war he contracted influenza and pneumonia and was admitted to the Mile End Military Hospital in Newham, East London.

Sadly, the lung conditions were to prove his undoing; Private Gast passed away on 20th November 1918, at the age of just 29 years old.

Percy Cyril Edward Gast’s body was brought back to Rustington for burial. He lies at rest in the graveyard of St Peter and St Paul’s Church in the Sussex village.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Ireland, Kent, London, Officer's Steward, photography, Royal Navy, story, war

Officer’s Steward Gerald Connolly

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Officer’s Steward Gerald Connolly

Gerald Sidney Connolly was born in the spring of 1899, one of eleven children to Thomas and Mary Connolly. Thomas was a retired soldier who had been born in Malta, while Mary had come from Portsmouth. The couple had lived in India for a while, but, by the time Gerald was born, had settled in Kildare, Ireland.

Retirement from the armed forces left Thomas needing to financially support his family, and so they made the move to London in 1910. According to the following year’s census, the family had settled in Manor Park, to the east of the city, where Thomas was working as a storekeeper for a local hostelry.

Military service was obviously in young Gerald’s blood and, in April 1916, he gave up work as an errand boy for a life in the Royal Navy. Initially taken on as a servant boy at HMS Pembroke and HMS President – the shore-based establishments in Chatham, Kent – he subsequently served on HMS Shannon, a cruiser that patrolled the North Sea for German warships.

It was while he was aboard the Shannon that Gerald came of age, and was given the rank of Officer’s Steward (3rd Class). During the next few years, he served short periods on five further vessels, before returning to HMS Pembroke in December 1918.

Officer’s Steward Connolly was still serving in Chatham two months later, and he kept himself active. It was while he was making use of the barracks’ swimming baths that an accident befell him. His service record confirmed that he was found drowned in the baths on 26th February 1919 and a subsequent inquest identified that no foul play was to blame. Gerald had ‘accidentally drowned whilst bathing’. He was just 19 years of age.

Gerald Sidney Connolly’s body was laid to rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, not far from the Naval Dockyard where he was based.