Tag Archives: Monmouthshire Regiment

Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, Monmouthshire, Monmouthshire Regiment, photography, Private, South Wales Borderers, story, Wales, war

Private Cecil White

Leave a comment
Private Cecil White

Cecil George White was born in Cardiff, Glamorganshire, in the summer of 1899. The youngest of four children, his parents were called William and Mary. William was a stevedore and, at the time of the 1901 census, the family lived at 6 Whitchurch Road, to the north of the city centre.

The 1911 census shows things had changed significantly for the White family. They had left Wales, and had set up home in the Devon village of Croyde. William and Mary were now employed as farmers, with Cecil’s older sisters, Cordelia and Lilian, also helping out on the farm.

Europe descended into war in the summer of 1914, and while Cecil was initially too young to serve, he would eventually be called upon to play his part. Full details of his time in the army have been lost to time, but it would seem that he joined the South Wales Borderers, but was attached to the Monmouthshire Regiment.

Private White’s trail is tantalisingly sparse. The one document relating to his passing notes that he died of sickness in Barnstaple, Devon, on 12th November 1918 – the day after the Armistice was signed. Given the town’s proximity to the family home, it is fair to assume that he had been home on leave when he fell ill.

The body of Cecil George White – just 19 years of age when he died – was taken the short distance back to Croyde for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in the village’s Baptist Chapelyard, alongside his sister, Lilian, who had passed a few weeks before.

The family would be reunited in death: William was buried alongside his children when he died in 1946, at the age of 78. Mary died in 1960, at the age of 91, and was interred with her family.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, history, injury, Kent, Monmouthshire, Monmouthshire Regiment, photography, Private, story, Surrey, Wales, war

Corporal John Cudby

Leave a comment
Corporal John Cudby

Frederick John Cudby – who was known by his middle name – was born in the summer of 1884 in Farnham, Surrey. The fourth of six children, his parents were William and Caroline Cudby. William was a bricklayer from Essex, while his wife was from Ramsgate in Kent. The family went where his work was, and by the mid-1890s, they had moved to Blaenavon in Monmouthshire.

When he left school, John found employment as a mechanic, working as an engine oiler at a local works. William passed away in 1901, and by the time of the next census, in 1911, John was working as a mason’s labourer. The family were all still living in Blaenavon, helping Caroline by keeping money coming in .

When war came to Europe, John was quick to serve King and Country. He enlisted in the Monmouthshire Regiment and, as a Private, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion. His troop was soon sent to France and, by November 1914, he was entrenched at Ypres, near Ploegsteert Wood.

Promoted to Corporal, little of John’s service information survives. It is clear that he was wounded during a skirmish and that he was medically evacuated back to Britain. It seems likely that he was admitted to the Preston Hall Military Hospital in Aylesford, Kent, and that this is where he subsequently succumbed to his injuries.

Corporal Frederick John Cudby died on 6th June 1915, at the age of just 30 years old. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Aylesford, Kent.

While buried in the churchyard, the location of John’s grave is not known. Instead, he is commemorated on a joint headstone in the First World War section of the graveyard.

Bedfordshire Regiment, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Labour Corps, Middlesex Regiment, Monmouthshire Regiment, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, war

Private William King

Leave a comment
Private William King

William Samuel King was born in the summer of 1880, and was one of four children to Richard and Elizabeth King. Richard was a railway worker from Totnes, Devon, and this is where the family were born and raised.

When he left school, William found work as a house painter, and this is a job he continued to do through to the outbreak of the Great War. On 8th June 1908 he married Minnie Edmunds: the couple went on to have a son, Leslie, who was born in 1912. William and Minnie had, by this point, moved to Swansea, West Glamorgan, presumably as work was more plentiful here than in their Devon home. His work as a decorator seems to have been recognised, and he was admitted to the National Association Partnership, Swansea South.

On 1st December 1915, William enlisted and his service records show that he was 5ft 2ins (1.57m) tall. While it is clear that he spent his time on home soil, his service seems a bit disjointed.

Private King wasn’t formally mobilised until September 1916, when he was assigned to the 2nd/2nd Battalion of the Monmouthshire Regiment. In December he was transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment before returned to his original battalion in February 1917. A month later, he moved to the Bedfordshire Regiment, before moving to the Middlesex Regiment a few weeks later. This also seems to have been a temporary move as, three weeks later, he was assigned to the 337th Works Company of the Labour Corps (although this was still part of the Middlesex Regiment).

The potential reason behind Private King’s haphazard service seemed to become a little clearer when, in September 1917, he was referred to Fort Pitt Hospital in Rochester, Kent. He was noted as being “very talkative, noisy [and] in a state of mental disease… he has… exalted and grandiose ideas and is difficult to restrain.” His mental health was obviously suffering, and he was discharged from military service in December 1917.

William returned home, although it was not to be for long. He passed away on 13th April 1918, at the age of 37 years old. While no cause of death is evident, it seems likely to have been connected to his ‘mania’, which had been exacerbated by his army service.

William Samuel King was laid to rest in Totnes Cemetery, not far from his parental home.