Tag Archives: Oxfordshire

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Leading Stoker, Oxfordshire, Petty Officer, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker Petty Officer Alfred Bishop

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Stoker Petty Officer Alfred Bishop

Alfred Bishop was born on 18th June 1892 in the Oxfordshire town of Burford. The oldest of eleven children, his parents were Samuel and Emily Bishop. Samuel was employed by a local tannery, and the 1901 census found the family living on Guildenford, to the east of the town centre.

Alfred would initially follow his father into the tannery, where he was employed as a harness maker. However, he had his sights set on bigger and better things and, on 24th January 1911, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. His service records show that he was just under 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a ruddy complexion. The document also noted a scar on his left groin following a varicocele operation.

Stoker 2nd Class Bishop was sent to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, for his training. In August 1911 he was given his first posting, on board the cruiser HMS Black Prince. She would remain his home for the next nine months, during which he was promoted to Stoker 1st Class.

Over the next four years, Alfred would serve on five further vessels, returning to HMS Pembroke between each assignment. On 10th April 1916, he joined the crew of the cruised HMS Liverpool, and would remain with her for more than two years.

By this point Stoker Bishop’s annual reviews were increasingly positive, noting a very good character and a superior ability. This would pay off: in June 1916 he was promoted to Leading Stoker, with a rise to Stoker Petty Officer following two years later.

Alfred remained in the Royal Navy until 6th August 1919, when he was medically discharged with tuberculosis. By this point he had served for more than eight years, and had served on eight vessels.

Following his discharge, Alfred returned to Oxfordshire. The 1921 census found him living at 9a Markey Square with his wife, Eliza, and their five-month-old daughter, Bertha. There is little information about Eliza, but it seems likely that the couple met after her husband had returned home.

At this point, Alfred Bishop’s trail goes cold. He passed away on 29th August 1921, at the age of 29 years old. His body was laid to rest in the graveyard of St John the Baptist’s Church, in his home town of Burford.

Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, story, war

Private Albert Search

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Private Albert Search

Albert Search was born in Burford, Oxfordshire, in the autumn of 1891. One of thirteen children, he was the third son to William and Fanny Search. William was a farm labourer, and this is work into which Albert followed.

The 1911 census found the family living on Guildenford, close to the town centre and St John the Baptist’s Church. Three of the household were employed, three of the children were still at school, and they had a lodger – 71-year-old widower Steven Lange, who was also working on the farm.

On 15th August 1915, Albert married Annie Pearse. The same age as her new husband, she was also from Burford, and was the son of a cowman, possible connected to the same farm as her father-in-law. The couple set up home in Lawrence Lane, and went on to have a child, Albert Jr, who was born the following year.

Albert was called upon to serve his country some time after the wedding, and he joined the Gloucestershire Regiment as a Private. Assigned to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, he was soon sent to the Eastern Mediterranean. Private Search would spend more than two years there, but contracted malaria.

He was in hospital six months, and was afterwards invalided home for a month. He then returned back to his unit in Bristol, was sent back to hospital, and was discharged in 1920.

[Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette: Friday 9th September 1921]

Albert returned home to Annie and his son. When his health had recovered enough, he returned to farm work, and the 1921 census recorded him working on Tangley Farm. During that summer, however, his health deteriorated once more:

..on August 23 he was taken ill and died within eight days. Deceased was a native of Burford, where he was well known and highly respected.

[Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette: Friday 9th September 1921]

Albert Search was just 29 years old when he died. His body was laid to rest in the graveyard of St John the Baptist’s Church: this was where he had both been christened and married, and was at the end of the road from where his widow still lived.

In dying when he did, Albert became one of the last servicemen eligible for a Commonwealth War Grave.

Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire, Great War, history, injury, Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, photography, Private, story, war

Private Wilfred Morse

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Private Wilfred Morse

Wilfred John Morse was born in the spring of 1886 in the Gloucestershire village of Upper Slaughter. The oldest of six children, he was one of five sons, although one of his brothers died when he was a babe in arms, and a second died when he was nine. Wilfred’s parents were agricultural labourer and carter John Morse and his wife, Amy. John travelled to where the work took him, and by the time of the 1901 census, the family had settled in Burford, Oxfordshire.

The following census return, taken in 1911, noted that Wilfred had also found farm work, and he was employed as a milkman, possibly on the same farm as his father. When war broke out, however, Wilfred would step up to play his part.

The full service papers for Private Morse have been lost to time, but it is clear that he had enlisted in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry early on in the conflict. Assigned to the 6th (Service) Battalion, he found himself on the Western Front by July 1915.

It is unclear how long William remained on the Western Front, but is is likely that he was involved in the Battle of the Somme. By the start of 1917 he was injured, and his wounds were severe enough for him to be medically evacuated to Britain for treatment.

We regret to announce the death of Wilfred John Morse… of the Oxford and Bucks LI, who passed away in a London hospital after an operation following shell wounds and gas. After the action he was conveyed to the Australian Base Hospital and then to London, where it was found necessary to operate.

[Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette: Friday 9th March 1917]

Wilfred John Morse died on 1st March 1917, at the age of 30 years old. His body was taken back to Oxfordshire for burial, and he was laid to rest in the graveyard of St John the Baptist Church, Burford.

Commonwealth War Graves, East Lancashire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Lancashire, Lance Corporal, Manchester Regiment, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Sergeant, story, Sussex, Training Reserve Battalion, war, Wiltshire

Sergeant Charles Chown

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Sergeant Charles Chown

Charles Allen Chown was born in the Sussex village of Lyminster, at the start of 1882. The tenth of eleven children, his parents were Samuel and Mary Chown. Samuel was a general labourer, and when he passed away in 1898, Charles and his siblings rallied to support his now widowed mother.

The 1901 census found Mary, Charles and his brother Jesse living at 32 Lennox Road, Worthing, West Sussex. Jesse was employed as a brickmaker, while Charles had found work as a solicitor’s clerk. The family had two boarders, Helen and Rosie Bulbeck, and Charles’ niece, Minnie, was also staying with them.

Away from work, Charles was a music lover, and joined the local operatic society. In 1904 he appeared in a local version of Iolanthe, his “piece of portraiture being described as one of the successes of the occasion, for his facial play was good, and the drolleries of the character were displayed in an each and natural manner.” [Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 12th September 1917] In the following year’s Mikado, he took the role of the Lord High Executioner, and he was noted as being a “born comedian, with the most mobile countenance and a singularly dry form of humour…” [Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 12th September 1917]

By the time of the 1911 census, Charles had moved on with work, and moved out of home. Taking a room at 7 Tarring Road, Worthing, his landlords were Harold and Rose Ward. Still employed as a clerk, he was now employed by one of the estate agents in the town, although it is clear that his passion was elsewhere. When he joined up in the autumn of 1914, he gave his trade as musician.

Charles enlisted on 7th October 1914 in Ashton-under-Lyme, Lancashire. What took him north is unclear, although a theatre tour is a possibility. His service records note that he was 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall and weighed 138lbs (62.6kg). He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a sallow complexion.

Initially assigned to the Manchester Regiment, Private Chown was soon transferred to the 8th (Service) Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. He was obviously dedicated to his job: by the end of October 1914 he had been promoted to Lance Corporal, and within six weeks he rose to Sergeant.

In July 1915, Charles’ unit was dispatched to France. That autumn, they remained based near Tilques, in Northern France, but Sergeant Chown’s health was beginning to suffer. After just three months overseas, he was medically evacuated to Britain to receive treatment for pleurisy, and was hospitalised in Chatham, Kent.

When he recovered, Sergeant Chown was reassigned to the 10th Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment, before being transferred to the 47th Training Reserve Battalion in September 1916. That winter, however, his health received a setback, and he contracted tuberculosis. He would spend the first half of the following year in hospitals in Aldershot in Hampshire, Sutton Veny in Wiltshire and, from May 1917, the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford.

Sergeant Chown’s health would continue to deteriorate, and he was formally discharged from the army on 6th July 1917. He returned to Worthing, and his mother’s home, 2 Montague Place. Charles would eventually succumb to his medical condition, and he passed away on 31st August 1917, at the age of 35 years old.

The body of Charles Allen Chown was laid to rest in the family plot in Broadwater Cemetery, Worthing.

accident, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, Kent, killed in action, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Royal Marines, story, war

Private Thomas Neale

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Private Thomas Neale

Thomas Neale was born in the Botley, Oxfordshire, on 3rd June 1876. One of eight children, his parents were George and Mary Neale. George was an agricultural labourer and the family would settle in Cumnor, just over the Berkshire border.

Thomas was keen to make a life for himself and, on 29th December 1898, he enlisted as a Private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. HIs service papers show that he had been employed as a general labour and the point he signed up, and give an indication into the man he was becoming. He was noted as being 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall, with grey eyes, brown hair and a fresh complexion. He was also recorded as having a small scar on his right knee.

Private Neale was initially sent to the Royal Marines barracks in Deal, Kent, for his training. Over the next sixteen years, he would serve on eight ships, each time returning to what would become his home base, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in between voyages. While never outstanding, his annual reviews reported his good or very good character, and very good ability.

When war broke out in the summer of 1914, Private Neale was serving on board the battleship HMS Bulwark. Part of the Channel Fleet, her role was to patrol and protect the English Channel and south coast.

On 26th November she was moored up in the lower reaches of the River Medway, not far from Sheerness, being re-stocked with ammunition. That morning, a number of cordite charges overheated, detonating the shells stored nearby. The resulting explosion ripped through the battleship, and more than 740 crew were killed. Thomas was amongst those whose bodies were recovered and identified: he was 38 years of age.

The bodies that were recovered from the tragedy were taken to the Woodlands Cemetery in nearby Gillingham and laid to rest. Thomas Neale was buried alongside his colleagues in a marked grave, while those whose remains had not been identified were laid to rest in a mass grave nearby.

Private Thomas Neale
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, London Regiment, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Warwickshire

Private Wilfred Butler

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Private Wilfred Butler

Wilfrid Hinton Butler was born on 11th June 1895 in Cowley, Oxfordshire, one of four children to Alexander and Mary Butler. Alexander was a foreign stamp importer who, by 1899, had moved the family to the outskirts of Clevedon, Somerset.

The 1911 census found Alexander and Mary living in Clevedon, with Wilfrid’s two younger siblings. Wilfrid himself is missing from the document and, intriguingly, his parents are noted as having only two children: this is likely an misunderstanding over the number of children, and the number residing at home.

At this point, Wilfrid drops off the radar completely, and it is only through later documentation that we can identify what became of him. When war broke out, he joined up, enlisting in the London Regiment. Initially assigned to the 15th (County of London) Battalion (Prince of Wales’s Own Civil Service Rifles), he moved across to the 13th (County of London) Battalion (Kensington) at some point during the conflict.

Private Butler was firmly ensconced in northern France by 1916 and his unit fought in some of the bloodiest battled of the Somme. He was not to come out unscathed, however, and it is likely that he was wounded during the Battle of Morval.

The injuries Private Butler had received were severe enough for him to be medically evacuated back to Britain for treatment. He was admitted to hospital in Kings Norton, Birmingham, but his wounds were to prove fatal. He passed away on 2nd October 1916: he was 21 years of age.

Wilfrid Hinton Butler was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Walton Clevedon.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Channel Islands, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Jersey, Kent, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, story, Surrey, Sussex, war

Private Philip le Cornu

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Private Philip le Cornu

Philip Francis le Cornu was born on 29th July 1894 in St Peter’s, Jersey. The youngest of five children, his parents were Philip and Mary le Cornu. Philip Sr was a farmer, but it seems that both he and Mary passed away not long after his youngest son’s birth. By the time of the 1901 census the children had been split between family members, and Philip Jr was living with his maternal grandparents.

Philip finished his schooling, and seems to have sought a purpose in life. He emigrated to Canada and, by the time war broke out, was living in Grande-Mère, Quebec. He found employment as a clerk, but with conflict raging on the other side of the Atlantic, he responded to the call to arms.

Philip enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 12th September 1916. His service records show that he was 22 years and 2 months old and stood 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall. He had black hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion. Private le Cornu sailed to Britain, and arrived there on 7th April 1917.

Billeted in Shoreham, West Sussex, Philip was attached to the 14th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. Within weeks he was sent to France, and, on 15th August 1917, was caught up in the Battle of Hill 70 near Lens.

During the skirmish, Private le Cornu was badly wounded in the thigh and sent to the 58th Casualty Clearing Station. Within days he was moved to the 4th General Hospital in Camiens, but his condition necessitated medical evacuation to Britain.

Over the next year, Philip had three operations on his leg, and spent time at the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford, the Manor War Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, and the 16th Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent. Tragically, all of the medical treatment was to prove to no avail. Private le Cornu passed away from his injuries on 14th September 1918, more than a year after Hill 70. He was 24 years of age.

Philip Francis le Cornu’s body was taken back to the Channel Islands for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Mary’s Church on Jersey.

X-ray of Private Philip le Cornu’s left femur
(from uk.forceswarrecords.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lieutenant, Oxfordshire, photography, Royal Air Force, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, war

Lieutenant David Slocombe

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Lieutenant David Slocombe

David William Slocombe was born on 9th November 1893, the oldest of seven children to William and Kate. William was a tin worker from Huntspill, Somerset, and it was in nearby Highbridge that the family were born and raised.

David appears to have been a bright lad, receiving a sponsorship from the King James Foundation to attend Dr Morgan’s School in Bridgwater. He spent six years there, from September 1906 to July 1912, and went on to become a customs and excise clerk when he left.

When war arrived in Europe, David was called upon to play his part. He initially enlisted on 1st December 1915, but was placed on reserve for nearly a year. His service records show that he was 22 years of age and 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall. When he was finally mobilised, he was given a commission in the Royal Flying Corps.

At this point, David’s trail goes cold. Later documents confirm that he transferred across to the Royal Air Force when it was founded in April 1918, and that he rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He served in France and Italy and, by the end of the war, was attached to the 44th Training Depot Station in Oxfordshire.

By the autumn of 1918, Lieutenant Slocombe had come down with pneumonia. He was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Bicester, and this is where he was to breathe his last. David died on 24th October 1918, aged just 24 years old.

David William Slocombe was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Highbridge Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Essex, Essex Regiment, Great War, Hertfordshire, history, illness, Lieutenant, Mauritius, Oxfordshire, photography, Second Lieutenant, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Lieutenant Arthur Devas

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Lieutenant Arthur Devas

Arthur Edward Devas was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, on 29th July 1877. One of ten children, his parents were Reverend Arthur Devas and Louisa. Arthur Sr was chaplain at the County House of Correction, the prison a short walk away from the family home, over the Kennet and Avon Canal. The 1881 census showed the Devas’ were living to the south of the town centre, and were supported by three servants.

Arthur standing as a vicar’s son earned him an education. He was sent to the prestigious Haileybury College in Hertfordshire. When his father died in 1901, he felt a pull to see more of the world, and joined the army. Enlisting in the Essex Regiment in September 1902, he was taken on as a Second Lieutenant.

Promoted to the rank of full Lieutenant in January 1906, the next census, in 1911, recorded Arthur at the Warley Barracks in Billericay. When war broke out in August 1914, he was based in Mauritius: he remained there for the next five months, before his battalion – the 1st – were brought back to England.

Setting up camp in Banbury, Oxfordshire, the aim was to train the battalion in readiness for an assault in Gallipoli. For Lieutenant Devas, however, this was not to be. He had fallen ill on the journey back to Blighty and, having contracted typhoid, he was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford. He died at the hospital on 15th February 1915, at the age of 37 years old.

Louisa and some of her children had moved to Minehead, Somerset, after her husband’s death, and this is where Arthur Edward Devas’ body was brought for burial. He was laid to rest in the extensive Minehead Cemetery, to be reunited with his mother when she passed away some eighteen years later.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Middlesex Regiment, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, West Somerset Yeomanry

Private Gilbert Hurford

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Private Gilbert Hurford

Gilbert Henry Hurford was born in the spring of 1896, the second of five children to George and Elizabeth. George was a farmer from North Petherton, Somerset, but it was on Parsonage Farm, in nearby Kingston St Mary, that the family were raised.

Gilbert was helping his father on the farm when war broke out. At the time he was also a volunteer in the West Somerset Yeomanry, and in May 1916, he stepped up to play a full part in the conflict. His service records confirm that he was assigned to the 22nd (Service) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.

Private Hurford spent the first six months of his service on home soil, before being shipped off to Europe on 1st December 1916. He had not been in France for long when, on 10th February 1917, he was injured. His documents confirm this was a gun shot wound to his head, but, as he was treated on site, it thankfully appears not to have been too serious an injury.

Trouble struck a second time, however, on 4th September 1918, when Gilbert was injured again. This time his records confirm multiple gun shot wounds, and he was medically evacuated home for treatment. He was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford, and remained there for some three months.

This time, Private Hurford’s injuries proved too severe for his body to overcome. He passed away on 29th December 1918, at the age of just 22 years old.

Gilbert Henry Hurford’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful churchyard of St Mary’s Church, in his home village of Kingston St Mary.