Tag Archives: pandemic

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, Worcestershire Regiment

Private Stanley Counsell

Leave a comment
Private Stanley Counsell

Stanley John Counsell was born in September 1896 to George and Ellen, farmers in Glastonbury.

The youngest of five children, Stanley was an apprentice carpenter by the time he enlisted with his brothers Lawrence and Wilfred.

Private Counsell joined the Worcestershire Regiment in 1915 and was sent into action in France in September 1916.

He suffered medically during the war, succumbing to tonsillitis and diarrhoea during his time in France. A bout of tuberculosis in late 1918 saw Stanley shipped back to the UK and admitted to a hospital in Newcastle-upon Tyne.

The end of the Great War came and went, and Stanley was finally discharged from the army in March 1919, as no longer medically fit for war service.

On 2nd May 1919, less than six weeks after being discharged, Private Stanley Counsell passed away. He was 23 years old and was a victim not of the war, but of the subsequent influenza pandemic, which killed 250,000 people in the UK alone.

Stanley John Counsell lies at peace in the cemetery of his home town, Glastonbury.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war, West Somerset Yeomanry

Private Stephen Rawle

4 Comments
Private Stephen John Rawle

Stephen John Rawle was born in 1894, the second of four sons of George Rawle, a sailor, and Louisa, his wife.

By the time war broke out, Stephen was working as a groom in Wheddon Cross, just south of Minehead.

As the Great War loomed, he enlisted and Private Rawle serving on the home front. His record show that he stood at 5ft 9.5ins (1.76m) and was of good enough health to be enrolled for the Territorial Force. He was assigned to the West Somerset Yeomanry.

He was medically discharged from service on 29th March 1915, having served for one year and 31 days.

The records show no signs of injury or wounds, and newspapers of the period do not link him with any misadventure. I can only assume, therefore, that he died of natural causes, possibly linked to the Spanish Flu Pandemic. Stephen died on 5th September 1918. He was 25 years old.

Private Stephen John Rawle lies at rest in the churchyard of Lydeard St Lawrence, alongside two of his brothers, Ernest and William.

George and Louisa’s other son – Edward – also served, enlisting in the Somerset Light Infantry and fighting in the Balkans. Private Edward Rawle survived the war, returning home in March 1919.

It should be noted that, by June 1921, George and Louisa had lost three of her four sons to the Great War. Their daughter, Norah, had also passed away in 1918.

The 1921 census found Louisa living in East Town, in the parish of Tolland, not far from Lydeard St Lawrence. Edward was living with her, as were her three-year-old granddaughter, Lorna, and her eighteen-month-old grandson Beatty. It is unclear whose children they were. George, at this point, was helping his younger brother out on the family farm in Williton.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devonshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Somerset, story, war

Private Charles Stodgell

Leave a comment
Private Charles William Stodgell

Charles William Stodgell was born in Somerset in 1878, the eldest son of Samuel and Mary Stodgell. His father was an agricultural labourer, while his mother was a glover. Charles followed into farm work, becoming a carter by time of the 1901 census.

Charles married Mabel Duke in 1898 and the young couple had two daughters – Ida and Florence – in the following few years.

When war came, Charles was called up. He enlisted in June 1916, joining the Devonshire Regiment before being transferred to the Agricultural Company. His record shows that he stood at 5ft 6ins (1.67m) and weighed 10st 2lbs (64kg) and his build, health and experience is probably why he ended up in service where he did.

Private Stodgell was demobbed at the end of the war, and returned home on furlough (a word not just linked to everything 2020 has thrown at us!). Sadly, before he was fully demobbed, he contracted influenza, and died on 2nd February 1919.

Charles William Stodgell lies at rest in his home village of North Curry, in the churchyard of St Peter & St Paul.

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

Gunner Frederick Brooks

Leave a comment
Gunner Frederick Brooks

Frederick Brooks was born in the spring of 1897, the ninth of eleven children to Stephen and Grace Brooks. Stephen worked as a woodsman in Bredhurst, Kent, a trade his eldest sons followed him into.

Yewtree Cottages in Bredhurst, home to the Brooks Family

Frederick’s service records show that, when he enlisted in nearby Rainham, he was working as a fence maker. He was 5ft 6ins (168cm) tall, weighed 143lbs (65kg) and had fair physical development. He joined up in September 1915 and was assigned to the 2/1 Company Kent Royal Garrison Artillery.

Gunner Brooks’ early service was on home soil as part of the Territorial Force. However, he was transferred overseas as part of the British Expeditionary Force on 10th March 1917, where he served for nearly two years.

Frederick fell ill in January 1919, and was brought back to the UK for treatment. He was admitted to the Weir Red Cross Hospital in Balham, London, with bronchial pneumonia. He succumbed to heart failure just a few days later, on 4th February 1919. He was just 21 years old.

Gunner Frederick Brooks lies at rest in a peaceful corner of the secluded graveyard of St Peter’s Church in his home village of Bredhurst.

Frederick’s life throws a couple of coincidences my way. I used to live within spitting distance of his village, Bredhurst, and, indeed, have driven past his family home countless times. I also happened to have been born in the same hospital – the Weir in Balham – where Frederick had passed away 53 years earlier.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devonshire Regiment, Dorset, Great War, history, illness, Labour Corps, photography, Private, story, war

Private Samuel Cook

Leave a comment
Private Samuel Cook

Samuel Cook was born in Bedfordshire, the eldest of two children to Alfred and Phoebe Cook.

Alfred was a forester, which saw the family move around the country; the 1881 census found them living in Rutland, ten years later the family was recorded in Northamptonshire and by the 1911 census, they were in Dorset.

Samuel was quick to follow in his father’s footsteps, supporting his mother and sister after Alfred died in 1906.

The war was underway when Samuel was called up. His Devonshire Regiment service records show that he enlisted on 11th December 1915. His fitness seemed to have determined the path his military career would take.

Initially Private Cook was classified as C1 (free from serious organic diseases and able to serve in garrisons at home, able to walk 5 miles, see to shoot with glasses, and hear well), but was upgraded to B2 within six months. This identified that he was free from serious organic diseases, able to stand service on lines of communication in France, or in garrisons in the tropics and able to walk 5 miles, see and hear sufficiently for ordinary purposes.

Samuel was first enrolled in 13th (Works) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, before being transferred to the 311th (HS) Labour Company in Plymouth.

Private Cook was one of the thousands of soldiers who contracted influenza and subsequently died of pneumonia on 1st November 1918.

There seems to be some dispute over how and when Samuel fell ill. A request for a detailed medical report was sent, “as he appeared to have contracted the disease from which he died whilst on leave for the purpose of getting married”. The same request confirms that he was never admitted to hospital while in the company. (There are no records oh Samuel having married, so I am assuming that his leave may have been for wedding preparations, of normal leave.)

The report came back confirming that he has died from “pneumonia complicating influenza which was contracted whilst on service at Beaulieu”.

However and wherever it happened, the disease claimed Private Samuel Cook’s life; he lies at rest in Sherborne Cemetery, Dorset.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lance Corporal, photography, story, war, West Surrey Regiment

Lance Corporal Charles Stubbles

Leave a comment

Charles Frederick Stubbles was born in Tottenham in 1892. One of eleven children to Richard and Mary Ann Stubbles, by the time of the 1911 census, the family were living in Edmonton. Charlie and his brother had found employment painting gas stoves, while his father was a building foreman.

Charles enlisted in the army in 1916, aged 25 years and 11 months. His service records show that he stood at 5ft 2ins, weighed in at 69lbs; his health was classified as C2 – Free from serious organic diseases, able to stand service in garrisons at home, able to walk 5 miles, see and hear sufficiently for ordinary purposes.

Joining the Labour Corps of the West Surrey Regiment, Private Stubbles initially served on the home front, before being transferred to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in March 1917.

Charlie seems to have been a bit of a character and was pulled up a few times during his service. On 10th April, he was charged with “committing a nuisance in the barrack room”, for which he was confined to camp for eight days. On 21st August he went AWOL for nearly a day; he was docked eight days’ pay. On 28th October he appeared unshaven and dirty for the 7:15am parade; he was confined to barracks for seven days.

On 4th January 1918, Charles was admitted to a field hospital with diarrhoea; while there he was diagnosed with tuberculosis; he succumbed to this two days later, dying on 7th January 1918. He was 26 years old.

Lance Corporal Charles Stubbles is buried at the Haringhe Bandaghem Military Cemetery in Poperinge, Belgium.

Charles Frederick Stubbles was my great great uncle.

Boy, Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, history, illness, photography, Royal Navy, story, war

Boy 2nd Class Sidney Stagg

Leave a comment
Boy 2nd Class Sidney Stagg

Sidney Herbert Stagg was born in 1901. The eldest child of bootmaker Sidney Stagg and his wife Frances, Sidney Jr was too young to fight in the when war broke out.

He enlisted in the Royal Navy at the beginning of 1919, and was assigned to HMS Powerful, a training vessel based in Plymouth.

Boy Petty Officer Stagg’s time in the navy was heartbreakingly short. Within a few weeks he had contracted pneumonia and succumbed to the disease on 27th February 1919. He was just 17 years old, and had been in service for 36 days.

The Western Gazette reported on his funeral:

[He] left Sherborne just over a month ago to join the Royal Navy, a career for which he had expressed a great liking, and was attached to HMS Powerful, being made Boy PO within a fortnight of his joining that ship. A short time afterwards he contracted influenza, and pneumonia supervening, he died on Thursday at the Royal Naval Hospital, at Plymouth.

A service was held in the Congregational Church, and continued at the graveside, where three volleys were fired by a firing party of the Volunteers [the Sherborne Detachment 1st Volunteer Battalion, Dorset Regiment], and buglers sounded the last post. The Rev. W Melville Harris (uncle of the deceased) officiated, and the principal mourners were Mr Stagg (father), Miss Joyce Stagg (sister), Mr H Hounsell (uncle), and members of the business establishment.

Western Gazette: Friday 7th March 1919.

Sidney Herbert Stagg lies at peace in the cemetery in his home town of Sherborne.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker Wilfrid Baker

Leave a comment
Stoker Wilfrid Baker

Wilfrid David Baker was born in 1889 in Upchurch, Kent. One of ten children, to Charles and Margaret Baker, he followed his father into the brickmaking industry.

When the Great War came, Wilfrid signed up, enlisting in the Royal Navy in March 1917, as Stoker 2nd Class. During his training in Woolwich, he was promoted to Stoker 1st Class, before being assigned to the HMS Columbine naval base in Scotland.

During his work there, Stoker Baker came down with influenza and was transferred to the HMHS Garth Castle hospital ship. Wilfrid’s illness developed into pneumonia, and he passed away on 20th October 1918. He was 29 years of age.

Stoker 1st Class Wilfrid Baker is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in his home village, Upchurch.

Commonwealth War Graves, Driver, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Royal Field Artillery, story, war

Driver Harry Austin

Leave a comment
Driver Harry Austin

Harry Austin was born in the small Kent village of Bobbing in 1890. One of nine children to Richard and Emma Austin, his father was the village blacksmith, a trade two of his brothers followed after leaving school. Harry, however, became a general labourer in the coal industry.

Sadly, most of Harry’s wartime service is lost to time; we know that he enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery and served as a driver. The RFA was responsible for the medium-calibre guns and howitzers deployed close to the front line; Harry’s role, therefore, was likely to have involved driving the horses to and from the sites where the guns were needed.

Again, Driver Austin’s military records are somewhat lacking when it comes to his passing. However, where they mark him as ‘dead from disease’, a contemporary newspaper in memoriam gives a little more detail.

In ever loving memory of Driver Harry Austin, RFA… who passed away November 10th 1918, in the 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, from influenza following Gun Shot wounds, aged 29 years.

East Kent Gazette – Saturday 23rd November 1918.

An untimely death for Harry, but particularly poignant, given that he passed the day before the Armistice was signed.

Driver Harry Austin lies at peace in the graveyard of St Bartholomew’s Church in his home village of Bobbing, Kent.