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Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Dorsetshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war

Private Joseph Symes

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Private Joseph Symes

Joseph Symes was born in the spring of 1871, and was the oldest of four children to William and Sarah. William was a farm labourer from Stoke Abbot in Dorset, and it was here that the family were born and raised. They set up home with Sarah’s parents, and were recorded as living with them in the 1871 census, and with Sarah’s widowed mother in the 1881 record.

William had died by the time the 1891 census return was taken, and Sarah took up work as a mill hand. The document found her living in the village of Netherbury, a few miles to the south east of Stoke Abbott, with her three younger children, William, Alice and Mary Ann. Joseph was noticeable by his absence, but later documents confirm that he had enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment by this point, and was likely serving overseas.

Joseph had returned to England by the turn of the century, setting up home back in Netherbury. On 24th September 1910, he married Sarah Jane Dunsbury in Beaminster parish church. The daughter of a blacksmith, she was 13 years Joseph’s senior – 52 years old to his 39. The couple lived in Netherbury, where he was working as a mason’s labourer.

When war broke out, Joseph stepped up to play his part once more. He re-enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment on 1st September 1914, and was attached to the 6th Battalion. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall and weighed 182lbs (82.6kg).

Private Symes remained on home soil during his time in the army. He switched to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion in March 1915, which was based in and around Weymouth. In the autumn of 1915, he was admitted to the Sidney Hall Military Hospital in the town, suffering from bronchial pneumonia. The lung condition was to prove his undoing, and he passed away on 22nd November 1915, while still admitted. He was 44 years of age.

Joseph Symes was taken back to Netherbury for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in the village.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Dorsetshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Sidney Crabb

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Private Sidney Crabb

Sidney Edgar Crabb was born in the autumn of 1898 in the Dorset village of Chedington. One of ten children, his parents were shepherd-turned-farm labourer John Crabb and his wife, Mary.

Little information is available about young Sidney’s life. He was still at school when the 1911 census was taken, and was too young to enlist when war was declared in the summer of 1914. He enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment no earlier than October 1916, and was sent to Warminster for training.

The only other record for Private Crabb confirms his passing. He died from bronchial pneumonia while in hospital near his army camp in Warminster, Wiltshire, on 3rd April 1917. He was just 18 years of age.

Sidney Edgar Crabb’s body was taken back to Dorset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, in his home village of Halstock. While only five of his siblings survived childhood, Sidney was the only one to pass away as a result of the conflict.

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

Boy 2nd Class Albert Loveless

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Boy 2nd Class Albert Loveless

Albert William Loveless was born on 23rd February 1901, the third of four children to Albert and Matilda Loveless. Albert Sr was a hawker and marine store dealer, and the family grew up and lived in the Dorset village of Mosterton.

When he completed his schooling, Albert Jr found work as a railway porter. When war broke out, however, he was keen to play his part before the opportunity passed him by and, on 10th September 1918, he enlisted in the Royal Navy.

As he was below the age to formally enrol, Albert was given the rank of Boy 2nd Class. His service records show that he was 5ft 2.5ins (1.59m) tall, with brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion.

Boy Loveless was sent to HMS Powerful, a training ship based in Devonport, Devon, but sadly, his time there was to be brief. Within a matter of days, he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in Plymouth, having contracted pneumonia. He passed away on 18th September 1918, having been in service for just a week. He was only 17 years of age.

The body of Albert William Loveless was taken back to Dorset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Mosterton, walking distance from his grieving family’s home.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Sergeant, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Serjeant Edward Davies

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Serjeant Edward Davies

Edward Victor Davies was born in the Weston area of Bath, Somerset, in the summer of 1897. The second of four children, and the only boy, his parents were Walter and Emily Davies.

Walter was a park keeper who died when Edward was just 9 years old. By the time of the 1911 census, Emily was working as a caretaker for a solicitor’s office, while her sone was a boarding student at the Duke of York’s School in Guston, Kent. This army school had more than 500 students, with a staff of 100 to train them. It is unclear whether Edward went voluntarily, or whether he was sent there by his mother’s employers because he was fatherless.

War came to Europe in the summer of 1914, and Edward stepped up to play his part. Unfortunately, his service records have been lost to time, so it is unclear whether he went straight into the army after finishing his education. However, given that he held the rank of Serjeant by the end of the conflict, it seems likely that his military career began before the start of the First World War.

Edward – who was better known as Ted – joined the Wiltshire Regiment, and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion. His unit spent time on the Western Front, but there is no evidence whether or not he served overseas. He survived the war, but subsequently fell ill, as so many servicemen did:

DAVIES – March 28th, Sergeant Edward Victor (Ted) Davies, 2nd Wiltshire Regiment, at the Royal Military Hospital, of pneumonia, following influenza, aged 22 years.

[Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 03 April 1920]

Edward Victor Davies was laid to rest in the sweeping grounds of Bath’s Locksbrook Cemetery, not far from where he had grown up.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Somerset, story, Surrey, war

Private Victor Blatchford

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Private Victor Blatchford

Victor William Haydon Blatchford was born in Bath, Somerset, on the 20th November 1897. The younger of two children, his parents were William and Kate Blatchford.

William was a draper, and the family lived in the bustling city centre, above the shop he and Kate ran. By the time of the 1911 census, the family were registered as living in 12 rooms at 52 & 53 Southgate Street. As well as the Blatchfords, four other people made up the household: draper’s assistants Edith Letts and Nellie Harris, milliner Florence Carke, and general domestic servant Ellen Heskins.

War came to Europe in the summer of 1914, and Victor was called upon to play his part. Full details of his military service have been lost to time, but a later newspaper report suggest he had enlisted early in 1916. William had died in October 1914, but it is unclear whether his son’s decision to enlist was related to his father’s passing.

Private Blatchford joined the Royal Army Service Corps, and was attached to the Mechanical Transport Depot in Norwood, Surrey. While information about his time in the regiment is no longer available, the same newspaper report hints at time spent overseas:

Private Victor WH Blatchford, ASC, MT, only son of Mrs William Blatchford, Okehampton Lodge, Kipling Avenue, died on May 20th, at Manor War Hospital, Epsom, from pneumonia, contracted in East Africa, after two years and three months’ active service. The funeral will be at Locksbrook Cemetery, and it is asked that no flowers be sent.

[Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 25th May 1918]

Victor William Haydon Blatchford died on 20th May 1918: he was just 20 years of age. He was laid to rest in Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, alongside his father. When Kate passed away in 1941, she was also interred in the family plot.

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)
Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, photography, Second Lieutenant, story, Tyne & Wear, war, Worcestershire Regiment

Second Lieutenant Clement Edwards

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Second Lieutenant Clement Edwards

Clement Edward Arthur Edwards was born in the summer of 1898, and was the oldest of six children to Clement and Caroline Edwards. Clement Sr was a colonel in the army, and had been born in Dublin, Ireland. His wife hailed from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, but it is clear that the family travelled as it grew, as each of the Edwards children were born in a different location. Clement Jr was born in Devon, while Caroline had given birth to his younger siblings in locations as distant as Sussex, Hampshire and the West Indies.

By the time of the 1911 census, Clement Sr had retired from duty. The family had settled back in Devon, and were living in the 12-roomed North Grange in the village of North Lew. Clement and Caroline employed five staff, including a cook, a nurse, a housemaid, a kitchen/parlour maid and a stable boy.

It seemed inevitable that Clement Jr would have followed his father into the army. Sadly his service records are lost to time, but a later newspaper report gives an insight into this time in the army:

Colonel and Mrs Edwards of Townsend House, Halberton, have the sympathy of all their friends and neighbours in the loss they have sustained by the death of their eldest son, 2nd-Lieut. Clement Edwards Alexander Edwards, of the Worcestershire Regiment, from pneumonia, following influenza, at the Northern General Hospital, Newcastle-on-Tyne [sic]. Edwards was formerly at Blundell’s School. He joined up at the earliest possible opportunity, obtaining a commission in his father’s regiment. He was a great favourite with all who knew him.

[Tiverton Gazette: Tuesday 10th December 1918]

Clement Edward Alexander Edwards died on 5th December 1918: he was just 20 years of age. His body was taken back to Devon for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in Halberton.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, story, Tyne & Wear, war

Private George Babb

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Private George Babb

George Henry Babb was born on 6th October 1900 in the village of Halberton, Devon. One of ten children, his parents were stonemason Clem Babb and his wife, Emily.

There is little documented about George’s life. The 1911 census records that he was still at school, and there is nothing to confirm the work he found when he completed his education.

George was not yet 14 years old when was was declared, and the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects suggests that he didn’t enlist until the late spring of 1918. He was assigned to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was attached to the 5th Battalion.

Private Babb was sent to the north east for training, and it seems that he became unwell while there. He was admitted to the 1st Northern General Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, suffering from a combination of influenza and pneumonia. The conditions were to prove fatal: Private Babb passed away on 8th November 1918, a month after his eighteenth birthday.

George Henry Babb was taken back to Devon for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in his home village of Halberton.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Dorsetshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, India, killed in action, Machine Gun Corps, Mesopotamia, photography, Private, story, war

Private James Ellery

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Private James Ellery

James Ellery was born in the autumn of 1889, and was the middle of seven children. His parents – Frederick and Mary – were born in Dorset, and the family were raised in the hamlet of Lillington. Frederick was a farm labourer, but James found his way into building work when he finished his schooling.

When war came to Europe, James stepped up to play his part. Full details of his military service have been lost to time, but it is clear that he had enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment and was attached to the 1st/4th Battalion.

Private Ellery’s unit served in India and Mesopotamia during the conflict, but it is unclear whether James saw any action overseas. Certainly by early 1919 he was back in Britain, as he was hospitalised in Sherborne following a bout of influenza. This developed into pneumonia, and he was admitted to the town’s Yeatman Hospital.

James’ immune system had become weakened during the conflict, and the pneumonia turned septic. It proved to be fatal, and James passed away on 1st March 1919. He was 29 years of age.

James Ellery’s body was taken back to Lillington for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Martin’s Church.

James was not the first of the Ellery siblings to die during the Great War. His eldest brother, Frederick, had enlisted in the 2nd Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps Cavalry. He was killed in action on 21st August 1918, leaving behind a widow and three children. He was 36 years of age and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois British Memorial in Haucourt. France.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Dorsetshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Reginald Lane

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Private Reginald Lane

Reginald William Lane was born in the autumn of 1886, the eighth of ten children to Joseph and Sarah. Joseph was an agricultural labourer and he and his wife raised their family in their home village of Thornford in Dorset.

When he finished his schooling, he found work as a gardener’s boy. He went on to make a career out of this and was employed as a gardener when he married Evelyn Sharp on 15th April 1914. The couple exchanged vows in St Swithun’s Church, Hinton Parva, Dorset, the marriage certificate noting that the groom’s father was now employed as a woodsman.

War came to Europe later that year, and Reginald enlisted to serve the King and Empire. Little information is available about his military career: he joined the Dorsetshire Regiment, but there is no confirmation that he spent any time overseas. Private Lane transferred over to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment, his new unit serving on home soil. Based in Kent, Reginald was part of the Thames & Medway Garrison.

Joseph died at the end of August 1915, and was laid to rest in the St Mary Magdalene Churchyard. Just weeks later, Reginald’s younger brother, Gilbert, a Private in the 3rd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, was killed during the Battle of Loos. He was commemorated on the Loos Memorial in Dud Corner Cemetery in France.

Private Reginald William Lane survived the war, but only by eleven days. While based in Kent, he contracted influenza and pneumonia. He died on 22nd November 1918, aged 32 years. His body was brought back to Dorset, and was laid to rest alongside his father.

There is no further information available for Evelyn.

Reginald’s mother, Sarah, however, only lived for another couple of months. She passed away on 25th February 1919, at the age of 69 years old. She was reunited with her husband and son in St Mary Magdalene Churchyard, the family headstone commemorating Private Gilbert Lane as well.