Fred Ford was born in the Wiltshire town of Mere in 1877. One of eight children to John and Charlotte, his father was an agricultural labourer from the village.
When he left school, Fred initially found work as an errand boy; he soon moved into labouring and, by the time of the 1901 census, was employed as a bricklayer.
In 1904, Fred married Florence Phillips; she was the daughter of an agricultural labour from Somerset. Fred, by this time, had found work as a coal miner in the county, and the young couple set up home in the village of Babington, near Frome. They went on to have four children.
Conflict was on the horizon and, while full details of his military service are not available, it’s clear that he enlisted as soon as he was able to, almost as was was declared. Gunner Ford joined the Royal Field Artillery, and was assigned to the 108th Brigade of the regiment’s Ammunition Corps.
Initially based in Taunton, Fred was soon moved to Portsmouth and then Worthing, and it was here, in the first winter of the war, that he contracted influenza and pneumonia. Admitted to St Cecil’s Red Cross Military Hospital in the Sussex town, sadly the condition proved too much for him. He passed away on 8th February 1915, tragically hours before Florence arrived from Somerset. Gunner Ford was just 37 years old.
Finances not enabling her to transport his remains back home, Florence Ford laid Fred’s body to rest in Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, the town where he died.
Sidney William Alner was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, in March 1899, one of eleven children to Sidney and Ellen Alner. Sidney Sr was a grocer’s porter, and the family lived on the celebrated Gold Hill in the town.
War was to come when Sidney Jr was only young – he had just turned 15 when it broke out. He saw his older brothers go off to war and was obviously keen to do his bit as well. Until he was old enough, however, he worked as an errand boy for his father’s employers, Stratton Sons and Mead.
His time would come, of course, although dates for Sidney’s enlistment are not clear. A contemporary newspaper record confirms that he arrived in France in January 1918, so it is likely that Private Alner joined up at some point during the previous year.
He joined the Hampshire Regiment, and was assigned to the 1st Battalion. Heavily involved during most of the conflict, the battalion was seen as key to the Final Advance of the autumn of 1918. Private Alner was caught up in the fight to break the Hindenburg Line, fighting on the River Selle and capturing the town of Monchaux.
It was while his battalion was advancing on the village of Préseau on 2nd November, that Private Alner was injured. Shot in the arm, he was evacuated back to England, and admitted to the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot. He would have survived his injuries, had pneumonia not set in, and it was to this that he would succumb on 19th November. He was just 19 years old.
Sidney William Alner’s body was brought back to Dorset. He lies at rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in Somerset, within walking distance of his family’s home.
Sidney was the second member of the Alner family to die as a result of the Great War.
His older brother Harry, who had become a chauffeur and went to live in London, joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1915. Private H Alner had served three years in France when he was killed on the front line just three weeks before his brother. He was 32 years old, and left a widow and two children.
When researching Sidney Alner in newspaper articles, an interesting report surfaced.
An unfortunate accident has happened to a little girl, not quite four years old, the daughter of Sidney Alner, who resides in Gold Hill. Heals’ steam hobby horses visited the town on Friday and Saturday in last week, and on the evening of the former day, Alner took his little girl for a ride on the horses.
Whilst they were in motion, the bolt that kept the horse on which Alner sat with his child attached to the connecting rod came out, and he and the little girl were precipitated to the ground.
Alner escaped without injury, but his daughter had one of her legs fractured above the knee. She was taken home, and Dr Evans set the injured limb. Later in the evening she was removed to the Westminster Cottage Hospital.
Salisbury and Winchester Journal: Saturday 31st October 1891
This Sidney Alner was Private Alner’s father, and the daughter would have been his older sister Sarah. Nothing more is reported of the incident, and Sarah went on to live until 1945, when she was 57 years old.
Reginald Robert Foot was born at the beginning of 1888 in Shaftesbury, Dorset, the oldest of three children to Robert and Annie Foot. Robert was a tailor from the town, who brought up his young family in the comfort of well-known surroundings.
When he left school, Reginald found work as a carpenter and joiner. He was a keen, if over-eager, sportsman, and played for Shaftesbury FC. In May 1906, he was reported for ‘cheeky’ behaviour towards the referee in one match.
In the lead up to the Great War, he also spent some of his his spare time in the Territorial Army and, when war broke out, he was keen to continue doing his bit. He joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a Private in December 1915 and, by the time he was shipped out to France in January 1917, he had been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal.
After a year on the Western Front, Reginald returned to the United Kingdom and, once the Armistice had been declared, his unit was shipped to Ireland. He fell ill while he was out there, and, in January 1919 was admitted to a military hospital in Ireland.
Sadly, the lung conditions he had contracted – influenza and pneumonia – were to get the better of him, and he passed away on 7th February 1919. Lance Corporal Foot was 31 years old.
The body of Reginald Robert Foot was brought back to Dorset; he lies at rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in the town of his birth, Shaftesbury.
Stanley James Payne was born towards the end of 1882, one of eleven children to Stephen and Elizabeth Payne. Stephen was a leather salesman from Essex, who had moved his family to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset in around 1880.
Stanley seems to have been drawn in to a military life from an early age. In January 1900, he enlisted as a Private in the Somerset Light Infantry, and the 1901 census listed him as living at the Raglan Barracks in Devonport, near Plymouth.
Military service took Private Payne to India, where he served for six years. His success and ambition were clear; in 1906 he was promoted to first to Corporal and then to Sergeant. By 1911 – and now back in England – as a Lance Sergeant, Stanley was working as a military clerk at the Royal Horse Artillery Barracks in Dorchester, although he was still attached to the Somerset Light Infantry.
Stanley’s ambition and sense of adventure continued; by July 1912 he had made the transfer over to the newly-formed Royal Flying Corps, as a Sergeant.
It was while he was based in Dorchester that he met Winifred Bell. She was the daughter of a local council worker, and the couple married in the town in September 1912. Stanley and Winifred went on to have a daughter, Doris, who was born in July 1914.
War had arrived in Europe, and on 7th October, the now Warrant Officer Payne was shipped to France. During his nine months on the Western Front, he was mentioned in despatches and received the Croix de Guerre for his gallantry. The local newspaper also reported that he:
…had also the honour of being presented to the King on the occasion of His Majesty’s last visit to the front, and at a home station had also been presented to Queen Mary.
Western Daily Press: Saturday 8th March 1919
Returning to England on 1st June 1915, he was again promoted to Lieutenant and Quartermaster, although here his military records dry up. By this time, he had been in the armed forces for more than fifteen years, but his military records seem to confirm this as the last day of his service.
The next record for Stanley confirms his passing. Admitted to the Central Air Force Hospital in Hampstead with a combination of influenza and pneumonia, he died on 3rd March 1919. He was just 36 years of age.
Brought back to Weston-super-Mare, where his now widowed father was still living, Stanley James Payne was laid to rest in the Milton Cemetery in his home town.
Stanley’s gravestone gives his rank as Major. While there is no documented evidence of any additional promotions after June 1915, the rank is the equivalent of Quartermaster in the Army Reserve. It seems likely, therefore, that the end date of his military service marked the start of his time in the reserves.
Albert Athay was born in 1887, one of eight children to Thomas and Emily. Thomas was a labourer for the local council in Weston-super-Mare, and the family lived in a small house on a road leading inland from the seafront.
Thomas died when Albert was only 14 years old, and, having left school, he found labouring work to help support his now widowed mother and younger siblings.
In August 1910, Albert married Mable Dunstone, a cowherd’s daughter from Somerset. The couple continued to live with Albert’s mother and brother right up until the outbreak of war. They went on to have three children, Milicent, Freda and Charles.
Albert, by this time, has been volunteering with the local Labour Battalion; he formalised his military service in June 1917, officially enlisting in the Labour Corps. He served as part of the territorial force, in and around Salisbury Plain.
Private Athay fell ill in the summer of 1918, and was admitted to hospital on 11th June with pneumonia. Sadly, as the days progressed, so did the condition, and he passed away from it just eleven days later. He was just 31 years old.
Brought back to Weston-super-Mare, Albert Athay was laid to rest in the Milton Cemetery in his home town.
Arthur Reginald Lavender was born in Bath on 17th January 1889, the second of two children to George Charles (or Charles George) Lavender and his wife, Elizabeth. George raised the family in Bath and seems to have been a jack of all trades, finding work where he could, as a porter in a warehouse according to the 1891 census and a stationary engine driver ten years later.
On 1st December 1907, at the age of just 18, Arthur married Kate Pearce, a painter’s daughter from Weston-super-Mare. The young couple went on to have a son, Sidney, who was born the following year.
By 1911, Arthur was working in Weston-super-Mare as a warehouseman at a local laundry and, on the day of that year’s census, was staying with his father-in-law. Kate, meanwhile, had taken Sidney to see her brother, Frank, who lived in Bristol.
War was coming to Europe, and, in November 1915, Arthur signed up, joining the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Private. After initial training – including a course on First Aid, he was sent overseas on 11th April 1916, where he was assigned to the 27th Casualty Clearing Station.
Private Lavender’s time in the RAMC seems to have been a complicated one. He was admitted to a field hospital within a month of arriving in France with a double inguinal hernia, a condition that continued to dog him over the coming months.
Arthur was eventually shipped to England in March 1917 for an operation at the Metropolitan Hospital in London. The operation itself seemed to have been a success, but, while admitted, he contracted pneumonia, and it was this lung condition that was to end his life. Private Lavender passed away on 7th May 1917, aged just 28 years old.
Arthur Reginald Lavender was laid to rest in the Milton Cemetery in Weston-super-Mare.
Charles William Dyer was born on 12th May 1895, the youngest of seven children to Harry and Mary Dyer.
Harry was a farmer, who brought his family up in the village of Kewstoke, just to the north of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. He seems to have been keen to try new things because he and Mary lived for a while in Australia, and their first two children were born there. They then moved back to the UK in around 1887, settling back in Somerset.
By the time of the 1911 census, Charles was 16 years old, and all of the family were helping out on the farm. He seemed to share his father’s sense of adventure; in 1913, he emigrated to Canada, setting himself up as a farmhand in Winnipeg.
War was coming to Europe, however, and Charles joined up. He enlisted in October 1917, joining the Canadian Infantry. Leaving Canada on a troop ship on 19th February 1918, he arrived back in England on 4th March.
Private Dyer was soon installed at the Canadian Infantry camp at Bramshott in Hampshire. Within weeks of arriving in England, however, he had contracted influenza; this developed into pneumonia, and was admitted to the camp’s Military Hospital on 22nd May. Sadly, a week later, Private Dyer was dead. He was just 23 years old.
Charles William Dyer was taken back to Weston-super-Mare and laid to rest in the Milton Cemetery there.
Charles Dyer (on right) in Canada (Courtesy of ancestry.co.uk)
John Thomas Harriss was born on 22nd February 1878, one of seven children to George and Mary. George was a jeweller, who moved the family from London to Weston-Super-Mare when John was three or four years old.
Following in his father’s footsteps was not something John was going to do, and the move to the coast seemed to have sparked an interest in the sea. He enlisted for twelve years’ service in the Royal Navy in March 1900, working as a stoker.
After initial training at HMS Pembroke in Chatham, Kent, Stoker 2nd Class Harriss was assigned to HMS Terpsichore and, over the length of his service, he worked on a further ten vessels. During this time, he was promoted a couple of times, reaching the role of Leading Stoker by 1911, while he was serving aboard HMS Magnificent.
With war imminent, when John completed his period of service, his term was extended until the end of hostilities. He had, by the beginning of 1914, attained the rank of Stoker Petty Officer, and was assigned to HMS Russell.
After the start of the war, this ship was assigned to the Grand Fleet and worked on the Northern Patrol, and in November 1914, she bombarded German-occupied Zeebrugge. The following year, HMS Russell was sent to the Mediterranean to support the Dardanelles Campaign, though she did not see extensive use there.
On 27 April 1916 HMS Russell was sailing off Malta when she struck two mines laid by a German U-boat. Most of her crew survived the sinking, though 125 souls lost their lives. Stoker Petty Office Harriss was one of the survivors; his service records note that he was ‘commended for [the] great coolness shown on the occasion of the loss of HMS Russell’.
Brought back to the UK, John contracted pneumonia, and spent time at home with his family, in Weston-Super-Mare. It was here, sadly, that he was to succumb to the lung condition, and he passed away on 7th June 1916. He was 38 years old.
John Thomas Harriss lies at rest in Milton Cemetery in Weston-Super-Mare.
Arthur George Poole was born in Brislington, Somerset, in April 1893. His father, George, was a master builder, and with his mother, Rhoda, the family raise their five children in the Bristol suburb.
Arthur was obvious a bright lad; he attended the Bristol Grammar School, excelling at football, hockey and cricket. After finishing school, he joined a firm of Bristol solicitors and was also appointed secretary of the Bristol Law Society. He went on to continue his studies, when he was accepted to read law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
The war was on the horizon, however, and he was called upon to do his duty.
He joined Bristol’s Own (12th Gloucester Regiment) in 1914, and was musketry officer at Chiseldon for some months before going to France in 1915, where he was attached to the 6th Gloucester Regiment.
Within three months he had a severe attack of trench fever, and was home on sick leave for a few weeks. He was severely wounded in October 1917, and came back to England for good. Some months later he was mentioned in despatches. He spent a year in hospital, and although not discharged, was allowed to resume his law studies.
Gloucestershire Echo: Saturday 14th December 1918
While in hospital, Captain Poole contracted influenza, which then became pneumonia. Although recovering from his injuries, it was these conditions that were to get the better of him, and he passed away on 23rd November 1918, at the age of 25 years old.
Arthur George Poole was laid to rest in the pretty graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in Clevedon, Somerset, where his parents now lived.
Robert Voisey was born towards the end of 1891, one of six children to Richard and Sophia. Richard was a tailor and, while both he and Sophia had been born in Cullompton, Devon, by the time Robert was born, they had moved to the Somerset town of Taunton.
When he left school, Robert followed his father’s trade and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was living with his parents and two of his sisters in a terraced house not far from the town’s station.
With the outbreak of the Great War, Robert was keen to do his bit. While full details of his military service are not available, it seems that he initially enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry, but was subsequently transferred to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Joining the 6th Battalion as a Private, he saw action on the Western Front, and was wounded in April 1918.
Evacuated to England for treatment, Private Voisey was admitted to the 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester. He seemed to be recovering well from his injuries, but then contracted influenza.
Sadly, this developed into pneumonia and Private Voisey subsequently died on 23rd October 1918, at the tender age of 25 years old.
Robert Voisey’s body was brought back to Somerset and he was laid to rest in the St James’ Cemetery in the town.
Robert’s funeral was written up in the local newspaper, and the report sheds more of a light on the Edwardian attitude towards some medical and mental health conditions than it does on the actual service.
The very fact of [Robert] ever having been a soldier, considering the great disability he was afflicted with through an incurable impediment in his speech, testifies abundantly to his high and noble interpretation of duty and patriotism.
Had he insisted he could at any time have evaded military service, but so eager was he to serve his country that it was not until he had actually been four times rejected as “physically unfit for military service” was he eventually accepted.
To the writer o this brief notice, who was his friend and fellow shop-mate for a long while, but who was at the time doing duty at Castle Green Recruiting Office, he often time used to express his indignation at not being accepted, and on the last occasion he spoke to the writer, it was to emphatically declare himself “as fit to be a soldier as anyone who had yet left Taunton.”
He dreaded the thought of being considered a shirker, and his opinion of many who have, even up till now, successfully evaded service, though far more physically fit than he was, was contemptuous to the bitterest extreme.
He was a true Britisher, a faithful friend and shop-mate, and a courageous soldier of whom no fitter epitaph could be written than “he gave himself in defence of home, country and liberty.”
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 6th November 1918
Death and Service 