Tag Archives: Private

Commonwealth War Graves, Egypt, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, New Zealand, New Zealand Otago Regiment, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Andrew Wishart

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Private Andrew Wishart

Andrew Anderson Wishart was born in Mokoreta, New Zealand, on 9th July 1896. The fourth of eight children, his parents were George and Agnes Wishart.

There is little information available about Andrew’s early life, but when he completed his schooling, he found work in the local sawmills, not an uncommon trade for the rural southern part of the country. In his spare time, he enlisted in the cadets, and had spent a year with them when he stepped up to join the war effort.

Andrew signed up on 19th November 1915, and was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the New Zealand Otago Infantry Regiment. His service records show the mad he had become: he gave his age as 20 years old (he was, in fact, only 19), he was 5ft 10.5ins (1.79m) tall and weighed 166lbs (75.3kg). He was initially trained near Wellington, and seemed to enjoy his freedom, as he spent a month in hospital in Trentham, suffering from gonorrhoea.

Private Wishart’s battalion set out from Wellington on 1st April 1916, arriving in Suez a month later. After three weeks’ pause in Egypt, his unit continued on to France, disembarking in Etaples on 28th May, and heading for the Western Front. Andrew soon found himself in the thick of the action.

The 1st Battalion was heavily involved at the Somme in the summer of 1916, and Private Wishart was not to come out unscathed. He was wounded on 30th September, and evacuated for treatment, first to Rouens, then to Britain. Wounded in the left thigh, he was admitted to the 1st New Zealand Hospital in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, and would end up spending two months there.

In December 1916, Private Wishart moved to the ANZAC camp in Codford, Wiltshire. He remained on site for the next few months, although this time was not without incident, as he was admitted to the camp hospital for with venereal disease once more.

Andrew returned to camp on 10th April 1917, but his health seems to have been impacted. He became jaundiced, and was once again admitted to the camp hospital. Atrophy of the liver was identified, and the condition would prove too severe for his body to recover from. He died on 10th July 1917, the day after his 21st birthday.

Andrew Anderson Wishart was laid to rest in the extension to St Mary’s Churchyard in Codford, Wiltshire, not far from the base he had called his home.

Andrew’s younger brother James had also enlisted in the Otago Regiment when war broke out. As a Private, he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, his path followed a similar one to that of his older sibling. He was killed in action on the Western Front on 15th November 1916, aged just 18 years old.

Private James Wishart is buried in the Cité Bonjean Military Cemetery in Armentieres.

Private James Wishart
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, story, war

Private Harry Gurd

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Private Harry Gurd

Harry John Gurd was born in the Wiltshire parish of Berwick St John in the spring of 1881. He was one of three children to dairyman Ebenezer Gurd and his wife, Elizabeth.

Details of Harry’s early life are fragmented, but by the time of the 1911 census, he had moved to West Sussex, and was working as a gardener. The document confirms that he had married Alice three years before, and that they were living in North End, Findon. By this point, the couple had three children: Alice, Ronald and Walter, and they would go on to have another daughter, Hester, in 1913.

Harry stepped up to play his part when war was declared. Full details of his service have been lost, but it is evident that he enlisted by December 1917 at the latest and, as a Private, joined the Army Veterinary Corps. He was initially attached to the 15th Veterinary Hospital, but transferred across to the Labour Corps, joining the 695th Company.

In the summer of 1918, Private Gurd fell ill. He was admitted to hospital, but his condition – a duodenal ulcer – was to prove fatal. He passed away on 25th June 1918, at the age of 37 years old.

The body of Harry John Gurd was brought back to Sussex for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St John the Baptist Church, Findon, the village that had become his home. When Alice died in the summer of 1958, she was buried alongside Harry: husband and wife reunited after forty years.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Private Richard Hollingdale

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Private Richard Hollingdale

Richard Hollingdale was born at the start of 1887, and was one of nine children to Richard and Elizabeth. Richard Sr was a farm labourer from Lancing, but his namesake son was born in the Sussex village of Washington.

By the time of the 1901 census, the family had moved to Findon, a village to the north of Worthing. Attached to Muntham Farm, they lived in New Barn, a workers’ cottage on the estate. Richard Jr and his brothers all helped out on the farm and, according to the next census return, Richard Sr, now 75 years of age, was a labourer, while the three sons still living at home – William, Richard Jr and Charles – were all waggoners.

When war consumed Europe in the summer of 1914, Richard Jr stepped up to serve his country. Sadly, full details of his service have been lost to time, but it is clear from what remains that he joined up early in the conflict, and certainly no later than October 1914.

Private Hollingdale was attached to the 7th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment and in the spring of 1915 his unit moved to the Ramillies Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire. Richard had only been there for a couple of weeks, when he fell ill. He was admitted to the local Isolation Hospital with scarlet fever, and the condition was to prove fatal. He passed away on 23rd March 1915, at the age of 28 years old.

The body of Richard Hollingdale was taken back to Sussex for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in St John the Baptist Churchyard, Findon.

Commonwealth War Graves, Crete, Great War, history, illness, India, Malta, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Private Wilfred Bridger

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Private Wilfred Bridger

Wilfred Percival Bridger was born on 20th January 1885, the middle of three children to William and Emma. William was a groom from Albourne in Sussex, but, after a spell in Newmarket, the family had settled in Findon near Worthing.

William passed away just two years after Wilfred’s birth, and Emma remarried. The 1891 census found her and her new husband, George Lish, living with William and his siblings in a house on Findon Street.

When he completed his schooling, William found work as a shepherd: the next census return, taken in 1901, found the extended family living at 1 Brazil Cottages, next to the Black Horse Inn in Findon Village. George and Emma now had three children of their own, and Emma’s widowed mother, Martha, completed the household.

Shepherding was not a permanent career option for Wilfred and, on 28th April 1902, he enlisted in the army. He gave his occupation as groom, and his medical report confirmed he was 5ft 7ins (1.7m) tall and 120lbs (54.4kg) in weight. He was noted as having brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

The Royal Sussex Regiment would definitely provide Private Bridger with the globe-trotting adventures that he may have wished for. After two years on home soil, his unit – the 2nd Battalion – moved to Malta, where he would spend close to twelve months. In May 1905 he moved to Crete, and from there to India in January 1907.

By the start of 1910 Wilfred had returned to Britain, and he was stood down to reserve status when his contract came to an end that April. He returned to Sussex, and the family home. 1 Brazil Cottages was crowded by this point, with Wilfred sharing the five-roomed house with his mother, stepfather, half-brother, niece. There were also two lodgers, widowed farm labourer Alfred Newman and his son, William.

Things were to change for Wilfred, however. In September 1911 he married Florence Herrington, a carter’s daughter from Henfield, Sussex. When the couple wed, she was working as a servant in a boarding house in Ambrose Place, Worthing. The young couple set up home in Nepcote, near Findon, and went on to have four children – William, Albert, Henry and Lilian.

When war broke out, Wilfred was called upon to play his part again. He re-joined the Royal Sussex Regiment on 31st August 1914, but when his medical was carried out the following March, he was found to have tuberculosis, and deemed not fit for service. After further tests, Private Bridger was medically discharged on 28th May 1915.

At this point, Wilfred’s trail goes cold. He returned to Findon and, it seems this is where he passed away on 13th September 1918. He was 33 years of age.

Wilfred Percival Bridger was laid to rest in the quiet surroundings of Findon’s St John the Baptist Churchyard.

Private Wilfred Bridger
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, East Surrey Regiment, Great War, history, injury, Lincolnshire, photography, Private, story, Sussex, war

Private Charles Pratt

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Private Charles Pratt

Charles Pratt was born in the West Sussex village of Findon in the autumn of 1899. The oldest of five children – all boys – his parents were farm labourer Charles and his wife, Emily.

Charles Jr was still a schoolboy at the time of the 1911 census. The family were living in the five-roomed cottage called Sheepcombe by now: farm labourer Charles Sr, Emily, Charles Jr, his three younger siblings (youngest boy Albert being born in 1915), and Emily’s brother, farm horseman Daniel Hollingdale.

When war was declared, the oldest Pratt boy was still just fourteen years of age, and too young to enlist. As the fighting raged across the continent, it seems likely that he was disappointed to miss out on the adventure. Full details of his army service have been lost to time but records suggest that he joined up no later than April 1918.

Private Pratt was attached to the 9th (Service) Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. He was certainly sent to France, and may have been caught up in the Battles of the Somme in 1918. He fought at Cambrai, and this is where he would be injured. Charles’ wounds were bad enough for him to be medically evacuated to Britain, and he was admitted to the 4th Northern General Hospital in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, for treatment.

Sadly, the soldier would succumb to his injuries. He passed away on 27th October 1918, at the age of just 19 years old.

Charles Pratt was taken back to Sussex for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of St John the Baptist Church in Findon, walking distance from his family home.

Charles’ was a family plot: he would be reunited with his parents when the passed away: Charles Sr in 1953 and Emily in 1958.

Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Harry Holder

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Private Harry Holder

Harry Holder was born in the village of Ludgvan, Cornwall, in the summer of 1885. The oldest of fourteen children, his parents were Harry and Grace Holder. Harry Sr was a market gardener, and his oldest son was to follow in his footsteps.

By the time of the 1911 census, the Holders had moved to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Settling in a seven-room house in Leckhampton Road, the household of eleven people had six wages coming in, split between market gardening for the men and floristry for the women.

The following year, Harry Sr took his family on the long journey to Australia for a new life. They found work on a farm near Perth, and Harry Jr was employed as an agricultural labourer when war broke out. When the call came, he stepped up to play his part and his service records suggest that he had spent four years in the territorial army back in Britain. Harry had been turned down for service because of the state of his teeth just a month before trying to enlist again. The second time, however, he was successful, and he joined the Australian Imperial Force on 13th September 1916.

Private Holder’s medical report confirmed the man he had become. At 31 years of age, he was 5ft 10.5ins (1.79m) tall, and weighed 140lbs (63.5kg). A Roman Catholic, he had brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.

Assigned to the 16th Battalion of the Australian Infantry, Private Holder’s unit departed from Fremantle on 21st January 1917, travelling no board the ship Miltiades. Just under two months later, on 27th March, Harry arrived back in Britain, docking at Devonport, Devon, before moving with his battalion to a camp on the outskirts of Codford, Wiltshire.

A significant proportion of the ANZAC troops became unwell within weeks of arriving at the camp, and Harry was not to avoid illness. On 27th April he was admitted to the barracks’ hospital with cerebrospinal meningitis, but the treatment was to prove too little, too late. Private Holder died on 28th April 1917: he was 31 years of age.

Harry Holder was laid to rest in a new extension to St Mary’s Churchyard in Codford, close to the base where he had breathed his last.

Private Harry Holder
(from findagrave.com)
Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, South Africa, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Thomas Bickley

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Private Thomas Bickley

Thomas George Bickley was born in Fremantle, Australia, in 1881, and was the second of six children to Absolom and Mary Bickley. May had been married and widowed twice before wedding Thomas’ father, and so he had eight half-siblings as well.

Thomas’ early life is a challenge to piece together, but his service records from the First World War fill in some of the detail. He confirms that he had served in the 1st Imperial Light Horse for eleven months, and that he fought in South Africa – presumably as part of the Boer War of 1899-1902.

At the time of enlisting on 13th September 1916, he was working as a carpenter, and had completed a five-year apprenticeship. He married Rose Buck in 1907, but they did not have any children.

Private Bickley was assigned to the 16th Battalion of the Australian Infantry, and his medical report confirms the man he had become. He was 5ft 10ins (1.77m) tall and weighed 170lbs (77.1kg). At 34 years of age, he had light brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.

Thomas’ unit left Fremantle on the Argyllshire. The troop ship arrived in Devonport, Devon, two months later, and his battalion was sent to their base near Codford in Wiltshire. The journey impacted a lot of soldiers, and Thomas was not to be immune from this.

On 12th February Private Bickley was sent to the camp hospital as he was suffering from bronchitis. The severity of his condition meant he was immediately transferred to an army hospital in nearby Sutton Veny, but it was to prove too late. Thomas died from the lung condition on 23rd February 1917: he was 35 years of age.

Thomas George Bickley was laid to rest in the ANZAC extension to St Mary’s Churchyard, Codford, not far from the based that had so briefly been his home.

Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Thomas Gorman

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Private Thomas Gorman

Thomas Michael Gorman was born on 6th April 1887 and was the seventh of ten children. Both of his parents – Patrick and Mary Gorman – were Irish, and had followed Patrick’s work around the world as an army Quartermaster Serjeant. By the time Thomas came along, the family had settled in Australia, and he was born in Brisbane.

There is little information about Thomas’ early life. When he completed his schooling, his father took him on as an apprentice and, by the time war broke out, he was working as a mechanic.

Thomas enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in March 1916. His service records show that he was 5ft 8ins (1.72m) tall, and weighed 138lbs (62.6kg). A Roman Catholic, he was recorded as having dark hair, light blue eyes and a fair complexion. It was also noted that he had two scars – one relating to his appendix, and another to a hernia operation.

Private Gorman’s unit – the 15th Battalion of the Australian Infantry – set sail for Europe on 8th August 1916. After just over two months on board the Itonus, they arrived in Plymouth, Devon, from where they were sent to Codford, Wiltshire, which is where several of the ANZAC battalions were based.

Thomas’ service was a mixed one, and his record is not without blemish. In October 1916, he was confined to barracks for seven days for going absent without leave. The following month, the same thing happened, and he we detained for a further seven days.

In December 1916, Private Gorman was admitted to a military hospital in Fovant, near Salisbury, suffering from jaundice. By February 1917 he was back in Codford, and was held in detention for two weeks, for going absent without leave, being drunk in the lines and for urinating in the lines.

Thomas’ jaundice had returned, and he was admitted to the camp hospital again. This time, however, he luck was to run out. He passed away on 14th March 1917, at the age of 29 years old.

Thomas Michael Gorman was laid to rest in the graveyard extension to St Mary’s Church in Codford, Wiltshire.

Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private James McGrath

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Private James McGrath

James Charles Patrick McGrath was born in June 1895 in the town of Marlborough, Queensland, Australia. He was the only child of Patrick and Margaret McGrath.

Little information is available about James’ early life. His father died in 1912, and he found work as a station hand when he completed his schooling.

When war broke out in Europe, James stepped up to play his part. Seeking adventure, and a reliable wage, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1916.

Private McGrath’s service records suggest he must have cut quite a figure, being 5ft 11.5ins (1.81m) tall, and weighing 172lbs (78kg). A Roman Catholic, he had hazel eyes, fair hair and a fair complexion.

James’ unit – the 15th Battalion of the Australian Infantry – departed Australia on 25th November 1916. Leaving from Sydney, his ship, the Beltana, took just under two months to reach its destination, Devonport, Devon. From here, Private McGrath’s battalion made the 130 mile (210km) journey to their base on the outskirts of the Wiltshire village of Codford.

James arrived in Codford on 30th January 1917, but soon fell ill. He was admitted to the camp hospital with influenza on 17th February, but his condition worsened. He passed away from pneumonia on 2nd March 1917: he was just 21 years of age.

Thousands of miles from home, James Charles Patrick McGrath was laid to rest in the cemetery extension to St Mary’s Church in Codford.

Private James McGrath
(from findagrave.com)
Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire

Private Percy Connelly

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Private Percy Connelly

Percy Francis Connelly was born in October 1892 in Goulbourn, New South Wales, Australia. One of nine children – eight boys and one girl – his parents were Francis and Emily.

There is little information available about Percy’s early life. When he completed his schooling, he found work as a labourer and this is what he was doing when war was declared.

Percy stepped up to serve his King in November 1916, joining the Australian Imperial Force. His service records show that he was 5ft 8ins (1.72m) tall and weighed 147lbs (66.7kg). A Roman Catholic, he was also noted as having brown eyes, cark brown hair and a dark complexion.

Private Connelly’s unit – the 49th Battalion of the Australian Infantry – departed from Sydney on 22nd December 1916. His ship – the Demosthenes – took ten weeks to reach Britain. During this time, Percy was admitted to the ship’s isolation hospital, as he was suffering with venereal disease.

Percy’s unit arrived in Plymouth, Devon, on 5th March 1917. They were sent to their base near Codford in Wiltshire, for further training and preparation for a move to the continent. Private Connelly, however, would not be going with them. Just a week after arriving at the camp he was admitted to hospital, having contracted bronchial pneumonia.

The lung condition was to prove Percy’s undoing. He took his last breath on 19th March 1917: he was 24 years of age.

Percy Francis Connelly was laid to rest in the ANZAC section of St Mary’s Churchyard, Codford.

Percy’s younger brother, Francis, was also caught up in the First World War. Attached to the 42nd Battalion of the Australian Infantry, he had arrived in Britain more than a year before his older sibling.

Sent to France in November 1916, Francis was wounded just a couple of months later. He was medically repatriated to Britain for treatment, and eventually re-joined his unit in September 1917. He would spend most of the next year on the Western Front, and was killed in action on 29th September 1918. He was just 23 years of age.