There are some mysteries that are just destined not to be solved, no matter how much digging you do. One gravestone in Worthing’s Broadwater Cemetery, dated 10th December 1916, proved to be one of those.
Research across the standard platforms revealed very little. There was no AEA Coby on Ancestry, the service number 9076 did not reveal anything on the Fold3 website. The name Coby did not feature in any contemporary newspaper article in December 1916 or January 1917.
One lead suggested that Private Coby’s first names are Albert Ernest, but again, this drew a blank. Another gave the surname with the spelling Cobby, and this seemed to fit better.
The birth of an Albert Ernest Cobby was registered in Sussex at the start of 1888, but the parents’ names are missing. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website gives these as Alfred and Ellen Coby, but there is no concrete documentation to back this up.
The combination of Cobby and the service number did identify a military record on Fold3, but even here the information was limited. The document confirmed that Albert was nearly 29 when he enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment on 3rd December 1915, and that he was a motor cleaner in Worthing by trade. It gave his mother as Mrs A Cobby, but this does not fit with the Ellen suggested elsewhere.
Crucially, it confirmed that Private Cobby served on the home front for a matter of weeks – from 29th February 1916 to 4th May 1916. No reason is given for the end of his service.
Sadly, much of Private AEA Cobby’s life is destined to remain a mystery, with no definite links between the various pieces of evidence.
Charles George Leach was born in 25th July 1872 and was the second of eight children. His parent were Gloucestershire-born painter William Leach and his laundress wife Ellen who raised the family in Greenwich, South London. William had married previously, but his first wife, Emma, had died in 1868, leaving him a widow at 40, with five children to raise. He had married Ellen shortly after, and the family grew in size.
There is little information on Charles’ young life. It seems like the family had moved down to Sussex at some point; this is where Charles met his future wife, fisherman’s daughter Ellen. By the time William died in 1909, the family had again relocated, this time moving back to Gloucestershire.
The 1911 census gives Charles and Ellen visiting Charles’ sister Alice and her husband. The couple had two children by this point, as did Alice. Charles’ mother Ellen was also living there; a family of nine living in a house in the town of Cinderford.
Details of Charles’ military life as somewhat sketchy. He did enlist, joining the Royal Army Service Corps on 6th December 1915, and certainly served in France, gaining the Victory and British Medals and the 1915 Star. However the records suggest that Private Leach was discharged from the army on medical grounds in the spring of 1916, and the refusal of a war gratuity – paid once soldiers had attained six months’ service – seems to back this up.
There is little more information available on Charles Leach. He and Ellen went on to have four children in all, and moved back to Sussex, close to her family. He passed away on 4th March 1919, at the age of 46, but no cause of death is available.
Charles George Leach lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery, in Worthing, West Sussex.
Holdsworth Elphick was born on 7th June 1891, one of five children to Herbert and Mary Elphick. Herbert was a billiard marker and professional player, who had been born in Brighton. Mary was from Ireland, but the couple raised their family in London, presumably as this is where the best opportunities for work were.
When he left school, Holdsworth found work at the George Hotel in Balham, South London, where he was employed as a barman. The 1911 census shows another barman there called Geoffrey Elphick, who, while not one of Holdsworth’s brothers, may well have been a cousin.
When war broke out, Holdsworth was quick to sign up. He enlisted as a Private in the Buffs (the East Kent Regiment) on 9th September 1914 and, after a year on the Home Front, he was sent out to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in August 1915.
There is little further information available about Private Elphick’s time in the army. He returned to England on 25th February 1916; this appears to have been a medical evacuation as, two months later, he was discharged from the army as he was no longer physically fit to continue.
Life continued for Holdsworth. In September 1917, he married Lydia Ann Armstrong, a dock labourer’s daughter from Southampton, although this is where his trail seems to end.
The next available evidence for Private Elphick is his gravestone. This confirms that he passed away on 11th November 1918 – Armistice Day – but no further information is available. He was just 27 years of age.
Holdsworth Elphick lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, West Sussex (presumably this is where he and Lydia moved after their marriage, although there is nothing to confirm this).
Percy Harry Hawkins was born in Waltham Green, London, in 1886. One of five children, all boys, his parents were Frederick and Elizabeth Hawkins. Frederick initially worked as a brewer’s collector – collecting rent from tenant pub managers on behalf of the brewery – before working as a tobacconist.
In July 1908, Percy married Gladys Parnell. Sadly, tragedy was to strike and, over the next couple of years both Elizabeth and Frederick passed away in 1909 and 1910 respectively.
By the time of the following year’s census, Percy and Gladys were boarding with a dispensing doctor (or GP), and his wife. Percy listed his occupation as a ‘traveller’, was probably employed as some kind of salesman.
Tragedy was to strike Percy again. Months after the couple had their first child in July 1911, Gladys also passed away, leaving him as a widower and single parent at just 26 years old.
From his later military documentation, it seems that Percy married again in August 1915, this time to a woman called Mildred, and, by September 1919, he had gone on to have three children in total; one boy and two girls.
When war broke out, Percy was quick to enlist. He joined up in Birmingham on 10th August 1914, and gave his profession as a commercial traveller. His records show that he was 28 years and 120 days old, stood 5ft 6ins (1.69m) tall and weighed 131lbs (59.5kg).
After initially joining the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Private Hawkins was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps, and was assigned to one of the supply companies.
Over the four years of the war, Percy served on home soil, and was promoted a number of times, rising from Private to Lance Corporal, Staff Sergeant to Quartermaster Staff Sergeant. In September 1917, he was again promoted, this time to Staff Sergeant Major, a position he held for the remainder of the conflict, and on into 1919, when he volunteered for an extra year’s service, rather than being demobbed.
In February 1920, Staff Serjeant Major Hawkins fell ill; he was admitted to the military hospital that had been set up in Brighton Pavilion, Sussex. The diagnosis was heart failure, and, sadly, it was to this that he was to succumb. He passed away on 20th February 1920, aged just 34 years old.
Percy’s family was, by this time, living down the coast in Worthing; his body was brought there for burial and he lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in the town.
James Butcher was born in the village of Durrington, West Sussex, on 12th April 1880. He was one of seven children to agricultural labourer Henry Butcher and his laundress wife, Sarah. The family were dedicated to the countryside life; by the time of the 1891 census, James was listed as a cowboy, as was his older brother, so at 10 years old, his time would have been spent up on the South Downs, tending a farmer’s bovine herd.
In 1904, James married Eleanor Andrews, the daughter of a publisher’s packer from London. The couple would go on to have six children: William, Thomas, George, Walter, Ernest and Gladys. By the time of the 1911 census, the family were living in Broadwater, to the north of Worthing, and James was listed as a general labourer for the town council.
When war arrived on England’s shores, James was keen to to his bit. He initially joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, although subsequently moved to the Agricultural Company of the Labour Corps. Sadly, Private Butcher’s military service records are no longer available, so it’s impossible to confirm exact dates for his time in the army.
James survived the conflict, but the next record for him is the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects. This confirms that he was admitted to the Swandean Isolation Hospital on the outskirts of Worthing, and subsequently passed away there. There’s nothing to confirm his cause of death, although, based on the nature of the hospital, it is likely to have been one of the lung conditions prevalent at the close of the war.
James Butcher died on the 22nd March 1919, at the age of 38 years old. He was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery, not far from his home.
Frederick John Slaughter was born in around 1878, one of eight children to Stephen and Frances (who was better known as Fanny) Slaughter. Stephen was a brewer’s drayman, who had gotten himself in trouble with the law the year before Frederick was born.
Stephen Slaughter charged with feloniously embezzling five several sums of 10s each, which he had received for and on account of his masters, Octavius Coope and others, at Worthing, on the 7th September 1876, was sentenced to six calendar months’ hard labour.
Sussex Advertiser: Saturday 14th April 1877
Stephen was imprisoned in Petworth Jail, but took ill there. Two months later, a further newspaper report shed further light on him:
ANOTHER DEATH IN THE GAOL
On Thursday another inquest – the second within a week – was held at Petworth Gaol… on the body of Stephen Slaughter.
Mr Linton, the governor, said the deceased was about 36 years of age, was a brewer’s drayman and was sentenced at the April Quarter Sessions to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour for embezzlement. He was a very quiet, industrious, and well-conducted prisoner.
On admission he was put to a labour machine, which consists of turning a handle, weighted to 10lbs, and making 14,000 revolutions daily as a maximum. About a fortnight after he was reported to the surgeon. He was looking pale, and was put in the open air to work at the pumps.
About the middle of June he was put to spinning wool, a very light description of work, and on the 18th June witness again reported him to the surgeon. He continued wool spinning until taken ill on Sunday morning last. Warder Daughtery then reported his illness and witness at once sent for Dr Wilmot, and at that gentleman’s request Dr Hope was also called in consultation.
From that time till his death, early on Wednesday, he was under the care of the surgeons, in his cell, which was a roomy, airy one. The Infirmary was occupied by another case.
On Sunday witness wrote to deceased’s brother, and two of them visited him on Monday. (Witness produced a letter, since received from one of deceased’s brothers, in which he said “In conclusion I beg to thank you and all the officials connected with the prison for your kindness to my brother during his illness, as he told me on Monday when I saw him he was treated with the greatest kindness.”)
The evidence of Mr Wilmot and Mr Hope, surgeon, showed that the nature of deceased’s illness necessitated an operation, which was performed with his consent, but that after it he gradually sank and died of exhaustion.
Horsham, Petworth, Midhurst and Steyning Express: 24th July 1877
Stephen died before Frederick was born, leaving Fanny, to bring him and the youngest of his siblings up alone. Fanny found work as a dressmaker and, according to the 1881 census, she lived in a small cottage just off Worthing seafront with her 15 year old daughter, Emily, and her three youngest boys, Walter (who was 8), Arthur (5) and Frederick (3).
When he left school, Frederick found work as a errand boy for the local fishermen; his two older brothers we employed by a local dairy, and the three of them were living with their mother, a paternal uncle and lodger in a cottage in the centre of the town.
Fanny died in 1902, at the age of 62. Seven years later Frederick, now working as a carman for a grocer, married Gertrude Lawrence, who had been born in Kent. The couple went on to have a son – also called Frederick – the following year.
When war came to European shores, Frederick was quick to enlist. He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment on 9th October 1914, and was assigned to the 7th (Service) Battalion as a Private. Full service details are not readily available, but he certainly served in France, having been posted there in June 1915.
While Private Slaughter’s military records are scarce, his medical ones are very detailed. In June 1916 he was treated in the field for scabies, in December that year, he received treatment for pediculosis, an infestation of lice. Eight months later, he was admitted to a hospital in Camiens with an inflamed knee, something which subsequently recurred two months later, when he was admitted for treatment in Etaples. Frederick was received treatment for a fifth time in January 1918, this time for a deformed toe, but after this, his overall health seemed to stabilise.
Private Slaughter was demobbed in March 1919, and returned to England. Sadly, it seemed that his health wasn’t as good as it might have seemed; on 17th July 1919, he died at home from heart failure, which was subsequently attributed to his was service. He was 41 years old.
Frederick Slaughter was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in his home town of Worthing, West Sussex.
The war years were particularly tragic for Stephen and Fanny’s children. Along with Frederick’s passing in 1919, his oldest brother Harry had died in 1914, two other brothers – Henry and William – had died in 1916, while a fourth brother, Walter, passed away in 1920.
Charles Edward Duke was born in early 1880, the oldest of three children to George and Charlotte Duke. George was a market gardener, but for all of Charles’ childhood censuses – 1881, 1891 and 1901 – his father is absent. Instead, Charlotte is listed as the head of the household, married and working as a launderess. Given that the censuses were all taken in the spring, it is possible that her husband was working away each time the document was recorded, although this is supposition. In every census, though, it is interesting to note that she had taken in lodgers to help pay the bills.
The family lived in Worthing, West Sussex, in a small house near the centre of town. When he left school, Charles found work as an errand boy for a local stationer, before finding more gainful employment as a gardener in one of the multitude of nurseries surrounding the coastal town.
In 1901, Charles married Lucy Barnes, a carter’s daughter from the town; the young couple set up home in Broadwater, to the north of Worthing town centre, and went on to have four children; Alice, Henry, Dorothy and Margaret.
When war arrived on European shores, Charles played his part. Sadly his military records are all but non-existent, but from what remains it’s possible to piece together something of his military life.
Private Duke enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps, and was assigned to the 16th Company. While it is impossible to place him in any specific location, his company was certainly involved in the Battle of the Somme.
Charles survived the war; the next evidence available for him notes that he died on 31st October 1919 in a hospital in Brighton, although o cause is given for his death. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission give his age as 41, although it seems likely he was a couple of years younger than this, based on when his birth was registered.
Charles Edward Duke was buried in the Broadwater Cemetery, a short walk from where his widow and children were living.
Richard Edward Cadenaci was born in Sutton, Surrey, in around 1886. His father, who was also called Richard Edward Cadenaci, was a house painter and, with his wife Maria, had thirteen or fourteen children, of whom Richard Jr was the middle one.
Documentation on the Cadenaci family is scarce. On 5th April 1896, when Richard Jr was 10, he and three siblings were baptised together.
By the turn of the century, the family were living on Merton High Street, in Wimbledon. Richard Sr and Maria were there with their youngest five children.
Richard Jr seemed keen on a life of adventure – the 1911 census lists him as a Private in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, and that he was based in Mauritius. His full military service records are not available, but it is likely that his term of service with the army was extended as war loomed.
Private Cadenaci was sent to France in January 1915 and, during his time in the Great War, he received the Victory and British Medals and the 1915 Star. At some point during the conflict he was transferred across to the Labour Corps, though the move came with a promotion to Corporal. Again, there is little further information about his service, but records suggest that he was discharged from the army – possibly through health reasons – on 20th September 1918.
Here, Richard’s trail goes cold. He died on 23rd March 1920, just eighteen months after the end of this military service, at the age of 32. There is no record of the cause of his passing and nothing to connect him to the town in which he was buried, Worthing, West Sussex.
It is possible that Corporal Cadenaci left the army for medical reasons, and his move out of London was for cleaner air, but this is only presumption on my part, and there is nothing to confirm this either way.
Richard Edward Cadenaci lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing.
Sometimes research into the names of the fallen runs into obstacles. There are graves I have researched that have brought up very little information, either because the soldier concerned is too young to have a lot of documentation about them, or because information on them has subsequently been lost.
On other occasions, it is the sheer wealth of documentation that proves to be the stumbling block. Such is the case with William Frederick Holden, buried in the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, West Sussex.
The grave itself gives some information: he was a Private in the Royal Sussex Regiment, with a service number of 8298970, and died on 16th February 1921, at the age of 26. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission archives give some further information: his father was Frederick Charles Holden, and his stepmother was Elena.
The Find A Grave website adds a little further information – he was born in Sidlesham, near Chichester in West Sussex. The site suggests, however, that he was born in 1897, which would suggest he was 23 or 24 when he died.
Researching on Ancestry throws up a wealth of other information, which begins to make it more of a challenge to identify the correct details. Both William and Frederick were common names in the late Victorian era, and Holden was a familiar Sussex name, and had many spelling variations.
Searching for William’s service number on sites like Fold3 does not provide any results, so that does not provide an opportunity to narrow down the information. Nor is there any record of his passing or burial in contemporary newspapers.
To add to the confusion, when I dug a little deeper, it seems that William’s birth name was, in fact, Frederick William Holden, and he was known by his middle name to avoid confusion with his father. His mother was Fanny Warrington (née Walker), and he seems to have had one sister, Annie. Fanny seems to have passed away in 1903, and Frederick Sr went on to marry Louisa.
So, like a patchwork, vague details of William’s life are pieced together. But huge gaps still remain. Private Holden was assigned to the 4th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, which fought at Gallipoli and served in Egypt and France before the war was done. However, there is no evidence that William fought abroad.
Sadly, William’s passing is lost to time as well. We know when he died, but there is nothing to confirm a cause of death. Given when it was, it seems likely to have been as a result of one of the invasive lung conditions that ravaged Europe after the First World War. But he could just as easily have succumbed to the ongoing effects of wounds received during fighting. Given the lack of supporting documentation, we are unlikely ever to know.
William Frederick Holden lies at rest in Worthing’s Broadwater Cemetery.
John Henry Saunders was born at the end of 1899, in the West Sussex village of East Preston. One of five children, his parents were agricultural labourer John and his wife Louisa. John Sr sadly passed away in 1904, when his son was just 4 years old.
Louisa went on to marry again in 1909, to a man named Charman. While no marriage records remain, it seems that he might have been a widower. The 1911 census finds Louisa living in Worthing with her four surviving children (her eldest, Lilian, having passed away earlier in the year), a stepson of 16 and new babe-in-arms.
With the outbreak of war in 1914, John looked to do his part. Sadly, his military records are not available, but what is clear is that he joined the Cavalry Regiment at some point after September 1917. He was assigned to the 3rd Reserve Regiment, which trained men for the Dragoon Guards, and Northamptonshire, Surrey and Sussex Yeomanry units.
Sadly, Private Saunders’ time in the armed forces was limited. He was admitted to the Military Isolation Hospital in Aldershot and, while it is not clear what the admission was for, it seems likely that he was moved from the main hospital because of a contagious condition like tuberculosis or pneumonia.
John Henry Saunders’ time in hospital was brief. He passed away on 16th March 1918, aged just 18 years of age. His body was brought back to Worthing, and he was buried in the Broadwater Cemetery to the north of the town.
Death and Service 