Hubert Stanley Parsons was born towards the end of 1892, the eldest of eight children to Frank and Emily Parsons. Frank was a burner, working in the lime kilns in his home village of Yatton, in Somerset. When he left school, Hubert followed in his father’s footsteps, while his younger siblings found work in the local paper makers and bakers.
Sadly, a lot of Hubert’s military records are lost to time. What is clear is that he enlisted on 22nd September 1915, joining the 10th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment as a Private. He served on the Western Front, gaining the Victory and British Medals and the 1915 Star in the process.
In November 1915, Private Parsons’ battalion was moved to Salonika, Greece, to help fight on the Serbian front. Whether Hubert ever fought in the Balkans is not known; the next – and last – time he appears in documentation is in the Register of Soldiers’ Effects. This confirms simply that he died in hospital on 27th March 1917. The cause and location are not known, but he was just 24 years of age.
Hubert Stanley Parsons lies at rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Yatton, Somerset.
Percy Payne was born in the village of Kingston Seymour, between Weston-super-Mare and Yatton, Somerset. His parents were agricultural labourer Harry Payne and his wife, Elizabeth, and he had three brothers.
It seems that Percy’s parents may well have separated by 1911; Elizabeth is listed as a widow in the 1911 census, but Harry appears to be alive and well and living in South Wales.
According to the census records, Elizabeth was working as a charwoman, while three of her children were working to help support the family. Percy’s two older brothers were employed as a carter and a domestic servant, while Percy himself was working as an errand boy.
By the time war broke out, Percy has stepped up the ladder. His service records listed his trade as a groom, working in Congresbury, near Bristol. He enlisted in March 1916, at the age of 19 years and 8 months, and was assigned as a Private in the Northumberland Fusiliers. He spent most of that year training on home soil, before being shipped out to France at the end of December.
Illness seems to have dogged Private Payne; he returned to England after a couple of months, and was transferred to the Labour Corps fairly soon afterwards. By September 1917 a further transfer was made, this time to the Royal Army Medical Corps, before he was finally discharged from military service on 21st January 1918, suffering from tuberculosis.
Sadly, the lung condition was to prove fatal, and Percy passed away on 26th June 1918. He was just 21 years old.
Percy Payne lies at rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in the village of Yatton, Somerset.
Herbert Jenkins was born in 1891, the youngest of five children to George and Amelia Jenkins. George was a domestic gardener, and the family lived in the Somerset village of Yatton next to the Prince of Orange public house. Amelia helped make ends meet, by working as a seamstress and upholsterer.
Amelia passed away in 1909, and it was around his time that Herbert felt the calling of military service. He enlisted as a Private in the Royal Marines Light Infantry on 17th September 1909.
Sadly, little documentation remains about Private Jenkins’ naval service, although the 1911 census gives his location as the Stonehouse Barracks in Devon.
Herbert’s family life held a series of highs and lows. His father George died in 1915, and he went on to marry Blanche Elvins, a bootmaker’s daughter from Bristol, the following year. Sadly, however, she passed away in December 1918, and Herbert was alone again.
By this time, the Great War was over, although Private Jenkins was still serving. He was assigned to HMS Warspite, which had fought, and been damaged, in the Battle of Jutland. While there is no evidence that Herbert had been on board during the skirmish, this is the last vessel on which he served.
As with his military career, details of Herbert’s passing are lost to time. All that is known is that he died in Bristol on 24th August 1919 and that the cause was ‘disease’. He was just 27 years of age.
Herbert’s next of kin was his sister Jennie; she brought him back to his home town of Yatton to be buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church.
Ernest Frederick Hawkins was born in Street, Somerset, in 1884. He was the youngest of six children to Charles Hawkins and his wife Elizabeth. Both of Ernest’s parents were shoemakers in the Clark’s Factory in the town, and this was the trade Elizabeth continued in after her husband’s death in 1887.
Ernest’s life has some mysteries about it and there is a sense that he spent time trying to escape from something. In August 1904, he enlisted in the army, joining the Scottish Rifles (also known as the Cameronians). He did this under an assumed name, preferring to be called James Fisher.
“James” gave his next of kin as his parents, listing them as George and Annie in South Acton (even though these were not his actual parents’ names, and that his father had passed away 17 years previously).
His enlistment papers give an interesting insight into the young man. He was listed as 22 years old, 5ft 4ins (1.62m) tall, with brown eyes, black hair and a sallow complexion. His arms were adorned with a number of tattoos, including Buffalo Bill on his upper right arm and a ship surrounded by flags on his upper left.
Private Fisher served for a year on home soil, before being shipped out to India. He returned to the UK in October 1907, and transferred to the Army Reserve.
Ernest returned to Somerset, and it was here that he met Sarah Jane Manning. The couple married in a registry office in Bristol, and went on to have two children, Hubert and Iris.
War broke out, and Private Fisher was remobilised. By August 1914 he was promoted to Lance Corporal, and sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Here he became caught up in a number of the key battles of the conflict.
On 24th July 1916, during the British attacks on High Wood at the Somme, he was wounded in the right arm, and invalided back to England for treatment. Admitted to the War Hospital in Guildford, Surrey, it was confirmed that he had received a gun-shot wound to his right arm, which had resulted in a compound fracture of the humerus, radius and ulna. Sadly for Ernest, the only option was a full amputation of his right arm.
After some time to recover, Ernest was transferred to the Pavilion Military Hospital in Brighton where he was fitted for an artificial limb. He spent three months in the Brighton facility, before being moved to the Queen Mary’s Convalescent Home in Roehampton to recuperate. He was eventually discharged – from the hospital and the army – on 10th March 1917, and returned to his wife and family in Somerset.
There is little further documented information about Ernest. He and Sarah went on to have a further child – Leslie – in 1917. Sadly, where Ernest had been a toddler when his father had died, Leslie was consigned to be a babe-in-arms when Ernest passed away.
Ernest Frederick Hawkins – also known as James Fisher – died in Swindon on 2nd July 1918, at the age of 34. He lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in his adopted home town of Taunton, Somerset.
Ernest’s gravestone also commemorates his brother Frank Hawkins. Frank was nine years older than Ernest, and, like his younger brother, had decided that the military life was for him.
Frank enlisted in the Royal Navy in November 1894 and was assigned a Boy 2nd Class on HMS Impregnable – the training ship based in Chatham, Kent. Over the period of his twelve years’ service, Frank rose through the ranks to Able Seaman. When his term was up, he joined the Royal Fleet Reserve for a further five years.
When war came, Able Seaman Hawkins was immediately called back into action. He was assigned to HMS Goliath, serving off German East Africa and the Dardanelles. On the night of the 12th May 1915, the ship was guarding the water off Gallipoli, when it was struck by three Ottoman torpedoes. The resulting explosions caused the ship to sink quickly, and 570 souls – out of a total complement of 750 crew – were lost.
Able Seaman Hawkins was one of those lost, and was subsequently commemorated on his brother’s gravestone.
John Valentine Thick was born in 1883, the youngest of two children to John Thick and his wife Anna. John Sr was a plumber, and evidently moved around with his work. He was born in Surrey, Anna came from Berkshire; their older child, Grace was born in Hampshire, while John Jr was also born in Berkshire.
By the time of the 1891 census, John Sr had moved the family down to Blandford Forum in Dorset. Little more is known about his son’s early life, but by 1907, he was back in Berkshire, and married Henrietta Entwistle, who had grown up in Chelsea.
The young couple went on to have three children – John, Muriel and Margaret – and settled down in Reading, Berkshire. John, by this time, was working as a domestic gardener.
Little documentation exists relating to John’s military service. He enlisted in the Hampshire Regiment, and was assigned to the 1st Labour Company. Private Thick would have been part of the regiment’s territorial force, presumably using his gardening skills to help with the war effort.
While it is difficult to confirm the dates of his service, it seems that John had enlisted towards the end of 1916. It was early the following year that he fell ill, and was soon admitted to hospital with bronchitis. Sadly, this condition was to get the better of him, and Private Thick passed away on 8th March 1917. He was just 34 years old.
John Valentine Thick lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in Taunton, Somerset.
Geoffrey William Lake was born in London in 1900, the oldest of two children to George and Emma Lake. George was a bank clerk who soon got promotion to bank manager and, as a result, moved the family to the Somerset town of Taunton at some point between 1904 and 1911.
When he left school, Geoffrey found work at his father’s bank and, with the war still being played out on the other side of the English Channel, he joined the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps in August 1918.
Sadly, this was to be the decision that saw Private Lake’s undoing. Whilst training in Hertfordshire, he caught influenza, which then led to pneumonia. Admitted to the Military War Hospital in Napsbury, the illnesses got the better of him, and tragically he passed away on 10th November 1918. He was just 18 years of age.
Geoffrey William Lake was brought back to Taunton, and lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in the town.
Francis Moreton Hawkins was born in Cottingham, Northamptonshire on 15th July 1895. He was the eldest of eight children to Francis and Louisa Hawkins. Francis Sr was a butcher and, by 1905, he had moved the family to Taunton, where he set up a ship on the main shopping street in the town.
When Francis left school, he became a clerk for the business; he went on to take civil service exams, gaining employment in the General Post Office and then Customs & Excise. War was looming, however, taking him in a different direction.
Sadly, a lot of Francis’ military records no longer exist. What the records do tell us, though, is that he initially enrolled with the Somerset Territorials in October 1914, transferring first to the Civil Service Rifles and then the Rifle Brigade. He served his term in the army, rising to the rank of Lance Corporal.
When the war came to a close, Lance Corporal Hawkins was placed on furlough while he waited to be demobbed, and returned home on 19th November 1918. Feeling unwell, he took straight to his bed, and, three days later, was admitted to the Military Hospital in Taunton with influenza and pneumonia.
Tragically, these were to get the better of him; Francis passed away at the hospital on 23rd November 1918. He was just 23 years old.
Francis Moreton Hawkins lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in his home town of Taunton.
Frederick John Ashton was born in Taunton, Somerset, in 1892. He was one of eight children to scavenger and labourer Thomas Ashton and his wife Susanna.
When he left school, Frederick found work as a carter, and this is the job he was doing in 1913, when he married local woman Ethel May Lock. The young couple went on to have two children, Olive and Phyllis.
War was on the horizon, and Frederick enlisted in June 1916. Initially assigned to the Royal Berkshire Regiment, Private Ashton was shipped off to France within a couple of months.
During his time there, he was promoted to Lance Corporal, but requested being reverted back to his previous rank a few months later. By this point, he had been transferred to the Labour Corps, the regiment in which he served for the rest of his time.
In March 1918, Frederick was badly wounded, and found himself invalided back to England. He was admitted to the Northumberland War Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where his right leg was amputated. Sadly, it appears that the treatment came too late, and Private Ashton passed away on 27th August 1918. He was just 26 years old.
Frederick John Ashton lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in his home town of Taunton.
George Western was born on 18th September 1881, one of seven children to Alfred and Jane. Alfred worked as a labourer, and the family lived in Taunton, Somerset.
Alfred died when George was only 12 years old, so his mother found work as a hawker to make ends meet. George married local woman Sarah Pinnell in 1900, and the two of them lived with Jane and her younger children, George working as a labourer to help the extended family.
George and Sarah went on to have seven children, and, by the time of the 1911 census, they had set up home in the centre of Taunton, just off the main high roads.
The Great War was on the horizon, though, and George was there to do his duty for King and Country. His service records no longer exist, so it is difficult to pin down any dates, but it seems that Private Western initially served with the Somerset Light Infantry, then then transferred to the Bedfordshire Regiment.
George was assigned to the 3rd Garrison Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. While there is nothing to confirm his activities during the war, this particular battalion were formed in January 1917, and were stationed initially in India and then in Burma. Private Western’s medal records suggest, however, that he served his time on home soil.
By May 1918, George was definitely back in Somerset. He had caught an undisclosed illness by this point, and had been admitted to the Military Hospital in Bristol. Sadly, whatever the illness was (and it seems likely that it would have been one of the many lung conditions that were sweeping the country at the end of the First World War) it got the better of him. Private Western passed away on 29th May 1918 at the age of 36 years old. [The war grave gives an incorrect age.]
George Western lies at peace in St Mary’s Cemetery in his home town of Taunton, Somerset.
Henry Boon was born in May 1880, the youngest of ten children to Edwin and Fanny Boon. Edwin worked in service – consecutive census records list him as a manservant, coachman and gardener – and the family lived in the Somerset town of Taunton.
Henry was working as a packer in a factory when he met Alice Mockridge. The couple married in June 1902, and went on to have three children – Henry, Dorothy and Vera.
By the time of the 1911 census, Henry had put the factory behind him and was working as a labourer in the local sewage works. Employed by the town council, it is likely that the job paid more, particularly with a young family to support. Alice was also working, doing ironing and sewing to help them make ends meet.
Storm clouds were gathering over Europe, however, and soon Henry was needed to do his duty. Full details of his military service are not readily available, but he joined the Devonshire Regiment early on in the conflict, and was assigned as a Private to the 13th (Works) Battalion.
Private Boon seems to have been based in England for the duration, although full details of his movements are not clear. He was certainly living in Taunton by December 1916, and it was here that he fell ill.
Admitted to hospital with apoplexy, it seems that it was this haemorrhage or stroke that killed him. Private Boon passed away on 23rd December 1916. He was just 36 years of age.
Henry Boon lies at rest in St Mary’s Cemetery in his home town of Taunton in Somerset.
Death and Service 