Occasionally I have found that some people are destined to remain hidden. No matter how much research you try and do, details stay lost, and the name on a gravestone will remain just that.
Private Fred Hobbs is one of those people.
He was born in around 1891; he enlisted in the 1st/5th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. Private Hobbs’ service records are not available, but he was awarded the Victory and British Medals for his actions.
His pension record gives Mrs Ellen Louisa Hobbs as his next of kin; there is no confirmation of whether this was his mother or his wife – research has uncovered nothing to identify either.
Private Hobbs does not appear in the contemporary media – this would seem to suggest nothing out of the ordinary about his passing.
All we know for certain is that Fred Hobbs passed away on 12th June 1920, aged 29 years old. He lies at rest in St John’s Cemetery in Bridgwater, Somerset.
Walter Henry Taylor is one of those people whose details are difficult to track down. From his pension card, he is recorded as having been married to a woman called Lilla Rhoda, and that they had a daughter, Joan Valeria, who was born in April 1916.
Walter’s war grave confirms that he was a Private in the Essex Regiment; his pension records also support this, showing that he was assigned to the 6th Battalion, then the 10th Battalion. The two troops were positioned in different locations during the conflict – the 6th fought the Turkish, including involvement at Gallipoli, while the 10th was based on the Western Front.
An article in the local newspaper – the Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser – reported his death, confirming that he passed at the War Hospital in Preston, Northampton. He had been in service for more than a year, having previously been employed by Redwood & Sons in Taunton. The newspaper went on to report that Private Taylor had been suffering from ill health and had been hospitalised in both France and England.
The name is a fairly common one, and my usual resource, Ancestry, wasn’t bringing up anything concrete around him. There are no definitive birth or marriage records and the censuses I have been able to locate do not convince me that they relate to the name on the gravestone.
There is a Walter Harry Taylor, who was born in Bridgwater in 1883, one of ten children to Henry John Taylor and his wife Emma; Henry was a sailmaker, while Walter went into boot making.
The 1911 census picks up this Walter in St Pancras, London, where he was working as a boot trade shop assistant, while boarding with a dressmaker called Minnie Adelaide Lloyd.
While these seem likely candidates for Walter, there is nothing to definitively connect the documents to the man being researched. What potentially sways it, is that Redwood & Sons (Walter’s pre-service employer) were a boot and shoe dealer.
Sadly, the only other definitive documentation of Walter’s life is that he passed away on 14th July 1918, from a kidney sarcoma. He was 35 years old.
Walter Henry (Harry) Taylor lies at rest in the St John’s Cemetery in his presumed home town of Bridgwater, Somerset.
Frederick Hobbs was born in December 1886, the fourth of ten children to William and Martha Hobbs, from Bridgwater in Somerset. William was a mason, and all of his children seemed to be good with their hands. Frederick went on to become a plumber’s apprentice, while his siblings worked as a mason, a dressmaker and a carpenter.
The 1911 census found him living in Polden Street, Bridgwater with his mother and youngest sibling, Florrie. William, however, was living round the corner in Bath Road, with three of his other children, Clara, Tom and George. Both of Frederick’s parents are listed as married, which adds to the confusion of them being in separate houses.
Frederick enlisted with weeks of was being declared; he joined the 10th (Service) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment and, after a year on home soil, his troop was shipped to France. This wasn’t the end of the Private Hobbs’ journey, however as, within a couple of months, he journeyed on as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, finally arriving in Salonica, Greece, in November 1915.
Private Hobbs has only been serving for a month when he was admitted to the Hospital Ship Asturias in Alexandria, with lacerations to his cheeks and eyelids. The initial report seemed to suggest the wounds were as a result of gunshot, although a more detailed report later confirmed that the injuries were caused by barbed wire.
While in hospital, Frederick’s urine was found to include a high level of sugar. He also confirmed having lost a lot of weight in recent months, but could not confirm when this had begun. He was diagnosed with diabetes, and was evacuated back to England for treatment for both his injuries and his illness.
The damage to his left eye healed, but he was left with significant ptosis, or drooping of the eyelid. When it came to his diabetes, specialists back in England determined that, while it could not be put down to Private Hobbs’ service, it had definitely been aggravated by it. He was deemed no longer fit for military service and furloughed in June 1916, with a follow-up report confirming this three months later.
Sadly, whether Frederick’s life returned to normal is not recorded. It seems likely, however, that the diabetes got the better of him, and he passed away on 25th November 1916, aged just 29 years old.
Frederick Hobbs lies at rest in St John’s Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater, Somerset.
Frederick’s younger brother Herbert Hobbs also fought in the Great War. He enrolled in the Royal Marines Light Infantry and fought on the Western Front. Caught up in the Battle of Gavrelle Windmill, he was one of 335 Royal Marines to be killed in that skirmish. He lies buried at the Arras Memorial in Northern France.
Wilfred Allen Gillson was born in 1888, the fourth of nine children – and one of eight boys – to George and Emma Gillson. George was a coachbuilder from Cornwall; Emma, whose maiden name was Allen, came from Derbyshire. The family were living in Torquay by the time Wilfred was born.
In 1895, George had moved the family to Bridgwater in Somerset, presumably as railway works had dried up in the coastal Devon town. By this time his oldest son, also called George, was working as a compositor, keying text for a printer. Wilfred was still at school, but his other two older siblings – William and Albert – were both working with their father, working on railway coaches.
Wilfred was also to follow in his father’s employment, and the 1911 census found him living in Bristol, boarding with the Cridland family, earning his keep a a carriage painter.
He joined up within weeks of war breaking out, enlisting in the Worcestershire Regiment on 20th September 1914. Private Gillson readily proved his worth, and was promoted to Lance Corporal after three months, and Corporal within a year of enlisting.
Corporal Gillson’s promotion coincided with his shipment abroad, and he served on the Western Front for eight months. Returning to England in March 1916, he subsequently transferred to the Devonshire Regiment, before being moved to the 4th Reserve Battalion in the spring of 1917.
Things were not right for Wilfred; he was reprimanded for neglecting his post on the night of the 26th May that year, before being medically discharged with neurasthenia in August.
The root of the matter is detailed in his discharge report; he was hospitalised at Neuve Chapelle in February 1916, suffering from shellshock, and it seems that he never really fully recovered.
Sadly, at this point Wilfred’s trail goes cold. He passed away on 10th November 1918, aged 30 years old.
Wilfred Allen Gillson lies at rest in St John’s Cemetery in Bridgwater, Somerset.
There are a couple of additional notes to Wilfred’s life.
During the war, Wilfred’s youngest brother, Thomas, fought with the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He was involved in the fighting in France, but died from wounds on 10th June 1918. He was just 18 years old, and is buried at Aire-sur-la-Lys, not far from Boulogne.
Given that Wilfred was one of eight brothers, all of whom would have been of fighting age during the war, it is lucky – although still a tragedy – that only he and Thomas died as a result of the conflict.
Sadly, Wilfred’s mother, Emma, passed away in the autumn of 1914, at 57 years of age. It might be a blessing, however, that she was not alive to see two of her sons suffer so.
Arthur Henry “Harry” Frampton was born in 1882, the oldest of six children to Henry and Alice. Henry Sr worked as a clerk and cashier in a shoe factory in Bridgwater, while Harry and his brothers also initially followed that line of work.
In the autumn of 1908, Harry married Emma Jane Lee, who was originally from Crediton in Devon. The couple went on to have two children, Rose and John, and, by the time of the next census, the family were living in a small house in the middle of Bridgwater. Harry, by this time, was working as a general labourer.
War broke out, and Harry was quick to enlist. Initially assigned to the Somerset Light Infantry in December 1914, Private Frampton was transferred to the Royal Defence Corps after two years’ service.
He was part of the army’s territorial force, and it seems likely that his transfer to the RDC may have been on medical grounds. He had been admitted to Castlemount Military Hospital (in Dover) a couple of times, suffering from “rheumatism and debility”.
Private Frampton’s later medical report stated that he was a frail man, with an accentuated heartbeat, which gave rise to fainting. He had no appetite and suffered from insomnia, and, according to the report, was “quite unfit to perform the duties of a soldier”.
Ultimately, this led to Harry being medically discharged from the army, and he was demobbed on 10th March 1917, after just over two years’ service.
Little is known about Harry after his discharge form the army. His pension record confirms that he passed away on 26th October 1919, having suffered from dyspepsia (indigestion) and debility. He was 37 years old.
Harry Frampton lies at rest in the St John’s Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater, Somerset.
Albert George Bellringer was born in April 1889, the youngest of three children to Charles and Sarah. Charles was a sawyer in a local timber yard, and his son followed suit.
Little detail of Albert’s early life remains, but he married Elizabeth Burge in December 1909, and the couple went on to have three children – Albert Jr, Cecil and Charles.
Albert enlisted when war appeared inevitable, joining the Somerset Light Infantry in June 1914. When his training was complete, his troop – the 2nd Battalion – were shipped off to India, and this is where Private Bellringer spent the majority of the war.
Distance from home and family made some soldiers act in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. On 15th August 1917, Albert was admitted to hospital with a venereal sore. He was then admitted to the Dinapore (now Danapur) Station Hospital on 2nd December 1917, “in a very excited condition. He was childish, silly and had grandiose delusions”.
Things were not going well for Private Bellringer’s health. He was transferred back to England for treatment on the Hospital Ship Wandilla – this was torpedoed on the journey home, although the device failed to explode. While on board, he was seen to be “exalted in his ideas, and to have physical signs of GPI [General Paresis (or Paralysis) of the Insane]”.
The ship arrived back in England on 25th April, and Albert was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley, Hampshire. The medical report again showed that “he was foolish, demented and [that] the physical signs of GPI were marked.”
Moved to Dykebar Hospital in Paisley – a mental health institution – for specialist attention, Private Bellringer was eventually discharged from the army. Medical grounds were the reason for his dismissal, and his last day of service was 5th July 1918.
Sadly, however, Albert’s health faltered; he was transferred again, this time to the Somerset and Bath Asylum in Somerset, and it was there that he passed away. Albert George Bellringer died on 5th December 1918; he was 30 years old.
Albert lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater.
So, what was the cause of Albert’s illness and death? His initial hospital admission identified a venereal sore, and, based on his subsequent decline, it is likely that this was syphilis. One of the last symptoms of the disease is mental illness – insanity – and so this underlines the probably diagnosis.
However, mental illness only usually appears on average 10 to 30 years after the STI is first contracted, and then only if it is not treated (which, given that this would have been Victorian England, is it likely not to have been).
What this suggests, therefore, is that Albert contracted syphilis before the war, probably before his marriage to Elizabeth, and he may not have been unfaithful while serving in India.
Roland Roberts was born in September 1896, one of three children – all boys – to Albert and Minnie Roberts.
Minnie, who was originally from Yeovil, had married Walter Shury, a Londoner, in 1874, and the couple had six children together. Walter then went on to have four children with Alice Norwood, and the couple married in 1898. Minnie, meanwhile, had met Albert Roberts, who was from Dundalk in Ireland, and, while no marriage seems to be confirmed, the couple had three boys, including Roland. (It is pure speculation, but as Minnie’s maiden was also Roberts, this might have provided a good enough cover for any divorce or re-marriage.)
Albert had been a Band Sergeant in the 4th Hussars, and continued that passion by becoming a music teacher Travel was also definitely in his blood: the couple’s first child, Willie, was born in South London, Roland was born in Somerset, and his younger sibling, Glencoe, was born in Penzance, Cornwall. Albert’s musical success led him to become bandmaster for the Penzance Town Band. Sadly, it was not all positive for him; in 1901, Minnie passed away, and in the same year, Willie also died, at the tender age of six.
It was the military that drew Roland in, and, in 1910, aged just 14 years old, he enlisted in the Coldstream Guards. According to the following year’s census, he was stationed at the Ramillies Barracks in Aldershot, and held the rank of Boy.
Differing from the naval rank of the same name, lads of 14 or over could serve in any regiment as musicians, drummers, tailors, shoemakers, artificers or clerks, and all were ranked as boys. It seems likely, therefore, that his father’s enthusiasm for music served him well.
When war broke out, he was of fighting age, and, as part of the “Old Contemptibles”, he was involved in the Battle of Mons, the first major confrontation for the British Expeditionary Force.
During the war, Private Roberts took part in some of the most severe fighting on the Western Front, was wounded three times, as well as being gassed. He was also recommended for the DCM for gallantry in action.
He transferred to the Labour Corps, and spent time doing land work in Somerset. It was here that Roland met and married Gladys Pyne, whose family was from Bridgwater, and the couple tied the knot in March 1918.
Sadly, it was during this war service that Private Roberts contracted influenza and pneumonia and he passed away as his in-laws’ home on 10th November 1918, the day before the Armistice was signed. He was just 22 years old.
The local newspaper reported on Roland’s continued gallantry in its article on his funeral:
[Roland] held the medal of the Royal Humane Society for saving a woman’s life.
He was also the hero of an incident that occurred in Bridgwater a few weeks ago, when he succeeded in checking the career of an infuriated bull through pluckily catching the animal by its horns.
His disposition was always most cheerful, and although suffering from his [war] wounds a good deal, he never complained.
The Cornishman: Wednesday 27th November 1918
Roland Roberts lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his adopted home town of Bridgwater, Somerset.
Henry Morgan was born in 1892 in Bridgwater, Somerset. He was the oldest of two children, both boys, to Charles Morgan and his wife Ellen. Charles managed the local collar works, making collars for shirts.
While Henry’s younger brother, Herbert, followed his dad’s business, according to the 1911 census, Henry was learning the farming trade. This was to stand him in good stead, and in 1912, he emigrated to Australia, to become a farmer.
Henry settled in Gunnedah, New South Wales, but was called up when war broke out. He enlisted in May 1916 and joined the Australian Machine Gun Corps. His troop left Australia on the ship Borda in November 1916, arriving in Plymouth two months later, and he finally reached France in March 1917.
Initially part of the 9th Machine Gun Battalion, Private Morgan transferred to the 3rd Machine Gun Corps in April 1918. Involved in the Allied defence of the German Spring Offensive, he was caught up in a gas attack and injured.
Wounded on 17th April 1918, Henry was evacuated back to England and admitted to the Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital in Cheltenham. Sadly, Private Morgan was not to recover, and he died from his injuries on 8th May 1918. He was just 25 years old.
Henry Morgan lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his former home town of Bridgwater, Somerset.
James Godden was born in the autumn of 1879. The youngest of six children to Charles and Mary Ann Godden, the family lived in Bridgwater, Somerset. Charles was a labourer and, while his older brothers followed in a similar vein, by the time of the 1901 census, aged 21, was listed as a hairdresser.
James married Hester Addicott in 1906, and the couple had three children – Ruby, Leslie and Freda. Hairdressing may not have been that well paid; according the to 1911 census, the young family had four boarders, ranging from 17 to 60 in age.
War was on its way, and James enlisted at the end of 1914. Initially joining the Somerset Light Infantry, he was soon transferred to the Army Cyclist Corps. Sadly, full details of his military service are not readily available, but it seems likely that he was part of the company’s First Line, who saw service overseas.
Private Godden served three years before being medically discharged from the army. His discharge records give a startling insight into his health.
Originated at Chiseldon Camp: April 12th 1917.
He is in a condition of violent excitement, talks without ceasing and suffers from insomnia. Refuses solid food, but will take a little milk. Not result of, but aggravated by, strain of ordinary military service.
Permanent total incapacity. Treatment in an asylum required.
Cause of discharge: Medically Unfit – Acute Mania
James Godden: WW1 Pension Records
James was admitted to the Somerset & Bath Asylum in the village of Codford, near Taunton. For good or bad, his time there was brief. Within a couple of weeks, he contracted bronchitis. Sadly, James was to succumb to this, and passed away on 29th April 1917. He was 27 years of age.
An additional twist in the tail came from the local newspaper report on his passing:
Somerset Athlete Killed
The death is reported of a former well-known athlete in the person of Mr James Godden, who before joining the Army carried on business as a hairdresser at Bridgwater. The deceased, who was 37 years of age, enlisted in December 1914, and was subsequently transferred to a cycle corps. He death occurred at a Somerset institution after a short illness. The deceased was well known throughout the West of England as a crack cyclist, and competed at big athletic meetings at Exeter, Plymouth, Bath and Bristol, in addition to local sports. He had won altogether over 400 prizes. He leaves a widow and three children.
Wells Journal: Friday 4th May 1917
James Godden lies at rest in the Wembden Road Cemetery in his home town of Bridgwater, Somerset.
James Godden, celebrated on an Ogden’s Cigarettes card (with thanks to John Boyland)
Rudolph Clifford Symons was born in the autumn of 1887, one of ten children to Clifford and Clara Symons. Clifford ran a brick and tile manufacturer’s and later became a town councillor in the family’s home of Bridgwater in Somerset.
By the time of the 1911 census, Rudolph had become the works manager for his father, but war soon beckoned.
Sadly, Rudolph’s full military record has been lost to time, but he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps early on in the conflict and was promoted to Lieutenant at the end of September 1914. He was involved in recruiting new soldiers, and it was following one of these meetings that he was involved in an accident.
The local media picked up the story:
On Friday night, while riding through St Jon Street on his motorcycle, to which a side-car was attached, he collided with a horse and light waggon… Lieutenant Symons appears to have been struck by one of the shafts in the region of the heart, and was rendered unconscious. He was at once conveyed to his home, where he was medically attended and was subsequently removed to the nursing home on Friarn Street. On the following day a specialist was called in, and an operation performed, but the injuries were of so severe a character that death ensured on Monday.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 22nd September 1915
The coroner reported that Rudolph had died from an internal haemorrhage and the inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death, and exonerated the waggon driver – a dealer caller Wyatt – from all blame.
Lieutenant Symons was a popular man, a vocalist in the Bridgwater Amateur Operatic Society, and was also heavily involved in the local annual Guy Fawkes celebrations.
He died on 13th September 1915, aged 27 years old, and lies at rest in the Wembdon Road Cemetery in his home town.
Death and Service 