Fred Vowden was born in 1889 in Wadebridge, Cornwall. One of eleven children, his parents were Thomas and Emma. Thomas was a farm labourer, and this is work that Fred also followed when he finished his schooling.
The family moved to where the work was: the 1911 census found them living in Lansallos, a village near Polperro on the county’s south coast. Fred married Doris Curtis in Liskeard in March 1915: there is little information about her, but the couple set up home back in Wadebridge, and went on to have a daughter, Dorothy, the following spring.
War had reared its ugly head over Europe by this point. Fred enlisted in December 1915, joining the Royal Engineers. He was not to be formally mobilised until July 1918, and took up work as a supernumerary platelayer for the London and South Western Railway Company. When he officially took up his role with the army, his employment stood him in good stead: he was assigned to the Railway Construction Troops Depot in Surrey.
Sapper Vowden’s service records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.75m) tall and weighed 135lbs (61.2kg). He was of good physical development, with a fresh complexion, brown hair and brown eyes.
Fred was based near Farnham as the war drew to a close and winter neared. On 9th November 1918, he fell ill and was admitted to the Frensham Hill Military Hospital with a severe frontal headache. Over the next few days broncho-pneumonia was identified and his condition worsened. By 13th November his temperature was up to 105F, and his breathing was shallow. That evening Sapper Vowden fell unconscious and passed away. He was 28 years of age.
Fred Vowden’s body was taken back to Cornwall for burial. He was laid to rest in Egloshayle Cemetery, on the outskirts of the town in which he had been born and raised.
John Phippen Dyer was born in the spring of 1896, and was the oldest of four children. His parents, John and Fanny Dyer, were from Somerset and it was in the town of Highbridge that they raised their family.
John Sr worked as a coach body maker for the railways, and his eldest boy joined him as an apprentice when he finished his schooling. When war broke out, however, John Jr was keen to be seen to be playing his part.
John Jr enlisted in Taunton on 15th November 1915, joining the Wessex Division of the Royal Engineers. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 7.5ins (1.71m) tall and of god physical development. He was sent off to Essex for training, but came down with influenza the following January.
Sapper Dyer was admitted to hospital in Great Bentley, spending a fortnight there. He was released back to his unit, but his health continued to suffer. He had had bouts of rheumatism going back to 1911, and, by the spring of 1916, this had recurred, and was recorded as possible rheumatic appendicitis.
John’s condition led to him being declared permanently unfit for was service: he was discharged from the army on 30th March 1916, having served for just four-and-a-half months.
John Jr returned to Somerset, but at this point his trail goes cold. The next record for him is that of his passing, on 26th May 1919. He was just 23 years of age.
John Phippen Dyer was lair to rest in the cemetery of his home town, Highbridge, Somerset.
Albert Gillard Biss was born in Highbridge, Somerset, on 3rd July 1888. The middle of five children, he was the oldest surviving son of Richard and Rosanna Biss. Richard was a tin worker twelve years older than his wife and when he died, in September 1907, Rosanna was left to raise her family alone.
By the time of the 1911 census, Rosanna was living in a five-roomed cottage in Highbridge. Albert and his two younger brothers were living with her, and all three were working as building labourers to bring in money for the family. They also had a boarder, 87-year-old widow Henrietta Crandon, to bring in a little extra each month.
Albert was also saving up for other things. On 15th November 1911, he married Ada Alice Vincent. The couple went on to have three children – Albert Jr, Richard and Irene – before Ada’s untimely death in August 1915, just five weeks after Irene’s birth. At this point Albert had enlisted in the army, and it seems that his sister, Sarah, took on responsibility for her nephews and niece.
Albert was working as a telegraphist for the Post Office when he signed up. He had previously volunteered for the 3rd Somersets, but was assigned to the Royal Engineers when he enlisted. His service records show that he joined up in Weston-super-Mare, was 27 years and three months old, and stood 5ft 10.5ins (1.79m) tall.
Sapper Biss initially served on home soil, but was subsequently moved to the Base Signal Depot as part of the East Africa Expeditionary Force. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in April 1918, but over the next twelve months his health began to deteriorate.
On 6th April 1919, Albert was medically discharged from the army, suffering from a combination of malaria, epileptic fits and tuberculosis. He returned home to Somerset, and moved back in with Rosina. His sister Sarah was living in London by this point, and it is not clear whether Albert’s children came back to Highbridge or not.
Over the next year Albert’s health went from bad to worse. On 8th July 1920 he finally succumbed to a combination of pulmonary tuberculosis, acute nephritis, meningitis and uraemia. He had just turned 32 years of age.
Albert Gillard Biss was laid to rest in the sweeping grounds of Highbridge Cemetery.
After Albert’s death, his two sons fell under the guardianship of their aunt Sarah. Responsibility for Irene, however, was given to an Ebenezer and Eliza Monks, who lived in Clapham Common, London. The 1938 Electoral Register found Irene, who went by the name Monks-Biss, still living with here adopted family.
Oliver Banwell was born in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, in 1882. One of nine children, his parents were mason William Banwell and his wife Jane. When he completed his schooling, Oliver followed his father into manual work and, by the time of the 1901 census, he was employed as a bricklayer.
In 1910, Oliver married Mary Ann Burrows, a carter’s daughter from Axbridge: the couple settled down in lodgings on Oxford Street, near the centre of Burnham-on-Sea, and went on to have three children: Stanley, Primrose and Violet.
When war came to Europe, Oliver stepped up to serve his King and Country. He gave up his new employment as a groom and enlisted on 13th September 1915, joining the Royal Engineers as a Sapper. His service records give some idea of the man he had become. He was 5ft 8.5ins (1.74m) tall, weighing 141lbs (64kg), and was noted to be of good physical development, although he had slight varicose veins in both legs.
Sapper Banwell found himself in France by the end of April 1916. He spent six months overseas, before being posted back to Britain. Initially attached to the 82nd Training Reserve Battalion at the Royal Engineers Barracks in Chatham, Kent, by July 1917, he had moved again, to the 39th Fortress Company, in Sheerness.
In July 1918, Oliver was back in France again, where he was to remain until after the Armistice. By this point his health was beginning to fail and, on his return to Britain in December 1918, a medical examination deemed him no longer fit for army service. He was formally discharged from the Royal Engineers on 30th January 1919, suffering from cancer of the rectum.
Oliver returned to Burnham-on-Sea, and spent the next ten months with his family. His battle with cancer finally proved too much: he passed away on 4th December 1919, at the age of 37 years old.
Oliver Banwell was laid to rest in the family plot in Burnham Cemetery. Mary Ann was buried alongside him when she passed away in 1965, husband and wife reunited after 46 years.
The early life of Joseph Maguire is challenging to decipher. Born in Dublin in 1878, his name is sadly too common to pin down any specific family relationships. Later records suggest that he had a sister, Jane, but again, this does not help narrow down documentation.
It would appear that he had moved to England for work by the time war broke out: he enlisted in the Royal Engineers in Carlisle by November 1917. As a Pioneer, he was attached to the Inland Water Transport Battalion, although it is not possible to ascertain whether he served on the Home or Western Fronts.
Pioneer Maguire died at the Second Southern General Auxiliary Hospital in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. The cause of his passing is not freely documented, but it seems likely to have been the result of an illness. He was 40 years of age.
Joseph Maguire was laid to rest in the sweeping ground of Minehead Cemetery. Commonwealth War Grave Commission records note that he is interred in the Roman Catholic section of the grounds, and that, when it was erected, his CWGC headstone was paid for by the Honourable Secretary of the British Legion.
Walter Stone was born at the start of 1880 in Lympsham, Somerset. The middle of three children, his parents were coal merchant George Stone and his wife, Ellen.
When he finished his schooling, Walter found work as a painter and plumber. In January 1902 he married Alice Charman. Eighteen years older than Walter, she was the widow of a milkman from Bristol, and had raised her son, Edgar, since her husband had passed away a few months before. The couple settled in the village of Brent Knoll, and went on to have three children of their own: Albert, Florence and Alice.
When war came to Europe, Walter was called upon to play his part. He enlisted after June 1916, and joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper. He was attached to the Inland Waterways and Docks division, but, as no documentation remains to confirm his service, it is not possible to confirm whether he saw any action overseas
Sapper Stone’s time in the army was not to be a long one. The next record for him is that of his admission to a military hospital in Herne Bay, Kent. He was suffering from pneumonia, and this would take his life on 18th January 1917. He was 36 years of age.
Walter Stone’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the tranquil graveyard of St Michael’s Church in Brent Knoll.
Further tragedy was to strike Walter’s widow, Alice. Edgar, her son from her first marriage, enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry when war broke out. Attached to the 7th (Service) Battalion, he found himself on the Front Line by the end of July 1915.
Private Stone is reported to have been accidentally killed on 1st May 1917. No other detail is given, but he was just 24 years of age when he passed. He was buried at the Thiepval Memorial at the Somme.
Alice had lost her husband and her oldest child within a matter of months.
Walter John Greedy was born in the spring of 1889, the eighth of nine children to Theophilus and Mary Greedy. Theophilus was an agricultural labourer from Wiveliscombe in Somerset, and it was here that the Greedy family were born and raised.
When he finished his schooling, Walter found work as a carter for a brewery. In 1906 his oldest sister, Charlotte, was widowed, and he moved in with her and her children to help provide some additional support. He soon found alternative employment, however, and within a couple of years was employed by Great Western Railways as a plate-layer.
On 26th December 1913, Walter married Irene Hobbs. She was a blacksmith’s daughter from nearby Fitzhead, who was working as a domestic servant when the couple wed. They went on to have three children: Frederick, Winifred and Dorothy.
When war was declared, Walter stepped up to play his part. Full details of his military service no longer remain, but he had certainly enlisted by the summer of 1918. Walter joined the Royal Engineers, and, based on his previous employment, was assigned to the 278th Railway Company.
Sapper Greedy served in Northern France, and was based in and around Boulogne. He survived the war, and was back on home soil by December 1918. This may have been because of illness: Walter was admitted to Exeter War Hospital in Devon, having contracted influenza and pneumonia. Sadly, the combination of conditions was to prove a fatal one: he passed away on 22nd December 1918, at the age of 29 years old.
Walter John Greedy was brought back to Somerset for burial: he was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard extension of St Nicholas’ Church in Brushford, where Irene and their children were now living.
Reginald Cuthbert Langford was born in Frome, Somerset, in the spring of 1899, the youngest of thirteen children to Albert and Charlotte Langford. Albert was a chalk seller turned jobbing gardener, who, by the time of the 1911 census, had moved the family to Bath.
Reginald appears to have helped his father with his work when he finished his schooling, but, during the First World War, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers as a Driver. His service records no longer remain, but a later newspaper report shed some light onto his time in the army: “[He] enlisted when he was just over 16, and went to the Wessex Engineers to Salonica. He returned to England and then went to France with the Glamorgan Engineers.” [Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 16th October 1920]
All did not fare well for Driver Langford: he contracted malaria and dysentery, and a combination of the conditions led to his ultimate discharge from the army. He left the Royal Engineers on 24th June 1919, and returned home to Somerset.
When he had recovered his health, Reginald took up employment as a gardener once more. On September 1920, he was in the employ of a Mr J Milburn, in Bath, when he felt a nail drive through his boot, scratching his foot. The following Tuesday, he visited his doctor – a Mr John Jarvis – complaining that his malaria had returned. According to a later inquest:
[He] did not make any mention of a wound in the foot. On Thursday, at about 10 o’clock, [Jarvis] was asked to go and see Langford, who was in bed. He was covered with a cold sweat, he could speak only with difficulty, and complained that he could not swallow anything, especially the medicine… His limbs were rigid, but he had not all the symptoms of tetanus. [Jarvis] decided to send Langford to the hospital at once, suspecting that he was suffering from tetanus. He did not know till later that there was an injury to [Reginald’s] foot.
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 16th October 1920
Reginald’s landlady, Amelia Baily, also gave evidence at the inquest:
Langford had lodged with her for about nine months. His inly complaint was of his head when he had malaria… He came home saying his foot was sore and that he had thought it was gathering. He had hot water to soak it, and he did the same the next night, an afterwards sad it was alright… he went to work, but returned at dinner time again complaining of his head and perspiring terribly. He was ill and witness looked after him during the night. He complained of pains in the stomach and aid they were going up to the throat. Next morning [Amelia] sent for the doctor.
Questioned as to the injury to Langford’s foot, [she] said he told her he had a nail enter the toe while he was in the army, and that it was festering again. He wad worn the army boots up to just before he became ill, when he bought new ones.
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 16th October 1920
Admitted to the Pensions Hospital, Bath, Reginald was to be there only one day. He passed away on 8th October 1920, aged just 21 years old. Medical evidence at the inquest diagnosed tetanus as the cause of his death, but Reginald’s older brother, George, contested this.
George’s challenge was that, having some medical background, he felt that his brother’s death was caused not by tetanus, but by malaria. He was a sufferer himself, and he knew the symptoms. He had examined Reginald’s body, and could not see how the small scratch on his foot could have induced tetanus to the extent of causing his brother’s passing.
The Coroner at the inquest, a Mr F Shum, declined George’s assertion, on the basis that separate medics had determined tetanus as the cause:
“It may not have been from the foot, but the evidence is clear. Dr Jarvis said he formed the opinion before any suggestion was made to him, that the man was suffering from tetanus. He saw the symptoms, and the man was brought here [to the Pensioner’s Hospital]. Two doctors saw him here and came to the same conclusion, and a medical specialist confirmed the diagnosis. Therefore, it is quite clear to me, and my verdict will be that he died from tetanus. It is a very unfortunate thing, and I am sorry for you.
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 16th October 1920
George’s challenge was as much about the financial aspect as it was his late brother’s wellbeing. Had Reginald’s death been the result of malaria, it could have been attributable to his military service, and therefore any funeral costs – or at least a proportion of them – would have been paid for by the army. As the inquest had identified tetanus as the cause of his passing, however, the family would have to pay for the burial themselves.
Following the inquest, Reginald’s funeral was held: he was laid to rest in the sweeping Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, not far from where his bereaved family still lived.
There are two other intriguing aspects of Reginald’s case.
The first is that of his being awarded a war grave. Amongst other criteria, which can be seen here, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) are responsible for the commemoration of personal who died after they were discharged from a Commonwealth military force, if their death was caused by their wartime service.
Based on the inquest, Reginald’s passing was clearly not – the tetanus having come on after his medical discharge for malaria and dysentery. Technically, therefore, his should not be designated a war grave.
The second confusing thing is that of the date on Reginald’s headstone. The CWGC headstone gives the date of his death as 13th October 1920, as do his grave registration documents. While newspaper reports are not always a reliable source of information, the first media report of the inquest came on Tuesday 12th October.
The Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette article confirms that Dr Jarvis’ visit to Reginald was on Thursday 7th October. He was admitted to hospital straight away, “where he died the following day” [Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 16th October 1920]. This would suggest that Reginald died on Friday 8th October.
While the newspapers do not confirm the date of the inquest, it is likely to have been held soon after Reginald’s passing. The date provided by the CWGC, therefore, looks to be either that of the conclusion of the inquest, or of Reginald’s burial.
Godfrey George Beames was born in the spring of 1891, in Henbury, Gloucestershire. One of eleven children, his parents were Thomas and Minnie Beames. Thomas was in the navy, which meant that Minnie was left to her own devices a lot of the time. While her husband came home often enough for them to build a large family, the 1891 and 1901 censuses record Minnie and the children living with her farm labourer brother-in-law, George Watkins.
The 1911 census gives the same information for Minnie and the children – living with George in Redwick, Gloucestershire. Minnie is, however, noted as a widow, although this seems to be out of convenience, as the now naval pensioner Thomas was living with his wife of eight years, Louisa, in Arundel, West Sussex.
Godfrey, now 21 years old, was working as a farm labourer. In the autumn of 1913, he married a woman called Lily Ball, although little information about her remains today. War was coming to Europe, and things were to change for the young couple.
Godfrey stepped up to play his part. While his full service records no longer exist, what remains paints a picture of his time in the army. He had enlisted by the spring of 1917, joining the Royal Engineers. At some point, however, he moved to the Worcestershire Regiment, and was assigned to the 10th (Service) Battalion.
While it’s not possible to determine exactly where Private Beames fought, he was definitely caught up in the fighting on the Western Front and, by October 1917, was entrenched at Passchendaele. It was here that he was wounded, and he was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment.
Private Beames was admitted to the General Hospital in Nottingham, but his injuries were to prove too severe. He died on 15th November 1917, at the age of just 26 years old.
Godfrey George Beames’ body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the graveyard of Ss Mary and Peter’s Church in Winford, where Lily was now living.
Frederick Reginald Channing was born in the autumn of 1869, in Bath, Somerset. He was one of five children to carpenter Allen Channing and his dressmaker wife, Sarah. When Frederick was just a toddler, Allen moved the family south to Chard, and this is where his younger siblings were born.
When Frederick left school, he found work as a lace machine operator and, in fact, all of Allen’s children found work with their hands: Frederick worked alongside one of his brothers, while his two other brothers built on their father’s woodworking skills, one as a coachbuilder, another as a cabinet maker.
By the autumn of 1905, Frederick had moved back to Bath. This is where he met Elizabeth Scammell, a farm labourer’s daughter from Wiltshire. The 1901 census appears to record her as being a servant to a surgeon’s family in Wincanton, and this may have prompted a further move to the larger city where the couple met.
The couple married in Bath towards the end of 1905, and had a son, Frederick Jr, who was born in November the following year. Frederick Sr was doing general labouring work by this point, and the family had moved to Wedmore by the time a second boy, William, was born in 1910. Frederick and Elizabeth had a daughter, Eva, in 1911, and another, Gwendoline, in 1913, tragically, the same year that Eva died.
When war came to Europe, Frederick stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in September 1914, joining the Somerset Light Infantry as a Private. His service records confirm that he was 5ft 6ins (1.67m) tall, and weighed 154lbs (69.9kg). The document also gives his age as 35, although he was actually ten years older than that by this point.
Private Channing spent a year on home soil, during which time Elizabeth gave birth to their fifth child, Percival, who was born in May 1915. Based at a camp in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, he was hospitalised twice in this time, suffering from a contusion of his left shoulder.
By September 1915, Frederick was in France, and he remained on the Western Front, apart from when on leave, for the next three-and-a-half years. At some point during this time, he was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal, and transferred across to the Royal Engineers.
Back at home, Elizabeth was doing her best to raise the family. She didn’t always do the right thing, though, and this resulted in her being taken to court.
Elizabeth Mary Rose Channing, 30… was indicted for having been delivered of a certain female child, did unlawfully by a secret disposition of the deceased child, endeavour to conceal the birth thereof at Wedmore the same day in the month of September 1916.
Mr Wethered prosecuted, and said that the prisoner was a married woman. Her husband was a soldier now on active service. He was last home on leave in April or May, 1917. Previously to that he had not been home for 18 months or two years, so the child could not have been his. Some boys found a parcel in the well, and they discovered the body of the child. The boys communicated with the police, who searched the well and found some pieces of carpet which agreed with a similar carpet in the possession of the prisoner. When arrested she confessed to the crime.
Frederick Channing, husband of the prisoner, said he was home on leave five months ago – May 27th. He went back on June 4th. Previously he had not been home for twenty months. He pleaded for the prisoner in the interests of their four children. He was very sorry for her to think she had thrown herself away like that.
His Lordship, addressing the prisoner, said that while her husband was away doing his duty for her any everybody, she was not faithful to him, and the result was the birth of the child which had been concealed and not revealed till a year afterwards. His Lordship understood that prisoner was already legitimately in a certain condition, and he did not wish her child to be born in prison. She would be sent to prison therefore for three months.
Wells Journal: Friday 26th October 1917
Elizabeth was released in February 1918, and the couple’s last child, Kathleen, was born the following month.
Frederick, meanwhile, returned to the Western Front. He remained in France through to the end of the conflict and beyond, only returning to Britain in February 1919, having fallen ill. Admitted to the North Evington War Hospital in Leicester with influenza, he remained there for two months.
In April 1919, Lance Corporal Channing was transferred to the Bath War Hospital, back in Somerset. This was presumably so that he could be closer to his family, although there is no evidence of whether he was fully reconciled with Elizabeth. His condition did not improve, however, and by this point he was also suffering from myalgia.
Frederick remained in hospital for eighteen months. As time passed, carcinoma of the liver was identified, and this, eventually, was the condition that would take his life. Lance Corporal Canning passed away on 5th September 1920. He was 49 years of age.
Sarah and the children were still living in Wedmore, by this point. Frederick Reginald Channing’s last journey was not to be that far, however. He was moved only a short distance from the hospital, and was laid to rest in the sweeping grounds of the Locksbrook Cemetery in Bath.
Death and Service 