Tag Archives: Sergeant

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Company Sergeant Major, Corporal, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, Sergeant, Somerset, story, Sussex, war

Company Serjeant Major Robert Pollard

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Company Serjeant Major Robert Pollard

Robert Edwin Dawe Pollard was born on 8th April 1894 in Bath, Somerset. The youngest of three children, his parents were Joseph and Elizabeth Pollard. Joseph was a gardener from Banwell, but it seems that Robert had his sights on bigger and better things.

At some point Robert emigrated to Canada, and, by the time war was declared in Europe, he was working as an insurance clerk in Winnipeg. He felt a duty to serve his country, however, and on 2nd August 1915, he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Private Pollard’s service records confirm he was 5ft 6ins (1.69m) tall, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. He was also noted as being a Presbyterian.

Robert’s commitment to the cause is underlined by his rise through the ranks. Attached to to the 8th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry (also known as the 90th Winnipeg Rifles), he arrived in France on 27th February 1916.

The 8th Battalion was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war, and, on the 1st June 1916, he was wounded in his left arm. Admitted to a hospital in Camiers, he was moved to Etaples, before returning to his unit before the month was out.

For good or for bad, this was just before the Battle of the Somme and, over the next few months, Private Pollard fought bravely and hard. Moving from the Somme, his unit fought at Passchendaele and Ypres. On 1st October 1916, Robert was promoted to Corporal, and made Sergeant just three months later.

In April 1917, Robert was admitted to hospital again, this time with an infected foot. Within six weeks he was back with his unit, though, and on 7th November 1917, he was promoted to Company Serjeant Major. He was obviously good at what he did, and this was recognised. On 28th December 1917, he was mentioned in despatches, and the following June he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.

As the war entered its closing months, Company Serjeant Major Pollard, still led from the front. He returned to Britain at the end of November 1918, and was attached to the 18th Reserve Battalion in Seaford, Sussex ahead of being demobbed.

It was here that Robert contracted influenza. Whether at his family’s request is unclear, but he was admitted to Bath War Hospital for treatment but, after everything that he had been through, it was a combination of the flu and toxaemia, or blood poisoning, that was to prove his undoing. Company Serjeant Major Pollard died on 23rd December 1918, aged just 24 years old. His mother, Elizabeth was by his side.

Robert Edwin Dawe Pollard was laid to rest Bath’s sweeping Locksbrook Cemetery, not far from where his family lived. His headstone recognises the Military Medal he was posthumously awarded.

Company Serjeant Major Robert Pollard
(from findagrave.com)
Channel Islands, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Jersey, photography, Royal Jersey Militia, Sergeant, story, war

Sergeant Francis Godfray

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Sergeant Francis Godfray

Francis George Godfray was born in Jersey, Channel Islands, on 10th April 1895. One of fifteen children, his parents were Philippe and Alice Godfray. Philippe was a quarryman-turned-agricultural labourer and, by the time of the 1911 census, Francis had also gone into farm work.

War was closing on on Europe’s shores, and Francis stepped up to play his part. Full details of his service have been lost to time, but it is clear that he had enlisted in the Royal Jersey Militia by 1918. Attached to B Company of the regiment’s Garrison Battalion, by the end of the conflict he had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

Sergeant Godfray survived the conflict and had returned home by the spring of 1919. On 24th April, he collapsed and died suddenly, his death later confirmed as heart failure. Francis was just 24 years of age.

Francis George Godfray was laid to rest in the peaceful St Ouen’s Churchyard in Jersey.

accident, Cadet, Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Glamorganshire, Gloucestershire, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lance Corporal, photography, Private, Royal Artillery, Sergeant, Somerset, South Africa, South Wales Borderers, story, Wales, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment, Yorkshire

Serjeant Fred Maynard

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Serjeant Fred Maynard

Details of Fred Maynard’s early life are a challenge to piece together. His First World War service records give his age as 44 years old when he enlisted in September 1914, and confirm his place of birth as Melksham, Wiltshire.

A newspaper report of his funeral gives the name of three brothers – Charles, Frank and Arthur – while only one census return, from 1881, provides a potential match for the family. This suggests Fred’s parents were iron fitter Alfred Maynard and his wife, Deborah, and gives the family’s address as Waterworks Road in Trowbridge.

Fred joined the army in the autumn of 1888. Initially assigned to the Gloucestershire Regiment, he had transferred to the Wiltshire Regiment by the following spring. Private Maynard showed a commitment to duty: in December 1890 he was promoted to Lance Corporal, rising to Corporal in the summer of 1893.

Fred was stood down to reserve status after his seven years’ active duty, but was recalled to the army in December 1899, when war broke out in South Africa. Promoted to Serjeant, he was sent to fight in the Boer War, and was mentioned in dispatches on 2nd April 1901 for special and meritorious service in South Africa. He was stood back down to reserve status in October 1901.

On 21st November 1895, Fred had married Louisa Card. The couple set up home in Trowbridge, but soon moved to London. They went on to have six children: Ernest, Nora and Leslie, who were all born in the London; and Arthur, Martha and Stuart, who were born in Cardiff, the family having moved to Wales by 1910.

The army was not finished with Fred, however, and, within weeks of war breaking out in the summer of 1914, he was called back into service. Given the rank of Serjeant again, he was attached to the South Wales Borderers. Fred was 44 years of age by this point, his service records confirming that he stood 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, weighed 164lbs (74.4kg) and had brown hair and hazel eyes.

Attached to one of the regiment’s depots, it seems unlikely that Fred saw service overseas this time around. He was discharged from the army on 1st September 1916 and this seems to have been on medical grounds. Later documents suggest that Serjeant Maynard had been diagnosed with carcinoma of the pylorus, or stomach cancer.

Fred returned to Cardiff, but his time back home was to be short. He was admitted to the Lansdown Road Military Hospital, and passed away on 23rd November 1916. He was 46 years of age.

It seems that Fred’s brother’s had some sway in his funeral. Instead of being laid to rest in Cardiff, where Louisa and the children were living, he was, instead, buried in the Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, Somerset. His sibling Charles, who was a sergeant in Bath City Police, lived in the city, as did another brother, Frank.

Fred’s headstone also commemorates his and Louisa’s son, Leslie. He had joined the army in the 1920s and, in the summer of 1943, was in Yorkshire, undergoing officer training.

The death of an officer cadet through the accidental discharge of a rifle whose bolt had jammed was described at an inquest…

Captain WH Price said he was in charge of an exercise on the moors which involved the used of small arms and the firing of live ammunition. A squad of cadets lay on the ground in front of a trench firing over a range. All finished firing except Cadet Frank Holroyd, who said his bolt had hammed while firing a second round. [Price] told him to release the bolt by knocking the cocking piece up and back.

This attempt failed, and he told Holroyd to get back into the trench, turn the rifle magazine upwards, place the butt on the side of the trench, and kick the bolt down with his foot. While Holroyd was doing this he noticed Maynard standing in the trench about 4ft away from Holroyd and on his right-hand side.

Captain Price said he saw the rifle was pointing down the range when Holroyd kicked the butt. The cartridge suddenly exploded and Maynard dropped into the trench, shot in the head, and was dead when they reached him.

[Bradford Observer: Saturday 19th June 1943]

Officer Cadet Leslie Maynard was 36 years of age when he was killed. His body was taken back to Somerset for burial: he was laid to rest in the same grave as Fred, father and son reunited after 27 years.

Louisa remained somewhat elusive as time wore on. Fred’s military records confirm that she had moved from Cardiff to the Isle of Wight by 1922. By the time of her son’s death, she was living in Sidcup, Kent.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lancashire, Manchester Regiment, photography, Sergeant, story, war, Wiltshire

Serjeant Cecil Whitehead

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Serjeant Cecil Whitehead

Details of Cecil Whitehead’s early life as lost to time. Born in 1882, he was the son of Henry and Annie Whitehead, from Openshaw in Manchester. There are no census returns for the family, so it is not possible to discover any more of their background.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirm that Cecil wed a woman called Annie Ellis. His pension ledger notes four children: John, Cecil, Annie and Catherine, who died in 1917.

When war broke out, Cecil stepped up to serve his King and Country. He enlisted in the Manchester Regiment, and was assigned to the 3rd/8th Battalion. This was a reserve unit, based on home soil, and there is no evidence that Cecil spent any time overseas.

Cecil rose to the rank of Serjeant, by the winter of 1915, Cecil was billeted near Codford in Wiltshire. It was while he was here that he fell ill, contracting pneumonia. The condition was to prove too much for his body to bear, and he passed away on 13th February 1916, at the age of 33 years old.

Annie appear to have been unable to fund bringing her husband back to Manchester for burial. Instead Cecil Whitehead was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Codford.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, history, illness, Lance Corporal, photography, Royal Engineers, Sapper, Sergeant, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Serjeant Herbert Fleming

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Serjeant Herbert Fleming

Herbert Gordon Maurice Fleming was born in Stockton, Wiltshire, on 24th March 1888. An only child, his parents were carpenter and wheelwright George Fleming and his wife, Annie.

Little further information is available about Herbert’s early life. On 25th June 1910 he married Ethel Young, a shepherd’s daughter from Wiltshire: they would go on to have four children, Herbert Jr, Ivy, George and Harold.

Herbert’s marriage certificate noted that he was employed as an engine driver. In his spare time, he also volunteered for the Wiltshire Regiment. When war broke out in the summer of 1914, he was called upon to play his part, and was formally mobilised in July 1916.

Sapper Fleming joined the Royal Engineers. His service records show that, at 28 years of age, he stood 5ft 7.5ins (1.71m) tall, and weighed 159lbs (72kg). He was of good physical development, although his medical report noted that some dental attention was required, and he had a pendulous mole on his back.

After his initial training, Herbert was sent to France. He was to remain part of the British Expeditionary Force for the next three years. While details of his service are scarce, his commitment to the army was clear: he was promoted to Lance Corporal in December 1918; full Corporal in June 1919; and Serjeant just three months later.

In October 1919, Herbert arrived back in Britain and the following month he was formally demobbed. He returned to his family, who were now living in Bath, Somerset. Back on civvy street, Herbert took up work as a motor waggon driver in the city, but his post-army life was to be short-lived.

The enquiry into the death on Saturday of Herbert John Maurice Fleming… was held at Bath Guildhall… Medical evidence proved that the cause of death was heart failure, due to an unexpected attack of pneumonia.

The widow said her husband did not complain of illness until Friday evening, when he returned from a journey to Reading. He then said he ached all over, and would go to bed at once. On Saturday evening he said he felt better, and sent her to the chemist for a tonic. He told her not to send for a doctor, as he expected to be quite well on Monday. On Sunday he still appeared fairly well, and was quite cheerful: but in the afternoon he complained of sickness, and the end came very suddenly.

[Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 27th March 1920]

Herbert John Morris Fleming was just three days short of his 32nd birthday when he died. He was laid to rest in Bath’s sweeping Locksbrook Cemetery.

The spelling of Herbert’s second middle name is variously noted as Maurice and Morris. For consistency, I have used the spelling noted on his birth certificate.

Bombardier, Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Great War, Gunner, Hampshire, history, illness, photography, Royal Field Artillery, Sergeant, Somerset, story, war

Serjeant William Dutch

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Serjeant William Dutch

DUTCH, WILLIAM BENJAMIN, Sergt., No. 83812, 47th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, [son] of William Dutch, of Bladud House, Bath, Accountant, by his wife, Alice, [daughter] of Alderman Alfred Taylor, of The Red House, Bath; b. Lower Weston, Bath, 21 April 1894; educ. Bathforum, and Bath City Secondary School 93 years’ Scholarship), and was employed in the engineering works of Stothert and Pitt Ltd., of Bath. He joined the Army, 17th Aug. 1914; was made Bombardier, 1 November 1914; Corpl., 14 November 1914; and Sergt., 1 January 1915; and died at the Thornhill Isolation Hospital, Aldershot, 11 April 1915, of septic scarlet fever; [unmarried]. He was buried at Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, will full military honours. His Capt. wrote: “I cannot exaggerate the loss he is to me personally and to the whole battery, had picked up a wonderful knowledge of gunnery and his work in general was out and out the best sergeant I had, and would have gone far in the service.” He was a keen sportsman and a popular football player.

[De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, 1914-1919]

William Benjamin Dutch was the second of five children to William and Alice. His father initially worked as a grocer and wine and spirit shopkeeper, and the 1901 census found the family living above the shop on the corner of Chelsea Road and Park Road, Bath.

By the time of the 1911 census, however, things had changed. The Dutches had moved to Walcot, nearer the centre of Bath, and William was working as a tramway clerk. Alice was running the family home – 3 Bladud Buildings – as a boarding house, and employed a housemaid and kitchen maid to help look after the lodgings.

William’s dedication to his army role – and his rapid rise through the ranks – is outlined in the article above. He seems, however, to have spent his time on home soil, remaining at his Hampshire base from his enlistment to his passing. His service records give an insight into his physical nature: he stood 5ft 6.5ins (1.69m) tall, and weighed 153lbs (69.4kg). He had light brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

Serjeant Dutch’s illness seems to have come on him quickly:

On Sunday a telegram reached [his parents] saying that their son… was seriously ill in hospital at Aldershot. Mr Dutch went thither at once, only to find that his son had passed away. He was attacked last week with bronchial pneumonia, and tracheotomy was performed in the hope of saving his life, but in vain. The deceased was… a young soldier of rare promise and fine physique.

[Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 17 April 1915]

William Benjamin Dutch was just 20 years old when he passed away. His body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in Bath’s sweeping Locksbrook Cemetery, within sight of William Sr’s former shop on Chelsea Road.

Serjeant William Dutch
(from findagrave.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, history, illness, Ireland, Lance Serjeant, Middlesex, Northern Ireland, photography, Scotland, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, Surrey, war

Serjeant John Chambers

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Serjeant John Chambers

John Dwelly Chambers was born on 21st August 1846, in Holborn, Middlesex. The second of four children, his parents were John and Sarah Chambers. John Sr was a tailor, and this was a trade into which his oldest son followed.

Unusually, John Jr travelled widely with his work and, by the late 1860s, he was based in Devon. It was here that he met and, on 5th March 1870, married Isabella Smith. She was born in Exeter, and couple initially made a life for themselves there.

The 1881 census return shows just how far the family moved in the coming years. John and Isabella were to have nine children: their first, Louise, was born in Exeter a hear after their marriage. The second child, son John, was born in Armagh, Ireland, though; their third, Emily, was born in Glasgow; while their fourth, George, was born in Surrey. It was only by the time their fifth and sixth children, Thomas and Charles, were born that they family returned to Devon. Their youngest three children – Percy, Victoria and Ivor, were all born in Somerset, when the family had settled in Taunton.

The reason for these moves seem to have been because his tailoring work was for the army. The 1891 census found the family living in army barracks, where John was listed as being a soldier. Ten years on, and John was recorded as being a Lance Sergeant in the Somerset Light Infantry, the Chambers’ still being billeted in barrack accommodation in Taunton.

By this point, Percy, now 17 years of age, was employed as a gunsmith, and a later photo suggests that all six of John’s sons went into the army.

Isabella died in 1906, at the age of 58: the following year, John married Elizabeth Dunning, a widow with her own children to raise. The 1911 census found the extended family living in the barracks: John, Elizabeth, Ivor and Elizabeth’s two daughters, Kate and Beatrice. John, by now, was listed as being a master tailor (military), Ivor was now a gunsmith, and the two girls were employed as a book binder and dressmaker respectively.

John had officially been discharged from the army by this point, but it seems likely that the outbreak of war brought him back into service. His life over the next few years is largely undocumented, but it is fair to assume that Serjeant Chambers was called back to the army, possibly to train newer recruits in the trade he had been working in for decades.

John Dwelly Chambers died of a heart attack on 2nd August 1915: he was just short of his 69th birthday. John was laid to rest in the sprawling St Mary’s Cemetery in Taunton, not far from the barracks to which he had devoted his life.

Serjeant John Chambers (seated middle, with his sons)
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Australia, Australian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Driver, Egypt, Great War, history, illness, photography, story, war

Driver John McClymont

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Driver John McClymont

John McClymont was born in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia, in 1865. Full details of his early life are lost to time, but later documents confirm that his mother was called Sophia.

Most of the information relating to John’s life comes from his army service records. These confirm that he enlisted on 13th September 1915, and that he was assigned to the 8th/20th unit of the 5th Australian Infantry Brigade. He was noted as being a labourer when he joined up, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. The record confirms that he stood 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, and weighed 169lbs (76.7kg).

Private McClymont arrived in Egypt in February 1916, and transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force. He was initially based at Tel-el-Kebir camp, close to Cairo. From here on in, he seems to have been beset with poor health, and had numerous hospital admissions for heart ailments and haemorrhoids.

By April 1916, John’s unit had arrived in France, and his commitment to the job was not to go unrewarded. On 13th July 1916, he was appointed to the role of Acting Sergeant, and just three months later, he was reassigned to the 1st Australian Infantry Brigade Headquarters, where he was mustered as a Driver.

He was still battling health issues, however, and, in 18th August 1917, he was admitted to a hospital in Boulogne with heart disease. Within a month, Driver McClymont had been medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, and he was taken to Bath War Hospital in Somerset. It was here that he was diagnosed with diabetes, and, having slipped into a diabetic coma, it was here that he passed away, on 9th October 1917. He was 42 years of age.

With all of his family on the other side of the world, John McClymont was laid to rest in the military section of Bath’s Locksbrook Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Corporal, Devon, Devonshire Regiment, Great War, Hampshire, Hampshire Regiment, history, illness, India, Lance Corporal, Lance Serjeant, photography, Private, Sergeant, Somerset, Somerset Light Infantry, story, war

Serjeant Alfred Pollard

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Serjeant Alfred Pollard

Alfred Pollard was born in the spring of 1869 in Hinton Charterhouse, Somerset. His early life seems to have been a little disjointed. The son of Harriett Pollard, who had him out of wedlock, his baptism record gives no details of his father.

The 1871 census found him living with his mother and her widowed father, Thomas Pollard. Ten years later, Harriett is living with her husband, Walter Hayden, and four children, including Alfred – who has also taken the name of Hayden. Thomas is also recorded as living with the family.

Alfred is missing from the 1891 census return. Harriett, however, is now listed as married and the head of the household. She and Walter had a further three children – their youngest, Percy, being just three months old. Times must have been tough for her: the same census recorded Walter as being an inmate of the Somerset and Bath Asylum, where he is listed as being a lunatic.

Harriett died at the start of 1892, aged just 46 years old: Walter died three years later, at the age of 55. Both are buried in the graveyard of St John the Baptist Church, Hinton Charterhouse.

The passing of his mother and the diminishing health of his stepfather seems to have spurred Alfred into building a career to support his siblings. Having been working as an engine driver, on 7th December 1892, he enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry.

Alfred’s service records give his height as 5ft 7ins (1.7m) and his weight as 137lbs (62kg). He was noted as having black hair, bark eyes and a coarse complexion. He also had a number of tattoos, including a cross on his right forearm; a circle of dots on his right wrist; crossed flags, an anchor and Jubilee 1887 VR and crown on his left forearm; and a bracelet on his left wrist. The records also noted the loss part of the middle finger on his right hand.

Private Pollard quickly became a career soldier. Over 21 years, he rose through the ranks to Lance Corporal (July 1902), Corporal (April 1906), Lance Sergeant (November 1907) and Serjeant (June 1911). He spent more than 14 years in India, and was involved in the Mohmand Campaign of 1897. He was formally discharged on 6th December 1913, having served as a signaller for eleven years, and a Provost Sergeant for three. His discharge papers confirmed his exemplary character, and that he was “thoroughly hardworking, sober and reliable.“

Back on civvy street, Alfred found work as a labourer in an iron foundry. This was not to last long, however, as he stepped up once more when war was declared in the summer of 1914. Joining the Somerset Light Infantry on 12th October, he retook his previous rank of Serjeant.

Alfred served on home soil during this second period in the army. Initially attached to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, his unit was based in Devonport, Devon. In September 1916, Sergeant Pollard was transferred to the 2nd Garrison Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, which was based in nearby Plymouth. In January 1917, he moved again, to the Hampshire Regiment. He spent most of the year with 18th (Home Service) Battalion in Aldershot, Hampshire, and by December had moved to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, which was based in Gosport.

Sergeant Pollard remained on active service until the end of February 1919, when he was formally demobbed. At this point, his trail goes cold, although he seems to have settled in Bath, Somerset. He went on to marry, although details of his wife are limited to the name Mrs AE Pollard and her date of birth, 15th March 1879.

Alfred Pollard died of cardiac failure on 7th March 1921: he was 52 years of age. He was laid to rest in the army section of Bath’s Locksbrook Cemetery.

Army Veterinary Corps, Commonwealth War Graves, County Durham, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, Midlothian, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, Scotland, Sergeant, Somerset, story, unknown, Wales, war

Serjeant Robert Dodds

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Serjeant Robert Dodds

Robert Frederic Dodds was born in 1874 in Darlington, Country Durham. The third of nine children, his parents were Robert and Elizabeth Dodds. Robert Sr was a carter and furniture remover and, when he finished his schooling, Robert Jr joined his father in his work.

Robert Sr died in 1898, at the age of 61. Whether this was a catalyst for his son to move on is unclear, but by the following year, Robert Jr was working as a labourer in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. On 16th September 1899, he married Elizabeth Counsell, a fisherman’s daughter from the town.

It seems that Robert was keen to build a life for his new wife: the next census, taken in 1901, found the couple living in Cardiff, Glamorgan, where he was employed as a stone mason. The Dodds remained in Wales for the next decade, having three children – Lily, William and Rosie – there. By the spring of 1911, however, they were back in Somerset, living in a three-roomed cottage in Castle Street. Elizabeth had had a fourth child just a month before the census, with a second son, Bertie, adding to the family.

When war came to Britain, Robert stepped up to play his part. He initially joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps as a Private, and found himself in France on 6th March 1915. Elizabeth, meanwhile, remained at home in Somerset, seeking support from her family. With four children to look after, her workload was to increase again when, just a week after Robert arrived on the Western Front, she gave birth to their fifth child, the patriotically named Frederick Gordon Kitchener Dodds.

Robert remained in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps for the next four years, rising to the rank of Serjeant. Details of his time in the service are unclear, but he survived the war and, on 11th July 1919, he transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps.

Little further information is available about Robert’s life. By the winter of 1919/1920, he was based in Midlothian, Scotland. He was admitted to the 2nd Scottish General Hospital, Edinburgh, although his condition is unclear. Whatever it was, it was to be fatal: he passed away on 6th January 1920, at the age of 45 years old.

Robert Frederic Dodds’ body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Highbridge Cemetery.