Inquests have been held by Mr PB Ingoldby, County Coroner, on the bodies of Sergt. S Pickett, aged 36, and Sergt. A Martin, aged 29, whose deaths occurred recently as the result of an explosion in the New Forest.
The evidence showed that Sergt. Martin was killed. Sergt. Pickett was found insensible from shock, and died five hours later in hospital. In both cases the verdict was that death took place accidentally, and that no blame was attached to anybody.
[Hampshire Independent: Saturday 3rd March 1917]
The life of Sergeant A Martin is a challenge to piece together. While no service papers remain, the few documents that are available don’t provide enough information to unpick the his details.
His entry in the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects confirms his name as Alfred Albert Martin, and that he served in the 3rd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. The document also gives his beneficiary as his mother, Philaidah.
Sergeant Martin’s pension ledger card gives his mother’s name as Louisa Martin, of 64 Bedford Street, Kingstone Road, Portsmouth. It also provides details of a brother, Sergeant Arthur Theodore of the Devonshire Regiment, who also died during the conflict.
The newspaper report suggests Alfred would have been born in around 1888, but there is no definite evidence of him, Philaidah/Louisa or Arthur in census records from 1891 to 1911.
Alfred’s Medal Roll Index Card confirms that he served in the Balkans, and arrived there on 25th April 1915. It gives his rank only as Sergeant, which would suggest that he may have had some military background before the First World War.
Sadly, there are too many pieces to the jigsaw of Sergeant Martin’s life missing to be able to build a better picture. Killed by an accident, he was laid to rest in Lyndhurst Cemetery, not far from where he died.
Herbert James Newman was born at the start of 1891, the fourth of five children – all sons – to Charles and Mary Newman. Charles was a general labourer, and the family lived on Well Head, to the north of Mere, Wiltshire.
Charles died when Herbert was just a boy, and Mary was left to raise the family on her own. By the time of the 1901 census, the family had moved to a cottage on Old Hollow, and she had taken work as a charwoman. Herbert’s older brother, Theodore and William, had also taken jobs to help with money.
In 1911, her boys had all grown up and were moving on, and Mary found more secure employment as a live-in servant to 80-year-old Anna Collard, a single woman who was living on her own means.
Herbert, meanwhile, had left Wiltshire for the capital, and was working as a compositor. He was boarding with widow Mary Ann Day and her two children, all living relatively comfortably at 41 St Thomas’ Road in Finsbury Park, Middlesex. Amongst the other lodgers were Jeweller John Tipping, conductor Wilfred Mustill and cycle mechanic Lester Rule.
When war came to Europe, Herbert stepped up to play his part. Full details of his military service have been lost to time, but it is clear that he had enlisted by December 1917. Initially joining the Tank Corps, It seems likely that Private Newman had seen service overseas, although there is nothing to confirm this either way.
As the conflict drew into its closing months, the now promoted Serjeant Newman seems to have been based in Dorset. In the spring of 1918, he fell ill, and was admitted to the Military Hospital in Wareham. The cause of his illness is unclear, but it would prove fatal: he passed away on 18th May 1918, at the age of 27 years old.
The body of Herbert James Newman was taken back to Wiltshire for burial. He was laid to rest in Mere Cemetery, on the outskirts of the town he had called home.
Interestingly, Serjeant Newman’s Pension Ledger Index Card gives his beneficiary as his mother, Mary. The British Register of Soldiers’ Effects, however, suggests his next-of-kin was his widow, Lucy, although there appears to be no record of Herbert having married.
Edwin Huxtable was born in the summer of 1863, the youngest of eight children to William and Sarah. William was a tailor and Sarah a dressmaker, and they raised their family in their home village of South Molton, Devon.
William’s two younger sons followed him into tailoring, although the family disappears from records for more than 20 years. William passed away in 1889, and a later newspaper report suggests that Edwin enlisted in the army in some capacity, serving in South Africa during the Second Boer War.
Back in Britain, Edwin married Hester Cole in 1904. She was a dressmaker from South Molton as well: the couple set up home and their business at 10 Broad Street in the village. They had two children: Sidney was born in 1905, and Herbert in 1906, although their younger boy passed away when just a babe-in-arms.
When war broke out, Edwin was called back into service. Details of his military career have been lost, but it is clear from what remains that he enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment, and served in the 11th (Reserve) Battalion. His previous time in the army was taken into account, and he was given the rank of Serjeant.
It is unclear whether Edwin saw any time overseas as part of the First World War, but his age and health were against him. Suffering from pneumonia, he was admitted to a hospital in Torquay. The lung condition got the better of him, however, and he passed away on 14th April 1915. He was 52 years of age.
Taken back to South Molton for burial, Edwin Huxtable was laid to rest in the village’s cemetery.
The 1921 census showed that Hestor was keeping up the family business. She was living in East Street, South Molton, and listed as a dressmaker and employer.
Reginald William Brown was born in South Molton, Devon, the summer of 1873. The second of four children – all boys – his parents were William and Mary Brown. William died when Reginald was just a child, and the 1881 census found Mary supporting her children by working as a mangler.
Details of Reginald’s early life are sparse. In the autumn of 1898 he married Elizabeth Mayne and the couple set up home at 13 Cook’s Cross. The couple went on to have six children, and Reginald supported his family with work as a gardener.
Alongside his gardening work, Reginald volunteered for army service. Again, full details are unclear, but he was attached to the Devonshire Regiment from 1908. Initially for a year’s contract, he seemed to renew this on-and-off for the next six years.
When war broke out, Reginald was formally called into service. HIs time in the army resulted in him being given the rank of Sergeant, and by October 1914, his unit – the 4th Battalion – was sent to India.
Reginald spent the next couple of years overseas, before being posted back to Britain in the spring of 1916. That November he spent six weeks admitted to the Manor County of London War Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, suffering from bronchitis. This was the result of malaria, and he would continue to suffer from lung complaints for the next few years.
In September 1917, Elizabeth passed away, and Reginald was left, at a distance at least, to raise his children. By now, his health was being severely impacted, and in April 1919, he was medically discharged from army service.
Reginald returned home, but he would quickly succumb to illness. He passed away at 43 South Street, South Molton, on 22nd April 1919. He was 45 years of age.
Reginald William Brown was laid to rest in South Molton Cemetery. His was a family plot, and he was reunited with his beloved Elizabeth.
The early life of Charles Miles, whose body lies at rest in the Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham, Kent, is a challenge to unpick, and the starting point is the last document relating to him.
His military Pension Ledger confirms that he died on 13th May 1918, from empyema, a bacterial infection affecting the lungs. The document cites his next-of-kin as Miss Hilda Miles, of 15 St John’s Road in Gillingham. She is noted as being the guardian of two children – Ada, born in 1905, and George, born the following year – because their mother, Charles’ wife, had passed away on 30th May 1912.
An online search for Ada and George gives an entry in the 1911 census. This finds them as the youngest two of six children to Charles and Elizabeth Miles. The document also gives a clue about their future guardian, Hilda: she is their older sister.
The Miles family were living at 45 Commercial Street in Whitechapel, East London. Charles, at 39, was recorded as a Royal Marines Pensioner and schoolkeeper. His wife, Elizabeth, was assisting with this role, and the couple had two other surviving children, Charles Jr and Walter.
While it is still difficult to piece together Charles’ childhood, his Royal Marine service records do shed a little light onto it. Born in Hampstead on 23rd November 1871, he was working as an ironmonger’s assistant when he enlisted. He joined up on 23rd August 1889, the document showing that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. He also had a tattoo on his right forearm.
Private Miles had joined up in London but, as with most Royal Marine recruits, he was sent to the base in Walmer, Kent, for his initial training. In the spring of 1890 he moved to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, and this would become his regular port for the remainder of his service.
Charles’ service proved to be a committed one. Over the next decade he would serve on five ships, and would rise through the ranks. In October 1894 he was promoted to Lance Corporal, making full Corporal less than a year later. On 1st January 1899 he was promoted to Sergeant, and by the start of 1908, he held the rank of Colour Sergeant. Formally stood down to reserve status on 22nd November 1910, he was noted as having a very good character.
Away from the service, there is no record for Charles and Elizabeth’s marriage. She had been born in Sheerness, Kent, and was a year younger than her husband. It is likely that they were married by 1897, as this is when their oldest child was born. The 1901 census recorded them living on Manor Street in Gillingham, but, once Charles had been stood down, the school keeper’s position in the East End came up.
When war broke out, Charles was called upon to play his part once more. He returned to Chatham, leaving his younger children in Hilda’s care. By September 1914 he had moved to HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and he would remain there for the next eighteen months. His shore base and naval experience suggest that, at 43 years of age, his was more of a training or mentoring role, although there is nothing in his records to confirm this.
In February 1916, Colour Sergeant Miles returned once more to Chatham, and the naval base there would be his home for the next few years. He was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital in the spring of 1918, and passed away from the infection on 13th May 1918. He was 46 years old.
Charles Miles was laid to rest in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham.
After their father’s death, the Miles siblings found their own way in life.
By the time of the 1921 census, Ada, now 16 years old, was working as a domestic servant for Henry Chapman, a ship’s surveyor, and his family. They were living at 73 Milton Street in Fleetwood, a short stroll from the Lancashire coast.
Hilda, into whose care Charles had given his youngest children, was now 22 years of age. She had married William Swift, a pattern maker for the Admiralty, in the summer of 1918. They would not have any children, and the 1921 census found the couple living at 15 Milner Road, Gillingham. She too was just a short walk from the shoreline, but was also within walking distance from the cemetery in which her father had been buried.
George Constable was born in the summer of 1893 in Findon, West Sussex. His parents were Albert and Ruth Constable, and they had seven children: Ruth Jr, Thomas, Albert Jr, William, George, Arthur and Rachel.
There is little concrete information about George’s early life. The 1901 census found the Constable family living at 2 Mill Cottages in Findon, with George’s oldest brother, Thomas, helping his father’s gardening work.
When war came to Europe, George and his older brothers stepped up to play their part. Thomas joined the Dorsetshire Regiment and worked his way to the rank of Lance Corporal. His time in service was to be tragically brief, however. He was killed in France on 26th October 1914, aged 27 years old. He is commemorated on both the Le Touret Memorial, and on the headstone to the family ploy in St John the Baptist Churchyard, Findon.
George also joined the Dorsetshire Regiment and, like his brother, was assigned to the 1st Battalion. During his short time with the regiment – he enlisted no later than October 1914 – he rose through the ranks, and, by the spring of 1915, had been promoted to Serjeant.
Sent to France, George was wounded in April 1915, and medically evacuated to Britain for treatment. He was admitted to the 1st London General Hospital, but his injuries were to prove too severe. He passed away on 5th April 1915 aged just 21.
Albert and Ruth had lost two of their sons to the conflict within six months. While Thomas’ body lay in France, George was brought back to Sussex for burial.
George Constable was buried in the family plot in the graveyard of St John the Baptist Church, Findon.
William Constable was assigned to the Royal Sussex Regiment when he enlisted. He too rose through the ranks, and would take on the role of Serjeant, like his younger brother. His unit, the 2nd Battalion, fought at Loos in the autumn of 1915, and this is where William would be killed. He died on 25th September 1915, aged just 23 years old.
Serjeant Constable is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, while Albert and Ruth, having now lost three sons within a year, added his name to the family headstone.
Albert Constable Jr, was also involved in the conflict. Along with George and Thomas, he had joined the 1st Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, but unlike his brothers, he survived the horrors of the Western Front.
By the last months of the war, Lance Corporal Constable was caught on in the Battles of the Hindenburg Line, and, tragically, he too was killed. Albert passed away on 15th September 1918, at the age of 29 years old. He was buried in Cologne Southern Cemetery, Germany.
By this point, the face of the family headstone was already full with commemorations to his three brothers, Albert is remembered in lettering around the edge of the grave marker.
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)
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.
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.
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.
