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Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, Middlesex, photography, Royal Navy, Stoker, story, war

Stoker 1st Class Robert Collett

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Stoker 1st Class Robert Collett

Robert William Collett was born on 20th April 1893 in Barnsbury, now part of Islington, Middlesex. Little information about his early life remains available – he does not feature on any census records – although later records confirm than his parents were called George and Sarah.

When he completed his schooling, Robert found work as a baker, but he had bigger and better things in mind. On 24th August 1911, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. His service papers show that he was 5ft 1.5ins (1.56m) tall, with dark brown hair and eyes, and a fresh complexion.

Stoker 2nd Class Collett was sent to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, for his training. In February 1912, he was given his first assignment, on board the battleship HMS Berwick. She would be his home for the next year, during which time he was promoted to Stoker 1st Class.

After a further spell on shore, Robert transferred to another battleship, HMS Swiftsure. She would spend much of the war serving in the Mediterranean, with Stoker Collett on board. He seems to have had a rebellious nature, and this led to his time aboard Swiftsure not being smooth sailing.

During his time on the battleship Robert spent three separate period in the brig: three days in October 1914, and seven days in June 1915. In October that year, things came to a head, and he was convicted of threatening to strike an Engine Room Artificer. For this he was incarcerated again, for 42 days.

Stoker Collett left Swiftsure in May 1916, and transferred to another vessel, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse. After an eight-month stint on board, he returned to Chatham while waiting for a new posting. His time here was not without incident, however, and he was thrown in the brig for a further seven days for an unrecorded misdemeanour.

HMS Pembroke was overcrowded in the summer of 1917, and when he was released Stoker Collett was billeted in temporary accommodation in the dockyard’s Drill Hall.

By this point in the war, the German Air Force was looking to minimise daytime casualties, and was, instead, trialling night raids; on 3rd September, Chatham found itself in their flight path. The Drill Hall received a direct hit, and Stoker 1st Class Collett was killed, along with close to 100 others. He was just 24 years old.

The body of Robert William Collett was taken back to London for burial. He was laid to rest in Islington Cemetery, not far from where his parents were still living.

[Note: the photo above is of the memorial to the Chatham Air Raid victims, close to the mass grave for those whose bodies were not identified, in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent.]

Commonwealth War Graves, Gloucestershire, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Frank Holloway

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Private Frank Holloway

Frank Roland Holloway was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, early in 1896. One of five children, he was the only son to Frederick and Emily Holloway. Frederick was a general labourer, and by the turn of the century, the family had moved to Hilperton, Wiltshire.

When Frank completed his schooling he found work in a local cloth mill. The 1911 census record the family living on Marsh Road, Hilperton, with four – albeit meagre – wages coming into the household. Frederick was employed by the Anglo Swiss Milk Company as a labourer, while his daughter, Frank’s older sister Edith, was also working in the factory’s tin shop. Emily was helping other people with their laundry, bringing in a few extra pennies.

War broke out in the summer of 1914, and Frank would step up to play his part. His service papers show that he was employed as a rubber worker by this point, and that he was a volunteer with the local militia. He formally enlisted on the 20th February 1915, and was assigned to the 8th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment as a Private.

Private Holloway remained with his unit for four months, before being discharged from military service, having contracted tuberculosis. Interestingly, his service papers include a statement from Frederick about his son’s health:

I am making an application on behalf of my son. He had been ill now for over 12 months. He served 2 years 175 days in 4th Wilts and 129 days in 8th Wilts. He had not any illness for some years and had been in good health and passed several military doctors for active service, but having left Salisbury Plain he came to Trowbridge where they slept in damp straw also under [a] bad roof in [an] old disused factory. He was a lad in good health and is now suffering with consumption.

Sadly, any response to Frederick’s request for compensation would come too late. Frank passed away on 21st June 1916: he was just 20 years of age.

The body of Frank Roland Holloway was laid to rest in St Paul’s Churchyard, in village of Staveron, the parish church for his home in Hilperton.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Frederick Kyte

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Private Frederick Kyte

Frederick George Kyte was born on 23rd January 1899. The youngest of five children, his parents were Wiltshire-born market gardener John Kyte, and his wife, Esther. Frederick’s mother had been born in Chelsea, Middlesex, but it was in John’s home county where the family lived, on 16 Wine Street, Bradford-on-Avon.

Education was important to John and Esther. The 1911 census found his older brothers working a clerks, one to a rubber works, the other to a solicitor.

In his spare time, Frederick was a chorister and the local parish church, and was ‘an enthusiastic member of the Church Lads’ Brigade’ [Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 13th December 1919] When he completed his schooling, he also found work as a clerk, and was employed by a local insurance broker.

On 13th January 1915, Frederick joined the Wiltshire Regiment, and, as a Bugler, was attached to the 8th Battalion. He was only 15 years of age, but remained with the unit for the next two years, until he was invalided out of the army for medical reasons.

After some time he partially recovered, and resumed his occupation as an insurance agent, but took to his bed some three months ago.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 13th December 1919]

The lung condition Frederick had contracted would be the one to which he would ultimately succumb. He passed away in the family home on 7th December 1919, aged just 20 years old.

The body of Frederick George Kyte was laid to rest in the family plot in Bradford-on-Avon cemetery.

The newspaper report provides some further information about Frederick’s brothers. Both also served in the army, and both rose to the rank of Serjeant.

The eldest [Edward] is now with HM Forces in Palestine, whilst the younger, Herbert, who was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Medal for good work during the retreat, is demobilised.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 13th December 1919]

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Thomas Morris

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Private Thomas Morris

Thomas Morris was born on 12th November 1880 in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. One of thirteen children, his parents were Henry and Eliza Morris. Henry was a chimney sweep, and this is a trade that Thomas would also go into, unsurprisingly, from a very young age. The family lived to the north of the town centre, initially at 57 Newtown, before moving round the corner to 5 Wine Street.

By the turn of the century, love was beckoning for Thomas. On 29th March 1903, he wed Annie Britten, a labourer’s daughter, who also lived on Wine Street. The marriage certificate noted that Thomas had changed jobs, and was employed as a labourer.

The 1911 census return shows the family home that had been set up. Henry and Eliza were still at Wine Street, although now at No. 44. Thomas and Annie were also living there, crammed into the four-roomed cottage with their four children as well. Henry was still working as a chimney sweep, while Thomas had found employment as maltster’s labourer.

Annie would go on to have six children in all, and when war broke out, she was left to raise the family with the help of her father-in-law (Eliza having passed in May 1914). Thomas enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment early on in the conflict and, according to later reports, had seen a lot of service on the Western Front. He survived the conflict, however, and returned to a base in the garrison town of Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

At the start of 1919, Private Morris came home on leave, but while there, he fell ill. He was admitted to the military hospital in Sutton Veny, also in Wiltshire, but succumbed to the influenza he had contracted. He passed away on 11th January 1919, aged the age of 38 years old.

The body of Thomas Morris was taken back to Bradford-on-Avon to be buried. He was laid to rest in the town’s cemetery.

Annie was now a widow with children to raise. Henry had also passed away in 1918, and so she remarried, wedding William Bishop in December 1919. The couple went on to have a child of their own, Phyllis, in March 1921.

Annie would live a peaceful life, passing away in Trowbridge in 1943, at the age of 60.

Commonwealth War Graves, Engine Room Artificer, Essex, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Ireland, London, photography, Royal Navy, Somerset, story, war, Wiltshire

Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class Charles Barlow

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Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class Charles Barlow

Charles Edward Barlow was born on 3rd January 1886, and was the second of eight children to John and Agnes. John was a Serjeant Major in the Royal Fusiliers, and his work meant the family moved a lot. Charles and his older brother were born in Dublin, Ireland, while Agnes gave birth to his younger siblings in Essex, Ireland, Hampshire and London.

John died in the late 1890s, and the 1901 census found Agnes and four of the children – including Charles – living at 18 Ethel Road, a small terraced cottage in the centre of Portsmouth, Hampshire. Agnes was listed as a shirt maker, while Charles was apprenticed to a boiler maker.

The apprenticeship obviously stood Charles in good stead, and he later found employment as the local dockyard, HMS Victory. The 1911 census recorded mother and son living at 124 Ernest Road, in the Buckland area of Portsmouth. Slightly further from where Charles was working, this was, however, a larger property.

A new opportunity presented itself in the spring of 1912, when Charles formally enrolled in the Royal Navy. His engineering background served him well, and he took the rank of Engine Room Artificer 4th Class. Initial training was provided at Portsmouth Dockyard, and he then moved to the neighbouring bases HMS Fisgard that autumn, and HMS Dryad in February 1913.

After a two month posting on board the torpedo gunboat HMS Harrier, Charles would return to shore in the summer of 1914. On 1st January 1915, however, he was assigned to the depot ship HMS Dido, and she would remain his home for nearly four years. During this time, he was promoted to Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class.

In the autumn of 1918, with the war in its final weeks, Charles fell ill. He was disembarked and admitted to the War Hospital in Bath, suffering from pneumonia. The condition would prove his undoing, and he passed away on 17th November: he was 32 years of age.

The body of Charles Edward Barlow was taken to Bradford-upon-Avon for burial, possibly due to a familial connection in the area, and he was laid to rest in the town’s cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, Machine Gun Corps, photography, story, war, Wiltshire

Gunner George Elmes

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Gunner George Elmes

George Victor Jim Elmes was born in the autumn of 1897 in the village of Derry Hill, between Calne and Chippenham in Wiltshire. One of six children, his parents were Nelson and Hannah Elmes. Nelson was a shepherd, and when George completed his schooling, he found work as a labourer on the same farm. Money must have been tight, and the 1901 and 1911 census returns both show that the family had taken in boarders for a little extra.

There is little further documentation about George’s life. He would enlist in the Machine Gun Corps at some point after June 1917, and would undertake his training in Dorset.

The death took place at the Trowbridge Red Cross Hospital on Wednesday of Gunner George Elmes, Machine Gun Corps. Gunner Elmes, whose home is at Chippenham, was travelling thence from Bovington Cap on Monday when he was found to be seriously ill at Trowbridge. Dr Bond conveyed him to the hospital in his motor car, but he got rapidly worse and died on Wednesday. He was going to Chippenham to visit his mother, who is seriously ill.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 6th January 1917]

George Victor Jim Elmes died on 3rd January 1917: he was just 19 years of age. Hannah passed away soon after her son: she was 55 years old.

With two funerals to pay for, money must have been incredibly tight for Nelson and the rest of the family. While Hannah was buried locally, the body of George Elmes was laid to rest in Trowbridge Cemetery, not far from the hospital to which he had been taken when he fell ill.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private Howard Rees

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Private Howard Rees

Howard Stephen Rees was born in the spring of 1895 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. He was the second of six children – and the older of two sons – to Stephen and Annie. Stephen was an engine driver, and the 1901 census found the family living in a small terraced house at 18 Gloucester Road, a show walk from the town’s railway station.

By the time of the next census, the family had moved to a larger house, and were living at 15 Innox Road, to the north of the town centre. Stephen was still employed as an engine driver, while there were too further wages coming into the household. Howard’s older sister, Catherine, was working as a rug weaver, while he himself was employed as a page boy, a bell hop for one of the hotels in the town.

By the time war broke out, Howard had moved from page boy to cellarman. The pull to serve his country was strong, though, and he gave up his job to enlist in the army on 7th September 1914, just a month after the start of the conflict.

Private Rees was assigned to the Wiltshire Regiment. His service papers show that he was 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall and weighed 120lbs (54.4kg). He was noted as having brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. Howard’s medical examination was to conclude that he was not fit for army service, due to a ‘very poor physique and.. an impediment of speech’. He was recorded as being quite unfit for a soldier. His time in the army was to last just 20 days.

Howard was not deterred by this setback, however, and it seems that he tried to enlist again at some point, and this time succeeded. Full details have been lost, but from the documents that remain, he had joined the 2nd Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment by the spring of 1917.

The funeral took place on Monday a the cemetery of Private Howard Stephen Rees, Wilts Regiment, aged 22 years, who passed way after a painful illness lasting five months, at the Bath War Hospital on Wednesday September 26th from wounds received in action in France on April 23rd.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 6th October 1917]

Howard Stephen Rees received his injuries during the Arras Offensive of 1917, his eagerness to be included in the war having led to his death. His body was taken back to Wiltshire, and was laid to rest in Trowbridge Cemetery.

Canada, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Lance Corporal, Military Police Corps, Oxfordshire, photography, story, Uncategorized, war, Wiltshire

Lance Corporal Edward Hollis

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Lance Corporal Edward Hollis

Edward Joseph Hollis was born in the village of Cogges, Oxfordshire, in the spring of 1876. The youngest of four children, his parents were Joseph and Rebecca Hollis. Joseph was a blacksmith, who died shortly before Edward’s birth, leaving a son who would never know his father.

Rebecca had children to raise, and did so while continuing her job as a gloveress. The 1881 census found the family living on Oxford Road, with her widowed father, cowman James, also residing at the house.

Edward remained living with his mother through to the 1901 census, records suggesting that they stayed living in the same property. By this point, Rebecca had give up her work making gloves, and was listed as a charwoman. Her son, however, had found employment as a gardener’s assistant.

Rebecca died in 1902, at the age of 60 years old. Soon after, her son moved to Wiltshire, having found work as a labourer in Trowbridge. On 20th January 1907, he married local woman Rose Banks in the parish church. A cloth worker, she was nine years her new husband’s junior. The couple set up home at 9 Court Street, to the south of the town centre, and went on to have three children, daughters Elsie, Margaret and Bessie.

War broke out in the summer of 1914, and Edward stepped up to play his part. There is little information about his time in the military, but it is clear that he had enlisted by the summer of 1918. He saw the war out as a Lance Corporal in the Military Police Corps, and was based at Chiseldon Camp, near Swindon, Wiltshire.

While there, Edward’s health was becoming impacted. He was admitted to the camp hospital with a combination of influenza and bronchial pneumonia, but his heart gave out. He died on 6th November 1918, at the age of 42 years old.

The body of Edward Joseph Hollis was taken back to Trowbridge for burial. He was laid to rest in the town’s cemetery.

Like her mother-in-law before her, Rebecca was now a widow, with young children to raise. She took the risk of emigrating, and moved the family to Ontario, Canada. Here she met farmer James Morgan, and the couple married on 5th July 1920. She died in 1918, also aged 42.

Her and Edward’s legacy were their children. All three married and had families in Canada.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, India, Mesopotamia, Middlesex, photography, Private, story, war, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Regiment

Private William Cockerton

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Private William Cockerton

William John Cockerton was born in the autumn of 1896 in Holloway, Middlesex. The older of two children, his parents were baker John Cockerton and his wife, Elizabeth.

The 1901 census found the family living at 28 Highbury Station Road. The house is long since gone, but the Cockerton’s neighbours included a horse keeper, porter and a police constable.

By the time of the 1911 census, William had left London, and was living with his paternal uncle and aunt, Fred and Amy, in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Fred was an ironmonger, and his nephew had taken an apprenticeship with him. The census notes two visitors to the property – 22 Clarendon Villas – William’s mother and sister, Elizabeth and Dolly.

In his spare time, William started volunteering with the local militia. When war broke out, he was quick to enlist, formally joining the Wiltshire Regiment as a Private. Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, by December 1914, he found himself in India. A later newspaper report detailed how his military service unfolded:

..after a period of garrison duty in India, he volunteered for duty with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, and took part in some of the biggest engagements against the Turks, being eventually wounded, captured and reported dead. For some two years he was held in captivity, during which he ensured great hardships that seriously undermined his health.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 26th April 1919]

William was reported missing in February 1917, with an understandably grief-stricken John and Elizabeth later being informed that he had been severely wounded in the chest, succumbing to his injuries half-an-hour later. His name was placed on the roll of honour at Trowbridge, but in July 1917, William’s parents received a card from Turkey in his handwriting, explaining that he was a prisoner of war.

Private Cockerton was released on 16th November 1918, and returned to Britain.

Early in March, he went to Harrow-on-the-Hill for a holiday, staying with his uncle. Here he was taken ill with malarial fever and pneumonia, which resulted in his death.

[Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser: Saturday 26th April 1919]

William John Cockerton was just 22 years of age when he passed away on 20th April 1919. His body was taken back to Wiltshire for burial, and he was laid to rest in Trowbridge Cemetery. He lies at rest in the family plot, alongside his father, who had passed away in the autumn of 1916.

Private William Cockerton
(from britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Cornwall, Engineman, Great War, history, Kent, killed in action, photography, Royal Naval Reserve, story, Suffolk, war

Engineman Charles Clarke

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Engineman Charles Clarke

Charles Alfred Clarke was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk on 1st June 1888. The middle of eleven children, his parents were William and Jane Clarke. William was a fisherman, and, according to the 1901 census, the family lived at Coopers Cottages, on Hemplands, close to the town centre, and not far from the seafront.

Given his father’s trade, and the fact that his older brothers also followed suit, it is no surprise that Charles found work as a fisherman. The 1911 census recorded him as one of eight crew on board the John & Sarah, a 36t steam boat, that had moored in Penzance, Cornwall. Charles was noted as being an engineman and fish packer.

Away from the sea, Charles had found love. Clara Fletcher was two years his junior, and was the daughter of publican Samuel, who ran the Mechanic’s Arms on Lowestoft’s Crown Street. The couple exchanged vows in the summer of 1916, the wedding being registered in Mutford, to the south east of their home town.

By this point, and with war raging across Europe, Charles had been called into military duty. Attached to the Royal Naval Reserve from May 1915, he was attached to the torpedo gunboat HMS Halcyon, which acted as a depot ship off the Suffolk coast. His service papers note that he was 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, with hazel eyes and a fresh complexion.

Engineman Clarke remained with Halcyon until the summer of 1917, when he was transferred to HMS Pembroke, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. The base was a particularly busy place at that point in the war and temporary accommodation was set up. Engineman Clarke found himself billeted at The Drill Hall, away from the main barracks.

On the night of 3rd September 1917, Chatham suddenly found itself in the firing line, as the German Air Force launched a bombing raid. Two bombs landed squarely on the Drill Hall, shattering its glass roof, and Engineman Clarke was amongst the dozens killed. He was 29 years of age.

The body of Charles Alfred Clarke was taken back to Suffolk for burial. He was laid to rest in the town’s cemetery on Normanston Drive.

[Note: the photo above is of the memorial to the Chatham Air Raid victims, close to the mass grave for those whose bodies were not identified, in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent.]