Tag Archives: Sussex

Bedfordshire Regiment, Captain, Commonwealth War Graves, Dorset, Egypt, Glamorganshire, Great War, history, illness, photography, Somerset, story, Sussex, Wales, war

Captain William Blundell

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Captain William Blundell

William Kennedy Blundell early life seems anything but ordinary. Born in Cardiff, Glamorgan, in the summer of 1890, he was the only child to bank clerk Edmund Blundell and his wife, Annie. Edmund was born in Staplegrove, Somerset, while Annie had grown up in Lahore, India.

The 1891 census found William living with his maternal grandparents James and Edith Kennedy in the Walcot area of Bath, while his parents were firmly based in Cardiff. Edmund died the following year, so it is possible that he was placed out of the way while Annie tended to her husband (along with her sister-in-law and a domestic servant).

By the time of the next census return, Annie and William were reunited, and were living in Avenue Road, Wimborne Minster, Dorset. Anne was living off her own means, and had a servant, Emily Chaffey, to hep look after the home.

Both Annie and her son disappear from the 1911 census. It is likely that William had embarked on a military career by this point, and may have been serving overseas. Sadly, his trail goes cold, but scraps of later information help identify some of what became of him.

By the outbreak of the First World War, he was serving in the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was based in Egypt from January 1916, and rose to the rank of Captain by the end of the conflict. By 1918, he was attached to the 12th (Transport Workers) Battalion, and was back in Britain.

Captain Blundell was in Sussex by the time of the armistice, and it was here that he fell ill, contracting pneumonia. He was admitted to the General Eastern Hospital in Brighton, but the condition was to prove too severe. He passed away on 13th December 1918, at the age of 28 years old.

William Kennedy Blundell’s body was taken back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the sweeping grounds of Locksbrook Cemetery in Bath.

Australia, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, killed in action, Lincolnshire, photography, Pioneer, Royal Engineers, Sapper, Somerset, story, Sussex, war

Sapper Arthur Naile

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Sapper Arthur Naile

Arthur Edward Naile was born in the summer of 1888, the youngest of ten children to James and Mary Naile. Both of his parents were born in Bath, Somerset, and this is where they raised their growing family.

The Nailes lived in the Camden area of the city, consecutive census returns showing different addresses, as the children grew and then left home. In 1891, they lived at 11 Malvern Buildings, a small terraced house on a steep hill. Ten years later, they had moved to 3 George’s Road, to another terraced cottage close to their old home. By 1911, only Arthur was still living at home, which was now the four-roomed terrace at 51 Brooklyn Road, in the more built up Larkhall area no the northern outskirts of the city.

During all of this time, James had worked as a printer’s compositor. By 1911 he was 64 years of age, and was employed by a newspaper in the area. Arthur, meanwhile, was working as a grocer’s assistant.

On 9th August 1914, he married soldier’s daughter Bessie Brine. She was working as a dressmaker, and lodging with Charles and Eleanor Richman, in a small cottage in Dover Place. Their marriage certificate shows that Arthur was living three doors down, so it is likely she caught his eye not long after he moved in. They went on to have a son, Leslie, in November 1916.

War was raging across Europe by this point, and Arthur had stepped up to serve his country. He joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper, but there is little concrete information about his time in the army. He was awarded the Silver War Badge, which was given to men medically discharged from military service during the conflict, which would suggest that he was badly wounded at some point. He died in a hospital in Hastings, East Sussex, an annexe of which was dedicated to personnel who had been blinded during the war.

Sapper Arthur Edward Naile passed away from a combination of influenza and diabetes on 31st October 1918: he was 30 years of age. His body was taken back to Somerset for burial, and he lies at rest in a peaceful corner of Bath’s sweeping Locksbrook Cemetery.

After Arthur’s death, Bessie was left to bring up their young son. In the autumn of 1923, she married again, to John Forman, and not long afterwards the three of them emigrated to Australia, in search of a better life. They settled in Bunbury, Western Australia, and went on to have two children, Ron and Nan.

When war broke out again, Leslie was old enough to step up, and joined the Royal Australian Air Force. By 1943, he found himself as a Flight Sergeant in Waltham, Lincolnshire. He had joined 100 Squadron of Bomber Command and, on the night of 25th June 1943, was piloting a Lancaster over the Netherlands. His plane was hit and destroyed, killing all those on board. Father and son both lost to war, Flight Sergeant Naile was just 26 years of age when he passed. He was buried in Westbeemster, and commemorated on memorials in Runnymede, Surrey, and Canberra, Australia.

Bessie lived on until her early 70s. She died on 8th December 1960, and is buried in the family plot in Bunbury Cemetery.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Channel Islands, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Jersey, Kent, Oxfordshire, photography, Private, story, Surrey, Sussex, war

Private Philip le Cornu

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Private Philip le Cornu

Philip Francis le Cornu was born on 29th July 1894 in St Peter’s, Jersey. The youngest of five children, his parents were Philip and Mary le Cornu. Philip Sr was a farmer, but it seems that both he and Mary passed away not long after his youngest son’s birth. By the time of the 1901 census the children had been split between family members, and Philip Jr was living with his maternal grandparents.

Philip finished his schooling, and seems to have sought a purpose in life. He emigrated to Canada and, by the time war broke out, was living in Grande-Mère, Quebec. He found employment as a clerk, but with conflict raging on the other side of the Atlantic, he responded to the call to arms.

Philip enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 12th September 1916. His service records show that he was 22 years and 2 months old and stood 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall. He had black hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion. Private le Cornu sailed to Britain, and arrived there on 7th April 1917.

Billeted in Shoreham, West Sussex, Philip was attached to the 14th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry. Within weeks he was sent to France, and, on 15th August 1917, was caught up in the Battle of Hill 70 near Lens.

During the skirmish, Private le Cornu was badly wounded in the thigh and sent to the 58th Casualty Clearing Station. Within days he was moved to the 4th General Hospital in Camiens, but his condition necessitated medical evacuation to Britain.

Over the next year, Philip had three operations on his leg, and spent time at the 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford, the Manor War Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, and the 16th Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent. Tragically, all of the medical treatment was to prove to no avail. Private le Cornu passed away from his injuries on 14th September 1918, more than a year after Hill 70. He was 24 years of age.

Philip Francis le Cornu’s body was taken back to the Channel Islands for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Mary’s Church on Jersey.

X-ray of Private Philip le Cornu’s left femur
(from uk.forceswarrecords.com)
Commonwealth War Graves, Devon, Great War, Gunner, Hampshire, history, illness, photography, Royal Garrison Artillery, Somerset, story, Sussex, war

Gunner Valentine Wilkinson

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Gunner Valentine Wilkinson

Valentine Burnett Wilkinson was born early in 1889 in Combe Down, Somerset. One of eight children, his parents were Harry and Eliza Wilkinson, Harry was from nearby Bath and worked as a gardener, and this is the trade into which Valentine also went when he finished school.

In the spring of 1913, Valentine married Florence Moody. She was the daughter of a stone mason and, at the time of the 1911 census, she was employed as a live-in sewing maid at Monkton Combe Junior School.

Gardening seems to have been a footstep to something bigger for Valentine, and he soon found other employment, as a police constable. He and Florence moved to Street, near Glastonbury, and this is where they were living when war broke out.

Keen to play his part, Valentine enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery on 11th December 1915. He was placed on reserve, possibly because of his occupation, and was not formally mobilised until the end of June 1917, just six weeks after Florence had given birth to their first and only child, Joan.

Gunner Wilkinson’s service records note that he was 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall, and had a scar on his right wrist. He spent five months training, split between No. 3 Depot in Plymouth, Devon, 473 Siege Battery and No. 1 Reinforcing Depot in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. On 3rd November 1917, however, he was sent to France, and was attached to the 234th Siege Battery.

Gunner Wilkinson’s time overseas was to be brief, however. He was caught up in a gas attack in December, and evacuated back to Britain for treatment. His health was now impacted and, during the summer of 1918, he was admitted to hospital having contracted pleurisy. After two months in hospital, Valentine was sent to the Military Convalescent Hospital in Ashton-in-Makerfield, near Wigan.

The war was in its closing stages by this point, and in November 1918 Gunner Wilkinson resumed some of his duties, albeit on home soil. His health was still suffering, and he contracted tuberculosis on the lung and throat. He was formally discharged from the army on 27th February 1919, no longer physically fit to serve.

Valentine returned home to Somerset, and it was here, on 1st April 1919, that his body finally succumbed to the lung conditions that had dogged him for nearly eighteen months. He was just 30 years of age.

Valentine Burnett Wilkinson was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Michael’s Church in the parish of his childhood home, Monkton Combe.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, India, Kent, Mesopotamia, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, Somerset, story, Sussex, war

Private Walter Lane

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Private Walter Lane

Walter Frederick Lane was born in Sidcup, Kent, in the early part of 1893. The younger of two children, his parents were Frederick and Caroline Lane. Frederick was a carman and the transient nature of his work meant that the family moved on a regular basis.

The 1901 census found them in Eltham, Kent, while ten years later the family of three – Walter’s older sister having moved on – were boarding in Harton Street, Deptford. By this point, Walter was 17 years of age, and he was also working as a carman. (It is interesting to note that the earlier census recorded Walter’s parents by their first names, while the 1911 document used their middle names – Walter and Kate: transient work allowing for reinvention, perhaps?)

Walter sought a more permanent career, and, on 17th March 1913, he enlisted in the army. Full details of his military career have been lost to time and, in fact, most of his service details come from his discharge papers.

Walter enlisted in the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), although, as Private Lane, he was not formally mobilised until March 1914. When war broke out, his battalion, the 1st/5th, was sent to India, and he remained there for the duration of the war.

Private Lane’s time in the army was not without incident. He contracted malaria in 1915, and while he initially recovered, the condition was to continue to dog him over the following years.

By 1917 Walter’s troop was based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, but in December that year, the battalion set sail from Bombay for Basra, Mesopotamia.

While in Iraq, he had a couple of run-ins with his superiors. On 22nd December 1917 he was stopped a week’s pay for ‘disobeying an order: putting his equipment on a transport waggon’ and ‘losing by neglect his equipment.’ On 18th February 1918, a further 28 days’ pay was deducted for ‘making away with regimental necessaries (1 towel)’ and ‘neglecting to obey an order.’

During this time, though, Walter’s health was regularly impacted when malaria caught up with him. His discharge documents recorded that he had an attack about once a month, which lasted four or five days each time. In the end, he was released from active service, and left the army on 19th February 1919.

Walter had been discharged while admitted to the Dispersal Hospital in Brighton. His health did not improve, however, and he was soon moved to Somerset for respite care. It was here that he passed away on 7th August 1919. He was 26 years of age.

Walter Frederick Lane was laid to rest in the Holy Trinity Churchyard, Newton St Loe, Somerset.

My thanks go to Liz at the local parish office for her help in unpicking the details of Walter’s passing.

Thanks also go to Tim Hill, who has been researching the graves in the Newton St Loe churchyard.

Commonwealth War Graves, Devonshire Regiment, Great War, Gunner, Hampshire, history, illness, injury, photography, Royal Garrison Artillery, Somerset, story, war

Gunner Alfred Taylor

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Gunner Alfred Taylor

Alfred Taylor was born in the summer of 1888 in Crewkerne, Somerset. The second of twelve children, his parents were Henry and Selina Taylor. Henry, who was also known as Harry, was a stone mason, but when Alfred and his siblings left school, they went into the weaving industry, a key employer in the area.

War came to European shores in the summer of 1914, and Alfred was keen to play his part. He had already been a part of the 3rd (Special Reserve) Dorset Regiment, but formally enlisted on 9th December 1915, joining the Royal Garrison Artillery. His service records note that he was 5ft 9ins (1.77m) tall and weighed 149lbs (67.6kg). The document also confirms his next of kin as his father, who, at 48 years old, had also joined up, and was serving in the Royal Engineers in Canterbury, Kent.

Gunner Taylor was not mobilised until September 1916, and served the next eighteen month on home soil. He did his initial training in Hilsea, Portsmouth, before moving around the country. He finally made it to France in February 1918.

During his time in France, Alfred was caught up in a couple of gas attacks, and was evacuated to Britain at the end of August because of the impact on his lungs. Admitted to the 2nd Eastern General Hospital in Brighton, Sussex, his body finally succumbed to pneumonia. He passed away on 25th January 1919, at the age of 30 years old.

The body of Alfred Taylor was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the Townsend Cemetery of his home town, Crewkerne. “…All the members of Gunner Taylor’s family were present, except his father and his brother George, who [were] with the Army of Occupation in Germany.” [Western Chronicle: Friday 7th February 1919]

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, story, war

Leading Stoker Victor Jordan

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Leading Stoker Victor Jordan

Victor Jordan was born on 20th November 1893 in Beeston Regis on the north Norfolk coast. The second of four children, his parents were school teachers Albert and Melletta Jordan.

By the time of the 1911 census, the family had moved from one coast to another, setting up home in Bognor Regis, Sussex. Albert had given up teaching, and had become an insurance agent for Prudential. Victor had left school and found work as a wheelwright, while his older sister, Emily, had taken up where her father had left off, teaching in an elementary school, The family of six was expanded by the inclusion of Albert’s mother, Emily, who had moved in with them.

By 1914, war was on the horizon, and Victor sought out a career beyond wheel work. On 21st May he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class. His service records show that he was 5ft 6ins (1.78m) tall, had light brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.

Stoker Jordan was initially sent to HMS Victory, the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth, Hampshire, for training. After an initial six-month period, he was assigned to the battleship HMS Indomitable, on board which he was to serve for the next four years.

During his time on board, Victor proved to be a disciplined and determined worker. He was promoted to Stoker 1st Class in July 1915, and reached the rank of Leading Stoker in the summer of 1918. HMS Indomitable was involved in some of the key naval battles of the First World War – including Dogger Bank and Jutland – and Victor would have been on the forefront of maintaining the vessel’s power.

By October 1918, Leading Stoker Jordan was back on dry land, and was based once again in Portsmouth. As the war came to a close, however, he became unwell, and was admitted to Haslar Naval Hospital in nearby Gosport, suffering from acute tonsillitis.

Tragically, the condition was to get the better of him: Leading Stoker Jordan died of heart failure on 8th December 1918, having not long turned 25 years old.

Victor Jordan’s family were, by now, living in the Somerset hamlet of Brewham, and this is where his body was brought for burial: he was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St John the Baptist’s Church.

Leading Stoker Victor Jordan
(from findagrave.com)

Scandal was set to rock the grieving family. Albert, who was now teaching again, was charged with indecently assaulting a nine-year-old girl three times over the winter of 1918/19. He denied the accusation and a jury found him not guilty after only a few minutes’ deliberation.

Albert and Melletta seem to have found it impossible to remain in the quiet corner of Somerset, and moved to Essex. The couple took up new teaching posts, Albert eventually becoming the headmaster of Doddinghurst Church of England School, near Brentwood, while his wife worked as a school mistress for one of the classes.

Melletta died in February 1931, and at this point, Albert came back to Somerset to live with his daughter and her family in Cheddar. He was 75 years old when he passed away at Emily’s family home – called Melletta after her mother – and was laid to rest in St Andrew’s Churchyard, Cheddar.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, injury, photography, Private, Somerset, story, Sussex, war

Private Leon Frenette

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Private Leon Frenette

Leon D Frenette was born on 2nd June 1893, in the coastal village of Petit Rocher, New Brunswick, Canada and was the son of Denis and Sarah Frenette.

Leon’s early life is difficult to piece together – the 1901 Canadian census records five Frenette families living in the same neighbourhood, but of the two whose head is given as Denis, neither has a son by that name (although one has a son called Joseph Leon).

When war came to the distant European shores, Leon was working as a school teacher in Bathurst, a town 12 miles (20km) to the south of Petit Rocher. He stood up to play his part for King and Empire, though, having served in a local militia for a while.

Leon joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a Private. His service records give his height as 5ft 4ins (1.63m), his weight as 130lbs (59kg) and stated that he had a medium complexion, with brown eyes and black hair. In the section of the records that noted distinguishing marks, the medical officer had identified two small brown birthmarks on his left buttock.

Private Frenette arrived in England on board the SS Corsican on 5th November 1916. Assigned to the 132nd Battalion of the Canadian Infantry, he was based at a military camp near Bramshott, Hampshire. The influx of overseas soldiers would have been a bit of a shock to the locals, but Leon appears to have been up to the challenge. Within a matter of weeks, he was admitted to the camp hospital, suffering from a bout of gonorrhoea.

By the end of the year, Private Frenette had been transferred to the 104th Battalion, and moved to Witley Camp in Surrey. His ailment seems to have returned a couple of times, and he was admitted to the camp’s medical facility in January and March 1917.

By the autumn of 1917, Leon had been transferred again, this time to the 26th Battalion. The troop was based on the south coast at Shoreham, West Sussex, and it was from here, on 16th November 1917, that Private Frenette was finally sent to France.

Leon would have arrived at an already battle-scarred Western Front. Over the next year, he was involved in fighting at Cambrai and Arras. His time was not without incident, and he forfeited a day’s pay on 20th March 1918, for “contravention of full dress order, i.e. being without a belt.”

The 26th Battalion’s next offensive was at Amiens, and it was here, on 12th August 1918, that Private Frenette was badly wounded with a gun shot wound to his right arm. Initially treated on site, he was medically evacuated to England for further treatment.

Leon was first admitted to a hospital back in Bramshott, but then transferred to Bath War Hospital in Somerset. His medical report confirms that he was first seen there at 4:30pm on 20th March, and a compound fracture of his humerus. He haemorrhaged and died of shock at 11:45pm that day. He was just 25 years of age.

With family on the other side of the Atlantic, it was not going to be possible for Private Leon Frenette to be taken home for burial. Instead he was laid to rest in the Roman Catholic Cemetery of the city in which he had passed away, Bath.

Air Mechanic, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, Middlesex, photography, Royal Air Force, story, Sussex, war

Air Mechanic 1st Class Harold Weston

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Air Mechanic 1st Class Harold Weston

Harold Stanley Weston’s early life is destined to remain a mystery. He was born, according to his Royal Air Force service records, in Southgate, Middlesex in 1887 and, before war broke our, was working as a waiter before enlisting.

On 3rd August 1915, he married a woman called Gertrude in Hastings, Eat Sussex, and it appears that this is where the couple set up home. Harold has initially enlisted in the army, but transferred across to the Royal Flying Corps on 28th October 1915. Air Mechanic 2nd Class Weston’s service records show that he stood just 5ft 2.5ins (1.59m) tall.

Over the next three years, Harold rose through the ranks to Air Mechanic 1st Class, and served in France for nine months during 1916. He then returned to England, and was based at an airfield near Detling, Kent. When the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged in April 1918, he transferred across to the newly-formed Royal Air Force, and was attached to 27 Squadron.

In November that year, Harold was admitted to the Military Hospital in Maidstone, also in Kent, having contracted influenza and pneumonia. Sadly, the lung conditions were to get the better of him, and he passed away on 1st November 1918, at the age of just 31 years old.

Air Mechanic 1st Class Harold Stanley Weston’s body was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Martin’s Church in Detling, not far from the base at which he served. Gertrude posted her thanks to “all [their] friends for their kindness and sympathy shown to her in her sad bereavement, more especially Captain Saunders, RAF, Major Chapman, KCC [Kent County Council?], Sergeant Fowle, KCC, and Sergeant Weller, RAMC [Royal Army Medical Corps]” [Maidstone Telegraph: Saturday 9th November 1918]

Commonwealth War Graves, East Yorkshire Regiment, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, story, Sussex, war

Private George Sinclair

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Private George Sinclair

In a quiet corner of the village cemetery in Cuckfield, West Sussex, is a headstone dedicated to Private WG Sinclair. Attached to the East Yorkshire Regiment, he passed away on 12th February 1919.

A search of military records gives a little more detail: this was a George William Sinclair, who had died from pneumonia at the West Hylands Institution, which was Cuckfield’s workhouse. George was 29 years old, but there is little concrete information about his early life.

A newspaper report from the day before Private Sinclair’s death, however, begins to shed a little more light onto his life:

George William Sinclair was charged with being a deserter from the Cuckfield Union Workhouse, on November 6th, and carrying away clothing to the value of £1, the property of the Guardians of the Cuckfield Union. PC Upton said that he arrested the prisoner at the Somerstown Police Station. Prisoner was remanded, but as he was taken ill he was removed to the Workhouse Infirmary.

Mid Sussex Times: Tuesday 11th February 1919

George’s entry in the Army Register of Soldier’s Effects does not give a next of kin, so it is not possible to determine categorically where he was born and raised, or who his parents were.

A little more digging found a George William Sinclair recorded in the UK Calendar of Prisoners in 1916. He had been arrested for “feloniously breaking and entering the dwelling house of Sarah Waddingham, and stealing one bicycle, one pair of shoes, one purse, one tobacco box, one tobacco pipe and one microscope, the property of said Sarah Waddingham, at West Halton [near Hull], on the 7th July 1916.“

It is not possible to say definitively that this George William Sinclair is the same one buried in Cuckfield Cemetery, but, given the regiment he was attached to, and the newspaper report prior to his passing, it is likely to be more than just a coincidence.

George pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to six months’ hard labour. This was not his first offence, and had had spent a total of more than eighteen months behind bars over a period of ten years up to this point. On each occasion, he was convicted of theft.

It is possible, given that the country was at war by this point, that George was given the option to enlist, rather than serve his sentence. Again, this is an assumption, however, but Private Sinclair’s Pension Ledger confirms that he was discharged from the army on 6th November 1918.

George William Sinclair appears on another workhouse register, this time in Westminster, London, where he spent a couple of nights just before Christmas that year.

If these records all relate to the same man, his life seems to have been a troubled one. I can only hope that he found peace in that quiet corner of West Sussex.