Herbert Alfred Webber was born on 22nd October 1898 in Yatton, Somerset. The younger of two children, his parents were Ernest and Ada. Ernest was a platelayer for the Great Western Railway and, by the time of the 1911 census, the family had moved to Keynsham, near Bristol. With Herbert and his sister still at school, they had taken in two boarders – railway porters Walter Prince and Victor Coombs – to help bring in a little money.
When Herbert left school, he found work at a local chemist, but as soon as he turned 18, he signed up to serve his King an Country. Assigned to the 94th Training Battalion, Private Webber was sent to the Chiseldon Camp in Wiltshire to begin his career.
Tragically, Herbert’s was not to be a long service. Within a month of arriving at camp near Swindon, he fell ill, and was admitted to an Isolation Hospital in the town. While the condition he had contracted is unclear, it was one to which he would succumb. He passed away on 29th March 1917, aged just 18 years old.
Herbert Alfred Webber was brought back to Somerset for burial. With the family having moved to Bath with Ernest’s work, he was laid to rest in the city’s Twerton Cemetery.
Private Herbert Webber (from britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)
Arthur Reuben Thomas was born in Banwell, Somerset, on 27th September 1899. The older of two children, his parents were blacksmith Edwin Thomas and his wife, Mary.
Little information about Arthur’s life is documented. At the time of the 1911 census he was still a schoolboy, and it is likely that he helped his father out in the smithy when he finished his education.
By this point war was raging across Europe, and it is likely that young Arthur was keen not to miss out. Details of any military service are lost to time, but it seems possible that he joined up as soon as his age allowed.
Private Thomas was assigned to the 53rd (Young Soldier) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, and sent to Rollestone Camp on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, for training.
Sadly, Arthur’s time in the army seems to have been a short one. He was admitted to a camp hospital in nearby Tidworth, suffering simply from ‘disease’, and it was from this that he passed away on 6th January 1918. He was just eighteen years of age.
Arthur Reuben Thomas’ body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in his home village of Banwell.
Ivan George Day was born in the summer of 1898, the oldest of three children to George and Emma Day. George was a brick and tile maker from Weare in Somerset and it was here that he and Emma raised their young family.
When Ivan finished his schooling, he found work as a postman, but, with war raging across Europe, he seemed keen to play his part. In February 1917, he enlisted in the army and was assigned to the 93rd Training Reserve Battalion. His service records show that he was just 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall and weighed 121lbs (54.9kg).
Private Day was sent to Chiseldon Camp, to the south of Swindon in Wiltshire and, tragically, this move to cramped army barracks was to prove his undoing. Within four weeks of arriving, Ivan was admitted to the camp’s hospital, having contracted measles and pneumonia. Less than a week later, the conditions had gotten the better of him. He passed away on 3rd April 1917, at just eighteen years of age.
Ivan George Day’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Gregory’s Church in his home village of Weare.
Tragedy was to strike the Day family again when, George died eighteen months later, aged 51 years old. Emma lived until 89 years old, passing away in Weston-super-Mare in the summer of 1955.
Ivan was not the only Somerset soldier to succumb to pneumonia at Chiseldon Camp that spring. Private Charles Oborne, died from the same condition a few days before Ivan was admitted to the hospital. Private Everett Ferriday, of the 94th Training Battalion, passed away in the same hospital on the same day as Ivan, also from pneumonia.
You can read their stories by following the links above.
Edwin Sydney Hiscock was born in Corsham, Wiltshire, 11th November 1902. The older of two children, his parents were quarry manager Edwin Hiscock and his wife, Helen.
When he finished his schooling, Edwin Jr found work as a clerk, but as a young teenager, the thrill and excitement of the war going on around him, drew him to a life in the Royal Air Force. He enlisted on 27th March 1919, and was dispatched to the School of Technical Training at Halton Camp near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Boy Hiscock’s service records note that he was 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, with dark hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion.
Edwin’s life in the military was to be cut tragically short. He had lived a cosseted life in rural Somerset – the family having moved to Monkton Combe, near Bath. At the RAF base, he was surrounded by men and women from across the country, and was suddenly exposed to illnesses that he would not have encountered had he remained at home. It is unclear what he contracted but in the months after the First World War, influenza swept Europe, so this is a likely suspect. Edwin passed away at the base on 23rd April 1919, having completed 27 days’ service. He was just 16 years of age.
The body of Edwin Sydney Hiscock was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Michael’s Church, Monkton Combe.
Edwin’s headstone includes the epitaph “With Christ which is much better”, a bitter pill to swallow.
Cyril Spencer Wilson was born on 12th July 1883 in Charlcombe, Somerset. The youngest of three children, his parents were John and Edith Wilson. John was a solicitor who went on to become President of the Bath Law Society and, because of his standing, Cyril and his siblings had a comfortable upbringing: all three censuses covering his life – in 1891, 1901 and 1911 – all show the family living in a large villa in Charlcombe, with a cook and a housemaid to support them.
[Cyril] was educated at Bath College and Lancing College, and then studied engineering at Bristol University. He then became an articled pupil at the Great Western Railway Works at Swindon. Very interested in, and a keen supporter of, the Territorial movement, he was a Captain of the [Royal Engineers] Wilts Fortress Engineers when war broke out.
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 2nd November 1918
Cyril had begun work for the Great Western Railway in July 1902, and became attached to the Institute of Civil Engineers the following January.
Captain Wilson formally enlisted when war was declared, and was soon sent to France. “He was awarded the Military Cross early in the summer of 1917, after being twice mentioned in despatches for excellent work.” [Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette: Saturday 2nd November 1918]
Cyril was promoted to Major soon after this, and would go on to serve in France for more than a year more. In February 1918 he married Amy Pounds, the daughter of a bank clerk from East London and the couple exchanged vows in the city.
Major Wilson returned to France, but contracted dysentery that summer. He returned to Britain to recuperate, but came down with pneumonia, and this was to take his life. He died on 27th October 1918, aged 35 years old.
Cyril Spencer Wilson’s body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the family plot in St Mary’s Churchyard, Charlcombe.
Albert Edward Horwood was born in Bath, Somerset, in the spring of 1864. The middle of five children, his parents were Joseph and Agnes Horwood. Joseph was a stone mason and, when Agnes passed away in 1872 he married again, this time to a woman called Elizabeth.
When he left school Albert – who became better known as Edward – found work in a local foundry. Joseph died in 1888, and just two years later, Edward married Emily Wheeler. She was the daughter of labourer from North Bradley, Wiltshire, and it was in the parish church that the couple exchanged vows.
The couple set up home in the Lyncombe area of Bath, and went on to have nine children, all but one of them girls. Edward continued with labouring work for the next twenty years, as his children grew in the family home in Cheltenham Street.
Despite his age, when was broke out in Europe, Edward stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry on 6th November 1914, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion. His service records show that he was 44 year of age and 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall.
Attached to one of the regiment’s supply companies, Private Horwood remained on the Home Front. He remained on active duty for more than eighteen months until, in June 1916, he was medically discharged because of a large ulcer and epithelioma (lesion) on his tongue. Edward’s medical notes suggest that he was offered an operation to remove the potentially malignant growth, but that he had declined.
At this point Edward’s trail goes cold. He returned home, and passed away on 28th March 1917 and, while the cause is not publicly documented, it seems likely to have been related to the growth in his mouth. He was 52 years of age.
Albert Edward Horwood was laid to rest in the St James Cemetery in his home town of Bath.
George Robert Hutchings was born towards the end of 1883 in Forest Gate, Essex. He was the oldest of four children to George and Mary Ann Hutchings. George Sr was a labourer for the railways, and this led to the family relocating to Swindon, Wiltshire, in the 1890s.
George Jr took up work with the Great Western Railway when he left school, while his father switched employment and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was working as a collector for a clothing supply company.
On 13th July 1911, George Jr married Daisy Smale in the Sanford Street Congregational Church, Swindon. Daisy was a school teacher, and was the daughter of an iron moulder. It is likely that the couple met through George’s workplace. The newlyweds had a son, Raymond, who was born in 1914 and, at some point moved to Bath in Somerset.
When war came to Europe, George stepped up to play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps and, unsurprisingly, given the work he was doing, was assigned to the Mechanical Transport division. Little information about his military service remains, but is it clear that he had enlisted in the second half of 1915.
The next available record for Private Hutchings is that of his passing. He had been admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich, South East London, and died there on 15th December 1915. No cause for his death is evident, but he was 32 years of age.
George Robert Hutchings was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in Bath’s St James Cemetery.
When her husband died, Daisy was pregnant. In March 1916 she gave birth to a daughter, Winifred, who was never to know her father.
Daisy never remarried. By the time of the 1939 register, she was living in Northampton Street, Bath, sharing the house with a Mr and Mrs Spreadbury. Her employment was listed as unpaid domestic duties.
Daisy and George’s son Raymond was focused on his education. He made an eventual move to Birmingham, where, at the outbreak of war, he was working as a research chemist. He died in Bath in 1982, at the age of 68.
Winifred married grocer Kenneth Batten in Bath in 1938. The couple had three children and emigrated to Australia after the war, and settled in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. Kenneth died in 1988, at the age of 72; Winifred died in 2003, aged 87.
Albert Henry Townsend was born on 7th November 1890 in Bath, Somerset. One of thirteen children, his parents were George and Annie Townsend. George was a painter by trade, but when he died in the autumn of 1895, Annie was left to take in laundry to earn money to support her and the four of her children still living at home.
By the time of the 1911 census, Albert was 21, and had found work as a baker. He was still living with his mother, two siblings and a nephew in a house in the centre of the city. All but Annie’s grandson were earning money by this point, and, with five rooms, the family were in a better position than some of their neighbours. Next door was Albert Smith, a coal carter, who had to support a family of ten people.
In the summer of 1914 war broke out, and within months, three of the Townsend brothers – Albert and his older brothers Arthur and Charles – had enlisted.
Arthur Townsend had joined the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry earlier in the year, and within weeks of conflict being declared, he was on the Western Front. He was to be one of the early casualties of the conflict, and was killed in action during the Battle of the Marne on 9th September. He was just 29 years old and, while his body was never identified, he was commemorated on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial.
Albert’s service records have been lost to time, so it is not possible to identify when he enlisted. He joined the Somerset Light Infantry, and was assigned to the 4th Battalion, who set sail for India in October 1914. Private Townsend was not to travel with them, however as he had contracted septicaemia while camped on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. He was transferred to the Royal United Hospital in Bath for further treatment, but his condition was to prove too severe. He passed away while still admitted on 19th October 1914. He was just 23 years of age.
Albert Henry Townsend was laid to rest in the St James’ Cemetery in his home city, Bath.
Annie Townsend had now been a widow for nearly twenty years and, within a matter of weeks, had lost two of her sons. Tragically, the war was not done with her family yet.
Charles Townsend was still serving, having enlisted in the 8th Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. He arrived in France in July 1915, and over the next year, wascaught up in some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. On 1st July 1916, the Battle of the Somme began, the darkest day in history for the British Army. Twenty thousand soldiers were killed, and Private Charles Townsend was amongst the fallen. He was just 30 years of age. He was commemorated on the Theipval Memorial.
Annie had lost a third son to the conflict in a little under two years, and her pain must have been unimaginable. She lived on until 1923, when she died at home in Bath. She was laid to rest close to her husband and Albert, a family partly reunited once more.
John Wallace Carthew was born in Warminster, Wiltshire, in the spring of 1892. The second youngest of seven children – three of whom did not survive childhood – his parents were miller James Carthew and his tailoress wife, Sarah.
John was destined to make a path for himself. By the time of the 1911 census, he was boarding with the Southon family in Aldershot, and working as a chauffeur.
On 22nd March 1914, John married Caroline Hamilton, a parlour maid for Captain Charles Woodroffe and his family in Aldershot. The couple set up home in Queensgate Mews, London, and having had a daughter, Cecilia, who was born that February.
When war came to Europe, John was quick to enlist. He joined up on the 21st December 1914, and was assigned to the Mechanical Transport section of the Royal Army Service Corps. His service records note that he was 6ft 1in (1.85m) tall, with a scar on his right eyebrow.
Private Carthew rose through the ranks, becoming a Corporal in 1916, and a Serjeant in 1918. During this time he acted almost exclusively as chauffeur to General Sir William Robertson. His duties were mainly based on home soil, but he did spend a year in France, while Robertson was Chief of the General Staff there.
As the war came to a close, Serjeant Carthew fell ill. Based in a camp in Aldershot, he contracted influenza, and this developed into pneumonia. This was to take his life, and he passed away at the town’s Connaught Hospital on 25th November 1918. He was just 26 years of age.
Caroline was living in Bath, Somerset by this point, and this is where the body of her husband was brought for burial. John Wallace Carthew was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery, in the family plot where his father, who had died in 1911, was also buried.
Ernest Simmons was born in Priddy, Somerset, in 1869, the oldest child to Henry and Ellen Simmons. Henry was a mason who, by the time of the 1881 census, was employing ten men and a boy. Three doors down lived another Simmons family, Daniel and Elizabeth, and it is likely that Ernest’s father was somehow related to them.
Ernest sought a bigger and better life away from the Somerset countryside, and enlisted in the army, joining the Army Veterinary Corps. “[He] served for 28 years… 10 of which were spent in India and 5 in South Africa.” [Wells Journal: Friday 23rd August 1918]
His service did him well, and he progressed through the ranks. The 1911 census recorded him back in the UK, renting a room in a terraced house in Preston, near Brighton. He was still serving in the army, however, and was listed as being a Farrier Sergeant Major in the 4th Battalion of the Dragoon Guards.
When war was declared, Ernest was quick to return to the fray, arriving in France on 16th August 1914. He served his battalion well, and was mentioned in dispatches for his action in the retreat from Mons the following month.
Farrier Sergeant Major Simmons returned to Britain, and transferred across to the 6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry. This new regiment, formed in 1917, trained men for a number of regiments, including the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th Battalions of the Dragoon Guards. Ernest’s previous experience with horses, including his time in the Army Veterinary Corps, likely stood him in good stead for the role.
It was while he was at the camp in Tidworth, on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, that Ernest met with an accident. “[He] was thrown through his horse tripping over some wire. He was found in an unconscious state and died the same day.” [Wells Journal:Friday 23rd August 1918] Farrier Sergeant Major Simmons died on 26th July 1918: he was 49 years of age.
Ernest Simmons’ body was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Lawrence’s Church in his home village of Priddy.
Death and Service 