156 Men remembered on Christchurch Memorial Chronologically listed by date of death.

Roll of Honour 1914

James William HUNT HMS Amphion 6th August

James William RICE HMS Amphion 6th August

Wallace CLISSOLD 2nd Bn. Grenadier Guards 14th September

Robert WORKMAN 1st Bn. South Wales Borderers 26th September

Percy GUBBINS 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 21-24th October

John JAMES 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 30th October

Charles DAVIS HMS Good Hope 1st November

Thomas DORINGTON 1st Royal Dragoons 12th November

Clive Guisse MOORES* Royal Engineers 30th November

William WINSTONE 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 22nd December

Arthur YOUNG 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 23rd December

Ernest RADBURN 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 28th December

Frederick VICK 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 30th December

*Commemorated on Bussage church plaque but not included on Christchurch Memorial

Able Seaman James William HUNT

(J/12346) HMS Amphion

Killed in action 6th August, 1914

James was born on the 27th August 1894 in Chalford, his parents unknown. Fostered as a young boy by Alfred and Annie Kirby of 3 The Arches, Chalford Vale he attended Christchurch School and was by all accounts a popular boy, who also sang in the church choir.

The census of 1911 shows James working as a brass finisher at the Ryhouse Foundry.

He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy second class aged 16, in May 1911. His height is recorded as 5 feet 6 inches, his hair as brown and his eyes blue. He initially went to Portsmouth for Boys' training, being promoted to Boy 1st Class in January 1912. He spent 3 months on board HMS King Alfred, a cruiser of the reserve fleet, three months on a training ship and then 6 months on the cruiser HMS Talbot, during which time he reached his 18th birthday and was promoted to Ordinary Seaman. He then returned to HMS King Alfred followed by further training at Devonport.

In April 1913 he was posted to HMS Amphion and was promoted to Able Seaman in February 1914.

It was reported that “He was a most promising sailor. He always spent his leaves at Chalford, and had recounted to the boys (of Christchurch School) some of his experiences in the Navy, and especially Egypt where he had recently been’’

On the morning of the 6th August, just two days after war had been declared, the Amphion struck a German mine and sank. Around 150 British sailors lost their lives that day, including James, just a few weeks away from his 20th birthday.

‘’While proud of him we sympathise deeply with his only brother, Sidney, who is still in the school, and with Mrs Kirby who had been a mother to Jim since he was quite a little fellow.”

He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval memorial and at Christchurch.

Photographs of James Hunt and James Rice were obtained by Camilla I believe. Not sure about copywrite.

Leading Signalman James William RICE

(223011) HMS Amphion

Killed in action 6th August, 1914

James was born in Brimscombe on the 26th August 1886. In 1901 he was living with his mother Eliza (a laundress and washerwoman) and his widowed grandfather.

After leaving school he worked for a time as a labourer, before enlisting into Boys Service in the Royal Navy in October 1902. He was 5ft 1in tall, had brown hair and grey eyes and was of a fresh complexion. He had a scar on his right forearm and several tattoos including a horseshoe and a heart & dagger. As Boy 2nd class he served at HMS Impregnable, the school training ship in Devonport. He was promoted to Boy 1st Class in July 1903. Further shore based training led to his first sea posting on board HMS Russell a pre-dreadnought battleship, part of the Home Fleet.

In August 1904 he started his 12 years' Colour Service. Promoted to the rank of Signalman in 1906, over the next four years he served on a number of ships - HMS St George (Cape and West African station), HMS Amphitrite, HMS Kent (China station) and HMS Niobe. In 1910 he returned to HMS Vivid at Devonport for training and was promoted to Leading Signalman, before joining HMS Challenger for two years (Australia Station). On his final return to HMS Vivid in 1913 he passed his educational qualification for Petty Officer and his Yeoman of Signals test.

In April 1913 he was posted to the Amphion, and was killed with her sinking in August 1914. The Stroud News reported ‘’Much sympathy is felt for the relatives of two Chalford young men who went down on the ‘Amphion’ last week. They were Mr J W Rice and Mr J W Hunt. Natives of the village, they have fallen early in the struggle for supremacy on the part of their country and her allies’’. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval memorial and at Christchurch.

The Sinking of HMS AMPHION

6th August, 1914

At 2300 on August 4th 1914, England declared war on Germany. In anticipation of war the Konigin Luise, a former Hamburg - Holland holiday ferry, had been converted to an auxiliary minelayer by the Germans. On the night of 4th August she left her home port of Emden and steamed south through the North Sea to lay mines off the Thames Estuary. The ship resembled the steamers of the Great Eastern Railway that sailed from Harwick to the Hook of Holland, so she was painted in their colours of black, buff, and yellow to help disguise

At the port of Harwick 80 miles north of London, HMS Amphion and the destroyers of the 3rd Flotilla were preparing to sail. They departed in the early hours of the morning and by daylight on the 5th August they were well out into the North Sea. A few hours after leaving port a destroyer on the screen spoke to a fishing vessel that had seen an unknown vessel "throwing things over the side". At 1025 Amphion sighted the unknown steamer and sent the destroyers Lance and Landrail to investigate. The steamer was the Konigin Luise which made off at 20 knots, altering course, before disappearing into a rain squall where she began laying more mines. At 1030, Lance signalled she was engaging the enemy and is credited with firing the first shot of World War 1. They were soon joined by Amphion (which had won the fleet gunnery prize for 1914) and the German came under very accurate fire.

The Konigin Luise was only lightly armed with two 3.7cm MGs and some smaller weapons and offered little resistance. Commander Biermann brought her onto a south-easterly course hoping to regain neutral waters and draw the British ships into her minefield. However, after receiving numerous hits, the order was given to sink the ship to avoid any further loss of life. On fire amidships and with smoke and steam pouring from her funnels, the she rolled over to port and sank. 46 of the 100 crew were rescued.

During the action the Amphion gun crews from the disengaged side crossed over to watch the firing and showed their appreciation of good salvoes by cheering and applauding. After the action Capt. Fox mustered all hands and reprimanded the men for leaving their posts. He reminded them that they were at war and no matter what the other fellow was doing, each man was to go on with his duty and stick to it. The ship's company rather enjoyed the lecture and saw the sense in it.

That night the Amphion and the destroyers set course to return to Harwick. Unfortunately, due to reported problems with mines and submarines, the allocated course ran very close to where the Konigin Luise had laid her mines. At 0645 the Amphion struck a mine which exploded just beside the fore bridge and broke the ship's back. The explosion practically destroyed the bridge and smoke and flames poured from the slits in the conning tower. Except for one man, all the fo'csle gun crews were killed and the bridge occupants badly burnt. As the hands were at breakfast, many were killed or suffocated in the forward mess decks. This included 19 of 21 German survivors. Capt. Fox stopped engines and proceeded aft to take charge. The ship was well down at the bows and attempts to extinguish the raging fires in the forward part of the ship failed. Abandon Ship was ordered. As most

of Amphion's boats were destroyed, the accompanying destroyers sent their boats to rescue the crew.

There was no confusion or panic. The men fell in on deck. Within twenty minutes of the first explosion all the survivors were safely on board the destroyers. Unfortunately, although Amphions' engines were stopped, she still had way on and she continued turning in a circle. Just as the last boatload of survivors was taken off, she again struck the same row of mines. Her magazine detonated in a huge cloud of pale yellow smoke and the fore part of the ship completely disintegrated, showering the attending destroyers with debris. There were several casualties, one 4- inch shell falling on board the destroyer Lark, killing two of Amphion's men and a German prisoner. The Amphion slid astern and sank at 0705. One officer and 150 men were lost.

Thus, with the war only 32 hours old, HMS Amphion, which had primarily assisted in inflicting the first German Naval loss of the war, became the first British Naval war loss.

I have included various pictures of HMS Amphion and crew members taken from internet search. Likewise newspaper cuttings. Not clear on copywrite for doing this?

Private Wallace Christopher CLISSOLD (16370)

2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards

Died 14th September, 1914

Wallace was born in 1894 at Rose Cottage, Bussage, one of eight children of John W Clissold, an engine driver at Flock Mills and Emily. He attended Bussage National School and clearly enjoyed his time there, being mentioned in November 1901 as winning an Attendance Prize for the juniors. (Attendance at school in the villages was still often sporadic for many children, particularly at Harvest time).

In October 1906, when he was 12 years old, the local Bussage Magazine reported:

‘Our Readers will be pleased to learn that two of our boys, Harry PINCOTT and Wallace CLISSOLD, have been deemed worthy …….. to be entered as students at the School of Handicraft which has been started by the County Council at Brimscombe. This is really equivalent to a Scholarship, or perhaps rather an apprenticeship, for the boys will be taught a trade without their parents having to pay any premium. Nor will their ordinary education be neglected as so many hours a week will be devoted to this. We congratulate the boys, and hope they will make good use of their opportunities and so bring further honour to our School’.

The 1911 census shows the family near Rock House in Bussage with Wallace aged 16, working as a general labourer.

He enlisted into the 2nd Bn. Grenadier Guards as Pte 16370 in 1913. Letters home to his parents describe the routine of military life.

‘Get up at six and make our beds up for the day then we sweep out the room and then we have our breakfast, then wash up and be on parade for drill by 8 0’clock. So you see we have to hurry. We have to shine the buttons on our khaki and white jackets every day and about twice a week shine the buttons on our red tunic. We do this between 5.30 and 7.30 in the evenings. We also have a lot of white buff to keep clean. We haven’t got much time of our own but I don’t mind because we have got some decent chaps in our squad’.

However he was pleased to report that

‘We have got a very good squad instructor very different to some of them ….. the generality of them are nasty so you see we are lucky’.

Wallace’s Room at Chelsea Barracks

In a later letter home he mentions going

‘…to church with Osborne Freemans son. He is in our room, he came on Tuesday …….you can’t understand half of what some of the chaps say because they come from all over the country and talk so different. Remember me to Harry Pincott and Charlie Gabey and also Jhonson (sic) my old challie sorting mate’. (Osborne Freeman’s son was Gilbert Freeman, shown seated on the right in the picture above, inscribed with the initials GF. Gilbert was himself killed in 1916 and is also on the Christchurch memorial).

It is interesting to hear of Wallace’s difficulty in understanding the many regional accents in the Barrack room. For most of these young men, military service would be the first time they had ventured further than county boundaries. We can assume that Wallace and Gilbert’s own Gloucestershire accents were equally misunderstood.

Wallace was due a fortnights leave in August and had planned to return to Bussage to see family and friends. Events rapidly coming to a head in Europe prevented him from doing so. He wrote home the day after War had been declared.

‘I suppose you know that war is declared. I expect we shall be going about Saturday. I expect we shall win, all the reserves of the First and Third Battalions besides our own are coming to Chelsea. You know Stanley Gardiner that used to work at Selwyns, Pomps brother, he came here today when he was called up and I recognised him at once. He was in the Third Battalions and went on the reserve last January. Write as soon as you get this as I don’t know when we shall go away’.

Along with the majority of the people of Britain at the start of hostilities, Wallace hoped for an early conclusion to the War, although his correspondence does have an air of practicality and a recognition that he might not return.

‘I don’t know whether we shall mobilise nor when – I don’t know how long this will last but I expect we shall be home as soon as it is over’.

‘ I don’t expect it will last long if we do go out there, you will receive 5/- a week or perhaps it will be sent every month as long as I am away and if I am unlucky and don’t come back you will get all my money but I expect I shall get back alright. Don’t worry about me if you can help it dear mother and dad I must close now. With much love to you both and all at home.

Hoping to see you all in a few months’ time.

Grenadier Guards ready to depart to France August 1914

In his last letter from Chelsea Barracks on the 9th August Wallace discusses the Guards readiness for action.

‘I don’t know when we are going but we are ready we could be outside of barracks in ten minutes if we had the order’.

He went on to relate a final ‘ route march …..up Sloane St to Knightsbridge then through Hyde Park …… then we went to Buck Palace where we marched past His Majesty. He was standing just outside the gates, there were 1000’s of people there to see’

An ominous and hastily added PS suggested official word of mobilisation had been received just prior to him posting the letter home.

‘I expect we shall go early tomorrow (Monday) morning’.

Leaving with the British Expeditionary Force as part of the 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division they were sent to France and fought at the Battle of Marne before joining the pursuit of the Germans in their retreat to the River Aisne. Conditions were difficult as evident from an officer of the 1st Bn. Glocs Rgt. diary (part of the same Brigade).

‘Up to now we had not had many cases of dysentery or other sickness, but the cold nights after the days heat, together with the wet, the repetition of tinned meats and insufficiently cooked food and the large quantity of only half-ripe apples and pears, were beginning to affect everyone’.

The Division managed to cross the Aisne but found the Germans firmly entrenched and there was much heavy fighting. The Guards were moved to clear the village of Soupir in Northern France which they achieved on the 14th September. Fighting continued at La Cour de Soupir farm.

‘There was heavy rain throughout the night of the 14th/15th and during the 15th September. The situation of the British forces underwent no essential change. But it became more and more evident that the defensive preparations made by the enemy were more extensive that was at first apparent …… The Germans bombarded our lines nearly all day, using heavy guns ……. All their counter attacks, however, failed although in some places they were repeated 6 times. One made on the 4th Guards Brigade (Wallace’s Brigade) was repulsed with heavy slaughter’

Wallace was killed during this action. His parents received the news on the 8th October and it was reported locally.

‘Bussage Man Killed in Action’ – “on Thursday last week came the sad news that Wallace Clissold, one of the gallant band of 29 from Bussage and District, who are serving their King and Country in either the Army or Navy, had been killed in action. Much sympathy was expressed to his parents in the loss of so promising a son at the early age of twenty. In fact on Sunday morning almost every man in the village, together with the local company of Boy Scouts, attended the Choral Eucharist at the Parish Church as a mark of esteem.” Rev H F Hayward “preached a most eloquent sermon from the text ‘a fine soldier ‘(1st Tim ii 20)…a loving and touching tribute to the deceased, who from his earliest years had been a member of the choir and a server at the Altar right up to the time of his leaving home to join the Guards.” He continued that they all felt sorrow, ‘but also consciousness of a duty nobly done’.

The Rev. Hayward wrote in the November Parish newsletter.

‘The hearts of us all go out in sincere sympathy …….We cannot help recalling him to mind today, the quiet, gentle lad, the friend of all who knew him, the enemy of none. By his death on the field of battle the Army has lost a young and promising soldier; his father and mother an affectionate son; and his brothers and sisters a brother of whom they were, like their parents, justly proud’.

A month later Wallace’s parents received a letter from his Platoon Commander dated the 14th November 1914. In it he wrote;

‘I hope you will accept my sincere sympathy in the loss of your son. He was in my platoon. I had not known him long but I liked him very much.

On the day he was killed he was out with me and the rest of my platoon some way in front of our firing line trying to clear a thick piece of wood of some German snipers. At the end of our beat I stopped on a cross-path to collect the platoon and I was shot.

He helped some other men to carry me back to our firing-line. After he had got back behind our firing-line and most of the danger seemed over, for there was very little firing going on then, poor Clissold was hit and died almost instantaneously.

I cannot tell you how sorry I was.

I trust that these details may be of some comfort to you, in that your son died so well and so suddenly that he cannot have suffered much. Indeed one cannot really imagine a better end. This happened on the wooded hills just north of the village of Soupir on the River Aisne on September 14th the day we took the position which we and the French have held ever since.

I am very grateful to him for the service he rendered me and should like to do something to show my gratitude. I should think it a favour if you would accept the enclosed in memory of your son. I am sure you will find some use to which you would like to put it in this difficult time for all.

Let me assure you again of my deepest sympathy.

The money provided was used in fitting tribute to Wallace. A memorial was erected in Bussage churchyard, a piano was brought for the family and each sibling had a double sided pendant made, with their own picture on one side and that of Wallace on the other.

The CWGC gives his date of death as between the 14th – 16th September. The two days of fighting at Soupir were intense and the high casualty rates amongst Officers meant that recording accurate diaries and causality lists was difficult. However the officer saved by Wallace seemed clear it had been the 14th.

He is buried at the Soupir Communal Cemetery.

All pictures provided with kind permission of Peter, Roger and Martin Clissold

Private Robert WORKMAN (8708)

1st Battalion South Wales Borderers

Killed in action 26th September, 1914

Robert was born in Thrupp in 1884, one of eight children of Henry John and Jane Maria, (both born in nearby Bisley). At the time of the 1891 census the family were living at Chambers Farm, ‘Machouse’ on the edge of the Lypiatt Park Estate, with both parents employed in agriculture.

At 17 Robert was, like many other young men of the area, employed as a stick mill worker – manufacturing walking sticks and umbrella handles. He later enlisted into the South Wales Borderers and served with them in South Africa. 1911 found him in the Artillery Barracks, Pretoria. His family were still at ‘Mackhouse’ where Henry John worked as a shepherd and his mother and siblings were working in the local bone factory or saw mills.

When war was declared, Robert went to France with the 1st Bn., South Wales Borderers (D Company), part of 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. It is likely he fought at the Battle of Marne and also been involved at Aisne too. Heavy losses were sustained by the Regiment on the 15th September after they crossed the river and again on the 26th, when their line was broken following a sustained and concerted enemy action. It is noted in their war diary that there was much hand-to-hand fighting, with men using any weapon to hand (one soldier even apparently using a table fork). The attack was eventually repulsed, but at a very heavy cost.

Attached to the unit’s war diary as an appendix was an officers personal report. For Saturday 26th September he noted

‘At 4:15am the Germans attacked ….. soon the whole place is alive with bullets …..The CO asked the Welsh Regiment to deal with this, which it did. Poor D Company had to face the music more than anyone else’

By 3:00pm ‘things begin to quieten down ….. we were able to reorganise’ with time now taken to search for casualties. In front of the South Wales Borderers line were dead, wounded and dying Germans and their own comrades. The gruesome task of burial fell to them, and a communication trench that ran from the quarry to the front line was utilised as a mass grave for their own men. It is likely that it is with these fallen that Robert was buried, although he officially has no known grave.

It was here, serving with D Company that Robert, aged 30 was killed on the 26th September. The first soldier of Bisley to fall. He is remembered at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial, which commemorates nearly 4000 men of the BEF who lost their lives during the conflicts early months.

In November 1914 his death was reported in the local Newsletter;

‘The death of Robert Workman, who, Like Wallace Clissold, has been killed in action will elicit the sympathy of all……… An account of the manner in which he, with others belonging to the Regiment, lost their lives was reported in the Daily News and Leader of October 22nd.

They were engaged in a very severe fight at close quarters with the enemy. The Welsh Borderers were in a trench about 30 yards from a quarry and were being hotly attacked by a force of about 2,500 Germans, who were in a wood in front. On the left side of them the Germans swarmed into the quarry and had occupied a large part of it.

A leading platoon of the Borderers immediately advanced into the quarry on the right side, and the remainder of the Company followed. It was a desperate fight and although they succeeded in driving the Germans out of the quarry, 4 officers and about 60 men, among them Robert workman, were killed.

Those who perished were, we are told ‘’most gallant, and fought heroically against overwhelming odds; but alas! They did not survive to witness the successful result of their work’’. The behaviour of the Regiment was made the subject of congratulations by the Commander-in-Chief.

To Mr and Mrs Workman and the friends of the deceased we tender our sincere sympathy. Robert Workman has nobly done his duty for his king and Country. The dust of earth claims his body, but not his honour. He will remain on Britain’s Roll of Honour, a gallant soldier who fought well and now deserves to sleep well. R.I.P.’

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Percy William GUBBINS (7424)

1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment

Killed in action 21st - 24th October, 1914

Born in 1885 one of seven children of Elisha Gubbins (a stick finisher) and Jessa Mary Young (a tailoress). By the age of 14 Percy was working as a turner (almost certainly at one of the numerous stick manufacturers) and residing at Orchard Cottage, France Lynch.

His early regimental number (7424) and the mention of his 1911 census occupation as "reservist", together with details from a newspaper report after his death, indicate he had joined the 1st Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1903/4, when he turned 18. The normal service would have been 7 years Colour Service (of which 4 were in India) and 5 years on the Reserve. Joining in 1903 meant that he had left full time service in 1910, but that he’d still have been a Reservist when war broke out in 1914. He was recalled to the Colours at once joining the 1st Battalion. Within a week they had left their quarters and crossed to France as an integral part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Percy amongst the first to disembark at Le Harve on the 13th August 1914. Taking part in the retreat from Mons, they distinguished themselves in what later became known as 1st Ypres at Langemarck and again at Gheluevelt, before the battle front stabilised into the stalemate of trench warfare.

A Private of the 1st Battalion told of the hot firefight at Langemarck.

". . . Our casualties were mounting rapidly. In the left traverse of the trench only one was left out of 7 and in my traverse, the second from the left, only 2 were left out of 6…….Ammunition was becoming

scarce, all the wounded and killed were searched for ammunition…… The fire from the ditch was so intense that practically all the bayonets in the trench were broken. When hit by bullets they snapped like glass’.

Thereafter, the events of October-December 1914 were chaotic for the Battalion as for many others. We know from reports in the Stroud News that Percy ‘fought through the exciting days at Mons and numerous subsequent engagements, including the battles of the Marne and the Aisne’.

On the 21st October the 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment took part in an attack (supporting the Queens Regt) to capture Koekuit Farm. D and C Companies advanced and occupied the hamlet of Koekuit, under continual rifle fire. They then stopped a German attack but not without significant casualties and later that day they were shelled causing casualties among those already wounded. In withdrawing from the location they were delayed as there were insufficient stretcher bearers for all the wounded. The Battalion's list of casualties for that day (the last day during this campaign where they have sufficient time and officers to actually make a complete list) includes the following two entries;

7320, Cpl Blackwell C, Killed, D Coy and 7424 Pte Grubbins W, Wounded, C Coy

Edwin C Blackwell is not actually on our memorial (he is commemorated in Elkstone) but his family were living in Bisley and his brother Charles is on the Christchurch memorial.

W Grubbins (sic) we know to be Percy William as the regimental number tallies. Neither Edwin nor Percy has a grave so it seems likely that William was either lightly wounded and was in fact killed in a different action a few days later, or that he was seriously wounded and not brought back in during the withdrawal.

On 22nd October there was no attack but the Battalion position was shelled in the afternoon and the War Diary notes "The men were not in their trenches at the time. Casualties 5 killed 10 wounded 2missing". No names are given.

On 23 October the Battalion sent several platoons to support the Coldstream Guards. These ended up in an exposed position after the troops alongside them had to withdraw and took significant casualties in stopping several German attacks. The War Diary records 2 officers and 12 other ranks killed and 1 and 40 wounded. Names of the other ranks are not given.

Contemporary reports from the Stroud News indicate he had originally been posted as missing, but then in July 1915 came the news that his family had finally been told he had been killed in action on the 24th October 1914. Prior to this his parents had posted a notice in the same paper asking whether anyone had seen anything of him. The paper is quoted as saying that he met ‘with his death at Nandrelies, near Ypres’

The confusion and lack of records from October, November and December 1914 means the exact date of his death is in doubt, but what is certain is that Pte. Gubbins 7424 was killed in action between the 21st and 24th October 1914 aged 29. These dates coincide exactly with the Battle of Langemark, so it is likely that it was here he fell. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate.

Private John ‘Jack’ Henry JAMES (7043)

1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Killed in action 30th October, 1914

John James, known to all as Jack was born in Chalford in 1886, the son of Charles William James and Mary Ann Garrawy. His father died in 1899 and his mother became the housekeeper of Heber King, a bachelor from Minchinhampton, who worked at the gas works. At this time she had six children from her marriage living with her. They later all moved to 7, Victoria Cottages, Chalford and Heber and Mary were married in 1914. James worked as a cattleman on a nearby farm until his 18th birthday, when he joined the 1st Bn., Gloucestershire Regiment.

The 1911 census shows him serving as Pte J James at Cambridge Barracks, Portsmouth. He went to France with 1st Gloucester’s landing at Le Harve, now part of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Division. His brother Pte. Albert James was also in France at this time with the 18th Hussars, 2nd Cavalry Brigade. A letter home to his mother, dated the 19th September 1914 told of how close the brothers came to meeting.

‘My Dear Mother, - This is to let you know I am quite all right and in the best of health. There is a bit of fighting going on out here, and judging by the results I should say we are winning easily. Jack’s regiment passed through a town where I was, but I was too late to see him. I asked a man following in the rear of the regiment if there was a man named James there, and he said there was one in front somewhere’.

The brothers would not see each other again.

Between the 29th October and the 14th November there was a serious German offensive on Gheluvelt cross roads, where the Menin Rd crossed between Kruiseecke and Poezelhoek, forming a junction between the 1st and 7th Divisions. It was the last significant ridge that afforded the British observation positions east of Ypres. The front was held by the British 3rd Brigade and two battalions from the 2nd Brigade. At 06:00 on the 29th October, German observation balloons directed their artillery fire onto the British lines. An initial infantry attack was repulsed along the 1st Division’s entire front, with a few exceptions. Two hours later the artillery fire had destroyed the position of the 2nd Welch Regt. holding the line east of the town. The 1st South Wales Borderers, 1st Queens Regiment and two companies of King’s Royal Rifle Corps were now separated from the Welch.

The Battalion was acting as Reserve for the 1st Brigade and had sent troops to support the Coldstreams out on the Menin Road. They were forced to retire due to lack of support and fighting then continued in thick mist round the village during the day, with another attempt to push forward in the afternoon being defeated by enfilading artillery fire.

During the night of 29/30th October all was quiet but then at 7.30 am the Germans attacked at Zandvoorde and the neighbouring Division was pushed back.

The War Diary records "Held advance line under artillery fire, entrenched 2 platoons south of the road". The following day they were ordered to hold the line and collect men from other Battalions as they came through. The situation was by now extremely chaotic, with Units all mixed up. The Diary records that "the line was held despite heavy and continuous attacks" until they were relieved on 1st November. The Diary then further notes that "no casualty returns could be made out by the Companies" (presumably as there were virtually no officers left to make them).

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Register lists 71 deaths from the Battalion during the two days 29-30th October, only 7 of whom have a known grave. The bodies of the rest were lost in the chaos that followed, John James amongst the fallen, killed on the 30th October 1914, aged 28. He is remembered on the Menin Gate.

This story has a very sad continuation. In the Stroud News of 11th June 1915, there is an article about Mr and Mrs King of Victoria Cottages, Chalford. They have recently been bereaved of two of their daughters, within a week of one another. Miss Nellie James, aged 25, had worked at Wimberley Pin Mills and died on 2nd June; Miss Dorothy James aged 17, on the 5th. It is not reported what they died of. The paper goes on to say:

“Mr and Mrs King have had one son killed at the Front, Pte Jack James, of the 1st Gloucestershire Regiment, who went through the retreat from Mons and fought on up till the Battle of the Aisne, where he was killed. Pte Albert James, of the 1st Hussars, a brother, has also been wounded seriously and is invalided back from the firing line.”

A note on his medal card indicates that his medals were returned unclaimed, which likely means that his mother had died or moved away from the area by the War’s end. His step-father Heber had died in 1918.

The memorial erected for the 1st Battalion, Gloucester Regiment at ‘Clapham Junction’, between Gheluvelt and Hooge.

Picture of memorial from internet

Stoker 1st Class Charles William Davis

(292225) HMS Good Hope

Killed in action 1st November, 1914

Charles William was born in Eastcombe on the 18th May 1880, the eldest of five children. His parents were William, a stick worker and Sarah.

On leaving school he first worked as a labourer until shortly after his 19th birthday, on the 30th May 1899 when he joined the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. His service number was 292225 and he signed on for a period of 12 years. Records show he was just over 5ft 2 inches tall, had light brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. A distinguishing mark was listed as a scar on the back of his right hand. Over the next nine years he served on various ships and shore establishments until the 9th March 1909 when he was invalided out of service, although he remained placed on the Reserves.

During the latter part of his Naval Service he clearly still spent leave in the village, as had courted Lily, a cloth worker originally from Minchinhampton. They married in 1908 and were settled together in a small two bedroomed cottage in Eastcombe in 1911. Charles resumed working as a labourer and at some point the young couple moved to School Terrace, Caeran, near Bridgend.

In the summer of 1914 many Reservists were recalled to serve the Fleet, among them Charles who had received his summons to resume his old rank of Stoker 1st Class on board HMS Good Hope in July. Like the majority of the men who were recalled from reserve to serve on board, Good Hope had herself been re-commissioned that same month, having been stood down from service the previous year.

Originally part of the Grand Fleet, Good Hope was a Drake Class armoured Cruiser and amongst the fastest ships of the time. She was sent to reinforce Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s South American flotilla, soon after becoming his flagship. At the end of October Cradock had received orders to intercept Admiral von Spee and his five modern cruisers, which included among them the heavily armed Scharhorst and Gneisenau.

On the 1st November having sighted the Germans, Cradock ordered his ships to head for Glasglow, the closest ship to the Germans. The time was 17:10. Once gathered together, he formed into line astern, with Good Hope in the lead. As the sixteen 8.3 inch guns aboard the German armoured cruisers were only matched by the two 9.2-inch guns on his flagship, he needed to close the range to bring his more numerous 6-inch guns to bear. The Force 7 winds and high seas, however, prevented the use of half of the guns as they were too close to the water. He also wanted to use the setting sun to his advantage to blind the German gunners. Spee was well aware of the British advantages and refused to allow Cradock to close the range. His ships were faster than the British and he soon opened up the range to 18,000 yards (16,000 m). As the sun set the British ships were silhouetted against the light sky, while the German ships became indistinguishable from the shoreline behind them.

Spee now turned to close and signalled his ships to open fire at 19:04 when the range closed to 12,300 yards (11,200 m). Spee's flagship, Scharnhorst, engaged Good Hope while Gneisenau fired at Monmouth. Cradock's flagship was hit on the Scharnhorst's third salvo, when shells knocked out her forward 9.2-inch turret and set her forecastle on fire. Cradock, knowing his only chance was to close the range, continued to do so despite the battering that Spee's ships inflicted. By 19:23 the range was almost half of that when the battle began and the British ships bore onwards. Seven minutes later, Good Hope charged directly at the German ships, although they dodged out of her way. Spee ordered his armoured cruisers to concentrate their fire on the British flagship and she drifted to a halt with her topside aflame. At 19:50 her forward magazine exploded, severing the bow from the rest of the ship, and she sank in the darkness. Spee estimated that his flagship had made 35 hits on Good Hope, suffering only two hits in return, that did no significant damage and failed even to wound one crewman.

In less than three hours from the first sighting the Good Hope was sunk with all hands, a total of 919 officers and enlisted men, including Charles William Davis. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

HMS Good Hope

Picture from internet – originally a postcard

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919)

Major Thomas Philip DORINGTON

1st Royal Dragoons

Killed in action 12th November, 1914

Born Thomas Godman on the 22nd May 1877, the third son of Major-General R. Temple Godman and the godson (and descendant, via his maternal line) of Sir John Dorington, the squire of the Lypiatt Park Estate.

Educated at Harrow, he was a career officer in the 1st Royal Dragoons. Promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on the 7th April 1897 and Lieutenant on the 24th July 1899 he saw active service in the African (Boer) War of 1899 – 1902. In January of 1905 he was promoted to Captain.

Without a male heir, when Sir John Dorington died in April 1911 Thomas took over as squire and began the running of his godfather’s Lypiatt Estate, assuming the surname Dorington.

When war was declared he re-joined the 1st Dragoons, now part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division as a Captain. He went with them to Ostende in October 1914, and soon after was promoted to Major.

On the 11th November the 1st Royal Dragoons fought in the Battle of Nonne Sosschen (Nuns’ Wood), part of the 1st battle of Ypres (the final attempt by the Germans to break through the British lines at Ypres).

The War Diary for the 12th November recorded

‘The casualty list of A Squadron is not in but it is reported by telephone that Capt. Dorington has been shot through the head by a sniper. His body is being taken to Ypres …..He was looking out for an expected attack upon the trenches and was shot dead through the head’.

He had only been promoted to Major on the 31st October, hence the Diary still referring to him as Captain.

Back home local people were stunned to hear of his death, particularly since a ‘patriotic’ letter from him had just recently been read out at a recruitment meeting in Bisley. A memorial service was held on Sunday evening, the 29th November at Bisley church in his honour.

In his will he left the considerable sum of £13,594.2s Edward Shrapnell Shrapnell-Smith Esquire.

He is buried in Ypres Town Cemetery.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Photograph scan copy from above book. Same picture below sourced from newspaper. No record which unfortunately!

Captain Clive Guise MOORES

Royal Engineers

Died of Wounds 30th November 1914

Does not feature on the Christchurch Memorial, but is shown on the Bussage Church plaque.

Born into a military family in 1887, Camberwell, London the son of Lt. Col. Samuel Moores (Devonshire Regt.), of 22, Woodstock Rd., Bedford Park, Chiswick, London.

His local link comes through him attending Bussage House School as a boy;

‘…in a high and healthy situation’ which boasted a ’Cricket ground, gymnasium and carpenter’s shop, 24 acres of playing fields, school farm. Individual attention. Home comforts. Preparation for Public Schools and Army’. His father was ‘very desirous of highly recommending this school, as two of his sons who were educated there got into the Army at the age of 19’.

Clive Guise Moores was commissioned on the 20th December 1906, having been awarded the Pollock Medal, R.M. Academy, Woolwich, in that year and later the Haynes Medal, R.E. (1909).

In November he was with the 5th Field Company on duty in the firing zone at Kemmel, Belgium when he was fatally wounded in a shooting ricochet. A bullet hit Captain Lionel John Neville Neville, a fellow officer, passed through his chest and then lodged in the heart of Captain Moores. Both men subsequently died. He was 27 and buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery Nord.

He was mentioned in dispatches in the London Gazette, 17th February 1915.

Not sure about where picture came from – looks like from internet search/scan

Private William WINSTONE (3000)

1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Killed in action 22nd December, 1914

Born in Eastcombe in 1870 Lot William was one of ten children of Henry (a mason) and Mary Winstone.

Aged 21 having dropped the name Lot, William was working as a wood-sawyer.

His early service number suggests that he had enlisted into the Gloucester Regiment prior to this date sometime in the early 1890’s. This is confirmed by a report in October of 1902 in the local Bussage Magazine that reports

‘Reservists Godfrey DAVIS and William WINSTON (sic) for whom the Prayers of the Church were regularly offered during their absence, have returned from South Africa and were in church to return thanks on Sunday, September 7th. On the previous evening, they were entertained at Supper, when handsome Presentations were made to each’.

Prior to this service in South Africa during the latter stages of the Boer War, William had in 1899 married Minnie Lydia Beavis, from Chalford. They had three children - Winifred, Harry and John

In 1911 both he and Minnie were working as rag sorters in the local flock mill.

Re-called from the Reserves he re-joined his old regiment the 1st Battalion Gloucester’s aged 44. Part of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Division he landed at Le Havre in France on the 13th August 1914. He was involved in the Retreat form Mons, and then fought at the Battle of Marne, the Battle of Aisne and the 1st Battle of Ypres, the Battalion suffering heavy losses at the Battle of Gheluvelt in October.

After a quiet few days in billets near Ypres, the Battalion was sent to Festubert early on the morning of 21st December 1914. They marched at 4 am, arrived at Bethune at 8 am and then at Festubert at 12.30 pm. They went straight into action at 3.30 pm in an attack that was intended to retake trenches that had been lost by another Division. Conditions were miserable. Cold and wet, they had to endure artillery and small arms fire, to which they were unable to respond due, as the War Diary explains.

"The attack was carried out over such muddy ground and intersected with dykes, that the rifles became clogged with mud and useless, bayonets could not be fixed. No reply could be made to the hostile fire and the line could not push within 300 yards of the enemy's position as they were under a very heavy machine gun and rifle fire and casualties became very heavy. Here the Battalion entrenched during the night on a front of about 300 yards"

The attack was supposed to continue on the morning of the 22nd but was cancelled as the conditions were hopeless and the next two days were spent instead in digging and improving trenches in freezing conditions, where each spade put into the ground drew water. The Battalion’s official history is quoted as saying that the cold and wet resulted in "appalling sickness from frost bite and rheumatism".

41 men of the Battalion died in the three days (21-23st December) of whom only 17 have a known grave. In the confusion it's easy to see how a date of death could be noted wrongly. It is most likely that William fell (or was mortally wounded) in the failed attack on the 21st December rather than dying of sickness in the days that followed. His official death date is shown as the 22nd December. He was 45 and is commemorated at Le Touret Memorial in Northern France and on the Eastcombe and Christchurch War Memorials.

His widow Minnie was still living in Eastcombe at School Cottage in the early 1920’s.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Arthur John YOUNG (6337)

1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment

Died on active service 23rd December 1914

Born in Oakridge Lynch on the 27th April 1883 the son of John (a railway labourer) and Eliza. Whilst his elder siblings were noted in the census as working as stick factory hands, Arthur worked as a general labourer.

At some time after the 1911 census he joined the Gloucester Regiment in Stroud and went with the B.E.F to France in 1914.

He fought alongside William Winstone at Festubert between the 21st and the 23rd of December. Conditions were appalling, the Regimental Diary noting on the 23rd

‘…..the Battalion set to work to extend and improve their trenches as far as possible. But on such ground, the water and mud could not be overcome. To put a spade into the earth meant drawing water. The cold was intense, which, combined with the wet weather, resulted in appalling sickness from frost-bite and rheumatism. The stretcher bearers were continually at work, casualties occurring faster than they could be carried away’.

Whereas William Winstone was killed in action on the 22nd December, Arthur was shown as having ‘died’ on active service, which suggests that he was possibly one of those who succumbed to the afore mentioned sickness, frost-bite and rheumatism. However, as he has no know grave it is equally possible that he was killed in battle but the exact details lost during a very confused three day period.

He was 31 and is commemorated at Le Touret, Oakridge and Christchurch memorials.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Ernest Victor RADBURN (1402)

1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment

Died on active service 28th December 1914

Born in Chalford in April 1894 the son of Henry Radburn, a flock worker and Jane Gardiner. In 1911 the family were living at Prospect Terrace at the top of Dark Lane in Chalford. Ernest aged 17 was a butcher’s errand boy.

He enlisted into the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment (part of the Territorial Force) in 1911. Whilst TF soldiers normally stayed with their own Unit, it would appear that Ernest volunteered to go overseas, as he was in France with the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment in September 1914.

He lasted barely three months.

In December 1914 the 1st Battalion moved south and took up positions near Festubert. Conditions were miserable - wet and cold and under constant enemy artillery and small arms fire.

The Battalion were moved to reserve trenches from 24-31st December 1914. The War Diary does not note any casualties sustained through fighting during this time, although the CWGC notes three deaths on the 28th December. Two of these died of wounds and are buried nearby. Ernest has no known grave, so it is likely that he was actually killed in the earlier fighting. He is remembered at Le Touret Memorial.

Picture from Ancestry family tree of Janice Serginson. She is happy for us to use it in our publication.

Private Frederick William VICK (9873)

1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Died of wounds 30th December 1914

Born in Chalford in 1892, one of fifteen children (thirteen of whom survived infancy) of Frederick William (a mechanical engineer) and Sarah. For a time the family lived in Brewery Lane, Thrupp and later Brownshill. In 1911 he was working as a boot repairman.

Frederick enlisted into the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment in 1913 and so went straight to France with the BEF on the 13th August 1914. He fought at Mons, The Battle of the Marne, the Battle of Aisne and the 1st Battle of Ypres before marching to Festubert in December.

Conditions were dreadful.

"The attack was carried out over such muddy ground and intersected with dykes, that the rifles became clogged with mud and useless, bayonets could not be fixed. No reply could be made to the hostile fire and the line could not push within 300 yards of the enemy's position as they were under a very heavy machine gun and rifle fire and casualties became very heavy. Here the Battalion entrenched during the night on a front of about 300 yards"

Frederick was mortally wounded during this action, his CWGC entry saying he died of wounds on the 30th. He is buried at Brown’s Road Military Cemetery in Festubert, a cemetery known to have been used by Field Ambulances for casualties who did not survive.

Further tragedy struck his family shortly afterwards. An account in the Stroud News reports the death of another son, aged just 14 year old (the son of Mr and Mrs Vick of Brownshill), and makes further reference to the fact that ‘recently another son was killed at the Front, while the eldest was wounded about a month ago’. The dead man was Frederick Vick.

Roll of Honour 1915

Albert Victor CLARK 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 6th January

nd th Duncan RIDLER-DUTTON 1 2 Bn. Border Rgt. 13 March Joseph MANSELL 3rd Bn. Monmouthshire Rgt. 28th March Arthur William WINSTONE 2nd Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 6th May Christopher T D Hughes 5th Bn, Kings Shropshire L.I. 27th June Christopher Francis ALDUM 6th Bn. Somerset L.I. 5th August Joseph R OLLERENSHAW 2nd Bn. Grenadier Guards 6th August Frank Christopher ALDRIDGE 7th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 8th August Samuel P GARDINER 7th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 8th August George W ALDRIDGE South Wales Borderers 9th August Ernest Walter YOUNG 10th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 25th September

th rd Edgar MILES2 7 Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 3 October

st th Levison T RIDLER-RANDALL3 1 Bn. Grenadier Guards 5 October James W OLLERENSHAW 28th (Res) Bn, Royal Fusiliers 5th October Frank Allen SHILHAM 10th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 13th October Harry TAYSUM Royal Gloucestershire Hussars 20th October Lionel Wellington FISHER 1st Bn. Welsh Guards 22nd October (formerly 2 Grenadier Guards) T W GIBBINS/GUBBINS* 7th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 13th November Arthur David HOOK 7th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 30th December

1 Recorded on memorial as D. DUTTON 2 Recorded incorrectly on memorial as E. MILLS 3 Recorded on memorial as L. RANDALL

*Does not appear on Christchurch Memorial but is shown on Chalford School List of those who served.

Private Albert Victor CLARK (2992) 1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment Died 6th January 1915

Born in Minchanhampton in 1890, the family moved and lived in Hyde thereafter. His father Albert was a flock and wool worker, his mother Lavinia a Rag sacker. Two of his elder sisters aged 10 & 12 were both already working half (part) time as silk workers in 1891.

In 1911 Albert was 21, single and working as a fitters labourer, ship building.

Three years later on the 11th October 1914, shortly after the outbreak of war he enlisted into the 1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment as Private 2992. Albert's low Regimental number indicates he probably joined the Territorial Force of the Gloucestershire Regiment first, sometime in September 1914. His medal card thus shows his award of the 1914 star with "Mons Clasp" (for those who saw action in France before 22 November 1914).

The Battalion served with the 1st Division in 1914 at the Battle of Langemarck (21st – 24th October), the Battle of Gheluvelt (29th – 31st October) and in the Defence of Givenchy (8th – 12th December)

Albert survived the fighting during these early month, but sadly he contracted meningitis, possibly as a result of the terrible conditions the soldiers were enduring. The 1st Division had suffered 1,682 casualties at Givenchy alone, with many dying as a result of exposure and frostbite in freezing rain and flooded trenches. He died of meningitis in a French hospital on the 6th January 1915. He was described at this time as being ‘son of Albert Clark of Sunnyside, St Mary's Chalford’.

He is remembered at Boulogne Eastern Cemetry.

Not sure where photograph came from.

Private Duncan RIDLER - DUTTON (10585) 2nd Battalion Border Regiment Died 13th March 1915

Listed on the Christchurch memorial as D. Dutton.

Born in Bisley circa 1890/1, his parents were William and Louisa Ridler. The 1891 census shows a son Percival D Ridler living with William and Louisa and there is a birth entry for a Percival Duncan R Dutton registered in Stroud Oct-Dec 1890. In 1901 the family were living at Brattons Farm, Bisley.

In 1911 Duncan was working as a groom and living at Newark Park, Wotton-under- Edge. His parents were with their younger children at New Inn Cottages, Bisley and their surname was now detailed as Ridler-Dutton.

He joined the 2nd Battalion Border Regiment in Stroud as Private 10585 Duncan Ridler. Soon after the Battalion moved to Lyndhurst and came under orders of 20th Brigade in 7th Division on the 5th September 1914.

On the 6th October they headed for mainland Europe landing at Zeebrugge on the 6th October 1914 and were soon engaged in heavy fighting around Ypres, where the 2nd Battalion Border Regiment remained for the remainder of the year.

Between the 10th – 13th March 1915 the first large scale organised attack undertaken by the British army was launched at Neuve Chapelle. It followed the miserable winter operations of 1914-15. More Divisions had arrived in France, including the 2nd Battalion Border Regiment and the BEF was now split into two Armies. Neuve Chapelle was undertaken by Sir Douglas Haig's First Army, while subsequent actions were fought by Sir Herbert Smith-Dorrien's Second Army.

An artillery bombardment opened on the 10th, followed by an infantry assault. It was not until the 12th that the 2nd Borders went forward, coming under intense enemy fire that stopped them in their tracks, decimating their ranks. Several hours later they again attacked, this time reaching the enemy lines and themselves taking many prisoners. The newly taken trenches were held under constant German counter-attack, the Battalion finally being relieved at midnight on the 14th, having suffered over 300 causalities, amongst them Private Duncan Ridler-Dutton.

Neuve Chapelle demonstrated that it was quite possible to break into the enemy positions - but also showed that this kind of success was not easily turned into breaking through them. The main lessons were that the artillery bombardment was too light to suppress the enemy defences, there were too few good artillery observation points and the reserves were too few to follow up success quickly.

It was not until the May of 1915 that official confirmation of Duncan’ death was received, with the Stroud News reporting;

‘Bisley Soldier Killed ……. As a boy (he had been) a member of the church choir …… a loving and dutiful son and brother who had bravely laid down his life for his King and Country. He was very popular and much sympathy is felt for his mother and friends’.

There had been a huge memorial service for him the previous Sunday, in Bisley church.

He is commemorated also at Le Touret Memorial.

Text and photograph with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Joseph MANSELL (2223) 3rd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment Died of wounds 28th March 1915

Joseph Mansell was born in early 1897 at The Scrubs, north of Bisley, the son of William (a rough carpenter and hurdle maker) and Louisa. Aged 14 he was working as a farm labourer (and servant) to Robert Charles Hill at nearby Ansteads farm.

When war was declared Joseph enlisted in Abergavenny, which suggests he was at the time living in South Wales, possibly working as a miner. He joined the 3rd Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment, a Territorial unit within the 83rd Brigade, 28th Division. Serving as private 2223 he spent time in various training camps around England and Wales before travelling to France in 1915. Having just turned 18 he was actually 12 months short of the required age for active service abroad.

On the 12th March 1915 the Regiment took over trenches at Wulverghem on the French/Belgium border beginning a tour of duty that saw them regularly moved in and out of the line. On the 28th March 1915 he died of wounds received, aged 18. The War Diary for this time details no specific actions, so it is unclear exactly how he was wounded, but sniper and shell fire were an ongoing danger at the front line.

He is buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Picture was late addition – possibly Camilla

Private Arthur William WINSTONE (1812) 2nd Battalion Gloucester Regiment Killed in Action 6th May 1915

Born in June 1893 the second eldest of nine to Arthur (a stone mason’s labourer) and Alice, he was normally known as William. His place of birth could be Chalford (according to SDGW) or Bisley (1911 census). Whichever, we know that the family were living near The Manse in Eastcombe in 1901 and later moved to France Lynch. William worked as a mill hand, flock and shoddy.

In 1914 he enlisted in Stroud. There appears to be some discrepancy regarding which Battalion he served in, whether the 1st or 2nd. It seems likely that initially he joined the 1st Gloucester’s (in which his father, a Reservist was also serving) and it was with these that he arrived in France on the 11th November 1914 (well over a month before the 2nd Battalion disembarked).

His later records show him serving with the 2nd so we must assume he transferred after this point. The 2nd Battalion was part of 81st Brigade, 17th Division.

The 17th Division fought at the 2nd Battle of Ypres in April. The subsequent period from the 4th – 8th May was spent repairing badly damaged front line trenches, dangerous work under intermittent shell and sniper fire. The Regimental Diary for the 6th May, Sanctuary Wood notes;

‘‘ …at 6.15am enemy started bombarding our trenches and the wood again …. At 1.45 pm the enemy started again but stopped about 2.30pm….. casualties during the day very small…’

It is likely that it was during these bombardments that he was killed, aged 22. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres. His father survived the war.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Christopher Tatham Davy HUGHES (13045) 5th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry Died of Wounds 27th June 1915

Christopher Tatham Davy HUGHES was born on the 24th September 1895 at the family home ‘Inchneuk’, Row, Helensburgh, Dumbarton. His parents Arthur Hughes (a retired officer, HM Navy) and Rose Edith Hughes, (her maiden name also Hughes) had married on the 4th September 1873 in Streatham. After serving in the Navy, his father worked as the general manager of The Trustee Assets and Investment Insurance Co.Ltd and later as a chartered accountant for Colloid in Glasgow.

As a young boy Christopher was in the choir at Worcester Cathedral and it is likely the he attended preparatory school at King’s School, Worcester at this time. In 1911 he was living at Longton, Staffordshire as a border (he attended Shrewsbury School between 1909 – 1913). Also in the household was Samuel John Hughes 25, a clergyman born Sidcup Kent (probably his older brother).

He enlisted into the 5th (Service) Battalion, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, which had been raised at Shrewsbury in August 1914 from a mass of enthusiastic volunteers, as part of Kitchener's First New Army. His Battalion joined 42nd Brigade, 14th (Light) Division. It is unclear why Christopher joined as a Private, as clearly his family had money. He trained at Aldershot and then moved to Chiddingfold in March 1915. Following final training back at Aldershot they entrained for France on the 20th of May 1915, landing at Boulogne.

Initially without arms of any kind, their move to the fighting front was delayed, largely due to rifles, artillery and shells being diverted to the Gallipoli Campaign. They came under fire for the first time at Ypres on the 31st of May, 1915. The 14th (light) Division was not involved in any particular battles between 22nd May and the 27th June 1915, but were used to help maintain and improve the trench

system at the front around Ypres. This was dangerous work, with the army losing up to 300 men a day to sniping and shell fire and it is likely that Christopher was fatally wounded whilst doing this essential work. He is buried at Le Treport Military Cemetery which was at the time an important hospital centre with nearly 10,000 beds, suggesting he was taken there from a front line clearing station and died of wounds received. His death was reported in the Glasgow Herald on the 2nd July 1915;

"Died, from injuries received in action, in No.3 General Hospital, France, on Sunday, 27th June, Private C.T.D. Hughes, Shrewsbury School Contingent, 5th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry, aged 19 years 9 months, youngest son of Arthur Hughes, R.N. (retired), Inchneuk, Row."

He is remembered on the Rhu War memorial (The traditional spelling of Row), on a stained glass pane for ‘Old Choristers who fell in the Great War 1914 – 1919’ at Worcester College and the Christchurch Memorial in Chalford.

He is not shown on the Worcester Guildhall Roll of Honour , which tentatively confirms he was only at the preparatory school when in the choir and that he had moved elsewhere prior to enlistment. It does seem entirely probable that when he did join up, he would want to do so with his old school mates. There appears no obvious link with Chalford.

Portrait – possibly Juliet? Photographs were from Roger

Private Christopher Francis ALDUM (10570)

Prince Albert’s (Somerset Light Infantry) 6th Battalion

Killed in Action 5th August 1915

Born in Chalford in 1892, the second son of John Eagle Aldum and Sarah Naomi Phelps. The family lived later in Brownshill, where John worked as a coachman.

By 1911 Christopher was 18 and had moved to Bristol where he worked as a dock labourer, living with his aunt.

He enlisted in Bristol and joined Prince Albert’s 6th (Service) Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, which served with 43rd Brigade, 14th (light) Division.

The Division arrived in Belgium in May 1915 and two months later were involved in serious fighting as described in the following account of the Battle of Hooge;

‘Between July 22nd and 26th, the British by skilful mining operations made further gains of ground in the dismal terrain along the Menin Road and near the Hooge Chateau, but the British trenches were continually bombarded by the German artillery …..The suffering of the British troops along the whole salient was cruel, the men of the 6th and 14th Division (Christopher’s Division) bearing the brunt of these serious attacks. On July 30th, the Germans, for the first time, used flame throwers. They exploded a bomb under the British trenches near Hooge and trench mortars poured bombs on the British front. In the afternoon, 4 British battalions attempted a counter attack but were repulsed with heavy loss……..on the following night, the Germans renewed their attack with liquid fire and a deluge of shells, behind which their infantry advanced, but without achieving and serious progress. They were stopped by the steadiness of troops of the 14th Division, one of the New Army formations’.

It was during this horrific battle that Christopher was killed, lost somewhere in the chaos and carnage of the front. He has no known grave but is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres.

Lance Corporal Joseph Robert OLLERENSHAW (17011)

2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards

Killed in Action 6th August 1915

Born early 1897 in Chalford , Joseph was the son of Nathaniel (a labourer) and Louisa. He attended Marling School and was a choir member at France Lynch Church. At 14 he was working as a mount maker at the umbrella stick factory, living with his parents at Burcombe, Chalford Hill.

Enlisting into the 2nd Bn., Grenadier Guards in early August 1914, Private J. Ollerenshaw went to France in January 1915. He was later promoted to Lance Corporal.

The Battalion served as part of the 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division. In May 1915 they fought at the Battle of Aubers, which proved an unmitigated disaster for the British Army and later at the Battle of festubert (13th – 26th May).

The 2nd Bn Grenadier Guards’ war diary gives us detail of his death soon after.

6th Aug 1915. In trenches at Givenchy

At 3.40am the enemy exploded two mines in the Orchard blowing in the gallery of our mine and destroying our saps out to the craters and also the trench joining the sap heads. A number of men were injured and buried and two miners were killed in the mine. The enemy opened a sharp rifle fire and commenced shelling the vicinity of the craters, which made the work of digging out buried men difficult. All were, however, successfully dug out and we re-occupied the edges of the craters. 2nd Lieut. H.A.C.Crookshank was completely buried in about 4 feet of earth, but when dug out was none the worse. Some men who were buried were suffering severely from shock, contusions etc. Relieved by Irish Guards at 5pm and marched to billets at Le Preol.

Casualties: 1NCO killed, Captain P.A.Clive wounded, 3 NCO’s and 9 men wounded and 1 NCO and 17 men slightly wounded. The NCO killed on this day would have been Joseph.

On the 13th of August the Stroud News reported his death, noting also that technically he should not have been at the Front , as aged just 18 he was not ‘of the required age’ which was at the time 19 for overseas service. The following week's edition carried an account of the memorial service held at France Lynch church. The vicar, the Revd Arthur Wade- Evans, preached on the text of 'God sees the little sparrow fall', and acknowledged the intractable 'why?' of such a death:

"What should we say of the death of that gallant young man (the third to be killed from France Lynch with Percy Gubbins and Willie Winstone), whose handsome presence was so familiar to them in the church, Joseph Robert Ollerenshaw, cut off at the age of 18? What a cloud had fallen on Chalford Hill when news of that tragedy arrived! How their hearts had gone out to his family, to his mother, to his many friends!...Here was a grief so great that words sounded like mockery in its presence. It was almost better to be silent..."

In October, some two months after his death his parents received a letter of condolence from an army chaplain. After apologising for the delay (due to troop movements and leave) details were given as to how he died;

"It appears that at 4 am on that morning the Germans put up a mine to blow up their trench, which fell short, doing little damage. They afterwards began shelling very heavily, in the course of which one from a field gun came into his trench, killing him instantly."

He is remembered also at the Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy.

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Photograph was given to Camilla I believe

Private Frank Christopher ALDRIDGE (10856)

7th Battalion, Gloucester Regiment

Killed in Action 8th August 1915

Born in Eastcombe, he was baptised in the local School Chapel on the 9th August 1891, the son of Charles (a carpenter & labourer) and Rosa. The family lived near The Laurels. In 1911 Frank was working at the iron works of Messrs G Waller & Co, Phoenix Ironworks, Thrupp as a labourer. Here he was known for his ‘bright and genial disposition’.

He enlisted in Stroud during September 1914. Initially classed a missing, it was not until January 1917 that official news came via Lt. Wilmot who wrote

‘The Army Council has regretfully constrained to conclude that he is dead’.

Much sympathy was felt for the soldier’s parents, sister, brother and fiancée Miss Celia Mayo of Chalford.

He was 25.

Private Samuel P GARDINER (15352)

7th Battalion, Gloucester Regiment

Killed in Action 8th August 1915

Sam Percy Gardiner was baptised at Oakridge Parish church on the 7th December 1884, the son of Caleb (a mason) and Ellen, both originally from Bisley but now living at Oakridge Lynch. Ellen had died by 1901 and Sam, living with his widowed father was working as a cattleman. He later worked as a builder and labourer, living at Yew Tree Cottage in Oakridge Lynch prior to enlisting at Stroud alongside Frank Aldridge into the 7th Gloucesters.

He was killed on the same day as Private Aldrige, aged 31.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Both men had travelled with the Battalion as part of the 39th Brigade, 13th Division, landing at Gallipoli in July 1915. Earlier landings in April had secured the Allies a precarious foothold on the peninsula, but both sides had suffered heavy losses. On the 7th August the Battalion went into action some 1000 men strong, attempting to take the hill of Chunuk Bair, just inland of Anzac Cove. Only 181 emerged unscathed. An account of the battle describes the mayhem following an initial successful gain of the hill;

‘ Chunuk Bair was enfiladed by the Turkish positions on Battleship Hill, as expected, but also from Hill Q …..the Turks were free as the light improved to open devastating fire, which caught the 7th Gloucester’s … in the open as they toiled up the hill ……Only a few succeeded in reaching the crest and even then there was little respite from the constant enfilade fire, which gradually whittled away what remained.’(1)

Private Domican from Bristol, who served with the Gloucester’s and later had his right hand amputated following wounds suffered in the battle, recalled the attack a few months later;

‘The big attack took place on Sunday morning (8th August). As soon as day broke we had orders to rush for the ridge, about 600 yards away, in extended order, and this we did amidst a hail of shrapnel. Our orders were to extend out two yards, take all possible shelter, and one man was to dig and the next one to open fire on the enemy who were about forty yards away. It was my duty to follow out the firing order while my companion was digging. I was struck in the face by shrapnel early in the attack and my wrist was shattered …… I remained in the gully until eight o’clock in the evening, shells continually bursting in the vicinity. When sunset came those of us who were able crawled back to our lines and had our wounds attended to. We, of course, heard the firing all day on the ridge, and afterwards learnt of the terrible losses which the 7th Gloucester’s and other regiments had suffered’. (2)

They were killed during the attack and are remembered at the Helles Memorial at Gallipoli.

(1) Defeat at Gallipoli by Nigel Steed and Peter Hart (2) Soldiers of Gloucestershire Military Museum(online shop)

Private George W ALDRIDGE (12735) South Wales Borderers Killed in Action 9th August 1915

Born in Chalford / Bisley in 1877. Details from early census are vague. In 1891 he was shown as a lodger (aged 14), living with his Aunty Fanny at Nash Cottages, Fownhope, Herefordshire. It would appear his widowed mother was living nearby. By 1901 they had moved back to the Chalford Vale with George W shown as head (24), working as an engineer’s labourer. His widowed mother Ann (56) was with him. Ann was still in the area in 1911, living alone at Rock Hill, Chalford. George was not shown. It is probable that he was back in the Hereford / Monmouth area.

He enlisted at Newport, Monmouthshire and travelled with the Battalion as part of 40th Brigade, 13th (Western) Division to Gallipoli, where he landed on the 15th July 1915. Tasked with seizing the main ridge of Sari Bair, the action lasted from the 6th to the 10th of August and included the disastrous attack at Chunuk Bair. Despite the huge losses the British continued to push forward, meeting fierce resistance from the Turks. Following written messages from the Commander at the ridge front being dispatched to other Allied groups, in an attempt to build re-inforcements the replies detailed just how hopeless the situation was;

‘The troops on our flanks …. The South Wales Borderers, the 9th Worcester’s and the South Lancs – replied that they had either retired or expected to retire, and themselves needed reinforcements, or were momentarily expecting an attack, so it was evident that we were out on a limb and in no shape to hold a determined Turkish counter-attack, which indeed seemed imminent…The night of August 9/10th was harassed by constant sniping apparently from our flanks, and desultory rifle fire along the whole of our diminished front ……’(1)

By the end of the 9th August, the question was no longer whether the British could seize control of Sari Bair, but whether they were in any position to hold onto the gains they had made in the previous days fighting.

George Aldridge was killed in this action on the 9th August 1915, his body never recovered. He was 38 and is remembered at the Helles Memorial.

(1) Defeat at Gallipoli by Nigel Steed and Peter Hart

Private Ernest Walter YOUNG (17353)

10th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Killed in Action 25th September 1915

10th Battalion Gloucester’s

Born in Oakridge on the 15th December 1884 his father was John (a mason), his mother Eliza. The family home was at Oakridge Lynch. Ernest was the younger brother of Arthur who had been killed whilst serving with the 1st Gloucester’s just before Christmas 1914. Ernest worked as a labourer prior to enlisting.

In August 1915 he travelled with the Battalion to France in preparation for a major Franco-British assault in the Champagne/Artois region of Northern France. As part of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division they participated in the Battle of Loos, commencing on the 25th September. Casualties were horrifying, with 459 men lost in the first wave near Hullock. The British also used chlorine gas on the 25th, but it was unfortunately blown back into their own trenches, resulting in yet more causalities.

An account of the fighting on the 25th September lays bare the dreadful detail;

‘’In early afternoon they moved forward in ten columns ‘each about a thousand men, all advancing as if carrying out a parade-ground drill’. The German defenders were astounded by the sight of an ‘entire front covered with enemy infantry’. They stood up …..and fired triumphantly into the mass of men advancing across the open grassland.

‘Never had machine guns had such straightforward work to do ….. they traversed to and fro along the enemy’s ranks…… The effect was devastating. The enemy could been seen falling literally in hundreds, but they continued their march in good order and without interruption’ until they reached the unbroken wire of the Germans’ second position: ‘Confronted by this impenetrable obstacle the survivors turned and began to retire’. Nauseated by the spectacle of the ‘corpse field of Loos’ the Germans held their fire as the British turned in retreat ’so great was the feeling of compassion and mercy after such a victory’. (1)

For many of Kitchener’s Army this was the first time they had been under enemy fire. For Ernest, it was to be his last. He was 30 and lies buried at Dud Corner Cemetery, near Loos which suggests he was killed early in the day’s assault. Much of the ground taken later was soon to be lost again and those killed in the carnage would likely have remained unburied for some time, if at all.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

(1) The First World War, extract about the Battle of Loos, by John Keegan

Private Edgar MILES (13833)

7th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Died 3rd October 1915

(Incorrectly recorded on the Christchurch Memorial as E. MILLS)

Edgar Miles was born in Rodborough in 1892 the 3rd child of William and Elizabeth Miles. In 1901 the family were living in Stroud, with William working as a labourer and Elizabeth as a charwoman. By 1911 they had moved to Cainscross and Edgar aged 18 was as a wood turner.

He enlisted in September 1914 into 7th (Service) Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment and travelled with them to Gallipoli in July 1915 as part of the 39th Brigade, 13th Division. The battalion fought at Chunuk Bair and suffered terrible casualties, although we don’t know if Edgar was involved at this stage, as he had been taken seriously ill at some time following his landing.

The British troops on the Gallipoli peninsula lived in particularly severe conditions, the squalor resulting in a sick list that more than matched those injured or killed in actual battle. The remoteness from the main British bases meant there was great difficulty in supplying even the most basic requirements for a military campaign. A lack of fresh produce caused severe medical conditions; ‘For want of vegetable food the skin on our hands and arms became problems’

Water was in very short supply and was often polluted with dust or fuel. The men suffered from lice, ants, the heat & dust and in particular flies, with corpses left putrefying in the sun. Latrines, where they existed, were very primitive and with many men suffering from dysentery disease spread quickly.

Jaundice, paratyphoid or enteric fevers, even a cardiac disorder called ‘soldier’s heart’ were all endemic. It is small wonder that Edgar became ill, although exactly what ailed him we do not know.

He died at the Royal Victoria Military Hospital in Netley, Hampshire aged 23, so he must have been brought back to Britain from the Balkans via the casualty chain before. He is buried in the Military Cemetery there.

The Roll of Honour from Stroud and the Great War has the simple if stark entry;

"Edgar Miles died of sickness"

Lance Corporal Levison Thomas Ridler RANDALL (11979)

1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards

Died of Wounds 5th October 1915

Born in Bisley in 1885 the son of Athelstan (a plumber, glazier, painter and decorator) and Maria, the family lived near the Wesleyan Chapel in the High Street.

‘During his early life in Bisley (he) held quite a position in the counsels of the young men of the village, taking his place in the Day School, the Sunday School, the Choir, with the Bell Ringers, Cricket and Football teams, the evening Technical Class, and for some years he attended the Brimscombe Polytechnic’

In 1905 ‘Levvy’ decided to sign up, joining the Army. It was noted that: ‘Not wishing to discuss the point with his parents, he left home one morning and quietly stepped into the ranks. Thus his object attained, he informed his parents that he had reached his ambition and had become a “Soldier of the King.”

His early conduct suggested the suitability of promotion, but having enlisted for a short period (and seemingly having becoming disillusioned with Army life following the Haldane Reforms), he chose to leave on completion of his three years’ service, although he remained on the Reserves.

Returning to the village he occupied responsible civilian posts, including working as an attendant on the insane at Barnwood House Hospital near Gloucester.

When war was declared he presented himself at the Headquarters of his old Regiment, although it was noted that: ‘The few years of sheltered civilian life had lowered for a time his stamina for the more exposed military duties, and soon after rejoining he found himself an invalid in hospital suffering from exposure, rheumatism and pleurisy’.

Recovered, he travelled with the BEF to France in January 1915. His regular letters home describe in detail life at the front: ‘I am A1 and I have just dropped in with a few Stroud men. I am up in the “firing line” and I find that all the boys here are as happy as they were in London, singing all the time. There is a splendid feeling between our officers and men, they share and share alike and the men work with a will. This place reminds one of home in peace times. Everything is being done for our comfort, and it is marvellous how they get the things up as they do’.

Five days later he wrote a further update home: ‘Our fellows are a jolly lot: you would hardly think they were so near such dangers. We are having a football match this afternoon and to-morrow return to the trenches. It is very cold with snow, frost and rain. It all seems favourable for us though very hard fighting. The snipers are very cute; they chance everything, but we have fellows who come up to them.……We are in very level country now with nearly all cobble roads like the pitching at the Wells in Bisley. It tries your feet for a time, but one soon gets used to it.’

By the end of January his letters suggest a worsening in both the weather and conditions at the front in general: ‘We are getting plenty of rain and it is very cold, especially at night. The trenches are in an awful state, but we are well provided with plenty of food, a waterproof sheet and blanket, and whenever an opportunity occurs a bath in vats at a bleaching factory……. As a rule we enjoy ourselves as much as possible – cards, singing, football, etc. Reading is out of the question, unless we get any old papers from home, then there is a rush for them: one takes one page and another takes another, and so on, taking little or no notice of the shot and shell flying around. At this moment an artillery duel is proceeding not many yards from us, and with our fellows singing the mixture makes it no easy matter to write’.

At the end of March 1915 he was promoted to Lance-Corporal, shortly after the action at Neuve Chapelle. His account details the hardship of such fighting: ‘It was great! But awfully hot at times. Our rations were being served out when the order came “Over the parapet.” I can tell you we were as the old saying “UP Guards and at ‘em.” We had only one object – to smash them. The Prussians did look a disreputable lot and they seemed very pleased to be captured and taken prisoners. We came across one pleasing incident – a German bandaging up one of our fellows. You would have laughed to see me going up. We had to get there, so thinking I would go through an easy place, jumped hoping to clear a ditch, but instead went into water and mud above my waist, and there I must have remained had not a comrade helped me out – after which we had a good laugh’.

A letter home from April 1915 graphically detailed how varied a day could be. Levvy begins: ‘I am sending you a few flowers picked within 10 yards of my trench. It is simply lovely here to-day’, before conveying the grim realities of life (and death) at the front: ‘The Germans are getting beat on every point of their line now. They make very heavy counter-attacks and lose heavily as they come in such huge masses. When the machine guns are turned on them by our fellows there is a deadly awful mess. Their bodies are lying in heaps, and yet those fighting are plucky. We must give them their due. Some of the enemy have told us that they are properly fed up with this War. We can talk to them quite easily being only 50 yards apart’.

Letters home during May detailed little activity, save constant shelling: ‘The weather is lovely, simply melting. The enemy is becoming lively ……. They commenced bombarding this morning’.

‘It is painful writing under such a noise – something like twenty thunderstorms in one ….. we are having dinner, and enjoying it I can tell you! All guns firing. What a row! …. You cannot hear your next mate speak’.

Later that month two letters home showed just how mixed emotions could be at the front. In the first he decried how: ‘ …if the slackers in England could have seen …. They would enlist right away or destroy themselves for being such cowards’. Two days later, following ‘another narrow escape’ (his own words) he spoke soberly of it being: ‘worse than H**l, and the sights! I never want to see anything like it again, or even to think of them’.

In June, Randall again wrote home decrying those men not yet fighting and for the first time seemed to understand just how the war was beginning to become one of attrition; ‘There is one thing we have to do to win this War and this is to kill the d---- lot, show no mercy, and the only way is for every young fellow to join, and every jackman that does not join, providing he is fit, is only a waster, not only to his country but to us poor devils out here, continually meeting or waiting death bravely’.

The end of June found him fondly remembering home: I expect the country around Bisley is looking fine and I would like to have a walk over on Sunday and look at it. I often think of all the boys of Bisley’.

In July he described how plain good luck often played a key part in survival or otherwise:

‘A shell came the other day and knocked the parapet down just by me. I went to report, and whilst kneeling down by the officer’s dug-out another shell landed on top of the dug-out and we thanked our lucky starts that it was one of the many German shells that do not explode’.

This luck was soon to desert him.

On the 2nd October he wrote to his sister: ‘I am pleased to say I came out of the grand victory of ours once more without a scratch. I must say my nerves are a little shaken, but shall get over that and be ready for another smack…….My word Mill, if I do live to get back what a time we will have telling you all about it……..Please remember me to everyone. Take great care of dear old mother and father!”

He was killed just three days later, almost certainly before the letter had reached his beloved sister Mill.

The Stroud News reported ‘Bisley Soldier Killed. Death From Shrapnel Wounds’ and went on to explain how ‘Levvy was a general favourite of the village …….an enthusiastic member of Bisley Cricket Club …. Good with the bat and capital field”.

A memorial service was held in December, a muffled peel of bells rung for a ‘large and sympathetic congregation’. He is buried at the Choques Military Cemetery near Bethune.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private James Wilfred OLLERENSHAW (WR/24973)

28th (Res) Bn, Royal Fusiliers

Died 5th October 1915

Born in Chalford in the spring of 1895 the son of James and Elizabeth Ollerenshaw, who ran the Fleece Inn in Chalford Hill. A clever boy, he won a scholarship to Marling School (after finishing at Chalford Hill Council School), and proceeded to St Paul's teacher training college in Cheltenham. He enlisted in 1915 in the Public School Corps, which was attached to the Royal Fusiliers. "By his manly character he had endeared himself to all who knew him as a self-denying, genial young fellow...a true friend."

Fit and healthy, he was a keen footballer, playing for Chalford FC, along with rugby at Stroud Rugby Club and was in the 1st College XI. He was also a noted cricketer. Nonetheless, he fell ill and died of pneumonia on the 5th October 1915 whilst undergoing military training at Epsom with the Royal Engineers. 'Stroud News' of 15th October carries a long and detailed account of his funeral;

"In fact, rarely, if ever have [sic] such a demonstration of genuine sympathy and regret been witnessed in the parish, and the details of the ceremony will live long in the memory of Chalfordians, with whom the young soldier had spent the greater part of his life, and by whom he was greatly beloved."

The funeral cortege walked from the Fleece Inn to France Congregational Church, where the funeral service took place, and where Jim was buried. The pastor, Revd Gurd spoke fondly of the young man, lost when 'life seemed to be opening out and up to him, with a fine prospect of a useful, if not brilliant career...'

The list of floral tributes included wreaths from family, friends and the various societies and teams he belonged to, including his rugby club; ‘With the greatest of sympathy from the few remaining of the Stroud rugby football club, who represent his fellow players in the B.E. Force." His death came just a few months after that of his cousin Joseph (Killed in action in August 1915).

Because of the nature of his death he is included on the village war memorial, but is not listed among the casualties, nor among the Commonwealth War Graves.

As a postscript, in March 1920, the Stroud News reported the death of Elizabeth Ollerenshaw, James' mother, who worked in the Fleece Inn with her husband, aged 58:

"Many of our readers will remember the death of her son, Cadet James Ollerenshaw, familiarly known as 'Jimmy', which took place during the war under somewhat painful and distressing circumstances. The deceased, who was highly respected and esteemed by a wide circle of friends, leaves a husband and son and daughter to mourn her departure."

Not sure where picture comes from – probably Stroud News

Newspaper quotes on funeral from Cheltenham Chronicle

Final quote Stroud News

Private Frank Allen SHILHAM (16056) 10th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. Killed in Action 13th October 1915

(Incorrectly recorded on the Christchurch Memorial as F. SHILLAM )

Born in Chalford in the summer of 1895 to Harry and Martha Shilham, Frank worked as a turner engineer (lathe operator) at the ironworks. He joined the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1914.

The Battalion arrived in France in the August of 1915 in readiness for a major Franco-British assault in the Chamagne Artois region of northern France. He fought at the Battle of Loos as part of 1st Brigade, 1st Division on the 25th September. 459 men were lost in the first wave of the attack near Hullock. Fighting continued for a further three weeks with little military gain.

On the 13th October 1915 the 1st Division, led by 1st Brigade attacked enemy positions along 1400 yards of the Lens-La Basse road, between Loos and Hullock. Caught by ferocious enemy fire as they approached the enemy, only four passages through the berbed wire had been cleared and the Division suffered 1,200 casualties before the survivors withdrew. It was here that Frank was lost.

Initially reported as missing in action, a report in the Stroud News later confirmed his death. Erroneously referred to as ‘Fred’ it explained that Private Shilham “who had been reported missing for about two years and of whom the War Office now stated that he had been killed.”

He is also remembered at the Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix.

Private Harry TAYSUM (1985) Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (Gloucestershire Yeomanry) Died of Wounds 20th October 1915

Harry had grown up in Chalford Valley, in a house called the Retreat, which nestles into the hillside behind the village school and Sevillowes. Born in 1880, he was the fourth son of William Withers Taysum, the blacksmith, whose smithy stood next to the church, and his wife Harriet. In the 1901 census, he is recorded as living in the family home and working as a cabinet maker. In 1911, he married Ada Walker, a widow of 42, who already owned the tobacconist shop in Market Place, Tetbury. According to the 'Stroud News', they had a little daughter.

In 1911 he also enlisted with the Territorial Force (TF) service, signing on for 4 years and attending Annual Training Camps at Badminton Park (1912), Bulford (1913) and Patcham (May 1914). When the TF Yeomanry was embodied in August 1914 he volunteered for service overseas and went to Egypt in April 1915.

In August the Hussars were sent to support at Gallipoli, landing at Sulva Bay where they served as a dismounted unit, seeing action at W Hills just a few days later. They moved off in successive waves across the Salt Lake, later recalled by a sergeant; “You can’t hide a division of troops advancing in broad daylight and they gave us a terrific welcome …… shrapnel shells bursting over our heads”. Trooper Arthur Bull of the 1/1st Gloucester Hussars painted a vivid picture of the nightmare that befell them; “God it was slaughter. I was stretcher bearing and I was covered in other men’s blood”.

Despite the shelling their discipline held and half way across the order came to advance at the double; “Running with our pack was difficult ……shells and bullets still raining fast….a long belt of gorse and scrub caught alight and quickly spread. There was no help for it but to rush through and chance to luck”. It proved to be “An awful death trap….it claimed many victims, the poor devils simply dropped in dozens and were speedily burnt with the flames”.

The attack was later also described by a watching General Sir Ian Hamilton:

"The advance of these English Yeoman was a sight calculated to send a thrill of pride through anyone with a drop of English blood running through their veins...... there was nothing to conceal a mouse...... despite the critical events in other parts of the field I could hardly take my glasses from the Yeoman; they moved like men marching on parade. Here and there a shell would take a toll of a cluster; there they lay. There was no straggling; the others moved steadily on; not a man was there who hung back or hurried."

By September, there were so many sick and wounded that along with two other Yeomanry Units they were re-organised into one Regiment. Trench warfare continued at Green Hill and Chocolate Hill, before they were eventually evacuated to Mudros at the end of October. Only 81 ranks remained. Harry Taysum was injured during one of these continual skirmishes on the 12th October and despite treatment, died of his wounds on the 20th October 1915, aged 42.

Harriet Taysum, his mother, was devastated by his death. She died suddenly aged 71, of a heart attack, over the Christmas. The local paper expressed its sympathy for her widower and remaining sons ; "it will be remembered that another son was killed at the Dardanelles last October, and Mrs Taysum had never fully recovered from the bereavement she then sustained..." In its account of her funeral at Christ Church, the following week, it is once again observed how she had lost all interest in her usual activities after the death of her son. The Revd Addenbrooke wrote in the church magazine of his 'real regret and sense of loss' at her death, and praised her work for the church. He said that he did not think that she had missed a Requiem Eucharist since her son was killed at the Dardenelles.

Private Lionel Wellington FISHER (123) 1st Bn., Welsh Guards Killed in Action 22nd October 1915

Vermelles church 1915

Born in Bisley in 1895, the fourth son of Edward and Annie Fisher. The family lived in New Inn Yard, Bisley where Edward worked as a cowman on a farm. They later moved to Eastcombe and after leaving school Lionel worked in the stick mills.

He went to France very early in the war on the 20th Sep 1914 as Private 15772, 2 Bn Grenadier Guards. At some point afterwards he transferred Units and became Private 123 1 Bn Welsh Guards (this unit was raised in early 1915, hence his low Regimental number

On the 19th October Lionel’s Battalion was billeted at Vermelles for a period of rest, supposedly away from the front line. German artillery nevertheless found their range and shelled the area with armour-piercing shells over a period of some four days. It was here that Lionel died, hit by a shell and killed instantly. As was so often the case, his military Chaplain wrote a letter to his parents, stating; “ …..I am very sorry to have to tell you that your son was hit by a shell ……and was instantaneously killed. ……You will, I hope and trust, derive comfort from the fact that your dear boy was very much liked and respected by all who knew him; that he lost his life whilst doing his duty nobly and well …”.

He is buried in Vermelles British Cemetery.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Photograph – WW1 postcard

Corporal Thomas Weight GIBBINS (21156) 7th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. Died of Wounds 13th November 1915

(Not on Christchurch memorial, but recorded on Chalford School List of those who served)

Thomas was born in the summer of 1880, the son of Edwin Gibbins (farmer) and Emma. His birth was registered in the Stroud district. For several years as a young child he attended Chalford School, before moving with his family to Hardwicke. Following the death of his parents, Thomas assumed the role of family head and ran two further farms (Singleton and later Watercombe) with his older sisters. At the outbreak of the war he was farming at Birdlip House Farm in Brimpsfield, a batchelor.

In 1915 he enlisted into the 7th Battalion, Gloucester’s in Bristol, being promoted to Corporal soon after. The battalion landed at Anzac Cove as part of the Gallipoli Offensive in July 1915. The 7th were decimated during the attempted taking of Chunuk Bair hill in August. Survivors and the many casualties withdrew to Suvla Bay where they were held in reserve, still suffering fatalities from incoming Turkish Artillery fire. It was here that Thomas died of wounds received in action and was buried in the Hill 10 cemetery.

In February 1916 his will and probate left the sum of £5076 11s to his two spinster sisters Lizzie and Emma

Private Arthur David HOOK (7254) 7th Bn. Gloucsetershire Rgt. Killed in Action 30th December 1915

Born in Bisley in 1883 the eldest child of David (a mason’s labourer) and Jane, the family lived at Hampstead Buildings near the Police Station for many years. Arthur worked as a cab driver and groom at the Lypiatt Park Estate. In 1908 he married Edith, a local girl from the nearby village of Bussage and the young couple moved to Nash End where they soon became the parents of three children – Winifred, Dasy and William.

Enlisting in Stroud with the 7th, he served in Gallipoli as part of the 39th Brigade, 13th Division. During the fierce fighting at Sari Bair and later Chunuk Bair Arthur was twice injured. Along with the surviving members of the Regiment he was moved first to Sulva Bay in October for a week’s rest, before transferring back to the front at the Helles Bridgehead.

Behind the façade of a continuing offensive, final planning for a full scale evacuation from the peninsula was in an advanced stage. Captain John Gillam of the Army Service Corps wrote on the 30th December;

‘Today we hear the news secretly that we are evacuating Helles altogether ...... but this evacuation will be a very different matter (from the successful evacuation from Sulva Bay) with the Turks expecting us. An arduous night and we got to bed in the small hours of the morning. All day we had intervals of howitzers from Achi and Asian’s shells. Not much longer now, thank God’.

How tragic to reflect that on the very day that the Captain was writing of the planned withdrawal, Arthur was killed by some of the same incoming Turkish fire.

He is commemorated at the Helles memorial.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Roll of Honour 1916

Thomas William YOUNG 10th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 3rd January Montague DAVIS 9th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 13th January Lionel PHIPPS 8th (Service) Bn. Glos Rgt. 26th January Albert CLISSOLD 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 20th February Walter FERN 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 20th February

th th Walter Wynn NICHOLAS 1 7 Bn. Dk. Cornwall’s L. I. 29 March Thomas WHITE 11th Bn. Gloucestershire Rgt. 12th May Frank ARNOLD HMS Indefatigable 31st May

Harold EDDELS HMS Indefatigable 31st May

Frederick John NEWMAN HMS Defence 31st May David GARDINER 2nd Coy, Canadian MGC 3rd June Wallace PHIPPS 2nd/5th Bn., Glos. Rgt. 20th June Fred George SKERTON London (Scottish) Rgt. 1st July

Gerald Heber WEBSTER 8th Bn. Glos. Rgt. 3rd July

William H. DAVIS Machine Gun Corps 10TH July

Sidney HALE 8th Bn. Glos. Rgt. 23rd July Frederick STAFFORD 4th Bn. Aus. Inf. A.I.F. 25th July Otto DITZEN 23rd Bn. Royal Fusiliers 27th July Archibald F GARDINER 50th Bn. Aus. Inf. A.I.F. 16th August

William Francis STEVENS 10th Bn. Glos. Rgt. 19th August William MORSE 12th Coy, Royal Def. Corps 25th August

st th th Harry DOWDEN 2 1 /5 Bn. Glos. Rgt. 27 August William Gilbert BOUCHER* 17th Bn. Lancs. Fusiliers 30th August Valentine Sullock A TARDIF 15th Bn. London Rgt. 15thSeptember

James Elias CLARK 49th Bn. Alberta Rgt. C.I. 15thSeptember Gilbert Edmund FREEMAN 2nd Bn. Gren, Gds. 16th September Richard Heathcote BLACKABY 1st Buffs E. Kent Rgt. 18th September Eber West 6th Bn. South Wales Brd 17th October Alec Charles ANDREWS 8th Bn. Glos. Rgt. 25th October David Griffin 68th Battery. R.F.A. 25th October Ernest YOUNG 1st/4th Bn. Glos. Rgt. 5th November Richard MORGAN 12th Bn. East Yrk. Rgt. 13th November

th William RUDD** Royal Fusiliers 13 November Wilfred HARMAN Drake Bn. R.N. Div. 13th November John W WORKMAN 12th Bn. Glos. Rgt. 6th December Charles BLACKWELL 2nd Bn. Glos. Rgt. 7th December Percy T GARDINER 7th Bn. Glos Rgt. 16th December

*Does not appear on Christchurch Memorial, but he is buried at the Chalford Baptist Tabernacle graveyard

**Does not appear on Christchurch Memorial, but is on Bussage Plaque

1 – Incorrectly shown on memorial as NICHOLS

2 – Incorrectly shown on memorial as DOWDING

Private Thomas William YOUNG (12517) 10th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Killed in Action 3rd January 1916

Thomas was born in Eastcombe and baptised in the School Chapel in December 1888. The son of William (a victualler) and Ann. Following the death of William, Ann married Joseph Butt, a shoe and boot maker. Just ten years later Ann was again a widow, now living with Thomas in a three room cottage in the village, working as a char woman.

Thomas meanwhile trained as a carpenter and was apprenticed on the Lypiatt Park Estate. He took an active part in village life, singing in the church choir and with the local choral society as well as playing for the village cricket team and being a member of the Primrose League.

He enlisted at the outbreak of war (September 1914) into the 10th Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment, part of the 1st Division. The Division played a prominent part in the Battle of Loos in September 1915 and later at Lens-La Basse, suffering heavy casualties in both actions. Thomas however ‘passed successfully through all engagements without a scratch. He constantly wrote home to his widowed mother, maintaining a bright and cheerful spirit ………..and he concluded his letters with the injunction to "cheer up and keep smiling" '.

The first news regarding his death reached his mother in a letter from a fellow soldier, Pte A Davis, and was confirmed a few days later by chaplain, Revd Arthur Longdon. ‘your son was doing his duty as a true man when quite unexpectedly the end came. He was, I believe, standing on guard duty

when a stray bullet came over and hit him in the head. He could not have suffered, which is one comfort, and you will like to know that his comrades carried his body back to a quieter place, where we laid him reverently to rest’.

In the memorial service, held at St Augustine's, the preacher Mr Holley paid tribute to the young man, a regular communicant at the church (it was noted he had received communion on Christmas Day in the trenches), whom it was possible, he said, to sum up in two words - 'faithful' and 'beloved'. Sympathy was expressed to his mother and a Miss Punter - presumably his lady friend.

He now lies in Ninth Avenue Cemetery, Haines, in the Pas de Calais, one of over 40 Great War casualties there. Haines village remained in German hands until 1918.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Montague DAVIS (12817) 9th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Died 13th January 1916

Born in Bussage in 1893 the son of Eli and Priscilla, his father worked for Hook Builders of Brimscombe. Montague worked as a stonemason with Messrs, Gardner and Sons of King Street, Stroud and later with Bath Stone at Ryford, near Stonehouse. Monty was active in village life playing cricket and football for Bussage and was also a member of the local Reading Room. His home for many years was Hampton View in Bussage.

Enlisting into the 9th Battalion he travelled first to France in September 1915, before moving to Greece as part of the 78th Brigade, 26th Division in the November. The 9th arrived in Salonika on the 12th November as part of a large Franco-British force sent to assist the Serbs fight the pro-German Bulgarians. Despite discovering the Serbs had already been defeated, it was decided to keep the troops in the area.

Generally inactive, they were involved in the odd raid and skirmish and from the 1st to the 17th January worked on the construction of shelters and dug-outs in the ravine to the rear of their trenches. Whilst there was little actual fighting, the conditions were none the less trying, with disease and sickness taking a dreadful toll on the men. Monty succumbed here and was buried in Lembet Military cemetery.

News of his death reached his family and fiancée Gladys Young four days later. A memorial service was held soon after in Bussage church; ‘…seldom, if ever, has the church been so full’. Attended by family, friends, team mates and work colleagues, Monty’s prowess on the sports field was recalled with pride.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Lionel PHIPPS (15385)

8th (Service) Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Died of Wounds 26th January

Born in the winter of 1886 in Bisley parish, the son of Richard and Sarah. At 14 Lionel was employed as a cloth worker.

In 1906 he married Rosa Ellen Young. They had three children – Rosie (b. 1907), Ivy Gladys (b. 1910) and Thomas (b.1912). Now working as a labourer at a timber yard, the family home was in France Lynch.

He joined up in November 1914 and went to France with the Battalion on 18th July 1915, stationed at St. Omer as part of the 57th Brigade, 19th Division. There was not a great deal of actual fighting on the Western Front after October. It is likely that Lionel’s Battalion was engaged in building defences and improving the trenches, none the less dangerous work as despatches sent at the time note; ‘Throughout the period ….mining activity was constant on both sides …as well as almost continuous shelling of varying intensity… a practically permanent condition of warfare along the entire line’.

Lionel received a gunshot wound to the head (almost certainly a sniper round) in November. Passed down the casualty evacuation chain, he made it back to Britain, but died in Fort Pitt hospital, Rochester. His death certificate stated he died of a ‘compound fracture to the skull and had been wounded about 67 days’.

His body was returned to the family and buried at St. Mary Magdalene Churchyard, Rodborough.

The family returned his medals.

Private Albert CLISSOLD (20594)

1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment Killed in Action 20th February 1916

A native of Bussage, born 1892, he was the son of Robert (a farm worker) and Rosa. His parents later lived in Bisley. Albert worked as a gardener with Mr. J. Hind’s Nurseries in Brimscombe.

At the outbreak of the war, eager to join his brother (Pte. 8291 Gardiner Clissold) in the 1st Glocs, he volunteered for Kitchener’s Army but was rejected. (Gardiner was wounded in the leg in 1914 and also received five wounds to his chest, crawling 400 yards to safety. Gassed the following September, he was buried under a collapsing dug-out for 23 hours in 1916 and injured again shortly after this. Miraculously, he survived the war).

On reapplying the following May, Albert was accepted. After basic training, his request to serve alongside his brother was granted and he was posted to ‘B’ Company on the Western Front at the end of October.

On Christmas Day, the brothers had had tea together. Soon after Albert took part in a bombing attack on Harrison’s Crater. The War Diary notes; ‘….instead of being carried out quietly, it was made into a shouting charge and we suffered casualties – 2 killed, 12 wounded and 5 missing’. The mission was still noted a success. Albert was never seen alive again. Reported first as missing, his parents were notified of his death two months later.

Coincidentally, Gardiner was at the time home on leave. A Stroud News article ‘A Bisley Hero’s Death’ detailed that another brother, M Clissold of Bussage, had been called up when the exemption

of married men was rescinded. A fourth brother had been rejected. A memorial service was held at Bisley Parish Church on 14th May. Albert Clissold is one of the two A Clissold’s on our memorial. He is remembered at Arras memorial and also on the Bisley and Christchurch war memorials.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Walter FERN (156) 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment Killed in Action 20th February 1916

Omitted from SDGW, the CWGC records;

‘This casualty has recently been accepted for commemoration by the Commission’

The Stroud District book lists him as:

‘Fern, W., 1st Glocs. Regt. Killed in action’. (No date is given).

Born on the 15th April 1884 and baptised in Oakridge in June of the same year, the eldest of seven children of Frederick King (a plasterer) and Sarah Anne, of Water Lane.

Walter worked as a plasterer & labourer and married Francis circa 1904, the family also living in Water Lane with their three children.

He travelled with the 1st Gloucester’s to France in November 1914. Following a raid on Harrison’s Crater (near Loos) he was posted as ‘missing’, one of five soldiers unaccounted for.

After the Armistice, at the time of his name being added to the Oakridge war memorial, there was still no official confirmation of his death from the War Office. Even though there may still have been an element of doubt with regards his fate for his family, there was in truth really never any hope of him returning.

He is remembered at the Arras Memorial, added to addenda panels rather than the main memorial, (added to a memorial after it had been completed), and also Oakridge and Christchurch.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

2nd Lt. Walter Wynne NICHOLAS 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry Killed in Action 29th March 1916 (Incorrectly shown as NICHOLS on Christchurch Memorial)

Walter Wynne Nicholas was born on 25 September 1895 in Headington, Oxford, the son of the Rev Tom Ferdinand Nicholas (a Church of England minister) and his wife Lily Verena Nicholas. He attended Dover College in Kent, a private boarding school between 1910 and 1914, where he was a Prefect, played for the College 1st XV at rugby and was a Lance Corporal in the OTC.

He was commissioned into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a temporary Second Lieutenant and went to France with the Regiment in July 1915.

In 1916 his Division was in the Ypres salient, but did not take part in any particular offensive actions until the attack on Mount Sorrel in June 1916. His battalion was later moved to Ypres canal bank where they provided working parties on the 29th. The work proved dangerous, with troops working under constant enemy bombardment and sniper fire. It appears that it was here that Walter Nicholas was killed, his military record stating that he was ‘killed by shell fire on the hand’.

He is buried at Bard Cottage Cemetery in Belgium.

There appears to be no obvious connection between Walter and Chalford. His parents certainly moved about a great deal during his childhood, hence Walter boarding in Kent. His father died in 1914 in The Gambia, after which his mother returned the USA (her country of birth). It is possible therefore that he stayed in the area with family or friends. Certainly a wealthy relative ensured his name was added to the memorial after a generous anonymous donation (£5 – a large sum comparatively) in his memory. He is also remembered at Hunts Cross, Liverpool which is where his father's mother was living in 1901.

Private Thomas WHITE (017678) 11th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment Died 12th May 1916

Born in Stroud in 1885 the son of Thomas, a malster (sic). He married Alice from Oakridge in 1908 and they had two daughters, Alice and Daisy. He worked first as a moulder, and later and engine fitter.

He enlisted at Stow on the Wold into the 11th, a Reserve Battalion. In September they were sent to Seaford for extensive training in preparation for action at the Somme. Thomas was soon after hospitalised and died at the Military Hospital in East Blatchington, Seaford from cystitis and uraemia.

As a serving soldier he was afforded a military funeral, buried at the nearby town cemetery. He was 31.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Leading Stoker Frank ARNOLD (K/12853)

HMS Indefatigable

Killed 31st May 1916

Born in July 1889 in Frampton Mansell one of eight children of George (a Railway Labourer) and Mary Ann Parsloe.

He enlisted into the Royal Navy in 1908 aged 19 as Stoker 107705 F Arnold on a short service engagement (5 years full time and 7 years reserve service) and volunteered to extend this to a full time 12 year engagement in October 1911, as K/12853 Stoker 1st Class. He was sent to Devonport for 7 months training before being posted to HMS Indefatigable in May 1912. Initially serving in Home waters, he had a period in the Mediterranean before returning to serve as a patrol ship in the North Sea in early 1915.

Able Seaman Harold EDDLES/EDDELS (219496)

HMS Indefatigable

Killed 31st May 1916

Born on 15 October 1886 to Frederick Eddels, a carpenter and Sarah Ann Beakhurst, the family lived at Upper Bourne. From the age of 14 Harold worked at the local mill.

He enlisted into the Royal Navy in February 1902 aged 15 as a Boy. Height 5 feet 4 ½, hair and eyes brown, he underwent training at various Naval establishments, before being promoted to Ordinary Seaman in 1904. In Oct 1908 he was posted to the newly re-fitted battleship HMS Hannibal and served on her for 2 years. He was promoted to Able Seaman in April 1907 and spent the next two years on board HMS Ocean, a battleship in the Mediterranean Fleet. After this he served on the battleship HMS Vanguard, which took part in the Coronation Review in 1910, and then HMS Leviathan an armoured cruiser.

His pre-war career seems to have been chequered. He twice served short periods in the cells and was twice deprived of his first good conduct badge, once in 1908 (re-instated in April 1909) and then again in November 1909 (re-instated in 1911). He nonetheless managed to get his second good

conduct badge in 1913 (GC badges carried extra pay so being deprived of them was no small matter).

In 1913 he was posted to the battleship HMS Indefatigable, then serving in the Mediterranean.

HMS Indefatigable

Both of our men were serving on the ship when she took part in the bombardment of Ottoman fortifications in the Dardanelles in late 1914. After a refit at Malta she returned to home waters and became part of the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron.

HMS Indefatigable was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland by the German battlecruiser Von der Tonn. Shells from Von der Tonn ripped a hole in the hull and then the magazines exploded, hurling pieces of the ship 200 feet into the air. Only 2 of the crew of 1019 survived.

‘At 1602 or 1603 the Von der Tann hit the Indefatigable with two shells each out of two salvoes, a small explosion occurred aft and she swung out of line sinking by the stern, almost at the same time she was hit again near A turret she then listed over rapidly to port and commenced a massive explosion beginning forwards and moving aft sinking her in less than 4 minutes under a huge cloud of black smoke, just two survivors from her crew of 1,017 were rescue by the destroyer S16 at 1950, these were Able Seaman Elliot and Leading Signalman Falmer’.

Stoker 1st Class Frederick John NEWMAN (ss/113870) HMS Defence Killed 31st May 1916

HMS Defence

Born in Cirencester on 25th March 1894, one of eight children to John Richard Newman (a shoeing smith) and Emily Jane Miles. The family moved first to Aldsworth and then to Avening, Tetbury where he worked first as a Draper’s Porter and later as a labourer in a cloth mill.

He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 19 in April 1913 on a short service engagement (5 years regular service and 7 years in the reserve) as a stoker, 2nd Class. His height was recorded as 5 feet 6 inches and he was described as having light brown hair and blue eyes. He spent 5 months training in Devonport and was then posted to HMS Defence. Frederick spent 5 days in the cells in September 1913, but was still promoted to Stoker 1st Class in March 1914 and received his first Good Conduct badge in April 1916.

On the 31st May 1916, the Defence was at Jutland, escorting the main body of the Grand Fleet. She was fired upon by one German battle cruiser and four dreadnoughts as she attempted to engage a disabled German light cruiser. Struck by two salvoes from the German ships that that caused the aft 9.2-inch magazine to explode, the resulting fire spread via the ammunition passages to the adjacent 7.5-inch magazines which detonated in turn. The ship exploded at 6:20 with the loss of all men on board (between 893 and 903).

A local report of his death noted; ‘One of four sons, of whom the youngest has died under painful circumstances in January, another is medically unfit and the other….is under orders to go to France this week’. It notes Frederick as being ‘well-built and popular’ and that he’d only recently been home on three weeks leave and become ‘engaged to Miss Lily Bishop, Marle Hill, the wedding had been planned for his next leave’. Private David GARDINER (438935) 2nd Coy, Canadian Machine Gun Corps Killed in Action 3rd June 1916

David Gardiner was born on the 7th March 1881 in France Lynch, the son of George (a general labourer) and Thirza Gardiner. The family lived in France Lynch, with David the youngest of 7 children. After Thirza’s death George lived as a widower with his three youngest children, including David, with him.

In 1898 17 year old sailed on board the SS Parisian for a new life in Quebec, Canada, where he worked initially as a labourer and later a postman.

Following the outbreak of the War in Europe, aged 33 he enlisted into the Canadian Expeditionary Forces on the 28th December 1914 at Dryden, Ontario. He detailed his brother, another émigré of Eagle River, Ontario as his next of kin. He measured 5 feet 6 inches tall and was described as having fair hair and blue eyes.

In June 1916 the 2nd Canadian Machine Gun Company, in which he was serving, took part in the Battle of Mount Sorrel, East of Ypres. On the 2nd June a ‘tornado of shell fire’ had broken the allied line, the first wave of the German attack meeting little opposition. However, they failed to press this advantage and the arrival of fresh reserves enabled the Canadians to hold their line.

The following morning, an allied counter attack failed to capture the Mt Sorrel hill overlooking Zillebeke near Ypres, the attacking troops of the Canadian Corps forced back to their original trenches where they consolidated for another attempt. The war diary for 4th June records that "4 Guns of C Section relieved D Section during the day. ... An intense (German) bombardment commenced about 7.15 pm and lasted until about 8 pm”.

Among the casualties (3 dead and one wounded) is listed 438935 Pte Gardiner. Whilst listed on the CWGC as being killed on the 3rd June, the War Diary suggest it was probably a day later. He was aged 35 and is remembered also on the Menin Gate.

Private Wallace PHIPPS (004688)

2nd/5th Bn., Gloucestershire Regiment

Died 20th June 1916

Born in 1895 in France Lynch, the son of Richard and Sarah of Smart’s farm. Both parents’ died whilst Wallace was still a young child and he and his siblings were cared for by their grandparents, also Richard and Sarah. They were the parents of Lionel Phipps (Died January 1916). The two boys, whilst actually uncle and nephew, were only nine years apart and had in truth been more like brothers.

At the age of 16 Wallace worked as a labourer at the Bliss Mills stick factory, before enlisting in late 1915. He went with the 2nd/5th Bn., Gloucestershire Regiment to France in May 1916. Ordered to the village of Laventie, a short march from the Front Line, during their first month there they took part in no less than eight raids on the enemy trenches, suffering numerous casualties.

Laventie was also in the range of the German artillery and it appears that Wallace was killed by a shell. According to contemporary newspaper reports, he was seen to fall by a fellow soldier from Chalford, Pte William Baugh. Two other Chalfordians, Privates Walham Griffin and Frank Phelps helped to bury their chum.

Shortly before he left for France, Wallace had been home on leave, visiting some of his old colleagues at Bliss Mills. It was noted he had been of ‘excellent disposition and very popular’, his death coming as a great shock to his many friends.

He was buried at the Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard, Laventie.five months after his uncle Lionel

Private Fred George SKERTON (6557)

London (Scottish) Rgt.

Killed in Action 1st July 1916

Fred was born in Eastcombe in 1892, one of six sons of Walter (a carpenter) and Kate, both local to the area. He trained as a carpenter and was also an active member of the Eastcombe Baptist Men’s Bible Class. He later left the village and went to live in south east London.

He enlisted on the 10th December 1915 into the 3/14th Battalion of the London Regiment (a Territorial Force Regiment) as Private 6557 (later renumbered as 512675). His attestation papers show he was living at 77 Battle Road, Belvedere and gave his trade as "Tapping". Initially put into the Army Reserve, he was a few weeks later mobilised and posted on 27th January 1916. After training he was transferred to the 1st Battalion (London Scottish) and embarked from Southampton on 12th June 1916, joining his new battalion eleven days later.

The 1st July marked the start of the main attack on the Somme. The Regiment were involved in a diversionary attack on the German line at Gommecourt, North of the main thrust. Much pioneering work had been done behind the British lines to assist the attack, including the building of new roads, railways and pipe lines along with a new front line trench. Unfortunately these very preparations had alerted the Germans, so that on the 1st July some three Divisions worth of artillery and hammered the British attack.

Losses along the Front were horrendous, with 20,000 men killed and another 40,000 wounded. Out of 871 men, the London Scottish suffered 616 casualties. Amongst this confusion, Fred was initially reported as missing, before being officially recorded as Killed in Action on July 4th. His name is on the Thiepval Memorial.

In April 1917 his father Walter received the pay owing to Fred of £2 9s 6d plus £3 war gratuity. On 1st June 1917 Walter received his son’s only effects, his razor and a badge. There is a letter in his file from his mother wondering if these were the only possessions, as he had a wrist watch too. We must assume he was wearing the watch during the attack and it, like Fred, now lies somewhere at the site of the Somme battlefield. Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Gerald Heber WEBSTER (013065) 8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment Killed in Action 3rd July 1916

Born in August 1895 at Chalford, the youngest of five children for Frank Applin Webster (a certified teacher and later Headmaster of the council school) and Mary (nee Williams, born Llangollen). The family lived in Chalford Hill at Tirionfa – named after the house of Mary’s parents just outside Llangollen.

At 15 Heber, as he preferred to be known, was still at home working as a junior clerk to a local builder, having attended Marling School for a few months in 1910. He then started an apprenticeship with Messrs Lewis D. Davies and Son of Abbey Road, Llangollen, which he finished in August 1914.

Heber enlisted the following month with the 8th Bn., Gloucestershire Regiment. In October 1915 there is reference to him having been ‘wounded now recovered and back with the 8th Glosters’. His three older brothers all served with the Canadian Forces.

He was killed on the 3rd July 1916 at La Boiselle by a sniper’s bullet at the start of the attack. Locally it was reported; “Killed in the great advance just about his 21st birthday. He served his apprenticeship in the building trade in Wales and was a very popular young fellow. He was a member of the Tabernacle Sunday School”.

The school register noted on the 14th July; ‘The school was closed today on account of the news being received that one of the sons of the headmaster of the Mixed Department had been killed in France.’

Two weeks later, the Llangollen Advertiser noted; “He was killed in the action of the 3rd inst., being one of the foremost over the parapet in the fateful charge”.

He has no known grave but his name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France as well as the Llangollen War Memorial.

Frank Webster, the Head Teacher was to meet further family tragedy. Less than five months from Heber’s death, the school register notes; ‘Owing to the sudden death of Mrs Webster on Saturday evening, Mr Webster is absent’. The school was closed all day on December 7th for the funeral of Mrs Webster, who had been on the school staff prior to her marriage.

Sadly, following the war, the Websters’ oldest son, Frank, who had served as a Staff Sargent in the Canadian infantry also died and was buried in the graveyard of Chalford Tabernacle.

Private William Henry DAVIS (18008) Machine Gun Corps Died of Wounds 10th July 1916

Born in Eastcombe in 1886, the eldest son of Robert (a stick worker) and Annie. They lived in Chalford nearby the Red Lion for some time.

William served with the Rifle Brigade in India for eight years, having enlisted in 1906 (Private 1584). At the outbreak of war, the Brigade was brought home in readiness for action in France. William was able to take a short period of leave at home before travelling to France in November 1914.

At some point after this he transferred to the M.G.C (Infantry), attached to 2nd Battalion, Kings Royal Rifles. He picked up an arm wound soon after, from which he made a full recovery

On the first day of the Somme there were a huge number of casualties and it appears that William was ‘struck by shrapnel whilst working a machine gun’. Evacuated home, his injuries resulted in the amputation of his leg above the knee. His parents were notified by telegram and urged to come at haste to his bedside in Portsmouth. Catching the early train, they still arrived just after his death.

The local newspaper notes he was ‘one of four soldier sons’, all of whom had seen active service. His funeral and burial at St Michael’s, Bussage was extensively covered. With most fallen servicemen buried far from home, a local burial was all the more dramatic. The village was ‘thronged with sympathisers.’ There wasn’t enough room in the church for all the mourners, which included boy scouts from Bussage, Bisley, Chalford Hill, Eastcombe, France Lynch, Oakridge and Wycliffe College, as well as ‘twelve wounded warriors’ from the Stroud hospital who came ‘to pay a last tribute of respect to one who had so bravely given his life for his country’. The ‘Dead March’ from Saul was played, and the ‘Last Post’ sounded over his grave.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Sidney HALE (13001)

8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Killed in Action 23rd July 1916

Born in Bisley, he was baptised in the Parish Church in October 1914. The son of George (a mill worker) and Mary Ann, they lived for many years in Wells Road. On leaving school, Sidney worked as a gardener for Mr Miers of Jayne Court, Bisley.

Soon after the declaration of war, Sidney enlisted into the 8th Battalion, part of 57 Brigade. From the 20th to the 25th July they were involved in the attack on High Wood and it is here that Sidney was likely killed.

In August 1916 the Stroud News reported; ‘Bisley Soldier Missing’ and reported directly from a letter sent to his parents by Lt. E B Walters;

I regret to say that after the attack ….. your son was found to be missing and I fear that the worst has happened. I am very sorry to lose him as he was a keen and efficient soldier, and always cheerfully and conscientiously did his duty. He really was a very nice fellow and liked by all his comrades’.

It added ‘….all in the village are anxiously waiting for news which will allay their fears’. Such news unfortunately never arrived. High Wood was never thoroughly cleared and today holds the remains of some 8,000 German and British soldiers, killed during the offensive.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Frederick William STAFFORD (2031) 4th Battalion, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. Killed in Action 25th July 1916

Born on the 24th February 1892 in Bussage, the second son of George Henry (a flock mill worker) and Charlotte Elizabeth Gardiner (a pin mill worker).

As a young man Fred lived in Port Talbot working as a railway plate layer. On the 9th May 1913 he sailed on the steamship Otranto bound for a new life in Australia, where he worked as a labourer. He enlisted on 25th January 1915. Almost 23, he was described as 5 ft. 5 in. tall and weighed 9 st. 10 lbs, with brown eyes, a dark complexion and dark grey hair.

Appointed to the 4th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) he embarked from Sydney with the 5th draft of re-enforcements on 13th April 1915, joining the battalion at Gallipoli on 7th June 1915. It was later reported by a friend that; ‘this man was at Gallipoli and came out … without a scratch’. He left with the A.I.F. on cessation of hostilities in Gallipoli and travelled to Pozieres on the Somme.

His death here on the 25th July was witnessed by Corporal Ribeiro; "… at the end of July we took about 800 yds. of trenches and the orders were to hang on to the line we took at all costs. Then the German bombardment began and about 20 of our Company only got back to the supports, for it was impossible to hold on any longer, and when we got back to the supports the Germans bombarded us there just as severely and then it was that Stafford got buried alive. It was on the Tuesday that we got back to the supports which were only 100 yds. behind the firing line. This was at Pozieres. His body was never got out I am sure. I was with him when it happened and only about a dozen of us got out alive. The orders were to hold on at all costs and this was the result"

A Private Selby later wrote; "It seems….. that you have been informed that I saw a shell burst over the trench that Privates McLean, Gallegos and Stafford was in, but such is not the case. I was with the three of them right up to dinner time on the 25th and left them just afterwards as the shells were coming over pretty thick at the time. As they were all pals of mine I went back afterwards which was pretty late in the afternoon and found that the trench was all blown in. It was quite possible for them to have been taken away wounded, as I thought at the time, but such does not seem to be the case as they are all reported missing yet. The only conclusion I can come to is that they have either been buried with a shell or killed.

On May 24th 1917, almost a year after his death, Frederick’s family finally got official notification. He was regarded as having been killed in action on 25th July 1916, and "buried in the vicinity of Pozieres’.

Company Sergeant Major Otto Stuart DITZEN (PS/266) 23rd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers Killed in Action 27th July 1916

Born in West Kensington and baptised there on the 6th April 1884, his parents were Otto Ditzen (born in Germany in 1855 and a salesman to a piano maker) and Helen Chitty Jameson (born in India in 1860). Otto was a pupil at Eastbourne College where he was a keen sportsman, gaining colours for swimming, running and shooting as well as playing for the 1st XV at rugby and being a House Prefect.

Entries from the London Gazette and Hart's Army list show that Otto Stuart Ditzen served in the Clare Artillery, which was an Irish Militia Unit, from 1903 until 1909 when he was transferred as a Lt. to the Royal Field Artillery Special Reserve, which he left in 1911. He soon after travelled to New York where he lived for several years. In September 1914 he returned home to enlist.

He joined the 19th Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers known as the "Public School" battalion, and given the regimental number PS/266. By November 1915 when he went to France he was already a Sergeant - probably on the strength of his former service. The 19th Battalion was disbanded in April 1916 and it is likely he transferred to the 23rd Battalion at this point. He was mentioned in Despatches in 1916 as a Sergeant, with the entry being published in the London Gazette, soon after promoted to Company Sergeant Major.

The Battalion fought on the Somme at the Battle of Delville Wood. A surviving soldier noted afterwards;

‘Every semblance of a trench seemed full of dead – sodden, squelchy swollen bodies – not a tree stood in the whole wood…….We stood and lay on putrefying bodies and the wonder id disease did not finish off what the shells of the enemy had started. There was hand to hand fighting with knives, bombs and bayonets, cursing and brutality on both sides, such as men can be responsible for when it is a question of ‘your life or mine’; mud and filthy stench; dysentery and unattended wounds; shortage of food and water and ammunition’.

For those who fought there, the wood became known as Devil’s Wood.

Otto was killed here, his body never found. He was 32 and is remembered Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colincamps.

Even though Otto never actually lived in the Chalford parish, his maternal grandfather Charles Jameson (a Colonel in the Army) had retired and lived in Brownshill, with his youngest daughter (Otto’s aunt) for many years. Otto would certainly have visited the area on many occasions and with no ‘home town’ of his own, (having returned from America and straight away enlisted) it is likely that his aunt funded the inscription, so that he too would not be forgotten.

Private Archibald Frederick GARDINER (3821)

50th Battalion, Australian Infantry, A.I.F.

Killed in Action 16th August 1916

Born in Chalford in 1890 the first of 9 children for John Gardiner (a mill hand in a stick mill) and Kate, of Upland, Chalford Hill. Archibald first worked as a footman locally, before emigrating to Adelaide, Australia in 1912. Here he worked for the Irrigation Department in Berri, a small town some 150 miles NE of Adelaide (irrigation in the area had been established in 1910 and Berri declared a town in 1911). He later settled in nearby Cobdogla, a township on the Murray River and in September 1914 was granted a licence to run a Billiard Saloon there. He sold his business a year later, in order to enlist in October 1915.

Volunteering for overseas service, on completion of his training in February 1916 he embarked for France as part of a draft of reinforcements and joined the 50th Bn, AIF at Heliopolis. From here he travelled to Alexandria and then on to Marseilles, arriving in France on 12th June 1916.

It is most likely that Archibald was killed during the Battle of Moquet Farm, near Pozieres, which lasted from 5th August to the 26th September (part of the Somme Offensive). They first entered battle on the 6th August; ‘On the night of August 10th Australian patrols pushed out and established posts in the valley south of Mouquet Farm’. Unable to capture it; ‘After fierce fighting with little gain, on August 21st the Australian 4th Division was replaced after sustaining 4,649 casualties. The three Australian Divisions had been ‘used by their commanders as a battering ram and lost nearly 23,000 officers and men in a mere six weeks on a front that extended little more than a mile’.

He was buried at Moquet Farm, but his body was not recovered after the war. In Cobdogla the local newspaper remembered him as being ‘very popular and highly esteemed……the fourth of those (from the town) who enlisted to give his life for his country’.

His parent received news of his death on the 8th September after a comrade had intercepted a postcard intended for Fred and used the address on it to write to them.

Private William Francis STEVENS (17422) 10th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment Killed in Action 19th August 1916

Born in about 1896 in Syde near Cirencester, the son of Francis G Stevens and Clara Stevens. His father was a farm worker and the family moved several times while William was growing up, first to Arlington near Bibury and then to Frampton Mansell. His mother died in 1907 and by 1908 his father had remarried. ‘Willie’ worked as an agricultural labourer from the age of 15, living with his father and step-mother in Frampton Mansell.

Enlisting at the outbreak of war he went with the Gloucester’s to France in August 1915 as part of 1st Brigade, 1st Division. In July 1916 the 10th, along with eleven other Gloucestershire Battalions was on the Western Front. They took part in the attack on Pozieres, eventually capturing and holding the village. They continued to fight northwards along the Pozieres Ridge and attacked again at Moquet Farm (known as Mucky Farm by the British troops). Here they came under a sustained German artillery bombardment from three sides.

It was during this action that Willie was killed. A letter written by a comrade Terrence Dean to his brother in Hyde Hill explained more;

“The Germans have shelled us blind and we lost some men, and you will perhaps be surprised to hear that poor Bill Stevens was one that got killed. He was killed by a piece of shell hitting him in the head…”

He is remembered also on the Thiepval Memorial, France, Frampton Mansell and the Baptist Tabernacle.

Lance Corporal William MORSE (6487) 12th Protection Coy, Royal Defence Corps Died 25th August 1916

Born in Horsley, he enlisted in 1885 as Private 1097 in the 1st Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment and served for 7 years, before being discharged to the Reserve at the end of his service. In 1897 he chose to re-engage on the reserve for a further 4 years and was thus recalled to war service in 1900 with the 2nd Battalion for the Boer War, where he served for 8 months

On his return to Britain he lived at Hyde Farm in Chalford with his wife Mary and their 9 children, working as a shepherd. When war broke out it seems that he still wanted to do his bit and in March 1915 he was found fit for service in the Territorial Force (TF) as a local guard and appointed to the 3rd Rail Company of the National Reserve, 5th Gloucester Regiment as Private 3964. The National Reserve was formed into Protection Companies, which were attached to existing TF battalions, for the guarding of railways and other vulnerable points in Britain and it seems likely that this was one of them. Protection Companies were later re-designated as Supernumerary Companies and his record shows he was transferred to one of the Gloucestershire Supernumerary Companies. Eventually the Supernumerary Companies were formed into the Royal Defence Force (RDC) and William was transferred to the 12th Protection Company of the RDC and given a new number. There is some confusion on his record as to what number he had but it is likely to have been 6487. A contemporary newspaper report written after his death says he was stationed at Little Somerford and Winterbourne Down.

In 1916 he was found to be no longer physically fit for war service due to chronic nephritis and heart disease, which caused him to be 100% incapacitated and he was discharged from the Army on 21st August 1916. Awarded a small pension for his service he unfortunately did not live to receive it. He died 4 days later, buried in Chalford. The local paper has an extensive write-up of his funeral which took place at Christ Church and was well attended by a large congregation, including wounded soldiers. Last Post was sounded at the graveside.

In May 1917 there were further accounts in the Stroud News concerning his son Bert, serving with the Royal Fusiliers. He was ‘wounded in the head on Good Friday, at Vimy Ridge. Unconscious for three days, he was now in hospital in Exeter, having had a piece of bone removed. He hopes to be able to avenge the smack he has received at no distant date’. The article also refers to two brothers: Driver Tim Morse, Royal Field Artillery, and William, engaged on munition work in London.

In October a further story talks of “A wonderful example of the triumph of modern surgery” – the soldier son of Mrs Morse, of Chalford Valley, home on sick leave – “terribly injured in the head with shrapnel whilst serving in France. He managed to lower his head, from which blood flowed freely, and a large piece of shrapnel dropped away. This Morse pluckily secured and kept as a souvenir. He received the best of attention, and his head bears traces of the excellent scientific treatment to which he was subjected.” On the 26th it was reported that he was back in London ‘for further examination’.

Private Harry DOWDEN (Incorrectly shown as DOWDING on Christchurch Memorial) 1st/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Killed in Action 27th August 1916

We know very little of Harry Dowden’s early life. He was born in 1900 and whilst details are scarce, it is likely that it was at the Stroud Union Workhouse, suggesting either parents unknown, or he had been orphaned at an early age.

He was raised by Wanferd Tuck and his wife Rossetta in Bisley. The couple had no children of their own, but within the household were two further boarders and a niece. On leaving school Harry worked for JH Smart, a coal merchant in Stroud.

He enlisted when soon after he reached 16, joining the 1st/5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. In July 1916, his battalion was part of 144th Brigade, 48th division, which along with eleven other Gloucestershire Battalions were fighting at the Somme. Along with many other local boys, Harry lost his life here following the assault on Mouquet Farm.

Whilst escorting a German prisoner along a communication trench he was killed, the day after his 17th birthday. A well-attended memorial service was held for him at France Congregational Church.

Private William Gilbert Boucher (14283) 17th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers Died of Wounds 30th August 1916 (William is not commemorated on the Christchurch Memorial, but is buried locally at the Chalford Baptist Tabernacle graveyard)

Born in 1893 in Chalford of parents Charles (a platelayer with the Midland Railway) and Ann Maria BOUCHER. Life was very difficult for the family. In July 1901 Charles was recorded as being deep in debt, half of which he said was incurred whilst he lived in Chalford, where he found it hard to get work and had to pay for the funerals for several of his children. Two years later Ann Maria summoned Charles for ‘persistent cruelty’, although the case was dismissed. When they finally separated, Charles was summoned several times for not paying maintenance arrears, but chose instead a month’s hard labour. Ann Maria moved to live with her sister in Gloucester, taking her four youngest children with her.

William worked as a baker before enlisting into the 17th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. Later part of the 104th Brigade, 35th Division they went to France in readiness for the Battle of the Somme. On the 24th June he was wounded, possibly during preparation work which involved wire cutting, tunnelling and mine placement in readiness for the British assault.

Evacuated along the casualty clearing line, he was eventually taken to the Hospital of the Deaconess in Edinburgh. His wound was described generally as a ‘Gunshot wound of skull’, with further detail listing just how seriously he was wounded; ‘1 month 5 days, Cerebral Abscess, 15 days hemiplegia (paralysis of one side of the body caused by brain injury) 3 days, Coma 2 days. No qualified Medical Attendant".

His sister Daisy was with him when he died on the 30th August, aged 23.

The Stroud News reported; ‘His body was taken to Birmingham and from thence by car to Chalford. Pte A King (killed 6th September 1918) was among the bearers… Amid very many signs of respect and sympathy the mortal remains of Pte William Boucher, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, were interred in the burial ground of Chalford Tabernacle on Monday, the Rev DJH Carter officiating…Chief mourners were his mother, and relatives from Birmingham, Gloucester and Brimscombe. His sisters Daisy and Mary worked in Messrs Hawkins, Cheapside, Stroud… several of the inscriptions [on the wreaths] bore testimony to the deceased’s patriotism and showed that he was loved by all his family and friends’.

Lance Corporal Valentine Sullock Aveline TARDIF (2604)

15th Bn, London Rgt. (Civil Service Rifles)

Killed in Action 15th September 1916

Soldiers of the 1/15th Battalion

Born in Lambeth in 1897 his father was Ernest Mellish Tardif, (a civil servant from Guernsey) and Frances Aveline. Frances and her sister Rebbeca were both born in Chalford to George and Adelaide Aveline.

Valentine enlisted into the 1/15th Bn., London Regiment (known as the Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles because it was initially made up of civil servants) in September 1914 and went to France in March 1915 as a Private. He was later promoted to Lance Corporal. The Battalion fought as part of 140th Brigade, 2nd London Division.

The 15th September 1916 was notable as the day that tanks were used in battle for the first time; ‘Still very new and liable to break down, only 32 tanks assembled near Trones Wood …. For dispersal along the Front, and the following morning …. 18 took part in the battle…Their effect was sensational. The Germans on seeing the monsters, were stunned and then terrified…’

Valentine’s Battalion were ordered to attack the same morning, with an artillery barrage and two tanks in support. The Unit History records; ‘Meanwhile the tanks had not shown up – though one of them later on, after nearly smashing up Battalion HQ, got stuck in a communication trench … the other eventually got into action somewhere in front …and then caught fire’.

Even without the tanks or artillery support, the Battalion pressed on towards their objective – High Wood;

‘Battalion took part in HIGH WOOD in general attack by IV Army. ... ZERO 5.50 a.m. 'A' Company on right immediately successful and pushed through to Support line. 'B', 'C' and 'D' Companies were cut up by Machine Gun fire & were unsuccessful’.

The diary records 14 officers and 250 other ranks killed, wounded or missing that day. 150 men of the Battalion eventually reached their objective. It is here that Valentine was killed, aged 19.

Photograph from Flicker

Private Elias James CLARK (432723) 49th Battalion (Alberta Regiment)

Canadian Infantry Killed in Action 15th September 1916

Born in Bisley on the 31st of December 1895, he was baptised at the Parish Church in April of the following year. His parents were Thomas Walter Clark and Mary Jane. At the time of his birth, his father was a ‘painter’, but later trade directories for the village list him as a ‘shop-keeper’. The family home was in Wells Road.

He later emigrated to Canada, where he worked as a clerk. He signed his attestation papers for the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on the 12th of January 1915, at Edmonton, Alberta. Preferring now to be called James, he stood just over 5ft 6ins, had blue eyes, fair hair and was declared fit for active service, despite ‘slight physical development’.

The 49th landed at Boulogne, France in October 1915, where Private Clark was attached to C Company. His will at this time noted; ‘In the event of my death I give the whole of my property and effects to Beatrice Mary Cox, Wells Road, Bisley’. (Beatrice was his sister, who later lived in Cheltenham). His father Thomas had died In December.

Arriving on The Somme in August 1916, the Canadian Corps provided the British High Command with fresh troops with which to launch another offensive against the German trenches - the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Beginning on the 15th September, the attack featured two new military innovations. The first was the creeping barrage, whereby artillery laid down a line of bombardment of fire, which crept forward at intervals allowing the ‘shielded’ infantry to follow behind. The second was the tank. These innovations proved they could be useful, aiding the seizing of territory, prisoners and equipment on a large scale - Flers fell into Allied hands by mid-day.

Later that evening the Alberta Regiment was sent forward to secure a chalk pit, close to Mouquet Farm, west of Thiepval. It was here that Elias Clark was killed. According to the CWGC it was on the 15th September, his service record states the 15th /16th September, the Cheltenham Chronicle & Gloucester Echo that Private Clark had been ‘killed by a shell on or about the 12th September’. His body, along with thousands of other British and Empire soldiers was never found. He is remembered at the Vimy Memorial. Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Gilbert Edmund FREEMAN (16373)

2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards

Killed in Action 16th September 1916

Born in 1894 in Freshford Somerset, the son of William Osborne Freeman and Matilda Charlotte (nee Teakle) who were both originally from Bisley parish. His parents later moved with his younger siblings to Stonehouse.

Gilbert worked for a time with his older brother William in his nursery, seed, fruit and florist's business in Cornwall, before enlisting into the Grenadier Guards in 1913. Here he was barracked with Wallace Clissold (killed 14th September 1914) and the two became good friends. In a letter home Wallace mentioned having been ‘to church with Osborne Freeman’s son’.

On September 15th 1916 the Guards were on the Western front, ready for an attack on the village of Lesboeufs. After vicious fighting, the village finally fell on the 25th, Gilbert killed during the attack. A memorial to the Guards who fell is beside the Ginchy to Lesboeufs road.

Gilbert (Centre marked GF) in the Chelsea Barracks c.1913

Photo by kind permission of John Clissold

Private Richard Heathcote BLACKABY (G/15504)

7th Platoon, ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment)

Died of Wounds 18th September, 1916.

Born at Stow-on-the-Wold on the 9th May 1891, the son of a Baptist minister, the Rev. Frederick Blackaby and Julia. He attended Witney Grammar school before moving to London, where he worked as a clerk for the London & Westminster Bank.

Prior to enlisting in February 1916 he was working at the Bank’s Westerham branch, near Sevenoaks, Kent. Newspaper reports of the time note that he ‘took great interest in the young life of the Congregational Church at Westerham, and was the Secretary of the Christian Endeavour Society’. A separate article noted that ‘several of the soldiers stationed in Westerham attended (a social meeting), and the young people thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The success undoubtedly in a great measure was owing to Mr. Blackaby, the energetic Secretary’.

His residence at the time of his enlisting is noted as ‘Eastcombe, Glocs’, due to his father now living at The Manse in the village. It was recorded that he ‘proved his worth (as a soldier) and was made a bomb thrower’. The Buffs were involved in action on the morning of the 15th September 1916, moving off at 06:35 into heavy, raking machine-gun fire. Causalities were high, with more than a hundred men killed and many more injured and evacuated through the casualty clearing chain.

Three days later, Private Blackaby succumbed to the wounds he received that morning at the casualty clearing station at Meault, near Albert. Remembered by his Army Chaplain as ‘A good brave lad, beloved by his officers and men’, he was buried at the Grove Town Cemetry at Meaulte, near Albert and is also remembered on the Eastcombe and Christchurch memorials.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Eber WEST (42266)

6th Battalion, South Wales Borderers

Killed in Action 17th October 1916

Born in 1892 in Brownshill, the son of Thomas and Esther West, the family lived also in Eastcombe and Bussage. As a young boy he once received ‘six strokes with the birch’ after he had assisted in the theft of four tame pigeons from a neighbour. He worked as a carter.

Eber first served with the Transport Bn. Gloucestershire Regt. as 27304 Pte E West his Regimental number indicating he joined in 1916. He then transferred and served with the 6th Bn South Wales Borderers (a Pioneer Regt.) and served as part of the 25th Division.

Landing in Le Harve on the 25th September 1915, in early 1916 they helped in the defence of Vimy Ridge before moving to the area of Warloy, behind the Somme front in June.

Fighting at Albert, Bazentin and Pozieres (all phases of the Battle of the Somme) on the 9th October, in appalling ground conditions, they captured the northern face of Stuff Redoubt. Despite numerous German counter attacks, they held on until being relieved on the 2nd October.

The Regimental diary records an entry at Aveluy on the 17th October;

‘Enemy aeroplanes dropped a bomb on out trenches/lines. The following casualties resulted …..Pte. West killed …’

Private Alec Charles ANDREWS (17557)

8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Died of Wounds on 25th October, 1916

The son of Walter (a game keeper at Lypiatt Park Estate) and Eleanor, Alec was one of five children. Baptised at Eastcombe School Chapel, he attended the village school where he enjoyed playing both cricket and football. He sang in the choir at St Augustine’s.

He worked as a gardener alongside Mr Savagar (Head Gardener for the Doringtons).

He joined the Gloucester’s in Stroud and served as a bomber, flag signaller and a machine gunner. Surviving Loos uninjured, he was twice left unscathed when comrades had fallen around him. On a separate occasion shell fragments that killed five men close by missed him completely.

Alec’s elder brother Wilfred had emigrated to Canada prior to the war, enlisting into the Canadian Army in 1915. He went on to see action in many battles including the Somme and was severely wounded at Vimy Ridge, finally discharged in 1919. Whilst serving in France the two brothers had met up. Wilfred recorded the meeting in his diary;

‘I saw another Gloster in a field as we passed. As we had just halted there, I called him over and asked him if he knew Alec and knew where he was. He considered for a minute and then said ‘’Why Alec is in those tents, just up here, I’ll go and get him for you’’, but just as he got to the gate of the small field the tents were in, I saw several boys come running towards us, the first I could see was Alec. He did not see me at first until I removed my steel helmet. I could see his face lighting up. He

came forward and shook hands with me. How pleased we were to meet, after a separation of over six years. We had very little to say as we were too pleased to speak. It seemed and must have been intended by Providence but it was only for five minutes but it was worth a fortune. In fact no money on earth could have bought those few minutes’.

On the 22nd October 1916 Wilfred wrote;

‘Alec took up the lead with his crew and marched off up the road. I went up the road as far as the Y.M.C.A. I wanted to give him a can of peaches I had in my tent, but I had no time to get it. He said, ‘‘I will be all right as Bert has a couple of parcels in the cart’’. I shook hands with him. He said, ‘‘There’s no knowing what will happen up here but I will have a look round for you if I come back’’. This was the last time I ever saw him’.

On the 25th October a shell landed in a trench occupied by the 8th Gloucester’s fatally wounding Private Andrews. He died in the ambulance whilst being transported to a Field hospital.

In a letter home Corporal W.J. Hall wrote ‘In your terrible loss you have the deepest sympathy of all members of the section with whom he was always popular and most respected. He has sacrificed his life in a noble cause’.

A large congregation attended a memorial service at Eastcombe Church where Alec had sung as a choirboy. He was buried with full military honours, his grave now at Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery Extension.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Transcript of Wilfred Andrews’s letters and photograph, kindly re-produced from Bisley - A Cotswold Village Remembered by Juliet Shipman.

Fitter David GRIFFIN (79407)

B Battery, 58th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

Killed in Action 25th October 1916

Born in 1896 in Chalford, one of 4 children to Francis Edward (a wood turner) and Kate Elizabeth Griffin. The family lived at ‘Woodview’, Dark Lane and David worked as a turner at an engineering works. He worked at Abdela & Mitchell in Brimscombe (steamboat builders) and later F.E.S Motor Works in Gloucester.

David joined up in Bristol in the second week of the war alongside his work colleague and friend Ernest Halliday, their army numbers just two digits apart. Neither survived the conflict. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighed 125 pounds and had brown hair and eyes. Joining the Royal Field Artillery he was first posted to the 3rd Depot RFA for training, before joining B Battery of 78th Brigade RFA in November 1914 and finally to A Battery, 68th Brigade RFA at Bulford Camp in February 1915. He embarked from Avonmouth in June 1915 and landed at Alexandria in July as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.

The 68th Brigade were at this time serving at Gallipoli and there's evidence in a contemporary local newspaper report that he was there, before moving to Salonika in October 1915. Here he was admitted to hospital with an injury to the legs suffered "in the field". Transferred to a hospital ship he travelled to hospital in Malta and then in a convalescent camp until April 1916.

On discharge from the camp he was posted to B Battery, 58th Brigade RFA, stationed at Sidi Bishr with responsibility for Suez Canal Defences. The Brigade moved to France in July 1916 as part of 11th Northern Division and then took over part of the front line in the 3rd Army Sector of the Somme. The Brigade fought at the Battles of Flers-Courcelette and Thiepval in the September.

Fitter Griffin was killed in action on 25 October 1916 and is buried in Courcelette British Cemetery near Albert.

In November at a Tabernacle memorial service there were quotes from his superior officer: “All the time I knew him he did his work conscientiously, cheerful (sic) and well. He was typical of the best men we have, always willing to lend a hand at any job, always cheerful and smiling, whether living was rough or not. He was a brave man and a good soldier.”

Photograph is widely used on ancestry and is in the public domain on there. Not sure who, of the many downloaded the original!

Private Ernest David Allen YOUNG (20248)

1/4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Killed in Action 5th November 1916

Born in France Lynch in 1885, son of Thomas Henry (caretaker/night watchman a Sevilles Mill) and Jane. Ernest worked as a bone cutter and by 1911 he had married Florence, moved to Wotton under Edge and had a daughter, Edna.

His military papers erroneously show him both enlisting and as having being born in Wotton under Edge. Joining the 1st/4th Battalion Gloucester’s, he participated in the attack on Pozieres Ridge during the Battle of the Somme. In November the Battalion had been prepared in readiness for the Battle of Ancre. Repeatedly postponed due to the dreadful weather, it finally took place on the 13th November.

A letter to Ernest’s wife from Lt. Stone was received on the 17th November. He explained that on the night of the 4th November he had been required to take a large working party out;

“….this necessitated the crossing of an open plain behind the British front line. The work was completed in safety, but on the return journey the Germans opened a heavy barrage fire across the path, and one shrapnel shell burst immediately above their heads, killing Private Young and another man.....Personally, I feel I have lost one of my best and most willing helpers, and a man of fine personality.”

Ernest's brother Ashley was wounded, but survived the war and returned to live on Coppice Hill with his wife.

Second Lieutenant Richard Godfrey MORGAN 12th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment

Killed in Action 13th November 1916

Born in November 1890 at Chalford, one of six children (five boys) of the Rev. David Richard Morgan (Pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle 1875-1900) and Agnes Evans. After his father’s death in 1900, Richard and his mother moved to Hendon, London where he worked as a bank clerk at Capital and Counties Bank.

Richard enlisted into the 12th Battalion, part of 92nd Brigade and served as a 2nd Lieutenant. 5ft 11in, he was described as ‘good’ for both vision and physical development. On the 19th September 1914 he signed to ‘serve outside UK in case of emergency’. Initially in Alexandria defending the Suez Canal, in March 1916 the 12th moved to the Western Front. On the 13th November they supported the Allied attack on Serre, the opening day of the Battle of Ancre. Two Battalions advanced at midnight (on the 12th) and managed to take the German first lines relatively easily. However the advance to the support trench was contested all morning under heavy German artillery fire, not helped by appalling ground conditions and waist deep mud.

It was here that Richard fell ‘while gallantly leading his men in an attack’. Private Moran, recovering in hospital after the attack provided further detail; “I was quite close to this officer when he got killed. It was about a quarter to six in the morning that he was advancing with his men to support us who were just behind the barrage in the attack …. He fell as if he had been hit in the head. Mr Morgan was second in command and was a nice man. Other fellows told me too that he was killed’

A second eyewitness account concluded; ‘…at Serre, we bandaged up 2nd Lt Morgan in No Man’s Land, he was badly hit in the right arm by shrapnel, we tied up his arm to stop the bleeding, he could not stand. Afterwards we told the stretcher bearers where he was, but they got shot down, and he was not brought in. This was about 5.30 in the morning’.

His body was not recovered for some four months, eventually being buried at Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps. Captain William Ferris RUDD 10th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers

Killed in Action 13th November 1916 (Not commemorated on Chalford memorial, but is on the Bussage plaques)

Born in 1887, the son of George Patrick Ferris Rudd, William worked as a Mercantile Marine, having been apprenticed in the Merchant Service in 1907.

He joined the Royal Fusiliers in September 1914. Fair haired, with greenish blue eyes he was 5ft 10 ½ and of good physical development.

He went to France with his Battalion in August 1916 and in November was at Serre for the opening day of the Battle of Ancre.

His death was witnessed by several of the men he had led into battle.

Private Evans stated; ‘Just before 8 o’clock in the morning … I saw Capt. Rudd lying between third and fourth line at Thiepval with a bullet through his forehead. I turned him over and saw he was dead. I knew Capt. Rudd well as he instructed me in musketry drills ….. in England’.

Private Moody was advancing next to the Captain. He witnessed his death; ‘Killed, shot through the brain at my side, in 4th line of German trenches while leading B Coy’.

After the war, his aunt Mary Amelia Rudd lived at Woodlands in Bussage and it would appear likely that she had his name added.

Able Seaman Wilfred HARMAN (Bristol Z/1011)

Drake Battalion, R.N. Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves

Killed in Action 13th November 1916

Born in Frampton Mansell on 13 July 1898, the fourth of five children of John Harman and Emily. His parents ran the White Horse Inn. After his father’s death in 1902 Emily remained as landlady, with Wilfred and his siblings all helping. He went on to work as a ‘moulder’.

Enlisting in Bristol on 12th July 1915 into the Royal Navy, he was recorded as 5ft 6 tall with brown hair and blue eyes. He reported his year of birth as 1897, almost certainly a lie to allow him to join just days after his 17th birthday. In 1914 the RN had a surplus of reserves for whom there would not be a sea-going post, so a Royal Naval Division was formed to act as infantrymen on land. Sent for training at the reserve battalion in Blandford, he was posted to Drake Battalion, part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in April 1916 as a signaller. He joined the Battalion in Mudros in Greece, just too late to get involved in the Gallipoli campaign and travelled with them back to France on 7th June 1916.

Drake Battalion was a part of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division which was then assigned to the Western Front. Because of the appalling time they had had in Gallipoli, the Battalion did not go into action until the very last phase of the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Ancre. Attacking the strongly held German positions, Wilfred’s unit was in the thick of the fighting around Beaucourt, mounting many bombing attacks and coming under very heavy machine gun fire. During the next three days, the Royal Naval Division took 3,500 casualties, one of those lost being Wilfred.

He was 18 and has no known grave.

Private John William WORKMAN (28252)

12th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment Killed in Action 6th December 1916

Born in Chalford, one of nine children to John William Snr (a carrier) and Elisa Ann, the family lived at Burcombe Villa, Chalford Hill. John worked as a printer before joining the Gloucester’s in Stroud.

As part of thr 95th Brigade, 5th Division, John’s Battalion fought at the Somme until October 1916, participating in the attacks at High Wood, Guillemont, Flers-Courcelette, Morval and Le Transloy.

The Battalion was later moved to hold a quieter part of the Front Line, near Festubert. Even so, there was the constant danger of enemy artillery and sniper fire to contend with and small scale, local skirmishes.

Whilst there are no casualties entered in the 12th’s War Diary between the 1st and 8th December, they were on the Front Line at Ferme du Bois on the 6th December, following five days training in reserve billets at Essars. It therefore suggests Private Workman was killed here on that day, and buried at the Rue Des Berceaux cemetery.

Private Charles Combe BLACKWELL (9400)

2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment Killed in Action 7th December, 1916

Born at Elkstone, Gloucsetershire in 1889 one of nine children of William (an agricultural labourer) and Mary Ann. The family later moved to Mount Pleasant in Bisley.

Charles enlisted in Cirencester around 1911 into the 1st Gloucestershire Regiment. He later served with the 2nd Glosters and it was with them that travelled to Europe in August 1914, arriving in Flanders on the 19th December 1914.

From Flanders the Battalion moved to the Salonika theatre in late November 1915, where they served as part of the British Salonika Force in Macedonia. The line was occupied for some two years by Allied forces, although the campaign afforded few successes. From October 1915 to the end of November 1918, the British suffered some 2,800 deaths in action, 1,400 from wounds and 4,200 from sickness.

On the 6th November, hampered by mosquitos and weakened by malaria, the Battalion was ordered to attack the heavily defended Tumbitza Farm, partially protected by entrenchments. Despite concerted British artillery bombardment on the enemy position, they remained pinned down by accurate Turkish and Bulgarian rifle and machine gun fire. The planned assault could not proceed and when they withdrew the following day, they had suffered over 130 casualties.

Charles was the third Blackwell brother to fall in action, with the Stroud News noting; ‘Truly they may be proud of their splendid sacrifice – a sacrifice that is recognised and appreciated throughout the whole district’. It was also noted that another brother had been so badly wounded he had been medically discharged.

Private Blackwell has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Dorian Memorial in Greece and at Bisley and Christchurch.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).

Private Percy Theodore GARDINER (16458)

7th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment Died 16th December 1916

Born in Chalford on the 30th January 1893, the son of Mary (a stick worker polisher), he worked as an umbrella stick worker and in 1913 married Agnes Smart from Oakridge.

Percy enlisted in Bristol initially with the 3rd Battalion, Gloucester’s (a Reserve Battalion), before transferring to the 7th Battalion, part of the 39th Brigade. He fought with the 7th at Gallipoli before evacuation, first to Egypt and then Mesopotamia to fight the Ottoman Empire.

On the night of the 13th December 1916 an attempt to re-capture Kut-el Almara from the Turks began. The advance was along both sides of the River Tigris, but heavy rain made progress slow (it was eventually recaptured on the 24th February).

On the 15th December, during the 2nd Battle of Kut the Battalion had advanced up to a line 800 yards from the enemy bridgehead, when they came under intense shrapnel, heavy machine gun and rifle fire and had to dig in. Percy was likely fatally injured during this action, withdrawn from the front and dying the following day.

Text with thanks from Nick J Thornicroft, author of Rural Sacrifice – The War Dead of Bisley, Eastcombe and Oakridge (1914 – 1919).