Tag: 2nd cousin 2x removed

John Norwood Berry: A Kent Gardener Turned Soldier

John Norwood Berry was born in Eythorne, Kent, before 28 March 1886, the son of John Berry and Jane West. He was baptised at Ss Peter & Paul, Eythorne, on 28 March 1886 and spent his childhood at Canterbury Lodge, Waldershare Park, where he was recorded as a five-year-old in 1891. By 1901 he was still in the Coldred and Waldershare Park district, aged 15 and working as an agricultural labourer, and by 1911 he was living in Eythorne and employed as a gardener domestically. [1]

His life before the war was that of a working Kentish man rooted in estate and garden labour. The family record shows him living at Canterbury Lodge again in 1915, where he appears as head of household, aged 28, before he enlisted in Dover. He had no spouse and no children, so the surviving story is concentrated in his parents, his service, and the memorial that carries his name at Thiepval. [1]

He was a Kent gardener and labourer who became a private in The Buffs and fell on the Somme.

Early Life and Family

Berry’s early years were spent in the village and estate landscape of east Kent. His father and mother, John Berry and Jane West, are the only parents named in the record, and the family’s residence at Canterbury Lodge, Waldershare Park, appears repeatedly in the census and family notes. These details place him within the world of estate households, agricultural work, and domestic gardening that characterised much of the rural economy in the district. [1]

By adulthood Berry had become a gardener domestically, suggesting reliable work with grounds, gardens, and perhaps estate maintenance. Such work would have required practical skill, stamina, and seasonal routine, and it fits well with the Kentish environment in which he grew up. The absence of marriage or children in the report means that his family story is especially centred on his parents and the home from which he enlisted. [1]

Military Service

John Norwood Berry served as Private G/9362 in The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), specifically with the 6th Battalion. He enlisted at Dover during the period 1915 to 1916 and served in the Western European theatre. His medal entitlement included the Victory Medal, British War Medal, Wound Stripe, and Memorial Death Plaque, showing both active service and the fact that he had been wounded before his death. [1]

The 6th Battalion was a Service Battalion raised at Canterbury in August 1914 as part of the First New Army, then moved through Colchester, Purfleet, Shorncliffe, and Aldershot before landing at Boulogne in June 1915. It had already seen service in the Battle of Loos and later fought through the Battles of the Somme, including Albert, Pozières, and Le Transloy. Berry therefore joined a battalion with a hard-earned reputation and a long list of front-line engagements. [1]

Unit Context at Time of Death

At the time of Berry’s death on 4 August 1916, the 6th Battalion, The Buffs, was engaged in the Battle of Pozières Ridge during the Somme offensive. The 36th and 37th Infantry Brigades of the 12th (Eastern) Division had moved into the trenches north-west of Pozières on 27 July, and operations in early August focused on capturing German trench systems including 4th Avenue Trench and Ration Trench. This was a fiercely contested sector, with artillery, trench warfare, and repeated infantry attacks all playing a role. [2][3][1]

The battalion’s action on 3 and 4 August formed part of a wider British effort to push the line forward and crack the German defences around Thiepval. The 12th Division suffered heavy casualties during its tour at Pozières, and the fighting was so intense that German counter-attacks, including flame-thrower assaults, had to be repulsed over several days. Berry’s battalion was therefore in the centre of one of the Somme’s hardest local battles at the moment he was reported killed. [2][1]

He fell while his battalion was fighting for Ration Trench during the Pozières Ridge battle on the Somme.

Circumstances of Death

Berry was killed in action in France on 4 August 1916. The record also notes that he had previously been reported wounded and missing, and that the War Office later listed him as killed. That sequence is typical of the confusion of the Somme battlefield, where men could be struck down, lost to view, and only later confirmed dead through casualty lists and witness information. [1]

His Wound Stripe is especially significant because it confirms that he had already been wounded before the final report of death was issued. The Army Order authorising the stripe recognised men who had received a wound in action, and Berry’s name on the list shows that he bore the physical mark of service before he was ultimately reported killed. His death therefore came not only in the midst of battle, but after a period in which he had already suffered in the line. [1]

Burial and Commemoration

John Norwood Berry has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 5 D. Thiepval is the principal memorial for the missing of the Somme, bearing the names of more than 72,000 British and South African servicemen who died in the sector and have no known burial place. It stands on the Somme battlefield itself, close to the ground over which men like Berry fought and died. [4][1]

For his family in Eythorne, the memorial would have been the only formal place of remembrance for a son lost far from home. The CWGC record, the War Office casualty notices, and the family report together preserve the facts of his service and loss. The Memorial Death Plaque and medals would have been the physical reminders returned to his next of kin after the war. [5][1]

Legacy

Berry’s story is rooted in the landscape of east Kent but carried to one of the bloodiest corners of the Western Front. He was an agricultural and domestic labourer, a gardener from the Waldershare Park district, who became a private in a county regiment and fought in the Somme’s fiercest local battles. His life reflects the experience of many young working men from rural England who were drawn into the Army and placed in the front line of a vast industrial war. [1]

His service with the 6th Battalion, The Buffs, also links him to the long and costly history of Pozières Ridge. That battle was part of the wider effort to break the German line on the Somme, and the battalion’s role in attacks on Ration Trench and surrounding positions shows how even a single name on a memorial belongs to a much larger operational story. Remembering Berry restores both his local Kent identity and his place in the military history of the Somme. [3][2][1]

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-John-Norwood-Berry.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/2e17af03-3b02-473d-a22f-88ee9af7b3ad/Individual-Report-for-John-Norwood-Berry.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYERAX4LUCC&Signature=dZEGYMi9icAGiQi1MIsY1jgj1q0%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEEUaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJIMEYCIQDJ27wENC0rfts02G8fT6BNNudkSk1HVBOkTLri7ekzugIhAOlZnDkakqhYZkD7A4ahnf6YHb%2FeKUzodK6PrJW%2F%2BmknKvMECA4QARoMNjk5NzUzMzA5NzA1IgyP1WBnhjtBk19WSC4q0AT01FoZh7Os%2F4Bgw9Kd0sCCyuy3SRO8VGUAsNWzACWex3HOs3kkfU2sAJ2iFaI11Sw5mafWho%2FkU9kVbjmBniwFJJL5bfpba3puCkPQoIpmFaM9VUJubQa9Momw9EazrtFc9wpHhm1V92ZnyLejG9Ba%2B1jHfBHoWLxAH0wcFvvH9DUrQpzr6%2FB0wNaS3mI3%2BlVkVNhIfBhJcaeB3Od456FXWWf9%2BuDRvblrKOS3p%2F6HxJK5kqfRpKbdU%2Flcf7tT4j83adUSMtrZoiwI7rhfgDvOE%2FhYgHwTn0jMoWnTw%2FLvwc78%2FyUz0lWTvGxJjlgu7TbU887n488Pl0X6Rqj8xxgIK5aCVWcMS6JONLhsXVQKHt17GJBAqIeVJoBaLFZfoCvAkoH4a961%2FKpeuR8S9aggt5NTaDkgiIugBOTB7swJKZTRQzDp6K1X4Y1tzVuRGsRq1nsVf0pojwEQ0iUGSmkA%2BKU42Bg3c035iquN4NKP1wKpaKttTr5A5NbUg1cfUeJTxR5PoEaLZaCXyPh3L4UFhxAUBDEDB8SUZ2Ftc%2Bvv6ctVECc8PWvEA5BfFN5ulorabh1Q6wbTy97isMXSLKgo%2FERhd4Nm5Owo1XgUJyLxLBvUPRKDVH0ub6fwUww6A2FFR9OBMyMw6W0x2WQYXGEZLj2vhWmmLAJ%2F7GagLsfQSJXiCXhFUx17v1sBO7hEBb0tZeNwdFry9CSYvNAwYz0YRh1OqY21u3d4tYnDC%2BcjopD8JdS7Ol9BOOcWcbiVjIbKIITs2CuahsZ37zMNlGOvMJa9x9MGOpcBFyxrnGFQ9dimeqGJzwWNP1ar%2BKHN8BUgCs5BLx%2FgQWpfsJ9XyfUUYcDXj6d%2FoU4EcwqYGLYSu8STJi0KtFcc17OFRh4lE09e3sRKOOBPWrINcb0pY45AHgLQ%2FKOTqCQDleXKlArbMy7p2mvG%2FaQyW4kOa1UGK2a4QSrYvgahMjrciVDx8%2FDJdoFW%2BwBLbYmhgSeUUO8rHg%3D%3D&Expires=1785849530
[2] 12th (Eastern) Division https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/12th-eastern-division/
[3] Battle of Pozières https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pozi%C3%A8res
[4] Thiepval Memorial 1916-2016 | Commonwealth War Graves … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac55gVeXygQ
[5] Private John Norwood Berry | War Casualty Details 768422 https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/768422/berry,-john-norwood/
[6] Buffs (East Kent) Regiment https://vickersmg.blog/in-use/british-service/the-british-army/buffs-east-kent-regiment/
[7] Ration Trench near Pozieres – The Western Front https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/36936-ration-trench-near-pozieres/
[8] Private Frank Wells The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Died Friday … https://astreetnearyou.org/person/820325/Private-Frank-Wells
[9] Thiepval Memorial ROH B – Remembering the Fallen https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/thiepval-roh-b.html
[10] Historical records of the Buffs, East Kent Regiment (3rd Foot) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73159/pg73159-images.html
[11] In Remembrance – The Crystal Palace Foundation http://www.crystalpalacefoundation.org.uk/history/in-remembrance
[12] Buffs (East Kent Regiment) https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/buffs-east-kent-regiment/
[13] Battle of Pozières 23 July to 3 September 1916 – Anzac Portal https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/where-australians-served/western-front/battle-of-pozieres
[14] Milford Haven WW1 War Memorial https://ww1.wales/pembrokeshire-memorials/milford-haven-ww1-war-memorial/
[15] 6th East Kent (Buffs) – 03/05/1917 – Soldiers and their units https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/41626-6th-east-kent-buffs-03051917/
[16] Pozieres & Mouquet Farm: AIF Divisions https://anzac-22nd-battalion.com/pozieres-mouquet-farm-aif-divisions/
[17] Captain John Norwood, VC https://www.rdgmuseum.org.uk/history-and-research/famous-soldiers-of-the-royal-dragoon-guards/captain-john-norwood-vc/
[18] The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/buffs-royal-east-kent-regiment
[19] The Battle of Pozieres July 1916 ‘More densely sown with … https://www.facebook.com/AnzacMemorial/posts/the-battle-of-pozieres-july-1916more-densely-sown-with-australian-sacrifice-than/1432920665611053/
[20] Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffs_(Royal_East_Kent_Regiment)
[21] The Battle of Pozières Ridge, 23 July–3 September 1916 https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/battle-pozieres-ridge-23-july-3-september-1916/
[22] Battle of the Somme https://www.centenaryofanzac.tas.gov.au/history/battle_of_the_somme
[23] Pozieres, a small village in the Somme valley in France … https://www.facebook.com/AWMemorial/posts/pozieres-a-small-village-in-the-somme-valley-in-france-was-the-scene-of-bitter-a/10155708149297525/
[24] The Buffs (East Kent Regt) – 1st & 2nd Battalions https://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2009/11/buffs-east-kent-regt-1st-2nd-battalions.html
[25] Pozières – WWI https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/military-history/history-heritage/battle-honours-honorary-distinctions/pozieres.html
[26] Profile, London War Memorial, The Online Resource … https://londonwarmemorial.co.uk/view_profile.php?id=38613

The Legacy of Private Weston Berry in Ypres

Weston Berry, born in Kent in 1891, was a rural laborer who joined the 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. He died on July 31, 1917, during the Battle of Pilckem Ridge in the Third Battle of Ypres, with no known grave. His name is memorialized at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

Weston Berry was born in Coldred, Kent, before 13 September 1891, the son of John Berry and Jane West. He was baptised at St Peter & St Paul, Eythorne, on 13 September 1891, and as a child lived at Waldershare Park, where the family was recorded in 1901. By 1911 he was still in the local area, living at Canterbury Lodge, Waldershare Park, and working as a general labourer.

[1]

His life before the war was unremarkable in the best sense: rural Kent, farm and estate surroundings, and labouring work that would have been familiar to many young men of his class. He did not marry and had no children, so the surviving record centres on his parents, his service, and the memorial in Ypres where his name is now carved. His military medals were the Victory Medal, British War Medal, and Memorial Death Plaque.

[1]

He was a Kent labourer who became a private in one of the Royal Fusiliers’ long-serving front-line battalions.

Early Life and Family

Berry came from a family rooted in east Kent, with his father John Berry and mother Jane West named in the report. The census evidence shows him within the Waldershare Park household as a boy of nine in 1901 and later as an adult labourer by 1911. This pattern points to a local upbringing in an estate-and-agriculture environment, rather than an urban or industrial one.

[1]

His residence at Canterbury Lodge, Waldershare Park, ties him closely to the Dover district and the countryside around Coldred and Eythorne. Men from such communities often enlisted in the opening years of the war, and Berry’s later military service in Dover in 1917 fits that wider pattern of local recruitment. The family record does not indicate a spouse or children, so the emphasis falls naturally on his parents and his wartime death.

[1]

Military Service

Weston Berry served as Private GS/42771 in the 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). The battalion was one of the regular Army’s long-established infantry formations and, at the outbreak of war in August 1914, was stationed at Kinsale in Munster as part of the 17th Brigade, 6th Division. It mobilised quickly, moved to Cambridge, and then sailed for France, landing at St Nazaire in September 1914.

[1]

The 1st Battalion had already seen hard fighting before Berry joined its story, including action on the Aisne heights in 1914 and the fighting at Hooge in 1915. In October 1915 the 17th Brigade transferred to the 24th Division, and the battalion remained with that formation for the rest of the war. By 1917 it had become a battle-hardened unit with a long record of trench warfare and offensive operations on the Western Front.

[1]

Unit Context at Time of Death

At the time of Berry’s death, the 1st Battalion was serving in the 24th Division during the opening of the Third Battle of Ypres. The battalion’s wider 1917 campaign included Vimy Ridge, Messines, Pilkem Ridge, Langemarck, and the Cambrai operations, showing that it was part of a formation repeatedly committed to major offensives on the Western Front. These were some of the most intense and costly battles of the war, fought in a landscape dominated by mud, shell-craters, and heavy artillery fire.

[2][3][4][1]

The 24th Division’s role in the Ypres Salient was to sustain the pressure on German positions and help force a breakthrough in support of the wider British offensive. In practice that meant moving infantry forward through deeply shelled ground under constant threat from machine guns, artillery, and gas. Berry’s battalion was therefore operating in one of the most dangerous sectors of the Western Front at one of the most dangerous times of the war.

[3][4][2][1]

The battalion he served with had already fought at Hooge, Vimy, Messines, and Pilkem Ridge before the Ypres offensive reached its violent opening.

Circumstances of Death

Berry was killed in action in Belgium on 31 July 1917. That date places his death on the first day of the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, the opening attack of the Third Battle of Ypres. The record does not specify the exact moment or method of death, but the battalion’s location and the battle context indicate that he fell during the fierce assault that began the long fight for the Ypres ridge.

[2][1]

The family record notes that he was the son of John and Jane Berry of Canterbury Lodge, Eythorn, Dover, and that he has no known grave. Like thousands of other men lost in the Ypres Salient, he disappeared into the chaos of shell-fire, mud, and confusion that characterised the 1917 fighting. The date of death and the memorial inscription together confirm the finality of his loss.

[4][1]

Burial and Commemoration

Berry is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Panel 6 and 8. The Menin Gate bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men of the British and Commonwealth forces who died in the Ypres Salient and whose graves are not known. It remains one of the most powerful places of remembrance on the Western Front, and Berry’s name is preserved there among so many others who vanished in the fighting around Ypres.

[5][1]

For his family, the memorial would have stood in place of a grave, offering a permanent but distant form of remembrance. The CWGC record, the Menin Gate memorial, and the family report together ensure that his identity remains visible despite the absence of a marked burial place. His service medals and Memorial Death Plaque were the tangible items returned to his relatives after the war.

[5][1]

Legacy

Weston Berry’s life reflects the experience of many young men from rural Kent who were swept into the first great industrial war of the twentieth century. He moved from labouring work in the Waldershare area to the front line with a regular infantry battalion that had already seen more than three years of hard fighting. His death at Pilckem Ridge placed him directly in one of the most violent openings of the Third Battle of Ypres.

[2][1]

His story also illustrates the burden carried by the Royal Fusiliers, whose 1st Battalion had been fighting continuously since 1914 and by 1917 was deeply embedded in the battle history of the Western Front. That history gives context to Berry’s sacrifice and to the wider sacrifice of the men whose names fill the Menin Gate. Remembering him restores a local Kent identity to a global war memorial.

[5][1]

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Weston-Berry.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/cba0b5d3-c2bb-435d-b694-f23ee67cc379/Individual-Report-for-Weston-Berry.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYE3BG763PZ&Signature=OD6LMo2fkD5kCPMKZLKrEnBaOjs%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjECYaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJGMEQCIDLJdX6OWkEgpu7rm55FWcxLAkCrsEaFaj6rNAXytWanAiA3hYIyyMKXm63eu3ZJ7q41qOvjRGAsJQFHRLR%2B2Hboxir8BAjv%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F8BEAEaDDY5OTc1MzMwOTcwNSIM9Bz3LaFjDB8r7I%2FBKtAE25KpeSttAoSxWPQ02OvNZiyHFd%2FpAjBUakphXmeiN%2FCmOdMgTpQADAjiCwk5HG%2F7n%2F3CGDpb4d9Tu9N4e6edT6ouNRHIxciDnoXUX%2FVI4jB25QRZnREgt2%2F%2FXdgdpEvH5pQnOt%2B3gdPE%2FDcg8k0vIrCVps5583EaqAuONLqZ81M5rKNVuxqYyf73Y3QGbTKDm9UdQ7MgHWoZvA626XYtaaIcNoNfUDN9YuN1z48mYRIJOGSCXxzj%2FFVgjoVk8cg2lqMpeGDhZMDQaJ%2BtEqExKIk7H8mpD%2F8mo0bGfZmFFMhFUORsmF3eurPyhmQYFMKW0afWCtAe5ln7i%2FsefKLJO%2FzUxfuNqZOFaLCsvE6Q9Xh4L89ofc2kZ8kadAk4aP%2BxqLboRXUZirtR5NRjo9PPoyNXjdumhi6slz7C0jhkv8wBrPKGfCW%2BYP4J0t6uIXYTqULaj%2FfBllF4q5cbvwRxG71xA8wYyHS3zJKA35w18AJVNiZLO8QEs%2F1UnMFoZqPr%2FRsM6zAGWyvdWOi%2FHul0Z6mpoNnwUOX%2FPabybuZ%2F70wVS87dQoOi%2BIAksjwqnmL000ZOEE3UWEnR3hsl4r08oG8IUaloEbyolUH2pbTO4oGL3EIcPPn8v%2FGy7PbPlYVT%2BZDOelGhW6lt3IqgQnlnmJDWOqfIBZJREWve9W0UxUxnO7RFJOxvECCpG%2B1g7tejSI6E0dmSP5wnewpvdW%2BMCK71wglmNSpaGgQO1G09LXJkH9MjCVaHedjnZbYNuJFSqKwuLuBCjEbYDWPHIVaZZDCUu4jTBjqZAWYJr98I58421oieTpJDyKYkrnw1c1AAkEF0FgCqjrlCMhiFXno%2BQOKLTNHu4%2B2Gb%2FGh1UNbX4Xfh3AW4WJJIHSC1uVDVpUmDD%2FrIhpv5V45AR%2Bebq54eV9wBAOEycxXL81xqfW%2Fcm9gFb5sqPTHjin5y1xMIjfqrZkaYpM8ZyyvBW7nnTIxn1%2FtqNyhv01LaZDSWvaJYd%2BNWQ%3D%3D&Expires=1784816888
[2] Battle of Pilckem Ridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pilckem_Ridge
[3] 24th Division https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/24th-division/
[4] The cemeteries and memorials of Ypres and West Flanders | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/blog/the-cemeteries-and-memorials-of-ypres-and-west-flanders/
[5] Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial | Cemetery Details | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/91800/ypres-menin-gate-memorial/
[6] First World War cemetery at YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL – view casualties – A Street Near You https://astreetnearyou.org/cemetery/91800/YPRES-(MENIN-GATE)-MEMORIAL
[7] Graves of lost World War One soldiers identified in Belgium https://www.gov.uk/government/news/graves-of-lost-world-war-one-soldiers-identified-in-belgium
[8] 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in the Great War https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=6888
[9] MENIN GATE MEMORIAL YPRES https://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ggbeypre.htm
[10] The Territorial Divisions, 1914-1918 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70633/pg70633-images.html
[11] Information about birth https://archives.passchendaele.be/en/soldier/1123
[12] Pontarddulais WW1 Memorial https://ww1.wales/other-counties/glamorgan-memorials/pontarddulais-ww1-memorial/
[13] Find War Dead | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/
[14] Faces of the CWGC Menin Gate Memorial | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/news/faces-of-the-cwgc-menin-gate-memorial/
[15] Tuesday 24 July 1917 – First World War Casualties https://astreetnearyou.org/date/1917/07/24
[16] Menin Gate – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menin_Gate

El Alamein and the Sacrifice of Franklyn Sterrett Wilder

Franklyn Sterrett Wilder was born in Ashford, Kent, in about March 1919, the son of Francis Sterrett Wilder and Gertrude Annie Slingsby. As a small child he was living at 19 Cudworth Road, Willesborough, in 1921, and by 1941 he was recorded in Wiltshire, suggesting that his life before enlistment was already shaped by movement within wartime Britain. He never married and had no children, so the surviving record centres on his parents, his service, and the burial place in Egypt where he lies today. [1]

Wilder served as a Trooper, service number 7899190, in the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales’s Own), part of the Royal Armoured Corps. He was killed in action at El Alamein, Egypt, on 26 July 1942, and the official record notes that he died of wounds. His medals were the 1939–45 Star and War Medal 1939–1945, the standard campaign awards for service in the Second World War. [1]

He was a young Kent man who died in the Western Desert while serving with one of Britain’s armoured cavalry regiments.

Early Life and Family

Wilder’s early life began in Kent, where he was born in Ashford and later lived in Willesborough. The family record names his father, Francis Sterrett Wilder, and his mother, Gertrude Annie Slingsby, giving a clear family link to the Ashford district. The move to Wiltshire by 1941 suggests either employment, military posting, or wartime displacement before he entered active service overseas. [1]

There is no record here of marriage or children, so his biography is necessarily centred on his parents and wartime service. Even so, the details preserve the outline of a young man whose adult life was cut short before it had really begun. Like so many of his generation, he was drawn into service at a time when the war had already become global and immediate. [1]

Military Service

Wilder served in the Royal Armoured Corps with the 10th Royal Hussars, a regiment with a long cavalry heritage that had been adapted to armoured warfare in the Second World War. As a trooper, he would have served in a tank crew or armoured fighting vehicle crew, carrying out the demanding physical and technical tasks required of men operating in the desert. The Royal Armoured Corps was the Army’s core armoured arm, and in North Africa it played a decisive role in mobile warfare against German and Italian forces. [2][3][4][1]

The 10th Royal Hussars were part of 2nd Armoured Brigade in 1st Armoured Division during the North African campaign. By 1942 the regiment had already fought at Gazala and the retreat to El Alamein, suffering losses as the British tried to contain the Axis advance. Wilder’s service therefore placed him in one of the most hard-pressed and mobile formations in the theatre. [4][5][1]

Unit Context at Time of Death

At the time of Wilder’s death, the 10th Royal Hussars were part of the Western Desert campaign in Egypt and Libya, where British armoured forces were trying first to halt, and then to defeat, the Axis armies under Rommel. The campaign was fought in open desert over huge distances, with tank clashes, anti-tank guns, minefields, and very long supply lines shaping every operation. The 10th Royal Hussars had already experienced the strain of movement, combat, and replenishment in a theatre where casualties could be sudden and severe. [6][7][4]

By the summer of 1942 the British army had withdrawn to the Alamein line, where the fighting became a struggle to prevent the Axis from breaking through to the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal. Armoured regiments such as the 10th Hussars were central to that defence because they could move quickly between threatened sectors, support infantry, and counter enemy armour. Wilder’s unit was therefore part of the force that held the line in one of the war’s decisive campaigns. [5][4][6][1]

In 1942 the 10th Royal Hussars were part of the armoured spearhead and shield of the British line at El Alamein.

Circumstances of Death

Franklyn Sterrett Wilder died on 26 July 1942 at El Alamein, Egypt, from wounds received in action. The family record does not describe the exact incident, but the date places his death in the long and bitter struggle around the Alamein position, when British and Axis forces were still testing each other along the desert front. In such conditions, tank crews and armoured troops were exposed to shellfire, mines, anti-tank weapons, and the constant strain of battle. [4][5][6][1]

Wilder’s death thus reflects the nature of desert warfare: sudden injury, evacuation to medical support, and, too often, death from wounds before a man could return to the line. The fact that he is buried in Egypt rather than brought home also shows how far from Kent the war carried him. His passing was part of the wider human cost of the Western Desert campaign, in which every armoured advance and every defensive stand was paid for in lives. [6][4][1]

Burial and Commemoration

Wilder was buried in Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery in Egypt, in Plot 3, Row D, Grave 10. Hadra Cemetery was expanded during the Second World War and became a major Commonwealth burial ground for casualties from the Western Desert, Greece, Crete, and the Mediterranean theatres. The cemetery’s role as a military memorial site makes it one of the principal places of remembrance for the North African campaign. [8][1]

The CWGC record confirms his unit, rank, date of death, and burial location, ensuring that his name remains part of the permanent historical record. His burial in Alexandria connects him not only to the battlefields of Egypt but also to the network of wartime medical and burial services that operated across the Mediterranean. For his family in Kent, the distant cemetery would have stood as both a practical and emotional answer to his loss. [8][1]

Legacy

Franklyn Sterrett Wilder’s life was short, but it links Kent, Wiltshire, and the deserts of North Africa in a single wartime journey. He was one of the many young men who entered the Army in the early years of the Second World War and found themselves serving in an armoured regiment at the sharp end of a major campaign. His story helps to humanise the broad history of El Alamein by showing what that battle meant for one ordinary soldier. [3][6][1]

He also stands for the role of the Royal Armoured Corps in the Western Desert, where mobility, firepower, and endurance were all essential. The 10th Royal Hussars were one of the regiments that bore that burden, and Wilder died while serving in their ranks during a crucial phase of the war. His grave in Alexandria ensures that, although far from home, his sacrifice remains marked and remembered. [3][5][4][8][1]

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Franklyn-Sterrett-Wilder.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/dc1b5693-5dd4-4747-91ba-44dac7b8a8e0/Individual-Report-for-Franklyn-Sterrett-Wilder.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYE7VPREZ6L&Signature=uEv3y%2FDP1EaZpiAWgDv6ZBupFUw%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjECYaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJIMEYCIQDb4VrvDsFyWdgDx3FT1o1ZN8TZOzlDt6z9Pnx0Mm55BgIhANT3Od6fHhKgylIHBoerr5vCbu%2B0ExfmeIHmV3LfF4zXKvwECO7%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEQARoMNjk5NzUzMzA5NzA1IgzqjeeVcpsQG7%2Bh1VIq0ATsYQiAl8ayRBPMiMUIIe7ercn5BV%2Frx9TcF%2BorPF1JHbl6RlQEHo%2FuszyZkVzadZxzQZcKfVNjOok80SsIMDGe75kEwNMZEkQIsrtB4DiMf6d71UhfDbszGhJQtARr5iHmR%2BzqFoxhJgFIdNK4ta8d7kV9YwFEBfcwP4bfpEILT1q7y%2FLuY0lYt2%2FCJgahRne2S4Z7qFy9DBSSMmuiQ0S3U26EOe9DfHCSv8kWsWV%2B5MzoYfo%2FeQjX0qa%2Ba1KWgIpp8LqZ3ibVeMAWDvIf2DZcxTuAMzzL%2Flw5qPW8Rofsf2cEgV1WeMfi7iqPhRb9a2jOZHILj7noLMXqQ5gt9JGWDcokwQTYlWkTGcJ8Q7rR5Qq2aTzLbvoPQowyuNe6zuzcPRAKtfbNyDRuf3B7fnKeqVsIyaFQRztI6xXb6UvMK1DqJpAl1z9Lbz4s%2FSJoApO34UblmmMepuquYyFpOhKUFpt3udrWT9O3gGEaekdfOpFqhAFIveSRFuYRxlxpnIg9Z6cMa%2FgEmnUIwWyMgNyAB4u%2BBdX6ipalMLM4rDWebVEPojFY8%2F%2FljA%2B1RUP11B%2BB7aRgbMJQmx%2FleSPdEzMffqTV%2BmDjQi7TnyxIl6SeTdVwohDYzagebWVDlU8TUOZ214l7IyuGVs9IgRakXGEhU62k0IHwroB9Z%2F4OzmvZosXT94Cjoik6HG6STFn5ZHrQf0OMYhG5%2FOFBpuuMpRKbE4nF5Gam8DuHGuQ5MTwBEHOzCsH0877m4agTs0kqEZuURr8FRnn0bohi50K4MIbNMPqliNMGOpcBHWezM6HICRavNHP1ym5HO2n1322cg0T4LYONz4zhvQ6PhK%2BjHAms%2BaQMjqTBncVxENaies2g9FLv9DvBYlzvHmAETXhvWLphGiW9EMYXyYv0v1VboB7r8F3VV2PHV3YYqjiW95cNPSjOQQNg%2FeF%2FPDUD4VoxgN8wgeGth3bvwDPyd9v1hL5U7mzXRyKWjPWgqnA0CJw0eQ%3D%3D&Expires=1784815248
[2] 10th Royal Hussars – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Royal_Hussars
[3] Royal Armoured Corps in the Second World War 1939-1945 https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/allied/battalion.php?pid=1277
[4] North Africa and the Battle of El Alamein https://horsepowermuseum.co.uk/timeline/north-africa-and-the-battle-of-el-alamein/
[5] Alamein 1942 – Horse Power Museum https://horsepowermuseum.co.uk/alamein-1942/
[6] Western Desert Campaign: Egypt and Libya https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/western-desert-campaign-egypt-and-libya
[7] Docs – Middle East 1930-1947 – Western Desert 1940-1943 Overview Higher Formations https://www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk/docs-middle-east-1930-1947-western-desert-1940-1943-overview-higher-formations/
[8] Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/54600/alexandria-hadra-war-memorial-cemetery/
[9] Western Desert campaign – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Desert_campaign
[10] Search Results | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/search-results/
[11] [PDF] 1st Royal Dragoons, Greys, 22D & 25th Dragoons Royal Armoured … http://daimler-fighting-vehicles.co.uk/DFV-File%20Part%20D003a-RAC-COL%20Dragoons.pdf
[12] The Battle of Bir Hacheim, May 1942 – The Regiment https://www.qrhmuseum.com/the-battle-of-bir-hacheim-may-1942-the-regiment
[13] Seconde bataille d’El Alamein — Wikipédia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconde_bataille_d’El_Alamein
[14] The first and last battle of 2 Armoured Brigade – 23 … https://rommelsriposte.com/2013/01/23/the-first-and-last-battle-of-2-armoured-brigade-23-january-1942/
[15] Operation Compass Timeline (1940–1941) | North Africa Campaign https://worldwar-2.com/timelines/north-africa/compass/operation-compass.html
[16] British Brigades in World War II Order of Battle, United … https://fr.scribd.com/document/140751501/British-Brigades-in-World-War-II-Order-of-Battle-United-Kingdom

Remembering Henry Coomber: Life and Death at Dunkirk

–

Private Henry Coomber was a young Kentish soldier of The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) who died on 17 June 1940 during the fighting and evacuation around Dunkirk.[file:378] His short life took him from the farm at Legg Farm near Kenardington to Tenterden and then to the battlefields of northern France, where he was killed in action as the British Expeditionary Force fought its way back to the coast.[file:378][web:401]

Private Henry Coomber, 6289218, 2nd Battalion, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), was killed in action on 17 June 1940 and is commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial.

Family report and Commonwealth War Graves Commission record

Early Life and Family

Henry Coomber was born on 21 September 1919 in Tenterden, Kent, the son of William Henry Coomber and Lucy Godden.[file:378] In the 1921 census he was living at Legg Farm in Kenardington, where he appears as a one-year-old son in the household, showing that his earliest years were spent in the agricultural communities of the Kentish Weald.[file:378] The Coomber family’s movement between Tenterden and Kenardington places Henry firmly in the rural world of small farms, labour and seasonal work that shaped much of east Kent in the inter-war years.[file:378]

By the outbreak of the Second World War he was still living in Tenterden, and the 1939 Register records him at Legg Farm as a private gardener.[file:378] That occupation suggests practical outdoor work, probably in a domestic or estate setting, and fits the wider pattern of young men in Kent who balanced farm labour, gardening and seasonal employment before military service overtook civilian life.[file:378] No marriage or children are recorded in the family report, and Henry is identified as one of the younger unmarried men lost in 1940.[file:378]

Military Service

Henry served as a Private in The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), with the service number 6289218.[file:378] His sub-unit was the 2nd Battalion, one of the regiment’s regular battalions and a formation that was part of the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1939–40.[file:378][web:390] The Buffs was one of the oldest infantry regiments in the British Army, with a long Kentish identity and a strong tradition of county service that made it especially significant for men from east Kent.[web:390][web:384]

The 2nd Battalion, The Buffs, went to France with the BEF in September 1939 and spent the early months of the war in the defensive posture that later became known as the “Phoney War”.[web:381][web:390] When the German offensive began on 10 May 1940, the battalion was drawn into the rapid retreat through Belgium and northern France, becoming part of the hard-pressed rear and flank forces that tried to slow the German advance and protect the withdrawal to Dunkirk.[web:381][web:385] Like other BEF infantry units, it was forced to endure movement, bombardment and short defensive stands under extremely difficult conditions.[web:401]

Unit Context at Time of Death

By mid-June 1940 the 2nd Battalion, The Buffs, was part of the broader collapse of the Allied position in northern France and the final phase of the Dunkirk evacuation.[web:401][web:381] Although the main evacuation had ended on 4 June, the memorial at Dunkirk covers those who died in the campaign from September 1939 through to the end of the fighting in France in June 1940, including men lost after the evacuation at sea, in rear-guard actions and during the final confusion of withdrawal.[web:401][web:386] Henry’s date of death, 17 June 1940, places him at the very end of that campaign, when many units were already broken up, prisoners were being taken, and the administrative record of casualties was often incomplete.[file:378][web:401]

The Buffs played a recognised part in the BEF’s defensive effort, and surviving regimental and local history sources show the battalion fighting through Belgium and north-east France before the withdrawal to the Dunkirk perimeter.[web:381][web:390] In practical terms, its role was that of a line infantry battalion trying to hold ground, delay German advances and protect the retreat of other Allied formations toward the evacuation beaches and ports.[web:401][web:385] This was the sort of battle in which individual soldiers often disappeared in shellfire, scattered fighting, captivity or the chaos of embarkation.[web:401]

The 2nd Battalion, The Buffs, was one of the Kent regiment’s BEF battalions, fighting the retreat to Dunkirk and the final collapse of the French campaign.

Regimental history and Dunkirk campaign sources

Circumstances of Death

Henry Coomber was killed in action in Dunkirk, Nord, on 17 June 1940, aged twenty.[file:378] The family report gives no further details of the exact incident, but the date and place indicate death during the closing stages of the Dunkirk campaign or in the immediate aftermath of the evacuation, when British units were still under pressure and casualties continued to be recorded.[file:378][web:401] In such circumstances, many men had no identified grave and were later commemorated on memorials to the missing rather than in individual burial plots.[web:401]

Henry’s case is typical of the administrative confusion that surrounded the Dunkirk withdrawal. The date 17 June is later than the main evacuation window, suggesting that he may have died in rear-guard action, in captivity, or through wounds and exhaustion after the retreat; the surviving summary does not preserve the precise cause.[file:378][web:401] What is secure is that he died in the wider Dunkirk theatre and that his name was carried into the CWGC’s memorial system because no known grave could be identified.[file:378][web:380]

Burial and Commemoration

Henry is commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial, Part 1 (Abb-Day), which records British and Commonwealth servicemen who died in the 1939–40 campaign and have no known grave.[file:378] The CWGC entry linked in the report confirms his rank, service number, regiment and date of death, while the memorial itself places his name among more than 4,500 men remembered at Dunkirk.[file:378][web:401] For families, the memorial functions as both a symbolic grave and a public acknowledgment of a loss that was never fully documented on the battlefield.[web:380][web:401]

The Dunkirk Memorial stands beside Dunkirk Town Cemetery and was designed to honour those whose bodies were never recovered or could not be identified after the campaign.[web:386][web:392] Henry’s inclusion there means that, although his burial place is not known, his service is permanently recorded in one of the principal Commonwealth war memorials in France.[file:378][web:401] The memorial provides a lasting focus for relatives and researchers tracing his wartime story through Kent, the BEF and the evacuation from France.[file:378]

Legacy

Henry Coomber’s life was brief, but it carried the classic features of a Kent wartime biography: rural origins, agricultural labour, county regiment service and death in the crisis of 1940.[file:378] His connection to Legg Farm, Tenterden and Kenardington makes him especially representative of the many young men from east Kent who left local work for military duty in the Second World War.[file:378] He is identified in the family report as a second cousin twice removed to the researcher, which underlines how the war still reaches into living family memory.[file:378]

Sources and Further Reading

Alec Bromfield: The Young Gunner of Royal Field Artillery

Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield, a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery, died at seventeen on May 26, 1915, in Writtle, Essex, while training. He drowned during an off-duty swim. Buried in his hometown of Henbury, his story highlights the often-overlooked losses during military training in World War I.

Gunner Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield, 2173, Royal Field Artillery, died aged just seventeen at Writtle, Essex, on 26 May 1915 while serving with the 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade, Territorial Force.

Family report, casualty listings, and brigade history

Early Life and Family

Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield was born on 14 October 1897 at Westbury on Trym, Gloucestershire, his birth being registered in the Barton Regis district.[file:152] He was the son of William Samuel Bromfield and Annie Jane Bromfield, and he was baptised on 12 December 1897 at St Mary Magdalene, Stoke Bishop.[file:152] By the 1901 census he was living at Stoke Farm, Westbury upon Trym, placing him firmly within the rural and semi-rural world on the northern edge of Bristol.[file:152]

In the 1911 census Alec was recorded at Kings Weston near Shirehampton, working as a “Boy in Gardens Domestic”.[file:152] This occupation suggests he was employed in estate or domestic gardening, a common form of youthful service work in the large house environments of the Bristol district.[file:152] The parish note quoted in the family report remembered him as a former pupil in the local schools and described him as “always a good fellow, well-mannered, and a credit to his home and parish”, an unusually warm contemporary tribute that helps restore his character beyond the bare facts of the record.[file:152]

Military Service

Alec enlisted at Gloucester in 1915 and served as Gunner 2173 in the Royal Field Artillery.[file:152] His unit is given as the 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade, Territorial Force, a second-line brigade raised after the outbreak of war from the same regional structure as the original South Midland artillery formations.[file:152][web:158] The Imperial War Museums’ Lives of the First World War index similarly identifies him as “Alec Edward Joseph Bromfield”, Gunner 2173, Royal Field Artillery, 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade, confirming the broad outline of his service.[web:154]

The 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade was part of the artillery associated with the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division, formed as the second-line Territorial counterpart to the 48th (South Midland) Division.[web:158] It was originally composed of Brigade Headquarters, the 2/1, 2/2 and 2/3 Gloucestershire Batteries, and its brigade ammunition column, making it a formation with a strong Gloucestershire identity that would have been highly familiar to a young recruit from the Bristol area.[web:158] This local character helps explain Alec’s enlistment into the brigade and places him within a distinctly regional military community.[file:152][web:158]

Unit Context at the Time of Death

The most important military context for Alec’s death is that the 2nd/1st South Midland Brigade was still in training in England in May 1915 and had not yet gone overseas.[web:158] The Long, Long Trail records that the brigade trained at Northampton, Broomfield and Writtle, both near Chelmsford, before moving on to Epping later in July 1915.[web:158] Alec’s death at Writtle on 26 May 1915 therefore occurred while the brigade was in one of its Essex training camps during its formative period.[file:152][web:158]

This is an important distinction, because Alec was not killed in action abroad but died while serving at home with a newly raised Territorial artillery brigade that was still learning its trade.[file:152][web:158] In 1914 and 1915 many second-line artillery units were short of equipment and modern guns, often training under improvised conditions while building up men, horses, transport and gunnery skills.[web:158] The brigade history notes that these formations were initially deficient in key arms and equipment and relied for a time on old French and obsolete British guns for training, which helps convey the makeshift atmosphere of early-war preparation.[web:158]

The family report and parish magazine make clear that Alec’s death was accidental rather than combat-related.[file:152] The vicar of Henbury wrote in May 1915 that Alec “seems to have gone bathing with a comrade when he lost his life”, and the report summarises the event plainly as “ALEC BROMFIELD DROWNED May 1915”.[file:152] Thus, the military unit context at the time of death is that of a teenage gunner in training camp, attached to a Gloucestershire Territorial artillery brigade in Essex, whose life was cut short in an off-duty drowning before he could serve overseas.[file:152][web:158]

Alec Bromfield’s story is a reminder that wartime service claimed lives not only on the battlefield, but also in the training camps where Britain’s new Territorial units were being hastily prepared for war.

Family report and brigade training history

Circumstances of Death

Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield died on 26 May 1915 at Writtle, Essex, aged only seventeen.[file:152] The family report states that he died at home service, and the Henbury Parish Magazine War Diary gives the crucial detail that he drowned while bathing with a comrade during his time at camp in Essex.[file:152] This contemporary local testimony carries particular weight because it comes from the parish that knew him and recorded his loss almost immediately.[file:152]

The vicar’s notice also records that a military funeral would be held in the churchyard on the Sunday following the news of his death.[file:152] That detail shows how quickly the army and local parish moved to commemorate him, and it hints at the shock felt in Henbury at the loss of so young a soldier before he had ever reached the front.[file:152] Casualty aggregators likewise record him simply as Gunner Alec Edwin Joseph Bromfield, Royal Field Artillery, date of death 26 May 1915, confirming the official recognition of his death in service.[web:153][web:159]

Burial and Commemoration

Alec was buried in Henbury (St Mary) Churchyard Extension, Gloucestershire, in grave reference 1284 near the south-west corner of the churchyard.[file:152] His burial in his home parish, rather than in a distant military cemetery, reflects the fact that he died in Britain and that his body could be returned home for interment.[file:152] It also gave his family and community a local place of mourning, unlike so many later war graves overseas.[file:152]

The family report notes his entitlement to the 1914–15 Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal and Memorial Death Plaque.[file:152] These awards confirm that, despite his brief service and death before active overseas campaigning, he was formally commemorated as a soldier who had given his life in wartime service.[file:152] His memory also survives in modern casualty listings and remembrance databases, which continue to record him under the Royal Field Artillery and his South Midland brigade connection.[web:153][web:154]

Legacy

Alec’s story is especially poignant because he died before he could grow into adulthood, let alone marriage or parenthood, and the report records no spouse and no children.[file:152] His life moved from the villages and estates around Westbury on Trym and Henbury into military service at the age when most young men were only beginning adult working life.[file:152] The report identifies him as a second cousin twice removed to the researcher, which means his memory survives not only in military records but as part of an extended family narrative still being actively preserved.[file:152]

Sources and Further Reading

Frank Hayward: Contributions of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps

This article details the life of Sergeant Frank Hayward from Canterbury, who served in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps during World War II. It highlights his early life, military service in both world wars, and fatality during the Battle of France in May 1940, ultimately commemorating his sacrifice in Bucquoy Road Cemetery.

–

This article presents a researched biography of Sergeant Frank Hayward of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps, tracing his life from Canterbury to his death in France during the Battle of France in 1940.[file:26][web:27] It combines genealogical evidence with the wider military context of his unit at the time of his death.[file:26][web:28]

Sergeant Frank Hayward, 13005685, Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps, killed in action in France in May 1940 and buried at Bucquoy Road Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission and War Office casualty lists

Early Life and Family

Frank Hayward was born on 19 June 1892 in Canterbury, Kent, with his birth registered in the third quarter of 1892 (Canterbury, Volume 02A, Page 827).[file:26] He was baptised in Canterbury on 7 August 1892, the son of Charles Hayward and Clara Mepsted, growing up in the historic cathedral city at the heart of east Kent.[file:26] The 1901 census records him aged eight at St Gregory the Great, Canterbury, listed as the son in his parents’ household, indicating a typical Edwardian urban upbringing with access to local schooling and trades.[file:26]

Frank’s early life unfolded against the backdrop of a growing city whose economy blended clerical, commercial and light industrial employment.[file:26] As he reached adulthood, the First World War broke out, and like many men of his generation he entered military service, a decision that would shape the rest of his life.[file:26] No evidence in the compiled report suggests that he married or had children, and later records list him without spouse or issue, making him one of many single men whose family lines ended in the world wars.[file:26]

First World War Service and Inter‑war Years

Frank’s first period of military service came in the First World War, when he joined The Buffs (East Kent Regiment).[file:26] His service record notes that he was discharged from The Buffs on 19 June 1919, his twenty‑seventh birthday, indicating that he remained in uniform through the war and into the immediate post‑war demobilisation period.[file:26][web:9] This long stretch of service identified him as part of Britain’s “twice‑a‑soldier generation”, men who served in both world wars.[file:26]

After demobilisation, Frank resumed civilian life in Kent.[file:26] By the time of the 1939 Register he was living at 88 Kings Road, Herne Bay, Kent, working as a decorator, a skilled trade that reflected both stability and responsibility in the later inter‑war years.[file:26] Yet less than three months after the Register was compiled, Britain again declared war on Germany, and Frank, now in his late forties, would once more take up military service.[file:26]

Second World War Service with the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Frank enlisted in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps (AMPC), later redesignated the Pioneer Corps in November 1940.[file:26][web:27] He served as a Sergeant with the service number 13005685, a non‑commissioned officer responsible for supervising work parties and managing men in demanding conditions.[file:26] The AMPC was created in 1939 to provide light engineering and labour support, undertaking tasks such as building field defences, handling supplies, and performing a wide range of logistical and construction duties in all theatres of war.[web:27][web:31]

Pioneer units were often composed of older men, veterans of the previous war, and those medically graded below full infantry standard, whose experience and physical resilience made them well suited to heavy labour under fire.[web:27][web:34] Their responsibilities, though less glamorous than front‑line infantry service, were indispensable: laying tracks, improving roads, constructing fortifications, clearing obstacles and supporting the movement of troops and materiel.[web:27][web:28] Frank’s previous service in The Buffs and his maturity likely contributed to his appointment as a sergeant, placing him in a position of trust within his Pioneer company.[file:26][web:28]

During the early months of 1940, the AMPC provided companies to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, where they were grouped under numbered Pioneer Groups on the lines of communication and in support of fighting formations.[web:28][web:40] The order of battle for May 1940 shows multiple AMPC companies attached across the BEF, with their movements and tasks documented in war diaries in the WO 167 and WO 212 series at The National Archives.[web:28][web:40] Frank’s exact company is not specified in the compiled report, but his duty location is recorded simply as “France”, placing him among those AMPC units supporting the BEF during the German offensive.[file:26]

Older veterans like Frank in the Pioneer Corps were the backbone of Britain’s labour and engineering effort in France in 1940, often working under fire to hold the line and enable evacuation.

Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps histories and BEF orders of battle

Circumstances of Death and Unit Context, May 1940

Sergeant Frank Hayward’s fate is bound up with the rapid German advance through France and Belgium in May 1940, when the BEF was forced into a fighting retreat that culminated in the evacuation from Dunkirk.[file:26][web:27] His casualty record shows him initially reported “Missing” following action on or between 10 and 24 May 1940, with an official date of death later fixed as 10 May 1940.[file:26] War Office Casualty List No. 276 recorded him as missing, while a later list (No. 662), dated November 1941, amended his status to “Killed in Action”, reflecting the delay and confusion common to BEF casualty reporting.[file:26]

The Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in France found itself increasingly drawn into combat roles as the German Blitzkrieg unfolded.[web:27][web:34] Contemporary accounts and later histories note that many AMPC companies were pressed into use as emergency infantry during the Battle of France, manning defensive positions, acting as rearguard troops and assisting in the protection of key ports and communication hubs.[web:34][web:40] These men, including experienced NCOs such as Frank, often fought with limited training for front‑line combat, relying instead on their discipline and courage.[file:26][web:27]

The area around Arras and Ficheux, where Frank is buried, saw heavy fighting in May 1940 as British and French forces attempted counter‑attacks and delaying actions against the German advance.[web:32][web:38] Bucquoy Road Cemetery, near Ficheux on the D919 south of Arras, had been established during the First World War but was used again in May 1940 for the burial of British troops killed during the German offensive.[web:29][web:32] New Zealand and Commonwealth sources record that 136 Second World War burials and commemorations from this period are found there, underlining the scale of casualties in the sector.[web:32][web:41]

Although the precise circumstances of Frank’s death are not documented in surviving summaries, the combination of his recorded date of death, his role in the AMPC and his burial at Bucquoy Road Cemetery strongly suggests that he fell amid the fighting and chaos of the BEF’s retreat in the Arras–Ficheux area.[file:26][web:32] The original casualty paperwork, which variously noted 10 May, 16 June and 10–24 May 1940, reflects the confusion of that campaign, particularly for supporting units whose men were often lost, captured or killed while performing labour and improvised combat duties.[file:26][web:27] Ultimately he was confirmed as killed in action in France, his death emblematic of the Pioneer Corps’ often overlooked sacrifices.[file:26][web:27]

Burial and Commemoration

Frank Hayward is buried at Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux, Pas‑de‑Calais, France, in Plot 8, Row D, Grave 2.[file:26][web:29] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his full name, rank of Sergeant, service number 13005685, regiment as Pioneer Corps (reflecting the corps’ later title), date of death as 10 May 1940, and his parents’ names, Charles Hayward and Clara Mepsted.[file:26] Bucquoy Road Cemetery lies just south of Arras on the D919 and contains Commonwealth burials from both world wars, its Second World War graves including those killed in May 1940 during the German advance.[web:29][web:32]

The cemetery was originally created in the First World War by field ambulances and casualty clearing stations serving the Arras sector.[web:32][web:35] It was later enlarged by the concentration of graves from smaller cemeteries, and used again in 1940 when British troops were killed in the fighting around Ficheux and nearby villages.[web:32][web:41] Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for the CWGC, Bucquoy Road Cemetery today offers a carefully maintained resting place for men like Frank, whose graves stand among rows of Portland stone headstones set amid lawns and flowers.[web:29][web:35]

In addition to his CWGC grave, Frank is commemorated in genealogical sources and on Find‑a‑Grave, where his memorial (ID 56583274) reproduces the official details of his burial at Bucquoy Road.[file:26] The compiled family report likewise preserves these details and links to the CWGC entry, ensuring that his name and service remain accessible to descendants and researchers.[file:26] Through these overlapping records, Sergeant Frank Hayward’s place in the wider story of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps and the BEF in 1940 is firmly established.[file:26][web:27]

Legacy and Descendants

Sergeant Hayward’s life illustrates the experience of many Kentish men whose service spanned both world wars.[file:26] The family report identifies him as a second cousin twice removed to the researcher, linking him into a wider kin network that extends from Canterbury and Herne Bay to present‑day descendants and relatives.[file:26] His story, recovered through civil registration, census entries, war‑grave records and casualty lists, restores individuality to a man whose name otherwise appears only in official returns and on a foreign grave.[file:26][web:29]

As a member of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in 1940, Frank belonged to a corps whose work underpinned every British formation in France, even if it rarely received the public recognition given to front‑line regiments.[web:27][web:31] The Pioneers’ labour under fire, their improvised role as infantry when required, and their heavy losses during the retreat underline the crucial role played by older and experienced soldiers like him.[web:34][web:40] Frank’s award of the 1939–45 Star and War Medal 1939–45 reflects his contribution to the early, desperate phase of the war.[file:26]

For family historians and local researchers in Kent, Frank’s biography provides a bridge between the cathedral city of his birth, the seaside town of Herne Bay where he worked as a decorator, and the fields of northern France where he lies buried.[file:26][web:29] His life invites further research in war diaries and AMPC group records, particularly within the BEF order of battle, which may one day identify the exact company with which he served.[web:28][web:40] In the meantime, the combination of genealogical sources and military history ensures that his service and sacrifice are neither anonymous nor forgotten.[file:26][web:27]

Sources and Further Reading

Remembering Edward Hayward: His Role in the Second Battle of Ypres

Private Edward Hayward (service number G/932) served with the 2nd Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), and was killed in action on 23 April 1915 during the opening phase of the Second Battle of Ypres.[file:195]

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Panels 12 and 14, in West‑Vlaanderen, Belgium.[file:195][web:143]



Early Life and Family

Edward Hayward was born in Minster in Thanet, Kent, in the first half of 1890, his birth registered in the Thanet district in the June quarter of 1890 (volume 2A, page 877). He was baptised on 1 June 1890 at St Mary the Virgin, Minster in Thanet.[file:195]

He was the son of Charles Hayward and Mary Ann (née White). In the 1891 census he appears as an infant at Prospect Road, Minster; by 1901 the family lived at Conyngham Cottage, Monkton Road, Minster, with Edward recorded as a ten‑year‑old son. In 1911 he was at 2 Freehold Villas, Augustine Road, Minster in Thanet, aged twenty, single, and working as a jobbing gardener.[file:195]

Around June 1912 he married Daisy Alice Golding in the Thanet registration district (volume 2A, page 2250, line 131). The couple had at least two children: Alice Mary Hayward and Ralph Edward (“Ted”) Hayward, so he left a young family when he went to war.[file:195]

The CWGC records him as “Son of Mrs C. Hayward, of 1, Tothill Cottages, Minster, Ramsgate,” indicating that by the time of his death his widowed mother had moved to this address, while his wife and children remained part of the same Minster community whose church Roll of Honour still bears his name.[file:195]

From Prospect Road and Augustine Road in Minster, Hayward went from jobbing gardener to front‑line infantryman with his local county regiment, The Buffs.

Reconstructed from parish, census, and marriage records



Enlistment and the 2nd Battalion, The Buffs

Edward enlisted at Minster, joining The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) and being posted to the 2nd Battalion, with the service number G/932. His service is recorded as running from 3 September 1914 to 23 April 1915, placing him among the early wartime drafts.[file:195]

The 2nd Battalion was a regular army unit which, on 4 August 1914, was stationed at Wellington, Madras, in India. It embarked from Bombay and landed at Plymouth on 16 November 1914, then moved to Winchester and joined 85th Brigade in the newly formed 28th Division. After mobilisation and training, it prepared for service on the Western Front.[file:195][web:13]

Between 15 and 18 January 1915, 28th Division embarked at Southampton for France, disembarking at Le Havre between 16 and 19 January. The division then concentrated between Bailleul and Hazebrouck by 22 January and subsequently took over trenches in the Ypres Salient, where it would face some of the earliest and most intense fighting of 1915.[file:195]

Fresh from India, the 2nd Buffs joined 28th Division in Flanders, manning exposed trenches in the Ypres Salient through the winter of 1914–15.

Based on battalion and divisional war histories



The Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915

The 2nd Battalion, Buffs, as part of 85th Brigade, 28th Division, was in the Ypres Salient in April 1915 when the Germans launched the first large‑scale poison gas attacks on the Western Front. On 22 April 1915, during the Battle of Gravenstafel Ridge, German forces attacked the north flank of the salient, using chlorine gas against French troops and causing them to fall back several kilometres.[file:195][web:140]

Canadian forces helped to stabilise the line, and reserve battalions from 27th and 28th Divisions, including elements of 85th Brigade, were deployed to support them. The 2nd Buffs, within these formations, were drawn into this chaotic fighting around St Jean (Sint‑Jan), the Ypres–Brielen road, and the approaches to the Ypres canal crossings.[file:195][web:143]

The individual report’s “Death Notes” explicitly situate Edward’s death in this context, stating that he served with the 2nd Battalion Buffs in the “Battles of Ypres – Battle of Gravenstafel Ridge – 22/04/1915” and “Battle of St. Julien – 24/04/1915,” where German attacks and gas use inflicted severe casualties and forced the Allies back onto new defensive lines.[file:195][web:143]

Hayward was killed at Ypres as the 2nd Buffs and their brigade fought through the gas‑filled chaos of Gravenstafel Ridge and St Julien.

Context drawn from 28th Division operations, April 1915



Circumstances of Death

Edward’s date of death is given as 23 April 1915, with CWGC and related records describing him as “Killed in action” and listing his duty location as “France and Flanders.”[file:195] This places his death between the first gas attack at Gravenstafel on 22 April and the subsequent fighting at St Julien on 24 April, during the most intense phase of the opening of the Second Battle of Ypres.[file:195][web:194]

War Office casualty lists reported him as “Wounded” on 12 May 1915 and later “Previously reported wounded, now reported wounded and missing” on 3 July 1915, entitling him to a Wound Stripe under Army Order 204 of 6 July 1916. These delayed notices reflect the confusion of fighting in the Salient, where many men were initially reported only as missing amid the chaos.[file:195]

The absence of a known grave and his commemoration on the Menin Gate suggest that his body was either never recovered or could not be identified, which was common in the pulverised ground of the Ypres Salient, especially under heavy shelling and gas attacks.[file:195][web:140]



Burial and Commemoration

Edward has no known burial place and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Panels 12 and 14. The Menin Gate, at the eastern exit of Ieper (Ypres) on the road to Menen, bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men of Commonwealth forces who died in the Ypres Salient before 16 August 1917 and have no known grave.[file:195][web:137][web:140]

His CWGC entry can be found at CWGC casualty details for Private E. Hayward. A further memorial entry is available at Find a Grave memorial 12051717, which may include photograph and tribute material.[file:195]

Edward’s name also appears on the parish war memorial in St Mary the Virgin, Station Road, Minster. This consists of an oak mensa‑style altar table with a wall‑mounted Roll of Honour board, inscribed “IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE MEN OF MINSTER WHO SERVED THEIR KING AND COUNTRY 1914–1919,” with those who gave their lives specially remembered and their names listed in gold and white lettering.[file:195]



Medals and Recognition

Edward was entitled to the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal, reflecting his early arrival in the Western European theatre and subsequent service. His entitlement to a Wound Stripe, recorded in War Office casualty lists, marks him as one of those who were officially recognised as having been wounded in action before being posted as missing and ultimately presumed killed.[file:195]

His family would also have received the Memorial Plaque and Memorial Scroll, issued to the next of kin of those who died in the Great War. Together with his listing on the Menin Gate and the Minster parish memorial, these items formed the tangible part of his posthumous recognition.[file:195]



Family and Legacy

Private Edward Hayward left behind his widow, Daisy Alice, and their children, Alice Mary and Ralph Edward (“Ted”), as well as his mother Mary Ann and wider family at Minster. For them, his name on the Menin Gate and in St Mary the Virgin Church served in place of a grave in Flanders.[file:195]

His story sits within the broader history of the 2nd Battalion, The Buffs, which, as part of 28th Division, moved from India to Flanders and endured some of the earliest gas warfare at Ypres. For genealogists and local historians, resources such as Ancestry, CWGC, and Buffs regimental histories help to place his life—from his baptism at Minster in Thanet to his commemoration on the Menin Gate—within a richer regimental and community narrative.[file:195][web:13][web:143]

Sources

  • Individual report for Private Edward Hayward (family tree compilation, including birth and baptism at Minster in Thanet; census addresses at Prospect Road, Conyngham Cottage, and 2 Freehold Villas; marriage to Daisy Alice Golding; children Alice Mary and Ralph Edward (“Ted”) Hayward; enlistment at Minster; service with 2nd Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment); death on 23 April 1915; and commemoration on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial).[file:195]
  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission – casualty record for “HAYWARD, EDWARD”, Private G/932, 2nd Bn., The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Panels 12 and 14; son of Mrs C. Hayward, of 1 Tothill Cottages, Minster, Ramsgate: CWGC casualty details.[file:195]
  • Find a Grave – memorial for Edward Hayward (Menin Gate Memorial, with scope for photograph and inscriptions): Find a Grave memorial 12051717.[file:195]
  • Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) – regimental history outlining the regiment’s origins, structure, and service on the Western Front, including the deployment of its regular battalions in 28th Division: Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).[web:13]
  • Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial – background on the memorial’s purpose, design, and the 54,000+ names of those with no known grave, including panels listing Buffs casualties: Menin Gate Memorial overview and detailed roll at Menin Gate Memorial – Roll of Honour.[web:137][web:143]
  • War Office casualty lists – transcribed notices recording Edward Hayward as “Wounded” (12 May 1915) and later “Previously reported wounded, now reported wounded and missing” (3 July 1915), confirming his entitlement to a Wound Stripe under Army Order 204 of 6 July 1916 (summarised in the individual report).[file:195]
  • 28th Division and Second Battle of Ypres – narrative accounts of April 1915 operations, including the German gas attack at Gravenstafel Ridge and subsequent fighting at St Julien, used to contextualise the actions of 2nd Buffs in which Hayward was killed.[file:195][web:140][web:194]
  • Parish memorial at St Mary the Virgin, Minster – description of the church Roll of Honour (mensa‑style altar table and wall‑mounted board), listing Edward among those from Minster who served and those who fell in 1914–1919 (as transcribed and described in the individual report).[file:195]

RAF Volunteer Reserve: James Godden’s North Africa Service

Leading Aircraftman James George Godden served in No. 221 Squadron, RAF Volunteer Reserve during World War II and died in Egypt on April 6, 1942, at age 28. He is buried in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery. Godden was a family man, survived by his wife Eleanor and two children, reflecting personal sacrifice in war.

Leading Aircraftman James George Godden (service number 1176451) served with No. 221 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, during the North African campaign of the Second World War and died in Egypt on 6 April 1942, aged twenty‑eight.[file:72][web:80]

He is buried in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, among many others who lost their lives in the Western Desert fighting of 1940–1942.[file:72][web:78]



Early Life and Family

James George Godden was born on 28 April 1913 in Kennardington, Kent, his birth registered in the Tenterden district in the 1913 June quarter (volume 2A, page 1812). He was the son of George Godden and Emma Jane (née Pellett), tying him to a long‑standing Kentish family in the Romney Marsh and Weald border country.[file:72]

By 19 June 1921 he was living at The Heath, Appledore, Kent, as part of the family household, reflecting a rural upbringing in a small village community close to the marshes. Later, by the time of the 1939 Register, he had moved away from his native county, living at 46 Douglas Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.[file:72]

On 29 September 1939, the 1939 Register records him as a grocer’s van driver, an occupation that involved delivering provisions in the expanding suburbs of south‑west London in the early months of the war. In about May 1936 he had married Eleanor Slater in Surrey (volume 2A, page 326, line 60), and the couple went on to have at least two children, Mary Henrietta Godden and Peter J. Godden, whose lives would be shaped by their father’s wartime service and loss.[file:72]

From Kennardington and Appledore in rural Kent to Kingston upon Thames and wartime service overseas, James Godden’s life bridged both village and suburban England.

Reconstructed from civil registration and census data



RAFVR Service in North Africa

James enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) and served in the North Africa theatre, his military record noting service “Lg 89, Egypt” within the Middle East command structure. He held the rank of Leading Aircraftman (LAC), a junior non‑commissioned rank indicating an airman who had completed basic training and some specialist instruction, and his service number was 1176451.[file:72]

The individual report records his posting to No. 221 Squadron, RAFVR, as part of the North Africa division, placing him within a long‑range maritime reconnaissance and anti‑submarine unit rather than a purely land‑based army formation. His duties as an LAC would have depended on his exact trade, but in a Wellington‑equipped coastal squadron they typically ranged from groundcrew roles—maintenance, armoury, signals, and operations room support—to certain non‑commissioned aircrew posts.[file:72][web:77]

As a Leading Aircraftman with 221 Squadron, Godden served in a long‑range Wellington unit whose task was to find and shadow enemy shipping in the Mediterranean.

Summary of No. 221 Squadron’s operational role



No. 221 Squadron in Early 1942

No. 221 Squadron was reformed on 21 November 1940 at RAF Bircham Newton as part of Coastal Command and equipped with Vickers Wellington bombers adapted for long‑range maritime patrols. It began convoy‑escort patrols from February 1941 and soon added shipping reconnaissance off the Dutch coast, before moving to Northern Ireland to focus on anti‑submarine patrols over the Atlantic.[file:72][web:77][web:80]

Between September and December 1941 the squadron operated from bases in Iceland, continuing its anti‑submarine role in the North Atlantic’s harsh conditions. In January 1942 it was posted to the Middle East, with its aircraft flying out in January and February and ground crews following by sea; for a short period the Wellingtons were attached to No. 47 Squadron until the full 221 Squadron establishment re‑formed.[web:77]

From March 1942, once reunited in the theatre, No. 221 Squadron began Mediterranean operations, flying a mix of shipping reconnaissance, strike missions, and anti‑submarine patrols. Detachments also operated from advanced bases such as Malta, using torpedo‑armed Wellingtons to attack Axis convoys during operations like Vigorous, which attempted to resupply the besieged island.[web:77][web:80]

By the spring of 1942, 221 Squadron’s Wellingtons were patrolling the Mediterranean from Egyptian bases, searching for U‑boats and convoys instead of U‑boats in the Atlantic.

History of No. 221 Squadron’s move to the Middle East



Circumstances of Death

The individual report records that James George Godden died on 6 April 1942 in Egypt while serving with 221 Squadron in the North Africa theatre. The brief entry does not specify the precise cause of death—whether accident, illness, or operational loss—but the date falls very shortly after the squadron’s arrival in the Middle East and the start of its Mediterranean patrols.[file:72][web:77]

Given the intense tempo of operations in early 1942 and the strains of redeploying a Wellington squadron from the North Atlantic to the Middle East, losses at this time included aircraft accidents, operational incidents, and non‑battle deaths among both aircrew and ground personnel. Without additional squadron records it is not possible to be definitive, but his interment in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery suggests that his death was associated with Western Desert or coastal operations in the Egypt–Libya border region rather than deep in the Nile Delta rear area.[file:72][web:78]



Burial and Commemoration

James is buried in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery, Egypt, in grave 4.G.5, as recorded in his individual report and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records. The CWGC database entry for Leading Aircraftman James George Godden confirms his unit as Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 221 Squadron, and notes that he was the son of George and Emma Godden and the husband of Eleanor Godden, of Kingston Hill, Surrey.[file:72]

Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery near Sollum on the Egypt–Libya border, created to concentrate burials from the Western Desert fighting. It contains the graves of 2,046 military personnel of the Second World War, mostly from the 1940–1942 period, including many who fell in the battles around Halfaya Pass, Fort Capuzzo, Bardia, and other key points in the frontier region.[web:78]

His CWGC casualty record can be viewed here: CWGC casualty details for Leading Aircraftman J. G. Godden. An additional online memorial, which may include photographs and personal tributes, is available at Find a Grave memorial 18971153.[file:72]



Family and Legacy

Unlike some of your other relatives who died unmarried, James left a widow, Eleanor (née Slater), and at least two children, Mary Henrietta and Peter J. Godden. For them, his name on the headstone at Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery symbolised not only a national sacrifice but a very personal loss—of husband and father—felt in Kingston and among the wider Godden and Pellett families of Kent and Surrey.[file:72]

More broadly, his story forms part of the collective history of No. 221 Squadron, whose Wellingtons shifted from the grey seas of the North Atlantic to the sunnier but no less dangerous waters of the Mediterranean in early 1942. As a Leading Aircraftman in that unit, James contributed to the long, demanding maritime patrols that sought to protect Allied shipping and interdict Axis supply lines at a critical stage of the North African campaign.[file:72][web:77][web:80]

For descendants and family historians, resources such as Ancestry and other genealogical databases, combined with CWGC and squadron histories, make it possible to set his short life—1913 to 1942—within the wider story of the Godden and Pellett families and of RAF operations in the Mediterranean theatre.[file:72][web:77]

Sources

  • Individual report for Leading Aircraftman James George Godden (family tree compilation, including birth and residence details, marriage to Eleanor Slater, children Mary Henrietta and Peter J. Godden, RAFVR service with 221 Squadron, and Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery grave reference 4.G.5).[file:72]
  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission – casualty record for Leading Aircraftman J. G. Godden, 1176451, RAFVR, 221 Sqn., buried in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery, grave 4.G.5: CWGC casualty details.[file:72]
  • Find a Grave – memorial for James George Godden (includes grave reference and scope for photographs and tributes): Find a Grave memorial 18971153.[file:72]
  • No. 221 Squadron RAF – operational history in the Second World War, including re‑formation in 1940, Wellington maritime patrols from Britain and Iceland, transfer to the Middle East in early 1942, and subsequent Mediterranean operations: History of No. 221 Squadron (WWII) and No. 221 Squadron RAF.[web:77][web:80]
  • Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery – background and description of the cemetery near the Egypt–Libya border, including its role in concentrating 2,046 Second World War burials from the Western Desert fighting of 1940–1942: Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery and Commonwealth War Cemetery Halfaya Sollum.[web:78][web:92]
  • RAF casualty listing confirming that LAC James George Godden (1176451), RAFVR, age 29, was serving with No. 221 Squadron at the time of his death on 6 April 1942 (used to corroborate unit and date): RAFWeb – Casualties 4–6 April 1942.[web:93]

The Story of George Henry Hayward: From Kent to the Frontlines

Private George Henry Hayward, born in Kent in 1878, served in the 6th Battalion of the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment). He died from wounds on 28 March 1918 in France during the German Spring Offensive, and is remembered at Doullens Cemetery and various local memorials. He left behind a wife and child.

George Henry Hayward: A Detailed Biography

Private George Henry Hayward, G/28586, 6th Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), was a Kent‑born agricultural labourer who became an infantryman in the British Army and died of wounds in France on 28 March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. [1][2][3] He is buried at Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No. 1 on the Somme and is remembered on local memorials in Lowestoft and in regimental histories of the Royal West Kents. [1][4][3]

Early Life and Family

George Henry Hayward was born before 28 April 1878 at Hastingleigh, Kent; his birth was registered in the March quarter of 1878 in the Elham registration district (volume 2A, page 966). [1] He was baptised at Elmstone, Kent, on 28 April 1878, the son of Thomas Hayward and Frances Camilla (née Mills), linking him to a long‑established rural family in east Kent. [1]

The 1881 census records George, aged 3, living with his parents in Elmsted, Kent. [1] By 1891 the family had moved back to Hastingleigh, where George, aged 13, is listed in The Street as an agricultural labourer, reflecting the early age at which many village boys entered farm work in Victorian rural Kent. [1]

Early Life and Family (Marriage, Work and Children)

By 1901 George was still in Hastingleigh, living at Bishop Cottages in The Street and working as an agricultural labourer, a pattern that continued into the 1911 census where he appears as a general labourer at Bishop Cottages. [1] On 21 September 1901 he married Beliza Maud Tuthill at Hastingleigh (marriage registered Elham district, volume 2A, page 1767), anchoring him firmly in the local community through both birth and marriage. [1]

The couple had at least one child, William Thomas Hayward, noted in the individual report, and by 1918 the family was living at Grove Cottages, Grove Road, Carlton Colville, near Lowestoft, Suffolk. [1][5] Contemporary biographical notes from Lowestoft describe George as a native of Hastingleigh who had moved to the east coast for work, taking up residence at Grove Cottages with his wife Beliza Maud and their family before joining the Army. [1][5]

Military Service

George enlisted at Canterbury, Kent, joining the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) and being allocated the service number G/28586. [1][3] He served in the 6th (Service) Battalion, a New Army battalion raised at Maidstone in August 1914, which joined 37th Brigade, 12th (Eastern) Division and landed in France in early June 1915. [1][2][6]

The 6th Royal West Kents saw heavy action throughout the war. In 1915 they fought at the Battle of Loos and at the Quarries near Hulluch; in 1916 they took part in the Somme battles of Albert, Pozières and Le Transloy; in 1917 they were engaged in the Arras offensive at the First and Third Battles of the Scarpe and at Arleux, as well as in the Cambrai operations, including the Tank Attack and the fighting at Bourlon Wood. [1][2][6] In early 1918 the battalion, still with 12th (Eastern) Division, faced the full weight of the German Spring Offensive in the Somme sector and around the River Ancre. [1][2][7]

Circumstances of Death

The individual report records George’s death as 28 March 1918 in France, his fate noted as “Died of Wounds”. [1] Detailed divisional histories and contemporary summaries explain that on 25 March 1918 the 12th (Eastern) Division, as part of V Corps, was holding defensive positions on the west bank of the River Ancre north of Albert, with 6th The Buffs and 6th Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) holding the front line from Aveluy Wood to Mesnil‑Martinsart. [1][2]

On 27 March the division repelled several strong German attacks, including low‑level strafing by aircraft, but remained in place despite heavy losses. [1][2][7] The attack was renewed on the morning of 28 March – the First Battle of Arras 1918 in British terminology – when German forces again assaulted along the Ancre and further north; at Aveluy the 6th Royal West Kents were pushed back on the left before the line was re‑established by counter‑attack, and the division as a whole suffered 1,634 casualties in holding the German advance. [1][2][8] George’s death from wounds on that date almost certainly resulted from injuries sustained in this intense fighting around Aveluy and the Ancre valley, either on 27 March or in the renewed attacks on 28 March. [1][4][3]

Burial and Commemoration

After his wounding George was evacuated to medical care in the rear area and died in France, being buried in Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension No. 1, Somme, France, in grave V.D.6. [1] The cemetery contained several casualty clearing stations, and many of those interred there were soldiers who had been brought back from the Somme and Ancre battlefields for treatment, which accords with George’s recorded cause of death as “Died of wounds”. [1][4]

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry records him as “HAYWARD, GEORGE HENRY, Private G/28586, 6th Bn., Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), died 28 March 1918, aged 40, Son of Thomas and Frances Hayward, native of Hastingleigh, Kent; husband of B. M. Hayward, of Grove Cottages, Grove Rd., Carlton Colville, Lowestoft.” [1][4][3] A Find a Grave memorial (ID 56532564) reproduces these details and marks his grave within the cemetery, while local Lowestoft remembrance projects list him among the “People of Lowestoft 1914–45” as a private of the 6th Royal West Kents, service number G/28586. [1][5][4]

Legacy

Within family research, George is identified with a FamilySearch profile under ID LCK4‑Y1R, tying him into the broader Hayward and Mills family network originating in Hastingleigh and the Elham district. [1] His medal entitlement includes the British War Medal, Victory Medal and Memorial Death Plaque, typical for a soldier who served overseas and died in action, and his story appears in genealogical and regimental websites dedicated to the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment). [1][6][3]

Local history initiatives in Lowestoft and Carlton Colville remember him as “George Henry Hayward of Grove Cottages, Grove Road, Carlton Colville, Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), died 28 March 1918, France, G/28586”, connecting the Somme grave at Doullens back to the Suffolk street where his widow Beliza Maud and their son William Thomas lived. [1][5][4] Through CWGC records, regimental histories and community memorials, Private George Henry Hayward’s service with the 6th Royal West Kents and his death in the First Battle of Arras 1918 remain part of both Kentish and Lowestoft remembrance of the First World War. [1][2][3]

Key External Links

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-George-Henry-Hayward.pdf
[2] 12th (Eastern) Division https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/12th-eastern-division/
[3] The Queens Own Royal West Kent R https://www.janetandrichardsgenealogy.co.uk/Pte%20G%20H%20Hayward.html
[4] George Henry Hayward https://ourfallen.lowestoftoldandnow.org/grove-road/1918-03-28/george-henry-hayward
[5] People of Lowestoft 1914-45 https://ourfallen.lowestoftoldandnow.org/full/msword?page=10
[6] The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment https://www.janetandrichardsgenealogy.co.uk/QORWK%20C%20T%20Atkinson.html
[7] Gowerton County School War Memorial – WW1.Wales https://ww1.wales/other-counties/glamorgan-memorials/gowerton-county-school-war-memorial/
[8] WW1 Home News in March 1918 http://lynsted-society.co.uk/research_ww1_home_news_1918_03.html
[9] Sergeant Thomas Harris VC MM http://www.hallinghistory.co.uk/community/halling-historical-society-18475/sergeant-thomas-harris-vc-mm/
[10] Roll of Honour – Kent County Association of Change Ringers https://kcacr.org.uk/association/ww1/roh/
[11] WW1 Roll of Honour – Ernest Cheeseman of Teynham http://lynsted-society.co.uk/research_ww1_casualties_cheeseman_e.html
[12] How to find a photo of a grandfather who died in WW1? https://www.facebook.com/groups/1117523195087247/posts/2701175966721954/
[13] Lives of the First World War https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/1802494
[14] Battle of Arras (1917) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arras_(1917)
[15] “IF YOU SHED A TEAR” https://www.merseamuseum.org.uk/MMPDFs/IYS_PART3.pdf
[16] MCMXIX (1914-1919) ADAMS, JOSEPH. R https://www.ryebritishlegion.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Rye-RoH-v8-Jan-23.pdf
[17] pdpubs book pagemaster https://pembrokeandmonktonhistory.org.uk/documents/memorialbookfinalpagemaster.pdf
[18] Godalming, Charterhouse School – World War 1 Surnames H https://www.roll-of-honour.com/Surrey/GodalmingCharthouseSchool-WW1-H.html
[19] George W. Hayward – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Hayward
[20] https://www.stokesubhamdoncouncil.com/shared/attac… https://www.stokesubhamdoncouncil.com/shared/attachments.asp?f=5d5f6938-900d-4431-b7cf-f4573c121fe1.docx&o=HAWKINS-Charlie.docx
[21] whaley bridge war memorial http://www.dustydocs.com/link/5/25105/181320/monumental-inscriptions-roll-of-honour.html

Percy James East: A Soldier’s Journey in WWI

Percy James East, born around September 1892 in Sandwich, Kent, served as a Private in the 6th Battalion, The Buffs during World War I. He was killed in action on March 18, 1916, and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial in France. His military service and dedication are honored through various remembrance efforts.

Percy James East: A Detailed Biography

Private Percy James East, G/6280, 6th (Service) Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), was born at Sandwich, Kent, about September 1892 and was killed in action in France on 18 March 1916. [1][2] He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Pas‑de‑Calais, France, where his name appears on Panels 15–19 alongside many comrades of the 12th (Eastern) Division. [1][3]

Early Life and Family

Percy James East’s birth is registered in the September quarter of 1892 in the Sandwich registration district, Kent (volume 2A, page 950, line 204), placing his birth around late summer 1892. He was the son of Walter East and Selina Caroline East, née Mannering, and grew up in a close‑knit Kentish family rooted in the small port and market town of Sandwich. [1]

By the 1901 census the family were living in Harnet Street, Sandwich, with Percy recorded as a school‑age child in his parents’ household. [1] Sandwich’s mix of maritime, agricultural and small‑trades employment provided the backdrop to his early life, and the family’s continuing presence there is reflected in the later addresses recorded for his mother. [1]

Early Life and Family (Work and Home)

By 1911 Percy was living at 1 Jessamine Villas, Sandwich, where his occupation is given as bottle washer, indicating work in a bottling or mineral‑water business or similar local industry. [1] This sort of manual but semi‑skilled employment was typical for young working‑class men in small Kent towns in the years immediately before the First World War. [1]

In 1915 his address is given as 11 Jasmine (Jessamine) Villas, Woodnesborough Road, Sandwich, showing that he remained close to his childhood home and that the small terrace of Jessamine Villas continued to be the family base. [1] After his death, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission recorded his mother, Selina C. East, as living at “1, Jessamine Villas, Boatsman’s Hill, Sandwich, Kent”, further confirming this cluster of related addresses as the East family’s long‑term home. [1]

Military Service

Percy enlisted at Sandwich into The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), being posted to the 6th (Service) Battalion, with the service number G/6280 and the rank of Private. [1][2] His medal entitlement—1914–15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal—confirms overseas service in a theatre of war from 1915. [1]

The 6th (Service) Battalion, The Buffs, was formed at Canterbury in August 1914 as part of Kitchener’s First New Army (K1), joining 37th Brigade of the 12th (Eastern) Division and training at Colchester, Purfleet and then Shorncliffe before moving to Aldershot in February 1915. [1][4][5] In late May 1915 the Division crossed to France via Folkestone–Boulogne and Southampton–Le Havre, concentrating south of Saint‑Omer by early June and joining III Corps; the 6th Buffs thereafter served continuously on the Western Front. [1][5][6]

Military Service (Battles and Front‑Line Duty)

The 6th Buffs and 12th (Eastern) Division first saw major action at the Battle of Loos in September–October 1915, where they attacked in the sector near Hulluch and the Hohenzollern Redoubt, suffering heavy casualties in repeated assaults and German counter‑attacks. [1][3][6] Subsequent fighting in October 1915 around positions known as “The Quarries” at Hulluch further depleted the battalion but also established it as a seasoned front‑line unit. [1][3]

In early 1916 the area around the Hohenzollern Redoubt became the focus of intensive mine warfare. On 2 March 1916, four large British mines were blown under German positions, followed by attacks that captured a series of craters, including the key Triangle Crater, with 12th (Eastern) Division selected to hold and exploit the new positions. [1][3][5] The 37th Brigade, including the 6th Buffs, relieved 36th Brigade in the crater sector on 5 March 1916 and endured continuous German bombing attacks, shelling and trench raiding in appalling mud and cratered ground for the rest of the month. [3][7]

Circumstances of Death

Percy’s individual record notes that he served in France between 31 August 1915 and 18 March 1916, and that he was killed in action in France on 18 March 1916. [1] A contemporary War Office casualty list dated 13 April 1916 initially recorded “E J East, Private, 6280, Buffs, France and Flanders” as missing, reflecting the confusion following the intense fighting in the Hohenzollern Craters sector; this entry clearly relates to Percy under an initialled form of his name. [1]

The broader context of his death is the Hohenzollern Redoubt action of 2–18 March 1916, during which 12th (Eastern) Division fought to hold newly captured mine craters against persistent German counter‑attacks and mortar fire. [3][5] German Minenwerfer bombardments and infantry assaults repeatedly struck the crater line and the old British front trenches, causing very high casualties; accounts of the period describe men standing shin‑deep in churned earth and water, exposed to accurate plunging mortar fire and close‑quarters bombing. [3][6] Percy’s death on 18 March 1916 coincides with the final phase of this action, when the Division was still in the line and suffering losses from shelling and localised attacks around Triangle Crater and the adjacent saps. [1][3]

Burial and Commemoration

Percy James East has no known grave, a common outcome for soldiers killed in cratered and heavily shelled sectors such as Hohenzollern, where bodies were often buried, re‑buried or obliterated by later explosions. [1][3] Instead he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial at Dud Corner Cemetery, near Loos‑en‑Gohelle, Pas‑de‑Calais, which bears the names of more than 20,000 officers and men who fell in the area from 1915 to the end of the war and have no known resting place; his name appears on Panels 15–19 among those of The Buffs and associated units. [1][2]

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record for “EAST, PERCY JAMES, Private, G/6280, 6th Bn., The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), died 18 March 1916, aged 22, son of Selina C. East, of 1, Jessamine Villas, Boatsman’s Hill, Sandwich, Kent” confirms his age, unit and family details. [1] A Find a Grave memorial (ID 15344005) likewise records his name and commemorative location, providing a modern point of reference for family historians and researchers. [1]

Legacy

Percy’s medals—the 1914–15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal—together with the award of a wound stripe and the issue of a Memorial Death Plaque, underline his recognised service and sacrifice on the Western Front. [1] His life also preserved in genealogical form via FamilySearch ID LY9B‑M9F. [1]

Local and national remembrance projects ensure that Percy’s name is not confined to official registers. The “A Street Near You” database lists “Private Percy James East, G/6280, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 18/03/1916 (aged 22)” among the regiment’s casualties, linking him to the wider story of The Buffs’ wartime losses. [2][8] More broadly, the history of the Hohenzollern Redoubt action and the 12th (Eastern) Division highlights the ferocity of the fighting in which he died, placing his individual story within a larger narrative of sacrifice in one of the most dangerous sectors of the Western Front in early 1916. [3][5][6]

Key External Links

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Percy-James-East.pdf
[2] The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) – First World War Casualties https://astreetnearyou.org/regiment/256/The-Buffs-(East-Kent-Regiment)
[3] Hohenzollern Redoubt action, 2–18 March 1916 – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohenzollern_Redoubt_action,_2%E2%80%9318_March_1916
[4] Buffs (East Kent) Regiment https://vickersmg.blog/in-use/british-service/the-british-army/buffs-east-kent-regiment/
[5] 12th (Eastern) Division – The Long, Long Trail https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/12th-eastern-division/
[6] The 12th (Eastern) Division Memorial Cross – Hellfire Corner http://www.hellfirecorner.co.uk/middlebrook3.htm
[7] Current Information – London War Memorial https://londonwarmemorial.co.uk/view_profile.php?id=23678
[8] Search for “East Kent Regiment The Buffs” in unit | Lives of the First … https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/searchlives/field/unit/East%20Kent%20Regiment%20The%20Buffs/filter/span%5B/?page=21
[9] The Buffs 6th batt East Kent – The – Great War Forum https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/105179-the-buffs-6th-batt-east-kent/
[10] William Richard COTTER VC – The VC and GC Association https://vcgca.org/our-people/profile/396/William-Richard-COTTER
[11] Lance Corporal William Cotter VC | The Western Front Association https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/2016/february/lance-corporal-william-cotter-vc/
[12] Britain WWI Victory Medal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) KIA Loos … https://www.medals-orders.com/great-britain-united-kingdom-wwi-victory-interallied-military-medal-east-kent-regiment-the-buffs-kia-1916-loos-ww1-1914-1918-british-decoration-great-war.html
[13] The 1st/3rd (East Kent–The Buffs) https://www.maltaramc.com/regmltgar/3rd.html
[14] We remember George Shilling – Lives of the First World War https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/4014113
[15] Acting Corporal William Richard Cotter – A Street Near You https://astreetnearyou.org/person/2947410/Acting-Corporal-William-Richard-Cotter
[16] Britain WW1 WW1 Victory Medal – Pte A. Dyke, East Kent Reg. https://www.dracomedals.com/britain-wwi-ww1-victory-medal-pte-east-kent-regiment-the-buffs-kia-loos-1916..html
[17] Search for “Buffs,(East Kent) Regiment” in unit https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/searchlives/field/unit/Buffs,(East%20Kent)%20Regiment/filter/span%5B/?page=30
[18] Private Year: 1914-18 East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) 6th Battalion I … https://www.facebook.com/groups/436081820298097/posts/1084910138748592/
[19] Hohenzollern Redoubt Facts for Kids https://kids.kiddle.co/Hohenzollern_Redoubt
[20] Percy James East – Timenote https://timenote.info/lv/Percy-James-East
[21] 6th Battalion The Buffs https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/6404-6th-battalion-the-buffs/