Herbert Marfleet – CWGC official recognition in 2015.

The re-imagined story …

There are two surviving photographs taken that day and in each of them our Elsie looks so sad. You shouldn’t look sad in your wedding photographs – I keep thinking. People say it’s the happiest day of your life. And she looked so beautiful as well.

It was a proper family wedding. All the aunts and uncles were there and three little babies. My was little Joyce noisy, and would she keep her bonnet on? Granny’s dog was better behaved!

Six men in uniform were there that day, including the two grooms. Bert came home, but Elsie lost him anyway. Perhaps she already knew that then, on the happiest day of her life.

The facts …

Herbert Frederick Marfleet, the son of Benjamin James Marfleet a sergeant in the 2nd Dragoon Guards, was born in the Punjab in 1891. By 1901 the family had returned to England and Benjamin was working as a Railway Shop clerk in the GWR Works. On leaving school Herbert followed his father into the railway factory as an apprentice coach finisher.

In 1915 Herbert joined the Royal Army Service Corps serving first in Egypt. In 1917 he briefly returned home to Swindon to marry his sweetheart Elsie Morse. Elsie was the eldest of William and Agnes Morse’s seven children. By 1911 Elsie’s father had died and Elsie, aged 18, was working as a finisher in a clothing factory. This could have been either Cellular Clothing in Rodbourne or John Compton’s in Sheppard Street. The family lived at 4 Albion Street where these wedding photographs were taken in the back garden in 1918 when Elsie and her sister Agnes married in a double wedding. Agnes’ bridegroom was a Canadian by the name of Hooper Gates. Hooper survived the war.

Immediately after the wedding Herbert returned to his regiment in Salonika where he contracted malaria. He was discharged from the army and returned to Swindon in the spring of 1919 but died just a few weeks later.

It was at first thought that he lie in an unmarked grave in the cemetery but it was later discovered that he was buried with his aunt and uncle, Matilda Hammett and Edward Johnson. He was, however, entitled to a Commonwealth War Graves official headstone as his death was a direct cause of his military service. The official application process began in May 2011 and the headstone was erected in June 2015. Guest of honour at the dedication ceremony was 98 year old Joyce Murgatroyd, his only known living relative, who as a baby is pictured in the wedding photograph.

First published on April 20, 2022.

Private F.J. Kent – farm labourer

A career in the modern armed forces offers today’s young people a wide range of opportunities, and perhaps it was ever thus. When 18 year old farm labourer Frederick John Kent enlisted in 1906 did he take stock of his life and decide he wanted more – wanted to do more, see more?

Frederick John Kent was born in Blunsdon St. Andrew in 1888, one of the younger of Thomas and Ann Kent’s ten children. Thomas worked as a farm labourer and shepherd and Frederick looked destined for a life on the land as well, until he decided to join the army.

After six months training, which included a gymnastic course, his physicality had improved considerably. He stood 5ft 4½ ins and had gained 19lbs in weight. It would be another 18 months before he was posted overseas, first to India where he served for a year and 12 days and then Africa where he spent more than 3 years.

On September 4, 1914 Frederick returned home following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on August 4. On October 6 he arrived in Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). An experienced soldier with eight years’ service, he was involved in the first bloody Battle of Ypres during which British losses numbered more than 54,000 killed, wounded and missing. After just 18 days of fighting in atrocious weather conditions, Frederick was taken prisoner of war. He would spend 4 years and 32 days in a German prisoner of war camp Kom 2, Lager 1, Munster.

Frederick was repatriated in November 1918 and his medical records state:

“Was taken prisoner of war in 1914 at Ypres with the 2^nd Wilts. Whilst prisoner suffered from hardship & starvation.” He was declared 80% disabled, suffering from valvular disease of the heart (V.D.H.). He looked ‘old and feeble – rather depressed.’ He was 31 years old.

Frederick died at Bath Hospital on March 15, 1920 and was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery in grave plot A2539 on March 20. He remained alone in this plot until the death of his sister Ada Townsend who was buried with him on November 16, 1950 followed by her husband Albert Henry Townsend who died ten years later.

This war grave is one of the many maintained by our group of dedicated volunteers. In the summer months a carpet of daisies is spread before the grave.

Image of funeral account kindly provided by A.E. Smith & Son, Funeral Directors.

Originally published June 10, 2022.

Wally Richardson – Swindon Town footballer

When William ‘Wally’ Richardson died suddenly in 1911 he was known to have a collection of football memorabilia including his own medals and team photographs of Swindon Town FC. Wally’s football career as left back with Swindon Town began in 1890/1 and spanned the teams’ transition from an amateur club to a professional one in 1894/5.

William ‘Wally’ Richardson was born in Edinburgh in 1869 and came to Swindon in around August 1889 – not as a professional footballer but as an engine fitter and a job in the GWR Works. At the time of the 1891 census he was lodging with Charles E. Chappell and his family at 17 Marlborough Street and was already playing with the Swindon team.

The 1911 census taken shortly before Wally’s death records him living at 8 Marlborough Street with his wife Kate. The couple had been married for 20 years. Sadly, two of their three children had died in childhood.

Photograph published courtesy of Swindon Town FC

Death of Mr. W. Richardson

A Well-Known Local Footballer

Funeral on Wednesday

On Wednesday afternoon the mortal remains of the late Mr William Richardson, who was a popular member pf the Swindon Town F.C. in the old amateur days, and for the first few seasons after the Club embraced professionalism, were interred at the Swindon Cemetery amidst many tokens of sympathy and respect.

“Wally” Richardson, as he was known to his intimates, was by birth a Scotsman, and it was in his native City of Edinburgh that he served his apprenticeship as a fitter. Twenty two years ago last May he came South, and after working for the GWR Co. at Newton Abbot, until August of the same year, he was transferred to Swindon. As soon as he came to the railway town, Mr Richardson commenced playing for the Town Football Club, and very soon made himself indispensable to the team in the left full-back position. Wally Richardson’s first season with the Club commenced in 1890, and when the Club became a professional Club, he signed forms for them and continued playing for several seasons. It was exactly 19 years ago, last Easter that “Wally” went down to Warminster to play in a six-a-side contest for a silver shield. The Swindon party won the shield, and, if we remember rightly, the trophy was given to the Swindon Schools’ League to be played for annually by the boys. Mr. Richardson had a most interesting collection of photographs of Swindon football teams for various seasons, and the medals won in his favourite pastime. Everybody regarded “Wally” as an excellent sportsman in the best sense of the word, and his rather sudden death on Saturday, after an attack of dropsy, will be regretted by a large following of friends.

Extracts from the Swindon Advertiser Friday July 7, 1911.

William ‘Wally’ Richardson was buried on July 5, 1911 in plot E7317, a grave he shares with his daughter Daisy who died in 1903.

Sidney William T. Chambers – Army Cycle Corps

The re-imagined story …

In 1911 three of the Chambers uncles lived in Stafford Street; people used to jokingly call it Chambers Street. Actually, there is no Chambers Street in Swindon. Funny that really when you think how many other builders had streets named after them.

William Chambers lived and worked as builder and funeral director in the end house in Ashford Road, the one with the Calvary cross in the brickwork. You can still see it now, and the silhouette of the shop sign.

Sam, William’s youngest son took over the business when his father died. I suppose that’s pretty unusual when you think about it. You’d expect the eldest son to take over usually. After the war there were few elder sons left to carry on the family businesses.

Sidney was working in the business as a 15-year-old polisher. We all ended up working for one of the uncles. As kids there were always errands to run, materials to move, digging, sweeping. Uncle Sam could always find you a job to do although none of us liked helping in the funeral parlour.

My dad talked a lot about Sidney. They had grown up together, worked together, served together. They both came home. Dad unscathed, that is if you didn’t count the nightmares and the terrifying rages that so frightened us kids. Sidney only got as far as Devonport Hospital where he died on October 14, 1918.

Uncle Robert and Aunt Kate never got over his death. Some parents blamed the Hun, some blamed the government. Others blamed themselves.

It’s barely ten years since the war ended and sometimes it seems like yesterday. Some scars never heal. But those who died will always be remembered, well by my generation at least they will. It remains to be seen if those that follow will. Will anyone remember Sidney a hundred years from now?

The facts …

Sidney William T. Chambers was born in Swindon in 1895, the eldest of Robert and Kate Chambers’ four children.

He served first in the Cyclist Corps, later transferring to the Labour Corps. His military records do not survive.

Sidney died at Devonport Hospital on October 14, 1918. He was 23 years old. His funeral took place at Radnor Street Cemetery on October 19 and he is buried with his father and three other family members in plot C1052.

The inscription on the Commonwealth War Graves headstone reads:

Here lies our dear son sleeping

His life we could not save

First published January 15, 2022.

Air Mechanic Frederick Clarence Whatley

Continuing a series of articles in remembrance of Swindon’s sons who served in two world wars.

Frederick Clarence Whatley was buried in Radnor Street Cemetery on October 16, 1918 but when I discovered his cause of death it raised many questions.

Frederick was born on February 8, 1899, the second son of William George Whatley, a cost clerk in the GWR Works, and his wife Emily, and grew up in the Broad Green area of Swindon. Frederick started work as a Machine Operator in the Locomotive Department of the Works on April 30, 1913, transferring to the Carriage and Wagon Works on February 21, 1914.

Frederick joined the Royal Navy in July 1917 and was assigned to HMS Campania, a seaplane training and balloon depot ship. In March 1918 he was transferred to the RAF and served at No 1 School of Navigation and Bomb Dropping (Stonehenge) as a 3^rd Class Air Mechanic.

Frederick died in a diabetic coma on October 12, 1918 at the Fargo Military Hospital. He was 19 years old.

Although diabetes was identified in the 17^th century, no effective form of treatment was available until the discovery of insulin in the 1920s. Two Canadian scientists, Frederick Banting and John Macleod, were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 and there were many others experimenting on a treatment around the same date. Diabetes is a condition that remains a bar to military service today.

Did Frederick know he had diabetes? Was his condition recognised in 1917 and if so how did he pass a medical? Unfortunately his military records do not survive. The CWGC records state that he died from a chill and family history researchers once believed he died in a flying accident, however, his death certificate tells the true story.

Frederick is remembered on a memorial plaque that was once displayed in the Carriage and Wagon Works and now hangs in Steam Museum.

He is buried in a family grave in Radnor Street Cemetery.

#TellThemofUs

#MarkSutton

First published on July 27, 2022.

Remembrance Day Service

It was wonderful to have so many people join us for a Service of Remembrance at Radnor Street Cemetery.

“When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

Three of our volunteers – Brian, Kevin and Bex.

Theresa Sutton and her two grandsons unveil a plaque dedicated to Mark Sutton.

Thanks go to:

Andy Binks, Noel Beauchamp, Paul Gentleman and Graham Carter

Father Toby Boutle and the clergy from St. Mark’s Church

Wroughton Silver Band

18th Swindon Scouts

Sir Robert Buckland MP for Swindon South

Heidi Alexander Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Swindon South

Cllr Barbara Parry Mayor of Swindon

Charles Normandale and Walter George David Hughes

The re-imagined story …

I never knew my two cousins Charles and Walter Hughes. I was born nearly twenty years after they both died in the Great War. In our family it felt as if the war never really ended. My gran lost four grandsons, boys she had helped to raise. Families were close in those days.

After the war, how did the families carry on? How did they pick up their lives with an empty place at the table and unslept beds in the back bedroom? A best suit hanging in the wardrobe; boots in the passage way. Family photographs where a pictured son, sometimes two, are forever missing. How did siblings feel, growing up, growing old, living years of which a brother was robbed?

Gran kept photographs of her boys on the mantelpiece for the rest of her life. I often wonder what happened to them after she died. No doubt one of my aunties took them. One thing I can guarantee, they will still be in one of the family homes, their names remembered once in awhile.

The facts ….

One Rodbourne family lost two sons in the First World War. Albert and Minnie Hughes lived all their married life in the streets alongside the railway factory, raising four sons and a daughter.

Their third son, Charles Normandale Hughes, was a driver with the Royal Field Artillery. He died on December 3, 1918 in Manchester. He was 19 years old. His war records are lost. His grave in plot D192 in Radnor Street Cemetery is marked by an official Commonwealth War Graves headstone.

Charles is buried with his parents and another family member E. Hughes, most probably a cousin. In 1995 the cremated remains of his sister Muriel May were interred in the grave. Muriel was just four years old when war broke out and claimed her elder brothers. She was 84 years old at the time of her death.

Albert and Minnie’s eldest son Walter George David Hughes joined the 97th Field Company Royal Engineers and was killed in action on June 26, 1916. He was 23 years old. He is buried in the Ville Sur Ancre Communal Cemetery.

Charles and Walter’s names appear on the Roll of Honour, now on display in the Civic Offices in Euclid Street. For nearly 100 years it hung in the old Town Hall and for many of those it remained hidden behind curtains after the building became used as a dance studio.

Charles received an official Commonwealth War Graves headstone and the Hughes family remembered their other lost son Walter on their own grave in Radnor Street Cemetery. Sadly, until recently the kerbstone memorial had lay discarded in nearby bushes. Radnor Street Cemetery war graves volunteers Jon, Dave and Brian have recently reunited the kerbstone with the family grave.

Join us today at 2 pm for a Service of Remembrance at the Cross of Sacrifice in Radnor Street Cemetery. During the service a plaque will be unveiled dedicated to Mark Sutton.

Originally published on October 17, 2019.

Mark Sutton

Join us tomorrow (Sunday November 12 at 2 pm) for a Service of Remembrance in Radnor Street Cemetery when we will commemorate all those who have died in war and as a result of their military service. We will also be unveiling a plaque dedicated to Mark Sutton.

Radnor Street Cemetery was a very special place to Mark. For many years he conducted guided walks around the war graves, remembering the Swindon men who served in the Great War.

He organised the Remembrance Day Service at the cemetery conducted first by his father Dennis and later by the clergy from St. Marks, and he maintained the cemetery chapel where he saw the installation of several memorial plaques.

Mark was an inspiration and a friend and will always be remembered here at Radnor Street Cemetery.

Lance Corporal Fred Jones

Fred and Emily’s boy didn’t have a grave, so they made a memorial for him in Radnor Street Cemetery.

Fred and Emily married in middle age. He was 45 and she was 41. They had both been previously widowed. Emily had a daughter Elsie Louise, Fred doesn’t appear to have had any children by his first wife. And then along came little Fred. Was he the apple of their eye? Was he their pride and joy?

Fred was a Lance Corporal in the 2nd Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment when he was killed in action on May 30, 1918. He was 19 years old. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Soissons Memorial.

Emily died in December 1926 and is buried with her first husband John Williams in plot number A2494. Fred died in February 1932 and is buried with his first wife in plot number B2331.

The memorial to their son stands on Emily’s grave.

The original British Expeditionary Force crossed the Aisne in August 1914 a few kilometres west of Soissons, and re-crossed it in September a few kilometres east. For the next three and a half years, this part of the front was held by French forces and the city remained within the range of German artillery.

At the end of April 1918, five divisions of Commonwealth forces (IX Corps) were posted to the French 6th Army in this sector to rest and refit following the German offensives on the Somme and Lys. Here, at the end of May, they found themselves facing the overwhelming German attack which, despite fierce opposition, pushed the Allies back across the Aisne to the Marne. Having suffered 15,000 fatal casualties, IX Corps was withdrawn from this front in early July, but was replaced by XXII Corps, who took part in the Allied counter attack that had driven back the Germans by early August and recovered the lost ground.

The Soissons Memorial commemorates almost 4,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom forces who died during the Battles of the Aisne and the Marne in 1918 and who have no known grave.

The memorial was designed by G.H. Holt and V.O. Rees, with sculpture by Eric Kennington. It was unveiled by Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon on 22 July 1928.

published courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

Post originally published on May 28, 2022.

Pte. Alfred Hale – father and son

During this month of remembrance I will be telling the stories of those buried in Radnor Street Cemetery who died as a result of their military service.

The Commonwealth War Graves headstone on grave plot C3653 commemorates two military heroes who served in not only the Great War but in the South African campaign as well.

Alfred Hale born in c1869 in Enford, Wiltshire was about 17 years old when he enlisted with the Wiltshire Regiment in 1886. Having served for 7 years he was transferred to the Reservist List. In 1894 he married Mary Jane Paradise at the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Devizes. He was recalled to serve in 1898 and again in 1900. (A son born that same year was named Frederick William Mafeking). He was discharged and added to the Reservist List in 1902. Having received the Queen’s South African Medal with clasps he might have expected that this was the end of his military career. However, in September 1914 he was recalled to serve yet again, by then he was 44 years old.

Perhaps Mary Jane was used to being a soldier’s wife. Perhaps she never expected her husband would return from that terrible war in South Africa. But the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 must have brought a whole new level of worry when her eldest son Alfred enlisted and her husband was recalled.

3655 Pte Alfred Hale was discharged unfit to serve on September 25, 1916. He had cataracts in both eyes. His medical records state that his condition was not the result of and not aggravated by his military service and that an operation was advised. Alfred returned to his home at 163 Beatrice Street, Gorse Hill. He died at the London Hospital on November 7, 1919 aged 49. He was buried in grave plot C3653 on November 13, 1919.

200214 Pte Alfred Hale, aged 24 was serving in Israel and Palestine when he died from pneumonia on February 21, 1919. He was buried in Ramleh War Cemetery. He left £30 11s 11d to his mother, which included a War Gratuity of £26 10s.

Father and son are both remembered on a CWG headstone. The inscription reads:

3655 Private A. Hale

Wiltshire Regiment

7th November 1919 Aged 49

Also in memory of his son

200214 Pte A. Hale

Wiltshire Regiment

21.2.1919

Sharing the grave with Alfred is Mary Jane, his wife, who died in 1958 aged 85 years old. The inscription reads ‘Rest After Weariness.’ Buried with them is their son Frederick William Mafeking who died in 1953 and George Saloway, their daughter’s husband, who died in 1954.

Tell them of Us by Mark Sutton