BIOGRAPHICAL ROLL OF THOSE COMMEMORATED ON THE TOWN WAR MEMORIAL WHO DIED IN THE GREAT WAR (Fifty-six men)
The memorial to the town’s Great War dead was formed by placing an octagonal bronze collar bearing their names around the top of the town cross’s plinth. It was unveiled by the Lord of the Manor on Sunday 11 September 1921.
296122(D) Stoker 1st Class Walter AGGETT
HMS Goliath
Born on 28 August 1880 in Bovey Tracey, he was one of eleven children of Henry and Eliza Aggett of 79 Mary Street and educated at the Church School. A labourer, he joined the Royal Navy on 14 November 1900 but purchased his discharge in June 1907 and was transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve with the number RFR/DEV/B/1857. He then worked as a thatcher, probably with his older brother John, and was mobilized on 2 August 1914. He was killed in action on 13 May 1915, aged 35, when the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Goliath was torpedoed by the Turkish destroyer Muavenet-i-Milliye in the Dardanelles with the loss of 505 men. He is also commemorated on Panel 6 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial and by the local road name Aggett Grove, TQ13 9GE. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £368 17sh, was granted to his brother John.
Captain Francis Hugh de BEAUFORT
B Company, 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Born on 27 July 1883 at Camberley, in Surrey, he was one of three children of Major (Royal Artillery) Francis and Adela de Beaufort and was educated at St David’s, Reigate; Stowe House, Broadstairs; Wellington College and Christ Church, Oxford. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 16 August 1905 and spent most of his service with the 1st Battalion in India and Burma, where he played polo for the Regiment. On 31 December 1913 he married Charlotte Hope of Shorestone Hall, Northumberland at Bamburgh. He went to France on 1 December 1914 as a captain and joined the 2nd Battalion two days later, taking command of B Company. He was killed by a sniper on 16 May 1915, aged 31, whilst going for orders after the capture of some trenches near Richebourg-l’Avoué during the Battle of Festubert, a day on which one hundred and nineteen other-ranks of the Battalion were killed. His widowed mother – a niece of a former co-owner of the Bovey Tracey Pottery Co – was then living at The Hove, off Avenue Road. He is also commemorated on Panel 26 of the Le Touret Memorial in France and on memorials at Christ Church, Oxford and on the outer west wall of the Church of St John the Evangelist. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £3,155 9s., was granted to a solicitor and his widow went on to marry Harvey Cobbett in late 1917.
49638 Private Leonard BLAMEY
74th Battalion Machine Gun Corps
Born in Christow, he was one of six children of Joseph and Ethel Blamey of 4 Heathfield Cottages (also known as Haytor View), Heathfield. He was a farm labourer and living in Liskeard when he joined the Royal Devon Yeomanry, with the number 3247, at Exeter in August 1915. He went overseas to Egypt in January 1916 and transferred to the Machine Gun Corps the following July. His unit moved to France in May 1918 and he was granted home leave from 2-16 September that year. He was killed in action on 23 September 1918 during the Battles of the Hindenburg Line, aged 22, and is buried in Grave IV/F/6 in the St Emilie Valley Cemetery in France. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
241043 Private Wilfred George Ellis BOWDEN
1/5th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Liverton, he was one of five children of William and Emma Bowden, who were living at 6 Heathfield Cottages (also known as Haytor View), Heathfield at the time of his death. He was a golf caddy in 1911 and living in Newton Abbot when he enlisted at Plymouth in November 1915, one of three Bowdens from Heathfield to have enlisted in the Devonshires that month. He was killed in action on 20 July 1918 during the Battle of Tardenois, aged 21, and buried at Jonchery-sur-Vesle. After the war his remains were re-interred in Grave III/C/9 in the Marfaux British Cemetery in France. Forty-eight other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
288583(D) Stoker 1st Class William John Hosking BOYCE (served as HOSKING)
HMS Goliath
William Boyce is difficult to trace but believed, from his varied use of the name Hosking, to be William John Christopher Boyce, born at Rattery in 1872 and one of ten children of John Richard and Ann Mildred Boyce, whose maiden name was Hosking. William was a labourer and joined the Royal Navy in May 1898 using the surname Hosking. On completion of his twelve-year engagement he was transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve, with the number RFR/DEV/B/3220. He then worked as a labourer and on 13 April 1912 married Elizabeth Woodford. Their son, William, was born on 8 February 1913 and the family were living at 28 Mary Street at the time of his death. He was mobilized on 2 August 1914 and killed in action on 13 May 1915, aged 42, when the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Goliath was torpedoed by the Turkish destroyer Muavenet-i-Milliye in the Dardanelles with the loss of 505 men. He is also commemorated on Panel 6 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Captain Cecil Aubrey BRADFORD
Yorkshire Regiment (attached to 4th Battalion Nigeria Regiment)
Born on 20 February 1886 at Thuborough House, Sutcombe, the second son of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver and Mary Bradford, he was educated at Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Commissioned as a second lieutenant on 7 November 1906, he joined the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment in South Africa the following January and later served with the 1st Battalion in Egypt and India. He was attached to the Nigeria Regiment in October 1913 and disembarked in Cameroon on 18 September 1914. In 1915 he was promoted to captain and later, on 5 August whilst home on sick leave, married Mildred Hillyard of Upton Pyne. The couple had a daughter Margaret, born in 1916, and lived at the parsonage in Upton Pyne. He was lost, aged 31, returning from Nigeria on leave in SS Abosso when she was torpedoed on 24 April 1917 by the German submarine U43, 180 miles north-west of the Fastnet Rock, with the loss of sixty-five lives. His widowed mother was living at Welparke, in Wreyland, at the time of his death. He is also commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial at Southampton, the Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School memorial and the Lustleigh War Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £1,474 13s. 9d., was granted to his widow.
72114 Lance Corporal Percival George BRIMBLECOMBE
9th Battalion Cheshire Regiment
Born at Chagford, he was one of four children of Walter and Mary Brimblecombe of Brookfield in Lustleigh and had been a Boy Scout and a bass chorister in the church. He enlisted into the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry, with the number 3819, at Newton Abbot in March 1917 and later transferred to first the Devonshire Regiment, with the number 69317, and then the Cheshire Regiment. He was killed in action by a shell on 31 May 1918 during the Battle of the Aisne, aged 19, having only been in France a few weeks. Forty other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is buried in Grave III/A/9 in the Chambrecy British Cemetery in France and also commemorated on the Lustleigh War Memorial. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
9383 Private John James CHOAK
2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born at Porthleven in Cornwall, he was one of nineteen children of George and Louisa Choak of 17 South View. He was a regular soldier who had enlisted at Newton Abbot and was undergoing initial training with the 3rd Battalion Devonshire Regiment at the time of the 1911 Census. He was then posted to the 2nd Battalion and served with it in Egypt until it was recalled in October 1914 and sent to France the following month. John remained in England until disembarking in France on 16 February 1915 to rejoin the Battalion. He was shot in the back on 11 March 1915 during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, aged 21, having been at the front for a week. Fourteen other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is also commemorated on Panel 9 of the Le Touret Memorial in France and by the local road name Choak Walk, TQ13 9FU. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
27074 Private Walter James CLATWORTHY
3 Platoon, A Company, 7th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry
Born on 26 August 1887 at Oakford, he was one of seven children of John and Mary Clatworthy and educated at Highweek Boys School. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his parents at Foxwell Cottage, Wain Lane, Newton Abbot and working as a domestic gardener. He married Elizabeth Mogridge on 27 October 1915, the family home being 2 Thorn Cross, Bovey Tracey until she moved to 1 Manor Cottages, Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot after his death. He left the employment of Mr Phillpotts of Bridge House to enlist into the 3rd Battalion Devonshire Regiment, with the number 23774, at Newton Abbot in March 1916 and was later transferred to the Somerset Light Infantry. In 1917 he received a commendation from Major General Smith, commanding 20th (Light) Division, for helping to bring in wounded men under heavy shellfire. He was a stretcher bearer and captured on 22 March 1918 at St Quentin. Held at Quedlinburg, he died of wounds as a prisoner of war on 4 August 1918, aged 31, and was buried in Grave XXIV/3/351 in Quedlinburg Cemetery. After the war his remains were moved to Grave VIII/K/2 in the Niederzwehren Cemetery in Germany and his wife had the inscription “He died that we might live” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated on the Newton Abbot War Memorial and the war memorial at All Saints Church, Highweek. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
60560 Driver Frederick Thomas COLDRIDGE (probably called Thomas)
150th Field Company Royal Engineers
Born in Bovey Tracey, the youngest of at least seven children of William and Elizabeth Coldridge, he was a carter and lived at Reeves Coombe. He enlisted on 18 January 1915 at Exeter and served with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force from June 1915 until January the following year, when his unit moved to France. Returning home in February 1917, he married Helen Cornish on 1 August and they had a daughter, Queenie, on 25 January 1918. He was posted overseas again in February 1918 and killed in action on 20 October that year, aged 25. He is buried in Grave VIII/B/8 in the Harlebeke New British Cemetery in Belgium. His wife received a weekly widow’s and child’s pension of 20s. 5d. and married Joseph Gribble in 1921. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
18032 Private Reginald James COTTERILL
5th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment
Born in Winkleigh, the eldest of four children of Harry and Mary Cotterill, he had worked as a gardener for the Member of Parliament for South Wiltshire and lived at Aldbourne. He enlisted at Devizes in late 1914 and landed with his battalion in Gallipoli on 17 July 1915. Having sustained a hand wound, he died of dysentery on 2 October 1915, aged 18. He was buried at sea and is also commemorated on one of Panels 156-158 of the Helles Memorial in Turkey. His parents were living at Ullacombe at the time of his death. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
71464 Fitter Staff Sergeant Verney William COX
138th Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery
Born in Ilsington and eldest of eight children of William and Lydia Cocks (later Cox), he was a fitter and the chief engineer at the Bovey Tracey Potteries, living at 26 Pottery Road. In 1897 he married Lily Daymond but had been widowed by the time of the 1911 census. He enlisted at Woolwich with the rank of fitter staff sergeant on 18 January 1916 and married Millicent Julyan four days before landing in France on 14 April that year. He was killed in action by shellfire on the night of 23 August 1917, aged 42, having returned from nine days home leave five days earlier, and is buried in Grave III/B/14 in the Coxyde Military Cemetery in Belgium. A long obituary in the Mid-Devon Advertiser states that he was awarded the Military Medal for showing presence of mind and valour when his battery was hard pressed, however, there is no corroboration for any award to him in the London Gazette. His wife was living at Trethowell Terrace in St Austell at the time of his death and was granted a weekly widow’s pension of 17/6d. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £381 14s. 10d., was granted to his widowed mother.
28874 Private Walter COX
9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Dunsford, the youngest of four children of Samuel and Priscilla Cox, he married Emma Gale in 1908. He was a farm horseman living at Wolleigh Cottage at the time of the 1911 census but had moved to Atway by the time of his enlistment at Newton Abbot in July/August 1916. He was wounded in the foot and after its amputation was visited by his wife in hospital in France. He died of his wound on 16 November 1917, aged 29, and is buried in Grave VI/H/2A in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery in France. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Ply 10862 Corporal William Frank CROOTE (probably called Frank)
Royal Marines Light Infantry
Born in Bovey Tracey, the illegitimate son of Elizabeth Croote, he was brought up by his maternal grandparents William and Sarah. He was educated at the Church School and worked as a brickmaker, probably for Candy & Co Ltd at Heathfield, until joining the Plymouth Division of the Royal Marines Light Infantry on 4 May 1901. Whilst serving in the cruiser HMS Hyacinth he qualified for the Somaliland 1902-04 clasp to the Africa General Service Medal. He left the Royal Marines on 10 May 1913 but was recalled for training on 15 July 1914 and drafted to the cruiser HMS Diana. Invalided on 10 February 1915, he died in hospital at Nayland, near Colchester, on 26 November 1917, aged 34. His mother had married Thomas Sampson in 1887 and was living at 12 Heathfield Cottages (also known as Haytor View), Heathfield at the time of Frank’s death. Their son Percy Sampson, Frank’s half-brother, is also commemorated on the War Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
27044 Private Frederick Stanley DAYMOND
7th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry
Born on 30 September 1893 in Bovey Tracey, the only child of Frederick and Constance Daymond of Fore Street, he was educated at the Church School and employed by William Pring, the Fore Street tailor, before enlisting in the Devonshire Regiment, with the number 16767, in Newton Abbot in January/February 1916. Subsequently transferred to the Somerset Light Infantry, he was serving with the signals section when he was killed in action on 22 September 1917 at the Battle of Menin Road Ridge, aged 23. Eight other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is buried in Grave I/F/54 in the Bleuet Farm Cemetery in Belgium and also commemorated by the local road name Daymond Drive, TQ13 9SZ. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
10380 Private William Charles DEAR
8th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was one of four children of William and Eliza Dear of 1 Blenheim Terrace. He enlisted at Exeter in August/September 1914 and went to France with his battalion on 25 July 1915. A member of a bomb throwing detachment, he died of wounds at, probably, the Graylingwell War Hospital in Chichester, on 22 October 1915, aged 24. He was almost certainly wounded at the Battle of Loos, during which his battalion lost all nineteen officers and six-hundred of seven hundred and fifty other-ranks, killed, wounded or missing. He was buried on 25 October in Grave 121/47 in the Chichester Cemetery in Sussex. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
11401 Private George Reginald DENTON
9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in London, the son of George and Sarah Denton of 38 Bloemfontein Road, Shepherd’s Bush, he enlisted in London in September 1914 and disembarked in France on 6 October the following year. He was presumed killed in action on 4 September 1916, having been reported wounded and missing near Ginchy during the Somme battles, aged 25. Twelve other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is also commemorated on Pier & Face 1C of the Thiepval Memorial in France. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
16371 Private Frederick Charles George FRENCH
9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, one of two children of James and Florence French, who were living at 6 Mount Pleasant Cottages in 1901, he worked for Candy & Co Ltd at Heathfield prior to enlisting at Exeter in December 1914. He was killed in action on 1 July 1916 near Mametz during the Battle of Albert, aged 20, and is also commemorated on Pier & Face 1C of the Thiepval Memorial in France. One hundred and fifty-five other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Lieutenant Kingdon Tregosse FROST
3rd Battalion Cheshire Regiment (attached to 1st Battalion)
Born on 12 March 1877 at Launceston in Cornwall, he was one of at least two children of Dennis and Sophia Frost of Moorside, Haytor Road and was educated at Bath College, Brasenose College in Oxford and the British School in Athens. He worked as a lecturer at Isleworth Training College in 1902-04 and with the archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie in Egypt and Sinai from 1904-05, when he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He went on to work in the Egyptian Ministry of Education from 1905-08, at Oxford’s Bodleian Library from 1908-09 and then as an archaeology and ancient history lecturer at Queen’s University in Belfast. He was commissioned into the Cheshire Regiment in September 1912 and, on the outbreak of war, attached to its 1st Battalion, in which he was known as “The Professor” because of his academic background. Probably landing in France with his unit on 16 August 1914, he was killed in action on the 24th near Audregnies, aged 37, the Battalion being cut off and overwhelmed during the Battle of Mons, only two officers and 200 men of nearly 1,000 escaping capture. Fifty-four other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that day. Kingdon is said to have left his platoon to investigate troop movements to the rear and was later reported by a brother officer to have been seen “fighting like a demon, having refused to surrender.” Wounded several times, he fought on until overcome and was buried by the Germans, being commemorated on La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial in France and a brass memorial tablet on the south wall of the parish church. In 1994, Grave III/A/7 of a hitherto unknown officer in the Wiheries Communal Cemetery in Belgium, was acknowledged as almost certainly his. Medal entitlement: 1914 Star and clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £2,576 11s.10d., was granted to his father.
20710 Private John Reginald GILLEY
1st Battalion Coldstream Guards
Born in February 1892 in Bovey Tracey, he was one of five children of John and Lavinia Ann Gilley of Lower Brimley Farm. He enlisted into the Army Reserve under the Derby Scheme at Newton Abbot on 10 December 1915 but, being a farm horseman, was granted an exemption until 1 January 1917. Mobilised on 1 December 1916, he was sent to the Guards Depot at Caterham in Surrey. He was appointed acting lance corporal in October 1917 and posted, as a private, to the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards in France on 1 April 1918, transferring two weeks later to the 3rd Battalion and then to the 1st Battalion on 26 August. He was killed in action on 27 September 1918, aged 26, during the Battle of the Canal du Nord and is buried in Grave II/D/5 in the Sanders Keep Military Cemetery in France. His father had the inscription “Sadly missed and dearly loved by all” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated by the local road name Gilley Close, TQ13 9GG. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £164 12s. 10d., was granted to his father, then retired and living at 2 Marlborough Terrace.
26534 Private William Charles James GREENWAY
1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Ilsington, he was one of seven children of Charles and Lydia Greenway of 2 Wilton Cottages, Blackpool, and worked at Bovey Pottery Co Ltd. Enlisting at Newton Abbot in November/December 1915, he was killed in action on 20 December 1916 near Givenchy, aged 24, and is buried in Grave I/F/16B in the Rue des Berceaux Military Cemetery in France, his mother having the inscription “Faithful unto death” added to the headstone. Five other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is also commemorated on the Ilsington War Memorial. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Lieutenant Commander John Essex GREY-SMITH
HMS Cambrian
Born on 10 May 1887 at St Kilda in Victoria, Australia, he was the son of William and Dora Grey-Smith of Melbourne and joined the Royal Navy as a naval cadet in May 1902. His connection with Bovey Tracey is through the Reverend Walter Vere-Stead, vicar of the parish from 1897 until his death in 1907, who may have been a relative or family friend and acted as his guardian whilst he was a cadet training at Dartmouth. In the year after the formation of the Royal Australian Navy in 1911, he was appointed to the cruiser HMAS Melbourne, then building at Birkenhead. He left her to join HMS Cambrian, a cruiser of the Grand Fleet’s 4th Light Cruiser Squadron, on 13 July 1916 as first lieutenant. At 0.23am on 17 March 1917, whilst the ship was off the west coast of Scotland on passage from Scapa Flow to Greenock, he was washed from the forecastle by a heavy sea aged and lost, aged 29. He is also commemorated on Panel 20 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial, at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance and in Melbourne’s St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
25943 Private Samuel John HAWKES
2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Ilsington, he was one of four children of George and Caroline Hawkes of Mount Pleasant in Mary Street and educated at the Church School. He was a carter and married Amelia Yeo in 1907. They had a daughter, Amelia, that same year and lived at 2 White Heather Terrace. He enlisted into the Devonshire Regiment at Newton Abbot and served overseas in the 8th Battalion initially before transfer to the 2nd Battalion. He was killed in action on 29 October 1916 near Le Transloy, aged 32, in the closing weeks of the Somme battles and is buried in Grave I/F/1 in the Thiepval Anglo-French Cemetery in France. His family had the inscription “R.I.P.” added to the headstone. Six other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
20504 Private John HEATH
3rd Supernumerary Company, 7th (Cyclist) Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was one of at least five children of Samuel and Mary Heath and was employed by Bovey Tracey Pottery Co before joining the Army in 1884. He saw service with the 2nd Battalion, Devonshire Regiment during the Boer War from 1900-1901, leaving the Army on his return. At the time of the 1911 census he was noted as single and working as a delver at a stone quarry at Bridford. He re-enlisted in October 1914 and died on 5 December 1915 at Holyport, aged 50, and is buried in Grave 16 in the Cliveden War Cemetery in Buckinghamshire, then the site of the Duchess of Connaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital.
240150 Acting Sergeant Thomas Henry HEATH
1/5th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was one of ten children of Francis and Emma Heath of 24 Station Road and was working as an earthenware packer at the time of the 1911 Census. He enlisted in Bovey Tracey in August 1914 and first went overseas, to Egypt, in December 1917. He moved to France with his battalion the following April and was killed in action on 20 July 1918 during the Battle of Tardenois, aged 25. He is buried in Grave I/G/6 in the Marfaux British Cemetery in France and also commemorated by the local road name Heath Walk, TQ13 9GD. Forty-eight other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
37456 Private James Ernest HINE
A Company, 1/5th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
Born on 28 March 1899 in Torbryan, he was one of four children of James and Eliza Hine. He was living with his widowed mother at Kelly Cottage, in Lustleigh, and employed at Kelly Mine when he was conscripted on 28 April 1917. He joined at Newton Abbot and spent ten months training at Chiseldon Camp, in Wiltshire, in one of the battalions of 22nd Training Reserve Brigade, having the number 7/2563. A Lewis machine-gunner, he went to France on 2 April 1918 and was lightly wounded and taken prisoner ten days later, being posted missing in May 1918. He died of an inflammation of the lungs on 24 September 1918 as a prisoner of war at Chemnitz in Saxony, aged 19, and was buried in the neighbouring Ebersdorf churchyard. In 1924/25, as part of a concentration of burials in Germany into four permanent cemeteries, his body was moved to Grave II/F/10 in the Berlin South West Cemetery. He is also commemorated on the Lustleigh War Memorial but uniquely, amongst Bovey Tracey’s Great War dead, does not appear on the memorial window in the parish church. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
25945 Private Arthur James HULL
10th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Taunton in Somerset, he was one of fourteen children of Francis and Emma Hull. He married Ada Hodge in 1909 and was a gamekeeper for Mr Lee on the Yarner Estate when he joined up at Newton Abbot in June 1916. He was killed in action on 25 April 1917 during an attack on Petit Couronne in Salonica, aged 33, and is buried in Grave V/C/11 in the Doiran Military Cemetery in Greece. Thirty-six other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
178377 Leading Seaman Gunner Ernest HYSSETT
HMS Vivid
Born in Chudleigh Knighton, he was one of at least nine children of William and Eliza Hissett (the more usual of several spellings). Educated at the Bovey Tracey Church School, he joined the Royal Navy as a boy seaman on 13 February 1894, giving his occupation as servant. He was serving in the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Triumph when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U21 in the Dardanelles on 25 May 1915. His brother Fred had also survived being torpedoed in the Dardanelles twelve days earlier in HMS Goliath. Ernest died from a burst aneurism of the aorta on 16 August 1915 in the Royal Navy Sick Quarters in Devonport, aged 38, and was buried four days later in Grave E3/99 in the town cemetery. His sister Mary Stancombe lived at Mount Pleasant, in Mary Street, at the time of his death and his family had the inscription “R.I.P.” added to the headstone. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
K17321(D) Stoker 1st Class Nicholas Percy V KENDALL (probably called Percy)
HMS Indefatigable
Born on 14 February 1890 in Dartmouth, he was one of six children of Elias and Elizabeth Kendall. Within two years the family moved to Jersey, where Elizabeth had married Frederick Ruff by the time of the 1901 Census. Percy married Clara Mitchell in 1910 and they had a son, Roy, the following year, when mother and son were living with her parents at New House, Castle Hill, Axminster. Simultaneously he recorded himself in the 1911 Census as working for the Jersey Water Works and living in St Helier with Louisa Kendall, shown as his wife. He joined the Royal Navy on 24 January 1913, giving his occupation as general labourer, and was drafted to the battle-cruiser HMS Indefatigable six months later. Percy was killed in action on 31 May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland, aged 26, when his ship was sunk with the loss of all but two of her crew of 1,019 men. His mother was living in Station Road at the time of his death. He is also commemorated on Panel 16 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial, by the local road name Kendall Grove, TQ13 9SY, and in the 1919 Jersey Roll of Honour. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
G/29002 Private Frank LAKE
D Company, 1/20th Battalion London Regiment
Born on 1 April 1884 in Cheriton Bishop, he was one of ten children of Jeremiah and Ellen Lake, who moved to Brookfield in Lustleigh before the War. In 1910 he married Ethel Maunder but was widowed the following year. He was working as a gardener for Lady Audrey Buller at Newton St Cyres in 1914 and married Eva Lowton that year. In September 1915 he enlisted in the Army Service Corps at Aldershot. He went to France in 1916 and was transferred to the 11th Battalion (Finsbury Rifles) London Regiment, with the number 202108, being later posted to the 20th Battalion (Blackheath and Woolwich). Wounded in the leg and captured during the 1918 German Spring offensive, he died as a prisoner of war on 9 September 1918 in a German military hospital in Berlin, aged 34. He is buried in Grave VI/C/10 in the Berlin South West Cemetery and is also commemorated on the Lustleigh War Memorial. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
GS/10303 Private Frederick LAMACRAFT (called Fred)
8th Reserve Cavalry Regiment (the training regiment for the 16th and 17th Lancers)
Born in Bridford, he was one of fourteen children of William and Sarah Lamacraft of Elsford Cottage (elsewhere, and probably later, 1 Eureka Terrace). He enlisted at Exeter, possibly into the 16th Lancers, and died of tuberculosis on 6 September 1915 in Ireland, aged 18. He is buried in Grave 1217 in the Curragh Military Cemetery in Ireland.
72116 Private Alfred Basil LARKIN
9th Battalion Cheshire Regiment
Born on 18 July 1898 in Bovey Tracey, he was the only son of Edward and Sarah Larkin of Parke View (elsewhere Pottery Cottage and, probably later, Bridge Cottages) and educated at the Church School. He was a grocer’s assistant and enlisted in the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry, with the number 3624, on 23 February 1917 at Exeter, being transferred, probably shortly thereafter, to the Devonshire Regiment, with the number 69330. He served on the Western Front from April 1918 and, most likely after arriving in France, was further transferred to the Cheshire Regiment. Aged 19, he was one of seventeen other-ranks of his battalion almost certainly killed by the enemy bombardment of British rear areas during the Battle of the Scherpenberg on 29 April 1918. A Mid-Devon Advertiser report that he was killed by a bomb (i.e. a grenade) is mistaken as his unit was not in the line at the time. Originally buried at Reninghelst, his remains were moved to Grave V/D/4 in the Klein-Vierstraat British Cemetery in Belgium as part of a grave concentration in September 1919. He is also commemorated by the local road name Larkin Close, TQ13 9GX. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
MS/2184 Private William Henry LOCKYEAR
73rd Company, 3rd Cavalry Divisional Supply Column Army Service Corps
Born and resident at Whimple, he was one of twelve children of John and Mary Lockyear and a member of the Constitutional Club. A motor mechanic, he enlisted as a motor driver at Exeter on 27 August 1914, when possibly employed at Colehayes, where the Mid-Devon Advertiser reported that news of his subsequent death was received. Although stated that news reached his parents there, this may have been misreported as they lived at Hand & Pen, near Whimple, and should possibly have read that it was William’s employer who received the news. William disembarked in France on 6 October and was killed in action during the First Battle of Ypres by a gunshot wound to the left leg on 9 November 1914, aged 24. He is also commemorated on Panel 56 of the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium, by the local road name Lockyear Place, TQ13 9GQ, and on the Whimple War Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1914 Star and clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
345008 Acting Company Sergeant Major Sidney Gilbert Victor MADDICOTT
16th (Royal 1st Devon and Royal North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born at Ideford, he was one of five children of Henry and Mary Maddicott of 5 Heathfield Cottages (also known as Haytor View), Heathfield. He worked as a brickmaker for Candy & Co Ltd and captained the Chudleigh Knighton Ramblers football team from 1911-13. Before the War he, with the number 1515, and his older brother Cecil, enlisted as Territorials at Totnes into the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry with two horses belonging to Mr Reddacliffe – their younger brother Bob’s future father-in-law – of Whisselwell Farm. Sidney was a member of 1 Troop, C Squadron and disembarked in Gallipoli on 9 October 1915. On the British withdrawal from that peninsula his regiment moved to Egypt where, in January 1917, it was amalgamated with the Royal North Devon Yeomanry to form the 16th Battalion Devonshire Regiment, which was sent to Palestine until being transferred to the Western Front in May 1918. He was killed in action on 10 September 1918 during the pursuit to the Hindenburg Position, aged 28. Fifteen other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is buried at an unknown location within the St Emilie Valley Cemetery in France, where he is commemorated on Special Memorial B/3. His name is also on the Chudleigh Knighton War Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
150044 Sapper Ernest Alfred MAY
119th Company Railway Operating Department Royal Engineers
Born at Drewsteignton, he was one of at least fourteen children of Samuel and Anna May of Southbrook Cottages. A platelayer for the Great Western Railway’s Engineering Department and living at Primrose Cottage, Ide, he volunteered under the Derby Scheme on 12 December 1915 and was mobilised on 16 February the following year. On 9 May 1916 he married Mary Burge, leaving for France three weeks later. He was run over by a railway carriage on 23 August 1916 at Acheux Station, aged 32, and is buried in Grave I/A/17 in the Acheux British Cemetery in France. He is also commemorated on the Ide War Memorial and – as Maye A – on the Great Western Railway’s roll of honour that is displayed on many of this former company’s stations. His wife was living at 3 Plais Street, Taunton at the time of his death and was granted a weekly widow’s pension of 10s. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
21002 Private William Frederick George MOUNTFORD
9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was the only child of George and Bessie Mountford of 4 Victoria Terrace and educated at the Church School. He worked for his father as a painter & decorator and enlisted at Newton Abbot in December 1915. He was killed in action on 1 July 1916 near Mametz during the Battle of Albert, aged 21. He is also commemorated on Pier & Face 1C of the Thiepval Memorial in France and by the local road name Mountford Drive, TQ13 9GJ. One hundred and fifty-five other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £111 10s., was granted to his father.
240104 Acting Colour Sergeant Edward John NICHOLLS
1/5th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was the youngest of four children of James and Jane Nicholls and educated at the Church School. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed mother in Station Road and his occupation was shown as a domestic gardener. A pre-war Territorial Force soldier with the number 897, he served initially in G Company and was stationed with the Battalion in India and the Middle East until June 1918, when it was transferred to the Western Front. He died of wounds received the previous day near Havrincourt on 14 September 1918, aged 36, and is buried in Grave II/A/29 in the Sunken Road Cemetery in France. His mother, then resident at Vicarage Cottage, had the inscription “Asleep in Christ” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated by the local road name Nicholls Place, TQ13 9GZ. Twelve other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal, Victory Medal and Territorial Force War Medal.
21689 Private Edward Llewellyn PENGELLY
10th Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
Born at Madron in Cornwall, he was one of four children of Llewellyn and Annie Pengelly of Plumley and worked in the family farming and market gardening business. Resident in Stoke-in-Teignhead, he enlisted in January 1917 at Newton Abbot in the Army Service Corps (Mechanical Transport), with the number M/285165, before being transferred to the infantry. He died of disease in the 53rd General Hospital at Wimereux on 28 October 1918, aged 23, and is buried in Grave VI/D/42 in the Terlincthun British Cemetery in France. His family had the inscription “Who suffered countless ills who battled for the true and just” added to the headstone. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £2,280 17s. 10d., was granted to his father.
K41030(D) Stoker 1st Class Cyril Edward PERKINS
HMS Cassandra
Born on 28 March 1898, in Bristol, he was second of the three children of Edward and Bessie Perkins and a blacksmith’s assistant when he joined the Royal Navy on 12 February 1917. He was drafted to the cruiser HMS Cassandra four months later and was killed on 5 December 1918, aged 20, when the ship was mined and sunk off the Gulf of Riga with the loss of 11 lives. His mother was living at Aller Farm at the time of his death. He is commemorated on Panel 28 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
12014 Private Joseph Christopher Woods PERRYMAN
6th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry
Born at Heathfield, he was the youngest of two children of Thomas and Rose Perryman of 11 Heathfield Cottages (also known as Haytor View), Heathfield and had been apprenticed to the furnishing department of William Badcock & Sons in Newton Abbot prior to taking a position at Minehead. Resident in Newton Abbot, he enlisted at Taunton between August and November 1914 and disembarked in France on 21 May the following year. He was killed in action on 16 September 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, aged 19, when the Battalion attacked Grid Trench, north-east of Flers, at 9.25am, the assault failing under heavy fire from Gas Alley. One hundred and forty-two other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is also commemorated on Pier & Face 2A of the Thiepval Memorial in France and the Chudleigh Knighton War Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
3/6872 Private Bertie POOK
1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born at Crediton, he was one of seven children of Philip and Sarah Pook. In the 1911 Census his occupation was shown as a farm carter. Resident in Uffculme, he enlisted at Bideford in August 1914 and first landed in France on 3 December that year. In 1916 he married Alice Heath, their address being 10 Mary Street. He was killed in action on 13 April 1918 at the Battle of Hazebrouck, aged 26, and is buried in Grave I/BB/25 in Aval Wood Military Cemetery in France. Eight other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. The Mid-Devon Advertiser report of his death said he was in the Royal Army Medical Corps: this was either a mistake or could indicate that he was a regimental medical orderly. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
24240 Private Percy PRESCOTT (nicknamed Dibby)
1st Battalion Grenadier Guards
Born at St Giles in the Wood near Torrington, he was one of six children of William and Mary Prescott of 34 East Street and educated at the Church School. He enlisted at Leek on 11 October 1915 and was the youngest of three brothers to serve in the Army. He was killed in action on 10 September 1916 near Ginchy during the Somme battles, aged 19, and is also commemorated on Pier & Face 8D of the Thiepval Memorial in France. Thirty-two other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
82707 Acting Sergeant William PRESCOTT
A Battery, XCIV Brigade Royal Field Artillery
Born at St Giles in the Wood near Torrington, he was one of six children of William and Mary Prescott of 34 East Street and educated at the Church School. The family was living in Mary Street at the time of the 1911 Census, when his occupation was shown as a domestic gardener. Later resident at Highfield, he enlisted at nearby Leek between October and December 1914, the middle of three brothers to serve in the Army, and embarked for France on 9 September 1915. He was wounded in October two years later and died on 21 November 1917, aged 24, having been visited by his parents in France after the amputation of one leg. Unfortunately he was too ill to recognise them. He is buried in Grave VI/H/15A in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery in France. His family had the inscription “Never shall his memory fade happy thoughts will always linger round the place where he is laid” added to the headstone. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
235028 Private Percy William SAMPSON
1/4th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
Born at Heathfield, he was one of eight children of Thomas and Elizabeth Sampson of 12 Heathfield Cottages (also known as Haytor View), Heathfield and the maternal half-brother of Frank Croote, who is also commemorated on the War Memorial. At the time of the 1911 Census he was working as a golf caddie at Stover. He enlisted between September and December 1915 and served initially, with the number 241051, in the 2/5th Battalion Devonshire Regiment, a unit disbanded in Egypt in April 1916. Transferred at some stage to the 1/4th Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, he died on 21 November 1918 in Palestine, aged about 22 and is buried in Grave DD/27 in the Ramleh War Cemetery in Israel. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
10143 Private Horace James SETTERS
1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was one of eight children of James and Alice Setters of 12 Mary Street and worked as a mason’s and bricklayer’s labourer. He enlisted at Exeter in August 1914 and disembarked in France on 3 December that year, being evacuated home later that month with frostbite. After treatment at Poole Hospital and some sick leave, he returned to France in June 1915 and was killed in action at Maricourt, in the Somme area, on 21 August 1915, aged 20, the sole other-rank in the Battalion killed that day. He is buried in Grave II/M/21 in the Cerisy-Gailly Military Cemetery in France. His family had the inscription “Never forgotten” added to the headstone and his name was added to the headstone of his parents’ grave, F2/279, in the town cemetery. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. His younger brother Frederick served as a corporal in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
3/6775 Corporal Gilbert Leonard SMITH
1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Calcutta in India, his birth may have been that of the male child of a Royal Artillery soldier named Smith, which was registered in 1879 at an unrecorded location. He married Beatrice Tithecott in 1912 and they had a son, Gilbert, the following year, the family living at Southbrook. A former regular soldier, he was recalled from the Army Reserve on the outbreak of war, having previously worked at the Dolphin Hotel for a short period, and embarked for France on 20 September 1914. He was killed in action at Wulverghem, west of Messines, on 18 November 1914, aged 36, during the rationalisation of the allied front on conclusion of the First Battle of Ypres. Seven other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. He is commemorated on Panel 21 of the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium. Medal entitlement: 1914 Star and clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
240212 Sergeant Frank Charles STADDON
1/5th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was one of four children of Charles and Elizabeth Staddon of 2 Heathfield Terrace. He was educated at the Church School and had been a clerk at Bovey Pottery Co Ltd. A pre-war Territorial Force soldier with the number 1395, he served initially with the Battalion in India until it was transferred to Egypt in April 1917. He was killed in action on 21 November 1917 near Saris, aged 22, and is buried in Grave P/4 in the Jerusalem War Cemetery in Israel. His family had the inscription “Never forgotten” added to the headstone. Four other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal, Victory Medal and Territorial Force War Medal.
159703(D) Able Seaman Charles Ernest Samuel STEER
HMS Monmouth
Born on 1 November 1875 in Chelsea, in London, he was one of probably three children of Charles and Alice Steer of Fore Street. He joined the Royal Navy as a boy seaman on 27 March 1891, giving his occupation as a plumber, and was present at the relief of the Pekin legations, during the Third China War of 1900, whilst serving in the cruiser HMS Aurora. In 1902 he married Olive Stoyle and they had eight children – Alice, Irene, Harold, Ethel, Alfred, Ernest, Winifred and Vera – between 1904 and 1914. He transferred to the Coastguard as a boatman on 2 May 1903, being rated leading boatman in September 1911 when the family were living at Prawle Coastguard Station. He was drafted to the cruiser HMS Monmouth as an able seaman on 1 August 1914 and was killed in action on 1 November 1914 when the ship was sunk with all hands – 734 men – at the Battle of Coronel, aged 39. He is also commemorated on the Torquay War Memorial and Panel 2 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial. His wife was living at 6 Coastguard Station, Daddy Hole Plain, Torquay at the time of his death. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
SP/3050 Private Arthur Alexander STOKES
24th Battalion (2nd Sportsman’s) Royal Fusiliers
Born in Wolborough, he was one of eight children of James and Mary Stokes of 11 Blenheim Terrace. He was a clerk for six years with Newton Abbot solicitors Michelmore & Hacker and received a cheque from them on enlisting at Exeter in January/February 1915. He disembarked in France on 15 November 1915 and during the Somme battles he was killed in action on 30 July 1916, aged 22, when the Battalion attacked Guillemont. Its C Company sustained very heavy casualties in front of uncut wire in the railway station area, only twelve men out of one hundred and seventeen returning. He is also commemorated on Pier & Face 8C of the Thiepval Memorial in France and by the local road name Stokes Close, TQ13 9GH. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Major Hubert SYMONS
D Battery, XLVII Brigade Royal Field Artillery
Born in Bombay in India, he was the only son of Heugh and Ellen Symons. His mother died in India in 1887 and his father, who married twice more, was living at Hatt in Cornwall at the time of his son’s death. Educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 15 July 1903 and served in India and Britain before the War. He married Mary Ferguson, of Little Wolleigh, on 11 June 1912 and they had two children – Jeanne and Peter – in 1916 and 1917, respectively. He disembarked in France on 20 August 1914, serving with 107 Battery and then 109 Battery of the British Expeditionary Force’s 3rd Division. He was invalided home in late October, when he was promoted captain, but returned to the Western Front in May 1915. In August 1916 he was wounded during the Somme battles and returned home to train a reserve battery at Newcastle until going to the front again in October 1917. Wounded at Passchendaele that year and, again, on 21 March following, when his battery was overrun on the first day of the Battle of St Quentin, he died of his wounds, in German hands, on 22 March 1918, aged 33. He is also commemorated on Panel 7 of the Pozieres Memorial in France, by the local road name Symons Close, TQ13 9GW, and on the Botus Fleming War Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1914 Star and clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £320, was granted to his widow, who was then living at Wolleigh. She was the aunt of Private Bryan Ferguson (q.v.).
28541 Private Charles James TREMLETT (probably called James)
8th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was one of six children of John and Mary Tremlett of Slade Farm, by Slade Cross on the road to Moretonhampstead. In the 1911 Census his occupation was shown as a farm boy. He enlisted at Exeter in July/August 1916 and died of wounds on 6 October 1917, aged 20. He was probably wounded at the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October, when forty-five other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action. He is buried in Grave VI/C/8A in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery in France. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
28579 Private Thomas John TREMLETT
1st Battalion East Surrey Regiment
Born in Stoke-in-Teignhead, he was one of six children of John and Mary Tremlett of Slade Farm, by Slade Cross on the road to Moretonhampstead. In the 1911 Census his occupation was shown as an agricultural horseman. He married Grace Coniam in 1913 and their son, William, was born later that year. The family lived at White Heather Terrace although his widow moved to 65A Fore Street after his death. Thomas enlisted in April/May 1916 at Newton Abbot, probably initially into the Somerset Light Infantry, with the number 25152, but also served in the 3/8th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, with the number 241910, before being transferred to the East Surrey Regiment. He was killed in action on 10 October 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres, aged 26, and is also commemorated on Panel 80 of the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium. Fifty-five other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action that same day. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Captain Harold Vaughan Iremonger WATTS
7th (Cyclist) Battalion Devonshire Regiment (attached to 2nd Battalion)
Born on 11 June 1881 in Newton Abbot, he was one of at least seven children of Francis and Edith Watts of Laureston Lodge in Newton Abbot. Educated at Newton College and Keble College, Oxford, he was a junior partner in Newton Abbot solicitors Watts, Woollcombe & Watts and played both cricket and hockey for Devon. On 20 April 1911 he married Helen Baldwin and the couple lived at Edgemoor, and later, Heathcot in East Street, having two sons – Richard and Hilary – between 1912 and 1916. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 10 October 1914 and took command of the 1/1st Wessex Divisional Cyclist Company on its formation a year later. On 8 July 1917 he went to France to join the 2nd Battalion, and was wounded in the head and back from shellfire on 1 August, during the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, a day on which eight other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action. He died of his wounds at Proven on 11 August 1917, aged 36, and is buried in Grave IV/B/35 in the Mendinghem Military Cemetery in Belgium. His widow had the inscription “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated on the Newton Abbot War Memorial and the memorial in Keble College Chapel. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £3,002 1s. 3d., was granted to his widow.
17322 Driver Arthur Leonard WEEKS
C Battery, CVI Brigade Royal Field Artillery
Born in Bovey Tracey and one of nine children of William and Jane Weeks of Virginia Cottage in East Street, he was educated at the Church School and was working as a news boy at the time of the 1911 Census. He enlisted in November 1914 at Exeter and disembarked in France on 28 July 1915, but was thrown from a horse while dispatch riding later that year and evacuated to Woolwich Hospital. By mid-1917, Arthur was one of six brothers serving in uniform. He was killed in action on 4 April 1918 by a bomb explosion during the Battle of the Avre, aged 21, and is also commemorated on Panel 10 of the Pozieres Memorial in France. Medal entitlement: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
265633 Private Sidney Charles WEEKS
1/1st Kent Battalion
Born in Plymouth, he was one of nine children of William and Jane Weeks of Virginia Cottage in East Street. He was educated at the Church School, had been a bellringer and worked as an apprentice for William Pring, the East Street tailor. He enlisted on 23 November 1914 at Tonbridge in the 1/1st Kent Cyclist Battalion, with the number 1421, and was one of six Weeks brothers serving in uniform by mid-1917. His unit was reorganised as an infantry battalion in December 1915, losing its cyclist designation, and sailed for India on 8 February the following year. In September 1918 he was admitted to the Bombay Military Hospital, where he died four days later, on 26 September 1918, aged 26. He is also commemorated on a memorial plaque in Canterbury Cathedral and on Face E of the Kirkee 1914-1918 Memorial near Poona in India, having possibly been amongst the six hundred and twenty-nine servicemen whose remains were transferred there from the Bombay (Sewri) Cemetery in 1960. Medal entitlement: British War Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £236 10s. 7d., was granted to his father.
202499 Private William Henry WYATT
1/7th Middlesex Regiment
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was one of seven children of William and Mary Wyatt of 1 South View. A bread vanman, he attested under the Derby Scheme on 8 December 1915 and was placed in the Army Reserve. Mobilised on 8 April 1916, he was posted to the Somerset Light Infantry, with the number 24853, and then attached to the 9th (Reserve) Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry the following day. Four weeks later he was transferred to the Middlesex Regiment, initially with the number 6787, and sailed for France on 30 November 1916 to join its 1/7th Battalion. He spent a month training with the 56th Divisional Training Battalion before joining his unit in the field on 12 January 1917. One of five brothers in the Army, he was last seen leaving the trenches, wounded, and walking towards a stretcher but was recorded as killed in action on 9 April 1917, aged 23, a day on which thirteen other-ranks of the Battalion were killed in action. He is also commemorated in Bay 7 of the Arras Memorial in France and by the local road name Wyatt Close, TQ13 9GF. Medal entitlement: British War Medal and Victory Medal.
BIOGRAPHICAL ROLL OF THOSE COMMEMORATED ON THE TOWN WAR MEMORIAL WHO DIED IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR (Fourteen men and one woman)
The memorial to the town’s Second World War dead was formed by placing a square granite tablet bearing their names on the front of the existing war memorial’s plinth. It was dedicated on Sunday 7 November 1948.
5625061 Private Harold Edwin BEER (nicknamed Dixie)
2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born on 15 May 1916 in Bovey Tracey, he was eldest of five children of Edwin and May Beer of 7 Moor View, and an accomplished musician who played the drums in the three-piece Cascade Dance Band. He worked for Bovey Pottery Co Ltd and in 1940 joined up and served in Malta, North Africa, Sicily and Italy before returning to the United Kingdom in November 1943. He was killed in action on D-Day, 6 June 1944, when he landed with his unit on Gold Beach in Normandy, aged 28, and is buried in Grave X/E/17 in the Bayeux War Cemetery, in France. His family had the inscription “Resting where no shadows fall, remembered daily by us all” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated by the local road name Beer Grove, TQ13 9FS. Medal entitlement: 1939-45 Star, Africa Star, Italy Star, France & Germany Star and 1939-45 War Medal.
920262 Bombardier Eric Charles Gribble CANN
170th Battery, 61st Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery
Born on 31 March 1921, he was eldest of three children of Alfred and Emma Cann of 36 Mary Street and worked at the International Store in East Street. A Territorial soldier serving with the 96th (Royal Devon Yeomanry) Field Regiment Royal Artillery, he was mobilised on 1 September 1939 and transferred to the 170th Battery. Whilst stationed as an anti-aircraft gunner at Hornchurch Airfield – where he was wounded by shrapnel during an air raid – he met Joyce Bowmer of 27 Prince’s Park, Rainham, who was then working at May & Baker’s factory at Dagenham and they married in mid-1941. In Egypt, on 26 October 1942, aged 21, he was run over and killed by the gun towed behind the vehicle in which he was a passenger, and is buried in Grave 4/A/15B in the Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery. His wife had the inscription “As I loved him, so I miss him, in my memory he is dear. His darling wife Joyce” added to the headstone.
Ply/X 100845 Marine Lewis Percival CANN
Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation I (attached to Force Viper)
Born on 4 December 1914 at Salisbury, he was the middle of possibly three children of Albert and Lilian Cann and was a general labourer living at Thorn Court, Okehampton before the war. Stationed in Ceylon with the 1st Royal Marines Coast Regiment – of Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation I – he was one of one hundred and seven men who answered a call for volunteers for hazardous service and were formed into Force Viper, in January 1942, for river patrol and raiding operations in Burma. He was posted missing presumed killed, aged 27, after an action at Padaung on the Irrawaddy River on 28 March 1942. His sub-unit, 3 Platoon, became detached from the main force, most of its members subsequently dying in unknown circumstances and being given the official casualty date of 24 April 1942 after the War. He is also commemorated on Panel 102 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial. His mother was living at Southbrook at the time of his death.
5623500 Private Sidney Albert CARPENTER
12th (Airborne) Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in Cheshire, he was son of George and Elizabeth Carpenter of Mary Street. He married Trixie Matthews in 1940 and they had two sons – Terence and Bryan – between 1941 and 1945. He died on 24 March 1945 at the capture of Hamminkeln during the crossing of the Rhine, aged 27. Originally buried at Dingden, his remains were removed to Grave 37/F/10 in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany on 16 January 1947. His family had the inscription “He died that his son might live” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated by the local road name Carpenter Drive, TQ13 9TU.
1175691 Aircraftman 1st Class Rodney Dennis COOMBES
No 200 Squadron RAF
Born on 7 August 1920 in Bovey Tracey, he was one of nine children of Albert and Nora Coombes of 73 Fore Street, all seven of their sons serving in the Armed Forces during the war. Rodney had been a chorister at St John’s Church and worked at the Town Hall Garage before joining the RAF on 1 August 1940 as a mechanical transport mechanic. On passage in the SS Anselm, sailing in Convoy WS 9B, to join his squadron in West Africa, he was lost, aged 20, when the ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U96 on 5 July 1941, about three hundred and forty nautical miles north of the Azores, with the loss of two hundred and fifty-four lives. He is also commemorated on Panel 58 of the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial and the headstone of his sister Linna’s grave, F3/487, in the town cemetery.
D/K55432 Stoker 1st Class William Edwin DAVEY
HMS Monck
Born on 15 March 1889 in Bovey Tracey, he was one of seven children of Henry and Susannah Davey. He joined the Royal Navy on a short service engagement with the number SS115116 on 10 November 1913, giving his occupation as a farm wagoner, and was serving in the scout HMS Skirmisher at the outbreak of the Great War, during which he qualified for the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. Clearly enjoying naval life he volunteered to extend his service, receiving a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in January 1929 and being discharged to pension on completion of twenty-two years. In 1922 he married Emma Cox (née Gale) and became stepfather to her twelve-year old son, Gerald Cox. He was recalled in 1939 and was serving at the Internal Combustion Engine School, at Rosneath, when he died on 12 April 1945 in the United States Navy Hospital at Helensborough, aged 56. He was buried on 18 April in Grave G1/74 in the town cemetery and his family had the inscription “God’s greatest gift is remembrance” added to the headstone. His wife was living in Mary Street at the time of his death. Assessed Second World War medal entitlement: Defence Medal and 1939-45 War Medal.
610629 Sergeant Denton Percy DIXON
No 204 Squadron RAF
Born on 14 April 1920 at Stamford, he was eldest of three children of Thomas and Agnes Dixon of 28 Priory and worked at the Town Hall Garage until enlisting for six years service in the RAF as a flight rigger on 5 April 1938. He was posted to 204 Squadron at RAF Mount Batten on 30 June the following year and volunteered to fly on operations as a part-time air gunner when war broke out, being remustered as a full-time air gunner and promoted temporary sergeant in May 1940. Whilst flying on a convoy escort sortie off Norway on 3 Apr 1940, his Sunderland flying boat was attacked by a succession of Junkers 88 aircraft in the first air-to-air combat involving a Sunderland. In an action for which the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Frank Phillips, received the Distinguished Flying Cross, one enemy aircraft was shot down and a second so badly damaged that it later crashed. On 21 July 1940, Denton, aged 20, was one of 12 crew members lost when Sunderland N9028, operating from Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands, was presumed shot down by a Messerschmitt 110 aircraft over Trondheim Fjord. He is also commemorated on Panel 13 of the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial. Medal entitlement: 1939-45 Star, Air Crew Europe Star and 1939-45 War Medal.
2761997 Private Bryan Gratney FERGUSON
Black Watch (attached to No 3 Commando)
Born on 31 May 1922 in Burma, he was the only son of Captain Donald and Helen Ferguson, who divorced five years later, and nephew by marriage of Major Hubert Symons (q.v.). Both his parents married again and his mother, a novelist, short story writer and painter, adopted the pseudonym Anna Kavan. He was living in Edinburgh when he joined the Black Watch and later volunteered for the commandos, serving with No 3 Commando. On 14 July 1943 he was slightly wounded at the 3 Commando Bridge action in Sicily. Wounded again early in the Italian campaign, he was brought back to Britain and treated in a number of American hospitals, where he showed great fortitude and cheerfulness despite being severely wounded and paralysed. He subsequently died on 22 February 1944 at the Bristol Military Hospital, aged 21, and was buried four days later in Grave F3/421 in the town cemetery under the inscription “Died of wounds courageously borne”. The administration of his estate, valued at £255 11s. 4d., was granted to his father who, with his stepmother Margaret, was in India at the time of his death. His address in his will was given as Edgemoor, on Avenue Road, Bovey Tracey.
W/192499 Private Alice Grace HEATH (called Grace)
Auxiliary Territorial Service (attached to the Royal Artillery)
Born on 15 August 1925 in Bovey Tracey, she was one of ten children of John and Ethel Heath of Lower Pottery Cottages and had been employed at the Hawkmoor Sanatorium and the Rock Hotel, Haytor Vale, before the war. She joined up in September 1942 and served with a Royal Artillery anti-aircraft unit. She contracted tuberculosis in October 1943 and was medically discharged on 28 February 1944. She died at the Hawley Hospital in Barnstaple on 26 June 1944, aged 18, and was buried in Grave A4/17 in the town cemetery on 1 July, her family having the inscription “Deep in our hearts, She is living yet, We all loved her too dearly, Ever to forget” added to the headstone. Her fiancé, Private John Black, was serving in North Africa at the time of her death. Medal entitlement: 1939-45 War Medal.
Captain John Catterall LEACH DSO MVO RN (called Jack)
HMS Prince of Wales
Born on 1 September 1894 at Clevedon, he was the only child of Charles and Emily Leach. He entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in May 1907 and joined the fleet as a midshipman in 1912. Serving in the battleship HMS Erin from 1914-18, he was granted six months seniority as a lieutenant for having “performed very good service as officer in charge of a turret” at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. The following September he married Evelyn Lee, only daughter of Mr and Mrs Lee of Yarner. The couple lived at Yarner and had four sons – John, Roger, Henry and Richard – between 1918 and 1928 of whom the third became an admiral of the fleet. He was appointed a member of the Royal Victorian Order after the 1927 royal visit to Australasia in HMS Renown. Promoted captain in 1933, Jack took command of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales on 15 February 1941 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for the courage and coolness he displayed in action against the German battleship Bismarck on 24 May 1941. Initially, ironically, there had been high level political pressure – robustly resisted by the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet, who threatened to act as accused’s friend – to have him court martialled for breaking off action with the Bismarck after she destroyed the battlecruiser HMS Hood. Aged 47, he was one of three hundred and twenty-seven men lost when the Prince of Wales was abandoned and sank in the South China Sea on 10 December 1941 after attack by Japanese aircraft east of Malaya whilst trying to intercept a Japanese invasion force. He is also commemorated on Panel 44 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial, by the local road name Leach Avenue, TQ13 9GB, and on his wife’s grave, Grave D3/274, in the town cemetery. Assessed medal entitlement: Distinguished Service Order, Member of the Royal Victorian Order, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, 1935 Jubilee Medal, 1937 Coronation Medal, 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, Africa Star, Burma Star, Pacific Star and 1939-45 War Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £11,041 15s. 8d., was granted to his widow and their son Roger.
95576 Lieutenant Humphrey Richard Hickson MARRIOTT
2nd Battalion Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
Born in Essex, he was one of the four children of Major George and Eileen Marriott. Commissioned as a second lieutenant on 3 July 1939, he was captured on 21 May 1940 in the Petegem area of West Belgium when carrying orders from 131 Brigade’s headquarters to his battalion. He was held as a prisoner of war, with the number 415, in Oflag 7B at Eichstatt and, aged 25, was one of 11 officers killed when the column in which he was being marched away from advancing Allied forces was mistakenly strafed by Allied Mustang fighter aircraft on 14 April 1945. Initially buried in Eichstatt Civilian Cemetery, his remains were removed to Grave 3/E/25 in the Durnbach War Cemetery in Germany on 17 March 1948. His family had the inscription “In proud and everlasting memory of our beloved only son and brother” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated by the local road name Marriott Way, TQ13 9RZ. Medal entitlement: 1939-45 Star and 1939-45 War Medal. The administration of his estate, valued at £16,810 15s. 8d., was granted to his mother, who had married Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Mairis after his father’s death and lived at Waye, Lower Down.
14352864 Trooper Reginald James MARTIN (nicknamed Sheep)
2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry
Born in Bovey Tracey, he was eldest of the three children of James and Beatrice Martin of Holwells Bungalow in Mary Street and worked as a joiner for Heath Brothers, the Dolphin Square builders. He enlisted on 2 January 1943 and joined the Northamptonshire Yeomanry that July after training with 55 Training Regiment. A Cromwell tank driver, he landed in Normandy with his unit on 18 June 1944 and was one of 28 men killed in action in his regiment on 30 June, the closing day of Operation Epsom, during the battle for Caen, aged 20. He is also commemorated on Panel 10 of the Bayeux Memorial in France, by the local road name Martin Drive, TQ13 9PE, and in the Methodist Church on a brass plate recording that he had been a Sunday School scholar.
48111 Pilot Officer Richard Eric SMARIDGE (called Eric)
No 21 Squadron RAF
Born on 2 July 1918 in Bovey Tracey, he was the only child of Richard and Alice Smaridge of Lower Bradley Farm, his mother dying when he was four years old. He was educated at the Grammar School and worked at Bovey Tracey Art Pottery before enlisting for six years service in the RAF as a wireless operator on 17 May 1938. Flying with 88 Squadron on the outbreak of war, he qualified as a wireless operator/air gunner in April 1940 and was promoted to flight sergeant 12 months later. He was posted to 21 Squadron on 5 December 1941 and commissioned as a pilot officer on 8 January 1942. On 6 February 1942 he was killed in action, aged 23, when his aircraft, Z7308, was one of three Blenheim bombers shot down by Messerschmitt 109 fighters near Filfla Island, south of Malta, whilst returning from an anti-shipping strike to Buayrat al Hasun in Libya. He is also commemorated on Panel 3 of the Malta Air Forces Memorial, on his mother’s grave, D4/478, in the town cemetery and by the local road name Smaridge Row, TQ13 9QL. The administration of his estate, valued at £413 9s. 1d., was granted to his father, who was then living at 14 East Street.
5623488 Private Leonard John WILLS (nicknamed Skippy)
6th Battalion South Wales Borders
Born in the Newton Abbot district, he was the only child of William and Mabel Wills of 11 Mary Street and had worked at Bovey Pottery Co Ltd. He joined the Devonshire Regiment but was later transferred to the South Wales Borders. He died of malaria on 6 December 1944, aged 25, and is buried in Grave 4/C/2 in the Digboi War Cemetery in India. His family had the inscription “Absent in body yet present in spirit” added to the headstone. He is also commemorated by the local road name Wills Road, TQ13 9PG. The administration of his estate, valued at £191 2s. 8d., was granted to his mother.
535847 Flight Sergeant Thomas WOOD (called Tommy)
B Flight, No 58 Squadron RAF
Born on 25 January 1918 at North Tamerton, he was the second of three children of Thomas and Mary Wood, who lived at Rachael Cottages, Pullabrook, at the time of his death. He enlisted for seven years service in the RAF as a flight rigger’s mate on 3 November 1936 and had qualified as a part-time air gunner in November 1938, in the rank of leading aircraftman. On 4 September 1939, the second night of the war, he flew in the first air raid on the German heartland, dropping leaflets in the Ruhr Valley. His squadron was loaned to Coastal Command from October 1939 until January 1940 to combat the German submarine threat. Tommy took part in his first bombing raid, on Fornebu Airfield in Norway, on 20 April and thereafter flew in a further twenty-one raids, including an eight hour, twenty-five minute operation against Berlin on 17 April 1941. In a raid on Amiens on 12 June 1940, his aircraft suffered an engine fire and had to return early, making a forced landing at Upper Heyford. A sergeant since May 1940, he became a full-time air gunner that August and was promoted flight sergeant in April 1941. Tommy was killed in action, aged 23, when Whitley bomber Z6936 was shot down on 19 September 1941 over the Baltic Sea on a raid to Stettin. Five crew members were seen to bale out but their bodies were washed ashore near Rostock. Originally buried in Rostock’s New Cemetery, his remains were removed to Grave 8/D/8 in the Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery in Germany on 15 April 1947. His family had the inscription “Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?” added to the headstone. Medal entitlement: 1939-45 Star, Air Crew Europe Star and 1939-45 War Medal.
BIOGRAPHICAL ROLL OF WAR DEAD BURIED IN THE TOWN CEMETERY (Six men and two women)
The term War Dead covers those whose deaths are commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission under its charter to honour in perpetuity those who died in the First and Second World Wars.
168697 Flying Officer Reginald William ALFORD
No 1655 Mosquito Training Unit
Born on 8 September 1913 in Bovey Tracey, the youngest of two children of Frederick and Mary Alford then living at 48 Fore Street, he was educated at Newton Abbot Grammar School and often played football for Bovey Tracey. Joining the RAF on 21 May 1941, he trained in Britain and South Africa as a navigator before being posted to No 467 Squadron, equipped with Lancaster bombers, on 22 November 1942. He flew on many operations during eleven months with the Squadron and was commissioned pilot officer on 31 August 1943. He was mentioned in despatches on 8 June 1944, just before attending a four-week bombing leaders course prior to posting to 1655 Mosquito Training Unit on 2 October that year for conversion to Mosquitoes. On 8 November 1944, he took off from RAF Wyton in Mosquito DZ632 at 9.30pm on a night training flight with Flight Lieutenant Clancey at the controls. Both died, Reginald aged 31, when the aircraft later crashed at Oak Farm, near Lound in Suffolk, being seen descending in a dive. He was buried five days later alongside his father in Grave E2/240 under a private headstone. His widowed mother was then living at 29 Chelston Road, Newton Abbot and he is commemorated on Newton Abbot War Memorial.
440510 Aircraftwoman 2nd Class Dorothea Rose CLAPHAM (called Dorothy)
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
Born on 23 June 1922 in London, she was the daughter of Ada Mackintosh who married David Thomas when her daughter was 16, the marriage being registered at Totnes. Dorothy enlisted on 25 February 1941, serving at RAF Kenley as an orderly, but was medically discharged on 5 April 1942. She married Geoffrey Clapham, a RAF corporal, in 1945 and they lived at 29 Stanley Gardens, Paignton. Dorothy died of Pulmonary Tuberculosis at Hawkmoor TB Sanatorium on 4 April 1947, aged 24, and was buried five days later in Grave H2/226 under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.
D/K55432 Stoker 1st Class William Edwin DAVEY
HMS Monck
Buried on 18 April 1945 in Grave G1/74 under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone with the family inscription “God’s greatest gift is remembrance”. His biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Second World War war memorial.
2761997 Private Bryan Gratney FERGUSON
Black Watch (attached to No 3 Commando)
Buried on 26 February 1944 in Grave F3/421 under a private granite cross headstone. His biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Second World War war memorial.
W/192499 Private Alice Grace HEATH
Auxiliary Territorial Service
Buried on 1 July 1944 in Grave A4/17 under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone with the family inscription “Deep in our hearts she is living yet, we all loved her too dearly ever to forget”. Her biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Second World War war memorial.
178377 Leading Seaman Gunner Ernest HYSSETT
HMS Vivid
Buried on 20 August 1915 in Grave E3/99 under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone. His biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Great War war memorial.
14416797 Private William Jack SADLER (called Jack)
Gloucestershire Regiment (attached to No 4 Commando)
Born on 24 August 1926, he was the eldest of two children of William and Margaret Sadler and may have lived his early life in Bovey Tracey, where his father worked at the pottery for a number of years. By 1939 the family occupied a shop at 308 Torquay Road, Paignton. Jack was employed at the Broadway Stores, Preston having previously worked for two years as a grocer’s assistant at the Chelston Co-op branch. He had been a member of the Torquay Army Cadet Force for two years and joined the Paignton Home Guard before enlisting underage in the Gloucestershire Regiment and volunteering for commando service. Serving in E Troop, No 4 Commando he was wounded on the beach at Ouistreham on D-Day and again when the DUKW taking him out to a ship for evacuation to England for treatment was attacked by German aircraft. He died 17 days later, on 23 June 1944, of multiple machine-gun and mine wounds to his head, body and legs, and bronchial pneumonia, at Hill End Hospital in St Albans, aged 17. He was buried six days later in Grave G2/324 under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone with the family inscription “In loving memory. One of many who gave his life for the country he loved”. He is commemorated on Paignton War Memorial and by the local place name Sadler Green, TQ13 9AY.
2nd Lieutenant Wallace John TAYLOR
4th Platoon, D Company, 14th (Moorside) Battalion Devon Home Guard
Born on 4 April 1894 in Bideford, he was the only child of John and Norah Taylor and was living with them at Pudleigh, near Chard, in 1911 whilst employed as a saddler and harness maker. He enlisted early in the Great War and was probably 1878 Saddler Wallace John Taylor of the Royal Field Artillery, who went to France on 31 August 1915. In 1921, he was working as a saddler for George Edwards & Son of Fore Street, Bovey Tracey and lodging at 1 White Heather Terrace. He was employed as a lorry driver and mechanic at the Tucker Brothers’ garage in East Street in the 1930s before moving to the employment of Mr Currie at Chudleigh Knighton just prior to the Second World War, living at 6 Teign View in the village. He volunteered first as an air raid warden in 1939 and then, after its formation in 1940, for the Home Guard. On 21 February 1943, he suffered a comminuted fracture of the femur from a single round from a machine-gun that was said to have gone off when placed on some drums of signal wire at Chudleigh Knighton Home Guard headquarters after use on a nearby range. He was taken to Bovey Tracey cottage hospital and operated on, but died of shock resulting from his injuries on 22 February 1943, aged 48. He was buried three days later in Grave G2/284 under a private headstone.
SCHOOLBOY BURIED IN A SERVICE GRAVE IN BOVEY TRACEY CEMETERY
Kevin O’CONNELL
Duke of York’s Royal Military School
Born on 19 October 1935 in Liverpool, he was one of eight children of Richard and Bridget O’Connell. His father had been a sergeant in the Royal Irish Fusiliers and Kevin entered the Duke of York’s Royal Military School – which had been evacuated from Dover to the Saunton Sands Hotel, near Braunton, for the war – on 13 September 1945. He died of TB meningitis on 26 May 1946 at Stover Military Hospital, aged 10, and was buried four days later in Grave H2/227 under a military-style headstone with the family inscription “Suffer little children to come unto me. RIP”.
INDIVIDUALS BURIED OR COMMEMORATED AS WAR DEAD ELSEWHERE WHOSE NAMES ARE RECORDED ON FAMILY PLOTS IN BOVEY TRACEY CEMETERY
34500 Corporal William John BLACK
6th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
Born in 1888 in Bovey Tracey the eldest of two children of John and Susan Black, he was a draper’s assistant and enlisted for four years as a part-time Territorial soldier on 22 April 1909, joining the 5th Devons. He moved to London shortly afterwards, being transferred first to the 5th East Surreys on 1 November 1909 and then Queen Victoria’s Rifles on 5 April 1911. He was mobilised during the Great War and served overseas with the Worcestershire Regiment. He may have signed on as a regular soldier because he was still in uniform in late 1919, when he contracted broncho pneumonia and died in the hospital at Norton Barracks, the Worcester’s depot at Norton-Juxta-Kempsy, on 11 November 1919; aged 31. He is buried in Grave 2559 in Dawlish Cemetery and commemorated on his father’s grave, A4/49, in Bovey Tracey Cemetery. His mother was living at 26 Courtney Street, in Newton Abbot, at the time of his death.
1175691 Aircraftman 1st Class Rodney Dennis COOMBES
No 200 Squadron RAF
Commemorated on his sister Linna’s grave, F3/487, in Bovey Tracey Cemetery. His biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Second World War war memorial.
Captain John Catterall LEACH RN MVO DSO (called Jack)
HMS Prince of Wales
Commemorated on his wife’s grave, Grave D3/274, in Bovey Tracey Cemetery. His biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Second World War war memorial.
10143 Private Horace James SETTERS
1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Commemorated on his parents’ grave, F2/279, in Bovey Tracey Cemetery. His biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Great War war memorial.
48111 Pilot Officer Richard Eric SMARIDGE (called Eric)
No 21 Squadron RAF
Commemorated on his mother’s grave, D4/478, in Bovey Tracey Cemetery. His biographical details are given in the roll of those commemorated on the town’s Second World War war memorial.
12022 Private William James SHARLAND
10th Battalion Devonshire Regiment
Born in early 1893 in Pembroke the only child of James and Emma Sharland, he lived with his parents in Post Office Street, Bishopsteignton from at least 1901 and was working as a gardener 10 years later. He enlisted in the 10th Battalion Devonshire Regiment in August/September 1914 and went to France with his unit on 22 September 1915. Two months later the Battalion was transferred to Salonika, where he was one of four of its soldiers killed in action on 20 November 1916; aged 23. He is buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery, in Greece, and commemorated on his parents’ grave, F2/238, in Bovey Tracey Cemetery.