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BAILEY, JOHN E ( Shown as Bailey, John David on CWGC records ) Serjeant 23854 Royal Welsh Fusiliers 1st Bn (Headstone) 3rd Bn (CWGC) Awarded the MM Died 9-January-1918 aged 26 (Note Garton Memorial see RHS shows 12 January) Son of John and Emmiline Bailey, of 10, Ferndale Rd., Banstead. John Edmund Bailey's birth was registered in the March quarter of 1891 in Croydon. His birthplace was given as Thornton Heath. In 1901 the family lived at the Police station in Banstead High Street where the father, also John Edmund, was a police constable. CWGC Grave/Memorial Reference: Old ground. BANSTEAD (ALL SAINTS) CHURCHYARD Digitally enhanced for clarity. John Edmund (father) and Emmiline (mother) Bailey are also included on this headstone. Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Discrepancy on Middle name and Battalion. Family Headstone All Saints Church Churchyard Banstead Surrey. family research by Barbara Rough. 1901 Census. Unable to find a death registration for either Dec 1917 or January 1918 which is curious. TO BE RESOLVED Second name and discrepancy over date of death. memorial.) .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel
BALCHIN, AUBREY ALFRED WILLIAM Rifleman 306035 London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade)5th Bn. Posted to Secondary Regiment: London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) Died 14-October-1918 aged 19 Son of Aubrey Maurice and Alice Maud Balchin, of "Homeland," Court Rd., Banstead, Surrey. Grave Reference: II. A. 11. LIEVIN COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION Source : All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. CWGC - AAW BALCHIN .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel
BALDWIN, JOHN HENRY Private 231043 Son of Harry and Anna Bella Baldwin, of 3, Devonshire Cottages, Banstead, Surrey. London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)2nd Bn. Secondary Regiment: London Regiment (The Rangers) attd. 12th Bn. Died 28-February-1917 aged 24 The following account is taken from one surviving page of the All Saints Banstead Parish Magazine which was retained by a relative : PTE. JOHN HENRY BALDWIN joined the London Regiment soon after war broke out. He had from the outset a strenuous experience. He served three months at the Dardanelles, and saw much terrible fighting, but came through all safely, being one of the force which took part in that skillful but melancholy evacuation. He spent a short time in Egypt,and then was sent to France, where he was soon in the thick of it again. In the Battle of the Somme last July he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. A letter from a fellow prisoner, an Australian, has just been received, reporting the sad news of his death at the camp of the prisoners-of-war at Langensabya, in Turingia, in Germany. It says that the German doctor did all that was possible to relieve his sufferings but he died of disease which evidently he contracted in camp. He has done his duty manfully and has now joined many another hero in the unseen spiritual world, where fighting is no more. May the Risen Prince of Peace give him eternal rest. Grave Reference: VI. G. 11. NIEDERZWEHREN CEMETERY Kassel, Hessen, Germany Source : All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. CWGC - J H BALDWIN .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel
BATES, HARRY Note from webamster 20 Nov 2007 - details of the 2nd Battalion's engagements yet to be added. Private G/5193 The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) 2nd Battalion Son of John who was a Farrier/Blacksmith and Mary Bates. Died Saturday 1-July-1916 aged 22 Harry's medals still remain with the family. The 1914-1915 Star, The British War Medal and The Victory Medal. Harry Bates was born on the 8th July 1893 in Teddington, Middlesex, and died on the first day of the battle of the Somme just a few days before his 23rd birthday. Harry had two older brothers, George and Albert, and a sister, Caroline (Kit) Bates. Kit always remembered pushing Harry in a pram in 1894 in Richmond Park when there were celebrations for the birth of Prince Edward later Duke of Windsor. Kit also recalls how when Harry began to walk, her father made him a wooden go-cart with two wheels from the old pram. Later father also bought a goat for five shillings. Harry's brothers, George and Albert built a carriage for the goat to pull, and sitting in this cart, Harry took part in a procession to celebrate the relief of Mafeking in May 1900 during the Boer War. Kit married Will Tree who was an illustrator for Fulham and sometimes Arsenal Football Clubs. For one particular programme, he drew the young Harry Bates, who posed for it, wearing shorts and shirt in the Club colours, and with one foot resting on the football. Harry often sent postcards and a few are shown here. The first to Friends Vi and George from Edith Villa, Diceland Rd., Banstead, Surrey Dear Vi & George, just a time to let you know I spent a very happy Xmas. I went home to Mums & Georges Place & on Saturday I went to Albert's Girl Place her sister got married so they insisted me up. I very sorry I could not spend Xmas with you but I could not quite manage it. Bill, Kit & baby are quite well with love wish you a Happy New Year Harry. On the other side of the card shows pictures of Red Indians and the message reads Wishing you both a prosperous New year 1914. from Harry to Vie and George In Xmas 1914 Harry was lodging with his sister Kit (Caroline Amelia Tree nee Bates) and her husband Thomas William Tree (Will) and daughter Violet and baby Dorothy. On the 22nd March 1915, at the age of twenty-one, Harry enlisted at Kingston and his address was recorded as 71 High Street Hampton Wick, just down the road from Teddington. His attestation is shown in the East Surrey recruitment register where he was described as five feet one and three quarter inches tall, weighing one hundred and eleven pounds and having a 34 inch chest. He was assigned to the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment. The Queen's regimental badge is one of those which incorporate symbols quite unique to one unit, in this case, the distinctive Paschal Lamb of the old 2nd (Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot, which in 1881 became the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment. In its conventional form it is represented as a lamb with a halo above its head, supporting over one shoulder a flag bearing the red cross of St. George,upon a white field. The photo shows Harry's actual badge which has survived in top class condition. Harry continued to send postcards and the next cards were sent from France when he was with his regiment with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Here's wishing you both a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year To Kit & Will from Harry 5193 Pt H Bates . (This was probably Christmas 1915) My Dear little Via, Just a card for you to keep as a souvenir of "Le Guere" & to let you know that I am keeping in the best of health as I hope you are with love from your ever loving Uncle Harry XXXXXXX XXXX for Baby The card was addressed to Miss Via Tree, Edith Villa, Diceland Rd., Banstead, Surrey, England His niece Violet was just four years old in 1915. The baby was Dorothy born in 1914. His sister Kit must have replied, as indicated by Harry's next card. Dear Kit just another souvenir card of "Le Guere" as you seemed so pleased with the last one with fondest regards from your ever loving Brother Harry. Another card sent from the trenches reads Dear Kit Just a card to let you know that I came through the large quite safe & well & I hope it will find you the same. My best regards to you all at home. kisses for Via & baby. I am writing to him also to Alice for the Parcel & the Red Mag have wrote to Mum & am writing to George & Em and I have had a letter from them will let you have a letter as soon as possible but have not had much time so far as we have been in & out of trenches constantly. Well dear Kit & Will goodbye for the pres. From your loving Brother Harry (from Pt H Bates, A coy 5193, 2nd Bat Queen's R W S, B E F, France) The cards were normally issued to the troops with a space for messages on one side and an illustration on the other. Uncle Harry, as he was known always remembered young Violet and in later years she recalled the time when he and her family moved to Banstead. "My parents moved to Banstead (60 Diceland Road) when I was two-and-a- half and my Uncle Harry, who had been living with us, I believe came separately with the furniture on a horse and cart. Uncle Harry was given the chance to be an apprentice carpenter and joiner under Mr Alec Rogers who lived next to the workshops." "Dad and Uncle Harry were called up to go in the army. I was the eldest of the family and so the only one who met Mum's young brother, Uncle Harry. I can't picture him now, but remember standing on my bed while Mum helped me to get dressed and brushed my hair, saying "Poor Uncle Harry is dead", with tears pouring down her cheeks. He was so young." A Great War Parchment Memorial Scroll was awarded by the king to recognise the sacrifice made by the fallen. Each one was personalized and this image is the actual scroll issued in Harry's name. The photo on the left shows Harry's inscription on the Thiepval Memorial and the wooden panel is in The Lady Chapel of All Saints church Banstead. Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 5 D and 6 D. THIEPVAL MEMORIAL Somme, France Source : Regimental badge information from Queens Royal Surreys Paul Dansey - Excerpts from memoirs of Caroline Amelia Tree and Violet Hasker Medal and regimental badge photographs by permission of Robert Tree Mail sent to The Queen's Royal Surrey Regimental Association requesting permission to use their material. LW 21 Nov 2007. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. CWGC - H BATES 2nd Battalion notes - draft only The 2nd Battalion returned to England on l9th September 1914 and landed at Zeebrugge as part of 7th Division in early October. By the 1st November 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres, the 2nd Battalion , had suffered 676 casualties. The 1st Battalion was at Mons, the first battle of the war and took part in the retreat, covering 136 miles in thirteen days of hard fighting. After the battles of Mons and the Aisne, it fought the First Battle of Ypres; two days previously on 29th October, it had been joined by the 2nd Battalion withdrawing from Antwerp and that night the two battalions held a sector of the line side by side. The 2nd Battalion lost many men in the slaughter at Ypres in October 1914 and in 1915 it fought the battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert and Loos. On 1st July 1916 the battalion captured all its objectives in the opening moves of the Battle of the Somme, and with one short rest, fought continuously until 16th July. Altogether 31 battalions were raised; the Queen’s fought on nearly every front, added 73 Battle Honours to their Colours and won four Victoria Crosses. The Regimental War Memorial in Holy Trinity Church, Guildford is inscribed: ‘To the glorious memory of 8000 Officers, Warrant Officers,Non-Commissioned officers and Men of the Queen’s who gave their lives for their country in Flanders, France, Italy, Gallipoli, Salonika, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, India, Africa and Germany 1914-1918’. NOTE - The contents of this site are © The Queen's Royal Surrey Regimental Association from http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22998 - They participated in the First Battle of Ypres - then were taken out of the line - to return for Second Ypres and the Battle of Loos. The Battalion also fought on the Somme - they were in the Mametz Wood area on July 1st. After two months of fighting they left the Somme and fought in the Battles of Arras and Passchendale (3rd Ypres). .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel
BLUNT, GEORGE SAMUEL Private 42270 Royal Fusiliers 6th Bn.(4th City of London Regiment) Died 3-August-1917 aged 35 Son of Mr. William and Mrs. Annie Blunt, of Banstead, Surrey; Husband of Nellie G. Blunt, of 63, Fishponds Rd., Tooting Bec Rd., London. Prior to enlisting, George was a decorator who lived at 4 Lyme Regis Road, Banstead. It seems likely that Private George Blunt was lost during one of the worst battles of WWl, the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele near Ypres. Ground conditions during the whole Ypres-Passendale action were atrocious. Continuous shelling destroyed drainage canals in the area, and unseasonable heavy rain turned the whole area into a sea of mud and water-filled shell-craters. The troops walked up to the front over paths made of duckboards laid across the mud, often carrying up to one hundred pounds (45 kg) of equipment. It was possible for them to slip off the path into the craters and drown before they could be rescued. The trees were reduced to blunted trunks, the branches and leaves torn away, and the bodies of men buried after previous actions were often uncovered by the rain or later shelling. Memorial Reference: Panel 6 and 8. YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 1901 Census Surrey recruitment registers CD produced by The Surrey History Trust. .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel
BLUNT, PERCY Private S4/218557 Army Service Corps 1002nd HT Coy Died 17-October-1918 aged 28 Son of William and Annie Blunt, of Gowdhurst, Kent. Husband of Edith Alice Nellie Blunt, of "Balgary," Bute Rd., Wallington, Surrey. Grave Reference: 36 BEIRUT WAR CEMETERY El Horj district, Lebanon. Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey. .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel Wood panel All Saints Church Banstead.
BOOBIER, ARTHUR Private 9750 East Surrey Regiment 1st Bn. Died 15-August-1916 age 25 Arthur Boobier was the son of William James Boobier (a police constable) and his wife Annie Land. He was born in Poplar, Bromley, London in 1891, and at the age of 10 lived at St Mary Stratford Bow. He was a member of the Church of England and was a printer before he joined the army. Arthur enlisted in the East Surrey Regiment, an infantry regiment, on 11 December 1908 and served in the UK until 1910 when he was posted to Burma until the end of 1914. Following his return to Britain, he completed a transport course in which he was described as "honest, sober, intelligent, industrious and clean". Private Boobier was posted with the British Expeditionary Force to France on the 19 January 1915. Arthur's unit, the 1st Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment were involved in several famous and bloody battles during 1915. From January to April they were in trenches in Flanders around Armentières and Ypres and from the 19th to the 23rd of April they were involved in the Defence of Hill 60. From April through to June, the Battle of Ypres continued with the battalion spending a lot of time in the trenches. In July they transferred to Maricourt and the Somme sector and were again in the trenches for the rest of the year and the first six months of 1916. By this time they were in the Arras sector. Then came the Battle of the Somme. This was the main Allied attack on the Western Front during 1916 and was launched along a 30 kilometre front, from north of the Somme river between Arras and Albert. 58,000 British troops were lost during the battle, one third of them killed on the 1 July 1916, the first day of the battle. Private Boobier must have survived this terrible day but on the 29th of July 1916 he was wounded in the arm by a gunshot. The injury was not serious and he returned to active service soon afterwards. On the 15th of August, he was hit again, in the chest and arm, and this time his injuries proved to be fatal. Arthur Boobier never married and was survived by his parents and his sisters Beatrice, Lily, Mabel and Edith. Grave Reference: B. 27. 8. ST. SEVER CEMETERY, ROUEN Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. All Saints Church Memorial Banstead. Sara White, avid collector of information on the name 'Boobier'(June 2008) IDENTIFICATION ISSUES - Link to Banstead area not yet established. A local policeman, PC Boobier, was mentioned in Geoff's Banstead Page 83 as living in Ferndale Road Banstead at about 1912. Last Update - Added personal and military service history 6 June 2008. ...................................................................................... ............................................................................................................ back to panel
BOWN, V Inscribed as V. Brown on the Banstead War memorial. Gunner L/5036 Royal Field Artillery Died 10-August-1917 aged 32 Grave Reference: V. E. 1. BRANDHOEK NEW MILITARY CEMETERY Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey. IDENTIFICATION ISSUES - Link to Banstead area not yet established. .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel Wood panel All Saints Church Banstead.
Brown V. (See V. Bown)
BUCKLE, ARCHIE STEWART Brigadier General Royal Artillery 17th Division. Died 18-August-1916 aged 47 Son of Archibald Lewis Buckle (Capt., Royal Engineers). Husband of the Mildred Louisa Buckle nee Rose. Archie Stewart Buckle was named Archie and not Archibald Stewart Buckle who was in fact a first cousin. Archie Stewart Buckle was born in India on the 24th of November 1868, was educated at Clifton College and was commissioned in the Royal Artillery on 17 February 1888. In June 1898 he took part with his battery in the Sudan expedition and was present at the battle of Omdurman, for which he obtained the Queen's and the Khedive's medals. By this time, British firepower included the new Maxim machine gun and at the Battle of Omdurman on 2 September 1898, an army commanded by the General Sir Horatio Kitchener, defeated the army of Abdullah al-Taashi, despite being outnumbered two-to-one by al-Taashi's forces. The Mahdists sustained casualties totalling nearly half their force at the hands of the artillery, machine-guns and trained soldiery of the British and Egyptians, who lost not even fifty men killed, and took total casualties of less than 500. The engagement was a clear demonstration of the superiority of a highly disciplined European led army equipped with modern rifles and artillery over tribesmen with older weapons, and marked the success of British efforts to re-conquer the Sudan. For this battle the bar for Khartoum was awarded By the end of September, Achie Buckle was gazetted captain, and went on to Aden as instructor of Gunnery. He served all through the South African war, was twice mentioned in dispatches, receiving the Queen's medals with three clasps and the King's medal with two clasps. In 1903 he went to India as Captain of a Royal Field Artillery battery, and the following year he returned to England where he graduated at the end of 1905 having become a major in 1904. In January 1906, he went back to India, this time as a major of a battery, which he brought home to England three years later, in January 1909. By this time he had acquired experience and expertise in the handling and issuing of explosives. From the following June to June 1913 he acted as General Staff Officer 1st grade to to the General Commanding in South Africa. Later the same year he returned to India to command an R F A battery which he took to the front in 1914. Shortly afterwards, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. Archie Buckle was wounded in the face in October 1914 and invalided home. Following his recovery, in January 1915, he was made Chief of Staff with the 19th (Western) Division, a New Army formation. Buckle deployed to France with 19th Division in July 1915 and helped plan its costly and abortive baptism of fire on 25 September in the Action at Piètre, part of the battle of Loos. The 19th Division was employed three times on the Somme in July 1916, each time as a holding division. On 9 August Buckle was promoted brigadier-general and posted to 17th (Northern) Division as its CRA. Buckle arrived in the middle of the battle of Delville Wood. A week after his appointment he was suddenly taken ill and died two days later of meningitis. Archie spent all of his career in the army and was involved in numerous battles. Despite all these dangerous assignments, and his final battle at the Somme, the enemy were not the cause of his death. All Saints Church at Banstead houses the Buckle family vault but Archie is also inscribed on his own family memorial in the south east section of the churchyard. The memorial is in need of some attention and the cross no longer tops the memorial but has been carefully laid against it (see photo). The inscription in not clear but is still readable and it says the following: ARCHIE STEWART BUCKLE THEIR SON ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADIER GENERAL BORN 24TH NOVEMBER 1868 DIED 18TH AUGUST 1916 IN FRANCE BATTLE OF THE SOMME BURIED AT HEILLY Brigadier-General Archie Stewart Buckle was married to Mildred Louisa Northey daughter of the Reverend E W Northey, of Woodcote House Epsom and had one son, Archibald Courtenay Buckle. Archie Stewart Buckle left an estate of £4749 2s 9d, a substantial sum at the time. Archie Buckle is remembered on three War Memorials, Banstead, where the Buckle family were major land owners, Epsom, where his wife came from, and Byfleet. At the time of writing, the connection to Byfleet has yet to be established. Grave Reference: II. F. 23. HEILLY STATION CEMETERY, MERICOURT-L'ABBE Somme, France. Epsom Memorial Ashley Road Epsom. Byfleet Memorial Wood panel All Saints Church Banstead. Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Photographs of Epsom and Byfleet inscriptions by Clive Gilbert Career information from The Times obituary dated 28 August 1916 also supplied by Clive Gilbert. Edited personal history from Centre for 1st WW studies. Picture of the Battle of Omdurman from www.khilafah.com Khartoum bar adapted from an image at www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk information about battle of Omdurman from www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel Last update - 16 May 2008 - Mailed Robert Wildon descendant of Archie Stewart Buckle. Mailed Elizabeth Hewson descendant of Archie Stewart Buckle. 19 May 2008 - added photo of family memorial at All Saints Church Banstead To come - photo of headstone at Heilly Cemetery.
BUCKLE, CUTHBERT CHARLES CORBETT Second Lieutenant Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) "A" Coy. 6th Bn. Died 3-July-1916 aged 24 Son of Cuthbert Edward Buckle of Ames Plantation, Grand Junction, Tennessee, U.S.A., and Muriel Buckle, of Wynewood, Philadelphia. Grave Reference: XX. B. 7. SERRE ROAD CEMETERY No.2 Somme, France. Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel Wood panel All Saints Church Banstead.
BURBERRY, WILLIAM JAMES Private 13191 Devonshire Regiment 1st Bn. Died 3-September-1916 aged 28 Son of Jesse Richard and Mary Ann Burberry, of 13, Clifton Avenue, Belmont, Sutton, Surrey. Memorial Reference: Pier and Face 1 C. THIEPVAL MEMORIAL Somme, France. Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel Wood panel All Saints Church Banstead.
BUTLER, GEORGE Private 32167 Lancashire Fusiliers 18th Bn. Died 22-October-1917 aged 34 Son of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Butler, of 7, Diceland Rd.Banstead. Husband of Sarah A. Blunden (formerly Butler), of 7, Pound Rd., Banstead, Surrey. Memorial Reference: Panel 54 to 60 and 163A. TYNE COT MEMORIAL Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission. All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey. .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back to panel Wood panel All Saints Church Banstead.