Category: Hyde 900

Born 1884 to William and Eleanor at 34 Hyde Close, and registered in the 1901 Census as an Estates Agents clerk, he must have emigrated to Canada in the years before the war. He enlisted in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and is recorded as C of England.

Service number 487499-Private.

The account of his death is unusually full, the explanation being that Canadian forces put a much higher premium on informing close relatives of the details of death.

The Canadian Records state that he was in the support lines to the west of the village of Courcelette. The sharpest engagements of the battle had occurred two weeks earlier as the Canadian troops were sent in:

“He was on duty with his machine gun in the rear of his platoon on return from support trenches in the vicinity of Courcelette, Oct. 4th 1916. Enemy put up a heavy barrage and he was killed instantly by a shell. His body lay in full sight of the enemy and could not be recovered until the next day when it was buried in a spot close to where he fell on the ridge between K. Dump near Ovillers and Macdonell trench.”

Further directions for his grave follow…….”Buried south of Courcelette 4 miles North East of Albert”

But the Commonwealth War Graves record lists his name on the Canadian Memorial, Vimy Ridge, as: missing, killed in action.

John Simmons entered the army 1888 as a band boy, and he married Helen Mary Burrow in 1900.  They lived at 4, Greenhill Road in Aldershot.

John the Royal West Surrey Regiment, and by 1911 he had become a Colour Serjeant (Serjeant-Major 7178) 5th Bn Rifle Brigade stationed at Cambridge Barracks and Recruiting Office, Francis Street, Woolwich.

John first served in France 12 January 1915. After being commissioned, Second Lieutenant Simmons was killed accidentally at Aldershot, 21st August, 1916, while serving in the Bombing School attached to the 3^rd Battalion. He was buried in Aldershot Military Cemetery (PR AH. 347).

His son John G. served in Germany as a Boy in The Royal Flying Corps, then The Royal Air Force and survived the War.

Sidney (or Sydney) James Callen was born in 1887.   He first appears in the historical records aged 14 living at Halfway House, Otterbourne with his father, Sydney Ernest, aged 56 (born Botley), mother Ann aged 48 with Florence (22), Laura (21), Victor (19), Walter (16) and Ada (12). Two children – Gilbert and Clara had already grown up and left home and sadly, Edith, aged perhaps 2 years, had died. Sidney James was born at Fryern Hill close to Otterbourne. His father was a railway signalman and a Trade Union member of the National Union of Railwaymen. Presumably his wages were sufficient to keep such a large family and his house would have been supplied as part of his job.

Sydney and his family moved into Winchester where they set up their home at 14 Hyde Abbey Close, later to move to 13, Egbert Road. At first Sidney took a job at Messrs. W Carter & Co Parchment Street, Winchester but inspired by the intense wave of volunteering at this time he enlisted in September 1914 aged 27 years. His number is 200976 and he is a private in the 2/4^th Territorials (TF) Battalion having enlisted alongside James Lovelock on Salisbury Plain. Their service numbers are just 2 apart. In the records he is named as Sydney.

His army story mirrors that of James, his near neighbour with whom he would share his war experiences. After intensive training the unit were shipped on the H.T. Caledonia to Karachi. Stationed at Quetta, both young soldiers received training in mountain warfare. In October 1915 they were ordered to Mesopotamia. In fact, they disembarked in Egypt where they received further training. The unit moved to El Arish, Sinai and thence to Rafa on the borders of Egypt and Palestine. Both boys entered a Theatre of War (Palestine) 16^th August with the 2/4^th Battalion attacking up position about 8 miles south of Gaza. The History of the Territorial Army reports an incident suggesting that the British forces were not sufficiently aware of the threat posed by the Turkish troops:

‘bathing was interrupted by long-range fire from the Turks, who had good observation of the approaches to the beaches’.

Surviving this and later ‘intermittent shelling’ during skirmishes over the next month on the borders. Conditions were harsh and The History of the TF Association reports:

‘The great heat by day, the cold at night, the roughness of the ground, the plague of flies and other pests, the extreme shortness of rations and, above all, of water, combined to make the operations very exhausting’.

Sidney had survived 3 years of soldiering, but 22^nd November 2017 in Palestine was his last day. His Battalion were ordered to dislodge the enemy at Kuryet-el-Enah in the Judean Hills. This was successful, although 2 were killed and 20 wounded. Later that day they attacked the mosque and ridge of Nebi Samwill which the regimental journal calls ‘the key of Jerusalem’. 2 officers and 19 other ranks were killed during this action.  One of the 21 men killed that day was Sidney.

His family had now moved to 13 Egbert Road and it was here that they received the sad news of their son’s death, aged 30 years.

They were moved to send a poem to the Regimental Journal:

‘There was no one to pillow his dying head,

No one to say good-bye;

O God rest his weary soul in peace,

As in a foreign grave I lie’

Sidney was buried at Jerusalem War Cemetery and is remembered on the St Bartholomew’s Church Hyde memorial. He was entitled to the British War and Victory medals.

Walter Ernest Gilmour was born April 17^th 1888 son of George and Jane Gilmour of 36 Hyde Abbey Road. George was from Southampton and Jane from North Baddesley. In the census of 1891Walter is aged 3 years living with his parents and three siblings – Arthur 11 years old, Louisa 4 years old and George 13 months. They were living at 44 Upper Brook Street. Dad was a grocer’s assistant.

By 1901 the family are living at 26 Hyde Abbey Road. George is still a grocer’s assistant, Annie (not on 1891 census), is living at home aged 25 years and a cook. She may have been in service by the age of 15 years. William is a tailor. Walter, aged 12 years is at school. Louisa is 14 years old. Sadly, there is no mention of young George. There is, however, another addition to the family, Frank born 1897.

Walter, or Wallie, was educated in Winchester at St Thomas’ Higher Grade National/ Senior C of E school in North Walls. At about 16 years of age Walter became a shop assistant for a firm of drapers, Ellis and Sons in Lymington, Either inspired by thoughts of a different life or bored with shop work, at the age of 25 years Walter joined the army at Bournemouth on 7^th December 1914. His service number was 2924 and at first he was with the 1/7^th Battalion, later attached to 1/4^th.

Following training he embarked on 12^th December for India where he served with the Indian Expeditionary Force. He entered a theatre of war in Mesopotamia on 26^th August 1915. He was already an experienced soldier wearing the 1914 star ribbon which marked him out as an ‘Old Contemptible’. These were regular soldiers who had signed up pre-war and it is reported so called after a derogatory remark by the Kaiser.

Walter was propelled into a chaotic situation. Despite initial successes in securing the all-important oil wells and the port of Basra, later expeditions to push forward to Baghdad ran into serious trouble. Temperatures in summer exceeded 50 degrees centigrade. In winter it was extremely cold.  Water was strictly rationed and the terrain either desert or the marshy margins of the Tigris Euphrates River in a year of serious flooding.

Walter’s end came shortly after the battle of Umm El Hanna on 21^st January 1916. On his last day reveille was at 2 am. At 3.30 am his unit marched out of camp to relieve the 35th Brigade. Their attack at 7.45 is noted in the Journal as ‘unsuccessful’ and there he sustained serious injuries.

Walter died 3 days later. He was one of the 231 killed in action wounded, taken prisoner or missing.  He is buried at Amara War Cemetery, now in Iraq. His name is on the War Memorials in Holy Trinity and St. Bartholomew’s churches. He was entitled to the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

His brother Frank was also serving in Mesopotamia and was injured in March 1916. He survived the War.

Frederick Chapman Tyler was born in Winchester in the last quarter of 1891. Sadly, the next year records the death of his father Frederick Chapman Tyler aged 35 years and in the second year of his marriage.

In the census of 1901 Frederick is 1 year old and living with his mother, Leonora, his brother Henry Tyler aged 4 years, and sister, Ruby Tyler aged 2 years. There is no mention of older brother William and all children were born after the death of their father. They are living at Duke Street Micheldever with Leonora’s brother, Henry Taylor, his wife, Mary Ann and their 4 children aged between 5 and 15 years. Leonora is described as married 5 years and from Wonston but her husband has died . The children had been born in different locations – Henry at Allbrook, Ruby at Woburn Green, Bucks and Frederick at Burnham, Bucks. As Fred is registered in Winchester we can assume the family had moved here from Bucks directly after his birth.

In the census of 1911 he is living with his brother in the household of Walter and Mary Smith at 16, King Alfred Place. Both Frederick and his elder brother by two years, William, are the stepsons of Walter. Of Mum, Leonora there is no trace but perhaps Aunt Mary had found a new husband. Two girls have been born to the marriage which is now 14 years old – Ethel aged 14 years and Edith aged 12 years. Both the young Tyler brothers have endured a great deal by this stage in their lives.  They are both single and both are boot repairers. There are 5 rooms in the house so sharing a small bedroom was a necessity.

Frederick was an active member of the community, belonging to Hyde Men’s Club and The ‘Loyal Arthur’ Lodge of Oddfellows.

Frederick enlisted with the 15^th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. He served on The Western Front where he received life-threatening injuries to his head and thigh, probably from a mortar attack, near the Somme   in April or May. Frederick was one of the many thousands of soldiers who were shipped back in pain to Southampton. He died aged 26 years at the Canadian Military Hospital, Beachborough Park, Southampton where he received treatment.

His army record states that he died 13^th June 2017 of wounds. His ‘theatre of war’ is noted as ‘home’ in his army record, but the Regimental Journal records him as serving in France. By his death at 26 years, he had achieved the rank of Lance Corporal in the 15^th (Service) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. His service number was 27011.

His funeral was at St Bartholomew’s on Sunday June 17^th 1917. The Regimental History records that a large congregation attended. He is described as a son of Mrs Smeeth of 16 King Alfred Place who attended the funeral with Miss Edie Smeeth, Fredericks’s sister, Miss May Smith and Miss Mettyear. Also several members of Hyde Men’s Club attended and the secretary of the Oddfellows with officers NCO’s and men of the Hants Depot. We can picture the scene described ‘The hymn O God Our Help In Ages Past was sung, and the organist played Chopin’s Marche Funebre. The coffin was covered with the Union Jack, and six privates of the Hants Regiment, in charge of a sergeant, acted as bearers’. Wreaths had been sent from fellow members of Hyde Catechism, members of Hyde Men’s Club and old schoolmates and neighbours’. Frederick is buried at West Hill Cemetery.

Frederick was entitled to the British War and Victory Medals.

Harry George Gray lived in 9, Monks Road Winchester at one point, and was born in 1896. He had five brothers and a sister. In civilian life he had worked as a hairdresser.

He is listed on the Thiepval Memorial and his body has not been found. Harry joined the Rifle Brigade on October 4th 1915,number 13931. He appears to have died in the heavy fighting in the Flers-Courcelette area of the Somme, with the 20th Light Division.  He was wounded in June 1916 but returned to action. By 7^th October 1916 the Army records say that he was “accepted as dead”.  The Army wrote to his mother with a “Missing Man form” saying that : “No evidence of material value has been received which would indicate that he is not dead”

By this stage all British servicemen were required to wear two octagonal compressed fibre identity tags, one green and one red, with the name, service number, regiment and abbreviated code for religion. This tag had not been found by the time the Thiepval memorial had been built, nor has it been found since.

The two most imposing British war memorials, the Menin Gate and Thiepval, contain a total of around 120,000 names of soldiers whose bodies have never been identified to this date.  For the French and German armies it is the battlefield of Verdun that holds a comparable record of the destruction of complete human beings.

The final twist to Harry’s story is that the Army inscribed the wrong initials on the Campaign medal sent to his mother. She sent it back to the War Office.

Charles Phillis was born in Winchester in 1892 to Alfred and Harriet Phillis.

Alfred had been born in North Waltham to a family of agricultural labourers. In the 1881 census he is working as a bricklayer and lodging in 45 Hyde Street. A few months later he married Harriett (nee Titheridge) in Alresford and went on to have 5 children.

Ten years later in the 1891 census the family is living at 13 Hyde Street including 4 children: Mabel (8), Leonard (6), Nelly (3) and Ethel (1), all born in Winchester.

In the 1901 census the family is now living at 2 Fairfield Road with the addition of Charles, now 9. Leonard (16) is working as a bricklayer, like his father.

In the 1911 census the family is living at 15 Monks Road. Charles’ father is now a self-employed builder. He and Harriett have been married for 29 years and have 5 children, all still living. Also living with them are Mabel (28, dressmaker), Leonard (26, bricklayer) and Charles, now 19 and working as a carpenter.

In September 1914 at the age of 22, Charles enlisted with the Hampshire Regiment at Salisbury Plain and served with the 1^st /4^th (Territorial Force) Battalion. His service number of 4/3006 (later renumbered 200907) suggests enlistment prior to the start of the war in the Territorials. At the time he joined, the Battalion was stationed at Winchester; it was part of the Hampshire Brigade of the Wessex Division which then moved to Bulford. On 9^th October 1914 Charles embarked from Southampton for India where he was based at Poona undergoing training under the command of Colonel F Bowker. Charles was to fight alongside Indian troops throughout the rest of the campaign.

Around 5^th March orders were received to embark at Karachi for Busra (now Basra) where they joined the 33^rd Indian Brigade. For the next few weeks Charles’ story mirrors many of the men of the Hampshire Regiment in “escorting convoys to Sheiba, such work entailing marches of some 12 miles through 3 feet of mud and water.” Charles then had his first contact with Turkish troops when he was next engaged in escorting Turkish prisoners and the wounded.

Towards the end of April, the Battalion embarked on a river steamer and proceeded up the Karun River. Much marching and “considerable discomfort from lack of shelter and rations” ensued. One wing of the Battalion was ordered to destroy a village.  They then returned to near Busra where they were billeted in “filthy Turkish Barracks” at Asher. The Battalion took part in the arduous work of towing barges by hand through Hammar Lake. Finally, on 24^th July 1915, came Charles’ first real engagement with the enemy at Nasiryrah. The action to take the stronghold was successful but at the cost of many lives. Sickness resulting from poor conditions and lack of food further reduced the fighting force.

By November 1915 the Headquarters and one company were moved to the infamous Kut-El-Amara – a small walled town at a bend in the river which was to surrender on 29^th April 1916. It appears Charles was with another unit which joined with reinforcements to bombard enemy trenches on 20^th January 1916 in the Battle of Umm El Hannah. The History of the TF Association notes that “the enemy’s position was a very strong one having at least three lines of trenches, with their right resting on the Tigris and their left on the large marsh which runs for many miles towards the Persian Hills”. The decision was made to make a full frontal attack. The History records: “The ground was quite flat, with no cover to be obtained, so casualties very soon became serious”. Even worse, reinforcements became disorientated and messages urging reinforcement failed to get through.

Charles was fatally injured on 7^th February 1917 (exact circumstances not known), and died of his wounds on 13^th February 1917. He is buried at Amara War Cemetery in Iraq.  He was 25 years old.

The Winchester War Register includes Charles’ older brother Leonard who joined the Gloucester Regiment in March 1916, becoming a Lance Corporal. He served in France and was wounded, but survived. He married Edith Rattey in Winchester in 1921 and died in Eastleigh in 1932, aged only 47, possibly from the effects of war.

At the age of 36, their older sister Mabel married Thomas Benham in 1919. The following year she gave birth to a son whom she named Charles.

Nellie married Frederick Lawrence in 1935 at the age of 47. Ethel married Frederick Eames at the end of 1917, the year that Charles died. A year later she had twin daughters, Ethel and Mabel.

Charles’ father Alfred died in 1933 in Winchester, aged 75. Harriet died 2 years later, aged 83.

Arthur Percival Hamilton was born in Shoeburyness.  The best guess is that Arthur’s father was serving with the Weapons Development Base that was established there in the mid – 1850s. This was not necessarily a safe place to be brought up – a premature explosion of a 6” shell killed 7 personnel including the Head of the Woolwich Arsenal in 1885. The area is still under military regulations.

Arthur joined the Regular Army before World War I, serving in the Queen’s London Regiment and later, once the war had begun, rising to the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel of the 19th Battalion. He gained the Military Cross, a decoration for bravery only open to officers.

He was killed in the 3rd month of the Somme battle, dying at an advanced dressing station established in Flatiron Copse on 15^th September. The valley where he died had been known to British troops as Happy Valley as it was out of direct observation from German guns. But by late August the name had changed to Death Valley as the Germans had targeted their artillery to fire at map positions known to them from aerial observation.  Arthur died aged 32, was buried in Flatiron Copse Cemetery, near Mametz, on the Somme.

Before the war, he married Kate, of 42 Eaton Square. His brother later became a Wing-Commander and another brother a Church of England minister. He left £10,250 in his will to his sister. The imposing Brendon House in Park Road belonged to his family.

Richard George Bryant was born in Winchester in 1889, the son of William and Mary Bryant.

William and Mary married in Southampton in 1885, but by the time of the 1891 census they are living at 3 East Cliffe in the parish of St Peter Cheesehill (now known as Chesil Street). William is 30 and works as a carpenter; Mary is 29. With them are their children Percy (3) and Richard (2). William was born in Oxted, Surrey, whilst Mary and the children were all born in Winchester.

In the following census of 1901, the family is living at 12 North Walls. Percy (13) is now a grocer’s porter. Richard is 12, and a further sibling Thomas is 7.

In the 1911 census the family is still at 12 North Walls. William has become an undertaker. Mary states that she has been married for 25 years and has had three children, all still living. Percy is 23 and working as a plumber and gas fitter. Richard is 22 and a carpenter like his father. Thomas, 17, is a wood carver.

In January 1916 Richard enlisted with the 14^th (Service) Battalion Hampshire Regiment (known as the Pompey Pals) and given the regimental number 22661.

The Battalion was mobilised for war on 6^th March 1916 and landed at Le Havre with the 39^th Division. During that year the 14^th Battalion was engaged in the fighting on the Ancre, the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, the Battle of the Ancre heights, and the Battle of the Ancre.

From 31^st July – 10^th November 1917 the Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele took place. The offensive began with encouraging gains but terrible summer weather soon bogged it down. By August the offensive was clearly failing in its objectives and had descended into attritional fighting. New techniques by both sides led to agonisingly slow forward movement for the British, at enormous cost in casualties to both sides. Bad weather in October led to the battlefield becoming an impossible quagmire.

One of the battles at Passchendaele was the Battle of Polygon Wood which lasted from 26^th September-3^rd October, and the 14^th Battalion supported the 5^th Australian Division as Polygon Wood was taken from the Germans. It was during this battle that Richard was Killed in Action on 1^st October 1917. He was 28 years old. The circumstances of his death are not known.

Richard is buried at Westoutre British Cemetery, 13 Km from Ypres in West Flanders.

Richard’s older brother Percy enlisted with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in October 1916 and served in the Tank Corps of the Royal Air Force. He was wounded in France in the same month his brother died, but Percy survived.

Harry Immer House was born in 1873: his father was Isaac and his mother Elizabeth. He was 40 when he enlisted at Stoke Newington in London: the enlistment form notes that he was Church of England. His service number was R/17177. He joined the 16^th Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps known as the Church Lads Brigade.

He crossed to France on SS Invicta joining his battalion on 12^th June 2016. The Battle of the Somme was to start on 1st July and was to continue till early November. One of the most deadly sectors was High Wood where German positions were protected by concrete blockhouses, and machine guns had been sited to deliver enfilade fire onto the flanks of attacking troops. The 15th of September dawned misty but the sun came through and the temperature rose to a warm 72F. The KRRC, in support, was asked to fill the gap left by large numbers of casualties as the Queen’s Regiment and Highland Light Infantry tried to advance.

The handwritten official diary for the battle covers 7 pages in the Army archives. 4 officers and 149 other ranks were killed on this day alone.  One of the 16th Battalion corporals, Jack Beament, wrote:

“It was a horrible, terrible massacre”.

The battlefield was cut across by fallen trees and stumps, and with sunken trackways. Four tanks sent up failed to make any impact. Repeated tunnelling and massive underground detonations cratered the largely destroyed wood. The wood was not cleared of debris and bodies, even in the years after the war, and there are the remains of over 8,000 German and British soldiers still there.

In all probability, this is where Harry House lies still. The CWGC lists him on the Thiepval Memorial with over 70,000 British soldiers whose bodies have never been found.