Parish News Online

In Memoriam

First World War Centenaries

Fifty five servicemen from our villages lost their lives in the First World War.

These men either came from Barnack, Pilsgate, Southorpe, Bainton, Ashton and Ufford, worked in the district or had close connections with it. The following In Memoriam notices appeared in the Parish News on the centenary of each man’s death.

Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914 and by December of that year ninety two local men had enlisted. They suffered no casualties until January 1915. 

Brian Palmer


1915

Private William Grooby

William Grooby, 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment, was our first fatality of World War I. He was from Bainton and was a regular soldier before the war. Billy was brought up by his mother, Fanny, in one of the five cottages that once stood between the bakehouse and the village hall.

He was severely wounded at Mons but later returned to the front and was killed in action at La Bassée on 29th January,1915 in his early 20s. He has no known grave and is commemorated in Bainton church and on the memorial at Le Touret.


Private Robert Reedman

Robert Reedman 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment died of pneumonia on February 11th, 1915 aged 18 in the 4th Northern General Hospital in Lincoln.

He had fallen ill after a training route march. He is buried in Barnack cemetery. The Stamford Mercury said that his interment was probably the first military funeral ever conducted at Barnack. The coffin was draped with the Union Jack and escorted to the church and the cemetery by two platoons and a military band.

Four buglers sounded the last post at the graveside. Private Reedman’s parents were Charles and Florence Reedman of 19, Uffington Road.


Private Robert Parker

Robert Parker 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed in action on March 14th, 1915 in Flanders.

He has no known grave. He is commemorated in Barnack, where he had lodgings along with Harry Pick, and on the memorial at Le Touret near Béthune.He was born in Ryhall.


Stoker 1st Class Harry Watson

hms irresistible

Harry Watson RN died when his ship H.M.S. Irresistible struck a mine on 18th March, 1915. The ship was attacking Turkish forts in the Dardanelles campaign and sank losing 150 men out of a crew of 780.

Harry was a former Barnack schoolboy and son of Elizabeth Watson of Stamford. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Photo of H.M.S. Irresistible (left) supplied  by Mr & Mrs Darkin

 


Private John Bloodworth

John Bloodworth 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was severely wounded in November 1914 in Flanders. He returned to the front on 16th February 1915 and died of wounds sustained on 6th April aged 20. He is buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery ten miles south west of Ypres.

He was a former Barnack schoolboy and son of Alfred and Sarah Bloodworth of Ufford.


The Battle of Aubers Ridge

The battle at Aubers Ridge, six miles south west of Armentières, was an attempt to take advantage of the suspected withdrawal of German troops to the Eastern Front and was planned to give support to a French offensive to the south. A forty minute artillery bombardment began at 5am on the 9th May and the troops advanced on the well-defended German positions. Throughout the day further bombardments failed to dislodge the enemy whose machine guns took a terrible toll. The battle was an unmitigated disaster for the British Army and over 11,000 men were killed or wounded. The 1st Northants suffered 560 casualties and the 2nd Northants 426.


Private Reginald Knapp & Private John Quin

Reginald Knapp 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed in action at the battle of Aubers Ridge on May 9th, 1915 aged 23.

He is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial. As a child he lived with his grandparents Daniel and Sarah Knapp on Main Street Barnack.

 

John Quin 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was also killed on the same day at Aubers Ridge, aged 24.

He is commemorated on the memorial at Le Touret. He was born and brought up in Barnack, the son of Sarah Ann Quin.


Private Harry Leonard Pick 

Harry Pick 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed in action on 9th May 1915 aged 22 in Flanders. In the 1911 census he and his friend Robert Parker are shown lodging with John and Mary Jackson in Barnack. Both young men worked on the land before they enlisted together in Stamford in 1914.

Given the date of his death it is quite likely that Harry was killed at the battle of Aubers Ridge. 

Harry was born in Stamford. He is commemorated in Barnack and on the memorial at Le Touret near Béthune, but has no known grave.


Private Harry Payne

Harry Payne 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was killed in action on 28th July 1915 aged 23 at the Ypres salient.

He is buried at the Menin Road South Cemetery, Ypres. He was born in Bedfordshire but lived and worked at Burghley Gardens. His parents, William and Fanny, lived in Stourbridge, Worcestershire.


Private George Bryan and Private Archer Watson

George Bryan and Archer Watson, both 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, were killed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, on 9th August 1915.

The 6th Battalion was raised at Lincoln in August 1914 as part of Kitchener’s First New Army. After initial training they moved to Belton Park, Grantham and then sailed from Liverpool at the end of June 1915. They landed at Suvla Bay on 7th August and with the 6th Border Regiment captured their objective – two hills known as Yilghin Burnu. Two days later George and Archer were killed.

On the day they died Captain Percy Hansen was awarded the VC for rescuing several men from burning scrub at the front line.

George and Archer are commemorated on the Helles Memorial. George was born in Southorpe. Archer was a former Barnack schoolboy. His brother Harry RN, Stoker aboard HMS Irresistible, had died earlier in the year when his ship had sunk after hitting a mine during the Dardanelles campaign.


Private Noel Dalton

Noel Dalton The Buffs, East Kent Regiment was killed on 29th August 1915, aged 19, when a mine exploded under his trench. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and in Barnack church.

His parents, Francis and Sarah Elizabeth lived at Teddington in Middlesex. His connection with Barnack is uncertain, although in 1911 the Fox Inn was being run by R. S. Dalton.


The Battle of Loos

The Battle of Loos began on 25th September 1915 and involved 54 French divisions and 13 British divisions along a fifty six mile front. The death toll was greater than in any previous battle of the war, the British suffering 50,000 casualties. Five separate attempts were made to dislodge the Germans before this initial attack was called off on September 27th. The British used chlorine gas on September 25th, but a change in wind direction blew the gas back causing many casualties among our troops. The Battle of Loos continued until October 14th.

Rudyard Kipling’s son Jack was killed at Loos on 27th September, aged 18. His body was never found.


Private Percy Betts & Sergeant William Watts

Percy Betts 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed on the first day of the Battle of Loos. He was 32 years old and is buried in St. Mary’s cemetery, Haisnes. He was an agricultural labourer and lived at 10, The Terrace, Barnack, with his wife Henrietta and their five children.

 

William Watts 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was killed on the second day of the battle of Loos, aged 27. He lived in Main Street, Barnack, son of Benjamin and Emma. He was an electrician and played for Stamford FC. His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.


Private Charles William Reedman

Charles Reedman (Billy to his friends) 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was killed on 13th October 1915, aged 20. He was last seen in the fighting at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a heavily defended German fortification, the day before the Battle of Loos ended.

He was a member of the Barnack church choir and an enthusiastic Boy Scout. He had been appointed Scoutmaster a few months before enlistment. His name is recorded on the Loos Memorial.

Billy’s brother Private Robert Chester Reedman, who is buried in Barnack cemetery, was Barnack’s first casualty of the war.

He had died of pneumonia in a Lincoln hospital on the 11th February aged 18. Billy and Robert were the only sons of Charles and Florence Reedman of 19 Uffington Road, Barnack.


Private Victor Barratt

Victor Barratt

Victor Barratt 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was killed on 20th December, 1915. He was 18 years old having enlisted in Stamford when he was 17. He was the son of Samuel and Rose Hannah of 14, The Terrace, Barnack and he worked at Burghley Gardens as a trainee gardener. Several of his letters home have survived. In them he describes the ordeal of life in the trenches.

Am sitting in a dugout now to write this and it is over boot tops in mud and still we keep smiling.’

‘It is quite an acrobatic feat to walk along the communication trench there are duckboards but you have to find them if you don’t there is always a hole about three feet deep to put your foot into.’

‘It has been bitterly cold……there have been a good few cases of trench feet…. We have to rub our feet with anti-frost bite grease.’

Victor was killed when the mine shaft in which he and his section were sheltering took a direct hit from an artillery shell. He had been at the front for only five months. He is buried at the Menin Road South Military Cemetery near Ypres. His last postcard home to his parents was posted on the day he died.


1916

Private Fred Hibbins

Fred Hibbins9th Battalion East Surrey Regiment was killed on 26th February 1916, aged 22. He was the son of Robert and Elizabeth Hibbins of Southorpe. He is buried at Brandhoek Military Cemetery near Ypres. His battalion had disembarked at Boulogne on 1st September 1915.

The Stamford Mercury carried the following report of his death:
‘Another Barnack schoolboy has fallen in France – Fred Hibbins of the East Surrey Regt. His chum, Bob Wild, has written stating that on Feb.26 shrapnel from the same shell wounded himself and killed Fred. Before the war they were fellow-apprentices with Mr. S.Taylor, butcher. Much sympathy is felt for Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hibbins of Southorpe.’

(Bob Wild survived the war. Stephen Taylor and his wife Mary Ann ran the butcher’s shop in the Square in Barnack. Robert Hibbins farmed in Southorpe).


Private Henry Percival Dawson

Percy Dawson, as he was known, 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, died on April 6th, aged aged 28. He had been paralysed after sustaining serious gunshot wounds to the spine and subsequently died of his wounds in the military hospital at Etaples.

Percy was the son of James and Hester Dawson of Barnack. Before the war he worked as an engineer at Blackstone’s, Stamford.

The Stamford Mercury reported his death as follows;
‘Beside a pine forest in a military cemetery a short distance from the battlefield has been laid to rest the body of another brave Barnack soldier who has given his life in the war. The peaceful burial ground is at Etaples within sound of the sea waves that wash our coast and that of France.’


Private George Snartt

George Snartt 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was killed on April 21st, 1916 aged 23 at Armentières. He is buried at the Cité Bonjean Military Cemetery there.

The Stamford Mercury reported:
‘On April 27th his parents received intelligence from a comrade that their son, George Snartt of Southorpe, had died in France from a rifle shot by a German sniper.’


Private Horace Frederick Bloodworth

Frederick Bloodworth 1st/4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment died on April 25th, 1916 aged 18. A fortnight earlier he had been buried in a mine explosion with several others, but was dug out unhurt.

The Stamford Mercury carried the following: ‘Mr. and Mrs. F. Bloodworth of Ufford, have received official notification that their son, Private Frederick Bloodworth, has died of disease in a hospital in France. Much sympathy is felt for the parents as another son, Jack, was killed in action early in the war. Both brothers were Barnack school boys.’


Private Joseph Cox 

Joseph Cox

Joseph Cox 8th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders was killed by a German sniper on May 23rd, 1916. He was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Cox of Walcot. He had just returned to the trenches after six days’ leave in Barnack. The following letter was sent to Joseph’s father by one of Joseph’s pals at the front and later published in the Stamford Mercury:

 ‘It is with great regret that I write to you and let you know that your son Joe was killed yesterday, May 23rd, while on sentry duty with me in a sap. He was shot by a sniper, death being instantaneous, so he didn’t suffer at all. I stood by him all the time. It is quite a great shock to me as Joe and me were the best of pals right from the time we enlisted just a year next month. He has been taken carefully away and buried in the British cemetery in a village (Vermelles) out here. No doubt you have heard from the War Office by now, but I felt it my duty as a comrade to let you know he died. He was well liked by all the fellows in the platoon so please accept my deepest sympathy.Yours faithfully, Private Joseph Haye.’

Joseph Cox was 23 years old and had two younger  brothers in the army, Arthur and Harold, who were also to be killed in the fighting in France. In civil life he worked in the fruit department of the Royal Gardens at Windsor having received his training from his father, Thomas, who was head gardener at Walcot Hall. Thomas Cox had lost his wife, Kate, in August 1915. She is buried in Barnack cemetery.


Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme began on July 1st, 1916 and dragged on until November 18th, when it petered out in the mud. No strategic gains were made. On the first day of the battle the British suffered 57,000 casualties of which 19,000 were deaths in the field. This represents the greatest loss in a single day ever suffered by a British Army. Total casualties in the entire battle were British 420,000, French 194,000, German 650,000. In July two local men perished in the battle.


Private Phillip W. Dalton

Philip Dalton Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) 94th Company was killed in action, aged 26, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

The 94th Company was formed at Grantham and went to France on May 21st 1916. Phillip was killed less than six weeks later. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and in Barnack church. His brother, Noel, had been killed earlier in the war.


Sergeant Charles Gillings 

Charles Gillings Black Watch was killed in action on July 18th at Longueval. He had lived in Southorpe and was under-keeper for the Marquess of Exeter.

His death was reported in the Stamford Mercury:
‘News of one of the many painful tragedies of the war comes from Barnack. In May of this year the banns of marriage were published in the Parish Church between Miss W. Munton, one of the teachers at Barnack School and Corporal Charles W. Gillings of the Black Watch. The arrangements were made for the wedding and all that was awaited was the homecoming of the bridegroom to be. Alas! The wedding never can take place now, for news has been received that he has been killed in action.’


Private Alfred Tuck 

Alfred Tuck 5th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed in action on the Somme on August 5th, 1916 aged 19. He was born in Abbots Ripton but by the time he enlisted he was a farm labourer living in Southorpe .

The 5th Battalion was a pioneer battalion charged with digging trenches. Between August 4th and 6th the men were digging a communications trench to a newly captured position during which 4 men, including Alfred, were killed. He is buried at Aveluy cemetery near the town of Albert.


Private Ralph Watson 

Ralph Watson 7th Battalion Leinster Regiment died of wounds on 4th September, 1916 aged 24, during the Battle of the Somme. He is buried in La Neuville British cemetery at Corbie, east of Amiens. His brother Charles was killed later in the War.


Private John Berridge 

John Berridge2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed in action on the Somme on October 25th, 1916 aged 26. He was killed near Gueudecourt and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial. He was a farm labourer and lived in Barnack with his parents Charles and Harriet Berridge.


Private Ephraim Aldis

Ephraim Aldis 3rd Battalion London Regiment died on October 31st 1916 aged 22 of tetanus as a result of wounds he sustained at the Battle of the Somme. He is buried in Wakerley churchyard, so it is assumed that he had been repatriated to a hospital in the UK. He is not commemorated in Barnack.

By the end of the War his parents, Ephraim, who was a coachman, and Emma Aldis, were living at 4, The Terrace, Barnack.


1917

Sergeant Fred Crowson

fred Crowson

Fred Crowson 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment died of shell wounds at the Battle of Arras on July 7th, 1917 aged 22.

He enlisted with his brother Arthur in August, 1914. Before the war he had worked as a gardener on the Fitzwilliam estate at Milton. He was a son of George and Rachel Crowson of Ufford. Shortly before his death he had been offered a commission and would have been made a 2nd Lieutenant. He is buried in the Duisans British Cemetery at Etrun 9kms west of Arras.

 


Private John Welby

John Welby 25th Northumberland Fusiliers died on July 22nd, 1917 aged 29, and is buried in the Etaples military cemetery. He died in hospital of contusions and polyneuritis caused by shell explosions. Three weeks before his death he had been buried in earth and stones after a shell exploded. Two others in his party were killed. John was born in Barnack.


Private Ernest Tomblin

Ernest Tomblin 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed at the Battle of the Dunes on July 31st, 1917 aged 35. This battle was an attempt to deny the Germans the use of Belgian ports for their submarines. At the same battle another Barnack man, Private George Latchford also of the 6th Northants, was badly wounded in both legs but survived. Ernest Tomblin is buried at Perth Cemetery near Ypres. He was the son of William and Susannah Tomblin of the Fox Inn.


Charles Bryan

Private Charles H. Bryan

Charles H. Bryan 6th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment was killed on August 14th, 1917 at Ypres aged 30.

He joined the Suffolk Regiment in 1915 when they were stationed in Barnack but was later transferred to the Yorkshire Regiment. Before enlisting he worked for Lord Exeter at Burghley Gardens. He lived at 2, Southorpe Terrace. He left a widow, Florence and three children. She was the sister of Fred Crowson who was killed on July 9th.Charles Bryan was the son of George and Maria Bryan.

He is commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial and along with his brother George, who had been killed at Gallipoli in 1915, on their father’s gravestone in Barnack cemetery.


Hugh Sampson2nd Lt. Hugh Delane Sampson

Hugh Delane Sampson 207 Company Army Service Corps died of wounds on 2nd September 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele. He is buried near Poperinge, Flanders. A fellow soldier, G. A. Hughes, wrote in his diary: ‘Second  Lieutenant Hugh Delane Sampson aged 42 remembered with honour at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery’.

The Army Service Corps was charged with providing troops with supplies mainly by means of horse-drawn transport. G. A. Hughes writes of men and horses killed. Five men and fifty five horses from 207 Company were killed between 22nd June and 15th September 1917 according to CWGC records.

Hugh was the husband of Gladys, the daughter of Rev. LaGrange Leney rector of Barnack. Hugh is commemorated in Barnack church and Waternewton  church. He and Gladys were married in Barnack and lived at The Little House, Waternewton.


Cpl. Ernest Berridge

Ernest Berridge 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment died of wounds in hospital on 23rd September 1917 aged 23. He is buried at the Tincourt  New British Cemetery near Péronne.

He had been a gardener and lived with his parents, Charles and Harriet, in Barnack. His older brother John had been killed at the Battle of the Somme on 25th October 1916.


The Battle of Passchendaele

The Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) was fought between 31st July and 6th November 1917. Throughout August and September the heaviest rainfall for thirty years turned the battlefield into a quagmire in which many men, horses and mules drowned. British and Allied casualties were 275,000. The German losses were 220,000. More than 130,000 bodies were never identified or recovered. When the British commander Sir Douglas Haig called off the attack, the allies had advanced a mere 5 miles in 105 days. In 1938 David Lloyd George wrote in his memoirs: ‘No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign’.


Sgt. Harold Thomas Cox

Harold Thomas Cox 2nd/4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment died on 26th September 1917 aged 21 at Passchendaele. We don’t know how Harold Cox met his end. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial.

His brother Joe had been killed by a sniper in May 1916. Arthur, another brother, would be killed in 1918. Harold lived with his parents in Walcot Park where his father Thomas was the head gardener, but he had moved to Hainton, Lincolnshire sometime after his wife died in 1915. She is buried in Barnack cemetery.


Private Percy Hill

Percy Hill 10th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment was killed at Ypres on 4th October 1917 aged 19 during the Battle of Passchendaele. He was the son of Emily Hill and was born and lived in Barnack.

He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial which stands between Ypres and Passchendaele. The memorial bears the names of almost 35,000 men whose graves are not known.


Private Charles Vipan

Charles Vipan 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment was killed on 17th October 1917 aged 26, during the Battle of Passchendaele. He is buried at Prowse Point Military Cemetery, Comines-Warneton, Flanders.

He was a resident of Barnack, but was born at Ashton near Oundle. In the 1911 census he is listed as a farm trainee living with his parents at the Manor House, Ailsworth. He is also commemorated on the Oundle war memorial. His brother Francis served in the war and survived. His parents, Charles and Mary Vipan, are buried in Stibbington churchyard.


Corporal Francis Goss Cousins

Francis Goss Cousins Royal Garrison Artillery(181st Heavy Battery) died on 27th October 1917 aged 24 of enteric fever at the Red Cross Hospital, Gaza. He is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt.

He was born in Southorpe in 1893. In 1908 the family moved to Little Casterton then Belmesthorpe and then to Uffington. Francis worked as a coach builder.

After enlisting he became a Corporal wheeler in the 181st Heavy Battery which went to Salonika then Egypt and Gaza. A wheeler was responsible for repairing any damage to the wheels and other parts of gun carriages.

Francis had a younger brother who survived the war. His parents moved to Barnack after the war and ran the Red Lion Inn. Francis is commemorated in Uffington church but not in Barnack.


Rifleman Eric Fred Curtis 

Eric Fred Curtis 9th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps was killed near Ypres on 21st December 1917, aged 22. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial.

He was the son of Millicent Maud Mitchell (formerly Curtis) of 2, The Terrace, Barnack.


Private Edward Smalley.

Edward Smalley

Edward Smalley 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed on 24th December 1917, aged 29. He was born in Elton in 1888, the son of Skelton Smalley and Martha. In 1901 his father was farming in Pilsgate and Edward was attending Stamford School and by 1911 he was working on the family farm. In early 1914 Edward took on a farm at Wadenhoe, where he lived with his mother and sister. He enlisted later that year with the Army Service Corps (Remounts), a unit responsible for the provisioning of horses and mules.

He was transferred to the 13th Hussars and then the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in Flanders. In February 1917 he was wounded and returned to England. On his recovery he went back to the war on the Somme. He was killed when his battalion was bombarded while sheltering in a railway cutting at St. Emilie. Eight others in his group were killed and six wounded.

Some time after his death, Edward’s mother moved to Cedar Tor, Main Street, Barnack. Edward is buried at Templeux-le-Guerard British Cemetery near Péronne.  He is commemorated on the war memorials at Barnack and Wadenhoe and on the Stamford School Roll of Honour (With acknowledgements to Trevor Pocknell, Wadenhoe)


1918

L.Cpl. Charles  Watson 

Charles Watson 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed on 21st February, 1918 on the St. Quentin – Cambrai line, aged 27. He is buried in the Villers-Faucon cemetery near Péronne.

He enlisted in Ireland where he worked as an Excise Officer.  He was the son of William Samuel and Elizabeth Ann Watson. His father was born in Barnack and lived in the Old Corner House on Main Street. William was known in the village as ‘Turner’ Watson presumably because he was a skilled wood craftsman. The two tall standard candlesticks in the church were made by him and presented to the church probably in memory of his sons Ralph and Charles, both of whom are commemorated on their father’s gravestone in Barnack Cemetery.


 

Private  Percy Munns 

Percy Munns 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment died of wounds at Mendinghem, Flanders on 3rd March 1918 aged 19. He is buried in the Mendinghem Military Cemetery near the village of Proven in Belgium.

He was born in Barnack in 1898. Jim Whitelock’s information about the five servicemen from Bainton and Ashton who died during the war and which hangs in Bainton church, states that: ‘Percy lived in the third of the old thatched cottages which stood where modern Allington Close now is. He was brought up by an aunt who did the laundry and other domestic work for Mr. Welby at Bainton House. Percy also did outdoor work for Mr. Welby sawing logs and chopping firewood. On Sundays he was busy operating the hand bellows on the church organ’.


Private Bertie Bloodworth 

Bertie Bloodworth 5th Battalion Leicestershire Yeomanry died 21st  April1918, aged 25. The Stamford Mercury reported that he had been involved in a good deal of heavy fighting. He was hit by a fragment of shell which exploded near him and he died from his wound later the same day. The Mercury reports: ‘A sad feature of his lamented death is that shortly before the big German attack he was given permission to leave his unit to come home for a well-earned holiday, but while waiting for the boat, he was, owing to the exigences of the military situation, recalled and he then returned and took part in repelling the advance of the enemy’.

Bertie is buried in Ebblinghem Cemetery, Nord, France. He is among the eight men com-memorated on the memorial plaque in Ufford church. He was the fourth son of Charles and Fanny Bloodworth of Ufford. 


Private William Hardy

William Hardy 10th Battalion Royal West Surrey Regiment died 25th April, 1918 aged 40. He was the husband of Ellen Hardy of Ufford. He is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. There was a Military Hospital in Boulogne and so it is assumed he died of wounds there. William is among the eight men commemorated on the memorial plaque in Ufford church


Arthur CrowsonA Crowson graveLance Corporal Arthur Crowson

Arthur Crowson7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment died on 6th June, 1918 in a Glasgow hospital from the effects of gas poisoning. He was 24 years old and he is buried in the SW corner of Ufford churchyard. 

He was the son of George and Rachel Crowson and brother of Fred, who had died of shell wounds on July 9th, 1917. Both Fred and Arthur had been pupils at Barnack School and had worked as gardeners on the Fitzwilliam estate. Their sister Florence was the widow of Pte George Bryan, who was killed on 14th August, 1917.


Corporal Charles Horsley

Charles Horsley 46th Div. Machine Gun Corps was killed on 15th June, 1918 aged 26. He is buried at Fouquières churchyard extension 1km south west of Béthune. He was a native of Barnack and the son of Arthur and Emma Horsley of 49, Conduit Street, Stamford.


Private George Latchford

George Latchford 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment was killed on 2nd July, 1918 aged 34. He was the son of Edward and Hannah Latchford and husband of Mary Latchford of Barnack. A year earlier in the war, on 31st July, 1917, George had been severely wounded in both legs by an exploding shell during the Battle of the Dunes, where on the same day another Barnack man, Pte Ernest Tomblin also 6th Btn Northants Reg., had been killed.

After recovering from his wounds, George returned to the fighting and was killed the following year. He is buried at the Bouzincourt Ridge Cemetery, Albert, Somme.


Gunner Philip Wolryche-Whitmore

Philip Wolryche-Whitmore Royal Field Artillery 42nd Trench Mortar Battery was killed in action near Colin camps eight miles north of Albert on 1st August, 1918. He was 28 years old and the elder son of Malcolm and Beatrice of Ufford Hall and Thurloe Square, Kensington.

He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. He served first as a Lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and went to Egypt in September 1914. He resigned his commission in December 1916 and enlisted as a Gunner in the RFA.

Philip is buried in the Bertrancourt Military Cemetery, Somme. He is commemorated in Ufford church and in the church at Quatt near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, where the family once owned Dudmaston Hall, now a National Trust property.


Thomas CoxPrivate Arthur Cox

Arthur Cox 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment died on 6th September 1918 aged 23. He is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen. He died of wounds in one of the fifteen military hospitals that were located on the southern outskirts of Rouen.

Arthur was the third of three brothers to be killed in the war. They were the sons of Thomas and Kate Cox of Walcot where Thomas had been head gardener.

Kate Cox had died in 1915 and she is buried in Barnack cemetery. Her headstone records the deaths of their three boys.


Private Frank Snart

Frank Snart 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment died on 15th September, 1918 aged 37.

He lived in Bainton and was the son of John and Mary Snart of Ashton. Before he enlisted he was a footman for Mr. Welby of Bainton House for whom his father worked as coachman. The family were then living in the Lodge House on Barnack Road. Frank is reputed to have had a fine singing voice and he sang at village events and Church Army meetings.

He was a prisoner of war when he died and is buried at Niederzwehren cemetery, Kassel, Germany. The cemetery was begun by the Germans in 1915 for the burial of prisoners of war who died at the local camp. 


Lance Corporal Leonard Knipe

Leonard Knipe 10th Battalion Essex Regiment was killed in action on 21st September,1918 aged 19.

He was one of seven children. The family lived in the Bakehouse in Bainton. Leonard  was apprenticed to an ironmonger on St. Mary’s Hill in Stamford. His father was a carter by trade and brought loads from Stamford to Bainton. By the end of the war his parents, Jesse and Eliza, had moved to Pinchbeck, Spalding.

Leonard is buried in the Unicorn Cemetery at Vendhuile fifteen miles south east of Péronne.


Private Charles Dumford 

Charles Dumford8th Battalion East Surrey Regiment died of wounds  on 27th October, 1918 in a military hospital at Rouen. There were fifteen military hospitals on the southern outskirts of Rouen during the war, such were the numbers of wounded men being brought back from the front. Charles is buried at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen. He was 36 years old when he died.

He was the son of Edward and Fanny Dumford of Barnack and husband of Emily Dumford of Wilsford near Sleaford, Lincolnshire. 


Private Arthur Hayes

Arthur Hayes  4th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment died 24th November, 1918, aged 26.

He had worked as a cowman for Mrs. Ward at Poplar Farm, Ashton, before being conscripted. He lived with his parents in one of the five stone cottages on the east side of Tallington Road, Bainton before being drafted to the Western Front.

Unfortunately, his mother became a victim of the severe ‘flu epidemic of the autumn of 1918 and while on compassionate leave to attend her funeral, Arthur succumbed himself and died at home. He is buried in Bainton churchyard under a military headstone. 


Ufford war memorial

Private Fred Bradley

Fred Bradley 1st Battalion Essex Regiment died of wounds on 9th December 1918, in a military hospital at Sangatte. He was 26 years old. He is buried at Les Baraques Military Cemetery, Sangatte, Calais.

He was an Ufford man and is one of the eight men from the village who are named on the commemorative plaque in the village church..


1919

Private Thomas Edward Dawson 

Thomas Edward Dawson 5th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment died on 8th February, 1919. He is buried in the churchyard at Duston, Northampton in the same grave as his father.

His parents were James and Hester Dawson of Barnack. His younger brother Henry had been killed in 1916.

There are seven casualties from World War 1 buried in Duston churchyard. There was a military hospital at Duston, so it seems the men had died there of wounds or possibly influenza.


Gunner Gerald Pretty RN, 

Gerald Pretty HMS King George V died 10th February, 1919 aged 36. He is buried in Barnack cemetery. Gerald Pretty may well have been present at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 in which HMS King George V played a part.

The Stamford Mercury for Feb 21st, 1919 carried the following report: ‘On Saturday Gunner Warrant Officer Gerald H.A.Pretty was laid to rest in the cemetery. Deceased, who was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Pretty of Walcot Lodge, Southorpe and brother-in-law of Mr C. B. Allerton, headmaster of Barnack school, died of pneumonia following influenza in the Naval Hospital at Granton, Edinburgh’.


A complete record of the In Memoriam notices for these men is contained in the book 

The Men Who Went to War by Brian Palmer. Copies can be obtained from the author (01780 740988) price £5, with proceeds going to the Royal British Legion.