Alfred Fowles

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Alfred Fowles, Ceylon, Dunstall Road, Egypt, Express & Star, Gloucestershire Regiment, Great Western Railway Company, London Gazette, Malta, Military Cross, South Africa, St George's Church

Alfred was born in Wolverhampton on 25 April 1874. He married Nellie Beatrice Hollins at St George’s Church, Wolverhampton, on 4 June 1905, and they had two daughters, Ada Beatrice and May. In 1911 they were living at 106 Dunstall Road, and Alfred was a Carman in the Goods Department of the Great Western Railway.

In September 1893, Alfred enlisted with the Gloucestershire Regiment (number 4090), and served in Malta, Egypt, South Africa and Ceylon, until 1909. When war broke out in September 1914, he re-enlisted with the Gloucestershire Regiment (service number 2956). He was promoted to Sergeant not long after, then Company Sergeant-Major. On 26 September 1916, the Express & Star announced that he had been awarded the Military Cross:

For conspicuous gallantry in action. When his officers became casualties he took command of the first line, rallying and urging the men forward under heavy machine gun fire. He had on another occasion shown great bravery.

This was announced in the London Gazette on 22 September 1916. He served until December 1919. He died in Wolverhampton in 1951.

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THE CLINTON BROTHERS

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Arthur Clinton, Egypt, France, George Clinton, Harry Clinton, Lower Street, Malta, Royal Engineers, Royal Horse Artillery, Shropshire, South Africa, Tettenhall

Betty McCann, a volunteer at Wolverhampton City Archives, has carried out research on these men.

There were 5 Clinton brothers and a sister Edith: their parents were Joseph, a Butcher born in Worfield Shropshire, and Emma née Perry, who was born in Claverley, Shropshire. The 1901 Census records the family living at Lower Street in Tettenhall when William the oldest child was19 years of age, Arthur J was 17,  Edith was 15, Joseph H 13, George 11 and Harry 6 years of age.

ARTHUR JOHN CLINTON, born in 1884, the second son of Joseph and Emma, lived most of his life at No. 19 Lower Street, Tettenhall, until he enlisted in the army on 17^th September 1907 aged 23 years as a driver in the Royal Horse Artillery, Regimental Number 48067. On 7^th December of that year he was posted to serve at Templemore.  Arthur served in France in 1916 and with the BEF in various locations. In 1918 he was admitted to hospital in Edinburgh with an ankle injury, the result of being kicked by a horse whist in action. He was discharged from the army 18^th May 1918.  His army records are very difficult to read, but we learn that he survived the war and returned home to Tettenhall without incurring any further injuries. Arthur was married in 1918 to Ada Sandells and they had three children, Florence L, Kathleen and Eileen M.

GEORGE CLINTON was born in 1889, enlisted in the Army on 6^th January 1915, and was appointed to serve in the Royal Engineers, Reg. No. 59647. During his army service he served in Egypt and France, and was wounded and admitted to hospital on 26^th November 1916 and again in 1917. He also suffered from Trench Fever and Influenza during his service but he recovered from all his illnesses and survived the war.  George married Annie Mylott in 1922 and they had a daughter, Kathleen in 1926.

HARRY CLINTON was born 23rd March 1895 and enlisted in the army on 20^th December 1916 into the Royal Engineers, 66 Field Coy. Reg. No. 59666. He served in South Africa and Malta and during this time he contracted Malaria . Before enlisting Harry was employed as a Tinplate Worker and after enlisting in the army he was tested on his ability in this work and passed as being “Proficient.” He had been given a very good recommendation by his previous employers Messrs. J.Jones  who described him as a skilled worker, and because of this he was passed as proficient and his pay was upgraded.

No military records were traced for the two other brothers. William, we do know, married Lizzie Heath in 1905 and they had three children, William Heath, Eileen Edith and Jennie, and lived at 9 The Holloway, Compton. The birth of Joseph Henry Clinton was registered at Wolverhampton in the 4th Quarter of 1887. His death at the age of 82 was registered at Bromsgrove in the 4th Quarter of 1969, when his birth date was shown as 20 September 1887.

Frederick Charles Mander

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Compton Street, Egypt, Frederick Mander, Gibraltar, Malta, South Staffordshire Regiment

Frederick Charles Mander was born in 1878. By 1901, he had become an underhand brass caster and was living at 21 Compton Street. His household consisted of his brothers Joseph and Albert, his sisters Clara, Edith Ellen and Florence Maria, and his uncle Frederick Charles Beck. In 1908 he married Emily Hammond, and they went on to have at least two children, Gladys and Freda, between 1911 and 1921.

In 1881, he joined the South Staffordshire Regiment, and was sent to Tralee the following year to join the 2nd Battalion. By 1883 he was with the 1st Battalion at Malta, before proceeding to Egypt and the Gordon Relief Expedition. Finally the battalion was sent to Gibraltar, when Mander was taken ill with enteric fever and sent home. He was first posted back to the 2nd Battalion, and later the 4th Battalion. He eventually became Company Sergeant-Major, and a newspaper cutting about himself and three other officers of the South Staffordshire Regiment appears in a Scrapbook of First World War material. In the above photograph he appears seated on the left, along with Company-Quartermaster-Sergeant W. Bailey, Sergeant-Major W. J. Davis and Company Sergeant-Major W. P. Jones. Frederick Mander died at the age of 50 in 1928. He is buried in Merridale Cemetery.

Joseph Thomas Hartland

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Baker Street, Chillington Edge-Tool Works, Express & Star, France, India, Joseph Hartland, Malta, Worcestershire Regiment

Express & Star, 30 December 1914

Joseph Thomas Hartland was born in Wolverhampton in 1883. In the 1901 census, he appears with his aunt and uncle, Thomas and Annie Nicholls, at 39 Baker Street, together with his cousins, William, Thomas and John. Joseph Hartland is listed as a carter. He later worked at the Chillington Edge Tool works, as well as being involved in cricket and the high jump.

Joseph served as a reservist with the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment (number 9721), and had nearly completed his time, when he was called up and sent with the first Expeditionary Force to France. Previously, he had served in India and Malta. He was killed in action. Joseph was killed on 20 September 1914. The Express & Star article incorrectly has the date as 2 October 1914. He is commemorated at the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial in France.

Alfred Joseph Blood

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Alfred Blood, Border Regiment, East Indies, Grimstone Street, Malta, Merridale Street West, Pool Street, South Africa, Wednesfield Road

Alfred Joseph Blood was born in Wolverhampton in 1869. He was the son of John (a railway worker) and Mary Ann Blood. In 1871 Alfred was living at 13 Grimstone Street with his parents and sisters, Mary Ann and Elizabeth. By 1881, they had moved to 82 Wednesfield Road, and the family were joined by an additional daughter, Agnes, and four sons, George, Charles, Bert and an unnamed baby aged 14 days. Alfred married Floribel Dunn in 1899, and the couple moved to 92 Pool Street. By 1911, they were living at 127 Merridale Street West with four of their children. In all, they went on to have eight children between 1902 and 1920 – John, Agnes (who unfortunately died a few months later), Alfred Joseph, Alfreda, Clara, Albert, Daniel and Ralph.

Alfred enlisted in the 34th and 55th Border Regiment on 5 November 1888 (number 2604). He served in Malta, the East Indies and South Africa. In 1902 he was in hospital in the Transvaal (South Africa) with pheibitis. On being discharged later that year, Alfred signed a declaration to the effect that he was willing to remain on the Army Reserve to be called for service in the event of further conflicts. Thus, he re-enlisted into the Border Regiment at the age of 45 on 30 September 1914 (number 5604). During this service he was promoted to Lance Corporal. He survived the war and was discharged on 19 January 1919. He died in 1931 at the age of 62.

Leonard Aston, born 1883

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Bilston, France, Holland, Leonard Aston, Malta, Parkfield Road, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Ypres

We have been contacted by Lars Ahlkvist from Sweden who has the First World War medals of Leonard Aston, and has provided the following information. Despite having the same name and both being born in Bilston, this is a different man from the one featured a few days ago, as they were born six years apart.

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Leonard Aston was a pre-war regular soldier in the First Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, enlisting sometime in 1906. The regiment had a high proportion of men from outside Wales.

With his 1914-star trio came two silver medals, engraved to him as Cpl, 1st RWF. One of them is for the “Regimental Cup” 1908-1909, on the other the engraving is partly polished away and reads “Regt L…. 1908-1909”.

He was with the First Battalion in Malta at the outbreak of war in 1914, leaving Malta on 3rd September and returning to the UK on the 16th. Leonard Aston went to France with the 1st Bn (7th Division) on 6th October 1914. During the next 24 days the battalion practically ceased to exist.

They first met the enemy advancing from Iseghem outside Ypres on the 19th, with about 120 casualties. The 20th and 21st found the battalion in rifle slits outside Broodseinde and under heavy attack by the Germans losing a great number of men missing/POWs, wounded and killed. On the 22nd 213 officers and men remained, and the battalion was in reserve at Ecksternest. One of the surviving officers, wrote of the action (quoted from the Regimental Record by Dudley Ward): “I do not know the losses of the rank and file. After the bombardment we found it impossible to use many of the rifles and we had to hammer our bolts open with entrenching tools; our maximum rate of fire was about three rounds a minute”

On the 24th, the battalion was at Veldhoek, and the number raised to about 400 due to reinforcements by stragglers and missing rejoining, and also a thinning of supporting services. They were sent forward in the line again on the 26th.

On October 29th, they held positions outside Zandvoorde on the right flank of the 22nd Brigade, when the Germans again attacked. The battalion “was scattered about in short slits of trench, without intercommunication, on the forward slope of a roll in the plain, their field of vision was short in the midst of hedgeenclosed fields, and it was impossible to know what was happening to the right or left.”

On the right of the 1st battalion were the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, who due to heavy enemy attacks were ordered to fall back. This resulted in the Germans being able to enfilade the positions of the 1st RWF from Zandvoorde village. German field batteries subjected them to heavy shrapnel fire. “With the attacking enemy on their front, his snipers to the rear, and his field batteries on their flank, post after post was wiped out” Lt Wodehouse records: “.. about midday the whole battalion was either killed, wounded or taken prisoner.” Lt Wodehouse was not entirely right, as 86 men and the Quartermaster managed to rejoin the british positions and were attached to the 2nd Queens.

In this action, Sjt Leonard Aston of C Company was wounded in the left lung by shrapnel and taken prisoner with about 60 other survivors. He was a Prisoner of War in Hameln, and sent to Holland 15th March 1918. His mother was a Mrs E. Aston who lived at 636 Parkfield Road, Wolverhampton. On the 18th October 1918 he was in St Georges Hospital, London.

His MIC gives no indication that he applied for the “aug-nov”-clasp, but he was issued with a silver war badge, no longer with the group.

A check on Ancestry 1901 census reveals a Leonard Aston living with his widowed mother Elizabeth in 43 South Street Walsall, Staffordshire (near Wolverhampton). This Leonard was born in Bilston in 1883, and working as a saddlers warehouseman. His two year younger brother Frederick is listed as a bridle cutter, born in Wolverhampton.

In 1891, the family lived in the parish of Aston, with the father William working as a Model Maker. At that time, a younger sister Mary was also part of the family.

The International Red Cross’ register of WWI POW’s confirms that this is the Leonard Aston who served in the 1st RWF. In 1921 he married Florrie May Shaw, and they had three children, Colin, Marie and Joyce. He died in Wolverhampon in 1961.

A Frederick Aston DOW in 1916 serving as a regular of the North Staffordshire Regiment, number 7464, may be Leonards brother. The number indicates an enlistment ca 1903, which would fit.