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15 December 1916: Pte Nicholas Joseph Mann

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Nicholas Mann was born on 8 June 1880 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, the son of a shoe maker and later cabinet maker, and former Colour Sergeant. He served in the South Africa Campaign, though by the 1911 Census he is recorded as a labourer. On attestation on 4 Sept 1914, from surviving papers, we learn that he was 5ft 6in tall, with blue eyes...

21 January 1916 : Pte Frederick C Baldwyn

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One of five boys, his father, Frank Baldwyn originally from Aberdeen, ran a market gardening business with his wife Florence out of Fleet Farm, Finchampstead. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Frederick was living on the farm and working as a labourer and bricklayer. Fred enlisted at Salisbury in September 1914. Sent overseas on 18 March 1915, h...

18 April 1916: Pte Sam Naylor

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Sam was born in Lancaster in 1877, the son of an agricultural labourer. He lived for much of his life in Gargrave, Yorkshire where he worked in a mill or iron foundry. He was employed in the New Brighton Saw Mills before moving to Accrington, Lancashire where he worked as a moulder at Newbank Works. At the 1911 Census that family lived at 10 C...

19 April 1916: Pte Dennis Cyril Byrne

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Dennis Cyril Byrne born in Burnley, Lancashire in 1894, the son of John and Elizabeth Fell. At the 1901 Census the family lived on Vicarage Place, Burnley. Dennis had an older brother John and younger siblings Douglas and Florence. At the 1911 Census the Byrne family were still living in Burnley, now on Napier Street. Dennis had another sister...

6 February 1917 : 2nd Lieut Leon Alfred O’Meara

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Leon was born in Camberley, Surrey in 1898. He was the only son of Major Walter O’Meara and Annie O'Meara of 11 Talgarth Road, West Kensington. His father was a former Barrister. Educated at St. Edward’s Oxford, Leon was - for four years - a member of the Officers Training Corps and intended entering Pembroke College, Oxford in the autumn of 191...

A Tour of Mesopotamian War Cemeteries in 2003

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In the early summer of 2003, fortunately or not, I found myself and the Battalion I was commanding at the time, 7 Air Assault Battalion REME, based just outside of Al-Amarah in what had once been the British front line in Mesopotamia. Wherever I am in the world if there is an opportunity to visit a CWGC site then I will. A quick look on the map...

A Lonely Island War Memorial: Stroma in the Pentland Firth

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Two miles north-west of John O’Groats lies the island of Stroma. The name translates from Old Norse as ‘the island in the stream’, the stream being the Pentland Firth. Above: The island of Stroma is the most southerly of the islands in the Pentland Firth. The population of Stroma reached a peak of 375 in 1901. By 1911, the population had sligh...

Killed by Treachery

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Whilst working on an index that was being created for the two volumes of ‘The Bond of Sacrifice’, one of the WFA’s volunteers noticed an interesting line that had been inserted into an officer’s obituary. This obituary, for Lt Theodore Bailward of the 26th King George’s Own Light Cavalry (a regiment of the Indian Army), stated he had been ‘Kille...