Soldiers A- C

Private Joseph Alldred


14258 9th Bn Leicester Regiment
Died Sunday 24th October 1915 
Victoria Street 
Unmarried
Buried Humbercamps Communal Cemetery France


Private Alldred was the son of Mr John Alldred of Victoria Street. He joined the forces at the outbreak of war in 1914. After completing his basic training he was sent to France the following June. He survived only 4 months in the trenches before he was killed by a sniper whilst on sentry duty. The tragic news was conveyed in a letter from the Army Chaplain and also from Lieut E Fowler Smart both of whom spoke of Private Alldred 'as a true soldier and a man that would be missed'  He was 27 years old.

 

Grave ref : I A 7                        " Rest In Peace "          

 

 

Private Benjamin Allen 

241146 2nd/6th Bn Sherwoods (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died Friday 27th April 1917 Aged 38 
Heywood Street
Married & father of 4 sons & 2 daughters 
Remembered Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France 
 

Private Allen was the husband of Rose Catherine Allen, and father to four sons and two daughters. He joined the forces in 1915 and had been a miner at Markham No 1 colliery prior to enlisting. His wife had been critically ill with throat cancer at the time he was killed, and had lost her speech. She subsequently died a short time later, leaving her six children orphans.

 

Lieut Elwood wrote of Private Allen’s death saying “...with deep and sincere regret I have to inform you of the death of your husband who died the death of a hero. He saw no fear and did splendid service to his company in carrying messages. It was while he was doing his work that he was killed instantly and thereby suffered no pain. Let me ask you, though I know your feeble condition, to bear this heavy blow with courage, as your husband would wish you. I sincerely trust the Great Comforter will endure you with strength necessary to bear the burden. I hope it will be a comfort to know your husband was highly popular and all mourn his loss greatly. We feel and find comfort when we realise that he with many others who have laid down their lives go to that home where war can never enter and where they live in peace eternal.' 

 

No known grave -  Private Allen’s name is inscribed on Pier/Face 10D of Thiepval Memorial 

Private Gerald Allen

44744 10th Bn Lincolns Regiment
Died Thursday 19th September 1918 Age 19
Heywood Street,
Unmarried
Buried Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery, France

 

 

Private Allen was born and raised in the village -the son of George and Mary Allen who ran a printing and newsagents business in Heywood Street; he worked for his father in the business. The soldier enlisted in early 1917 and was originally consigned to the West Yorkshire Regiment before being moved to the Lincolns. His parents were informed that he had been wounded in action on March 22nd 1918. So severe were his injuries that he could no be moved and he remained in France where he died on 19th September 1918. He was 19 years old. 

 

Grave ref : III.C.10

Gunner Frank Ashmore 


L/46943 ‘B Bty 188th Bn RFA 
Died Tuesday 8th October 1918 Aged 22 
Chesterfield Road 
Unmarried 
Buried at Tincourt New British Cemetery, France
 

Gunner Ashmore lived with his parents Neri & Eliza at Chesterfield Road. He was just 22 years old when he died of his wounds in October 1918 -only a few weeks before the signing of the armistice. He joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1916 and had been in France for two years and 6 months when he died. Before enlisting he had been a foundry worker in a local business. His younger brother Private Sam Ashmore had been killed less than three weeks earlier on 21st September 1918. And their parents were informed in one single letter that they had lost both their beloved sons.

Grave ref : V.D.12 

Private Sam Ashmore 

44751 10th Bn Essex Regiment 
Died Sat 21st September 1918 Aged 18 
Almond Place, 
Unmarried 
Buried Unicorn Cemetery, Vend’huille France 

Private Ashmore was the son of Neri & Eliza Ashmore of Chesterfield Road. The young soldier was only just 18 years old when he enlisted in the army in the summer of 1918, and originally joined the Sherwood Foresters before he transferred to the Essex Regiment only days before his death. He had been in the forces a mere 6 weeks before he was killed in action. His elder brother Private Frank Ashmore was killed three weeks later. 

 

Grave ref :  I.B.7

 

Private Harry Fredrick Aust 

9470 2nd Bn Sherwoods (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died Tuesday 20th October 1914 
Victoria Street, 
Married with 3 daughters 
Remembered Ploegsteert Memorial Hainaut, Belgium 

Private Aust is reputed to be the first man from Brimington to be killed in action in the Great War. Although another Brimington soldier –Private Thomas Bradshaw - was also reported killed on the same day. He served in the Regulars some ten years before he rejoined the Colours on the first mobilisation on August 5th 1914. He was sent to France with the B.E.F ( British Expeditionary Force) on 7th September and fought at the first major battles of Mons, Marne and Aisne. His death was reported to have occurred on 20th October and from information received from friends at the front, his death occurred at Ploegsteert . 
He left behind three orphaned daughters - the eldest was only seven years of age - as his wife Emma (Ashmore) aged only 26 died tragically at the beginning of 1914. 

No Known Grave - Private Aust's name is inscribed on Panel 7 on the memorial

Private Phineas James Baker 

T1/1451 195th Div. Unit of Supply, Army Service Corps 
Died Sunday 24th September 1916 Aged 22 
Station Road, 
Unmarried 
Buried : Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, Greece 

Private Baker was the son of James and Betsy Baker originally of 84 Old Road Brampton before they moved to ’The Gravels’ Station Road, Brimington where Mr Baker senior conducted a profitable carriage business. 
Private Baker joined the Colours on 12th August 1914 and saw action in the Dardanelles and Egypt before being sent to Salonika in June 1916. In two years of fighting he'd only had one short home leave but he was due extended leave only weeks after he died of malaria whilst serving in Greece. 
Private Baker had been butcher for a while before leaving to work for Eyre and Sons in Chesterfield. His elder brother Corporal Sidney Baker had been killed in action the previous year. He was 22 years old. 

Grave ref :  Plot 459

Corporal Sidney L Baker 

27303 A" Bty 16th Bde RFA 
Died Friday, 5th November 1915 Aged 24 
Station Road 
Unmarried 
Buried: Ypres Town Cemetery Extension Cemetery 

Corporal Baker was the son of James and Betsy B. Baker of ‘The Gravels’ Station Road Brimington, who ran a successful carriage business. The soldier had been commended for bravery in the field just shortly before he was killed during an artillery battle at Ypres, Belgium. Before enlisting Corporal Baker was a clerk at the Chesterfield County Court offices. His younger brother Private Phineas Baker was also lost - the following year—1916. 
He was 24 years old. 
 

Grave ref :  III.B.7

Private Walter Barlow 

25398 9th Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died 26th Sept 1916 Aged 36 
North Moor Road, 
Unmarried 
Remembered Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France 

Private Barlow lived at 15 North Moor Road, Brimington Common with his parents Ben and Elizabeth, and he enlisted in the Sherwood Foresters in April 1915. After training in the south of England he was sent to the Dardanelles and then to Egypt where he went through several terrible campaigns, before he arrived in France in June 1916. Two days before he was killed in action he wrote to his parents to say that…’ the battalion was having a hard time with the enemy....’ but ….expected to be relieved very soon’. When his parents finally received official notice of their son’s death, there was no information about how he died.

 
No Known Grave - Private Barlows name is inscribed on  Pier/Face - 10D on Thiepval Memorial

Private Frank Bastock 


15144 6th Bn Lincolnshire Regiment 
Died 28th Nov 1915 Age 22 
Station Road, 
Unmarried 
Buried Azmak Cemetery, Sulva Bay, Turkey 

Private Bastock was born in Burton on Trent and moved to 36 Station Road, with his parents William and Annie, when he was a young boy. He enlisted in the army almost at the outbreak of war, leaving his job as a labourer at Staveley Iron and Steel works to join the Lincolnshire Regiment. He joined up on the same day as his closest friend Private Thomas Hall –who was also killed later in the war. 
Private Bastock‘s battalion arrived in Gallipoli in August 1915 and he was killed in the ill-fated campaign just 3 months later. 

Grave ref :  T.G.3

L/Corp Joseph Baumber 


3634 4th Bn Lincolnshire Regiment 
Died 16th Sept 1916 Aged 28
High Street
Married with 4 children 
Buried : Brimington Cemetery 


Born on Lincolnshire L/Corporal Baumber came to live in Brimington around 1914 when he began working at Ryland Works. He had married Minnie (Folger) in 1909 and had four young children by the time he joined the forces in March 1915. In January 1916 his battalion was sent to Egypt where Private Baumber contracted a serious illness. 
He was shipped back to Manchester Hospital. A military funeral was held in Brimington, conducted by the Rev W A Dutton, and because of rumours of Zeppelin raids in Lincolnshire travel from that area was restricted so many of his family could not make the funeral on time.

Grave ref : 348     “ For Country, Honour and Freedom.   Rest In Peace “

Private John W Bradley 

54133 10th Bn Sherwood Forsters (Nott’s & Derby Regt) 
Died 23rd April 1917 Aged 29 
Queen Street 
Married 
Remembered: Arras Memorial, France 


Private Bradley was the son of Mr and Mrs I Bradley, who were grocers at 75 Queen Street. Before the war Private Bradley worked in the shop alongside his sisters and mother, so he was a well known figure in the village. He joined the forces in June 1916, shortly after he had married Edith Bestwick and he was sent to France that same year. Known as ‘Jack’ to his friends he was 29 years old when he died in France at the battle of Arras.

No Known Grave  -  Private Bradley name is inscribed on Bay 4 on Arras Memorial

Private George W Bradshaw 

22550 11th Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died 19th Oct 1917 Age 27 
Pondwell Corner 
Married one son 
Buried: Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, Belgium 

Private Bradshaw was born in Old Whittington to William and Amelia Bradshaw and he had many close family associations with Brimington. He married a Brimington girl - Mary Anne Hayes in 1910 and worked as a farm labourer in Brimington before he joined the forces at the outbreak of war. He served in the Balkans during most of 1915 then was sent to France in late 1916 where he was involved in heavy fighting throughout that year. He was killed at the battle of Passchendaele and is buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium. George lost two brothers in the war—his younger brother Thomas was one of the first young men from Brimington to die in the war—in October 1914. And Private John Bradshaw who died in April 1917 at Arras. George had one child—a son named George born in 1911.

Grave ref : XLVII.C.11

Click Below for Private George Bradshaws -'missing' Military Medal

Private John Bradshaw 

10237 10/11th Highland Light Infantry 
Died 11th April 1917 
Brimington 
Married 
Remembered: Arras Memorial, France 

Private Bradshaw was born in Whittington Moor, the son William and Amelia. Sometime after 1901 he and his family moved to Northampton, where in 1906 at the age of 18 he enlisted in the army. His army record shows he was 5’ 4” tall, and weighed less than 9 stone at that time 
He returned to the Chesterfield area around 1912, and in 1914 he married a Brimington girl—Elsie Maria Brown (the sister of Private Thomas R Brown another Brimington soldier who also died in the Great War). 
Private Bradshaw was killed near Arras, France in Spring 1917 and he is one of THREE brothers who died in the war— George and Thomas Bradshaw - who are also commemorated on the Brimington memorial.  He was 29 years old when he died.


No Known Grave  - Private Bradshaws name is inscribed  in  Bay 8  of Arras Memorial
 

Private Thomas Bradshaw 
12186 2nd Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died 20th October 1914 Aged 19 
Station Road 
Remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium 

Private Bradshaw was born in Whittington Moor to William and Almena Bradshaw and had close family connections to Brimington.   It is thought he lived in Station Road when he answered the call to arms at the declaration of war in 1914. And together with Private Harry Fredrick Aust he was one of the first men to die from the village - he was just 19 years of age. 

Two of his brothers -George and John Bradshaw also give their lives life for King and Country, both in 1917. 

No Known Grave  - Private Bradshaws name is inscribed on Panel 7 of the memorial

Private Harold Brooks 

24776 9th Bn Kings Own Yorkshire Light Inf 
Died 11th April 1918 Age 20 
Queen Street 
Unmarried 
Remembered: Tyne Cot Memorial, Passchendaele, Belgium 

Private Brooks was just 20 years old when he was killed in action in Belgium in 1918. Before the war he lived at 23 Queen Street, with his parents, Charles and Charlotte. 
It is understood he joined the army sometime in early 1916, and on the same day as his friend, another Brimington man George Mellors who was also killed the following year. After initial training Private Brooks was moved first to France and then to Belgium. In March 1918 his battalion was sent to the Ypres Salient where he was ‘presumed killed’ on the 11th April following a heavy engagement with the enemy. 

No Known Grave  - Private Brooks name is inscribed on panel 110 on Tyne Cot Memorial

Private Frederick Brown 

1480 1st/6th Bn Sherwood (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died 1th August 1915 Aged 21 
John Street 
Unmarried 
Remembered: Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium 

Private Brown was a native of Whittington Moor but moved as a young boy to John Street initially then to Coronation Road in the village. According to his service records he was 5’ 4” tall, with brown hair and pale eyes when he first enlisted. His father, Charles was disabled and suffered from a chronic lung disease, so Frederick was the main bread-winner of the family and worked as an engine driver. His father received a last letter from his son dated 14th August – the day before he was killed, in it he expressed a hope that he would be home soon and thanked his family for the gift of a watch they were to send him . He was aged 21 at the time of his death and was unmarried.

No Known Grave - Private Browns name is inscribed on panel 109 on the Menin Gate 

Private Thomas R Brown 

101701 3rd Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died 13th Nov 1918 Aged 32 
Station Road 
Buried : Leeds (Harehills) Cemetery, Yorkshire 

Private Brown was born in the village and joined the forces on the 25th January 1917. He had lived at 142 Station Road with his parents Tom and Ann Brown, and his occupation at the time of his enlistment is stated as a ‘hawker’, although he had been a miner when he was younger. 
Initially he was part of the Training Reserve Battalion, before being transferred to the Sherwood Foresters. And according to his records he never served abroad. He had been a colourful character and his short army career was far from exemplary. 
He was 32 years old when he died and was unmarried. He died 2 days after the signing of the Armistice and his death in a Leeds hospital was not war related and out of respect for his descendants the cause of his death will not be mentioned here. 
He is buried in Leeds Harehills cemetery, but his grave is not marked and neither are the other soldiers buried in that plot. 

Private John Ephraim Burdett 
PLY/16739 Royal Marine Light Infantry 
Died 31st May 1916 Aged 18 
Burnell Street, 
Unmarried 
Remembered: Plymouth Naval Memorial (MR2) 

Private Burdett lived with his parents John and Mary at 14 Burnell Street, and left his job as a ’rope-boy’ in a local coal mine to join the navy in late 1914 ,when he was barely 17 years old. After enlisting in Nottingham he trained with the Plymouth Bn at Dunkirk until January 1915 when he joined the illustrious HMS ‘’Defence’’. He was killed in action at the infamous naval battle of Jutland in 1916 at just 18 years old, - along with all of his shipmates- some 893 officers and men. And his body was never recovered from the sea. 

 

No Known grave  -   Private Burdets name is inscribed on Panel 18 on the Naval Memorial

L/Corp Robert Walter Burr 

2266 Royal Medical Corps 
Died Friday 27th January 1916 Aged 27 
Oak Close, Off Chesterfield Road, 
Unmarried 
Buried: Brimington Cemetery 

L/Corp Burr was the son of Mr and Mrs W Burr of Oak Close (off Chesterfield Road). His father Walter was the headmaster of Chesterfield Grammar School for many years, and the soldier was a pupil there and was said to be exceptionally brilliant. He enlisted in the London Sanitary Co of the Royal Army Medical Corp in December 1914. But his war was short-lived, sometime during late 1915 he contracted phlebitis, a fatal disease at the time, and was shipped back to Britain, where he died in the Western General Hospital in Manchester. He was noted as a keen athlete before the war as well as a choir boy and fund raiser at Brimington Church. 
He was 27 years old when he died.

Grave ref : 1673 

Sapper James W Chapman 

101792 73rd Royal Engineers 
Died 17th Aug 1916 Aged 20 
King Street 
Unmarried 
Remembered: Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France 

Sapper Chapman was the son of William & Ann Chapman of 61 King Street and he joined the forces in August 1915. He was sent almost immediately to France where his unit was engaged in vital communication work in the Somme area. It is thought he was killed in action in August 1916 around Beaumont Hamel area during the prolonged action of the Battle of the Somme, although his body was never found. He was said to have been of a very quiet disposition and an enthusiastic worshipper at the Parish church. And there is a plaque dedicated to him from his loving parents—on the north aisle of the village church. He was employed at Staveley Works before enlisting and was 20 years old at the time of his death. 

No Known Grave -  Sapper Chapmans name is inscribed on  Pier/Face 8A-8D

Private Albert E Cherry 

14170 7th Bn Leicestershire 
Died 7th July 1916 Age 31 
Station Road Unmarried 
Remembered: Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France 

Private Cherry was born in Wellingborough, Northants, and came to Brimington to work as a furnace man at Staveley works. He lived at Station Road during that time, and enlisted in the forces on 2nd Sept 1914 along with a number of other local lads, and went out to France around July 1915. He was reported wounded, but no news was heard about him for some time, despite appeals in the Derbyshire Times for news of his whereabouts. He was 31 years old when it was confirmed that he had been killed at the Battle of the Somme. 


No Known Grave  - Private Cherrys name is inscribed on Pier/Face 2C- 3A

Private Henry Clarke 

87709 16th Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died 20th Sept 1917 Aged 22 
Coronation Road 
Married 
Remembered : Tyne Cot Passchendaele, Belgium 

Private Clarke enlisted in the army in December 1915 at the age of 20, and stated his occupation at that time as 'a miner'. And at the time of his death he lived with his new wife Ellen and parents Henry and Sarah at 95 Coronation Road. His service record states he was 5’5” tall with light brown hair and green eyes and in good physical condition. He was shipped out to France in August 1917 and was killed in action less than a month later. Before the war he was a member of the ‘Ancient Order of Foresters' and is thought to have been married only months before his death to Miss Ellen Wright of Staveley.

No Known Grave  -  Private Clarkes name is inscribed on Panel 101 on the Tyne Cot Memorial

Private Charles E Clayton 

32163 1st Bn Gloucester's & Labour Corps 
Died 8th July 1918 Aged 39 
Burnell Street, 
Married with two sons 
Buried : Brimington Cemetery 

Private Clayton was the son of John and Jane Clayton of 11 Burnell Street and the husband of Clara Clayton of Oxten Rakes, Cutthorpe. He was born in Barrow-On-Soar, Leicestershire and is thought to have moved to Brimington as a small boy. It is understood that he was wounded in early July 1918, aged 39 and was brought back to England where he died shortly afterwards of his injuries. His funeral was held in Brimington and he was buried in Brimington cemetery. He left his wife; young son Fredrick Ronald aged 7 years, and a step son Thomas. 

Grave ref : 312   “  Short and Sudden Was The Call,   Of Him So Dearly Loved By All “

Private Charles Cocking 

18294 2nd/5th Bn Lincoln’s 
Died 25th Apr 1918 Aged 25 
Station Road 
Unmarried 
Buried : Leuze Community Cemetery, Belgium 

Private Cocking was born in Whittington and moved to Brimington Common around 1908 with his family. Upon his mother’s death he moved again with his widowed father and his sister to Station Road in the village. He joined the colours in early 1915 and his battalion was sent the Balkans shortly afterwards. In 1916 he was sent to Ireland to help quell the troubles, and then in 1917 his unit was moved to France. In the spring of 1918, his battalion encountered fierce fighting around the German held town of Leuze, and Private Cocking was severely injured and died of his wounds shortly afterwards. A coal miner by trade, he was not married. He was 25 years old. 

Grave ref :  I.E.3

Private Frank Cooper 

11968 7th Bn Lincoln’s 
Died 11th July 1916 
Cotterhill Lane, 
Married with two small children 
Buried : Mericourt-L'Abbe Communal Cemetery, France

Private Cooper joined the forces in September 1914 and following his basic training in the south of England he was sent to the western front in July 1915. He first saw action around the Ypres salient and as part of the 1st Brigade 17th (Northern) Division; his battalion were engaged in the Spring offensive in 1916 at Delville wood and at the Battle of Albert. In July he was injured at the Battle of the Somme and died of his wounds some days later. 
He was married to a local girl, Elsie (Swift) and had two small children, a son Francis and daughter Lily, and lived in Cotterhill Lane. 

 

Grave ref : II.C.18

Private Ernest Crozier 

19034 9th York  & Lancs 
Died 1st July 1916 Aged 22 
Tapton Cottage 
Unmarried 
Buried : Blighty Valley, Authuille, Somme, France 

Private Ernest Crozier lived at Tapton Cottage, with his father George and mother Elizabeth and three brothers. He enlisted almost from the outbreak of war and saw action throughout France for the next year and a half. He was killed on the first day at the Battle of the Somme. But his parents had to wait for over a year before his death in action was finally confirmed. The soldier was a chauffeur before the war and was not married. His younger brother Percy was killed the following year -1917 and his parents received news of his death only days after their eldest sons death was made official. He was 22 years old. 

Grave ref :  V.J.4
“  Father in Thy Gracious Keeping, Leave We Now Our Loved One Sleeping “  

Private Percy Crozier 

45645 11th Bn Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regt) 
Died 7th June 1917 Aged 20 
Tapton Cottage, Unmarried 
Remembered : Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium 

Private Percy Crozier lived at Tapton Cottage, Tapton with his father George and mother Elizabeth and three brothers– the eldest of who was also killed in action in July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Before Percy joined the army he was employed by a Mr H Longson, a dental surgeon, Old Hall Road, Chesterfield and was said to be an ‘excellent worker’. In early June 1917 he was first reported as wounded, then as missing. And his anxious parents received a letter from his Commanding Officer to inform them that it was quite possible he had been captured by the enemy and was being held as a prisoner of war. However it was later confirmed that he had indeed been killed and the date give as the 7th June 1917. He was 20 years old.

No Known Grave   -   Private Croziers name is inscribed on Panel 40 on the Menin Gate

Private Albert F Cutts
 
40815 8th/9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers 
Died 25th March 1918 Aged 20 
Foljambe Road 
Unmarried 
Remembered: Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France 

Private Cutts lived with his parents William and Annie at 72 Foljambe Road, and was 20 years old when he was killed in action in Spring 1918. He had joined the forces in January 1917 and was sent to France in May of that year. He was rarely out of the front line and his unit was involved in some of the heaviest fighting around the Somme area, and were subjected to repeated gas attacks and heavy shelling from the Germans for weeks on end. He finally lost his life near Pozieres , France. Before the war he was a chemical sales clerk at Staveley Works and was unmarried. 

No Known Grave - Private Cutts name is inscribed on Panel 80 of the Pozieres Memorial

Not Forgotten Brimington    Not Forgotten Brimington   

If you have any further information about Brimington’s soldiers or need help from us or would like to leave feedback please see contact us page for details

THIS MONTH
WE ARE REMEMBERING

 

 Our Brimington Wreath
laid at the Memorial Gates on Remembrance Sunday
 14th Nov 2021

   Remembrance Sunday 2021

THE SOMME - 1916

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