R C Rowett

Richard Cardell Rowett
Born 1900 in Portugal  Killed in Action 23 August 1918
Pte 85297 1/4 Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (Previous DCLI)
Buried Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux

Richard was the son of Charles Rowett and Florence Annie Pengilly.  Charles and Florence married at Redruth in 1893.  Charles was a mine engineer whose work took him abroad to Portugal and South America.  Several of the couple's children, including Richard, were born in Portugal.  Florence must have made friends in Portugal as she continued to travel back to the country after her husband's death.  The Rowetts had seven children, five of whom survived infancy:

Florence Kathleen (1895 - 1964)  Florence was left in Cornwall with her maternal grandparents in 1901 while the rest of the family were in Portugal.  Her grandfather Charles Pengilly was an arsenic manufacturer and preacher. 

Charles Edward (1899 - ?)

Richard Cardell

John Ernest (1901- 1972)

James Stanley (1903 - ?)

The three youngest boys were all born in Portugal.  In 1911 Florence and the five children were living in Scorrier.  Charles shows up on immigration records as arriving back in the UK from South America in late 1914.  He died soon after, aged 44, on 1 March 1915 . His probate records give his address as 1, Colchester Villas, Newquay and his occupation as mine engineer.  Florence was left £200.  She later moved to 43 St John's Road.

Richard joined the DCLI at Truro.  He was posted to the 1/4th (City of London) Battalion (Royal Fusiliers). The 1/4th were part of 56th (London) Division and Richard would have joined them at the Third Battle of Albert between 21 and 23 August 1918 (a phase of the Second Battles of the Somme).  The 1st DCLI were also at the Battle and the Regiment history notes that Friday, 23 August was an exceedingly hot day.  It was also exactly four years since the British first met the Germans at the Battle of Mons. 

The British offensives in the summer of 1918 marked the beginning of the end for the Germans.  Sadly, there were still many casualties, including Richard, in the final months of the war.  Richard is buried at the Bucquoy Road Cemetery.

Monument to the Royal Fusiliers in WW1 at Holborn in London

Wikimedia - Public Domain

W J Oxman

William James Oxman

Born c 1891 in Newquay  Died of Wounds 16 October 1917

Pte 14185 5th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment (Previously Devonshire Regiment)

Buried in Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Belgium

William James, who was sometimes known as James, was the son of William and Lavinia Glanville.  The elder William was a coachman, then became a fish hawker, whilst Lavinia was a charwoman. Lavinia (or Levinia) was the illegitimate daughter of Jane Glanville, a field labourer and washerwoman, who had a great number of children born out of wedlock.  Jane and several of her children spent some time in the workhouse at St Columb Major.  

William and Lavinia were married in 1875 and had the following children:

• Thomas Henry (1878 - 1880)
• Thomas Henry (1880 - 1959)
• Lavinia "Janie" (1882 - ?)
• Clarice Adelaide (1884 - ?) Worked cleaning train carriages during the war
• (Agnes) Maud (1887 - 1960)
• William James 

In 1911, young William had a job as a grocery storeman.  He was living at home with his parents, which was at 1 Norman Court.  The family had a lodger; Frederick Wills, a carriage cleaner with the GWR.  Perhaps Clarice Oxman got his job when he went away to war (Frederick married in 1913, went to war with the the Royal Engineers Railway Operating Division and died in 1955.  Clarice's employment as a carriage cleaner shows up in the GWR records).

William joined up in Launceston and was assigned to the Devonshire Regiment, although I don't know which Battalion.  At some point he was posted to the 5th Dorsets.  In October 1917 the Dorsets, with 11th Division, were involved in the 3rd Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele.  It seems likely that it was during one of the battles, perhaps at Poelcapelle, that William was fatally wounded.  

There was a Casualty Clearing Station at Proven and the Mendinghem Military Cemetery is now on the site. William is buried in the cemetery along with 2441 other soldiers, 51 of whom are German.

Back in Newquay, William's mother died in late 1918; his father disappears from the records.

W M Spiller

Walter Matthews Spiller

Born 1897 at Upottery, Devon  Killed in Action 28 March 1918 in Syria

Lance Corporal 23rd (County of London) Battalion (Formerly RAMC)

Walter was the son of Walter Spiller, a blacksmith, and his wife Agnes Cecil ("Cecie") Matthews.  Agnes was from Newquay, where her father earned his living as a sailor.  Walter and Cecie's marriage was registered in Taunton in 1889.  The couple had several children, born in Devon and Somerset:

•  Parry (c. 1890 - 1983 - served with West Somerset Yeomanry)
• Oswald (c. 1891 - ?)
• Guilo Anita (c. 1893 - 20 August 1911)
• Walter Matthews (c. 1897)
• Edgar (1899 - 1988 - served with Somerset Light Infantry, then Bedfordshire Regiment)
• Ruby?

By 1911 the couple were living in Trevena Terrace, Newquay.  Sadly, their daughter Guilo (or Guila) died in that year.  Walter is described as a "worker" on the census of 1911, but no occupation is listed.

Walter's medal card shows that he joined the RAMC and was then transferred to the London Regiment.  I believe that he was part of the Egyption Expeditionary Force and lost his life at the First Attack of Amman.  The EEF had to march to Jordan from Jerusalem and had considerable difficulty in bridging the River Jordan.  Australian, New Zealand and British swimmers made several attempts to take lines across the river so that pontoon bridges could be built.  They did this under heavy fire from the Ottoman troops on the opposite bank.

Major General Shea, commander of the 60th (London) Division, to which Walter was attached, was ordered to attack Amman with the object of destroying a viaduct and tunnel, thereby disrupting an important Ottoman railway link.  Amman was the headquarters for the Fourth, Seventh and Eighth Ottoman armies; a number of German troops were also stationed there.  Shea was to attack with his Division plus the Anzac Mounted Division, the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade, 10th Heavy Battery RGA, a light armoured car brigade, Desert Mounted Corps Bridging Train and pontoon building units.

Shea's force was successful in crossing the Jordan and taking the town of Es Salt but then faced a trek across treacherous terrain in abysmal weather (sleet and heavy rain) to Amman.  The time that it took to make the march gave the enemy plenty of time to prepare their defences and they were ready for Shea when he launched his attack on 27 March 1918.  The battle continued until 30 March when a retreat was ordered.

The London Division suffered 476 casualties, including Walter.  He is buried in the Damascus Commonwealth War Cemetery.

60th Division marching from Jerusalem to Jordan March 1918

[Wikimedia - Public Domain]

J W B Russell

John William Binfield Russell

Born 1896 in Bridport, Dorset.  Killed in Action 7 July 1916

Second Lieutenant 9th Battalion Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment

John Russell was the eldest son of William Russell and Lucy Binfield Newman.  William, the son of a manufacturer, was a London-born school master, whilst Lucy was a dentist's daughter from Liverpool.  The couple married in London on 25 April 1895.  William must have secured a position in Dorset, because that is where John was born the following year and where the family were living in 1901.  John's brother, Frederick Stratten Russell was born in 1897.  A sister, Mary Veronica, was born in 1899 but died the following year.

William Russell set up a school in Newquay sometime between 1901 and 1911 in a house called St Andrew's on Pentire Avenue.  In the 1911 Census he has several boys listed at the school, including John Vivian Godden Teague who is also listed on the Newquay war memorial.  John Russell was not educated by his father.  In 1911 he and Frederick are listed on the Census at Oundle School in Northamptonshire.  John was clearly an intelligent young man; he gained a Senior Open Classical Scholarship to Oxford in 1914. 

I can't find John's date of enlistment, but he was made a temporary Second Lieutenant on 5 January 1915, as listed in the London Gazette.  His regiment went to France later that year, landing in Boulogne on 15 July 1915.  The regiment were under the command of 52nd Brigade in 17th (Northern) Division.  John would have been deployed to the southern part of the Ypres salient, where the 17th Division held the front lines.  Later, they would take part in the Battle of the Somme.

The 12th Manchesters were with 9th Duke of Wellingtons and their war diary for the period leading up to 7 July 1916 sheds some light on John's last movements.  The Brigade marched to Morlancourt on 2 July, leaving the following day to relieve 21st Division north of Fricourt.  The Manchesters (and presumably the Duke of Wellingtons) were in Lozenge Wood for a few days until 3.30am on 6 July when they received orders to relieve the 9th Northumberland Fusiliers in Quadrangle Trench.  The diary entry for 7 July says that 9th West Ridings/Duke of Wellingtons had already tried and failed to gain the objective.  It is possible that John was lost in this failed attack.  The diary entry goes on to mention the failure of the Manchesters, under barrage and enfilade machine gun fire, to gain the objective.  They list the lost of many of their own officers.  

John's body was not recovered and his name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial.  His CWGC listing is here.  His probate record shows that he left £163 to his father. 

William and Lucy Russell remained in Newquay.  William died in 1946 and Lucy lived until 1957 (she was 90 when she died.)   

Frederick Stratten Russell went on to have a highly distinguished career.  He served in both World War 1 and World War 2.  In WW1 he took aerial photographs and was decorated for his bravery.  He joined RAF Intelligence in WW2.  In civilian life, Russell was a marine biologist and it was he who pioneered the measurement of fish stocks.  He was knighted in 1965.  

Archive May Help Identify WW1 Soldiers in Unmarked Graves

I am not sure if the authorities will have the time or the money to follow this up, but it would be fabulous if someone could.  We have two members of our family who fell at Pozieres and who don't have graves, which means that we don't have a focus for our remembrance, other than their names on a monument.  I am sure that other families would like to be able to lay flowers on a grave.

Read about historian Peter Barton's discovery in the Red Cross Archive in Geneva.  He feels that it may hold the key to identifying the bodies of fallen soldiers.  The archive contains detailed records of burial plots compiled at the time of burial.  I hope that this new information will be acted upon.

Sentimental Sunday: Gig Racing

A great many things have changed in Newquay, as elsewhere, in the years since the Great War.  One thing that would be familiar to our 89 Heroes are the local gigs in the bay.  Gigs are rowing boats that were originally used to ferry pilots out to ships.  Rival crews would compete to be the first to reach a ship.  Nowadays gig racing is sport, carried out almost exclusively within Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.  Newquay has its own very successful rowing club.

Today as the dog and I made our weekly trip up to the War Memorial I realised that the harbour was thronged with people and remembered that today was the annual gig racing championship.  Several of the men I have researched were seafarers and I bet they would have appreciated today's action.

I snapped a few photos - here they are:

T Penhorwood

Thomas Penhorwood

Born 1888 at Egloskerry  Killed in Action 10 May 1915 at Aubers Ridge

Pte 1970 25th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps
Enlisted at Newquay

Thomas Penhorwood was the eldest son of  Lewis Penhorwood and Marthwas a Lundrey/Laundry.  He was born in 1888 at Reddown, Egloskerry which is near Launceston.  The Penhorwoods had two more sons; James Henry born in 1892 and Samuel born around 1902.  

Lewis Penhorwood was born on 22 May 1858 near Saltash, the son of Lewis and Jane Penhorwood. Lewis Junior moved to the Launceston area around 1880, working as an indoor servant on a farm at Egloskerry.  For a number of years he was an agricultural labourer, both before and after his marriage to Martha.  By 1911 Lewis had moved up in the world and was farming on his own account.

Martha was from North Hill near Redruth.  Her father Thomas was a gamekeeper.  By the 1880s Martha was working as a servant for a draper in Launceston and marrying Lewis on 7 April 1887.  Martha died in October 1907, Lewis remarrying three years later.

Thomas must have moved to the Newquay area sometime before 1911, as he is not shown at his father's address on the Census (only the youngest son, Samuel, was living at home with Lewis and stepmother Jane).  I haven't been able to find out why Thomas moved to Newquay or what job he had.  What is clear is that he joined up fairly swiftly; his medal index card showkng that he arrived in France on 5 November 1914.

Thomas joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted to the 25th Field Ambulance, designated 2nd Wessex and attached to 8th Division.  In May 1915 8th Division were part of the Battle of Aubers Ridge and it would appear that this is where Thomas met his death.  I can't better this summary of the Battle by J Rickard, so here is it:


The battle of Aubers Ridge was a British contribution to the Allied spring offensive of 1915. It was fought over the same ground as the battle of Neuve Chapelle, 10-13 March 1915, but failed to achieve even the temporary successes of that battle.


The British attack was to be launched by General Sir Douglas Haig’s First Army. It was intended to send in two attacks, to the north and south of Neuve Chapelle, with the hope that the two attacking forces could meet up behind the German front lines. Haig had requested extra artillery to increase the strength of the 40 minute bombardment planned for the morning of 9 May, but all available artillery reserves had been sucked into the fighting at the second battle of Ypres, still raging just to the north.


The British attack on 9 May was a total failure. The Germans had greatly strengthened their lines around Neuve Chapelle after they had been overrun during Neuve Chapelle, and the British artillery bombardment was simply not heavy enough to destroy the new German lines. 


The battle of Aubers Ridge fits the popular image of a First World War battle better than most. The British troops went over the top early on the morning of 9 May and were cut down by German machine gun fire. The survivors were pinned down in no mans land. No significant progress was made, and early on 10 May Haig ended the offensive. The British suffered 11,000 casualties in one day of fighting on a narrow front.


Rickard, J (26 August 2007), Battle of Aubers Ridge, 9-10 May 1915 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_aubers_ridge.html


I have also read elsewhere that casualties were moving through the field ambulances up the chain of evacuation for three days.  Perhaps we can speculate that Thomas was killed whilst trying to help comrades stuck out in no man's land and fell under the machine gun fire himself.  His medal index card shows that he was awarded a clasp to one of his medals.


Thomas is buried in the Canadian Cemetery at Sailly-Sur-La-Lys.


Both Thomas' brothers survived the war and married.  James (known as Henry) died in 1967 whilst Samuel died in 1955.