Remembering Albert Ernest Crocker Penpol Devoran WW1 2 April 1918

Albert Crocker (right) died in WW1, his brother Harry survived. (Photo courtesy of the family collection Graham Crocker, taken from Tony Dyson’s research)

Remebering Albert Ernest Crocker of Penpol, who died serving with the 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s   Light Infantry on 2 April 1918. He has no known grave and his name is listed on the Pozieres Memorial.

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/devoran-first-world-war-casualties-names-a-to-c/

Reading the 7th Battalion War Diary for March to April 1918, many men of the 7th Battalion were listed as wounded, killed in action or missing after the March 1918 German Spring Offensive.

Albert was listed in Soldiers Died in The Great War (SDGW) as born at Paul (near Penzance?)  lived St. Feock and Residence at Penpol. He enlisted in Perranwell

Albert Ernest Crocker’s name appears on the Devoran war memorial, names A to J , First World War

His name appears on the 1914 volunteers on the first draft of the Village Hall Roll of Honour – Crocker A.E. Private 10 DCLI.  He enlisted in  Perranwell. https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/the-first-draft-of-devoran-parish-roll-of-honour-revealed/

Albert Crocker’s name appears on the final Village Hall Roll of Honour with the letters RIP alongside his name. A January 1915 newspaper report note said him as enlisted:

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/devoran-men-in-his-majestys-forces-january-1915/

Photo by Gerry Costello of the Feock War Memorial

On the Lives of The First World War website, Albert’s name is also shown on the Feock War Memorial as well, in a photograph added by Gerry Costello:

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/1020890

Crocker as a local name appears frequently in Ralph and Marie Bird’s Devoran book. Albert’s father Samuel was listed as a Furnaceman on The 1911 Census, possibly in the smelter or industrial works that once graced Penpol, whilst Albert was listed as a farm labourer.

His brother Harry (R.H. Crocker) also served in WW1 and survived.

Other Crockers from Point near Devoran such as 31 year old tin smelter John Henry Crocker (b. 1884) served on and survived the war (10th Service Battalion DCLI “Cornwall Pioneers” and the Hants Regiment).

Tony Dyson’s research in 2007 notes that Albert Crocker is a cousin of two other Devoran casualties, George Francis Crocker and Richard Stephens. He notes him as born around 1895 in Paul, Penzance and by 1899 is on the register of Penpol Sunday School, aged 4.

His brother Harry also served in the DCLI and survived. Tony has Albert listed as the son of Samuel and Catherine Jane Crocker (nee Williams).

This last post was written  by Bob Richards for reading out during the 1st July 2016 WW1 centenary talk at Devoran Village Hall, whilst Albert’s picture was projected on the wall:

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/albert-crocker-and-the-crocker-family/

Advertisements

Remembering John Glanville Adams of Devoran died WW1 23 March 1918

 

Devoran war memorial, names A to J , First World War

Private T/243064, John Glanville Adams, 7th Battalion Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, died in action  aged 30 on 23 March 1918.

He is remembered as a name on the wall panels of the Pozieres Memorial on the Somme in France to the missing thousands of the British Fifth Army in 1918, so has no known grave. Many of them were killed during the Kaiser’s Spring Offensive of March and April 1918, which saw thousands of Allied casualties and thousands taken prisoner. John Glanville Adams is likely to have been of these March 1918 casualties.

John Glanville Adams is listed in Soldiers Who Died In The Great War (SDGW) as Residence – Devoran, Cornwall but born in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. He enlisted into the Army at Bodmin, Cornwall in 1916  (most likely the DCLI barracks, now the Regimental Museum). His name appears in the 1916 section of the recently uncovered first draft of the Village / Parish Roll, suggesting that aged 28 in 1916 tha he attested (volunteer enlisted) or was eventually conscripted: Adams, J.G. Private W. Surreys

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/the-first-draft-of-devoran-parish-roll-of-honour-revealed/

The 7th Service Battalion Queens Royal West Surreys lost over 50 other men on 23rd March 1918 besides Glanville Adams at what was known as the Battle of Saint Quentin, listed on the Pozieres Memorial  as having no known grave:

http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=7448

https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-war-dead/results?regiment=The%2BQueen%2527s%2B%28Royal%2BWest%2BSurrey%2BRegiment%29&cemetery=POZIERES%2BMEMORIAL&war=1&exactDate=23-03-1918

Although he died serving with the Queens, SDGW also mentions that he was first enrolled in the Essex Regiment 276911, and listed as killed in action, although later in his Soldiers Effects Listing (gratuitity paid to next of kin mother Emily) his death was “assumed”. Hence his appearance on the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing, rather than having a known grave.

Remembered in his home village on the Centenary of his death.

More about John Glanville Adams and family 

Although John was born in Swansea, Glamorganshire in Wales  in 1888 he appears to have grown up in Devoran. His father George Adams seems to have died when John was very young. Brother Ernest was born in  Devoran c. 1884 before the short lived move to Swansea. Wales is not such an unusual connection – Devoran area mines, docks and railway then had strong  links to the Welsh coalfields, smelting and shipping industry.

By 1891 his mother Emily (born 1852/3, Truro?) was listed as a widower with two young sons John Glanville and Ernest George at Bennett’s Ope on or near Market Street and Greenbank Terrace.

Remembering W C Nicholls of Devoran Merchant Navy died 23 February 1943

Remembering William Charles Nicholls of Devoran, Merchant Navy,  who died aged 32, 75 years ago on 23 February 1943.

There are two Merchant Navy or Royal  Navy casualties in WW2 listed as W.C. Nicholls and both have local connections. Only longer research will reveal who is remembered on the Devoran War Memorial but both men deserve to be remembered.

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/devoran-second-world-war-casualties-a-to-r/

World War 2 section, Devoran War Memorial Photo: Mark Norris

Today we are remembering William Charles Nicholls, Second Engineering Officer, Merchant Navy, serving on MV Athelprincess of Liverpool, who died on 23 February 1943, aged 32.

Brief news of his death made it into The Western Morning News on December 16  1943, nine months after his death.

Western Morning News,  December 16, 1943

He is commemorated on Panel 11 of the Tower Hill Memorial, London, for thos having “no grave but the sea”

On 23 February 1943 the tanker Athelprincess was caught straggling behind its convoy UC-1 from UK Liverpool (departed 15 February 1943) to Curacao and New York.

Athelprincess was torpedoed twice and sunk by a German submarine (U-boat U522) west of Madeira.

It appears from David Syrett’s research in Northern Mariner journal  (1996 volume) on the convoy UC-1 that Athel  Princess was struggling to keep up with the convoy.

https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol06/tnm_6_1_21-27.pdf

Only one person was killed out of 51 crew  – William Nicholls. The rest of the 42 crew, 7 gunners and Captain or Master E.G.B. Martin OBE survived and were thankfully picked up by HMS Weston (U72).

Transferred to another escort ship, the USS Hilary P. Jones DD247, the Athelprincess crew minus Nicholls (the only casualty) were landed safely at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Four other ships in Convoy UC-1 were torpedoed by U-boats of the 16 strong Dolphin Patrol.

Two of these ships survived being torpedoed, a British Tanker called British Fortitude and Dutch motor tanker Murena.

Two others, the US tanker Esso Baton Rouge and British tanker Empire Norseman were sunk.

There are pictures of each ship lost on the Wrecksite website. The names of Merchant Navy men sunk on these ships are also on the Tower Hill memorial.

There were 35 ships in this UC-1 convoy, protected by 9 British and American navy ships. The survivors of the Esso Baton Rouge were picked up by convoy escort HMS Totland. HMS Totland went on to sink the offending U-boat U522 with all crew / hands lost including its Captain Schneider.

A mass of wreaths and poppies at The Tower Hill Merchant Navy memorial, Oct 2014 (Mark Norris, Devoran War memorial Project)

These Merchant Navy ships, their crews and the life of William Nicholls were all part of the high cost of keeping Britain fed and supplied with war materials during WW2.

Merchant Navy Day is celebrated on 3rd September each year https://www.merchantnavyfund.org/merchant-navy-day/

The high price of freedom – Tower Hill memorial in London to the 24,000 men and women of the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets, lost at sea with “no grave but the sea”. Many from Cornwall. Sobering.

There is more about the Athel Princess and how the  Athel  shipping line fared during the war at http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/athel.shtml

W.C. Nicholls, Athel  Princess, Convoy UC-1, 23 February 1943  – Remembered in Devoran and at Tower Hill Memorial London and in his home village 75 years on.

William Charles Nicholls’ Merchant Navy Service records

21 year old William Charles Nicholls’ Merchant Navy Records in 1932; his death in 1943 is recorded in the top left hand corner.

William Charles Nicholls signed on with the Athel Line in peacetime 1932 bulk tanker MV Athelfoam so appears to have worked with this shipping company until his death in 1943.

Details of William’s next of kin and also his catastrophic head injuries in the Torpedo explosion on the MV Athelprincess. 

 

What are William Charles Nicholls’ family connections to the area?

Like many people in the  Devoran, Helford and Falmouth area, the Nicholls family have long established maritime connections. This is reflected on the manywar memorials and Rools of Honour in the area. Small wonder that William Charles Nicholls joined the Merchant Navy as an Engineer.

His father Edward John King Nicholls (1847-1930) was born in St John’s point Antrim Northern Ireland, the son of James Nicholls.

Edward rose from being a Trinity Pilot (1881 /1891 census) to Dockmaster in Falmouth by 1901 to 1911. In 1901 he was living at 2 Wodehouse Terrace, Falmouth with his sister Elizabeth M Nicholls as his housekeeper and his nephew Matthew S. Nicholls Mining Engineer and niece Alesa (both British subjects born in Chile).

He married (or remarried?) shortly after this,  quite late in life, aged 58 in 1905.

His wife Eliza Dunstan Datson was twenty years his junior, the Kea-born daughter of a tin dresser. The middle name is interesting; There are Dunstans as neighbours to the Datsons in Kea and possible relatives, as well as featuring on the Roll of Honour and as casualties on the Devoran War Memorial.

Eliza first shows up in Edward’s  houshold in 1901 as a General Servant (Domestic)!

Ten years later in 1911, after marriage in 1905, she has borne him three children in Falmouth including the 10 month old William Charles Nicholls.

Mining, tin,  the sea, Chile, Cornwall – this is very much a typical Cornish  extended family of the 19th Century.

William’s grandfather James Nicholls was born in Penryn in 1814. By 1861 he was a Commissioned Coast Guard, living at St Mawes and then the King Harry in Feock area, presumably near the Ferry. This maritime or coast guard career could explain why Edward was born in Ireland. Other brothers and sisters were born in Stonehouse, Plymouth, Devon and later King Harry ferry area.

1911 Census for the Nicholls Family living near his work but in some style at 8 Bar Terrace, Falmouth. William Charles Nicholls has just been born. 

William had an older sister, Elizabeth Maud Nicholls (b. 1906) and older brother James Edward Nicholls (b.1908). James is recorded as his next of kin on his Merchant Navy records.

I will add more to this fascinating local family as I uncover it.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, Devoran War Memorial Project, 2018

Devoran Suffragettes WSPU 1914

 

 

Western Morning News May 27, 1914 

Good journalists should  give consideration to both sides  of a question.

Interesting to read the opinions of Edith Williams, Devoran, WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union)

An opposite view to Edith Williams – Firmness of Plymouth’s letter Western Morning News May 27, 1914

 

Edith Williams WSPU Devoran letter Western  Morning News,  Monday 1st June 1914

Further letters in the Western Morning News, Monday 1st June 1914

The WSPU and Suffragettes’ cause and campaign for the vote was  suspended during the War.

Tuesday 6 February 2018 is the centenary of women being granted the vote for the first time in Britain.

The Representation of People Act 1918 was an important law because it allowed women to vote for the very first time.

It also allowed all men over the age of 21 to vote too. Many of Devoran’s men serving in the armed forces (recorded on the Roll of Honour in the Village Hall) got to vote for the first time.

This act was the first to include practically all men in the political system and began the inclusion of women, extending the franchise by 5.6 million men and 8.4 million women

The contribution made during World War One by men and women who didn’t have the right to even vote was an important reason for the law changing.

In 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed on 6 February 1918 and women voted in the general election for the very first time on 14th December 1918 that year.

“Women over 30 years old received the vote if they were either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register, a property owner, or a graduate voting in a University constituency.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_of_the_People_Act_1918

How exciting for those women of Devoran parish over 30 who did qualify to vote for the first time. I wonder where the election voting was held – presumably the parish rooms or the old school on a Market Street?

In the Equal Franchise Act in 1928, suffrage was extended to all women over the age 21, meaning that women finally had the same voting rights as men.
Up until 1918, women hadn’t been allowed to be MPs in Parliament either. The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament.

In December 1918, the first woman MP was elected to the House of Commons, Constance Markievicz  but, like other Irish Sinn Fein Republican MPs, did not take up her seat. She would shortly be followed in 1919 by Plymouth MP Nancy Astor.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom

How excited Edith Williams must have been if she was still in Devoran in December 1918.

Certainly a women to further research. Somewhere  ( somewhere!) I have a pamphlet on Annie Williams and Lettuce Floyd, along with local Suffragettes which may  say more about Edith Williams and the local WSPU set up.

This handy reference book sets out where Edith Williams lived in Devoran, in a house known as Glanafon, Devoran.

From The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928
By Elizabeth Crawford

The same author Elizabeth Crawford mentions Edith Williams in another publication:

The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey
By Elizabeth Crawford. Certainly an interesting book on Regional Suffrage to track down.  

So Glanafon, wherever it was in Devoran, hosted many WSPU speakers from 1910 to 1914.

Writing in the London Standard, December 27, 1911, Edith Williams wrote:

Letter from Edith Williams, London Standard, December 27, 1911 

Blogposted on the centenary anniversary of some women being granted the vote, 6 February 1918 / 2018.

Remembering Thomas Kemp and the SS Ocean Courage lost WW2 15 January 1943

Remembering Thomas Harold Kemp and the crew of SS Ocean Courage, lost at sea 75 years ago 15 January  1943.

Born in Devoran in 1885 to a family of coal and oyster merchants, Master Thomas Harold Kemp was living in Eastbourne, Sussex when he was lost at sea aboard SS Ocean Courage aged 57 on 15 January 1943.

Devoran’s T.H. Kemp, SS Ocean Courage recorded on the WW2 section, Tower Hill memorial.

He is remembered with crew members on Panel 75 of the Tower Hill Memorial to Merchant Navy staff.

The crew and casualties are listed here https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship2589.html

According to the EU Wrecksite website, on 15 January 1943 The Ocean Courage was sunk in the Atlantic, South of the Cape Verde Island and west of Gambia in Africa whilst sailing independently on a voyage from Pepel to the UK via Freetown and Trinidad with a cargo of 9000 tons of iron ore and mail. She was sunk by a torpedo from U-182, commanded by U-boat Captain Nicolai Clausen.

The Master Captain Thomas Harold Kemp, 41 crew, 2 gunners and 2 stowaways were lost.

Six crew and 1 gunner were rescued by British ship Silver Walnut and landed at Norfolk, Virginia.

https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2589.html

Kemp became a Master fairly young (his Master’s Certificates are on Ancestry.co.uk).

His ship the Ocean Princess was built in the USA in 1942 and operated by locally founded St. Ives Hain Steamship Co.Ltd.

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/devoran-second-world-war-casualties-a-to-r/

Kemp is listed on the brass plaque inside the church, not on the granite war memorial.

T.H. Kemp and F.W. Kemp are listed on the bottom right of the Devoran Roll of Honour in the Village Hall for his service in the Mercantile Marine or Merchant Navy of WW1.

Devoran Roll of Honour 1914-18, Devoran village hall (photographed : Mark Norris, 2013)

T.H. Kemp – Remembered 75 years on, in his home village.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, Devoran War Memorial Project,  15 January 2018

Remembering William John Dunstan Devoran WW1 died accident at sea 24 December 1917

William Dunstan’s grave in Brest Kerfautras Cemetery, France (Image copyright: TWGPP / CWGC, the War Graves Photographic Project)

 

 

William John Dunstan of Devoran, serving as 2352/ST, Engineman, Royal Naval Reserve, HM Trawler Pintail, died aged 45 on 24 December 1917.

He is buried in plot 40.3.5 Brest Kerfautras Cemetery, Finisterre, France (mostly an American naval and army cemetery).

William Dunstan’s grave lies in Brest Kerfautras Cemetery, France (Image copyright: TWGPP / CWGC, the War Graves Photographic Project)

The CWGC website lists him as husband of Juliana Dunstan of 6 Chapel Terrace, Devoran. Juliana was born in 1871 in Truro. The couple married in 1903 and had two children, both born in Devoran, Florence May Dunstan (b. 1905) and William Edwin Kean Dunstan (b. 1907).

William was born in Hayle, Phillick (Phillack?) in Cornwall in 1874. In the 1911 census he is listed as “Fireman Steamship” on board SS Erimus,  living at Chapel Terrace, Devoran.

Devoran war memorial, names A to J , First World War

His life and death tell an interesting tale of Devoran past as a port or harbour, then of the war at sea, keeping the sea clear of enemy mines.

The ship where Dunstan served and sustained his fatal accident HMS Pintail was a Hull trawler H982 , built in 1908 and wrecked off Ireland in 1949. In October 1914 she was requisitioned for war service as a minesweeper, armed with 1 x 12 Hotchkiss pdr, 1 x 6pdr HA, Ad.No382 . She was moved to Penzance and Falmouth. (Ad.No.382). By 1st October 1918 she was at Penzance (General Patrol and Escort work).

By 12 March 1919, Pintail had been returned to her owner at Hull. There is more about the naval war and minesweepers off the Cornish coast in Pete London’s short book Cornwall in the First World War (Truran, 2013)

So Pintail survived war service. William Dunstan did not – according to the Royal Navy Roll of Honour WW1, he died of illness in hospital,  as a result of his war service.

Further research in the National Archives into his Royal Naval Reserve service record suggests that he signed up on 15 November 1915. He died as a result of an accident at sea on twenty third December.

Dunstan’s Navy Records state that he “Died Marine Hospital, Brest, France. Death due to accident. Injuries to head from from crank of engine whilst endeavouring to recover oil can from crank bilge. ”

Dunstan died of a fractured skull as a result of “head and chest injuries by crankshaft” received “whilst at sea on 23 December 1917”.

Previous to his service at sea on HM Pintail, he seems to have served from 1915 and 1916 on King Frederick (III) a Hired Trawler. “5.1915: Requisitioned for war service as a minesweeper (1-12pdr) (Ad.No.2659). Renamed KING FREDERICK.” H.M.S. Dreel Castle  appears  to be his “parent ship at Falmouth base” and “parent ship of the patrols working from Falmouth.”

http://www.fleetwood-trawlers.info/index.php/category/steam-trawlers/page/71/

Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy states that “DREEL CASTLE was a Drifter commissioned 2.2.15. Nominal depot ship Auxiliary Patrol Falmouth, Penzance, & Scillies replacing Vivid 1.10.15 – 16.9.19 [accounts to Vivid IV]. Flag of Rear Admiral Falmouth struck 15.8.19.”

Dunstan’s naval records in the National Archives are hard to read and decipher. He appears to have transferred from “King Frederick” to the Royal Naval Hospital Plymouth in November 1917 then back to sea on “Pintail” shortly before his accidental death.

His widow Juliana  chose no additional inscription on his standard headstone.

You can read more about William Dunstan and the other men of Devoran in WW1 here:

https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/devoran-first-world-war-casualties-d-to-j/

William John Dunstan, Remembered a hundred years on  in his home village of Devoran and by his family on Christmas Eve 24 December 2017.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, Devoran War Memorial Project

I shall add more to Dunstan’s entry should I uncover any more information.

11th Hour 11th Day 11th Month 99 years on 2017

World War 2 section, Devoran War Memorial Photo: Mark Norris

The new panel on the Devoran War Memorial, listing two new WW1 Devoran casualty names P.A. Sweet and W.J. Hoyle, thanks to work / research by Bob Richards and the Feock Parish Council.

Remembering the men,  women and families of Devoran and surrounding villages affected by both world wars, recorded on the Devoran War Memorial and the Roll of Honour.

Remembered today and tomorrow during the national two minute silence at 11 am ,  during the reading of names at 10.45 a.m. Armistice Sunday 12th November 2017 and throughout the year in their home villages.

I hope to make it down to the memorial on Remembrance Sunday for a few minutes to hear the names read out before the 11am two minutes silence and Last Post.

Since  we developed the Devoran War Memorial Blog and Research project, these names  hopefully mean so much more to many people in the village today, linking past, present and future of Devoran and its surrounding villages.

Possible future plans for the Devoran War Memorial blog project and WW1/ WW2 anniversaries.

Following on from the success of The Names on The Roll talk in July 2016 about Devoran in WW1 1914 to 1916, we hope to complete the story of Devoran in WW1 from 1916  to 1919. This will probably with an another illustrated talk in the Devoran village hall sometime in 1919, potentially  around the 100th anniversary of the war memorial recreation ground in September 1919.

Dedication stone of the Devoran War memorial ground, 12 September 1919

Bob Richards, Ann Cunningham and I might (if we have the energy!)  complete the trilogy of wartime Devoran talks, as fundraising for Devoran Village Hall,  with a third and final illustrated talk on Devoran in WW2 in 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of WW2.

For more details, watch this blog space and Devoran village hall social media nearer the time.

Devoran war memorial, names A to J , First World War

Blogposted by Mark Norris, Devoran War Memorial Project, November 2017.

We would love to hear more from you. Contact us through the blog comments section.