Marlborough Tower & Town: The Magazine Of Marlborough's Community And Churches

Tower and Town, February 2018

In Memoriam 1917

March

Corporal Laurie Alexander Manderson. Royal Army Medical Corps. Died at home on 12 March 1917. Laurie is buried in St Katherine’s Churchyard in Savernake Forest.

April

Private Arthur Leonard Beach. 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Killed in action on 9 April 1917.
Private Herbert J Taylor. 2nd Battalion Leinster Regiment. Killed in action on 12 April 1917.
Rifleman Harry Westall. 12th Kings Royal Rifle Corps. Killed in action on 25 April 1917.
Lance Corporal Roy Fitzherbert Glass. 17th Battalion Kings Royal Fusiliers. Killed in action 29 April 1917. Roy was one of two sons of William Glass to be killed in the War. Roy had been in France for two years when he was killed. His younger brother was killed a year later just before the war ended. William was the proprietor of Glass’s the tobacconist at 16 High Street.

May

Lance Corporal Fred Strong. 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry. Killed in action on 3 May 1917.
Private Francis Looker. 9th Labour Company, Devonshire Regiment. Killed in action on 8 May 1917.
Private Archibald Thomas Peal. 2nd Honourable Artillery Company. Killed in action on 15 May 1917. Archie was the son of the Head Master of St Peter’s School. He was a bank clerk before he enlisted into the HAC, an exclusive unit that was very selective with recruits.

June

Private Eric Raymond Leak. 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Killed in action on 7 June 1917.
Gunner Richard Charles Wood. Machine Gun Corps (Motor Branch). Killed in action on 12 June 1917. Charles enlisted under age into the Wiltshire Regiment. He was on guard duty in the trenches when he was killed by shell fire.
Private Henry John Milsom. 10th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps. Killed in action on 15 June 1917. Henry’s younger brother was also killed a year earlier on the Somme. Henry was a Territorial soldier who had joined up in 1913.
Lance Corporal George Marsh. 3rd/10th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. Killed in action on 20 June 1917.
Private Francis William Sprules. 1st/8th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Killed in action on 22 June 1917. Francis was a near neighbour of Charles Wood who was reported killed 10 days earlier.

July

Second Lieutenant Arthur Clements Heberden. 2nd Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps. Killed in action on 10 July 1917. Second Lieutenant Heberden was Director of Music at the College. He was one of 63 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps who were killed and named on the Nieuport Memorial to the missing. The Battalion was holding the line from the sea for a mile when they were cut off and annihilated.
Gunner Wilfred Wiggins. 161st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Killed in action on 25 July 1917.
Gunner James William Birt. 244th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Killed in action on 26 July 1917.

August

Lance Corporal Richard Henry Smith. 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Killed in action on 2 August 1917.
Private Walter Harold Cox. 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Killed in action on 6 August 1917.
Captain William Herbert Bambridge. 24th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. Killed in action on 19 August 1917.

October

Private Sidney Walter Eyers. 2nd/7th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. Killed in action on 9 October 1917
Able Seaman Ernest Hoare. Hood Battalion, Royal Naval Division. Killed in action on 26 October 1917. The Royal Naval Division was an unusual division as it was entirely made up of sailors who were surplus to the requirement of the sea-going fleet and were trained and used as infantry on the Western front.

November

Private Stanley Dyas. 5th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Killed in action on 10 November 1917 in Iraq.
Lance Corporal Robert John Neate. 1st/4th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Killed in action on 13 November 1917 in Palestine. More than 70 men from Marlborough who joined up in 1914 served in this battalion. They were on garrison duty in India for the first three years of the war. They were transferred to Egypt in 1917 to fight the Turkish army in Palestine.
Sapper William Collins. Royal Engineers, 262 Railway Construction Company. Killed in action on 14 November 1917.
Private Edric Alfred Baker. Kings Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment. Killed in action on 10 November 1917 in Iraq.

December

Lance Corporal Arthur Henry Marchant. 2/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Killed in action on 5 December 1917.
Private Percy William Swatton. 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment. Killed in action on 10 December 1917.

Andrew Ross

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