Remembering

1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment Arthur Forbes Gordon Kilby was born at East Hayes (now Lansdown House), Pittville Circus Road, Cheltenham. He was a career soldier and at just 25 years of age was made a Captain of the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment in 1910. He landed in France on 13 August 1914 and […]

2nd Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) William John Kerr was the eldest son of Captain Russell James and Miriam Matilda Kerr of The Hale, Newnham-on-Severn. He was born in 1890 when his parents were living at Oakley Street, Chelsea. His father was a barrister. He was educated at Bradfield College before going to Sandhurst from

1/5 & 2/4 Gloucestershire Regiment Chelmsford, March 1915: Thomas is sitting at the front with his wife, Agnes Thomas Kilby Keeley was born in Campden on 14 January 1888, the second son of James Edward and Mary Ann Keeley of Lower High Street, and was baptised at St James’s Church on 1 April. His father

47th (British Columbia) Battalion, Canadian Army Reginald George Smith was born on 2 November 1883 to Daniel and Sarah, in the hamlet of Tortworth, now in South Gloucestershire. Educated at nearby Wotton under-Edge, he read Classics at Cambridge University. Having obtained his degree in 1905 he immediately sailed for Canada to take up a teaching

B Company, 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Arthur William Lewis was born in Bristol the son of Robert Lewis (a railway coach builder by trade) and Elizabeth Lewis (who died when he was about 12). He had a sister Florence who was about three years older than him. His father subsequently moved the family to Gloucester

1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment Herbert Stoney Smith was born in 1868 in Hampstead.A career soldier, Smith went to France and Flanders in 1914 where he took part in the desperate action at Rue du Bois, Armentieres from 22 to 25 October of that year. Two months later he was wounded and invalided home. On 1

6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment Arthur Henry Smith was born on 13 April 1899 to Peter and Lucine Smith in Sheepscombe where his father worked as a cattleman. They lived near the The Green in 1901. Arthur had seven siblings and he went to school in Sheepscombe from 1904 to 1913.Arthur enlisted in the Essex Regiment

Gloucestershire Regiment Thomas Shott was born in Gloucester in 1881. He was the son of Thomas and Ellen Shott of Sweetbriar Street, Gloucester. His mother died very shortly after his birth and he was, at first, fostered by his aunt and uncle, Eliza and William Edwards of the New Inn, Columbia Street. His father remarried

Royal Flying Corps Frederick King Laverton was born on 30 July 1898 at Dawlish, Devon. He was educated at Brymelyn School, Weston-super-Mare and for a short time at Cheltenham College. On 10 November 1915 he was commissioned into the Gloucestershire Regiment and saw action with the 1st Battalion in the Somme battles of 1916. In

4th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps William Alfred Lane was born in Gloucester, the son of William, sometime gardener at Dursley Rectory, and Anne Lane. William was a member of St James’ Church Lads’ Brigade and worked at R A Lister & Co. He enlisted in the 4th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps in November

Drake Battalion, Royal Naval Division James Lane was born on 3 March 1898 at Pound Cottage, Longhope, Gloucestershire. He was one of two children, the only son of Alfred William and Mary Lane. His father, a woodsawyer, died in October 1912 aged 45 years, and some time after this James and his mother moved to