8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
There is very little information on Private Garraway’s Army service, probably because it was of very short duration.
Archibald Frank Garraway was born in Tetbury in 1879 (he was baptised there on 4 May 1879).
He was one of eight children, born between 1876-1891) to William Garraway (1852-1918) and his wife Harriett (née Ludlow: 1855-1900).
When the 1881 Census was taken the Garraway family lived in Church Street, Tetbury and the record showed that William was employed as a groom. Ten years on they had moved to Harper Street and William was a brewer’s carter. Archibald, then aged 12, was shown in the census as being an agricultural labourer.
Archibald married on 29 October 1898 at Tetbury Parish Church, he was aged 19 and his wife to be, Ada Holder Ball (1880-1952) was 18. Archibald’s occupation is shown as a labourer. The couple went on to have four children: Thomas William (born 1900); Reginald Frank (1902), Florence Annie
(1905) and Ernest James (1908).
It has not proved possible to trace Archibald or his wife in the 1901 Census. This may be down to the fact that Archibald, his elder brother William and one other had been sent to prison for six weeks in that year, for assaulting an off duty police officer. The local newspapers of the time record a number of instances, throughout the period between 1901 and 1910, where an Archibald Garraway of Tetbury had to appear before magistrates for offences such as drunkenness, disorderly behaviour and poaching: on occasion coupled with his elder brother, William.
The 1911 Census shows Archibald and wife Ada, plus three children living in Harper Street, Tetbury although sadly, their second child, Reginald Frank, had died in 1903. Archibald was now a farm labourer.
No Army Service or Pension Record has survived for Archibald but the Register of Soldiers’ Effects (kept at the National Army Museum) states that he was serving wi th the 8th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment when he died and that he did not qualify for a gratuity. The non-qualification is a sure indicator that he had not served the qualifying six months. It is fair to assume that Archibald was an early war volunteer for military service.
His posting to the 8th Battalion would have seen him sent to Perham Down in Wiltshire for training and in December 1914 the battalion went into winter billets.
It is not known what happened to him whilst on training or the cause of death (a recently released Pension Record Card does not mention this). It would appear that he died at home, on 27 January 1915, aged 35. He was buried in the churchyard of St Saviour ’s, Tetbury on 1 February 1915. A standard CWGC headstone marks his grave and he is commemorated on the Tetbury War Memorial.
Whilst in the course of research, it became apparent that some websites devoted to the fallen of Tetbury in the Great War, give Archibald Garraway’s middle name as ‘Frederick’. This does not match with BMD or his baptismal records. Also, it is claimed (incorrectly) that he served with the 7th Glosters, rather than the 8th, which is shown in the CWGC Register, the Register of Soldiers’ Effects and the volumes of Soldiers Died in the Great War.
Researched by Graham Adams 23 May 2021