94th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Philip Henry Lane was born in Nottingham in the first quarter of 1882. He was the son of Charles and Ann Ellen (née Hill). Besides Philip the couple had four children, Bertie (born 1889); Joseph Dayline (1891), Mary Louisa (1893) and Gertrude (1900). The latter appears to have been born in October, the same month as Ann Ellen died, aged 42. Possibly she died in childbirth. Charles re- married in 1901, to Sarah Prince, who, in the 1901 Census is listed as a widow and his housekeeper: they lived in Newnham. The couple had two children, Sidney (1903) and Reginald (1905). Charles Lane, a railway track worker, died in 1931.
Oddly Philip Lane does not appear to feature in either then 1901 or 1911 Census returns — certainly in the Gloucestershire area. Evidence of his military service is also very sparse, with no surviving Army Service Record. Soldiers Died in the Great War states that he enlisted in Ripley, Derbyshire The Register of Soldiers’ Effects, kept at the National Army Museum, does give us some clues. It states that he died in the Red Cross Hospital, Gloucester of stomach cancer and that his length of service was too short to qualify him for any gratuity (paid to next of kin). This would indicate that he enlisted for service very soon after war was declared and had been posted, as a driver, to ‘D’ Battery, 94 Brigade Royal Field Artillery. The brigade was part of 21 Division, newly formed at the start of the war, as part of Lord Kitchener’s ‘New Army’ and was located in the High Wycombe and Berkhamstead area of Buckinghamshire.
The Gloucestershire Journal of 27 February 1915 carried a notice of Philip’s death, on 22 February 1915 (aged 32), stating that it occurred at the above-mentioned hospital and that his residence was 47 Painswick Road, Gloucester. There was also a short report of his funeral in the same newspaper on 27 February.
Philip Lane was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone now marks his grave. He is commemorated on the Gloucester War Memorial.
Researched by Graham Adams 29 March 2017