1/5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Stanley Roberts was a soldier who enlisted early in the war but whose military career was cut short early by illness.
He had enlisted in the 1/5th (Territorial) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment in November 1914 and was in training at Winchester on 27 August 1915, when he died suddenly (of heart failure).
He was 29 years old, having been born in Cheltenham in 1886. As he had not served overseas there is no Medal Index card and he does not appear in Soldiers Died in the Great War.
Stanley Roberts was one of 10 children born to Thomas and Amelia Ann Roberts. At the time of the 1911 Census the number of surviving children was nine and the family lived at 1 Rosehill Cottages, Hales Road, Cheltenham.
In the census return Stanley’s occupation is stated to be a ‘hawker in green grocery’.
He is commemorated on the Cheltenham Borough War Memorial and those in All Saints Church (All Saints Road) and Church of the Holy Apostles (London Road).
Research by Graham Adams 5 February 2021 (revised 6 August 2021) with acknowledgement to ‘Leaving All that was Dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)