Private Harold Horatio Smith 241292

A search in the CWGC database showed over a thousand results! Of these, 11 were for H. H. Smiths and 8 were Harold H Smiths.

Not all of these entries showed where they were from so I tried a different approach and looked in the index of births for Liverpool for the period 1875-1900. I found only one matching entry, Harold Horatio Smith, born in Toxteth Park in 1896. There wasn't an entry in the CWGC for Harold Horatio so I looked in the entries in UK Soldiers Died in the Great War and found only one, Harold Horatio Smith. Using his regimental number from the medal card I located his entry in the CWGC database where he was one of the H.H. Smiths.

Given the lack of another H.H. Smith born in Liverpool and the fact that this Harold H Smith was a casualty of the Great War and his CWGC entry shows that he lived in the right area of Liverpool, I am happy that this is the right man.

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Harold Horatio Smith was born on the 2nd February 1896 in Liverpool. The record of his baptism (below) shows that he was baptised on 7th April 1896 in St Peter's, Liverpool. His parents were Caroline and Richard Herd Smith (a bricklayer) who lived on Park Road.  Harold's middle name was given for his grandfather, Horatio Smith who was from Jersey. (information from the 1891 census)

source: ancestry.co.uk

The 1901 census (below) shows the Smith family living at 155 Park Road, Toxteth Park.

source: ancestry.co.uk

In the 1911 census (below) the family were living at 34 High Park Street. Harold H Smith was 15 years old and working as a telegraph messenger for the post office. His father was at this time an employer as a bricklayer, plasterer and builder.
On a sad note, the census shows that Harold's parents had already lost 4 of their 12 children.

source: ancestry.co.uk

The medal card for Harold H Smith (below) shows that he was a private in the Liverpool Regiment with the regimental number 241292. He was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.  The card has not been completed for the theatre of war he first served in or the date, nor does it have any notes about his death.

source: ancestry.co.uk

UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919

Name: Harold Horatio Smith Birth Place: Liverpool Residence: Liverpool Death Date: 5 Nov 1918 Death Location: France & Flanders Enlistment Location: Liverpool Rank: Private Regiment: King's (Liverpool Regiment) Battalion: 6th Battalion Number: 241292 Type of Casualty: Died Theatre of War: Western European Theatre

Click here to see the CWGC entry for Harold H Smith

This information shows that Harold was in the 6th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment and died on 5th November 1918.

KLR Database

The following images are from the Devereux Database, Museum of Liverpool.

Private Charles Stenson 16567, 16302

There were 3 entries for Charles Stenson on the CWGC, only one of them had no middle name and his 'other information' showed that he was from Liverpool. Neither of the other 2 were from Liverpool.

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Charles Stenson was born in 1881 in Liverpool, his CWGC entry shows his parents' names were Thomas and Sarah Jane.

In the 1891 census the family lived at 8 Blair St, Thomas was a house decorator. Charles was 10 and a scholar (although ancestry have his age transcribed as 19 years)

source:ancestry.co.uk

In the 1901 census (below) Charles was a boarder at the house of his brother Thomas in Manchester. Charles was working as a railway carriage painter.

 source:ancestry.co.uk

On 5th August 1901 Charles Stenson married Georgina Andrew at St Matthew's Church in Toxteth. The certificate (below) shows that Charles was aged 20, a painter and decorator and lived at 14 Upper Harrington Street. His father, Tom Stenson, was also a painter and decorator.  Georgina was 19 and worked as a general servant, she lived at 20 Hyslop Street and her father, John Alfred Andrew, was a sailmaker.  Witnesses to the marriage were John Stenson and Elizabeth Mary Turpin.

source:ancestry.co.uk

The 1911 census (below) shows Charles and Georgina at 22 court 6 house Hampton St with 3 children. The census shows that they had one other child who died. Charles' occupation was painter, employed by Liverpool City Gardens.

source:ancestry.co.uk

Charles Stenson's servicepapers do not appear to have survived. His medal card tellsus that he was in the 8th Battalion East Lancs Regiment with the regimental number 16567 then the Loyal North Lancs Regiment with the number 16302. He was a private and earned the Victory Medal, British War Medal and the 1915 Star.
The card shows that he first entered the theatre of war: France on 1/8/1915, there is a notation 'killed 9-2-16'

 source:ancestry.co.uk

His entry in UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919 gives the following information:

Name:	Charles Stenson
Birth Place:	Liverpool
Death Date:	9 Feb 1916
Death Location:	France & Flanders
Enlistment Location:	Liverpool
Rank:	Private
Regiment:	East Lancashire Regiment
Battalion:	8th Battalion
Number:	16567
Type of Casualty:	Killed in action
Theatre of War:	Western European Theatre
Comments:	Formerly 16302, N. Lancs Regt.

East Lancs Regiment, 8th (Service) BattalionFormed at Preston in September 1914 as part of K3 and attached to 74th Brigade in 25th Division. Moved to Codford and was in billets in Bournemouth in November 1914.
November 1914 : became Divisional Troops to 25th Division.
March 1915 : transferred to 112th Brigade in 37th Division at Ludgershall.
Landed at Boulogne in late July 1915.
21 February 1918 : disbanded in France. Officers and men transferred to 11th Bn.

(source: the long, long trail)

click here to see the CWGC database entry for Charles Stenson

Leading Stoker James Wilding SS/110409

The CWGC had only one entry for James D Wilding and the 'other information' showed that this man was from Liverpool so I am assuming that it is the right man.

The CWGC information showed that James Dennis Wilding was from Liverpool, the son of Richard and Mary Wilding and he was in the Royal Navy.

I searched the census returns using these details but couldn't find the Wilding family.

My next move was to get together all the details I could about James D Wilding to help find his family on the census returns. This gave me some conflicting details; the UK Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll 1914-1919 has an entry for James Wilding (below), the service number matches that on the CWGC database but the information for his mother does not match.

UK Royal Navy and Royal Marine War Graves Roll 1914-1919

Name:	James Wilding
Rank:	Act Ldg Sto
Birth Date:	17 Apr 1889
Birth Place:	Liverpool, Lancashire
Branch of Service:	Royal Navy
Cause of Death:	Killed or died as a direct result of enemy action
Official Number Port Division:	S.S.110409. (Dev)
Death Date:	31 May 1916
Location of Grave:	Not recorded
Name and Address of Cemetery:	Body Not Recovered For Burial
Relatives Notified and Address:	Mother: Austin; 27, Rodgers Road, Gibraltar

Looking through baptism records on ancestry.co.uk I found a record of a Catholic baptism for James Dennis Wilding, in Liverpool, parents' names Richard and Mary Elizabeth (below). This all matches the CWGC entry but the date of birth and the mother's name do not match the UK Naval deaths entry. However, the godfather's name is Austin Welsh (Welsh was the maiden name of James's mother) so this could be the Austin listed as mother on the other record.

source: ancestry.co.uk Liverpool Catholic Baptisms

I also found a Catholic baptism record for an Austin Michael Wilding, brother to James D Wilding.  This is an unusual name and another option for the next-of-kin in Gibraltar so I decided to look for the brothers in the census returns.

In the 1891  census I found James Wilding living with his Uncle Thomas and Aunt Hannah Wilding in Liverpool.  The census shows they lived at 25 Sussex Street, Thomas was a sail maker and had 5 of his own children at home as well as his nephew. 

source: 1891 census ancestry.co.uk

James was still with his uncle and aunt in the 1901 census, they had moved to 19 Upper Hill Street - this is close to St James Church.

source: 1901 census ancestry.co.uk

I couldn't find James in the 1911 census so I purchased a copy of his naval service record from the National Archives and it showed that he enlisted on 19th Sept 1910 and was at sea on the HMS Indefatigable from feb-nov 1911 (the census was on 2nd April 1911)

(I will add an image of his record)

Other information in the service record shows the birth date which was on the Naval Roll of Honour and that before enlisting he was a barman in Liverpool. He enlisted for Short Service of 5 + 7 years.  He was 5 ft 5.5inches tall with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He had no distinguishing marks or scars.

His date of death is given as 31st May 1916 and he was killed in action.

Notes on the record show that his war gratuity was paid and his relatives gave the information that his middle name was Dennis.

click here to see the CWGC entry for James Dennis Wilding

In an interesting side-story, Austin Michael Wilding was an inmate in the Liverpool Farm School (Reformatory), Newton in Makerfield, Lancashire for the 1901 census. For the 1911 census he was enumerated as a private with the Infantry of the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment in the enumeration district of 'Arabia, Cyprus and Gibraltar' so it seems very likely that the relative informed of James's death was his brother.

James was killed when the HMS Indefatigable was sunk at the battle of Jutland, the most famous naval battle of the first world war.

"Indefatigable was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Part of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, she was hit several times in the first minutes of the "Run to the South", the opening phase of the battlecruiser action. Shells from the German battlecruiser Von der Tann caused an explosion ripping a hole in her hull, and a second explosion hurled large pieces of the ship 200 feet (60 m) in the air. Only three of the crew of 1,017 survived."

(source: wikipedia entry on HMS Indefatigable)

Description	British battlecruiser HMS INDEFATIGABLE underway in coastal waters just before the Battle of Jutland.
Date	1916

(Photo from Imperial War Museum Files, copyright free)

Plaque to H.P. Clarke

The picture below is of a plaque to Rifleman Henry Percy Clarke which has been returned to the church. When the building work is completed this plaque will go back on display where it should be.

Thanks are due to Ron who is responsible for the plaque coming back to its rightful place and to Paul for sending me the photo. Who knows, maybe the war memorial  is out there somewhere- keep your eyes peeled!

James Tonkies

James Tonkies was another mystery, as with his brother I could find plenty of records for his life but nothing for his death. Then a very helpful member of the Great War Forum pointed me in the direction of the deaths at sea records, another very helpful member of the same forum went to the trouble of photographing an account of the sinking of the SS Burutu and emailing the pictures to me. Many thanks are due to them and to all the members of the forum who read my posts and responded with ideas, information and encouragement.

Anyway, back to James Tonkies. He was born in Liverpool in 1900. If you want to know more about the movements of the Tonkies families through the census returns please refer to an earlier post for his brother SAMUEL JOSEPH TONKIES.

James was born 3rd December 1900 on and baptised on 13th December 1900 in St James' Church.

source: ancestry.co.uk (image cropped by  me)

James was a baby in the 1901 census and a schoolboy the 1911 census.

The next record I have of James is for his death. He joined the Mercantile Marine (Merchant Navy) and was killed on 3rd October 1918 when his ship the SS Burutu sank after accidentally colliding with another British Merchant ship.

source: deaths at sea index 1918 at findmypast.co.uk

This record shows that he was an OS (Ordinary Seaman) and only 17 years old. The address given matches that on his brother's CWGC entry.

James Tonkies was not eligible for a CWGC entry as he was not killed as a direct result of enemy action.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO A PAGE ON THIS BLOG ABOUT THE SINKING OF THE SS BURUTU (opens in new window)