1916: Broadway Man Sergeant William Hopkins Awarded Military Medal

In December 1916, Sergeant William Hopkins, who was serving with the Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment was awarded the Military Medal.

William, born in Stanton, Gloucestershire, in 1871, was the son of Mrs Mary Wallace (née Barnett) of Bury End, Broadway, by her first husband, the late John Hopkins¹ who died in 1891. At the time of his father’s death, William was living with relatives in Bakewell, Derbyshire. William initially joined K Company of the 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment and was awarded the Military Medal whilst serving with the Sherwood Foresters:

Sergeant Hopkins has been Transport Sergeant since the Battalion came on active service, has constantly conducted transport to the trenches when exposed to rifle or shell fire, notably in the Ypres salient and has consistently displayed courage and good judgement.

Debbie Williamson
Broadway Remembers

Notes:
1. John Hopkins, a member of the Patriots Benefit Society, Broadway, worked as a loader for Mr Burrows of Broadway and was killed in an accident whilst loading corn in Stanway. His funeral took place in October 1891 at St Eadburgha’s Church, Snowshill Road, Broadway, where he was a bellringer. John is buried in the churchyard at St Eadburgha’s.

Remembrance Day Service Sunday 11th November 2018

Broadway Remembers: Broadway Falls Silent to Remember the War Dead and Mark 100 Years since the Armistice

100 years after the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918, when the guns fell silent on the Western Front bringing an end to the First World War, a Service of Remembrance and 2 minutes’ silence was held at the War Memorial on the village green in Broadway, Worcestershire. This was followed by a service in St Michael and All Angels’ Church to remember all the lives sacrificed in the service of our country and those traumatised and injured in conflict.

Broadway Remembers today, in this centenary year, the following 48 men who died in the First World War and are commemorated on Broadway’s war memorial:

BARNETT, Private  9562 George, 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
BAYLISS,  Private 25249 James Josiah, Worcestershire Regiment transferred to 287004 Labour Corps
BILLEY, Private 34604 William Robert, 2nd Battalion Worcestershire  Regiment
BISHOP, Private  203259 William, 10th Battalion Worcestershire  Regiment
BOX,  Private M/320163 William Arthur, Royal Army Service Corps
CLARKE, Private 15372 Albert Henry, 11th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
CLARKE, Private 30483 Bertram, 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
COLLINS, Private 16263 Archibald William (Archie), 10th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
CRUMP, Yeoman of Signals 220097 William George, Royal Navy
CULL,  Private 47558 John Sydney (Jack),  15th Squadron Royal Machine Gun Corps
DAFFURN,  Driver 17552 Thomas, “B”  Battery 98th Brigade (XVI Corps HQ) Royal Field  Artillery
EARP, Sergeant 88389 John William, “C” Battery 84th Brigade Royal Field Artillery
EDWARDS, Pioneer 37053 Henry Harold (Harry), 3rd  Divisional Signal Company Royal  Engineers
EMMS, Private 32962 Ebenezer Evelyn, Royal  Berkshire  Regiment & 424th Agricultural Company Labour Corps
FIGGITT, Private 10503 Wilford Charles,  2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire  Regiment
FLOWER, Lt. Col. Oswald Swift,  13th  Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers
FOLKES, Guardsman 23203 Alfred, King’s Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards
FOLKES, Private 2414 Francis Alfred (Frank), Queen’s  Own Worcestershire Hussars  (Worcester Yeomanry)
GAME, Lt. Hubert John, Royal Field Artillery and Royal Flying Corps
GARDNER, Private M2/153742 William, Royal Army Service Corps
GODDARD, Private 37889 Arthur Harold, 1st/5th  Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
GREEN, Corporal 240841 Leonard Frank,  1st/8th Battalion  Worcestershire Regiment
HAINES, Rifleman 4632 Cecil  Frank, 1st/12th Battalion London Regiment (The Rangers)
HAINES, Private 15024 Gerald, 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
HENSLEY, Private M2/148096 George, 284th  Company Army Service Corps
HILL, Private 9574 Reginald Bertram, 1st  Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
HILSON, Private 12240 Joseph, 1st  Battalion  Gloucestershire Regiment
INGLES, Private TF/241275 Francis Henry,  7th Battalion Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent  Regiment)
JACKSON, Private 241170 Charles, 7th  Battalion Worcestershire  Regiment
JORDAN, Private 202406 Walter, 1st  Battalion  Worcestershire Regiment
KEYTE, Private 27819 Charles Hubert, 3rd  Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
LAYTON, Private 22994 Alfred, 9th  Battalion Worcestershire  Regiment
PAINTER, Private M2/033139 Sidney John, 5th  Divisional Supply Column Army Service Corps
PARKER, Private 17070 Ernest Harold, 14th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
PARKER, Private 2444 William John,  Warwickshire  Yeomanry
PERRY, Sergeant SE/17110 John, Royal Army Veterinary Corps
RASTALL, Private 241810 Frank, 1st/8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
RUSSELL, Private 9570 Joe Edgar, 9th  Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
SANDEL, Lance Corporal 3674 George, 1/8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
SCRIVENS, Private 21387 Wilfred George, 4th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
STANLEY, Private 42530 Alec Silvester, 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
STANLEY, Gunner 59030 Charles Robert, ‘B’ Battery 86th Royal Field Artillery
TALBOT, 2nd Lt. Stanley Alfred, North Staffordshire Regiment
TANDY, Private 10754 Wilfred George, 9th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
TEBBY, Private 29004 Walter John, 14th Battalion Welsh Regiment
TUSTIN, Lance Corporal 36116 Jack, 14th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
VINCENT, Guardsman 27767 Ernest Edward, 1st  Battalion Grenadier Guards
WALE, Lance Corporal 30871 Edmund  Joseph, 8th Battalion Royal  Berkshire Regiment

Today we also remember the following 24 men of Broadway who died in the First World War who are not commemorated on the war memorial:

ANNESLEY CMG, DSO, Lieutenant James Howard Aldolphus, 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers)
BATCHELOR, Private 9569 George Walter Raymond, 15th Entrenching Battalion, late 11th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
COOK MM, Second Corporal 86297, 254th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers
CUNNINGTON, Corporal 7931 Charles Camberlain, 2nd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment
DALE, Ernest Stocks, Corporal 17842, 1/7th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
DALE, John S, Company Sergeant Major 13784, 8th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
GABB, William Harold, Private 5767, 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards
GANDERTON, Thomas Henry. Private 17267, 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
GRIMMITT, John William, Gunner 246724, ‘C’ Battery, 275th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
HANDY, George Thomas, Private 29206, 9th (Service) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
HANDY, Reginald
HANDY, Richard Keyte, Private 19218, 9th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
HARTWELL, Arthur James, Private 240100, 8th Battalion East Surrey Regiment
HINTON, Gerald Charles, Private 307582, 2/7th Royal Warwickshire Regiment formerly 3645 Warwickshire Yeomanry
HUXLEY, Albert, Lance Corporal 241169, 2/8th Worcestershire Regiment
JONES, William
MATTHEWS, William Henry, Private 8859, 3rd Garrison Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
PERKINS, George Thomas, Private 14453, 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
SADLER, Ernest Charles, Guardsman, 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards
SMITH, William Thomas, Private 290802, 4th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment
SPIERS, Walter Edward, Private 19365, 4th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
TOMES, James
TURNER, Lamber, Private 41726, 2/4th Battalion Princess Charlotte of Wales’s (Royal Berkshire Regiment, formerly 145506 Labour Corps
WALKER, Henry Austin, Private 20806, 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards

The names of 21 men were added at to the memorial at the end of the Second World War:

CLARKE, Robert Warner, Able Seaman PJX321879, Royal Navy(H.M. Submarine P311)
CLARKE, Sydney Clarke, Lance Corporal 11416496, 7th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment
COOK, Robert Leonard, Lance Corporal 2618869, 5th Battalion Grenadier Guards
CROSS, Brian, Leading Aircraftman 1440292, Royal Volunteer Reserve
CROSS, Frederick, Private 5249458, 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
COTTERELL, Maurice Charles, Sergeant Pilot 562657, 90 Squadron Royal Air Force
COTTERELL, Peter Samuel, Sergeant/Air Gunner, 158 Squadron Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
HANDY, Frederick, Driver T70973, Royal Army Service Corps
HARRISON, Kenneth John, Ordinary Seaman CJX319054, Royal Navy (HMS Arethusa)
INGLES, Horace George, Private 5253093, 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment
INGLES, Thomas Raymond, Able Seaman DJX368713, Royal Navy (HMS Kite)
INVINE, Cyril John, Aircraftman 1st Class 1206953, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
JAMES, Sydney James, Flight Sergeant/Wireless Operator/AirGunner 1583124, 61 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
JESSOP (JESSUP), Alexander Anthony, Sergeant/Observer 911895, 51 Squadron, Royal Air Force
NEWBURY, James Victor, Ordinary Seaman DJX392157, Royal Navy (HMS Escapade)
OWEN, Edward Milman, Ordinary Seaman PJX226068, Royal Navy (HMS Kashmir)
PEMBERTON, David Alwyne, Squadron Leader/Pilot 33036, 1 Squadron, Royal Air Force
POOLE, James Henry, Leading Aircraftman, Royal Air Force
PROCTOR, Edgar William, Flight Sergeant/Air Gunner 1313237 44 Squadron, Royal Air Force
TARRANT, Frederick George, Private 14773225, 1st Battalion East Lancashire
WOODGER, Clifford John, Sergeant 421411, 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Royal Amoured Corps

In the late 1950s a bronze plaque was added to the foot of the memorial commemorating:

HENSLEY, Kenneth Andrew, Second Lieutenant, Royal Warwickshire attached North Rhodesia Regiment.

We will remember them.

 

Debbie Williamson
Broadway Remembers

 

 

 

 

Remembered Today: Lance Corporal 17261 Dennis William Diston, 10th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Dennis William Diston, born in Stanton, Gloucestershire, in 1887 was the only son of Charles Diston from Cutsdean, Worcestershire, and Julia Ann Diston. The family moved to nearby Snowshill where Dennis found work as a jobbing gardener after leaving school. Dennis’s mother died in 1891, a year after his younger sister, Mabel, was born and his father remarried Phebe Hannah Bateman in October the following year. Dennis had three older sisters; Mary Ann (1878-1953), Elizabeth (1880-1883) and Dora Lavinia (1885-1915).

On 6th July 1912, Dennis married Mabel Elizabeth Grove in Broadway and they moved to Broadway where their two children (a son and a daughter) were born. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, Dennis enlisted with the 10th (Service) Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment and he was posted to the Western Front on 9th August 1915.

The following year Dennis was initially posted as missing in action and was later confirmed as killed in action, aged 29, on 22nd July 1916. Dennis is buried in Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers La-Boiselle, and is commemorated on the Snowshill War Memorial, Prestbury War Memorial and inside St Mary’s Church, Prestbury. His epitaph on his headstone reads: IN THAT SWEET BYE AND BYE WE SHALL MEET ON THAT BEAUTIFUL SHORE.

Pozieres British Cemetery (Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

As a resident of Broadway at the time of his death, Dennis was considered by the Broadway War Memorial Committee for inclusion on the war memorial built on the village green in 1919. The Committee, however, decided against including his name and Dennis was later commemorated on the Snowshill War Memorial, a stone cross, designed by Frederick Landseer Griggs, located in St Barnabas churchyard in the centre of the village.

Further information about the men from Broadway who died in the First World War can be found in Broadway Remembers (ISBN 978-0-1-9929891-0-1) a not-for-profit publication raising money for the Poppy Appeal published to coincide with the global First World War Centenary commemorations led by the Imperial War Museum.

 

Debbie Williamson
Broadway Remembers

 

 

Remembered Today: Company Serjeant Major 13794 John S. Dale, 8th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Remembered today CSM John Stanley Dale, aged 32, of the 8th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment who was killed in action on 4th May 1918, with Captain Ernest Cowper Slade whilst going on his round of the lines. John had served with the army prior to the war and had re-enlisted in September 1914. He was buried shortly after his death alongside Capt Slade near to where they fell at Hallebast, south west of Dickebusch. They were both re-enterred in Klein-Vierstraat British Cemetery, near Ypres, Belgium, in 1919.

John was born at 54 Gill Street, Limehouse, London, on 29th January 1886 and later lived in Broadway and Snowshill, Gloucestershire. On 18th November 1912 he married Caroline Harriet Winifred Burston (1882-1968). At the time of his death his wife and two children were living on Gravel Walk, Tewkesbury.

Klein-Vierstraat British Cemetery, Belgium (Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

 

 

Debbie Williamson
Broadway Remembers

 

 

Remembered Today: Two cousins Pte 15372 Albert H. Clarke, 11th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and Pte 29206 George T. Handy 9th (Service) Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Albert Henry Clarke, was born in Broadway in 1893, the third son of Albert and Emma Mary Clarke. After leaving school, Albert worked for Thomas Bayliss, grocer, corn and offal dealer of Sheldon House, Broadway. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, Albert enlisted with Kitchener’s Army in Broadway in September 1914 and joined the Worcestershire Regiment. After a period of training on Salisbury Plain, Albert was posted to Gallipoli in June 1915. During his time in Gallipoli, Albert was injured by a kick from a horse and was transported back to England where he recuperated in a hospital in Stockport, Cheshire.

Albert later rejoined his regiment and in August 1916 was posted to the 11th (Service) Battalion in Salonika. The following year, during the night of 24th/25th April 1917, the Battle of Doiran, Albert, who had just turned 24, was killed in action. He is commemorated on the Doiran Memorial, Greece, and the Broadway War Memorial.

Two of Albert’s cousins also fought in Salonika. His cousin George Thomas Handy, known as Thomas, was born in Broadway in 1880. After leaving school Thomas was apprenticed as a baker and after his marriage to Clara Porter in 1901, moved to Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, where he set up his own bakery and was greenkeeper at Moreton-in-Marsh Golf Club. Thomas enlisted with the 9th (Service) Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment and was also killed during the night of 24th April 1917 when he was hit by a shell. Thomas is buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery, Polykastro, and he is commemorated on the Moreton-in-Marsh War Memorial as ‘Thomas G. Handy’.

Cousin Wilson William Keyte was born in Broadway in 1885. Wilson enlisted with the Worcestershire Regiment and served with Albert with the 11th (Service) Battalion in Salonika. Wilson was awarded the Military Medal for stretcher-bearing duties during the Battle of Doiran and after the end of the war was awarded the Greek Military Cross. Wilson died, aged 64, in 1949.

 

Doiran Memorial, Greece (Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

 

Albert is one of 48 commemorated on the Broadway War Memorial. Further information about Albert, his cousins and fellow men from Broadway commemorated on the memorial can be found in ‘Broadway Remembers’ (a not-for-profit publication published to coincide with the global First World War Centenary commemorations led by the Imperial War Museum. Proceeds to the Poppy Appeal).

 

 

Debbie Williamson
Broadway Remembers

© Debbie Williamson and Broadway Remembers, 2014. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Debbie Williamson and Broadway Remembers with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.