DEVORAN
WAR MEMORIAL
World War 1 - detailed
information
Compiled and copyright © Mark Norris and Bob Richards, 2014
The
Devoran memorial is a granite stone memorial in the form of a Cornish
Cross by H.J. Martin of Devoran; it was established c. 1919 at St. John
and St Petroc’s Parish Church, Devoran, Cornwall. Late Wrold War
1 and World War 2 names were added on the fourth back panel. Further
World War 1 and World War 2 names were considered for addition by the
Parish Council in 2014. A list of names exists on a brass plaque in
the church, whilst a Roll of Honour of all who served and those who
died also exists in the Devoran Village Hall.
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Photograph
Copyright © Mark
Norris and Bob Richards, 2014
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In
grateful memory of the men of the parish of Devoran who fell in the Great
War 1914-1919
ADAMS |
John
Glanville |
Private
T/243064, John Glanville Adams, 7th Battalion Queen’s Royal West
Surrey Regiment, died 23 March 1918.
Remembered on the Pozieres Memorial on the Somme on France to the
missing of the Fifth Army in 1918 France, so has no known grave.
Listed in Soldiers Who Died In The Great War (SDGW) as Residence
– Devoran, Cornwall but born in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales.
Enlisted into the Army at Bodmin, Cornwall. |
APPS |
W |
Listed
on the Roll of Honour and the church brass plaque but not on the
granite war memorial. The most likely casualty is 14215 W.Apps,
3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, died on 30 September 1915. He is
buried in Plot IV E57 in Bethune Town Cemetery in France.
So far the closest local link to Devoran parish is the address listed
on the CWGC website for his wife Hilda Apps of 16 Bohill, Penryn,
Cornwall. |
BILKEY |
Richard
John |
Corporal
200901 Richard John Bilkey, 1/4 Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light
Infantry, died aged 26 on 31 January 1919. He is buried in Grave
Reference E124, Kantera War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt. The CWGC website
lists him as son of Richard and Emma Bilkey of Tresithick, Carnon
Downs, Perranwell Station, Cornwall. |
CROCKER |
Albert
Ernest |
Private
Albert Ernest Crocker, 17095 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light
Infantry, died 2 April 1918. Remembered on the Pozieres Memorial
in France, having no known grave.
Albert was listed in Soldiers Who Died In The Great War (SDGW) as
born at St. Feock and Residence at Penpol. |
CROCKER |
G
|
Possibly
George Francis Crocker, a Fireman on SS Sailor Prince, Newcastle
in the Merchant Navy / Mercantile Marine who died on 2 October 1915,
aged 33. One of two sailor lost in the sinking of the SS Sailor
Prince.
Remembered on the Tower Hill merchant navy memorial in London. CWGC
listed as the son of George Crocker, Killiganvon (Killiganoon?)
St. Feock, Perranwell and the late Mary Anne Crocker. |
DAVEY |
William
John Trebilcock |
William
John Trebilcock Davey, 26424 10 Battalion, DCLI died aged 21 on
28 July 1916. He is remembered on pier & face panel 6B of the Thiepval
Memorial to the missing of the Somme battlefields of 1916-17 who
have no known graves. CWGC records list him as the son of Joseph
Henry Webber Davey and Catherine Ada Davey of Carnon Creese, Perranwell
Station, Cornwall. William is listed as a (Domestic) Gardener in
the 1911 census living with parents. |
DUNSTAN |
William
John |
William
John Dunstan 2352/ST, Engineman, Royal Naval Reserve, HM Trawler
Pintail, died aged 45 on 24 December 1917. He is buried in plot
40.3.5 Brest Kerfautras Cemetery, Finisterre, France.
The CWGC website lists him as husband of Juliana Dunstan of 6 Chapel
Terrace, Devoran. William was born in Hayle, Phillick (Phillack?)
in Cornwall in 1874. In the 1911 census he is listed as “Fireman
Steamship” living at Chapel Terrace, Devoran. In the 1901 census
he is a single 26 year old man, a fireman aboard the Steamship Erimus,
a frequent visitor to Devoran’s mineral quays. |
HITCHENS |
James
Edwin |
James
Edwin Hitchens, Able Seaman R/510, Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval
Division RNVR, died during the Arras offensive in 18 April 1917
aged 28. He has no known grave and is remembered on Bay 1 of the
Arras Memorial.
Born at Carnon Mine 20 May 1888, Hitchens was a ‘Mining Engine Driver‘
on the 1911 census. The family (headed by father James) lived at
Carclew Terrace, Devoran.
Royal Naval Division database shows that Hitchens joined the Army
Reserve on 1st March 1916, entered the Army on 1st December 1916,
was drafted for the BEF on 6th March 1917 and joined the Hawke battalion
on 3rd April 1917. Killed during a shelling and gas attack, 18 April.
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HOYLE |
W
J |
Likely
to be added to the war memorial in 2014.
Lance Sergeant William James Hoyle 9554, 1st Battalion DCLI, was
killed aged 23 on 20 October 1914 and has no known grave. Born around
1891, he is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial in France. He
is listed (CWGC information) as the brother of Mrs Abraham, 13 Trelawney
Road, Falmouth. His father was a boat builder or bargeman in Devoran
(living at 9 Market Street, Devoran, 1891) before joining the Coastguard
service, moving to Clovelly, Devon. |
JOHNSON |
James |
Private
James Johnson, 2753, 1/4 Battalion, DCLI (Duke of Cornwall’s Light
Infantry) died on 12 April 1916. He is buried at D76, Maala Cemetery,
Yemen, suggesting he died defending Aden against the Turks.
Born in Falmouth around 1879, he was listed on Soldiers Who Died
in the Great War as a resident in Devoran, The CWGC website lists
him as the husband of Alice Johnson, Belmont Terrace, (Trevoran
– CWGC spelling mistake?) Devoran, Truro. Like others in his Falmouth
extended family, James was a House Painter. In 1901 the couple were
living in 55a Killigrew Street, Falmouth. |
MARSHALL |
Edwin |
There
are 92 E. Marshalls on the CWGC database but the most likely local
match is Private Edwin Marshall, SS/14236, 18th Labour Company,
Army Service Corps died aged 39 on 13 August 1915. Remembered on
the ASC panels 199, 233-236 or 331 on the Helles Memorial to the
missing of The Dardanelles and Gallipoli Campaign in Turkey, having
no known grave. Edwin was the son of Mr and Mrs William Marshall
of Carnon Mine, Devoran Cornwall. He was married to Eveline Louisa
Marshall of Point, Devoran, Cornwall. |
MARTIN |
G |
No
further information currently available. |
PASCOE |
William
Donald |
Gunner William
Donald Pascoe, 86574, 13th Reserve Battery, Royal Field Artillery
died on 20 April 1915, aged 19. Born in Feock in October 1896, he
is buried at grave D31 in the small military section of 164 casualties
buried in (Christ Church) Military Cemetery, Hampshire. He enlisted
in Truro and died on Home Service. In 1911, his occupation is given
as a ‘newsboy’. He is also remembered on the headstone of his parents
in Devoran churchyard “who died at Cosham, April 20 1915 aged 18
and a half.” His sister Netta (born 1899) joined up for National
Service farm work, becoming the WW1 equivalent of a ‘Land Girl’.
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PAYNTER |
J
P |
The
most likely match is James Pearce Paynter, Private 34289, 11th Battalion,
Worcester Regiment, died on 30th March 1917. He is buried at plot
F1286, Karasouli Military Cemetrey, Greece. This cemetery was linked
to Casualty Clearing stations on the Doiran Front in Greece. No
obvious Devoran connection at the moment, being listed on the CWGC
website as the husband of Ethel H.G. Paynter, 3 St George’s Terrace,
Stonehouse, Plymouth. He was born at Little Par in Cornwall. |
PETERS |
W
T B |
Private
William Thomas Ball Peters, 72511, 10th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters
(Notts and Derby Regiment) died of wounds aged 26 on 27th August
1918. Peters is buried in grave B24, Fienvillers British Cemetery,
Somme, France.
Before his transfer to the Sherwood Foresters in France in 1916,
according to his surviving army service records, W.T.B. Peters (resident
in 1914/5 in Shulock Road, Hampstead as a Milk Carrier) had a strange
wartime career in the early Royal Flying Corps as 12357, Kite Balloon
Section, RFC.
He joined on 11 / 12 November 1915 at South Farnborough, trained
at Curragh in Ireland in December 1915 and served in the RFC until
8 March 1916.
Born in Perranwell, Cornwall in 1893, Peters was the only son of
Thomas (b.1864, listed on the 1911 census as an egg merchant and
farmer) and Mary Annie Peters (nee Davey, b.1867) of Ash Tree Cottage,
Carnon Downs, Cornwall.
William in 1911 is an Assistant in Wholesale Egg Merchant ‘looking
after warehouse’, living in Gospel Oak, NW London.
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ROGERS |
G |
The
most likely local match is G. F. Rogers, Flight cadet 137361, RAF
/ 73 Company Royal Garrison Artillery who is buried at grave B65, Alexandria
(Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery (a hospital base cemetery) in Egypt.
Listed as the son of Joseph and Gertude Rogers of Bissoe, Perranwell,
and husband of Elsie M. Richards (formerly Rogers), Carnon Downs,
Perranwell. |
STEPHENS |
R |
Of
the 33 WW1 R. Stephens listed on the CWGC website, the most likely
local match is Sub Lieutenant R. Stephens, HMS Terrible, Royal Navy,
who died on 7 February 1919, aged 49. His name was added / out of
alphabetical sequence on the memorial, having died postwar. Buried
in Feock Church Cemetery. Born around 1870, Stephens is listed as
the son of James and Eliza Stephens, as well as husband of Ottilia
Stephens, Glenavon, Point, Devoran. |
SWEET |
Percy |
Likely
to be added to the war memorial in 2014.
Rifleman Percy Archibald Sweet 474189 of the 12th London Regiment
(The Rangers) was killed aged 31 on 9 April 1917 during the battle
(7-9 April) to take the French village of Neuville Vitasse by the
56th (London) Division. He is buried at plot 1 A 35 with many other
London Rangers in the London Cemetery, Neuville Vitasse.
Percy Sweet’s father Francis and Louisa Sweet lived at Fernmere
on Market Street in Devoran. Percy is also listed on the CWGC website
as a ‘native of Hammersmith’ London where Percy and his brothers
and sisters were born.
His father (a shoemaker) and mother are still listed in the 1911
census working in London but by the time Rifleman Percy Sweet was
killed in France in 1917, the family were living in Devoran. His
father Francis was born in Kenwyn, Truro and his mother Louisa (nee
Pridham) from Southdown in Cornwall.
Percy was born in 1887 and was listed in the 1911 census as a Cordwainer
(a leather worker / shoemaker) in London.
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WEBB |
F
|
Frederick
(Gordon) Webb, Sapper, 155779, 179 Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers
was killed on 18 July 1916, aged 41. Webb was a tunneler’s Mate
and was “killed by enemy shrapnel whilst returning to billet after
relief. Davey wounded.” Webb is buried in Albert Communal Cemetery
Extension, grave reference I.K.38.
Born in Truro, Webb was initially in the 3rd battalion Duke of Cornwall’s
Light Infantry before the war ‘time expired’ and As a former soldier,
quickly rejoined the 1st Battalion, arriving in France on 20 January
1915.
Married to (Edith) Maud or Maude Webb (nee Penhaligon, b. 1879)
in Truro in 1901, he left 6 children. Webb was listed prewar as
a Horse Driver and Waggonner / GWR Carrier with an address at 16
Edward Street, Truro. |
WHITE |
H
C |
Henry
Cecil White was a Private 215895, 745 Area Employment Company, Labour
Corps who died 31 October 1918, aged 33. White is buried at II.C.16, St.
Pol British Cemetery, St. Pol-sur-Ternoise, France.
He is listed on the CWGC website as the son of Mr. W.H. and Mrs.
E.A. White, Carnon Gate, Devoran, Cornwall. Born at Portland, Dorset
in 1886. Living in Carnon Gate with his family, Henry became an apprentice
at an iron foundry (1901 census) and listed as an Iron Moulder in
the 1911 Census. |
1939-1945 |
BRABYN |
Charles |
Shipwright
2nd Class Charles Brabyn D/M7215 died on 17 September 1939, aged
49, aboard HMS Courageous, an early British aircraft carrier sunk
by U-Boat, having served in the Royal Navy throughout and after
WW1. He is remembered with many of his crewmates on the Plymouth
Naval Memorial, panel 34, column 3.
Charles Brabyn was born 8 May 1890 at Point, Devoran into a family
of boat builders. He is listed on the CWGC website as the son of
Stephen Welling (Wellington?) and Elizabeth Brabyn and as the husband
of Elizabeth Mills Brabyn (nee Williams) of Truro, Cornwall. |
HEAD |
W
A |
Chief
Stoker William Alfred Head, D/K52949 Royal Navy, died aged 41 on
17 January 1942 when HMS Matabele was torpedoed by German submarine
U-boat U454 during Atlantic and Norway / Arctic convoy duties.
The CWGC website lists him as being the son of Ernest and Ellen
Head and husband of Marion Maud Head of Devoran
He is remembered at panel 69, column 1, Plymouth Naval Memorial to
those Royal Navy crew with no known graves or lost at sea. |
JEFFERY |
J
G |
Flight
Sergeant John Garfield Jeffery, 1601089 Air Bomber, 190 squadron,
RAFVR, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died aged 22 on 19 September
1944.
He is buried with his other Short Stirling crew members in Grave
reference Protestant Section collective grave 1-4, St. Michielsgestel
Roman Catholic and Protestant Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.
He died whilst engaged in glider towing or supply drops during ‘Operation
Market Garden’ and the Battle for Arnhem.
He is listed on the CWGC website as the son of Lewis John Jeffery
(a railway platelayer) and Florence Lillian Jeffery (nee Ferris)
of Perranwell, Cornwall. |
KEMP |
T
H |
Kemp
is listed on the brass plaque inside the church, not on the granite
war memorial.
Born in Devoran in 1885 to a family of coal and oyster merchants,
Master Thomas Harold Kemp was living in Eastbourne, Sussex when
he was lost at sea aboard SS Ocean Courage in the Atlantic aged
57 on 15 January 1943. He is remembered on Panel 75 of the Tower
Hill Memorial to Merchant Navy staff.
Kemp rapidly became a Master fairly young (at least by 1907) and
served in the Merchant Navy in WW1, recorded on the Devoran Village
Hall Roll of Honour. |
NICHOLLS |
W
C |
Likely
to be William Charles Nicholls, Second Engineering Officer, Merchant
Navy, MV Athelprincess, Liverpool, who died on 23 February 1943,
aged 32. He is commemorated on Panel 11 of the Tower Hill Memorial,
having no known grave. He was the only casualty when the ship was
sunk.
He is listed on the CWGC website as the son of of Edward John King
Nicholls and Eliza Dunstan Nicholls. In 1911, the family were living
at 8 Bar Terrace, Falmouth where his father (born Antrim, St. John’s
Point, c. 1847) was a 64 year old Dock Master at Falmouth Docks.
His mother Eliza was born in Kea, Cornwall c. 1867. Both parents
had died by 1943 but his local links may be through an older sister,
Elizabeth Maud Nicholls (b. 1906) and older brother James Edward
Nicholls (b.1908). |
SOWDEN |
A
C B |
Sergeant Alfred
Claude Brenton Sowden, 841889, Royal Corps of Signals, awarded British
Empire Medal BEM (Military), died on 7 September 1945, aged 27.
He is remembered on the Rangoon Memorial in Burma to those with
no known grave.
He served in wartime France with F section SOE (Special Operations
Executive) on the Pedlar Circuit as a W/T operator as ‘Alfred Claude
Saunier’ (cover name) earning the BEM. He then transferred to fight
with Force 136 SOE India in the Burma campaign in late 1944 and
died there on 7 September 1945, shortly after the end of the war.
An SOE Special Forces Roll of Honour lists his birthdate as 12 March
1918, born and resided in Cornwall. In his 1946 probate records
Sowden is listed as living at Killiganoon Farm, Devoran, son of
Alfred Sowden, farm foreman / later farm manager (b. St. Eval, 1895
– d. Truro, 1989). His mother Mabel Sowden (born 1895 St. Ervan,
died Probus, Truro in 1966) had as her maiden name Brenton, this
name being given to her son as one of his middle names. |
TALLACK |
J
B |
Lieutenant John
Basil Tallack, 314967, Reconnaissance Corps, Royal Armoured Corps
and 49th West Riding Regiment (the ‘Polar Bears’) died aged 20 on
28th November 1944 on active service in Holland. He is buried in
Row 2, grave 2 of the Maasbree Roman Catholic Cemetery, Limbourg,
Netherlands.
He is listed on the CWGC website as the son of John and Flora Rebecca
Tallack and in his Will / probate records as living at Crofthill,
Perranwell Station. |
TOMS |
J
W |
Able
Seaman Joseph William Toms, D/SSX17063 Royal Navy, died onboard
HMS Galatea on 15 December 1941, aged 23. Galatea was sunk by torpedoes
from U-Boat U557 off Alexandria in Egypt. He is commemorated at
panel 48, column 3, Plymouth Naval Memorial, having no known grave.
He is listed on the CWGC website as the son of Harry and Mary Toms
(1873-1955) and husband of Ruby Louvain Toms (nee Peachey, 1916-1998)
of Truro, Cornwall. |
WILLIAMS |
J
E B |
Captain James
Ernest Brian Williams, 137305, DCLI Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry,
seconded to the 4th Battalion Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, was killed
in Italy on 28th February 1944. He has no known grave and is commemorated
on panel 7 of the Cassino War Memorial, suggesting that he died
in the fighting for Monte Cassino. He is listed on the CWGC website
and probate records as the son of James Henry Williams (a Ministry
of Agriculture official) and Zoe Tresilian Williams of Trenant,
Point Green, Devoran. |
May
be added in future to World War 2 names |
ADAMS |
Lewis |
Able
Seaman Lewis Adams D/J/12221, Royal Navy, HMS Chelsea died aged
46 on 1 April 1941. He has no known grave and is listed on the Plymouth
Naval Memorial, panel 46, column 1.
Listed on CWGC as the son of James and Mary Adams. The local connection
is his wife, Dorothy Mary White Adams, Devoran, Cornwall. |
THOMAS |
P
J |
Corporal
Peter John Thomas, 7917955, 1st Royal Armoured Corps, Royal Tank
Regiment died in Holland aged 24 on 30th September 1944. He is buried
in Uden War Cemetery, the Netherlands / Holland. Peter Thomas is
listed on the CWGC website as the son of Harry and Elsie Thomas
of Devoran, Cornwall. |
WORTH |
W
N |
Engine
Room Artificer 3rd class, William Norman Worth, D/MX 51189, Royal
Navy, died aged 26 aboard HM Submarine Oxley on 11 September 1939.
Remembered on panel 34, column 1 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
Listed on the CWGC website as the son of Norman Joseph Worth and
Gwendoline Worth, the Devoran connection is his listing as the husband
of Gwendoline Mary Worth of Devoran, Cornwall. |
Last
updated
27 October, 2022
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