Since the publication of our book, many new facts have emerged about the men featured therein, and here we present them. Included here is the important news of additional WW1 casualties discovered since November 2007, full details for all of which can be found below.
To date (5/8/15) Seven new names have now been added to our list of WW1 casualties: Arthur Abbott, John James Coles, Edgar Jarvis, Edward Willmott, John Wrighting and our latest two, brothers Harry and Leonard Coggins, discovered in late-July 2015, to take the total to 135!
And although we sincerely hoped that our tome contained no errors, either factual or grammatical, it was inevitable that a small number will have snook through the proof reads.
So also listed below are the inaccuracies made known to us to date and for which we apologise.
Page 8a, a new page for a newly identified Raunds-born casualty:
Private, 267114, Arthur Abbott, 2nd/7th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment). Killed in Action, 21 March 1918, Commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France.
Arthur Abbott was born in Raunds on 7 January 1881, the son of John and Sarah Jane Abbott of Marshall's Road. By 1901, the family had moved to Hargrave and Arthur was working as a Army Shoe Closer.
He enlisted at Northampton and on 21 March 1918, his unit, the 2nd/7th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, found themselves in the white-hot atmosphere of the first day of the German's final offensive of the war, "Der Kaiserschlacht" after which no identifiable trace of his body was found.
37 year old Arthur Abbott is remembered on the Arras Memorial, Bay 7, and also on the Hargrave War Memorial though not on the War Memorial at Raunds. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Page 19, John Henry Bamford: He was an active member of Raunds Athletic Football Club.
Page 31, Arthur Burton: His sister Flora married Enos Owen Coles (see below) in the Summer of 1910 and so subsequently lost both her husband and brother in the Great War.
June 2013 - Our thanks go to David Killick for providing us with this photo ofArthur Burton
Page 39a, a new page for a newly identified Raunds-born
casualty.
Gunner, 85823, Harry Coggins, ‘A’ Battery,
84th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Died of Wounds, 26 April 1917. Buried at Aubigny
Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
Harry Coggins was born in Raunds in 1891, the fourth of
twelve children of William and Mary Ellen Coggins. The brother of boot factory
owner Robert Coggins, William relocated his family to London
around 1905 and at the time of Harry’s death they were living at 35
Belsize Lane, Hampstead. In the 1911 Census he is
recorded as working as a milkman.
Harry joined the Royal Field Artillery as a gunner, arriving
in France on 27 July 1915 and was aged 24 when he sustained fatal wounds which
resulted in his death on 26 April 1917, the first of two sons of William and
Mary Ellen to fall in the Great War, his elder brother Leonard (see below)
being killed in action the following year.
The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects shows two payments
made to his parents after his death, £8-19s-8d to his father on 22 October 1917 and a War Gratuity
of £12-10s-0d to his mother on 24
October 1919.
Harry Coggins is buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France,
grave reference II.D.74, and was awarded the 1915 Star, British War and Victory
medals.
Page 39b, a new page for a newly identified Raunds-born
casualty.
Driver, 945137, Leonard Coggins, ‘D’ Battery,
290th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Killed in Action, 25 August 1918. Buried at Bray
Vale British Cemetery,
Bray-Sur-Somme, France.
Leonard Coggins was born in Raunds in late 1889/early 1890,
the third of William and Mary Ellen Coggins’ twelve children. Living in
Hampstead, London with the rest of
his family, in the 1911 Census his recorded occupation is a shoe repairer like
his father, very appropriate for a nephew of Robert Coggins, the Raunds boot
factory owner.
He attested at Elverton Street, London SW, on 17 November
1915, embarked for France from Southampton on 4 February 1917, arriving in Le
Havre the following day, was posted to the 290th Brigade, Royal
Field Artillery as a driver on 14 June 1918, by which time he had served under
several service numbers: 3045, 148 and 5137.
Leonard was killed in action on 25 August 1918, 16 months after his younger brother Harry
(see above) had perished, he was 27 years old.
Among the personal effects returned to his mother in
November 1918 were photos, pocket book, religious book, notebook and purse; the
46 francs 85 centimes in his possession being credited to his estate through
the Base Cashier.
The Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects shows two payments
made to his mother after his death, £10-7s-4d on 9 November 1918 and a War Gratuity of £19-0s-0d on 4 December 1919.
Leonard Coggins is buried in Bray
Vale British Cemetery,
grave reference II.C.6 and was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Page 40, Jack Chapman Coles: He was born on 23 December 1898, however, he is NOT, as we previously believed, the J J Coles named on the town War Memorial. He therefore becomes the 22nd additional casualty of the Great War from Raunds.
Page 40a, the J J Coles named on the Raunds War Memorial is now confirmed as being:
Private, G/13879, John James Coles, 1st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Died, 29 March 1921, Buried in Raunds Cemetery.
John James Coles was born in Ringstead in 1883, the eldest of the five children of William and Elizabeth Marie Coles. In 1903, after his father died, his widowed mother moved the family to Raunds and married John Parker, who already had four children.
John first worked as a shoehand but then joined a company of travelling amusement caterers as a showman and was in this occupation when he enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment before transferring to the 1st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment).
He was still with The Buffs when he received an honourable discharge in March 1919, but by now he was suffering the savage effects of the war as he had been admitted to the Upton Military Hospital, Northampton in January of the previous year, and it was here, 3 years 3 months and 23 days after admission, that he died, on the 29 March 1921, aged 38. The details on his death certificate suggest that he was a victim of the extreme symptoms of what has popularly become known as "shell shock".
He was brought home to Raunds and buried in the Cemetery, grave plot 315, block 1, on 1 April, the grave is unmarked. His death was the last of the men named on the Raunds War memorial. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
His brothers, Enos Owen Coles, Luther William Coles (page 41), and step-brother, Ernest Parker (page 86) were also Great War victims, thus making his mother's composite family the hardest hit in Raunds, losing four out of six serving sons!
Our thanks go to John J's nephew, also named John Coles, formerly of Raunds, and now of Kettering, for providing us with much of the above information.
Page 46, Ralph Driver: His name is NOT on the St George's Church, Chopwell, County Durham, Roll of Honour, but IS on the nearby Rowlands Gill Working Men's Club Roll of Honour.
Page 49, Arthur Llewellyn Fairy: He is also named in the Great War Memorial Book of Church Bell-Ringers on display in St Paul's Cathedral, London.
Page 53, Stanley Oswyn George: He is also named on the War Memorial at St Peter's Training College, Peterborough.
Page 57, Horace Francis Gunn: He was born in Raunds and not Higham Ferrers as erroneously stated on "Soldiers Died in the Great War".
Page 64a, a new page for a newly identified Raunds-born casualty:
Private, 18151, Edgar Jarvis, 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Killed in Action, 24 November 1916. Buried at Serre Road No.2 Cemetery, France.
Edgar Jarvis was born in Raunds in the summer of 1895, the son of Joseph and Emma Jarvis, of Napleton Cottage on the Napleton Lodge estate.
He joined the Northamptons in 1915 embarking for France on 8 December 1915. Soon after the final conflicts in the Somme area in 1916, his battalion were to be found at Eaucourt L'Abbaye and it was here that Private Jarvis was killed by a trench mortar.
By the outbreak of the war his family had moved to Stanwick which is why his name appears on their War Memorial and not that of Raunds. Edgar Jarvis is buried in Serre Road No.2 Cemetery, grave reference XLI.H.5 and was awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War and Victory medals.
Page 70, Jesse Lawman: He was born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, not Stapleford, Cambridgeshire - this was incorrectly assumed by enumerators during a 1901 Census transcription.
Page 75, Arthur March: His unit should read as the 1st/15th Battalion, London Regiment.
Page 81, Frederick Norris: His full name was Thomas J Frederick Norris.
Page 90, Jack Pentelow: The date of death should be 14 September 1920, and not 24 September 1920. We have also now confirmed that his is not the last death commemorated on the Raunds War Memorial as a result of discovering the information on John James Coles (see above).
Page 106, Richard Smith: He, like Cornelius Robins (page 100), was also one of the 1905 Raunds Bootmakers Marchers to London.
Page 109, William James Askham Smith: He was born in Kettering, not Raunds - see also the note below, ref Page 180, regarding his recently identified photograph.
Page 119, Percy Watson: Percy's middle name was Newman, his mother's name was Harriett Elizabeth (not Mary), and he was born in Kettering on 5 February 1892.
Pages 128 to 130 : The Whiteman Family
As a result of recently (November 2019) receiving new information on the Whiteman family from descendant Dan Griffin, our knowledge of the 3 men can now be revised as follows:
Samuel, page 128, was the son of William, page 130, and half-brother of Walter, page 129.
Walter, page 129, was the half-brother of Samuel, page 128.
William, page 130, was born in 1863, was twice-married, firstly to Johanna Elizabeth, among their children being Samuel, page 128, and secondly to Blanche Knight, with whom he had Walter, page 129. William was aged 52 when killed in action in September 1915.
Page 133, Albert James Wil(l)mott: James Wilmott spent some time as a boy attending the village school in Doddington, Cambridgeshire, where his mother Rosina Reed/Reid was born and his grandparents lived.
It is probably for this reason that he is named on the Doddington war memorial.
Our thanks to Dave Edwards for supplying us with this additional information and photo of James Wil(l)mott.
Page 133a, a new page for a newly identified Raunds casualty:
Able Seaman, R/6470, Edward WILLMOTT Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Killed or Died as a direct result of enemy action, 28th September 1918
Born
in the town on 1 October 1899, the younger brother of Albert James (see
above), Edward Willmott is the only Royal Navy Great War casualty from
the town. Shortly after his death he was buried in a grave 11.75 miles
north east of Bapaume, the location of the grave, however, was
subsequently lost.
Able Seaman Willmott is commemorated on the
Vis-en-Artois Memorial to the Missing, France, on Panels 1 and 2, and
like his brother, he is not named on the Raunds War Memorial.
Page 135a, a new page for a newly identified Raunds casualty:
Private, 2815, John WRIGHTING 3rd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade Died of Wounds, 1st January 1915
Born
in Raunds in 1886, the younger brother of William (see below), and
husband of Florence Ellen Brockliss, John Wrighting was a career soldier,
having first joined the Colours in May 1908. He was wounded in late
1914 and died on New Year's Day, 1915. At the time of his death he and
his wife were living in Irthlingborough and he is remembered on their
War Memorial.
Having no known grave, Private Wrighting is
commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium, Panel 10 and was
awarded the 1914 Star, British War and Victory medals. Like his brother,
he is not named on the Raunds War Memorial.
Page 149, Edward Colin Duffy: his name also appears on two war memorials in the north-east: on a brass plate on the lychgate of Christ Church, Great Lumley and on the (currently lost) memorial formerly located in the Welfare Hall at "6th Pit" (the pit was in the Durham coalfields and owned by Lord Lumley of Lumley Castle, Chester-le-Street).
His inclusion on the latter memorial suggests that he may have been employed at the pit before moving to Raunds.
Page 156, Kenneth Roy Johnson: He is also named on the Stanwick War Memorial.
Page 168, John Tansley was born in Paris, France not Raunds.
Page 171, Keith Webb lived in Park Avenue not Park Road.
Page 180, the 3rd photograph on the second row has now been identified as William James Askham Smith who is featured on page 109.
Our thanks go to Mrs Eileen Todd, the grand-daughter of WJAS's widow, for solving this mystery.
