Private, 23106, Edgar ELLINGHAM 17th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps Killed in Action, 18th September 1918
Edgar Ellingham was born in Stanwick in 1899, the eldest son of Henry and Agnes Mary Ellingham. His father was a veteran of the Boer War and by the time of his son’s military service was the police sergeant of Raunds.
Edgar was a shoehand for Adams Brothers and in his spare time a keen member of the St John Ambulance Brigade. Under the guidance and training of Dr Mackenzie he achieved the required level of accomplishment in first aid to be considered for the Royal Army Medical Corps during the first year of the war.
Nineteen year old Private Ellingham is buried in Trefcon British Cemetery, France, grave reference B.42 and was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 40733, John William ELLIOT 2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Killed in Action, 1st April 1917
John William Elliot, the son of George William and Sarah Jane Elliot, was born in Raunds in 1895, the family lived in Chelveston Road.
He was awarded the British War and Victory medals and is buried in Savy British Cemetery, France, grave reference B.42. He is also remembered on the Stanwick War Memorial and Church Roll of Honour, Ireland’s Great War Roll of Honour and on a footstone on a family grave in Raunds Cemetery.
Private, 202843, Arthur Llewellyn FAIRY 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment Killed in Action, 9th October 1917
Arthur Llewellyn Fairy was born in Raunds in 1892, the youngest son of Henry and Esther Eliza Fairy of 7, Thorpe Street. He was employed by R Coggins & Sons, shoe manufacturers and in his leisure time had been a member of the Vestry Class and a bell ringer at St Peter’s Church. When he went off to war, he was engaged to Miss Lily Eaton, the aunt of WW2 casualty Dennis Eaton, he never returned and she never married.
Private Fairy has no known grave but is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium, panels 23 to 35 and 162A. He is also remembered on a family gravestone in St Peter’s Churchyard and on the Roll of Honour of Bellringers in St Paul's Cathedral, London. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 29460, Harry FINDING 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment Killed in Action, 25th September 1916
Harry Finding, the son of William and Miriam Finding of 4, Swincroft Place, was born in Raunds in 1896. A member of Mr J Gaunt’s Bible Class at the Wesleyan Chapel, he worked in the office of the Raunds Distributive Co-Operative Society prior to the war. He enlisted at Ampthill, joining the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.
He was awarded the British War and Victory medals. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France, pier & face 2C, on a family gravestone in Raunds Cemetery and on the Ampthill Park War Memorial, Bedfordshire.
Private, 426695, George Benjamin FLAVELL 13th Battalion, Quebec Regiment, Canadian Infantry Killed in Action, 5th September 1916
George Benjamin Flavell was born in Rushden in February 1889, the eldest son of Joseph and Elizabeth Flavell of 87, Marshall’s Road. On leaving school, George was employed for a number of years by R Coggins & Sons before emigrating to Canada in 1905 or 1906. There he worked as a farmer before the outbreak of war curtailed his rural life.
George Flavell has no known grave but is commemorated on the impressive Vimy Memorial, France, on page 86 of the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
Trooper, 145905, Robert Arthur FRANKHAM 1st/1st, Northamptonshire Yeomanry Died, 27th October 1918
Born in Raunds in 1893, the eldest son of George and Mary Eliza Frankham, Robert Arthur Frankham was 25 years old when he died of pneumonia in Italy, leaving his wife of three years, Annie, at their home in Broughton near Kettering. Growing up in the town during the early years of the 20th century, he had been a scholar in the Baptist Chapel Bible Class.
He is buried in Giavera British Cemetery, Italy, reference Plot 5, Row F, Grave 9 and was awarded the British War and Victory medals. He is also remembered on the Baptist Chapel Roll of Honour of Old Scholars.
Lance Sergeant, 33540, Stanley Oswyn GEORGE 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment Killed in Action, 3rd May 1917
Stanley Oswyn George was the son of Owen and Mary George, The Square and the husband of Sarah Hannah, with whom he shared the family home at 3, Park Road.
He was born in Raunds in 1888, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not have to endure pre-war employment in the boot and shoe trade. His calling was teaching and prior to enlisting he had been an assistant master at Deal School. His earlier leisure time had been spent as a member of the St Peter’s Church Vestry Class and playing at centre forward for Raunds Town Football Club.
Stanley was 28 when first posted as “missing” then “presumed killed in action”. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Arras Memorial, France, bay 5. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 202982, Jasper Sydney GILBERT 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment Killed in Action, 31st July 1917
Jasper Sydney Gilbert, the son of Frederick and Ada Annie Gilbert, was born in Raunds in 1889. A member of St Peter’s Church Vestry Class and a shoe worker by trade, he married Alice Mary Templer in June 1914. They had one child, who sadly died as a baby, and Alice never remarried after Jasper’s death.
Private Gilbert is buried in Birr Cross Roads Cemetery No.2, Belgium, memorial 5. There is a memorial plaque to him and his parents in St Peter’s Church and a similar memorial can be found on a family grave in Raunds Cemetery. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Corporal, B/200443, Arthur Roland GROOM 10th Battalion, Rifle Brigade Died of Wounds, 9th March 1917
Arthur Roland Groom was born in Raunds on the 16th April 1891, the second son of Charles and Sarah Jane Groom of 25, Lawson Street. He was employed as a clerk by the Raunds Distributive Co-Operative Society.
The Wesleyan Church played a big part in his life, he was a member of Mr George Lee’s Young Men’s Class of 1914, his register entry carrying the sad additional note “wounded in action, died March 14, 1917” and prior to enlisting in May 1916 he was “Horse Hire Fund” treasurer for the church.
Arthur and his best pal John Brackley Higby (see below) were engaged to the Barnes sisters from Woodford. They enlisted together at Ampthill in May 1916 and were to perish within days of each other less than a year later.
He is buried in Grove Town Cemetery, France, grave reference IV.C.7 and is also remembered on a family headstone in the Wesleyan Chapelyard. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 44276, William Henry GROOM 1st/6th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers Died, 28th March 1918
William Henry Groom, the son of George Henry and Kezia Groom of 44, Grove Street was born in Raunds in 1894. He worked in the boot and shoe trade being employed by Owen Smith.
He has no known grave but is remembered on the Pozieres Memorial, France, panels 16 to 18, on a family memorial in Raunds Cemetery and on the Baptist Chapel Old Scholar’s Roll of Honour. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 9345, Horace Francis GUNN 1st/5th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry Died of Wounds, 16th February 1917
Horace Francis Gunn was born in Raunds in 1895, the second son of William and Mary Ann Gunn, and at the time of his death his parents were living in Hill Street. He married Lily Cumberpatch in the summer of 1916 just before embarking for France on the 30th August, they had no children.
He was awarded the British War and Victory medals and is buried in Assevillers New British Cemetery, France, grave reference VIII.B.2. He is also remembered on the Rushden War Memorial and Church Roll of Honour.
Private, 201193, Charles HALL 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment Killed in Action, 20th April 1918
Charles Hall is not named on the Raunds War Memorial but he was born in the town on the 6th September 1898 to George Albert and Emma Hall of Swincroft Place. Little is known of his early years. However, by the time he was called up, during the last year of the conflict, his parents had moved to Rushden.
He has no known grave so is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, France, panels 91 to 93, he is also remembered on the Rushden War Memorial. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
2nd Lieutenant, George Henry HALL, MSM No. 31 Training Squadron, Royal Flying Corps Died of Injuries, 24th December 1917
George Henry “Harry” Hall’s headstone in the graveyard of Raunds Wesleyan Methodist Chapel has the following inscription “From injuries sustained whilst flying in fog at Wyton, Huntingdonshire. He nobly served his Corps in France from October 1914 to July 1917 with Military Honours”.
He was born in Raunds on the 5th January 1896, the youngest son of James and Georgina Janet Hall, who at the time of his death, lived in Commercial Street, Higham Ferrers and was a motor mechanic by trade.
In June 1917, as 1576 Sergeant Hall, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in recognition of his conduct in the field. In addition to his MSM, he was awarded the 1914 Star with Clasp, British War and Victory medals and is also remembered on the Higham Ferrers War Memorial.
Lance Corporal, 89380, Jack Herbert HAXLEY 105th Company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) Killed in Action, 22nd October 1917
Jack Herbert Haxley was the youngest son of George and Elizabeth Haxley of 12 Gladstone Street. He was born in Raunds in 1886 and was a shoehand by trade. Jack married Florence Beatrice Mayes in October 1910 but their life together was cut tragically short when Florence died in the February of the following year aged just 23.
He was a local sporting celebrity being full back and captain of Raunds Town Football Club in the years leading up to the war. He was also a scholar at the Baptist Chapel Sunday School.
Jack Haxley has no known grave so is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium, panels 154 to 159 and 163A, he is also remembered on the Baptist Chapel Roll of Honour of Old Scholars. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 45878, Arthur HAZELDINE 5th Battalion, South Wales Borderers Killed in Action, 22nd November 1917
Arthur Hazeldine was born in Melton Mowbray in 1889 the son of Raunds-born Ralph and his wife Emma Ann Hazeldine. By the early 1900’s Ralph had brought his family back to Raunds and they were living in Park Street. Arthur was a member of the Wesleyan Chapel Young Men’s Class, his entry in the 1917 register has been starkly appended with “Nov 1917, missing at the front, name kept on until June 1918”.
Private Hazeldine has no known grave so is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France, pier and face 4A. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 78811, Bernard HEATH 11th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) Killed in Action, 18th September 1918
Bernard Heath, the second son of John Penfold and Edith Heath of Marshall’s Road, was born in Raunds in 1900. Prior to being called up he worked as a shoehand for Adams Brothers.
He is remembered on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial, France, and was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
Private, 29518, John Brackley HIGBY 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment Died of Wounds, 15th March 1917
John Brackley Higby was born in Raunds in 1891, one of four sons of Walter William and Ellen Elizabeth Higby of 50, High Street. All four sons served in the Army during the Great War. The two eldest, Walter and Arthur, survived although Walter spent some time as a German prisoner of war. The two youngest, John Brackley and Ralph (see below), both perished within two months of one another.
John worked for the Raunds Distributive Co-Operative Society before the war. He and his best pal Arthur Groom (see above) were engaged to the two Barnes sisters from Woodford. Both were destined to leave grieving fiancées.
Private J B Higby is buried in Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, France, grave reference VI.D.33 and was awarded the British War and Victory medals. He and his brother Ralph are also remembered on a family grave in Raunds Cemetery and on a pair of inscribed brass vases presented to St Peter’s Church by their parents on Trinity Sunday, 1920.
Private, 29474, Ralph HIGBY 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment Killed in action, 3rd May 1917
Ralph Higby was the youngest son of Walter William and Ellen Elizabeth Higby of 50, High Street. He was born in Raunds in 1897 and, like his brother John Brackley (see above), worked for the Raunds Distributive Co-Operative Society before the outbreak of the Great War. To complete a romantic triangle of couples, Ralph had courted Edith, Arthur Groom’s (see above) younger sister, in another doomed partnership. Edith never married.
Having no known grave, Private R Higby is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France, bay 5, and was awarded the British War and Victory medals. He and his brother John are also remembered on a family gravestone in Raunds Cemetery and on a pair of inscribed brass vases presented to St Peter’s Church by their parents on Trinity Sunday, 1920.
Private, 18151, Edgar JARVIS 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment Killed in Action, 24th November 1916
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.
By the outbreak of the war the family had moved to Stanwick and for this reason Edgar is named on the War Memorial in that village instead of the one at Raunds.
He is buried in Serre Road No.2 Cemetery, France, grave reference XLI.H.5 and was awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War and Victory medals.
Private, 23049, Arthur Horace JERVIS 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment Died of Wounds, 3rd July 1916
Although not named on the Raunds War Memorial, Arthur Horace Jervis was born in the town during the winter of 1895, the younger son of Thomas Gostick and Laura Elizabeth Jervis of Brook Street.
As a youngster he was a scholar at the Wesleyan Sunday School and also a member of their Scout Troop. In the years leading up to the outbreak of war his parents moved the family to Rushden and Arthur became a bootworker at W Green’s factory in the town.
Arthur Jervis is buried in La Neuville British Cemetery, France, grave reference I.A.54 and is remembered on the Rushden War Memorial and Church Roll of Honour. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.
