Remembering Joseph Fuller of Belle Vue Zoo died WW1 14 April 1918

Belle Vue zoo’s sadly vandalised war memorial, Gorton Cemetery. Manchester lists their First World War dead – a tiny glimpse of the losses of men from zoos on active service in both world wars. Image: manchesterhistory.net

Belle Vue Zoo’s now vandalised war memorial – luckily the names, although hard to read, are inscribed in stone as the brass statue.

Sergeant J Fuller of Manchester died serving with the Devonshire Regiment / Pioneer Corps on 14 April 1918. Buried Amiens, France. He may well be the J Fuller mentioned here on the staff War Memorial, although the Jennison Family directors mentioned “Fuller of the Guards” at the 1926 Dedication of the Staff War Memorial.

On March 1918 The Germans launched the first of their offensives in a final bid to win the war. The British bore the brunt of these offensives in March and April and, although the British were forced to concede considerable ground, the line never broke.

Sergeant Fuller was married and lived at 9 Millen Street, West Gorton.

On the 1911 Census this Joseph Fuller was a Journeyman Baker. Hi He was serving with the Labour Corps, having transferred from The Devonshire Regiment.

He died on 14 April 1918 and is buried in St Pierre Cemetery, Amien. This town and railhead was a key objective of the German offensive but never fell.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/remembering-the-lost-ww1-staff-of-belle-vue-zoo-manchester/

http://gortonphilipsparkcemetrywargrave.weebly.com/belle-vue-war-memorial.html

Remembered.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens, Newquay Zoo, 14 April 2018.

Remembering A.J. Meads of Kew Gardens Palm House died WW1 1 December 1917

Remembering A.J. Meads of  Kew Gardens Palm House died WW1,  1 December 1917

Rifleman Arthur John Meads, 551182, D Company, 2nd /16th London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), died 1st December 1917, aged 27.

He is buried at Grave Reference H. 24, Ramleh War Cemetery, Palestine/ Israel  (now Ramla) was occupied by the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade on 1 November 1917.

The cemetery was begun by medical units linked to the Field Ambulances and Casualty Clearing Stations posted at Ramleh and Lydda from December 1917 onwards.

Meads died there of abdominal wounds in a Field Ambulance station around the time this cemetery and hospitals were established. His headstone (with no family inscription) could be seen at the TWGPP website.

His Kew Guild Journal 1918 obituary lists him as Sub-Foreman of the Palm House. Meads enlisted in January 1915 and went to France on June 1916. He was wounded on Salonika in 1916/17, before moving to Palestine in 1917. He served with three other Kew colleagues in the Queen’s Westminster Rifles.

Arthur John Meads of  Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Remembered on the WW1 section Kew Gardens staff memorial (Image Source: Mark Norris, World War Zoo gardens project, Newquay Zoo)

His death date is recorded as 1st December 1917 during the Second Battle of Gaza, of wounds received on November 26th 1917.

Born on 22 February 1890, he is listed as the son of John and Kate Meads, of Swallow St., Iver, Bucks and husband of Margaret Annie Meads, of Strood Villa, Broad Oak, Newnham-on-Severn, Glos.

You can read more about Kew in WW1 at

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/such-is-the-price-of-empire-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-the-first-world-war/

Rifleman Arthur John Meads, 551182, D Company, 2nd /16th London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), died 1st December 1917, aged 27,

Remembered on the Kew Gardens staff War Memorial 100 years on.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo, 1st / 3rd December 2017.

 

James Garnett of Kew Gardens Menin Gate memorial photo Passchendaele WW1 1917

 

James Garnett of Kew Gardens, remembered amongst Wiltshire regiment casaulties in 1917 high on the wall Panel 53 at the Menin Gate memorial to the missing of Ypres and Passchendaele. Photo by Bob Richards, July / August 2017 . 

 

This photograph of the memorial inscription of the name of Private James Garnett, Kew Gardens staff  name was taken almost 100 years to the day of his death by my fellow WW1 researcher Bob Richards on his recent trip to Ypres for the Passchendaele centenary.

Many thanks Bob. We will feature more of his photos of the memorails to lost zoo and gardens staff at Passchendaele over the next few weeks.

James Garnett, garden staff of Kew Gardens and his WW1  story is told on our blog here

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/remembering-james-garnett-of-kew-gardens-died-ww1-passchendaele-3rd-august-1917/

Blog posted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo gardens project, August 2017.

 

War Graves and Girl Gardeners WW1

Amongst my collection of WW1 ephemera is this interesting illustration of ‘girl gardeners’ or, more correctly, members of the Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corps (Q.M.A.A.C.) tending war graves and planting flowers, part of the progress  towards the beautifully planted war cemetery gardens maintained by the CWGC .

I was reminded of this print whilst reading about Nick Stone’s The Returned project http://thereturned.co.uk/

I have written about this for  my local Cornish village war memorial blog https://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/tending-war-graves-in-foreign-fields/

This print or illustration  is made whilst  the Commonwealth War Graves Commission CWGC began the long slow and ongoing job of erecting and maintaining  their  distinctive white headstones there to replace the temporary wooden crosses and metal name strips erected by the Graves  Registration Units (GRUs).

As it is cut out from a magazine, possibly to have been framed, it has no date, but a little detective work (below) suggest it is from April 1918 onwards, possibly 1918-1921 or later. Olive Edis’ photographs in the IWM Collection of such scenes appear to be c. 1918 / 1919.

Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corps 1918-20

The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed following Lieutenant General H M Lawson’s report of 16 January 1917 which recommended employing women in the army in France. Mrs Chalmers Watson became Chief Controller of the new organisation and recruiting began in March 1917, although the Army Council Instruction no 1069 of 1917 which formally established the WAAC was not issued until 7 July 1917.

Although it was a uniformed service, there were no military ranks in the WAAC; instead of officers and other ranks, it was made up of ‘officials’ and ‘members’. Officials were divided into ‘controllers’ and ‘administrators’, members were ‘subordinate officials’, ‘forewomen’ and ‘workers’. The WAAC was organised in four sections: Cookery, Mechanical, Clerical and Miscellaneous; nursing services were discharged by the separate Voluntary Aid Detachments, although eventually an auxiliary corps of the Royal Army Medical Corps was set up to provide medical services for the WAAC.

In appreciation of its good services, it was announced on 9 April 1918 that the WAAC was to be re-named ‘Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps’ (QMAAC), with Her Majesty as Commander-in-Chief of the Corps. At its height in November 1918, the strength of the QMAAC was more than 40,000 women, although nearly 10,000 women employed on Royal Flying Corps air stations had transferred to the Women’s Royal Air Force on its formation in April 1918. Approximately, a total of 57,000 women served with the WAAC and QMAAC during the First World War. Demobilisation commenced following the Armistice in November 1918 and on 1 May 1920 the QMAAC ceased to exist, although a small unit remained with the Graves Registrations Commission at St Pol until September 1921.    (text from the National Archives file WO 398 website descriptor C15099)

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C15099

The print represents a somewhat floral and sanitised image of a First World War Cemetery, but similar frequently reproduced photographic images exist  in the Imperial War Museum  photographic archives such as images Q 8467 and 8468 WAACs (Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps) at Abbeville, February 1918 http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205214342

James Wearn, Andrew Budden and Kew colleagues on the Somme mark the area where Kew Gardens WW1 casualty John Divers (pictured) was killed (Image: RBG Kew)

 

CWGC and Kew Gardens Somme 100 talks July 1916

Surprisingly a year has flown past since I attended the Somme 100 talks at Kew Gardens in July 2016

I thought of this floral war graves  print of the “girl gardeners” whilst listening to my research colleague Dr James Wearn at Kew Gardens last year talk about his recent Somme trip. James had been on a combined expedition between CWGC and Kew Gardens staff to take a fresh look at the Flora of The Somme Battlefields 100 years on. They also went to mark where some of their Kew staff like John Divers and Sydney Cobbold were killed and are commemorated.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/such-is-the-price-of-empire-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-the-first-world-war/

Kew’s longstanding relationship with the CWGC began in February 1916, before the Battle of the Somme had even begun. Thus, Kew’s wartime legacy is tied closely with that of the birth of the Commission. This places it in a unique position to tell the story of the First World War in a new light, focusing on the relationship between people, plants, conflict landscapes and remembrance.

Kew’s wartime Assistant Director, Arthur Hill (later ‘Sir Arthur’ in recognition of his internationally significant work) was given the honorary title of Botanical Advisor to the Commission and the temporary rank of Captain. In March 1916 he headed for France to complete the first of several trips to advise the Commission on planting within war graves cemeteries. Just as the Commission has provided respectful remembrance of lost soldiers, Sir Arthur and Kew helped pioneer the creation of the natural tranquillity which surrounds them.

Taking inspiration from Sir Arthur’s travels on the Somme and his two little-known, poignant accounts – The Flora of the Somme Battlefield (1917) and Our Soldiers’ Graves (1919) – in June [2016], three of Kew’s current staff (led by Dr James Wearn) [met] the CWGC’s Director of Horticulture (David Richardson) and members of the French CWGC team on the Somme.

Kew’s aim is to re-trace Sir Arthur’s footsteps in an emotive journey through the physical space and the psychology of plants and war. The visit will also be moving a tribute to the men of Kew who lost their lives on the battlefields in 1916. (6th July 2016 talk pre -event information)

http://www.kew.org/discover/blogs/kew-science/plants-and-conflict-landscapes-%E2%80%93-somme-and-beyond

Equally interesting was listening to David Richardson, Director of Horticulture of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission talking about their immense and ongoing job in perpetuity  of maintaining the horticultural side of these war graves.

Keeping grassy lawns  and English cottage garden planting from the Edwardian era of Mrs Jekyll going in desert or arid areas in the Middle East is one challenge. Sustainable water use aside, there are also other emerging threats such as vandalism of  cemetery crosses, cemeteries in war zones  or current no-go areas and also  dealing with the effects of climate change such as floods  in Madras in India and sea level rise storm surges in Sierra Leone, Africa.

http://www.cwgc.org/about-us/what-we-do/horticulture.aspx

These areas of sustainable water usage, conflict zones and climate change are very familiar from our zoo animal conservation role in zoos and our overseas projects.

David Richardson claims that the CWGC is probably the largest amenity horticulture organisation in the world, employing over 850 to 900 gardeners worldwide. It is also now taking onboard being a conservation or heritage organisation of hundreds of historic monuments by top architects such as Lutyens and his Thiepval Memorial as it approaches 100 years old.

http://www.cwgc.org/about-us/most-popular-questions/fast-facts.aspx

I was surprised to learn that of the 23,000 cemeteries and burial plots in over 150 countries worldwide,  over half are to be found in the United Kingdom. In 2016, I  visited local WW1 CWGC headstones in a local Newquay cemetery near Newquay Zoo to pay our respects  as part of  the Living Memory project to mark the 141 days of the Somme  http://www.cwgc.org/about-us/cwgc-projects/living-memory.aspx

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/the-somme-the-ennor-family-living-memory-and-our-local-cwgc-headstones-in-newquay/

Kew Joddrell Laboratory / Lecture Theatre, 2016

A relaxing place to sit and wait of an evening  for the 6th July talk, 2016 Kew Gardens

One clue for the researchers, on the back of the Q.M.A.A.C “girl gardeners” magazine illustration are featured these senior and well-decorated men :

Possible clue to the WW1  1918-21 date of the print , being the reverse page of the Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corps  illustration, undated – what links all these officers?

A quick coffee break check suggests that these are the memorial portraits of well-decorated senior men, many of whom had died throughout mid to late 1917:

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/73256/LEIGHTON,%20JOHN%20BURGH%20TALBOT

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/508940/KERRISON,%20ROGER%20ORME

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/99349/MAXWELL,%20FRANCIS%20AYLMER

This suggests a magazine date at the earliest of April 1918 onwards, when the QMAAC received its royal name change from the WAAC.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, 27 July 2017

Remembering Herbert Southgate of Kew Gardens died WW1 Gaza 19 April 1917

 

Herbert Southgate of  Royal Botanic Gardens Kew –  Remembered on the WW1 section Kew Gardens staff memorial (Image Source: Mark Norris, World War Zoo gardens project, Newquay Zoo)

Fellow Norfolk regiment soldiers Foyster and Snelling who died on the same day lie buried near Herbert Southgate, Gaza Cemetery. Source: CWGC

Serjeant Herbert William Leonard Southgate, 240701, ‘A’ Company, 1st/ 5th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, died on 19 April 1917, aged 28.

He is buried at Grave Reference XXX. F. I, Gaza War Cemetery, Israel / Palestine area. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/651381/SOUTHGATE,%20HERBERT%20WILLIAM%20LEONARD
Previous to training and working at Kew Gardens in 1910-12 and 1913, he had worked at Raynham Hall Norfolk and Westonbirt, Gloucestershire. http://www.holfordtrust.com And http://www.hha.org.uk/Property/2673/Westonbirt-House–and–Gardens

He was noted as an orchid specialist. He also worked on The Gardener’s Magazine for a brief time.

He most likely died during the Second Battle Of Gaza (17-19 April, 1917) fighting against the Turks and was posted missing until his body was found seven months later and buried by British troops. Gaza was finally recaptured in November 1917. Herbert served with his younger brother, one of many Soi.

Herbert Southgate is surrounded by fellow 1/5th Norfolks, killed on the same day in Gaza. Source; CWGC

 

Born on 19 September 1888, he is listed as the son of Herbert William and Hannah Southgate, of East Raynham, Fakenham, Norfolk (hence enlisting in a Norfolk Regiment).

The inscription on his headstone from his family reads “Thanks be to God who giveth us victory through Jesus Christ”.

Herbert Southgate, remembered at Kew Gardens and through the work of CWGC a 100 years after his death. 

Herbert Southgate is buried in Gaza Cemetry. Source: CWGC

Read more about the staff of Kew Gardens who served in WW1:

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/such-is-the-price-of-empire-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-the-first-world-war/

1/4 and 1/5th Battalion Norfolk Regiment

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/norfolk-regiment/

1/4th Battalion
August 1914 : in Norwich. Part of Norfolk and Suffolk Brigade, East Anglian Division.
May 1915 : the formation was retitled as 163rd Brigade, 54th (East Anglian) Division.
29 July 1915 : embarked at Liverpool and moved to Gallipoli via Mudros. Landed at Suvla Bay on 10 August 1915.
19 December 1915 : evacuated from Gallipoli and arrived at Alexandria. Served in Egypt and Palestine thereafter.

1/5th Battalion – which Southgate served in.
August 1914 : in East Dereham. Part of Norfolk and Suffolk Brigade, East Anglian Division. Record same as 1/4th Battalion.

So Kew’s Sergeant  Herbert Southgate may have served at Gallipoli also.

You can also read more about the Battle for Gaza where Southgate and many other Norfolk soldiers lost their lives on this interesting website:

http://greatwarliveslost.com/2017/04/18/thursday-19-april-1917-we-lost-2083/

I was surprised to discover the similarities with the Western Front – gas and tanks:

In keeping with the “Western Front” flavor of the battle, the British introduce poison gas and tanks to the eastern battlefield for the first time. Two thousand gas shells and six tanks are available. While the tanks are certain to be deployed, doubts remain about whether to use gas due to operational concerns.

It is estimated that the Turkish forces occupying the Gaza-Beersheba defenses number between 20,000 and 25,000. As the infantry attack is about to commence, the guns concentrate on the Ali Muntar strong point, south east of Gaza. This includes the firing of gas shells for the first time.

One result of the prolonged bombardment is to provide the Turks with ample warning that a major attack is imminent, giving them plenty of time to finalize their defenses.      (Great War Lives Lost website entry for 19 April 2017)

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo

Homeland, Britain March 1917

Percy Izzard, Homeland: A Book of Country Days (1918)

 

As a follow up to yesterday’s post on Homeland, Percy Izzard’s book of nature writing on the British countryside during the First World War, here are several more daily entries. A book well worth tracking down second-hand.

 

Some deal with the changing agricultural landscape, such as noticing (March 28th 1917) that “It is interesting to see how quickly the birds have become accustomed  to the motor plough. The strange form and immense noise of the machine …” 

 

March 25th (1917) “And although the flowers were few when you think what this day has seen in other years, never did they open to a world readier to welcome them”

welcome to a world weary not only of the long winter, but also the war?

 

 

 

British farming and the countryside was facing difficulties by 1917 from poor harvests and the call up of male farm workers. Add to this the demands of feeding several armies overseas. From early  in the year, the unrestricted submarine warfare of the German U boat blockade of Britain increased the sinking of merchant shipping bound for  Britain with imported food from around the Empire and world.

These were pre-war cheap and plentiful food imports that we had come to rely on, much to the detriment of pre-war British farming.

Both rationing (1918) and a form of WW2 style Dig For Victory in 1917 were eventually organised  in Britain in WW1.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/dig-for-victory-1917-world-war-1-style-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-and-the-fortunate-herbert-cowley-1885-1967/

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/country-life-1986-article-on-ww1-wartime-gardening/

We will feature more from Homeland by Percy Izzard in late March / early April 2017, when the quiet world of nature in Britain that he works hard to convey  can be read 100 years on as (directly ? deliberately?) at odds  with events overseas, the Battle of Arras (9 April to 16 May 1917) in France.

This  battle would involve many of Izzard’s audience of  “soldier lads” who read his daily nature column in the Daily Mail in the trenches. Forming a valuable bit of escapism, these short daily columns would be adapted and edited to become his book Homeland: A Year Of Country Days in mid 1918.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arras_(1917)

The Battle of Arras would see the deaths on active service of several of the zoo staff, botanic gardens staff and  naturalists that we have been researching through the World War  Zoo Gardens project.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo.

 

Remembering A E Baggs Kew Gardens died WW1 1st March 1917

Arthur Edwin Baggs, Kew Gardens  staff, died 1st March 1917
Private Arthur Edwin Baggs, service number 129662, 72nd Battalion Canadian Infantry (Canadian Seaforth Highlanders), died on active service in France on 1st March 1917, aged 28.

 

Vimy Memorial (Image: CWGC website)

He is recorded on the Vimy Memorial to the 60,000 Canadians who died in the First World War.

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/vimy-ridge/100-anniversary

Baggs  appears to be one of 11,000 Canadians from WW1 have no known grave.

Many of them died in the fight for Vimy Ridge during the Battle of Arras the month after Baggs died.

The day Baggs died – 72 Seaforth Highlanders of Canada War diary 1  March 1917

http://www.canadaatwar.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=2768 

It appears that Baggs’ Battalion conducted a trench raid on 1st March 1917, the day Baggs died.

Arthur was the son of Edwin and Louisa Mary Baggs, of 3605, Knight Road, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

He entered Kew in 1909. Listed as an Old Kewite on active service, Baggs returned to Canada when he left Kew in April 1911.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/72nd_Battalion_(Seaforth_Highlanders_of_Canada),_CEF

Remembering Arthur Baggs and the Kew Gardens staff who died in WW1 and the many Canadian troops remembered on the Vimy Memorial.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/such-is-the-price-of-empire-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-the-first-world-war/

 

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newbury Zoo.

The Silvertown Explosion London 19 January 1917

WW1 diarist Edith Spencer recorded in her diary for 19 /20 January 1917:

Terrific explosion at Silverton.

She had recently arrived back from visiting family in Newcastle upon Tyne (‘luggage came’) to her new clerical job at 24 Bishopsgate in London, filing and learning shorthand for the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. No doubt she had filled  a post made free by the call up or conscription of young men for war work or the armed services.

The Silvertown explosion occurred in Silvertown in West Ham, Essex, (now Greater London) on Friday, 19 January 1917 at 6.52 pm.

The blast occurred at a munitions factory that was manufacturing explosives for Britain’s war effort.

Approximately 50 long tons (50 tonnes) of trinitrotoluene (TNT) exploded.

73 people were killed and 400 injured, as well as causing substantial damage to hundreds of houses across the local area.

Remembering the many men and women war worker casualties of the Silvertown TNT factory explosion. 

The blast could be heard and felt up to a hundred miles away.

The animals at London Zoo a few miles away would clearly have heard it.

The panes of glass in the greenhouses at Kew Gardens would have rattled.

So even if Edith Spencer had travelled back from her new clerical job in London and reached the family home at Wesley Manse, Derby Road  in Watford about 17 miles away, she could clearly have heard the Silvertown explosion.

You  can read more about and by Edith Spencer, one of the diarists in my personal collection of wartime diaries on loan to the World War Zoo Gardens project, at this previous Zeppelin WWI air raid blogpost https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/the-first-blitz-on-london-from-an-unpublished-ww1-diary/

More about the explosion at:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvertown_explosion

Posted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo.

Living Memory and 141 days of the Somme

18th November 1916 – the Battle of The Somme finally ceased after 141 days.

This period of the war from  1st July 1916 to 18 November 2016 has been marked by many centenary or anniversary projects across Europe and the Commonwealth.

Lovely touch, we have just received this smart certificate from the Living Memory team at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for our research and blog post about our local CWGC War Graves ‘at home’ in Newquay cemeteries, linked to the 141 days of the Somme battle.

Thanks very much to the Living Memory team.

http://www.cwgc.org/about-us/cwgc-projects/living-memory.aspx

Read more at:

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/the-somme-the-ennor-family-living-memory-and-our-local-cwgc-headstones-in-newquay/

WW1 casualties Natural History Museum staff war memorial

Remembering Robert James Swift, Natural History Museum staff, died 10 November 1916, Somme.

Gunner Robert James Swift 3474, 1st Battery, 45th Brigade Royal Field Artillery died on 10 November 1916. He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier / Face 1A / 8A of the Thiepval Memorial.

Also from the Somme Battles and with no known grave and listed on the Thiepval Memorial is fellow Natural History Museum staff member Private Stanley Thomas Wells 532040 (4674) D Company, 1/15 London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles) who died on 19 September 1916, aged 22.

Robert J Swift and Stanley Thomas Wells are two British Museum / Natural History Museum  staff with no known grave are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial (Image: CWGC website)

There are several war memorials and a Roll of Honour to the staff of The British Museum (Natural History) inside  its magnificent entrance hall.

This website has some good photographs:

 http://2ndww.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/the-natural-history-museum-in-world-wars.html

Other photos on the Waymarking website:

http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=6f276a15-e256-4ffe-aa4a-33184175fda5&gid=3

Further plaques reveal a link to SOE activity and weapons designed or demonstrated in some of its galleries, sealed  off during wartime and secret.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/library-and-archives/collections/world-wars.html

Within the British Museum (Natural History) or as it is now known the Natural History Museum,  there are two separate WW1 lists, one a Roll of Honour, the other a brass plaque listing the name of the dead staff.

Natural History Museum staff lost in WW1

Edward A Bateman

Private Edward Albert Bateman, 35698, 1st Norfolk Regiment, died 29 June 1918, aged 18. He is buied at plot I C 22 Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France amongst burials from local base hospitals. CWGC record him as the “son of Frank and Emma Bateman, 200 Valley Road, Streatham”.

Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille. (Source: CWGC)

Frederick J. Bean

Thomas Douglas

John Gabriel

Private John Gabriel, 2865, 15th  Battalion London Regiment (Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles) died on 30 July 1916. He is buried in plot III B 10 Maroueil British Cemetery. CWGC records him as “the son of William and Matilda Gabriel. A Civil Servant”.  7 other soldiers named J Gabriel died in WW1.

E. George Gentry

Lance Corporal Ernest George Gentry 6896 2nd East Surrey Regiment died on 13 July 1915. He has no known grave and remembered on Panel 34 of the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/remembering-ernest-george-gentry-natural-history-museum-died-ypres-13-july-1915/

Duncan Hepburn Gotch
Second Lieutenant, 1293, B Compnay, 1st Battalion, Worcester Regiment, died 11 March 1915, aged 23. Remembered on the Le Touret Memorial to the missing of the early battles of 1914-1915 who have no known grave. Born in Kettering, the son of Davis F. Gotch (involved in shoe and leather manufacturing and later Assistant Secretary of Education Northants County Council) and Ethel Gotch, Bassingburne, Northampton. In the 1911 census, he was listed as Biology Student at Cambridge University. He was an entomologist.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/duncan-hepburn-gotch-entomologist-died-neuve-chapelle-11-march-1915/

Charles Hill

Jerusalem Cemetery (Image source: CWGC)

I.J. Frederick Kingsbury

Private Isaac James Frederick Kingsbury 532927 2/15th London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles) died of wounds on 22 February 1918, aged 24. He is buried at plot Q35, Jerusalem War Cemetery. CWGC records him as the son of Elizabeth Kingsbury.

According to NHM records, he was born in 1893 and joined the Museum as a Boy Attendant in the Depertment 0f Zoology on 11 June 1908. He became a full Attendant on 22 August 1914 working in the Fish and Reptile section under Boulenger.

In the Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians, it mentions that Boulenger named the Kingsbury’s Rocket Frog Allobates Kingsburyi in 1918 as a memorial to his colleague. This South American rainforest frog is now endangered http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/55100/0

George Pagnoni

Private 4187, 13 Kensington Battalion London Regiment died on 17 September 1916. Buried or commemorated on  213.6.9 screen wall section of  Kensal  Green All Soul’s Cemetery in London. CWGC records him as the “son of Henry and Flora Pagnoni (nee Bendall)”. His headstone inscription chosen by Miss M. Pagnoni, 15 Rosher Mansions, Fulham, SW6 is simply “Born 1898. For Home, King and Country”. The NHM archive lists him in photographs as a boy Attendant in the Geology department.

J. H. Smitheringale

Several men of this name are listed. Most likely to be Private 233848, 2/2 London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) died on 21 March 1918. He is remembered on Panel 85/86 Pozieres Memorial.

Smitheringale is named amongst thousands of missing on the Pozieres Memorial. Image Source: CWGC.

Robert J Swift

Gunner  Robert James Swift 3474, 1st Battery, 45th Brigade Royal Field Artillery died on 10 November 1916. He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier / Face 1A / 8A of the Thiepval Memorial.

Stanley T Wells

Private Stanley Thomas Wells 532040 (4674) D Company, 1/15 London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles) died on 19 September 1916, aged 22. He has no known grave and is remembered on Pier / Face 13C of the Thiepval memorial to the missing of the Somme battles. CWGC records him as the son of Thomas and Alice Elizabeth Wells, 33 Elmsleigh Road, East Hill, Wandsworth.

Rocquigny Equancort British Cemetery (Image: CWGC)

Felix Gilbert Wiltshear

Rifleman F. Gilbert Wiltshear R/32865, 10th King’s Royal Rifle Corps, died on 23 November 1917, aged 35.

He is buried in plot  III.B.14, Rocquigny Equancort Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, Somme, a cemetery of over 2000 burials associated with local Casualty Clearing Stations. CWGC lists him as the “son of Felix Gilbert and Fanny Wiltshear; husband of Ellen Barbara Wiltshear, 19 Ellerby Street, Fulham.” His wife Mrs E.B. Wiltshear chose the words “Fight the Good Fight with All Thy Might” for his headstone.

We will add more information to these men as we come across it.

The 8 staff casualties from WW2 will be dealt with in a separate blog post.

Blog posted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, 10 November 2016