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| Memories of Upchurch. |
James Robinson and Herbert Hodges, two agricultural workers from Ham Green and John Allen from Gore Bank became early fatalities when they were killed in action while serving in the Buffs in 1914. Albert Newman, a lance corporal in the Grenadier Guards from Otterham Cottages and Charles Gransden a lance corporal in the Coldstream Guards from Gore Bank also perished early in the war. However, Percy Hales, son of village butcher and stockman Jacob Hales from Horsham Farm joined the Grenadier Guards, fought in the early battles of 1914 and survived unscathed. After being promoted to sergeant he was later killed by an exploding shell on his 21st birthday in France on September 6th, 1917.
With the war well underway, Bill Clark from Yew Tree Cottage in Poot Lane enlisted in the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles in 1915. The eldest son of Ham Green farmer Henry Clark, he attended Holywell School and excelled as a talented sportsman, playing for the village football and cricket clubs. He was also a member of the church choir and served as a church sidesman. Bill went to France where he was attached to the Buffs and placed in the machine gun section and became a lance corporal. When returning home on leave in July 1916 he married his girlfriend Ellen Banfield and they later had a baby daughter but not before he had returned to the Western Front where he was killed by an exploding shell on June 15th 1917 aged 22.
Arthur Faulkner, son of ‘The Crown Inn’ publican James Faulkner enlisted in the Buffs in February 1916 and went to the Western Front in May. About to return home on leave, he was killed by a bomb dropped by a German plane. Before joining up he had assisted his father in the pub and became well known in the village. Later in 1917 Tom Sifleet, another Buffs recruit, became a casualty when a shell exploded and shrapnel badly wounded him in the head. He died of his wounds on 8th December 1917. He was one of five brothers sent to fight in the war. Before joining up he had become a well known member of the village football and cricket clubs. He left a wife and two young children.
The Banfield family from Bayford lost three family members. Fred was the first killed on September 7th, 1916 just one week after being sent to the Western Front in France. His brother in law William Clark from Yew Tree Cottage in Poot Lane perished one year later then his older brother George was killed while serving in the navy as Chief Artificer Engineer on 4th April 1918. George had been a member of the bellringers and the church bible class.
Several soldiers went missing in action and were later presumed dead. These included Fred Blewitt, a private in the Buffs from Church Farm Cottages in Forge Lane aged 25, Robert Tumber, a private in the East Sussex Regiment from Plantation Cottages aged 24 and Edward Muggeridge, a private in the Buffs from Gore Bank aged 25. All had served on the Western Front.
Some Upchurch men joined the navy like farmer’s son Roland Whitnell from Windmill Hill who served on H.M.S Dirk until it was torpedoed and sunk by the Germans on May 28th 1918. The 18 year old had joined up only two months previously. Percy Betts also died at sea on 27th March 1918 aged 26 when H.M.S Kale on which he was serving was mined in the North Sea. Wilfred Baker from Plantation Cottages died of pneumonia aboard H.M.S Valentine aged 24 while Walter Hatton from The Street was killed in a magazine explosion aboard H.M.S Vanguard in Scapa Flow harbour on July 9th 1917 aged 24.
Henry Marsh from Rose Cottage in Forge Lane joined the 1st Canadian Pioneers before the war but died of pneumonia aged 35 on March 7th 1916 and was buried at Ross Bay in British Columbia with full military honours. Although many servicemen who died are buried in foreign war cemeteries some are located in Upchurch churchyard. These include Henry Thurley, a private in the Buffs and Albert Stapleton, a corporal in the Royal Engineers both from Kent Terrace in Canterbury Lane and Stuart Mercer a Royal Naval stoker from Breach Lane.
All those who perished and remembered on Remembrance Sunday have their names inscribed on a marble tablet located in the church.
David Wood, who was born and raised in Upchurch, is able to write from personal experience about many people and aspects of the village and of changes that have taken place over the years making ‘Memories of Upchurch’ a very readable book and a detailed historical study of the village.
David Wood's book ‘Memories of Upchurch’ is available direct from David on: david3702001@yahoo.co.uk price £12 + p+p £2.
David Wood
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