Arthur Hagger – died in France 27th March 1918 Buried in the Crucifix Corner Cemetery, Villers-bretonneux, France. Commemorated on Clock Tower War memorial, Coalville, Leicestershire. Northumberland Fusiliers, rank Private, Service No. 267297. Born 1897 in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire the son of Arthur Hagger and Agnes Priscilla (nee Sharp). [Click to continue…]

Alfred Drake was born in 1867 in Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, the second son of Elijah Drake and Elizabeth (formerly Beadle) of Navestock, Essex (a member of an extensive Navestock Drake family). In the 1911 census he was an unmarried farm labourer and Army pensioner aged 44 living with his widowed father in Navestock (also a farm labourer and aged 80 in [Click to continue…]

Douglas Leonard Rayment, the son of Leonard Rayment (a clerk in the tobacco trade) and Elsie Rayment née Kirk, was born in North London, England on 17th December 1912. He was the eldest of three children, his birth being followed in 1916 by that of a sister named Jean Elsie Rayment and in 1921 by a brother named Kenneth Gordon Rayment. After leaving [Click to continue…]

John E. Yates US Civil War Letters and Experiences Elizabeth Roberson Yates' apprehension about the War and her husband would be drawn out but not typical. Her husband John Yates enlisted at Alton, Crawford County, Indiana, USA on November 20, 1861, for a period of time extending for, "During the War" and reported for duty seven days later on November [Click to continue…]

Private Arthur Villeneuve was born in Peckham, south London on 16th June 1896, the eldest child of Albert and Amelia Villeneuve (nee Wells), which was also the place of his parents’ birth. We can trace the family’s ancestry back to the French Huguenots living in Berlin. Arthur’s father, Albert, was employed by the Salvation Army Assurance Society [Click to continue…]