The WW1 service record of Charles Messent might never have been found but for the Guild of One-Name Studies. The World War 1 service record of Charles Messent Private 10450 3rd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment popped up in my study purely by luck. Unfortunately, more than half of the service records of WW1 soldiers were destroyed in September [Click to continue…]

John Thomas Drake, the elder son of George Drake and Emily (formerly Jarvis) was born in 1895 at Great Warley, Essex, and he was the first of their two sons to die in this war. His parents were married 10 Oct 1891 at Little Burstead, Essex. His grandparents were John Drake and Sarah Ann Poulter, who were married 17 Oct 1858 at Bethnal Green St Philip, [Click to continue…]

James Arthur Rayment was born on 6th September 1889 at Balwyn in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was the fourth of eight children from the marriage of James Rayment and Harriet Ratten but was only eight years old when his mother Harriet died. Brought up by his father he did reasonably well at school, after leaving which he earned his living as a [Click to continue…]

Francis Octavius (left) and Riversdale Nonus Grenfell were twin sons born to Pascoe du Pre and Sophia Grenfell on 4 September 1880. On leaving Eton College in 1899 Francis wished to pursue a career in the Army and Riversdale, ‘Rivy’ chose a business career but trained with the Buckinghamshire Hussars. In October 1900 Francis joined the Seaforth [Click to continue…]