Hawkridge, Somerset
TO THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD
AND IN HONOURED MEMORY OF PRIVATE JOHN COLE. 8th BATTN DEVON REGT. KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF LOOS 25 SEPTEMBER 1915 AGED 20 YEARS AND ALSO OF SAPPER ALFRED DURRANT. 88th FIELD CO. 13th DIVISION. RE DIED AT BAGHDAD 19 NOVEMBER 1917 AGED 33 YEARS BOTH MEN OF THIS VILLAGE WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS |
WW1
PRIVATE John Cole (1895-1915)
He was born at Brompton Regis, Somerset, on the 10th of May 1895, and was the son of James Cole (1859-1930) and Christianna Cole nee Venn (1871-1935), of Westbrook Cottage, Croford, near Wiveliscombe, Somerset.
John Cole enlisted at Exeter on the 25th of July 1915, serving as Private 10442 of the 8th (Service) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. He was killed in Action, aged 20 years, during the first day of the Battle of Loos, France, on the 25th of September 1915 and is commemorated at the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. Panel 35. The Battle of Loos saw the first major attack by the volunteer soldiers of the New Armies, such as the 8th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. Although enthusiastic, many had very little training and were unprepared for trench warfare. The Battle commenced with some 10,000 British troops being ordered to walk across no-man’s land toward the German trenches, many through their own gas clouds, blowing back over the advancing British soldiers. According to German accounts, “The British moved forward in ten columns, each about a thousand men, all advancing as if carrying out a parade-ground drill. Never had machine guns had such straight-forward work to do. The enemy could be seen falling literally in hundreds, but they continued to march." However, they fought bravely and by the end of the first day the troops had succeeded in breaking into the enemy positions near Loos and Hulluch. In this single battle the 8th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment suffered 639 casualties. |
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SAPPER Alfred Durrant (1884-1917)
He was born at Hawkridge, near Dulverton, Somerset, in 1884 and was the son of Alfred and Mary Durrant. He was a resident of Combe Florey, Somerset, when he enlisted at Taunton into the Army, and served as Sapper 59384, 88th Field Company, 13th Division, Royal Engineers.
He died at Baghdad in Mesopotamia (Iraq) on the 19th of November 1917, aged 33 years, and was buried at the Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery. Plot XVI. Row G. Grave 9. In addition to the wooden war memorial inside of the Church of St Giles at Hawkridge, his name is also commemorated on the War Memorial located in the Churchyard of St Peter and St Paul, Combe Florey, Somerset. |
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HOME GUARD
PRIVATE John Frederick Clatworthy (1893-1955)
He was born at Hawkridge on the 24th of August 1893 and was the son of Frederick William Clatworthy (1862-1944) and Ellen Blake Clatworthy nee Brook (1868-1950). His father was a Farmer and the family resided at Westwater Farm (approx half-way between Hawkridge and Withypool).
During WW1 he enlisted in November 1916 and served in the 3rd Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment until April 1919. After which he transferred to the 19th Field Ambulance of the Royal Army Medical Corps, based in Chester. He left the army in 1920, returning home to farm at Westwater Farm. In 1917, whilst home on leave, he had married Minnie Bawden (1893-1974) at St Giles Church, Hawkridge. She was the daughter of local Farmer; George Bawden (1838-1907) of Cloggs Farm, Hawkridge. On the 3rd of April 1923 they had a son; Frederick Charles Clatworthy (1923-1996). |
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In 1940 he joined the Home Guard (initially called The Local Defence Volunteers or LDV). and served with the Dulverton Platoon until its disbandment in 1944.
He died on the 17th of March 1955, aged 61 years, and was buried at St Giles Churchyard, Hawkridge. |
Other Hawkridge Military Connections
COLONEL Eustace James Harrison (1876–1962)
He was born on the 17th of October 1876 and was the third son of Edward Hodgson Harrison (1825–1907) of Plymyard, Eastham, Cheshire, and his wife; Elizabeth Whitehead Harpin (d.1909).
During WW1 he served in the Liverpool Regiment with the rank of Major, and subsequently became Hon. Colonel 6th (Rifle) Battalion, King's Regiment (Liverpool). His relatives had founded T&J Harrison Shipping of Liverpool in 1853 , which started by importing French brandy from Charente and became one of the largest UK shipping companies, operational until 2002. In 1884 Col. Harrison's father owned 12 1/2% of the share capital of the newly incorporated holding company; Charente Steam-Ship Company. One of the company's most famous ships was the 'Politician', wrecked in 1941 on the coast of Scotland carrying a cargo of whiskey, which was the subject of the 1949 comedy film 'Whiskey Galore', and which was remade in 2016. In 1924 he purchased Combe House at Hawkridge in Somerset and its estate of 260 acres. He also purchased the adjoining manor of Hawkridge from the Earl of Carnarvon, directly eastwards across the River Barle from Combe. The Hawkridge estate comprised about six farms, and woods down to Castle Bridge and up towards Withypool. He built the village hall of Hawkridge in 1938 and presented it to the village community. In June 1942 Averill Mary Hill, the 11-year-old daughter of Col. Harrison's butler, was killed in a road accident when a lorry descending St Andrew's Hill, at the entrance to Combe Lane, got out of control and crashed through a fence. |
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Colonel Harrison was a keen follower of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds.
He died on the 27th of December 1962 and was buried in Hawkridge churchyard, north-east of the church, "at the feet of" the legendary huntsman Ernest Bawden (1878–1943), huntsman from 1917-1937 and his tenant at one of his farms at Hawkridge. He died unmarried and without children and bequeathed his estates, including the Hawkridge farms of Tarr Steps, Cloggs, Parsonage, Zeal, and Shircombe, to his nephews. |