Tag Archives: Tyne Cop

Great War, history, People, Photography, story, war

CWG: Private Frank Woods

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This blog has focused a lot on the Commonwealth War Graves I have found on my travels around (initially Somerset) churchyards.

One of my other hobbies is family history, and I have uncovered a number of my ancestors who fell in the Great War. None that have researched so far did so on home soil, however, and so they are not buried in the UK.

It is only fitting, though, that I commemorate their loss here too.

Frank Ernest Woods was born in 1885, one of seven children to Thomas and Alice. Thomas was a labourer and the family lived in Worcestershire.

Frank left home early – by the time of the 1901 census, he was living as a gardener for the Cornforth family, who were grain merchants in South Claines, near Worcester.

Frank’s work with the family continued; the 1911 census show that they had relocated to Kensington. The Cornforth family were now running the Eaton Court Hotel, a boarding house with nineteen rooms; the 25-year-old Frank had been elevated to the role of waiter.

Another of the Cornforths’ staff was a housemaid, 20-year-old Ethel Elizabeth James; within a matter of years, the couple were courting, and Frank and Ethel married in November 1915.

The Great War was already being waged across the Channel, and Frank enlisted, joining the Rifle Brigade in June 1916. Within three months, he was fighting on the Western Front.

Private Frank Woods was killed in action in Belgium on 1th January 1918. He was 33 years old. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Zonnebeke.

Frank Ernest Woods was the first husband of my Great Great Great Aunt, Ethel Elizabeth James.

For the stories of more of the fallen from the Great War, take a look at my Commonwealth War Graves page.

Great War, history, People, Photography, story, war

CWG: Rifleman Harold Shelbrooke

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This blog has focused a lot on the Commonwealth War Graves I have found on my travels around (initially Somerset) churchyards.

One of my other hobbies is family history, and I have uncovered a number of my ancestors who fell in the Great War. None that have researched so far did so on home soil, however, and so they are not buried in the UK.

It is only fitting, though, that I commemorate their loss here too.

Harold Edward Shelbrooke was born in Poplar, East London, the eldest son of Edward and Jane. One of seven children, Harold lost his father – a labourer in the local gasworks – when he was only eight.

To support his mother – most of his sisters having moved on – he soon found employment as an umbrella maker, and by the 1911 census he had worked his way up to the position of warehouseman.

In July 1915, he married Alice Pulley; six months later their son, George was born. The young family had moved south of the Thames by now, and were living in Greenwich.

Private Shelbrooke’s military records are pretty sparse; he enlisted after marrying Alice – their Banns show him as an umbrella maker – and served in the King’s Royal Rifles.

He saw battle on the Western Front and was involved in the Battle of Menin Road Ridge at Ypres. Harold’s military documents record him as wounded and missing on the day of that battle – 20th September 1917 – and he was officially declared dead on 9th November that year. He was 33-years-old.

Private Shelbrooke has lost his father at the age of eight; his son, George, was not even two years old.

Private Harold Shelbrooke is commemorated at the Tyne Cot memorial in Zonnebeke, Belgium.

Harold Edward Shelbrooke was my first cousin, three times removed.

For the stories of more of the fallen from the Great War, take a look at my Commonwealth War Graves page.