16th August 1917

Probably the most significant date in the calender with regard to the Spillers during the Great War.

On this day started the battle of Langemark. In very wet conditions the Vics tried to advance towards Polygon Wood from their starting point around "Surbiton Villas". They were repelled by the Germans and during this action both Harry and Bert were reported missing.

My great-grandmother wrote to the regiment for news of her missing sons and received a letter back from the Adjutant - James Nichols, the letter is dated 16th Sept 1917.

'I cannot say how sorry I am that no information has been received of you two sons.........I am afraid that there is practically no hope at all for either of them.'

'HS Spiller (Bert) was first reported wounded but has since proved to be missing and I am afraid that he must have been hit a second time.'

'When Harry was reported missing he was again acting as Company Sgt Major..........Absolutely fearless, always splendidly cheery he was the finest NCO I have ever seen.........I don't think any man ever enjoyed the war like he did or inflicted more casualties on the enemy.'

Well, first of all, Harry was not killed but taken POW - he returned home on 28th December 1918. Unfortunately, Bert was killed that day and now lays in Tyne Cot cemetery.

After the war Harry told the story that during that day one of his men told him that he had seen another Vic that had been wounded and was as tall as him somewhere along the line. As all the Spillers were over 6' tall it is quite likely that this was Bert. Harry resolved to visit this chap later in the day but events precluded that.

In all likelihood Bert was hit a second time and was killed.

Harry lived on and died in1963. He was cremated on the day JFK was shot.

RIP Harry & Bert

This day in history

In memory of Alfred Charles Curtis who died this day in 1916.

Alf was L/corp SPTS/1957 23rd (Sportmans) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He was my g-aunt Isobel's fiance and she never looked at another man after Alf was killed during the battle of Delville Wood.

My g-aunt died in 1984.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

Ludgate Circus

As Paul Nixon mentioned in his comment to my last post, Ludgate Circus has changed a bit since my family lived there.

G-uncle Ted was a typewriter mechanic and must have been busy in the era before word-processors and computers. One of his hobbies was painting and one of his pictures that I possess is that of Ludgate Circus - Sunday Morning and dated 1903. The view is from one of windows at the top of Number 4 and looks up Ludgate Hill towards St Paul's Cathedral.

Interesting that this picture contains a policeman, I wonder if this is nod in his father's direction?

Click on the image for a larger version.

Some meat on the bones

Last post was a bit technical, so back to the main thrust of the blog this time.

My great-grandfather George was born in Taunton, Somerset in 1857, spent 8 years in the Royal Navy (including a spell in Australia), leaving the Navy in 1880. He then did one return trip to Melbourne in the merchant marine. So in 1881 he left the navy and became a policeman in the City of London. He married my great-grandmother Isabella in 1882 and they then started the family. Over the next 19 years they produced 9 sons.

The first 5 sons were all born at different addresses in London, but by 1893 the family settled at Number 4 Ludgate Circus where Isabella was the housekeeper. Various members of the family were to stay there until her death in 1933. The above photo shows Ludgate Circus today. Number 4 is the white building on the left. Look at the top of the building - the row of windows built into the roof are the windows of the flat that my family lived in. Fleet Street is to the right of the building.

So to the sons Ted, Arty, Wally, Harry, Jack, Charley, Bert, Reg & Cecil.

No. 4, Ludgate Circus must have been quite crowded at times and in 1901 Arty joined the Grenadier Guards. During his service his battalion (the 1st) never left the UK. Their postings are listed as:

1901 Wellington Barracks
1903 Aldershot & Chelsea Barracks
1904 Tower of London
1905 Wellington Barracks & Tower of London
1906 Wellington Barracks
1907 Victoria Barracks Windsor
1908/9 Aldershot

So pretty much ceremonial duties for 8 years!

He transferred to the Reserve in July 1909, got a job in the Post Office, married Gerty in 1911 and by 1913 had a son and a daughter.

Arty's elder brother Ted joined the Bloomsbury Rifles in 1903. This battalion was a volunteer battalion of the Middlesex Regiment affiliated to the Rifle Brigade. Ted did not rejoin the amalgamated battalion after the reforms in 1908 and got married to Mabel instead. Maybe the non-continuance of his service had something to do with his new bride?

BTW the amalgamated battalion was the newly named Queen Victoria's Rifles (9th County of London Regiment) and the affiliation changed from the Rifle Brigade to King's Royal Rifle Corps. This battalion will feature heavily in future narratives.

In 1904 Wally joined the 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Wally spent most of his time with the battalion in India. A lot of sport was played during this time in India including rugby, anyone heard of the Calcutta Cup? Wally transferred to the Reserve in 1912.

The final pre-war military career to be told is that of Harry. He followed Ted into the Bloomsbury Rifles in 1905, but unlike Ted re-joined the Vics in 1908 and by 1914 was a Lance Corporal. Harry's day job was, at this time, a clerk for a tea importer in Queen Victoria Street EC.

George retired from the Police Force in 1906 (after 25 years service) and helped Isabella with her duties in 4 Ludgate Circus.

I will talk about the other 5 brothers next time.

First Steps

I forgot to mention last time that my wife had booked us on an introduction course at the Public Records Office (as it was then - now the National Archives) at Kew. More of that later.

I started my online research with good old Google and one the first sites that I came across was the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site. This site has an online database of all (well probably about 99%) of the men and women of the Empire who died during the Great War. Searching the database is very straightforward and fast. Within a few minutes I had gathered information about three of my great-uncles who died as a result of the war. I knew all their names because my father was named after them by my grandfather (their brother) when my Dad was born in 1925.

Typical information given is date of death, where buried, regiment and service number. It is also worth noting that after the war the IWGC ( Imperial as it was then) sent all recorded next of kin a form. This form allowed the nok to add details such as age, and any additional info that they wanted to provide such as Fred Bloggs is the son of Wally and Alice Bloggs, 21 Letsby Avenue, London. I believe that the form also allowed the nok to supply the inscription for the gravestone. I think that UK nok were charged 3d (in old money) for each letter in the inscription.

If you look through the database you will find quite a few records where this info is all missing, there are basically two reasons for this - either the nok could not face returning the form or the form never reached the nok in the first place. Many women re-married and moved and of course changed their name!

Anyway, having obtained the regiments of my three men, I wrote to the regimental museums of the three in hope of further information. They all replied asking for more info and a request to museum funds. Three cheques were duly sent and I awaited the posty with bated breath.

Now it was time to go to the PRO for our course. It was well structured and very informative - well worth the time beacuse it saved me a lot of time when I went back for my first day of research.

To my way of thinking the medal index cards held at Kew (and online both at the NA and ancestry websites) are a primary research source (others may disagree). They are in alphabetical order and again list regiment, service number, medals awarded, date of entry into a theatre of war and sometimes other info. So, this was the object of my first visit to Kew (they were not online then). These cards have been microfilmed and can also be printed. I found all my family - 2 grandfathers and five g-uncles in total.

But that was only the beginning!

What's this all about then?

Up until 10 years ago I could have only given 3 facts that I knew about the First World War

1) There was a battle of Ypres
2) There was a battle of the Somme
3) 3 great-uncles were killed in the war

The 1st two facts are obviously in the public domain, but I knew the 3rd one because my father was christened after his 3 uncles when he was born in 1925.

In 1999 we bought a new computer and for the first time had the Internet in our house. My wife decided to recommence her family history research using the magic of the Internet and for about a year I left her to it. My family originate from Somerset and in 2000 we took the family holiday in Taunton to facilitate visits to the Somerset Record Office.

Upon our return, I decided to try and research the military side of our family. This occasional blog will hope to demonstrate my learning curve and also share some my research for those who even just little interested.