The Great War Soldiers of Stoke

On Remembrance Sunday, 2024, we remember the men of Stoke St Gregory who lost their lives in the First World War. We are grateful to Ian Upshall for the following article.

Ian is building a web site to bring the story of Stoke St Gregory during the Great War, based largely on the material gathered by Gareth Mellors. If you have a relative and a story to tell of these times, please contact Ian at ian.upshall@gmail.com. Any material you would be willing to share that relates to the story in remembrance of these 32 men, will be gratefully received.

Soon after the Great War, as it was known in the period between 1918 and 1939, there were 32 communities in Great Britain that become known as ‘Thankful Villages’. These were communities to which all the young men who went to war had returned home to their families. Quite remarkably, a quarter of these villages were in the county of Somerset. Sadly, Stoke St Gregory was not one of those Thankful Villages.

Research carried out by Gareth Mellors in preparation of the 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War was collated into an exhibition at the Williams Hall – many readers will have visited the 2008 exhibition which was then repeated in 2018. This research identified a great many of ‘our men’ who went off to war. It is believed 32 of these men did not return. One further man died in 1920 as a direct result of wounds sustained during home service.

Being a rural, and relatively remote community, many of the men were from labouring backgrounds – employed by one of the many withy growers, or they were farm labourers. Many had been born in the village where they played, went to school, worked, married and died. Life was hard and there were precious few luxuries to be had. Local traditions, family connections and the spirit of community were highly valued. Stoke St Gregory, like many other similar communities, was tightly bound and any loss was shared and felt by everyone.

War was declared on Germany on 4 August 1914 when its army crossed into neutral Belgium. Many had predicted war and it was almost inevitable as tensions grew in eastern Europe. Great Britain strengthened the ‘entente cordial’ with France and made an agreement with Belgium to help protect its sovereignty. In 1914 Great Britain had a large Empire and, as a consequence, the largest Navy in the world. But its Army was relatively small – much smaller than that of France, Germany and Russia. Nevertheless, within days of Belgium being invaded, the British Expeditionary Forced sailed across the channel and took up positions in northern France to help protect the northern flank.

Many of the Stoke men joined up soon after the declaration of war. Most joined the army and all those that died were soldiers. At the beginning, it was not unusual for men to join their local regiment, in our case the Somerset Light Infantry whose depot was at Jellalabad Barracks in Taunton (Mount Street near Vivary Park). As time went on and as regiments were reduced in numbers, new recruits were often posted to other units. One Stoke man, Charles Garland, even served with the Army Service Corps attached to the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps).

The records show that 32 men that had lived or had close connections to Stoke St Gregory did not return to their families. Their ages ranged from 18 to 45. Of those killed between 4 August 1914 and 11 November 1918, four died in 1915, ten in 1916 (the Battle of the Somme began on 1 July 1916), 12 in 1917 (Third Battle of Ypres which included Passchendaele), and six in 1918. One other man, Ernest Hector of the Machine Gun Corps, died in May 1920 during Army service.

The war, whilst it affected almost every family in some way, remained distant before the age of instant communication. Life had to continue, nonetheless. On 25 March 1916 the marriage took place of Second Lieutenant Arthur Noble and Victoria May Pullen, School Master Ernest Pullen’s youngest daughter. It is believed that this was the first occasion on which a soldier in uniform married in the parish church.

But tragedy was to visit the Pullen family not long after this joyous occasion. Second-Lieutenant Alan Pullen was the son of Ernest and Annie Pullen who lived in The School House in Huntham Lane. In a letter dated 7 August 1916 to Mary Pullen, Alan’s beloved sister he said:

“I’m afraid I look rather a sight at the present moment, soaked in dust from head to foot – I have never seen such dirt and clothes and face absolutely filthy. My hair is exactly a 1/12” long all over and it hardly suits my style of beauty. It is much more cleanly, however, with all this dust about and if you are by any chance wounded in the head your prospects of getting over it are quite bright compared to your chances with long hair. The heat, of course, is atrocious. The crops seem to be all ripe here and they have started cutting I believe.”

Eleven days later, Alan was mortally wounded in action at Delville (known as ‘Devils’) Wood – about 10km east of Albert in France. His reference to head wounds would be ironic had it not been so sad. A letter dated 2 September 1916 received several days later read:

“Dear Sir,

Pullen’s death was exceptionally bad luck. He took off his steel helmet to ease his head for a moment and at that second some shrapnel burst right over him, hitting him in the head.

He was not killed immediately but was sent down to the Casualty Clearing Station where he died of wounds a few hours later.

His death was much regretted by all the officers and men of the Battalion with whom he was most popular.

Yours truly

RA Sommerville Captain, Adjutant

6 Somerset Light Infantry”

Immediate devastation and life-long tragedy for a family, captured in the few lines of a letter.

But the home community also contributed in its way to the war effort. From the Somerset County Gazette on 25 November 1916:

Stoke St Gregory: Mittens for the soldiers/Egg collection

Fifty-three pairs of mittens have been knitted in this parish and were recently sent to the soldiers in Mesopotamia. A grateful letter of acknowledgement has been received from the War Office depot.

A collection of eggs for our Somerset wounded soldiers and sailors in London has been going on throughout the Summer. Mr Fellander, the respected stationmaster at Athelney, kindly undertook to collect and pack the boxes, which were despatched to London for distribution in the hospitals. Stoke St Gregory folk can well be proud of the part they have taken in supplying help and comfort for our wounded men. Altogether twenty-five boxes have been sent, each box containing eight dozen. Boroughbridge and Stoke school children rendered valuable assistance by collecting.

Letters were a reliable way for information and news to be exchanged between the soldiers and their family. The receipt of a letter was always the cause of great excitement – or sorrow. Letters from the front might contain requests for food, tobacco or toiletries. The soldier in a trench or resting in billets would receive news of family members, the weather, or how the business was going. Letters could take many days, if not weeks, to arrive. Bad news was often communicated by telegram - a few words to say a loved one had been wounded or worse still, killed. Families could wait months or years before they could get details of the cause of death and the location of where their loved one had been laid to rest.

Newspapers were a major source of information and it was often from this source that families learned of the fate of their loved ones. This is a notice that appeared in the Somerset County Gazette on 30 September 1916. This report corrects a previous notice that Private William David of Oath was now missing. All too often, this was later updated to ‘killed in action, no known grave’. Pte David’s body was later found, and he now lies in Lonsdale Cemetery just a few hundred metres from where he fell during an attack on a German strongpoint (Leipzig redoubt) on the Thiepval salient.

The Great War ended at 11am on 11 November 1918 when an armistice was signed by the Allies and the Germans. The guns fell silent and the long-awaited return home to those that had ‘made it through’. But many did not. They would never see their village again, delight in simple pleasures such as a paddle in the river, eating apples from the local orchard or hear the bells of St Gregory’s Parish Church. Their families would grieve and, through necessity, move on. The price of the freedom they now enjoyed had been high. But it was not the war that ended all wars, as many had hoped, and similar stories were to be repeated just 21 years later.

As a community, we must remember all the men and women that have paid the ultimate sacrifice in all conflicts. As we fall silent on Remembrance Sunday (10 November) and Armistice Day (11 November) please give a special thought for those that walked our lanes, who toiled in the fields and withy beds around us, sang, laughed and partied in the village square and local hostelries. They will not be forgotten.

The 32 men of Stoke St Gregory who did not return in 1918.