William Howells was born in Coleford in October 1890. On leaving school, he worked as a trammer, possibly for his father, who was a buttyman at Hopewell colliery. He joined the 2nd Monmouth Territorials.
He signed up in Lydney with the 11th Gloucestershire Regiment on 4 August 1915 and was sent to Belhus Park, Essex. However, he was absent from 18 November 1915 until 17 December 1915, when he was apprehended and confined to a guard room. He appeared before a district court martial at Seaford on 1 January 1916 and was sentenced to six months detention for desertion while on active duty and sent to Chelmsford Barracks.
He was transferred to the Machine Gun Regiment on 10 August 1916. He deserted again and made his way home. He was officially declared a deserter on 28 August 1916.
He was arrested after being found sleeping rough in the woods near Coleford on 11 October 1916.[1] He was handed over to the military and appeared before a district court martial at Chelmsford on 23 October 1916. He was convicted of desertion and losing by neglect his clothing, equipment and regimental necessities. He was sentenced to one year’s detention and put under stoppages of pay.
However, he was released on 3 March 1917 and sent to the front in France. He was wounded in the thigh on 8 April 1917 and was in hospital up to 15 April 1917. He was sent home in a hospital ship on 26 April 1917.
He deserted again on 7 August 1917 until he gave himself up in Coleford on 1 April 1919. He was handed over to a military escort on 8 April 1919 and held in a guard room until 1 May 1919. He faced a court-martial on 1 May 1919 and was tried for “deserting his majesty’s service”. He pleaded not guilty but was found guilty as charged and sentenced:
to be imprisoned with hard labour for one year and to be discharged with ignominy from his majesty’s service.
He was sent to Lincoln prison. He was discharged on 21 October 1919. He returned to the Forest to live with his family and started work at Princess Royal colliery as a trammer. He remained single and lived with his mother after his father died in 1941. He died in January 1953.
This story was originally covered in much more detail by Roger Deeks in the New Regard.
Roger Deeks, Private Reginald Thomas Packer, Grenadier Guards, and the Memorial, New Regard, Journal of the Forst of Dean History Society, No. 25, pp. 15-20.
Reginald Packer was born in Southrop, Gloucestershire, in July 1895, the son of a policeman called William Packer. The family moved to Cinderford, where William Packer was appointed Police Inspector in January 1909. The family worshipped at St. Stephen’s Church, Cinderford, where Reginald sang in the choir.
Reginald Packer was a strong young man and over six feet tall. In August 1911, this enabled him to leave his job as a brewer’s clerk and enlist in one of the elite army regiments, the Grenadier Guards. At the time of his enlistment, he was only 16 years and one month old. However, his physique enabled him to falsely claim that he was 18 years of age, which was a requirement for enlistment at the time. He served his time at the Grenadier Guards barracks in Warley, London, until the outbreak of war in August 1914.
His service records show that on Saturday 26 September 1914, he became absent without leave from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards while they were still stationed in England. He returned to Cinderford walking with a limp, using a stick with bandages on his head. He claimed he had been wounded at the Battle of Aisne and attended a church service at St Stephens on Sunday 27 September. He reported to the Dean Forest Mercury that he had left England for France on 15 September and had been involved in several desperate battles. He said he was:
keen to be back again with his mates doing what he can in the struggle in which they are so nobly doing their duty.
However, he was arrested and by 15 October 1914 was held in confinement awaiting trial. On 27 October, he was convicted of desertion by a district court martial and sentenced to 42 days’ detention in a military prison with all former service forfeited. This meant he would lose his pension rights for his service up to that point and have a seriously blemished record.
The authorities were keen to keep his desertion a secret as they wanted to use the example of his ‘heroism’ as a propaganda tool in the local press to illustrate the bravery of the British forces in France and to encourage recruitment and support for the war effort. Also, the authorities might have been keen to avoid embarrassing Inspector William Packer, who was a highly respected member of the Forest establishment.
Meanwhile, on 7 October, Packer’s battalion had been sent to France and was involved in heavy fighting. The army was in desperate need of trained soldiers and so on 9 November, after serving only part of his sentence, he was sent to rejoin his battalion. He was immediately involved in fierce fighting around the town of Fromelles and was killed on 20 December 1914 at just 19 years of age. A letter was sent to the family by one of Reginald’s comrades, William Blake, which said:
You have the satisfaction of knowing that Reg was every inch a British soldier, well liked by his comrades, and a credit to the Regiment.
Reginald Packer’s death was first reported in the Dean Forest Mercury on 8 January 1915 and further reported the following week under the headline ‘Roll for Heroes’. The story reminded the readers of his return to Cinderford in September 1914 with wounds to his head and leg, and his quick return to France to fight alongside his fellow soldiers.
Reginald Packer is buried at Ration Farm Cemetery, La Chapelle Armentieres. It is possible that only his family members and the military authorities knew of the true story of his desertion. Reginald Packers’ younger brother, Ernest, was killed in France on 3 July 1916. They are both commemorated on the Cinderford Town War memorial and on a memorial at their school, Double View, in Cinderford. In addition, the wrought iron gates at St Stephens church, Cinderford, commemorate the death of a single soldier, Reginald Packer, killed in action on 20 December 1914. There is no known explanation for his return to Cinderford and his elaborate deception.
Horace Tom Beard was the son of Alice Beard and was born in Mitcheldean in May 1890, where Alice‘s parents lived. At the time, Alice was working as a parlour maid in a hotel in Newnham. Alice married Charles Hooper in 1892. Charles worked as a postman in Newnham.
After leaving School, Horace served an apprenticeship as a blacksmith and joined the 4th Glosters Militia. He applied to join the professional army or navy but was rejected because of his stammering. He obtained work as a seaman and claims he was shipwrecked on several occasions. He joined the Worcestershire Regiment on 5 September 1914 and was sent for training at Worcester.
On 3 May 1915, Horace married Emma George in Newnham. On 15 May 1915, the following report appeared in the Gloucester Journal, where Horace is described as a soldier in the Gloucestershire Regiment.
At the Police Station, Thursday before Mr. Spencer Shelley, Horace T. Beard, of Church Road, Newnham, was charged with being an absentee without leave from the Gloucestershire Regiment and was remanded to await an escort.
There can be little doubt that these two events are connected. There is no record available about his punishment.
Horace was then sent to join the British Expeditionary Force in France on 9 December 1915 and joined the 57th Field Ambulance. He was immediately thrust into action on the front line, where he was a victim of an exploding shell, which rendered him unconscious. His speech became worse, and then he lost it completely.
He remained in France until 21 February 1916. and returned home on 22 February 1916 because of gastritis. A Medical Report on 17 May 1916 provided the following statement:
Unconscious from a shell exploding. Speech became affected, eventually losing it completely. Worries a great deal. Voice is still bad. A fortnight ago, he suddenly lost it completely for 6 days for no obvious reason. The patient has been shipwrecked four times. On every occasion, he lost his voice. Memory for past events is unreliable.
On 2 June 1916, Horace was discharged from the army because he was no longer “physically fit for service”. The reason given was neurasthenia and shell shock.
Medical Reports
Bristol 13 November 1916
Complains of a pain in the head and giddiness. Has lost his voice. Talks in a whispering manner. Stutters a great deal. Generally, in a weak condition. 50%
Newport, 23 July 1917.
As before 40%
Gloucester 15 June 1918
Much the same condition. 40%
Gloucester 24 August 1920
Complains of a choking feeling in his throat. Can only tolerate bread and milk. Cannot speak above a whisper. Pharyngitis present. Presence of internal tensions of cords. Larynx otherwise normal. Condition functional 40%
Gloucester 29 September 1920
Speech difficulty – husky voice. Hesitancy in speech. Difficulty with food. Vomits various times after food. Weakness in arm. Very slight tremor in hands and eyelids. No muscle wastage in arm. Some loss of sensation. Abnormal Larynx as before. Strength improved (functional). 30%
Some comments in these transcriptions of medical reports have not been included because the words are difficult to decipher.
After the war, Horace and Emma moved to Stroud. Emma died on 18 November 1919. Soon after Emma’s death, Horace married Ada Fry. Horace obtained work in various roles as a driver, doorman, caretaker and builder’s labourer. Horace Beard died in November 1957.
In 1914, Martin Brady was living in Coleford, where he worked as a cook. He signed on with RGA on 21 November 1914 in Bristol.
He deserted from Plymouth on 28 January 1915 and was listed as a deserter in the Police Gazette on 16 February 1915. A court of enquiry was held on 26 February 1915 to discuss his case and to make a list of his belongings.
Martin Brady’s WW1 Record (Ancestry)
There is no reference to a Martin Brady being born in Gloucestershire or in online records that follow his desertion. He has a surname that is common in Ireland, so it is possible he escaped to Ireland, where he would find it much easier to avoid detection by the authorities.
The surname Brady primarily originates from Ireland, derived from the Gaelic Ó Brádaigh or Mac Brádaigh, translating to “descendant of” or “son of” Brádach
William Lewis was born in Minchinhampton in 1886, the son of an agricultural labourer. He married Rosina Gardiner in July 1911. Rosina already had a daughter, Winifred, from a previous relationship. The family then moved to the Forest so William could get better-paid work in the mines. At some stage, after this Wiliam joined the military.
In May 1918, Rosina Lewis from Ruardean Hill was sent to prison for seven days for aiding her husband, William, a sapper in the Royal Engineers, to desert. This was not the first time William had deserted while on home leave; on three occasions in the past, he had to be fetched by a military escort. He was due back in France in February, but did not arrive and had apparently disappeared. Eventually, a thorough search was made of his house and William was found sewn up inside the mattress cover on which his mother and four children were lying. He was arrested and returned to the trenches.[1] Rosina struggled to cope and was forced to enter the workhouse with her four children for a short period in the Autumn of 1918.
The Lewis family survived the war but not the poverty of post war Britain. William returned to work as a labourer at Foxes Bridge colliery near Cinderford, and by 1921, the family included six children. Labourers in Forest collieries were very badly paid compared to some of the more skilled workers who were on piece rates or were craftsmen and so the family struggled to feed their children.
In 1921, the response from the government and the owners to a depression in the coal trade was to allow ruthless competition to take its toll. They argued they had no alternative but to resolve the economic crisis in the coal industry by radically reducing labour costs, translated into wage cuts of up to 50 per cent. The miners refused to go to work under these new terms and downed tools. As a result, on 31 March 1921, one million British miners, including many war veterans, were locked out of their pits; this included over 6,000 miners from the Forest of Dean. After three months, the miners returned to work defeated and had to accept the severe wage cuts, while others became unemployed.
In July 1921, William was caught stealing four cabbages from Westbury Court Gardens valued at one shilling. Soon after, William and Rosina were brought to court, charged with neglecting their children, despite the court acknowledging they were well nourished. The parents were both sentenced to two months in prison and the children were taken into care. In addition, William was fined 20s for the theft of the cabbages.[2]
Rosina’s fourteen-year-old daughter Winifred died in 1922. Rosina died in 1927, aged just forty.
Oliver Brown was born in Cinderford in July 1890, the son of George and Mary Brown. He worked as a labourer and a miner in several collieries in the East Dean area. He volunteered in March 1915, but in September 1915, he deserted and disappeared. He somehow managed to survive clandestinely for over a year. He turned up later in Colchester, enlisted under the name of Travers and was killed in action in April 1917.
Some volunteers had second thoughts almost immediately after signing on. This was the case for Herbert Moyes and William Watkins, who worked as farm labourers in Awre. Moyes worked at Aram’s farm near Newnham and Watkins at Box farm, near Awre
The two men enlisted in the army at Gloucester on 31 August 1914 and were then sent to a camp at Salisbury Plain. However, after several days, they decided to leave and walked back to their homes in Awre. A couple of days later, a local policeman spotted Moyes and enquired if he had enlisted. Moyes replied that he had left the army and admitted having deserted, adding that after several days on Salisbury Plain, they “had had enough of it”. He then made several complaints about their treatment by the military authorities. The policeman then came across Watkins, who made a statement similar to Moyes. [1]
The men were remanded pending the arrival of a military escort to take them back to Salisbury. It is unclear what happened to Moyes, but Watkins was discharged from the military on 7 October 1914 based on a recommendation that he was “unlikely of becoming an efficient soldier”.[2]
In 1921, Watkins was still living in Awre and working as a Carter for a local farmer.[3]
As the horrors of trench warfare took their toll, increasing numbers of men deserted or went absent without leave (AWOL) while at home. Sometimes, it was unclear what motivated these men to desert, but for many, it was likely that they did not want to be part of the senseless slaughter taking place a long way from their homes and families.
Some may have been unaware of the seriousness of their actions and just wanted to extend their home leave to spend more time with their families. Some would have been so traumatised by their experience at the front and, possibly suffering from shell shock, could not face the thought of returning and facing more death and violence. Some may have felt marginalised by society and thought the war had nothing to do with them. Others had a history of conflict with the authorities and had become involved in crime and so knew how to survive on the run.
So far, it has been possible to identify about 100 deserters or those who went AWOL from the Forest of Dean during World War One. This is the start of a small local history project to identify these men and seek to understand the reasons for their actions, how they survived and the consequences for themselves and their families.
The men in the following list are just a few of those so far identified and details of others will be added as their stories are uncovered.
An account of desertion during World War One on the home front in the UK is available as a book by Andrea Hetherington. The book provides essential reading to place the case studies provided here in their social, economic, political and historical context.
Henry Thomas Parry was born in Newnham in July 1880, the son of a blacksmith, Frederick Parry. In July 1874, Frederick was sentenced to one month’s hard labour for the theft of a florin. In 1876, Frederick was prosecuted for failing to maintain his wife and child, who were inmates of the Westbury workhouse. The couple had only been married for one year. He was ordered to pay 6s a week.[1]
In time, Frederick’s neglect and violence increased. He became a habitual drunkard and he repeatedly assaulted his wife. As a result, he was often up before the local magistrates. It is quite possible that he also abused his children. In November 1889, Frederick Parry assaulted his wife so badly that she was seriously injured and forced to leave their house and enter the workhouse with her children.[2]However, by 1891, the family were living together again.
Possibly because of the violence from his father, by the age of sixteen, Henry had left home and ended up living in London. In August 1896, he was in Pentonville prison serving one month’s hard labour for theft of a travelling bag.
Henry joined the Pembroke Artillery Militia in 1898. The British Militia was the principal military reserve force for internal security duties and for defence against external invasions. It was made up of non-professional soldiers who signed on for a term of service, which committed them to serve for training or duty if called up.
Henry deserted on 15 May 1899 and went on the run, surviving by committing a series of crimes and was usually described in his criminal records as of no fixed abode. His prison records also describe him as a fireman, a stoker or a labourer and so, between 1902 and 1907, he may have gained some work working on the railways or in shipping.
Police Gazette June 1899.
Place of Conviction
Date
Offence
Sentence
Marylebone
19/08/1896
Theft of a travelling bag
One month’s hard labour in a prison
Evesham
4/07/1899
Theft of a watch
Two months’ hard labour in a prison
Blackwood
8/09/1899
Theft of a watch and chain
One month’s hard labour in a prison
Glamorgan
17/03/1900
Theft of watches (3 charges)
9, 9, 9 months’ hard labour in a prison concurrently
Newport
17/12/1900
Theft of trousers and watches, etc (2 charges)
3, 3 months’ hard labour in a prison concurrently.
Newport
02/09/1901
Theft of 2 watches, etc
6 months’ hard labour in a prison
Cardiff
17/10/1901
Theft of clothes, purse and money
12 months’ hard labour in a prison. Concurrent with the above.
Newport
13/02/1907
Obtaining food and lodgings by false pretences (3 Charges)
3 months’ hard labour in a prison
Gloucester
21/10/1908
Theft of a cycle
6 months’ hard labour in a prison
Henry’s father died in July 1899. In the early 1900s, Parry started a relationship with Eliza Brown from Awre, who already had a child, Ernest, born in 1899. They had three illegitimate children: Gladys, born in 1902 in London, Ivor, born in 1908 in London and Lily, born in 1913 in Yorkshire (when Parry was described as a painter).
Parry was unable to support his family while in prison. He was admitted to Chepstow workhouse on 24 January 1908. In 1911, he was back in Newnham and living with his mother and siblings, but listed as married and as a labourer. At this time, Eliza was living in a house in Newnham with Gladys and Ivor and was described as single and working as a charwoman. In 1912, Eliza, Gladys and Ivor were admitted to the workhouse.
In 1914, Parry was living with Eliza and the three children in Barry and working as a marine stoker. On 8 December 1914, Parry joined the 16th Battalion, Welsh Regiment. However, he was discharged on 21 January 1915 because the military authorities deemed that he was unlikely to become “an efficient soldier”.
He married Eliza Brown on 24 October 1915. It appears that at some point he rejoined the army as a member of the Royal Engineers Inland Waterways Transport Corps.
However, on 27 February 1917, Henry Parry, a stoker from Newnham, was listed as a deserter in the Police Gazette.
Police Gazette 23 March 1917
A few weeks later, he was arrested and charged with burglary and theft of £8. He was described in court as a well-dressed man living on City Road in Bristol. When he was arrested, he said:
“What? Breaking in; I know nothing about it.”
He was brought before the magistrates the next day and further remanded to appear at the next Quarter Sessions. He told the bench that:
he was very sorry. He had been working at Bristol but, wanting a change, he went to Ledbury with the intention of going to Hereford to work. He was invalided home several times, and had been put on as a substitute. He said that he would do all in his power to pay the lady back. He had been drinking heavily from the Saturday till the Tuesday night.[3]
At Hereford Quarter sessions, he was bound over to come for judgment within 12 months if called upon. The military authorities undertook to take charge of him.
It is unclear if he survived the war. However, a Henry Thomas Parry, born in 1881 in Gloucester, signed on the merchant navy in 1929. It is unclear if this is the same man.
In 1921, Eliza was living with Ivor and Lily near Ledbury and described as married as a charwoman. She died near Ledbury in January 1939. Her son Earnest gained work as an Air Ministry policeman but then joined the Royal Navy during World War Two and was killed at sea in 1940. Gladys worked as a domestic servant. Ivor joined the Royal Navy in 1926 and served during World War Two. Lily worked in a factory near Ledbury.
Thomas Nelmes was born in Coleford in 1876, the son of Mary Ann Nelmes, who was single. He was brought up by his grandmother Jane Nelmes, who kept a lodging house near Coleford. He started working in the mines after he left school. Jane died in 1906, leaving him with no close family. In 1899 and 1905, he was convicted of drunkenness and in 1910, he was found guilty of using obscene language. In 1914, he was convicted of housebreaking and stealing beef, butter and bread in Shropshire. He was arrested at the workhouse in Market Drayton and described as a tramp, but considered by the police to be of good character and was therefore bound over and discharged.
Nelmes enlisted in the Army at Horfield in Bristol in April 1916 and joined the King’s Liverpool Regiment. He deserted in early May 1917, within a month of active service and went on the run.
On 24 May 1917, Nelmes broke into a house in Highnam, near Gloucester and stole five silver bangles. He then sold one of the bangles to a man who had agreed to give him a cup of tea. He told the man that he had been gassed in France and was given the bangles by a comrade on the Somme. He later sold the remaining bangles to a watchmaker. He was arrested at his lodgings in Newent. He pleaded guilty at his trial on 12 June. His character, whilst in the army, was described as bad. He was imprisoned with hard labour for four months.[1]
On release from prison, Nelmes was handed back to the military and appeared before a court-martial on 1 November 1917 and convicted of desertion. He was sentenced to six months in a military prison, remitted to eighty-four days.[2]
Place of Conviction
Date
Offence
Sentence
Coleford
28/03/1899
Drunk in charge of a horse and cart
Fined 2s 6d plus costs
Coleford
3/05/1905
drunkenness
Fined 2s 6d plus 4s costs
Coleford
2/08/1910
Abusive Language
Fined 5s plus costs
Shrewsbury
7/04/1914
Housebreaking and larceny
Bound Over and discharged
Gloucester
24/5/1917
Housebreaking and larceny
Prison with hard labour for four months
A Thomas E Nelmes died in Ross in 1920
[1]Gloucester Journal 9 June 1917 and Gloucester Journal 16 June 1917.
[2] Fold3
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Oliver Brown was born in Cinderford in July 1890, the son of George and Mary Brown. He worked as a labourer and a miner in several collieries in the East Dean area. He volunteered in March 1915, but in September 1915, he deserted and disappeared. He somehow managed to survive clandestinely for over a year. He turned up later in Colchester, enlisted under the name of Travers and was killed in action in April 1917.
