GREAT WAR CENTENARY: A catch-up

On this centenary of the Armistice, I will introduce you to a further six members of the extended family who lost their lives.  I discovered these gentlemen too late to remember them on the day of their death but I will make amends now.

George Frank Stanley Coulson, born 1893 in Waterbeach, Cambs, was second of the eight children of Thomas & Janet (nee Drever).  By 1911 the family was living in Bottisham, and George was working as a farm labourer.  Enlisting in Ely, he joined the 11th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment and, with hundreds of his comrades, died on the first day on the Somme - 1 July 1916.  He has no known grave but is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Arthur Edward Read was born in Swindon in 1894, second of four children, and only son, of Edward & Annie (nee Cripps).  A boilermaker in 1911, he enlisted in the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire) Regiment and died on 5 July 1916 on the Somme.  He too is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Thomas Samuel Rickwood was the son of Harry & Elizabeth and was born in Cambridge in 1884 and married Maud Gravestock in Cambridge in 1908.  He enlisted in he 7th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment and was killed on 7 July 1916, also on the Somme.  He is also commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Thomas Errington Sayer was a science master at Earl's Colne grammar school in Essex, who married Hilda Steward in 1916,  Just three months later, on 25 September 1916, as a Captain in the King's Yorkshire Light Infantry, he died on the Somme.  The Thiepval Memorial also bears his name.

John Ralph Spreckley was born in Islington, London, in 1895, only child of John & Caroline, nee Culpin.  He joined up on 5 September 1914 and went with his battalion, the 6th Bedfordshires, to Gallipoli, taking part in the Suvla Bay landings in August 1915.  Invalided home with dysentery, he was sent to France in November 1916 and was reported missing on 28 April 1917.  It was eventually confirmed that he lost his life on this day and he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.

Sydney William Large was born in Cambridge in 1888 and married Annie Culpin on 4 April 1911.  He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery and died on 16 September 1918.  He is buried in Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension.

We will remember them.