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Source: The Winchcombe and Sudeley Record
I have transcribed the following record of BMDs in Winchcombe as follows:-
Births - 1890-1896
Marriages - 1890-1896
Deaths - 1889-1896
Please ask if you require any particular details.
Victor

5179899 Private William Ernest HOPE was the son of Walter HOPE & Lily HOPE (nee RICHARDS) of 98 Brunswick Street, Cheltenham. He was a regular soldier of the 2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment but no details of his early life have come to light. He probably served throughout the period of the "phoney war" in France - he was certainly a survivor of the aerial attack on the convoy at Leuze on the 19th May 1940 and was with the battalion when it crossed the Belgian border back into France on the 24th. The destination of the unit was Cassel which was reached in the early morning of the 25th May. The town was part of the outer perimeter around Dunkirk which had to be held to enable the British Army to embark for England. Four miles to the north-west, the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment took up positions at Ledringhem. Cassel was an important point in the defence line, commanding a vital road junction leading to Dunkirk from Lille. It stands on a hill four hundred feet in height, affording excellent visibility in all directions and the battalon set about turning it into a tank-proof fortress. This work was still in progress when the first enemy patrols tested the defences of the town on 26th May. Several enemy armoured units approached and were repelled. Later in the day, mortar and artillery shells fell on the Glosters' positions. William HOPE was listed as killed in action on this day. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial.
Memorials: Borough of Cheltenham War Memorial and the Roll of Honour at the church of St Paul, Cheltenham.

L'est we forget

John YEATMAN was born in Ebrington, Glos in 1883, the second son of Matthew and Eliza. He remained in England when the family emigrated to Canada in 1910 as he had first enlisted in the Army in 1904 but had reverted to the reserves of the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1911. Between 1911 and 1914 he lived in Worcester and was employed on the Great Western Railway. As a reservist he was immediately recalled to duty and re-enlisted as a corporal in the 1st Battalion of the 'Glosters', number 7287. He served in France from 13th August 1914 and also Belgium, fighting on the Somme at High Wood, where our men were at times subjected to twenty-six hours of continuous barrage and gained a promotion to sergeant. He was killed in this action by shellfire on 22nd August 1916, aged 33 years. The War Diaries catalogue the battle that the men were subjected to and on that day that John was killed recorded:
 'Heavy shelling. An intense bombardment was commenced at 1.00am. B Company relieved C Company at 6.30am. Shelling was consistent during the day. At times intense. Major H.E. de R. WETHERALL wounded, 3 other ranks killed and 23 wounded'.
Like John, many of those who died at, or near, High Wood have no known grave and up to 8,000 remains are still buried beneath the battlefield. John's name is listed on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Pier 5, Faces A-B. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, this is the largest British was memorial in the world. The medals he earned were the Victory Medal, British War Medal and the 1914 Star with dated clasp; this trio were sarcastically nicknamed 'Pip, Squeak and Wilfred', after three newspaper cartoon characters, by those who thought them unworthy of the service they represented.
Memorials: The War Memorial and the Book of Remembrance at St Eadburgha Church, Ebrington.

L'est we forget

17656 Private George Edwin BENNETT was born 8th June 1877 in Campden and was the second son of Henry and Ann BENNETT of Watery Lane. His father was a native of the town and in the early 1900's was trading as a baker selling bread in the Square.
After leaving school George worked on the railways. When the war started in 1914 he enlisted at Camden into the Gloucestershire Regiment. He was posted to the 8th Battalion and arrived in France on 18th August 1915.
The battalion took part in the Battle of the Somme, which started on 1st July 1916. At 7.30 am on that morning they moved to positions north of Albert and were in the Tara-Usna line by 10.00 am. The British Army suffered almost 60,000 casualties on the opening day of the battle but the 8th Glosters did not attack until 3rd July, when they pushed forward into La Boisselle village and consolidated their new positions near the ruins of the church. In this action their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel A. Carton de Wiart, won the Victoria Cross. The battalion held the new positions against German counter-attacks before it withdrew to Albert on 5th July. On 9th July it moved to bivouacs north of Millencourt and the next few days were spent doing physical drill including route marches, bayonet practice and running.
At 9.00 pm on 20th July they moved forward again to occupy an old German trench close to Bazentin-le-Petit. The battalion relieved the 10th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment in the front line at 9.30 pm on 22nd July and the following day they were involved in an unsuccessful attack on the German Switch Line between High Wood and Martinpuich. The battalion attacked at 12.30 am after creeping forward to within 75 yards of the German trenches but they were soon halted by machine gun fire.
It was during this attack on the Switch Line on 23rd July that George was killed in action and he is buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery near Longueval, Somme.
Memorials: St James Church, the Baptist Church and in the High Street, Chipping Camden.

L'est we forget

1/5 Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, 655, Private Henry Charles BAKER and 1/5 Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, 37356, Corporal Henry Charles BAKER was the only son of Joseph and Eliza BAKER and was baptised at St James Church, Chipping Camden on 19th January 1898 when he was 16 years old. His parents were born at Kingham in Oxfordshire and his father was employed as a mason's labourer. The family were living in Watery Lane, Chipping Camden in 1901.
When Henry left school he joined the Volunteer Drum and Fife Band and was a member of 'K' Company, 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. He soon became a bugler with the Volunteers and when he reached the age of 18 he was sworn in as a man and continued to serve in the company when the Haldane reforms of 1908 saw the volunteers replaced by the Territorials. He was still a member of 'H' Company, 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment at the outbreak of war in 1914 and was mobilised on 5th August and went to Chelmsford in Essex for final training before the battalion was posted overseas. Lewis Hadley HORNE was the Sergeant-Major with the battalion and Henry was appointed his batman.
The battalion arrived in France on 29th March 1915 and they soon made their way north to Ploegsteert in Belgium, where they were given experience of life in the trenches in a quiet sector of the front. In July 1915 the battalion moved south to the northern sector of the Somme battlefield, where they occupied trenches east of Hebuterne. They remained in this sector until May 1916, when they were moved from the line to prepare for their part in the Battle of the Somme. During the battle Henry was badly wounded in five places with shrapnel near the village of Ovillers and a spell recovering in hospital was required.
It is not known when Henry rejoined his battalion but he was with them when they were sent to Italy in November 1917. In June 1918 the battalion occupied a difficult position in the woods around Buco di Cesuna on the Asiago Plateau. They were so under-strength, 466 all ranks, that the brigade commander hesitated to place them in the frontline, but there was no other unit readily to hand. The Battle of Asiago began at 3.00 a.m. on 15th June 1918 when the Austrians began an artillery barrage that lasted for four hours. This was followed by a massive infantry attack and the 1/5 Glosters suffered heavy casualties. The forward trenches were breached but a stubborn defence blunted the enemy offensive. The Glosters were steadily pushed back and split into two fighting groups and they had to be very careful not to be encircled by the enemy.
It was during this fighting on the Asiago Plateau that Henry was killed on 15th June 1918. He was 36 years and had served for over twenty years, as man and boy, with the Glosters. He is buried in Magnaboschi Cemetery on the Asiago Plateau in Italy. The Evesham Journal reported his death on 13th July 1918 but stated that he had been killed in action in France.
Memorials: St James's Church and in the High Street, Chipping Camden.

L'est we forget