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The following list shows the names commemorated on the War memorial in alphabetical order followed by information gained from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and book of remembrance inside St Mary’s Church, as well as further information gained from my own follow up research. I have used the recorded family members according to the St Mary’s book of remembrance as well as consulting details held on the CWGC register. The CWGC details were recorded sometimes many years after the War had ended, families had moved & widows sometimes had remarried. This list records as close as possible the details of family members immediately after the Great War. I must firstly thank the Commonwealth War graves Commission (CWGC) for giving me permission to reproduce details held in their archives. These details I have used to confirm my finding elsewhere.
G.A.PAGINTON
15230 Private GEORGE ARTHUR PAGINTON.
7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Formerly employed by the GWR Company in Swindon as a labourer in No1 shop of the locomotive and carriage department
Enlisted in Swindon. Killed in action aged 28 on the 16th August 1915.
Son of George and Louisa Paginton, of Pavenhill.
George has no known grave. Remembered on HELLES MEMORIAL, Panel 190 to 196.
A.PARSONS
R/7558 Rifleman ALBERT JAMES PARSONS.
1st Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps.
Enlisted in Chester. Killed in action aged 21on the 27th December 1915.
Son of Lilly Susan Parsons, of Station Rd.
Buried in BETHUNE TOWN CEMETERY, Grave Reference: IV. G. 59.
W.C.PARSONS
46945 Private WILLIAM CHARLES PARSONS.
10th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers
(Formally 99936 Labour Corps & 53228 Dorset Regiment).
Enlisted in Dorchester. Died of pneumonia aged 22 on the 25th November 1918.
Son of William Charles and Mary Anne Parsons, of Bentham Lane,
Buried in ST. ANDRE COMMUNAL CEMETERY, Grave Reference: I. A. 26.
M.S.RICHARDSON
Captain MERVYN STRONGE RICHARDSON.
1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
Killed in action aged 21 on the 19th March 1916.
Youngest son of Capt. Arthur Percy Richardson and Ethel Mary Richardson, of Purton House, Purton, Wiltshire. Captain of the Boats, Radley College, Leander Club. Previously wounded April, 1915.
Buried in POINT 110 NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, FRICOURT,
Grave Reference: D. 4.
Mervyn was the youngest son of Capt. Arthur Percy Richardson and Ethel Mary Richardson, of Purton House, the latest of the Richardson “warriors”.
Mervyn was born on the 21st June 1894 at Killynether Castle, Newtownard, Co Down. His father was an ‘Irish gentleman’ with eight years service as a Militia Captain in 5 Royal Irish Rifles. A great-grandfather was a Major in the Buffs who fought in the Peninsular War. Mervyn was educated at Bilton Grange, Rugby and at Radley College where he was an 'efficient' member of the OTC. He was described as having an excellent character and distinctly above average in trustworthiness and leadership.
Mervyn was a Prefect and was made Captain of Boats and rowed at 6 in the successful VIII of 1912. He later attended the Royal Military Collage and was commissioned on 15th August 1914, just after the outbreak of war. This young German-speaking officer was sent to Wales to receive German Officer Prisoner’s before receiving his draft with the Welsh Fusiliers to France. A very early arrival with the unit, reaching them on 25 September 1914 and replacing Lieutenant Lloyd as OC IV Platoon in A Company.
Mervyn Richardson was soon in the thick of it. Promoted Lieutenant 31st October 1914, his letters home from the trenches complained of ‘feeling fearfully tired, being in the most awful state of filth, no wash for ten days and no other officer within 250 yards’, his unit suffering over 300 fatalities. Nevertheless, he endured and did his duty, meeting & shaking hands with His Majesty the King, surviving to provide a most interesting account of the Christmas Truce near Armentières with A Company.
1914 Christmas truce
‘I will tell you of the extraordinary day we spent on Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we had a sing-song with the men in the trenches, [this all applies to our company, A]. We put up a sheet of canvas, with a large ‘Merry Christmas’ and a portrait of the Kaiser painted on it, on the parapet. The next morning there was a thick fog, and when it lifted about 12, the Germans [Saxons] who were only about 150 yards in front of us saw it, they began to shout across, and beckoning to our men to come half way and exchange gifts. They then came out of their trenches, and gave our men cigars and cigarettes, and 2 barrels of beer, in exchange for tins of bully beef. The situation was so absurd, that another officer of ours and myself went out, and met seven of their officers, and arranged that we should keep our men in their respective trenches, and that we should have an armistice until the next morning, when we would lower our Christmas card, and hostilities would continue. One of them presented me with the packet of cigarettes I sent you, and we gave them a plum pudding, and then we shook hands with them, and saluted each other, and returned to our respective trenches. Not a shot was fired all day, and the next morning we pulled our card down, and they put one up with ‘thank you’ on it’.
Private Frank Richards wrote of him that he was ‘popular with all of us and we were sorry to lose him from 2RWF’ when he was wounded on the 10th April 1915,admitted on 13th April to 3 General Hospital Tréport with a gunshot wound in the back. His subsequent service is not completely recorded, but he appears to have been wounded by an enemy grenade in September, hospitalised and embarked from England 30th September 1915 to return to 1RWF and arrived with them 7th October. He became OC A Company [Temporary Captain 7th October 1915] of that battalion, earning the admiration of Robert Graves who wrote ‘best company I ever served with’. The unit was on the Somme well before the famous offensive and he was officially mortally wounded by a gunshot wound to the chest on 19th March 1916, although Robert Graves has it as heart failure following being blown by a shell into a shell hole full of water. Stockwell, by now his battalion commander, wrote to Richardson senior ‘I do not think he suffered though the shell gave him a number of superficial wounds. He died of shock ’. Stockwell also went beyond the conventional sympathetic phrases ‘He was a splendid soldier and my most able and trusted company Commander. Always cheerful, sound, and hard working, an excellent disciplinarian and a real leader of men’.
The battalion Padre, Milner-White, wrote of his funeral
“All the officers were present, and many men. The moon came out in the middle, and shone on the grey steel helmets of the group, and made the Union Jack that lay on the body gleam”
The burial was in fact a triple one, including Second Lieutenants David Thomas and David Pritchard. Sassoon and Graves (Both WW1 poets) were both there: Sassoon wrote ‘Robert Graves, beside me, with his white whimsical face twisted and grieving’.
On the 7th April 1916, Captain Arthur Percy Richardson of Purton House, Purton, Wiltshire wrote to ask for his son’s effects. He added that his son had been recommended for an honour by GOC 7th Division and indeed the London Gazette dated 15th May 1916 mentioned Mervyn in Despatches for gallant and distinguished conduct in the field, quoting a despatch by Haig dated 30th April 1916.
Mervyn is buried near Maple Redoubt at Point 110 New Military Cemetery beside his friends 2nd Lt David Thomas ( "Dick Tiltwood" of Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man and Infantry Officer) and Lt Pritchard . Mervyn’s headstone makes reference to his Captaincy of the Boats: “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. Leander”. Mervyn’s mother Ethel wrote Twenty One Years and Remembrance Wakes as a form of memorial to him.
Another memorial for Mervyn Richardson is that of a bell, high in the tower at St Mary’s. The 17th Century bell was recast and his name, service details and record of his death are engraved upon it.
E.SAUNDERS
4754 Shoeing Smith EDWIN SAUNDERS.
54th Brigade. Ammunition Col., Royal Field Artillery.
Died aged 29 on the 4th December 1918.
Son of George and Alice Saunders of Pavenhill.
Buried in ST. GERMAIN-AU-MONT-D'OR COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION Grave Reference: B. 55.
J.SELWOOD
22657 Private THOMAS JOHN SELWOOD.
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
Enlisted in Swindon. Killed in action aged 20 on the 11th January 1917.
Son of William Thomas and Sarah Jane Selwood, of Pavenhill.
Buried in AMARA WAR CEMETERY, Grave/ Reference: XVIII. C. 8.
R.SELWOOD
1737 Private RICHARD STANLEY SELWOOD.
52nd Battalion, 13th Infantry Brigade, A.I.F. 4th Australian infantry Division.
Formerly employed as a stockman in Australia.
Enlisted in Queensland, Australia. Killed in action aged 29 on the 7th June 1917.
Son of John and Annie Selwood of the Common. Richard moved to Australia aged 22.
Richard has no known grave. Remembered on YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL, Panel 7 - 17 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 - 31.
Richard Attested on the 13th January 1916, Queensland, Australia, giving his trade as a stockman. He listed his Next Of Kin as Annie Selwood(Mother), Purton, Swindon.
Richard was born and attended school in Purton. He immigrated to Australia aged 22 years, previously having worked in Swindon for the GWR Company as a machinist.
On the 20th April 1916 he embarked at Sydney on board H.M.T Hawkes Bay. 25th May 1916 he Disembarked Suez. 6th June 1916 Embarked Alexandria on board H.M.T Franconia. 16th June 1916 he was in Marseille, arriving at Folkstone on the 19th Sept 1916.
On the 27th Sept 1916 he arrived at Etaples, France and proceeded to join his unit (52nd battalion, 13th Brigade 4th Division). 8th Oct 1916 he is listed as Wounded in the field (Shell shock). 15th Oct 1916 Transferred to 17th casualty Clearing station(CCS)at Hazebrouk.
16th Oct 1916 Transferred to 38th CCS. 1st Dec 1916 he was released from CCS, fit to rejoin unit. 27th Dec 1916 he was detached to work with the 1st Anzac Light Railway.
A huge system of light-railway track was laid behind & even right upto the frontlines to assist in the re-supply and even evacuation of casualties. The units that Richard was attached operated in the Somme region, France.
14th May 1917 Richard rejoined 52nd battalion from the 17th Anzac light railway unit. On the 7th June 1917 he is recorded Killed in action, Messine ridge France. He was one of 11,000 Allied casualties sustained killed or wounded in a huge push to take the ridge.
Richard has no known grave, remembered with honour on the Menin Gate, Ypres.
S.SMITH
18065 Private SIDNEY ROWLAND SMITH.
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
Formerly employed by the GWR Company in Swindon as a bolt maker in the locomotive and carriage department.
Enlisted in Devizes. Missing in action aged 18 on the 10th August 1915.
Son of James and Charlotte Smith, of 3, Cricklade Rd.,
Sidney has no known grave. Remembered on HELLES MEMORIAL, Panel 156 to 158.
F.STALEY
20900 Private FREDERICK WILLIAM STALEY.
1st/4th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment (Depot territorial Force).
Enlisted in Devizes. Died aged 23 on the 16th February 1919 of wounds received during service in the UK.
Son of Henry George and Sarah Ann Staley, of New Rd.
Buried in PURTON (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD 2. 9.
F.SUTTON
9947 Private FRANK SUTTON.
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
(Formerly 603 Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry)
Enlisted in Devizes. Died of wounds received aged 18 on the 30th March 1917, south of Jidaidid village, Mesopotamia
Son of Albert and Emily, Church path.
Frank has no known grave. Remembered on BASRA MEMORIAL Panel 30 and 64. The Remembrance book states burial south of Jidaidid village, Mesopotamia.
F.W.SUTTON
203179 Serjeant FREDERICK WALTER SUTTON.
6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
Enlisted in Cricklade. Missing in action aged 26 on the 10th April 1918.
Son of Frederick Freeth Sutton and Emily Sutton, of Packhorse Farm, Purton,
Fredrick has no known grave. Remembered on TYNE COT MEMORIAL,119/120.
15230 Private GEORGE ARTHUR PAGINTON.
7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Formerly employed by the GWR Company in Swindon as a labourer in No1 shop of the locomotive and carriage department
Enlisted in Swindon. Killed in action aged 28 on the 16th August 1915.
Son of George and Louisa Paginton, of Pavenhill.
George has no known grave. Remembered on HELLES MEMORIAL, Panel 190 to 196.
A.PARSONS
R/7558 Rifleman ALBERT JAMES PARSONS.
1st Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps.
Enlisted in Chester. Killed in action aged 21on the 27th December 1915.
Son of Lilly Susan Parsons, of Station Rd.
Buried in BETHUNE TOWN CEMETERY, Grave Reference: IV. G. 59.
W.C.PARSONS
46945 Private WILLIAM CHARLES PARSONS.
10th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers
(Formally 99936 Labour Corps & 53228 Dorset Regiment).
Enlisted in Dorchester. Died of pneumonia aged 22 on the 25th November 1918.
Son of William Charles and Mary Anne Parsons, of Bentham Lane,
Buried in ST. ANDRE COMMUNAL CEMETERY, Grave Reference: I. A. 26.
M.S.RICHARDSON
Captain MERVYN STRONGE RICHARDSON.
1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
Killed in action aged 21 on the 19th March 1916.
Youngest son of Capt. Arthur Percy Richardson and Ethel Mary Richardson, of Purton House, Purton, Wiltshire. Captain of the Boats, Radley College, Leander Club. Previously wounded April, 1915.
Buried in POINT 110 NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, FRICOURT,
Grave Reference: D. 4.
Mervyn was the youngest son of Capt. Arthur Percy Richardson and Ethel Mary Richardson, of Purton House, the latest of the Richardson “warriors”.
Mervyn was born on the 21st June 1894 at Killynether Castle, Newtownard, Co Down. His father was an ‘Irish gentleman’ with eight years service as a Militia Captain in 5 Royal Irish Rifles. A great-grandfather was a Major in the Buffs who fought in the Peninsular War. Mervyn was educated at Bilton Grange, Rugby and at Radley College where he was an 'efficient' member of the OTC. He was described as having an excellent character and distinctly above average in trustworthiness and leadership.
Mervyn was a Prefect and was made Captain of Boats and rowed at 6 in the successful VIII of 1912. He later attended the Royal Military Collage and was commissioned on 15th August 1914, just after the outbreak of war. This young German-speaking officer was sent to Wales to receive German Officer Prisoner’s before receiving his draft with the Welsh Fusiliers to France. A very early arrival with the unit, reaching them on 25 September 1914 and replacing Lieutenant Lloyd as OC IV Platoon in A Company.
Mervyn Richardson was soon in the thick of it. Promoted Lieutenant 31st October 1914, his letters home from the trenches complained of ‘feeling fearfully tired, being in the most awful state of filth, no wash for ten days and no other officer within 250 yards’, his unit suffering over 300 fatalities. Nevertheless, he endured and did his duty, meeting & shaking hands with His Majesty the King, surviving to provide a most interesting account of the Christmas Truce near Armentières with A Company.
1914 Christmas truce
‘I will tell you of the extraordinary day we spent on Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we had a sing-song with the men in the trenches, [this all applies to our company, A]. We put up a sheet of canvas, with a large ‘Merry Christmas’ and a portrait of the Kaiser painted on it, on the parapet. The next morning there was a thick fog, and when it lifted about 12, the Germans [Saxons] who were only about 150 yards in front of us saw it, they began to shout across, and beckoning to our men to come half way and exchange gifts. They then came out of their trenches, and gave our men cigars and cigarettes, and 2 barrels of beer, in exchange for tins of bully beef. The situation was so absurd, that another officer of ours and myself went out, and met seven of their officers, and arranged that we should keep our men in their respective trenches, and that we should have an armistice until the next morning, when we would lower our Christmas card, and hostilities would continue. One of them presented me with the packet of cigarettes I sent you, and we gave them a plum pudding, and then we shook hands with them, and saluted each other, and returned to our respective trenches. Not a shot was fired all day, and the next morning we pulled our card down, and they put one up with ‘thank you’ on it’.
Private Frank Richards wrote of him that he was ‘popular with all of us and we were sorry to lose him from 2RWF’ when he was wounded on the 10th April 1915,admitted on 13th April to 3 General Hospital Tréport with a gunshot wound in the back. His subsequent service is not completely recorded, but he appears to have been wounded by an enemy grenade in September, hospitalised and embarked from England 30th September 1915 to return to 1RWF and arrived with them 7th October. He became OC A Company [Temporary Captain 7th October 1915] of that battalion, earning the admiration of Robert Graves who wrote ‘best company I ever served with’. The unit was on the Somme well before the famous offensive and he was officially mortally wounded by a gunshot wound to the chest on 19th March 1916, although Robert Graves has it as heart failure following being blown by a shell into a shell hole full of water. Stockwell, by now his battalion commander, wrote to Richardson senior ‘I do not think he suffered though the shell gave him a number of superficial wounds. He died of shock ’. Stockwell also went beyond the conventional sympathetic phrases ‘He was a splendid soldier and my most able and trusted company Commander. Always cheerful, sound, and hard working, an excellent disciplinarian and a real leader of men’.
The battalion Padre, Milner-White, wrote of his funeral
“All the officers were present, and many men. The moon came out in the middle, and shone on the grey steel helmets of the group, and made the Union Jack that lay on the body gleam”
The burial was in fact a triple one, including Second Lieutenants David Thomas and David Pritchard. Sassoon and Graves (Both WW1 poets) were both there: Sassoon wrote ‘Robert Graves, beside me, with his white whimsical face twisted and grieving’.
On the 7th April 1916, Captain Arthur Percy Richardson of Purton House, Purton, Wiltshire wrote to ask for his son’s effects. He added that his son had been recommended for an honour by GOC 7th Division and indeed the London Gazette dated 15th May 1916 mentioned Mervyn in Despatches for gallant and distinguished conduct in the field, quoting a despatch by Haig dated 30th April 1916.
Mervyn is buried near Maple Redoubt at Point 110 New Military Cemetery beside his friends 2nd Lt David Thomas ( "Dick Tiltwood" of Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man and Infantry Officer) and Lt Pritchard . Mervyn’s headstone makes reference to his Captaincy of the Boats: “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. Leander”. Mervyn’s mother Ethel wrote Twenty One Years and Remembrance Wakes as a form of memorial to him.
Another memorial for Mervyn Richardson is that of a bell, high in the tower at St Mary’s. The 17th Century bell was recast and his name, service details and record of his death are engraved upon it.
E.SAUNDERS
4754 Shoeing Smith EDWIN SAUNDERS.
54th Brigade. Ammunition Col., Royal Field Artillery.
Died aged 29 on the 4th December 1918.
Son of George and Alice Saunders of Pavenhill.
Buried in ST. GERMAIN-AU-MONT-D'OR COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION Grave Reference: B. 55.
J.SELWOOD
22657 Private THOMAS JOHN SELWOOD.
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
Enlisted in Swindon. Killed in action aged 20 on the 11th January 1917.
Son of William Thomas and Sarah Jane Selwood, of Pavenhill.
Buried in AMARA WAR CEMETERY, Grave/ Reference: XVIII. C. 8.
R.SELWOOD
1737 Private RICHARD STANLEY SELWOOD.
52nd Battalion, 13th Infantry Brigade, A.I.F. 4th Australian infantry Division.
Formerly employed as a stockman in Australia.
Enlisted in Queensland, Australia. Killed in action aged 29 on the 7th June 1917.
Son of John and Annie Selwood of the Common. Richard moved to Australia aged 22.
Richard has no known grave. Remembered on YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL, Panel 7 - 17 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 - 31.
Richard Attested on the 13th January 1916, Queensland, Australia, giving his trade as a stockman. He listed his Next Of Kin as Annie Selwood(Mother), Purton, Swindon.
Richard was born and attended school in Purton. He immigrated to Australia aged 22 years, previously having worked in Swindon for the GWR Company as a machinist.
On the 20th April 1916 he embarked at Sydney on board H.M.T Hawkes Bay. 25th May 1916 he Disembarked Suez. 6th June 1916 Embarked Alexandria on board H.M.T Franconia. 16th June 1916 he was in Marseille, arriving at Folkstone on the 19th Sept 1916.
On the 27th Sept 1916 he arrived at Etaples, France and proceeded to join his unit (52nd battalion, 13th Brigade 4th Division). 8th Oct 1916 he is listed as Wounded in the field (Shell shock). 15th Oct 1916 Transferred to 17th casualty Clearing station(CCS)at Hazebrouk.
16th Oct 1916 Transferred to 38th CCS. 1st Dec 1916 he was released from CCS, fit to rejoin unit. 27th Dec 1916 he was detached to work with the 1st Anzac Light Railway.
A huge system of light-railway track was laid behind & even right upto the frontlines to assist in the re-supply and even evacuation of casualties. The units that Richard was attached operated in the Somme region, France.
14th May 1917 Richard rejoined 52nd battalion from the 17th Anzac light railway unit. On the 7th June 1917 he is recorded Killed in action, Messine ridge France. He was one of 11,000 Allied casualties sustained killed or wounded in a huge push to take the ridge.
Richard has no known grave, remembered with honour on the Menin Gate, Ypres.
S.SMITH
18065 Private SIDNEY ROWLAND SMITH.
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
Formerly employed by the GWR Company in Swindon as a bolt maker in the locomotive and carriage department.
Enlisted in Devizes. Missing in action aged 18 on the 10th August 1915.
Son of James and Charlotte Smith, of 3, Cricklade Rd.,
Sidney has no known grave. Remembered on HELLES MEMORIAL, Panel 156 to 158.
F.STALEY
20900 Private FREDERICK WILLIAM STALEY.
1st/4th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment (Depot territorial Force).
Enlisted in Devizes. Died aged 23 on the 16th February 1919 of wounds received during service in the UK.
Son of Henry George and Sarah Ann Staley, of New Rd.
Buried in PURTON (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD 2. 9.
F.SUTTON
9947 Private FRANK SUTTON.
5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
(Formerly 603 Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry)
Enlisted in Devizes. Died of wounds received aged 18 on the 30th March 1917, south of Jidaidid village, Mesopotamia
Son of Albert and Emily, Church path.
Frank has no known grave. Remembered on BASRA MEMORIAL Panel 30 and 64. The Remembrance book states burial south of Jidaidid village, Mesopotamia.
F.W.SUTTON
203179 Serjeant FREDERICK WALTER SUTTON.
6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
Enlisted in Cricklade. Missing in action aged 26 on the 10th April 1918.
Son of Frederick Freeth Sutton and Emily Sutton, of Packhorse Farm, Purton,
Fredrick has no known grave. Remembered on TYNE COT MEMORIAL,119/120.