4 – CLifford John Silman

On 11^th November the service of remembrance at St Anne’s Church, Syston will be centred around the eight men from the parish whose names are recorded on the memorial board. Their stories are being blogged as part of the celebration of their sacrifice in WWI and WWII. If there are missing any details, or they are incorrect, please let us know.

Clifford John Silman was born between April and June 1891 in the registration district of Keynsham, Somerset.

On the 1911 Census he is living at Warmley Terrace, Warmley, Siston. The head of the Household is his Father James, married to Annie Louise. James is a Bootmaker. Clifford’s occupation is given as ‘Clicking’. As a clicker it would be Clifford’s responsibility to cut the uppers from a piece of leather, and all other component parts for boots or shoes. The job was so named because of the sound of scissors against the brass edges of the pattern boards. It was a very skilled job, as it not only required maximising the number of uppers cut from a skin, but also taking into consideration the colour and texture of the skin, and the lines of stretch and resistance, and the need to have matching pairs of shoes.

Living in the house as well are Clifford’s younger brother John (Aged 17), a Bootmaker, Percy (Aged 14) who was also a Clicker, Frank (Aged 11) and Doris (Aged 9) who are both at school. Also living in the house are James’ unmarried sisters Jane (Aged 55) and Emily (Aged 47) both Corset Makers.

At the beginning of 1913, Clifford married Mary Jane Gay, who had been born in 1889, and together they had two daughters, Ivy born 3^rd July 1913 and Catherine (Kit) Mildred born on 12^th November 1915. After Clifford’s death, his wife Mary Jane remained living in the parish. She remarried on 7^th August 1920 to William ‘Bill’ Joseph Baber, in Syston Church and together they raised hers and Clifford’s two children.

Catherine married Wilbur Hunt possibly in 1939 as on the 1939 register she is stillliving with Mary Jane (Now Baber) and William (who is a Gardener Private (Heavy) ) She is referred to as Catherine H Hunt (Silman) and died in 1960. Ivy married Edmond ‘Ted’ Close Newman. They had one son Clive who died in a road traffic accident on 14^th October 1945 aged 5. Unable to have any more children they adopted Roger in 1947 and Paul in 1948. Ivy died on 7^th November 1999 and Ted (Born on 19th March 1916) died on 9^th October 1997.

When Clifford joined up, he went as a Gunner into the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Field Artillery, with the soldier number 238268. He was assigned to D Battery of the 245^th Brigade. He died on the 16^th June 1918 aged 27 from injuries received. He was hospitalised in France, and lived long enough for his wife Mary Jane to hear the news, and despite never having really left the village before, make the trip to France to see him before he died. Family remember Ivy, who would have been about 5 years old at the time, talking about that trip, as Mary Jane had gone, leaving her and her younger sister, at home in Webbs Heath.

Clifford is buried in Terlincthun British Cemetery, in Wimille, northern France (Grave reference I.A.30.) The inscription on his headstone reads ‘One of the brave. One of the best. Grant to him eternal rest’. The British Cemetery lies near to the Column of the Grande Armee and the statue of Napoleon looking towards the England he never conquered. It looks for all the world as if the French Emperor is watching over the Commonwealth soldiers buried there. The cemetery was designed in June 1918, because the cemeteries at Boulogne and Wimereux had been filled and new capacity for the war casualties who died in the base hospitals.

For his sacrifice Clifford would have been awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the Memorial Death Plaque of WWI.

3 – Albert Ralph Kilmaster

On 11^th November the service of remembrance at St Anne’s Church, Syston will be centred around the eight men from the parish whose names are recorded on the memorial board. Their stories are being blogged as part of the celebration of their sacrifice in WWI and WWII. If there are missing any details, or they are incorrect, please let us know.

Albert Ralph Kilmaster was born between July and September of 1891 in the registration district of Keynsham, Somerset. He had strong links to Warmley and Syston with one of his relatives acting as Church Warden at Warmley. Albert was Baptised at Syston Church on August 16^th 1891, and his sister Harriette Lititia on August 25^th 1895.

On the 1911 Census Albert R Kilmaster is aged 19 and living at home on Siston Hill, Warmley, Bristol and working as a ‘Teera-Cotta Presser’ (This probably should read Terracotta Presser, and was probably something to do with brick making for the building industry). He is reported as having been born in the parish of Siston. His father Albert E Kilmaster was aged 52, and had been born in 1859 in Shilton in Oxfordshire. Albert E was working as a Boot Maker. His wife, Albert R’s mother, Mary E (Known in the family as Mary Ann) Kilmaster, had been born in 1863 in Siston and was then working as a Boot Machinist. Albert R’s younger unmarried sister Harriet aged 17, still living at home was working as an Optical Improver. Albert E Kilmaster died in 1934 and Mary Ann in 1942.

Albert joined the 1^st Gloucestershire Regiment, 6^th Battalion, and was sent out to France, with the rank of Private. His military number, which is 5211 would suggest that he was one of the earliest men to have enlisted. He was killed in action on the 15^th August 1916. He has no known grave, but is memorialised at the Thiepval Memorial in France. (Pier and Face 5A and 5B)

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a memorial to the 72,264 British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and described as ‘the greatest executed British work of monumental architecture of the 20^th Century’.

Albert would have posthumously been awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the Memorial Death Plaque of WWI.

2 – Bert Demmery

On 11^th November the service of remembrance at St Anne’s Church, Syston will be centred around the eight men from the parish whose names are recorded on the memorial board. Their stories are being blogged as part of the celebration of their sacrifice in WWI and WWII. If there are missing any details, or they are incorrect, please let us know.

The first mention of Bert in official records is on the 1901 Census, where ‘Bertie’ Demmery aged 8, having been born in Gloucestershire in 1893, is living in Cock Road, Oldland with his widowed mother Mary who is aged 33, in the house of his Grandfather John Crew aged 60 who was a gardener, and his wife Mary A Crew aged 66. Along with them are his brothers Wilfred aged 12, and presumably still at school and Graham aged just 1. Also there was his sister May aged 10. Given the age of his youngest brother the transfer to his grandparents house, was probably fairly recent.

By the time of the 1911 Census, Bertie is still living with his grandfather, who is now a widower, and at the age of 69 is working as a Coal Hewer. Joining the household by then is Florence Cambridge aged 21, who is working as a corset maker and her husband Frank who is a Bootmaker. Bertie himself is also a Bootmaker. His mother is working as a Domestic and his brother Wilfred is a Van Driver or Carter.

In 1914 Bert married Lilian Grace Noble. Lilian was born in 1895 at Webbs Heath, to Richmond Noble, born 1864 in Bridgeyate and his wife Sarah Ann born in 1865 in Pucklechurch. At the time of their marriage Lilian would probably have been a corset maker, as that was her occupation aged 16 on the 1911 Census. Bert and Lilian had at least two children, Wilfred S Demmery born on the 19^th February 1915 and Gwendoline Lilian Demmery born on 22^nd February 1917 and baptised on April 22^nd 1917 at Syston church. On that date Bert is described as being a Private in the Dorset Regiment. Bert is described locally as being from the Warmley side of the parish, and possibly being related to John Barrington and his family. Bert and Clifford Silman knew each other and were friends.

When he first joined up, Bert joined the Dorset Regiment, but by the time of his death on 1^st May 1918 he had transferred to the 95^th Company of the Machine Gun Corps, which was formed in October 1915. He retained his rank of Private when he transferred. He died in France and is buried in the Merville Communal Cemetery Extension (Grave Reference I.E.71) The village of Merville was completely destroyed during WWI. Bert is buried in the extension of the village cemetery, which holds 1139 soldiers from the British Empire, 11 Canadians, 21 South Africans and 97 Indian soldiers. 170,500 officers and men served in the Machine Gun Corps with 62,049 becoming casualities including 12,498 killed earning it the nickname of ‘The Suicide Club’.

For his service to his country Bert would have been awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the Memorial Death Plaque of WWI.

 

1 – John Barrington

On 11^th November the service of remembrance at St Anne’s Church, Syston will be centred around the eight men from the parish whose names are recorded on the memorial board. Their stories are being blogged as part of the celebration of their sacrifice in WWI and WWII. If there are missing any details, or they are incorrect, please let us know.

According to the 1911 Census, John Barrington was born in 1896 in Kelston, to George Henry Barrington and Mary L Barrington.

John’s family was not a long standing local family. His father George Henry Barrington was born in 1862 in Sutton Benger near Chippenham. George did not have a straightforward childhood, as on the 1871 Census, aged 8 he is living in Seagry Rd, Sutton Benger with his uncle Worthy Gough, his wife Ann and their grandson Richard Gough aged 12. On the 1881 Census George, now aged 18 is living in Queenfield Cottage, Sutton Benger with Eliza Ellery a widow and her son Robert. Both the young men are Agricultural Labourers. George obviously hankered after a different life as on 14^th September 1882 aged 20 years and 4 months, he enlists in the Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire Regiment) with the enlistment (Attestation) number of 195. The regiment served in many places across the British Empire, so George would probably have been well travelled before he returned to civilian life. By 1891, now aged 28, George is living at ‘Sunny Bank’, Great Somerford, Malmesbury, Wiltshire as the Lodger with the Trembling Family, and working as a General Labourer. By 1901 George is married to Mary, who was born in Minety, and they are living in Marsh Lane, Clutton in Somerset. They have three sons, George E, aged 6, born in Pucklechurch, John, aged 5, born in Kelston, Charles H, aged 3, born in Pucklechurch, and daughters Harriet A, aged 1, born in Westbury on Trym and Eleanor, born in 1901 in Clutton. George dies sometime before 1911, as by then Mary L has married Walter D Smart, having had an affair with him and borne him a daughter, Dorothy.

On the 1911 Census John Barrington is registered as the Stepson of Walter D Smart of Syston Common, Warmley near Bristol. At that time he is aged 15 and is working as a Shoemaker. Living with him in the same house is his mother Mary L Smart then aged 40, his brother Charlie, aged 13, who is a Painter’s Boy, his sister Harriet aged 12 who is at school and his youngest sister Dorothy born in 1911. Also in the house are Walter Smart’s children Alec aged 18 and working as a Farm Labourer, Beatrice aged 15 who is at home, Lydia aged 12, Emma aged 11, Frederick aged 9 and Wallace aged 6 who are all at school, and Graham aged just 3.

At the beginning of the war John would have been just 18 having been born between April and June 1896. One would think that his mother might well have shared stories of his father, including stories from his time in the army. So it is not at all surprising that in 1918 he quickly joined the 1^st Gloucestershire Regiment and was assigned to the 4th Battalion, with a service no of 2232TF. (The ‘TF’ signifying that it was a Territorial Battalion, raised to defend England) John could have opted to serve at home, and only go abroad if needed, but he signed form E624 which meant that he agreed to ‘accept liability, in the event of national emergency, to serve in any place outside the United Kingdom’. John must have had something about him as he rose to the rank of Sergeant with a new service number (200419), having passed over being both a Lance Corporal and Corporal.

The citation for John’s Military Medal was destroyed by a fire in the Records Office, along with the records of many other men serving in forces in WWI. However the awarding of his Military Medal was reported in the London Gazette on Saturday 11^th November 1916. It is probable that it was received for action in one of the many of the small battles that took place on the Somme, as the Battalion remained there, on the Western Front where they had been serving since April 1915, for the best bit of a year until July 1917.

John died on the 9^th October 1917, aged just 21, reported Killed in Action at the battle of Passchendale. He is one of the many whose body was never found. The Battalion Commander was quite direct in his report on the failings of the battle ‘In my opinion, the reasons why we failed to take our objectives were:

a) The exhaustion of the men, most of whom had been tramping over the heavy ground for the greater part of the night.

b) The sodden condition of the ground.

c) That the barrage was lost after the first lift and never again caught up.

It is not known how John died, but most of 43 members of his battalion who died on that day did so from machine gun fire. Given the reported condition of the ground on that day, it is likely his body was lost in the mud. His death was recorded in the local paper, along with a photograph of him

“Official news has just reached Mrs W Smart, of Syston Common, Warmley of the death of her son, Sergt. John Barrington, who was killed in action on October 9 1917 He enlisted at the outbreak of war, and had served with the Glo’stershire Regt. In France for 2 years 7 months. He was 21 years of age and was formerly in the employ of Messrs. Wiltshire and Co., Hanham.”

John is memorialised at the Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 72-75). The Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for those who died in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. It is the largest commonwealth cemetery anywhere in the world. It is located outside Passchendale in Belgium. As well as the Military Medal, John was also awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the Memorial Death Plaque of WWI.