79607 Pte Jacob Sarfaty, RAMC

79607 Private Jacob Sarfaty of the 37th General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps was killed in action in Salonika on this day, the 12th March, in 1917. He was 29 years old and the son of Mordecai and Jean Sarfaty of 60 Sydner Road, Stoke Newington, London. Jacob was born in Tower Hamlets and was living in Stoke Newington when he enlisted. On this, the 94th anniversary of his death, he is not forgotten.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Lt Erle Britt Trotter, 3rd Bn, Royal West Kent Regt

Even after the First World war ended, men who had served during the war were still dying in uniform, or dying of their wounds. Lieutenant Erle Britt Trotter of the 3rd Battalion,Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), died on the 28th May 1919.

Erle's medal index card shows that he first served with the 1st Home Counties Field Ambulance. His number indicates that he joined at the end of November or the beginning of December 1912. He arrived in France on the 17th December 1914 as a sergeant and with the number 2100. When the Territorial Force was re-numbered in 1917 he was given a new number: 493093.

Erle was awarded the Distinguished Conducted Medal whilst serving as sergeant with the RAMC and this was gazetted on the 26th January 1917. His citation reads:

"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He displayed great courage and determination when in charge of a number of stretcher bearer squads. On several occasions he personally attended the wounded under very heavy fire."

Sergeant Trotter was commissioned in the Royal West Kent Regiment on the 24th November 1917 and would win the Military Cross whilst serving with the regiment; a brave man who died at home in Gillingham (cause of death unknown) in 1919. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that he was 26 years old and also held the "Medaille Militaire (France). [He was the] son of Alice Harris (formerly Trotter) and the late William Richard Trotter of 225 Canterbury Street, Gillingham."

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
London Gazette

Capt John Joseph Esmonde, RAMC

John Joseph Esmonde, a Territorial Force captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, died in England on the 17th April 1915. He was the Member of Parliament for North Tipperary and the son of James Esmonde. He died, aged 53, from "pneumonia and heart failure consequent on the strain of overwork" and is buried in his family vault in Terryglass RC Churchyard, co Tipperary. A son, Lieutenant Geoffrey Esmonde, was killed in action in 1916, and a second son - Eugene Esmonde - was awarded a posthumous VC in 1942.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

701 QMS Walter John James Mant, RAMC

701 Quartermaster-Sergeant Walter John James Mant of the Royal Army Medical Corps, died from enteric fever on the 9th December 1914. He had contracted enteric fever - more commonly known as typhoid fever these days - whilst on active service, and he died in England. He is buried in Folkestone Old Cemetery.

Walter Mant was serving with the 2nd Home Counties Field Ambulance at the time of his death and his number suggests that he had been a Territorial since the unit's formation in April 1908, and had almost certainly served in a volunteer capacity before then.

I have been unable to find a medal index card for Walter Mant and so it looks as though he did not serve overseas. No service record exists, although his small, three line entry in De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour indicates that he was married. A check through the marriage registers shows that he married in Canterbury in the September quarter of 1895. This in turn ties in with the information on Soldiers Died in the Great War which records that he was born in Eastbourne and living in Canterbury when he enlisted.

Walter's bride was Minnie Sunderland and the couple appear on the 1901 census living at 7 Watling Street, Canterbury with their two children - Walter aged three, and Alice, aged one. Walter senior is noted as being 28 years old, a postman by trade. His wife Minnie, was 31 years old, a British Subject born in the USA. I do not have access to the 1911 census but it would seem reasonable to assume that other children followed in the years between 1901 and Walter's untimely death in 1914. If he was 28 in 1901, he would have been about 41 years old in 1914.

Walter and Minnie's son, Walter Gilbert Mant, also served during WW1 and he survived. His pension record notes that he joined the Royal West Kent Regiment at Dover in September 1915, and was discharged in June 1916 as no longer physically fit for war service.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, WO 364, 1901 Census)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour
Soldiers Died in The Great War

49278 Pte Ernest Wilberforce Davies, RAMC

49278 Private Ernest Wilberforce Davies of the 39th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps died on this day, 13th August, in 1915. He had previously served with the Welsh Regiment (number 13279) and, according to Soldiers Died in The Great War, he was born in Llanelly and enlisted there as well.

Ernest was the son of Thomas Rhys Davies and Margaret Ann Davies and was 23 years old when he died. He is buried in the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery in Turkey, grave reference SP.Mem.B.25.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War