            
Menin Gate
Crediton Memorial to the War Dead
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Fallen in the Great War
Oswald Bere, Private, 'B 'Coy 2nd/8th Bn. Worcestershire Regiment. Died 28 August 1917, age 23. Remembered at Tyne Cot.
Stanley Bere, Private, 26th Bn. Royal Fusiliers. Died 11 June 1916, age 26. Remembered at the Etaples Military Cemetery.
Walter R. Burridge, Private, 2nd Bn. Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Died 21 March 1918, age 30. Remembered at the Pozieres Memorial.
Reginald Daw, Private, 49th Bn. Australian Infantry. Died 7 June 1917, age 23. Commemorated at the Menin Gate.
Victor S. Dixon, Lance Corporal, 41st Bn. Australian Infantry. Died 27 June 1917, age 27. Commemorated at Kandahar Farm.
John Drew, Private, 8th Bn. Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Regiment). Died 28 April 1917, age 24. Buried at Orchard Dump Cemetery.
William Drew, Private, 1st/6th Bn. Devonshire Regiment. Died in Iraq 8 March 1916, age 19. Commemorated at the Basra Memorial.
Charles Fey, Private, Depot, Gloucestershire Regiment. Died 17 October 1918, age 21. Buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol.
Wilfred Garnsworthy, Private, 1st/23rd Bn. London Regiment. Died 5 April 1918, age 29.Commemorated on the Arras Memorial. Arthur Grubb, Private, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), 14th Bn. Died 21 March 1918, age 27. Remembered at the Pozieres Memorial.
Harold Heard, Private, 12th Bn. Royal Scots. Died on the Somme, 16th April 1918, age 19. Commemorated at Tyne Cot. William Hitchcock, Private, 8th Bn. Devonshire Regiment. Died 25 September 1915, age 20. Commemorated on the Loos Memorial. Cecil Huxtable, Lance Corporal, 28th Bn. Australian Infantry. Died 4 October 1917, age 28. Remebered at Tyne Cot. Herbert Joy, Drummer, 1st Bn. Devonshire Regiment. Died 16 September 1914, age 30. Remembered at La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre.
Jonas Kelly, Private, 16th Bn. Devonshire Regiment. Died 2nd September 1918, age 26. Commemorated at Vis-en-Artois Memorial.
William Lee, Petty Officer Stoker, HMS Hampshire. Died 5 June 1916 age 33. Remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
Albert Loye, Private, 4th Bn. Royal Fusiliers. Died at Ypres, 24th August 1915, age 42. Commemorated at the Menin Gate.
Frederick Loye, Gunner, 351st Siege Bty. Royal Garrison Artillery. Died on the Somme 6 November 1917, age 40. Buried at Tyne Cot. Arthur Meecham, Private, 11th Bn. Worcestershire Regiment. Died 24 April 1917, age 20. Remembered at the Doiran Memorial.
Reginald Newcombe, Gunner, "X" 9th T.M. Bty, Royal Field Artillery. Died 22 March 1918, age 21. Remembered at Pozieres. Charles Osborne, Able Seaman, HMS Defence, Royal Navy. Died 31 May 1916, age 21. Remembered at the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
William Osborne, Private, 2nd Bn. Hampshire Regiment. Died 13 August 1914, age41. Remembered on the Helles Memorial.
John Pickett, Private, 3rd Bn. Royal Fusiliers. Died 24 May 1915, age 35. Commemorated at the Menin Gate.
Frederick Pyman, Sergeant, 12th Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment. Died 23 March 1916, age 36. Buried at Habarcq Cemetery.
William Wensley, Private, 3rd Bn. Grenadier Guards. Died 29 September 1917, age 20. Commemorated at Bleuet Farm.
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In the Baptismal Register for St Swithun's Parish Church, in Sandford, after the Great War, an incumbent or parish clerk has revisited the register for parishioners baptised there in the 1880s and 1890s. He has added to their register entries inscriptions such as "Killed in Flanders 1917", " Lost both arms in France in 1916" " Died in France, 1915". These poignant additions are to be found below far too many baptisms for a tiny village of some 1200 souls.
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As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain. |
| | Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen |
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Lucknow | |
John Fursdon, husband of Maria Drew, was killed between May 1857 and November 1857, whilst storming the engine house at Lucknow, India, during the Siege of Lucknow.
The Siege of Lucknow was the prolonged defence of the Residency within the city of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny. After two successive relief attempts had reached the city, the defenders and civilians were evacuated from the Residency, which was abandoned.
John seems to have been in one of the columns attempting the relief of the Residency. | 
British soldiers at Lucknow |
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"Doing their bit"
In common with most families, our parents', grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations served their country when needed. Some were called up, many volunteered, or were serving in the reserves or territorials. A few were regulars. Our earliest certain Heard ancestor, John Heard, was in the Cornwall Royal Militia, stationed at Crediton, when he met his wife Susannah Crossman in the 1790s. Great (x3) grandfather John Berry was a private in No 1 Coy. on the nominal roll of the 1st Crediton Volunteers, January 1st, 1805. Three years earlier he and his father-in-law John Prawl had attended the muster in Exeter when the threat from Napoleon had seemed great. In 1887 the nominal roll of G Coy. (Crediton) of the 1st Rifle Volunteers, the Devonshire Regiment, included the names of several of our family. Devonshire being a seafaring county, we have had our share of sailors, including James Heard who enlisted in 1894 and Walter Bubear who joined the Royal Navy at 18 in 1896, and served until 1919. William Lee, descended from our Smallridges, was a Petty Officer Stoker who perished with Lord Kitchener in the mysterious sinking of HMS Hampshire in 1916. Our women too did their bit, including several Wright sisters and cousins who were nurses during WWII, two of whom appear below, alongside men of the family photographed during their service.
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Bill Heard 1914-1993 |  |
James Farthing 1891-1959 | Betty Wright 1920-2005 | | Frederick Heard 1922-2007 |
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10th Royal Hussars officer circa 1845
| Charles Carter served for some 20 years in the 10th (Prince of Wales' Own) Royal Hussars, between about 1845 and 1865, rising to the rank of Troop Sergeant Major before becoming a Pensioner. He probably served in South Africa in the early 1850s, fighting the Basotho. In the 1860s he was in Ireland where some of his children were born. His wife Annie Brown was the daughter of a barracks sergeant George Brown, also a Chelsea Pensioner, signifying either long service, or wounded during service.
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Albert Fey 1884 - 1958 |  |  |
Peggy Wright 1921-1979 | | Jack Turner 1894 - 1935 | John Heard 1934-1996 |
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Fred Wright (1880-1946) in Ireland (seated right)
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Sgt Ken Pollard (1918 - 1995)
| Corporal John Crofton Sadleir enlisted in Australia on 17th Jan 1916, aged barely 16 but giving his age as 21. He was wounded twice in action in France (1917). He then re-enlisted in 1940, understating his age by three years and without mentioning his previous service. He was killed in action attacking Sidon, Lebanon, during Operation Exporter against Vichy French forces. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 30th Dec 1941). |
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John Berry Wright
 John Wright (1887-1959) joined up in 1905. He seems to have joined the Army Service Corps. According to a family diary entry, "John Berry Wright entered the army October 24th 1905. Fought in the first battle in Flanders, August 1914, returned home again with a fractured leg 1918." In fact it seems likely that John was a Territorial or Reservist, for at the time of his marriage in 1911 his occupation was carpenter. He certainly served in the Great War, rose to the rank of Sergeant and survived the war. | Fred Pickett
 Fred Pickett enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment in 1915. The following year he joined the 2/6 Bn. Devonshire Regiment in India, and in 1917 went with the Battalion to Mesopotamia until the end of the war. Fred's war was not one of mud and trenches: for these Devons it was a war of fever, disease and consequent death.
 He kept a brief diary of his experiences, which can be downloaded. |
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 Volunteers at Crediton Station, off to join the 6th Bn Devonshire Regiment. Maybe Fred Pickett's departure was like this. Probably taken some time between 1914 and 1916 the postcard proudly proclaims Crediton's total of over 300 volunteers thus far. Over 170 men of Crediton and its surrounding parishes, villages and hamlets did not return.
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Jack Heard 1916-1989 | Laurie Pitts 1912-1999 | Den Heard 1918 - 2001 | Bill Heard 1915-2003 |
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Private Samuel Rowe
 Sam Rowe died during the allied invasion of Italy in September 1943. The main allied landings were at Salerno, beginning on 9th September. Sam was a Private in the Pioneer Corps.
During 12th - 14th September the Germans counterattacked the Allied beachhead at Salerno, hoping to throw them back into the sea. Sam died on 13th September. Supported by Airborne reinforce-ments the Allies repulsed the counterattack, and consolidated the beachhead by 16th September. Sam is buried at the War Cemetery at Salerno. | 
Bronze memorial in Exeter Cathedral to the officers and men of the Devonshire Regiment who lost their lives in the Great War
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RAF Memorial, Runnymede
| Pilot Sgt Kenneth Heard
back row, 3rd from left
Sgt Kenneth Heard was posted to 49 Sqdn in January 1942, based at Scampton in Leicestershire, flying Hampden bombers. He flew as Navigator on Operation Fuller - the Channel Dash - the operation to prevent the breakout of the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen from Brest. His first mission in January was against the ships in Brest. He then attacked the ships in the Channel on 10th February, without success, and on his third mission on 12th February 1942 the aircraft and its crew, Pilot Sgt Phillips, W/OP Sgt Jackson, Sgt Toghill, Air Gunner and Sgt Kenneth Heard failed to return. |
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World War II
Basil Bray, Surgeon Lt. RNVR, HMS Greyhound. Died 22 May 1941 age 27. Remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
William Hansen, Lieutentant (jg), US Navy, USS Helena. Died 6 July 1943, age 22.
Kenneth Heard, Sergeant, RAFVR, 49 Squadron. Died 12 February 1942, age 20. Commemorated at the RAF Memorial, Runnymede. Ronald Mallett, Corporal, Royal Corps of Signals, 201st Bde.Sig.Sec. Died 2 April 1943, age 24. Buried in Taukkyan Cemetery, Burma. Arthur Pickett, Sick Berth Attendant, RN, HMS Shrapnel. Died 21 July 1942, age 31. Remembered at the Wandsworth Crematorium.
Clifford Pickett, Major, the Kings Regt. , attd 2nd Bn Worcestershire Regt. Died 9 April 1945, age 33. Buried in Taukkyan Cemetery.
Samuel Rowe, Private ,242 Coy., Pioneer Corps. Died 13 September 1943, age 41. Buried in Salerno War Cemetery.
John Sadleir, Corporal, D Coy., 2/16 Bn Australian Infantry. Died 13 June 1941, age 41. Buried in Lebanon War Cemetery.
Maurice Willing, Flt Lt, Royal Australian Air Force. Missing 19 Jan 1942, age 23. Remembered at Ambon Memorial
Olivia Willing, Student Nurse, City Hospital, Plymouth. Died 20 March 1941, age 19. Buried at Efford Cemetery, Plymouth.
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Sam Rowe's original grave at Salerno
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Devonshire Cemetery |
The first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916, saw the 9th Bn. Devonshire Regiment holding trenches at Mansell Copse, near the village of Mametz. They were to attack towards the nearby village of Fricourt. Lt. Duncan Martin of A Coy. had identified the threat from German machine gunners in what had become known as Shrine Alley - the field of fire from machine guns established in a shrine in the village cemetery. As the 9th Bn. emerged from their trenches they were cut down by machine guns as predicted. The 9th continued to advance, along with the 2nd Gordons, and supported by the 8th Bn. Devonshire Regiment.
By 6.00pm the Division had achieved its objective and was being consolidated. But at a heavy price. The 8th had lost 3 officers killed, 47 men killed or missing and 7 officers and 151 men wounded. The 9th had lost 8 officers (including Lt. Martin) and 196 men killed or missing, 9 officers and 267 men wounded - 463 casualties of the 775 in action. Rather unusually the dead were buried in the trench they had left, by a working party led by the padre. Comrades erected a wooden plaque to mark the burial. |
Devonshire Cemetery
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"The Devonshires held this trench.
The Devonshires hold it still." |
The site became a war cemetery and is now known as the Devonshire Cemetery. 153 men of all ranks are commemorated in the cemetery, all but two being members of the 8th and 9th battalions of the Devonshires. 65 Devon-born men are believed to be buried there. The cemetery is on the Albert-Peronne Road south of Mametz. |
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| Some of the individuals who appear on this page do not appear in the Name Index or Family Tree because their relationship there to living individuals would breach privacy. But they are all members of the families who are covered on these pages and some of their relations will be found on this site. |
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| If your family member is connected to our families and has not been recorded here in the roll of honour, or if you want to suggest a family member for inclusion on this page, please email me . |
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