Repatriated

Private Corley Deferest Richardson

~ Nick Metcalfe ~ Leave a comment

This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Vermont.

Corley Deferest Richardson was born on 16 March 1890 at Glen Sutton, Quebec, the third of the four sons of Wilber and Lydia Richardson.[1] His parents were both Canadian but were married in Richford, Vermont in 1881—the family lived at several places either side of the border and moved to East Richford in 1901. After leaving school Corley Richardson worked in the area as a labourer in a box factory, as a cook and as a mill hand.

He enlisted at Montreal on 8 September 1918 and joined the 1st Depot Battalion, 1st Quebec Regiment at Guy Street Barracks; he was allocated the number 3091376. After only three weeks in uniform, Richardson reported sick on 30 September complaining of dizziness and headaches. Admitted to the Khaki League Convalescent Hospital, he was diagnosed as suffering from influenza. His medical record states that on admission he ‘did not seem very ill’, but by 3 October he had a nasty cough and was suffering nose bleeds. On 6 October he was diagnosed with pneumonia and his record for 11 October states that he ‘had a very bad night and died at 7.00a.m.’ His remains were returned home and he was buried in East Richford Cemetery with his parents.

Private C. D. Richardson is commemorated on page 491 of the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance; that page is displayed on 17 and 18 October. He did not earn any medals for his brief war service. His memorial plaque and scroll were sent to his brother Walter in 1921. With no female relatives, a Memorial Cross was not issued.

The grave of the Richardson family in East Richford Cemetery.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission marker for Private Corley Richardson
The Canadian Book of Remembrance showing the entry for Private Corley Deferest Richardson

1. (Back) Wilber Benjamin Richardson (13 June 1857-1 June 1918) married Lydia Almyra Brown (21 February 1861-11 May 1911) at Richford, Vermont on 4 June 1881: Walter Herman (10 January 1882-NK); Charles Wallace (1884-24 August 1888); Percy Wilber (12 June 1897-8 March 1873).

Private Carroll Alfred Conner

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This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Vermont.

The grave of Private Carroll Alfred Conner

Carroll Alfred Conner was born on 4 October 1894 at Lac Mégantic, Quebec the youngest of the three children of Eben and Lucy Conner. His father was a United States citizen from Vermont, working at the time as a conductor with Canadian Pacific Railway; his mother was Canadian.[1]

At the time of his enlistment at Richmond, Quebec on 20 April 1917, Conner was unmarried and working as a cashier clerk. Found fit for service, he joined a cyclist platoon raised in the region. He was allocated the number 2134932.

Posted to England, Conner departed Halifax, Nova Scotia on 3 May on board the SS Justica and arrived at Liverpool on 14 May, from where he journeyed to Chiseldon Camp, Wiltshire. There he joined the Canadian Reserve Cyclist Company, which was responsible for training men destined for the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion. Only two days later, on 16 May he was admitted to Chiseldon Camp hospital and diagnosed as suffering from pneumonia. His condition worsened rapidly, and he died on 23 May 1917, aged 22, having served for a little over one month.

His remains were returned to Canada and repatriated to Vermont, where he was buried in East Main Street Cemetery, Newport. His grave is marked by a family headstone that also records the details of his parents’ lives. Beside it is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone, on the back of which is a bronze plate inscribed:

LANCE CORPL
CARROLL ALFRED CONNOR [sic]
CANADIAN RESERVE CYCLIST COY
E T PLATOON
DIED 23RD MAY
1917
AGED 22 YEARS

Private C. A. Conner is commemorated on the Sherbrooke War Memorial, Quebec and on page 219 of the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance; that page is displayed on 17 May. For his war service Conner was awarded the British War Medal 1914-20. His medal and memorial plaque and scroll were sent to his father and the Memorial Cross was sent to his mother.

The grave of Private Carroll Alfred Conner
The Conner family grave marker.
Sherbrooke War Memorial
The Canadian Book of Remembrance showing the entry for Private Carroll Alfred Conner

1. (Back) Eben Alfred Conner (21 December 1859-8 June 1919) married Lucy Ladeau (1858-28 September 1931) in c1879. Kathleen A. (later Sullivan) (1879-NK); George Calvin (14 April 1890-27 April 1942).

The RAF Airman Who Wasn’t

~ Nick Metcalfe ~ 7 Comments
The grave marker for John Henry Dorman

Update, October 2022: The commemoration record for Corporal John. H Dorman, United States Army has now been removed from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

Several years ago, an airman called John Henry Dorman was accepted for commemoration by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Dorman had been killed in an accident on 21 June 1918 while training at No. 14 Training Depot Station, at RAF Lake Down near Amesbury. The conclusion was that he was Royal Air Force, one of the many Americans who had earlier joined the Royal Flying Corps or Royal Air Force. When I first added his name to the project, I carried out some cursory research and was left with some doubts about this conclusion. Prompted recently to dig further, I am now left with the verdict that he was not Royal Air Force but was, indeed always had been, a member of the Aviation Section of the United States Army Signal Corps serving with 155th Aero Squadron.

Continue reading →

Private Michael John Dugan

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This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Pennsylvania.

The grave of Private Michael Dugan

Michael Dugan was born on 16 November 1884 in Corry, Pennsyvania, one of the nine surviving children of William and Ellen Dugan; his father died soon after he was born.[1] There are few details known about his early life except that he found work as a cigar maker before becoming a mechanic and that he married around 1905. He and his wife Mary had two children, a daughter, Helen, and a son, Kenneth.[2] By the time of his enlistment the family were living in Niagara Falls, New York.

Michael Dugan enlisted at St. Catharines, Ontario on 24 April 1916. He joined the 176th (Niagara Rangers) Battalion and was allocated the number 850542. The Battalion been raised in St Catharines in January 1916 and was encamped on Spring Street. His family followed him to St Catharines in May 1916. On Victoria Day, 24 May, the Battalion paraded through the town and Dugan was most likely in the contingent and watched by his family. Continue reading →

Second Lieutenant Evanda Berkeley Garnett

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This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Rhode Island.

Second Lieutenant Evanda Berkeley Garnett
Second Lieutenant Evanda Berkeley Garnett

Not all of the casualties buried in the United States were repatriated in the period immediately after the First World War. Second Lieutenant Evanda Berkeley Garnett was killed in an air crash in Lincolnshire on 27 January 1918. Over 40 years later, on 16 September 1959, his sister Caroline called at the United States Embassy in London in order to arrange for the disinterment of his ashes and their return from Lincolnshire to Rhode Island. She believed, incorrectly, that the remains of the other airman killed in the crash had been repatriated previously and stated that it was the family’s intention to bring Evanda Garnett home too. His ashes were duly exhumed and sent to the United States where they were reinterred in the family plot in Island Cemetery, Newport.[1] Continue reading →

Sapper William Bustin

~ Nick Metcalfe ~ Leave a comment

This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Rhode Island.

Sapper William Bustin
Sapper William Bustin

William Bustin was one of three sons from this family who died during the war; his brother Robert was killed in action at Gallipoli in 1915, and Ernest was killed in action in France in 1918.

He was born on 25 November 1886, in Adlington, Lancashire, into the large family of Joseph and Elizabeth Bustin; he was one of nine surviving children; two others died as infants.[1] Continue reading →

Lieutenant Louis Bennett

~ Nick Metcalfe ~ 5 Comments

This essay is about the only First World War casualty commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in West Virginia.

Few know more about the life and exploits of Lieutenant Bennett than Dr. Charles D. Dusch, Jr., the Deputy Command Historian of the United States Air Force Academy, whose comprehensive and extremely well-researched thesis ‘Great War Aviation and Commemoration: Louis Bennett, Jr., Commander of the West Virginia Flying Corps’ led us to his door.

This shorter piece by Dr. Dusch was written for this project. It describes Bennett’s involvement with aviation in the United States, his service with the Royal Flying Corps in France, his untimely death and his mother’s efforts to commemorate her only son. More information about Dr. Dusch may be found at the end of the essay. Footnotes are by the project editor.

The memorial to Louis Bennett Jr. in Machpelah Cemetery, Weston
The memorial to Louis Bennett Jr. in Machpelah Cemetery, Weston

West Virginia’s only Great War ace, Louis Bennett, Jr. was born in Weston, West Virginia, on 22 September 1894.[1] Unlike many of his peers who were merely enticed by the thrill of flying and became good pilots in the war, Bennett was much more. He clearly thought about aviation keenly and its impact on the war in larger terms, and he also took action on his ideas to bring them to fruition. Continue reading →

Private George Melvin Atkinson

~ Nick Metcalfe ~ Leave a comment

This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in New York.

The grave of Private George Atkinson
The grave of Private George Atkinson

Private George Atkinson was a Canadian-born farmer from Clinton County, New York. He is the oldest casualty researched thus far—he was born in 1858, adjusted his age by 14 years when he enlisted, and died just before his 59th birthday. Three of his sons, all born in the United States, served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France. Continue reading →

Private Samuel Barnett

~ Nick Metcalfe ~ Leave a comment

This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in New York.

The grave of Private Samuel Barnett
The grave of Private Samuel Barnett

Samuel Barnett was born on 18 February 1879 in Belfast, Ireland, the eldest of the two sons of Matthew and Matilda Barnett.[1] He was a shipping clerk in Belfast before he emigrated to the United States in 1901 with his mother and his younger brother, Matthew. They lived on Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, a block from the Empire State Building; Samuel worked in New York as an underwriter.

On 11 February 1918 in New York he was examined and found fit for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and on 18 March he travelled by train via Niagara Falls to Toronto where he was attested and joined the 2nd Depot Battalion, 1st Central Ontario Regiment at Exhibition Camp; he was allocated the regimental number 3233160.

Although seemingly fit when he underwent his initial medical examination, from the time of his arrival in Toronto he felt under the weather and on 20 March he was sick in the cookhouse. He was taken to the hospital at Exhibition Camp in the early evening. There he was diagnosed as suffering from influenza and he soon developed pneumonia; he died of heart failure at 11.30pm on 23 March 1918. His body was returned home and he was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, on the northern side of the cemetery near the junction of 7th Avenue and 22nd Street, in Section J, Lot 33488. His mother and his brother are buried with him; their grave is unmarked. He is one of two First World War CWGC burials in that cemetery—the other is Cadet L H Thompson, Royal Air Force, who died on 30 October 1918.

The Canadian Book of Remembrance showing the entry for Private Samuel Barnett
The Canadian Book of Remembrance showing the entry for Private Samuel Barnett

Private Samuel Barnett is commemorated on page 364 of the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance; that page is displayed on 10 August. His father received his Memorial Plaque and Scroll. Continue reading →