In doing this research another 9 men have been found who lost their lives in the Great War and were associated with this parish.
CHARLES FRANCIS SERGEANT
240937 Private 1st/5th Battalion
Lincolnshire Regiment
killed in action 2nd July 1916 aged 19
Charley was born in 1896 at Redbourne, the son of Joseph Thomas ('Joe'; a farm foreman from Goxhill) and his 3rd wife Ann ('Annie' nee Clare of Padgate near Warrington). Their other children were Alfred Edward, Annie and George Henry. His older step brothers and sisters were Selina, Ethel, Harold, Walter and Laura Kate (died 1895).
The family lived at Northorpe Grange and by the start of the Great War had moved to Woodhouse Cottage, Scotter.
Charley enlisted in 1915 at Grimsby and on 15th October took part in the famous 'charge of the 5th Lincolns' at the Hohenzollern Redoubt. He received a 'severe shrapnel wound in the head' and returned to England to recover at Norwich Military Hospital. The 'Gainsborough News' reported he was 'doing well' and later that he returned home in December. At the end of 1915 he was listed in the Scotter 'Roll of Honour' published in that newspaper.
The assault of the Battle of the Somme began at 7:30am on 1st July 1916. General Rawlinson’s Fourth Army were used to attack Gommecourt as a diversion from the main aims of the Allies with the 1/5th Lincolns held in reserve. By 8am it was clear only a few British companies had reached the enemy trenches and the Germans started to eliminate them. After a few hours the remaining men returned to their own lines to say misguidedly that others were still holding out. As darkness fell Charley’s battalion were sent to try and help any remaining soldiers. They too were halted by machine guns and barbed wire…
Gommecourt Wood New Cemetery
Later that month he was reported missing and 'as the family heard nothing more about him they did not lose hope, but still trusted that their son would be restored to them when peace days came'. They were not told of his death until April 1917.
Private Charles Sergeant is buried at Gommecourt Wood New Cemetery in Foncquevillers, France and is remembered on the Northorpe War Memorial.
His brother Alfred Edward served but is not listed on the monument.
WILLIAM JOHNSON RANYELL
46823 Private, 2nd Battalion
Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment)
died 10th October 1916 aged 26
His mother Kate Ranyell was raised in Scotterthorpe. William was born at Louth in 1889 and as a very young child lived there at 5 Charles Street in the home of Sarah Johnson. His father could have been one of her two sons, Gilbert or George.
William came to live at Mill Hill, Scotter with his mother’s sister Sarah and her husband Thomas Lilly a miller and farmer.
Kate married the elderly John Bamflew Taylor in 1903 and soon after they moved with William to Lincoln. Her husband died in 1914 and she moved to 17 Trinity Lane, Louth.
Private William Ranyell is buried in Bernafay Wood British Cemetery, Montauban, Somme, France and is remembered in the Church of All Saint's at Tealby.
WILLIAM EDWARD CHESWICK
4941 Private, 2nd Battalion
Lincolnshire Regiment
Died 25th September 1915 aged 39
William was born in 1876 the youngest child of Joseph (a horse breaker from Scotton) and Louisa (nee Woodhouse of Kirton in Lindsey).
His parents raised their family in Scotter but Joseph died when his son was only 1 year old. William was orphaned when his mother died in 1882; she was buried in St. Peter‘s Churchyard. He was just 4 years old and the children were dispersed with, at least, the youngest George entering Gainsborough Union Workshouse.
As a 14 year old William was working at Scotton as a farm servant for George Emerson (from Misterton, Nottinghamshire). Some time later he himself went to live at Misterton.
William became a career soldier and served in the Boer War (1899-1902). He disembarked in France in France on 6th September 1914 as part of the British Expeditionary Force.
Private William Cheswick is remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium.
Brother of Joseph Cheswick (see Other Great War servicemen)
PERCIVAL THOMAS WATSON WALKER
M2/202039 Private, 779th Company
Royal Army Service Corps
Died of pneumonia 23rd October 1918 aged 41
Percy was born in 1878 in Scotter, the second son of William (an agricultural labourer from Kirton in Lindsey) and Emma Maria Walker (nee Watson of Scotter). Older brother John William died as a baby. Their father moved to find work and Percy spent his childhood at Redbourne where sister Grace Louisa J. was born in 1881. By the turn of the century the family was living at South Green, Kirton in Lindsey where a second sister Gertrude Ivy Mabel was born in 1895
As a young man Percy was a groom for John Nicholson at Grange Farm, Grayingham. In 1907 he married Gertrude Hague and they lived at Upton near Southwell, Nottinghamshire. The next year their daughter Gwendoline Amy was born. Percy was working at Upton Hall for the Warwick family as a coachman and with the arrival of mechanisation became their 'second chauffeur'. The 1911 census shows them living with his sister-in-law Amy Elizabeth Hague.
Private Percival Walker is buried in the Mikra British Cemetery at Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece.
At Upton he was remembered on a tablet in the Old Methodist Chapel and on a memorial in the St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church. When the chapel had become derelict the tablet was removed for preservation. It is now sited in the church close to the memorial.
His widow lived on at Upton until her death in 1929 and is buried in their churchyard.
HERBERT RICKELL
55993 Private, Northumberland Fusiliers
62405 Private, 2nd Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
killed in action 3rd October 1918 aged 19
He was born in Scotter on 11th May 1899, the son of Frank and Elizabeth Rickell (nee Croft). His older brother and sisters were John, Maud and Ruth; Baden White was his younger brother.
Their father was a farm labourer who moved the family to wherever there was work. The season before Herbert's birth the family had lived at Huckerby and within a couple of years they had moved on to Normanby.
Private Herbert Rickell is buried at Ramicourt British Cemetery, Aisne, France and is remembered on the Ashby War Memorial.
FREDERICK WRAY ('Fred')
52084 Private, North Staffordshire Regiment
G/63077 Private, Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment)
posted to 7th Battalion, London Regiment
died of wounds 9th September 1918 aged 18
Fred was born in Scotterwood on 27th December 1899, the son of William (a farm labourer from Nettleham) and Emily Ann (nee Sleight of Scotter).
Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension
Their father moved his family to follow his work as a farm labourer. Unlike the oldest children, Mary and William, the younger ones, John and Herbert, were born in Scotter. Eventually they all went to Lincoln and lived at 43 Williamson Street. From there Fred enlisted into the Army.
Private Frederick Wray is buried in the Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension in the Somme Region of France, and at Lincoln is remembered on a plaque in St. Nicholas's Church and on their War Memorial.
Nephew of Walter Sleight (see main face)
Nephew of Amos Sleight (see Great War servicemen not listed)
THOMAS HENRY BARKER ('Harry')
R3/17985 Lance Corporal, 8th Battalion
Lincolnshire Regiment
Killed in action 25th November 1915 aged 20
Harry was born in 1895 the son of Harry and Mary Elizabeth (nee Taylor of Messingham).
His mother ‘Lizzie’, born 1871, went to Gainsborough to work in service. She married in 1893 and had a daughter Maggie a year later. Her husband died aged 28 in 1895 and shortly afterwards Harry was born. Lizzie probably moved back to her home village and sadly she herself died in the Spring of 1896. This left the 2 orphaned children to be brought up by her widowed mother Rachel Taylor who worked as a Chapel cleaner and lived at New Row, Messingham.
Harry was living in Scotter when he went back to his hometown to enlist in the Army. He arrived in France on 27th October 1915 and lost his life just four weeks later.
Harry was living in Scotter when he went back to his hometown to enlist in the Army. He arrived in France on 27th October 1915 and lost his life just four weeks later.
Chapelle-d'Armentieres New Military Cemetery
On 10th December 1915 the ‘Gainsborough News’ reported:-
‘News has come to hand of the death in France of Lance Corporal Henry Barker of the 8th Lincolns… The deceased had only been enlisted 6 months and had been but a month in France… He was a young man highly respected by all who knew him. He was attached to the Wesleyan Sunday School as a boy and up to enlisting attended the Wesleyan Church. He was brought up by his grandmother (Mrs Jackson) and much sympathy is expressed to her in her bereavement, also to his sister Mrs. Sizer of Scotter.’
Lance Corporal Thomas Barker is buried in the Chapelle-d'Armentieres New Military Cemetery in northern France and is remembered on the Messingham War Memorial.
photo from Dorothie Cole; daughter of his sister Edith
ALBERT EDWARD PYECROFT
25101 Private, 'D' Company, 8th Battalion
South Staffordshire Regiment
Died 25th July 1917 aged 20
Albert and his twin sister Edith were born on 22nd January 1897 in Susworth, the children of Henry (a farmer from Walkeringham) and Annie (nee Rodgers of Mexborough).
Albert's older brother and sisters were Annie, Charles Henry and Amy; younger brother Herbert Reginald was born at the turn of the century. Their parents married in the Barnsley registration district and for a time lived at Silkstone. In the early 1890s they came to Susworth where Albert's paternal grandfather Charles was a retired farmer.
Level Crossing Cemetery
When his brother Charles Henry enlisted into the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1916 they were living at Yaddlethorpe and indeed, at the time of his death, Albert was described as a native of that village. Just a year after the loss of Albert his mother died when the family were living in South Kelsey.
Private Albert Pyecroft is buried in the Level Crossing Cemetery at Fampoux near Arras, France and is remembered on a wooden plaque inside St. Paul's Church at Ashby.
GEORGE NORTH
99606 Private, 1st/9th Battalion
The King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Died 29th October 1918 aged 19
Although he is sometimes linked to Scotter, he was born at Scotton the son of George and Lily North (nee Barnett). The whole family later moved to Gringley-on-the-Hill and he enlisted at Retford.
Private George North is buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery, near Boulogne, France. He is remembered on the Gringley-on-the-Hill War Memorial.