Posted to Egypt

On the 28th April 1915, 100 years ago today, my first cousin three times removed, Alfred Charles Morris Bush arrived at Alexandria, Egypt. Aged 38 he was the Company Sergeant Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and was attached to the 1/4^th London Mounted Brigade.

Alfred was born in Wimbledon, Surrey in about 1876 and was one of five children born to Charles and Caroline Bush (nee Wigman). His older sister Louisa had married William King in 1893, he also had a younger sister Nellie and two younger brothers Charles and William. His brother, Charles was also serving in the RAMC and had just returned from France having been posted in December to New Hampsted Military Hospital from No.9 General Hospital in Rouen.

His father Charles Henry Bush had died in 1882 aged just 34 when Alfred was six. In 1888 his mother Caroline had re-married to William Clack, a scavenger with Wimbledon Borough Council and they had a further seven children and lived in the Bush family home at 11 Ashbourne Road, Wimbledon.

Alfred and his brother Charles both served in the RAMC in the Boer War and Alfred remained in the Army. In 1911 he was living in the Headquarters of the London Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance in Farringdon Road, London. With him were his wife Ellen, who he had married in 1905 and his two children Amy (born 1909) and George (born 1910).

Upon arrival in Egypt, Company Sergeant Major Alfred Bush and the 1/4th london Mounted Brigade was posted to the Suez Canal defences, near Ismailia.

Also on the move and now just one day out from arriving in England were the 4^th Field Company, Canadian Engineers, in which my Great Grand Uncle, Albert Benjamin Uden, had enlisted in, had left Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 18th April 1915 bound for England on board the HMT Northland. The voyage took 11 days in total, The 4th field Company was under the command of Major G.A. Inksetter. 

At the time of writing the personel records for this company have not been fully digitized so it is possible that Albert Uden did not travel to England, the research goes on...

Enlisting in the Navy

On April 12^th 1915 Frederick Charles Bush joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker and started his training at Pembroke II the Royal Navy Shore Station in Sheppey, Kent.

He was 18 years and 4 months old and just 5 foot 2 1/2 inches tall with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion and had previously been working as a warehouseman.

Frederick Charles Bush (My first cousin three times removed) was born on the 7^th December 1896 in Wimbledon, Surrey. The third son of Edwin and Ada Bush (Nee Searle) growing up in the family home at 8 Leyton Road, South Wimbledon. His mother passed away in 1910 aged just 38 years old, with Frederick only 14 years old and by 1911 the family were living at 41a Cowper Road, Wimbledon. However Frederick was at the Holme Court Industrial School for Boys, Twickenham Rd, Isleworth, which was a certified truant industrial school.

Frederick had two older brothers Edwin (born 1893) and Alfred (born 1895) and three younger brothers Arthur (born 1900), Albert (born 1903) and George (born 1908). Two other brothers, Horace and John had died in infancy. His eldest brother, Edwin, had recently married Rosetta Turner.

Frederick’s father Edwin had served in the Royal Navy from 1884 to 1892.