5 Cousins at War

On the 27th October 1915, Maurice Edwin Bush (my 1^st Cousin 3 times removed) aged 23, enlisted with the Royal Flying Corps as an armourer / mechanic (85 Squadron?).

Maurice was born in 1892 in Paddington, Middlesex. He was the son of Alfred and Caroline Bush (nee Searle) and had 3 older sisters Ethel (born in 1880), Mabel (born in 1883) and Daisy (born in 1885). 

In 1911 the family were living at 119a Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth. Maurice was employed as a clerk with the Bombay Gas Company, Mabel and Daisy were both working as shop assistants, Ethel had married Alfred Fox in 1907 and were living in Kingswood Road, Clapham Park. Maurice’s father Alfred was a Jewellers assistant.

Maurice joined his cousins in answering his Country's call. Charles Henry Bush and Alfred Charles MorrisBush were both serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, Alfred having just been posted to Egypt. Another cousin Frederick Charles Bush had just joined the Navy and another cousin William Alfred Bush was serving in France with the Army Service Corps.

Maurice’s cousin Edwin Maurice Bush had recently married Rosetta Turner and were now celebrating the birth of their first child Edwin PJ Bush (born between April – June 1915). 

We did what was asked of us.

Corporal John Joseph Graffham of the 2^nd Battalion The Queens, Royal West Surrey Regiment had been serving on the Western front since arriving with the rest of his regiment from South Africa on the 4^th October 1914 and had been in the thick of the some of the heaviest fighting of the War. The night of the 15^th and 16^th May was no exception.

Battalion War Diary for 15th / 16th May 1915

During the night of the 15^th & 16^th May there were several showers of rain. At 2.30am there was an issue of rhum. At 2.45am the bombardment of enemy’s trenches & wire commenced & continued till 3.15am.

At 3.15am precisely the leading platoons of A coy scaled the ladders and rushed towards the German trenches to their front. It was now just daylight. As soon as our men showed their heads above our parapet the enemy opened intense rifle fire and seemed in no way affected by the artillery bombardment.

The Queens successfully took the first trench and two more trench lines before reaching their objective the communications trench at around 6am but were heavily counter attacked and eventually had to withdraw to the first captured German Trench by 7.30pm

The battalion war diary lists 435 casualties, 11 officers killed and 8 wounded and 147 other ranks killed, 237 wounded, 42 missing, 6 died of wounds, 2 missing believed killed and 1 wounded and missing.

The diary entry concludes

The battalion had done what was asked of it but at great cost.

One can only imagine what my Great Grand Uncle in Law went through that night and had already gone through since October the previous year. But despite the heavy number of casualties John Graffham survived to fight another day.

Tony

Joining up from Hackney

On the 1^st May 1915 Alfred Walter Read Lewis (my Great Grandfather in law) enlisted with the Army Service Corps at Holloway, North London.

He was 28 years old, 5 foot 6 inches tall, with blue eyes and dark hair and a tattoo on his left forearm. He lived at 3 Kelvin Road, Highbury Park, North London with his wife May (nee Alice May Adams) and their 3 children Doris Mary (aged 4), Alfred Weymouth (aged 3) and Jessie Lily who was only 1 month old.

Alfred was born on the 21^st November 1889 in Spitalfields, Whitechapel. One of ten children, he had six sisters and three brothers. His parents were Harry Bertram and Emily Rebecca Lewis (nee Read) and Alfred like his father was a butcher by trade. The family had moved from Spitalfields to Hackney in 1901, but Alfred was away at the Ardwick Green Industrial School, Ardwick, South Manchester.

By 1911, the Lewis family were living at 91, Windus Road, Stamford Hill. Hackney but on the night of the census Alfred was listed as a visitor with Weymouth & Elizabeth Adams and family, including his future wife Alice May Adams at 129, Packington St, Islington. Alfred married Alice, a dress maker on the 10^th October 1911 at Islington Register Office.

Alfred was tested by the Army Service Corps Butchery section and proved himself to be a fair butcher, but was not tested at slaughtering, he was assigned as a butcher to A company of the Army Service Corps Depot.