From the book in church giving information about the Gillingham men who took part in WW1 we learn that he was a Private in the South Wales Borderers, who served in France and Belgium before being killed in action. We have no other information about him: it has not been possible to find him on the CWGC website nor identify him with any certainty in the 1901 census (the closest Henry Shepherd's on this to Gillingham were living in Milborne Port).

Not found on the CWGC site - despite site various spellings and allowing for Henry not being his first name.

Herbert George Hooper was a Private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry; he had joined the army before the war - in September 1911 - and served in the Channel Fleet.

Born in 1894, Herbert was the son of Henry (Harry) - a boot and shoe maker - and Mary Hooper, and like them was born up the road from Gillingham in Mere (Wiltshire). In 1901 he was the middle child of a family of 7 but the family may have grown after this and was still in Mere. His parents were later "of Cemetery Road, Gillingham".

His first cousin, Albert Henry Hooper, also died in the war.

He is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Robert was an Able Seaman, and is buried in in Kent.

His Link with Gillingham is unknown (he is not in the book of the war service of the men of the town or on the Town War Memorial). A John Robert Lockett was born in the Sherborne in 1885; his parents married in the Wincanton district in 1882, his father being from Wells (Somerset) and his mother from Compton Pauncefoot i.e. not very far from Gillingham. If this is the right Robert then maybe he is on the Roll of Honour because he had close family living in the town. The family were in Sherborne for both the 1891 and 1901 censuses, with his father being described as a "blacksmith" and then "a journeyman shoeing smith". His mother was recorded as a "glover" in 1881 before she married.

He had joined the navy before the war in November 1911, and served during the war as an Armourer, at sea.

Henry Sidney John Vincent was the son of Frederick James Vincent, a blacksmith from Hilton, Wiltshire and his Gillingham born wife, Annie. At the time of the 1901 census he was an only child, living with his parents and maternal grandmother, District Nurse Mary Extence. The family lived at Pierston, Milton.

He is remembered on the .

He had joined the army on August 18^th 1903, aged 17, and was a Private in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, serving in France during the war where he was killed in action.

He joined the army in 1901 and served as a Private in India and France where he died of pneumonia, 29^th January 1915.

Garnet Wolsely Read was a Private in the 1^st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, the son of William and Emily Read. Born in Zeals (Wiltshire) in 1883, he was living in Gillingham by 1891 - in Peasemarch Place, with his father William (a picture frame maker) and Ellen, his step-mother, and three brothers and three sisters, of whom he was the fourth child.

His mother, Emily, died a few months after his birth, aged 38, and his father remarried a few months later. From the 1881 census it can be seen he had at least 4 older siblings who had left home by 1891, while the 1901 census shows a younger half sister not born by 1891.

He is buried in the in Rouen.

A Private in the army which he joined before the war in October 1908. He served in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) where he was killed in action on 17th November 1914.

William Charles Thick joined the army on August 5^th 1914, serving as a Private in France and Belgium, before dying of pleurisy less than a year later, on July 2^nd 1915. In 1914 he was decorated with the Star and Clasp.

The age of 29 at death suggests he was born between July 1885 and July 1886. Two William Thicks were born in Gillingham at around this time - one in 1884 (son of Henry and ??), the other, born 1887, was the son of Thomas and Anna. It is believed the William who died was the latter. In 1906 he married Alice Maud Jellett - she was born in 1884 so perhaps he increased his age to lessen the difference between them!

Alice was a labourer's daughter, born on the Isle of Wight, and married William, the son of a gardener, in Portsmouth. By the time the CWGC records were compiled she was living in Roath, Cardiff. It is not known if they had any children.

Sadly William wasn't the only son of Thomas and Anna to die - they also lost his older brother Edward Cornelius less than 3 months later.

Why is William remembered in St. Mary's while Edward isn't? We can't be sure. The family appear to have moved to Gillingham between 1881 and 1884 (from West Knoyle) and moved from Gillingham between 1891 and 1901, by which time they were living in Speen, Newbury (Berkshire). Possibly William and Alice had moved back there after his marriage. Or it may be because William is buried in the town. No doubt he would have had friends in Gillingham from his younger days; they probably wouldn't normally be aware of the death of those who had moved away, but with the death in the town they would - and so added him to the Roll of Honour? It is assumed that William died in the town and that is why he is buried here - although he does not seem to be in the registers of births, marriages and deaths (the only William Thick in 1915 died in the Blofield district in Norfolk). During the first world war there were hospitals in requisitioned buildings in the town - presumably William was in one of these.

Lionel is on the Church Roll or Honour but appears not to have been a Gillingham man (he is not on the town War Memorial Roll of Honour or in the town War Service book). His connection seems to be that his father's cousin, Walter Edward Hamilton Sotheby, was Vicar at the time Lionel died.

Author of a published war diary.

Sir Thomas Evans Keith Lees is another not found in the town's war service book or on the town war memorial, but in his case the link to the town is known: the CWGC records his wife as being "of Thorngrove, Gillingham, Dorset". He had married his wife, Benita B Pelly, in the third quarter of 1913 so maybe he didn't get a chance to live in Gillingham himself sufficiently to be viewed as a "Gillingham man". He was the second Baronet, his father, Sir Elliott Lees, a politician being the first. Although his father was from a Lancashire family, being MP for Oldham, and later Birkendhead, his parents married in London and he was born in the Wimborne area.

Fred Bracher joined the army on September 6^th 1914 and was killed in action a year later (September 1915), having served in France as a Lance Corproal with the 1^st battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment.

Joined up on September 9^th 1914, serving in Gallipoli as an Able Seaman in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve before dying of fever on 30^th June 1915 aged 24.

Wilfred's parents Arthur and Minnie seem to have liked to move around. Arthur, a Grocer's manager in 1901, was from East Wellow, near Romsey in Hampshire; his wife Minnie nee Tull was born in Brighton in 1865 but moved to Reading with her parents in about 1870. Arthur and Minnie married there in 1887 (Arthur was living in Reading by 1881 at which time he was a grocer's assistant). Wilfred was born in Leamington in Warwickshire in 1890; three siblings were born in the Poole area (in 1893, 5 and 7) but by the time of the 1901 census the family were living in Newbury St., Gillingham. Wilfred is buried in the in Greece.

He joined up in March 1914 and served as a Lance Corporal in the Dorset Yeomanry (Queen's Own) in Egypt and Gallipoli before dying of wounds on August 30^th, 1915.

Born in Gillingham in 1889 but living in Wincombe Lane, Shaftesbury as a baby in 1891 with 3 older siblings and his parents (his father Edward was described as a "farm servant (agricultural)". By 1901 he was living in Peasemarsh (Gillingham) with his widowed mother Emily and 2 older brothers - both out at work and so presumbably maintaining the family - and a younger sister.

He is buried in Cairo war memorial cemetery.

Edgar Albert Gower joined up in August 1914, Serjeant, served in Gallipoli before being killed in action on 31^st August, 1915.

Edgar was not born or brought up in Gillingham but perhaps had moved to the town as a young man (he IS listed as a Gillingham man in the war service book. He was born in 1881 in Hastings and was still there at the time of the 1901 census, aged 19 and living with his parents and 6 siblings, whose ages ranged from 3 to 26. Like his brothers he was a clerk - in his case for a brewer, perhaps at the brewery where his father Jesse was manager. In 1891 he was a "scholar" whilst his father at that time was a merchant's clerk.

Buried in in Malta.

George Harold Edwards was a Private in the Wiltshire Regiment, having joined up on the 1st of January 1914

George was the youngest in 1901

He is remembered on the Basra Memorial.

joined up 1913, served in France, killed in action Sept 1914

On the

Walter William Stone was a Private in the Dorsetshire Regiment which he joined on June 5th, 1915. He served in Gallipoli, Egypt and France before dying of wounds on February 5th, 1917.

Buried in Etaples Military Cemetery.

A Lance Corporal in the 1st Dorsets which he joined on Aug 12th 1914, served in France before being killed in action.

Joining up on 7th September 1914, Arthur Green was killed in action on 6th October 1917, having served as a driver in the R F A (Royal Field Artillery) in France. He was awarded the 1914/15 star.

George Henry Ware in the War Service Book (and elsewhere), he joined up on 5th August 1914 and served as a Private in the 5th Dorsets in the Dardanelles, he was killed in action about a year later on 21st August 1915.

Remembered on the Alamein Memorial.

Buried in Killead (St. Catherine) Chuch of Ireland Churchyard