The story of six West Dorset men who went to war

In Bridport, a thanksgiving service was quickly organised and, in a crowded St Mary’s Church, the Rev J.W. Coulter gave thanks for victory and peace and offered compassion and sympathy to families in mourning.

The mayor called an open-air meeting at 3pm and thousands of people assembled there, where the Bridport Band played the National Anthem.

The mayor then gave an address.

But there was also sadness and sorrow, as there were few people in the crowd whose lives had not been touched by the loss of a family member or friend.

Here are just some of the stories of local men who went away to war.

Special thanks goes to Sheila Meaney, Paul Violet, Bridport Heritage Forum, Bridport Town Council, Vernon Rattenbury, David Tucker and Lyme Regis Museum for their help with these stories.

Arthur William Marsh

Also known as William or Billy, he was the youngest of six children and lived with his parents at 107 North Allington in 1901.

When his mother died, the family moved down the road to 91.

When the war started, Arthur enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery and was posted overseas to India.

Throughout the war years, with unrest in India itself, Battalions moved around to all the military stations, either marching or by train.

Posts such as Dagshai, Lahore, Bareilly, Delhi and Amballa were where young men from Dorset, many from the Bridport area, found themselves.

Following a serious operation at Amballa Hospital, Arthur died on December 10 1918.

He was buried in a military cemetery there with full military honours and a memorial stone was erected in his name by the men of the Battery.

William Henry Hardiman

William was born in 1888 and baptised at Symondsbury church and moved to Bridport when he married Emma Ventham Coombs on Christmas Day 1909. They lived in South Street with their two children, Bertram and Leonard.

He enlisted with the Dorset Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery in April 1915 and served on the Western Front and Salonika before being deployed to Egypt, joining the Expeditionary force advancing towards Jerusalem.

He joined as a gunner, but also trained and operated as a signaller.

During the third battle of Gaza, William was killed. He was climbing a telegraph pole, attempting to attach a Morse code handset to open the lines of communication between the command post and their 18 pounder guns at the Front. He was shot on what was the last day of the battle.

Geoffrey Nantes

Geoffrey was born on March 1 1881 and baptised in Bradpole on May 4 1881.

He married his wife, Helen Jean Coles, on September 23 1919

He joined the Officers’ Training Corps while at Marlborough College and joined the Dorset Yeomanry in 1900 as a Trooper and served for four years.

In 1908, he took a Territorial Army Commission in the Royal Field Artillery and was gazetted captain in September 1914 before sailing for India in October, serving there until February 1917.

Geoffrey was on sick leave in England until November 1917 but after this was ordered to France to join the 251 Brigade 50th Division and served on the Ypres, Le Bassee and Arras sectors.

He was serving on the Chemin Des Dammes in May 1918 when the Germans made their big push to Rheims. Four British Divisions were captured and he was wounded and taken prisoner.

While prisoner he heard of the Armistice and eventually left Kamstrgall Camp on December 12.

When home, he went back to work at the firm Nantes and Sanctuary, a land and estate agents.

Albert John Andrews

Albert was born in Wooth, near Netherbury in October 1896.

He went to school in Netherbury, leaving in 1910 aged just 14, and worked as a mill hand.

When he volunteered for service at the age of 17, he joined the Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry.

According to records, he served between January 1915 and February 1919 and most of that time was spent in the Middle East. He arrived in Alexandria then fought his way through Egypt into Palestine, eventually reaching Damascus in 1919.

His family recall him having several bouts of malaria before eventually being shipped home, but was saddened by the fact that his faithful horse, like so many others, was not bought home.

Chief Petty Officer Denis Toms 1875-1914

Denis Toms joined the Royal Navy in 1890. He was Lyme’s first casualty of the First World War.

He was killed on November 1, 1914, at the Battle of Coronel, off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean, where a Royal Naval Squadron was defeated by a larger German squadron.

His badly damaged ship, HMS Monmouth, was lost with all its crew as it attempted to ram the German cruiser Nurnberg.

He was the son of Joseph and Amelia Toms of Lyme Regis and husband of Annie Toms of Bridgwater, Somerset.

Denis Toms is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and on Lyme Regis’s memorials.

Private Charles E Gollop 1898-1917

Charles Gollop was only 19 when he died.

He enlisted with the Dorsetshire Regiment in Lyme Regis and was killed during his first night in the trenches at the Battle of Arras on April 12, 1917.

He was the son of Frank and Elizabeth Gollop of 26 Mill Green, Lyme Regis. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and on Lyme Regis’s memorials.

Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur M. Lister RAMC, CMG, 1864-1916

Arthur Lister was the nephew of Lord Lister of Lyme Regis, the pioneer of antiseptic surgery. Arthur, like his uncle became a doctor and before 1914 had served in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Although 50 and in poor health he volunteered for service in 1914. After working in France he was sent to Egypt where he ran a hospital. Ignoring the warnings of his colleagues he worked on with unflagging energy until he could do no more. He died whilst returning home and was buried at sea.

He was the son of Arthur and Suzanne Lister and husband of Sybil Lister. Lieutenant-Colonel Lister would no doubt have been well known in Lyme as his uncle and father purchased a holiday home in the town in 1871 when he was seven, which the family kept until 1929.