IWM Collections

Alfred Frank Jolly was Commissioned as a Temporary Second Lieutenant (Service) on 22nd September 1914. [London Gazette 28910 dated 22 Sep 14]. It looks as though he was appointed to the 2nd Battalion The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) in the Supplement to the London Gazette dated 26th October 1914 at Page 8613. Alfred F. Jolly was confirmed as a Temporary Second Lieutenant in The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) from Temporary Second Lieutenant in a Service Battalion effective from 5 September 1915 but with seniority from 27 October 1914. [London Gazette 29310 dated 28 September 1915]. This may be Alfred Frank Jolly; b. 1895, in Bedford. 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers returned to England from Calcutta, India in December 1914. The Battalion landed at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915 as part of 86th Brigade 29th Division. Reduced by casualties and sickness to 11 officers and 105 ORs they were evacuated from 'W' Beach in a trawler to Egypt over 7/9 January 1916; landed in France in March 1916 and fought on the Western Front through to 1918.//

There is a record of the marriage on 28 June 1918 at St Stephen's Church, Kingsclere, Hampshire, of Mr A F Jolly MC Royal Fusiliers to Enid Constance Steggall, [b.c 1895 at Pamber Heath, Basingstoke, Hampshire] youngest daughter of Rev and Mrs W S Steggall of Baughurst Rectory, Basingstoke. Reported in The Times of Wednesday 3 July 1918. Lt A F Jolly MC relinquished his commission on 18 Mar 1920 on completion of his service. [LG 31878 dated 23 Apr 1920]. Captain A F Jolly MC was restored to the Regular Army establishment on 16th April 1933 [LG 33937 dtd 5 May 1923] to Captain in the East Yorkshire Regiment on 15th September 1923, [LG 32899 dtd 18 Jan 1924]; and then seconded from his battalion to be Adjutant of the Auxiliary Forces, India on 7th October 1929. Captain A F Jolly MC was placed on Half Pay as a consequence of ill health wef 18 Mar 1934 [LG 34034 dtd 20 Mar 1934] and retired from the Regular Army on 4 April 1935 [LG 34148 dtd 5 Apr 1935].//

Major Alfred Frank Jolly MC is buried in the military cemetery at Wyke Regis New Burial Ground, Dorset, [Section E Grave 296], having died on 3 April 1942 aged 47 while serving with 5th Dorset (Weymouth) Battalion of the Home Guard. He is further shown as a former Captain in the East Yorkshire Regiment. Wife of Enid Constance Jolly of Weymouth, and the son of Frank and Ellen Alice Jolly of Sutton, Surrey. See twgpp.org/information.php?id=1370947 . //

There is an entry for Alfred Frank Jolly in the Cambridge Review War List under 'Magdelene College' annotated '>V for 20 May '16 Jolly A. F. Royal Fusiliers 2 Lieut' which might be for the award of his Military Cross.//

The entry from Gary Donaldson 2 above relates to the entry on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site www.cwgc.org and a photo of his headstone is online at www.twgpp.org (The War Graves Photographic Project)

GRATWICKE, PHILIP CHARLES
Rank:Lieutenant
Date of Death:30/03/1918
Age:23
Regiment/Service:Army Cyclist Corps
IX Corps Cyclist Bn
Panel ReferencePanel 90.
MemorialPOZIERES MEMORIAL
Additional Information:
Son of Charles J. and Mary Gratwicke, of 76, Ballater Rd., Brixton, London.

Name: Philip Charles Gratwicke
Death Date: 30 Mar 1918
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment: Army Cyclist Corps
Battalion: 9th Battalion
Type of Casualty: Killed in action
Comments: [Territorial]

In the 1911 Census he is recorded as being born in Lambeth, London. He was living at 76 Ballater Road, Stockwell, London with his parents Charles J & Mary and a brother Walter age 23 and sister Florence age 18. The address is still standing and is just off the A2217 Acre Lane

Help piece together the Life Stories of more than 8 million men and women who made a contribution during the First World War at www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/

The photo below at the NLI was taken by his brother Walter in Dublin (Walter took many photos of trams). It looks like Philip in uniform:

In the “SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 8 NOVEMBER, 1945” I found the listing “537540 W.O. II W. H. BAYES”. Is it possible that this is actually the man depicted in the photograph? - not being an army expert by any stretch of the imagination, I did some research: “In February 1915, with the general introduction of warrant officers throughout the army, Conductors and Sub Conductors became Warrant Officers Class I.” (Wikipedia) As regards insignia “from 11 July 1900, Conductors were authorised to wear a crown within a laurel wreath on their lower sleeve and Sub-Conductors a crown, although they did not start actually wearing these until 1901 and 1904 respectively. In 1915, Conductors were authorised a crown in a laurel wreath and Sub-Conductors the royal coat of arms. In 1918, Conductors began wearing the royal arms in a laurel wreath, still their badge of rank.” (Wikipedia) The man shown in the photograph appears to have this insignia on the badge on his cap – you can’t see the lower sleeves. I’ve also discovered that there is a listing for a ‘William Bayes’ on the Woking Memorial to World War One in the Town Square but no rank is listed against the listing. Not sure if this helps at all but thought I should post these facts with nothing seemingly known about this brave man.

I wonder if this was actually H H W Boyes who served in the Royal Engineers. His medal card says his rank was Temporary Captain. Corps of Royal Engineers: Temp. Lt. H H W Boyes from N. Staff. R., to be Temp. Lt. 9th April 1916, with seniority as from 13th Oct 1915. Source: Suppl. to the London Gazette 6th May 1916. H H W Boyes M.C. was granted the rank of Major when he resigned his commission in 1919. Source: Suppl. to the London Gazette 5 Nov 1919. This would mean he had survived the First World War and checking on the CWGC website there's no record of the loss of H Bayes or H Boyes during WW1. The Free BMD indexes record the death of a Henry H W Boyes in the Hove district of Sussex in 1959, aged 71. [b.c.1888].

Thank you Coolshanagh25 and M2901. Interesting questions, we will have to do a bit more work here to get to the bottom of this. This is going to take a little time, so please bear with us. In the meantime, if anyone else has anything to add to this, we'd welcome their comments here.

I concur with the research done by 'Coolshanagh25'. This is Captain (later Major) H H W Boyes MC RE. He was a "Tunnelling Officer" on the Western Front, having transferred to the Royal Engineers from the North Staffordshires in the Autumn of 1915 (officers of relevant experience were sought out in preparation for the 'mining' of German positions in the Somme sector). Temporary Lieutenant H H W Boyes MC was promoted to Acting Captain in the Royal Engineers whilst commanding a section of a Tunnelling Company with effect 13 Oct 1915. (LG 29838 dated 24 Nov 1916). Captain H H W Boyes MC RE was promoted to Acting Major with effect 2 Sep 1918. (LG 31110 dated 3 Jan 1919).//

Temporary Captain Henry H W Boyes MC RE was also awarded a Mention in Despatches published in the London Gazette on 11 December 1917. The 1891 census for Scotland shows a Henry H W Boyes born in Roxburghshire in 1888. The Institute of Mining Engineers records (Transactions Volume LIX) for 1919-1920 shows a Henry H W Boyes, registered with the Mining Institute of Scotland, as working at Ropp Tin Mines, Ropp, on the Jos Plateau in Bukuru, Northern Nigeria. The Bulletins of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy for 1946-1947 report that Lt Col H H W Boyes arrived from Northern Nigeria and was appointed as Officer for West Africa (Bulletin 478); and that he later returned to Northern Nigeria (Bulletin 481).//