IWM Collections

These could be him: London Gazette Supplement 25 May 1917 has this for Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry - Osborne, Temp. Maj. (actg. Lt.-Col.) J. E. UK Incoming Passengers List has this: Name: Captain J E Osborne Birth Date: abt 1878 Age: 30 Port of Departure:Quebec, Canada Arrival Date:28 Aug 1908 Port of Arrival: Liverpool, England Ports of Voyage: Quebec Ship Name:Empress of Ireland Shipping Line: Canadian Pacific Steamship Line Official Number: 123972 Also Mrs Osborne - wife - 26 British Phone Books has: Name:Major J E Osborne Address:44 Connaught St W.2. Exchange:PADdngtn City/Town:Paddington Directory Title:London Surnames A - Z Sep Publication Year:1928 Directory County:London

John Edwards Osborne appears to have originally been awarded his Commission after passing the Competitive Examination of March 1906 while a Militia & Yeomanry Candidate in the 6th Battalion (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Middlesex Regiment [LG 27915 of 22 May 1906]. He was Commisioned into the Ox & Bucks LI. So it was that Temp Lt Osborne Ox & Bucks LI was promoted to Temp Capt on 22 Oct 1914 in the 6th Battalion Ox & Bucks Light Infantry. Temporary Major J E Osborne was promoted to Acting Lieutenant Colonel on 9 Nov 1916 while Commanding Officer of a battalion (presumably 6th Ox & Bucks LI) [LG 29936 of 9 Feb 1917] and reverted to Temp Major on 25 Apr 1917 on relinquishing that command [LG 30170 dated 6 Jul 1917]. On 18 Sep 1917 the London Gazette shows Temp Major J E Osborne attached (possibly to the Staff) from a Service Battalion as a Major with seniority from 19 Nov 1915. He was awarded a Mention in Despatches as a Temporary Major on 25 May 1917, [Awards Vol 30093 page 5158]. He survived the war and as a Temporary Major he relinquished his Commission on 18 Oct 1919, retaining the rank of Major.//

Major John Edwards Osborne, possibly originally from Somerset, later of The Old Manse, Rescobie, Forfar, Angus, Scotland? Had one son, Major Gerald Michael Osborne MC TD - he of Balmadies, Guthrie, Angus, Forfar, Scotland, (married June Mary Carnegie-Arbuthnott, b. 24 Jul 20, m. 2 Apr 41).

Died 24 Sep 1938 at Wald Sanitorium, Davos Platz, Switzerland. Now known as Wald Hotel. www.myswitzerland.com/en/waldhotel-davos.html Of 10 West Cliff Gardens, Folkestone. Widow Agnes Telford Osborne. She died 18 Sep 1956 in Hove. Probate granted to Annie McQuiston Fleming, a widow. Estate valued at £11927. 12s 10d.

He came from Bristol and was part of the family of the solicitor's firm Osborne Clarke. The Mrs Osborne who survived him was his second wife, whom he married after WWI. (Family information).

HMS Constance was a C-class light cruiser, launched in 1915: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Constance_(1915)

The Internet Archive and National Library of Scotland have digitised the Navy List of July 1918; this includes a Herbert C. Apperly, with the rank of Surgeon (p. 6): digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/pageturner.cfm?id=9... The British Medical Journal of 24 July 1915 (PDF) lists a H.C. Apperly as having been approved in examinations at the Second College (Anatomy and Physiology) by the Conjoint Board in England (p.163). The Calendar of the Royal College of Surgeons, August 1921 lists a Herbert Claude Apperly of Chandos Street as a Member (p. 172): archive.org/details/calendar1921roya The British Medical Journal of 22 May 1954 (PDF) records under deaths (p. 1221): Apperly. - In February, 1954, Herbert Claude Apperly, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., L.D.S., of 37. Crossways, Sutton, Surrey, and 92, Harley Street, London, W., aged 59.

The evidence from genealogical records available on the Internet (e..g. the Ennever family tree) suggests that Apperly practised as a dental surgeon. There is also a brief mention of a H. C. Apperly as a dental surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital in a resumé of a 2010 conference presentation by Stanley Gelbier (PDF). The final paper appears to have been published in Dental History as "Great Ormond Street Hospital, its dental surgeons (1856-1946) and the Cartwright family" (PubMed entry), but I haven't been able to track that down as yet. The Ennever family tree cited above states that Herbert Claude Apperly was born in Hampstead in 1894, the son of Herbert Apperly (also a Dental Surgeon) and Florence (Edmunds); then married to Kathleen Jean Forbes Morris on the 8 April 1926. Interestingly, the National Portrait Gallery catalogue lists two portraits of "Herbert Apperly (died 1932)," there described as consulting dental surgeon to Elizabeth Garnett Anderson Hospital. This (I think) would have been H. C. Apperly's father.

On the 1911 census the family were recorded at North Bar Millway, Reigate, Surrey. Head of the household was Herbert Apperly, (aged 50 and a Dental Surgeon from Rodborough Stroud, Gloucestershire) and his wife of 24 years, Florence, (aged 54 and from Bunbury, Oxfordshire). Still living with them are:- Phyllis Walton....................aged 22............born Hampstead, London Florence Enid....................aged 19...........born Hampstead, London........Student Sybil May...........................aged 14............born Redhill, Surrey John Kenneth Gordon......aged 13............born Redhill, Surrey The family have two live in servants. Herbert Claude, (aged 16 and born Hampstead), was recorded at a boarding school at Monkton Combe, Bath, Somerset. Note that John's age on the 1911 census doesn't really tie up with him being born in 1894. A check of the passengers lists on outbound ships from the UK does indeed include a John Apperly, who sailed from Southampton for Wellington, New Zealand in 1924. His year of birth however is 1897 - which would tie in with the likely birth year for the individual on the census. Herbert Claude's promotion to Temporary Surgeon , effective 22nd January 1918, was gazetted on the 19th February 1918. www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/30533/pages/2214

Sadly, Herbert Claude Apperly's body was found at Walton Heath, near Dorking Road, Walton on the Hill, Banstead on April 11, 1954. His death certificate states that he died from an overdose of barbituric acid and that the cause of death was by suicide whilst of unsound mind. He had last been seen alive on Feb 28, 1954

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).//