I Will Remember them.

Like with so many families in the UK and across the Commonwealth. I had family members who packed their kit bags and went to war, not knowing if they would ever return home. This war was like no other and so many brave men and boys never returned to their families. 

The people below are members from my immediate and distant family and I will remember them 100 years on.

My Great Grandad. On my Mother's side.

Caleb OWEN .  Rifleman, Kings Royal Rifle Corps.
He volunteered in August 1914, and was later drafted to
France, where he served in the Battle of Ypres, Loos and
Vimy Ridge.
He also took part in the engagement at Hooge.
He was twice wounded in action, and as a result of his wounds and shell-shock. He was discharged 1 Feb 1917. SWB Number 23028., holding the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.

FREDRICK OWEN.

Served in WW1 he served in the Worcestershire Regiment and was killed in France on 10th April 1918 aged just 19 years old. He is in the photograph above. Many of the Owen men served in the Great War.

Family members on my Father's side.

Albert William Cosser was killed in action in World War 1.
He enlisted in the Army in Winchester and when killed was a Private in the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment. Service No: 25849

His record states:
04/08/1914 Colchester: 11th Bde. 4th Div.
18/08/1914 Harrow.
23/08/1914 landed at Havre.
11/11/1918 11th Bde. 4th Div. France: Haspres, N.W. of Solmes.

He was killed in action on 21st December 1916.
Albert is remembered with honour at the Sailly-Saillisel British Cemetary, France.
Sailly-Saillisel, standing at the north end of a ridge, was the objective of French attacks in September and October 1916, and was captured on 18 October. The village remained in Allied hands until 24 March 1918 when it was lost during the German advance, but was recaptured by the 18th and 38th (Welsh) Division on 1 September 1918.
The cemetery was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in isolated positions chiefly south and east of the village and from small burial grounds.

ALBERT VICTOR BREWER:

Albert was killed in WW1.
He enlisted in Bournemouth and joined the Gloucestershire Regiment, 13th (Service) Battalion (Forest of Dean). His regimental number was 37304 and he died of his wounds on 24th March 1918. He is Remembered with Honour at the Blargies Communal Cemetery Extension. Blargies is a village and commune in the Department of the Oise. the village of Blargies take the first left. . The Cemetery Extension stands on the north-east side of the Communal Cemetery, in an old apple orchard.
Blargies became in 1916 an important centre of British and native labour attached to the dumps and depots at Abancourt; and in the same year it was found necessary to open an Extension of the Communal Cemetery for the burial of men who died in the hospitals of the Camp. The Extension was used until 1920. There are now nearly 250, 1914-18 and a small number of 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. The grave of a Bermudan soldier was brought in from the COMMUNAL CEMETERY after the 1918 Armistice; and those of twelve German prisoners, four Italian laboureres and one American Y.M.C.A. worker were removed to other burial grounds. Extension covers an area of 1,998 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall on three sides.

FREDERICK CHARLES COSSER.
Fredrick joined up in 1916. he fought in WW1. He was attested into the Army on 23rd February 1916, joined the Army Reserve on 24th February 1916 and was Mobilized on 17th May 1916.  His regiment was the 2nd L.Gds, Machine Gun Regiment. He was a Machine Gunner and fought in France from 31st March 1918 to 14th February 1919. He was transferred to the Army Reserve on 15th March 1919.

HAROLD ROBERT EVEREST.

Harold enlisted, in London, on 22nd September 1915 into the Kings Royal Rifle Corps 18th (Service) Batallion. At the time his address was stated as 34 Hyde Close, Winchester and his occupation was Schoolmaster. He was unmarried. His regimental number was G/7129 and his rank was Rifleman.
He was wounded in action on 15 the September 1916 in France/Flanders and died of his wounds on 24th September 1916 aged 31.
 His Grave/Memorial Reference is X1.A.11A at the Etaples Military Cemetary, France. (Etaples is a town about 27 kilometres south of Boulogne. The Military Cemetery is to the north of the town, on the west side of the road to Boulogne.)
His sister, Eleanor Frances received his British War Medals on behalf of her mother on 15th February 1921.