Name
Robert William Collings Sommerville (*1)
15 June 1879
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
05/05/1915
35
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
13786
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 31 and 33.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St Mary's Church Memorial, Apsley End, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Robert William Collings [Sommerville] (known as William) was born in St Pancras, [Paddington] Middlesex on 15 June 1879, the son of Robert and Harriet Collings, and baptised at St Pancras Old Street, on 2 November 1874. He had four older sisters.
On the 1881 Census, the family were living at 27 Bidborough Street, St Pancras. His mother was a widow, his father having died the year before and her mother Esther Frost was listed with the family. His mother married Charles John Sommerville on 26 October 1885 at St Pancras Old Street and on the 1891 Census he was living with his mother and stepfather in Wood Green, Tottenham, where his stepfather was working as a Woodjoiner. None of his siblings were living with them, but he had already adopted the Sommerville surname.
On the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899 William enlisted in the City of London Imperial Volunteers and served from January to October 1900 in South Africa under Reg. No. 115. He received the South Africa Medal with clasps for Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Cape Colony and Orange Free State.
Sadly, by the 1901 Census, his mother was listed as being in the Edmonton Union Workhouse probably in the infirmary because she was ill and could not be cared for at home. Robert was living with his stepfather, Charles Sommerville, at 50 Glenwood Road, Tottenham and working as a Machinist. His stepfather died in 1904 and his mother the following year. One of his sisters. Maude Maria. was working as an Officer in another Union Workhouse in 1901 and later qualified as a midwife.
He married Alice Swallow on 25 April 1903 at St Anne's Church, Poole's Park, Islington, Middx and on the 1911 Census they were living with their 3 children, Alice, Maud and Doris and niece Edith Day, at 21 Weymouth Street, Hemel Hempstead, where he was working as a Wood Sawyer at the Paper Mill. (John Dickinson & Co).
His widow's address on pension records was given as 8 Corner Hall, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
Wartime Service
He had previously served in the Boer War with the City Imperial Volunteers, and at the outbreak of the First World War he enlisted in Hertford and served with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment in France from 2 February 1915.
He saw action in the trenches before moving to Ypres salient in early March 1915. He was killed in action on 5 May 1915, at Hill 60, Belgium. The Battalion was subjected to gas attacks from two points opposite their trenches and all were badly affected, some fatally. Some troops were driven out of their trenches by the enemy but the battalion fought back and there was desperate fighting all day with both sides using hand grenades and rifles and unfortunately some were killed by a battery of our own artillery firing into the trenches.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow received a pension of £1 3s a week for herself her three children. She also received a war gratuity of £3 but there was no pay owing as he was in debt and owed 16 shillings.
*1 We believe this man appears as W Sommerville on the Apsley End memorial.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, http://www.bedfordregiment.org.uk, www.dacorumheritage,org.uk., www.hemeheroes.com.
