SIBLINGS WAR SERVICE

SIBLINGS WAR SERVICE

1900 - 1917

With permission of the website contributor, Val Trevallion, the following item is shared here from http://www.ystradgynlais-wargraves.co.uk/cs-white.html, thanks to a family member, Chris Clark, who supplied the story: Cornelius and his slightly older brother Fred, were placed in the George Muller orphanage in Bristol at the ages of four and five respectively after their mother died in 1900.(Amelia White, she was aged 36, had 13 children, and her death certificate says she died of exhaustion.) The lady of the manor, a Mrs Pass, organised the move because she felt their father, a local agricultural labourer, could not cope. Their father, Jarvis, died in 1936. At 14 they left the orphanage and were apprenticed to Christian families on the understanding they would be treated like one of the family. Cornelius went to Ystradglynais and Fred to Sutton Coalfield. They kept up links with their siblings and father. Six siblings served in WW1; three killed and three survived. When they both enlisted into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1915 it was at Charmouth which is a couple of miles from Wotton Fitzpaine. An important snippet in their story is contained in the diary of their brother, Ralph, who met Cornelieus on the Western Front shortly after the Battle of Somme. Cornelius and Fred both fought in that battle. At the end of the first day the Warwickshires had a roll call to find out who was left and when Fred didn't answer, Cornelius asked for permission to go out into no-man's land and look for him. He found him badly wounded and brought him in to get him medical attention. Fred spent a year recovering from wounds. Both boys were killed in October 1917 during the 3rd battle of Eypres. A note described as being 'the testimony of an officer' is attached to Cornelius' file from the orphanage and says that he was killed by a sniper while in the act of attending to a wounded man. He died before he was twenty.

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  • Profile picture for Cornelius S White

    British Army 1801 Private Royal Warwickshire Regiment