Introduction
Gilbert Purchase is one of the village’s valiant war dead of 1914-18 and is commemorated on the memorial in the church. He was the second man from the village to lose his life in the war.
Childhood
Gilbert was born at Hardington in 1892, the tenth of eleven children born to George Purchase and his wife, Sarah Ann (nee Partridge).[1]
He was probably born at Hardington Moor, where his parents lived from about 1889 onwards.[2] This cottage stands at the junction with Lyatts Lane and was later known as Beech Cottage.
Gilbert’s father was a general labourer, while his mother looked after the home.
Military career
By April 1911, Gilbert was serving with the 1st Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Dragoon Guards, stationed in barracks at Aldershot.[3] His regimental number was 5198.[4]
At the outbreak of the First World War, the regiment was in Cairo but landed in France in October 1914 as part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade in the 3rd Cavalry Division to serve on the Western Front. They took part in the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914 and the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915.[5]
Gilbert was killed in the Battle of Hooge on 28 May 1915. His body lies in the Ypres cemetery, and his name is inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial.
His outstanding pay of £11 18s 8d was paid to his father, George, on 28 October 1915, and a war gratuity of £5 was paid to his mother, Sarah, on 11 September 1919.[6] Additionally, his mother was awarded a war pension from 6 November 1918.[7]
Post-war
After George died on 24 February 1918, his youngest daughter, Ethel, returned home to look after Sarah.[8]
When Sarah died in 1933, she bequeathed all her real and personal property, including her house and its contents, her grounds, pigs and other livestock, to her four unmarried daughters—Emily, Elizabeth, Annie, and Ethel—in equal shares.[9]
Ethel lived at Beech Cottage until she died in 1977.[10]
References
[1] Civil Registration Birth Index; RG14, piece 2297, folio 46, page 11, and family reconstitution.
[2] Western Gazette, 15 March 1889, p.6; voters’ lists; Guardian valuations.
[3] RG14, piece 3122.
[4] Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
[5] Wikipedia; entry for 3rd Dragoon Guards, accessed 22 August 2024.
[6] Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
[7] World War 1 Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
[8] Memorial inscription in Hardington churchyard; RG15, piece 11308, schedule 40.
[9] The will of Sarah Ann Purchase, dated 5 September 1928, proved at Taunton on 27 October 1933.
[10] Memorial inscription in Hardington churchyard.
