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When Charles Leonard joined up on 10.5.1916 he stated that his occupation was a Dairy Farmer and he was CofE, his wife Rachel was living at 20 Lordship Road Stoke Newington
On 29.7.1918 his medical report showed he was suffering from Malaria, he had been serving in Salonika for 20 months and Constantinople for 6 months. Reason for illness - 'Due to serving in a malaria infected country'. He gave his home address as 40 Ponsonby Place Westminster
He was reviewed on 11.10.1919 in Constantinople and it was noted that he had had 7 relapses the last being in February that year. He was therefore entitled to an Army Pension. On 28.11.1919 he enquired as to whether he could have maintenance for a child.

Lawrence volunteered in February 1915 and in the following August was drafted to France, where he was in action at Ypres, Festubert, Loos, St Elot, Albert, Vimy Ridge and the Somme. Later he was transferred to the Italian Front and served with distinction in the campaign against the Austrians. He returned to England and was demobilised in February 1919 holding the 1914-15 Star, General Service and Victory medals.
His address in London : 3 Ponsonby Terrace SW1
Address on sign up 58 Pulford Street Pimlico

Harry had a younger brother Edwin who was born in Sleaford and came down to London with the family. We have searched all records and to date found no trace. We are now researching the WW1 records and have found two possibilities. The one above and even more mysterious the image below. On the reverse of the card we see William Wallace - Worthing - could this be brother Harry - already on the move with the family and describing himself as a
' Mechanical Engineer (munitions)' on his youngest son's birth certificate?
Edwin last appeared on the 1901 Census living at home with his parents, siblings
Harry and Jessie, Henry Pepper, uncle, was also resident.
Research to continue .......

The Sinking of the Lusitania

On May 1, 1915, the ship departed New York City bound for Liverpool. Unknown to her passengers but probably no secret to the Germans, almost all her hidden cargo consisted of munitions and contraband destined for the British war effort. As the fastest ship afloat, the luxurious liner felt secure in the belief she could easily outdistance any submarine. Nonetheless, the menace of submarine attack reduced her passenger list to only half her capacity.
On May 7, the ship neared the coast of Ireland. At 2:10 in the afternoon a torpedo fired by the German submarine U 20 slammed into her side. A mysterious second explosion ripped the liner apart. Chaos reigned. The ship listed so badly and quickly that lifeboats crashed into passengers crowded on deck, or dumped their loads into the water. Most passengers never had a chance. Within 18 minutes the giant ship slipped beneath the sea. One thousand one hundred nineteen of the 1,924 aboard died. The dead included 114 Americans
The British public were outraged and destroyed and looted German businesses and shops throught the country.
The sinking enraged American public opinion. The political fallout was immediate. President Wilson protested strongly to the Germans. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, a pacifist, resigned. In September, the Germans announced that passenger ships would be sunk only with prior warning and appropriate safeguards for passengers. However, the seeds of American animosity towards Germany were sown. Within two years America declared war.

Fritz Martin fought for the British in WW1 - he used the name Frederick. His father was
Johann Georg Michael Rothermel born Würtemberg Germany. The German names must have been very sensitive after the sinking of the Lusitania and it is unknown whether the family's butchers shops were attacked or looted during this period in history.
Fritz and George were both born in the UK and were Britsh Citizens.

Aliases – men appear under the names they enlisted under and were known to the army. Many men signed up under an alias, for various reasons, such as:

Pre-War regulars re-joining the army having previously deserted
Rejected volunteers when volunteering again at a different recruiting centre
Men who wanted not to be traced by family (e.g. parents) or others
Men who simply wanted to leave behind their past and begin anew

George Carl Rothermel also fought in WW1
The only "hard " evidence available are his medals, All is revealed. We had the feeling there was some problem about the name stamped on the medals, and, from memory, we thought that it was the name Rothermel spelt with a double L. But no.

203351 Private G.C. RUTHERMEL (!!!) North Staffs Regiment.

George Carl Rothermel served in WW1 as a stretcher-bearer, and hardly ever talked about his experiences, other than being wounded and having shrapnel embedded in his legs. Ever since we could remember, he had great difficulty walking. By profession, he was a Master-Butcher, and continued part-time for a local butcher, right up to his death
Information from newly found Rothermel Cousins

George must have been amongst the men in the trenches...

Gipsy Smith: I have just come back from your boys [the British soldiers fighting the First World War in France]. I have been living among them and talking to them for six months. I have been under shell fire for a month, night and day. I have preached the Gospel within forty yards of the Germans. I have tried to sleep at night in a cellar, and it was so cold that my moustache froze to my blanket and my boots froze to the floor. The meal which comforted me most was a little sour French bread and some Swiss milk and hot water, and a pinch of sugar when I could get it.

There are Y.M.C.A. marquees [big tents] close to the roads down which come the walking wounded from the trenches. In three of these marquees last summer, in three days over ten thousand cases were provided with hot drinks and refreshment - free. And that I call Christian work. You and I have been too much concerned about the preaching and too little about the doing of things.

In one of our huts I saw a lady standing beside two urns - coffee and tea. She was pouring out, and there were 150 or 200 men standing round that hut waiting to get served. The fellows at the end were not pushing and crowding to get first, but waiting their turn. They are more good-natured than a religious crowd waiting to get in to hear a popular preacher. I have seen these people jostle at the doors.

But your boys don't do that. They just sing, "Pack up your troubles," and wait their turn.

See full story.....click

On the evening of May 21, 1915, Hauptmann Karl Linnarz, a noted Zeppelin commander, carried out the first successful raid on London. He had taken off from an airship base located at Evere just north of Brussels, gained operating altitude over his field, and then allowed a friendly breeze to drift him in silence over the British Capital.
It was the first time in history that this type of warfare on helpless civilians was perpetrated, and there was little to be done about these giant gasbags, since practically nothing had been accomplished toward developing a high-angle anti-aircraft gun, and the existing aeroplanes were not capable of rapid climb. There was no radar, and all the Germans had to do was to take off from their sheds in occupied Belgium, climb to a favourable wind level late in the afternoon, and cut their engines. The wind would carry them in silence over the North Sea, so they generally arrived over Britain in the early darkness. Once they had released their racks of high explosives, they simply soared to a greater height and turned their noses for home.
London was the principal objective of the First World War Zeppelin raids, and between 1915 and 1918 no less than 208 airship sorties were carried out against Britain, a total of 5,907 bombs were dropped, 528 people were killed (mostly civilians), and more than 1,000 were wounded. The peak of the Zeppelin's threat was during 1915 and 1916, for during those two years 168 sorties were carried out against Great Britain, killing 115 people and wounding 324 in London. It must have been a very worrying time for Harry, Gertrude, Dorothy and their young family living in the heart of Westminster. We imagine this is why Harry sent the two women and their young children out of the city for Dorothy to give birth first to Pansy in Brighton and then their next son.

See the Harry Gertrude and Dorothy story....click to view

A story Ian's mother told us always had us puzzled until we saw a Zeppilin had bombed a hospital in Lowestoft. She described as a child of a shell she saw go slowly past her bedroom window in Lowestoft Lighthouse and the hospital across the road being destroyed, it was the hospital for wounded soldiers. The Zeppelin made sense ...a shell was nonsense, her sense of size, distance time and speed could have been distorted.

The Great War

It was a great war, The Great War,
The greatest war there's ever been
It was 'a war to end all wars'
It didn't, but that's how it seemed.

It was a great war, the Great War
With the bodies and the blood
The shell holes and the hell holes
The trenches and the mud.

It was a great war, the Great War
The last war where no-one dared
To question the orders
No-one knew or no-one cared.

And you stand there with your poppy
as a tribute to the ones
who gave their lives for nothing
for the fathers and the sons
then the next day you go out
and buy your kids toy guns
well go on, and why not
you've got to teach them while they're young.

It was a great war, The Great War,
the greatest war we've ever seen
we killed their side, we killed our side
we killed anybody in between.

It was a great war, The Great War,
the greatest chance we ever got
to die for our country
or if not then to be shot.

And you stand there in your silence
just like we used to do
like you were waiting for their whistle
for their orders to come through
can't you see you're still doing
just what they tell you to
remember what they did to us
they could do to you.

It was a great war, The Great War,
but you led us up the garden path
and still you lead us every year
up to the cenotaph.

And you stand there, politicians,
wiping tears from your eyes
with the hands that shake the hands
of the dictators you supply
well I cannot see the honour
nor the glory, nor the pride
and I will not wear your poppy
and I will not stand silent by.

Philip Jeays

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