Remembering the fallen of the First World War from Dorset

As we mark 100 years since war was declared in Britain, the Dorset Echo is honouring those from the county who displayed incredible feats of bravery and courage during the conflict.

Nothing could have prepared the people of Dorset for the months and years that followed the outbreak of war on August 4, 1914, as thousands of men, many of them still youths, left for the bloody battlefields of the Western Front and life at home changed beyond all recognition.

As communities across the county hold events to mark the occasion and find their own ways of paying respects, we are also paying tribute to those who fought and died and must never be forgotten.

The men we have pictured are just a selection of the countless heroes who put their lives on the line for their country, many of whom never returned from the battlefields.

In the run up to the centenary the Dorset Echo has also been bringing you personal tales of these people who were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice and the horrific things they experienced.

William Rhodes-Moorhouse, of Parnham House in Beaminster, was the first airman to be awarded the VC.

He died in 1915 after a perilous mission in France in which he was ordered to bomb the enemy’s rail network.

He was badly wounded in the mission, which was successful, but made it back to base where he insisted on filing his report while his wounds were tended. He died later aged 27.

Walter John Walden, of Weymouth, was just 17 when he enlisted in the 2nd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment.

He died within three months.

It was initially thought he died in France but investigation revealed he was killed in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), probably at Sahil on November 17, 1914. He was buried at Basra War Cemetery, Iraq.

Alexander William Sanders, known as Will, from Shipton Gorge, was in the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment.

He died in a gas attack at Yypres on May 2, 1915. The Dorsets suffered more than 300 casualties in the attack, of which 130 died.

Lance Sergeant Eleazar John Squire of the 1/4th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment was killed in action on September 28, 1917 in Mesopotamia.

He is commemorated at the Baghdad war cemetery and also on the Chideock War Memorial.

He was born in Chideock and joined the 1/4th Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment.

Frederick Hubert Reginald Travers of Loders joined the Royal Navy in 1910.

He joined HMS Bulwark in 1912 and was among the hundreds who died in an accidental explosion on board the ship at Sheerness, Kent, on November 26, 1914.

He was awarded the Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

William Trip of Frampton was among three brothers who went to war, serving in Europe.

Tragically, his brother Edward, an Army medic, discovered he had died when he was bringing in casualties during the Battle of Amiens near Chipilly Ridge in 1918.

Walter ‘Stanley’ Brown of Loders was a Private in the Dorsetshire Regiment 5th Battalion. He was killed in action at Gallipoli.

He was buried in Gallipoli, Canakkale, Turkey. He also has a memorial in Loders churchyard.

Albert Tiltman from Powerstock joined the Navy aged 15 as a boy, second class.

He died aboard the armopured cruiser HMS Black Prince at the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916.

William Charles Penny Stone was another Powerstock man.

He died on October 5, 1918, at Poona, India, aged 24. It is thought he died of his wounds at Poona where the 2nd Battlion of the Dorsets had a base.

William George Kingdon Squibb of Weymouth was in the 1st Battalion Dorset Regiment and before he was called up into active service one of his details was to escort German prisoners of war down Ridgeway Hill.

He died of wounds just three weeks after being called up, on April 16, 1917, aged 37, near the French village of Foreste.

He had served with the 4th Dorsets and by the time of his death had seen a great deal of service.

Walter Hill of Dorchester was a lieutenant in the North Staffordshire Regiment.

He landed in France in September 1914 and was killed just 10 days later – on September 25 – when he was mortally wounded by a German sniper, while taking part in the Battle of the Aisne.

Cecil Barnes and Colin Wood were among the men whose names appear on the memorial at Whitchurch Canonicorum.

Private Cecil Augustus Barnes, was in the Wiltshire Regiment 6th Battalion, and was killed in Flanders on November 4, 1918, aged 20. He is buried at Terlincthun Brit, Wimille, France.

Private Colin Wood served in the Canadian Infantry 54th Battalion as he had emigrated to Canada. He was killed on September 6, 1917, aged 29.

He is on the Vimy Memorial in France.

Richard Reed was another Powerstock man – one of 11 from the village who died in the war. He served in the 1st Battallion, Wiltshire Regiment, and died on February 5, 1917.

For more on these men’s stories and others visit dorsetecho.co.uk/ww1