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This is the grave of Alfred William Slaughter located in the war graves area of Earlham Cemetery, although as an aside I’ve now discovered there’s another military burial area (where members of the Britannia Barracks were buried, but this became full by the middle of the First World War) and so I’ll have to pop back at some point.

One question I have about this grave, if anyone happens to know, is what it’s doing here. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) consider anything after 31 August 1921 to be outside their scope until the Second World War. So, the CWGC list that there are 534 war dead at Earlham Cemetery, of which Alfred is excluded. So, quite why he was buried here I don’t know, although it explains why the format of the text on the gravestone is different to nearly all of the others.

Alfred William Slaughter was baptised on 29 September 1875 at St. Lawrence’s Church in Norwich, the son of Alfred William Slaughter and Margaret Caroline Slaughter (nee Springall). By the time of the 1911 census, he was living at 28 Rose Lane in Norwich, where he worked as a shopkeeper. He was living with his wife Lilian Maud, and his sons Alfred William and Clifford Henry. For reasons unknown, all of the family had been born in Norwich, but the younger Alfred William was born in Nottingham.

Alfred died on 8 February 1924 at the age of 48, although I can’t find under what circumstances that happened. His probate was completed on 18 June 1924 and he left £1,251 to his wife, Lilian Maud. His wife had moved to 23 Hastings Avenue in Hellesdon by the time of the 1939 register, where she was listed as living on her own. Her probate was completed later that year, when it was noted that she died at the Post Office at Griston. The details of her death were added to Alfred’s grave, although the written record says that she died on 29 March 1951, nor the 26 March listed on the gravestone.

So, why Alfred has a grave where he does, I’m not sure. Unfortunately, his military records don’t seem to have survived, making it harder to resolve that little mystery. This is yet another situation where I’m sure that there’s a story here, I just can’t work out what it is.

This is the grave of Corporal Charles H Notley, located at Earlham Cemetery in Norwich. I haven’t been able to do much with this one, there are two Charles Notleys and I can’t find enough out to work out which one this is to work back. So, all that I know is that his service number is 5499057 and he was in the Army Catering Corps (I think that’s the one I’d have joined if I was forced into the army), initially with the Northamptonshire Regiment and then attached to the Royal Pioneer Corps (or just the Pioneer Corps at the time, the Royal bit came in 1946). Charles died on 24 June 1944.

So, another one that I’ll come back to in the future….

This is the war grave of Sapper Charles Weavers, located at Earlham Cemetery, in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. I can’t get very far with this one. I know that he was born in around 1882, the son of Charles and Thereza Weavers and in 1891 they lived at Leonard Street in Norwich, with the older Charles working as a fishmonger. But I can’t find the younger Charles on either the 1901 or 1911 census, he’s not mentioned in the media and his military records have been lost.

I do know that he enlisted on 3 May 1915 with service number 85263 and he was discharged on 29 January 1919, having fought with the 34th Norfolk Division and the Royal Engineers G Depot. He was discharged following a medical, when he was aged 38, for the reason of being “no longer physically fit for service”. Charles was awarded with a Silver War Badge, often worn by men to show that they had fought in the war amidst people abusing them during the conflict for being in the UK.

Charles died on 10 February 1922 at the age of 40, and I’d like to know more of the story here….

This is the war grave of Frederick Thomas William Jillings, located at Earlham Cemetery, but not in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. Frederick was born in Lowestoft in 1901, his parents being Frederick and Ellen Jillings, who lived at 11 Bevan Street in the town. Frederick (the elder) had a boot repairing shop and Frederick had two older sisters, Elsie and Florence.

By the 1911 census, the family had moved to 4 Gertrude Road in Norwich, with Frederick the older being a boot machinist, as were Frederick’s two older sisters. When the First World War broke out, Frederick was only 13 and since only 18 year olds were ever conscripted, it probably felt a long way away for him. There was sadness in the family though in 1917, when Ellen died, leaving her husband and three children.

The First World War loomed large though and Frederick joined up in mid-1918, just when the conflict looked like it might be coming to an end. He was sent to join Number 2 Southern Company in Hampshire, but was then moved to the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) in Blackpool. Above is a painting (© IWM Art.IWM ART 3681) of the inspection tent for the RAMC in the town, which is the unit that Frederick was sent to. At this time Frederick was told he needed glasses during his medical inspection and it’s a nice thought that he was perhaps one of the soldiers in the image….

Unfortunately, Frederick’s war came to an end after just 149 days of service, he became ill and was transferred to Colchester General Hospital. He died there of bronco-pneumonia on 12 February 1919, at the age of just 18.

As an aside, Frederick (the older) continued living at his property at 4 Gertrude Road in Norwich until his death in 1944, with his two remaining children both staying single and living with him. They must have been fiercely difficult years for him during the First World War, losing his wife and son within just a couple of years each other.

This is the war grave of Harry Land, located at Earlham Cemetery, but not in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. Someone might contact me here, as I’ve had to make a big assumption to work this one out. The military records of Harry aren’t available, nor is there any information on the Commonwealth War Graves web-site giving further details of an address of next of kin.

So, working back, he served in the 10th battalion of the Suffolk Regiment, a reserves unit which never left the UK. On the date of Harry’s death, this battalion were stationed in Dovercourt in Essex, having just moved from Colchester. And on the day that Harry died, 23 April 1916, a death was registered in that area of someone with the same name who was born in 1884, so we now have a birthdate.

There is only one Harry Land in East Anglia that I can find with that birth-year, he was born on 24 May 1884 and was the son of Harry and Charlotte Land. At the 1891 census, Harry (younger), his parents and siblings were living at King’s Road in Norwich, with Harry attending the Prospect Row Council School and then the Carrow Boys School. The family lived at Cypress Street at this point, moving to 9 Geoffrey Road in Norwich by 1901, when Harry was working as a gas-fitter and bell-hanger. At the 1911 census, Harry still lived with his parents and siblings, this time at 45 Carlyle Road in Norwich and he was now working at a corn and seed store.

This is the best I can do, and I don’t understand why he would be in the Suffolk Regiment, something which concerns me slightly about whether this is right. Anyway, hopefully this little mystery might get solved one day.