27 January 2023
We Tell Their Stories: Commonwealth casualties from around the world
A core part of our mission at the CWGF is to keep the stories of the casualties in our care alive, and to share them so that they are not forgotten.
To celebrate National Storytelling Week between 28th January-5th February, Foundation team member Megan Kelleher shares eight of the stories in our care to highlight the length and breadth of the globe that the Commission’s work covers.
Over to you Megan!
Commonwealth War Graves casualty stories you need to know for National Storytelling Week
The Hender Brothers
Image: William and Charles Hender (© Shirley Blake)
It was not uncommon for many families during the two World Wars to experience the loss of more than one child, and the Hender family from Cornwall was among those.
The family lost two sons, Stoker 1st Class William Hender and Able Seaman Charles Richard Hender, during World War One.
William was the eldest of the Hender’s 13 children and was apprenticed to his father, a butcher, prior to joining the Royal Navy in 1911.
His brother, Charles, followed him into the Royal Navy two months later as a “boy” aged just seventeen.
When the Great War began, William was among the crew of HMS Monmouth, while Charles was on HMS Amphion. Just two days after war was declared, the Amphion struck a German mine and sank w, losing 50 of its men, including Charles.
Three months later, HMS Monmouth was sunk off the Chilean coast in the Battle of Coronel, with all hands lost.
As both died at sea, the Hender brothers are named on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, just 2.5 miles as the crow flies from their family home of 1 Elliot Square, Torpoint.
Major Pandit Piaraylat Atal MiD
Image: Major Pandit Piaraylat Atal. (© IWM HU 123768)
The son of the Private Secretary to the Maharaja of Jodhpore, and the grandson of the former Prime Minister of the Jaipur State, Major Pandit Piaraylat Atal was born in 1872 in Jaipur.
His early life was privileged, and after leaving school he decided to pursue a career as a doctor. After graduating from medical school in Lahore, he travelled to England to continue his studies.
In 1899 he passed the highly competitive exam to serve with the Indian Army Medical Service, which he did for nearly 10 years in India and China. In 1912, he left the Army and travelled back to the UK to specialise as an ear, nose, and throat doctor before returning home to settle down with his wife and five children in Jaipur.
Upon the outbreak of World War One, a 41-year-old Pandit decided to rejoin the Indian Army Medical Service and was sent to fight on the Western Front. As the Battalion Doctor for the 129th Duke of Connaught’s Own Baluchis, Pandit was responsible for the care of all the men of the battalion.
On 23rd November 1914, Pandit was working in the battalion hospital when it came under shellfire. Before anything could be done, a direct hit landed amongst the wounded soldiers; five men were killed, including Pandit. He is now remembered on the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial.
Second Lieutenant Hēnare Mokeua Kōhere
Image: Second Lieutenant Hēnare Mokeua Kōhere (© Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-K2804, photographer HJ Schmidt)
Born on 10th March 1880, Second Lieutenant Hēnare Mokeua Kōhere was the grandson of a Māori chief.
He attended Kawakawa Native School, where he showed promise as an army cadet. During his time at school, he was also a very good rugby player, representing his province, as well as being a haka leader.
For more than a decade after leaving school, Hēnare worked on the family farm. In 1902, he was selected to lead the Māori section of the New Zealand contingent which attended the coronation of Edward VII in London; as part of this, he trained and led the contingent in the haka.
Upon his return to New Zealand, he married Ngarangi Turei and the couple had three children.
When World War One broke out, Hēnare was working on the family farm, but he volunteered to join the New Zealand Army in June 1915. Becoming an officer in the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion, Hēnare saw active service in Egypt and on the Western Front.
Hēnare was wounded by a German shell on 14th September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He was placed on a stretcher and taken to a dugout for shelter, where he was reported to be “comfortable and happy” in spite of being badly wounded. When asked by a fellow officer how he was, Hēnare replied “Ka nui te kino” – “things are very bad.”
Hēnare was evacuated to the Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly station, where he died two days later. He is buried at Heilly Station Cemetery.
Company Serjeant Major Alfred Furlonger AM DCM
Image: Company Serjeant Major Alfred Henry Furlonger. (© Royal Engineers Museum)
Originally from Palmerston Road in Wimbledon, Company Serjeant Major Alfred Henry Furlonger’s father worked on the railways. Alfred initially followed in his father’s footsteps, rising from an office lad to a goods clerk before having the position of “engineer” by 1914.
It has been suggested that Alfred worked on the railways in Chile, and shortly before the outbreak of the First World War he returned to the UK and enlisted in the Royal Engineers. In early 1917, the Royal Engineers formed several Light Railway Companies and Alfred was soon working on these. During the Third Battle of Ypres, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for the following action:
“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He was in charge of trains evacuating the wounded from an aid post. The enemy shelled the line and cut it in seven places, preventing a train from reaching the aid post. He at once organised a party and had the line repaired under heavy fire. When one of the trucks was hit by a shell he transferred the wounded on it to another truck and got the train away to safety. He showed great courage and ability throughout the day.”
On 30th April 1918, Alfred was working on the railway close to Poperinge in Belgium. A train of ammunition had just been loaded ready to go up to the front line; suddenly, a fire broke out on one of the trucks.
Realising that an explosion would be catastrophic, Alfred immediately ordered the engine to be recoupled to tow the burning truck away.
Once this was done, and they had reached a safe distance, Alfred and Sapper Joe Farren tried to uncouple the engine from the blazing truck. It was at this moment that the ammunition truck exploded, killing Alfred and the crew who were helping him.
Alfred and his four men were recognised with the Albert Medal (AM), a prestigious and rare award. Alfred is buried at Haringhe (Bandaghem) Military Cemetery in Belgium.
Nurse Kathleen Adele Brennan
Image: Nurse Kathleen Adele Brennan (Find A Grave)
Born in New South Wales in 1882 as the eldest of five children to William Francis and Elizabeth Mary Brennan, Nurse Kathleen Adele Brennan was educated at Sacred Heart Convent in Sydney.
In spite of all her siblings wanting to serve, on the outbreak of the Great War, it was agreed among the siblings that one girl and one boy would instead stay at home to look after their now-elderly parents.
Kathleen joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) through the Australian Red Cross and left Australia in September 1916 aboard the SS Osterley. On arrival in England, she was posted to 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester.
Kathleen served at the 5th Northern General Hospital and its satellite hospitals until November 1918, when she died from septic pericarditis following a bout of influenza. Her coffin was covered with the Union flag and taken to its final resting place at Leicester (Welford Road) Cemetery on a gun carriage followed by a large procession of her colleagues from the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and VAD.
Nursing Sister Dorothea Mary Lynette Crewdson MM ARRC
Image: Nursing Sister Dorothea Mary Lynette Crewdson MM ARRC (© IWM WWC H2-171)
Born in Bristol in 1886 as the middle child of Henry and Margaret Crewdson, Nursing Sister Dorothea Mary Lynette Crewdson moved to Lenton in Nottinghamshire, where her father worked as a solicitor.
Dorothea received a private education and had a good command of French and German; there is also some suggestion that she became involved in the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU, or “Suffragettes”) who were very active in Nottingham.
In 1911, she volunteered to join the British Red Cross as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. She passed her examinations the following year and joined No.36 South Nottinghamshire Detachment.
When war broke out in 1914, Dorothea initially undertook duties across Nottinghamshire ranging from helping to serve refreshments to more specialist nursing work. In 1915, she volunteered for service in a military hospital overseas and in May 1915 she was ordered to report to No.16 Stationary Hospital at Le Treport, near Dieppe.
After two years working at Le Treport, in 1917 Dorothea was posted to another hospital at Wimereux before being sent to No.46 Stationary Hospital at Etaples. In the summer of 1918, Dorothea was on duty when German bombers raided the area.
For her conduct during the air raid, she was awarded the Military Medal (MM) “for gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy air raid. Although herself wounded, she remained at duty and assisted in dressing the wounds of patients.”
After the war, with the outbreak of a large influenza pandemic, Dorothea helped to treat many patients with the illness. Although she never received the illness herself, sadly on 12th March 1919 she died suddenly of peritonitis. She was posthumously awarded the Royal Red Cross and is buried at Etaples Military Cemetery.
Wing Commander Graeme Harrison DFC, Silver Star (USA)
Image: Wing Commander Graeme Elliott Harrison (Public Domain)
Wing Commander Graeme Elliott Harrison was the son of Leonard, a farmer and farm machinery salesman, and Ethel, a schoolteacher.
Born in Ontario, Canada in 1915, the family returned to the UK and lived in Rustington, Sussex, from when he was nine. Although he originally started a medical degree, his heart was set upon a career in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and so eventually, with his mother’s blessing, he joined in 1934. After graduating from officer training at RAF Cranwell, he steadily rose through the ranks.
In the early years of the Second World War, Graeme was stationed in Sri Lanka and in March 1940 he married Aline Stevens at St John’s Church, Fort Colombo.
The couple returned to the UK in February 1942 and settled in Worthing, Sussex, with their first daughter being born later that year. Graeme was promoted to Wing Commander in September 1942, and over the next 15 months he flew dozens of dangerous night-time heavy bombing raids as well as daylight raids alongside the American 8th Army Air Force (AAF). For his efforts alongside the Americans, he was awarded the American Silver Star in July 1943.
In September 1944, British and American forces launched Operation Market Garden, where airborne forces were dropped by parachute and glider to capture vital bridges over the Rhine River in the Netherlands.
Graeme and his Squadron were with the first wave of aircraft dropping the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. Tragically, the operation went badly wrong.
Over the next week, Graeme and his Squadron flew to Arnhem multiple times a day to drop supplies to the surrounded troops.
On 21st September, Graeme’s Squadron only had 10 serviceable aircraft; nevertheless, Graeme flew low, slow and straight to give his crew the best possible chance of dropping supplies over the men below. Just after clearing the drop zone, they were hit; as they were flying so low, there was no opportunity to bail out safely.
Graeme, his crew of six and the two Airborne dispatchers on board his aircraft were all killed. Sadly, Aline gave birth to their second daughter soon after their death.
Graeme is now buried at Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.
First Officer Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp
Image: First Officer Rosamund King Everard Steenkamp (© South African Military History Society)
First Officer Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp was born on a farm near Carolina in north-eastern South Africa in South Africa in 1907 to Bertha, an artist and farmer, and Charles Joseph Everard, a storekeeper and farmer. Educated in England and Paris, she became a flying instructor during the 1930s.
Rosamund married her husband, Hermanus Nicolaas Fourie Steenkamp, in South Africa in 1940. He was one of her learner pilots from her days serving as a flying instructor for Witwatersrand Technical College.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Rosamund joined the South African Air Force (SAAF), where she served chiefly as a pilot flying military passengers and cargo between South Africa and the fighting front in North Africa. Her husband sadly died of Typhoid in December 1942; she returned to bury him on his farm, before heading back to duty to fly the Cairo route for the SAAF.
In 1944, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), where she flew a variety of aircraft and important passengers across the UK. During her time in the ATA, it is believed she became the first woman to fly a jet aircraft.
In 1946, she was killed in a flying accident whilst at the controls of a Supermarine Spitfire that crashed at Button Oak, Upper Arley, Worcestershire. She is buried at Maidenhead (All Saint’s) Cemetery in Berkshire, alongside a number of other ATA pilots.
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