Anthea Dunne dropped into the museum with a photo of her father (pictured in the centre of the group), and after a little research she has managed to piece together the story of his service during the First World War.
William George Samuel Padden was my father from Pontnewydd, near Newport, Monmouthshire, he volunteered and enlisted at Carmarthen in west Wales on 9th October 1914, as part of The Pembrokeshire Yeomanry, the Territorial Force. As a Private in the Pembroke Yeomanry, he was given the regimental number 4390. Although not compelled to, he signed up as willing to serve overseas.
He was transfered to 210 Company of the Machine Gun Corps (part of the 4th Dismounted Brigade) on 22nd October 1916 and given the new regimental number 74792. Initially a private in the Machine Gun Corps, he later became a corporal (29th May 1918).
In April 1916 he sailed for Alexandria as part of the 4th Dismounted Brigade, fought in Egypt, stationed at Wadi El Natrun for 2 years. By 1917 this brigade had become part of The Welsh Regiment. By May 1918 he was fighting on the Western front in France. He was wounded on September 25th 1918 and sent home to a military hospital in Reading with a fractured right femur. He was finally discharged from hospital on May 3rd 1919 with a 40% degree of disablement and a pension of 12 shillings a week [with a temporary bonus of 20%].
He received a Silver War Badge in 1921 due to his injuries and was awarded his British War and Victory medals in April 1922. He was a single man throughout the war. In fact he did not meet and marry my mum until 1940. By then he only had a slight limp. He never talked about the war at all when I was growing up and I didn`t know to ask!
William Padden’s Medal Card
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Wilfred Carver
Submitted by Angie Atkinson. Wilfred Carver, Royal Marines Light Infantry (16955), was born in 1895. He died on the 26th of November 1914 while on the HMS Bulwark. He is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
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Captain Robert Murray
Robert Henry Murray lived with his family lived at West Cottage, Richmond. He was educated at Richmond Grammar School, and attended Selwyn College, Cambridge – rowing in the college boat at the Henley Regatta immediately before the outbreak of war. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Yorkshire Regiment on 8th October 1914, but was quickly promoted to Captain on the 3rd of December 1914. Attached to the Royal Munster Fusiliers, he was Mentioned in Despatches while at Gallipoli. Captain Murray was killed while attending to a wounded man of his Company on the fire-step of his trench. Captain Murray fell in action on 7th July 1916 and is buried at Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, Departement du Pas-de-Calais.
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Marguerite McArthur
Marguerite was born on the 25th March 1892 in Kensington London. From an early age she had a love of books. She attended Norland Place School in Notting Hill. It was soon apparent that she was academically gifted. She also excelled at sport, especially Hockey. During the war years she became Honorary Secretary of the Norland School Old Girls Association. Marguerite left school in 1908 and went on to higher education attaining First Class honours at the Cambridge Higher Local with a distinction in history. In 1910 she went to Dresden in Germany to study culminating in First Class Honours again with a distinction in spoken German. She was also fluent in French. In January 1911 went to Canada in what was a combines holiday/studying venture. October of that year would see her entering Clough Hall Newham College Cambridge to study further in the German language, again attaining First Class honours. At the outbreak of war Marguerite was employed by the Young Men’s Christian Society (YMCA). The Society had been established in London in 1844 as a prayer and bible study group. At the outbreak of war it turned their attention to providing support for servicemen. In November 1914, working with the BEF, it established centres in France. By 1918 there were over 300 centres. Marguerite would find herself working in the War Office Translation Bureau because of her language skills. From March 1918 Marguerite was part of the Army Education Service of the YMCA at Etaples on the northern…