Uplowman Parish

WORLD WAR 1

Private William Henry BIDGOOD (1889-1917 –aged 28) – 3rd Worcesters
The son of William Henry (b1860 in Tiverton), a dairyman, and Ellen Sidwell (b1860 in Templeton, Tiverton).
He was born in Uplowman and lived at Crosses Farm, together with his sisters Mary Ellen (b1887) and Amy (b 1903), and his brothers Lewis (b1895) and John (b1895). He was a farm labourer. His brother Arthur Lewis also served in the war with the 8th Devonshires but survived.
He died in June 1917 when aged 28, and had only been in France for one month. He is remembered in the stained glass window in the Church and buried at the Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord.

Lieutenant John Haydon Chave (1896-1918 –aged 22) – 19th Machine Gun Corps.
The son of Edward (b1852 at Widhayes Uplowman) and Ellen Richards (b1854 at Chettiscombe). Edward Chave was a prosperous farmer.
John was born and lived at Widhayes, Uplowman, together with his sisters Dorothy (b1886) and Ethel (b1891), plus brother Edward Thomas Anstey (b1895).
In the 1901 census it shows, when aged just 5, he was living at Morrels House in Sampford Peverell with his sisters Kathleen (aged 19), Cora (aged 18), Ether (aged 10) and Gwendoline (aged 7), plus Edward (aged 6). Quite a large family all told.
He died in 1918 when made up to Temporary Lieutenant. He is remembered in the stained glass window in the Church.

Pioneer Richard Crook (1882-1917 –aged 34) – Pioneer Corps (Royal Engineers)
Richard was born in Uplowman, the son of Richard (b1855 in Uplowman) and Ann (b1844 in Uplowman).
He had a brother Eli (b1880) and a sister Eliza (b1870) from a previous marriage of Ann. Eli married and had a son Ivan Crook who also fought in the War but survived. The family lived in Sampford Peverell in 1891. Richard married and had children.
Richard Crook died of pneumonia in March 1917 at Canterbury and the funeral took place at Uplowman where he is buried. He is remembered in the stained glass window in the Church.

Private Frank Davis (1896-1917 –aged 21) – 17th Worcesters
The son of John (b1858 in Clayhadon) and Elizabeth (b1860 in Tiverton).
Frank was born in Halberton and had brothers Alfred (b1888) and Fred (b1891), plus sisters Hannah (b1883), Annie (b1892) and Dorcas (b1898). In 1891 they all lived in Halberton at Swandhams but moved to Higher Combe in Uplowman by 1911. They all worked on the dairy farm.
He died 24 October 1917 and is buried at Brown’s Copse Cemetery, Roux. He is remembered in the stained glass window in the Church.

Private John Dunn (1888-1916 – aged 28) – 8th Devonshires
Private William Dunn (1894-1915 – aged 21) – 1st Devonshires
They were brothers. The sons of William (b1866 at Halberton) and Mary Ann (b1864 at Church Stanton). They had sisters Mabel (b1890), Louise (b1895) and Blanch (b1901), plus a younger brother Walter (b1900).
Both John and William were born in Clayhidon, as were the other children. However, by 1911 they were living at Pains Farm in Uplowman as dairymen.
William was the first to die at Ypres in April 1915 aged just 21, and John, severely wounded in 1915 was killed in September 1916 aged 28. He had survived the Somme.  John is buried at Tancrez Farm Cemetery, and William at Poperinghe Old Military Cemetery
They are both remembered in the stained glass window in the Church.

Private William Norman (1893-1917 – aged 24) – 16th Devonshires
The son of John (b1863 at Uffculme), a dairyman, and Lavinia (b1865 at Chevithorne) with a sister Alice Jessie (b1894 at Babbacombe) and a brother John (b1897 at Kinkerswell).
William was born in 1893 at Christow. It seems the family moved around a great deal. William was a road contractor for the local council before the war and the family lived at Cott, Uplowman when he enlisted. The parents had moved to Westleigh by 1915 when William died that December aged just 24.
He fought in the Egyptian campaign and is buried in the Jerusalem War Cemetery. He is remembered in the stained glass window in the Church.

Private William Charles Pope (b1880 – 1915 – aged 35) – 2nd Devonshires
William was born at Greenend, Uplowman in 1880 to John Samuel Pope (b1844 in Tiverton) and Mary Ann (b1843 at Bickleigh). John, his father, was an agricultural labour/shepherd.
He had three brothers and four sisters.
He married Florence Frost of Tiverton in 1909 and moved to live in Tiverton at Leat Street.
He died in May 1915 and is buried at Longuenesse, St Omer cemetery.

Private Albert Wilfred Rabjohns (1897-1917 – aged 20) – 8th Devonshires
The son of Albert Woods (b1866 at Uffculme) and Suzanna (b1863 at Uffculme). He had two sisters Margery and Laura living with him in 1911 when they were at Wood (Farm?), Uplowman. Mr Rabjohns was a farmer; quite prosperous with servants.
Previously in 1901 they had lived at Langlands, Uffculme.
Albert died in 1917 having fought in France and Flanders.
He is remembered in the stained glass window in the Church.

Private Arthur Henry Scorse (b1898-1917 – aged 19) – 2nd Dorsetshire
Arthur was born in 1898 in Sampford Peverell to Alice Scorse, who was unmarried and had previously had a daughter Louisa in 1894 and a son Bertie in 1896 who also fought in the war.
Alice married in 1903 to Charles Tucker and had 3 children with him. He died in 1908 and she remarried in 1909 to Francis Brice. In 1911 the family were living at Lands Mill, Uplowman.
He tried to join up at the beginning of the war but was too young but eventually joined in late 1914 and fought in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) were he was killed in March 1917 aged just 19 and was buried at Basra Memorial. His older brother Bertie had joined up shortly after Arthur and he also fought in the Egyptian campaign and was killed in December 1917 aged 21 and is buried in the Basra Cemetery.
He is also remembered on the Sampford Peverell memorial.

Sapper James Trevelyan (b1879 – 1917 – aged 38) – Royal Engineers
James was born in Uplowman at Chapel Cottages, Whitnage to William and Eliza.
James married in 1902 to Edith Ford, from Poltimore, and married in Uplowman but shortly moved to Buckland Cottage, Sampford Peverell (now called Fair View Cottage) where they had a daughter Ivy Nester in 1903.
Fuller details of his life can be found on the Sampford Peverell website by this link. http://spsocresearch.weebly.com/james-trevellyan.html
He was a plate layer on the railways He joined the services in 1916, having been exempt previously as a married man.
James Trevelyan died in France on 2nd October 1917. A newspaper reported that: “Trevelyan was attached to the Royal Engineers, and while actively employed in France was wounded so severely by a bomb from an aeroplane that death followed shortly afterwards.”
He is remembered in the stain glass window in the Church and on the Sampford Peverell web site memorial.

Private Stanley William Trevelyan (1896 – 1918 – aged 22) – Royal Marine Light Infantry
Stanley was the son of William (b1871) and Mary Ann (b1869 in Culmstock). His father was a carter on a farm. He had a younger brother George Charles (b1899), Percy and William and in 1901 were living in Lower Town, Sampford Peverell. By 1911 the family had moved to 2 Whitnage, Uplowman.
At the age of 14 he was a cow boy on a farm at Brithembottom.
Stanley met his death at sea near Egypt when his ship caught fire, blew up and sank with no survivors. It is noted in the newspaper article on his death that prior to transferring to the Secret Service he was in the Marine Light Infantry at Plymouth taking a course of training, and had served four years from January 1914. A service was held at Uplowman.
He is remembered in the stained glass window in the Church, and on the Sampford Peverell web site memorial.
WORLD WAR 2
Wing-Commander Edward James Lang (b1912-1944 aged 32) – Royal Air Force
He was born in 1912 in Madras, India to Major James Arthur Maule Lang OBE and Mary Westroff Lang who was serving in the British Army.
He attended Sherbourne School 1926-30 where he excelled at sports. He later went on to the RMC Sandhurst and a year before the War was seconded to the RAF and went to Egypt. Two years later, after operations over France, he was an instructor, and a year later was a Wing Commander and winning golden opinions. He was in charge of all R.A.F. Staff arrangements connected with the celebrations in Paris in 1944 and was becoming widely known when his plane crashed.
In 1937 he married Peggy Long in Westminster, Middlesex. During the war years he lived at Uplowman House, Uplowman where the American servicemen where billeted.
A pilot, he died 29 December 1944 when his aircraft crashed in thick fog in to a hillside north east of Versailles. He is buried in Sonesse Communal Cemetery at Val d’Oise,

Private Robert John Ridgeway (b1927-1945 aged 18) – Royal Ordnance Corps
Born 1927 and registered in Tiverton to Robert J Ridgeway (b1898 in Holcombe Rogus, d1978) and Louisa Baker (b1898 in Cove). He had two younger brothers Harold G (b1928) and Ian J (b1931), and an elder sister Louise A (b1927). Robert lived a large part of his life at Wallflower Cottages, Uplowman.
He died in November 1945, after the war in Europe had ended, in a road accident when the armoured Ford Lynx scout car that he was a passenger in, tried to overtake another vehicle in a convoy and left the road striking a tree on Watling Street, Shenstone in Staffordshire killing him and Private Gerald Kempton.