Clacton-on-Sea Circuit

The Clacton-on-Sea Wesleyan Circuit consisted of eight chapels, and the returns for three of them were sent in together.

Trinity, Clacton-on-Sea, was the largest, with 406 seats (according to the 1940 returns). The nine men who fell were

Pte. Harold Haile Last         1012                   1st Bn, Honourable Artillery Company

Sgt L.R. Last                            PS/462             Public Schools Bn. (16th Bn. Middlesex Regt.)
brother of the above

L/Corp Percy Drake             24284               5th Bn. Essex Regt (or 2/5th Gloucestershire Regt.)

L/Corp Horace Finer            1372                  22nd Bn. Royal Fusiliers

Sgt. Wesley Wright              SE/8169           Army Veterinary Corps

Rifleman Gordon Gregg     2087                 12th County of London Rangers

L/Corp. Victor Buxton         8427                  Army Veterinary Corps

Pte. Percy Sully                       27100               12th Bn. Essex Regt.

Pte John Harry Dennis Baker 22426        6th Bn. Dorsetshire Regt

The reason the entry for Private Baker is much fuller in the original than the others is that the Guild Secretary was his widow.

Great Clacton lost twelve men from a chapel  which could seat 120, but this included a man already listed under Trinity. Horace Finer’s name illustrates one of the issues encountered in remembrance: that different communities can wish to remember the same person. The name alone is not always sufficient to make a firm identification of the casualty

Pte. David Clark                             14976          7^th Bn. South Staffordshire Regt

George Bareham

Pte. Ernest Beere                         251113         5^th Bn. Essex Regt.

Corp. Reginald James Clark    18819           Royal Engineers

Pte. Stanley Everson                   8780            1^st Bn. King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regt.)

Horace Finer (details under Trinity)

Pte. John Henry Polson             172408        4^th Canadian Mounted Rifles

Pte. Stanley John Revett          34085          9^th Bn. Essex Regt.

Robert Walton

Pte. George L. Ward                    17195           7^th Bn. Leicestershire Regt.

L/Cpl. Owen Byford                     A/205247  7^th Bn. King’s Royal Rifle Corps

Pte. William Sterry                       14652           10^th Bn. Essex Regt.

Rush Green lost twenty from a chapel designed to seat 150. Frederick and Arthur Roper were brothers who served in the same battalion and died on the same day. The name alone is not always sufficient to make a firm identification of the casualty

Pte. George Butcher                                   270188               Hertfordshire Regt.

Albert Buxton Clark

Rifleman Alfred John Wallace Fenn     A/200873        12^th Bn. King’s Royal Rifle Corps

Pte. William George Fenn                         32136                  1^st Bn. Essex Regt.

Pte. Harry Garnham                                     3/3565                9^th Bn. Essex Regt.

Pte. William George Kettle L/11363                                    4^th Bn. Middlesex Regt.

Joseph Benjamin Kettle

William Page

Walter Page

Pte. Frederick Roper                                   8868                     1^st Bn. Essex Regt.

L/Cpl. Arthur Roper                                      9359                     1^st Bn. Essex Regt

Charles Taylor

Pte. Frederick James Pryke                     10716                    9^th Bn. Essex Regt.

L/Sgt. Robert Cook                                      1716                       1/13^th Bn. London Regt.

Pte. Arthur Scotney                                     251122                 5^th Bn. Essex Regt.

John Handley Wildon

George Ranson

Arthur Fisk

George William Bates

Fred Charles Townsend

Additional source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission