Percy Kyte, a former gardener, served
with the 5th Bn. of the Oxfordshire
and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
(OBLI). He was killed in action on 25th
September 1915, at Bellewaarde Farm,
near Ypres. Henry Godwin, who served
with the 2nd Bn. OBLI, was presumed
killed in action on the same day, during
the fighting at Loos.
Frederick Rouse, a native of Bampton
who had moved to Shilton with his
family around 1910, served with the
1st Bn. OBLI in the Mesopotamian
campaign. He died of illness on 31st
October 1915. Brothers, Bertram and
Frank Winfield, also served with 1st
Bn. OBLI and were at the town of
Kut when it surrendered to Turkish
forces in April 1916. Both men went
into captivity. Conditions for prisoners
of war held by the Turks were poor
and sickness and disease were rife.
Both men soon fell ill. Bertram died on
15th July 1916 and his brother died the
following month on 31st August.
Frederick Judd served with the 2nd
Bn. Wiltshire Regiment. He was
captured by the Germans near Ypres
on 24th October 1914 and died in a
Prisoner of War camp in Germany on
30th November 1918, two weeks after
the war ended. His younger brother,
Walter Judd, who had served with the
6th Bn. OBLI, was originally posted as
‘missing’ on 20th September 1917. He
had been lost when his unit went into
action at Passchendaele – yet it was
almost a year before confirmation of
his death was received by his family.
Albert Godwin was killed in action on
23rd December 1917. He had been born
in Shilton in 1898, the only surviving
child of William (a shepherd) and
his wife, Ada. By 1911 the family were
living in Kencot but it is possible that
his parents returned to live in Shilton
before the war memorial was erected.
At the beginning of 1918 John Hopkins
was serving in an Irish unit, the 7/8th
Bn. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He
was presumed to have been killed in
action on 21st March 1918, the day the
Germans launched their final offensive
of the war. Information regarding
Shilton’s final Great War casualty, T.W.
Herbert Richards, has, unfortunately,
remained elusive. An earlier local study
of the war memorial ventured, rather
tenuously, that this could have been
Thomas William Richards, the son of
James and Thirza Richards, of Divinity
Road, Oxford. Although no definitive
connection with Shilton could be
found and further research is needed.
Arthur Warbey’s headstone
in the churchyard of Shilton
(Holy Rood) Church
77
