Horley, St Etheldreda's Church, the Parish Church

A plaque on the wall

1914 - 1918
SACRED TO THE MEMORY
OF HORLEY MEN
WHO FELL IN THE WAR

JOE WATSON BAGNALL HMS BROKE
PERCY VARNEY HMS ABDIEL
RICHARD SELBY LOWNDES MAUL 2ND Lt O&B INF
JOHN ALLINGTON O & B INF
STANLEY BELL WORCESTER INF
ARTHUR HENRY COLEMAN O&B INF
HARRY VARNEY R F A
WILLIAM SOMERTON ROYAL WARWICK
GEORGE WALDEN GRENADIER GUARDS
MARK WALDEN O&B INF 
ASHTON WHITE A S C
FELIX SHAMBROOK O&B INF

GRANT THEM O LORD ETERNAL REST

1939 -1945
RICH. HENRY LEIGH MAUL CAPT ROYAL MARINES (HMS DUNEDIN)

he Fallen in WW1

John (Jack) ALLINGTON
Corporal, 1st/4th Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry attached to 145th Trench Mortar Battery. Army no 200582. He was also Army no 2556 and 2568 ! 
He died from his wounds on 8 June 1917. He was 21 
He is buried in grave A 12 Hermies British Cemetery near Bapaume
Additional information
He was the son of Edwin and Sophie Allington of Horley and the husband of Elizabeth Allington

Joe Watson BAGNALL
Able Seaman, HMS Broke, Royal Navy. RN no J/17789 
He died on active service in a surface action in the Channel off Dover on 21 April 1917. He was 21
He is buried in the churchyard of St Etheldreda’s Church, Horley
Additional Information
He was the only son of William C and Mary S Bagnall, Manor House, Horley. 
Further information
On 20 April 1917, two groups of German Navy torpedo boats raided the Dover Strait to bombard Allied positions on shore and to engage warships patrolling the Dover Barrage, the field of floating mines that prevented German ships from getting into the English Channel. Six torpedo boats bombarded Calais and another six bombarded Dover just before midnight.
Two flotilla leaders of the Royal Navy, HMS Broke and HMS Swift, were on patrol and engaged 6 of the German ships early on 21 April near the Goodwin Sands. In a confusing action, HMS Swift torpedoed SMS G85. HMS Broke rammed SMS G42, and these two ships became locked together. There was close-quarters fighting between the crews, as the German sailors tried to board the British ship before HMS Broke got free and G42 sank.
Joe Bagnall’s death is recorded in the civil Registers. I suspect he was fatally wounded at sea and died on shore

Horace Stanley BELL
I am not sure of this. I see no connection with Horley or the area but there appears no alternative so:
Private, 1st Battalion, The Worcestershire Regiment. Army no 202990
He died from his wounds on 17 June 1918. He was 20
He is buried in grave VIII B 1 Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany
Additional information
He was the son of Mr A W Bell, Bank Cottage, Holywell Hill, St Albans
There is also the fact that he died in Germany. Was he a prisoner of war?

Arthur Henry COLEMAN
Private, 3rd (Garrison) Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Army no 22442
He died, probably of natural causes, on 19 March 1916. He was 21 
He is buried in the churchyard of St Etheldreda’s Church, Horley
Additional Information
He was the son of Arthur Urban and Ada L J Coleman, Holly Tree Farm, Hornton. He was born at Horley

Richard Selby Lowndes MAUL
Second Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
He was killed in action on 30 July 1916. He was 30 
He is remembered on pier and face 10A and 10D of the Thiepval Memorial
Additional information
He was the son of Henry and Mary Maul of Horley House, Horley
He was previously with King Edward’s Gurkha Rifles 
He was reported missing in action on 30 July and later presumed killed

Felix Thomas SHAMBROOK
Gunner, 28th  Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Army no 53202
He was killed in action on 27 May 1917. He was 21 
He is buried in grave I K 9 Bailleul Road East Cemetery, St Laurent-Blangy 
Additional Information
He was the son of Alfred Thomas and Edna Shambrook, 70 Hamilton Rd, East Finchley, London
The inscription on the memorial is incorrect. He was in the Artillery
He was born in Horley 

William SOMERTON 
The memorial states the ROYAL WARWICK shire Regiment but I cannot verify this. The only candidate appears to be Walter Somerton of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders but he is a Londoner

Harry Coleman VARNEY
Gunner, D Battery, 64th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery Army no 211120
He was killed in action on 18 September 1917. He was 30 
He is buried in grave IX G 28 Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery 
Additional Information  
He was the son of Arthur and Mary Ann Varney of Wootton and the husband of Edith Varney of Horley

Percy Frederic VARNEY
Stoker 2nd Class, HMS Abdiel, Royal Navy. RN no K/36702
He died from pneumonia on 14 May 1917 when he was serving on HMS Pembroke. He was 21 
He is buried in the churchyard of St Etheldreda’s Church, Horley
Additional Information 
He was the son of Frederick and Laura Varney, Endells Cottage, Horley

George WALDEN 
Private, E Company, 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards Army no 13557
He died on 20 November 1914 from his wounds in hospital in the Boulogne area. He was wounded fighting near Ypres. He was 26 
He is buried in grave III A 60 Boulogne Eastern Cemetery 
Additional Information  
He was the son of William and Emma Walden of Horley

Mark WALDEN O&B INF
Absolutely no trace of this name.
There is a death registration in the civil records:  Deaths June 1916, Robert M Walden age 29 in Banbury Registration District. Whilst I suspect that this is the man in question, I cannot trace any evidence of military service.
There is an Edwin Walden 6th Battalion, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Army no 9564.
He was awarded the Silver War Badge on 9 July 1915 (he was no longer fit to service as a soldier). He was 46 at the time and the husband of Mary Ann Walden

Ashton Fuller WHITE
Corporal, 1st/8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 75 Brigade, 25th Division, Army no 33694. He was formerly Army no 032571 with the Royal Army Service Corps
He was killed in action on 18 October 1918. He was 21 
He is buried in grave III G 6 Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau 
Additional Information
He was the son of John and Sarah Jane White. He was born in Hampton, Middlesex


The Fallen in WW2

Richard Henry Leigh MAUL
Captain, HMS Dunedin, Royal Marines
He died on active service on 24 November 1941. He was 24
He is remembered on panel 58, column 2 of the Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Additional information
In November 1941, The Admiralty had learnt from Enigma decrypts that the Germans were planning an attack on shipping near Cape Town, involving four U-boats, an armed merchant raider (Atlantis) and a supply ship (Python). HMS Devonshire, HMS Dorsetshire, and HMS Dunedin were ordered independently to track them down
On 22 November Devonshire came upon U-126 and Atlantis. She sank Atlantis but stayed far enough away from U-126 to avoid being attacked and reported that there were survivors in the water. On 24 November, Python came to help U-126, who was towing the boats from Atlantis towards South America.
In the afternoon U-124, commanded by Jochen Mohr, was on its way to rendezvous with Python Near St Paul’s Rocks, 900 miles west of Freetown, just south of the Equator, Mohr sighted HMS Dunedin to his north east sailing a north west course He therefore hauled out to the west to lie in wait for Dunedin whose lookout spotted U-124’s periscope around 12.50 hours and the Captain changed course to set off in pursuit but because of U-124’s change of course west, HMS Dunedin was now unwittingly pulling away from the german submarine. When the submarine surfaced again HMS Dunedin was disappearing into the distance. Nevertheless the submarine launched three torpedoes and even from this distance, two were on target despite HMS Dunedin steaming 17 knots under constant wheel.
The two torpedoes struck at around 13.26 hours, the first striking amidships, wrecking the main wireless office, the second further aft, probably near the officers’ quarters.  The first hit sent the ship lurching to starboard, the second caused even greater damage dismounting the 6 inch after gun, and blowing off the starboard screw 
Immediately men began to abandon ship, jumping over the side to the Carley floats and any available debris. HMS Dunedin turned on her beam ends and sank in about 17 minutes. Shortly after the sinking, U-124 surfaced and circled the survivors The U-boat was on the surface for no more than ten minutes before diving but while the survivors waited to see what was intended, and as a spontaneous act of defiance, they sang “There will always be an England”
About 250 men from a ship’s complement of nearly 500 struggled to haul themselves on to Carley floats and anything that would float. Seven Carley floats got away
For the next 78 hours, their numbers dwindled in the equatorial heat. Some men died of their injuries, some of exhaustion, some went insane, others drowned and some were killed by sharks.
In the late afternoon of 27 November, the Nishmaha, a US merchant ship en route from Takoradi to Philadelphia, happened upon the six remaining Carley rafts, only 72 men were still alive. 5 would subsequently die before the Nishmaha reached Trinidad, leaving just 67 of the original complement of around 500.