1880-1919 Reginald James Turle was born on 19 May 1880 in Taunton, Somerset the second son of James Turle and Elizabeth (née Bishop).[1] He was registered in the Taunton Registration District during the 2nd quarter of 1880[2] and baptised in the town’s Holy Trinity Church on 17 June 1880.[3]
Reginald lived with his parents in the county town of Taunton and later the coastal town of Weston Super Mare but before he was two years old his mother became ill, dying when he was about two and a half years old. After his mother’s death James was back living in Taunton and was baptized for the second time on 7 February 1883 in St John the Evangelist, Taunton.[4] At the time he was living in The Crescent, a very respectable street of terraced houses. We do not know for certain what happened to Reginald over the next few years but it is possible that he is the 14 year old, ‘James Turle’, who left Liverpool on 28 June 1894 for Canada, arriving in Quebec on 9 July 1894 onboard the Sardinian with a party of 224 children from Dr Barnardo’s.[5] Between 1869 and the early 1930s many children (mainly orphans), known as the Home Children, were sent from Great Britain to Canada by over 50 British child care organizations, including Dr Barnardo’s, during a large emigration scheme. The children, mostly aged between 4 and 15 years old were sent to Canada to work as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants until they were 18 years old - supposedly in an attempt to give them a better life than they would have had in England as poor orphans. Of the children on the Sardinian in June 1894, 202 of the children were on the way to Toronto and 22 to Manitoba.
The next time Reginald James appeared in the records was when he married Jean Raeside on 24 November 1911 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada[6] so perhaps he was one of the twenty-two who went to Manitoba. In January 1913 Jean and Reginald had a son whom they called Reginald James Turle after his father.[7] But the war in Europe, so many miles away, was soon to spoil the happiness of this and many other young Canadian families. On 17 April 1916 Reginald was living at Balmoral, Manitoba, Canada and he had been working as a Teamster presumably driving farm vehicles as he later described himself as a farmer. He joined up as a soldier with the 3rd Company 4th Division Train and was allocated Regiment Number 515526. He was described as being 5 feet 4 inches tall with a fully expanded girth of 35 inches and a range of expansion 2 inches. He had a sallow dark complexion, brown eyes and brown hair. He said his religion was Church of England and that he had been born in Portsmouth in Hampshire, England![8] In 1916, whilst Reginald was attached to the 11th Canadian Field Ambulance as a driver, he wrote a will leaving everything to his wife Jean Turle but in the case of her death everything was to be equally divided between his two sons, Richard John and Reginald James.[9] Richard John had been born on 8 May 1916 the day before Reginald was told he was to serve overseas; he left 3 weeks later on 28 June 1916. By 5 July 1916 Reginald was in England and left from there for France on 10 August[10] on the transport ship Huntsman disembarking in Harve on 14 August 1916.[11]
Reginald enjoyed two to three pints of beer a day and smoked a pipe continuously but other than pleurisy in 1908 had only suffered the usual childhood illnesses until the beginning of September 1916 when he developed a cough. He had caught a cold when in England after getting wet but it developed into a cough in France. After landing in Havre Reginald's company had gradually moved towards Hazebrouck, a large and important railway junction in France but when on 20 September they moved on again Reginald was not with them. He was admitted to hospital just six months after enlisting suffering from a cough, sore chest and loss of weight. He was diagnosed with phthisis, what is now known as tuberculosis. He had been suffering from a “cold” for the previous couple of months but his posting meant that he often ended up sleeping in wet clothes in damp conditions and the illness just got worse. He was invalided out of France and back to Bromley in Kent, England; he was treated in several different hospitals around England before being sent back to Winnipeg, arriving there in about June 1917.[12] Within a month of his return his baby son Richard died on 19 July 1917 – he had only seen him for three weeks before being posted abroad and so the pain of losing him at such a young age must have been enormous. Richard was buried in Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.[13]
On his discharge papers, of 19 August 1918, James was described and having had very good conduct during his time in the army including the short time that he had served in France and Belgium.[14] Three months after his discharge his wife, Jean, died on 20 November 1918. She was buried the following day in the same cemetery as their son.[15] Reginald died on 22 April 1919 in Ninette.[16] The Manitoba Sanatorium, a hospital for people suffering from tuberculosis, was in Ninette, Manitoba and it may be that Reginald died here. His home address was given as 1850 Pacific Avenue, Winnipeg, Man. Canada. Reginald was buried four days later in the same cemetery as his son and wife. [[17],[18]] His surviving son Reginald James was now an orphan aged just six years old. On 5 March 1921 a War Service Gratuity was granted to "The Board of Pension Commissioners at the District Office in Winnipeg in trust for the Orphan son of the late soldier". The grant was $600.[19]
Acknowledgements Many thanks to Stuart Eaton for all the help, support and information that enabled the story on this page. Copyright Photograph of Reginald's gravestone copyright 2009 Maple Leaf Legacy Project Copyright Pauline Leggat 2009 Sources and Notes[1]
Soldiers of the First World War – CEF, Library and Archives Canada [online]. [Accessed 3 February 2009]. 2007. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/001042-119.02-e.php?image_url=http://data2.archives.ca/cef/gpc016/642509a.gif&id_nbr=284025 Additional sources
Updated 13 March 2009 |
