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From Royal Naval Division Casualties of the Great War
Service Branch Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Unit Hawke Bn
Rank Able Seaman
Death 25 Mar 1918
Cause of death Died of wounds in 3rd Australian General Hospital Abbeville (gas shell poisoning 13/3/18)
Burial Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension (FR 52)
Service History enlisted 15/1/15; draft for BEF 4/12/16; joined Hawke Bn 22/12/16-23/1/17;
influenza rejoined Hawke Bn 26/2/17-22/3/17; ICT Great Toe, rejoined Hawke Bn, 19/4/17-13/3/18 rejoined Hawke Bn, gassed
Service No Tyneside Z/3488
Notes Miner, born 19/8/1896, home address c/o Mrs G Wilson, Murton Village, Northumberland. Next of kin mother,
Louisa Sprules, Rector Cottages, Bourton on the Hill, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucester, later of Nunhold Cottage, Halton, Warwick

1881 census
Person: COLLIER, Louisa Address: Manton Village, Preshute
COLLIER, Arthur Head Married M 41 1840 Algr Labourer
Oxenhood
Berkshire
COLLIER, Sarah Wife Married F 38 1843
Bradford Leigh
Wiltshire
YARNOLD, Thomas Step Child Single M 14 1867 Ploughboy
Bradford Leigh
Wiltshire
COLLIER, Mary Jane Daughter Single F 11 1870 Scholar
Beckhampton
Wiltshire
YARNOLD, Fanny Step Child Single F 9 1872 Scholar
Bradford Leigh
Wiltshire VIEW
YARNOLD, Ada Georgina Step Child Single F 7 1874 Scholar
Bradford Leigh
Wiltshire
COLLIER, Lucy Amy Daughter Single F 6 1875 Scholar
Westbury
Wiltshire
COLLIER, Louisa Daughter Single F 3 1878
Bradford Leigh
Wiltshire
COLLIER, George Son Single M 2 1879
Bradford Leigh
Wiltshire

1891 census
Person: COLLIER, Louisa Address: The School, Meux Estate, East Kennet, East Kennett, Marlborough
HEDGES, Marion Head Single F 60 1831 Schoolmestress ?
Bristol
Gloucestershire
COLLIER, Louisa Servant Single F 13 1878 Training For Domestic Servant
Bradford on Avon
Wiltshire
FISHER, Edith M Servant Single F 13 1878 Training For Domestic Servant
Wroughton
Wiltshire

1901 census
Address: Glebe Farm, West Overton, Lockeridge
SPRULES, Arthur Head Married M 26 1875 Estate Labourer
Lockeridge
Wiltshire
SPRULES, Louisa Wife Married F 24 1877
Bradfordleigh
Wiltshire
COLLIER, Bernard Step Son Single M 2 1899
Owmysycoy
Monmouthshire
SPRULES, Pictoria Daughter Single F 0 (2 MOS) 1901
Lockeridge
Wiltshire

1911 census
Address: Red Post Manton Down Marlborough
SPRULES, Arthur Head Married M 36 1875 Studman Lockeridge Wilts
SPRULES, Louisa Wife Married11 years F 34 1877 Bradford Somerset
COLLIER, Bernard Son M 12 1899 Pontypool Mon VIEW
SPRULES, Lilian Daughter F 10 1901 Lockeridge Wilts
SPRULES, Dorothy Daughter F 5 1906 Overton Wilts
LANFEAR, Frederick Boarder Single M 23 1888 Cowman On Farm Rockley Wilts
MAY, Edward Boarder Single M 17 1894 Studman Newmarket Suffolk

Naval Casualties 1914-1919 - soldier details

Name: Bernard Cyril Thomas COLLIER

Rating: A.B.

Birth date/place: 19.8.96.

Section scan: 7/0822

Service branch: R.N.V.R.

Ship unit: Hawke Battalion Royal Naval Division

Official number: Tyneside Z./3488.

Cause of death: Killed or died as a direct result of enemy action.

Date of death: 25/03/1918

Location of grave: 1./C./28.

Cemetery: Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, France.

Relatives notified: Mother. Mrs Louisa Spurles; Nunhold Cottages, Hatton, Warwick.

Naval Casualties 1914-1919 database © Naval and Military Press Ltd 2010

Well I am glad someone has solved that mystery.

Anthea may not be a member of the site anymore though.
You could click on her name to send a message though.

Cyril Sprules name was Cyril Bernard Collier, born in Monmouthshire of a single woman Louisa Collier from Marlborough. She married Arthur Sprules in 1900 in Marlborough and they had two daughters. The Sprules family, including Bernard Collier (he seems to have preferred that forename), were there in 1901 and 1911.

The Sprules family must have arrived in Bourton in 1914 when the two daughters were enrolled at the village school. Whether Cyril/Bernard was with them is perhaps doubtful. When he enlisted later that year, falsifying his age by two years, he was living in the north of England and working as a miner.

First couple of years service not yet identified but from 1916 to 1918 he was in a Hawke Battalion of the RNVR in France, where he was gassed and lost his life. Military info is from a naval document which I found on ancestry.co.uk and the CWGC web site, where his next of kin is identified as Louisa Sprules, mother, of Bourton. His naval documentation is under his birth name Bernard or Cyril Collier.

The Sprules left Bourton immediately after the war, perhaps for Warwickshire, but Louisa must have wanted him to be remembered on the Bourton war memorial, and under her own married name.

I can, of coursse, give chapter and verse for all this, which is also found on my web site concerning soldiers from Bourton who foiught in World War 1.

The

just outside moreton in the marsh is a boundary stone where four counties met.
Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire Worcestershire
there has since been boundary changes so it is only 3 shires meet.
my family were born in fourshire stone farm on the boundary so you can imagine the fun i have had trying to work out which county they were in.

and try posting your interest on this page


http://www.allthecotswolds.com/

Have you tried the address on the kit withers site yet?
even if they are not connected directly they may well have researched him to rule him out of their tree.

I guess if you ask enough times someone will have the magic answer

have you asked victor yet?

Thank you everyone but I fear you have turned up nothing new.,Even if he is part of the Wiltshire family why is he on the Bourton-on-the-Hill memorial and what was his regiment? Could he have been a conscientious objector serving as a stretcheer bearer?

(have deleted the duplicated info. Chrissie)

Chris :)

Lol Chrissie, I shouldn't have added my name at the very bottom of 2009 Thread...made it look like my posting.

So two years on and no nearer then...
Hoping it soon gets solved :-)

Chris :)

As far as the suggestion now made a couple of times that some branch of the military must have records

........ several of us have looked at the CWGC site where all war casualties (militayr and civilian) are recorded

........ I am sure I am not the only one who has searched military records at Ancestry

but as we all do know large numbers of WW one records were destroyed during WW two and so there is no 'must' about it at all, if there ever was a military record of a person by this name it could well be among the records lost forever during the second war

Oh my, once again ......... Chris, you have just reposted everything Andy posted on page 1 _ruling out_ that CH Sprules ......... as I already said on this page when LadyKira posted that WWI death _again_

.......... so that makes three times suggested, three times ruled out now ............

.......... no, four, if it was already ruled out in a 2009 thread about the exact same thing .........

depending on which branch of the forces he servied in, I am sure they would have a record