Tales from the Front (13)

Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen

La Bassee: October 22nd, 1914

Introduction

Tales from the Front (13) tells the story of Henry Walter Dolman, a Bournemouth native who fought in the Great War. A former gardener, Private Dolman, serving with the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, fell on October 22nd, 1914, at La Bassee. The battalion had incurred substantial losses throughout the month. Dolman fell on ‘an anxious day’ for the battalion. Other Bournemouth natives had fallen in this long engagement.

Tales from the Front (13): Part 1

A mere skeleton

During no longer than ten days, Dolman would have watched his battalion almost vanish from sight. A regimental history noted that the Dorsets came to the La Bassee area ‘at full strength and its fighting spirit was excellent’. Their fighting through the patchwork of villages had had an abrasive effect on the unit, reducing it to ‘a mere skeleton’. Some companies had too few men to keep going as independent units. Several of the battalion’s men born in the Bournemouth area had already fallen. Dolman may have known them before they left home for France in late August. By now, the war had subsided from rapid movement into reciprocal raids, trench-to-trench. Dolman’s gardening expertise, perhaps learnt from his father, would have made a useful contribution to the battalion’s excavations. Any gardens in the area, however, would have already succumbed to enemy artillery fire, cutting down both flowers and men.

Tales from the Front (13): Part 2

Social woodwork

This family’s history illustrates how Bournemouth’s economic prosperity and employment opportunities changed rural lives and localities. Parish records list Dolmans at Lytchett Matravers (pop. 871 in 1951) since the middle of the eighteenth century. Frequent mention of this name among witnesses at local weddings suggests they had a position of community trust. The 1861 census referred to Dolman’s Hill. Thus, the family formed part of the local ‘social woodwork’. Dolman came from three generations of men who laboured at Lytchett Matravers. Dolman’s father, however, changed this pattern in two ways. First, he married a woman from outside the village; second, he left Lytchett Matravers, lured by opportunity in Bournemouth. His wife’s family had travelled a similar journey. Her parents, natives of Weymouth, had immigrated to the Bournemouth hinterland by 1881. Furthermore, the area’s opportunities had also attracted Dolman’s wife and family from London during the 1900s. 

Improvement

Dolman’s arrival marked a significant stage in his family’s development, for the baptismal records of Lytchett Matravers recorded neither him nor his siblings. They saw light for the first time as Bournemouth natives, growing up to the sounds of a city, not of lowing cattle. During his teens, Dolman may have worked with his father, who by this time had become a jobbing gardener. By 1911, he also had a gardening job, perhaps as a servant. Nevertheless, Dolman may have already improved his social position. Three years earlier, he had married the daughter of a Southwark carpenter. Thus, a man with a labouring background became linked to the family of a skilled artisan, a group nudging its way towards middling respectability. Furthermore, Dolman’s employment provided sufficient security for a family. The union resulted in three children, born before Dolman left for France to meet his fate at La Bassee.

Tales from the Front (13): Part 3

The sad day

The Dorsets may have found this battlefield an uncomfortable reminder of their Mons engagement: a patchwork of settlements, cultivated patches, a canal, and much danger of crossfire. For ten days, they had had little rest. Before daylight, one of the Dorsets’ lieutenants had gone forward to find a place where he could site a machine gun. The day began with thick fog. Out of it rushed a surprise German attack. Men from the Dorsets and Cheshires had laid aside their arms to work at improving their trenches. The officer reconnoitring to place the machine-gun was last seen firing his revolver before the Germans took him prisoner. Confusion caused by the need for rapid response intertwined the battalions, making firm command and control difficult. Perhaps Dolman had had time to abandon his spade, a tool he knew well, and regain his rifle before he fell in the action that day.

Aftermath

Just over a year later, Dolman’s widow, Lily, remarried. Her new husband, Arthur George, had also enlisted in the Dorsetshire Regiment, fighting in the sixth battalion. Census listings show that his father, Dolman and his father all worked as gardeners in Parkstone. A document suggests that Arthur and Lily had tried to get married before she accepted Dolman as her husband. Arthur George survived the war. In 1921, his home in Parkstone included Walter’s three children and three he had had with Lily.

After this, the Dorsets had little time for rest. They became enmeshed in the confusion of the First Battle of Ypres. The divisional history refers to ‘a regular jumble everywhere; brigades, battalions, and batteries were sent hither and thither to patch up the holes in the strained British front’. In December, quieter times came. A single line in the diary summarised one day, not one hour.

Takeaway

Tales from the Front (13) has explored the life, world, and military service of Henry Walter Dolman (1887-1914). A gardener, he left in his household his wife and three children to answer the King’s call. If he had served with the 1/Dorsets from the beginning of the Continental campaign, he would have seen considerable conflict before he arrived with them at La Bassee. There, in a confusing, tiring period of constant conflict, during the second phase on October 22nd, 1914, he fell, perhaps with his spade beside him.

‘Tales from the Front’

A collection of personal stories honouring the Bournemouth natives who gave their lives on the battlefield and the regiments with which they served. Blending social and military history with genealogical insight, it explores their roots, families, occupations, and the ultimate sacrifices they made for their country.

Set against the backdrop of regimental war diaries and enriched by period media accounts, the series offers a powerful and intimate portrait of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes — a mosaic of personal courage within the broader sweep of history.

Serving as a companion and continuation of Victorian Bournemouth, Tales from the Front forms part of News from the Past: History for the Rest of Us.

References

For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). For War Diaries, go here. See also here. The featured picture shows an imagined scene.