Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen
Lindenhoek: February 23rd, 1915
Hill 60: May 1st, 1915
Introduction
Tales from the Front (24) follows Erasmus and William Trickett, two young labourers from Victorian Bournemouth who fought in the Great War. They enlisted in the First Battalion, Dorset Regiment during the opening part of the Great War. Their short lives unfolded within a family shaped by older rural customs, tight kinship networks, and a strong sense of territorial identity. Bournemouth’s rapid growth, its new institutions, and its influx of ambitious migrants created pressures that challenged this older model. The brothers’ enlistment removed them from familiar heathland routines, delivering them into the harsh industrial landscape of the Ypres salient. Their story offers a window into the collision between inherited ways and the demands of modernity. It shows how war accelerated social change and exposed the fragility of families that, unsuspecting, relied on closed networks for survival.
Tales from the Front (24): the old way
A long-established Trickett presence once shaped the heathland between Cranborne and Parley, where dense kinship ties governed marriage, labour, and household structure. Generations relied on bloodline strength, shared dwellings, and strict internal loyalty, creating a defensive wall around their territory. This approach may have encouraged a belief that family cohesion could control local affairs without outside influence. Mark Trickett’s violent clash with Mr Cooper‑Dean during a poaching incident illustrated the clan’s instinct for confrontation whenever outsiders challenged their authority. Over time, the landscape itself carried its imprint, known as Tricketts Cross. This reinforced a sense of permanent dominance. Confidence in this identity encouraged ambitions for a commercial nursery that might supply Bournemouth’s expanding horticultural market. This reconstruction, however, suggests that the Tricketts’ inward focus perhaps hindered their taking advantage of this opportunity. Their established habits clashed with the demands of a resort town that rewarded openness, mobility, and flexible enterprise.
Tales from the Front (24): the new way
Bournemouth’s growth created a dynamic environment that rewarded newcomers who navigated fresh networks with confidence. Harry Haskins, born to a Somerset labourer, advanced through marriage, relocation, and disciplined ambition. His union with a butler’s daughter in South London granted access to a wider professional world. Furthermore, his appointment as head gardener at Brigadier Hill in Enfield offered experience with structured teams and hierarchical workplaces. Such roles demanded organisation, communication, and strategic thinking rather than simple physical labour. Drawn west by Bournemouth’s booming economy, Haskins settled in Branksome and applied his accumulated knowledge with purpose. By 1891, he employed Mark Trickett, an event that signalled a shift in local authority. Thus, a migrant with outward‑facing instincts now directed a member of a once‑dominant clan. This moment captured the tension between an older, closed model and a newer, mobile approach that thrived within Bournemouth’s expanding social and commercial landscape.
Tales from the Front (24): Fate takes a hand
Mark Trickett’s confidence in his inherited status may have encouraged reckless decisions. He confronted emerging systems of law and order. His theft of a gun from his employer triggered swift action from the police. Their growing authority challenged the informal power once exercised by rural clans. A third appearance before the magistrates ended with a sentence of hard labour, and, perhaps, a loss of reputation. Personal loss followed; his cousin‑wife died (1903), leaving him with five young children, needing support. By 1911, Mark, Erasmus, and William worked together as labourers. Changes in their family circumstances and an evolving local economy had redefined their prospects. Soon, the outbreak of war in 1914 would deliver an overwhelming blow to their uncertain stability. Military service removed them from familiar ground, placing them in an industrial conflict. In consequence, the discipline and rapid adjustment needed to survive would have differed much from their upbringing.
Tales from the Front (24): the sad days
Erasmus and William entered the Ypres salient during the harsh winter of early 1915. They moved between sodden trenches and cramped billets bearing the constant strain of mud, cold, and enemy fire. Their labouring background offered limited comfort, although trench construction and parapet work echoed familiar tasks. Danger arrived without warning: sudden rifle shots during night watches, sharp bursts of shrapnel, or heavy shells that crashed into fragile timber supports. At last, on February 23rd, a German shell struck the trench at Lindenhoek, killing Erasmus. Thus, William had to continue alone. A failed night assault exposed the battalion to grenades and close‑quarter chaos, further eroding morale. Then, in May, the Dorsets held Hill 60, a churned mound shaped by mines, bayonet charges, and relentless bombardment. Poison gas drifted across the position during one attack. Nineteen‑year‑old William inhaled a fatal dose, ending his life three months after his brother.
Tales from the Front (24): aftermath
The deaths of Erasmus and William removed the next generation of labour and hope from a family already weakened by loss, hardship, and shrinking influence. Their survival might have supported a gradual shift toward new opportunities within Bournemouth’s expanding metropolitan world. Instead, Mark Trickett confronted a future without his sons and without the continuity that once sustained the clan. Later that year, however, he remarried, his wife a Londoner two decades younger. Thus, this event marked a change from previous ways. New sons arrived. The family worked together, but in a different capacity than before. The local golf course employed them as greenkeepers, employees, not owners. Meanwhile, the Haskins family flourished. Harry’s sons advanced within the horticultural trade, the family name appearing frequently at the Chrysanthemum Festival. Their eventual establishment of a successful branch at Trickett Cross symbolised how an adaptive, outward‑looking model might improve on an older, insular approach.
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (24) traces the intertwined fates of Erasmus Lionel Trickett (1894–1915) and William Arthur Trickett (1896–1915), two young labourers whose lives ended within the same salient during the second year of the Great War. Their reconstructed story reveals how inherited customs, closed networks, and local identity struggled against the pressures of modernity, migration, and industrial conflict. Thus, through genealogy, social history, and battlefield detail, the narrative shows how war accelerated change and reshaped families whose futures once seemed secure.
‘Tales from the Front’
A series of personal stories that offer a tribute to Bournemouth natives who fell on the battlefield and to the regiments they served. Combining social and military analysis with genealogical profiles, this work delves into their lives, tracing their origins, families, trades, and the ultimate sacrifices they made for their country. Set against the vivid narrative of regimental War Diaries, enhanced by contemporary media coverage, the series offers a poignant look into personal and collective histories of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes.
‘Tales from the Front’ forms a sequel to the story of ‘Victorian Bournemouth’, two publications by 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.
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