Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen
Krithia: April 28th, 1915
Introduction
Tales from the Front (34) tells the story of Henry Targett, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. Private Targett served with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment. He survived the landing at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, but not the battle fought at Krithia, three days later. His story shows how a family’s fortunes shifted across two centuries of rural decline, industrial opportunity, and wartime sacrifice.
Tales from the Front (34): Fall and rise
Breaking from tradition
The genealogy of Henry Targett demonstrates how the Industrial Revolution enabled families, long sustained by rural smallholdings, to move from decline to prosperity. His great-great-grandfather, a yeoman based in Ringwood, held up to 200 acres at one point. Consolidation offered one strategy to mitigate commercial challenges. In consecutive generations, his family merged with that of another yeoman through marriage. Between 1861 and 1881, however, the family’s landholding diminished to just 5 acres. William Targett, Henry’s father, diverged from this established tradition, opting not to continue the smallholding or remain in the familial locality. He pursued a career in textiles and, by age 16, had qualified as a tailor. Following his relocation to Leeds, a hub for industrial textile production, he married into a family with longstanding involvement in the woollen industry. By the late 1890s, however, he exchanged Yorkshire’s smoky chimneys for the refreshing climate of Bournemouth.
Distant lands
When marriage within the Targett family perhaps improved its social standing, its members acknowledged this success by naming practices. His father carried his mother’s maiden name within his. The same happened with Henry Targett; Ineson, his mother Zilpha’s maiden name, featured in his. He grew up in a family that combined the bustle of Yorkshire’s new industrial technology with the timeless experience of Dorset rural smallholders. Born in 1897, he had had no opportunity, perhaps little need, to start work by 1914. Thus, enlisting with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, comprised his first employment. At the end of March 1915, he and over a thousand others embarked on the steamship Manitou, travelling to hot, distant lands. The transport took them to Malta, then Alexandria, and Lemnos. On the way, they practised landing from small boats, but this may not have prepared them for doing so at Gallipoli under heavy fire.
Tales from the Front (34): Battle of Krithia
April 28th, 1915
On April 25th, Henry Targett went into action. Two of the battalion’s companies landed at V beach, two at W beach. If he had gone ashore at V beach, he would have travelled on the transport River Clyde. Naval bombardments attempted to reduce the Turkish opposition, protected by barbed wire and trenches. During the day, many efforts to land troops ended in slaughter. According to the diary, most Hampshires on the Clyde came ashore in the night, ready to participate in the capture of Sedd-el-Bahr the next day. If he came ashore at W beach, he and his colleagues faced less opposition. Two days later, the Hampshires lined up with other battalions of the 88th Brigade, ready to capture Krithia, the village blocking progress to higher ground. The exhausted troops, tasked with complex manoeuvres, stumbled through gullies and scrub. Necessary withdrawal meant abandoning the remains of Targett and 52 others.
Pockets
An officer charged with burying the dead after Krithia left his thoughts about the task. By now, he had grown used to the remains, while writing to the families had become formulaic. Nevertheless, he always found difficulties dealing with their belongings. ‘I think that was about the saddest task … the hardest thing I did in the Dardanelles’. It intruded into the men’s privacy, this gazing through a keyhole into their lives. ‘They had treasured the oddest things often, and very often the most commonplace.’ A baby’s curl, letters received or interrupted by battle, newspaper clippings, many photographs, a mouthorgan: an almost endless list. ‘It was desperate work. It choked me, and I don’t mind who knows it …’. Of course, no trace of what he may have found in Henry Targett’s pockets has survived. It may have resonated with his family background, perhaps a handkerchief sewn by his father.
Aftermath
Targett’s parents lived until the 1930s, but his father may have become incapacitated by 1921. By this time, they had moved north from Cromwell Road, over the railway to Wheaton Road, but still in Pokesdown. This took them back near to their address in 1901. One sister married a Christchurch carpenter, who served with the Australian forces. After the war, they lived in Australia. Of his two brothers, one served in the army at least until 1921, the other joined the navy in the 1920s. The latter left a modest estate in 1958, still living at 39 Wheaton Road.
The Hampshires, after a day in reserve, returned to the front line on May 1st, where that night they endured a heavy attack from the enemy. The British continued to attempt Krithia during May, casualties mounting, while constant navvy work improved the trenches, a dismal echo of the Western Front.
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (34) has explored the background, life, and military career of Henry Targett (1897-1915). Private Targett enlisted with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, going to war perhaps with one or two tailored items in his baggage made by his father. He saw strange new worlds on a trip to Gallipoli from which he did not return.
‘Tales from the Front’
A collection of personal stories honouring the natives of Victorian Bournemouth 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.
The posts weave genealogical data together with eyewitness accounts found in war diaries, contemporary press coverage, and official military histories. The series offers a powerful and intimate portrait of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes offset with live accounts of battlefield action.
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—genealogical information based on available sources.
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