Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen
Hill 60: May 2nd, 1915
Introduction
Tales from the Front (41) tells the story of John Edward Roder, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. A nomadic worker, Roder last lived in Yetminster, near Yeovil with his wife and child. He came to France with the 1st Dorsets and became one of many victims of the gas attacks on Hill 60, near Ypres.
Tales from the Front (41): nomads
Father
Roder’s genealogy has ambiguities. The paternal line consisted of mariners. His namesake father served aboard the Perseverance, a schooner operated by a Poole-based trader. In 1870, he completed a six-month voyage to Hartlepool, the Baltic, and Yarmouth. This may account for his absence from the 1871 census. He may have had multiple marriages, but the details remain uncertain. After leaving the sea, he worked as a dealer. When young, his father used a cross beside his name on documents, but later acquired literacy. Roder came from his father’s third marriage, his mother a labourer’s daughter from St Giles, near Wimborne. For some reason, the baptismal record omits her mother’s name. Although not present in the 1891 census, baptismal records show the family then lived in Parkstone, where the couple had married. Later in life, Roder’s father left work as a dealer to become a gardener. His mother died in 1906.
Son
Records indicate that Roder held various jobs throughout his life. In 1911, he worked as a grocery assistant, while his marriage certificate listed his occupation as ‘engineer.’ At his enlistment, he worked as a gardener and, like his father, he often relocated. His 1913 marriage brought him to Yetminster, his wife the daughter of a labourer. He baptised his only child in Portland, situated on the Dorset coast—a move perhaps connected to his service in the county militia. During mobilisation, the 3rd Battalion Dorsets relocated from Dorchester to Wyke Regis, near Portland. Roder joined the First Dorsets in September 1914 at the age of 27, winning rapid advancement to Lance-Corporal within a month. He perhaps arrived in time for the action at La Bassee. In January 1915, he contracted trench fever and required hospitalisation but returned to duty at Hill 60 just before the gas attack on May 1st.
Tales from the Front (41): Hill 60
Everything normal
At 2200, May 1st, 1915, after the gas attack, the 1st Dorsets’ diary states that ‘the situation had become practically normal’. ‘The firing had much abated.’ Entries in many diaries during this period adopt a similar shorthand for a day’s entry: ‘everything normal’. This blandness may front a laconic attitude, or it may capture an accurate sense of transformed attitudes toward brutality. The enemy appeared to maintain artillery and sniping assaults around the clock. Sergeant Shephard makes casual references to whiz-bangs dropping nearby. Men expected the Germans to conduct random riflery at night. Attacks back and forth over the same ground over several months left trails of corpses. Burials had occurred, but subsequent shells had disinterred the bodies, ready for use as protection against rifle fire. On Hill 60, bodies and their stench lay everywhere. Thus, for men like Roder, normal meant horrific conditions so common that nobody noticed anymore.
May 2nd, 1915
Although the battle to defend Hill 60 on May 1st, 1915, ended after about three hours, its effects lingered for days. Gunfire, rifle or artillery, killed and wounded two men in that engagement. The gas killed over fifty on the day, but left over two hundred survivors. Sergeant Shepard found some of them littered around the battle site the day after. Many had already died. Some died in his arms. Others succeeded in reaching an ambulance or hospital. Here, however, they entered not the treatment room, but the waiting room. The doctors could clean and dress external wounds caused by gunfire. They could do little more; in fact, they knew little about dealing with internal disorders of men’s lungs. Rows of men, drowning from chemicals, lay before them, their last minutes marked by panting and coughing, a desperate fight for oxygen. Lance-Corporal John Edward Roder occupied one of those beds.
Aftermath
After Roder went to France, his widow seems to have returned to Yetminster, perhaps to have her mother help with the grandchild. A stoker serving with the Royal Navy became her second husband. She married again in Yetminster. She outlived her second husband by many years. No further information has surfaced about Roder’s son after 1921. By then, he used his stepfather’s surname.
Their war diary records a short relief for the Dorsets in mid-May, but they returned to a position near Hill 60. They stayed here until July and then moved elsewhere. At stages during this period, a day’s entry does nothing more than list casualty numbers. Because of the decimation, Sergeant Shephard had to take wider responsibilities as replacements needed training. New officers had little if any experience. They soon learned to post ‘wind sentries’. A sudden change in direction could bring gas in three seconds.
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (41) has explored the background, life, and military career of John Edward Roder (1889-1915). A mariner’s son, Roder tried different jobs before he enlisted with the First Dorsets in September 1914. As had his father, he often moved. For his last journey, he went to France, leaving behind a wife and small son. Lance-Corporal Roder caught trench fever, but came out of hospital just before the gas attack on Hill 60, May 1st. He survived his gassing until the following day.
‘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.
Kitablios Shu