Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen
Hill 60: May 2nd, 1915
Introduction
Tales from the Front (42) tells the story of Harold James Tilley, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. Private Tilley, a professional soldier, had served for several years with the 2nd Dorsets, stationed in Poona (Pune), India. After returning to England in 1913, he enlisted with the first battalion and shipped to France. Known to Sergeant Shephard, the diarist, he fell during the fighting on Hill 60 in early May 1915.
Tales from the Front (42): background
Improvement
Tilley’s paternal great-grandfather worked as a field labourer around Parkstone. His son—Tilley’s grandfather— signed his marriage certificate with a cross, as did his wife. By acquiring a skill, however, he set the family on a journey to social improvement. As a potter, he produced drainpipes and chimney pots, products in high demand due to Bournemouth’s ongoing construction. This advancement enabled him to leave an estate valued at over £2,000. Tilley’s father initially entered the same trade but soon developed expertise with machinery, starting out making timepieces. In his thirties, he moved away from traditional crafts toward photography, founding a successful business that included one of Tilley’s brothers. Photography would have brought him further into contact with respectable people. In a century, the family had come far from the fields. Unlike Tilley, most of the Dorset infantrymen came from labouring families, but the gas killed them without discrimination.
Networks
Tilley-the-potter’s first wife came from a similar background to his, both having fathers who worked as labourers. His second marriage may have marked a social shift, a slight improvement. His second wife, Charlotte Cherrett, had a farm bailiff for her father. This union sparked a series of marriages between the two families: two of the potter’s sons wed sisters of Charlotte, making him both their father and brother-in-law. When his son, a photographer, lost his first wife after three years, he married her sister as his second wife. Further genealogical research reveals even more ties—such as the bailiff marrying a woman with the same surname. This indicates probable kinship. These marriages created numerous bonds between the families, also united by shared trades, such as pottery, clay-cutting, and brickmaking. Thus, a very close economic and social integration connected the Tilley and Cherret families into a respectable network.
Professional soldier
Tilley, perhaps the eldest child, did not continue with the family business. He did not appear in his father’s household in 1901. A few years later, at the age of 20, he enlisted in the Dorset Regiment. By then, he already had army experience from serving in the county militia. His service record shows him at Poona in 1912, with the 1911 census already listing him there. This means he had served with the regiment’s second battalion. He arrived in India at the end of 1906. According to his record, Tilley suffered from different illnesses while serving in India: ringworm, bronchitis, and general debility. He impressed his superiors, winning promotion to Corporal by 1909. Within two years, however, he surrendered his NCO’s stripe and returned to the ranks. No reasons for this change have emerged. On his return to England, he married a labourer’s daughter.
Tales from the Front (42): Hill 60
New technology
While previous generations resisted technological advances by breaking agricultural machinery, those born in late Victorian Bournemouth embraced innovation. Technology brought efficiency, accuracy, and new employment opportunities. It delivered convenience across social boundaries. The telegraph enabled rapid communication, and trains made reliable travel possible to destinations such as Christchurch or London. Automobiles created jobs for drivers and mechanics, while sewing machines allowed women to work at home. Photography brought radical and positive change to image production. Tilley’s father left clockmaking for photography, with landscape images his speciality. Yet, technology had a dark side: machine guns, aircraft, and artillery. Technology brought its benefits of improved precision and social equality to killing. Advances in chemistry led to the weaponisation of poison gas, exemplified by the rapid loss of nearly 300 members of the 1st Dorset Regiment at Hill 60. Tilley’s life, therefore, involved chemicals at home and abroad, benign and malignant.
May 2nd, 1915
On May 1st, 1915, sunset occurred at 2000, forty-five minutes after the gas came. For another two hours, the Dorsets stumbled through the darkness, bodies, and floating clouds of poison. When dawn came, the emerging scene brought Sergeant Shepard distress. Dead everywhere: too many to name. The individuals melted into a communal miasma of death. The next day, although pulled back to recover, the Dorsets’ dying continued. Official records gave May 2nd when Tilley died. Shephard puts this for the next day. The war diary listed two dead on the 2nd, one for the next day. Tilley did not die from gas, listed as killed in action. He may have fallen from the ‘normal’ day’s fodder of artillery shells or snipers’ rounds. Shephard’s naming Tilley may indicate friendship, but since both their fathers made a living from photography, they may have had a sense of equality beyond ranks.
Aftermath
Tilley’s widow remarried the next year. She may have known her second husband through a friendship with her first. The 1911 census shows them serving together in India. This marriage, however, did not last long, as she became a widow once more that same year. At the end of the war, she married a third husband, a clay-cutter who came from the same area. His association with clay may represent another link between the network’s families.
On May 12th, back in relief after two gas attacks, the Dorsets enjoyed ‘music with a scratch corps of drums we formed, made quite a good show. Sometimes one forgets completely there is a war on at times like these. Who would think of men enjoying themselves as we have today? Yet half an hour would take us to Hill 60, now known as Mount Calvary or “the blood-soaked hill of death”.’
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (42) has explored the background, life, and military career of Harold James Tilley (1885-1915). Once stationed in India with the 2nd Battalion, Dorset Regiment, he came to France with the first battalion, soon after the war began. He survived the first gas attack on Hill 60, but fell victim on the next day or so, perhaps to a whiz-bang exploding nearby.
‘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