Blackmore. Remembrance 100. Twenty-one days. Twenty-one names. (11) William Scudder

William Henry Scudder

War Memorial: Place and inscription Blackmore War Memorial: A/mech W Scudder R.N.A.S. Church Window: W.H. Scudder Ongar & District War Memorial Hospital Roll of Honour (Blackmore) entered as W H Scudder [ERO A10815]

Rank: Aircraftman

Regiment: Royal Air Force.  1st Class (Dwina River Force).  Service No: 227344.  [CWGC]

Service Details: No military record found on Ancestry.com 100114 Lost his life in the Baltic, 2nd July 1919, trying with one officer and three other men, to stop a mine drifting down on a hospital barge. His action saved the barge and is to be highly praised. He was loved by his fellow men and highly respected by his officers for his efficient and unfailing conscientious work on all occasions. The campaigns of 1918-1920 in several parts of European Russia were the outcome of the Russian Revolution of November, 1917, and are closely connected both with events in Asia (particularly in Persia and in Siberia) and with the general course of the War in the West. The continued German and Turkish threats to India by way of Persia and Afghanistan, and the crisis of 1918 in France caused by the withdrawal of Russia from the Entente, form the background to the North Russian Expedition and the Allied intervention in South Russia Air Ministry: Air Historical Branch: Papers (Series I) AIR 1/16/15/1/81 Russia, Dvina Front - Senior Naval Officer's report on operations during July and August 1919. . Russia, Dvina Front - Senior Naval Officer's report on operations during July and August 1919. Air Ministry Registered Files Air Ministry: Air Historical Date: 1919.  [Source: The Catalogue of The National Archives]

Personal and family information: Henry William Scudder was baptised on 13th August 1899 at All Saints Church, Norton Mandeville. His parents were William James (an Inn Keeper) and Martha Rebecca, whose place of residence given was High Ongar [ERO D/P 267/1/7]. At that time William John Scudder was publican at the White Horse, Norton Heath [Kelly, 1898, 1899]. [Source: http://deadpubs.co.uk/EssexPubs/NortonHeath/whorse.shtml] 1901 Census: William was a licensed victualler in Leigh, then [Kelly 1906] landlord of The Leather Bottle public house.  He is buried in Blackmore, and his son Henry is recorded on the gravestone.

Date of Death: 2nd July 1919

Age: 20

Where died: Russia

Place of Burial or Commemoration: Archangel Memorial.

List of Sources: Commonwealth War Graves Commission, DeadPubs.co.uk, Essex Record Office, Kelly’s Directory, The National Archives.