Stanley Gunning 

Stanley Gunning's Parents

Stanley Gunning was the son of Albert Gunning and Martha (née Humphries).

Albert Gunning

Albert Gunning was originally from Glastonbury. By the age of 8 (in 1871) he was without a father, living with his widowed mother, five siblings and his maternal grandmother in a house in Northload Street in that town. His mother was a washerwoman and his four eldest siblings were all girls, three of these working variously as dressmakers and dairymaids. With three school-age mouths to feed, the household would not have been at all well off.

Northload Street in Glastonbury, where Stanley Gunning’s father spent his early years

Ten years later, in 1881, Albert (age 18) was living in Throop Lane, near Templecombe in Somerset, working as a railway porter and lodging with a 58-year-old widow and two other lodgers.

Advancing another ten years to 1891, Albert (age 28) was by now a railway foreman living in a boarding house at an address in Harleston Terrace, Shepton Mallet. This was near other addresses called ‘Level Crossing’ and ‘Cross Roads’, whereby the Charlton area is meant, where the Somerset & Dorset Railway crossed what is now the A361 and where the A361 crosses the A37.

Martha Humphries / Higgins

Martha Humphries enjoyed the peculiarity of having two seemingly interchangeable surnames; her name appears to have fluctuated at various times between Humphries and Higgins. This conundrum was solved by finding her sister Ellen’s baptism record, which actually contains the note “Higgins or Humphries”. This was caused in all likelihood by her father being born out of wedlock. The marriage certificate for her parents lists Martha’s father as Charles Humphries, son of ‘George Higgens, mason’ and her mother as Martha Higgens, daughter of ‘Benjamin Higgens, labourer’.  A family link between these two cannot be ruled out; Martha’s parents may have been first or second cousins.

In 1871, aged 7, Martha was one of six children living with her parents, plus a servant (whose surname, confusingly, was also Humphries!) and her paternal grandfather, in Ditcheat, Somerset. Her father was a farm labourer. She had three older siblings, one younger sister and a twin sister called Emma.

In 1881, Martha (listed as Martha Higgins, age 17) was in service as the general servant to a builder called John Pullen, his wife and daughter, in a household in Shepton Mallet, putting her in the same town as Albert Gunning at that time.

In 1891, she was still in service in Shepton Mallet, looking after two old ladies of 82 and 81 years of age at 6 Waterloo Road

The Gunning Family

The Bath Directory lists the Gunning family in 1895 – the year of Stanley’s birth – living at 7 Belvoir Terrace (later known as Belvoir Road, between Herbert Road and Maybrick Road). This is the same house later occupied by the West family! 

7 Belvoir Road is the end terrace on the right

The family lived at 28 Lansdown View from 1896-7 and then at 16 Claude Avenue from 1898, the year that Stanley’s younger brother Ernest was born. Stanley’s parents remained at this address into the 1940s and it is the home from which he would have made the short walk to school at South Twerton circa 1900-1907 

16 Claude Avenue

In 1911, the census lists Stanley (age 15) as an errand boy, working for a grocer.

Stanley Gunning in WW1

Army Ordnance Corps 

Northumberland Fusiliers: 20th (Service) Battalion (1st Tyneside Scottish) 

Northumberland Fusiliers: 23rd (Service) Battalion (4th Tyneside Scottish) 

In April 1918, the 23rd Battalion (4th Tyneside Scottish) was fighting in the Estaire-Lys line near Armentieres during the Battle of the Lys. 

This from an Internet discussion board:

The area they were situated in was known as the Bois Grenier Line and on 5th April the whole Tyneside Scottish Brigade (102 Bde), was in the front line.
On 10th April, due to the division on the left being attacked, the brigade decided to withdraw and 22 Bn withdrew by companies under fire.
The 22nd and 23rd Bn were placed in defensive positions in the Estaires - Lys line.
The 22nd got into difficulty due to heavy machine gun fire.
The Germans attacked again at dawn on 11th April from the south and forced their way into the area of Pont de Nieppe allowing them to open fire into the rear of the 22nd and 23rd Bns.
C Company covered the withdrawal of the battalion and virtually the whole of C Company became casualties after holding the enemy up for some time.
The brigade withdrew to the Nieppe system and held the enemy, despite repeated attacks, but then had to withdraw as they were outflanked. They withdrew to Pont d'Achelles and spent the night in open fields at the junction of the De Seule - Neuve Eglise road.

By the 14th April, 102 Brigade had suffered so badly that it formed a composite battalion, with three companies, one company commanded by a Lieutenant and the other two by Second Lieutenants.

By May 1918, the 23rd Battalion had sustained such heavy losses that it was reduced to cadre strength and reorganised into 116th Brigade, 39th Division. 

Stanley Gunning's Death

Burial

Longuenesse St Omer cemetery [Source :www.cwgc.org]

In June 2019, Stanley Gunning's grave was visited by Mike Sumsion of Bath. Ahead of his trip, we inscribed a memorial cross as a token of our ongoing remembrance. Mike kindly took the cross with him to place on Stanley's grave and provided the photographs below. The placement of the gravestones edge-to-edge is indicative of a mass grave; indeed, several of the grave markers in the row have more than one soldiers' details inscribed. Many of the graves at St. Omer cemetery are of this nature.

Decoration

Stanley Gunning's medal rolls and card survive and tell us that he was in receipt (posthumously) of the following medals.

We were contacted in June 2015 by a Mr Tim Storer who had bought two of Stanley Gunning's medals on the open market and he was kind enough to make these available to the OPJS research project. This was the first time we were able to see actual medals that were awarded to one of the South Twerton men.

In 2019, the two medals were framed, along with a replica British War Medal. These are now on display in the reception area of Oldfield Park Junior School.

Commemoration

Bath War Memorial

See separate page for details of the Bath War Memorial. Stanley Gunning's inscription:

Moravian Church Memorial

Stanley Gunning's name is inscribed on the Moravian Church tablet, now in the Ascension Church (see separate page for details of the Moravian Church Memorial):

Ascension Church Memorial

As a parishioner of the Ascension Church, Stanley Gunning's name is inscribed on the oak tablet in the Church (see separate page for details of the Ascension Church Memorial):

Further Information

The Family After the War

In 1943, Stanley's father Albert died:

Living relatives

It would be great to hear from any living relatives of Stanley Gunning. His brother Ernest went on to marry; subsequent family included the surnames Gunning and Williams. 

Please get in touch!

Acknowledgement