There are two soldiers each with a memorial in the grounds of the Dunstable Priory Church. They are related. Below right is a picture of the War Memorial in the grounds of the Dunstable Priory Church.
The first is Jeffrey . Here is his service record from the CWGC.
Name: TEARLE, JEFFREY Initials: J
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank:Corporal Regiment/Service: Bedfordshire Regt Unit Text:1st Bn.
Age: 24 Date of Death: 31/10/1914
Service No: 3/6459
Additional information: Son of Mrs Sarah Jane Tearle of 9 Alfred St, Dunstable, Beds
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference:Panel 10 and 11.
Memorial: LE TOURET MEMORIAL
Jeffrey was born 1891 in Eaton Bray and his parents were George 1861 of Edlesborough and Sarah Jane nee Horn. George was the son of George 1831 and Hannah Maria nee Janes. George 1831 was the son of Jabez 1792 and Mary nee Green and his parents were William 1749 and Mary nee Prentice. Thus Jeffrey is of the branch William 1749.
Steve Fuller, historian of the Bedfordshire Regiment says of Jeffrey:
His death - on the 30th October 2 companies of the Bedfords retook trenches the Ghurka’s had vacated as a result of all their Officers being killed or wounded and them not knowing what else to do under a heavy bombardment. That day was a confusing minor engagement that is not really listed or included in the diary. The Germans caused even more hassle as they were shouting “We are Ghurka’s” at the Bedfords, making them hesitate and allowing the Germans to pick those who paused within sight off. Nasty little **&@##’s. The following day saw the Beds split in 2 and both portions in the trenches supporting other units who were hard pressed by localized attacks and bombardments. The entire 15th Brigade was having a horrible day but they simply clung to their pposts and put up with it despite the dwindling Officer supply. Although the diary does not record it, several men were killed.”
“Jeffrey being on the Touret Memorial would be down to his being buried in the field and his grave being lost in the four years of fighting that raged over the area before the Imperial War Graves Commission began the process of collecting the dead from all over the battlefields and condensing them into the cemeteries we know today. The chances are that he is buried in a cemetery as an unknown soldier, bless him. When men were killed outright on the spot they were buried where they fell, left there until it was possible to do something abut their corpse or moved to a small collection area, usually behind the trench lines somewhere. All these kind of graves were condensed in the 1920’s but they are still finding men even today, as you may well know.”
Here is his service record from the CWGC:
Name: TEARLE Initials: G Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Bedfordshire Regiment
Unit Text: 1st Bn.
Date of Death: 18/01/1920 Service No: 4967
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: E. 471.
Cemetery: DUNSTABLE CEMETERY
Those details are from Roll of Honour.
TEARLE G Private 4967. 1st Bn., Bedfordshire Regt. Died Sunday 18 January 1920.
Buried: DUNSTABLE CEMETERY, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. Ref. E. 471.
Steve Fuller says:
George Tearle is a strange one as it happens! I have been pondering him for some time and have finally understood his position in it all but he seems to have followed an unusual sequence that I have not come across before. His service number is that of the 5th Battalion (Territorials) and should not have been allocated until late 1914 / early 1915 according to the “normal” flow of things … BUT … he entered France with the 1st Btn 3rd December 1914 and was discharged 1st March 1919. This implies he served the entire war and survived, only to die of illness in 1920 (the Spanish Flu perhaps?). Maybe he was a Regular whose service had only just come to a close when war was declared but that would usually mean he would have kept his original number which would not have been in the 49.. area!
George was the son of Charles Bowler Tearle
This, left, is George Tearle’s WW1 memorial headstone in the Dunstable public cemetery. Born Dunstable 1856, he joined the army at 18yrs and caught rheumatism in the trenches in France. He was also in India and Gibraltar.
Panel of WW1 casualties on Dunstable Church memorial
Memorial inside Dunstable Priory Church, detail.
George enlisted in the 3rd Bedfordshire Regiment on 20 June 1894, aged just 18yr 7m. He already had experience in the militia so that’s probably the reason he went into the 3rd Rgt, where he was given the regimental number 4967, which he kept for the rest of his life. He was 5” 5in and weighted 112lb; a Wesleyan, a labourer with hazel eyes, brown hair and a scar on the right side of his head. He signed up for a term of “7yrs with the Colours and 5ys in the Reserve.” I think this means 7yrs active service. The term was extended in 1901 when he was given an “unpaid” Lance Cpl rank.This was “deprived” a year later. He was re-engaged in 1906 and he passed his corporal’s exam in Nov that year. He was given a “paid” Lance-Cpl rank in Aug 1907 but he must have been a bit unruly because it was deprived again that Christmas and he stayed a Pvt for the rest of his service. 18 months after joining, George was sent to India for about 2 years, then after a spell at home he was in Gibraltar for 12 months in 1907 and 8. He was “Invalid to England” from Gibraltar Hospital with an eye contusion on 15 Oct 1908. The injury, he attested, was “not caused by active service.”
I can’t find any records about George until he embarked for France on 2.12.1914. There are no records that say where he went or what action he saw, but in April 1915 he was transferred to the 2nd Field Survey Coy,
2nd Army as a “servant” for Lieut Lightfoot, and he stayed with the Field Survey Coy in France until he was finally sent home in January 1919. His WW1 medals card says he earned the British Medal, the Victory Medal and the Star, and that the Theatre of War was France. As you can see from the discharge document on the left, he gave us the crucial hint as to his identity - his home address was 14 Church Walk, Dunstable. In the 1901 Dunstable census, this was the address of Charles Bowler and Constance. Finally, I knew who he was. On 2 Aug 1919, George was given his final discharge from the army because of rheumatism and a single page with a large Z on it shows his pension being paid. It says “Died 18.1.20.” George had gone through turbulent times and had served his country as a professional soldier. His parents were Charles Bowler Tearle 1849 Dunst and Constance nee Dickens. He is of the branch Joseph 1737.
I haven’t had a chance to show you Dunstable’s beautiful Norman priory church. This is the place where Henry VIII sent his first wife Catherine of Aragon, while he was trying to get their marriage annulled. All signs of the priory are gone, of course; sold off and demolished at the dissolution of the monasteries after Henry declared himself head of the church in England.
The memorials in the rest of the Dunstable section are found in the Dunstable public cemetery.
If you thought Chalgrave was small, then Thorn, where Levi was born, is little more than a scattering of farm buildings. As you leave Dunstable on the A5 going north down Chalk Hill, you will see the A505 left to Stanbridge. A couple of hundred metres along to the right is Thorn Rd. Thorn is a couple of kilometres on your left. Levi’s parents are William 1815 of Chalgrave/Tebworth and Hannah nee Pratt. William’s parents were Richard 1778 of Stanbridge and Mary nee Pestel, and Richard’s parents were Joseph 1737 of Stanbridge and Phoebe nee Capp. Thus Levi is of the branch Joseph 1737. You can follow his progress through the 19thC censuses below. He married Mary Summerfield of Dunstable in 1874.
Dunstable Priory Church
1861 = William 1815 Teb Hannah 42 Charles 20 George 18 Elizabeth 15 Ann 10 Levi 6 Mary A 2 in Dunstable
1871 = William 1815 Chal Hannah 52 Charles 30 Elizabeth 25 Anne 19 Levi 16 Mary 12 in Dunstable
1881 = Levi 1855 Thorn p1 Mary 27 William 5 in Dunst
1881 = Levi 1855 Thorn p2 Ada A 3 Alice M 2 Sydney G 7m in Dunst
The young couple were both involved in the straw hat industry - Levi as a plait dyer, and Mary as a hat sewer.
1891 = Levi 1855 Dunst Mary 37 William 15 Ada 13 Maud 11 George 6 Edward 2 in Luton
Levi and family have moved to 13 Melson St, Luton. Levi calls himself a Plait Dyer and Bleacher and he seems to be earning enough such that Mary does not have to work. As you know, Luton was the centre of the straw hat industry, and even to this day, Luton Town football team is called The Hatters and Luton still has an active and world-renowned hat industry.
1901 = Levi 1855 Thorn Beds Mary 46 Alice M 21 Sidney G 14 Edward J 11 in Luton
This is the last view we have of Levi and his family. He is at the same address and still a Plait Dyer.
This handsome headstone in Dunstable General Cemetery is to Mary nee Summerfield and Levi 1855.
This, left and below, is the memorial to Susanna, b28 May 1827, in Dagnall, Bucks, not far from Edlesborough. Her parents were Abel b1797 Edlesborough and Hannah nee Frost. Abel was the son of the famous Fanny Tearle who is the ancestor of several families in Australia. Fanny is said to be the daughter of Thomas 1737 Stanbridge and Susannah nee Attwell. Thus Susanna, then, is of the branch Thomas 1737.
Here are the 19th Century census returns I have found for her: I’m afraid I can’t find her before 1861. The story of her brother Jabez is extensively told in John L Tearle’s groundbreaking book Tearle, A Bedfordshire Surname
1861 = Jabez 1837 Dagnall Susannah 30 housekeeper in Dunst
1871 = Susanna 1830 Dagnall serv for Benjamin Bennett in Dunst
1881 = Susanna 1827 Dagnall housekeeper in Dunst
I do wonder who erected this beautiful memorial to her.
I am still looking for the memorial to Thomas and Bethia. I have heard that their memorial is in the public cemetery, but I have not been able to find it.
Tearle, F Private, RASC
This is Jeffrey’s brother, Frank, born in Eaton Bray in 1898, son of George 1861 Edlesborough and grandson of George 1831 EB and Hannah Maria nee Janes. Here is what National Roll of the Great War says:
Joining in November 1916, he was drafted shortly afterwards to Ireland. He served in Dublin and various other places on special transport duties with his unit and did very good work, but was unsuccessful in obtaining his transfer to a theatre of war before the cessation of hostilities, and was demobilised in September 1919.
Frank married Selina Gore in 1921 and they are the parents of Peter Frank Tearle, whose headstone is in the Edlesborough section on this site.
Sydney John Tearle L Cpl.
Jo Smith wrote: My granddad was Sidney John Tearle, born in Dunstable on 22 Nov 1880. His father (my great granddad) was Charles Bowler Tearle. He died 18 Mar 1970. I don't know that much about my father’s family, except that my granddad’s family came from either Eaton Bray, or maybe Stanbridge, Bedfordshire, and that he had a few brothers, 4 or 5 I think. My granddad was 31345 LCpl Sidney John Tearle, 2 Middlesex Regt. In WW1 he was awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry after rescuing other soldiers while they were under fire. I have attached the letter he received from King George - right.
My dad, now deceased, was Ernest Leonard Sidney Tearle, born in Dunstable 17 Mar 1917. The only boy, he had 3 sisters. My dad was in the navy during WW2 and I think he mainly worked on mine sweepers.
MM OF LCPL SIDNEY JOHN TEARLE
Paul Moseley came across the references above to the Tearle family and wrote:
'I was interested to note Jo Smith's comments regarding LCpl SJ Tearle as I have in my collection, this brave gentleman's Military Medal.
Jo also said this of her grandfather:
I thought I would tell you some memories I have of my grandfather Sidney John.Tearle I always remember him having a fresh carnation in the button hole of his jacket & a coronation pen in his top pocket. He & my grandmother lived in an end of terrace house right next door to a coach depot called Costin's Coaches in Dunstable. In their garden they had some lovely gooseberry bushes which had the loveliest tasting fruit. He wasn't a very tall man, he was only about 5ft 4in, as was my dad Ernest. Sidney lived to a good age because he was 89 when he passed away, so had a good full life.
Sydney is the brother of Pvt George, above, who is buried in the Dunstable Cemetery. His parents were Charles Bowler Tearle 1849 Dunst and Constance nee Dickens. His grandparents were James 1806 Tebworth and Mary Ann nee Webb. Mary’s mother was Charlotte Bowler, hence Charles’ middle name. Sydney’s gg-grandparents were Richard 1778 Stanbridge and Mary nee Pestel and his ggg-grandparents were Joseph 1737 and Phoebe nee Capp. It would be no surprise that the boys called themselves Wesleyan Methodists. Phoebe was a staunch believer.
