W J Nurden - Edited

[grantowi]

Hi Chaps,

According to the GWR magazine WJ Nurdon was a Lance Corporal in the 1st Wiltshire regiment, who died fairly early on during the war

He was a Striker in the GWR works and had been employed there for 11 years before joining up, his age is given as 51.

He is also listed on the Swindon Town ROH + the GWR ROH

Iv'e had a play with Geoffs engine (which has moved location for those unaware) to no avail - there are no Nurdon's listed in CWGC. SDGW or the 1st Wilts War diary

Any help tracking him down appreciated

Grant

Edit - rather than start a new thread, Iv'e changed the heading of this one!

Maybe some one can check out the photo below and give me some giudence

Cheers

Grant

[ralphjd]

Grant, Freebmd lists a WILLIAM JOHN NURDEN birth registered HIGHWORTH 1864 given he was 51 in your post this would appear to be him. Only one Nurden WJ on MICs and he was a Pte in the RAMC number 95875 the comment on his card for his medals says "issued" not your man I think. Ralph.

[eviltaxman]

I've tried several variations on the name and nothing except what Ralph came up with. On a side note (and just a thought), I can understand his connection with the Wilts Reg., but I would have thought he would have been more suited in the RE or ASC, as were many of the GWR men.

Les

[edwin astill]

The Wiltshire Regt. Medal Rolls (published by the Regt. Museum in Salisbury) give the following :

1914 Star - 8620 Pte J. Nurdin 2nd Battn, transferred to Devons; 5792 Sgt. Dmr WS Nurdin 1st Battn

BWM - 27868 Pte Tom Nurden 6th |Battn then to Dorsets; 8334 Cpl James Nurdin 2nd Battn; 5792 CSM William Stephen Nurdin.

Edwin

[grantowi]

Ralph,

that would seem to be his birth - many thanks,

The RAMC might be right (GWR stuff is full of errors;-(), would "issued" mean that he collected them ?

Les,

He was only a Striker (steam hammer operator), which was little more than a labourer. In fact the majority of the men went into the Wilts or one of the main line regiments, there were very few "skilled" men who enlisted, many were retained for war service I suspect - Swindon turned out 14 complete ambulance trains.

Edwin,

I dont fully understand this, my chap was WJ Nurdon

in the 1914 roll it goes from pte J Nurdin to Sgt WS Nurdin

and the BWM goes from Pte T Nurdin to Cpl J Nurdin and then to CSM WS Nurdin

Are they saying that all these Nurdins are the same person ?

Many thanks for all answers

Grant

[ralphjd]

Grant, I would think issued means that they got to the correct person via the post. If you want the card pm your email address and I will send it. Regards Ralph.

[edwin astill]

Just giving some possibilities in case spellings got muddled on the way.

Edwin

[grantowi]

Hi Chaps,

Meet Mr WJ Nurden

Maybe some one can ID the uniform for me ?

Grant

[grantowi]

His Photo and the info that Ralph supplied show that he was a "Nurden",

but he still dont show up on CWGC or SDGW

Given that I cant see a cap badge on the photo, would that indicate RAMC ?

Grant

[chaz]

regarding spelling, it was often down to the transcription of hand writing, also in those times many couldnt write and for that matter spell.

Nurden is a local name to Malmesbury, with builders and garden centres amongst other , also being in the middle of the Kemble and Badminton railway lines.

[grantowi]

Chaz,

Given that I believe that "my" Nurden was born in Highworth and worked for the GWR its possable that they migrated up the line to Malmesbury

It would be nice to get an ID on him and place him with the rest of the GWR chaps.

Grant

[apwright]

Have you seen this?

Deaths Oct-Nov-Dec 1914 in Amersham RD - NURDEN William J, age 50 (Vol. 3a Page 195)

Worth investigating, perhaps?

Adrian

[grantowi]

Hi Adrian,

Where did you find this ?

The ages ties in with the chap that Ralph found (and I think is mine) - but when I looked it up on FMP it came back as Amesbury / 5A / 195 :-(

Both places are about the same from Swindon, Amersham is the other side of High Wycomb and Amesbury is towards Salisbury

there is nothing on the Armed forces lists, so it looks like he died a civvy, which would explain the lack of CWGC.

Now if some one could place the uniform :-)

Grant

[apwright]

Sorry Grant, I took it from FreeBMD's transcription without viewing the original scan (that'll learn me!).

The original document does indeed say Amesbury 5a/195. I've submitted a correction to FreeBMD.

Apologies!

Adrian

[grantowi]

Cheers Adrian,

Narrows it down a bit more :-)

Grant

[SaracenSix]

Whilst this topic is a few years old now ( 13 to be precise !) L/Cpl William John Nurden will now be getting a well deserved and overdue headstone placed at his resting place at Radnor Street Cemetery, Swindon on Monday 20th September. Thanks to the efforts of our cemetery volunteers in locating his grave and the co-operation of the CWGC one has been produced for him. 
Relatives have been found and are aware, hopefully we will have some sort of ceremony once installed,

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Well  done.

But there's a huge gap missing in his story.

I wonder if @grantowi can tell us what has happened in the last 13 years?

[SaracenSix]

[grantowi]

Many thanks Saracen,

That is another one of mine found, do you happen to know his plot number ?

I had assumed that he was laid to rest in Amesbury area as that's where the DC was issues, I never understood why he wasn't returned to Swindon and the DC issued here.

Most of the markers at Radnor St cemetery have been removed over the years, meaning that search's have to be carried out at the crematorium (miles out of town) and there was also the added misinformation supplied by the GWR, that he was with the 1st Wilts.

But I am grateful that he has finally been found, he has been added to my list and I shall try my bestest to get up to Radnor on the 20th to say hello to him

[grantowi]

A further mystery - According to the 2nd document, he was killed on the 11th which was a Wednesday. According to the witness it was a Friday night.

Gotta love those mystery's :-)

[ss002d6252]

The surviving pensions details are as John Nurden,

https://www.fold3.com/image/691188106?terms=5475,nurden

Craig

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

@grantowi

Thanks for that, but can you fill in the gaps from where you left it in 2008?

At that time, you couldn't find him on the CWGC database.
Was he there all along, or was he uncommemorated?

Who found him?
Did you submit his case?

How did the stone get organised? etc etc.

[SaracenSix]

2 hours ago, grantowi said:

Many thanks Saracen,

That is another one of mine found, do you happen to know his plot number ?

I had assumed that he was laid to rest in Amesbury area as that's where the DC was issues, I never understood why he wasn't returned to Swindon and the DC issued here.

Most of the markers at Radnor St cemetery have been removed over the years, meaning that search's have to be carried out at the crematorium (miles out of town) and there was also the added misinformation supplied by the GWR, that he was with the 1st Wilts.

But I am grateful that he has finally been found, he has been added to my list and I shall try my bestest to get up to Radnor on the 20th to say hello to him

C1247 is the plot No. 

[SaracenSix]

1 hour ago, Dai Bach y Sowldiwr said:

@grantowi

Thanks for that, but can you fill in the gaps from where you left it in 2008?

At that time, you couldn't find him on the CWGC database.
Was he there all along, or was he uncommemorated?

Who found him?
Did you submit his case?

How did the stone get organised? etc etc.

We received information that William was commemorated in the CWGC Book of Remembrance. From there we checked the Radnor Street Cemetery burial records and subsequently found his plot. We contacted CWGC who visited the site and confirmed our findings, approval was given for a headstone so production started back in March of this year. Received information from CWGC last week that it is now complete and will be put into place on the plot. 

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

OK, gotcha.