We Remember
00:00, 04 November 2006
He was born at Peter Street to William and Tryphena Gibbens. One of five children, he went to Charlton school and later worked at Betteshanger colliery. During World War II he became a gunner in the Royal Artillery. He was killed by enemy air action in the Middle East on July 1 1941, aged 23.
George William and Richard Stephen Andrews
Brothers in a large family, they were born in York Street to George and Agnes Andrews. They went to St Mary’s school and afterwards both worked in engineering, George for Dover Harbour Board and Richard for Dover Engineering Company. During World War I they served in the West Surrey Regiment. A Lance Corporal, George was reported missing and later as killed in action in Flanders on October 26 1917. He was 21. Richard, the younger, returned to the Front after convalescing from wounds. A Private, he died from further wounds on March 21 1918. His sweetheart Li called him "dearly loved".
He was one of seven children, living at Percival Terrace with his parents William and Ethel Ealden. He attended St Martin’s school, and later worked for Clarks the Butchers and in the mines. During World War II he joined the Buffs and was transferred to the Reconnaissance Corps. He survived Dunkirk, but two weeks after his marriage to Madge Day he was sent to Sicily. He died at Anzio on September 14 1943 after his tank was set on fire by a flame thrower. He was 25.
On April 20 1945 Walter’s cousin, John Daniel Pulham, in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, also died. He was 19 and is buried in Dover at St James’.
Henry William Piggott
Born in Winchelsea, Sussex, he was the eldest son of the family. He lived in Dover and enlisted there into the 1st Battalion of the Buffs. He was a Lance Corporal, and had been serving for nine months in France before he was killed in action on April 19 1916 at the age of 23. His sweetheart Edith described herself as "broken-hearted".
He was 5ft 9in tall, and worked as a blacksmith’s lad before joining the Navy in 1906. He worked as a stoker through the beginning of the Great War, before being invalided from the Pembroke in March 1915 with tuberculosis. The disease was unremitting, and he was remembered as a small man with white hair lying in bed before he died at home, aged 28, on September 11, 1916. His father, Charles, was caretaker of the disused Shakespeare colliery at the foot of the cliffs. As the railway was blocked one side by a landslide at the Warren and the other by ammunition trains kept in the Shakespeare Tunnel, Charles had to row to Dover to fetch the coffin and then row his deceased son back for the funeral. Edward is buried in Charlton cemetery.