290444 Private Archibald John Capham was a patient at Beechland House, Newick in June 1918. His entry in Nurse Oliver’s album reads:
June 20th 1918
Pte A J Capham
4th Suffolk Res Batt
Late South African Constabulary
& Hong Kong Police - China
He was born at Hammersmith, London in February 1886, his birth registered in the Fulham district in the March quarter
of that year. I have been unable to find him on the 1891 census of England and
Wales but he appears on the 1901 census as a 15 year old living with his parents and sister at 13 Weltje Road, Hammersmith. Most of the addresses on the census return have two families living there and it is
possible that Archie and his family lived in a typical London Victorian terrace with one family upstairs and the other family
occupying the ground floor. The Capham household comprised: Charles Capham (head,
married, aged 60, born in Regents Park and working as a gas meter maker), his wife Rosina Capham (aged 58, born in Stepney),
their daughter Clara Capham (aged 18, born in Piccadilly, working as a caramel – sweet – wrapper) and Archie.
Charles and Rosina (recorded as “C” and “Rose”) appear on the 1881 census living in Westminster. Charles is noted as a 39 year old London-born ironmonger. His wife is noted as a 37 year old Cornishwoman. There are
also two children noted: Emily E (aged ten) and Florence R (aged two). The household
is completed by a 16 year old servant (Laura Bassatt) and a 66 year old Irish
lodger.
Despite the discrepancy in the spelling of names and Rosina (or Rose’s) place of birth; I think that these are
Archie’s parents and that Emily and Florence are his sisters. There were
probably other siblings who would appear on the 1891 census.
Archie must have worked in Hong Kong and South Africa some time between 1901 and his enlistment in the British Army
in June 1916. He married Sadie (maiden name unknown) on 29th November 1912 but
there is no indication where this marriage took place – it could have been overseas.
A son, Archibald John, followed on 2nd May 1913 and then a daughter, Grace Capham, on 29th June 1914.
By the time he was conscripted into the army on 7th June 1916, Archie was working as an assistant hotel manager
and living at 1, Broadway, Ealing, West London. He was medically examined at
Hounslow and was classified as grade B1. He was enlisted with the 1st Reserve Garrison Battalion of the Suffolk Regt and immediately
posted to the Cambridgeshire and Suffolk Reserve Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment.
On 10th November he was appointed corporal but already he was suffering as a result of army routine. He attended two
Medical Boards in December and on New Year’s Day 1917, was posted to the 3/4th Suffolk Regiment. Four days later his second daughter, Georgina Lucilla Capham, was born.
On 10th March 1917 Private Capham was admitted to No 331 Field Ambulance at Sheringham, Norfolk suffering
with a hernia. Two days later he was despatched to the 1st Eastern General
Hospital in Cambridge where he would remain for the next seven months; undergoing an operation for a double inguinal hernia
before finally rejoining his unit on 29th October.
Just over a month later, on 1st December 1917, he was back at 331 Field Ambulance in Sheringham with an ulcer
on his knee. Again he was despatched to the 1st Eastern General Hospital
at Cambridge, re-joining his unit on the 10th January.
A District Medical Board convened on 30th January 1918 now classified him as A1 which seems remarkable given that
he was B1 when he joined the army in 1916 and since then had spent seven months in hospital with a double inguinal hernia.
He attended two further Medical Boards in February and was supplied with a truss in April. On 4th June he was back in hospital, this time at the 2nd Eastern General in Brighton where the
little toe on one foot was amputated. It was at this stage that Archie spent
time at Beechland House, his service record stating that he was at the 2nd Eastern General until 19th August 1918.
Between 17th August and 23rd August he was absent without leave for five days and twenty hours and was awarded 28
days Field Punishment Number 2. On 27th August he was posted to the 14th Suffolk
Regiment in France and disembarked at Calais the following day. He would spend
the next six weeks in France as a Lewis Gunner until wounded in action on 10th October.
Reporting to the 4th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station he moved up to the 55th General Hospital at Boulogne
and then, on the 15th October, to England. He was then sent to a hospital in
Woolwich with a sever gunshot wound to his left arm. He remained in hospital
there until 3rd December and was posted shortly afterwards to the 3rd Suffolk Regiment at Felixstowe.
He must have transferred to Rugely in Staffordshire in 1919 because between the 1st and 10th April he overstayed
his pass there and was deprived ten days’ pay. A Medical Board convened
there the following month heard how his hernia had been brought on by trench digging and sand bagging. It found that he had had two operations on the right side and one on the left side and that there had been
a small recurrence on the left side. He was not wearing the army truss that he
had been supplied with.
The Board rated Archie’s disability as less than twenty per cent. A
Pension’s Board hearing in June that year awarded him a lump sum gratuity of thirty two pounds and ten shillings. He was transferred to the Army Reserve on 3rd July 1919.
Sources and Acknowledgements
· 1881 Census of England and Wales
· 1901 Census of England and Wales
· England and Wales Civil Registration Index
1837-1983
· The Nation Archives: Medal Index Card
· The National Archives: British War and Victory
Medal Roll: K/1/103 B4 Page 744: WO 329/874
· Archibald Capham’ partial service record
is held at The National Archives; ref: WO 363/C308
