Selected Biographies

Dyson, Allen Claude – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 16.3.1897.  Parents: William Henry Dyson (Grocery Manager) and Elizabeth Ann [née Allen] of Long Melford.  Family Connections: Brother to Gladys Harding Dyson [b1893] and William Harding Dyson [b1895], also brother-in-law of Gordon Allen Le Pard [b1891].  Home: Long Melford [1897 to 1903], Jubilee House, High Street, Linton, Cambridgeshire (1911), 275 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (1939) to [1951].  Occupation: Senior Sanitary Inspector (1939).  Married: Gladys Muriel Head in 1923.  Service Record: An A/Cpl.30713 in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Allen was posted to a Field Ambulance unit with the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from 10.7.1915.  As his transfer to France was on the same day as his brother William and his service number only differs by sixteen digits it is likely that they served in the same unit.  He was wounded in the right hand on 11.4.1917, probably during the opening phase of the Battle of Arras, while acting as stretcher-bearer with a party engaged in bringing in wounded. He received his discharge in March 1919.  Died: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire on 8.4.1951.[1]

Dyson, Gladys Harding Allen – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 24.9.1893.  Parents: William Harding Dyson (Grocery Manager) and Elizabeth Ann [née Allen] of Long Melford.  Family Connections: Brother to William Harding Dyson [b1895] and Allen Claude Dyson [b1897].  Home: 24 Connaught Street, St Sepulchre, Northampton, Northamptonshire (1901), Jubilee House, High Street, Linton, Cambridgeshire (1911), 287 Stafford Road, Caterham, Surrey (1939) to [1958], Silver Crest, Silver Street, Sway, Lymington, Hampshire [1984].  Occupation: Assistant Draper (1911).  Married: Gordon Allen Le Pard in 1924 [see below for military details].  Service Record: Gladys was a volunteer with the British Red Cross Society from November 1917 to December 1919, working as a Probationer Nurse with the Linton Voluntary Aid Detachment.  Died: Lymington, Hampshire on 28.3.1984.[2]

Dyson, William Harding [mm] – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 16.8.1895.  Parents: William Harding Dyson (Grocery Manager) and Elizabeth Ann [née Allen] of Long Melford.  Family Connections: Brother to Gladys Harding Dyson [b1893] and Allen Claude Dyson [b1897], also brother-in-law of Gordon Allen Le Pard [b1891].  Home: Long Melford [1895 to 1903], Jubilee House, High Street, Linton, Cambridgeshire (1911).  Occupation: Apprentice Motor and Cycle Engineer (1911), Mechanic [1914].  Service Record: William enlisted on 29.8.1914 as Pte.30729 with 46^th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to 15^th [Scottish] Division and posted with his unit on 10.7.1915 to France.  William saw action during the Battle of Loos in 1915 and the Somme Offensive of 1916.  He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in bringing in wounded men under heavy machine-gun fire during the Battle of Arras on 23.4.1917.  Died: William died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 30.5.1917 at N^o. 12 Stationary Hospital, St Pol and is buried in St Pol Communal Cemetery Extension [grave ref: F.28], Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, Pas-de-Calais, France and commemorated on the War Memorial at Linton in Cambridgeshire.[3]

Related Biography

Le Pard, Gordon Allen – Born: Linton, Cambridgeshire on 3.9.1891.  Parents: Henry and Kezia Allen (Grandparents).  Family Connections: Brother-in-law of William Harding Dyson [b1895] and Allen Claude Dyson [b1897] both of Long Melford.  Home: Bartlow Road, Linton, Cambridgeshire (1901), Hill House, Linton (1911) to [1914], 287 Stafford Road, Caterham, Surrey (1939) to [1958].  Occupation: Tailor’s Apprentice (1911), Tailor and Cutter [1914], Bespoke Tailor (1939).  Married: Gladys Harding Allen Dyson of Long Melford in 1924 [see above for service details].  Service Record: Gordon enlisted on 10.8.1914 as Pte.5748 with 5^th [Royal Irish] Lancers, serving in Dublin in October 1914 and posted to France from 18.11.1915 as part of 3^rd Cavalry Brigade, 2^nd Cavalry Division.  On 7.6.1916 he was transferred in the field as Pte.41528 to the 3^rd Machine Gun Squadron, Machine Gun Corps [Cavalry].  Gordon returned from France in April 1919 and was placed on the Army Reserve a month later, also being diagnosed with tuberculosis.  Died: Caterham, Surrey on 17.1.1958.[4]

Notes – [1] Date of birth from the Baptism Register 15.4.1897, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  See also his Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  For notice of his wounding see Cambridge Independent Press and News 18.5.1917.  Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  [2] Date of birth from Baptism Register 20.10.1893, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  Birth year on Death Index is incorrectly recorded as 1894.  My thanks to Geoff Le Pard for sending me a photograph of his grandmother Gladys in her VAD uniform.  See also her British Red Cross Record Card.  Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  [3] Date of birth from the Baptism Register 6.9.1895, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  For notice of his being awarded the Military Medal see Supplement to the London Gazette 9.7.1917, p.6829, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, August 1917 and Cambridge Independent Press and News 18.5.1917.  For details of the areas covered by Dyson’s Unit see 15^th Division’s War Diary for Divisional Troops [WO 95/1931].  See also his Commonwealth War Graves Commission record, Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329], and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  My thanks to Geoff Le Pard of Linton for sending me a photograph of his great uncle William.  [4] Date of birth from his Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363].  See also Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.