Private Nelson Richard Sharpe
38433 Royal Army Medical Corps
Died 14th December 1917, aged 24
Buried in Baghdad North Gate Cemetery, Iraq
Burnley Express 3rd November 1917 (possibly in error)

Listed on the Ashley Road, Epsom, the Epsom Brotherhood and the Christ Church, Epsom Memorials.

Nelson Richard Sharpe was born in 1893 in Croydon, Surrey (GRO referernce: 1893 Croydon 2a 279), son of Nelson Henry and Mabel Bateman Sharpe (nee Baker). His parents married in the December 1891 quarter in the Strand registration district. The GRO marriage entry spells Sharp without an ‘e’ at the end. His father was born in Tenterden Kent and his mother in Folkestone Kent.

Aged 8, Nelson and his parents were living in one of the Maria Cottages, Epsom Common, near Christ Church, when the 1901 census was taken. With them were Nelson’s younger siblings 6-year-old Madeleine and 4-year-old Harry. Nelson’s 30 year old father worked as a coach smith to support his family. His mother was also aged 30.

In the 1911 census the family was living at 3, Maria Cottages, Epsom Common. Nelson Richard Sharpe was listed as such but his brother Harry appears as Harry George Jackson Sharpe, his mother as Mabel Bateman Sharpe and his father as Nelson Henry Sharpe. His sister Madeleine does not appear to be living with her family, but in 1916 she married Arthur G Bradley in Epsom. Nelson Richard was working as a lift attendant for the Civil Service supply association.

Nelson’s service record has not survived but his medal card tells us that his first overseas posting was to Gallipoli on 11 June 1915. The 41st Field Ambulance RAMC was part of the 13th (Western) Division. After Gallipoli the Division was sent to defend the Suez Canal, and then to Mesopotamia (Iraq). They fought in the battle to relieve Kut and in March 1917, the capture of Baghdad.

Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery holds the remains of 4,455 servicemen who lost their lives fighting in Mesopotamia, including Nelson who is buried in grave XVI. E. 8.

Nelson’s medal card simply states ‘Died 14-10-17’, which means he was not killed in action or died from wounds received. The official book of statistics, complied shortly after the Great War, tells us that in Mesopotamia 15,264 officers and men were killed or died of wounds but that 23,578 died of sickness and other causes

The following appeared in the Burnley Express dated 3 November 1917:
Pte. (38433) N. Sharpe, R.A.M.C., of Burnley, appears in the official casualty list as having died.

Having looked at all relevant birth, death, marriage and census records, I can find no link to Burnley, and therefore wonder how he came to appear in the Burnley Express.

(courtesy of Clive Gilbert)