IVOR HUGH STONE 1895-1917
Ivor Hugh Stone was born in Thorley, the second of the three children of Hugh Stone and his wife Lilian, nee Baker. Hugh the father, born in Calbourne, became a blacksmith. After he and Lilian married in 1889 they are found in 1891 living at Woodcombs, very near Stone Steps in Elm Lane, with their daughter Lilian Maud. Between 1891 and 1895 they moved to Thorley, where they probably lived in Forge Cottage, Blacksmiths Lane. Ivor and his younger brother Hector were both born there.
Ivor Hugh the son must have been bright, as he was still at school in 1911 at the age of 16. By 1915 he had become a schoolteacher, perhaps at his own old school, whether Yarmouth or Thorley. We know from army records that he was 5’9” with blue eyes and brown hair, and was a Wesleyan.
Besides the theatres of war in Belgium and northern France, the Great War was also fought in other areas including round the Dardanelles (1915). Also in 1915, Austrian troops tried to invade Serbia. Their third attempt was aided by German troops and succeeded; Belgrade fell on 9th October 1915. As the Serbian army retreated southwards, the British and French decided they must help. On 5th October troops withdrawn from Gallipoli were landed at Salonika, with the idea of marching northward into Serbia. But Bulgaria now joined the war on the German side, so that the retreating Serb army found itself pressed by Germans and Austrians to the north and hostile Bulgarians to the east. On 30th November the Serbs, with their ailing king and thousands of civilians, turned west and climbed into the mountains of Montenegro and Albania, making for the Adriatic coast. Thousands died in the process.
On 16th January 1916 the French General Sarrail was put in command of all allied forces in the Salonika area and aimed to help the exhausted Serbs. From 18th January, French and British warships lifted survivors from the Albanian beaches and took them to Corfu. In July 1916, rested and recuperated, the Serbs moved across Greece to Salonika, where they joined French and British troops and re-engaged the enemy.
Meanwhile, Ivor Hugh Stone had resigned from his teaching post and travelled to Dover, where he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery on 2nd November 1915. He joined the 188 Heavy Battery on 9th November and soon became competent at firing heavy guns, becoming promoted to acting bombardier very quickly.
Ivor Stone embarked from the UK in April 1917 and disembarked at Salonika on 22nd April. From there he joined the front line on the banks of the River Struma near Seres. Here he would have been spasmodically exchanging fire with the Bulgarians. On 7th June 1917 Ivor Stone was killed in action, aged 20 years and 8 months. His body was hastily buried in a temporary grave, but on 8th March 1918 was exhumed and laid to rest in Struma Military Cemetery, Greece. This is about 12 miles WSW of Seres, 20 miles north-west of Salonika.
After his death the military collected Ivor’s few possessions and sent them to his father. The possessions included a matchbox cover, some photographs, four books and a single button.