Photo: Jean Atkinson
TR5/31876 Private
P. Whitmore
Kings Own Yorkshire L. I.
28th November 1917 aged 18
Philip Whitmore was born on the 22nd March 1899, and was the youngest son of Alfred and Alice (nee Crozier) and brother to Jane Sarah, Ernest and John.
Philip was baptised at St John's Church, Birtley on the 8th June 1899. The address at the time was Mount Pleasant, Birtley.
He was employed as a Coal Miner when he joined the 53rd Young Soldiers Battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was stationed at Cannock Chase.
There were two large camps on Cannock Chase known as Brocton Camp and Rugeley Camp, which together were capable of holding 40,000 men. They were initially used as transit camps to accommodate Service Battalions travelling to the Western Front, but then became a training facility offering instruction in musketry, signalling, physical training, gas warfare and several other related subjects. Rifle ranges were constructed and also practice trenches to train the men in trench systems similar to those on the Western Front.
The camps had all their own amenities including a church, post office and a bakery and there was also a theatre. In 1916 a 1,000 bed hospital at nearby Brindley Heath was established to serve the camps, as well as accommodating convalescing soldiers from France. It had twelve wards, a chapel and officers and nurses quarters.
Philip Whitmore died on the 28th November 1917 at the Military Hospital, from Haemophilia and an operation for a Hernia.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 1917:- WHITMORE- Birtley, 2 Peareth Terrace, suddenly, Pte. Philip 18½ years, youngest son of Alfred and Alice Whitmore, died at Brocton Camp, Rugeley. Internment at Birtley Church, Sunday, lift 2.15pm. All friends kindly invited.
Information: Jean Atkinson
He is remembered in Birtley on B127.01 and the The Boys of Birtley
