A gravestone at St Michael’s, Bowness on Solway, records three brothers who lost their lives on active service in the First World War.

Curiously, perhaps, the ‘main name’ (that on the front) is that of a man who died on February 9, 1919 – three months after the war ended. Rather than either of his brothers, killed in action in France.

But to look at them in order…

Rifleman John Foster

John was one of 13 children born to Thomas Foster, stationmaster and sub-postmaster, and his wife Elizabeth Coulthard.

Born in 1899, John Foster was serving with the The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) 1st/6th Battalion when he was killed, on April 9, 1918.

His name is recorded on the Loos Memorial, which: 

commemorates more than 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave, who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay, from the first day of the Battle of Loos to the end of the war. Source:

The battalion was in action in the Battle of the Lys (including the defence of Givency) from April 9 to April 17. Meaning John Foster fell on the first day of the battle, which was a German offensive codenamed Operation Georgette.

You can read about the defence of Givenchy here:

Private Thomas Foster

Born in 1895, Thomas Foster was working as a railway clerk by 1911, alonside his father at Drumburgh Station.

He was serving with the 1st/4th Battalion of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers when he was killed, on September 1, 1918, and is buried at Queant Road Cemetery, Buissy, which was:

greatly enlarged after the Armistice when 2200 graves were brought in from the battlefields of 1917-1918 between Arras and Bapaume, and from the following smaller burial grounds in the area. Source:

In September 1918, the Allies were pushing to break through German defensive lines.

A War Record of the 4th Battalion, KSOB, records that:

Late on the following afternoon (September Ist) the Battalion formed up in Bullecourt trench ready for the attack. At 5.55 p.m. our barrage opened on Tank Avenue, and the Battalion immediately went over the parapet, ‘‘ B’”’ and “‘ C ”? Companies leading, with “‘D’’ Company as “‘ moppers-up ”’ and “‘ A” Company in reserve. The Battalion crossed Tank Avenue, and while doing so our right flank experienced heavy machine gun fire, which was so severe that the advance was held up, and as darkness came on, the troops were withdrawn from in front of Tank Avenue, which was then manned and the trench consolidated. While the work of consolidation was being carried out, the enemy put over sneezing and mustard gas.

The casualties among the rank and file were:—Killed, 24; missing, 2; wounded, 104; giving total casualties among officers and men as 138. Source:

The Wigton Advertiser reported, three weeks later:

Mr Foster, stationmaster at Drumburgh, has had news of the death of his som Tom (aged 23), on September 1st. His younger brother was killed in April. 

Having lost two sons in the war, Thomas and Elizabeth Foster must have thought it was ‘all over’. Tragically, it wasn’t.

Private Joseph Foster

Joseph was born in 1900, when his parents were living in Carlisle. He joined the Border Regiment, but it can’t have been for long. You had to be 18 to join up and he wouldn’t have turned 18 till the summer or early autumn of 1918 – at most eight months before he he died.

In fact, the records show his family weren’t entitled to War Gratuity payments after his death, which means he had been serving less than six months’ home service.

The pension card for him says cause of death: ‘died’. 

The gravestone says he died at Fusehill Hospital, Carlisle.

Fusehill was operational as a military hospital from Easter 1917 until June 1919. You can read about it here.

He doesn’t have a military grave. We wouldn’t know he had joined the Army if his ‘schoolmates and friends’ hadn’t paid for a gravestone that gives his rank and regiment.

The inscription ‘greater love hath no man’ shows they considered he had given his life for his country…

So for the price of a cup of coffee, I checked out his death certificate: 

cause of death 1. acute rheumatism 2 endo pericarditis.

The date and place match; the informant was his sister Catherine (Cowen) and his address Station House, Drumburgh. It’s the right Joseph.

Pericarditis can be triggered by a number of things, including a blow to the chest, but is most commonly due to a virus.

Looking at the Register of Soldiers’ Effects, his parents look to have received 13 shillings and 6 pence, then a further £7 16s 11d.