Joseph Grimstead – Somerset Light Infantry, 8th Battalion

Private Joseph Grimstead – Somerset Light Infantry, 8th Battalion

George Grimstead and Sarah Ann Hawkins marriage certificate St Luke’s Church, Bedminster

Joseph Grimstead was born in 1880 in Somerset, the son of George Grimstead and Sarah Ann Hawkins, who had married in 1875 at St Luke’s Church, Bedminster. His early childhood was spent in the rural community of Chewton, Keynsham, where his father worked in agricultural labour.

1881 Census

According to the 1881 Census, the family were living at Chewton. George, then aged 36 and born in Somerset, was employed as an Agricultural Labourer, while his wife Sarah, aged 26, managed the household. Their children at that time were George, aged five; William, aged three; and Joseph, aged one. The family’s circumstances reflect the modest but steady life of rural Somerset in the late Victorian period.

1891 Census

By the 1891 Census, the Grimsteads were still residing at Chewton. George, now 42, continued to work as an agricultural labourer, and Sarah, aged 37, remained at home with their expanding family. The household had grown to include George, aged fifteen and working as a Mason’s Labourer; William, aged thirteen, employed as a Farm Labourer; Joseph, aged eleven; and younger siblings Emma, Albert, Frederick, and Elizabeth, all attending school. Also present was George’s mother, Sarah, aged eighty‑one, indicating a multigenerational household typical of the period.

1911 Census

By 1911, the family had moved to Temple Street, Keynsham. George, aged 62, was recorded as a General Labourer, and Sarah, aged 56, continued to oversee the home. Several of the older children had moved on, but Joseph, now aged 31, was still living with his parents and recorded as unemployed. Also present were Frederick, aged 24, working as a Manure Manufacturer; Elsie, aged 14, employed as a Servant; and a lodger, William Biggs, aged 19. The census presents a picture of a working‑class Somerset family navigating the changing economic landscape of the early twentieth century.

Joseph later enlisted and served as a Private with the Somerset Light Infantry, “B” Company, 8th Battalion, part of 63rd Brigade, 21st Division. On 1 July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, the battalion took part in the assault north of Fricourt, tasked with capturing the heavily fortified German positions at Lozenge Alley and Lozenge Wood.

At 7.25 a.m., the first waves of “B” and “C” Companies crawled into No Man’s Land to take up their starting positions. When the British artillery barrage lifted at 7.30 a.m., the men advanced in four lines of platoons, immediately encountering devastating machine‑gun fire from the German front line and from both flanks. Officers and men fell in large numbers, yet the advance continued with what the Brigade Major later described as “magnificent” determination. The leading platoon of “B” Company lost around half its strength before reaching the German trench.

Joseph Grimstead
Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
credit - findagrave

Despite the losses, the battalion succeeded in storming the German front line, overcoming pockets of resistance and clearing dugouts and communication trenches. A Stokes mortar supported the advance until its officers were knocked out, after which a Lewis gun team provided covering fire that enabled further progress. The cost, however, was severe: “B” Company, in particular, suffered heavy casualties during the initial assault.

It was during this action that Private Joseph Grimstead was killed on 1 July 1916. Like so many who fell that day, he has no known grave, and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France — the great monument to the missing of the Somme.