Notes
The Roll lists his address as 'late of 90 Cromwell Road'. At the drafting stage, the compiler of the Roll included the forename 'Walter' on the entry, but he had crossed through and voided that forename by the time the completed Roll was presented to the Mayor in 1921, leaving the forename effectively blank.
[Whilst the Roll lists this man's regimental number as 50800, and implies he was in the Northants Regiment, it is near certain that it was actually alluding to Driver Charles William Phillips, 4368, 1/1st Northants Battery, RFA, who died in service on 1/8/1915, aged 19, and is buried in Broadway Cemetery. CWGC record him as the son of Charles John and Mary Phillips of 38 Parliament Street, Peterborough. On 4/8/1915 the Peterborough Express printed the following report of his death:
'DROWNED BY A FISH. Soldier Dives in River to Recover Tackle and is Enmeshed. AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE. An extraordinary drowning fatality occurred in the Nene near Castor Mill on Saturday. A driver in the Peterborough Battery R.F.A. named Charles Wm. Phillips, of 38 Parliament-street, employed at Messrs Brotherhood's on work furlough, went out chub fishing, and was seen pursuing that sport. Then he disappeared, and no more was heard of him until his body was discovered on Sunday evening. The story of his death is as remarkable as it is sad. It appears he was using a trimmer, and he put this in the water baited for chub. A fish took the bait and got hooked, and as the deceased had no boat with him he undressed and dived in after the tackle. Although a good swimmer he apparently became entangled in the line which the fish seems to have wound round, and, there being no assistance forthcoming, he was drowned. At the inquest on Monday the jury passed a vote of condolence with the mother, and handed her their fees'].
(N.B. The Roll is known to include numerous errors, including: misspelt names and inaccurate date/place of death, service number/ rank/ military unit etc; several casualties were mistakenly listed on it twice [i.e. under their true name and also the alias under which they served]; several other men were listed on it due to the mistaken belief they had died, whereas they had actually survived).