Lieutenant A. H. Tett, a Canadian who served in The Boer War and The Great War. At rest at St. John and All Saints Church in the Somerset village of Kingstone.

Arthur Hopkins Tett, born on the 22 August 1882, was from Kingston, Ontario. A banker by profession he married Bessie Bruce Tett and they had one son, John Kearns Tett.

Arthur Tett served as a Lieutenant with the 3^rd Canadian Mounted Rifles during the Boer War in South Africa.

He volunteered for service in World War One and, again holding the rank of Lieutenant, embarked from Halifax in Canada on 29 April 1917 and arrived in England on 7 May 1917 thereupon being assigned to the 5^th Canadian Reserve Battalion based at West Sandling in Kent.

On 29 July Lieutenant Tett was admitted to the Westcliff Canadian Eye and Ear Hospital in Folkestone with a breathing problem caused by polypi in his left nostril, a condition which had originally occurred in Ontario 2 years earlier.  The polypi were removed under local anaesthetic and having been given the all clear he was subsequently discharged on the 18 August with 2 weeks convalescent leave.

While on leave he was admitted to Taunton Military Hospital where he died of Pneumococcal Meningitis on 26 August 1917. He is at rest in the churchyard of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone near Ilminster.

 Lt. Arthur Hopkins Tett from Kingston, Ontario, Canada at rest in the churchyard of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone. 

John Kearns Tett, son of the above, joined the RCAF in July 1940, subsequently becoming a Pilot Officer.  In April 1941 he joined 103 Squadron RAF equipped with the Vickers Wellington bomber.  The squadron was serving in No.1 Group of Bomber Command flying from RAF Newton near Nottingham.  While returning from a raid on Hamburg in July 1941 Tett’s Wellington was forced to ditch in the North Sea.  He and his crew spent 13 hours in a dinghy until rescued.  Tett was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 22 June 1943 and in due course repatriated to Canada.

John Tett re-joined the RCAF in 1952 with the rank of Wing Commander charged with establishing the development of fitness, sport and recreation within the service.  After a successful career he left the RCAF in 1965 and became Director of Parks and Recreation for the principality of Kingston.  Sadly, he drowned in August 1974 when his canoe overturned during a storm on Devil Lake in Frontenac Provincial Park north of Kingston.

The Church of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone.

Also in the churchyard at Kingstone is a memorial stone commemorating Squadron Leader Sinclair ‘Tif’ O’Connor Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Cross, Air Force Medal, who served with RAF Bomber Command’s 49 Squadron during Operation Grapple – the testing of hydrogen bombs.

On 11 September 1958, while holding the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he was pilot and captain of the Vickers Valiant jet bomber (XD827) which dropped a hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific during Operation Grapple Z.

The memorial stone records Sinclair O’Connor’s birth on 26-5-1922 and death on 21-3-2013.

The memorial stone commemorating Sinclair O'Connor DFC, AFC, AFM in the churchyard of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone.