Private Alfred Harry Day, 5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment

Corfe Castle (Dorset)

Prior to the First World War Centenary, I had not known that much about my own family members who had fought in the war. That said, I did know that my paternal grandfather, Henry Augustus Riggs Day, and his brother-in-law, William George Rawles (my great uncle), had both served with the 1/4th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment — but I did not have a detailed understanding of what they had each done after the battalion had sailed to India in late 1914. While looking for information on my father’s ancestors, however, I found a more distant relative that had died during the Gallipoli campaign. Alfred Harry Day shared the same great-grandparents as my grandfather (George and Margaret Day, who lived at Corfe Castle at the turn of the nineteenth century), so I think that it works out that he would have been my second cousin, two times removed.

10073 Private Alfred Harry Day from Corfe Castle (Dorset), serving with “D” Company of the 5th (Service) Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, was killed-in-action on the 9th August 1915, aged 27, during the battalion’s assault on Ottoman positions at Kiretch Tepe Sirt, which followed the Suvla Bay landings a few days earlier.

Corfe Castle: War Memorial (Dorset)

Alfred Harry Day was born at Corfe Castle in the second quarter of 1888, the son of Charles Day and Sarah Day (née Tuck). He was baptised at Corfe on the 1st July 1888. At the time of the 1891 Census, Alfred H. Day was three-years old and living with his family at East Street, Corfe (a street where the family would reside for many years). At that time, both Charles and Sarah Day were 42 years old, while Charles was working as a journeyman mason. At the time, Alfred was the youngest of five children, the others being: Edwin (aged 17, a journeyman butcher), Charles H. (8), Eva M. (6), and William A. (4).

By the time of the 1901 Census, Alfred H. Day was thirteen years old, but still living with his family at East Street, Corfe. Alfred’s father, Charles Day, was at that time 52 years old and working as a mason (walling); his mother, Sarah, was also 52. Only two of Alfred’s older siblings were recorded as living in the family home: Eva M. (aged 16) and William A. (14).

Charles Day died in the first quarter of 1908 and was buried in the Old Cemetery at Corfe on the 27th February. At the time of the 1911 Census, Charles’s widow Sarah was 62 years old. All three children that were living with the family in 1901 were still resident, namely: Eva Mary (aged 26), William Arthur (24, a journeyman mason working in a builders’ yard), and Alfred Harry (23, now a journeyman baker). The 1911 Census return recorded that Sarah Day had had eleven children, of whom nine were still alive. Sarah Day died on the 27th July 1937, aged 89, and was buried in the same cemetery as her husband.

The 1891 Census return stated that the family (as well as several others) were living at Poorhouse Yard, which I think means that it would have been Uvedale’s House, which in the sixteenth century had belonged to a prominent Corfe Castle citizen named Henry Uvedale. The building at some point passed into the possession of the Bankes family. In 1732 it was an alehouse known as the “King’s Arms,” while in 1796 it was converted into a poorhouse. A recent archaeological assessment notes how the conversion to multiple tenements changed the nature of the building [1]:

In that year [1796], the overseers of Corfe’s poor agreed to take Mr Bankes’s house and put as many poor in it as could comfortably be lodged’ the whole place was divided up into accommodation units and there are still little fireplaces inserted throughout the building and steep narrow flights of stairs.
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The 19th century census returns show Uvedales packed with labourers and men on low wages who were employed to cut clay on the heathland between Corfe and Wareham (great clay…it got shipped up to Staffordshire for Wedgewood’s potteries). By the 1850s, East Street was known as Poor Street.

The building has a full archaeological description (with plan) in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) volume for South-East Dorset (Corfe Castle, Monument #32) [2]:

Uvedale’s House, now divided into six separate tenements, was built in the late 16th century at a date formerly indicated by painted glass that bore the arms of Uvedale and the inscription ‘Henry Uvedale; I.V. John Uvedale, 1575’ (Hutchins I, 509). Though it has deteriorated, it was a house of architectural pretensions befitting a family important in the life of the borough under Elizabeth and James I; John Uvedale was mayor in 1582.

The building consists of a main range facing W. to the road and an E. wing. The W. range, originally of two storeys throughout, was reduced in its N. half to one storey and attics in the 18th century; the E. wing is of three storeys. The plan of the W. range comprised a hall lit by a long window; opposite the window was a large fireplace. The hall was probably entered at the N. end from a through passage of which the two opposed doorways remain though rebuilt. N. of the passage was an unheated room. The staircase, since removed, may have flanked the hall fireplace on the N. side; the cupboard now occupying this space is entered by a timber doorway with a four-centred head. The E. wing comprised, on the ground floor, a W. room which was no doubt the kitchen, since it has a large fireplace, and an E. room which was unheated. A small room added to the S. of the kitchen is entered from the hall.

Few original features are visible. The hall window, partly blocked, is of six lights under a rubble relieving arch and has hollow-chamfered mullions; the label stops bear the initials I.V. A window of the same size on the first floor has the initials H.V. on the stops. Inside, in the kitchen the outline of the fireplace-head is traceable and N. beside the stack is a stone doorway with a triangular head. The roof trusses of the E. wing comprise principal rafters and collar beams.

Some of Alfred Harry Day’s service records survive as part of the “Burnt Documents” series (WO 363, British Army Service Records 1914-1920; available via Findmypast). They show that Alfred attested at Wareham on the 22nd August 1914, afterwards being posted to the Dorsetshire Regiment Depot at Dorchester. Private Day’s attestation form records that at the time he joined-up, he was twenty-six years old, working as a baker, and still resident at East Street, Corfe Castle. 10073 Private Alfred Harry Day joined the 5th (Service) Battalion of the Dorsets on the 1st September 1914, embarking for overseas service on the 2nd July 1915.

Corfe Castle: War Memorial, the cemetery gates (Dorset)

Private Alfred Harry Day of ‘D’ Company of the 5th Dorsets was killed-in-action at Gallipoli on the 9th August 1915, a few days after the battalion’s arrival at Suvla. In Turkey, he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial (Panels 137 to 140). His name also features on the Corfe Castle war memorial, which is part of the arched gateway to the Old Cemetery, on East Street.

The 5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment in the Dardanelles:

The 5th (Service) Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment had been established shortly after the outbreak of war and its first detachments moved to Belton Park, near Grantham (Lincolnshire) for training on the 28th August 1914. There, the battalion joined the 11th (Northern) Division, a First New Army (K1) formation. After several months training in Lincolnshire, the battalion moved in April 1915 to Witley Camp (Surrey). From January 1915, the 5th Dorsets formed part of 34th Infantry Brigade in the 11th Division.

The 11th Division was one of three New Army Divisions sent to the Mediterranean in the Summer of 1915. Together with other K1 Divisions, the 10th (Irish) Division and the 13th (Western) Division, the 11th formed part of a new IX Corps allocated to support the Gallipoli campaign, which had been largely at stalemate since the initial landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles on the 25th April.

On the 3rd July 1915, the 5th Dorsets sailed on the RMS “Aquitania” (a Cunard liner) from Liverpool, arriving at Lemnos (Greece) in the Aegean Sea on the 10th July. Later that month they moved to Imbros, where the 11th Division was concentrating. On the night of the 6th/7th August 1915, the battalion were to land at Suvla Bay. The original plans for the landings have been outlined by Peter Hart [3]

The original concept was for a coup de main whereby the covering force of the 11th Division would land on the night of the 6 August on the beaches to the south of Nibrunesi Point and overwhelm the Turkish outposts on the Lala Baba hills and Hill 10 before moving swiftly inland to seize the Kiretch Tepe and Tekke Tepe ranges that dominated the whole Suvla Bay area.
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One thing was certain: the high ground must be seized as soon as possible, thus allowing the 10th Division to come ashore and then co-operate, if necessary, in the ANZAC Corps’ advance on Hill 971 and the Sari Bair range. But the main intention was to establish a secure supply base for the future push forward across the Peninsula after the success of the Anzac breakout.

The plan was then adjusted by IX Corps headquarters, a process during which the urgent need to seize the high ground became obscured. They also decided to land some of the force in Suvla Bay itself, which would have consequences later on.

Despite the general mood of caution, complacency was rife at the highest level. The IX Corps commander, Lieutenant General Sir Frederick William Stopford, commanded the landings from on board HMS “Jonquil,” famously going to sleep while the actual landings were in progress.

The plan for 11th Division on the the 6th/7th August was for 34th Brigade to land on the northern side of Suvla Bay, capture Hill 10, and secure the Kiretch Tepe ridge further north. In the meantime, the other divisional brigades were detailed to land just south of Nibrunesi Point, with the 32nd Brigade then moving north via Lala Baba hill to join the 34th, before both would swing around to attack Chocolate Hill.

The reality was somewhat different. The assault battalions of the 34th Brigade, the 9th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers and the 11th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, were landed too far south and also struggled to get ashore when the landing vessels, motor-lighters known as “beetles,” beached some way offshore. In the confusion, the Lancashire Fusiliers were unable to capture Hill 10. In the meantime, the 5th Dorsets were waiting in the bay on two destroyers, HMS “Beagle” and HMS “Bulldog.” The first of the lighters carrying the Dorsets from the “Bulldog” (which included “D” Company) set off at around 01:30, but beached around sixty-yards away from the shore, so rowing-boats had to be deployed to get the men ashore. There were then further delays before all of the men from the “Beagle” could be landed. The situation on the ground was absolutely chaotic.

Hill 10 was finally captured just after 06:00. C. T. Atkinson’s regimental history of the Dorsets explains that the position was heavily defended and that their attack went in at around 06:00 on the 7th August [4]:

“A” Company on the right giving covering fire while the others advanced against the trenches west and north of the hill. The move was a complete success. Covered by “A’s” fire the other companies pushed rapidly forward over the scrub-covered dunes, making ground by short rushes. The Turks kept up a hot fire, but the Dorsets’ steady advance was too much for them, and when the leading line was still about 200 yards off the Turks started to go. The Northumberland Fusiliers and some of the 32nd Brigade had meanwhile renewed the advance from the south, and less than twenty minutes after the Dorsets started their advance Hill 10 was in British hands and the surviving defenders were decamping N.E. with the Dorsets in pursuit.

Progress beyond Hill 10 was slow due to the ground conditions and the difficulty of keeping the battalion together. At the end of the day, Chocolate Hill remained untaken. The regimental history is withering in its conclusions on the Suvla landings [5]:

Thus ended the 5th Dorsets’ first day under fire. It had been an unsatisfactory and disappointing day, not so much for the Battalion, which had done all that was asked of it, as for the Division. From the first things had gone wrong, the misfortunes that had attended the landing of the leading battalions and had led to the 32nd being mixed up with it had thrown everything out of gear; where resolute handling and vigour were urgently needed, resolution and initiative had been conspicuously lacking. The situation at Hill 10 had not been handled, and even after that position was eventually taken, when energy and determination might still have retrieved the situation; inactivity and depression had prevailed at Brigade headquarters.

The same problems persisted on the following day, Atkinson suggesting that the “the exact situation was not known by the higher authorities, much less appreciated.” The Dorsets consolidated and prepared to renew the attack on the 9th August.

The plan for the 9th August was for the 11th Division and part of the 53rd (Welsh) Division to attack Scimitar Hill and Ismail Oglu Tepe, while the 10th Division advanced on their left flank along the Kiretch Tepe Sirt, covered by the 5th Dorsets and the 9th Lancashire Fusiliers. The Dorsets received their orders to move early in the morning, meaning that many of the men started out without supplies of food and water. After reaching the start point, “D” Company was to lead the attack [6]:

“D” Company, which was the freshest, not having been on out-post, formed the leading line. At first the advance went well enough, though the ground was broken and very difficult. The Battalion had to cross a series of ridges, separated by deep gullies and covered with thick scrub, which tended to break up formations by making touch and direction hard to keep, while the crests apparently served as aiming points, for on reaching one the Battalion usually met heavy fire, and the men had to double over them into the dips beyond.

With the help of naval gunnery, the Dorsets progressed to a ridge running south-east from Kiretch Tepe Sirt near a place later known as Jephson’s Post. There, they waited for units of 10th Division to catch up. Facing them on a ridge around 900 yards ahead were large numbers of Ottoman troops. With the Munster Fusiliers from 10th Division pinned down on their left, the Dorsets could not press forward. Eventually, they were forced to withdraw in order to conform with the 10th Division on their left and the Lancashire Fusiliers on their right. Eventually, the battalion was ordered to fall back to trenches on Karakol Dagh for the night. The regimental history comments that casualties had been fairly heavy [7]:

Besides the officers already mentioned [Captain Henry Neville Le Marchant, killed; Major Weldon, Lieuts. Horton and Clayton, wounded] about twenty men had been killed, over sixty were wounded and a dozen missing.

Other men were still out in front, but were able to re-join the battalion later. The regimental history reflected on another failure [8]:

August 9th had been another disappointing day, though once again the 5th Dorsets had given a good account of themselves and only retired in conformity with the Brigade with which they were acting. But the failure to clear Kiretch Tepe Sirt was far from the worst feature of the day. The attack on Scimitar Hill and Ismail Oglu Tepe had been repulsed, the 53rd Division’s advance had failed completely, Turkish reinforcements had come up, and only with difficulty had their vigorous counter-attacks been checked.

Hart is scathing about the Sulva debacle [9]:

The IX Corps was thrown into battle long before it was ready with incompetent commanders and preposterously optimistic plans which, despite the experience of the last four months, seemed to ignore the possibility a potent Turkish resistance.

General Stopford was dismissed on the 15th August 1915, the command of IX Corps being taken up in the short-term by Major-General Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle. Shortly afterwards, Major-General Frederick Hammersley, the commander of 11th Division, was replaced by Major-General Edward Fanshawe. Things at Suvla did not improve immediately. The 5th Dorsets would be involved in yet another futile (and even more costly) attack on the 21st August, the Battle of Scimitar Hill. Joining them in that battle would be the 2nd Mounted Division, featuring the 1/1st Dorsetshire Yeomanry (Queen’s Own), fighting dismounted.

Including Captain Le Marchant, the Helles Memorial contains the names of sixteen members of the 5th Dorsets that died on the 9th August 1915. They include the names of Lance Corporal Edwin Henry Foot, formerly a bellringer at Buckland Newton, and that of Private Alfred Harry Day from Corfe Castle.

Family background:

Alfred Harry Day’s father, Charles Day, was born at Corfe Castle in the first quarter of 1849, the son of William Day and Ann Day (née Battrick). William had married Ann Battrick at Kingston Chapel [10] on the 8th April 1835. Charles Day was baptised at Corfe Castle on the 11th March 1849. At the time of the 1851 Census, Charles was two years old and living with his family at East Street, Corfe. At that time, Charles’s father, William, was 39 years old and working as a labourer in clay pits, while his mother, Ann, would have been 46 (although the census return seems to state 40). In 1851, Charles was the youngest of seven children living in the household, the others being: Henry (16), James (12), Elizabeth (10), William (8), Sarah (6) and Edwin (4). The two eldest were already, like their father, working as clay pit labourers, while the remaining four were still at school.  The Day family were still resident at East Street at the time of the 1861 Census, when William Day was a 49-year- old clay digger and Ann Day a 56-year-old needlewoman. Charles was at that time twelve years old and working as a bricklayer’s apprentice. Charles’s older brothers were either working as clay diggers (James, aged 22, William, 15) or as a shoemaker’s apprentice (Edwin, 14).

The old Church of St James, Kingston (Dorset), now a private dwelling. The church (then a chapelry) was opened in 1833, replacing an older building. William and Ann Day were married there a couple of years later.

Charles Day married Sarah Tuck at Wareham (registration district) in the fourth quarter of 1869, presumably at Corfe Castle. Sarah Tuck had been born at Corfe in the second quarter of 1848, the daughter of William Tuck and Sarah Tuck (née Riddle). At the time of the 1851 Census, Sarah Tuck was two years old and living at Bridge Street, Corfe Castle with her parents and six siblings. William Tuck, who had been born at Bransgore in Hampshire, was 41 years old and working as a general labourer, while his wife Sarah was 37. In 1851, the younger Sarah was the second-youngest of seven children, who included: Charlotte (17), George (15, a groom), John (10), Jane (8, both at school), Susan (5), and Ellen (2 months). By the time of the 1861 Census, Sarah Tuck was twelve years old and still at school. In the census return, she was recorded as visiting the household of Richard Searley at Arfleet, just to the north of the village of Corfe.

The 1871 Census featured the recently-married Charles and Sarah Day living at 83, East Street, Corfe Castle. At that time, they had one daughter, the one-year-old Charlotte. At that time, Charles Day was 22 years old and working as a bricklayer, while Sarah was also 22. Interestingly, Charles is described as a “lodger” rather than as the head of household. The family were still living in East Street at the time of the 1881 Census. By then, Both Charles and Sarah Day were 32 years old, while Charles was said to be working as a mason. By that time, they had four children living with them: Sarah (aged 9), Edwin (7), Elizabeth (5), and Ellen (3).

Charles’s mother, Ann Day, had died in the second quarter of 1875, aged 70, and was buried at Corfe Castle (Old Cemetery) on the 13th May. Charles’s father, William Day, died in the third quarter of 1884, aged 72, and was buried in the same cemetery on the 22nd July.

As stated previously, Charles Day died in the first quarter of 1908, aged 59 and was buried at Corfe (Old Cemetery) on the 27th February. Sarah Day died on the 27th July 1937, aged 89, and was buried in the same cemetery as her husband on the 30th July.

Charles’s older brother William — a clay digger at the time of the 1861 Census — later became a market gardener and moved to nearby Swanage. One of his sons, James Day, later became Mayor of Swanage and a major benefactor to the town.

References:

[1] Martin Papworth, “Uvedales, Corfe Castle from Town House to Poor House,” Archaeology National Trust SW, 22nd November 2015: https://archaeologynationaltrustsw.wordpress.com/2015/11/22/uvedales-corfe-castle-from-town-house-to-poor-house/

[2] Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), “Corfe Castle,” in: An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 2, South-East (London: HMSO, 1970), pp. 52-100:
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol2/pp52-100

[3] Peter Hart, Gallipoli (London: Profile Books, 2011), pp. 279-280.

[4] T. C. Atkinson, “History of the 5th Battalion, The Dorset Regiment, 1914-1919,” in: History of the Dorsetshire Regiment, 1914-1919, Part III, The Service Battalions (Dorchester: Henry Ling; London: Simpkin Marshall, 1932), p. 17.

[5] Ibid., p. 20.

[6] Ibid., pp. 21-22.

[7] Ibid., p. 23.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Hart, op cit., p. 367.

[10] Colin Trueman, “Kingston’s other church,” Dorset Life, October 2017:
https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2017/10/kingstons-other-church/