The Royal Navy in the First World War (Q 74933) Armoured Cruiser HMS Black Prince. Copyright: © IWM. Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205319720

J/19139 Able Seaman Reginald Gordon Hansford of the Royal Navy was killed in action on the 31st May 1916, aged nineteen, when HMS Black Prince was sunk at the Battle of Jutland with the loss of all crew. The CWGC database identifies Reginald as the son of Mrs. Hansford, of 60, Church Road, Wool, Dorset [1]. He is one of eleven casualties from the First World War that are named on the war memorial at Wool.

Reginald Gordon Hansford was born at Moreton (Dorset) on the 13th January 1897, the son of Harry Hansford and Mary Ann Hansford (née Bridle). At the time of the 1901 Census, the family were living at Railway Crossing, Wool. Harry was twenty-eight-years-old and working as a railway signalman for the London and South Western Railway, while Mary Ann was twenty-seven. Reginald G. Hansford was four-years-old. The family were still living at Railway Crossing at the time of the 1911 Census, when the fourteen-year-old Reginald (now at school) had also been joined by a younger brother, Cecil Henry John, who was aged six. The census return records that Harry and Mary Ann had had three children, one of whom had died.

Reginald Hansford’s service record sheet (ADM 188/685/19139, The National Archives; via Findmypast) states that he joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in July 1912. He became Boy 1st Class in February 1913, then commenced his adult service as an Ordinary Seaman on 13 January 1915, when he had reached the age of 18. By that time, he had already been serving on HMS Black Prince for over eight months. He was then promoted to the rank of Able Seaman (AB) in October 1915. Hansford’s previous service had been with the following ships and shore stations: HMS Impregnable (Jul 1912-Feb 1913), HMS Theseus (Feb-May 1913), HMS Prince of Wales (May-Aug 1913), HMS Duke of Edinburgh (Aug 1913- Mar 1914), and HMS Victory (Mar-Apr 1914).

Wool: The First World War section of the war memorial, with the name of R. G. Hansford (Dorset)

HMS Black Prince was an armoured cruiser, part of the Duke of Edinburgh class [2]. She was built at Thames Ironworks, and was launched in 1904. Boy 1st Class Hansford joined the ship in April 1914. On the outbreak of the First World War, HMS Black Prince was part of the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet. She took part in the pursuit of SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau in August 1914, and later served in the Red Sea. She joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet in December 1914.

During the Battle of Jutland, the 1st Cruiser Squadron was part of a screening force that was operating in advance of the bulk of the Grand Fleet. HMS Black Prince lost contact with the rest of the squadron late on the 31st May 1916, when other ships in the squadron, including HMS Defence and HMS Warrior, also came under attack. The details of the ship’s ultimate fate are still a bit of a mystery. It seems that she ran into the main German force and was engaged by several battleships, after she had attacked the Nassau-class battleship SMS Rheinland. What is known is that HMS Black Prince was sunk with the loss of all crew, which numbered 857.

Portsmouth: Portsmouth Naval Memorial: Panel 13, the name of AB Reginald Gordon Hansford (Hampshire)

Able Seaman Hansford is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and the war memorial at Wool.

Family background:

Both of Reginald’s parents had also been born at Moreton. Harry Hansford, Reginald’s father, was born in the fourth quarter of 1872, the son of John and Elizabeth Hansford. At the time of the 1881 Census, the family were living at Moreton Common. John Hansford (born at Tonerspuddle) was forty-three-years-old and working as a general labourer, while Elizabeth (born at Tincleton) was forty-six. Harry was eight-old, the fourth eldest of six children, who had been born variously at Tonerspuddle (Turners Puddle), Pallington (between Moreton and Tincleton), and Moreton. The family were still living at Moreton at the time of the 1891 Census. Harry was eighteen years old and working as a railway porter. He was at that point the eldest of three children that were resident. Also living with the family were two lodgers from Wiltshire (who were working as timber hewers).

Harry Hansford married Mary Ann Bridle at Wareham (registration district) in the fourth quarter of 1893. Mary had been born at Moreton in 1874, the daughter of John and Susan Bridle. She was baptized there on the 5th May 1874. At the time of the 1881 Census, the Bridle family, like the Hansfords, were living at Moreton Common. John Bridle (born at Briantspuddle) was twenty-eight-years-old and working as a woodman, while Susan (born at Sydling St Nicholas) was twenty-seven. Mary was seven years old, the second eldest of five children, all of whom had been born at Moreton. The family were still living at Moreton at the time of the 1891 Census. Mary A. Bridle was seventeen-years-old and, like her elder sister Emily, was working as a general servant domestic. She was at that time the second eldest of nine children that were resident.

Harry later became a signalman, working for the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). Probate records show that Henry Hansford, a signalman at Wool Station, died at the County Hospital at Dorchester on the 25th December 1912. He would have been around forty years old.

The Battle of Jutland:

The Battle of Jutland, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Skagerrak (Skagerrakschlacht), was the most significant naval action of the First World War. The battle was fought in the North Sea, close to the coast of Denmark, between the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy, under the command of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the German High Seas Fleet, commanded by Admiral Reinhard Scheer. On the 31st May 1916, a group of Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) battlecruisers under the command of Vice-Admiral Franz Hipper encountered Royal Navy battlecruiser squadrons commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty, which were then lured south into the path of the German High Seas Fleet. In the initial engagement, two Royal Navy battlecruisers, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Queen Mary, were ripped apart by massive explosions, with enormous loss-of-life. Beatty then withdrew north, and drew the High Seas Fleet towards the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet. In the ensuing battle, a large number of ships on both sides were sunk and many lives lost.

In total, the Royal Navy lost more ships (14) than the Imperial German Navy (11). In total, and in addition to the two battlecruisers lost in the original engagement with Hipper’s force, the Royal Navy also lost another battlecruiser (HMS Invincible), three armoured cruisers (HMS Black Prince, HMS Warrior, and HMS Defence), a destroyer leader (HMS Tipperary), and seven destroyers. The Kaiserliche Marine lost one battlecruiser (Lützow), a pre-dreadnaught (Pommern), four light cruisers (Frauenlob, Elbing, Rostock, Wiesbaden), and five heavy torpedo boats. The loss of life on both sides was dreadful, Royal Navy casualties (6,784) being almost double that of the Imperial German Navy (3,039) [3]. While the Battle of Jutland was a tactical disaster for the Royal Navy, its outcome did demonstrate conclusively, however, that the German High Seas Fleet could not operate with impunity in the North Sea.

Portsmouth: Portsmouth Naval Memorial: Panel 10, the name of Captain Thomas Parry Bonham, the commander of HMS Black Prince (Hampshire)

References:

[3] Commonwealth War Graves Commission database: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/3036441/REGINALD%20GORDON%20HANSFORD/

[2] Wikipedia, HMS Black Prince (1904): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Black_Prince_(1904)

[3] I have taken these figures from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jutland

Wool War Memorial (Dorset)

The war memorial at Wool (Dorset) is a cross of Portland Stone on the edge of the churchyard of the Church of the Holy Rood. It seems to have been unveiled on Thursday, 12th May 1921. An account of the dedication was published in the Western Gazette of the 20th May 1921 [p9]:

WOOL’S TRUBUTE TO THE FALLEN.
UNVEILED BY LIEUT.-COLONEL G. A. M. L. SCALES, D.S.O.
IMPRESSIVE MEMORIAL SERVICE.

The unveiling and dedication of the war memorial to the fallen men of Wool took place on Thursday evening last. The ceremony was preceded by an impressive memorial service held in the church, and conducted by the vicar, the Rev. J. G. L. Anderson. It opened with the beautiful hymn, “Jesu lover of my Soul,” after which the following words were said by the Vicar:– “Let us remember before God the men from this parish who lost their lives on active service during the Great War. The names of the 11 heroes were read, and then followed the beautiful sentences from the Burial Service. Psalm cxxx., De profundis, was chanted by the choir, and the Rev. J. F. Jones, of Winfrith, read the Lesson, taken from Rev. xxi. 1-5. The Rev. J. C. Swain then read other sentences from the Burial Service, followed by the Lord’s Prayer and prayers for the fallen and for their relatives. The Nunc Dimittis was sung. The address was given by the Rev. E. J. Tadman, formerly vicar of Wool, who knew the fallen men personally. He asked his hearers to remember two short texts, viz., “Looking unto Jesus,” and “A cloud of witnesses.” He begged the relatives of the dead men not to think of their loved ones as dead, but as living witnesses, watching and praying for these who were left [?] to fight earth’s battles. He hoped the message their memorial cross would give them would be “Look unto Jesus.”

After the address, hymn 199 “On the Resurrection Morning,” was sung. During the singing of this hymn the congregation, led by the clergy, choir, mourners, and firing party left the church, and proceeded to the War Memorial, when the Vicar asked Lieutenant-Colonel G. A. Mc L. Scales, D.S.O., commanding the Tank Battalion, to unveil the cross.

Colonel Scales, in the course of his remarks, paid a high tribute to the self-sacrifice of the men of Wool, who laid down their lives that others might live. The customary three volleys were then fired by 10 men from the 1st Depot Battalion, Tank Corps, and “The Last Post” was sounded by the trumpeters. Hymn 108 was sung by the large congregation, and the Vicar read the dedicatory prayers.

The Reveille was then sounded, after which wreaths were placed on the memorial by relatives of the deceased men and others. A beautiful floral tribute was placed by Mr. Norman Talbot, on behalf of the ex-Service men of Wool. There were also tokens from Wool C.E. School, Wool R.C. School, “A Few Parishioners,” and others. The proceedings closed with the hymn “O God our help in ages past.”

Mr. Eastment presided at the organ, and very impressively played the musical parts of the service. Muffled peals were rung on the church bells under the direction of Mr. Herbert Runyard. The ex-Service men of Wool paraded at Bindon-lane Corner and marched to church, preceded by a firing party of ten men under a sergeant from the 1st Depot Battalion, Tank Corps. The Wool Band, under Bandmaster Stevens, played the “Dead March” in Saul as the procession wended its way to the church. After the service in the church the ex-Service men formed a guard of honour from the south door to the memorial, and later again formed a procession through the village, the band playing the “Death or Glory” march.

The memorial is the work of Messrs. Appleby & Childs, of Yeovil, and is a plain cross of Portland stone. The base bears the following inscription:–

In grateful and honoured memory of the men of this parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918.

W. J. Bishop.
R. J. Bowering.
V. Churchill.
C. T. Davis.
R. G. Hansford.
M. G. E. Leak.
W. Ricketts.
F. D. Stevens.
R. Torevell.
O. P. Whiting.
N. S. Wright.

Their name liveth for evermore.

Sons of this place, let this of you be said,
That you who live are worthy of your dead.
These gave their lives that you who live may reap
A richer harvest ere you fall asleep.

Colonel Sceales:

“Colonel Scales” was in fact Lieutenant-Colonel George Adinston McLaren Sceales, DSO (1878-1956), a long-serving officer with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who had commanded battalions of the Black Watch and the Tank Corps during the war. His role in the unveiling is a sign of the strong links that had been formed between the village and the army camp at nearby Bovington, which had become the depot of the Tank Corps. Sceales came from Falkirk and his long military career was detailed in a profile of Thornhill House in the Falkirk Herald of the 21 September 1927 [p8]:

Mr. [James] Sceales was succeeded by his only son, Lieut.-Colonel George Adinston McLaren Sceales, D.S.O., the record of whose military career cannot fail to be scanned with interest. He was born at Thornhill House on 5th July, 1878, and educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. On 18th May, 1898, Mr. Sceales was appointted [sic] 2nd lieutenant, Princess Louise’s 91st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders; lieutenant, 12th December, 1899; and adjutant, 1st April, 1908, serving with that battalion continuously till the late war. On the outbreak of the South African War Adjutant Sceales went out with his regiment from Dublin in October, 1899, to Cape Town. With the 1st Battalion of his regiment he was present in the engagements at Modder River, Magersfontein, Koodoosberg, Paardeberg, Poplar Grove, Waterval Drift, Houtnek, Bloemburg, Roodepoort, and Heilbron, and in the operations in the Transvaal under Major-General Hamilton. For his services in the South African campaign he received the Queen’s Medal with two clasps. At the Coronation of King George [V] he was Gold Staff Officer, receiving the Coronation Medal. On the outbreak of the late war he proceeded to France in 1914 with his battalion, and in the following year he was appointed to command the 4th Black Watch, and in the 1916 to command the amalgamated 4th and 5th Black Watch. In 1917 he was three times mentioned in despatches and received the D.S.O., and gazette lieutenant-colonel. He commanded the 14th Battalion Tank Corps, and was Brigadier-General commanding the 1st Tank Brigade from December, 1917 to 1919, and raised and commanded the 5th (Regular) Tank Battalion. This gallant Falkirk “Bairn” retired from the Army in 1921, and resides in the Isle of Thanet, but is still proprietor of Thornhill House and grounds.

Wool War Memorial (Dorset)

The names:

The eleven men named on the First World War section of the memorial can be linked to records in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) database as follows:

• W. Ricketts — Lance Serjeant Walter Ernest Ricketts (Service No: 6881), 1st Bn., Scots Guards; died 11 November 1914; name recorded on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen (Panel 11).
• R. J. Bowering — Private Robert John Bowering (Service No: 3/8416), 1st Bn., Dorsetshire Regiment; died 2 May 1915; buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France (I. A. 160.).
• C. T. Davis — Private Charles Tom Davis (Service No: 12608), 5th Bn., Dorsetshire Regiment; died 21 August 1915; name recorded on the Helles Memorial, Turkey (Panel 136 to 139.)
• V. Churchill — Private Victor Churchill (Service No: 10707), 5th Bn., Dorsetshire Regiment; died 22 August 1915; name recorded on the Helles Memorial, Turkey (Panel 136 to 139.)
• R. Torevell — Private R. Torevell (Service No: 8222), 2nd Bn., Dorsetshire Regiment; died 14 September 1915; buried in Amara War Cemetery, Iraq (V. D. 10.); son of Mrs. J. E. Torevell, of 52, Spring St., Wool, Wareham, Dorset.
• R. G. Hansford — Able Seaman Reginald Gordon Hansford (Service No: J/19139), Royal Navy (H.M.S. “Black Prince”); died 31 May 1916, aged 19; name recorded on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial; son of Mrs. Hansford, of 60, Church Rd., Wool, Dorset — HMS “Black Prince” was a Duke of Edinburgh-class armoured cruiser, sunk during the Battle of Jutland with the loss of all 857 crew.
• M. G. E. Leak — Lance Corporal Montague Eli George Leak (Service No: 24595), 10th Bn., Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry; died 5 August 1916; name recorded on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France (Pier and Face 6 B.).
• W. J. Bishop — Private William James Bishop (Service No: 2120), 1st/4th Bn., Dorsetshire Regiment; died 23 December 1916, aged 22; name recorded on the Kirkee 1914-1918 Memorial, India (Face D.); son of W. F. and Annie Frances Jane Bishop, of 7, Station Rd., Wool, Dorset.
• N. S. Wright — Flight Sub-Lieutenant Noel Stafford Wright, Royal Naval Air Service; died 18 September 1917, aged 18; buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France (III. E. 185.); son of Walter Southey Wright and Caroline Maud Wright, of The Firs, Wool, Dorset.
• O. P. Whiting — Private Oscar Penny Whiting (Service No: 39769), 1st Bn., Wiltshire Regiment; died 26 April 1918; name recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium (Panel 119 to 120.)
• F. D. Stevens — Private Frederick David Stevens (Service No: 38950), 5th Bn., Royal Berkshire Regiment; died 25 May 1918, aged 28; name recorded on the Pozières Memorial, Somme, France (Panel 56 and 57.); son of Austin and Mary Elizabeth Stevens, of 41, Quarr Hill, Wool, Dorset.

I have already published several posts on the men named on the memorial and will link to additional ones here as they become available.

I have managed to visit the burial or commemoration sites for all six of the men that died on the Western Front, as well as the Portsmouth Naval Memorial for Able Seaman Hansford, R.N. Entirely by conincidence, both Private Bowering and Flight Sub-Lieutenant Wright, happen to be buried in the same cemetery in France, Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension. Five of the eleven died while serving with various battalions of the Dorsetshire Regiment, including two who were killed on successive days during the August Offensive at Gallipoli (Suvla) while serving with the 5th Battalion.

Bailleul: CWGC Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension (Nord, France)

References:

[1] The Western Gazette, 20th May 1921, p. 9; via British Newspaper Archive.

[2] The Falkirk Herald, 21 September 1927, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

Note:

Richard Amphlett’s research into the men named on the Wool war memorial has been published in: Alan Brown, More Memories of Wool (2008), pp. 279-282.

Update May 22nd, 2021:

Wool: Remembrance Sunday service, 1987 (Dorset)

Looking through some old photographs, I found a blurry one of a Remembrance Sunday service held at the Wool war memorial in 1987. It was probably taken by my mother. It features Harry Runyard (verger) and the Rev. John Goodman (vicar); the crucifer is my father, Ron Day. The grave marker in the foreground is that of Harry’s mother and father, Herbert Alfred and Gertrude Beatrice Runyard. Herbert was captain of the bellringers when the church bells were rung half-muffled for the unveiling of the memorial in 1921.

I also found one of my own photographs of the memorial, which was taken in February 1988.

Wool: The War Memorial, 7 February 1988 (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/51200521656

Update August 5th, 2021:

Added links to posts on Able Seaman Hansford and Lance Corporal Leak.

The grave marker of Private R. J. Bowering, 1st Dorsetshire Regiment, in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension (Nord); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/29103045964

The war memorial at Wool (Dorset) commemorates eleven men from the parish that died during the First World War. They include 3/8416 Private Robert John Bowering of the 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, who died on the 2nd May 1915, when he was aged around 42. Private Bowering was one of many members of the 1st Dorsets to die as a result of a German gas attack on the 1st May 1915 at Hill 60, near Ypres. Private Bowering is one of thirty-six 1st Dorset casualties from the first part of May 1915 that are buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension in France (Nord).

Wool: War Memorial (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/23539044019

Private Robert John Bowering:

It has not been possible to find out that much about Private Robert John Bowering’s service career during the First World War. He was a pre-war Regular, having enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Dorset Regiment at Dorchester on the 7th December 1891 [1]. After serving over eighteen years with the battalion, 3335 Drummer Bowering was discharged at Blackdown on the 15th October 1910, aged thirty-seven. He had served for over eleven years in India (1893-1904, 1905-1906) and had qualified for the India Medal with two clasps, for the Punjab Frontier 1897-98 and Tirah 1897-98.

Robert John Bowering (or Bowring) was born at Moreton (Dorset) in the second quarter of 1873, the son of Thomas Bowering and Emily Bowering (née Coombs). At the time of the 1881 Census, Robert was eight-years old and living at Wool (Church Street) with his parents and four younger siblings, who had been born variously at Moreton, Owermoigne, and Affpuddle. At that time, Robert’s father, Thomas, was thirty-eight years old (born at Cerne Abbas) and working as a farm servant; his mother, Emily, was forty years old (born at Mappowder) and working as a dairywoman. The Bowering family were still living at Wool (Church Lane) at the time of the 1891 Census, although Robert was no longer living with them. At that time, the forty-six-year-old Thomas Bowering was working as a dairyman, and Emily Bowering was fifty years old. Living with them were six children: Mary Jane Bowering (aged 16), William H. (15, working as a general servant), Albert (14, also working as a general servant), George J. (11), Arthur (9), and Cecil (7), the youngest three of whom were still at school. At the time of that census, Robert J. Bowering was an eighteen-year-old dairyman, now lodging at Tonerspuddle (Turners Puddle) with the family of Thomas Hard (a dairyman). I was not able to find Robert John Bowering in either the 1901 or 1911 Census, although he would definitely have been in India for the first of those.

By the time of the 1901 Census, the Bowerings were still living at Wool, but the family were much reduced in size. Thomas Bowering was fifty-six years old and working as a yard-man on farm, while Emily was sixty. Still living with them was just their daughter, Mary Jane, now aged twenty-five. At the time of the 1911 Census, Thomas and Emily Bowering had moved to nearby Highwood, in the neighbouring parish of East Stoke. Thomas was sixty-six years old and working as a farm labourer, while Emily was seventy. Living with them at that time was their son, William Henry Bowering, a thirty-six-year-old farm labourer. Drummer Robert John Bowering’s 1910 discharge papers stated that he was intending to join his parents at Highwood, where he had employment under his father on a farm.

Both Thomas and Emily Bowering would die in 1916, respectively aged 72 and 76.

Zillebeke: Remains of a bunker at Hill 60, in 2007 (West-Vlaanderen); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/9313981391

The 1st Dorsets at Hill 60, 1-6 May 1915:

On the outbreak of the First World War, the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment were based at Victoria Barracks in Belfast. The battalion mobilised in early August and embarked from there for Le Havre on the 14th August 1914. Until their transfer to the 32nd Division in late 1915, the 1st Dorsets formed part of 15th Infantry Brigade in the 5th Division [2].

Map of the vicinity of Ypres. Source: A. H. Hussey and D. S. Inman, The Fifth Division in the Great War (London: Nisbet, 1921); via British Library: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022533739.0x000002

In the middle of April 1915, the 5th Division relieved the 28th Division at Hill 60, to the south-east of Ypres, near Zillebeke. “Hill 60,” together with the nearby mounds known as “the Caterpillar” and “the Dump,” were fairly recent additions to the Ypres landscape, having been created in the 1850s, when spoil had been deposited from the digging of a railway cutting on the line linking Ypres and Comines. Hill 60 itself got its wartime name from its height in feet above sea level, as expressed on maps. While it was only around 60 ft (ca. 18 metres) high, Hill 60 was a critical part of the Ypres battlefield for both sides. In their history of The Fifth Division in the Great War, A. H. Hussey and D. S. Inman contrast the size and hight of the hill with its military significance [3]:

To call it a hill gives a somewhat false impression, as, in fact, it is merely a small protuberance on the crest of a gently sloping ridge; its position on the highest portion of the ridge, however, rendered it an excellent post for observation of the ground around Zillebeke and Ypres.

During the Spring of 1915, the Ypres Salient became the focus of some extremely bitter fighting, including the various actions that were subsequently classified as the Second Battle of Ypres (22nd April – 25 May 1915). This battle commenced on the 22nd April 1915, when the Germans attacked the Gravenstafel Ridge north-east of Ypres. This attack saw the introduction of a new weapon of war on the Western Front: poison gas (chlorine).

Hill 60. Detail from Trench Map 28.NW; scale: 1:20,000; edition 1; 1914. Source: McMaster University, Chasseaud Collection (Research Collections; Fonds: WW1 Trench Maps: France; Box number: PC04; envelope_number: 90; license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.5 CA: http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A70097

The Germans had captured the crest of Hill 60 from the French towards the end of 1914. In the opening months of 1915, the hill had begun to become a focus for mining operations, which would then continue for several years. During April 1915, the 5th Division were given the task of recapturing Hill 60. Several British mines were blown under the hill on the 17th April 1915, and units of 13th Infantry Brigade were able to establish positions on its crest and slightly beyond. On the 19th April, these positions were taken over by the 15th Brigade, supported by the 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment. This blog has already provided a short account of the defence of Hill 60 by the 1st East Surreys, for which three members of the battalion were awarded the Victoria Cross.

Zillebeke: View towards Hill 60 from CWGC Larch Wood Cemetery (West-Vlaanderen); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/32260459197

The 1st and 2nd May 1915:

The 15th Brigade were still holding the line at Hill 60 on the evening of Saturday, 1st May 1915, when the Germans suddenly attacked the hill with their new weapon. Despite suffering many casualties, the 1st Dorsets, who happened to be holding the front line trenches on the hill at the time of the attack, managed to hold on until the survivors could be reinforced by its reserve Companies and the 1st Devonshire Regiment (from 14th Brigade). The events of the 1st May 1915 were dealt with by a single sentence in Hussey and Inman’s history of the 5th Division [4]:

On 1st May gas clouds were launched by the Germans against the Dorsets, who were holding the position [on Hill 60]; this battalion suffered heavily from the gas, losing some 300 men, but gallantly maintained their line.

The episode was also recounted briefly in the British Official History, which focused on the fact that the line had held [5]:

Hill 60. The First Failure of a Gas Attack – Attack by the German XV. Corps on the 15th Brigade

During the 1st May a gas attack was made against Hill 60; it marks a stage in history, as it was the first by which the enemy gained no advantage. The hill, in the sector of the 15th Brigade (Br.-General E. Northey), was held at the time by the 1/Dorsetshire, under Major H. N. R. Cowie. About 7 p.m., after a severe bombardment, the Germans, from less than a hundred yards off, released gas on a front of a quarter of a mile. It shot over in thick volumes so quickly that very few men had time to adjust their extemporized respirators, and one company that was in the act of practising putting them on was caught with them dry. As soon as the cloud reached the Dorsetshire trenches the enemy opened rifle fire, attacked both flanks of the battalion with bombing parties, and concentrated the guns to form a barrage on the approaches to the hill. A few of the Dorsets, all suffering from gas, jumped on to the firestep, and, under 2/Lieut. R. V. Kestell-Cornish, opened rapid fire. This for the moment saved the situation and just gave time for the supports of the Dorsets, which were close at hand, the 1/Devonshire (14th Brigade), which was led up by Lieut.-Colonel E. G. Williams on his own initiative, and reinforcements of the 1/Bedfordshire (15th Brigade), to charge through the gas cloud and reach the front before the Germans gained a footing, when bombers of the Devons and Dorsets drove them back. The forbidden weapon had been faced and defeated for the first time. But the Dorsets by sticking to their posts had suffered heavily: 90 men died from gas poisoning in the trenches or before they could be got to a dressing station; and of the 207 brought to the nearest stations, 46 died almost immediately and 12 after long suffering; and of 2,413 cases from all fronts admitted in this period, 227 died in hospital.

As the Official History suggests, the effect of the attack on the 1st Dorsets was considerable. In his diaries, Company Sergeant Major Ernest Shephard described the aftermath of the attack as “the bitterest Sunday I have known or ever wish to know” [6].

By April 1915, the 1st Dorsets had been on the Western Front for around eight months. The 1st Dorsets had arrived in the Ypres Salient at the beginning of November 1914, initially being based mostly to the south of the city in the vicinity of Ploegsteert and Messines. Towards the end of April, the battalion moved to Zillebeke, and took over support positions near Larch Wood, west of Hill 60. On the 30th April, ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies took over front line trenches on Hill 60 itself. In the evening of the 1st May, the Dorsets were suddenly and unexpectedly confronted by the latest horror weapon. The War Diary of the 1st Dorsets (WO 95/1572/2) does not go into a great deal of detail and, given the circumstances, its account seems rather restrained [7]:

YPRES. 30th April 1915. Bn was disposed in dugouts in close support to Devons [1st Devonshire Regiment, 14th Brigade] who were holding Hill 60 and trenches on either flank of it.
1.15 am Relief of Camerons [2nd Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, from 27th Division] completed.
Bn remained in support throughout day.
All quiet except for shelling of railway cutting at intervals.
Casualties 3 wounded

YPRES. HILL 60. 1st May 1915. Bn remained in trenches on Hill 60 – with Devons in close support.
7 pm Enemy commenced bombardment of supporting area of Hill 60.
7.15 pm Enemy turned on asphyxiating gas from 3 nozzles in front of 38 trench and from 2 in front of 43 to 45 trenches. And also probably from others in front of 60.
The direction of the wind saved the garrison of 38, but the garrisons of 60, 43, 45 and 46 got the full benefit of the gas.
The situation became critical but was saved by the prompt action of Captain Batten, senior officer on the spot, and by the equally prompt despatch of reinforcements from O.C. 1st Devons.
The telephones were not working well, but on receipt of a message that an attack on 60 was taking place, Major Cowie Cmndg. Dorsets went into trenches, and took up his position on Hill 60 as being the key of the position. Note: the trench on Hill 60 is known as “60” trench and is referred to as 60.
Trenches 43, 45, & 46 were suffering severely from the gas The enemy in addition to using gas and shelling supporting area heavily with different types of guns, opened heavy rifle and machine gun fire on Hill 60 and endeavoured to bomb the flanks of this trench.
Beyond sending some bomb throwers up a communications trench the enemy apparently made no attempt to cross the open.
10 pm. The situation now became practically normal and the firing had much abated.
Casualties: one killed, one wounded.
Killed by gas poisoning: Lieut C. G. Butcher, 52 other ranks.
Admitted to Fd Ambulance suffering from gas poisoning: Capt. A. E. Hawkins, 2/Lt J. H. C. Roberts (since died), 2/Lt J. Hodgson, 2/Lt J. Sampson, 3rd Dorsets, 2/Lt J. R. Weston-Stevens, 3rd Dorsets, and 200 other ranks.
Missing: 32 other ranks.

Second Lieutenant Robert Vaughan Kestell-Cornish would be awarded the first of two Military Crosses for his actions on the 1st May 1915. In their chapter on the 1st Dorsets at Hill 60 in their Cameos of the Western Front series, Spagnoly and Smith explain why Second Lieutenant Kestell-Cornish’s actions were so important [8]:

All officers were down and all but four of his men incapacitated from the initial effect of the gas with an imminent rush from the enemy expected. Then, in response to the situation pending a remarkably instinctive and courageous action took place. Using a piece of rifle flannelette soaked in water as a protection against the overwhelming fumes, this gallant young subaltern accompanied by his four good men, seized rifles, jumped onto the parapet and opened fire into the cloud of poisonous gas billowing across their sector.

The position was successfully reinforced, and Captain Ransome (the adjutant) considered Kestell-Cornish’s actions to have saved the day. Major Cowie conferred on Second Lieutenant Kestell-Cornish an Military Cross ‘in the field’, which was apparently later confirmed in the usual way. The citation read [9]:

Lieutenant Robert Vaughan Kestell-Cornish, 3rd Battalion (attached 1st Battalion), The Dorsetshire Regiment.
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on the night of 1st May, 1915, on “Hill 60.” When most of the Officers, Non-commissioned Officers and men had been asphyxiated, and he himself was suffering from the effects of gas, he rallied the few men who remained fit and held the hill until reinforcements arrived.

Kestell-Cornish spent a few days in hospital suffering from gas poisoning, but was able to re-join the 1st Dorsets after around a week, having refused to be sent back to the UK to recuperate [10].

Map of Hill 60. Source: A. H. Hussey and D. S. Inman, The Fifth Division in the Great War (London: Nisbet, 1921); via British Library: http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022533739.0x000002

A more detailed account of the 1st Dorsets involvement in defending Hill 60 on the 1st May can be found in The 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment in France and Belgium, August 1914 to June 1915, a post-war account written by Algernon Lee Ransome, who was adjutant of the 1st Dorsets at the time of the Hill 60 episode (he later commanded the 7th Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) and the 170th (2/1st North Lancashire) Brigade) [11]:

As the Dorsets were now in reserve, and the heavy fighting continued on Hill 60, it came as not surprise when orders arrived on the 29th April that they were that evening to relieve the 2nd Camerons who were in close support of the 1st Devons holding the actual hilltop. The approach to the front line was an unpleasant experience. The Germans were employing a very thorough programme of harassing fire. The canal bridges, all roads and tracks, and finally the railway cutting leaving to Hill 60 were under incessant shell-fire. The support position consisted of shelters dug into the hill-side and covered with corrugated iron and sandbags.

At 3 p.m., 30th April, the Dorsets relieved the Devons in the trenches, the latter going into support. When the relief was complete, the Dorsets had “A,” “C,” and “D” Companies in the front line – “C” Company holding the trench on the crest of the hill – and “B” Company in support.

The 1st May was a fine sunny day with a very slight south-easterly breeze. Nothing of importance occurred, indeed the enemy was unusually quiet. At 7 p.m., however, the enemy commenced a bombardment of the sector, and it soon became evident that something unusual was in progress. The first news of the presence of gas was a telephonic message from Capt. Hawkins, whose company, “D,” was holding the left portion of the front, known as the Zwarteleen Salient. He described the situation as serious and expressed a doubt as to his ability to hold his trenches owing to the gas. It appeared that at 7.15 p.m. the enemy had discharged gas from at least five points in their front line – three opposite the right trench, No. 38, and two in front of the Zwarteleen Salient. The breeze carried the gas to the left of No. 38 trench, garrisoned by “A” Company, but Hill 60 trench and the salient were seriously affected. The Hill 60 trench was garrisoned by one platoon of “C” Company under command of 2/Lieut. Kestell-Cornish. Many of the men were overcome, but 2/Lieut. Kestell-Cornish and four privates remained at their posts, though all were badly affected by the gas. They opened a rapid fire to their front, moving to different points in the trench in turn. Whether the Germans had intended to attack in force is uncertain, but there seems no reason to doubt that strong patrols at least approached the trench, while bombing parties assailed its flanks, moving down the old communication trenches leading into it. 2/Lieut. Kestell-Cornish and his four assistants by their gallantry and remarkable devotion to duty in circumstances then without parallel in civilized warfare, undoubtedly made it clear to the assailants that the gas had not done its work completely. In any case the enemy made no sign, beyond persistently bombing the flanks of the trench. But, notwithstanding the gallant stand by the remnants of the garrison on the hill, the situation was still very serious. At this juncture Capt. Batten, commanding “B” Company, acted with great promptitude. He despatched supports to the aid of “D” Company, and himself went forward to the hill-top with a platoon. By this time 2/Lieut. Kestell-Cornish and his men had been overcome by the gas, so that Capt. Batten’s arrival was most timely. Meanwhile the O.C. Devons had ordered up two of his companies which took over the Zwarteleen Salient and its support line. Major Cowie [O.C. 1st Dorsets], accompanied by the Adjutant, had already proceeded to the hill and assumed command there. He found that Capt. Batten had made excellent dispositions and that the situation was quiet except for intermittent hostile bombing. He then went to the salient, now garrisoned by the Devons, and found the extremely deep and narrow trenches blocked with dead, with many others dying in terrible agony. It was a deplorable sight and one which no eye-witness can ever forget. A visit to “A” Company on the right followed. This company had escaped the gas and was intact. By 10 p.m. the situation had become practically normal, and Major Cowie returned to his headquarters in the railway cutting.

An examination of the casualty returns brought to light the terrible ravages caused by the gas. They showed 2/Lieut. Butcher and 52 other ranks dead, and in addition the following were admitted to the Field Ambulance suffering from gas poisoning: Capt. Hawkins, 2/Lieut. Sampson, 2/Lieut. Roberts (afterwards died), 2/Lieut. Hodgson, 2/Lieut. Weston-Stevens, and 200 other ranks. Many of these 200 men succumbed subsequently. In addition 32 other ranks were missing, men who had crawled away to die, and whose bodies were located afterwards. Only one man was killed and one wounded by rifle or shell-fire.

There is also a more personal account of the attack in the diaries of CSM Ernest Arthur Shephard, who was at the time with “B” Company [12]

Saturday 1st May 1915
The Bn relieved the Devons on Hill 60, trenches 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45 at dawn. Here I met H. Govier of Lyme [Lyme Regis, Shephard’s home town]. A and C Companies went on the hill, B and D in support trenches 100 yds behind. We still continue to sap forwards from the hill. Terrible sights here. German and own troops lying all over the place. We collected some and buried. Very hot day. Fairly quiet in trenches but the ‘Dump’ heavily shelled. Fighting started on our left about 2 p.m., our artillery heavily shelled the enemy trenches in front of Hill 60. At 6 p.m. started the most barbarous act known in modern warfare. We had just given orders guarding against the gases the Germans use. These orders had just reached one platoon (no. 7) when the enemy actually started pumping out gas on to us. This gas we were under impression was to stupefy only. We soon found out at a terrible price that these gases were deadly poison. First we saw a thick smoke curling over in waves from enemy trenches on left. The cry was sent up that this was gas fumes. The scene that followed was heartbreaking. Men were caught by fumes and in dreadful agony, coughing and vomiting, rolling on ground in agony. Very shortly after gas was pumped over to us, the enemy were seen running from their own trenches as a part of the fumes blew back to them. Had order reigned and this fact had been generally known we should doubtless have charged and chanced consequences of new gas. As soon as cleared the enemy attacked, but were held off by those of us left, until the Devons came up from the support dug-outs (Dump) and reinforced us. Men caught by fumes badly were at this stage dying, and we fully realized our desperate position. I ran round at intervals and tied up lots of men’s mouths, placed them in sitting positions, and organized parties to assist them to the dug-outs. When not doing this I was rushing ammunition along the trenches, bombs, star lights, etc. Telephonic communication with our artillery was broken and consequently they did not open fire until after we had borne the brunt of the attacks. The enemy sent over trench mortar shells and bombs thick and fast, but our lads stuck it well, and the fighting slackened towards dawn, 3 a.m. When we found our men were dying from fumes we wanted to charge, but were not allowed to do so. What a start for May. Hell could find no worse the groans of scores of dying and badly hurt men, the chaos which, however, soon gave way to discipline, the fierce fighting and anxiety.
The fumes did not catch me badly, as I was prepared and when I smelt gas and felt sick I continued to draw in breath through my wet cloth round mouth and exhale thro’ nose. Lots of men were unprepared, quite a coincidence we were. I felt groggy at times but kept very busy and scraped thro’.

Sunday 2nd May 1915
The bitterest Sunday I have known or ever wish to know. My Company, B, lost 1 officer and 45 men mostly No.  5 Platoon. A Company were luckiest, losing 12 men. C Company lost all of 170 men except 38. D Company, Captain Hawkins wounded, Lt Butcher.
Hardly know who is dead yet, but several of my best chums are gone under. Had we lost as heavily while actually fighting we would not have cared as much, but our dear boys died like rats in a trap, instead of heroes as they all were. The Dorset Regiument’s mottos is, ‘No Prisoners’. No quarter will be given when we again get to fighting. I should like to visit Donnington Hall [a prisoner of war camp] for one hour. I feel quite knocked up, as we all are, and crying with rage. A lot of men are missing, having crawled over back of trench when gassed and enemy shelled them as they crawled away. We spent a morning looking for these, a few were just living, majority dead.
Of those who are still living very few are expected to recover. We found our dead everywhere they had crawled to get out of the way. I found Sgt. Gambling, a splendid fellow, dead with three others.
Hill 60 apart from our losses is a terrible sight. Hundreds of bodies all over the place terribly mutilated, a large number of our own men, and larger number of Hun. Stench is awful as they cannot be buried, never quiet enough to do that. So they lie as they fell, silent spectators of modern warfare.
The Hill is strongly held, under proper fighting the Hun will never retake it (they mined and tried to blow up the trenches 2 days ago, but were 15 yds short), but against the poison the outlook is black, unless we can effectively counteract it.
Dull day rather chilly. At 3 p.m. we were relived by C Coy of 1st Devons, and went back to another trap, i.e. support dug-outs in ‘Dump’. The ‘Devons’ supported us splendidly last night.

Another personal account of the Hill 60 attack was published in the Western Gazette of the 21st May 1915. This was based on a letter sent by Lieutenant Henry Morton Mansel-Pleydell to his mother, which shares Shepherd’s horror at the use of poison gas [13]:

BROADSTONE.
DORSETS “GASSED” AT HILL 60.
LIEUTENANT H. G. MANSEL-PLEYDELL’S TERRIBLE STORY.
Mrs. Mansel-Pleydell, of Croft House, Botley, has received the following letter from her son, Lieutenant H. G. Mansel-Pleydell, of the 1st Dorsets (who is reported wounded), giving an account of the fight at Hill 60 in which the Dorsets suffered so severely, and the terrible effects of the German “gassing” methods:–
“I expect that you have heard how the Germans on this “Hill 60” played us the dirtiest trick that any British Regiment has yet had to put up with. The Canadians did not have it like we did; they had it from 400 to 500 yards away, whereas our trenches are at the most 40 yards from the Germans. I saw more of the affair than anyone else, so I can tell you exactly what happened. At about seven-o’clock I came out of my dug-out and saw a hose sticking over the German parapet which was just starting to spout out a thick yellow cloud with a tinge of green in it. The gas came out with a hiss that you could hear quite plainly. I at once shouted to my men to put on respirators (bits of flannel); then I got mine and went and warned my captain, who did not know yet. Then the Huns began a terrible bombardment, not so much at us, but at our supports and our dressing station. Now either they had miscalculated the direction of the wind or else it had changed, for the gas did not come directly towards us, but went slantwise; then, our trench being so close, the gas went into part of the German trenches as well as ours. They bolted from theirs when they got a whiff of the filthy stuff. A few of our men staggered away down the hill, some got into a wood behind it and died there, as the ground was low and the gas followed them. Others only got so far as the mine head and communication trenches. The Company in support on my left moved up into the firing line, as did also half of my platoon, consequently I was left with only a few men to do all of the rescue work. My men were splendid; they all came with me into the gas except the ones I ordered to stay behind, and we must have saved scores of lives. The men in most cases were lying insensible in the bottom of the trenches, and quite a number were in the mine head, which was the worst possible place. The best place after the first rush of gas was the firing line, being the highest point. I was the only officer not in the firing line. I can’t understand how it was I was not knocked out; it must have been the work I had to do. I was simply mad with rage seeing strong men drop to the ground and die in this way. They were in agonies. I had to argue with many of them as to whether they were dead or not. Why we got it so hot was because of the closeness of our trenches to the Germans; and the affair does away with the idea that it is not deadly. I saw two men staggering over a field in our rear last night, and when I went and looked for them this morning they were both dead. I am absolutely sickened. Clean killing is at least comprehensible; but this murder by slow agony absolutely knocks me. The whole civilised world ought to rise up and exterminate those swine across the hill!”

Hill 60. Detail from Trench Map 28.NW; scale: 1:20,000; edition 4a; trenches corrected to 9-9-1916. Source: McMaster University, Chasseaud Collection (Research Collections; Fonds: WW1 Trench Maps: France; Box number: PC07; envelope_number: 188; license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.5 CA: http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A70098

The 5th May 1915:

The attack of the 1st May would not be the end of the Dorsets’ ordeal at Hill 60. The battalion remained there in support in trenches and dugouts and had to intervene once again on the 5th May, when the 2nd Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding) crumbled under the onslaught of another gas attack. The War Diary of the 1st Dorsets (WO 95/1572/2) again provides a broad framework of events [14]:

YPRES. HILL 60. 1915.

2nd May
5 am. B and C Coys relieved on Hill 60 by [1st] Devons, and withdrew to 39 and 40 Trenches
4.30 pm. Dorsets relieved in trenches by Devons. Dorsets withdrew to dugouts.
Casualties – 2 killed, 2 wounded.

3rd May
Bn remained in dugouts in close support of Devons
Casualties – one killed, 5 wounded.

4th May
Bn remained in dugouts in close support of Devons.
Casualties – 5 wounded.

5th May
Duke of Wellingtons [2nd Duke of Wellington’s, 13th Brigade] relieved Devons on Hill 60 and trenches.
Major Cowie, Dorsets, assumed command of Sector.
6.45 am. Major Cowie wounded.
9 am. Report received from 38 trench – “gas coming over” followed by message asking for reinforcements.
C and D Coys (with mg piquet) ordered to 38 to reinforce – as Duke of Wellingtons appeared to be retiring, A & B Coys ordered to trenches.
9.15 am. Telephone communication with trenches and 15th Bde and also supporting artillery cut by bombardment.
Gas very thick and men overcome at support dugouts.
Telephone communication to 38 trench repaired. From reports received it appears that situation was as follows:-
Germans holding 60 also part of 39, 40, 43-45 (known as ZWARTELEEN Salient). Duke of Wellingtons badly gassed. A, B, C & remnant of D Cy holding 38 and most of 39.

About 11 am onwards.
Germans reputed to have broken through at a point about 40-43 trenches. Details at HdQrs collected and placed in position to cover gap above mentioned. These consisted of orderlies and men already gassed.
Frequent messages that our shells were falling short.
Message received from Bde (line now working) that Cheshires [1st Cheshire Regiment, 15th Brigade] would reinforce, and that Colonel Scott, Comdg Cheshires would take over command.
Cheshires arrived. Colonel Scott mortally wounded.
Cheshires advance against Germans in ZWARTELEEN Salient.
Small party of Germans who had advanced nearly to ZILLEBEKE wiped out.

Afternoon.
Dorsets reinforced by parties of Cheshires retake 39 and by bombing reoccupy nearly all 40.
Situation at dusk – Dorsets and Cheshires holding 38, 39 and nearly all 40. Germans holding 60 and 43 to 45 faced by Cheshires & Liverpools [1/6th King’s Liverpool Regiment, 15th Brigade] digging in opposite.
10 pm. Counter attack by 2 Bns, 13th Inf Bde.

6th May.
2 am. Bn relieved by K.O.S.B’s [2nd King’s Own Scottish Borderers, 13th Brigade] and withdrew to bivouac in Square H.24.a – Bn withdrew from trenches about 200 strong –
2/Lt G.S. Shannon, killed, Major H. N. R. Cowie, Capt C. O. Lilly, 2/Lt F. J. Morley, 2/Lt H. G. M. Mansel-Pleydell, wounded; Capt H. G. C. Batten, Lt. A. R. S. Clarke [Stanley-Clarke], 2/Lt A. E. Sigrist, gas cases, 2/Lt W. H. Bosley, missing. Other ranks: 14 killed, 48 wounded, 68 gas cases, 48 missing.
8 pm. Bn marched to E. Camp OUDERDOM – H.19.b.

CSM Shephard described the 5th May as “another bitter day for the Dorset Regt.” [15]:

It was Saturday again repeated for us, only difference being we had not so many men to lose.
[…]
It was a perfect Hell, shelled from front and by our own artillery in rear. The enemy’s bombs, rifle fire, etc., the fear of more gas. Were ever human beings asked to endure such as this before?

Having survived the opening day of the Battle of Somme, CSM Shephard would be commissioned a Second Lieutenant with the 5th Dorsets. He was killed in action near Beaucourt-sur-l’Ancre (Somme) on the 11th January 1917.

Major-General Ransome afterwards commended two subalterns of the Dorsets for their actions at Hill 60 on the 5th May, commenting that “2/Lieut. Shannon and 2/Lieut. Mansel-Pleydell displayed great bravery and initiative in the confused fighting which raged on the hill-side all the afternoon” [16]. Shannon was killed, Mansel-Pleydell wounded.

The grave marker of Lieutenant G. S. Shannon, MC, Larch Wood Cemetery, Zillebeke (West-Vlaanderen); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/9706100664

Lieutenant George Strangman Shannon had been born at York in November 1888, the son of John Strangman and Kate Shannon. Before the war, he had been a Mathematical Master at Winchester House School at Deal. He had been awarded the MC in February 1915 for “services rendered in connection with Operations in the Field” [17]. A short obituary was published in The Times of the 11th May 1915 [18]:

SECOND LIEUTENANT G. S. SHANNON, 1st Dorset Regiment, son of Mr. J. S. Shannon, Principal of St. Martin’s School, York, was killed in action near Hill 60 on May 6. Lieutenant Shannon, who was in the teaching profession, joined the Special Reserve of the Dorset Regiment in 1913. He saw the fighting in the retreat from Mons and the advance to the Marne and around Ypres. He was mentioned in dispatches for distinguished conduct in the field and was awarded the Military Cross.

Lieutenant Shannon is buried in Larch Wood Cemetery, Zillebeke — his grave marker within sight of Hill 60.

Grave marker of Lieutenant H. G. M. Mansel-Pleydell, M.C. in Miraumont Communal Cemetery (Somme); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/28066428244

Second Lieutenant Mansel-Pleydell survived being wounded at Hill 60, and would be awarded the Military Cross for his actions on the 5th May [19]:

Second Lieutenant Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell, 3rd (attached 1st) Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment.
Showed gallantry and ability on “Hill 60,” near Ypres, on 5th May 1915. Although wounded early in the attack, he commanded his platoon in the trenches (which had been vacated by the unit holding them in the morning) with great skill and coolness, and later took charge of the whole of his company after his Captain had been wounded.
It was largely due to him that a considerable length of trench, which had been occupied by the enemy, was gradually regained.

Mansel-Pleydell’s luck would run out just over a year later. As the Dorset’s Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Mansel-Pleydell was killed in action near Thiepval with two other members of the battalion (Captain William Bensley Algeo and Sergeant W. Goodwillie) on the 17th May 1916, aged 21. All three are buried in Miraumont Communal Cemetery in France (Somme).

News items on 1st Dorset officer casualties, Belfast News-Letter, 13th May 1915, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

Spagnoly and Smith conclude their chapter on the Dorsets at Hill 60 by quoting Major-General Ransome’s post-war reflections on the actions of the battalion at the beginning of May 1915 [20]:

Hill 60, on the 1st May, 1915, was the Dorsets’ battle; the whole weight of the gas attack fell upon them; and they did not fail. In spite of their experiences on that day they did not hesitate for a moment when, five days later, they saw another unit, demoralised by gas fumes, streaming away to the rear. They faced again the forbidden weapon in the full knowledge of what its effects could be, either a painful death or severe illness with possible lasting after-effects. Led by four gallant officers – Lilly, Shannon, Mansel-Pleydell and Clayton – they went forward through the gas cloud to their old positions on the hill and remained at grips with the Germans throughout that long day, shelled sometimes by their own artillery and facing an enemy flushed with success and armed with hand grenades, so important in trench fighting, which were superior to their own. They held all their gains until relieved at night.

Casualties:

The regimental history quotes Ransome on the casualties from the 1st May gas attack [21]:

An examination of the casualty returns brought to light the terrible ravages caused by the gas. They showed 2/Lieut. [Charles Geoffrey] Butcher and fifty-two other ranks dead; and in addition the following were admitted to the field ambulance suffering from gas poisoning: Captain Hawkins, 2/Lieuts. Sampson, Roberts (afterwards died), Hodgson, Weston Stevens, and two-hundred other ranks — many of these succumbed subsequently. In addition thirty-two other ranks were missing, men who had crawled away to die, and whose bodies were located afterwards. Only one man was killed and one wounded by shell fire, or rifle fire.

It seems that one of those admitted to the field ambulance may have been Private Robert John Bowering, who seems to have been evacuated as far back as Bailleul.

Casualties on the 5th May were equally heavy [22]:

2/Lieut. Shannon and fourteen other ranks were killed on the field; Major Cowie (died of wounds), Captain Lilly, 2/Lieut. F. J. Morley, and forty-eight other ranks wounded; Captain Batten, 2/Lieuts. Stanley-Clarke, Sigrist, and sixty-eight other ranks were gassed; 2/Lieut. W. H. Bosley and forty-eight other ranks were missing. The Battalion had gone into the line on the 30th April over eight hundred strong, and had been reduced to one hundred and seventy-three all ranks.

Grave marker of Second Lieutenant J. H. C. Roberts in Bailleul Communal Cemetery (Nord); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/29648395031

The 1st Dorsets dead from the start of May 1915 are buried (or commemorated) in a number of places across Belgium and France, with the largest cluster of burials (36) now at Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension in France (Nord), with smaller groups at Reninghelst Churchyard Extension (13), Perth Cemetery (China Wall) (13, including 9 named on Transport Farm Annexe memorials), and at Divisional Cemetery (9) in Belgium (West-Vlaanderen). Eighty 1st Dorset casualties from the 1st to the 5th May are commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the Missing, the vast majority of whom probably died as a consequence of the defence of Hill 60. Of the officers that died: Lieutenant Charles Geoffrey Butcher is buried in Reninghelst Churchyard, and Second Lieutenant John Henry Charles Roberts (from Dorchester) in Bailleul Communal Cemetery [23]. As already has been mentioned, Lieutenant George Strangman Shannon, MC is buried at Larch Wood Cemetery, near Zillebeke. Major Hugh Norman Ramsay Cowie died from his wounds on the 20th May 1915, aged 42, and is buried in the churchyard at West Woodhay (Berkshire).

The names of the Dorsets that died as a consequence of these attacks at Hill 60 are inscribed on war memorials all around Dorset and elsewhere. I have come across a fair few in my travels around Dorset, including at Beaminster: (Pte P. Paull, L/Cpl G. Pomeroy), Briantspuddle (Pte A. N. Lucas), Bridport (Pte T. Paull), Dorchester (L/Cpl E. Clarke, 2/Lieut J. H. C. Roberts), Fontmell Magna (Pte W. S. Lawrence), Glanvilles Wootton (Pte H. Paulley), Hooke (Pte W. J. Lemon), Sherborne (Pte R. J. Thomas), Shipton Gorge (Pte A. W. Sanders), Winterborne Kingston (Pte F. J. Jeans), and — of course — Wool (Pte R. J. Bowering). Private Alexander William Sanders, known as Will, was a bellringer at the Church of St Martin, Shipton Gorge and is commemorated in the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers Rolls of Honour [24]. He died on the 2nd May, aged 21, and is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial.

Part of the Dorsetshire Regiment panel on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the Missing; the names include that of Lieutenant Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell, the older brother of Lieutenant Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell, who was killed in action near Spanbroekmolen on the 12 March 1915 while attached to the 3rd Worcestershire Regiment; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/45526618574

Flight Sub-Lieutenant Noel Stafford Wright, RNAS:

Entirely coincidentally, there is another person named on the war memorial at Wool who is buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Noel Stafford Wright of No 1 Naval Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was killed on the 18th September 1917, aged eighteen, when his Sopwith Triplane collided with a Spad S.VII being flown by Captain John Manley of No. 19 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps (RFC), who also died.

The grave marker of Flight Sub-Lieutenant N. S. Wright, RNAS, Bailleul Community Cemetery Extension (Nord); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/29105269303

Notes and references:

[1] WO 97/4390, Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913, The National Archives, Kew; via Findmypast; series details at: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14305

[2] The Long, Long Trail, Dorsetshire Regiment: https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/dorsetshire-regiment/

[3] A. H. Hussey and D. S. Inman, The Fifth Division in the Great War (London: Nisbet & Co, 1921; Naval & Military Press reprint), pp. 91-92.p. 60.

[4] Ibid., p 69.

[5] J. E. Edmonds and G. C. Wynne, Military operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I: Winter 1914-15, Battle of Neuve Chapelle, Battles of Ypres, History of the Great War based on Official Documents (London: Macmillan, 1927), pp. 288-289; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210675/page/n363

[6] Ernest Shephard, From Hill 60 to the Somme, ed. Bruce Rossor (Ramsbury: Crowood Press, 1987), p. 40.

[7] WO/1572/2, 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment War Diary, The National Archives, Kew.

[8] Tony Spagnoly and Ted Smith, Cameos of the Western Front: Salient Points Three: Ypres and Picardy, 1914-1918 (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2001) p. 73.

[9] The London Gazette, No. 29210, 29 June 1915, p. 6271: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29210/page/6271

[10] Robert Vaughan Kestell-Cornish was the son of a diplomat, but came from a family with a significant clerical pedigree: his grandfather, Robert Kestell-Cornish, was the first Bishop of Madagascar; his mother Lucy was a member of the Keble family, both her father and grandfather serving for a time as vicars at Bisley (Gloucestershire), her great uncle being John Keble, the well-known Oxford Movement poet and ecclesiastic. Captain Robert Vaughan Kestell-Cornish, MC and Bar was wounded near Houthulst Forest on the 8th March 1918, while he was attached to 32nd Division Headquarters as a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3). He died of his wounds at No 8 Stationary Hospital, Wimereux, near Boulogne, on the 17th June 1918, aged 22. He is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, and is commemorated on the war memorials at Fairford and Bisley (Gloucestershire).

[11] [A. L. Ransome], The 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment in France and Belgium, August 1914 to June 1915 (ca. 1923; Naval and Military Press reprint), pp. 71-73.

[12] Shephard, pp. 39-41.

[13] Western Gazette, 21 May 1915, p. 4; via British Newspaper Archive. A slightly-longer extract from Mansel-Pleydell’s letter, including casualty estimates that were not printed in the Western Gazette, was quoted in: History of the Dorsetshire Regiment, 1914-1919 (Dorchester: Henry Ling; London: Simpkin Marshall, 1932), Pt. 1, pp. 66-68. The quotation is unattributed, but assumed to be by one of Captain Batten’s subalterns.

[14] WO 95/1572/2, 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment War Diary.

[15] Shephard, pp. 42-43.

[16] Ransome, p. 75.

[17] The Edinburgh Gazette, No. 12776, 23 February 1915, p. 315: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/12776/page/315

[18] The Times, 11 May 1915.

[19] The Edinburgh Gazette, No. 12826, 6 July 1915, p. 975: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/12826/page/975

[20] A. L. Ransome,“The fine fighting of the Dorsets.” Three battles of 1st Bn. the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1914 and 1915 (Dorchester: Henry Ling, ca. 1956); cited by Spagnoly and Smith, pp. 84-85.

[21] Dudley Ward, “History of the 1st Battalion,” in: History of the Dorsetshire Regiment, 1914-1919 (Dorchester: Henry Ling; London: Simpkin Marshall, 1932), Pt. 1, p. 66.

[22] Ibid., p. 70.

[23] John Henry Charles Roberts was born at Parandhur, India in 1878. His father later became superintendent of the Royal Artillery Hospital in Dorchester. John joined the 2nd Dorsets and served in the South African War, being commissioned in December 1914. Roberts’s name can also be found on the Dorchester Cenotaph. See: Brian Bates, Dorchester Remembers the Great War (Frampton: Roving Press, 2012), pp. 65-66.

[24] CCCBR Rolls of Honour: https://cccbr.org.uk/resources/roh/

Further reading:

There is an excellent account of the 1st Dorsets at Hill 60 in Chapter 7 (“No prisoners for the Dorsets”) in: Tony Spagnoly and Ted Smith, Cameos of the Western Front: Salient Points Three: Ypres and Picardy, 1914-1918 (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2001) pp. 68-87.

Wool: War Memorial (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/2951998635

Lyme Regis: Memorial window for Second Lieutenant John Philpot, Royal Engineers (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/51089512860

The war memorial window in the Church of St Michael the Archangel at Lyme Regis was unveiled by Major-General Sir Reginald Pinney on the 21st April 1921. Also unveiled on the same day was another stained-glass window, a memorial for Second Lieutenant John Philpot of the 253rd (Tunnelling) Company, Royal Engineers, who died while trying to save two of his men on the 25th February 1916, aged 30.

The window has four lights. The two lights on the left-hand side of the window depict Jesus being baptised in the River Jordan by St John the Baptist, with the text “Thou art my beloved Son” (Mark 1:11); the two on the right depict St Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus after the resurrection, with the text “I ascend unto my Father and your Father” (John 20:17). There is a spade in the background of the post-resurrection scene, reflecting Mary’s initial misconception that Jesus was the gardener. In the predella are vignettes of a baptismal font with dove (representing baptism and the Holy Spirit) and a peacock (possibly representing eternal life). Above the predella is the text:

By these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my Spirit so wilt thou recover me and make me to live.

Which is taken from Isaiah 38:16.

Along the base of the window is the memorial inscription itself:

To the Glory of GOD and in loving memory of JOHN PHILPOT 2nd Lieut 253rd Coy. R.E. who gave his life in attempting to save two of his men near Vermelles 25th February 1916.

Lyme Regis: Detail of memorial window for Second Lieutenant John Philpot, R.E. in the Church of St Michael (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/51088786467

An account of the unveiling of the memorial windows was published in the Western Times of the 22 April 1921, although it mainly focuses on the main town memorial [1]:

War Memorial Window and Tablet Unveiled at Lyme Regis
At Lyme Regis Parish Church last evening a war memorial window and tablet containing the names of the 55 men who fell in the war, together with a second window erected to the memory of Lt. John Philpot, were unveiled by Sir Reginald Pinney, K.C.B. The memorial window to the men is situated in the south aisle of the church. The figures represented are St. Michael (Captain of the Lord’s Hosts), St. George (Patron Saint of England), St. Nicholas (Patron Saint of Sailors), and St. Gabriel (Messenger of Peace). The inscription on the window is: “To the glory of God and in memory of the men of Lyme Regis who fell in the Great War, 1914-18. The window and tablet were erected by the inhabitants of the town.” The service was conducted by the Vicar (Rev. W. M. Wilson), assisted by the Curate (Rev. G. K. Chesterton). The dedication ceremony was performed by Rev. Canon Myers, Sub-Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, who preached the sermon. The choir rendered the anthem “How lovely are Thy dwellings fair” (Brahms). Mr. Fleming, A.R.C.O., presided at the organ in place of Mr. H. G. E. Pocock (organist), who assisted in the choir. At the conclusion of the service the “Last Post” and “Reveille” were sounded by Mr. H. Chappell. The collection was in aid of the Memorial Fund, for which £50 is required.

The action in which Second Lieutenant Philpot died is described briefly in the 253rd Company’s War Diary (WO 95/488/5).

Cité St Elie and Hulluch. Detail from Trench Map 36C.NW; Scale: 1:20000; Edition: 7A; Published: 1916; Trenches corrected to 12 June 1916: https://maps.nls.uk/view/101465011

The 253rd Company, Royal Engineers was a Tunnelling Company. During February 1916, the Company had been working on mining and counter-mining operations in the Vermelles-Hulluch area, a front which had seen fierce fighting in late 1915 during the Battle of Loos. The Company War Diary records briefly what happened in and around the 25th February  1916 [2]:

FRANCE.
23 [February]. No 4 Section blew enemy in QUARRIES area. This mine produced a large quantity of gas.
25 [February]. Two men went below in the QUARRIES area with Proto [breathing] apparatus to test the mine for gas, they became overcome at the bottom of the vertical shaft. 2 LT.  J. PHILPOTS [sic] most gallantly went down the shaft with nothing to protect him from the gas but after succeeding in tying a rope round one of the men was himself overcome and killed. Two attempts were made to save him and the men but were unavailing as the Oxygen had all been used up. All three bodies were recovered next day.
No 2 Section blew the enemy at HULLUCH with 6,000 lbs of guncotton.

253rd Company had not been that long in the Vermelles area. At the end of 1915, the Company had been based at Méaulte, in the Third Army area on the Somme. On the 1st January 1916, they moved via Béthune to Sailly-Labourse, in the First Army area, where the 253rd commenced mining and counter-mining work on the front there from G.11.b.5.7. to H.19.a.3.6. The Company War Diary noted that this was an area where there had been no previous mining by the British, although two mines had lately been blown by the Germans. During early January 1916, the Company’s Sections had started working as follows:

No. 1 Section – G.11.b. (Hairpin area)

No. 4 Section – G.12.c. (Quarries area)

No. 3 Section G.18.b. and G.12.d. (St. Elie area)

No. 2 Section H.13.a & c. (Hulluch area)

From the Trench Map references, it seems that Second Lieutenant Philpot probably died in the Quarries area (36c.G.12.c.), north of the road leading from Vermelles to Hulluch. Contemporary trench maps show an extensive set of quarries at 36c.G.12.a, west of the mining village of Cité St. Elie.

Asphyxiation seems to have been a frequent risk during mining operations, and the incident of the 25th February was not the only one experienced by 253rd Company in the Hulluch quarries area in early 1916. For example, asphyxiating gas was also produced by a mine blown on the 13th March, as also reported in the War Diary [3]:

FRANCE.
13 [March]. 5.0 pm. No 4 Section blew a mine in QUARRIES area of 1200 lbs of guncotton. The enemy were very close and could be heard with the naked ear walking about. This mine had disastrous results, probably due to a defective tamp, it blew back and filled the trench with gas. 2 LT. C. WORSLEY, R.E. who exploded the mine was seriously gassed and Sgt. HARDS, R.E. was fatally gassed together with an infantry officer, and several men suffered from slight gas poisoning.

Sergeant Albert Hards (Service No. 17762) was the son of Albert and Ellen Hards of Findon (Sussex) and is buried in Sailly-Labourse Communal Cemetery (N.8.).

A first-hand account of the death of Second Lieutenant Philpot was included in an obituary published by the Chester Chronicle of the 18 March 1916 [4]:

THE GLORIOUS SPIRIT OF OUR BOYS.
ENGINEER OFFICER’S SUPREME SACRIFICE.
Second Lieutenant John Philpot, R.E., only son of Mr. Frederick Freeman Philpot, The Cottage, East Molesey, Surrey, was educated at Charterhouse and the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, and was working on the Gaika Mine, Rhodesia, when war was declared. He joined the Pretoria Regiment as a private in October, 1914, and served all through the South-West African campaign. He returned to England, and was gazetted to the Royal Engineers in November, 1915. He was sent to France in December, and Joined 253rd Tunnelling Company. He died on February 25th, while endeavouring to save the lives of two of his men. The following is an extract from his captain’s letter:– “He was loved and admired by us all, and his death will leave a blank in this company which can never be quite filled again. He was brave, cool, and reliable, and was loved by officers and men alike. His life was given in trying to save two men who were at the bottom of a shaft, and who suddenly became overcome with gas caused by the explosion of one of our mines nearly 48 hours before. These two men were down the mine with life-saving apparatus on, moving the hose of the ventilating machines further into the face to expel the fumes and try and clear the mine. . . . One man called up for someone to come down and help, as they were in difficulties. Your son immediately responded to the call and the other officer at the top of the shaft said, ‘Don’t go down without a life-saving apparatus,’ and then this officer himself collapsed at the top of the shaft from the gases coming up (he is well again now). Your son — brave, stout fellow that he was — went down the shaft alone, attached a rope to one man, and nearly got back to safety at the top of the shaft again when the gases overcame him, and he fell back on to the two men he had been trying to save and gave his life for them and his magnificent ideals.”

The CWGC database [5] includes the details of two Sappers from 253rd Company that died on the 25th February 1916. They are almost certainly the men that Second Lieutenant Philpot had unsucessfully attempted to save (all three are buried in adjacent grave plots in Vermelles British Cemetery):

• Sapper Edward English (Service No. 151360), 253rd Coy., Royal Engineers; died 25 February 1916; born Nettlesworth, Co. Durham; enlisted Gateshead; formerly 3/11826 Durham Light Infantry (Vermelles British Cemetery, II. E. 10.)
• Second Lieutenant John Philpot, 253rd Coy., Royal Engineers; died 25 February 1916, aged 30; son of Frederick Freeman Philpot and Margaret Magdalene Philpot, of East Molesey, Surrey (Vermelles British Cemetery, II. E. 11.)
• Sapper Frank Albert Garner (Service No. 147734), 253rd Coy., Royal Engineers; died 25 February 1916, aged 24; son of William and Annie Garner, of 2, Granville St., Woodville, Burton-on-Trent; born Woodville, Derbyshire; enlisted Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire; formerly 14048 Leicestershire Regiment (Vermelles British Cemetery, II. E. 12.)

Daily Mirror, 16 March 1916, p. 7; via British Newspaper Archive.

John Philpot had been born at East Molesey on the 11th January 1886, the son of Frederick Freeman Philpot, a solicitor, and Margaret Philpot (née Giffard). At the time of 1891 Census, John was five years old and living with his parents, three siblings, maternal grandmother, and four servants at Lyme House, Spencer Road, East Molesey. John attended Charterhouse between 1899 and 1904 [6], and the 1901 Census confirms his presence there, aged fifteen. The 1911 Census recorded John Philpot living back at Spencer Road. John was twenty-five years old and working as a mining engineer. His father had been widowed, but his occupation was described as “a Master of the Supreme Court.” According to the obituary in the Chester Chronicle, John Philpot studied at the Royal School of Mines and was working at a gold mine in Rhodesia when war was declared. He then served through the South-West African campaign with the Pretoria Regiment before travelling back to the UK to enlist there.

Second Lieutenant John Philpot is also commemorated on the memorial at Charterhouse School and the East and West Molesey war memorial.

Family background:

John Philpot’s parents, Frederick Freeman Philpot and Margaret Magdalene Giffard, had married at St. Paul’s Church, Hammersmith on the 7th October 1880. Newspaper reports described Frederick as being of Bedford Row, London and his bride as the daughter of the late Edward Giffard, of the Admiralty.

Pall Mall Gazette, 12 October 1880, p. 5; via British Newspaper Archive.

Margaret Magdalene Giffard had been born at Hampton (Middlesex) in 1952, the son of Edward Giffard and Rosamond Catherine Giffard (née Pennell). Margaret was baptized at Hampton on the 16th January 1852. At the time of the 1861 Census, the family were living at Thames Street, Hampton. Edward Giffard was forty-eight-years-old and working as a Clerk to the Admiralty, while Rosamond was thirty-nine. At that time, Margaret M. Giffard was nine-years-old, one of eight daughters recorded as resident with the family (there were also five servants). Edward Giffard died at Brighton (registration district) in 1867, aged 54. The 1871 Census recorded his widow and family living at Twickenham. Margaret was nineteen-years-old and one of ten children that were then resident.

Frederick Freeman Philpot was born at Bloomsbury (Middlesex) in ca. 1852, the son of John Philpot and Elizabeth M. Philpot. At the time of the 1861 Census, the family were living at 20, Montague Street, Bloomsbury. John Philpot was fifty-two-years-old and working as an attorney and solicitor, while Elizabeth Philpot was forty-five.

After their marriage in 1880, the 1881 Census recorded Frederick Freeman and Margaret Madgalene Philpot living at 24, London Road, Twickenham, with just one visitor, Alice Catherine Giffard (Margaret’s sister). By the time of the 1891 Census, the family were living at Lyme House, Spencer Road, East Molesey. Both Frederick and Margaret were thirty-nine years old, and Frederick was working as a solicitor. The census return recorded that there were four children, three daughters and one son: Rosamond G. (aged 9), Margaret D. (aged 7), John (aged 5) and Elinor (aged 3). The two eldest had been born at Twickenham, while the two youngest had been born at East Molesey, suggesting that the family had moved to East Molesey at some point between 1884 and 1886. Also living with the family was Margaret’s widowed mother, Rosamond C. Giffard (aged 69) and three servants. Confusingly, in 1891 Rosamond Grace seems to have been also recorded as part of the household of Robert Philpot, Frederick’s brother, at “Broadmayne” in East Molesey.

Rosamond Catherine Giffard, Margaret’s mother, died at Heavitree Park, Exeter on the 24 August 1895, aged 73.

By the time of the 1901 Census, Frederick and Margaret Philpot were living at Kent Road, East Molesey. Both were forty-nine-years-old and Frederick was working as a solicitor. There seem to be no servants, and their children were all recorded living elsewhere. Rosamond Grace Philpot (aged 19) was working as a governess, part of the household of Henry and Mary Onslow at Green Cottage, Dawlish (Devon).  We have already noted that John Philpot (aged 15) was boarding at Charterhouse. Margaret Dore Philpot (aged 17) and Elinor Philpot (aged 13) were boarding at St. Katherine’s School at Wantage (Berkshire). Margaret Magdalene Philpot died later the same year, on the 21st October 1901, aged 49.

Some of the Philpots were living back at Spencer Road, East Molesey (Lynstead or Lymstead) at the time of the 1911 Census. Frederick Freeman Philpot was fifty-nine and described as a widower and “a Master of the Supreme Court.” Of the adult children, two had returned to live at Spencer Road: Rosamond Grace (aged 29) and John (aged 25, a mining engineer). The household also included two visitors, Winifred and Caroline Philpot, Frederick’s sister-in-law and niece, as well as two servants.

Frederick Freeman Philpot died at Kingston district (presumably East Molesey) on the 4th May 1916, aged sixty-four. It was presumably his Lyme relatives that ensured that Second Lieutenant John Philpot was commemorated by a stained-glass window in the Church of St Michael the Archangel.

The Philpot family at Lyme:

The Philpot family’s link with Lyme Regis is an interesting one. It seems to have started when John Philpot’s eponymous great-grandfather acquired a property (Morley Cottage) in Silver Street, Lyme Regis in around 1805. This became the home of three of John’s sisters: Mary (1777-1838), Elizabeth (1779-1857), and Margaret Philpot (1786-1845). All three sisters began to collect fossil specimens from the cliffs and beaches around Lyme. Despite the differences in their ages and social class, Elizabeth, in particular, became a friend of the renowned palaeontologist Mary Anning (1799-1847), joining her on fossil collecting expeditions and encouraging her to read more widely about geology [7]. Through her friendship with Anning, Elizabeth Philpot came into contact with many prominent geologists, including William Buckland, William Conybeare, Henry De la Beche, and Richard Owen. The Swiss palaeontologist Louis Agassiz visited Lyme Regis in 1834 to research fossil fish and, while he was there, took the opportunity to explore the Philpot sisters’ important collection of fossils. In his Recherches sur les poissons fossiles, Agassiz acknowledged the help of both Elizabeth Philpot and Mary Anning. He wrote that his visit to Lyme exceeded all of his expectations, noting that he had seen thirty-four new species of fossil fishes in Elizabeth Philpot’s collection, several of which belonged to new genera [8]:

Sachant qu’on avait trouvé à Lyme-Regis tant de fossils de toutes les classes du règne animal, et des plantes si curieuses, je devais m’attrendre à découvrir dans cette localité un plus grand nombre de poissons fossils que ceux qui avaient été signalés avant que l’on s’en occupât d’une manièe suivie. Le résultat de mes recherches a surpassé toute attente. A Lyme-Regis même, j’ai vu dans le collection de miss E. Philpot trente-quatre espèces nouvelles de poissons du Lias de cette localité seulment, dont plusieurs appartiennent à des genres nouveaux, sans compter toutes celles que j’avais déjà vues dans d’autres collections, et que je retrouvais ici. Ne pouvant rester que quelques jours à Lyme-Regis, miss Philpot a bien voulu consentir à me laisser emporter toutes ces espèces pour que je pusse le décrire en detail. Cette collection m’a été d’autant plus précieuse, que miss Philpot et Marie Anning ont pu m’indiquer avec certitude quells sont les ichthyodorulithes qui correspondent aux différens types de dents. Avec cette clef, j’ai pu atteindre d’importans résultats, et rapporter, dans d’autres formations, diverses forms de dents et de défenses les unes aux autres, en combinant tous les modes d’association déjà connus de ces fragmens. La collection de miss Philpot contient en outre de très-belles dentes de la craie de Penhay et de Wiltshire.

As he acknowledged, Elizabeth Philpot also permitted Agassiz to borrow some specimens so that he could describe them in detail. His mention of the links between ichthyodoruliths and different types of teeth also shows Agassiz’s scientific indebtedness to Elizabeth Philpot and Mary Anning while he was at Lyme.

Agassiz named a species of fossil fish after Elizabeth Philpot, Eugnathus philpotiae. In publishing the species, Agassiz publicly acknowledged the services that Philpot had rendered to palaeontology and fossil ichthyology by her careful collection of the fossil remains of the Lias, noting that the specimen named was one of the finest fishes in its formation [9]:

En dédiant cette espèce à Miss Philpot, je me fais un plaisir de reconnaître publiquement les services qu’elle a rendus à la paléontologie et notamment à l’ichthyologie fossile, par les soins qu’elle a mis à recueillir les debris fossils du lias de Lyme-Regis. L’espèce que nous venons de décrire et qui fait partie de sa collection, peut être envisage comme l’un des beaux poissons de cette formation.

Eugnathus philpotiae. Source: L. Agassiz, Recherches sur les poissons fossiles, Atlas, Tome II, Tab. 58 (Neuchâtel: Lithographie de H. Nicolet, 1833-45); via Biodiversity Heritage Library / Internet Archive (copy from Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library), and Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/7267166156

The illustration that Agassiz published of Eugnathus philpotiae [10] was one of several specimens from the Philpot collection that were published in the geological literature of the nineteenth-century.

Elizabeth Philpot died in 1857, aged 78. Her death, as well as that of William Conybeare, was noted by The Athanaeum in a short report that was reprinted in several other places, including the Dorset County Chronicle of the 27 August 1857 [11]:

LYME.
DEATH OF MISS ELIZABETH PHILPOT. – The Athenæum says “Geology has suffered two losses in the deaths of Dean Conybeare [William Daniel Conybeare, 1787- 1857, Dean of Llandaff], and Miss Elizabeth Philpot, of Lyme. The dean died last week at Itchen Stoke, in Hampshire, following close upon his son, the Rev. W. J. Conybeare [William John Conybeare, 1815-1857], whose religious novel, ‘Perversion,’ our readers will remember. Dean Conybeare will be long remembered for the part he took in the scientific discussions to which the early discoveries of our great race of geologists gave rise a few years ago. Miss Philpot went upon the lias shore in company with Mary Anning almost daily. A fine collection at Lyme Regis, known and visited by the greatest of British and continental geologists was the result. Some of the most remarkable specimens have been figured in the works of Buckland, Agassiz, &c. Miss Philpot was an example how much may be done for science by a judicious application of skill and judgment. Should any of our readers have been puzzled as to the derivation of Philpotine in catalogues of fossils, they will now understand whence the word was derived.”

After Elizabeth Philpot’s death in 1857, aged 78, the sisters’ fossil collection was inherited by her nephew, another John Philpot (and Second Lieutenant Philpot’s grandfather). After John’s death in 1878, his widow, Elizabeth Mary Philpot (née Gold), presented the collection to the University of Oxford in 1880. It is now an important part of the collections of Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Various members of the Philpot family continued to live at Lyme after the death of Elizabeth Mary Philpot in 1886. I could find no evidence that the immediate family of Frederick Freeman Philpot were ever permanently based there, but two of Second Lieutenant Philpot’s uncles, John Gold Philpot (1848-1895) and Thomas Embrey Davenport Philpot (1859-1918), who were the sons of John and Elizabeth Mary Philpot, died and were buried there. It was Thomas that helped to establish a town museum at Lyme, now officially known as the Lyme Regis Philpot Museum.

Fossil Loligo from the Lias at Lyme Regis, from the Philpot collection. Source: William Buckland, Geology and mineralogy considered with reference to natural theology, Vol II (London: William Pickering 1837), Plate 30; via Internet Archive (copy from Princeton Theological Seminary Library): https://archive.org/details/bridgewatertreat62chal/page/n221

References:

[1] Western Times, 22 April 1921, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

[2] WO 95/488/5, 253rd (Tunnelling) Company, Royal Engineers War Diary, The National Archives, Kew.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Chester Chronicle, 18 March 1916, p. 2; via British Newspaper Archive.

[5] Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/

[6] Charterhouse Register, 1872-1910, tercentenary ed., Vol II. 1892-1910 (London: Chiswick Press, 1911), p 639; via Internet Archive (copy from the University of Toronto): https://archive.org/details/charterhouseregi02charuoft/page/638

7] J. M. Edmonds, “The fossil collection of the Misses Philpot of Lyme Regis,” Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Vol. XCVIII, 1976, pp. 43-48.

[8] Louis Agassiz, Recherches sur les poissons fossiles (Neuchâtel: Imprimerie de Petitpierre, 1833-1843), Tome I, pp. 22-23; via Biodiversity Heritage Library (copy from Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23069#page/76

[9] Louis Agassiz, Recherches sur les poissons fossiles (Neuchâtel: Imprimerie de Petitpierre, 1833-1843), Tome 2, p. 102; via Biodiversity Heritage Library (copy from Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23726#page/432

[10] L. Agassiz, Recherches sur les poissons fossiles (atlas), Tome II (Neuchâtel: Lithographie de H. Nicolet, 1833-45), Tab. 58; via Biodiversity Heritage Library (copy from Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/99982#page/124

[11] Dorset County Chronicle, 27 August 1857, p. 7; also Sherborne Mercury, 1 September 1857, p. 5; via British Newspaper Archive.

Lyme Regis: The war memorial window in the Church of St MIchael (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/14144364131

Lyme Regis in Dorset has two war memorials for the inhabitants of the town that died in the two world wars. One is a stained-glass window with associated plaques in the Church of St Michael the Archangel, which was unveiled one-hundred-years ago today. The other is a ship’s anchor with wall and plaques in a garden off Monmouth Street.

Lyme Regis: The First World War roll of honour plaque in the Church of St Michael (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/13931361729

The war memorial window in the Church of St Michael was unveiled and dedicated on the 21st April 1921. The memorial consists of a stained-glass window with associated memorial tablets listing fifty-five men that died in the First World War, with two additional tablets listing another thirty-six that died in the Second [1].

Lyme Regis: Detail of the war memorial window in the Church of St Michael (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/14114957932

The window contains depictions of four named saints — St. Michael, St. George, St. Nicholas, and St. Gabriel — and the inscriptions:

GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.

TO THE GLORY OF GOD, IN MEMORY OF THE MEN OF LYME REGIS WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918. THIS WINDOW AND TABLETS WERE ERECTED BY THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN.

In the lower-part of the window, the predella, there are vignettes of St Michael slaying the dragon and of St Gabriel and the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation, and, in the central panels, depictions of the war on land (the rescue of wounded soldiers in a ruined village) and on sea (a motor launch entering the Cobb at Lyme).

Lyme Regis: Detail of the war memorial window in the Church of St Michael and All Angels (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/14114957392

Short accounts of the unveiling and dedication were published in local newspapers, e.g., the Western Times of the 22 April 1921 [2]:

War Memorial Window and Tablet Unveiled at Lyme Regis
At Lyme Regis Parish Church last evening a war memorial window and tablet containing the names of the 55 men who fell in the war, together with a second window erected to the memory of Lt. John Philpot, were unveiled by Sir Reginald Pinney, K.C.B. The memorial window to the men is situated in the south aisle of the church. The figures represented are St. Michael (Captain of the Lord’s Hosts), St. George (Patron Saint of England), St. Nicholas (Patron Saint of Sailors), and St. Gabriel (Messenger of Peace). The inscription on the window is: “To the glory of God and in memory of the men of Lyme Regis who fell in the Great War, 1914-18. The window and tablet were erected by the inhabitants of the town.” The service was conducted by the Vicar (Rev. W. M. Wilson), assisted by the Curate (Rev. G. K. Chesterton). The dedication ceremony was performed by Rev. Canon Myers, Sub-Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, who preached the sermon. The choir rendered the anthem “How lovely are Thy dwellings fair” (Brahms). Mr. Fleming, A.R.C.O., presided at the organ in place of Mr. H. G. E. Pocock (organist), who assisted in the choir. At the conclusion of the service the “Last Post” and “Reveille” were sounded by Mr. H. Chappell. The collection was in aid of the Memorial Fund, for which £50 is required.

Also the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of the 22 April 1921 [3]:

Lyme Regis
WAR MEMORIAL
DEDICATION CEREMONY.
Lyme’s Parish Church War Memorial – a window and tablet containing the names of 55 men who fell in the war – together with a second window erected to the memory of Lieut. John Philpot, were unveiled yesterday, at the parish church by Major-General Sir Reginald Pinney, K.C.B., in the presence of a large congregation. The memorial window to the men is situated in the south aisle of the church. The figures represented are St. Michael (Captain of the Lord’s Hosts), St. George (Patron Saint of England and the Army), St. Nicholas (Patron Saint of Sailors), and St. Gabriel (Messenger of Peace). Under the figure of St. Michael is small representation of St. Michael slaying the dragon, signifying the triumph of right over wrong. Beneath St. Gabriel is the Annunciation, and underneath the figure of St. George Is a small predella subject representing the war on land. Below St. Nicholas the predella subject depicts war on the sea by showing a M.L. entering the Cobb. Above these predella subjects are angels holding the text, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Above the figures of St. George and St. Nicholas are angels holding “the whole armour of God,” and in the tracery symbols of the various saints. The inscription on the window is: “To the glory of God and in memory of the men of Lyme Regis who fell in the Great War, 1914-18. The window and tablet were erected by the inhabitants of the town.”
The service was fully choral. Mr. Fleming, F.R.C.O., presiding at the organ in the place of the organist (Mr. H. G. E. Pocock), who was assisting in the choir. The Vicar (the Rev. W. N. Willson) was assisted by the Rev. G. K. Chesterton (curate), and the sermon was preached by the Rev. Canon Myers (Sub-Dean of Salisbury Cathedral), who performed the dedication ceremony. The choir gave an admirable rendering of the anthem, “How lovely are Thy dwellings” (Brahms), and the hymns were “Hallelujah, sing to Jsus [sic],” “O valiant hearts,” “Jesus lives!” and “Jerusalem the Golden.” After the service, which was attended by the Mayor and Corporation, the “Last Post” and “Reveille” were sounded by Mr. H. Chappell. The collection was in aid of the Memorial Fund, for which about £50 is still required.

During the war, Major-General Sir Reginald John Pinney had successively been the commander of 23rd Infantry Brigade (8th Division), the 35th Division, and (finally) the 33rd Division. He retired to West Dorset after the war, serving variously as a magistrate, High Sheriff, and Deputy Lieutenant.

As the newspaper reports note, the war memorial window was dedicated at the same time as a stained-glass window commemorating Second Lieutenant John Philpot, of 253rd (Tunnelling) Company, Royal Engineers, who had died near Hulluch on the 25th February 1916, while trying to save two of his men who had been overcome by gas after the explosion of a mine. The Church of St Michael also contains an earlier stained-glass window memorial, which had been dedicated in May 1918. This commemorates Captain George Howard Bickley of 237th Company, Machine Gun Corps, who had been killed in action in Flanders on the 4th October 1917.

Lyme Regis: Detail of the First World War memorial plaque in the Church of St Michael (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/13931361729

Second Lieutenant Ernest Shephard, 5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment:

Of the fifty-five persons named on the First World War plaque, perhaps the most well-known today would probably be Second Lieutenant Ernest Shephard of the 5th (Service) Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, who was killed in action near Beaucourt on the 11th January 1917. Before being commissioned and joining the 5th Dorsets, Shephard had served as a Company Sergeant Major in the 1st Dorsets. His wartime diaries survived and were edited by Bruce Rossor and published by Crowood Press in 1987 as A Sergeant-Major’s War: From Hill 60 to the Somme [4]. The diaries give a fascinating perspective on the war from the perspective of a senior NCO, and contain vivid descriptions of an early gas attack by the Germans at Hill 60, near Ypres, in May 1915 as well as the 32nd Division’s attack on the Leipzig Redoubt on the first day of the Somme offensive in 1916. Publication of the diaries was followed in 2011 by the compilation of a short sequel by Martin Middlebrook, which looked in more detail into the circumstances of Second Lieutenant Shephard’s burial and reburial in A.I.F. Burial Ground at Flers [5].

The cover of: A Sergeant-Major’s War, the diaries of Ernest Shephard (Crowood Press, 1987)

Ernest Arthur Shephard was born at Lyme in 1892, the son of Frederick William Shephard and Elizabeth Shephard (née Dean). Frederick William Shephard had been born at Bridport in 1859, and had later inherited his father’s photography business. Frederick married Elizabeth Dean at Yeovil registration district (probably Hazelbury Plucknett) in 1886. Rossor records that they had seven children, six of whom survived to adulthood: Frederick William, b. 1887; Ethel Maria (or Maud), b. 1888; Winifred May, b. 1890; Ernest Arthur, b. 1892; Percy Parker, b. 1893; and Hilda Gwendoline, b. 1895. Elizabeth died in 1897, aged 40. The following year, Frederick William married a widow, Mary Ann Howlett, with whom he had another daughter, Lilian (or Lily). Frederick William Shephard senior died in 1918, aged 57.

Rossor notes that Ernest enlisted in the Dorset Regiment Special Reserve in 1909, followed by the 1st Battalion later the same year. The 1911 Census recorded Ernest at Alma Barracks at Blackdown (Farnborough), aged nineteen. As the outbreak of war approached, Shephard was serving as a Corporal with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Dorsets, but he was promoted Sergeant on the 8th August 1914. On the 26th January 1915, Sergeant Shephard was posted to the 1st Battalion in France, and was promoted Sergeant-Major on the 25th April. Those that want to know more about Ernest Shephard’s service during the war should try to track down a copy of his published diaries.

Exteter and Plymouth Gazette, 19 January 1917, p. 10; via British Newspaper Archive.

Second Lieutenant Shephard’s death was reported in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of the 19th January 1917 [6]:

Notes of the Day.
I regret to record the death of Second-Lieut. Ernest A. Shephard, second son of Mr. F. W. Shephard, of Church-street, Lyme Regis. He was killed in action on the 11th inst. The gallant young officer, who was but 25 years of age, joined the Army about nine years ago, and gained rapid promotion as a non-commissioned officer, eventually reaching the rank of company sergeant-major in the Dorset Regiment. His regiment experienced the full rigours of the campaign in France, particularly in the battle for Hill 60, when the gallant services rendered by the deceased attracted the attention of his commanding-officer, with the result that he was mentioned in despatches. On two subsequent occasions a similar honour was done him, and it was reported that he was recommended for the D.C.M. This statement was, however, incorrect, being due to a misunderstanding. He was, however, recommended for a commission, and this he received, being gazetted on November 21st. He came home on leave about the middle of December, and was warmly congratulated by his many friends on his promotion. He went to the Front on Christmas Day. His death will be deeply regretted by all who knew him.

Private Frederick William Shephard, 6th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment

Ernest’s older brother Frederick is also named on the Lyme war memorial. 17705 Private Frederick William Shephard of the 6th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment was killed in action on the 11th May 1917, aged 28, and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing. In the 1911 Census, he seems to have been the Frederick William Shepherd boarding at the household of Isaac Tweed at Wimborne Minster. Frederick married Cicely Maria Hall at Ringwood (district) in 1913 (his CWGC record states that his widow was Cicely M. Shephard of The Laurels, Canford Bottom, Wimborne). As well as the Lyme Regis memorials, Frederick seems to be also commemorated on war memorials at Wimborne Minster, Hampreston, and Ferndown.

Arras: The Arras Memorial to the Missing (Pas-de-Calais, France); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/28723871405

On the 11th May 1917, the 6th Dorsets, who were part of 50th Infantry Brigade in the 17th (Northern) Division, were involved in one of many British attempts to capture the village of Roeux and its chemical works.

The capture of Roeux had been an objective for the British from the beginning of the Arras offensive on the 9th April 1917. In his book on the Battle of Arras, Jonathan Nicholls has described the village as a natural fortress that had been turned by the Germans into a formidable defensive position [7]:

High on the wooded northern bank of the River Scarpe, standing over a system of deep caves. Roeux was protected on its southern flank by the river and its lakes and marshes, while to the north the embankment of the Arras-Douai railway provided a man-made barrier. But the Germans were not content to rely on natural defences alone. Cleverly concealed amidst the outbuildings of an old château, they had built one of the largest concrete mebus (blockhouses) yet seen on the Western Front. Moreover, near the railway station, a derelict dye factory had been fortified and connected to the château blockhouse by tunnels. The jumble of old vathouses, engine sheds and chimney stacks — the Chemical Works, as it was known, soon became all too familiar to British soldiers — overlooked an open plain to the west; evidently fearing attack from this direction the defenders further dug deep trenches in two small copses, Roeux Wood and Mount Pleasant Wood. And on Balloon Hill (Greenland Hill to the British) they raised several observation balloons.

Gerald Gliddon has described Roeux as, “probably the most heavily defended German village to feature in the battle of Arras in 1917” [8].

The 4th Division had first attacked the village on the 11th April 1917, but Roeux remained in German hands until the 11th May, when an attack by the 4th Division (again), supported by 152nd Brigade from the 51st (Highland) Division and two companies of the 6th Dorsets (50th Brigade, 17th Division), finally managed to take the village and chemical works [9].

For the renewed attack on the 11th May 1917, the two companies from the 6th Dorsets were attached to the 11th Brigade on the left, and they managed to successfully capture a redoubt on the north side of the Douai-Arras railway. At the château, the 1st Hampshires discovered the concrete blockhouse that had caused so much trouble to the attacking forces over previous weeks [10]. A second attack was launched the following morning by the 11th Brigade (4th Division), with the 17th Division on its left. The British Official History noted that the 50th Brigade “was successful on it right, but not wholly so on its left” [11]:

The left reached its first objective, but was driven out within half an hour. Further efforts by the 50th Brigade broke down., and the net result was an advance on a front of 500 yards north of the Fampoux-Plouvain road, on the right to a trench (Cupid Trench) which was a continuation of that captured by the 4th Division and 700 yards east of the station cross-roads.

Over the following few days, the 51st and 17th Divisions held the front line, resisting several German counter attacks.

Percy Parker Shephard:

Frank and Ernest’s youngest brother, Percy Parker Shephard, served with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the war, his medal index card recording that he had served in France from the 16th March 1915 (WO 372/18/32482, The National Archives). In his introduction to A Sergeant-Major’s War, Bruce Rossor noted that Percy had tried to follow Ernest into the Dorsets when war broke out, but had been rejected due to his poor eyesight [12]. Rossor added that Percy eventually joined the RAMC as a stretcher bearer, but was invalided back to England in 1917.

Percy Shephard’s story then takes an unexpected turn. Marriage records show that Percy married Cicely M. Shephard at Lambeth (registration district) in late 1917, a person who could only have been Frank’s widow. Marriage affinity laws at the time meant that this would have been unlawful, and there were bitter consequences, which included: pregnancy, the illicit procurement of drugs, evil letters, the birth of a child, divorce, a criminal trial, and a judge telling Percy that he had never seen “a meaner, baser creature,” while sentencing him to five years penal servitude in 1919 [13]. The affinity law itself changed shortly afterwards, with the Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act of 1921.

In 1925, Percy Shephard married Rosa E. Lafferty at Lambeth (registration district), and the 1939 Register recorded them living at Bromley in Kent. Percy at some point came into the possession of his older brother’s diaries from his sister Ethel, and it was Percy’s son Ronald that made them available for Bruce Rossor to edit and publish as A Sergeant-Major’s War.

References:

[1] Imperial War Museums, War Memorials Register: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/26693

[2] The Western Times, 22 April 1921, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

[3] The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 22 April 1921, p. 14; via British Newspaper Archive.

[4] Ernest Shephard, A Sergeant-Major’s war: from Hill 60 to the Somme, ed. Bruce Rossor (Ramsbury: Crowood Press, 1987).

[5] Martin Middlebrook, A Sergeant-Major’s death: from Beaucourt to A.I.F. Burial Ground (The Keep Military Museum and the Dorset and South Wiltshire Branch of the Western Front Association, 2011)

[6] The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 19 January 1917, p. 9; via British Newspaper Archive.

[7] Jonathan Nicholls, Cheerful sacrifice: the Battle of Arras 1917 (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2005), pp. 22-23.

[8] Gerald Gliddon, VCs of the First World War: Arras and Messines 1917 (Stroud: History Press, 2012), p. 185.

[9] Paul Reed, Walking Arras: a guide to the 1917 Arras battlefields (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2007), p. 194.

[10] Cyril Falls, Military operations: France and Belgium, 1917, Vol. 1, History of the Great War based on official documents (London: Macmillan, 1940), p. 512.

[11] Ibid., pp. 512-513.

[12] Shephard, A Sergeant-Major’s war, p. 14.

[13] Gloucestershire Echo, 13th March 1919, p. 4; via British Newspaper Archive. I uncovered the first hint of this sad episode when I found a document from the early 1920s in Findmypast, which recorded that Percy Parker Shephard had been sentenced to five years penal servitude in March 1919 (MEPO 6/34, Metropolitan Police: Criminal Record Office: Habitual Criminals Register (1922), The National Archives). His offence was described there as: “inciting to murder and supplying noxious thing to procure abortion.” It was quite straightforward then to find reports on the case through the British Newspaper Archive. The full story does not make for very pleasant reading, even over a hundred-years later. This relatively short version, which expurgates some of the more lurid details, appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette of the 12th March 1919 (p 4):

DEGREES OF AFFINITY
CASE OF A DEAD HUSBAND’S BROTHER.
At the Old Bailey to-day, Percy Parker Shephard, aged twenty-five, a private in the R.A.M.C., was charged with making a false declaration under the Marriage Act. He was also indicted for inciting Cicely Maria Shephard to murder her child, and further indicted on charges of supplying noxious things.
Mr. Travers Humphreys, prosecuting, said that Cicely Maria Shephard married the brother of the prisoner, and her husband was killed in the war. After his death prisoner and Cicely Shephard met for the first time. At Blackpool, where he was stationed, he proposed marriage to her. Prisoner was eventually transferred to London, and visited the dispensary of his corps to get something that he might give her.
A Mistaken Idea.
In regard to the false declaration, continued counsel, prisoner said he was her second cousin at the registry office. Defendant afterwards obtained a divorce on the ground that he and the girl came within the “degree of affinity.” The divorce judge impounded the papers, and sent them to the Public Prosecutor.
“A great many people,” said counsel, “are under the impression that the Deceased Wife’s Sister Act, which allows a man to marry his deceased wife’s sister, can be reversed, and that a woman can marry her deceased husband’s brother, but it is not so.”

A more detailed version of the tale was published in the Western Gazette of the 19th July 1919, in a report from the Wimborne Petty Sessions (p. 9).

1915-1916

Bath: The War Memorial in Weston High Street: First World War names (Somerset)

In my previous post, I transcribed the account published in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette of the dedication of the war memorials at Upper Weston (Bath) on the 17th March 1921. This supplementary post will provide some more information on the persons named on the First World War sections of the memorials. There are thirty-six First World War names on the Weston war memorial cross and thirty-eight on the panels in the war memorial chapel in the Church of All Saints.

These names were matched, where possible, with their entries in the database produced by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) [1], supplemented where necessary by with notes from the genealogical records made available by Findmypast [2] and the issues of the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette that form part of the British Newspaper Archive [3].

As is the case with many war memorials, the relatively limited information provided by the memorials (rank, initial/s, and family name) meant that it can be difficult to match a few of the names. One example on the Weston memorial was “Pte. F. Anstey.” The Bath Chronicle report from the Weston peace celebrations of August 1919 (described later in this post) lists this person as “Fredk. Anstey,” which (in theory) should have made the search easier. The genealogical databases showed that there was a Frederick George Anstey living in the Bath area at the appropriate time (he was born at Batheaston in 1885, and the 1911 Census recorded him at Bangalore with B Squadron of the 14th King’s Hussars). However, the electoral registers in Findmypast also showed that this Frederick survived the war (he died at Bath in 1953, aged 68). Fortunately, there was a likely alternative identification in the CWGC database: Private Alfred Richard John Anstey of the 2nd Royal Marine Battalion, who was killed in action near Passchendaele on the 26th October 1917. His link with Weston was confirmed by the additional information in his CWGC database entry: “Son of Alfred and Sarah Anstey, of 65 High St., Upper Weston, Bath,” as well as the fact that he enlisted (and died) on the same day as another Weston resident, Private James Edwin Holbrow. Evidently, Alfred was known to some as Fred or Frederick. I have been unable to identify two of the persons named on the memorial. Privates H. Frankham and T. Marshall both defeated my searches and both feature at the end of my list.

Lists of Weston casualties started to appear in the Bath Chronicle during the war itself. A longer list was then published in the Chronicle’s account of the Weston Peace Celebrations on the 26th July 1919 [4]. The day commenced with some bellringing:

At seven o’clock the ringing of the church bells proclaimed the coming of the festal day, and at one o’clock another peal was rung. At 1.15 the procession assembled at the village green in readiness for the open-air service at the Recreation Ground, for it was rightly intended that the rejoicings should begin by an act of remembrance of the gallant dead. The procession was headed by one of Weston’s heroes, Lieutenant W. Anstey, R.A.F., who lost a leg in the fighting at Hill 60, but after recovering from his wound obtained a commission in another branch of the service. His cousin is numbered among the fallen parishioners. Lieutenant Anstey led the procession on horseback.”
The service at the Recreation Ground included the singing of “O God, our help in ages past” and “Old Hundreth.” Then the Vicar (Rev. F. A. Bromley) read the name of twenty-eight parishioners who had died:
William Old
Vernon and Reginald Newman
William Perry
Frederick Blackmore
Frank and Arthur Pickett
William, George and Ernest Bond
Charles, Alfred, Ernest and Walter Lewis
William and Ernest Humphris
Fredk. Gillard
Fredk. Anstey
Arthur Graham Johnston
Reginald Bourne
Albert Hawkins
James Edwin Holbrow
Arthur Richards
William George Kite
Harry Nash Russell
John Sheppard
William Hobbs
Alfred Gillard
After singing the National Anthem, the procession moved on to the Manor Park field, where there was a programme of sports events, performances by the “Comrades” Band, a fancy-dress competition, tea (of course!), and an evening dance.
Another peal by the ringers gave tidings of the ending of a day memorable in Weston’s parochial annals.

A glance at RAF Officers’ Service Records 1912-1920 (via Findmypast) shows that Lieutenant W. Anstey was William Robert Douglas Anstey, the son of Arthur Robert and Annie Anstey. Before joining the RNAS, he had been a Sapper with the 2nd (Wessex) Company, Royal Engineers.

As the list of names might suggest, the memorials commemorate at least five sets of siblings. Frederick Lewis, a widower living at 9, Manor Road, lost four sons: Charles Henry on the Somme in 1916, Alfred near Epehy in October 1918, and both Ernest and Walter James after the Armistice (of influenza). Priscilla Bond of No. 2, Moravian Cottages (but formerly of Church Road, Weston), who had herself been widowed when her husband Thomas W. Bond died in 1915, aged 57, lost three of her four adult sons to the war. Thomas (the eldest) survived, being awarded the Military Cross twice and the Croix de Guerre, while the others were not so fortunate: William died in 1917, and then both George and Ernest in 1918. Two of the officer sons of Olinthus and Mary Newman would also be killed in action: Vernon William at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, Reginald Bodman on the Somme almost exactly a year later (Olinthus Newman himself was killed in 1918, the casualty of a tram accident in Lower Weston). Henry William and Sarah Humphris (sometimes Humphries) of 29, Trafalgar Road lost two sons, Henry and Ernest, who died respectively on the Somme in 1916 and at Arras in 1917. Both of the sons of George and Emma Pickett of 26, Church Road also died: Frank being drowned in the Mediterranean in April 1916, while Arthur Sidney was killed by an exploding shell near Ypres in October 1917. Finally, Robert and Selina Gillard of 4, Westbrook Buildings lost two of their sons, Alfred Edward and Frederick, who were both killed in action near Arras in May 1917.

As has already been mentioned, both Alfred Anstey and Edward Holbrow (sometimes known as Edwin or James Edwin Holbrow) enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry on the same day. They had adjacent service numbers and identical service records. Both were killed in action near Passchendaele on the 26th October 1917, aged 19. Both have no known grave and are commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. Both of their families lived in Weston High Street.

Of the thirty-six casualties that I have been able to identify, just three were buried in cemeteries in the UK: Private John Sheppard, at Bath (the Weston section of Locksbrook Cemetery) and Privates Ernest and Walter James Lewis at Chepstow. All three had previously served overseas. The overwhelming majority of those named on the memorials died on the Western Front, including twenty buried or commemorated in France and another nine in Belgium (West Flanders). Four others are commemorated or buried at locations in Turkey, Iraq, Greece, and Israel/Palestine.

There are several different potential ways of organising the names on a war memorial. Both of the Weston memorials are sorted by military rank and then family name, although there are a few inconsistencies. In this post, I have listed them in the date order of their deaths, as this gives an idea of the war’s progress. If I have found an associated report in the Bath Chronicle, I have also transcribed that. The information is based on that provided by the CWGC database, but it has been selectively supplemented with information from the Findmypast service, including: the Soldiers Died in the Great War database, census returns, electoral registers, and BMD records. The entries are really collections of notes rather than fully-rounded portraits of the individuals involved, but I hope that they collectively help paint a picture of Upper Weston at the time of the First World War. At some point I will try to map out the names in geographical space. For those that do not want to wait, please do look at A Street Near You, where you will be able to find the names of a good many more First World War casualties with links to Upper Weston: https://astreetnearyou.org/

Researching the names on war memorials is not an exact science. It is likely, therefore, that the entries in this post will contain misidentifications, errors, and omissions. I would like to apologise for any mistakes in advance, and will try to correct them when they come to light.

May they all Rest in Peace.

There were nine casualties from the start of the war to the end of 1916, seven of them on the Western Front, one at Gallipoli, and another one killed when his hospital ship hit a mine near Le Havre. The first man from the village to die was Driver William Old of the Wessex Engineers, who was killed in action on the 6th May 1915, aged 44. Four would die in the campaign on the Somme, three of whom have no known grave and are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. The nine include two sons of Councillor Olinthus Newman of Combe Park, who himself would be killed tragically at Bath in a tramway accident on the 29th May 1918 [5].

Driver William Old, Royal Engineers

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 8 May 1915, p. 7; via British Newspaper Archive.

Driver William Old, 1st (Wessex) Field Coy., Royal Engineers; Service No. 959
Died of wounds 6 May 1915, aged 44
St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen (A. 9. 6.), Seine-Maritime, France
CWGC additional information: Son of Charles and Sarah Ann Old, of Weston; husband of Matilda Elizabeth Old, of 2, Lansdown View, Weston, Bath

Born: ca. 1872
1881 Census: 1 Bond’s Cottages, Weston, Bath; aged 9, scholar; household of Charles Old, aged 35, carter; son of Charles and Sarah Old
1891 Census: Bonfield Cottages, High Street, Weston, Bath; aged 19, cab driver; household of Charles Old, aged 45, cab proprietor; son of Charles and Sarah Old
Married: Matilda Elizabeth Wake, Bath (registration district), 1st Q, 1895
1901 Census: 2 Lansdown View, Weston, Bath; aged 29, cabman; married to Matilda E. Old, aged 28, laundress; two children: Charlie, 5; William, 3.
1911 Census: 2 Lansdown View, Weston, Bath; aged 39, fly proprietor (on own account); married to Matilda Old, aged 38, laundress; two children: Charlie Old, 15, engineer’s fitter; William Old, 13, at school.
Widow: Matilda E. Old, died Bath (registration district), 2nd Q, 1958, aged 85

Bath Chronicle and Monthly Gazette, 8 May 1915, p. 7:

ANOTHER WESSEX HERO
DRIVER W. OLD DIES OF WOUNDS
It will be heard with deep regret that Driver William Old, of the 1st Wessex Royal Engineers, died from wounds in a military hospital at Rouen on Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday his wife had received official information that her husband had been wounded. On Thursday came a telegram from the military authorities that he was “severely wounded” and to-day came the notification by wire that he succumbed to his injuries as stated. Few people were better known in Bath than the deceased. He was a popular cheery cab proprietor and generally stood at the bottom of Gay Street or at Edgar Buildings. For many years he was invariably accompanied by an Aberdeen terrier as the mascot of his cab; and when the old favourite died, a lady patroness kindly presented Mr. Old with another dog of the same breed. On the outbreak of war, Mr. Old patriotically offered his services, setting a spirited example to younger men; and on account of his special skill among horses, he was accepted and joined the Wessex Engineers as a driver, though it was no secret that he was well over the stipulated maximum age. He has a son also in the Wessex R.E., but he has not gone to the front yet, and is in Dorset. Another son is an employee of Messrs. Stothert and Pitt and is away from Bath on the firm’s work. How Driver Old was wounded is not known.
A letter from Sapper Richardson, of Bathwick, given in Thursday’s “Chronicle,” stated that he helped to carry the wounded man to the field hospital. In his last letter to his wife Mr. Old wrote as if he had a premonition of his impending fate. Mrs. Old, who lives at 2 Lansdown View, Upper Weston, will receive sincere sympathy in her bereavement. She was a Miss Wake, of Weston, and her mother recently died at the home of another daughter, Mrs. Thomas, in the Upper Bristol Road. Mr. Old for some years was a member of the Weston Parish Council.

Private William Slee, 9th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment

Private William Slee, 9th Bn., West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own); Service No. 15629
Killed in action, 9 Aug 1915, aged 22
Helles Memorial (Panel 47 to 51.), Turkey
CWGC additional information: Son of James Slee, of 5, The Grove, Weston, Bath, and the late Isabel Slee

Born: Sunderland (registration district), 1st Q, 1892, son of James Slee and Isabel Slee (née Blenkinsop)
1891 Census: Devonshire Street, Monkwearmouth (Co Durham); James Slee, aged 26, steam engine maker; Isabella Slee, aged 22; John Slee, aged 8 mths
1901 Census: 42 Jacques Street, Sunderland; William Slee, aged 9; household of James Slee, aged 36, steam engine maker (turner)
1911 Census: 50 Tilery Road, Stockton-on-Tees; William Slee, aged 19, boiler rivetter; household of John Robert Cowan (uncle), aged 35, police constable
1911 Census: 9 Davis Street, Avonmouth, Bristol; James Slee, boarder, aged 47, widower, engineer / engine fitter; household of Frank Edwin Blake, aged 40, coal merchant
Soldiers Died in the Great War: Enlisted at Stockton-on-Tees (Co Durham).

Captain Vernon William Newman, 4th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment:

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 4 September 1915; via British Newspaper Archive.

Captain Vernon William Newman, 4th Bn., West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), attd. 1st Bn., The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
Killed in action, 25 Sep 1915, aged 30
Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos (III. F. 16.), Pas-de-Calais
CWGC additional information: Son of Olinthus and Mary Newman, of Lathom House, Weston Park, Bath

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 2 October 1915, p. 3:

CAPTAIN V. W. NEWMAN KILLED IN ACTION
ELDEST SON OF MR. COUNCILLOR NEWMAN
We regret to hear that Captain Vernon W. Newman, eldest son of Mr. Councillor O. Newman, of Winfield, Combe Park, has been killed in action in France. The sad news has reached Mr. Newman in a telegram from the War Office which says that Captain Newman was killed on the 26th or 27th September and expresses the sympathy of Lord Kitchener with the deceased officer’s family. Captain Newman, who was 31 years of age, was educated at King Edward’s School, Bath, and adopted electrical engineering as his profession; he took the degree of B.Sc. at London University and was on the staff of the Central Engineering College, South Kensington, which is attached to the University. That institution he left for a technical appointment under the government and he was so engaged when war broke out. He then obtained a commission in the 4th West Yorkshire Regiment. Attached to the Loyal North Lancashires, he went to France several months ago, had seen considerable fighting with that regiment and was promoted to command a company. He was in Bath about a fortnight ago, when he came home for a few days’ leave from the front. Deep sympathy will be felt with Councillor and Mrs. Newman, who have two other sons, officers in HM Army, one being at the Dardanelles and the other in England.

The 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment was part of 2nd Brigade in the 1st Division. In the War Diary of the 1st Loyal North Lancashires, Captain Newman is one of nine officers listed as being killed on the 25th/26th September, during the Battle of Loos.

One of two brothers named on the memorial

Private William Perry, 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment

Private William Perry, 2nd Bn., Suffolk Regiment; Service No. 15667
Killed in action, 20 Mar 1916
Voormezeele Enclosures No. 1 and No. 2 (I. D. 7.), West Vlaanderen, Belgium

Born William Frederick Perry, 2nd Q, 1882
1891 Census: Elphage Place, Weston; aged 9, mason’s labourer; son of Charles (a gas stoker) and Eliza Perry

WO 97, Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913, The National Archives; via Findmypast:

Enlisted in the 4th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, 14 July 1899, aged 18
5223 Attested 7 Nov 1898, 4th SLI
5558 Somerset Light Infantry
Born Upper Weston
Labourer
Deserted, left 29 Apr 1901 (after trial)

1911 Census: 6 Penhill Terrace, Upper Weston; aged 29, gas stoker; married to Eileen, 29, laundress; married for four years, with two children.

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born: Weston, Somerset; enlisted: Greenwich

Second Lieutenant Reginald Bodman Newman, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 4 September 1915, p. 3; via British Newspaper Archive.

Second Lieutenant Reginald Bodman Newman, 168th Coy., Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
Killed in action, 7 Sep 1916, aged 29
Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 5 C and 12 C.), Somme
CWGC additional information: Son of Olinthus and Mary Newman, of Weston Park, Bath, Somerset

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 16 September 1916, p. 6:

LIEUT. R. B. NEWMAN KILLED IN ACTION
BATH COUNCILLOR’S SECOND BEREAVEMENT
Councillor and Mrs. O. Newman, of 33, Combe Park, Weston, have received the news of the death of their second son, Lieut. Reginald B. Newman. The telegram from the Secretary to the War Office stated that Lieut. R. B. Newman, Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action in France on September 7th.
Lieut. R. B. Newman was educated at King Edward’s School, Bath, and subsequently entered the engineering profession, being trained at the works of a local firm. At the conclusion of his pupilage he worked for a short time at Yeovil. Leaving there, he accepted a position on important constructional work in Vancouver, B.C., where he remained for a period of five years.
Shortly after the outbreak of war he enlisted, and within a short time obtained his commission in the 4th West Yorks Regiment, Special Reserve. Lieut. R. B. Newman’s elder brother, the late Captain V. W. Newman, had previously obtained his commission in the same regiment. Soon after the death of Captain Newman, who was killed in action in September of last year, Lieut. R. B. Newman, who had specialised in machine gunnery, was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, and while working in France with this Corps, the late officer met his death.
Councillor and Mrs. Newman have had three sons at the Front, and deep sympathy will be felt for them in their double loss. The third son, Lieut. B. O. Newman, R.F.A., has been on the Salonika front during the past twelve months.

The 168th Company, Machine Gun Corps was part of 168th Infantry Brigade in the 56th (1st London) Division. On the 6th September 1916, the Division was based in the area around Leuze Wood, near Guillemont, on the Somme front.

The War Diary of 168 Coy, MGC recorded that Second Lieutenant R. B. Newman was killed in Leuze Wood at 11:30 pm on the 7th September 1916, in the lead up to an attack of 168th Brigade on the 9th September. It was during this attack by 168th Brigade on the 9th September that Major Cedric Charles Dickens of the 1/13th London Regiment (1st Kensingtons Battalion), a grandson of the writer Charles Dickens, was killed in action. The 9th September attack was one of several made preparatory to the renewal of the Somme offensive on the 15th September. On the 15th, the 56th Division was detailed to capture defences around Bouleaux Wood and form a defensive flank around Combles.

Bath: The grave marker of Olinthus Newman, Locksbrook Cemetery (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/50905783462

Second Lieutenant Newman’s two younger brothers both served, but would survive the war. Captain Bruce Olinthus Newman served with the Royal Field Artillery, but was later attached to the Royal Air Force (RAF). Lieutenant Christopher Baldwin Newman served with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. Tragically, Olinthus Newman was killed in a tram accident near the Weston Hotel on the 29 May 1918. He was travelling on the (open) upper deck of the tram when the driver lost control and the tram overturned. Councillor Newman was thrown into the road and he died in the Royal United Hospital the same day, without regaining consciousness. His grave marker in Locksbrook Cemetery contains the names of the two sons that died during the war.

Driver Frederick William Blackmore, Canadian Field Artillery:

Driver Frederick (Fred) William Blackmore, 2nd Div. Ammunition Col., Canadian Field Artillery; Service No. 86246
Died of wounds, 27 Oct 1916, aged 40
Contay British Cemetery, Contay (III. D. 20.), Somme, France
CWGC additional information: Son of Robert (and Sarah) Blackmore, of 27, Church Rd., Upper Weston, Bath.

Robert Blackmore (father) married Sarah Perry, Holy Trinity Church, St Philip’s, Bristol, 12 May 1870 (Marriages, 1867-1871, Bristol Archives; via Findmypast)
Frederick William Blackmore, baptised St John the Baptist, Frenchay, 29 Jun 1879 (Baptism Transcripts, 1834-1907, Bristol Archives; via Findmypast)
1881 Census: 5, Westbourne Cottages, Winterbourne, Barton Regis, Gloucestershire; Frederick W. Blackmore, aged 2, born Frenchay; resident with Robert Blackmore (32, gardener, born Wellington, Somerset) and Sarah Blackmore (30, born Bradford-on-Tone, Somerset); four older siblings: Samuel H. (9, scholar), Ellen (8, scholar), Edith (7, scholar), and Robert E. (3, scholar), all born at Fishponds, Bristol
1891 Census: Upper Church Place, Weston, Bath; Frederick Blackmore, aged 11 (scholar); resident with Robert Blackmore (42, domestic servant gardener) and Sarah Blackmore (41); three siblings: Edith (17, domestic servant, born Fishponds), Elizabeth (9, scholar, born Frenchay), Florence (6, scholar, born Weston).

WO 128, Imperial Yeomanry, Soldiers’ Documents, South African War 1899-1902, The National Archives; via Findmypast:

Enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry, Bath, 19 Feb 1901, aged 21
Trade on attestation: Gardener
Service no: 27340; 7th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, 48th (N Somerset) Company
Served in South Africa 16 Mar 1901 – 4 Aug 1902
Discharged Aldershot, 11 Aug 1902

FWW Service records available from Library and Archives Canada (Ref. RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 786 – 38.; B0786-S038):

Birth: Bath, 11 Apr 1880 [this does not match the information provided by other records]
Next-of-Kin: Robert Blackmore (father), 27 Church Road, Bath
Enlisted: Winnipeg, Manitoba, 24 Dec 1914
Trade on attestation: Steam Fitter
Previous military experience: 12 years in North Somerset Rif. (presumably the North Somerset Yeomanry)
1st Reserve Battalion, 5th Artillery Brigade
Embarked for France from UK: 18 Jan 1916
Served as Gunner with 6th Howitzer Brigade, Canadian Expeditionary Force; posted to 2nd Canadian Divisional Artillery Column, 20 May 1916
Admitted 11th Canadian Field Ambulance, 25 Oct 1916, then 49 Casualty Clearing Station (Contay) 27 Oct 1916 (gunshot wound, left thigh and back)

War Diary of Divisional Ammunition Column, 2nd Canadian Division, Library and Archives Canada (Ref. RG9-III-D-3. Volume/box number: 4978. File number: 584.)

Entry for 26 Oct 1916 (HQ at Albert W.24.a.4.7.):

Issued ammunition noon 25th to noon 26th A 5-305, AX 6504, BX 1152. No. 7699 Dvr LEVERTON J. killed, No. 86246 Dvr BLACKMORE F. seriously wounded, No. 87169 Gnr HEMMING A. seriously wounded, No. 64 Dvr CARSON J.H. wounded all by shell fire while taking up ammunition about X.3.a.3.5. Owing to heavy mud in tramway and lack of proper ballast the line had to be abandoned. Instead amm. is now taken from Tramway Terminal to batteries by pack horses, each horse carries 8 rounds of 18 Pdr. in the baskets from amm. Wagons or 4 rounds 4.5 in the amm. Boxes. The work is heavy and the sticky mud results in many shoes being pulled off.

Map ref X.3.a.3.5. (Sheet 57D.SE.4) is near the track that links the village of Ovillers with the road running north-west from Pozières to Thiepval (the current D73).

On the 1st October 1916, the 2nd Canadian Division had attacked and failed to capture Regina Trench, a long trench system that ran from around Le Sars to Grandcourt. On the 21st October, the 2nd Canadian Divisional Artillery operated in support of the 4th Canadian Division and the 18th (Eastern) Division in a more successful attack on the same trench system. There was a smaller-scale attack by the 4th Canadian Division on the 25th, but bad weather then led to the postponement of further major operations until the 9th November.

Driver Jack Leverton is buried in Bapaume Post Military Cemetery, near Albert.

Private Joseph Toogood, Royal Army Medical Corps

Private Joseph Toogood, Royal Army Medical Corps, attd. H.M.H.S. Galeka; Service No. 52913
Died at sea (HMHS Galeka), 28 Oct 1916, aged 34
Ste. Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France (Galeka Memorial)

HMHS Galeka was Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company ship requisitioned for use as a troop transport and hospital ship. She hit a mine when entering Le Havre on the 28 October 1916: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Galeka

Rifleman Charles Henry Lewis, 21st Battalion, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles)

Rifleman Charles Henry Lewis, 21st Bn., London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles); Service No. 7145
Killed in action, 14 Nov 1916
Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 13 C), Somme
CWGC additional information: Son of Frederick Lewis, of 9, Manor Rd., Upper Weston, Bath; husband of Amy Lewis, of 63A, Inglethorpe St., Fulham Palace Rd., Fulham, London.

Born: 4th Q, 1887
1891 Census: Manor Road, Weston, Bath; Henry C. Lewis, 3, Son of Frederick M. Lewis and Jane E. Lewis
1901 Census: Highbury, Bodorgan Road, Bournemouth (St Stephen), now Bodorgan Court; Charles H. Lewis, 13, servant, page; part of household of Catherine Thompson
1911 Census: Swinfen Hall, near Lichfield, Staffordshire; Charles H. Lewis, 25, servant, footman domestic; also Amy Crusher, 32, servant, housemaid domestic, b. Welbury, Yorks
Marriage: Amy Crusher, Fulham, 2nd Q, 1915 (born Northallerton, North Riding, 1879)

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born: Bath; residence: Fulham; enlisted: West London; formerly 6424, 23rd London Regiment, posted 1st Bn., Royal Irish Rifles

There is a slight mystery here. The 1/21st London Regiment were part of 142nd Infantry Brigade in the 47th (2nd London) Division. While the 47th Division had been involved in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in September 1916, and had remained on the Somme front until mid-October, by November they were recuperating in the Ypres sector. The battalion War Diary (WO 95/2732/5) for November 1916 is not that detailed, but it shows that the 1/21st Londons were either behind the lines training and refitting at Busseboom (Scottish Camp), in support or reserve at Railway Dugouts or Woodcote Farm, or in the front line facing Hill 60 or on the Bluff, reporting no casualties at all for the month. If Rifleman Lewis had been killed in action near Ypres, it would seem a little odd for him to have been commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, so it seems likely that he remained on the Somme front. A possible answer is suggested by Rifleman Lewis’s entry in Soldiers Died, which is replicated verbatim in the Roll of Honour published in A War Record of the 21st London Regiment [6]:

Lewis, Charles Henry, b. Bath, e. West London (Fulham), 7145, Rfn., k. in a., F. & F., 14/11/16, formerly 6424, 23rd London Regt., posted 1st Bn. Royal Irish Rifles.

The 23rd London Regiment probably refers to the 1/23rd Battalion, who like the 1/21st were also part of 142nd Brigade in the 47th Division. It is possible, however, that Rifleman Lewis was drafted from one of the other battalions of the 23rd (County of London): the 2/23rd Battalion, who were with 60th (London) Division (who served on the Western Front from June until November 1916, before moving to Salonika and Palestine), or the 3/23rd, who remained on the home front throughout the war.

In late 1916, the 1st Royal Irish Rifles formed part of 25th Infantry Brigade in the 8th Division. Unlike the 47th Division, the 8th were still based on the Somme in November 1916, fighting in the area around Le Transloy. According to the War Diary of the 1st Royal Irish Rifles (WO 95/1730/4), the battalion relieved the 2nd Royal Berkshire Regiment in the right sector, left sub-section, opposite Le Transloy on the 13th November. It noted that the battalion front was shelled with gas shells, reporting that nine other ranks were wounded on the 13th, and four killed and three wounded on the 14th November. One of those killed on the 14th is likely to have been Rifleman Lewis.

[Comment added August 11, 2023: the CWGC database notes that Rifleman 7117 William Henry Narraway of the 21st Bn., London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), who died on the day after Rifleman Lewis, had also been posted to the 1st Bn, Royal Irish Rifles. A War Record of the 21st London Regiment also noted that Rfl. Narraway had previously served with the 23rd Bn., with a Service Number very close to that of Rfl. Lewis (6427).]

Rifleman Lewis is one of four brothers named on the memorial.

Sergeant Henry William Humphris, 11th Battalion, Border Regiment

Serjeant Henry William Humphris (or Humphries), 11th Bn., Border Regiment; Service No. 13866
Killed in action, 18 Nov 1916
Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 6 A and 7 C.), Somme

Born: Bath, 3rd Q, 1886
1891 Census: Richmond Place, Bath; aged 4; son of Henry William Humphries (a lamplighter) and Sarah L. Humphries
1901 Census: 8 Fountain Buildings, Bath; aged 14, pupil teacher; son of Henry W. Humphries (Army Pensioner) and Sarah L. Humphries
1911 Census: 47 Hibbert Street, Luton, Bedfordshire; Henry Wm. Humphris, aged 24, assistant school master; boarder at the household of Sarah Howe (retired housekeeper)

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born: Bath; residence: Barnsley, Yorks, enlisted: Appleby, Westmorland

WO 363, First World War Service Records ‘Burnt Documents’, The National Archives; via Findmypast:

11/13866, XI (Lonsdale) Battn., Border Regt
Born: Bath, 1886
Trade / Calling: schoolmaster
Wife: Ethel, née Sidebottom, married Luton, 28 Feb 1912
Enlisted: Appleby, 17 Oct 1914, aged 28
Appointed Lce Cpl 8 Dec 1914
Promoted Corpl 26 Feb 1915
Appointed Lce Sgt 3 Jun 1915
Promoted Sgt 5 Oct 1915

The 11th (Service) Battalion, Border Regiment was known as the Lonsdale Battalion as it was raised as a ‘pals’ battalion in Cumberland and Westmorland by the 5th Earl of Lonsdale. It’s first commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Wilfrid Machell, CMG, DSO. They were part of 97th Infantry Brigade in the 32nd Division. The battalion suffered many casualties when they attacked the Leipzig Salient, near Thiepval, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 1st July 1916. The casualties included Lieut.-Col. Machell. On the 18th November, the battalion were back on the Somme front, in the Redan sector north of the River Ancre between Beaumont-Hamel and Serre (Waggon Road).

One of two brothers named on the memorial

1917

Sixteen men from the village died in 1917, the vast majority of them while serving on the Western Front. While Private John Sheppard is buried in Locksbrook Cemetery, he had been wounded in France. Of the fourteen killed or wounded on the Western Front, at least three seem to have died during the Battle of Arras in the Spring, while another seven died in various parts of the long campaign in West Flanders known as the Third Battle of Ypres. The only two that were not serving on the Western Front at the time of their death, Lieutenant-Colonel Haldane Burney Rattray and Private Frank Pickett, died in Mespotamia and the Mediterranean.

Rifleman Harry Nash Russell, 1/12th Battalion, London Regiment (The Rangers)

Rifleman Harry Nash Russell, 1/12th Bn., London Regiment (The Rangers); Service No. 471468
Killed in action, 28 Jan 1917, aged 27
Loos Memorial (Panel 131), Pas-de-Calais
CWGC additional information: Stepson of Mrs Alice L. Russell, 84 High St., Weston, Bath

1911 Census: Trafalgar Road, Weston; Harry Nash Russell, aged 21, working as bookbinder; son of Joseph Russell (a carpenter and builder) and Alice Russell

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born: Upper Weston, residence Hammersmith; enlisted London

Lieutenant-Colonel Haldane Burney Rattray, DSO, 45th (Rattray’s) Sikhs

Lieutenant Colonel Haldane Burney Rattray, DSO, 45th (Rattray’s) Sikhs
Killed in action, 1 Feb 1917, aged 46
Basra Memorial (Panel 56), Iraq
CWGC additional information: Son of the late Col. Thomas Rattray, C.B., C.S.I., and Harriet Penelope Rattray; husband of Effie Watson (formerly Rattray), of Cheltenham

Name only features on the memorial in the Church of All Saints

Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray was the subject of a detailed post on this blog earlier this year.

Bombardier Ernest George Humphris, Royal Garrison Artillery

Bath Chronicle, 7 April 1917, p. 10; via British Newspaper Archive.

Bombardier Ernest George Humphris (or Humphries); Service No. 91072
260th Siege Bty., Royal Garrison Artillery
Killed in action, 22 Mar 1917, aged 29
Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras (II. J. 18), Pas-de-Calais
CWGC additional information: Son of Henry and Sarah Humphris; husband of Ethel May Humphris, of 12, Westhall Rd., Lower Weston, Bath. Headmaster of Englishcombe, Bath. Born at Bath.

1891 Census: Richmond Place, Bath; Ernest G. Humphries, aged 3; son of Henry William Humphries (lamplighter) and Sarah L. Humphries
1901 Census: 8 Fountain Buildings, Bath; Ernest G. Humphries, aged 13, postal telegraph messenger
1911 Census: 29 Trafalgar Road, Upper Weston, Bath; Ernest Humphris, aged 23, certificated teacher, son of Henry and Sarah Humphris
Married: Ethel May Pearce, Bathwick, 1912

Soldiers Died in the Great War: residence: Englishcombe, Somerset; enlisted: Bath

Also commemorated on the Englishcombe war memorial

One of two brothers named on the memorial

Private Frank Pickett, 1st Garrison Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

Private Frank Pickett, 1st Garrison Bn., Devonshire Regiment; Service No. 59191
Died, 15 Apr 1917
Mikra Memorial, Greece

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born Bath; enlisted Weston-super-Mare

Born: Frank Ernest Pickett, 3rd Q, 1880
1881 Census: Whitley Cottage, Primrose Hill, Weston, Bath; aged 8 mths, son of George and Emma Pickett
1891 Census: Whitley Cottage, Primrose Hill, Weston; aged 10, at school
1901 Census: 34, Primrose Hill, Weston; aged 20, gardener
1911 Census: 26 Church Road, Upper Weston; Arthur Pickett, aged 30, gardener in private family; son of George Pickett (gardener in private family) and Emma Pickett; the youngest of four children then resident

Drowned in the Mediterranean Sea; his brother Arthur also died

One of two brothers named on the memorial

Air Mechanic Second Class William James Bond, Royal Flying Corps

Bath Chronicle, 16 December 1916, p. 11; via British Newspaper Archive.

Air Mechanic 2nd Class William James Bond, 70th Sqdn., Royal Flying Corps; Service No. 77683
Died 24 Apr 1917
Honnechy British Cemetery (I. B. 23.), France
Concentrated from Bantouzelle Coml Cemetery Ger Ext (57b.M.26.b.4.4.)
Buried next to 2/Lt C. H. Halse, 70 Sqdn, RFC (South Africa)

Born: Bath, 3rd Q, 1894
1901 Census: 5 River Terrace, Weston, Bath; aged 7
1911 Census: Sunnylands, Audley Park Road, Weston; aged 16, servant domestic; household of Caroline Gertrude Scudamore

One of four brothers, three of whom are named on the memorial

Also commemorated on the City of Bath war memorial.

Private Alfred Edward Gillard, 7th Battalion, Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment

Arras: Private A. E. Gillard’s name on the Arras Memorial to the Missing (Pas-de-Calais); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/28645093951

Private Alfred Edward Gillard, 7th Bn., Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment); Service No. G/24554
Killed in action, 3 May 1917, aged 29
Arras Memorial (Bay 7.), Pas-de-Calais
CWGC additional information: Son of Robert and Selina Gillard, of 4, Westbrook Buildings, Upper Weston, Bath; husband of Alice Gillard, of Green Lane, Hinton Charterhouse, Bath

1911 Census: 127 High Street, Weston; Alfred Gillard, aged 22, bread baker; son of Robert Gillard (mason’s labourer) and Selina Gillard (laundry worker); one of six children resident

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born Weston, Som; enlisted Lydney, Glos

One of two brothers named on the memorial

Private Arthur Richards, 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

Probably:

Private Arthur Richards, 1st Bn., Devonshire Regiment; Service No. 318281 (or 3/8281)
Killed in action, 9 May 1917
Arras Memorial (Bay 4)

Soldiers Died in the Great War: 3/8281 1st Devonshire Regiment; born: Taunton; enlisted: Bath

Born Taunton, 2nd Q, 1887
Baptised Holy Trinity, Taunton, 10 May 1887, son of Charles Richards (Colour Sergeant, 4th Battation, Somersets) and Maria Richards, of 61 South Street, D/P/TAU HT 2/1/2, Somerset Baptism Index, Somerset Archives; via Findmypast
1891 Census: Walcot Street, Bath; aged 4; son of Charles (a soldier) and Maria Richards
1901 Census: 12, Osborne Road, Weston; aged 14, errand boy

WO 97, Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913, The National Archives; via Findmypast:

7404 Devonshire Regiment
Attested Bristol, 25 June 1903, aged 18
Posted 2nd Battalion, 15 October 1903; joined at Exeter
Discharged 7 October 1904, after several spells of imprisonment (deemed “incorrigible and worthless”)

Private Frederick Gillard, 16th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment

Arras: The name of F. Gillard on the Arras Memorial to the Missing (Pas-de-Calais); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/28616894202

Private Frederick Gillard, 16th Bn., Middlesex Regiment; Service No. TF/202420
Killed in action, 23 May 1917, aged 34
Arras Memorial (Bay 7.), Pas-de-Calais

1911 Census: 127 High Street, Weston; Alfred Gillard, aged 28, dairy farmer; son of Robert Gillard (mason’s labourer) and Selina Gillard (laundry worker); one of six children resident

Soldiers Died in the Great War: residence Bath; born Weston; enlisted Taunton

One of two brothers named on the memorial

Private John Sheppard, 1st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

Bath: The grave marker of John H. and Elsie Sheppard, Locksbrook Cemetery (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/50905779432

Private John Sheppard, 1st Bn., Somerset Light Infantry; Service No. 34218
Died of wounds (Sheffield), 31 May 1917, aged 28
Bath (Locksbrook) Cemetery (Western G. 784.)
CWGC additional information: Husband of Elsie F. Sheppard, of 105, High St., Weston, Bath.
Formerly served in the North Somerset Yeomanry (Service No. 575)

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born and resident at Weston, Bath

During April and May 1917, the 1st Somersets had been involved in the Battle of Arras (the attacks on the Hyderabad Redoubt in April and on Roeux in early May) and it seems likely that Private Sheppard was wounded in one of those actions.

Burial report in Bath Chronicle, 9 June 1917, p. 13:

MILITARY FUNERAL AT LOCKSBROOK
Much interest was evinced in the military funeral at Locksbrook on Wednesday of Private John Sheppard, Somerset L.I., who died of wounds at a military hospital in Sheffield on Thursday in last week. The Rev. F. A. Bromley officiated. The chief mourners were the widow, Mrs. Sheppard, Miss Sheppard, Mr. Harry Sheppard, Mrs. Eades, Mr. W. Randall, Mr. and Mrs. G. Holbrow, the Misses Holbrow, Private Edgar Holbrow, R.M.L.I., and Mr. H. Brewer. Mr. E. Jones (foreman) represented the firm of Messrs. R. Fussell (Ltd.), by whom Private Sheppard was formerly employed. Two of his old chums in the North Somerset Yeomanry, to which Private Sheppard was formerly attached, attended the service – Troopers Jack Hayward and Don Hand. The latter has lost a leg in his country’s service. Others present were ex-Private E. J. Tupper (Somerset L.I.), Mrs. F. Tipper, and Mr. and Mrs. J. Hunt. Old schoolmates who attended were Messrs. Podger, Webb, Sartain, Stagg, and Private Peaty (late of the Devon Regiment). The brass band of the A.S.C., “K” Company, R.S.P. Depot, attended, and headed the procession to the cemetery, playing Chopin’s “Marche Funebre.” The bearers and firing party were supplied by the Somerset Volunteer Regiment. The latter were commanded by R.S.M. Sinclair, and after the committal Trumpeter A. F. Cox, S.V.R., sounded the “Past Post.” [sic] The senders of wreaths included the relatives and friends, and Private Sheppard’s neighbours in Weston.

Captain Hugh Henry Lean, MC, Highland Light Infantry

Captain Hugh Henry Lean, MC, Highland Light Infantry (Staff Bde. Major 153rd Inf. Bde.)
Killed in action, 29 Jul 1917, aged 29
Poperinghe New Military Cemetery (II. G. 35), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Son of Maj.-Gen. K. E. Lean, C.B., and Mrs. Lean (nee Quin). Four times previously wounded in the War

Born: Dagshai, Punjab, 22 July 1888; Baptised 10 September 1888, son of Kenneth Edward Lean (Captain, Royal Scots Fusiliers) and Georgina Emily Lean (N-1-205, Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, British India Office Births & Baptisms, The British Library; via Findmypast)
1911 Census: Outram Barracks, Dilkusha, Lucknow, India; aged 22, Lieutenant, K Company, 1st Highland Light Infantry, 

Also commemorated on the Lynton war memorial and a memorial plaque in St Mary’s Church, Lynton (Devon); the latter states that he was killed in action near St Julien, near Ypres.

Private Reginald Charles Bourne, 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment

Bath Chronicle, 1 September 1917, p 2; via British Newspaper Archive.

Private Reginald Charles Bourne, 6th Bn., Northamptonshire Regiment; Service No. 40891
Killed in action, 8 Aug 1917, aged 19
Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 43 and 45), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Son of Joseph Bourne, of “Audley Cottage,” Audley Park Rd., Bath.

1911 Census: 23 Wellington Buildings, Upper Weston; Reginald Charles Bourne, aged 12, at school; son of Joseph Bourne (gardener) and Alice Kate Bourne; one of eight children then resident.

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born Bath, enlisted Worthing

Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Graham Johnson, Royal Field Artillery

Bath Chronicle, 11 September 1915, p 3; via British Newspaper Archive.

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Graham Johnson
33rd Div. Ammunition Col., Royal Field Artillery
Killed in action, 17 Sep 1917, aged 55
Reninghelst New Military Cemetery (IV. F. 8.), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Husband of Mary G. Johnson, of 2, The Grove, Weston Park, Bath

The name is spelled “Johnston” on both Weston memorials

1911 Census: Graham A. Johnson; 2, The Grove, Weston Park; aged 48; retired army officer; married to Mary G. Johnson

De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, p 156 (via Findmypast):

JOHNSON, ARTHUR GRAHAM, Lieut.-Col., Royal Field Artillery, eldest s. of the late John Johnson, of Tunbridge Wells, M.D., by his wife, Ellen Jane Wright (The Limes, Derby); b. Tunbridge Wells, 30 Sept. 1862; educ. by the Rev. R. Fowler, of Tunbridge Wells, and at the Rev. Gascoigne’s School, Spondon, co. Derby; passed into the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 2 March, 1880; was gazetted Feb. 1882; promoted Capt. 12 April, 1892, and Major 15 Oct, 1900; served 13 years in India, and retired 5 Nov. 1902. On the outbreak of war volunteered for service; rejoined 3 Sept. 1914; was promoted Lieut.-Col. 29 Jan. 1915; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, in command of 33rd Divisional Artillery Ammunition Column; took part in the operations on the Somme, and was killed in action near Zonnebeke 17 Sept. 1917. Buried in Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, south-west of Ypres. His Chaplain wrote: “May I add quite humbly my own tribute to the memory of Col. Johnson. We have had many a talk on his favourite topics, and I have always been filled, like everyone else, with admiration at the iron and steadfast manner with which he soldiered. Few young men to-day could weather the storms of campaigning as he uncomplainingly did. He taught us lessons of utter devotion to duty, not least in his last great sacrifice, and grit, such as we are not likely to forget.” Brigadier-General Stewart, commanding the 33rd Divisional Artillery, wrote: “I regret most deeply to have to inform you that your husband, Lieut.-Col. Johnson, commanding the 33rd Divisional Artillery Ammunition Column, was hit this morning while in the forward area on duty. I deeply regret to say he was killed. Your husband died a gallant officer and gentleman, doing his duty in connection with his work, and one of his officers, Capt. [Henry] Rhodes, was killed beside him. The 33rd Divisional Artillery mourn with you for a comrade they admired and loved. I soldiered with him many years ago, and knew him well. May we all tender you our deepest sympathy.” General Blain also wrote: “I have just heard the sad news of your husband’s death in France. Although I left the command of the 33rd Divisional Artillery in April, I feel I must send you a line to say how much I sympathize with you, and how very distressed I am. Your husband was a very old friend of min since the days of Meerut in 1891. He will be a great loss to the 33rd Division; he was so zealous and never spared himself. The service has lost a very gallant and devoted officer,” said his Adjutant; “You will have heard ere this of the sad loss. I write to tender you the sincerest sympathy and condolence of the officers, N.C.O.’s and men of the Divisional Artillery Column. They one and all feel it a personal loss, and, as far as myself, I have lost a friend, as well as a kind and considerate commanding officer, having lived with him practically night and day for nearly two years. I do and shall miss him more that I can say.” Col. Henley-Kirkwood wrote: “It was with deep regret that I read in last evening’s paper a notice of the death – killed at the front – of your husband, and I desire to express on my own behalf, as well as on behalf of the Executive Committee of the National Service League, our most sincere sympathy with you. I am sure that not only all the members of the Committee, but also all the members of the league who had the privilege of knowing your husband, will join with me in deeply regretting the loss of such a keen and good soldier, and that he ended his career of great exertions in various public interests by giving his life for his country, will, when time somewhat softens the blow, be a source of true consolation to you.” He was a keen public worker in the cause of Tariff Reform and National Service, being honorary secretary of the Tariff Reform League, Bath, for some years. He m. at Dinapore, India, 15 Feb. 1894, Mary Gem, dau. Of Lieut.-Col. Spencer Cargill, Royal Artillery (retired), and had a dau., Elsie Cargill, b. 7 Dec. 1901 [at Ipswich].

Lance Corporal William John Fussell, Royal Engineers

Bath Chronicle, 13 October 1917, p. 19; via British Newspaper Archive.

Lance Corporal William John Fussell, 503rd Field Coy., Royal Engineers; Service No. 504468
Killed in action, 20 Sep 1917, aged 26
Buffs Road Cemetery (E. 22), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Son of Samuel and Elizabeth Fussell, of Newbridge Rd., Bath; husband of Olive Edith Fussell, of 5, Pippen Rd., Calne, Wilts.

Bath Chronicle, 20 September 1919, p. 5; via British Newspaper Archive.

Born: William John Fussell, Bath, 2nd Q 1892
1901 Census: 21 Prospect Place, Weston; John W. Fussell, aged 9
1911 Census: 79 Newbridge Road, Bath; William Fussell, aged 19, electrical engineer; son of Samuel Fussell (carpenter and joiner) and Elizabeth Fussell
Married Olive E. Drew, Bath 1st quarter, 1916

Calne: W. Fussell’s name on the Calne War Memorial (Wiltshire); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/25452551983

Name only features on the memorial in the Church of All Saints; also commemorated on the war memorial at Calne

Lance Corporal Arthur Sidney Pickett, Royal Engineers

Bath Chronicle, 3 November 1917, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

Lance Corporal Arthur Sidney Pickett, 146th Army Troops Coy., Royal Engineers; Service No. 35959
Killed in action, 24 Oct 1917, aged 29
Voormezeele Enclosures No. 1 and No. 2 (I. L. 31.), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Son of George and Emma Pickett, of 26, Church Rd., Weston, Bath; husband of Margaret R. Pickett, of 31, White Hill, Bradford-on-Avon

1911 Census: 26 Church Road, Upper Weston; Arthur Pickett, aged 22, carpenter; son of George Pickett (gardener in private family) and Emma Pickett; the youngest of four children then resident

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 3 November 1917, p. 8:

LOST BOTH THEIR SONS.
Mr. and Mrs. George Pickett, of 26, Church Road, Upper Weston, will receive much sympathy in the double bereavement they have suffered owing to the war – both their sons have now been lost. On Tuesday morning brought to Mrs. Pickett, of 84, High Street, Weston (formerly 3, Westbrook Villas), a letter containing the sad news that her husband, Lance-Corpl. Arthur Sydney Pickett, was killed on the 24th October. The communication was from Capt. J. H. Becker, R.E. who explained that a German shell burst quite close to a party of his company, killing Lance-Corpl. Pickett and a comrade. He states that the deceased soldier was one of the best of N.C.O.’s and was a great favourite with everyone, both officers and men. Lance-Corpl. Pickett, who was 29 years old, joined the regular Royal Engineers in May, 1915, and was trained at Chatham. He had been in France a considerable time, and when killed had returned to duty but a few days, as he had been away ill, in a hospital and convalescent home in France for two months. He leaves a widow and two children, the younger under nine months’ old. He was a carpenter in civilian life, having been apprenticed to the late Tom Crews, of Julian Rd., Bath, and remaining in the employment of that builder’s successor, Mr. Bright, till he enlisted. On April 15th last, his only brother, Pte. Frank Pickett, of the Devons, was drowned in the Mediterranean, the transport in which he was proceeding to Egypt having been torpedoed by enemy submarine. He was 36 years of age, and had been married quite recently. This elder son joined at Weston-super-Mare, where he was gardener to Prebendary Norton-Thompson, at the Rectory.

One of two brothers named on the memorial

Private Alfred Richard John Anstey, 2nd Battalion, Royal Marine Light Infantry

Bath Chronicle, 17 November 1917, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

Private Alfred Richard John Anstey, 2nd R.M. Bn., R.N. Div., Royal Marine Light Infantry; Service No. PO/1987(S)
Killed in action, 26 Oct 1917, aged 19
Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 1), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Son of Alfred and Sarah Anstey, of 65, High St., Upper Weston, Bath

Born 3rd quarter, 1898
1911 Census: 65 High Street, Upper Weston, Bath; aged 12, son of Alfred Anstey (domestic gardener) and Sarah Anstey; eldest of five children then resident.

ADM 159/206/1987, Admiralty: Royal Marines: Registers of Service, The National Archives; via Findmypast:

Alfred Richard John Anstey
Born 13 July 1898
Trade: Bookbinders apprentice
Religion: Church of England
Enlisted: Taunton (Bath), 17 Feb 1917, aged 18
At Deal (depot) Feb to Apr 1917; then HMS Victory V; joined 2nd R.M. Battn, 18 July 1917
Next of kin: Alfred Anstey (father), 65 High Street, Weston, Bath

Name on Weston memorial cross: “Pte. F. Anstey,” presumably for “Fred”

Enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry at the same time as Private Edward James Holbrow (see entry below), and both were killed in action on the same day.

Private Edward James Holbrow, 2nd Battalion, Royal Marine Light Infantry

Private Edward James Holbrow, 2nd R.M. Bn., R.N. Div., Royal Marine Light Infantry; Service No. PO/1986(S)
Killed in action, 26 Oct 1917, aged 19
Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 1), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Son of James and Ada Bertha Holbrow, of 69, High St., Upper Weston, Bath

James Edwin Holbrow, Born Bath (district), 3rd Quarter, 1898

1911 Census: 69 High Street, Upper Weston, Bath; Edward Holbrow, aged 13; son of James Holbrow (gardener) and Ada Holbrow; one of three children then resident

ADM 159/206/1987, Admiralty: Royal Marines: Registers of Service, The National Archives; via Findmypast:

Edward James Holbrow
Born 17 July 1896
Trade: Gardener
Religion: Church of England
Enlisted: Taunton, 17 Feb 1917, aged 18
At Deal (depot) Feb to Apr 1917; joined 2nd R.M. Battn, 18 July 1917 (assumed dead)
Next of kin: James Holbrow (father), 69 High Street, Weston, Bath

The 26th October 1917 was the opening day of the Second Battle of Passchendale, the phase of the Third Battle of Ypres that saw the Canadian Corps take on the final attempts to capture the village of Passchendaele.

The 2nd Battalion, Royal Marine Light Infantry were part of 188th Brigade in the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division. Together with the 58th (2/1st London) Division, the 63rd were part of XVIII Corps (Fifth Army), operating just to the north of the Canadians. The XVIII Corps sector during the Second Battle of Passchendaele was grim.  North of the Bellevue spur, rain and artillery fire had conspired to convert the drainage systems of the Lekkerboterbeek and Paddebeek into a barely-passable swamp. Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson note that both XVIII Corps divisions were based in what were effectively swamps and that units in the front line had suffered shelling by gas and high explosive very shortly before the attack [7].

Then at zero hour 58 and 63 Divisions advanced into a series of machine gun nests. The terrain was so bad that many of the leading waves sank up to their shoulders. Rifles and  Lewis guns became clogged and the barrage was lost. Only a derisory amount of ground was gained for a cost of 2,000 casualties.

The War Diary of the 2nd RMLI (WO 95/3110/2) does not contain that much detail:

Irish Farm. 25-10-17. Operation Order No 91 issued. Battalion proceeded into line p.m., and took up position for attack.
Front line. 26-10-17. 5.40 am. Battalion attacked enemy’s position opposite its front, in conjunction with other battalions of the 188th Infy. Bde. Objectives gained & consolidated. Casualties. 7 officers and 301 O.R’s.
27-10-17. Battalion consolidating position gained, relieved p.m. by Hawke Bn. & proceeeded to Irish Farm.

Berks Houses, Banff House, Bray Farm and Varlet Farm. Detail from: Trench Map 20.SE; Scale: 1:20000; Edition: 5A; Published: January 1918; Trenches corrected to 17 December 1917: http://maps.nls.uk/view/101464870 Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland (Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Irish Farm was to the north of the city of Ypres. On the 26th October 1917, the 188th Brigade were attacking to the north of the Canadian Corps, in the area around Varlet Farm and Banff House.

1918

Ten men from the village died in 1918, all but three of them while serving on the Western Front. Five of the nine died during various stages of the German Spring Offensive, Corporal George Edward Bond on the opening day of Operation Michael. Another two were killed in action during the Allied Advance to Victory, both probably around the French village of Epehy, near Cambrai. Privates Ernest and Walter James Lewis both died of illness at Chepstow after the Armistice, presumably the result of the influenza pandemic. Both had previously served overseas.

Corporal George Edward Bond, 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade

Bath Chronicle, 16 December 1916, p. 11; via British Newspaper Archive.

Corporal George Edward Bond, 8th Bn., Rifle Brigade; Service No. S/26146
Killed in action, 21 Mar 1918
Pozieres Memorial (Panel 81 to 84), Somme

Soldiers Died in the Great War: residence: Bath; enlisted: Northampton

Born: Bath, 3rd Q, 1888
1891 Census: Locksbrook Terrace, Brass Mill Lane, Weston; aged 2
1901 Census: 5 River Terrace, Weston; Aged 13, errand boy
1911 Census: 17 Church Road, Upper Weston, Bath; aged 22, printer
Married: Winifred Mary Mapstone, All Saints, Weston, July 1915

One of three brothers named on the memorial

Second Lieutenant Stanley Reginald Butler, 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

Second Lieutenant Stanley Reginald Butler, 7th Bn., Somerset Light Infantry
Killed in action, 27 Mar 1918
Pozieres Memorial (Panel 25 and 26), Somme

Born: 3rd Quarter, 1895, Bath, Somerset
1901 Census: 26 Primrose Hill, Weston, Bath; aged 5; the son of Walter Butler (a gardener) and Catherine Butler
1911 Census: 11 Primrose Hill, Weston, Bath; aged 15, office boy; the brother of Alice Etterley (head of household)

Private Harry Charles Stanley Higgins, 13th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment

Bath Chronicle, 26 October 1918, p. 19; via British Newspaper Archive.

Private Harry Charles Stanley Higgins, 13th Bn., Gloucestershire Regiment (Forest of Dean Pioneers); Service No. 15042
Died, 29 Mar 1918, aged 26
Pozieres Memorial (Panel 40 and 41.), Somme
CWGC additional information: Son of Fredrick and Mary A. Higgins, of 6, Trafalgar Rd., Upper Weston, Bath

Somerset Baptism Index (Somerset Archives): Harry Charles Stanley Higgins,  baptised Weston, 28 Feb 1892; residence: Gibbs Place; parents: Fredrick William Higgins (a coachman) and Mary Ann Higgins.

1891 Census: Gibbs Place, High Street, Weston, Bath; Frederick Higgins (aged 28, coachman, born Forest Hill, Kent) and Mary Higgins (aged 24, born Westbury); one child: Herbert (aged 3), Frederick’s widowed mother, Hester Higgins (aged 54, nurse), and Mary’s brother, Herbert Gunstone (aged 21, boot maker)
1901 Census: 15, High Street, Weston, Bath; Charles Higgins, aged 9; living with mother, Mary Higgins (aged 34); three brothers: Herbert (aged 13, telegraph messenger), Frederick (aged 4), Ernest (aged 2)
1911 Census: 15 High Street, Upper Weston, Bath; Charles Higgins, aged 19, book binding apprentice; parents: Fredrick Higgins (aged 48, coachman domestic, born Kent) and Mary Higgins (aged 44, born Dilton, Westbury, Wilts); two younger brothers: Fredrick (aged 14, shop assistant) and Ernest (aged 12, at school)

Private William Owen Hobbs, 19th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers

Private William Owen Hobbs, 19th Bn., Lancashire Fusiliers; Service No. 46214
Killed in action, 25 Apr 1918, aged 36
Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 54 to 60), West-Vlaanderen
CWGC additional information: Son of Mrs. Hobbs, of 124, High St., Upper Weston, Bath, and the late John Hobbs; husband of Ethel C. Hobbs, of 18, Prospect Place, Upper Weston, Bath

1911 Census: 124 High Street, Upper Weston, Bath; aged 28, house painter; son of William John (light haulier, born Calne) and Martha Hobbs (born Sherston)

Soldiers Died in the Great War: Formerly Royal Engineers (Service No. 183246)

Private Albert George Hawkins, 14th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment

Bath Chronicle, 8 June 1918, p. 19; via British Newspaper Archive.

Private Albert George Hawkins, 14th Bn., Worcestershire Regiment; Service No. 43823
Killed in action, 19 May 1918, aged 18
Englebelmer Communal Cemetery Extension (C. 14.), Somme, France
CWGC additional information: Son of Albert and Elizabeth Hawkins, of 4, Lansdown Place, Upper Weston, Bath

1911 Census: 4, Lansdown Place, Weston, Bath; Albert Hawkins, aged 10; son of Albert George Hawkins (aged 44, fireman) and Elizabeth Hawkins (aged 48, laundry work); one of eight children then resident

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born Batheaston; residence Bath; enlisted Bristol

Private Alfred George Andrews, 7th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment

Bath Chronicle, 21 September 1918, p. 15; via British Newspaper Archive.

Pte Alfred George Andrews, 7th Bn., East Yorkshire Regiment; Service No. 29247
Killed in action, 27 Aug 1918, aged 27
A.I.F. Burial Ground, Flers (III. K. 4.), Somme
Concentrated from Grass Lane Cemetery (one cross for eight burials), Trench Map ref. 57c.N.23.b.9.5. 57c.M.30.

Somerset Baptism Index: Baptised 19 Jan 1892, Twerton; parents: Isaac Andrews (Maltster) and Agnes Lavinia Andrews, 4 Charlton Bdge, Twerton
1911 Census: 6 Avon Buildings, Twerton, Bath; Alfred Andrews, aged 19, bread bakehouse assistant; son of Isaac Andrews (malthouse labourer, born Marshfield) and Agnes Lavinia Andrews; the eldest of five children then resident.

Bath Chronicle, 14 September 1918, p. 5:

UPPER WESTON SOLDIER KILLED.
News has just been received of the death in action of Private A. G. Andrews of the East Yorks Regiment, whose bereaved family reside at 66, High Street, Upper Weston. He joined the Army in December, 1914, and went to France a fortnight later as a baker in the A.S.C. Twelve months ago he was transferred to the East Yorks Regiment, and fell on August 27th. Private Andrews, who is the son-in-law of Mr. E. Taylor, 26, Green Park, was 27 years of age, and formerly worked at the Red House Bakery. He leaves a widow and two children.

Soldiers Died in the Great War: born Twerton; enlisted Bath; previously 3/3/029763 ASC

Second Lieutenant Ernest Frederick Bond, 5th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment

Bath Chronicle, 16 December 1916, p. 11; via British Newspaper Archive.

Second Lieutenant Ernest Frederick Bond, attached 5th Bn., Royal Berkshire Regiment
Killed in action, 26 Sep 1918
Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery, Epehy (II. I. 4.), France (Nord?)

ADM 188/1044/13040, British Royal Navy Seamen 1899-1924; The National Archives; via Findmypast:

Born Bath, 22 Dec 1896
Occupation: Clerk
Joined RN 28 Apr 1915, discharged 8 Nov 1917 from RNAS, in order to be admitted to an Officer Cadet Unit (for Commission in Army)

1901 Census: 5 River Terrace, Weston, Bath; aged 4; son of Thomas Bond (gardener domestic) and Priscilla Bond
1911 Census: 17 Church Road, Upper Weston, Bath; aged 14, office boy; son of Priscilla Margaret and Thomas William Bond

One of three brothers named on the memorial

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 12 October 1918, p. 16:

THREE SONS KILLED
WESTON MOTHER’S CUP OF SORROW.
The greatest sympathy will be felt for Mrs. P. Bond, of No. 2, Moravian Cottages, Weston Road, Bath, who learnt on Monday that her youngest son, Second Lieut. Ernest Frederick Bond, Royal Berkshire Regiment, was killed in action on Sept. 26th. He is the third son to have laid down his life, and in the short space of three years Mrs. Bond has lost her husband and all her sons with the exception of the eldest. Second Lieut. E. F. Bond was educated at the Upper Weston School, and afterwards took employment in Bath and Trowbridge as a clerk. Soon after the outbreak of war he joined the R.N.A.S. as a writer. He was given his commission and went out to France with the Berkshire Regiment about two months ago. The news of his death was conveyed to his mother in a letter from his chaplain, which says that while in action with his company Second Lieut. Bond was struck by an enemy hand grenade. The deceased officer was only 21 years of age. Mrs. Bond’s surviving son, Lieut. T. G. Bond is at present on active service. For acts of gallantry he has been awarded the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre.

Bath Chronicle, 25 November 1916, p. 14; via British Newspaper Archive.

As the newspaper reports say, Ernest Frederick was the youngest of three Bond brothers that died during the war. Their older brother, Thomas Joseph H. Bond, survived the war, winning several medals. On the 25th November 1916 (p14), the Bath Chronicle reported on the award of a Military Cross to Company Sergeant Major Thomas Joseph Bond of the 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers:

WESTON MAN WINS MILITARY CROSS
News has been received by Mrs. T. W. Bond of Moravian Cottage, Weston Road, Bath, that her son, Company-Sergt.-Major T. J. H. Bond, now serving with the Royal Fusiliers, has been awarded the Military Cross for distinguished service in the field. Previous to this he had been twice mentioned in despatches for conspicuous gallantry on the Somme.
Company-Sergt.-Major Bond has been on active service since August, 1914, when he went to France, attached to the 3rd King’s Own Hussars, with the original British Expeditonary Force, and has taken part in many of the most important engagements, these including the retreat from Mons, the battles of the Marne, the Aisne and Neuve Chapelle. He is now on the Somme.
He is one of four brothers on active service, three of whom are in France, and the other in the Royal Navy.
The second son, Rifleman G. E. Bond, is in the King’s Royal Rifles; the third son, Lance-Corporal W. J. Bond, is in the Royal Engineers; and the fourth son, Writer E. F. Bond, R.N., is with the Royal Naval Air Service.
Company-Sergt.-Major Bond is an old scholar of Weston (Church of England) Boy’s School, and is the first of the school to be decorated with the Military Cross. Before the war he was employed by Mrs. Carr, of Weston Manor.
On three separate occasions during the present campaign Company-Sergt.-Major Bond had received an official card, signed by the Major-General commanding his division, for distinguished conduct in the field.

CSM Bond’s first Military Cross citation was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette of the 8th December 1916, p. 12109:

16776 C.S.Maj. Thomas Joseph Bond, R. Fus.
For conspicuous gallantry in action. He assumed command of and led his company with great courage and initiative. Later, with a few men, he repulsed an enemy counter-attack.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 30 November 1918, p. 11:

Mrs. P. Bond, of Moravian Cottages, Weston Road, has had four sons serving in the war. Three of them have made the supreme sacrifice, as already mentioned in these columns. The wife of the only surviving son, 2nd Lieut. T. J. Bond, 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers, has just heard that her husband has been awarded a bar to the Military Cross bestowed upon him in November of last year. This gallant young officer has served right through the war, and has seemed to bear a charmed life, for though he has been in many a hot corner and has been gassed, buried by shell bursts on several occasions, and has suffered from trench feet, he has never been wounded. In addition to the Military Cross with bar, he holds the Mons Star and the Croix de Guerre.

Thomas Joseph Bond:
Born Bath, 2nd Quarter,1886
Baptised Weston, 30 May 1886
1911 Census: Roberts Heights, Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa; a Private in the 3rd King’s Own Hussars
After the war, enlisted in the Royal Tank Corps, 7 Feb 1922, Bath, aged 35 (Service No. 397119); husband of Mrs E. Bond, 23 Rivers Street, Bath; discharged Canterbury, 6 Feb 1924

Private Alfred Lewis, 2nd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment

Private Alfred Lewis, 2nd Bn., Worcestershire Regiment; Service No. 57666
Killed in action, 29 Sep 1918, aged 19
Pigeon Ravine Cemetery, Epehy (I. C. 16.), France
CWGC additional information: Son of Mr. F. W. Lewis, of 9, Manor Rd., Weston, Bath

1891 Census: Manor Road, Weston, Bath; Frederick M. Lewis, aged 26, gas stoker; Jane E. Lewis, 26; children: Henry C., Amy E., Frederick M.
1901 Census: 9, Manor Road, Weston, Bath; Alfred Lewis, aged 2; son of Frederick Lewis (aged 36, gas works stoker) and Jane Lewis (aged 36); children: Amy, Frederick, Agnes, Ernest, Walter, Alfred
1911 Census: 9 Manor Road Weston Bath; Alfred Lewis, aged 12; son of Frederick Lewis (aged 46, stoker, widower); one of six children then resident: Amy (aged 22), Frederick (aged 20, smith), Louie (aged 18, dress maker), Ernest (aged 16, farm boy), Jenny (aged 9)

One of four brothers named on the memorial

Private William George Kite, 1st Garrison Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

Bath Chronicle, 14 December 1918, p. 19; via British Newspaper Archive.

Private William George Kite, 1st (Garr.) Bn., Devonshire Regiment; Service No. 43552
Died, 24 Nov 1918, aged 31
Jerusalem War Cemetery (Q. 138.), Israel/Palestine
CWGC additional information: Husband of Mabel Kite, of 5, Mill Lane, West Twerton, Bath.

Bath Chronicle, 14 December 1918: notes that he died of malaria

Marriage: William G. Kite, married Mabel Hampton, Bath (district), 1st Quarter, 1914
Probably: Mabel Hampton, born Bath (probably Twerton), 2nd Quarter, 1885
1891 Census: Rivers Place, Twerton, aged 6, scholar, daughter of Joseph and Sophia Hampton
1901 Census: 17, River Place, aged 16, laundress
1911 Census: 5 Mill Lane, Twerton, aged 26, packer in laundry

Trooper Ernest Lewis, North Somerset Yeomanry

Private Ernest Lewis, North Somerset Yeomanry; Service No. 165882
Died: 24 Dec 1918, aged 23
Chepstow Cemetery (H.), UK
CWGC additional information: Son of Mr. F. W. Lewis, of 9, Manor Rd., Weston, Bath

Born: Bath,1st Q, 1895
Died: Chepstow, 4th Q, 1918, aged 23

One of four brothers named on the memorial

Driver Walter James Lewis, Royal Engineers

Driver Walter James Lewis; Service No. 52408
56th Div., Signal Coy., Royal Engineers
Died 25 Dec 1918, aged 22
Chepstow Cemetery (H.), UK
CWGC additional information: Son of Mr. F. W. Lewis, of 9, Manor Rd., Weston, Bath

Born: 1st Quarter, 1897, Bath
Died: Chepstow, 4th Q, 1896, aged 22

WO 363 – First World War Service Records ‘Burnt Documents’:

Walter James Lewis
Enlisted: Bath, 15 Sep 1913, aged 19
Occupation: footman
Admitted Military Hospital Chepstow 13 Dec 1918 suffering from influenza, died there from Influenzal Bronchitis whilst on leave from BEF
Served overseas: Sep 1915-Aug 1917 (323 days), Jan – Dec 1918 (334 days)
Medical notes also indicate service in Salonica and Malta (1917), Invalided to England (malaria) 5 Sep 1917
Pension sent to Miss A. L. Lewis (sister), 9 Manor Road
Brother: F. Lewis, age 29, 68 St Mary Street, Chepstow

One of four brothers named on the memorial

Frederick William Lewis (father), born Bath, 2nd Quarter, 1865
Jane Elizabeth King (mother), born Bath, 4th Quarter, 1864; 1871 Census: daughter of Charles and Rhoda King, Wellington Buildings, Weston
Marriage: Frederick William Lewis married Jane Elizabeth King, Twerton, Bath, 2nd Quarter, 1887.
Jane Elizabeth Lewis died Bath, 3rd Q, 1905, aged 40
1939 Register: Lewis, Frederick W., b. 23 Mar 1864, gas worker retired; Lewis, Agnes L., b. 17 Oct 1892
Frederick William Lewis, 9 Manor Road, Upper Weston, died Bathavon (district), 27 Jan 1951, aged 85.

Currently unidentified

There were two names on the Weston memorials that I was unable to match with anyone in the CWGC database.

Private H. Frankham

There were several possibilities, but no definitive way to identify Private H. Frankham.

One of the possibilities was Private G. H. Frankham, who definitely had a connection with Upper Weston. On the 1st December 1917, the Bath Chronicle published a photograph of Pte. Frankham stating that he lived at 114 High Street, Upper Weston. He was with the 9th Devonshire Regiment (who for most of the war were with 20th Infantry Brigade in the 7th Division). It may be possible to link this person with the George Henry Frankham of 20 Church Street, Upper Weston who joined the 4th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry in 1899, when aged 17 (and then discharged in 1903). The name of “G. H. Frankham” is also listed in the Roll of Honour inscribed on the war shrine in All Saints Church, Corston, but is not in the list of those who had died from that parish. More information would need to come to light before any connection with the Weston war memorial could be proved.

Bath Chronicle, 1 December 1917, p. 2; via British Newspaper Archive.

Another possibility is suggested by a family that lived at Weston and Twerton:

1891 Census: Westhall Gardens, Weston Bath; William and Harriett Frankham, and four children
1901 Census: 17 Percy Terrace, Twerton, Bath; William Frankham and five children boarding at the household of Harriett Chorley, a charwoman that had been born at Newport (Monmouthshire).
1911 Census: 6 Longmead St, Twerton, Bath; William Henry Frankham (aged 69, stone mason labourer, born Weston, Somerset), married to Harriett Frankham (aged 54, born Bath); children listed at: Kate (aged 21, laundress), Henry (aged 19, iron foundry labourer), Gladys (aged 16), Herbert (aged 13, at school), Reginald (Aged 9, at school).
William H. Frankham died in the 2nd Quarter of 1912, aged 70.

Both Henry and Herbert Frankham would have been at an appropriate age to have served during the war, but Harriett, Henry and Herbert Frankham were all recorded by the Electoral Registers for 1920 and 1921 as resident at 1, Gladstone Terrace, Twerton. Service records survive for Herbert Henry Frankham, who served with the Devonshire Regiment (Service No. 53081) and the Labour Corps during the war, enlisting in 1917 (WO 363, First World War Service Records ‘Burnt Documents’).

As none of these identifications are particularly satisfactory, Private H. Frankham and his exact link with Weston will have to remain a mystery for the time being.

Private T. Marshall

Private T. Marshall was similarly difficult to track down. One possibility might be:

Thomas Marshall, born Bath (district). 1st Quarter, 1896
1911 Census: No 1, Montrose Cottages, Upper Weston, Bath; Thomas Marshall (aged 15, errand boy messenger, born Bath); son of Frederick Charles Marshall (aged 49, gardener, born Wells) and Sarah Ann Marshall (aged 47, born Malmesbury); one of three sons then resident.
Thomas Marshall, died Bath (district), 4th Quarter, 1917, aged 21

I have searched the Bath Chronicle (via the British Newspaper Archive) and the genealogical databases in Findmypast for some evidence of this Thomas Marshall having served in the armed forces during the war, but with no success.*

[* For an identification of Thomas Marshall, please see the update below]

References:

[1] Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/

[2] Findmypast (£): https://www.findmypast.co.uk/

[3] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette; via British Newspaper Archive (£): https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

[4] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 2 August 1919, p. 19; via British Newspaper Archive.

[5] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 1 June 1918, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

[6] A war record of the 21st London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 1914-1919 (ca. 1928; Naval & Military Press reprint), p. 251.

[7] Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, Passchendaele: the untold story, 3rd ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2016), pp. 174-175.

Update August 11th, 2023 — Private Thomas Marshall:

Through the pension claims records available from Ancestry, I have been able to find out a little bit more about Pte. T. Marshall. He served as Private 70434 Thomas Marshall of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).

Thomas Marshall attested at London on the 20th October 1915, joining the RAMC Depot at Aldershot. He was later posted to E Coy. (28 October 1915) and then X Coy. (28 April 1916). On the 8 July 1916, however, Pte Marshall was discharged, as being “no longer physically fit for war service” (British Army World War I Pension Records 1914-1920; via Ancestry – source: WO 364, Soldiers’ Documents from Pension Claims, First World War, The National Archives, Kew).

The papers contain a medical report that was made at the Military Hospital at Codford (Wiltshire) on the 23 June 1916. The case history includes the following:

About ten months ago he “caught a cold,” since when he has had cough and expectoration. He continued his duties until the 12 June 1916 when he reported sick with severe pain in left chest. On the 17th June 1916 he was admitted to Codford Military Hospital for the same trouble. He has sickness & vomiting at times.

The diagnosis was: “Invasion of tubercle bacilla” [or bacilli], not caused “by active service, climate, or ordinary military service” (to use the terminology of the pro forma).

The medical summary in Marshall’s discharge papers concluded that the cause of Pte Marshall’s discharge was that he was: “Medically unfit, Tubercle of Lung,” adding that the cause was: “Not the result of, but aggravated by ordinary military duty; disability permanent.” The records also include a completed Pension Form 36 noting that Marshall died on the 11 December 1917.

Because his death was not deemed to have been the result of “ordinary military service” or duty, it seems that Pte. Marshall did not qualify for a war grave. He was buried in Locksbrook Cemetery in Bath.

Thomas Marshall had been born at Bath (registration district) in 1896, the son of Frederick Charles and (Sarah) Ann Marshall, who were living at Montrose Cottage. Thomas was baptised in April 1896, and admitted at All Saints, Weston on the 31 May the same year (this may mean that he was baptised at home, perhaps due to illness). At the time of the 1911 Census, the fifteen-year-old Thomas was living with his family at No. 1, Montrose Cottages, the middle one of thee sons. His father (aged 49) was working as a domestic gardener, as was his older brother, Joseph Horace Richmond Marshall (23). At the time, Thomas himself was working as an errand boy for a nurseryman. Joseph Horace Richmond Marshall died at Bridgend (registration district ) in 1919, aged 31.

The 1921 Census recorded the Marshall family still living at No. 1, Montrose Cottages. Frederick Charles Marshall was fifty-nine, a gardener working for Miss Archer Thompson of “Montrose” – a large house in Weston Park, adjacent to Montrose Cottages. This suggests that Thomas’s father may have been working for the Archer Thompson family for some time. The Rev. Archer Thompson (ca. 1814-1904) had served as rector of Brympton d’Evercy (near Yeovil) for many years, but he afterwards retired to Weston. His wife was Marianne Janetta Rattray, the aunt of Lieut.-Col. Haldane Burney Rattray – an officer in the Indian Army who died in Mespotamia on the 1 February 1917 (Lt.-Col. Rattray is commemorated on the war memorial screen in All Saints, but not on the war memorial cross). The Thompsons’ daughter, Marian Selina Archer Thompson, died in 1927, after which “Montrose” was sold.

Both of Thomas Marshall’s parents died at Bath in 1934, when they were aged 71 (Sarah Ann) and 72 (Frederick Charles).

Bath: The War Memorial in Weston High Street (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/26879989133

I have recently started to explore the war memorials in Upper Weston, a village that is now a suburb of Bath (Somerset). I live in the village, and have walked past the war memorial cross in the High Street a good many times over the years. I had often thought that it would be interesting to transcribe the inscriptions on the memorial and find out a little bit more about the people named on it.

I did transcribe the First World War section of the memorial some years ago, but then stalled on the larger project of researching all of the names. With the centenary of the memorial’s dedication coming up on the 17th March this year, I thought that it was probably time for me to get going on trying to link the names to those listed in database made available by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) [1].

There are actually two war memorials in Upper Weston: a granite cross in the High Street [2] and an oak-panelled memorial chapel in the Church of All Saints. Both were first dedicated on the 17th March 1921 [3]. This post will introduce the memorials and provide an account of the dedication and unveiling that was first published in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. A second post will provide some more information about the people named on the First World War section of the memorials.

Memorial proposals:

There was some initial discussion of a war memorial at a Vestry meeting held at the Church of All Saints in January 1919. The Vicar, the Rev. F. A. Bromley, was keen that any choice of memorial would gain the general approval of the parish. He added that a tablet bearing the names of those who had died would be put up in the church in any case, but he was keen to be involved in proposals for a larger scheme. A Churchwarden, Captain G. E. Longrigg, proposed the construction of a parish hall as a memorial, adding that he had heard that the YMCA were developing a grant scheme to support memorials that took this form. A resolution was passed that the meeting was “in favour of the erection of a parish hall as a war memorial in this parish,” suggesting that “the Chairman of the Parish Council be asked to call a public meeting to consider this and any other proposal for such memorial.” The Vicar was left to appoint a subcommittee that could investigate the matter and to prepare a scheme.

Shortly afterwards, there was a meeting of Weston’s Parish Council. The Chairman, Mr. W. Dawe, said that he had received a letter from the Rev. Bromley about the parish hall proposal [5]. Dawe was unhappy with the suggestion that they should involve the YMCA, arguing that, “a war memorial for Weston should be provided by Weston people.” He also preferred a different scheme: a new approach to the church that would incorporate pillars bearing shields and an inscription. The Council then decided to call a public meeting to deal with proposals for a memorial.

In July 1919, the Vicar wrote in his parish magazine that there had been no progress made on deciding the form of the memorial [6]:

“Many church-people wish to have some permanent memorial in our church and I would suggest that later on (in September), subscriptions should be asked for this, and also to erect a monument of some sort on the village green, to bear the names of all those who gave their lives for their country. This proposal was made at the meeting, and will, I think, be acceptable to many. The Chairman of the Parish Council agrees with me in this suggestion.”

The memorial was discussed again at a meeting of Weston Parish Council in November 1919 [7]. The Chairman (Mr Dawe) noted that both of the original proposals had now been dropped, and that this had caused some friction.

There was a certain amount of feeling raised in the parish between the two proposals, and his advice at that time, rather than have any more friction or unpleasant feeling, was to defer the matter for two or three months. The matter of a memorial had not been allowed to drip, because it had been decided that a memorial should be erected in the church, but that would be confined to church people. The only point for consideration now was whether it would have a parish war memorial somewhere in the village. There had been three proposals: for a hall, which idea, he feared, they would have to drop altogether, because no one would take it up with any enthusiasm; for memorial cottages, and for a cross or obelisk in the village green. The last, far as he had gathered, had been the popular proposal, but the point was how was the money to be obtained.

Mr Dawe then expressed some misgivings about the need for a memorial at all, perhaps prompted by the potential need for the council to spend money on upkeep and repair:

Now that the question of a parish memorial had gone on so long, he thought there was very little enthusiasm for a war memorial at all, and rather than it be half-hearted, he should prefer the whole thing to be dropped. If they erected a memorial in such a place as the village green, he feared that in the near future it would become a “bear garden,” and that the children would not treat the memorial with that respect with which it ought to be treated. He feared that it would be a receptacle for tin cans, etc., and that would be sacrilege. Some money would also have to be sunk for the upkeep and repair of the memorial.

There were then discussions on costs. Another meeting was then arranged for the week after to consider the topic further. It was this meeting that finally made the decision [8]:

The memorial will consist of a granite cross, and will be erected on the village green.

Captain Longrigg formally moved a resolution that there would be, in effect, two memorials: one in the church, the other in the parish.

He agreed with the proposal which would give those who did not worship at the parish church another spot in the village which could be associated with sacred memories of the fallen.

As for the location, Mr Dawe was now in favour of the village green site (there had also been an offer of land next to the church schools), and suggested that the memorial should take the form of a cross and incorporate the names of the fallen. Somebody else proposed a column surmounted by a lamp. There was also a proposal to add the names of all those who had served, as well as a counter-proposal for the memorial to have no names at all, as they would just duplicate those on the church memorial.

The meeting, however, did eventually definitively agree that the site would be the village green and that the memorial would take the form of a cross:

… the memorial should take the form of a cross in grey granite, leaving the particular design for decision later.

In time-honoured fashion, a committee was then established to take forward the proposals. One of the five original members was Mrs. O. Newman, the widow of a councillor who had lost two sons during the war.

In May 1920, permission was obtained from the Rural District Council to erect the cross on the enclosure near the tram terminus [9]. Work on clearing the site started soon afterwards, with the dedication and unveiling on the 17th March 1921.

While the memorial may have seemed as if it was a long time in planning and execution, it did not get bogged down in the lengthy debates that dogged the Bath War Memorial, which was eventually dedicated by Lord Allenby on the 5th November 1927.

The memorials:

The main village memorial is in Weston High Street, near its junction with Crown Hill. It takes the form of a Celtic cross in Cornish granite, with names outlined in lead lettering on the base. It was designed my Mowbray A. Green. There are thirty-six names from the First World War on the front of the memorial base, with an additional twenty-three names from the Second World War on the right-hand side, and one from the Korean War on the left. The First World War names are organised, broadly-speaking, by rank and name.

Bath: The War Memorial in Weston High Street: First World War names (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/27210680610

The second memorial is in the Parish Church of All Saints, Weston. This is a memorial chapel on the south side of the nave. The oak panels incorporate the names of the village dead from both world wars. The First World War panels are on either side of the chapel’s altar, and include two names that do not feature on the main village memorial: Lieutenant-Colonel H. B. Rattray (who I have researched in some detail in a separate post) and Lance Corporal W. J. Fussell.

Bath: War Memorial Chapel, Church of All Saints, Weston (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/23617946502

The dedication and unveiling:

Both memorials were dedicated on Thursday, 17th March 1921. The Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Right Reverend George Wyndham Kennion, cancelled at short notice, so the memorial chapel was dedicated by the Rural Dean of Bath, Prebendary Maurice Erskine Hoets, a former Vicar of All Saints. The memorial cross in the High Street was unveiled by the Marquess of Bath (Thomas Thynne, 5th Marquess), who was also Lord Lieutenant of Somerset. Both the Marquess’s eldest son (John Alexander Thynne, 9th Viscount Weymouth, a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots Greys) and younger brother (Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Alexander George Thynne, DSO, MP, of the 2nd Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment) had been killed while on active service during the war.

The dedication was reported in the Bath Chronicle of the 19th March 1921 [10]:

WESTON WAR MEMORIAL.

Unveiling by the Marquis of Bath.

Owing to another engagement, the Bishop of the Diocese (Dr. Kennion) was unable to fulfil his promise to dedicate the Weston War Memorial on Thursday. A telegram to that effect was received on Wednesday evening. In the Bishop’s absence the ceremony was performed in the presence of a large and representative gathering of parishioners by Preb. M. E. Hoets, R.D., a former vicar of All Saints, Weston. The memorial which takes the form of a Celtic cross has been erected close to the Weston tram terminus, to commemorate the sacrifice of the 36 parishioners who perished in the Great War. The Marquis of Bath (Lord Lieutenant of the County) unveiled the memorial.

WAR MEMORIAL CHAPEL DEDICATED.

Prior to the dedication of the village cross, there was a service in the parish church of All Saints, at which Preb. Hoets dedicated the war memorial chapel which has been constructed at the south-east end of the nave. The cost of this memorial has been defrayed by members of the congregation. The chapel is furnished in oak, and includes an altar, while on the oak panels is inscribed a replica of the Roll of Honour which is recorded on the cross in the village.

The other clergy present were the Vicar (Preb. F. A. Bromley), and the Revs. R. W. Hay, C. E. Leir, and R. M. Perkes. Others present were the Marquis of Bath (Lord Lieutenant of the County), the churchwardens (Capt. G. R. Longrigg, and Mr. H. D. Pointing), who carried their wands of office; Mr. Mowbray A. Green, F.R.I.B.A., from whose designs the memorial was erected, Mr W. Dawe (Chairman of the Weston Parish Council), Messrs. E. H. Morgan, and T. Mullin (Weston’s representative on the Rural District Council), Messrs. F. Butler, T. C. Dolman, H. J. Chard, J. W. Russell and W. Gordon Thomson (members of the Weston Parish Council), Mr. R. H. Carpenter (Clerk), and Mr. J. Langfield Ward. Mr. H. L. S. Macdonald was unable to be present owing to his attendance at a County Council Committee.

The service in the church commenced with the singing of the hymn “Stand up for Jesus.” The Psalm was the “De Profundis,” [i.e. Psalm 130] and the lesson was the familiar passage from the Book of Wisdom [presumably 3:1-9].

ADDRESS BY PREB. HOETS.

After dedicating the memorial chapel, Preb. Hoets gave a short address. He expressed his approval of the form of the memorial which had just been dedicated. For generations untold the life of a parish so ancient as Weston had centred in its parish church. Of those whose names were inscribed on the oak panels on either side of the altar in the new chapel, many knew that church as the place of their baptism, their confirmation, and their Communion and as their spiritual home. So nothing could be more fitting than that their memory should be associated permanently and definitely with the church, and that, too, in a manner which surely appealed to all present with singular force and pathos. To that quiet corner of the church many, no doubt, would come from time to time, not only to join in the services of Eucharist and prayer, but to rest awhile in prayer and thought, and – might god grant this – to realise the meaning of “the Communion of Saints.” In conclusion, the preacher said: “Forgive one word of a more intimate character. There are names on those panels very dear to me – the names of those who as boys and lads I knew well and loved well. It is hard to think of lives such as these so suddenly removed from our midst, yet it is splendid to remember that in their homes, their school, their church, they became the men they proved themselves to be – May God grant that we shall not be unworthy of such companionship when we meet again!”

UNVEILING THE CROSS.

During the singing of the hymn “For all the Saints,” the choir, clergy, and congregation, headed by the cross-bearer, passed from the church into the pitiless rain and gathered round the village cross.

After the newly-formed “All Saints Brass Band,” under the direction of Mr. W. Bray, had led the singing of “O God, our Help in ages past,” Mr. W. Dawe read the Roll of of [sic] Honour.

Prior to unveiling the memorial cross, the Marquis of Bath addressed a few words of sympathy to the relatives and friends of the fallen. He assured them that he could appreciate their feelings to the full, and added: “I ask you to remember that you have the sympathy and thought of all your fellow-countrymen and women.” Of those who had fallen they thought not indeed with the hopeless grief, but with the recollection of a fight well fought. He drew aside the Union Jack which covered the cross.

After further prayers by the Vicar, the service concluded with the “Last Post,” the Dead March in “Saul,” and the “Reveille” with the message of hope and cheer.

THE MEMORIAL.

The cross is of Cornish granite, and its height is 14 feet. On the base are inscribed the names of the fallen.

The memorial bears the inscription: “In glorious memory of the men of Weston who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1919.” – Col. A. G. Johnstone [sic]; Capt. V. Newman, Capt H. H. Lean, Lieut. R. Newman, Lieut. E. F. Bond, Lieut. S. Butler, Sergt. H. W. Humphries, Bomb. E. G. Humphries, Bomb. F. Blackmore, Corpl. G. E. Bond, A.-M. W. J. Bond, Lce-Corpl. A. Pickett, Pte. F. Pickett, Pte. F. Anstey, Pte. A. Andrews, Pte. R. C. Bourne, Pte. H. Frankham, Pte. A. Gillard, Tpr. F. Gillard, Pte. A. Hawkins, Pte. H. C. Higgins, Tpr. W. Hobbs, Pte. E. Holbrow, Pte. G. Kite, Pte C. Lewis, Pte. A. Lewis, Dvr. W. Lewis, Tpr. E. Lewis, Pte. [T.] Marshall, Dvr. W. Old, Pte. W. Perry, Pte. A. Richards, Rfln. H. N. Russell, Pte. J. Sheppard, Pte. W. Slee, Pte. J. Toogood. “They died that we might live.”

The memorial is the work of Messrs. Turvey and Perrin, of the Old Bridge and Manvers Street, Bath.

With the help of the database provided by the CWGC, the digitised newspapers in the British Newspaper Archive [11], and the genealogical records made available by Findmypast [12], I have been able to identify most of those named on the First World War section of the memorial. The next post will provide some additional information about all of those that I have been able to identify.

The unveiling of the Weston War Memorial; souce: Bath Chronicle, 19 March 1921, p. 14; via British Newspaper Archive.

References:

[1] Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/

[2] Imperial War Museums, War Memorials Register: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/7229

[3] War Memorials Online: https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/116073

[4] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 18 January 1919, p 18; via British Newspaper Archive.

[5] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 25 January 1919, p 14; via British Newspaper Archive.

[6] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 5 July 1919, p. 16; via British Newspaper Archive.

[7] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 22 November 1919, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

[8] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 29 November 1919, p. 7; via British Newspaper Archive.

[9] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 22 May 1920, p 24; via British Newspaper Archive.

[10] The Bath Chronicle, 19th March 1921, p 14; additional photographs on pp. 1 and 27; via British Newspaper Archive.

[11] British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

[12] Findmypast: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/

Bath: Church of All Saints, Weston (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/49822619953

IWM HU 117892: Lieutenant Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell, Son of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Mansel-Pleydell, of Whatcombe, Blandford, Dorset (from the Wellington Year Book). Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205385183

Lieutenant Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment was killed-in-action near Kemmel (West Flanders) on the 12th March 1915, while attached to the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. He was twenty-eight years old.

A succinct account of Lieutenant E. M. Mansel-Pleydell’s life and service career was published after his death in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, 1914-1918 [1]:

MANSEL-PLEYDELL, EDMUND MORTON, of Whatcombe, co. Dorset, Lieut., 3rd (Reserve) Battn. Dorsetshire Regt., attd. 3rd Battn. Worcestershire Regt, elder s. of the late Lieut.-Col. Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell, of Whatcombe, co. Dorset, J.P., D.L., 12th Lancers (died 13 Oct. 1914), by his wife, Kathleen Emily (Croft House, Botley), 4th dau. of the late Sir Thomas Francis Grove, 1st Bart.; b. Bangalore, India, 23 Dec. 1886; educ. Wellington, and Sherborne; was for some time a Lieut. of the Royal Agricultural Contingent, Senior Division, O.T.C. (T.F.) and on the outbreak of war was given a commission as 2nd Lieut. In the Dorsetshire Regt., 30 Nov. 1914; trained at Wyke Regis until 25 Jan. 1915, when he was ordered to Rouen, and there transferred to the Worcestershire Regt.; proceeded to the front, 2 March, and was killed in action at Kemmel, during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, on the 12th, while leading his platoon in a charge against the German trenches; unm. Buried there. His Col. wrote: “He was my most promising officer, and would have, had he lived, I am certain, distinguished himself,” He was a well-known footballer, forward member of the London Devonians, Lennox, Richmond, Trojair [Trojan?] and Stund Clubs; a good rider to hounds, and polo player, a successful cricketer and shot, and a pig sticker while in Morocco.

The entry in The Durnford Memorial Book of the Great War, 1914-1918 contains a little more information, espcecially on the operation during which Lieutenant Mansel-Pleydell died [2]:

EDMUND MORTON MANSEL-PLEYDELL, the son of the late Lt.-Col. Mansel-Pleydell, of Whatcombe, Blandford, was born 23rd December 1886. He went to Durnford in 1896, being one of the first of the Dorset boys who in after years went to Durnford in ever increasing numbers. In 1900 he went on to Wellington, and from there two years later to Sherborne, where he played Rugby for his house and obtained his Second XV colours. He was devoted to football, and subsequently played for Richmond, Lennox, and London Devonians, and other clubs. He was also a good cricketer, besides being a keen polo player and pig-sticker. At the outbreak of the War he joined the 3rd Battalion of his County Regiment, but proceeding overseas in January 1915 he was attached to the Worcestershire Regiment. On 12th March, near Kemmel, he took part in a raid on the German Line. Four Companies made the attack, and while crossing No Man’s Land he was severely, probably mortally, wounded. Some of his men carried him into shelter, and leaving him there swept on to the attack. Shortly after he managed to rejoin them, and started bombing along the German Line. When close to the German trenches, either he was again hit or he succumbed to the previous wound which he had so gallantly disregarded. Not till two months later was his body recovered, and buried where it was found; later his grave was destroyed by a chance shell.
Teddy Mansel-Pleydell’s life was wonderfully homogeneous. He loved all manly sports, played fearlessly, rode fearlessly, and when death came he went fearlessly to meet it, and by a magnificent effort of will power, fought to his last breath.

An earlier obituary was published in the Hampshire Advertiser of the 20th March 1915. This, oddly enough, seems to have mainly focused on Lieutenant Mansel-Pleydell’s martial ancestors [3]:

Source: Hampshire Advertiser, 20 March 1915, p. 10; via British Newspaper Archive.

SOUTHAMPTON TROJAN KILLED IN ACTION.
SECOND-LIEUT. E. M. MANSEL-PLEYDELL.

The untimely death of the well-known Trojan, Second-Lieut. E. M. Mansel-Pleydell, of the Dorset Regiment, who was killed in action in the course of the fierce fighting round Neuve Chapelle, recalls deeds of derring do of long ago. The name of Mansel is one of the most prominent in Dorset. The founder of the family, that is so far as English history is concerned, was Philip Mansel, or Maunsell, a Norman, who came over with the Conqueror, and was rewarded for his services with large tracts of land in Carmarthenshire, which passed from the family in later years by the marriage of an heiress with a Talbot. A Mansel figures honourably in the role of Crusaders. Robert Mansell assisted Gilbert de Lacy in defeating the Moslem potentate Noureddin, and his valour is commemorated in the Mansel-Pleydell’s crest – a cap of maintenance in flames. This sturdy ancestor, while taking part in the assault of a fortified place, was not to be repelled by the pouring of burning oil from the walls, but with capped head still pressed on through the flames. In memory of his hardihood the cap of maintenance has been adopted as the family crest instead of the hawk, which is still retained by the Maunsels of Northamptonshire. Since that historic feat many Mansels, both on the battlefield and in the maintenance of their opinion in other spheres, have been true to the example of their doughty ancestor, and have shown that they can “stand fire.” The late officer’s cousin was Mr. Ll. Mansel, of Millbrook, whose grandfather, Colonel Mansel, of Smedmore [near Kimmeridge, Dorset], saw much distinguished service. As an officer in the 53rd Foot he fought against the French in the West Indies, and afterwards went through the Peninsular War, under Wellington [i.e., Sir Arthur Wellesley]. He was present at the battles of Talavera, Fuentes d’Onore [i.e., Fuentes de Onoro], Vittoria, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Orthez, and Toulouse. After the battle of Waterloo, and the downfall of the Emperor, the 2nd Battalion of the 53rd Regiment being selected to accompany Napoleon to St. Helena, Lieut.-Col. Mansel took command of it. On the mantelpiece of Mr. Mansel’s study stands a Sheraton clock, plain and unpretentious, but pregnant of memories of those weary days of exile at St. Helena. He was made Commander of the Battalion at the institution of that Order. Among later members of the family who served their country with credit was Captain Henry Bingham Morton Mansel-Pleydell, of the Royal Fusiliers, who went through the First Egyptian War, and distinguished himself at Tel-el-Kebir. He died at Whatcombe [in Dorset] in 1886, from the effect of a fever caught in Egypt. The mother, two sisters, and one brother of the late Lieut.-Mansel-Pleydell reside at The Croft, Botley.

Life:

As his entry in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour noted, Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell was born at Bangalore (India) on the 23rd December 1886. He was baptised at St. John’s Church there on the 23rd February 1887 [4]. He was the son of Major Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell of the 12th Lancers and Kathleen Emily Mansel-Pleydell (née Grove).

The 12th Lancers left India in 1888 and Edmund’s family settled down in Dorset, where the Mansel-Pleydells owned estates, including that of Whatcombe (Winterborne Whitechurch). At the time of the 1891 Census, the family were living at Longthorns, Milborne St Andrew. Edmund was four-years old and had been joined by a younger sister, Vivien. Two more siblings would follow in due course: Daphne and Henry, born respectively in 1893 and 1894.

From 1896, Edmund attended various schools, including Durnford School (Langton Matravers), from 1896 to 1900, and then Wellington College. The 1901 Census confirms that the fourteen-year old Edmund M. Mansel-Pleydell was then resident at Wellington College, Crowthorne (Berkshire). Between 1903 and 1905, he attended Sherborne School, where (as De Ruvigny’s notes) he gained a reputation for playing sport. Edmund’s younger brother Henry did not follow him to Sherborne. He instead attended Marlborough College between 1909 and 1913, where he was a prominent member of the Officers Training Corps (OTC).

While Edmund and his siblings were growing up, the Mansel-Pleydell family seem to have spent large parts of the year living at Tangier, in Morocco. The boys joined them there when they were not at school. In 1907, Kathleen Mansel-Pleydell published a book about the family’s life there, which provides some interesting background on the childhood of Teddy, Harry and their sisters, as well as going some way to explain the references to pig-sticking in the De Ruviny’s entry [5].

What Edmund did immediately after leaving Sherborne is not clear — except for playing lots of sport — but at the time of the 1911 Census, he was twenty-four years old and living at 1, Cecily Hill, Cirencester (Gloucestershire), a student at the Royal Agricultural College.

Edmund was the first of several members of the Mansel-Pleydell family to die during the First World War. His younger brother, Lieutenant Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell, M.C. of the 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, would be killed in action in slightly mysterious circumstances on the 17th May 1916, aged 21. Their cousin, Second Lieutenant John Morton Mansel-Pleydell of the Royal Field Artillery, died of wounds at Amiens on the 22nd September 1916, aged 32 (John’s twin brother, Lieutenant Evan Morton Mansel-Pleydell of the Royal Horse Artillery, had died of illness (pneumonia) at Lucknow on the 22nd May 1910, aged 26).

Memorials:

In West Flanders, Lieutenant Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell is commemorated on Panel 37 of the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the Missing, one of just two Dorsetshire Regiment officers named on the memorial. The other, Captain Ernest Cecil Blencowe-Blencowe (formerly Blencowe-Gottwaltz), served with “A” Company of the 6th Dorsets, and was killed in action at the Bluff on the 16th February 1916, aged 36. He also had attended Sherborne School, between 1896 and 1899.

Ieper: Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial to the Missing; part of Panel 37 (West-Vlaanderen); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/45337365805

In Dorset, Lieutenant E. M. Mansel-Pleydell’s name features on the village memorials at Broadstone, Winterborne Whitechurch, and Milborne St Andrew. There is also a memorial tablet for Edmund in the Church of St Nicholas at Winterborne Clenston, which was apparently given by his mother, and which includes a poetic tribute:

A MOTHER’S TRIBUTE
IN MEMORY OF HER ELDEST SON

He liveth on in hearts whose deep perception
Lies in the truth uplifting and divine;
In deeds more noble than the world’s conception
He liveth on.

He liveth on in joy’s sublime presage,
In prayers more real and e’en more truly blest
In life more boundless heavens eternal message
He liveth on.

Love cannot cease, there is oblivion never,
In the forever now he liveth on.

LIEUT. EDMUND MORTON MANSEL-PLEYDELL
OF WHATCOMBE AND 3RD BATT DORSET REGT
LAID DOWN HIS LIFE AT KEMMEL IN FLANDERS
MARCH 12TH 1915 AGED 28

Winterborne Clenston: Memorial in the Church of St Nicholas for Lieut. Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell of Whatcombe (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/14229213887

Lieutenant E. M. Mansel-Pleydell is also commemorated on the Durnford School war memorial in the Church of St George, Langton Matravers, the Wellington College Roll of Honour (Liber Aureus) at Crowthorne (Berkshire), and the memorial chapel at Sherborne School. His entry in the Sherborne Roll of Honour is available from Sherborne School Archives [6].

Winterborne Whitechurch (Dorset): War Memorial Cross featuring the names of Kieutenants Edmund Morton and Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell, M.C.; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/9466663505

The remainder of this post will explore the operation at Spanbroekmolen during which Lieutenant Mansel-Pleydell was killed and then look at the life and military careers of his epynomous father and his younger brother Henry.

The 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment at Spanbroekmolen:

Until October 1915, the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment formed part of 7th Infantry Brigade in the 3rd Division [7]. At the outbreak of war, the battalion was based at Tidworth, on Salisbury Plain. They left Tidworth on the 13 August 1914, first travelling by train to Southampton, from where they would sail for Le Havre on the S.S. Bosnian, landing there on the 15 August, at 1.30 pm.

Spanbroekmolen. Detail from Trench Map 28.SW; Scale: 1:20000; Edition: 3D; Published: 1916; Trenches corrected to 22 June 1916. Source: National Library of Scotland; license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://maps.nls.uk/view/101464939

At the start of 1915, the 3rd Worcesters were alternating between trenches at Kemmel and billets at Locre. On the 12th March they would march back to the trenches to take part in an attack. The handwritten record in the battalion War Diary (WO 95/1415/3) is, unfortunately, quite difficult to decipher in places [8]:

12th [March 1915]. KEMMEL (LINDENHOEK). Marched from LOCRE at 2.30 am & occupied “Assembly Trenches” w of SPANBROEKMOLEN preparatory to an assault on German Trenches on SPANBROEKMOLEN.
The orders for the assault were that it was to be carried out by 2 Companies WORCESTERSHIRE Regt on right & 2 Companies [1st] WILTS Regt on left. The remaining two Companies of each Battn being detailed one (each) to dig communication trench to captured German trench and one (each) to consolidate & place in state [?] defences The German Trench when captured. The assault to be preceded by an artillery bombardment to commence 7 am, the assault at 8.40 am. Owing to fog the former was unable to commence & the hour of assault consequently was postponed. The Bn lay in the assault trenches all day – (they were very wet) – & the fog clearing off sufficiently, the artillery bombardment commenced at 2.30 pm, the assault being ordered for 4.10 pm.
Distribution of Battn was:
1st Co. (assaulting) “C” Co under Capt GOFF
2nd [Co. (assaulting)] “A” [Co under Capt] HEWETT
3rd [Co.] (for digging comm trench) “D” [Co under Capt] TRAILL
4th [Co.] (for consolidating position) B [Co under Capt] MAITLAND
During the night 11/12 the wire in front our trenches had been [illegible] & some plank bridges made across the trenches.
Punctually at 4.10 pm, the leading Company left their assembly trench, followed by the second Company.  They came after passing our trenches under heavy rifle & machine gun fire – the latter principally from the front and right front. Heavy casualties occurred but a party of about 40 [illegible] with 2Lt HOLLAND and Lt MARTIN, RE succeeded in occupying a portion of the front German trench – 2Lt CLARKE was hit just going in to the trench & carried in dying shortly afterwards. A party had been collected in some [illegible] & were just about to make a dash for the German trench to support when our own artillery unfortunately dropped a high explosive shell in [illegible] & scattering the remainder. The party that had gained the trench proceeded at once to attack each end & succeeded in holding on for over 3 hours until ordered to withdraw under cover of darkness. They succeeded in bringing away all the wounded from the German trench. Under cover of darkness the Battn was withdrawn & returned to LOCRE.
The attack by the WILTS on left had been held up & [illegible] immediately on their passing their own with chiefly by machine gun fire from their left. The casualties were heavy & are shown in column of remarks – all the officers of A Co were killed.

Casualties 12th
Killed
Captain G. E. HEWETT [Captain George Edward Hewett, West India Regiment]
Lieut C. G. B. LOOS [Lieutenant Cecil George Bertram Loos]
2 Lieut C. F. MOORE [Second Lieutenant Charles Frederick Moore]
[2 Lieut] W. H. CLARKE [Second Lieutenant William Hamilton Clarke, the son of Lieut.-Col. Sir Edward Henry St. Lawrence Clarke, Bart., C.M.G., D.S.O., of The Hyde, Bridport, Dorset]
[2 Lieut] F. B. BURR [Lieutenant Frederick Bonham Burr]
[2 Lieut] T. FREEMAN [Lieutenant Tristram Freeman]
[2 Lieut] E. M. MANSELL-PLEYDELL
[2 Lieut] M. J. MURPHY [Lieutenant Michael J. Murphy]
[2 Lieut] W. B. BARLING [Second Lieutenant William Bingham Barling, 6th Bn., Worcestershire Regiment]
Rank & File
Killed or died of wounds
N. [illegible] 38
Wounded 99
Missing (believed killed) 32

The War Diary of the 1st Wiltshires told a similar story [9]:

12/3/1915 – Kemmel, Belgium
In trenches. Left billets at LOCRE 2.45a.m. and marched via KEMMEL to the section of the trenches known as “F” in front of SPANBROEKMOLEN. Tbe Battn arrived in position at dawn about 5.30a.m. and occupied four lines of trenches on the reverse side of the hill, the Worcestershire Regt being in similar trenches on our right. The BHQ were in the trench known as F2 about 50 yds in front of the front trench in which the Battn was situated: these trenches were about 25yds apart. The morning was dull and very misty, so that the Artillery bombardment which was to precede the assault on SPANBROEKMOLEN had to be delayed. The whole morning remained misty and except for a certain amount of sniping and desultory gun fire was quiet. At 1p.m. the mist began to clear and by 2.30p.m. it was clear and the Artillery bombardment began and continued with a slight pause until 4.10p.m. It consisted of field guns firing shrapnel to cut the hostile wire, and large quantities of heavy HE to beat down the German parapets and blow in his trenches, in this it seemed to be fairly successful, but, it was afterwards observed that the enemy’s front line trenches were almost intact. At 4.10 the Infantry assault was launched by 2 Coys of the Worcestershire Regt accompanied by a party of RE. The remaining 2 Coys being detailed as working parties. The front Coy (A Coy) rushed forward crossing the trench known as F2, by means of flying bridges, which had been placed in position early in the morning, and, passing through our barbed wire by means of gaps which had been made opposite the bridges: as soon as A Coy had got across the bridges the enemy opened a very heavy fire (rifle and machine gun) on them, and only a few small isolated parties succeeded in getting up to the enemy’s wire, a distance of about 200 yds. B Coy also came under a very heavy fire and were unable with the remainder of A Coy to get more than 50 yds from F2.  At the same time most of the Worcestershire Regt on our right appeared to be also unable to get on. B Coy endeavoured to crawl forward, but were unable to get very far, and gradually, starting about 5p.m. began to fall back into F2 suffering considerably in doing so. Most of the suvivors of A Coy who were in advance of B Coy got back under cover of darkness. At about 7p.m., the Battn withdrew. It weas observed that the enemy were holding this position very strongly and did not seem unduly shaken by our Artilllery fire.

Spanbroekmolen. Detail from Trench Map 28.SW; scale: 1:20,000; edition 1a; trenches corrected to November 1915. Source: McMaster University, Chasseaud Collection (Research Collections; Fonds: WW1 Trench Maps: France; Box number: PC04; envelope_number: 101, Manuscript on reverse; L.H. Lewis); license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.5 CA : http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A70116

Field Marshal Sir John French’s despatch of the 5th April 1915 chose to portray the Spanbroekmolen attack as one of several “holding attacks” by the Second Army that were intended to distract German attention away from the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, which had got underway in Artois on the 10th March. These operations were deemed “instrumental in keeping the enemy in front of them occupied, and preventing reinforcements being sent from those portions of the front to the main point of attack” [10]:

The General Officer Commanding the Second Corps arranged for an attack on a part of the enemy’s position to the south-west of the village of Wytschaete which he had timed to commence at 10 a.m. on the 12th March. Owing to dense fog, the assault could not be made until 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
It was then commenced by the Wiltshire and Worcestershire Regiments, but was so hampered by the mist and the approach, of darkness that nothing more was effected than holding the enemy to his ground.

The actual situation was slightly more complicated. The British Official History explains that the Spanbroekmolen attack was planned on the basis of faulty intelligence about the German units involved at Neuve Chapelle, although the episode itself was relegated (quite literally) to a footnote [11]:

Under the misapprehension that the 6th Bavarian Beserve Division, identified from prisoners taken during the counter-attack in the early morning, had come from the Ypres sector, British G.H.Q. ordered the Second Army to make an attack as soon as possible to prevent the withdrawal of more German troops. This attack was delivered by the 7th Brigade at 2.30 p.m., about Spanbroekmolen, two thousand yards north of Wulverghem, but the bombardment was inaccurate and the wire not cut. Consequently, the attack failed, the 3/Worcestershire losing 9 officers and 169 other ranks, and the 1/Wiltshire 7 officers and 86 other ranks.
Lieut. C. G. Martin, 56th Field Co. R.E. (3rd Division), was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry, although wounded, when in command of a bombing party which he led into the enemy trenches near Spanbroekmolen, holding them for 2½ hours until evacuation was ordered.

Lieutenant Cyril Gordon Martin was mentioned in the War Diary account of the 3rd Worcesters. His Victoria Cross citation was obviously the basis for the account in the footnote [12]:

Lieutenant Cyril Gordon Martin, D.S.O., 56th Field Company, Royal Engineers.
For most conspicuous bravery at Spanbroek Molen on 12th March, 1915, when in command of a grenade throwing party of six rank and file. Although wounded early in the action, he led his party into the enemy’s trenches and held back their reinforcements for nearly 2½ hours, until the evacuation of the captured trench was ordered.

Martin was to survive the war; he would later reach the rank of Brigadier and would also serve during the Second World War [13].

Note: Chris Baker has produced an excellent account of the attack on Spanbroekmolen on the 12th March 1915, which includes maps, extracts from contemporary accounts, and lists of those killed: https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/tragedy-unfolding-the-attack-on-spanbroekmolen-12-march-1915/

Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell

Edmund Morton Mansel was born at Cossington (near Bridgwater, Somerset) on the 30th June 1850, the son of John Clavell Mansel (later Mansel-Pleydell) and Isabel Mansel (née Colville). He joined the 12th (Prince of Wales’ Royal) Lancers, being appointed Cornet in June 1870, and then Lieutenant in March 1871 [14, 15]. The 1871 Census recorded Lieutenant Edmund M. Mansel of the 12th Royal Regiment of Lancers stationed at the East Cavalry Barracks at Farnham (Surrey), aged 20.  He was eventually promoted to the rank of Captain in August 1878, and then to Major in November 1881 [16].

The regiment had returned to England from Ireland in 1869 and was then based at various places, including: Hounslow, Liverpool, Aldershot, and Shorncliffe. At the end of 1876, the 12th Lancers were posted to India, to which they sailed on the HM Transport “Crocodile.” They were based at Secunderbad until 1882, and then Bangalore. Captain P. F. Stewart’s history of the regiment describes Secunderbad as a “good station … with possibilities of war always hanging about the Frontier” [17].

There was also  always the opportunity for entertainment [18]:

[…] it was here [Secunderbad] in 1881 that the Regiment gave its first Musical Ride under the Riding Master, Mr. Robertson, watched by the Nizam of Hyderabad. And it was here the Nizam’s Prime Minister, Sir Salah Jung, was entertained one evening by the officers giving a display of pigsticking by moonlight – mounted on bullocks.

The 12th Lancers moved on to Bangalore in 1882, where there seemed to be further opportunites for much sport and entertainment; the station had its own pack of hounds (for jackal hunting) as well as opportunities for polo, horse racing, and big-game hunting.

According to the regimental history, Captain Mansel-Pleydell became “almost a legendary name” for his “panthers and his monkeys, his ram fights, his big-game shooting, and his riding” [19]. The regimental history quotes from some letters by another officer, Arthur Christie-Crawford [20]:

Arthur Christie-Crawford, young, ingenuous, and newly joined, had a subaltern’s enthusiasm for the life around him, the parties, the competitions, his horses and his heroes; for Col. Russel who ‘is a thorough out and out soldier and we are doing everything that can help render us thoroughly efficient should we be required for service anywhere’; for Capt. Mansel-Pleydell who was ‘… a great sportsman. He has got no end of tiger’s, panther’s, leopard’s, and bearskins about his bungalow … and a tame panther is chained up at the entrance to his house.’ Mansel-Pleydell had other ideas, too, ‘I got up at 4 o’clock’, wrote Christie Crawford, ‘… and rode off to the racecourse with my Captain and held the watch while he rode 20 miles round and round the racecourse on relays of troop horses FOR EXERCISE! As he finished the last lap of each mile I raced him on my old trooper.’ This presumably was not a Tuesday morning, for Monday night was guest night, an occasion whose character has changed little with the years and which, whether it implied riding bullocks into the band tent, playing polo on them, or merely making a loud noise, scarcely fitted the participants for early-morning exercise the following day.

Another officer that served with the 12th Lancers at this time was a Lieutenant W. R. Birdwood, afterwards Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood.

Major Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell married Emily Kathleen Grove at Donhead St Andrew (Wiltshire) on the 6th June 1885, presumably when he was on leave from India. Emily Kathleen (sometimes Kathleen Emily, or just Kathleen) had been born at Donhead in 1860, the daughter of Sir Thomas Fraser Grove, Bart. and his first wife, Katharine Grace O’Grady (of Ferne House). Edmund Morton was their eldest child, born at Bangalore on the 23rd December 1886.

In 1887, the Army and Navy Gazette reprinted an account of Major Mansel-Pleydell’s sporting activities that had first appeared in the Civil and Military Gazette [21]:

12th LANCERS. The Civil and Military Gazette says :– “Major Mansel Pleydell has been riding, both at home and in India, for nearly 26 years. He was gazetted to the 12th Lancers in 1860, has continued in the regiment ever since, and has most creditably helped to sustain the glorious sporting traditions of one of the finest regiments in the British service. Coming of a well-known sporting stock, the young cornet early evinced proficiency in the pig-skin; and we find him on his first mount at the Aldershot Races in 1861, when he had not been 12 months with his regiment. He continued to ride, with more or less success, at the military meetings, bringing himself more and more to notice each season as a fine horseman and possessed of excellent judgement and a cool head. He early showed dash and skill at polo, and in 1866 was constituted one of the regimental team, with which he won 36 out of 37 matches, which it will be admitted is an excellent record. He won several polo races with his ponies, ‘Susan Jane’ and ‘The Mule,’ and won the Hurdle Race at Manchester in 1875 on ‘The Mule.’ Another conspicuous performance of his was in the following year, when he won the Regimental Subalterns’ Cup at Waldeshare with ‘Uhlan,’ from a field of eight. While at home, before his regiment came to India, and since, whenever at home on leave, he regularly hunted in the Blackmore Vale, and was oftener among the first flight than in any other part of the field. The hunting-field is the best school for steeplechase riders, and all those who have seen Major Pleydell riding over a country cannot but admit that he has had a most perfect training. As a subaltern he hunted the regimental drag hounds at Shornecliffe. He came out to India with his regiment in 1877, and was stationed at Secunderabad. The same season he set about and formed a small racing-stable. Since his arrival in the country, he has had a succession of successes. Besides his successes on horseback, Major Pleydell has had some rare sport with his rifle, and has accounted for 45 tigers within eight years. His largest bag was 13, to his own gun, in one season, and on two occasions has he killed four tigers in one day. Major Pleydell as fond of sports of all kinds as he is still, has singularly never been tempted to visit the Eastern Presidency or Upper India in quest of any pastime. He is still fit as ever, and well preserves his figure, nerve, and weight – 9 st. 10 lb.”

The dates in this account do not make complete sense. It states that Mansel-Pleydell was gazetted to the the 12th Lancers in 1860, when he would have been just ten. The earliest reference that I can find to him in the London Gazette is his appointment as Cornet in 1870 (and this is corroborated by the entries for the 12th Lancers in the Army List).

Major Mansel-Pleydell’s life in India sounds as if it would have been all jolly good fun — unless, of course, you were the unfortunate wildlife — but by the time that particular newspaper item was printed, the 12th Lancers time in Bangalore was beginning to draw to a close [22]:.

In 1887, after a grand parade to celebrate the Jubilee of the Queen Empress, the Regiment left Bangalore for home. […] the Regiment marched through the grounds of Government House, Poona, to the strains of ‘The Boys of the Old Brigade’ in memory of 1875 when the Duke [of Connaught] had been Brigade Major of the Brigade at Aldershot. At Bombay it embarked in H.M.T. Malabar and after a good passage arrived home in the bitter cold of an English November, the contrast with the climate they had left being emphasized for the men by the fact that they marched from Colchester railway station to barracks without cloaks.

Advertisment for the auction sale of the household property of Major E. M. Mansel-Pleydell by Lawrance, Krishnasami & Co, Bangalore Spectator, 10 September 1887, p. 1; via British Newspaper Archive.

Once back in England, the commanding officer of the 12th Lancers, Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Stewart, would step down. He was replaced by a veteran of the recent campaigns in Egypt and Sudan, Lieutenant-Colonel Wardrop, of the 3rd Dragoon Guards. Someone in the periodical Truth was critical of the appointment, arguing that either Major Gabriel Poole or Major Mansel-Pleydell would have been a better choice [Truth, 3 December 1887, p. 935]:

The principle of “selection” which now prevails at the War Office is, I fear, simply a cloak for jobbery and nepotism. The latest example is the Colonel Wardrop for the command of the 12th Lancers. Why two such unexceptionable officers as Major Poole and Major Mansel-Pleydell should be superseded by an outsider, who is considerably junior to both, it is impossible for plain people to understand. Colonel Wardrop is a very good officer, but his merits are not so superlative as to justify his being appointed to the command of a regiment with which he has not hitherto been connected, and which possesses officers of its own who are perfectly qualified for promotion. The War Office is simply a hotbed of nepotism and extravagance.

Regardless, it seems that Major Mansel-Pleydell’s active service with the 12th Lancers was almost over in any case. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on half-pay in November 1888, and he then retired in December 1888, on retired pay [24, 25].

After leaving the 12th Lancers, Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell took a captain’s commission in the Dorset Yeomanry, from which he retired in 1896 [26]. He also served as a magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset.

At the time of the 1891 Census, the family were living at Longthorns, Milborne St Andrew (Dorset). Edmund senior was forty-years old and described as “Lt.-Col., late 12th Lancers” and a JP, while Kathleen was thirty. Their children were: Edmund (then aged four) and Vivien (aged one). Also listed at the address were a visitor and seven domestic servants.

Vivien had been born at Longthorns on the 12th September 1889 and baptised at the Church of St Nicholas, Winterborne Clenston on the 13th November the same year. She would be followed by: Daphne, born on the 20th July 1893 and baptised at Clenston on the 6th October; and Henry Grove Morton, born on the 20th March 1894, and baptised at Clenston on the 11th July.

The Mansel-Pleydell family at some point established a base at Tangier, in Morocco. The family seem to have spent at least part of the year there, although the children (or at least the boys) attended schools back in England.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell’s father, John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell died in 1902. He was buried in the churchyard of Winterborne Clenston on the 9th May. Interestingly, one of the lessons at the funeral service was read by the Rev. F. S. Algeo, the Rector of Studland, whose son, Captain William Bensley Algeo of the 1st Dorsets, would later die alongside Lieutenant Henry Mansel-Pleydell in May 1916. Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell, who was John Clavell’s heir, was apparently unable to attend the funeral, as he had not been able to arrive in time from Tangier [27]

In 1907, Kathleen published a book on the family’s experiences at Tangier: Sketches of Life in Morocco [28]. The book is largely focused on the experiences of the author (“Muds”) and her four children (Teddy, Vivien, Daphne, and Harry), but there is also a large supporting cast that includes servants, European settlers, bandits, and a large number of horses. Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell (the “Croney”) features from time-to-time, although he often seems to have been away on business (although what this actually entailed is not made clear). Some of the attitudes in Sketches may seem a little dated to modern tastes, perhaps even offensive, but there is some poignancy in recognising that two of the children (as well as the “Croney”) would be dead within a decade of the book being published.

One of the things that features fairly heavily in Sketches is the family’s predeliction for killing animals, which seems to have become an obsession. In Morocco, this largely centred on pig-sticking — the hunting of wild boar with spears. Pig-sticking was a popular pastime for British officers stationed in India and it seems that the activity in Morocco was arranged in similar way. Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell was the head of a “Tent Club,” the organisation that would control every aspect of the hunt.

A decade-or-so afterwards, a Major F. A. Nicholson (formerly of the 15th Hussars) recalled how Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell ran his Tent Club at Tangier [29]:

Major F. A. Nicholson, who used to be in the 15th Hussars, and was with them when they were at both Muttra and Meerut, at which latter place they were bang in the Kadir country, the “Leicestershire” of pig-sticking, has written me [“Sabretache”] a most interesting letter about pig-sticking in Tangier. In the course of it he says: “I was very much interested in your article about pig-sticking in Morocco. I spent, off and on, nine years of my life in Tangier, from about 1894 to 1903, and left finally to join my regiment in Meerut and later at Muttra. I think that you will agree with me when I say that these two places are as good centres for the sport as any in India.

“I was thus enabled to compare pig-sticking in Morocco with the cream of the sport in India. Conditions were, and I presume are still, very different in the two countries. At the time of which I write Morocco was an independent Sultanate, and the people were fanatical and suspicious; the local authorities had therefore to be handled with great tact and delicacy. The Tent Club was run by Lieut.-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell, and old 12th Lancer, who ran the club on Indian lines, and gave up all his life to it. The country was difficult. Dense scrubs and rocky hills for the most part, where it was impossible to ride the pig, but there were areas of cork woods, some open country, and the marsh which you mention in your article. If the pig could be driven from the hills it was possible to ride them. I imagine it was rather like Mhow, although I had never been there. The beaters were tribesmen, chiefly of the Beni MacTab tribe (I think this is the right name – I know it sounded Scotch), and the headman Hadj Abdulla, a fine shikari with a great voice. The Tent Club were their guests to all intents and purposes, and the tribesmen took part in the sport. They were armed with guns. So long as these were their own long muzzle-loaders, with black powder, all was well, but very often they came armed with modern repeating rifles. A pig that did not break was shot, and a fighting pig was sometimes killed by a beater dashing up and shooting him dead. As the line advanced it was easy to mark its progress and the movements of the pig by the discharges of the guns where black powder was used, but it was different when the tribesmen had their modern rifles; they fired just as wildly, and the bullets would sing over the heads of the waiting spears.

Major Nicholson goes on to say, “The members of the Tent Club belonged chiefly to the Diplomatic Corps, and were nearly all from Great Britain; I can remember one Frenchman and one German. Mr. Koffman-Phillips, an American, was, I think, one of the best spears, and would have been a star performer in any country. There were a few old residents – Jack Green, B. Carlton, etc. – who were first rate after pig. The Tangier Tent Club allowed ladies to ride, and Mrs. Mansel-Pleydell was as good with her spear as most men. The rest of the field were made up of visitors from Gibraltar and the Fleet.

The trouble was, so he says, that so few persons really understood pig-sticking, and it was impossible to organise the country, camps, beaters, in fact, the bundobust [i.e. organisation], like it is organised in India. The horses were barbs, and for the most part untrained. A fairly good Indian pig-sticker would have been a revelation. Major Nicholson says that there are no doubt two different species of wild boar; there were at any rate in the Ganges and Jumna Kadir. The one heavy, black, with short legs and small tushes; the other red, with long legs and high withers, small fierce eyes, and very pugnacious. The Moorish pig belonged to the former class. He ran very big – 43 in., 40 in., and 39 in. was quite common; they were never weighed, but were big pig, and must have been very heavy at all times of the year. They were not the desperate fighters of the Ganges and Jumna, but when at bay put up a good show. The Moors always brought dogs with them, and these used to hang on to the pig and thus hamper its movements. At Tangier they all used a long underhand spear, but my correspondent thinks that a shorter spear would have been more useful, a compromise between the under and overhand spear, one of about 5 ft. 3 in., the spear that was most popular in the pig-sticking “Shires” in India.

Personally, I think a very long spear is a nuisance, and would always far rather have one a bit shorter than the cavalry lance. “In your article,” Major Nicholson continues, “You object to a charging pig being met at a halt, and very rightly too. At Shaf-al-acab (I think this is right), where the marsh was, it was impossible to do otherwise. The marsh was firm underfoot, but there was about four foot of water and mud, so a Barb could only proceed at a walk or slow trot. The pigs were easily driven into the marsh, and would turn at bay in the centre, and then try to break back to the cork woods. There was about 150 yards of good going between the marsh and the edge of the wood, and once the pig were in the marsh it was essential to kill them there. The pig could not charge very fast, and it was a fine sight to see him surging through the water like a destroyer, and the small Barb horses were unable to move at any pace but a walk; the spears were therefore constrained to take the charge at a halt. The tribesmen were easy to get on with […]. Of course I have no idea what the situation is like now.

The whole Mansel-Pleydell family seemed to be invoved in pig-sticking when they were in Morocco, and Kathleen herself devotes a chapter of Sketches to the story of how she came to kill a very large boar on her own [30]:

He measured thirty-eight inches from shoulder to heel, and was six feet three inches from snout to tip of tail; not the memory of any one present had such a beast been killed. I was filled with amazement at my good luck, how much due to the marvellous steadiness of my fine old horse, only I knew. What a merry dinner we had that night! My health was drunk with acclamations, the beaters and servants also rejoiced.

The episode was featured in the British press, for example with an illustration in the “Sportswomans Page” in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News in December 1903.

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 26 December 1903, p. 739; via British Newspaper Archive.

The accompanying text did not even try to avoid romanticising the story [31]:

MRS. MANSEL-PLEYDELL, who has established a record which sportswomen will find it most difficult to beat, inasmuch as she, while out pig-sticking last spring, in Morocco, and when quite alone and unattended by any of the sterner sex, received the charge of an enormous unwounded  wild boar, and by her coolness and steadiness was able to aim so well as to receive him with the point of her spear in his chest, which, entering, passed right through his heart, killing him immediately. The boar proved to be the biggest ever known to have been speared or short in Morocco, and very rarely indeed has one so large fallen to any sportsman in India. He measured 38in. from wither to heel, and was 6ft. 3in. from snout to tip of tail. Mrs. Mansel-Pleydell is an intrepid sportswoman, has hunted several seasons in England, and is an extremely fine rider. Tall, slight, graceful, and most particularly feminine in manner and appearance, she does not in the least convey the impression of having the iron nerve and coolness she undoubtedly possesses, and of which she modestly takes no credit to herself, putting down her achievement with the boar as mainly due to the steadiness of her favourite horse. But the fact remains, she has met single-handed and worsted one of the most plucky and dangerous of all wild beasts, and fitly won a trophy of which but few sportsmen would not be inordinately proud to have gained under similar circumstances.

The Sketches show that the unfortunate boar’s head was destined to be sent back to Dorset [32]:

I had the head of my boar sent to England to be stuffed and it now hangs over my writing table, a trophy I am indeed proud of.

Even discounting the boars, Morocco was not always that safe a place for a European to live in those times. The risk of violence or kidnap underpinned several of the stories recounted in Sketches, and the threat of a well-known brigand named Raisuli is mentioned several times. In 1905, British newspapers reported that Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell had been attacked while out hunting [33]:

NARROW ESCAPE OF COL. MANSEL PLEYDELL
ATTACKED BY MOORISH BRIGANDS.
Tangier, March 14.
Colonel Mansel Pleydell, late of the British Army, was attacked this morning by a band of Moorish brigands, who fired on him near Red Mountain, where he was hunting. The colonel escaped, and reached Tangier safely. The brigands have since been arrested. – Reuter.

The Evening Star (Boulder, Western Australia) later reported that it was Raisuli himself that captured the brigand that had fired on the Colonel [34].

Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell died unexpectedly at Port Talbot on the 13th October 1914, aged 67. The Western Mail of the 14th and 15th October reported on the death and inquest [35]:

COLONEL’S DEATH.
FATAL SEIZURE AT PORT TALBOT HOTEL.
Colonel Mansel Pleydell, of the 12th Lancers, died with tragic suddeness at the Grand Hotel, Port Talbot, on Tuesday.
Colonel Pleydell, who was 67 years of age, and who resided at Dunyeates, Broadstone, near Poole, Dorset, arrived at Port Talbot Docks on Monday on the steamship Petridge from London for the purpose of coaling en route for Morocco, where he is said to have had some business undertakings. He took rooms at the Grand Hotel, and was accompanied by a valet. He appeared to be in perfect health on retiring to rest, but next morning had a sudden seizure, and although Dr. Hillyer was immediately called in Colonel Peydell died about 11.45.

COLONEL’S SUDDEN END
FATAL SEIZURE AT PORT TALBOT HOTEL.
On Wednesday Mr. Howel Cuthbertson, district coroner, held an inquiry into the death of Colonel Mansel Pleydell (late of the 12th Lancers), of Blandford, Somerset [sic], who died suddenly on Tuesday at the Grand Hotel, Port Talbot.
Charles Bryant, valet to deceased, said his master was in perfectly good health on the day previous to his death. Deceased suffered from a weak heart.
Annie Thomas, chambermaid, spoke to finding deceased lying on the floor unconscious. She sent for assistance, and a Territorial sergeant staying at the hotel rendered first aid.
Dr. Hillyer said he found the colonel in a state of collapse. Deceased died from apoplexy at 11.30.
The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.

The Bere Regis and Winterborne Kingston parish magazine described the late Lieutenant-Colonel as a “kind friend” of the parish [36]:

COLONEL MANSEL PLEYDELL died quite suddenly in South Wales, where his ship had put in to coal, on his way back to Tangier. His funeral took place at Clenston, and was conducted by his brother, the Canon [Canon John Colville Morton Mansel-Pleydell] and by Mr. Bassett. Of recent years we have seen very little of Colonel Mansel-Pleydell in the neighbourhood, as the English climate was very trying to him. In the days of his health he was known as an unusually smart cavalry officer and genial sportsman. The gathering at the graveside testified to the affection felt for him by many of his old friends. We venture to offer our sympathy to Mrs. Mansel-Pleydell. The Colonel’s heir is now serving with the 3rd Battalion Dorset Regiment, in which he holds a commission. We wish him safe through the war, and when that is over we hope that he will come and live among us.

Winterborne Clenston (Dorset): The churchyard with the grave markers of John Clavell Mansel Pleydell (centre) and two of his sons: Captain Henry Bingham Morton Mansel Pleydell (left) and Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Morton Mansel Pleydell (right); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/14229070030

In the event, Lieutenant-Colonel Mansel-Pleydell’s heir did not last a twelvemonth. As this post has explained, Lieutenant Edmund Morton Mansel-Pleydell did not survive his first large-scale action on the Western Front. The family estate then passed to his younger brother, Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell, who was by that point a subaltern serving with the 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment.

Lieutenant Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell:

Second Lieutenant Henry Mansel-Pleydell of the 1st Dorsets was injured during one of the first German gas attacks at Hill 60, near Ypres, on the 5th May 1915. He was afterwards awarded the Military Cross [37]:

Second Lieutenant Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell, 3rd (attached 1st) Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment.
Showed gallantry and ability on “Hill 60,” near Ypres, on 5th May 1915. Although wounded early in the attack, he commanded his platoon in the trenches (which had been vacated by the unit holding them in the morning) with great skill and coolness, and later took charge of the whole of his company after his Captain had been wounded.
It was largely due to him that a considerable length of trench, which had been occupied by the enemy, was gradually regained.

IWM HU 117893: Second Lieutenant Henry Grove Morton Mansel-Pleydell MC,1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205385184

Just over a year later, the 1st Dorsets were in the line on the Somme front near Thiepval Wood, quite close to where they would attack a few months afterwards on the opening day of the Somme offensive. In the late morning of the 17th May 1916, and without notifying anyone else, Captain William Bensley Algeo and Lieutenant Mansel-Pleydell (the Intelligence Officer) were seen to enter no-man’s land, but failed to return — evidently having encountered a German patrol. After that, Sergeant William Goodwillie, one of two sergeants sent to investigate what was going on, lost touch with his comrade and also disappeared in the confusion. Their graves were discovered several months later in the village of Miraumont, where they had been buried with full military honours in the presence of the regimental commander of the Reserve-Infanterie Regiment Nr. 99 [38]. All three are now buried close to each other in Miraumont Communal Cemetery in France.

Why the two officers entered no man’s land has never been fully explained. It was probably related to events a week-or-so before, when the Dorsets suffered several casualties in a German raid on their lines near Hammerhead Sap on the night of the 7th/8th May. In his diary, Company Sergeant Major Ernest Shephard, recalled that Captain Algeo had, since that raid, made a foray into no-man’s land, “smoking his pipe quite cool” [39]. In his Battlefield Europe guide to Thiepval, Michael Stedman speculates that Algeo was trying to re-establish a “confident and offensive spirit amongst his men,” taking into account the effect of the raid a week-or-so earlier [40]. If so, it seems to have been most unwise.

Miraumont (Somme): The grave marker of Lieutenant H. G. M. Mansel-Pleydell, M.C., 1st Dorsets, Miraumont Communal Cemetery; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/28066428244

At the time of his death, Lieutenant Mansel-Pleydell was just twenty-one years old. In the regimental history of the Dorsetshire Regiment, Major C. H. Dudley Ward commented that he had a cheerful disposition that “enabled him to create a light-hearted atmosphere under the most appalling conditions” [41].

The Bere Regis and Winterbourne Kingston parish magazine expressed its sorrow [42]:

THE LATE LIEUT. H. G. MANSEL PLEYDELL
We all deplore very much the loss of our young Squire, Lieut. H. G. Mansel Pleydell, who has so gallantly given his life for his country – and all our hearts go out in deep sympathy to Mrs. Mansel Pleydell and to his sisters who are now doubly bereaved. Many of our boys have been so proud to serve under this most promising young officer, who won the affection of all his men by his great courage and by his kindly thought for their safety and comfort, and during the short time that he had been our Squire, he had already endeared himself to us all, and his loss will be most keenly felt.

In November 1916, The Marlborough College schoolmaster John Bain published a poem in Henry’s memory in the school journal, The Marlburian [43]:

In Memory of Lieut H.G.M. Mansel-Pleydell, M.C. Killed in Action

We never spoke together he and I
Save one time only. In the old Court one night,
After a Field-day, I ran out to see
The Corps come marching in, and there he stood,
Leaning upon his rifle — then we spoke
And as he stood there, in myself I thought -–
So young and brave he looked, and talked so grim
Of blows and battlings with his prisoners –-
Were I a fighter, I would love to see
That boy beside me; a born fighter that,
Fearing nor man, nor devil. Then the war
Burst -– he was wounded and I wrote a line.
Back from Hill 60 came an answer straight,
Himself his Censor : from that ledge of Death
Grimly he wrote as when he spoke in Court.
“Wounded? O yes, but not a proper wound :
It only grazed the temple –- a close shave!
Been five weeks on the Hill, thro’ all the gassing,
And Captain for a month now : tell the Major
I’m not disgracing the old O.T.C.”
*****
Soon came the wound, brave heart, the proper wound.

J.B. [John Bain]

As with Edmund, Henry is commemorated on the village war memorials at Winterborne Whitechurch, Broadstone, and Milborne St Andrew. His name also features in the Marlborough College roll of honour and his name will be (presumably) immortalised in the school’s elegant Memorial Hall. Henry Mansel-Pleydell had also played rugby for Rosslyn Park FC and his name features on the club’s war memorial, which was unveiled in 2014.

Milborne St Andrew: War Memorial (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/ 15908544632

After the death of Henry, the Dorset estates passed to his elder sister Vivien [44]. During the war Vivien served with Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps on the home front [45]. Her younger sister Daphne served as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse [46], being based from May to November 1917 at No. 1 Red Cross Hospital in France (Le Touquet), and from January to August 1918 at King George Military Hospital in London [47].

The sisters both married in 1919. Vivien Mansel-Pleydell married Lieutenant-Colonel Henry George Moreton Railston, DSO (Rifle Brigade) at Holy Trinity, Brompton on the 22nd April 1919 [48]. Daphne Mansel-Pleydell married Captain John Anthony Arnold-Foster at Swindon (registration district) on the 25th June 1919.

Kathleen Emily Mansel-Pleydell died at Whatcombe in April 1945, aged 84.

Winterborne Clenston: Church of St Nicholas (Dorset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/43411791271

References:

[1] De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, 1914-1918, Vol. 1, p. 291; via Findmypast.

[2] The Durnford Memorial Book of the Great War, 1914-1918 (London: Medici Society, 1924), pp. 39-40.

[3] Hampshire Advertiser, 20 March 1915, p. 10; via British Newspaper Archive.

[4] N-2-68, British India Office Births & Baptisms, Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Madras, The British Library; via Findmypast

[5] Kathleen Mansel Pleydell, Sketches of Life in Morocco (London: Digby, Long & Co., 1907); via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/sketcheslifeinm00plegoog

[6] Sherborne School Book of Remembrance, Sherborne School Archives; via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sherborneschoolarchives/9339758847

[7] The Long, Long Trail, Worcestershire Regiment: https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/worcestershire-regiment/

[8] WO 95/1415/3, 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment War Diary, The National Archives, Kew.

[9] 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment War Diary, in: The Wiltshire Regiment in the First World War: 1st Battalion, 2nd ed. (Salisbury: The Rifles Wardrobe and Museum Trust, 2011), pp. 37-38.

[10] Supplement to the London Gazette, No. 29128, 13 April 1915, p. 3675: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29128/supplement/3673

[11] J. E. Edmonds, and G. C. Wynne, Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915: Winter 1914–15, Battle of Neuve Chapelle, Battles of Ypres. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence (London: Macmillan, 1927), p. 143, n. 1; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210675/page/n199

[12] London Gazette, 19 April 1915, p. 3815: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29135/supplement/3815

[13] Wikipedia, Cyril Gordon Martin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Gordon_Martin

[14] London Gazette, 7 June 1870, p. 2876: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23622/page/2876

[15] London Gazette, 24 March 1871, p. 1544: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23719/page/1544

[16] Harts Army List 1888, p. 154; London Gazette, 6 January 1882, p. 47: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25056/page/47

[17] P. F. Stewart, The history of the XII Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales’s) (London: Oxford University Press, 1950), p. 160; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.505984/page/n185

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid., p. 176: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.505984/page/n201

[20] Ibid, p. 162: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.505984/page/n187

[21] Army and Navy Gazette, 1 October 1887, p. 6; via British Newspaper Archive.

[22] Stewart, p. 165: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.505984/page/n189

[23] Truth, 3 December 1887, p. 935; via British Newspaper Archive.

[24] London Gazette, 25878, 27 November 1888, p. 6741: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25878/page/6741

[25] London Gazette, 25884, 18 December 1888, p. 7203: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25884/page/7203

[26] Western Gazette, 11 December 1896, p. 7; via British Newspaper Archive.

[27] Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 17 May 1902, p. 2; via British Newspaper Archive.

[28] Kathleen Mansel Pleydell, Sketches of Life in Morocco (see reference 5)

[29] The Tatler, No. 1141, 9 May 1923, p. 228, xxii; via British Newspaper Archive.

[30] Mansel Pleydell, Sketches, p. 139.

[31] Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 26 December 1903, p. 739; via British Newspaper Archive.

[32] Mansel Pleydell, Sketches, p. 142. https://archive.org/details/sketcheslifeinm00plegoog/page/n146

[33] Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 16 March 1905, p. 6; via British Newspaper Archive.

[34] The Evening Star (Boulder, Western Australia), 22 April 1905, p. 3; via National Library of Australia (TROVE): https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/22551653

[35] Western Mail, 14 October 1914, p. 9; Western Mail, 15 October 1914, p. 9; both via British Newspaper Archive.

[36] Bere Regis and Winterborne Kingston Parish Magazine, December 1914; via: https://www.bereregis.org/

[37] Edinburgh Gazette, No. 12826, 6 July 1915, p. 975: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/12826/page/975

[38] Jack Sheldon, The Germans at Beaumont Hamel. Battleground Europe (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2006), pp. 140-141.

[39] Ernest Shephard, A Sergeant-Major’s War: From Hill 60 to the Somme, ed. Bruce Rossor (Ramsbury: Crowood Press, 1987), pp. 96-97.

[40] Michael Stedman, Thiepval. Battleground Europe (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2000), p. 46.

[41] C. H. Dudley Ward, History of the 1st Battalion, in: History of the Dorsetshire Regiment, 1914-1919 (Dorchester: Henry Ling; London: Simpkin Marshall, 1932), part 1, pp. 1-153, here p. 87.

[42] Bere Regis and Winterborne Kingston Parish Magazine, July 1916; via: https://www.bereregis.org/

[43] J. B. [John Bain], “In Memory of Lieut H.G.M. Mansel-Pleydell, M.C. Killed in Action,” The Marlburian, 51(767), 22 November 1916, p. 167; also reprinted in: J. A. Mangan, “In Memoriam: The Great War – John Bain, elegist of lost boys and lost boyhood,” The International Journal of the History of Sport, 28(3-4), 2011, pp. 492-530. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2011.546163

[44] West Sussex County Times, 12 April 1919, p. 4; via British Newspaper Archive.

[45] WO 372/23/34144, War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War, The National Archives, Kew.

[46] WO 372/23/33219, War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War, The National Archives, Kew.

[47] British Red Cross, First World War Volunteers: https://vad.redcross.org.uk

[48] Evening Mail, 23 April 1919, p. 8; Chelsea News and General Advertiser, 25 April 1919, p. 3; both via British Newspaper Archive.

Additional genealogical information (BMD, census returns, etc.) from Findmypast: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/

Bath: War Memorial Chapel, Church of All Saints, Weston (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/23617946502

Until fairly recently, I had not explored the war memorials that are closest to my home in Bath in any real detail. I have walked past the war memorial cross at Upper Weston a good many times over the years and had often thought that it would be interesting to transcribe the inscriptions on the memorial and find out a little bit more about the people named on it. I transcribed the First World War part of the memorial some time ago, but stalled on the larger project of researching the names. With the centenary of the memorial’s dedication coming up on the 17th March this year, I thought that it was probably time for me to get going on this project.

There are in fact two war memorials in Weston: a granite cross in the High Street [1] and an oak-panelled memorial chapel in the Church of All Saints. Both were first dedicated on the same day [2]. The First World War panels in the chapel contains two names that do not feature on the memorial cross. One — Lance Corporal William John Fussell, 503rd Field Coy., Royal Engineers — was the son of a family that had lived in the parish for decades, but they had since moved into exile on the far-distant Newbridge Road! The other name intrigued me, as the person did not seem to have ever lived in Weston (or in Bath).

Bath: First World War panel in the Memorial Chapel, All Saints, Weston (Somerset)

This person was a senior officer with a very distinctive name: Lt. Col. H. B. Rattray. It was, therefore, fairly easy to find more information about him from the database provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) [3]:

Lieutenant Colonel Haldane Burney Rattray, DSO
45th Rattray’s Sikhs
Died 1 February 1917, aged 46
Basra Memorial (Panel 56), Iraq
Son of the late Col. Thomas Rattray, C.B., C.S.I., and Harriet Penelope Rattray; husband of Effie Watson (formerly Rattray), of Cheltenham

Looking at the British Newspaper Archive, it was fairly easy at that point to find a short summary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray’s military career; one was published shortly after his death in the West Bridgford Advertiser of the 17th March 1917 [4]:

WOUNDED AND MISSING.
Lieut.-Colonel Haldane Burney Rattray, D.S.O., Indian Army, whose name is in the casualty list as wounded and missing, joined the Derbyshire Regiment as a second lieutenant in 1890. Afterwards he transferred to the Indian Army, in which he became a major in 1901, and was raised to his present rank last year. Lieut.-Colonel Rattray’s war services include much fighting on the North-West Frontier of India. He was present at the defence of Chackdarra, where he was severely wounded, and he was in the action at Landakai, as well as the Tirah Expedition. He also served in British East Africa against the Ogaden Somalis, and in Uganda. For his work in India and Africa he has several medals and clasps, and was also mentioned in dispatches. Last year he was awarded the D.S.O.

I discovered later that this account contained at least one factual error. The DSO was actually awarded in 1898 for Rattray’s service on the North-West Frontier of India.

This post will detail some of the things that I’ve been able to discover about Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray from various sources, including: genealogical records (Findmypast); old newspapers (the British Newspaper Archive), and books (the Internet Archive, HathiTrust Digital Library). To this, I’ve added an account of selected operations in Mesopotamia in 1917. There is likely to be more detailed information on the regiment in R. H. Anderson’s Regimental History of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs during the Great War and after, 1914-1921 (1925), which I currently have on order from Naval and Military Press [5].

Life and military career:

Haldane Burney Rattray was born at Tonbridge (Kent) on the 27th March 1870, the son of Colonel Thomas Rattray and Harriet Penelope Rattray (née Hare). He was baptized at Tonbridge on the 13th May 1870 [6].

Colonel Thomas Rattray, CB, CSI (1820-1880) was an officer in the Bengal Army. He had raised the 1st Bengal Military Police Battalion in April 1856, the unit that had later become the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs. Thomas had been born at Daventry (Northamptonshire) in 1820, the son of Charles Rattray and Marianne Rattray (née Freeman), and had been baptized there on the 6th October that year. He was the younger brother of James Rattray (1818-1854), who was also an officer in Bengal Army (in 1848, James went on to publish a book of sketches entitled: Scenery, Inhabitants & Costumes, of Afghaunistaun from drawings made on the spot)[7]. Harriet Penelope Hare had been born at Cape Town in 1833 and had married Thomas Rattray at St John’s Church, Wynberg, Cape Province on the 22nd July 1852 [8].

According to the Old Shirburnian Society [9], Colonel Thomas Rattray, retired from the Bengal Staff Corps, occupied Grosvenor Lodge, on Horsecastles, Sherborne (Dorset) from around 1877 to 1880 (the lodge later became part of a boarding house at Sherborne School known as Westcott House). The society website states that Colonel Rattray’s son Hugh Money Rattray (1863-1940) attended Sherborne School as a day boy from 1876 to 1880. Colonel Rattray died at Grosvenor Lodge on the 21st October 1880, aged sixty.

At the time of the 1881 Census, the Rattrays were still living at Horsecastles in Sherborne, although the census return was not able to confirm that they were still living at Grosvenor Lodge. Haldane B. Rattray was eleven years old and a scholar (i.e., still at school). The head of household was his mother, Harriett Rattray, who was forty-seven, and the household also included Haldane’s older siblings, Hugh M. Rattray (aged 18) and Edith L. Rattray (13, also a scholar), as well as three servants.

Most of Haldane’s siblings had been born in India. The ones that I’ve been able to trace are [10]:

• Rullion Hare Rattray, born 1 June 1859; baptized Barrackpore, 30 June 1859; attended Tonbridge School, 1869-1875; later served in the 61st Foot / Cheshire Regiment and the Bengal Staff Corps, and the 22nd Punjab Native Infantry, becoming Lieutenant-Colonel commanding, 1899-1907; retired 1910.
• Hugh Money Rattray, born 11 January 1863; baptized Ranchi Mission Church, Hazaribagh, 1 March 1863; attended Tonbridge School, 1873-1875; married Alice Ravenscroft, St John, Totnes (Devon), 12 April 1893; surveyor and manager of the Argentine Land and Investment Company, then manager of the Santa Fé Land Company (Buenos Aires); died Newton Abbot (Devon), 1940, aged 77.
• Edith Laura Rattray, born 6 January 1868; baptized St Paul’s Church, Dibrugarh (Assam), 23 February 1868; married Francis James Kempster, Islington, 1890; died Poole, 1945, aged 75.
• Elsie Janetta Rattray, born 16 March 1874; died 26 February 1879; buried at Sherborne.

Haldane Burney Rattray attended the Royal Military College (Sandhurst) and on the 29th March 1890 was gazetted Second Lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment) [11]. The notice in the London Gazette noted that Rattray had been an Honorary Queen’s India Cadet. We know that Second Lieutenant Rattray joined the 2nd Battalion of the Derbyshire Regiment in India because his name appears in a list of officers that attended the presentation of regimental colours by General Sir Frederick Sleigh Roberts (later the 1st Earl Roberts and a Field Marshal) at Jubbalpore (now Jabalpur) on the 5th February 1891 [12]. Incidentally, another member of the battalion at this time was Captain Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, later to become famous as the commander of II Corps and Second Army on the Western Front in 1914-1915. In August of 1891, the 2nd Battalion, Derbyshire Regiment moved to Ambala. Second Lieutenant Rattray transferred from the Derbyshire Regiment to the Indian Staff Corps in December 1893, taking the rank of Lieutenant [13]. In 1897, the 2nd Derbyshire Regiment took part in the Tirah Campaign in the North-West Frontier, part of the 1st Brigade in the 1st Division of the Tirah Expeditionary Force.

By that point in time, however, Lieutenant Rattray was already serving with the 45th Sikhs. As has already been mentioned, the 45th had been originally raised in the Punjab as a military police battalion by Rattray’s father in 1856. They had played a role in suppressing the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859) and were designated the 45th (Rattray’s Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry in 1864 [14].

During the Siege of Malakand in 1897, Lieutenant Rattay’s role in the siege of the fort at Chakdara came to the attention of the young Winston Churchill. The fort covered a crossing of the Swat River in the North West Frontier Province of India (now Pakistan). In July 1897, garrisons in Malakand were beseiged by a Pashtun army led by Saidullah (Sartor Faqir), protesting the division of territory by the Durand Line [15]. Churchill was attached to the Malakand Field Force and afterwards published an account of the campaign, including much detail on the siege and relief of the fort of Chakdara [16]:

The garrison of this place consisted at the time of the outbreak of twenty sowars of the 11th Bengal Lancers and two strong companies of the 45th Sikhs, in all about 200 men, under the command of Lieutenant H. B. Rattray. As the rumours of an impending rising grew stronger and stronger, and the end of July approached, this officer practised his men in taking stations in the event of an alarm, and made such preparations as he thought necessary for eventualities. On the 23rd he received an official warning from the D.A.A.G. [Deputy-Assistant-Adjutant-General], Major Herbert, that a tribal rising was “possible but not probable.” Every precaution was henceforth taken in the fort. On the 26th, a Sepoy, who was out sketching, hurried in with the news that a large body of tribesmen were advancing down the valley, and that he himself had been robbed of his compass, his field-glasses and some money.

But, in spite of the disturbed and threatening situation, the British officers of the Malakand garrison, though they took all military precautions for the defence of their posts, did not abandon their practice of riding freely about the valley, armed only with revolvers. Nor did they cease from their amusements. On the evening of the 26th, Lieutenant Rattray went over to Khar as usual to play polo. Just as the game was ended, he received a letter, brought in haste by two sowars, from Lieutenant Wheatley, the other subaltern at Chakdara, warning him that a great number of Pathans with flags were advancing on the fort. He at once galloped back at full speed, passing close to one large gathering of tribesmen, who for some reason of their own took no notice of him, and so reached the fort in safety, and just in time. Formidable masses of men were then closing in on it. He telegraphed to the staff officer at the Malakand reporting the impending attack. Immediately afterwards the wire was cut by the enemy and the little garrison got under arms.

The fort held out against several attacks while a small force from Malakand moved to reinforce the garrison. Churchill recorded that “Captain [H.] Wright and forty sowars of the 11th Bengal Lancers with Captain Baker of the 2nd Bombay Grenadiers and transport officer at the Malakand, started at dawn on the 27th [July], by the road from the north camp” [17]. After their arrival, Lieutenant Rattray relinquished command of the garrison to his superior [18]:

Captain Wright now assumed command of Chakdara, but the direction of the defence he still confided to Lieutenant Rattray, as fighting behind walls is a phase of warfare with which the cavalry soldier is little acquainted.

The attacks continued for several days while the attacking forces increased in number. Perhaps echoing the 121st Psalm, Churchill noted the moral effects of repeated attacks on the defenders of the fort [19]:

Like men in a leaking ship, who toil at the pumps ceaselessly and find their fatigues increasing and the ship sinking hour by hour, they cast anxious, weary eyes in the direction whence help might be expected. But none came. And there are worse deaths than by drowning.

Things got ever-more desperate and the garrison sought help from the force at Malakand. Churchill quotes from Lieutenant Rattray’s official report [20]:

“Matters now looked so serious that we decided to send an urgent appeal for help, but owing to the difficulty and danger of signalling we could not send a long message, and made it as short as possible, merely sending the two words, ‘Help us.'”

The fort was eventually relieved on the 2nd August [21]:

At length the last day of the struggle came. At daybreak the enemy in tremendous numbers came on to the assault, as if resolute to take the place at any cost. They carried scaling ladders and bundles of grass. The firing became intense. In spite of the cover of the garrison several men were killed and wounded by the hail of bullets which was directed against the fort, and which splashed and scarred the walls in every direction.
Then suddenly, as matters were approaching a crisis, the cavalry of the relieving column appeared over the Amandara ridge. The strong horsemen mercilessly pursued and cut down all who opposed them. When they reached the Bridgehead on the side of the river remote from the fort, the enemy began to turn and run. The garrison had held out stubbornly and desperately throughout the siege. Now that relief was at hand, Lieutenant Rattray flung open the gate, and followed by half a dozen men charged the Civil Hospital. Captain Baker and Lieutenant Wheatley followed with a few more. The hospital was recaptured. The enemy occupying it, some thirty in number, were bayoneted. It was a finish in style. Returning, the sallying party found the cavalry — the 11th Bengal Lancers — checked by a sungar full of tribesmen. This they charged in flank, killing most of its occupants, and driving the rest after their comrades in rout and ruin. The last man to leave the sungar shot Lieutenant Rattray in the neck, but that officer, as distinguished for physical prowess as for military conduct, cut him down. This ended the fighting.

Officers and men of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs, 1897 (Lieutenant Rattray is often said to be the man standing on the left with a bandage around his neck, following his wounding during the relief of Chakdara). Source: The Graphic, Vol. LVI, No. 1,460, 20 November 1897, p. 15; via British Newspaper Archive.

Lieutenant Rattray’s name featured in several British newspaper reports of the relief of Chakdara [22]. He also featured several times in the despatch subsequently written by Major-General Sir Bindon Blood, the commander of the Malakand Field Force [23]:

Despatches, Malakand Field Force, dated Camp Mingaora, 20th August, 1897, from Major-General Sir B. Blood, K.C.B., Commanding Malakand Field Force, to the Adjutant General in India

I HAVE the honour to submit the following report on the fighting which took place at Chakdarra Fort between the 26th July and the 2nd August, 1897, when the place was relieved, and the enemy dispersed by the force commanded by Brigadier-General W. H. Meiklejohn, C.B., C.M.G., who was then acting under my orders.
2. On the 26th July, 1897, the garrison consisted of Lieutenant H. B. Rattray, 45th Sikhs, Commanding, Lieutenant J. L. Wheatley and two companies of the same regiment, and 25 sabres, 11th Bengal Lancers; the total strength being three British Officers (including a Medical Officer), two British Non-Commissioned Officers, three Native Officers, and 213 other ranks, besides a few medical and commissariat details. Lieutenant A. B. Minchin, 25th Punjab Infantry, Assistant Political Agent, was also present in the fort on this date and throughout the subsequent period under reference.
[…]
12. 1st August. — On the 1st August the difficulties of the garrison greatly increased, the enemy appearing in far larger numbers with more rifles. During the previous night they had occupied and loopholed the civil hospital already mentioned, and from thence they completely commanded the cavalry enclosure and rendered moving about there very dangerous. They also held the ridge some 150 yards from the fort to the north-west, thus cutting off all communication with the Signal Tower, and commanding tho whole of the north and west sides of the fort itself. Matters now looked so serious that Captain Wright decided to send an urgent message for help, but as signalling was so difficult, only the two words “Help us” were transmitted, and the answer from the Malakand, promising relief next morning; would appear not to have been received. The detachment in the Signal Tower made pressing requests for water which could not be sent to them. The enemy kept the whole garrison at their posts all day and all night, but did not attempt to press an attack home, notwithstanding which they lost very heavily.
13. 2nd August. — On the 2nd August the enemy came on in large numbers, and very boldly, with ladders and bundles of grass, evidently determined to make a final attempt’to take the fort at any cost. A very heavy fire was kept up on both sides, numbers of the enemy being killed, and one man of the garrison being killed, and two wounded. Just as matters were becoming critical, the garrison being dead beat from fatigue and exposure, the Cavalry of the relieving column appeared at Amandara. When they came near, the enemy began making off, and, on seeing this, Lieutenant Rattray, 45th Sikhs, assembling a few men, attacked and carried the Civil Hospital, bayoneting most of the enemy whom he found in it. From thence he pursued the enemy for about half a mile, being joined by Captain Baker and Lieutenant J. L. Wheatley with more men, and doing much execution. In this gallant sortie Lieutenant Rattray was severely wounded in the neck, and one sepoy was killed and two wounded, one mortally. In returning the party found the Cavalry of the relieving force checked by the fire from the ridge north-west of the fort, whereupon this was attacked, and the  ccupants bayoneted or driven off. The men who made this sortie, under 20 in number, killed over 50 of the enemy whose bodies were afterwards counted.
14. Whilst this was going on, the Cavalry of the relieving force had advanced for some distance along the plain north of the fort, and had cut off many of the fugitives. They had, however, to return after pursuing a comparatively short distance, their horses being much fatigued.
15. During the fighting above described, the conduct of the whole of the garrison, whether fighting men, departmental details, or followers, is reported to have been most gallant. Not the least marked display of courage and constancy was that made by the small detachment in the Signal Tower who were without water for the last 18 hours of the siege. The signallers under. No. 2729 Lance Naick Vir Singh, 45th Sikhs, who set a brillant example, behaved throughout in a most courageous manner; one of them No. 2829, Sepoy Prem Singh, climbing several times out of a window in the tower with a heliograph, and signalling outside to the Malakand under a hot fire from sangars in every direction.

On the 20th May 1898, Lieutenant Haldane Burney Rattray of the Indian Staff Corps was awarded the Distingushed Service Order (DSO), one of many awarded on that date in recognition of services “during the recent operations on the North-West Frontier of India” [24].

In 1898, Lieutenant Rattray was one of several Indian Army officers selected to accompany an Indian Regiment formed for service in Uganda [25]. There had been a mutiny and the Uganda Rifles were being reorganised [26]:

RE-ORGANISATION OF THE UGANDA RIFLES.
In consequence of the recent troubles in Uganda, the Governement have decided to at once re-organise the Uganda force known as the Uganda Rifles. The force has hitherto been composed entirely of Soudanese, and the recent mutiny amongst these men has convinced the authorities that they are not to be trusted. The Soudanese forming the force will be greatly reduced, and the vacancies will be filled up by recruits from the East African Protectorate, and possibly from India. Major Ternan, D.S.O., commandant of the Uganda Rifles, is now in England collecting officers and non-commissioned officers to re-organise the force.

The unit seems to have been destined to become a contingent of the Uganda Rifles and Rattray was appointed as one of two wing commanders [27].

Rattray seems to have stayed in East Africa for a while, e.g. based for a little while at Entebbe. While he was there, he seems to have taken an interest in collecting insect and plant specimens, which found their way back to the UK for taxonomic description. Several species and subspecies of East African butterfly and moth bear his name (e.g., Euphaedra rattrayi, Elymniopsis bammakoo rattrayi [28], Balacra rattrayi, Temnora rattrayi, Xylecata rattrayi), as well as at least two plants (e.g. the lily Crinum jagus rattrayi, apparently cultivated in his garden at Entebbe, and Hydrophilus rattrayi, from Cape Province, South Africa). Another plant collected by Rattray was the flower later named the Flame Lily (Gloriosa rothschildiana). It was illustrated in the Gardeners’ Chronicle of the 24th June 1914, citing its description in 1903 [29]:

Gloriosa Rothschildiana, one of the showiest of the climbing Lilies, forms the subject of this week’s coloured illustration. The original form of Gloriosa Rothschildiana was collected by Major H. B. Rattray in the Victoria Nyanza region, Uganda, and it flowered at Tring Park. It was described and illustrated in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, May 23, 1903, p. 323.

Gloriosa rothschildiana. Source: The Gardeners’ Chronicle, No. 1,439, 24 June 1914; via Internet Archive (copy in University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries): https://archive.org/details/gardenerschronic356lond/page/74

At the time of the 1901 Census, the thirty-one-year-old Captain Rattray was back in the UK, possibly on a period of extended leave. He was recorded as resident at 3 Gayton Crescent, Hampstead, which was the household of his mother Harriet Penelope Rattray, now aged sixty-eight. The household was a quite a large one, including Captain Rattray’s sister, Edith L. Kempster and two of her children, as well as three servants.

In May 1904, Major Rattray was in Bath to attend the funeral at Locksbrook Cemetery of his uncle, the Rev. Archer Thompson of Montrose, Weston Park [30]. Until her death in 1891, the Rev. Thompson had been married to Rattray’s aunt, Marianne Janetta Thompson (née Rattray).

In August 1905, Major Rattray married Ethel (Effie) Marguerite Piper, the youngest daughter of the late William Piper and Catherine Mary Piper of Ackleton Hall, Shropshire. Effie had been born at Worfield (Shropshire) on the 11th December 1883. Their marriage was held at St Margaret’s, Westminster on the 23rd August 1905 [31]:

The marriage arranged between Major H. B. Rattray, D.S.O., 45th Rattray’s Sikhs, and Miss Ethel Marguerite Piper will take place quietly in London on Aug. 23.

The exact reason for having a quiet marriage is not clear, but it may have been because Major Rattray’s mother was unwell. Harriet Penelope Rattray died on 3 November 1905 at East Sheen (Surrey) [32]. She was buried with her husband and youngest daughter in Sherborne cemetery.

Major Rattray would take his wife back to India. A son, Charles Haldane Rattray, was born on the 18 November 1906 and baptised at Nowshera on the 10th January 1907. Unfortunately, the child died of dysentery at Nasirabad on the 21st February 1909, aged 2½. Another son, David Sylvester Haldane Rattray, was born on the 13th July 1910 and baptised at St Paul’s Nasirabad on the 24th of the same month. He unfortunately died of “debility” on the same day that he was baptised [33].

Major Rattray continued his service in the Indian Staff Corps. In February 1911, new Colours were presented to the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs by General Sir Edmund Barrow, the commander of the Southern Army. The account of the ceremony in the Army and Navy Gazette [34] noted that Major Rattray was the son of Colonel Thomas Rattray (who had raised the regiment in 1856). In his speech, General Barrow recalled the service of the regiment at Chakdara and the Malakand in 1897, telling the regiment that they had “fully maintained the good name and fame of Rattray’s Sikhs.”

In this connection, I am glad to see in your ranks one who distinguished himself on that occasion, the son of Col. Rattray. Your 50 years history has been a splendid record of good service, and I have no doubt that in the next century you will, by your loyalty to your King, by your good discipline in peace and war, and by your valour in battle, prove yourselves worthy of the trust now reposed in you, and add still prouder distinctions to the glorious legends on your colours.

Major Rattray was appointed second-in-command and then commandant of the 45th Sikhs in 1914 [35]. The regiment had moved from Nasirabad to Dera Ismail Khan in 1911, and they remained there (or at Tank) for many months after the outbreak of the First World War [36]. During this period, the 45th provided drafts to other Sikh regiments serving on the Western Front or at Gallipoli.

The signatures of Lt Col H B Rattray (commanding officer) and Lt. G. H. Atkinson (adjutant) in the War Diary of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs, May 1916 (WO 95/5181/2); via The National Archives. © Crown Copyright.

In January 1916, the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs finally mobilised for service in Mesopotamia and the regiment sailed from Karachi to Basra in March. There they would join the 37th Infantry Brigade in the 14th Indian Division. Major Rattray was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on the 29th March 1916 [37]. The commandant of  the 45th Sikhs at the start of the campaign was Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Thornton Stewart, but Rattray occasionally substituted, including a spell when Stewart was in temporary command of 37th Brigade. On the 15th November 1916, Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart was appointed to command Defences Line of Communication No. 2 Section, and he left the following day for Amarah (Amara). Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray then took over as commandant of the 45th Sikhs (WO 95/5181/2) [38]. 

From December 1916, the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs took part in the advance along the River Tigris and it was as part of the methodical preparation for the recapture of Kut-al-Amara that Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray was killed-in-action near the Shatt-al-Hai (Al-Gharraf River) on the 1st February.  The final section of this post contains a more detailed account of the action in which Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray died.

While Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray was serving in Mespotamia (and probably even before then), his wife and family seem to have been living at Simla (Shimla). Effie was almost certainly living there, at Julia House, at the time of her husband’s death [39]. By that time, they had had three more children: Jean Kinloch Rattray (born Simla, 14 July 1912; baptised Christ Church, Simla, 12 August 1912); Peter Hugh Rattray (born 2 December 1914); Penelope Marguerite Rattray (born 14 October 1916; baptised Simla, 24 November 1916) [40].

After the war, Effie Rattray would marry Charles Henry Watson at St Stephen’s Church, Cheltenham in 1922. Watson was a medical doctor (born Babbacombe, Devon, in 1870) and had been a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Indian Medical Service (he had been awarded the DSO in the 1917 Birthday Honours). They would have at least one daughter.

I started this post by wondering how Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray’s name found its way onto the war memorial panels in the Church of All Saints, Weston. He seems to have spent the vast majority of his adult life in India and I found no evidence at all that he had ever lived in Bath or the area around it. One possible link was the Rev. Hugh McLennan Rattray (a Presbyterian minister) resident in Weston at the time of the 1911 Census, but he had died in 1914 — and I could find no clear link between the two families [41].

On the other hand, there was that report in the Bath Chronicle in 1904 of the funeral of Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray’s uncle, the Rev. Archer Thompson [41]. This was likely to be a much more substantial connection. The Rev. Thompson had married Marianne Janetta Rattray (Haldane’s aunt) at Daventry in 1842. Marianne died in 1891, but the Rev. Thompson and a daughter, Marian Selina Archer Thompson, continued to live at Weston afterwards (at Montrose, Weston Park). Indeed, Marian was still living there at the time of the 1911 Census. From the digitised Electoral Registers in Findmypast, I then discovered that Marian had been joined at Montrose in around 1922 by Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray’s older brother, Hugh Money Rattray. Hugh had worked as a general manager with the Santa Fé Land Company in Argentina [42], but he seems to have retired to Weston in the early 1920s, before moving on to Devon towards the end of the decade. While he lived at Weston, Hugh Rattray seems to have involved himself deeply in village life, for example acting with the vicar as a judge in a schools sports competition in 1925 [43]. The ultimate link between Upper Weston and Lieutenant-Colonel H. B. Rattray is most likely, therefore, to be through his brother and cousin.

Detail from: ’14. Shaikh Saad and Kut-al-Amara. Situation 6 p.m. 1st February 1917′ [‎25r] (1/2), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/72/2, f 25, in Qatar Digital Library: https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100030405325.0x000034

The 45th Rattray’s Sikhs in Mesopotamia:

From June 1916 to February 1917, the 45th Sikhs were part of 37th Indian Brigade in the 14th Indian Division. The Division was in turn part of Lieutenant General Frederick Stanley Maude’s Tigris Force in Mesopotamia, (current day Iraq).

The Mesopotamian Campaign had commenced in November 1914 when a brigade from the 6th (Poona) Division landed at Fao and occupied the port of Basra. The initial British objective was to protect supplies of oil, but success at the Battle of Shaiba (12 April 1915) encouraged them to go on the offensive. The Poona Division, led by Major General Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, therefore moved up the Tigris river and captured Amara on the 4th June. Another force, led by General George Frederick Gorringe advanced up the Euphrates and occupied Nasiriyah.

After the fall of Amara, Townshend was ordered to push on to Kut-al-Amara and Baghdad. He successfully captured Kut in September 1915, but heavy losses at the (indecisive) Battle of Ctesiphon in November persuaded him that it would not be possible to continue on to Baghdad. Townshend’s army, therefore, was forced to fall back upon the defences of Kut, where it eventually became besieged. There followed several failed attempts by the Tigris Corps to relieve the town, but Townshend eventually surrendered to the Ottomans on the 29th April 1916. The Indian and British troops taken into captivity suffered terribly.

The surrender of Kut came as a shock to the British. Amid a thorough reorganisation of the military effort, General Maude was given command of the British and Indian forces in Mesopotamia, which had been supplemented by the 13th (Western) Division, who had fought in the August Offensive at Gallipoli in 1915.

Maude was very methodical in his approach to the recapture of Kut. The renewed offensive commenced on the 13th December 1916, when Indian and British units advanced on both sides of the Tigris. Over the next two months, the Tigris Corps progressively advanced along the south bank of the river, capturing Turkish positions around the Shatt al Hai, preparatory to a crossing of the river at Shumran Bend upstream of Kut. The crossing would eventually get underway on the 23rd February 1917, but it was during the earlier fighting around the Hai salient that Lieutenant-Colonel H. B. Rattray of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs would be killed in action on the 1st February.

On that date, the 37th Indian Brigade had been ordered by the commander of III (Indian) Corps to attack west of the Hai. A detailed account of the operation can be found in Brigadier General F. J. Moberly’s volume of the British Official History [44]:

General [William] Marshall’s arrangements to carry out the assault were briefly as follows. East of the Hai the 40th Brigade, advancing at 9.50 a.m. from P.8.b.—P.9.c., was to capture the trench line N.16.a.—N.16.f.—N.16.d., which it would consolidate; and it was then to bomb westward to the Hai, while the 38th Brigade bombed north-eastward to the Tigris. West of the Hai, the 37th Brigade, advancing at 12.10 p.m. from P.13.a.—P.16, was first to capture the double line of trenches P.13.m.—N.27.a. and then extend its gains by bombing up to N.28.a.; and on its left, keeping pace with its advance, the 35th Brigade was to bomb its way from P.16 to N.32. The attacks on both banks would be supported by all the IIIrd Corps artillery; and the 39th Brigade at R.19 would form Corps Reserve.

The 1st February, though misty in the early morning, turned out a fine, clear day. Preceded by an eight-minute intense artillery bombardment and then supported by a seventeen-minute artillery barrage in front and on both flanks and by massed machine gun fire on both flanks, the 8th Cheshire Regiment of the 40th Brigade, assaulting at 9.50 a.m., captured the line N.16.a.—N.16.f. with inconsiderable casualties; and then bombing operations to right and left by the 38th and 40th Brigades commenced. About 12.30 p.m. the Turks attempted to make a counter-attack from the Gharaf Mounds, but this was broken up by our artillery fire. Meeting with little further opposition, the bombing operations of the 38th and 40th Brigades gave them possession, by 2.45 p.m., of the whole enemy line from the Tigris to the Hai (Ruin—P.10.f.). Thus the 13th Division, with the assistance of our artillery and at the cost of about 70 casualties, inflicted severe loss on the enemy and took 170 prisoners, while it secured the last line but one of the defences east of the Hai.

The operations on the west of the Hai were not so successful, owing partly to the fact that the British preliminary preparations had not been quite completed, especially in regard to work on the communication trenches. After ten minutes’ intense artillery bombardment, the 45th and 36th Sikhs of the 37th Brigade advanced to the assault at 12.10 p.m., the 45th moving on the right in eight waves and the 36th in four waves, on frontages of two hundred and sixty and two hundred yards respectively. Immediately on emerging from the front line trench, both battalions came under very heavy enfilade artillery and machine gun fire from the north west and from their left front. The 45th managed without great loss to capture both the first and second Turkish lines of trench; but the 36th, being more exposed, suffered such heavy losses that in spite of most gallant efforts they could get no farther than the enemy’s first line, which they found only lightly held. The Turks then launched against both battalions a heavy counter-attack which the advanced portions of the 45th Sikhs tried to repel as it got to close quarters by a gallant charge across the open. But although they, the 36th Sikhs and our supporting artillery caused the enemy severe losses, the 45th also suffered very heavily; and overweighted by numbers the remnants of both Sikh battalions were driven back by 1.30 p.m. to their original starting point.

The bombing attack of the 35th Brigade on the left had been definitely checked by hostile machine gun fire; and the 1/4th Devonshire and 1/2nd Gurkhas, ordered, at 1.10 p.m., to send forward two companies each to assist the Sikhs, had been unable to get their men forward in time owing to congestion of the front line and communication trenches by the wounded of the 36th and 45th Sikhs. Attempts to organise a fresh attack by the Devons and Gurkhas also failed owing to this congestion; and these two battalions remained in the front line, supported by the 1/4th Hampshire and 62nd Punjabis (36th Brigade), who were temporarily attached to the 37th Brigade to replace the 36th and 45th Sikhs with drawn to the rear.

As the commanding officer of the 1/4th Devonshire wrote to the wounded commandant of the 36th Sikhs, they and the 45th had set to the brigade an example which its other battalions would find difficult to live up to. Out of a total of 17 British officers, 30 Indian officers and 1,180 other ranks actually engaged in the two battalions, 16 British officers 28 Indian officers and 988 other ranks had become casualties. These casualties speak for themselves. Some three weeks later, General Maude specially addressed the 36th and 45th Sikhs, then on their way to Amara to reorganise, to express his admiration of the magnificent fighting qualities they had displayed, which, he said, had paved the way for, and contributed greatly to, the ultimate success achieved on the 15th February.

Detail from: ‘MAP 23. Map to illustrate operations against the Hai Salient and the Dahra Bend positions, and the passage of the Tigris: 11th. January-24th. February, 1917.’ [‎259r] (1/2), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/3, f 259, in Qatar Digital Library: https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100056012808.0x00007b

Another account is found in the War Diaries of the 45th Sikhs (WO 95/5181/2) [45]:

28.1.17. Regiment moved up & took over the first line Trenches. A and B Coys P.14A – P.14B. C Coy P.12H – P15B. D Coy P.12P – P.15K.
At 7 pm 36th Sikhs on our left and 45th Sikhs on right, went out to occupy P.16. P.13C. P13.h [?]. P13.A. Secured P13.A. but not P.13H. and dug in at P.13A.
Casualties. ORanks, killed nil, wounded 3

29.1.17. Day spent in consolidation of MATHEW TRENCH & MORRIS TRENCH. At 5.45 pm. under cover of a heavy Artillery Bombardment which lasted till 6.5 pm. A and B Coys, aided by working parties and supports from the Left Wing, covered by 50 rifles and Bombers seized P.13h [?] and consolidated the line P.13 – P.13A, connecting up with the 36th Sikhs on our left. A gap of 150 yards was left between P.13H and P.13A; for which men could not be found that night. There was very heavy sniping this night, and as our parties advanced after the Bombardment, the enemy opened a terrific rifle fire, but fortunately this all went high. Our casualties this day were –
Killed. Bos, nil; Ios nil; OR 3.
Wounded. Bos 1 (Lieut A. C. Curtis); Ios 3; OR 35.

30.1.17. Day spent in the consolidation of P.13 – P.13A. At 11 pm D Coy relieved C coy and B Coy relieved A Coy in the front line. The gap of 160 yards was completed during the night. Very heavy sniping, and several enemy machine guns were traversing up and down our line.
Casualties. Killed. 4 OR; Missing. 1 [OR]; Wounded. 11 [OR].

31.1.17. Day spent in consolidation, and preparation for the attack on the morrow.

There that volume of the War Diary ends, and is taken up by a new one in February, written in a different hand (WO 95/5018/7) [46]:

Feb 1st. The Regiment, with the 36th Sikhs, on their left at 12.10pm attacked the Turkish trenches on a frontage of 250 yards. They moved forward in 8 waves in magnificent order, out of two trenches, and captured the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Turkish lines of trenches. Owing to heavy casualties and the frequency and strength of the Enemy Counter attack on our left flank, they were unable to hold what they had gained, and at 1.15 pm some 50 Ior got back to the starting point.
The strength of the Regiment which went over the parapet was.
Bo’s 7
Io’s 15
IOR 562
After the Regiment had been reformed in rear the Regiment numbered 1.BO, 2 Io’s and 94 IOR. To these were afterwards added 36 stretcher bearers and 16 men left in charge of Company dumps.
Casualties on this day were.
B.O’s – killed 4, wounded & missing 2, wounded 1
I.Os – [killed] 3, missing 5, [wounded] 7
I.OR – [killed] 70, [missing] 82, [wounded] 288

Feb 2nd. The Regiment was ordered to return to Camp on the neighbourhood of BASSOUIA.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray was most-likely one of those “B.O’s” (i.e. British Officers) listed as wounded and missing in those lists. Also amongst the dead was the adjutant of the 45th Sikhs, Captain Geoffrey Howard Atkinson, who has a memorial plaque in the Church of St Mary in Swanage (Dorset).

Detail from: ‘MAP 23. Map to illustrate operations against the Hai Salient and the Dahra Bend positions, and the passage of the Tigris: 11th. January-24th. February, 1917.’ [‎259r] (1/2), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/3, f 259, in Qatar Digital Library: https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100056012808.0x00007b

A fitting summary of the action appears in General Maude’s Despatch, as quoted by M. S. Leigh [47]:

On February 1st [1917] the 36th and 45th Sikhs bore the brunt of a desperate counter-attack. In the words of Sir Stanley Maude’s despatch — “The most advanced parties of our Infantry met the enemy’s charge in brilliant style by a counter-charge in the open, and casualties on both sides were severe …. Our troops, in spite of great gallantry, were forced back by sheer weight of numbers.” The 45th were reduced to 190 men.

Swanage: Memorial plaque for Captain G. H. Atkinson, 45th Rattray’s Sikhs, in the Church of St Mary (Dorset). Source: Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/22261878669

References:

[1] Imperial War Museums, War Memorials Register: Weston: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/7229

[2] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 19 March 1921, p. 14; via British Newspaper Archive.

[3] CWGC: Lieutenant Colonel Haldane Burney Rattray: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1660061/HALDANE%20BURNEY%20RATTRAY/

[4] West Bridgford Advertiser, 17 March 1917, p. 3; via British Newspaper Archive.

[5] R. H. Anderson, Regimental History of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs during the Great War and after, 1914-1921 (1925; Uckfield: Naval and Military Press reprint). ISBN 9781783310135

[6] P371/1/B/5, Kent Baptisms, Kent History & Library Centre; via Findmypast.

[7] Wikipedia, James Rattray: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rattray

[8] The Peerage, Person Page – 70492: http://www.thepeerage.com/p70492.htm

[9] Old Shirburnian Society, Westcott House: https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/westcott-house/

[10] Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, India Office Records and Private Papers, The British Library; via Findmypast; Register of Tonbridge School, 1886 & 1910; via HathiTrust Digital Library

[11] The London Gazette, No. 26,037, 28 March 1890, p. 1,897: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26037/page/1897

[12] H. C. Wylly, History of the 1st & 2nd Battalions The Sherwood Foresters, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment, 1740-1814 ([Frome: Butler & Tanner], 1929), Vol. II, p. 698: via: HathiTrust Digital Library (copy from the University of Michigan): https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015011433607

[13] The London Gazette, No. 26,468, 19 December 1893, p. 7,390: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26468/page/7390

[14] National Army Museum, 45th (Rattray’s Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry during the Delhi Camp of Exercise, 1885: https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1978-10-46-14

[15] Wikipedia, Durand Line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durand_Line

[16] W. S. Churchill, The story of the Malakand field force: an episode of frontier war (London: Thomas Nelson, 1916), pp. 116-117; via Internet Archive (copy from Boston Public Library): https://archive.org/details/storyofmalakandf1916chur/page/115

[17] Ibid., p. 118: https://archive.org/details/storyofmalakandf1916chur/page/117

[18] Ibid., pp. 122-123: https://archive.org/details/storyofmalakandf1916chur/page/121

[19] Ibid., p. 126: https://archive.org/details/storyofmalakandf1916chur/page/125

[20] Ibid., pp. 128-129: https://archive.org/details/storyofmalakandf1916chur/page/127

[21] Ibid., pp. 129-130: https://archive.org/details/storyofmalakandf1916chur/page/129

[22] e.g., Edinburgh Evening News, 4 August 1897, p.3; via British Newspaper Archive.

[23] The London Gazette, No. 26,907, 5 November 1897, p. 6,072: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26907/page/6072

[24] The London Gazette, No. 26,968, 20 May 1898, p. 3,166: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/26968/page/3166

[25] St James’s Gazette, 3 March 1898, p. 7; via British Newspaper Archive.

[26] Bristol Times and Mirror, 4 January 1898, p 823; via British Newspaper Archive.

[27] Homeward Mail from India, China and the East, 21 March 1898, p. 12; via British Newspaper Archive.

[28] Elymniopsis bammakoo rattrayi, after a specimen collected at Entebbe, Uganda in June 1900; see: Emily Mary Sharpe, “Descriptions of three new butterflies from East Africa,” The Entomologist, Vol. XXXV, No. 465, February 1902, pp. 40-42; via Internet Archive (copy from Smithsonian Libraries): https://archive.org/details/entomologist351902brit/page/40

[29] The Gardeners’ Chronicle, No. 1,439, 24 June 1914; via Internet Archive (copy in University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries): https://archive.org/details/gardenerschronic356lond/page/n89

[20] Bath Chronicle, 12th May 1904, p. 2; via British Newspaper Archive.

[31] Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News, 2 September 1905, p. 7; Homeward Mail from India, China and the East, 14 August 1905, p. 2; both via British Newspaper Archive.

[32] The Peerage, Person Page – 70492: http://www.thepeerage.com/p70492.htm

[33] Details from Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, India Office Records and Private Papers, The British Library; via Findmypast.

[34] Army and Navy Gazette, 8th April 1911, p. 13; via British Newspaper Archive.

[35] Englishman’s Overland Mail, 7 May 1914, p. 10; Broad Arrow, 22 May 1914, p. 10; Army and Navy Gazette, 18 July 1914, p. 22; all via British Newspaper Archive.

[36] Researching the Lives and Service Records of First World War Soldiers: 45th Rattray’s Sikhs: https://www.researchingww1.co.uk/45th-rattrays-sikhs

[37] The London Gazette, No. 29,651, 4 July 1916, p. 6,613: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29651/page/6613

[38] WO 95/5181/2, War Diary of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs, March 1916 – January 1917, The National Archives, Kew.

[39] L-AG-34-40-83, British India Office Wills & Probate, India Office Records and Private Papers, The British Library; via Findmypast.

[40] Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, India Office Records and Private Papers, The British Library; via Findmypast.

[41] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 11 April 1914, p. 8; via British Newspaper Archive.

[42] Campbell P. Ogilvie, ed., Argentina from a British point of view and notes on Argentine life (London: Wertheimer, Lea & Co., 1910); via Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14366/14366-h/14366-h.htm

[43] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 18 July 1925, p. 11; via British Newspaper Archive.

[44] F. J. Moberley, History of the Great War based on Official Documents: The campaign in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918, Vol. III (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1925), pp. 118-120; IOR/L/MIL/17/15/66/3, India Office Records and Private Papers, The British Library; via Qatar Digital Library: https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100056012806.0x000090

[45] WO 95/5181/2, War Diary of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs, March 1916 – January 1917, The National Archives, Kew.

[46] WO 95/5018/7, War Diary of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs, February – August 1917, The National Archives, Kew.

[47] M. S. Leigh, The Punjab and the War (Lahore: Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1922), p. 232; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.278316/page/n271

Update February 8, 2021:

My copy of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Heath Anderson’s Regimental history of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs during the Great War and after, 1914-1921 (London, 1925; reprint by Naval and Military Press) has now arrived from the publishers. I thought that I would add a few extracts here as they fill in a few gaps in the post above.

The book starts with a short resumé of the history of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs [pp. 9, 11]:

The Regiment was raised in Lahore in January, 1856, by Captain Thomas Rattray (afterwards Colonel Rattray, C.B., C.S.I., Commandant 42nd Regiment Native Infantry), as the Bengal Military Police Battalion and has always been known as “Rattray’s Sikhs.”
[…]
In May, 1864, the Regiment was transferred to the Regular Army as the 45th (Rattray’s Sikh) Regiment Bengal Native Infantry

The history fills in some gaps in the history of the Regiment immediately after the relief of Chakdara [p. 14]:

After the relief of Chakdara [in August 1897] the Regiment formed part of the 1st Brigade of the Malakand Field Force, under General Sir Bindon Blood, and took part in the expedition to Upper Swat and afterwards to the Mahmund country.
In September [1898] the Regiment joined the Tirah Field Force at Peshawar and proceeded up the Bara Valley and afterwards to the Khyber Pass.

It mentions that in December 1911 Major Rattray led a representative detachment of Rattray’s Sikhs at Arrah, during a visit by King George V (p. 12).

The Regiment was then based in-and-around Dera Ismail Khan (North-West Frontier Province) from December 1911 until the move to Mesopotamia in March 1916.

At the time of the outbreak of the First World War, the Regiment formed part of the Derajat Brigade. With its headquarters at Tank, were also detachments of the Regiment based at nine other outposts. [p. 23]

On the 1st March 1916, the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs Left Dera Ismail Khan for Karachi, where on the 3rd they boarded the troopship Ekma for Basra. After their arrival there on the 8th, congestion meant that they remained on board until the March 13th [pp. 30-31]. On disembarking, the Regiment then remained in camp at Magil for a few weeks. On March 27th, the Regiment was transferred to the 41st Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brig.-General A. Cadell. (The other regiments were the 2/4th and 1/8th Gurkha Rifles). [p.31]

Most of the Regiment left Magil for the front on the 4th April, sailing up the Tigris on a river steamer and two barges. They set up camp close to the rest of 41st Brigade at Wadi. It was while they were there that the Regiment learnt that Major Rattray had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. [p. 33]

Shortly afterwards, the 41st Brigade would be broken up and the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs posted to 36th Brigade in the 14th Indian Division. At the end of May, the Regiment would march to Shaikh Saad, where they would join the rest of 37th Brigade, which also included the 1/4th Devonshire Regiment, the 1/2nd Gurkha Rifles, and the 36th Sikhs. It was at that point that Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart took over temporary command of 37th Brigade, leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray in command of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs. [p. 35]

Over the next few months, the Regiment would gradually move into the area south of the Tigris, helping to construct defences and forts (including one named the “Pentagon,” which was around half-way between the Tigris and the Shatt et Hai). They also suffered many casualties by sickness, including fever, jaundice and dysentery. [p. 39]

On the 15th November, Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart was appointed to command No. 2 Sector of the line of communication defences, and Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray took over as the commanding officer of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs. [p. 45]

General Maude’s renewed offensive up the Tigris towards Kut-al-Amara and Badgdad commenced on the 13th December. Maude’s plan for the recapture of Kut was extremely methodical, and the 14th Division was one of several in the 3rd Corps that participated in the assault and capture of Turkish positions on (and sometimes beyond) the Shatt al Hai in late December. At the end of the year, the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs were based in redoubts around the Nahr Bassouia, on the west bank of the Shatt el Hai.

On the 23rd January, the 45th were relieved by the 105th Mahratta Light Infantry, part of a move that would free up the 13th and 14th Divisions to attack the Hai salient on both sides of the Shatt al Hai.

For the first stage of this attack, on the 24th January, the 37th Brigade would be in divisional reserve, remaining ready for instant action. [p. 64]:

Our men spent the time in playing the most friendly football with the 2nd Gurkha Rifles.”

On the 28th January the 37th Brigade would be ordered to take over the front line [pp. 64-65]:

The Brigade received orders to move up to the front line in the afternoon. In the morning, therefore, the Commanding Officer and Company Commanders went up the line to see the trenches they were to take over, returning to bivouac by 1 p.m.
Lieut.-Colonel H. B. Rattray, D.S.O., issued the following regimental order: “The Commanding Officer relies on all ranks to maintain to the best of their ability the good name of the Sikh.”

The Regiment moved that evening first up the west side of the Shatt el Hai to Harvey Road, and then up Warwick Street to relieve the 62nd Punjabis in the front line, from where parties moved out in an attempt to establish some posts further forward. Late on the 29th January, following an artillery bombardment, the 45th, together with the 36th Sikhs on their left, moved out to consolidate pickets in the forward zone (P.16 – P.13a on the map). [pp. 66-67]

Lieut.-Colonel H. B. Rattray, D.S.O., the Commanding Officer, sent in the following report to the 37th Infantry Brigade on the 30th:–
“The following is a brief report of the part played by the 45th in the action last night. The advance to P.13.h by ‘B’ Company was carried out and the position consolidated without loss, though the covering party to the left flank suffered severely from enemy patrols and snipers concealed in broken ground. It is impossible to locate the Turkish snipers at night, as their rifles give no flash. I have drawn attention to this fact before, but I do it again because it does give them a very great advantage.
“The ground in front in this part of the line is rough, broken and covered with scattered bushes and patches of grass. It found an ideal terrain for snipers, and one with which they are thoroughly acquainted. Every effort is being made to gain superiority of fire. The enemy made some attempts to advance on P.13a along the river during the night, but was each time driven off by bombs.
“The advance to P.13 and P.13.k was also carried out with very few casualties by ‘A’ Company, but during consolidation and ever since there has been a heavy stream of casualties. The enemy bombers who gave us trouble on the night of the 28th/29th were found to be in occupation of a small redoubt near P.13. They came out during the advance, hurled their bombs and retired. There were some Turkish corpses lying about killed by the bombardment. Our casualties amounted to killed, 3; missing, 1; wounded, 41.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson’s history then prints 37th Infantry Brigade Order No. 3 in full [pp. 70-72]. This detailed the plan for the attack on the 1st February 1917. There follows a detailed account of the day’s action [pp. 72-75]:

February 1st. The morning broke very misty, but cleared into a gloriously fine day, so much so that about 11 a.m. Kut stood out very clearly and the inhabitants could be plainly seen sitting on the roofs of the houses watching events on the plain on which we were operating.
About 8 a.m., a patrol sent out by “D” Company under Jemadar Kehar Singh II, crept up to the Turkish wire under cover of the mist and found it cut.
At 9.50 a.m., the 13th Division on the Right Bank attacked and successfully captured the trenches N.16.a. – N.16.f – N.16.d.
The orders for our attack were again carefully explained to all ranks, who were exceedingly happy and cheerful. They then had their food, and tied their Safas afresh, and before the attack looked as if they were turned out for a guard mounting parade. They were full of confidence.
In strict accordance with the orders issued overnight, the 45th, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel H. B. Rattray, D.S.O. (strength: 8 British Officers, 17 Indian Officers, and 562 Other Ranks) advanced to the attack at 12.10 p.m. on a frontage of 260 yards, under cover of a terrific artillery bombardment, with their right on the River Hai, and the 36th Sikhs on their left.
They advanced in eight lines of double platoons at 50 yards distance. “C” and “D” Companies were in the front line, (“D” Company on right) and “B” and “A” Companies in the second line.
“C” and “D” Companies went over from Gunning Trench [aka P.13 – P.13.k] and “B” and “A” Companies from Mathews’ Trench. Both lines got out of their trenches simultaneously to get the distance of 50 yards correct.
As the Regiment went over, they shook out into perfect lines at once, and moved forward as steadily as if on an ordinary parade.
The leading line found the wire in front of the first Turkish trench completely demolished, and arrived there with slight loss. Lieut. J. W. Guise was at this junction severely hit in the arm in two places. The bombardment, which was timed to rest on the Turkish front line for 4½ minutes after the Regiment went over, had not finished, and Captain J. G. Wilson, ordered the front line to lie down until the barrage had lifted.
When this occurred the first four lines immediately advanced, slightly closed up owing to the halt. The first Turkish line was but lightly held, and the few live Turks in it were bayonetted. “C” and “D” Companies then advanced on the second line as ordered. This was found to contain many Turkish dead and wounded. Having gained possession of this, “C” and “D” Companies at once made for the “Bank” (P.13.n westwards) which was the final objective in attack orders. It was just before reaching this Bank that Captain J. G. Wilson was killed, after being wounded in two places, setting a magnificent example to his men.
This “Bank” turned out to be a deep nullah full of Turks, and it was here that the Turks were found in large numbers. 2/Lieut. A. C. Stone was killed about this time.
Practically no rifle ammunition was expended, except from Lewis guns, and the men threw many bombs. Every man went over with three on his person, and many of them had more. The bayonet was also freely used.
2. “D” Company’s bombers, half in the trench and half outside, managed to bomb up the continuation of Warwick Street, and keep up with the advance, Jemadar Kehar Singh, II, leading them with great gallantry. This gallant Indian Officer was finally killed, and his whole party either killed or wounded in trying to erect their “double block” in the nullah as ordered.
The bombers of “B” and “C“ Companies had been previously detailed to clear the “Quadrilateral” (P.13.b P.13.n). Captain R. Rainsford Hannay was with them. They accomplished their task, and advanced to assist the leading companies on the “Bank.” It was here that the intrepid Captain Rainsford Hannay was killed, setting a grand example.
3. The last four waves, “B” and “A” Companies, suffered considerably from the machine gun fire that enfiladed the 36th Sikhs on our left, while they were crossing the ground between Mathews’ and Gunning Trenches. They pressed on, however, to the “Bank.” 2/Lieut. G. Mitchell, “A” Company, was killed while crossing “No man’s land.”
4. At this period the fighting was all hand-to-hand, and the Turkish counter-attacks began to come down the flanks of both lines of trenches. A bombing counter-attack down the trenches from N.28, and across the open from the mounds between N.28 and N.26.a, about 200-300 yards away. Parties (largely “B” Company) were seen from the East Bank to go out and meet bayonet with bayonet, and some of our men came into our own barrage. Some of our dead were found some 100 yards ahead of the “Bank” after the successful attack on the 3rd.
The 45th were at this time isolated owing to the very heavy casualties sustained by the 36th Sikhs during their advance, from machine gun fire on their flank and from the vicinity of N.29. Consequently but few got up on our flank and some got mixed up with our men. All efforts were then concentrated in trying to keep off the counter-attacks on our left flank, which, however, proved unavailing owing to heavy casualties, lack of support and the superior numbers of the enemy. One party got back to our front line about 2 p.m. mostly along the river bank.
A small party of about 60, with who were Lieut.-Colonel H. B. Rattray, and Captain G. H. Atkinson, the Adjutant, were surrounded in the “Quadrilateral.” These two Officers the last two remaining alive, behaved with the most desperate gallantry, and set a magnificent example. They fought on, alas, until both were killed, and nearly all the party were also killed or wounded.
Subadar Thaman Singh, and 39 Other Ranks (almost all wounded), were taken prisoners. All this party’s fate remained uncertain for six weeks, when five of our wounded were found in a Turkish hospital in Baghdad, on our entry into the city, and later four others escaped from near Mosul.
5. About 3 p.m., orders were issued through the Brigade Major that the 45th were to be collected in Morris Trench. Captain R. H. Anderson [the author of this account] and Subadar Major Sundar Singh, who had been kept in Reserve this day, collected 122 of all ranks by about 3.30 p.m., and this little party marched down to Queen’s Trench for the night.

The account suggests that both Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray and Captain Atkinson died in the “Quadrilateral,” which was a post at the map reference P.13.n – P.13.b, on the west bank of the Shatt el Hai. Anderson’s conclusion acknowledges the scale of the loss to the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs [p76]:

The 45th had indeed been through a hard time, and the Turk knew what it was to come up against a Sikh Regiment; the Turkish losses on the 1st, from bomb and bayonet had been very heavy. We had lost so many brilliant officers. Lieut.-Colonel H. B. Rattray, D.S.O., the son of Colonel Thomas Rattray, C.B., C.S.I., who had raised the Regiment in 1856, had been killed in action; also Captains R. Rainsford Hannay, J. G. Wilson, and G. H. Atkinson, officers of the finest stamp who knew the men intimately, and also two young Officers, 2/Lieut.’s G. Mitchell, and A. C. Stone who had done very good work.
Of a splendid body of Indian Officers seven had been killed in action, seven wounded and one missing. It may be invidious to mention names, but the loss of Indian Officers like Subadars Lehna Singh, Ram Singh, and Thaman Singh was not to be easily replaced.

A visit to Locksbrook Cemetery:

Bath: The grave marker of the family of the Rev. Archer Thompson, Locksbrook Cemetery (Somerset); via Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/50905780242

I explained in the main post that Lieutenant-Colonel Haldane Burney Rattray’s link with Upper Weston was most likely through his aunt and older brother, who lived for a time at “Montrose,” in Weston Park. Marianne Janetta Rattray married Archer Thompson at Daventry on the 12th July 1842. The Rev. Archer Thompson was an Anglican clergyman, who served for a long time as the rector of Brympton d’Evercy (near Yeovil), before retiring to Weston. They had two children: Charles Archer Thompson, who had been born at Kensington in 1844, but who died at Selworthy in 1851, aged six; and Marian Selina Archer Thompson, who had been born at Howden (Yorkshire) in 1846.

Marianne Janetta Thompson died at Bath on the 8th March 1891, aged 74. The Rev. Archer Thompson followed her on the 30th April 1904, aged 90 (and Lieutenant-Colonel Rattray attended his funeral at Locksbrook Cemetery). Marian continued to live at “Montrose” and was joined there in the early 1920s by her cousin Hugh Money Rattray. Marian Selina Archer Thompson died on the 29th September 1927, aged 81. “Montrose” was sold shortly afterwards. The house itself still stands in Weston Park, although it now has a different name.

With the exception of their son Charles, who is buried at Selworthy, the Archer Thompsons were all buried at Locksbrook Cemetery. As this is a fifteen-to-twenty-minute walk from where I live, so this prompted me to look for their grave marker on one of my walks. It turned out to be a substantial raised ledger stone, inscribed on both sides. The inscriptions were a little difficult to decipher in the light conditions available, but they probably can be transcribed something like:

MARIANNE JANETTA
DAUGHTER OF CHARLES RATTRAY, M.D., OF DAVENTRY
WIFE OF ARCHER THOMPSON, M.A., OF MONTROSE, WESTON PARK
SOMETIME RECTOR OF BRYMPTON D’EVERCY IN THIS DIOCESE
BORN 20 NOVEMBER 1816, DIED 8 MARCH 1891

ARCHER THOMPSON, M.A.
BORN 27 MARCH 1814, DIED 30 APRIL 1904

——-

CHARLES ARCHER
ONLY SON OF ARCHER THOMPSON, M.A.
BORN 24 JUNE 1844, DIED AT SELWORTHY IN THIS COUNTY 23 FEBRUARY 1851

MARIAN SELINA ARCHER
ONLY DAUGHTER OF ARCHER THOMPSON M.A. & MARIANNE JANETTA, HIS WIFE
BORN 21 MAY 1846, DIED AT WESTON BATH 29 SEPT. 1927

The sale of “Montrose,” Weston Park. Source: Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 26 November 1927, p. 21.

Bishops Cannings: War Memorial (Wiltshire)

3/256 Quartermaster Sergeant Simon Merritt of the 6th (Service) Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment was killed in action on the 25th December 1915, aged 44. His death was recorded in the War Diary of the 6th Wiltshire Regiment. It stated that the battalion were in trenches on Christmas Day between Copse Street and the La Bassée Road (near Neuve-Chapelle), with the “enemy very quiet as a whole” [1]:

C.Q.M.S. MERRITT was instantaneously killed whilst unloading rations from the trolley head by a Whiz bang.

He is buried in St. Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richebourg-l’Avoué, Pas-de-Calais (grave reference: II. J. 2.). He is also commemorated on the war memorial at Bishops Cannings (Wiltshire).

Copse Street and La Bassée Road. Detail from Trench Map 36.SW.3 (Richebourg); Scale: 1:10000; Edition: 8A; Published: February 1917; Trenches corrected to 28 January 1917. Source: National Library of Scotland; license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: https://maps.nls.uk/view/101464708

CQMS Simon Merritt:

CQMS Merritt had been a pre-war regular. He had first enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment in 1889, serving mostly with its 1st Battalion in India [2]. He spent around eighteen years in the subcontinent, being transferred at various points to act as a Sergeant Instructor with the 1st Punjab Volunteer Rifles (1905) and the North Western Railway Volunteer Rifles at Lahore (1906). In 1909, he was transferred to the 1st Battalion, King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), being discharged at Gosport in November 1910.

Simon Merritt was born at Bishops Cannings in 1871, the son of Thomas and Eliza Merritt (née King) and was baptized at Bishops Cannings on the 28th May 1871 (Wiltshire Baptisms Index 1530-1917) [3].

Simon Merritt married Matilda Jane Castle (or Cassell) at Devizes (registration district) in the first quarter of 1903. Matilda Jane Castle had been born at Devizes (registration district) in the third quarter of 1881, the daughter of John Castle and Mary Ann (or Martha) Castle (née Peck). Matilda Jane was baptized at Bishops Cannings on the 31st July 1881. There had been an earlier Matilda Jane, who had been born in 1877 (baptized Bishops Cannings, 20th May 1877), but died the following year (buried Bishops Cannings, 25th June 1878). The 1891 Census records the nine-year-old Jane Cassell living with the family of her uncle and aunt, Frederick and Mary Peck, at Holts Row, Bridewell Street, Marlborough. By the time of the 1901 Census, Jane Cassell was nineteen-years-old and working as a cook domestic, living with her family near Black House Farm, Bishops Cannings (where they were neighbours to Simon’s father and his fourth wife).

According to Richard Broadhead, Simon and Matilda Jane Merritt had three children [4]. The two eldest were born in India: Ivy May Merritt was born at Murree (Punjab) in 1905; Marjory Nora Merritt at Quetta on the 12 November 1908 (General Register Office, Army Birth Indices; via Findmypast). Marjory Nora was baptized at Quetta on the 6 December 1908 (British India Office Births & Baptisms, N-1-352, Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, The British Library; via Findmypast). The baptism register describes Simon Merritt’s trade as “Sergt. Instructor, N.W. Ry Volunteers.”

At the time of the 1911 Census, the Merritt family were back in Wiltshire, living at Chirton, near Devizes. Simon Merritt was forty-years old and working as a general labourer at a nursery farm, while Matilda Jane was twenty-nine. The census recorded them having two children (four children had been born alive, but only two were still living): Ivy May was five-years old and at school, while Marjory Norah was two. Confusingly, the census return states that Marjory was born at Bombay, which is a long distance away from Quetta (which is today in Pakistan).

Simon Merritt must have rejoined the Wiltshire Regiment shortly after the outbreak of war. His death was reported in the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiserof the 22nd January 1916.

Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 22 January 1916, p. 4; via British Newspaper Archive.

The death of CQMS Merritt was announced in the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser of the 22nd January 1916, his name appearing together with the name of 9612 Private Cyril Edward Cook of the 5th Wiltshires, who had been killed in action at Gallipoli on the 15th December 1915, aged seventeen.

Bishops Cannings: War Memorial (Wiltshire)

Life and family:

Thomas Merritt, Simon’s father, had been born at Bourton, Bishops Cannings in 1836, the son of Michael and Susan Merritt (baptized Bishops Cannings, 2 October 1836). His first wife was Hannah Castle, whom he married at Bishops Cannings on the 28th November 1855, and they had least two children: Fanny, who was born in 1859 (baptized Bishops Cannings, 22 May 1859), and James, who was born in 1862 (baptized Bishops Cannings, 10 August 1862). The 1861 Census recorded Thomas and Hannah, both working as agricultural labourers, and the two-year-old Fanny living in a cottage at Bishops Cannings. Hannah died in 1863, aged 28, and was buried at Bishops Cannings on the 16th October 1863.

Thomas Merritt then married Eliza King at Bishops Cannings on the 20th October 1865. Eliza had been born there in 1842, the daughter of John and Elizabeth King. At the time of the 1871 Census Thomas, and Eliza were living in the village with five children, of whom Simon was the youngest (the two eldest were the children of Thomas and Hannah). That census recorded Thomas Merritt as a thirty-one-year-old agricultural labourer, and Eliza as aged twenty-eight. The census recorded their children as: Fanny (aged 10), James (8), John (4), George (2), and Simon (2 months).

Eliza Merritt died in the first quarter of 1877, aged 34. In 1880, Thomas married Mary Ann Merritt, the widow of Silas Merritt (who may have been a relation). Mary came to the marriage with children of her own, including another son named Simon. The 1881 Census records Thomas and Mary Ann living at Chandler’s Lane, Bishops Cannings with six children. There were two Simons, but the subject of this post seems to have been the nine-year-old Simon Merritt (Merrett), who is (probably erroneously) described as a stepson. At the time of the 1891 Census, the Merritts were still living at Chandler’s Lane. Thomas was fifty-three-years-old and still working as an agricultural labourer, while Mary Ann was fifty-seven. Also living with them were two of Thomas’s grown-up sons from previous marriages: James Merritt, a maltster (aged 29) and George, also an agricultural labourer (aged 22). By this point in time Simon Merritt was already serving in the Army.

Mary Ann subsequently died, and Thomas married yet again on the 15th October 1898. His next wife was Mary Ann Coombes (née Smith), the widow of David Coombes (Coombs), who had died in the first quarter of 1898, aged 71. Mary Ann Smith had been born at Alton Priors in 1835 (baptized Alton Priors, 24th May 1835) and had married David Coombes at Pewsey (registration district) in 1857. At the time of the 1911 Census, Thomas and Mary Ann Merritt were living at Chandler’s Lane, Bishops Cannings. Both were seventy-five years old; also living with them was a son from Mary Ann’s first marriage: John Coombes, a thirty-six-year-old farm labourer.

Mary Ann was possibly the Mary A Merritt that died at Devizes (registration district) in the second quarter of 1914, aged 77. I have not yet been able to trace the date of Thomas Merritt’s death.

The 6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment on the Western Front in 1915:

The 6th (Service) Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment was formed at Devizes in September 1914 and shortly afterwards became part of 58th Infantry Brigade in the 19th (Western) Division [5]. They trained in the UK at Basingstoke and Perham Down.

The 6th Wiltshires arrived in France (Boulogne) on the 20th July 1915. A few days later, the 19th Division became part of the Indian Corps, who were based at the time in French Flanders [6]. After a few weeks further training, the Wiltshires entered the trenches for the first time in the Laventie sector (at Fauquissart) on the 17th August, where they would be instructed in trench warfare by the 2nd Leicestershire Regiment (Garhwal Brigade, part of the 7th (Meerut) Division, Indian Army) [7].

The Wiltshires left Laventie towards the end of August and moved, via a few days spent training at Cornet Malo, to billets at Paradis, north of Béthune. From there, the battalion spent two weeks providing working parties for the improvement of trenches, parapets and wire.

The 6th Wiltshires would go on the offensive for the first time on the 25th September, as part of the Battle of Loos. The main offensive would be undertaken on a broad front by the British I and IV Corps between the northern outskirts of Lens and the La Bassée Canal. The Indian Corps, of which the 19th Division was part, was one of several other units that were detailed to make diversionary attacks. Edmonds in the British Official History describes them as “subsidiary attacks,” and provides an outline of their purpose [8]:

To distract the enemy’s attention from the main battle front and to hold his reserves north of the La Bassée canal, as well as to gain certain local advantages, three so-called subsidiary attacks were organized by the Indian, III. And V. Corps to take place half an hour to two hours before the main assault near Loos. They were little more than feint attacks; for although it was intended to make use of them, if successful, to increase the extent of the breakthrough south of the canal, should one be effected, they could not be converted into decisive attacks, if the principal one failed; for there was little artillery ammunition allotted to prepare them and no reserves available to exploit them.

III Corps would go into action at Le Bridoux (near Bois Grenier) and V Corps at Bellewarde, east of Ypres (Ieper). The Indian Corps would attack the Moulin de Piètre, north of Neuve Chapelle, hoping to advance even further and gain a foothold on the Aubers ridge [9]. Merewether and Smith explain which units would be involved in the attack [10]:

The attack was to be delivered by the Meerut Division, now commanded by Brigadier-General C. W. Jacob (who was succeeded in the Dehra Dun Brigade by Lt-Colonel W. J. Harvey, of the 2nd Black Watch), the 19th and Lahore Divisions holding the whole of the front except that portion from which Meerut was to advance. The 20th Division of the 3rd Corps on the left was to co-operate with Lahore in covering the flanks of the Meerut Division with its fire.

While it was formally part of the Indian Corps, the 58th Brigade (19th Division) was detailed to support the left flank of I Corps, where the 2nd Division was due to attack in the morning of the 25th September. The 56th Brigade, therefore, took over part of the 58th Brigade’s line, so that the latter’s attack could be made on a suitable frontage. The concept was that the 58th Brigade would assault the Rue d’Ouvert (Violaines) once the attack of the 5th Brigade on their right had developed [11].

Festubert. Detail from: Brigade trench map, Area G (portions of 36 SW3 and 36c NW1; scale: 1,10,000; edition A; trenches corrected to 11 December 1915. Source: McMaster University, Chasseaud Collection (Research Collections; Fonds: WW1 Trench Maps: France; Box number: PC14; envelope_number: 367); license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.5 CA : http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A70873

The 6th Wiltshires started to get into position a few days before the attack. The battalion War Diary (WO 95/2093/2) records [12]:

[16-20 Sept 1915]. Battalion moved on Wednesday evening in billets in reserve, “C” Coy occupying posts at Rue de Cailuix [i.e., Cailloux], Festubert, Le Plantin, various small ammunition stores. Rest of Battalion were in dug outs in the intermediate lines near Estaminet Corner.

The Rue de Cailloux is part of the village of Festubert, which had been extensively fought over in May 1915. On the eve of the Loos offensive, the 6th Wiltshires would assemble in preparation for action:

Sept 24. The Battalion moved from intermediate lines to reserve trenches in evening in anticipation of active operations. A very wet night was spent owning to lack of accommodation in dug outs.

The 58th Brigade attack would be led by the 9th Welsh Regiment and the 9th Royal Welsh Fusiliers (RWF). Private W. H. Shaw, a signaller in the 9th RWF, was attached to the 9th Welsh Regiment shortly before the attack and later recalled some of his experiences [15]:

“We kicked off with a rugby football. That’s how we kicked off, chaps with half a dozen rugby balls belted over and in we went.
[…]
As soon as the word came to attack and the whistles blew, the Germans actually shouted to us, ‘Come on, Tommy, we’re waiting for you.’ They were that close! The Germans were still shelling us when we went across and, believe me, they didn’t half send some stuff over! Of course, the Colonel, this Major Maddox, and the Adjutant, they were carrying their swords! Well, they hardly got out of the trench! They didn’t event get to the top before they were hit by the machine-gun. Major Maddox was mown down before he got his feet on the top of the trench. They had their swords flashing, you see! It was absolutely ridiculous because the Germans were looking for officers. They were the main targets.”

“Major Maddox” was probably Lieutenant-Colonel Henry John Madocks, the Commanding Officer of the 9th RWF, so Shaw may not have personally witnessed the incident with swords himself. Nevertheless, Shaw found himself in no man’s land under heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, until being ordered back at some point to the British front line. When he eventually returned to his own regiment, Shaw found that it too had suffered heavy casualties.

Le Plantin. Detail from: Trench Map 36c NW; scale: 1:20,000; edition: 8a; updated to 4 March 1917. Source: McMaster University, Chasseaud Collection (Research Collections; Fonds: WW1 Trench Maps: France; Box number: PC10; envelope_number: 275); license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.5 CA: http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A70207

The 6th Wiltshires, who were following on behind the RWF, were also unable to make much progress. Their War Diary recorded that D Company suffered particularly heavy casualties, although the battalion as a whole had fewer casualties than the RWF [14].

[Sept] 25. At 5:15 am on 25th an order was received that the attack would commence at 5:50 with asphyxiating gas and smoke candles. The assault signal was given at 6/30 by rockets from Brigade Office. The 58th Brigade’s objective was the German lines just in front and rear of Rue d’Ouvert. The [9th] Welch on our right supported by the [9th] Cheshires. The [9th] Welsh Fusiliers to our front supported by ourselves made the assault which was carried out by advancing through the saps. Owing to the gas not taking affect the Division on our right were unable to take the “Crater” ridge with the result that the enemy on our front were able to bring enfilade fire on our troops. The saps were soon full and the attack was repulsed. A & B did not come into action but D Company on the left went over the parapet and attacked. They were soon held up and suffered heavy casualties. Capt. Wykes & Lt. Wiles were wounded, 2nd Lts. Moore & Coleman were killed and other ranks were 17 killed, 17 missing and 46 wounded. 2nd Lt. Trueman took over charge of the Company and after holding on for a considerable time withdrew the remainder of the Company with considerable judgment to our original firing line under orders from Major Hartley. The enemy remained quiet. The Battalion took over the firing line from the Fusiliers who had suffered heavy losses. Owing to the wet weather considerable difficulty was experienced in bringing back the wounded and clearing up the trenches.

[Sept] 26 & 27. Both these days were occupied in bringing in the wounded of both Battalions. In the evening of the 26th the Fusiliers left the front line and the Battalion took over the trenches with Fife Rd on its right and Barnton Road on its left. B & C Companies in the firing line, “A” Company, Goldneys Redoubt & support line and “D” Company in reserve. The Casualties of the action were 3 Officers killed, 2 wounded and other ranks 22 killed, 70 wounded and 20 missing. Lieut. Lock was killed while endeavouring to use his machine gun. He had been previously wounded by had gallantly advanced again and was killed while firing his gun.

The Battle of Loos saw the first large-scale use by the British of asphyxiating gas as a weapon. Its effectiveness depended upon wind direction and ground positions, but the War Diary of the 6th Wiltshires makes it clear that it was completely ineffective in the attack at Rue d’Ouvert.

Extract from “Special Instructions for All Units,” 21 September 1915, in: War Diary of 58th Infantry Brigade (WO 95/2087/2) © Crown Copyright [15]

The British Official History also provides a brief summary of the 58th Brigade’s attack at Rue d’Ouvert [16]:

At 6.20 A.M. the 9/Welch (Lieut.-Colonel C. H. Young) and 9/R. Welch Fusiliers (Lieut.-Colonel H. J. Madocks, killed during this action) left their trenches, a message having been received that the 5th Brigade was unopposed, and thick smoke preventing the situation being seen. After an advance of about two hundred yards both battalions were stopped by fire, but soon after 7 A.M. a further message being received from the 5th Brigade asking that the right of the 58th Brigade should push on, the 9/Cheshire (Lieut.-Colonel W. B. Dauntesey) and 6/Wiltshire (Colonel A. G. Jeffreys) were sent up to the front line with a view to reinforcing the attack. The front battalions were however gradually forced back, and soon after noon any further effort was by order abandoned.

It attributes the failure of this attack to the failure of 5th Brigade (2nd Division) further south [17]. As it was on the left flank of the main offensive, the 2nd Division had been given relatively limited objectives. The release of the gas, however, created huge problems for the attacking units as it floated back into the British trenches. Peter Doyle explains [18]:

With the gas ineffectual, and no smoke to cover the attack, the Germans were able to bring rifle and machine-gun fire to bear. This situation would be repeated up and down the 2nd Division’s frontage, and it was here that the gas was the least effective. This, battle confusion and the fact that the German barbed wire was once more thick and uncut meant that the attacks failed, the defenders using their superior hand grenades to good effect. Though the brave battalions of the 2nd Division pressed forward, their attack was spent – and like efforts of the adjoining 9th Division, they would see out the end of the day in their original positions, but at great loss to them, in both officers and men.

To the 58th Brigade’s north, the attack by the Meerut Division on the Moulin de Piètre was hard-fought, but it also ultimately failed with the attacking units back in their own front-line trenches. Those that took part in the attack understood shortly afterwards that it had only been a diversion. For example, George Wilfred Grossmith of the 2nd Leicestershire Regiment wrote after he was wounded [19]:

But I know now, only two days later, that the attack north of Loos by our Indian Corps was a feint only, and doomed to failure. Our success or otherwise was not important, it was merely a holding attack, while the real mass attack was to the south, but combined British and French forces.

The main offensive at Loos on the 25th September had mixed results. Some divisions, especially the 15th and 47th, made significant gains, while others, like the 2nd Division discussed above, achieved very little. The battle continued for a few days, but it proved impossible to exploit those isolated pockets of success. The Battle of Loos is chiefly now remembered as a German defensive triumph.

The 6th Wiltshires moved to billets in Locon on the 30th September, from where they would march the following day to take over trenches at Cambrin (south of the La Bassée Canal) from the 6th Brigade (2nd Division).

The Indian Corps were withdrawn from the Western Front in November 1915. The 19th Division would then join the British XI Corps, who were to take over the sections of the front line held by the Lahore and Meerut Divisions [20]. By that point in time, the 6th Wiltshires had already moved to billets at Le Touret, from where they would occupy the front-line trenches around Richebourg on the 1st November.

In November and early December, the 6th Wilshires were quite peripatetic, being based at Le Tombe Willot (north of Locon), Le Sart (near Merville), Pont du Hem (La Gorgue), Vieille Chapelle, and Rue Des Chavattes. They were back in billets at Le Touret on the 12th December. On the 23rd December, the battalion relieved the 9th Welsh Regiment in the front line in the Richebourg area, and it was while they were holding the line there that CQMS Merritt was killed.

Le Touret and Richebourg St Vaast. Detail from: France: Bethune (Combined Sheet) 36a.SE., 36.SW., 36b.NE. & 36c.NW; scale: 1,40,000; edition 6, 6 January 1916, annotated 1917; Source: McMaster University (Research Collections, Fonds: WWI Trench Maps France, Box 1, Envelope 14); license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.5 CA : http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A4243

References:

[1] 6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment War Diary, in: The Wiltshire Regiment in the First World War: 6th Battalion, 2nd ed. (Salisbury: The Rifles Wardrobe and Museum Trust, 2011), p. 14; also: WO 95/2093/2, The National Archives, Kew.

[2] WO 97, Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913, The National Archives; via Findmypast.

[3] These sections have been compiled with the aid of the genealogical records available from Findmypast (£): https://www.findmypast.co.uk/

[4] Richard Broadhead, The Great War: Devizes district soldiers (Hilmarton: O&B Services, 2011), p. 85.

[5] The Long, Long Trail, Wiltshire Regiment: https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/the-duke-of-edinburghs-wiltshire-regiment/

[6] W. B. Merewether and Frederick Smith, The Indian Corps in France (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1918), p. 385; via Internet Archive (State Library of Pennsylvania): https://archive.org/details/indiancorpsinfra00ltco/page/384

[7] WO 95/2093/2, 6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment War Diary, The National Archives, Kew.

[8] James E. Edmonds, Military operations: France and Belgium, 1915: Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos, History of the Great War Based on Official Documents (London: Macmillan, 1936), p. 259; via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210676/page/n371

[9] Ibid., pp. 259-260.

[10] Merewether and Smith, p. 399: https://archive.org/details/indiancorpsinfra00ltco/page/398

[11] Edmonds, p. 258: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210676/page/n369

[12] WO 95/2093/2.

[13] Lyn Macdonald, 1915: the death of innocence (1993; London: Penguin, 1997), pp. 508-509.

[14] WO 95/2093/2.

[15] WO 95/2087/2, 58th Infantry Brigade War Diary, The National Archives, Kew.

[16] Edmonds, p. 258: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.210676/page/n369

[17] Ibid.

[18] Peter Doyle, Loos, 1915 (Stroud: Spellmount, 2012), pp. 190-110.

[19] Philip Warner, The Battle of Loos (1976; Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2009), p. 194.

[20] Merewether and Smith, p. 458: https://archive.org/details/indiancorpsinfra00ltco/page/458