HAYWARD TO PRATT

 
WALTER HAYWARD

Private, 6th Australian Machine Gun Company, service number 462.
Born at St Leonards, Bucks. Son of Sarah and the late Charles Hayward of 3 Henry Street, Tring.
Killed in action on the 4th May 1917 aged 22.
No known grave.  Commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.
Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial, 118.

Few personal details about  Walter Hayward survive.  He was born at St. Leonards, Bucks., and was a Baptist by religion.  At some stage in his life he emigrated to Australia where he later enlisted in the Australian Expeditionary Force (AIF) and returned with them, briefly, to England.  To transport the AIF to their various destinations, a fleet of transport ships was leased by the Australian government.  His Majesty’s Australian Transport Ship (HMAT) A38, on which Private Haward sailed, was owned by the China Mutual Steam Navigation Company of London and in peacetime traded under the name Ulysses. 

On the 25th October 1916 Private Hayward’s unit embarked at Melbourne (Victoria).  The embarkation list shows his civilian occupation as labourer and his address as c/o D. McLennan, Mumbannar, via Heywood, Victoria.

Australian troops embarking on the Ulysses.

The Ulysses departed that day for Durban, South Africa, which she reached on the 13th November; Cape Town on the 19th November; Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the 14th December; and Plymouth on the 28th December.  On landing at Plymouth the unit entrained for Tidworth, which they reached later that day.

HMAT A38, Ulysses.

Five infantry divisions [Note] of the AIF saw action in France and Belgium.  Commencing in April 1916, for the next two and a half years they participated in most of the major battles on the Western Front, [Note] earning a formidable reputation.  The 6th Australian Machine Gun Company, to which Private Hayward was attached, was formed in February 1916 as part of the 6th Australian Brigade.  This consisted of four infantry battalions — the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th Battalion — all of which were raised in Victoria.  After being sent to Egypt in June 1915 with the 2nd Division, the brigade then went to Gallipoli in September.  However, as the last Allied offensive had come to an end the previous month, from then until December 1915 when the Anzacs were evacuated from the peninsula, the brigade was not involved in any significant engagements.

In 1916, the 6th Australian Brigade was transferred to the Western Front, [Note] where it took part in trench fighting for the remainder of the war.  During this time it was involved in a number of major battles including the Battle of Pozières (23rd July–3rd September 1916), the Battle of Mouquet Farm (23rd July–3rd September 1916) – the latter two being Somme actions  –  and the Battles of Bullecourt (April and May 1917).  It was also involved in beating back the tide of the German Spring Offensive (21st March–18th July 1918) [Note] before taking part in the final campaign of the war, the Hundred Days Offensive (8th August–11th November). [Note]

Above: 2nd Australian Division machine gunners near Pozières, 1916.
Below: Members of an Australian Machine Gun Company, 1917.

Judging by the date of Private Hayward’s death and the location of his unit at that time, it seems likely that he was killed during the fighting for control of Bullecourt, one of several heavily fortified villages in northern France that in 1917 had been incorporated into the defences of the Hindenburg Line. [Note]

Two battles for Bullecourt were fought.  The first attack was launched on the 11th April 1917 by the 4th Australian and 62nd British Divisions.  The attack was hastily planned and mounted, and was a disaster.  The two brigades of the 4th Australian Division that carried out the attack (the 4th and 12th) suffered over 3,300 casualties while 1,170 Australians were taken prisoner, the largest number captured in a single engagement during the war.

A further attack was mounted on the 3rd May by the Australian 2nd Division (5th and 6th Brigades) and the British 62nd Division.  The Australians succeeded in penetrating the German line, but met determined opposition.  Renewed efforts on the 7th May succeeded in linking British and Australian forces.  The Germans then mounted a series of ferocious and costly counter-attacks, which eventually failed, and on the 15th May they withdrew from the remnants of the village.

Although the locality was of little or no strategic importance, the actions were nevertheless extremely costly to the AIF, their casualties totalling 7,482 from three Australian Divisions.
 

The Villers-Bretonneux Memorial is the Australian National Memorial erected to commemorate all Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium during the First World War, to their dead, and especially to name those of the dead whose graves are not known.

The Australian servicemen named in this register died in the battlefields of the Somme, Arras, the German advance of 1918 and the Advance to Victory. The memorial stands within Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, which was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from other burial grounds in the area and from the battlefields.

Of the 10,982 names displayed at the unveiling of the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial the burial places of many have since been identified and this continues to this day; 6 of these being among the significant discovery of 250 burials which culminated in the first new Commission cemetery in 50 years being dedicated in July 2010 as Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery. All these discoveries are now commemorated by individual headstones in the cemeteries where their remains lie and their details recorded in the relevant cemetery registers; their names will be removed from this memorial in due course.

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HERBERT HAZZARD

Private, 1st Oxfordshire and Bucks Light Infantry, service no. 3027.
Son of Selina Hazzard of 1 Miswell Lane, Tring.
Enlisted at Aylesbury.  Killed in action on the 1st April 1916 aged 21.
Buried in Hebuterne Military Cemetery, France, grave ref. I. A. 17.

On the 30th March 1915, the 1st Battalion (Territorial Force) Ox and Bucks Light Infantry mobilised for war and landed at Boulogne.  In May the formation became the 145th Brigade of the 48th (South Midland) Division.  They spent the greater part of this period in trenches at Hébuterne − a village 15 kilometres north of Albert (Somme) and 20 kilometres south-west of Arras − losing a few officers and men and having a somewhat arduous time, but without being seriously engaged with the enemy.

A Relieved Platoon of 1/5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, at Hébuterne, France, c.1916.
Courtesy of the Cheltenham Trust and Cheltenham Borough Council.

Towards the middle of January 1916 the Battalion moved to take over other trenches.  These lay more to the S.E. of Hébuterne in very much lower ground than their previous sector, and they found them in a serious state of decay and rapidly falling in everywhere.  The result was that every man had to do his utmost with the spade to bring about substantial improvement, and it was not long before a marked change was achieved.  However, efforts to keep open the communication trenches were very difficult, for even in good weather the results achieved were in not proportionate to the amount of effort expended.  Furthermore, the enemy artillery became ever more active and their shooting was exceptionally good.  This accounted for a number of casualties.

During this period the enemy undertook several raids, but without managing to enter the battalion’s trenches. These raids were preceded by heavy bombardments, in which the trenches suffered considerably, the more so when minenwerfers [Note] were employed in large numbers, as their shells made the most gigantic craters that completely obliterated all traces of dugouts and trench.  At the beginning of April 1916 the battalion was relieved and took over trenches that, while in better condition, were by no means good.
 

Herbert Hazzard (1895-1916)

As the weather began to improve, patrols were sent out more frequently and brisk fighting in “No Man’s Land” resulted.  This from the regimental history:

“On Sunday 26th March 1916, the Battalion moves in to ‘J’ section trenches at Hébuterne.  On the night of 1st April a patrol of Bucks men encountered an enemy patrol of some fifty soldiers in no mans land.  In the ensuing skirmish L/CPL Colbrook , Privates Hazzard and Webb were killed.  The bodies of Webb and Hazzard lay for sometime between the enemy and our positions.  When darkness fell, L/CPL Jennings and six men recovered the bodies but alas, Private Coleman was killed.  Our patrol was led by Captains Combs and Aitkin who remarked that the men killed were regularly used for such patrols, because of their expertise and bravery on such operations.

All of the soldiers mentioned in the Regimental Report, lie buried next to each other in the cemetery which is situated on the edge of the village next to a farm.”

During the war, 5,878 officers and men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry lost their lives.  This from the Bucks Herald:

“The Great War.  Another Tring Man Killed in Action. − Tring’s Roll of Honour grows apace. Private Herbert Hazzard, of Chapel Street, Tring, enlisted in the 1st Bucks Territorials in November 1914, and has been in France twelve months.  Before joining the army Herbert Hazzard was working for Messrs Honour and Son as a machinist.  Last Thursday evening his parents received intimation that their son had fallen in action.  Private Hazzard was well known in the town, where he was much liked, being a young man of steady character and amiable disposition.  The circumstances attending his death are related in the following letter to his father from the commanding officer of Private Hazzard’s company.

‘2nd April 1916.
Dear Sir,− It is with very great regret and sorrow that I have to write to you to acquaint you with the fact that your son, Private H. Hazzard, of my company was killed in action last night.  He was out on patrol with a number of his comrades and two officers.  Our patrol met a large number of the enemy outnumbering us by more than two to one.  A fight ensued in which your son threw his bombs with great effect.  I am grieved to say that he was killed instantly, by being struck on his head with a piece of bomb.  Your son was one of the best fellows in the world, and was absolutely fearless, and always cheery.  It was not the first time by any means that your son had distinguished himself on patrol.  He received special commendation from the General commanding the Division for his work during a patrol fight about a month ago.

Please accept my most sincere sympathy and the sympathy of all his comrades, both officers and men, in your sad loss.  I have lost one of my best men in your son and I feel his loss most keenly.

Yours truly
L. W. Crouch, Captain.’” [Note]

Herbert Hazzard was born in Tring.  In the 1911 Census, he is recorded living with his parents Fred (aged 53, a bricklayers’ labourer) and Selina at 18 Chapel Street, Tring.  His occupation is given as “working in machine shop.”
 

Herbert Hazzard is buried at the Hébuterne Military Cemetery.  The village of Hébuterne gave its name to a severe action fought by the French on the 10th-13th June 1915, in the “Second Battle of Artois”.  It was taken over by British troops from the French in the same summer, and it remained subject to shell fire during the Battles of the Somme.  It was again the scene of fighting in March 1918, when the New Zealand Division held up the advancing enemy, and during the following summer it was partly in German hands.

There are now over 750, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly 50 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them.

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JOHN RUSSELL HEDGES

Private, 1st/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, service no. 201230.
Son of Elizabeth Hedges of 7 Parsonage Place, Tring.
Died of pneumonia (possibly of malaria [Note]) in the Lebanon on the 16th November 1918 aged 26.
Buried in Beirut War Cemetery, Lebanon, grave ref. 312.

The long-established Bedfordshire Regiment was greatly expanded during the First World War, elements of which were engaged on both the Western Front [Note] and in the Middle East.

In January 1915, the 1st/5th Battalion was re-designated as part of the 162nd (East Midland) Brigade in the 54th (East Anglian) Division.  On the 26th July the battalion set sail for Egypt.  After a brief stop-over they reached Gallipoli where the battalion served between the 10th August and 4th December.  In December, the pitifully small number that remained were moved back to Egypt where, between January and March 1916, the battalion were rebuilt.  They then undertook a year-long posting as guards to the Suez Canal.

In March 1917, the battalion advanced to Gaza with the British and Commonwealth forces where they took part in all of the actions both there and in those that followed during the advance through Palestine. [Note]  By the time of the Armistice they were stationed at Beirut, having spent the entire campaign in that theatre of war.

Soldiers in this theatre of war suffered considerably from diseases, with the battalion losing considerably more men to that cause than to enemy fire.  This from the War Diary [Note] for the 31st October 1918:

“Beirut 0746 Battn. moved with Bde. Group through BEIRUT.  Bde. halted outside town & prepared for a Ceremonial march through.  1030 Bde. Group less wheeled & camel transport marched through BEIRUT.  When in the SQUARE Corps Commander with other General officers British & French took the salute.  Troops were received by populace with enthusiasm.  Bde. bivouaced one mile E of town.  Troops allowed into town until 1900.  Official Wire received Re. Armistice between TURKEY and the ALLIES.  During the month an epidemic of fever has been experienced malarial cases being numerous.”

During November alone the War Diary records 10 deaths from malaria.  Although the Diary attributes Private Hedges’ death to pneumonia, there can be striking clinical similarities between it and malaria, which − presumably based on correspondence received by Mrs. Hedges from the Regiment − is the cause of death reported in the Bucks Herald.

 From the Regimental War Diary for November 1918:

16 Nov 1918 Physical training 0800-0830.  Working parties engaged on stables.  A & B Coys amalgamated to form Y Coy.  C & D coys to form Z Coy.  Half holiday in afternoon.
[Private 201230 J. R. HEDGES died of Pneumonia at 1/2nd East Anglian Field Ambulance, Beirut].

17 Nov 1918 Bde. Church Parade 0900.  Pte. Hedges buried at MAR TATLAR at 1300 with Military Honours.

From the Bucks Herald, 14th November 1918:

“ROLL OF HONOUR. − News has been received of the death of . . . . Pte. John Russell Hedges, son of Mrs. Robert hedges, Parsonage Place, is reported to have died of Malaria in Egypt on Nov. 16, at the age of 25 years.”

From the Tring Parish Magazine:

“News has been received of the death, through pneumonia of John Russell Hedges, in a field ambulance in Palestine, on November 16th 1918.  He joined up in January 1915 and was attached to the Bedfordshire regiment.  After a years training in England, he went to Egypt, and served all through the campaign in Palestine.  His Chaplain, writing to his mother, says: ‘we laid your son to rest at Martatlar near Essafa, on a gentle slope overlooking the sea and his funeral (with Military Honours) was a most impressing one.

His death made a great impression among his fellows.  He was liked very much for his quiet and gentle manners.  The times have been strenuous of late, and he was a hard and uncomplaining worker, and we are glad we can keep the memory of your son’s devotion, and the inspiration of his sacrifice.’”

Beirut War Cemetery

Lebanon was taken from the Turks in 1918 by Commonwealth forces with small French and Arab detachments.  Beirut was occupied by the 7th (Meerut) Division on 8 October 1918 when French warships were already in the harbour, and the 32nd and 15th Combined Clearing Hospitals were sent to the town.  There are 628 First World War Commonwealth burials and commemorations at the cemetery.

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SIDNEY WALTER HEDGES

Lance Corporal, 6th Northamptonshire Regiment.  Enlisted at Watford, service no. 28398.
Born in Tring.  Son of the late Thomas, and of Susanna Elizabeth Hedges of 55 Western Road.
Died of wounds on the 16th April 1918 aged 21.
Buried in Rosieres Communal Cemetery Extension, France, grave ref. II.A.9.

The Northamptonshire Regiment was a British line infantry regiment that existed from 1881 until 1960. In the years that followed, amalgamations with other regiments took place in which it was absorbed into the present Royal Anglian Regiment.

6th (Service) Battalion, [Note] Northamptonshire Regiment was raised at Northampton in August 1914 as part of Kitchener’s Second New Army [Note] and joined 18th (Eastern) Division as army troops.  They moved to Colchester for training and in November (transferring to the 54th Brigade in the same Division) before moving to Salisbury Plain in May 1915 for final training.  On the 26th July 1915 it landed in France where the division concentrated near Flesselles.

In 1916 the battalion was in action on the Somme in the Battle of Albert capturing their objectives near Montauban, the Battle of Bazentin Ridge including the capture of Trônes Wood, the Battle of Delville Wood, the Battle ofThiepval Ridge, the Battle of the Ancre Heights playing a part in the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt and Regina Trench and the Battle of the Ancre.

In 1917 they took pait in the Operations on the Ancre including Miraumont and the capture of Irles, the fought during The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line [Note] and in the Third Battle of the Scarpe before moving to Flanders.  They were in action in the Battle of Pilkem Ridge, the Battle of Langemarck and the First and Second Battles of Passchendaele.

In 1918 they saw action during the Battle of St Quentin, the Battle of the Avre, the actions of Villers-Brettoneux, the Battle of Amiens and the Battle of Albert where the Division captured the Tara and Usna hills near La Boisselle and once again captured Trônes Wood.  They fought in the Second Battle of Bapaume, [Note] the Battle of Epehy, the Battle of the St Quentin Canal, the Battle ofthe Selle and the Battle of the Sambre.  At the Armistice the battalion was in XIII Corps Reserve near Le Cateau and demobilisation began on the 10th of December 1918.

British troops captured during the Spring Offensive, March 1918.

During the early stage of the 1918 German Spring Offensive, [Note] the 6th battalion formed part of the 5th Army (Lieut. General Gough), but following the Battle of St Quentin (21st–23rd March) it was moved to the 4th Army (General Sir Henry Rawlinson) with which it was engaged in the Battle of the Avre (4th-5th April).  Private hedges is reported to have been killed during the Spring Offensive (see Parish Magazine obit below), but as the date on which he was wounded is unknown, it is unclear in which action he was involved at the time.  It might have been in either of the two actions referred to, although he may have been wounded and captured on some other occasion between the start of the Offensive (21st March) and his date of his death (16th April).

From the Tring Parish Magazine:

“Sidney Walter Hedges, L/CPL, 6th Northants Regt joined the army in October 1916 and went to Halton Camp for three months training.  He then immediately proceeded to France where he remained until his death.  He was, apparently, severely wounded during the German offensive of the spring and was taken prisoner by the enemy.  He died in a German Field Reserve Hospital on April 16th and was buried in a cemetery reserved for prisoners.

He leaves behind him a pleasant memory in Tring, and has died, as we are sure he would have wished to die. gallantly, doing his duty to his king and country.”

Rosieres Communal Cemetery Extension

Rosieres was the scene of heavy fighting between the French Sixth Army and the German First Army at the end of August, 1914.  It came within the British lines in February 1917.  With the advance to the Hindenburg Line in the spring of 1917, Rosieres became part of the back area; but in the German Offensive of 1918 it was reached by the enemy on the 26th March.  In the Battle of Rosieres on the 27th it was defended  by the 8th Division and the 16th Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, [Note] but these troops had to be withdrawn during the night.  After a stubborn defence the village was retaken by the 2nd Canadian Division with Tanks on the 9th August.  There are now over 400, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site of which over one-third are unidentified.

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JOSEPH HORN

Private, 2nd Middlesex Regiment, service no. 29517.
Born in Tring.  Husband of Elizabeth Horn of 81 Brook Street, Tring.
Enlisted at Bedford on the 30th May; killed in action on the 17th November 1916, aged 31.
Buried in Guillemont Road Cemetery, Guillemont, France, grave ref. I. F. 2.

The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966.  It was formed on the 1st July 1881 with two regular, two militia and four volunteer battalions.

On the 4th August 1914, the 2nd Battalion, which had been stationed at Malta, returned to England.  It then landed at Le Havre in November as part of the 23rd Brigade, 8th Division, [Note] to provide badly-needed reinforcement to the B.E.F. [Note].

The 8th Division had been formed at the outbreak of war by combining battalions returning from outposts in the British Empire, Major-General Francis Davies taking command.  The division moved to France in November, following the First Battle of Ypres, and fought on the Western Front [Note] for the remainder of the war.  During this time the 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment was engaged in the following actions:

1915; The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, The Battle of Aubers, The action of Bois Grenier;

1916; The Battle of Albert (the first phase of the Battles of the Somme 1916), operations near Le Transloy;

1917; The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, [Note] Third Battles of Ypres (The Battle of Pilkem and The Battle of Langemarck, The Battle of the Menin Road);

1918; The Battle of St Quentin, The actions at the Somme crossings, The Battle of Rosieres, The actions at Villers-Bretonnex, The Battle of the Aisne, The Battle of the Scarpe and the Final Advance in Artois including the capture of Douai.  They ended war (11th November) at Douvrain in Belgium, N.W. of Mons.

During the Somme Offensive, the 2nd Middlesex Regiment served with the 23rd Brigade, 8th Division.  The battalion had arrived on the Somme front in 1915 and spent many months there in the lead up to the battle.  On 1st July 1916 they took part in the attack at Mash Valley near Ovillers (during The Battle of Albert, 1st–13th July) suffering more than 650 casualties on that day.

Moving a 60-pdr field gun into position during the Battle of Le Transloy, October 1916.

This from the Parish Magazine:

“Joseph Horn was killed alongside five others, by a shell which burst in his dug-out.  He joined the Army on 30th May 1916 and had been in France since September 1917.”

In October 1916, the battalion returned to the Somme and took part in operations near Le Transloy, losing more than 230 casualties in bitter hand to hand fighting at Zenith Trench.  This action, which was the 4th Army’s last offensive in the Battle of the Somme, ended in the middle of October after which the 2nd Battalion appears not to have played a part in any significant actions for the remainder of 1916.  Thus it seems reasonable to assume that Private Horn was killed during intermittent periods of artillery fire.

Joseph married Elizabeth Hart (aged 24) of 37 Akeman Street, daughter of Frederick Hart (labourer), on the 7th January 1909.  Joseph (aged 23), the son of James Horn, a boot-maker, who was then living at 80 Brook Street, gave his profession as “carman” (this being a driver of horse-drawn vehicles for transporting goods).

Guillemont was an important point in the German defences at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.  It was taken by the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers on the 30th July but the battalion was obliged to fall back, and it was again entered for a short time by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division on the 8th August.  On the 18th August, the village was reached by the 2nd Division, and on the 3rd September (in the Battle of Guillemont) it was captured and cleared by the 20th (Light) and part of the 16th (Irish) Divisions.  It was lost in March 1918 during the German advance, but retaken on the 29th August by the 18th and 38th (Welsh) Divisions.

The cemetery was begun by fighting units (mainly of the Guards Division) and field ambulances after the Battle of Guillemont, and was closed in March 1917, when it contained 121 burials.  It was greatly expanded after the Armistice when graves (almost all of July-September 1916) were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the village and certain smaller cemeteries.

Guillemont Road Cemetery now contains 2,263 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War, 1,523 of which are unidentified, but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

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CHARLES FREDERICK HOWLETT

Private, 8th Lincolnshire Regiment, service no. 41722.
Son of Frederick Charles and Emma of Western Road, Tring.
Enlisted at Aylesbury, formerly with the RASC.
Killed in action on the 4th October 1917 aged 22.
No known grave.  Commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium,
panel 35 to 37 and 162 to 162A.

The 8th Lincolnshire Regiment was established on the 15th September 1914 as part of K3. [Note]  At the outbreak of war all the battalion commanders had been in retirement − of the 21st Division, to which the 8th Lincolns were attached, only 14 officers had any previous experience in the Regular army.

The 8th Lincolns formed part of the 63rd Brigade, 21st Division in XI Corps. [Note]  The Battalion trained at Grimsby during August and at Halton Park near Tring in November.  During the winter of 1914 they moved into billets at Leighton Buzzard, but in the following spring returned to Halton Park Camp where they commenced rifle practice.

 On the 10th September 1915 the battalion landed at Boulogne, its compliment being 28 officers, 2 personnel, and 993 Other Ranks.  Having stayed in the Watten area for a week, the battalion set off for the front and The Battle of Loos.  In this, their first action, lack of battlefield experience quickly showed resulting in many unnecessary casualties − following the action 22 of their 24 officers and 471 other ranks were dead, wounded or missing.  The battalion was then taken out of the line and into billets to receive replacements and for training, periods of work on trench defences, periodical tours of the trenches and working parties.

July 1st 1916 marked the beginning of The Battle of the Somme.  The 8th Battalion attacked at Fricourt, their casualties being Officers − 4 dead, 1 missing, 7 wounded; Other ranks - 30 dead, 12 missing, 197 wounded.

On the 8th July the battalion was transferred to the 110th Brigade, 37th Division.  Their next in action was in the Battle of Ancre (13th-20th November) in which casualties were 3 officers and 172 other ranks.

During 1917 the battalion was in action during The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, [Note] The Arras Offensive (The First & Second Battles of the Scarpe and The Battle of Arleux), the The Third Battles of Ypres (The Battle of Pilkem Ridge, The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, The Battle of Polygon Wood, The Battle of Broodseinde, The Battle of Poelcapelle, The First Battle of Passchendaele) and The Cambrai Operations.

Judging by the date when Private Howlett was posted missing and the 8th Battalion’s involvement in fighting in October 1917, it appears likely that he was killed in action during The Battle of Broodseinde.  This action was  fought on the 4th October near Ypres in Flanders.  The attack aimed to complete the capture of the Gheluvelt Plateau by the occupation of Broodseinde Ridge and Gravenstafel Spur, the objective being to protect the southern flank of the British line and permit attacks on Passchendaele Ridge to the north-east.  Using new ‘bite and hold’ tactics the capture of the ridges was a great success, General Plumer (C-in-C 2nd Army) calling the attack “. . . . the greatest victory since the Marne” while the German Official History referred to “. . . . the black day of October 4”.  2nd Army casualties for the week ending the 4th October were 12,256.

Their War Diary records that on the 1st October the Battalion was in the Front line (Battalion H.Q. at Het Papotje Farm) and on the 4th October they attacked Jute Cotts, Bury Cotts etc.   Casualties were 8 officers, 181 other ranks.  The following extract from the Battalion History describes the action in which, judging by the date on which Private Howlett was posted missing and the 8th Battalion’s involvement in fighting at that time, it seems likely that he fell:

THE HISTORY

of the

LINCOLNSHIRE REGIMENT

1914-1918

Compiled from War Diaries, Despatches,
Officers’ Notes and Other Sources

Edited by
MAJOR-GENERAL C. R. SIMPSON, C.B.

COLONEL OF THE REGIMENT


The Battle of Broodseinde: 4th October

“During the evening of the 3rd of October the fine weather broke: a heavy gale and rain blew up from the south-west.  Under such adverse conditions arrangements were made for the next battle.

The attack took place at 6 a.m. on the 4th of October, and was directed against the main line of the ridge east of Zonnebeke.  The front of the principal attack extended from the Menin road to the Ypres-Staden railway — a distance of about seven miles.  Only a short advance, with the object of capturing certain strong points was to take place south of the Menin road.

Two battalions of the Regiment — the 1st and 8th Lincolnshire — took part in the Battle of Broodseinde, the former attacking the enemy near the south-western corner of the Polygon Wood, the latter south of the Menin road.

The 8th Lincolnshire was the left attacking battalion of the 63rd Brigade (37th Division): the 8th Somerset was on its right.  The brigade had been but a short while in the line, having relieved the 118th Brigade on the night of the 27th/28th of September.  The position taken over was supposed to be the line of a road running north and south through Jute Cotts (a farmhouse south of Tower Hamlets), but the actual line was found to be about one hundred and fifty yards west of the road and in places even more.  And even this road had been obliterated by shell-fire.  No movement was possible during the day and reconnaissance was extremely difficult.  Even runners as soon as they left Battalion Headquarters were sniped.  However, after offensive operations had been ordered, some sort of a reconnaissance was carried out and the road was then found to be the German outpost line, with strong points behind it.

The Somerset and Lincolnshire formed up under the greatest difficulties, and at 6 a.m. attacked the enemy.  But from the time they left their assembly positions both battalions came under murderous machine-gun fire.

The only comment made by the 8th Lincolnshire in their Battalion Diary is ‘Attack unsuccessful,’ while the 63rd Brigade narrative has the following: ‘On the left the 8th Lincolnshire advanced and, after going about one hundred yards, came under fire of several machine-guns which swept the slope.  Two of these appeared to be between the road and Joist Trench and another at Berry Cotts.  These guns inflicted very heavy casualties on the leading companies.  The enemy, about one hundred strong, were occupying the trench about fifty yards east of the Jute Cotts road and were reinforced from Joist Trench.  The enemy also made local counter-attacks, but it was entirely due to the machine-gun fire that the attack was held up here.  Owing to the whole plateau being swept by these machine-guns and also by the machine-guns from the south, it was decided that the attack could not get over the ground and, owing to casualties, the original line was occupied.’

On the 5th the Lincolnshire advanced their posts north of Jute Cotts to within fifty yards of the German line, and on this line they were relieved on the 6th of October, returning to Little Kemmel.  The Brigade Diary gives one hundred and eighty-four as the total casualties suffered during the operations: Captain R. G. Cordiner, Lieutenant A. F. Forge and 2nd Lieutenants R. H. Westbury, W. R. Gibson and F. H. J. Robilliard were killed and 2nd Lieutenants E. H. Dukes and H. E. K. Neen wounded.”

This from the Parish Magazine:

“Charles Frederick Howlett, Lincolnshire Regiment who has been missing since 4th October 1917, is now presumed killed on that date.  He was engaged alongside his battalion in the fighting about Polygon Wood.  He was last seen by his Corporal, going over the top, and has not been seen since.  Also, there is nobody left who could tell what happened to him subsequently.”

Charles, the eldest child (he had two sisters and seven brothers) of Frederick and Emma Howlett, was born in Aylesbury in 1895.  He sang in the Tring Parish Church Choir for some nine years and was confirmed as a chorister.  In October 1915 he joined the Royal Army Service Corps in his trade as a baker.  In January 1917 he was transferred to the Infantry and was sent to France in the following May, where he joined the 8th (Service) [Note] Bn. Lincolnshire Regiment.

The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient.  Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war.

There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south.  The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather.  The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.

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HENRY JANES

Corporal 1st Royal Marine Light Infantry, service no. PO/17361.
Son of Job and Ruth Janes of 33 Kimberley Terrace, Wingrave Road, New Mill.
Killed in action on the 17th February 1917 aged 23 years.
Buried at Queens Cemetery, Bucquay, France, grave ref II M 10.

At the outbreak of the war the Royal Naval Division was formed from Royal Navy and Royal Marine reservists and volunteers − some 20-30,000 men − who were not needed for service at sea.  This was sufficient to form two Naval Brigades and a Brigade of Marines for operations on land.  The Division fought at Antwerp in 1914 and at Gallipoli in 1915.

In 1916, following many losses among the original naval volunteers, the Royal Naval Division was transferred to the British Army as the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, under which title it fought on the Western Front [Note] for the remainder of the war.  During this time the 63rd took part, during 1916, in the Battle of the Ancre (13th–18th November); in 1917, in the Actions of Miraumont (17th–18th February); Battle of Arras (9th April–16th May); Second Battle of Passchendaele (26th October–10th November); Action of Welsh Ridge (30th December); and, in 1918, in the Battle of St. Quentin (First Battle of Bapaume) (24th–25th March) [Note]; Battle of Albert (21st–23rd August); Hundred Days Offensive (8th August–11th November) [Note].

Judging from the date of Corporal Janes’s death (17th February 1917) and the location of his unit at the time, it appears likely that he was killed during The Actions of Miraumont (17th–18th February, 1917).

The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division had two battalions of Royal Marine Light Infantry, the 1st (1RMLI) and 2nd, both of which formed part of the 188th Brigade.  Due to the serious casualties it suffered at the Battle of Ancre in November 1916, 1RMLI was withdrawn from the front line to be rebuilt as a fighting unit.

Although the Battle of the Somme officially ended on the 18th November 1916, the slaughter continued in the New Year as the higher command demanded that the line be advanced.  In early 1917, the 5th Army planned a series of attacks to improve its positions, the first of which was carried out on the 17th February. The main attack south of the Ancre [Note] was to be carried out by the 99th Brigade (2nd Division) and 53rd and 54th Brigades (18th Division).  6th Brigade (2nd Division) was to attack in support on the right, while 63rd (Royal Naval) Division on the left was to advance north of the Ancre.  Success would give the British command of the approaches to Pyrs and Miraumont, and observation over the upper Ancre Valley.  The attack was officially named The Actions of Miraumont.

Royal Field Artillery [Note] howitzer emplacement at Miraumont-le-Grand, 1917.

The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division objective was to capture 700 yards of the road north from Baillescourt Farm towards Puisieux, to gain observation over Miraumont and to form a defensive flank on the left back to the existing front line.  On the evening of 16th February, 1RMLI assembled for the attack, but based on intelligence they had received, at 0500 the Germans brought down an artillery barrage on the 1RMLI assembly area resulting in the battalion suffering more than 50% casualties before their attack even began.  Despite this setback, the surviving Marines began their advance at 0545 under the cover of a British artillery barrage under the cover of a British artillery barrage.  In the confusion of battle and with the difficultly in navigating, the two left hand companies veered towards the right, by pure chance avoiding intact barbed wire.  Thus, the sector they attacked had no wire at all, and by 1100 1RMLI had achieved their objectives.  Their starting strength was around 500; at the end of the day’s fighting only 100 personnel were fit for duty, most of the casualties having resulted from the initial German artillery bombardment.  Few men were killed in the assault itself in which they encountered little opposition.

Corporal Janes was killed in action of the 17th February 1917.  This from his battalion’s War Diary for that period.  The Battalion was then in the RIVER TRENCH SECTOR, North of Grandcourt (a commune in the Somme department in northern France):

“14.2.17: The 1st Royal Marines relieved the 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the RIVER TRENCH SECTOR, N of Grandcourt.  B & D Companies Hd. Qrs. in Pusieux Trench. Battalion Hd. Qrs. PUSIEUX ROAD.  Capt. Nouse to 2nd Field Ambulance (Influenza). Casualties 2 killed - 1 offr (2nd Lt. Lee) and 9 Other Ranks wounded.

15.2.17: Relief completed 3.0am.  Casualties 6 killed - 3 missing - 9 wounded.

16.2.17: Battalion Hd. Qrs. moved forward to PUSIEUX TRENCH.  Battalion lined up for attack at 10.0pm.  Objective SUNKEN ROAD - L32C 91 to RCa26 including two strong points, that on the right being known as the PIMPLE.  Posts had to be established 50 yards beyond the Road.

Howe Battalion to attack on our right - 2nd R.M. Battalion held ARTILLERY ALLEY and protected left flank.  ANSON Battalion held position R2d75 - R3c37 - R3c63.  The following officers were with the Battalion in the attack.  Lieut. Col. F. J. W Cartwright, D.S.O., Major H. Ozanne (wounded), Major F. H. B. Wellesley, West Riding Regiment (wounded), Captain E. J. Huskisson, Captain J. Pearson, Lieut. H. W. R. Hall, Lieut A. C. Donne (wounded), Lieut. L. W. Robinson (killed), 2nd Lieut. A. A. Okell (killed), 2nd Lieut. F. Savage (killed), 2nd Lieut. E. Sanderson (wounded), 2nd Lieut. C. R. Burton (killed), 2nd Lieut. C. L. Rugg (severely wounded), Lieut. E. G. Coulson (killed), 2nd Lieut. W. C. Gudliston (wounded), Lieut. R. E. Champness, Lieut. F. W. A. Perry (killed), 2nd Lieut. H. C. Brown (killed), Surgeon Unthank R.N.

17.2.17: Advance commenced at 5.45am, on barrage [Note] opening. Our dispositions were, from right to left D, B, C, A companies were extended at 2 paces interval, & in two waves at 20 paces distance. The lines were subjected to heavy bombardment by 77mm. at about 5.00am necessitating a call for retaliation by our Artillery. [Note]  Reports received at 6.40am to effect that the Battalion had gained their objective, and that the PIMPLE had been captured.  102 prisoners were taken, 1 77mm gun, & 2 machine guns were captured.

18.2.17: The enemy counter attacked on three occasions.  On one occasion taking advantage of thick mist, he counter attacked, without artillery preparation, 2 battalions strong, on 1½ mile frontage.  S.O.S. message was sent, the artillery replying with great promptitude, causing many casualties.  The battalion on the left turned and fled, and was almost immediately followed by the right battalion.  The line from Battalion Hd. Qrs. to front line had only just been repaired when S.O.S. was asked for.

Total casualties suffered by the Battalion in the attack, capture and consolidation of the objective – SUNKEN ROAD. Officers – 7 killed, 6 wounded. Other ranks – 57 killed, 193 wounded, 27 missing.

19.2.17: 1st R. M. Battalion relieved in the line during the night of the 18th/19th Feb. by 2nd R. M. Battalion.  Relief completed 7.0am.  Companies moving independently to old German 2nd and 3rd lines – Q18a30 – 1500 yards SSE of BEAUMONT HAMEL.  Major Ozanne to Field Ambulance.”

The Action of Miraumont forced the Germans to begin their withdrawal from the Ancre valley before their planned Retreat to the Hindenburg Line. [Note]  On the 24th February, reports arrived that the Germans had gone, while further south their positions around Le Transloy were found abandoned on the night of 12th/13th March.  Allied troops entered Bapaume [Note] on the 17th March.

From the Bucks Herald, 31st March 1917:

“THE ROLL OF HONOUR. − The parish has to mourn the loss of two more of her sons, who have laid down their lives for their country’s cause ‘somewhere in France’ − Henry Janes, a corporal in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, son of Mr. J. Janes, of Wingrave-road, and Pte. Frank George Wilkins, son of Mr. Geo. Wilkins, King-street.”

From the Parish Magazine, April 1917:

“Henry Janes must have done well to have attained the rank of Corporal in such as body as the Royal Marines.  He served throughout the campaign in Gallipoli and came out unscathed.  However, he was killed in action on the 17th February 1917, somewhere in France.  May god accept what he has given.”

Ruth Collyer married Job Janes in 1876 when she was 22 years old.  The 1901 Census records her and her family living at 1, The Grove, Tring.  Her husband, Job Janes (then aged 48) is recorded as a domestic gardener.  Their son Henry was born at Tring on the 27th February 1893.  In 1901 the Census records him living with his parents, brother (Robert, aged 14, a grocer’s assistant) and 3 sisters (Amy, aged 12; Emily, aged 10; and Ethel May, aged 6).  Also living at the address was a grandson, Albert (born at Pitstone), then a baby.

Ten year later the family was resident at 33 Wingrave Road.  In the Census of that year none of the girls are recorded at living that address, but Robert (grocer’s assistant) and Henry (apprentice whitesmith) continued to reside there with their parents, and with grandson Albert (a scholar).

Queens Cemetery, Bucquay, France, was begun in March 1917, when 23 men of the 2nd Queen’s were buried in what is now Plot II, Row A.  Thirteen graves of April-August 1918 were added (Plot II, Row B) in September 1918 by the 5th Division Burial Officer.  The remainder of the cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of British and French graves and one American from the battlefields of the Ancre and from small cemeteries in the neighbourhood.  These included, at Puisieux, the River Trench Cemetery (containing the graves of 117 officers and men) and the Swan Trench Cemetery (containing the graves of 27 officers and men), in both cases mostly of men of the Royal Naval Division who fell in February 1917.

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FREDERICK KEMPSTER

Rifleman, 7th Royal Irish Rifles, service no. 41863.
Born in Tring.  Husband of Rose Kempster, 76 Akeman Street, Tring.
Enlisted at Tring, formerly with the Essex Regiment.
Killed in action on the 2nd October 1917 aged 29.
Buried in Cojeul British Cemetery, St. Martin-sur-Cojeul, France, grave ref. 1. F. 6.

The 7th (Service) [Note] Battalion Royal Irish Rifles was formed at Belfast in September 1914 as part of K2, [Note] coming under the command of 48th Brigade in 16th (Irish) Division. [Note]  After training in Ireland and in England, in December 1915 the battalion moved to France for service on the Western Front, [Note] where they remained for the rest of the war.

The division was introduced to trench warfare at the battle of Loos and suffered greatly during the action at Hulluch (27th–29th April 1916).  Just before dawn on the 27th April, the 16th Division and part of the 15th Division were subjected to a German gas attack at Hulluch, a French village north of Loos.  The gas cloud and artillery bombardment were followed by raiding parties that made temporary lodgements in the British lines.  Two days later the Germans began another gas attack, but the wind turned and blew the gas back over the German lines.  A large number of German casualties were caused by the change in the wind direction and the decision to go ahead with the attack against protests by local officers, and casualties were increased by British troops firing on German soldiers as they fled in the open.  However, the German gas − a mixture of chlorine and phosgene − was of sufficient concentration to penetrate the primitive British PH gas helmets [Note] and the 16th (Irish) Division was unjustly blamed for poor gas discipline.  Production of the Small Box Respirator, [Note] which had worked well during the attack, was accelerated.

On 27th April, the 16th (Irish) Division lost 442 men, while the total British casualties from the 27th to the 29th April were 1,980, of whom 1,260 were gas casualties, 338 being killed.  In the Loos sector, between January and the end of May 1916, out of a total of 10,845 men, the 16th (Irish) Division lost 3,491 including heavy casualties from bombardment and the gas attack at Hullach in April.  Losses of this order were fatal to the Division’s character, for they could only be replaced by drafts from England.

The Division was next involved during 1916 in the Battle of the Somme, in particular in the battles of Guillemont (3rd–6th September) and of Ginchy (9th September) in which they suffered heavy casualties −  in these actions the Division had 224 officers and 4090 men killed or wounded.

Men of the 16th (Irish) Division returning for a rest after taking Guillemont,
3rd September 1916.

In 1917 the 16th (Irish) Division was moved to Flanders, where it took up position beside the 36th (Ulster) Division below the Messines Ridge.  On the 7th June, the two Divisions took part in the successful assault on the Ridge, but another severe blow was struck at the Battle of Langemarck (16th-18th August, part of The Third Battle of Ypres) when the Division was hurled against strong German defences.  By mid August it had suffered over 4,200 casualties while the 36th Division suffered almost 3,600, or more than 50% of its numbers.  Daily Telegraph journalist Philip Gibbs, who witnessed this conflict, later wrote the following account.  Many of his comments are acerbic, especially when analysing “the atrocious Staff work, tragic in its consequences”:

“The story of the two Irish Divisions, the 36th Ulster and 16th (Nationalist), in their fighting on August 16th, is black in tragedy.  They were left in the line for sixteen days before the battle, and were shelled and gassed incessantly as they crouched in wet ditches.  Every day groups of men were blown to bits, until the ditches were bloody and the living lay by the corpses of their comrades.  Every day scores of wounded crawled jback through the bogs, if they had the strength to crawl.  Before the attack on August 16th the Ulster Division had lost nearly 2,000 men.  Then they attacked and lost 2,000 more and over 100 officers.  The 16th Division lost as many men before the attack and more officers.  The 8th Dublins had been annihilated in holding the line.  On the night before the battle hundreds of men were gassed.  Then their comrades attacked and lost over 2,000 more and 162 officers.  All the ground below two knolls of earth called Hill 35 and Hill 37, which were defended by German pill-boxes, called Pond Farm and Gallipoli, Beck House and Borry Farm, became an Irish shambles.  In spite of their dreadful losses the survivors in the Irish battalions went forward to the assault with desperate valour on the morning of August 16th, surrounded the ‘pill-boxes,’ stormed them through blasts of machine-gun fire, and towards the end of the day small bodies of these men had gained a footing on the objectives which they had been asked to capture, but were then too weak to resist German counter-attacks.  The 7th and 8th Royal Irish Fusiliers had been almost exterminated in their efforts to dislodge the enemy from Hill 37.  They lost 17 officers out of 21, and 64 per cent, of their men.  One company of 4 officers and 100 men ordered to capture the concrete fort known as Borry Farm, at all cost, lost 4 officers and 70 men.  The 9th Dublins lost 15 officers out of 17, and 66 per cent, of their men.

The two Irish Divisions were broken to bits, and their brigadiers called it murder.  They were violent in their denunciation of the Fifth Army for having put their men into the attack after those thirteen days of heavy shelling, and, after the battle, they complained that they were cast aside like old shoes, no care being taken for the comfort of the men who had survived.  No motor-lorries were sent to meet them and to bring them down, but they had to tramp back, exhausted and dazed.  The remnants of the 16th Division, the poor, despairing remnants, were sent, without rest or baths, straight into the line again, down south.

I found a general opinion among officers and men, not only of the Irish Division, under the command of the Fifth Army, that they had been the victims of atrocious Staff work, tragic in its consequences.  From what I saw of some of the Fifth Army staff-officers I was of the same opinion.  Some of these young gentlemen, and some of the elderly officers, were arrogant and supercilious, without revealing any symptoms of intelligence.  If they had wisdom it was deeply camouflaged by an air of inefficiency. If they had knowledge they hid it as a secret of their own.  General Gough, commanding the Fifth Army in Flanders, and afterwards north and south of St. Quentin, where the enemy broke through, was extremely courteous, of most amiable character, with a high sense of duty.  But in Flanders, if not personally responsible for many tragic happenings, he was badly served by some of his subordinates; and battalion officers, and divisional staffs, raged against the whole of the Fifth Army organization, or lack of organization, with an extreme passion of speech.

‘You must be glad to leave Flanders,’ I said to a group of officers trekking towards the Cambrai Salient.   One of them answered violently: ‘God be thanked we are leaving the Fifth Army area!’”

From Realities of War, by Philip Gibb (1920).

By the spring of 1918, 5th Army’s commander, Hubert Gough, was undergoing serious criticism of his conduct and was regarded as perhaps the least-talented or able of Sir Douglas Haig’s generals.  He had also become very unpopular with his troops.  Following the reverses suffered by the 5th Army during the German Spring Offensive, [Note] on the 4th April 1918 Haig received a telegram from Lord Derby (Secretary of State for War) ordering that Gough be dismissed on the grounds of “having lost the confidence of his troops”.

Following the Langemarck action, the 16th (Irish) Division was not involved in a further major action until the Battle of Cambrai commenced on 20th November, by which time Rifleman Kempster was dead.  How he met his end is not known.  this from the Bucks Herald 20th October 1917:

ROLL OF HONOUR. − We have this week to announce with deep regret the loss of two men of the town, both of whom have been killed in action . . . . Rifleman F. Kempster, Royal Irish Rifles, killed in action October 2, leaves a wife and two children.  His home was in King-street, and previous to the war he was employed as carter by Mr. William Lockhart, coal merchant.  He was well known as a member of the local corps of the Salvation Army, and an instrumentalist in the band.  The deepest sympathy is felt with the bereaved families.

From the Parish Magazine, November 1917:

“Frederick Kempster, Rifleman, Royal Irish Rifles, was killed in action on October 2, 1917.  Several of his friends sent a joint letter to his wife.  They wrote ‘He was a good soldier and was well liked by his comrades.  He died like a soldier, and his body now has a soldier’s grave somewhere in France’.

Frederick Kempster joined the Army in July 1916 and went to France in March 1917.  He was a good fellow, and a consistent member of the Salvation Army, where for many years, he was a tenor player.”

Frederick Kempster was born in Tring on the 27th February 1890.  In April 1912 he married Rose Barber in Berkhamstead, and she gave birth to their son Alfred Frederick on 26th October of that year.

Cojeul British Cemetery was begun by the 21st Division Burial Officer in April 1917, and used by fighting units until the following October.  It was very severely damaged in later fighting.  The cemetery contains 349 burials and commemorations, 35 of the burials being unidentified while 31 graves destroyed by shell fire are represented by special memorials.

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ERNEST KING

Private, 4th North Staffordshire Regiment, service no. 42586.
Son of Susannah of 9 Myrtle Cottages, Bulbourne, Tring.
Formerly employed at Apsley Mills.
Died of wounds (sustained in France) at Coombe Lodge Auxiliary Military Hospital, Essex,
on the 13th February 1919, aged 19.
Buried in Tring Cemetery, grave ref. Row F Grave 64.

Although its roots can be traced back to the 18th century, The North Staffordshire (infantry) Regiment grew out of the Childers Reforms [Note] in 1881.  The Regiment then served all over the Empire in times of both peace and war, elements of which took part in many conflicts such as the Second Sudanese War (1895), the Second Boer War (1899-1902), the Anglo-Irish War (1919-22) and the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919).

At the outbreak of the First World War, the 4th Battalion was serving as the garrison in Guernsey.  In 1916 it returned to the United Kingdom and in  the following year arrived in France where it served on the Western Front [Note] for the remainder of the war.

Trench warefare.

On the 3rd of February 1918 the 4th Battalion North Staffs joined the 105th Brigade in the 35th Division.  In 1918 they fought in the First Battle of Bapaume (24th–25th March) and the Final Advance in Flanders, including The Battle of Courtrai and The action of Tieghem.  They crossed the River Scheldt near Berchem on the 9th of November and by the Armistice they had entered Grammont.  They moved back to Eperlecques and many of the miners in the Regiment were demobilised in December.  In January 1919, units of the Division were sent to Calais to quell rioting in the transit camps. The last of the Division were demobilised in April 1919.

The brief obituary published in the Tring Church Parish Magazine (below) states that Private King arrived in France on the 31st March 1918.  Thus, with the exception of the First Battle of Bapaume (24th-25th March), it is possible that he was involved in one or both the actions in which the Battalion was engaged in 1918 –  The Battle of Courtrai (14th-19th October); The Action of Tieghem (31st October) – but when he received his wound is not known.

Private King died at Coombe Lodge Auxiliary Military Hospital, Essex.  The hospital, which operated from the 6th November 1914 to the 19th March 1919, was located in a large country house donated by Evelyn Heseltine, a successful stockbroker.  Shortly before the outbreak of war his daughter, Muriel, married Brigadier General Cecil Henry De Rougemont.  Whilst her husband was abroad fighting for king and country, Muriel worked as Commandant of the VAD [Note] Red Cross unit at Coombe Lodge, and for her services she was awarded an OBE.

Before the war began, the British Red Cross searched for suitable properties that could be used as temporary hospitals if war broke out.  This meant that as soon as wounded men began to arrive from abroad, hospitals were largely available for their use, with staff and equipment in place.  Such ‘auxiliary military hospitals’ were usually staffed by:

a Commandant, who was in charge of the hospital’s administration, but not its medical

        and nursing services;
a Quartermaster, who was responsible for the receipt, custody and issue of articles in the

        provision store;
a Matron, who directed the nursing staff;

members of the local Voluntary Aid Detachment who were trained in first aid and home

        nursing.

Both the reports below state that Ernest died of pneumonia, which, at this date, suggests that Spanish Influenza might have been the primary cause of death. [Note]  This from the Bucks Herald, 1st March 1919:

“ROLL OF HONOUR. − We regret to hear that the Roll of Honour of Tring men who have given their lives in the war has passed 100.  It is our sad duty this week to record the deaths of yet two more local men. − Ernest King, North Staffordshire Regiment, had done 12 months service, joining up when he was 18 years of age, and was quickly sent over to France.  He was badly wounded, was brought home to England, and for a period had been in hospital.  It was hoped he would make a full recovery, but pneumonia supervened, and he died on Feb 13.  His remains were brought to Tring and laid to rest in the new cemetery, military honours being accorded by a party from Halton Camp.  The last service was conducted by the Vicar (Rev. H. Francis).”

From the Parish Magazine, Holy Week, 1919:

“Ernest King, North Staffordshire Regt, joined twelve months ago, and crossed for France on Easter Day 1918. [31st March]  He was soon in action, and later on was badly wounded.  He was brought to England and received every care and attention at Combe Lodge, Great Warley, Near Brentwood in Essex, and great hopes were entertained for his recovery, but pneumonia carried him off on 13 February.

His body was brought to Tring and laid to rest in our cemetery with Military honours on 20 February.”

Ernest King’s grave in Tring Cemetery.

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BERTIE LOVEGROVE

Private, “D” Coy, 9th East Surrey Regiment, service number 3012.
Born in Tring.  Joseph and Annie Lovegrove, 14 Frogmore Street, Tring.
Enlisted at Watford.  Killed in action on the 25th February 1916.
Buried in Menin Road South Military Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium, grave ref. I. A. 17.

The East Surrey (infantry) Regiment was formed under the Childers Reforms, [Note] from the amalgamation of the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment (which became its 1st Battalion) and the 70th (Surrey) Regiment (which became its 2nd Battalion).  The Regiment contributed greatly to the First World War, raising 18 battalions.  Included in this were seven service battalions raised as part of Kitchener’s New Army.  The 10th and 11th battalions were used for auxiliary purposes and recruiting, but the 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th and 13th went to France.  Overall, 6000 men were lost and seven Victoria Crosses won.

The 9th (Service) [Note] Battalion was formed at Kingston-upon-Thames in September 1914 as part of K3. [Note]  Following training, the Battalion landed at Boulogne on the 1st September 1915 for service on the Western Front [Note] as part of the 72nd Brigade in the 24th Division.  On the 4th September the Division concentrated in the area between Etaples and St Pol, and a few days later marched across France into the reserve for the British assault at Loos, going into action on the 26th of September and suffering heavy losses.

In 1916 the 9th Battalion suffered in the German gas attack at Wulverghem (30th April and the 17th June) and then moved to The Somme, seeing action in the battles of Delville Wood (15th July–3rd September) and of Guillemont (3rd–6th September).

The haunting drama Journey’s End (1928) is a well-known play about the Great War.  Its author, R. C. Sherriff, saw all his front line service with 9th Battalion.  The entire story plays out in the officers’ dugout over four days from the 18th to the 21st March 1918, during the run-up to the real-life events of Operation Michael. [Note]

Bertie Lovegrove was born in the 3rd quarter of 1891.  In the 1901 Census he is recorded living at 14 Frogmore Street with his parents Joseph (a gardener, aged 46) and Annie (aged 50), together with his Aunt Bessie (aged 39, a straw plait worker) and cousin Lily (aged 20, a wood box maker). Ten years later the family remain at 14 Frogmore Street, but besides Bertie (aged 20, an ostler, looking after the horses at the Black Horse, Frogmore Street), the household has now reduced to Joseph (general labourer), Annie and a boarder named Betsey Coughfrey (aged 48, charwoman) whose surname suggests she is related to Annie.

Private Lovegrove was killed in action on the night of the 25th February 1916.  According to its War Diary [Note] entry for that day, the 9th Battalion was at the village of Zillebeke  (scene of the infamous Battle of Hill 60, 17th April-7th May 1915), about 1½ miles south-east of Ypres.  The single entry states simply: “Furnished various working parties for work in trenches 2 killed & 10 wounded.”  It thus seems likely that Bertie was one of the two fatalities referred to, possibly falling victim to shellfire or to a nocturnal raiding party:

From the Parish Magazine, April 1916:

“Bertie Lovegrove, Private in ‘D’ Company 9th Bn East Surrey Regt was killed in action on 25 February 1916.  The sergeant Major of ‘D’ Company writes, in a letter to his parents:

‘I have sorrowful news for you; your son who was in my company was killed in action on the night of February 25th.  I must tell you, he died a hero, for his country.  He will be missed by all of his comrades in the company.

For myself, his loss will be great, for he was a good soldier and a brave lade.  He seemed to have a presentiment that he was going to die, but for the last three days in action, he was the brightest of boys, trying to cheer everybody up.  We all feel for you in your distress.’”

The Menin Road ran east and a little south from Ypres to a front line which varied only a few kilometres during the greater part of the war.  The position of this cemetery was always within the Allied lines.  It was first used in January 1916 by the 8th South Staffords and the 9th East Surreys, and it continued to be used by units and Field Ambulances until the summer of 1918.  The cemetery was increased after the Armistice when graves were brought in from isolated positions on the battlefields.

There are now 1,657 servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery.  118 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials are erected to 24 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.  In addition, there are special memorials to 54 casualties who were buried in Menin Road North Military Cemetery, whose graves were probably destroyed by shell fire and could not be found.

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ARTHUR LOVELL

Private, 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division, Machine Gun Company, service no. 50477.
Son of Alfred and Mary of 7 Bunstrux Hill, Tring.
Died of Malaria  [Note] in the Lebanon on the 16th November 1918 aged 26.
Buried in Beirut War Cemetery, Lebanon, grave ref. 123.

The 54th (East Anglian) Division [Note] was a formation of the Territorial Force, [Note] formed as a result of the Haldane reforms of 1908.  As such it was one of 14 Divisions of the peacetime TF.

On the 8th July 1915, the Division was ordered to refit for service at Gallipoli.  Leaving the artillery and train behind, the rest of the Division sailed from Liverpool and Devonport, the first ships reaching Lemnos on the 6th August.  On the 10th August units landed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, as part of IX Corps and took part in operations in the Sulva area before being evacuated from Gallipoli in December (only 240 officers and 4480 men strong).

Private Lovell joined the Bedford Regiment in June, 1915, and was later transferred to the Norfolk Regiment, joining the 54th Division Machine Gun Company.  This Company was formed in April and May 1916 from a merger of the 54th Division’s three existing Brigade − i.e. the 161st (Essex) Brigade, 162nd (East Midland) Brigade, and 163rd (Norfolk & Suffolk) Brigade − machine gun companies.

Ottoman artillerymen at Hareira in 1917 before the Southern Palestine offensive.

During 1916, the 54th Division formed part of the Suez Canal defences, and in the following two years took part in the Gaza and Southern Palestine offensives. [Note]  On the date of the Armistice with Turkey (31st October 1918) the Division was concentrated at Beirut, where Private Lovell died from malaria.

From the Parish Magazine December 1918:

“Just as we go to press, we hear that Arthur Lovell, Machine Gun Corps (Norfolk Regt) has died of malarial fever at Alexandria [but see below].  He has been in the Army for the last three and a half years, for the greater part of this time, with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.  He was a great favourite with all who knew him.  His parents, who have now lost two sons, have our deepest Sympathy. R.I.P.”

From the Parish Magazine, January 1919:

“Of Arthur Lovell, whose death was recorded in our last number Major Culme Seymore writing to his parents , says ‘Your son was only two days in hospital at Beyrouth, [French for Beriut] having been admitted there on 14th November, so his death was sudden.

It may be of some consolation to you to know he was spared a lingering illness.  He has served with me since the Machine Gun Corps was formed in 1916.  You will be pleased to know, that he was a good soldier and did his work well, both in action and when out of the front line.

I send you my deepest sympathy.  He was buried at Beyrouth on Sunday 17th November.’

A letter from one of his mates says:

‘Jerry, as we used to call your son, was a good soldier and a great mate, and I assure you will be greatly missed by us all.  He was always merry and bright, and tried to live a godly life.  This letter conveys to you and yours, the deepest sympathy of myself and all the boys in A section.’”

Lebanon was taken from the Turks in 1918 by Commonwealth forces with small French and Arab detachments.  Beirut was occupied on the 8th October 1918, and the 32nd and 15th Combined Clearing Hospitals were sent to the town.

The Beirut War Cemetery was begun in October 1918 and was later enlarged when graves were brought in from other burial grounds in the area.  Commonwealth burials and commemorations now total 628 for the First World War and 531 for the Second World War.  The cemetery also contains a number of war graves of other nationalities, many of them Greek and Turkish.

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FREDERICK LOVELL

Private, 13th Essex Regiment, enlisted at East Ham, Essex, service no. 17199.
Born in Tring.  Son of Mr. and Mrs A. Lovell of Akeman Street, Tring.
Husband of Mrs. E. E. Stocker (formerly Lovell) of 1 Pinewood Cottages, Pinewood Road, Ash, Surrey.
Killed in action the 2nd August 1916 aged 28.
Buried in Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, France, grave ref. VIII. C. 8.

There is some confusion over both Frederick’s rank and his unit, with different burial documents stating Lance Corporal and Private, and the 13th Essex and the 15th Essex respectively.  Rank is unimportant in this context, but unit is, so I have selected the Commonwealth War Grave Commission information, which places him in the 13th Battalion (West Ham) Essex Regiment, ‘The West Ham Pals’.

The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms [Note] by the amalgamation of the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot and the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot, which then became the 1st and 2nd battalions of the new regiment.  During the First World War, the Essex Regiment provided 30 infantry battalions to the British Army.  In 1914, three service [Note] battalions (9th, 10th and 11th) and one reserve battalion (12th) were formed from volunteers as part of Kitchener’s Army. [Note]  A further service battalion, the 13th West Ham, was raised by the Mayor and Borough of West Ham.  Initially recruits came from West/East Ham, Forest Gate, Custom House, Barking and Stratford but others from abroad joined the regiment.  Overall, some 9000 officers and men of the Essex Regiment died in the 1914-18 War, many having no known grave.

In November 1915, the 1200 strong West Ham Battalion landed in Boulogne after which they saw action in most of the major battles on the Western Front. [Note] Initially under orders from the 100th Brigade in the 33rd Division, on the 22nd December 1915 the 13th Battalion was transferred to the 6th Brigade in the 2nd Division, as part of which they were involved in major actions including, in:

1916, The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of the Ancre and Operations on the Ancre;

1917, The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The First Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of Arleux, The Second Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of Cambrai.

Frederick Lovell was killed in action on the 2nd August, 1916 where, between the 29th July and the 4th August, his unit was in the front line in Delville Wood.

Delville Wood, 20th September 1916.

Following the successful dawn attack of the 14th July, the newly won British line formed a salient, the right side of which was threatened by German positions in Delville Wood.  The wood needed to be taken, a task fell to the South African Brigade.  During the attack the South Africans came under withering German artillery fire that almost completely destroyed both the wood and their battalions.  The Brigade had gone into battle with a strength of 121 officers and 3,032 other ranks − at roll call on 21st July they numbered a mere 29 officers and 751 other ranks.  Mud and rainwater covered the bodies of South Africans and Germans alike, many of whom remain in the wood today.

Vicious fighting for Delville Wood continued for another six weeks, the advantage continuously changing from one side to the other.  On the 27th July the 2nd Division renewed the assault, followed on the 4th August by the 17th Division, but the wood was only completely cleared of Germans following the fall of Ginchy (Northern France) on the 9th September.

From the Bucks Herald 19th August 1916:

“Lance-Corporal F. Lovell, 15th Essex Regiment, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lovell, Akeman-street, and had been in France for ten months; he was a first class bomb thrower.  His friends have as yet to received official intimation of his death, but the news came through in a letter from a comrade, who also forwarded seven letters which Lance-Corporal Lovell had written, but had not posted.  Up to the time he enlisted he was employed by Messrs. Rothschild’s refinery in the City, and his parents have received a letter of sympathy and condolence from the firm of N. M. Rothschild.  Sydney Lovell, who was in the Bucks Territorials, was wounded on July 21, and is now in Tring.  He arrived home the same day that his parents received the news that Frederick had been killed in action.  A third son [Arthur] is serving with the Army in Egypt.”

From the Parish Magazine September 1916:

“Frederick Lovell was a Lance Corporal in the 15th Essex Regiment and had been in France this last ten months.

He had gained distinction as a first class bomb thrower.  No particulars of his death have been received, except that it occurred on the 1st of August and was instantaneous.  He had evidently proved himself a very gallant soldier and has left amongst those who knew him best, very pleasant memories.  May he have the reward of faithful service.  Rest in Peace.”

The village of Mametz was carried by the 7th Division on the  1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, after very hard fighting at Dantzig Alley (a German trench) and other points.  The Dantzig Alley British Cemetery was begun later in the same month and was used by field ambulances and fighting units until the following November.  The ground was lost during the great German advance in March 1918 but regained in August, and a few graves were added to the cemetery in August and September 1918.  At the Armistice, the cemetery consisted of 183 graves, now in Plot I, but it was then very greatly increased by graves (almost all of 1916) brought in from the battlefields north and east of Mametz and from certain smaller burial grounds.

Dantzig Alley British Cemetery now contains 2,053 burials and commemorations of the First World War.  518 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 17 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.  Other special memorials record the names of 71 casualties buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

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FRANK EDGAR MARCHAM

Enlisted at Hertford.  Private, 1st Hertfordshire Regiment, service no. 2780.
Born in Tring.  Son of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Marcham of ‘Oakleigh,’ Western Road.
Killed by a shell whilst resting in billet in France on the 29th March 1915 aged 22.
Buried in the Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, France, grave ref I. E. 16.

The 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment served on the Western Front [Note] from November 1914 until the Armistice, in which time they engaged in all the major actions including the three battles of Ypres, Loos, The Somme, Passchendaele and the German Spring Offensive [Note] of March 1918.

The Battalion was the only infantry unit from the county to see overseas service. It landed at Le Havre in the early hours of the 6th November 1914 and first entered the trenches in the Ypres Salient.

Typically each company and section of the Regiment were recruited from the same area of the county, making it possible to identify which company a serviceman was with based upon their original enlistment location.  As of January 1915, the composition of the 1st Battalion was:

No 1 Company – Hertford, Hatfield, Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Wormley & Hoddesdon.
No 2 Company – St Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring & Ashridge.
No 3 Company – Bishop’s Stortford, Ware, Widford, the Hadhams, Braughing & Watford.
No 4 Company – Royston, Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Stevenage & Whitwell.

Hertfordshire Regiment soldiers in a trench on the Western Front.

From the Hertfordshire Regiment War Diary [Note] for March 1915:

“1-3-15. Battalion in Corps Reserve at School in BETHUNE.
2-3-15. Two Companies vacated billets and marched to VENDIN.
5-3-15. Remaining two companies joined up with the battalion at VENDIN.
6 to 9-3-15. Bn in Corps Reserve at VENDIN.
10-3-15. Battalion moved to St. PREOL in support on CANAL BANK and in the evening returned to billets at BETHUNE.
11-3-15. At 5am we again moved up to the same position at St. PREOL, remained in support all day and in the evening relieved the 1st Bn Kings Royal Rifles at GIVENCHY, two companies going into the trenches, 2 in billets in reserve.
12-3-15. Two Companies in trenches, 2 in support. Casualties - 6 wounded of which 3 only slight. In the evening engaged in digging.
13-3-15. Ditto.  Digging in the evening.  Casualties 4 wounded (C.S.M. Raven left trenches and went out and brought in Cpl Beaver of the 1st Bn Kings Royal Rifles who had been wounded 2 days previously).
14-3-15. The Brigadier congratulated the Bn on the excellent work and intelligent reports of the patrols that went out on the previous evening and especially congratulated C.S.M. Raven on his gallant conduct in saving the life of Cpl Beaver of the 1st Bn Kings Royal Rifle Corps. Casualties 2 wounded.
16-3-15. One Coy digging in the evening. 2 killed, 2 wounded.
17-3-15. The GOC 2nd Division congratulated the Bn on the fine progress made on the new trench.  In the evening 4 platoons of the 7th Bn Kings Liverpool Regiment (TF) (one platoon of which lost its way and did not arrive) were engaged in digging trench.  Our casualties, 5 wounded, 1 dying of wounds in hospital at BETHUNE
18-3-15. Heavy artillery fire.
19 to 31-3-15. Nothing of importance happened.
27-3-15. Notification received to the effect that CSM Raven had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
31-3-15. One Coy of the 8th City of London (Post Office Rifles) took over NEW CUT TRENCH, GIVENCHY.  No.2 Coy marched into billets at School in BETHUNE.”  [On 29-3-15 Acting L/Cpl 4523 William George GREE died of wounds, Privates 2076 Francis John Barr LAUGHTON and 2780 Frank Edgar MARCHAM were both killed in action.]

The following extract is from a letter written by Private J. Harrowell, the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Harrowell, of Clarence Road Berkhamstead:

“I daresay you have heard by now that two of our lads, and one from Tring, were killed by a shell, also three wounded (two of the wounded were Lees and Ballam, of Berkhamsted).  The shell dropped plumb in our billet, behind the firing line as we were just thinking about getting ready to go up to the ditches.  I was just outside, and did not get touched, except by a few lumps of dirt, etc.  I heard it coming, just in time to get behind a wagon, and it dropped on the hard paving stones in the doorway, otherwise it would not have done so much damage.  It blew part of the 18 inch wall away, and the damage naturally dismayed us that day, but it has made us set our teeth, and we were glad to get up to the trenches at night.  We buried our three comrades in a little soldier’s cemetery, close by where they were killed.  We are back out of range for a few days rest (censored) up here, but I daresay we gave them as good as they sent.  Jim (Harrowell).”

From the Bucks Herald 10th April 1915:

The stern realities of war have been brought home with startling force this week.  At the end of last week news reached Tring of some severe casualties amongst the Herts Territorials, in which several Tring men were involved.  Frank Marcham, son of Mr. Fred Marcham of Western-road, was reported killed, and Fred Rodwell, son of Mr. W. J. Rodwell of the Tring Brewery, badly wounded.  Later particulars are that Marcham, Rodwell, Bruce, and Barber, all of Tring, were with others in a stable.  Some of the men were chopping up wood to take back to the trenches when a shell, probably intended for the Battalion Headquarters, fell just inside the doorway and exploded on striking the ground.  Marcham and three others were killed instantly, and fragments of the shell struck Rodwell, with the result that he has lost one eye and sustained other injuries.  Barber is thought to have escaped injury as he was able to help Rodwell to the hospital, but there is some uncertainty as to what happened to Bruce.  Private Rodwell was later sent home and is now in the military hospital, St. Gabriel’s College, Camberwell.  The doctors, happily, feel no anxiety at all about his ultimate recovery.

Private Marcham was buried in the well-kept little cemetery near the base, the funeral being conducted by one of the Chaplains. Every care is bestowed on the last resting-place of the dead heroes. Each man’s name is painted on a cross above his head and flowers are placed on the graves. Archibald Bishop, son of Mr. Harry Bishop, is also reported wounded.

From the Parish Magazine, May 1915:

“Frank Marcham, 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment who was hit by a shell on the 29th March 1915 and died at once.  Very soon after the outbreak of war Marcham obeyed the call of King and Country and in due course was sent to the front.  His Commanding Officer, Captain. A.F. Smeathman, conveying to his parents and friends the deep sympathy of the officers and men of his company.  They speak of him as being at all times cheerful, and said that ‘his death is much felt by everyone that knew him’.

He was buried by a clergyman in a grave that was properly marked and can easily be recognised when the war is over.”

Frank Marcham was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Marcham, of Western Road, Tring.  Before joining up, Frank was employed by Messrs Wright and Wright, a coach-building firm also of Western Road.  According to the 1911 Census, Frank’s occupation was that of ‘coach painter’ and he was living with his parents and three younger sisters at the family home in Western Road.

A little west of the crossroads known to the army as ‘Windy Corner’ was a house used as a battalion headquarters and dressing station, which the cemetery grew up beside.

The original Guards Cemetery was begun by the 2nd Division in January 1915, and used extensively by the 4th (Guards) Brigade in and after February.  It was closed at the end of May 1916 when it contained 681 graves.  After the Armistice the cemetery was increased when more than 2,700 graves were brought in from the neighbouring battlefields − in particular the battlefields of Neuve-Chapelle, the Aubers Ridge and Festubert − and from certain smaller cemeteries.

The Guards Cemetery now contains 3,445 burials and commemorations of the First World War.  2,198 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 36 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.  Other special memorials commemorate six casualties buried in Indian Village North Cemetery, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire, and five Indian soldiers originally buried in the Guards Cemetery but afterwards cremated in accordance with the requirements of their faith.

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CHARLES MILLER

Private Charles Miller, 2nd (?) Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, service no. 8430.
Born in Berkhamsted, second eldest son of John Thomas and Sophia Elizabeth
of 5 New Cottages, Brook Street, Tring.
Died in Tring of rheumatic fever (possibly contracted at Ypres) on 17th August 1916 aged 25 years
having being invalided out of the army on 5th October 1915.
Buried in New Mill Baptist Cemetery, Tring, grave ref. No. 5, Tier J, South Plot (unmarked grave)
and commemorated on the Tring War Memorial.

Charles Miller signed up as a reservist with the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry at Aylesbury on the 25th March 1913.  According to his enlistment papers he was then aged 17 years and 11 months, but as he was baptised on the 4th May 1892, his admitted age is incorrect and should have been at least 20 years.  The fact is that Charles didn’t know his date of birth, for army pension records show his year of birth as being “abt. 1896”.

Private Miller’s army records show that he arrived in France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) [Note] on the 12th September 1914.  On the 5th October 1915 he was discharged from Cambridge Barracks, Portsmouth, as being medically unfit for service.  His discharge papers state that he was at that time attached to the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve) [Note] of the Ox & Bucks L.I.  However, this battalion was assigned to home defence and training duties for the duration of the war, and as the 1st Battalion served throughout the war in the Middle East, it seems likely that Private Miller served with the Regiment’s 2nd Battalion in France, which is where he contracted a severe form of rheumatic fever (i.e. seriously affecting his heart) [Note] through “exposure in the trenches” (see medical discharge form below).

Discharged on medical grounds due to rheumatic fever, 5th October 1915.
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that can effect the heart, joints, skin, and brain.

In August 1914, the 2nd Ox and Bucks arrived on the Western Front [Note] as part of the 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division, I Corps, [Note] the 2nd Division being one of the first divisions of the B.E.F. [Note] to arrive in France.

The battalion took part in the first British battle of the war, at Mons.  On the 23rd August 1914 the British stopped the advancing German forces.  However, a combination of German numerical advantage and the French fifth Army’s retreat led  subsequently to the battalion taking part in the 220 mile retreat (in exceptionally hot weather) that began on the following day.  The Allies did not stop until reaching the eastern outskirts of Paris where they halted the German advance at the First Battle of the Marne (5th–9th September).

The 2nd Ox and Bucks later took part in The 1st Battle of the Aisne and in the subsidiary battles of The 1st Battle of Ypres (19th October – 22nd November), which saw the old Regular Army sustain some 54,000 casualties.  At Ypres, their first engagement with the enemy was on the 20th October in an attack on the Passchendaele ridge (a location that gained greater notoriety in 1917) in which the battalion suffered heavy casualties, with 4 officers killed, 5 wounded and 143 other ranks killed or wounded.  On the 31st October the Germans launched a large scale attack against I Corps in the area of Ypres, which commenced with a heavy bombardment followed by a mass infantry attack − 2 companies of the 2nd Ox and Bucks took part in the defence and subsequent counter-attack, which forced the enemy back to their front line.  On the 11th November the Germans made a further attempt to capture Ypres using the élite Prussian Guard.  The 2nd Battalion counter-attacked at Nonne Bosschen wood (11th November 1914) preventing their advance and routing them.

The 2nd Ox and Bucks defeating the Prussian Guard at Nonne Bosschen.
Painting by William Barnes Wollen (1857–1936).

Judging from the 2nd Battalion’s engagements in 1914 and from his service record (with the BEF between 12.9.14 and 11.12.14), it seems likely that Private Miller contracted rheumatic fever during the later period of The 1st Battle of Ypres (19th October–30th November 1914).  From the 12th November, the weather became much colder with rain, snow and night frosts.  Cases of frostbite appeared and the physical strain increased among troops having to occupy trenches half-full of freezing water.  “On 11.11.14 Ypres − man says he got wet from exposure.  Rheumatic fever followed . . . . ” Miller’s medical discharge papers give his military character as “Good - a sober well behaved man of nice appearance”.  His disability was assessed as ‘¾’ and ‘permanent’.

From the Parish Magazine (repeated in the Bucks Herald), September 1916:

“PRIVATE CHARLES MILLER. − On August 17th there passed away, at his home in Tring, one who, although invalided out of the Army twelve months ago, and whose name therefore cannot technically be placed on our Roll of Honour, really gave his life for his country.

Charles Miller, of the Oxford Light Infantry, was wounded early in the war, and, through constant exposure, contracted rheumatic fever, which was the ultimate cause of his death. He did his bit cheerfully and bravely. May he rest in peace.”

New Mill Baptist Chapel Cemetery, Tring.

Charles Miller was the second eldest of John and Sophia’s four sons, his brothers being William, George and Stanley; he also had three younger sisters, Elizabeth, Beatrice and Nelly.  In the 1911 Census his occupation − and that of his father − is given as ‘labourer’ (his recruitment papers state ‘agricultural labourer’) and the family’s address was then 21 Wingrave Road, Tring.  At the time of his death Charles was resident in Brook Street, nearer the centre of Tring.  His death certificate states that his occupation was then ‘house decorator/journeyman’ and that his mother was with him when he died.

Although his name appears on the Tring War Memorial and the Church Roll of Honour, Charles did not receive a military burial; indeed, where he was buried remained a mystery until the Minister of New Mill Baptist Chapel discovered that Charles had been laid to rest in an unmarked grave in what is now an overgrown area of the Chapel’s beautiful cemetery.  It seems that Charles was medically certified as having died from tuberculosis, which was not the same condition (rheumatic fever) for which he was discharged from the Army.  Thus, officialdom would not have considered his death attributable to ‘war experience’ – hence no military headstone – but in selecting names to appear on their War Memorial the citizens of Tring believed otherwise.
 

Artist/Craftsman Alan Ball was commissioned to make a cross to mark Private Miller’s grave. The cross is of local seasoned oak, the plaque of black Cornish slate.

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STANLEY MILLER

Enlisted at Aylesbury.  Corporal, 1st/1st Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars, service no. 205215
Born in Tring.  Son of Hannah of 41 Charles Street Tring and the late Charles Miller.
Died of wounds in Palestine on the 2nd June 1917 aged 29.
Buried in Kantara War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt, grave ref 353.

Historically, a hussar was a soldier in a ‘light cavalry’ regiment, one whose main role was to perform reconnaissance, scouting and screening, whereas the role of ‘medium cavalry’ was attack and the defence of specific locations, while ‘heavy cavalry’ undertook shock action on the battlefield.  However, in the British army colonial warfare gradually led to a blurring of these distinctions.

The early weeks of World War I saw light cavalry attempting to continue its long established function of being the “eyes and ears” of the army, but despite some early success the advent of trench warfare and aerial reconnaissance quickly rendered the role obsolete, except to an extent in the Middle East. [Note]  After horse cavalry became obsolete, hussar units generally converted to armoured units while retaining their traditional titles and, on ceremonial occasions, their dated but picturesque uniforms.

The roots of the Royal Bucks Hussars go back to the French Revolutionary Wars, its title then being the ‘Mid Bucks Regiment of Yeomanry’, the Regiment later receiving its ‘Royal’ title from Queen Victoria.  In 1889 the Regiment became the ‘Royal Bucks Hussars’, some of its men serving in the South African War as part of the Imperial Yeomanry.  The Yeomanry became the mounted arm of the Territorial Force [Note] in 1908, and during the First World War the the 1st Royal Bucks Hussars served at Gallipoli and in Palestine. [Note]

A Royal Bucks Hussars in the Middle East, 1915.

From the Bucks Herald 16th June 1917:

“ROLL OF HONOUR. − Another name has to be added to the roll of honour of this town, news having been received from the War Office of the death from wounds of Stanley Miller, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Miller of Charles-street.  The sad intimation was conveyed in a telegram received on Friday last, which simply stated that Sergt. Stanley Miller was wounded in action, and admitted to No. 3 Australian Stationary Hospital at El Arish, where he died on the following day.

One of the first to answer the call in his country, Stanley Miller joined the Royal Bucks Hussars, and with the first Regiment went abroad early in the spring of 1915, going through all the terrible Dardanelles campaign and eventually returning with his regiment to Egypt.  Here he saw much active service, which culminated in his death practically in action some ten days ago.  The deepest sympathy is felt with his father and mother and his relatives in their sad bereavement, and his loss will be mourned by the many friends he left in Tring.

Before joining the Colours, Miller was in the employ of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, the present Lord Rothschild, and was held in the highest respect as a steady and conscientious worker in the stables. He was 29 years of age and single.”

From the Parish Magazine July 1917:

“Stanley Miller was severely wounded in action with the Palestine Expeditionary Force, on May 31st, and died on the following day in the 3rd Australian Stationary Hospital.  He enlisted in the Royal Bucks Hussars on August 10th 1914, and went to Egypt in February 1915.  He became a Sergeant and went all through the Gallipoli campaign.  Except for a bout of ague, never had a day’s sickness.  He has not been back in England since he left in 1915.  No further particulars have been as yet received, but that he has died and been buried in the Holy Land.  He left behind him a memory of splendid service to his country’s cause.  As a boy, he sang in our Parish Church Choir and was confirmed here.

Since writing the above, a letter has been received from Sergeant Miller’s Lieutenant, from which we take the following extract: ‘Your son was liked and respected by all ranks, and his death was a great blow to us all, for he was a good soldier and a gentleman.  Your son was wounded on May 31st in the leg by a piece of bomb dropped by an enemy aeroplane.  The bombs were dropped on the camp, so luckily the wounded had every attention almost immediately.  His leg had an ugly wound, but he never complained as he was carried to the hospital.  On arrival at the hospital it was found necessary to amputate the leg.  He never recovered from the operation.  Your son was buried by the Chaplain at El Arish [North Sinai], a camp near the hospital.’”

According to the 1891 Census, Stanley Miller, then aged 4, had two brothers − Herbert (18, a maltster) and William (7) − and two sisters, Alice (12) and Gertrude (1).  The children lived with their parents Charles (53, groom and domestic servant) and Hannah (42) at 5 Charles Street, Tring.  Twenty years later the Census records the family still resident in Charles Street, but only William (a carriage and motor builder) and Gertrude (a school teacher) were at home on Census night.

Kantara War Memorial Cemetery.

In the early part of the First World War, Kantara was an important point in the defence of Suez against Turkish attacks and marked the starting point of the new railway east towards Sinai and Palestine, begun in January 1916.  Kantara developed into a major base and hospital centre and the cemetery was begun in February 1916 for burials from the various hospitals, continuing in use until late 1920.  After the Armistice, the cemetery was more than doubled in size when graves were brought in from other cemeteries and desert battlefields.

Kantara War Memorial Cemetery now contains 1,562 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. Near the entrance to the cemetery is the Kantara Memorial bearing the names of 16 New Zealand servicemen of the First World War who died in actions at Rumani and Rafa, and who have no known grave.

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WILLIAM JOHN MILLER
Private, 118th Company, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, service no. 023941.
Son of Hannah and the late Charles Miller, of 41 Charles Street, Tring.
Husband of Violet M. Miller of 41 Charles St., Tring.
Died of pneumonia following influenza on the 3rd March 1919 aged 33.
Buried in the Abbeville Communal Extension Cemetery, France, grave ref. V. G. 14.

Private Miller served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC), a corps of the British Army that dealt with the supply and maintenance of weaponry, munitions and other military equipment.

The RAOC was formed in 1918 from a merger of the Army Ordnance Department and the Army Ordnance Corps, which between them traced their roots back through a long and complex history to the 15th century and the Board of Ordnance.  Ordnance units served in all the British Army’s campaigns and created a well-developed system of stores dumps and repair facilities, often along extended lines-of-communication.  They were organised in two broad divisions: a static organisation of depots and other installations, and field units that provided close support to military operations.

An Army Service Corps supply convoy, Western Front, c1916 (the prefix ‘Royal’ was acquired in 1918).

A reorganisation of Army Logistics in 1964 resulted in the RAOC absorbing petroleum, rations and accommodation stores functions from the Royal Army Service Corps as well as the Army Fire Service, barrack services, sponsorship of the NAAFI and the management of staff clerks from the same Corps.  In 1993, the RAOC was one of the corps that amalgamated to form The Royal Logistic Corps − the largest Corps in the British Army − which maintains the Army’s operational capability in peace and in war by providing whatever is required, in the required quantity and at the required place and time.

Private Miller did not die in combat, but as a result of another more deadly killer, ‘Spanish Flue’.  In the period January 1918 to December 1920 Spanish flue wreaked more havoc worldwide than all the battles of the First World War. [Note]

From the Parish Magazine:

“William John Miller R.A.O.C. joined the Army in October of 1916 and went to France in December of the same year and except for occasional leave was there until the time of his death.  From such accounts as have been received, he was a victim of Broncho Pneumonia, following influenza.  He was taken to No 1 South African General Hospital where everything that could be done, was done for him, but he died on the 3rd March 1919 and was buried on the 5th in the Military Cemetery at Abbeville.  He had been expecting to be de-mobilised shortly so his death comes as a heavier blow to his friends who were eagerly looking forward to his return.  He leaves behind him the memory of a good name and a kind friend.  As a Boy, we sang in our choir.”

According to the 1891 Census, William, then aged 4, had two brothers − Herbert (18, a maltster) and Stanley (4) − and two sisters, Alice (12) and Gertrude (1).  The children lived with their parents Charles (53, groom and domestic servant) and Hannah (42) at 5 Charles Street, Tring.  Twenty years later the Census records the family still resident in Charles Street, but only William (a carriage and motor builder) and Gertrude (a school teacher) were at home on Census night.

For much of the First World War, Abbeville was headquarters of the Commonwealth lines of communication and No.3 BRCS, No.5 and No.2 Stationary Hospitals were stationed there variously from October 1914 to January 1920.

Abbeville Communal Cemetery was used for burials from November 1914 to September 1916, the earliest being made among the French military graves.  It now contains 774 Commonwealth burials from the First World War and 30 from the Second.  The Extension Cemetery contains 1,754 First World War burials and 348 from the Second.

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GEORGE MILLS

Private, 112th Machine Gun Corps, service no.  84586.
Enlisted at Aylesbury, formerly with the RASC.
Born in Long Marston.  Son of Mrs. Lucy Mills of 2 Tring Ford, Tring.
Died of wounds on the 28th April 1917 aged 22.
Buried in Point-Du-Jour Military Cemetery, France, grave ref. I. C. 5..

The 112th Machine Gun Corps (MGC) [Note], to which Private Mills was attached, was formed at Grantham.  In March 1916 it moved to France where it joined the 112th Infantry Brigade in the 37th Division.

The 37th Division [Note] was first formed as the 44th Infantry Division in March 1915, but in May it was renumbered the 37th.  Following training, the Division crossed the Channel to Saint-Omer in France where it formed part of VII Corps of the Third Army.  The Division was to remain on the Western Front [Note] for the remainder of the war.

Although the actions in which the 112th MGC were involved around the time of Private Mills’s death are documented, the available information available doesn’t state when he received his ultimately fatal wound, although it seems it was probably during the fighting in the first half of the Arras campaign (9th April – 16th May 1917) described below.

On the 9th April 1917 the 37th division moved to the Arras area where it was to mount an attack on the fortified village of Monchy Le Preux on the road from Arras to Cambrai.  The objective of the 112th Infantry Brigade supported by the 112th MGC was to seize the spurs South of the village and to occupy village of Guemappe.

At 2pm on the 10th April the machine guns opened fire on the German lines around Guemappe.  On the following day the attack resumed at 5am with the German artillery pounding the MGC sections south of the Arras-Cambrai road followed by German infantry attacks.  The MGC sections supported by the British artillery [Note] managed to drive the enemy back to Guemappe but the attack had taken its toll.  Thus, on the 12th April, the 112th MGC was withdrawn and sent to billets in Arras whilst some of the infantry of the 112th Brigade supported its comrades in the 111th as they helped to take Monchy Le Preux, but with heavy casualties.

On the 23rd April, during the Second Battle of the Scarpe (23rd-24th April, a battle in the Arras campaign), the 112th Infantry Brigade supported by the MGC sections attacked Greenland Hill north of the fortified village of Roeux, which was a constant thorn in the side of the British army throughout the Arras campaign.  This from the War Diary [Note] of the 112th MGC:

“22/4: 4.30pm Sections moved off at intervals for the Point Du Jour where they were in support.

23/4: 4.45am Nos. 1 and 3 sections commenced barrage according to programme.  This barrage was kept up for 46 minutes.  Some 30,000 rounds were fired.
          10.15am No. 4 section took up position and opened fire on large parties of enemy on Greenland hill firing 20,000 rounds when they dispersed.
           5.45pm The three remaining battalions formed up with No. 2 section in Hurray trench preparatory to an attack on Greenland Hill.
           6pm The 112th Bde had reached the Rouex – Garelle Road and were occupying it. No. 2 section was in position protecting the front.
        11pm No. 1 sect and 2 guns of No. 3 sect into position for the attack next morning (which was cancelled)

24/4:  No. 1 section throughout the day fired on parties of the enemy on Greenland Hill.

25/4: 7.30am Both the enemy’s and our signals went up on the right in the direction of Rouex.  No. 1 section opened barrage fire on South side of Greenland Hill and kept on until about 4.30pm firing some 12,000 rounds.

26/4: During the day no. of parties of the enemy appeared.  No.1 sect fired at enemy’s aeroplanes whenever they appeared.  On one occasion plane appeared to be hit.

27/4: 4.45 am Barrage fire opened and Bde began to advance .

28/4: 12 noon  During the day No. 3 section moved 2 guns to communication trench firing on the railway embankment and on enemy machine guns on our right flank throughout the day.
        12 midnight. From midnight the brigade was relieved with the exception of the Machine Gun Coy.

29/4: The Coy was relieved during the night 29/30 April and arrived in bivouacs by 2pm 30th April.

30/4: Moved by motor bus to billets in Denier.”

Although the Arras campaign continued into the summer, the 112th MGC company took no further part after being withdrawn on the 29th/30th April.  In keeping with the role of the MGC companies throughout the remainder of 1917 and into early 1918, the 112th was used to harass the enemy lines, firing up to 35,000 rounds per day.

From the Parish Magazine June 1917:

“George Mills joined the A.S.C. a year before the war broke out, and was a member of the first wonderful expeditionary force which saved the situation in France in those earlier and darker days of the German on rush.  Later he returned to England to be trained in the machine gun corps, and had only been back at the front in his new capacity for three weeks, when he was severely wounded and died on 28th April.  His Lieutenant, writing about his death, says ‘’he did his duty well and bravely during the days of the attack, and I cannot tell you how sorry we are to lose him.  We did all we could for him and had him carried down on a stretcher by our own men’”.

In the 1911 Census, George Mills (a butcher’s assistant, then aged 15) is recorded living with his parents, George (aged 45, cowman) and Lucy (aged 44), at No. 1 Tring Ford.  Also at the address on Census night were George’s four brothers, Percy (aged 20, carter), Albert (aged 15, farm labourer), John (aged 13, scholar) and Arthur (aged 7, scholar).  George Snr was born in Wilstone, all the other family members in Long Marston.
 

Athies was captured by the 9th (Scottish) Division, which included the South African Brigade, on 9 April 1917 and remained in Allied hands until the end of the war.  Point-Du-Jour was a house on the road from St. Laurent-Blangy to Gavrelle and by 1917 it had become a German redoubt, captured by the 34th Division on 9 April.

Two cemeteries were made on the right of the road from St. Laurent-Blangy to Point-du-Jour, No.1 Cemetery becoming the present Point-Du-Jour Military Cemetery.  It was used from April to November 1917, and again in May 1918, and contained at the Armistice 82 graves (now part of Plot I).  It was then enlarged when over 650 graves were brought in from the battlefields and small cemeteries north, east and south of Arras.

There are now 794 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery.  401 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 22 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.  Other special memorials record the names of six casualties buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.  There are also two memorials in the vicinity, one of which commemorates the 9th Division, whilst the other commemorates the service of seven Battalions of the Seaforth Highlanders in the neighbourhood.

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WILLIAM EDWARD NORWOOD

Driver, 54th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps,* service no. 50483.
*Until 19th April 1918 the 163rd Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps.
Son of Joseph and Sarah of 21 Akeman Street, Tring.
Died of malaria [Note] on the 4th December 1918, aged 23.
Buried in the Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt, grave ref. H. 23.

Private Norwood first enlisted in the Bedfordshire Regiment, but was later transferred to the the 163rd Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps. [Note]  This unit, formed in May 1916 as part of the 163rd (Norfolk and Suffolk) Infantry Brigade, was to see extensive active service at Gallipoli and in the Middle Eastern Theatre as part of the 54th (East Anglian) Division. [Note]

No doubt Private Norwood saw much action against the Ottomans during the Palestine Campaign, [Note] in which he was wounded, so it is particularly sad that he was to succumb to malaria in Egypt shortly before he was due to return home.  From the Bucks Herald 22nd February 1919 (also reported in the Parish Magazine):

“News has been received of the death in Egypt on Dec. 4 of Driver W. E. Norwood, son of Mr. Joseph Norwood, Akeman-street, Tring, after an attack of malaria.  Driver Norwood, who was 23 years of age, joined the Bedford Regiment about four years ago, and was afterwards transferred to the Norfolk Regiment and posted to the Machine Gun Company on going to Egypt three years ago. He was wounded in the arm in April, 1917, but made a speedy recovery, and soon returned to duty.

Major Culme Seymour, commanding 54th M. G. Batt., writing to the father, says: ‘It may be a pleasure to you to know that while he was with us your son was always looked upon as a hard working, industrious and reliable soldier, popular with his comrades.  He was buried on Dec. 5 in the new Military Cemetery at Alexandria.  I should like to offer you my sincere sympathy in your loss.’

Before joining, Norwood was employed at Pendley stables, and was held in the highest esteem by Mr. and Mrs. Williams, as well as by his fellow workers.  Much sympathy is felt for his father and relatives in their sad loss.”

Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery.

In March 1915, the base of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was transferred to Alexandria from Mudros and the city became a camp and hospital centre for Commonwealth and French troops.  Among the medical units established there were the 17th, 19th, 21st, 78th and 87th General Hospitals and No 5 Indian Hospital.  After the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, Alexandria remained an important hospital centre during later operations in Egypt and Palestine and the port was much used by hospital ships and troop transports bringing reinforcements and carrying the sick and wounded out of the theatres of war.

This cemetery was begun in April 1916 when it was realised that the cemetery at Chatby would not be large enough.  Most of the burials were made from the Alexandria hospitals, but a number of graves of December 1917 were due to the loss of the troop transports Aragon and Osmanieh which were sunk by torpedo and mine as they entered the port.  The cemetery continued in use until December 1919 but later, some graves were brought in from small burial grounds in the western desert, Maadia and Rosetta.  There are now 1700 First World War burials in the cemetery.

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GEORGE OAKLEY

Private, 12th (Service) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, service no. 267018.
Born at Wilstone, Herts.  Son of Mrs. Sarah Oakley of 64 Akeman Street, Tring.
Enlisted at Halton Park, formerly with the Hertfordshire Regiment.
Killed in action on the 25th October 1917 aged 20.
No known grave.  Commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium,
panels 19 to 23 and 162.

The 12th (Service) Battalion The Northumberland Fusiliers was formed at Newcastle in September 1914 as part of Kitchener’s Third New Army (K3) [Note] forming part of the 62nd Brigade, 21st Division. [Note] The Division concentrated in the Tring area, training at Halton Park [Note] before winter necessitated a move into local billets in Tring, Aylesbury, Leighton Buzzard, High Wycombe and Maidenhead.  The artillery was at High Wycombe and Berkhamsted, Royal Engineers at Chesham, and Army Service Corps at Dunstable.

In May 1915 the infantry moved to huts at Halton Park, whilst the artillery moved to Aston Clinton with one brigade staying at Berkhamsted and the Royal Engineers to Wendover.  On the 9th August they moved to Witely Camp, a temporary army camp set up on Witley Common, Surrey, during both World Wars.  They proceeded to France during the first week of September.

Northumberland Fusiliers at Thiepval, September 1916.

The 12th and 13th Battalions were amalgamated in August 1917 as the 12th/13th (Service) Battalion, and as such remained in the 62nd Brigade, 21st Division on the Western Front for the rest of the war, engaging in various actions including:

1915: The Battle of Loos, in which the Division suffered over 3,800 casualties for little gain and took the rest of the year to rebuild.

1916: The Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, The Battle of Morval, The Battle of Le Transloy.

1917: The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The First Battle of the Scarpe, The Third Battle of the Scarpe, The flanking operations around Bullecourt, The Battle of Polygon Wood, The Battle of Broodseinde, The Second Battle of Passchendaele, The Cambrai Operations.

1918: The Battle of St Quentin, The First Battle of Bapaume, The Battle of Messines, The Second Battle of Kemmel, The Battle of the Aisne 1918, The Battle of Albert, The Second Battle of Bapaume, The Battle of Epehy, The Battle of the St Quentin Canal, The Battle of Cambrai 1918, The Battle of the Selle.

The Battalion ended the war near Berlaimont in France.

From the Bucks Herald, 24th November 1917:

“Pte. George Oakley was the only son of Mrs. Oakley, a widow residing in Akeman-street.  He joined the Northumberland Fusiliers on attaining the age of 18 years some two years ago.  Sent to France, he remained there for seven months before being invalided home with trench feet. [Note] Making a rapid recovery, he returned to the scene of hostilities some six months ago, and took part in many of the actions of the past summer and autumn.  His mother has now been officially informed that he was killed in action early in the present month, and has been buried in France.

Before joining up Oakley was employed on the Tring Park Estate and by Mr. J. Timberlake, Hastoe, who speaks highly of his character.  Oakley was a member of the local branch of the Y.M.C.A., and as a members of the gymnastics team was most enthusiastic in the many excellent displays given.  There are no more sincere mourners at his loss than the present members of the team, many of whom are serving in the Forces, while some, alas! have laid down their lives in the great cause.  The utmost sympathy is felt for Mrs. Oakley in the loss of her son.”

Private Oakley was reported killed on the 25th October 1917 during the third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).  His Battalion was then at Zillebeke, about 1½ miles south-east of Ypres.  However, the 12/13th Battalion War Diary [Note] carries no report of fatalities on the 25th October or in the immediately adjoining days.

After heavy fighting on the 4th October (Battle of Broodseinde), the 12/13 Bn. War Diary states that on the 6th October the Battalion arrived Zillebeke Lake at 3 a.m. “and went into dugouts” − it reports 7 officers killed and 12 wounded; with 44 other ranks killed and 320 wounded, but does not state the circumstances in which these casualties arose.  On the 28th October, 2nd Lieut. E. S. Milne was killed − again the circumstances are not given − whilst Brigadier C. S. Rawling (Brigade commander) was killed by German shellfire whilst chatting to friends outside his headquarters at Hooge Crater (a massive crater left after a mine was blown by the 175th Tunnelling Company on the 19th July 1915).  No other fatalities are recorded in October.

Whereas the Commonwealth War Graves Commission give Oakley’s date of death as 25th October, the brief obituary that appeared in the 24th November edition of the Bucks Herald states “that he was killed in action early in the present month.”  It is possible therefore that the official date of death is wrong, and that Private Oakley was killed on 6/7th November when B Coy of the Battalion were subjected to heavy shelling and “2 O.R.” (other ranks) were killed.

The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient.  Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war.

The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge.  The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres.  This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence.

There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south.  The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather.  The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele.

The Tyne Cot Memorial (not to be confused with the Tyne Cot Cemetery) now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.

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WILLIAM OAKLEY

Private William Edwin Oakley, 7th (Service) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, service no. G/4828
Son of Mr. Edwin Richard and Mrs. Ruth Oakley of 3 New Town, New Mill, Tring.
Killed in action on the 1st August 1916.
No known grave.  Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France, pier and face 7C.

The 7th (Service) Battalion, [Note] Royal Sussex Regiment, was formed at Chichester on 12 August 1914 as part of the First New Army (K1) [Note] and allocated to 36th Brigade, 12th (Eastern) Division with which it served throughout the war.  The Battalion landed in France on 1st June 1915 and remained on the Western Front, distinguishing itself in many battles, including Loos, Hohenzollern Craters, the Somme, Arras, Cambrai and the final advance.

Private Oakley is recorded as having been killed in action on the 1st August 1916.  The Battalion War Diary [Note] suggests that this was during the Battle of Pozières, an action that took place around that village during the Battle of the Somme.  However, the War Diary records no incidents on that particular day that would account for Private Oakley’s death, but fatalities did occur on both the preceding and following days, while earlier in July the War Diary entry for the 8th reads “Casualties on 7 July 1916 and 8 July 1916 were 20 officers and 508 other ranks (estimated)”− even the Battalion appear unsure of their losses − although this entry gives no indication of the number of deaths within these figures.

The following entries are from the War Diary around the date (according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) of Private Oakley’s death:

“TRENCHES, LA BOISSELLE OVILLERS LINE, 29 July: Supplied party of 100 to carry bombs to 11th Middlesex Regiment in front line and 50 to carry water.  Commanding Officer and Company Commanders reconnoitred trenches in morning.  Casualties 1 other rank wounded.

TRENCHES, LA BOISSELLE OVILLERS LINE, 30 July: At 11:00 AM received orders from Brigade to relieve 11th Middlesex Regiment in front line west of POZIÈRES, relief complete by 4:15 PM.  At 4:30 PM orders were received that in conjunction with the 11th Middlesex Regiment an attack was to be made against a strong point and 100 yards of enemy trench on the left flank.  Lieutenant Colonel PARGITER 11th Middlesex Regiment was in charge of the operations.  A party of 50 Middlesex Regiment made a frontal attack from the south whilst 50 of ‘D’ Company 7th Royal Sussex Regiment in bombing formation made a demonstration on the northern flank to divert the enemy’s attention.  The frontal attack lost direction and entered our own trench 150 yards north of where they started from, the attack was therefore a failure.  Casualties other ranks 4 killed, 1 missing, 24 wounded.

TRENCHES WEST OF POZIÈRES, 31 July: At 1:00 PM orders were received from Brigade that that the attack which failed last night on German strong point was to be resumed again tonight at 10:30 PM.  The preparations were the same with the exception that in the event of the Middlesex Regiment attack failing a strong bombing party of 7th Royal Sussex Regiment were to work down the gap as far as possible and try to gain the objective.  The Middlesex Regiment attack was discovered as soon as it started and they were prevented reaching the German Trench by machine gun and rifle fire.  Our bombing party then worked down the gap and captured and consolidated 50 yards.  Beyond this they were held up by a machine gun in a straight piece of trench.  A second attack was launched by the Middlesex Regiment to try to get behind the machine gun.  This attack also failed.  We completed consolidation and held the captured 50 yards. Casualties 7 other ranks killed, 19 wounded.

TRENCHES, POZIÈRES, 1 August: Fairly heavy shelling of communication and support trenches during day and night.

TRENCHES, POZIÈRES, 2 August: Usual shelling day and night.”

TRENCHES, POZIÈRES, 3 August: 8th Royal Fusiliers attacked RATION TRENCH at 9:00 PM after artillery preparation and captured most of it.

TRENCHES, POZIÈRES, 4 August: At 3:00 AM received orders to send one Company over to RATION TRENCH to get in touch with 8th Royal Fusiliers and work up to the right; also one Platoon to attack strong point on the right, after this had been captured they were to work down RATION and get in touch with ‘A’ Company.  ‘A’ Company went too much to the left but reached RATION TRENCH finding the Buffs already there.  Colonel COPE (Officer Commanding Buffs) ordered ‘A’ Company to push forward and take the ridge, which they reached without any difficulty, but were heavily counter attacked and obliged to fall back to RATION TRENCH.  The Platoon on the right came under heavy machine gun fire and were not able to capture the strong point.  Later in the day orders were received for two Companies to attack the right of RATION TRENCH in conjunction with attack of 9th Royal Fusiliers.  Two platoons were again to attack strong point on right from POZIÈRES TRENCH.  ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies attacked across the open but lost direction, some however, reached their objective and got in touch with 9th Royal Fusiliers.  The two Platoons of ‘C’ Company were unable to capture strong point owing to heavy machine gun fire.  The result of the operation was that practically the whole of RATION TRENCH was captured and consolidated.  Casualties during two days. 2nd Lieutenants WOOD, LE DOUX VEITCH killed. 2nd Lieutenants COOKE, FITZSIMONS, ROLFE missing. Captain TROWER, 2nd Lieutenants D’ALTON, GLENISTER, HOWE, BROWNING wounded. Other ranks 18 killed, 25 missing, 109 wounded.

From the Bucks Herald, 26th August 1916:

“Private Oakley Killed. Another name has to be added to Tring’s Roll of Honour, Private W E Oakley, only son of Mr and Mrs Oakley of New Town, New Mill, a bright and promising lad of 21 was killed in action on August 1st.  He was with the Expeditionary Force on the Western Front.  He joined the 3rd Sussex Regiment in January 1915.  He was employed at the Grand Hotel, Brighton.

He joined the 3rd Sussex Regiment in January 1915, and was afterwards was transferred to another battalion.  After training at Chester, Dover, and Newhaven, he went to France about 9 months ago.  During the time he was at the front he had some terrifying experiences and some narrow escapes.  Two or three times he was buried by shell explosions, and once a bullet passed through his helmet.  He saw his personal chums fall beside him, before the engagement in which he himself was killed, and there were none of his friends left to send his parents any particulars of how he met his death.”

From the Parish Magazine, September 1916:

“William Edwin Oakley was killed on August 1st in the advance on the western front.  He enlisted in January of 1915, and has been in France for the last nine months.  Those who knew him well, speak of him as a good living lad with earnest religious convictions.  When he was in Newhaven, he took an active lead in the organisation of services for the men stationed there.”

William Edwin Oakley was born in Birmingham in 1895.  The 1901 Census shows the family living in Kings Norton, Worcestershire, the household then comprising William, his two sisters Lily (aged 4) and Minnie (aged 3) and their parents Edwin Richard (aged 28, a house painter) and Ruth née Stratford (aged 27, formerly of New Mill, Tring).  The 1911 Census lists Lily (aged 14, nurse maid) and her parents, Edwin (aged 39, house painter) and Ruth (37), living at No. 3 New Town, New Mill, Tring − William (aged 16) is listed separately under the Station Hotel, Tring, where he was employed as a house boy.

Located near the village of Thiepval, Picardy, in France, the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme commemorates the 72,246 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme between 1915 and 1918, and who have no known grave.  Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the Thiepval Memorial ranks among the greatest executed British works of monumental architecture of the twentieth century.

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HENRY RICHARD PHILB[E]Y

Lance Corporal, 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment, service no. 8785.
Killed in action in Belgium on the 26th July 1917 aged 30.
Born in Bovingdon.  Son of Edward Philby of Chesham.
Husband of Lillian (Lily) of 11 Bunstux Hill, Tring.
Buried in Dickenbusch New Military Cemetery Extension, Belgium, grave ref. III F 10.

The 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment was a pre-war regular army battalion dating back to 1858.  At the outbreak of war the Battalion was stationed at Pretoria, South Africa.  On their return to England in September 1914 they moved to Lyndhurst to join the 21st Brigade of the 7th Division. [Note]  In the following month they mobilised for war, landing at Zeebrugge.  Thereafter, they served entirely on the Western Front where they engaged in major actions that included:

1914: the First Battle of Ypres (the Division suffered huge losses and took the rest of the year to rebuild).

19.12.1915: transferred to the 89th Brigade of the same Division.

1915: The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, The Battle of Aubers, The Battle of Festubert, The second action of Givenchy, The Battle of Loos.

1916: The Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bazentin, The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of Guillemont, Operations on the Ancre.

1917: The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The Battle of Polygon Wood, The Battle of Broodseinde, The Battle of Poelcapelle, The Second Battle of Passchendaele.

11.02.1918 Transferred to the 90th Brigade of the 30th Division.

22.05.1918 Transferred to the 54th Brigade of the 18th Division.

1918: The Battle of Albert, The Second Battle of Bapaume, The Battle of Epehy, The Battle of the St Quentin Canal, The Battle of the Selle, The Battle of the Sambre.

11.11.1918 Ended the war at Louvignies, France.

It is estimated that over half of the 60,000 c.a. men who served in the Regiment between 1914 and 1919 became casualties, with at least 7,200 never returning home.
 

The following entry is from the 2nd Battalion War Diary [Note] covering the day on which Lance-Corpl. Philby (sometimes spelt Philbey) and others were killed while sheltering from shellfire.  The Battalion were at that time in the line at Zillebeke, a village 1½ milesouth east of Ypres, an area that saw much heavy fighting.  Although the village remained in British hands for most of the war, the front lines were never far away:

“26 Jul 1917 Battalion in the Line at ZILLEBEKE and Reserve at CHATEAU SEGARD. Major R. O. Wynne, D.S.O. proceeded to 30th Division as Liaison Officer. Lt. Colonel C. H. de St. P. Bunbury proceeded to Trenches to Command Battalion.  At 5 p.m. the 2nd Bn. Yorkshire Regiment and 18th Bn. Manchester Regiment carried out a raid in front of this Sector with successful results. No. 8718 Cpl. F. Aveling, 2nd Bn. Bedfordshire Regiment, awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in this raid.  Casualties; 2nd Lieutenant G. Lenton wounded.  Other Ranks: 11 Killed 19 wounded.  These included a party under C.S.Major R. Kirby who were returning to CHATEAU SEGARD (17 Strong) and were knocked out by a shell near BEDFORD HOUSE, of which 6 were Killed.  5 Died of wounds.  6 Wounded.”

“27 Jul 1917 Battalion in the line at ZILLEBEKE and Reserve at CHATEAU SEGARD.  2nd Lieutenant E Lenton died of wounds.  Casualties: 1 O.R. Killed.  5 O.R. wounded.

28 Jul 1917 Enemy reported to be evacuating his Front System of Trenches North of YPRES.  At 12.30 a.m. 2 Strong Patrols were ordered to go out and reconnoitre Enemy’s Front Line to ascertain if they were withdrawing on our Front.  Patrols from ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies went out - see attached reports.  CASUALTIES: 2nd Lieut. I. T. M. Collins Missing.  2nd Lieut. P. A. Page wounded.  Other Ranks: Killed 8 Wounded 17 Missing 4 Gassed 18.  At about 11 p.m. 2nd Bn. Yorkshire Regiment commenced to relieve the Battalion in the Trenches.  Relief complete about 4.30 a.m. 29/7/17.  The Battalion then withdrew to CHATEAU SEGARD.  The total Casualties during this tour in the trenches were: 2nd Lieutenant G. Lenton died of Wounds; 2nd Lieut. I. T. M. Collins missing; 2nd Lieut. P.A. Page wounded. Other Ranks: Killed 20 Died of Wounds 5 Wounded 43 Missing 4 Gassed 18 = 90.  Sick Wastage week ending 28th 3 O.R.”
 

A platoon of the Bedfordshire Regiment marching to the front before the start of the Somme, 1916.

From the Bucks Herald, 4th August 1917:

“We have to record with regret the death of Lance-Corpl. Henry Philby, Bedfordshire Regiment, who met his death in France on July 27.  The sad news was conveyed to his wife on Thursday morning in letters from the Chaplain and his Platoon Sergeant, from which it appears that a shell penetrated the shelter in which Philby and several comrades were sitting, killing him instantly.

The unfortunate young fellow has seen army service previous to the war, and was called up as a Reservist, being one of the first to land in France after the commencement of hostilities.  He was wounded in the following November, and after a long time in England returned to France some 12 months ago, since when he has been carrying out the responsible duties of regimental cook.  A sad coincidence is that Philby was killed in the same district in which his brother, Charles Philby, of the same regiment, met his death early in the war.

He was well known in Tring, chiefly as attendant and door keeper at the Gem Picture House.  Amongst his comrades he was most popular, and was respected by all.  He was married, his wife being a daughter of Mr. James Butler of Frogmore-street, and leaves her and a little boy to mourn their loss.  The deepest sympathy is felt for them in the sad circumstances.  The remains were buried in Dickenbusch Cemetery, near to the Church, on July 28.”

The Dickenbusch New Military Cemetery Extension was begun in February 1915 and was used until May 1917 by fighting units and field ambulances, with a few further burials taking place in March and April 1918.  The Extension was used from May 1917 to January 1918.  The New Military Cemetery contains 624 First World War burials, including 8 unidentified, the Extension contains 547 including 5 unidentified.

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HAROLD EDWARD POPE, M.C. and Bar

Acting Captain, 1st/2nd Lancashire Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.
Son of the Rev. A. F. Pope of Tring and Catherine I. E. Pope (née Rose) of Kilravock, Scotland.
Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford.
Killed in action on the 24th August 1918 aged 36.
Buried in Heath Cemetery, Harbonniers, France, grave ref. III. E. 8.

In 1914 the British army possessed little heavy artillery, but in the course of the war the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) [Note] grew into a large component of the British forces.  In his White Heat – the new warfare 1914-18, John Terraine says that “The war of 1914-18 was an artillery war: artillery was the battle-winner, artillery was what caused the greatest loss of life, the most dreadful wounds, and the deepest fear”.

As British artillery tactics developed, the heavy batteries of the RGA were usually employed in destroying or neutralising enemy artillery as well as putting destructive fire down on strongpoints, dumps, store, roads and railways behind enemy lines.  They were usually equipped with 60 pounder (5 inch) guns positioned well behind the infantry battle line, firing at unseen targets using map co-ordinates calculated with geometry and mathematics.  Later in the war the RGA was supported by the Royal Flying Corps who devised a system whereby pilots could use wireless telegraphy to help the artillery hit specific targets.

At the time of his death on the 24th August 1918, Captain Pope was acting as Heavy Artillery Liaison Officer of the 32nd Division.  He was killed at Bayon-Villers near Amiens by a bomb dropped by an enemy aircraft − the explosion also killed Major L. H. Amory and wounded a number of other personnel. 

From the Parish Magazine, October 1918:

“Harold Edward Pope, at the outbreak of war, when the news of hostilities reached him in Sumarta and Java at once resigned from a very good position and returned home to take part in this struggle for our existence as a nation.  He joined the Inns of Court O.T.C, as a trooper, and on the completion of his training, was immediately given a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery.  In June of 1915, he crossed with the 118th Heavy Battery to France, but owing to a reorganisation was transferred to 1st/2nd Lancashire Heavy Battery.

For over three years he served continuously in France, and assisted in practically every large operation that has taken place on the western front during that period.  He was awarded The Military Cross on the 16th August 1917 for an act of great bravery.  The official description of which is as follows: ‘He showed the greatest personal courage and presence of mind in combing on the top of a blazing gun pit and extinguishing a fire which was threatening to blow up the whole of the ammunition at any moment.  There were thirty rounds of high explosive shells in the blasting pit whilst he was standing on the top.’  For another act of equal gallantry, on 5th February 1918 he won a Bar to his Military Cross at Gouzeaucourt, a village, between Peronne and Cambrai.  The incident is thus described in the London Gazette: ‘He kept his battery in action under direct machine gun fire and sniper fire and checked the enemy’s advance.  He did not cease fire till the enemy was within two hundred yards and the infantry had withdrawn through the position.  He then personally superintended the dismantling of his guns’.

A brother officer of his thus writes of him: ‘To the battery his death is the greatest blow it has yet received in France.  Our good name was due so greatly to his bravery, hard work, and great example.  He can fitly be described as a very gallant officer and a gentleman, and as such he was beloved and trusted by all ranks.  There is not a man who does not feel his loss.’”
 

Manhandling a 60 pounder on the Somme, 1916.

Harold Edward Pope was the son of the Reverend Arthur Frederick Pope of Tring; his mother was Catherine Isabella Ellen Pope, daughter of Major James Rose, of Nairn in Scotland. He went up to Winchester College, Oxford, from Mr. T. H. Mason’s school at Rottingdean.  Always a keen student of natural sciences he gained a First in the Natural Science School in 1904.  His chosen career was as a mining engineer, and after a course at the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, went to Borneo in the service of the Borneo Company, and subsequently joined a large gold and oil company in Sumatra as a geologist.

Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, so called from the wide expanse of open country on which it stands, was made after the Armistice, next to a French Military Cemetery now removed, when graves were brought in from the battlefields between Bray and Harbonnieres and from other burial grounds in the area.  The earliest date of death is September 1915, the latest October 1918, but the majority died in March or August 1918.  There are now 1,860 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 369 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 26 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.  Other special memorials record the names of 21 casualties buried in other cemeteries, whose graves could not be found.

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HARRY POULTON

Private, 2nd Bn. Highland Light Infantry, service no. 9386,
Born in Tring.  Married Clara Fountain in 1913.
Enlisted in London.  Killed in action on the 20th September 1914 aged 28.
No known grave.  Commemorated on La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, France.

The Highland Light Infantry was formed in the 1881 Army reforms by merging the 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, which became its 1st and 2nd Battalions respectively.  Both the earlier regiments were highland units, but because the new regiment recruited in Glasgow it became the only highland regiment given the lowland uniform of trews (trousers).

At the outbreak of war the 2nd Battalion was stationed at Aldershot where it formed part of the 5th Brigade in the 2nd Division. [Note]  Mobilised for war, the Battalion landed at Boulogne on the 14th August 1914, thereafter engaging in various actions on the Western Front [Note] including:

During 1914: The Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat, The Battle of the Marne, The First Battle of the Aisne, The First Battle of Ypres.

During 1915: Winter Operations 1914-15, The Battle of Festubert, The Battle of Loos.

During 1916: The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of the Ancre, Operations on the Ancre.

During 1917: The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The First and Second Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of Arleux, The Battle of Cambrai.

During 1918: The Battle of St Quentin, The Battle of Bapaume, The First Battle of Arras 1918, The Battle of Albert, The Second Battle of Bapaume, The Battle of Havrincourt, The Battle of the Canal du Nord, The Battle of Cambrai 1918, The Battle of the Selle.

Armistice: the battalion was at Villers Pol in France.