In from the cold

When researching the names on a war memorial I invariably encounter 'difficult' names, ones which resist all attempts at identification. Sometimes they remain a mystery and perhaps always will, although I never say, "never."

Often I manage to identify men who, for whatever reason, are not officially recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Usually this is because the circumstances of their death did not meet the precise criteria to entitle them to be officially commemorated and either provided with a headstone (if the place of burial could be identified) or inscription of their name on a memorial (where the place of burial was unknown). Occasionally though, I will find a man who, for reasons now lost in the mists of time, apparently "slipped through the net" when official commemoration was being considered and who was, in fact, entitled to be recorded as one of the official war dead of the United Kingdom.

I'm not alone in pursuing this arcane activity. There is an ongoing project dedicated to identifying as many men as possible who fall into this category and its excellent and regularly updated website can be found at www.infromthecold.org. I'm proud to be associated with it.

One man whom I identified as falling into this category of non-commemoration was 1779, Private Gerard Huck.

Gerard was born at Milnthorpe, although his parents had moved to Dalton-in-Furness when he was still a child. He enlisted in the 4th Battalion pre-war, at the end of June, 1912, and, when not 'weekend soldiering' with the Territorials, he was working at Vickers' Shipyard or playing football.

His first wound during the Great War was received at the hands of a fellow Territorial, when someone accidentally loosed off a round in the billet where he was sleeping after coming off guard duty on the Great Western Railway near Twyford. The next time he had occasion to be wary of bullets and other projectiles was when the Battalion went into the trenches for the first time on May 27th, 1915. He wrote to his mother:

“We have just come out of the trenches, after being in four days and five nights. I am sorry to say that we have suffered a big loss in our company. It is really a pity to see such fine fellows going down without a minute’s notice. It is too difficult for me to tell you exactly what it is like. But one thing I know it is like hell on earth. The last time we were in they shelled us for seven hours. The shells seemed to come from nowhere. We were in the Battle of Festubert. You will see the picture in the “Sunday Herald,” of June 6th. Dear mother, J. Tyson, of the Lots, Askam, and myself have been recommended by the lieutenant of our company for bringing in a ‘dixy’ of tea for the wounded men in our trench. We had to go 200 yards in the open for it, and we got back safe with a bit of luck, because we had three shells right near us. You must excuse scribbling this time, as I am tired and my nerves are not as well as I would like them to be."

It sounded like a real baptism of fire.

I'm not sure exactly when he received the wound which caused him to be invalided out of the Army because the subsequent newspaper report of his death in 1917 is rather ambiguous and his Service Records have not survived. The newspaper reports him as having been wounded and gassed at the "battle for Friburg" which is not an engagement or location that I recognise; my suspicion is that he was wounded at Guillemont in August, 1916.

Wherever he was wounded and whatever the nature of his wounds he was discharged from the Army in October, 1916, and awarded the Silver War Badge, as indicated by his Medal Index Card. This also shows his entlitlement to the three basic service medals and confirms his date of entry to France as May 3rd, 1915 - the official date of landing of the 1st/4th Battalion, as it had been re-designated. Significantly, it quotes his Service Number as T4/1779. At the time the T4-prefix was simply a clerical notation induicating that he was a Territorial in the 4th Battalion, but more about that later.

After his discharge from the Army he remained hospitalised and the newspaper reported that his wounds had destroyed his power of speech and also that he had been in hospital at Meathop (a sanatorium) for a month before his death. The cause of death wasn't explicitly stated but his Death Certificate confirmed that it was tuberculosis. Now, whether or not his wounding/gassing had initiated the tuberculosis is debatable, but what is beyond doubt is that the Army considered his military service to be the root cause of it and were providing him with a pension, this being clearly specified on his Death Certificate.

Eventually I managed to establish that he was buried in Kendal (Parkside) Cemetery, his mother having moved there from Dalton-in-Furness after the death of her husband, and that his grave was unmarked. I knew he wasn't commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission but, on the face of it, he met the criteria for commemoration and so, in March, 2008,  I forwarded the relevant documentation to the Ministry of Defence for consideration.

On April 21st, 2008, he was accepted for commemoration by the MoD and on June 17th, 2008, his name was added to the online database maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A war graves pattern headstone was erected on his previously unmarked grave in Kendal Cemetery shortly afterwards.

Close inspection will show that the 'T4' mentioned earlier has been mistakenly inscribed as part of his Service Number, an error also present in the online database. It matters not: Private Gerard Huck - in from the cold at last.