"So, what did you do in the war then?"

When reading some of the inane comments posted on discussion forums and elsewhere, it's all too easy to gain the impression that all men who have served as soldiers are to be regarded as heroes, even more so if they were unfortunate enough to die in the course of doing so. This is a fiction, and a dangerous one, too: the Armed Forces contain the full spectrum of society, from the salt of the earth to the scum of the earth, and always have.

With the release of Military Service Records into the public domain the truth is often laid bare. Here follows the career of one soldier. Although the events took place nearly a century ago I won't name him; I'll refer to him simply as Soldier “B.”

In civilian life he was a crane driver at Vickers’ Shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness. However, he decided to become a soldier, and enlisted in the 4th Battalion on November 10th, 1914. He chose not to serve abroad, electing instead to remain in the UK, initially serving with the 2nd/4th Battalion, and later the 41st (Provisional) Battalion.

I suspect that there was something of the recidivist about him, making him temperamentally unsuited to the disciplined life of the Army, as his surviving service papers amply bear testimony: 

BLACKPOOL - 1/3/15

Charge: Overstaying his pass.

 

Punishment: Admonished and forfeited 2 days’ pay.

 

BLACKPOOL - 4/3/15

 

Charge: Reporting sick without good cause.

 

Punishment: Deprived of 2 days’ pay.

 

BLACKPOOL - 4/3/15

Charge: Shouting on parade.

 

Punishment: Confined to Barracks for 3 days.

 

BLACKPOOL - 5/3/15

 

Charge: Disobedience of order i.e. “showing the upper lip.”

 

Punishment: Confined to Barracks for 3 days.

 

BLACKPOOL - 15/3/15

 

Charge: Absent from Defaulters’ Roll Call 6.0 p.m. to 9.0. p.m.

 

Punishment: Four days’ Field Punishment No. 2.

 
 

March seems to have been quite a busy month for him. I’m particularly amused by the reference to “showing the upper lip.” It’s not an expression I’ve come across before, but it’s one I rather like!

He then appears to have been quiescent for a while, but, once again, his name started to figure quite prominently at the Defaulters' Parade:

 

RYE – 7/9/15

 

Charge: Being late for parade.

 

Punishment: Deprived of 1 days’ pay.

 

RYE – 9/9/15

 

Charge: Being late for guard duty (15 minutes).

 

Punishment: Deprived of 2 days’ pay.

 

WINCHELSEA - 14/9/15

Charge: Unshaved on 8.0 a.m. parade.

 

Punishment: Confined to Barracks for 2 days.

 

WINCHELSEA - 21/9/15

 

Charge: Absent from tattoo 21/9/15 until 9.0 p.m. 23/9/15.

 

Punishment: Deprived of 3 days’ pay.

 

WINCHELSEA - 8/10/15

 

Charge: Parading sick without a cause.

 

Punishment: Deprived of 3 days’ pay and Confined to Barracks for 3 days.

 

WINCHELSEA - 28/10/15

 

Charge: Absent without leave from 10.0 p.m. 26/10/15 until 12.0 p.m. on 28/10/15.

 

Punishment: Awarded 168 hours detention.

 

BIRCHINGTON - 23/4/16

 

Charge: Whilst on Active Service improperly dressed on 11.30 a.m. parade (not wearing identity disc).

 

Punishment: Deprived of 2 days’ pay.

 

BIRCHINGTON – 8/5/16.

 

Charge: Whilst on Active Service (i) being unshaved on 9.0 a.m. parade, (ii) having a dirty rifle.

 

Punishment: Confined to Barracks for 4 days.

 

Co-incidentally, this incident when he was not wearing his identity disc was reported by Sergeant John Longmire, about whom I have posted previously on this blog.

In December, 1916, Soldier "B" was posted to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion and was soon in trouble again:

 

FORMBY – 4/1/17

 

Charge: Irregular conduct on parade.

 

Punishment: Confined to Barracks for 5 days.

 

Finally, on January 29th, 1917, he was posted to the British Expeditionary Force, spending about 5 weeks at the notorious training camp at Etaples before joining the 1st/4th Battalion on March 9th, 1917. Given the reputation of the place – and the men that staffed it – I very much doubt if he dared to turn up late for parade or ‘showed the upper lip.’

In France, he had quite an eventful time too. He was hospitalised once with Trench Fever (26/5/17) and wounded three times; 16/7/17 (Gunshot wound to right wrist and finger received near St. Julien); 31/7/17 (Gunshot wound to shoulder received at Wieltje on the opening day of the Third Battle of Ypres); 20/11/17 (Shrapnel wound to left thigh received at Guillemont Farm, near Epehy during the Battle of Cambrai).

After being wounded for a third time the Army must have thought he was due for a rest and he was granted home leave from January 18th, 1918, until February 1st, 1918. He managed to overstay his furlough;

FIELD – 2/2/18

 

Charge: When on Active Service overstaying his pass by a day from 2/2/18 to 3/2/18.

 

Punishment: Confined to Barracks for 3 days.

 

A couple of months later he found himself a prisoner again, except this time it was as a temporary guest of the Kaiser rather than the King. He was captured at Givenchy on April 9th, and held at Mons until the Armistice. Rather surprisingly he remained in the Territorial Army after the war and eventually got promoted to Corporal.


 

So, ultimately it would appear that Soldier “B” made good and served his country admirably. He wasn’t really a bad lad, simply 'a bit of a handful' - what the Australians term a “larrikin” - and the items listed weren’t really crimes, being more misdemeanours, the sort of things he would probably have laughed about years later. True? Possibly, but there’s one crime on his Conduct Sheet which I haven’t yet listed. It was altogether more serious, and a direct consequence of his general lack of regard for authority and his irresponsible behaviour. It occurred at Birchington on May 30th, 1916;

2029, Drummer Boy George Lovell was 16. If you care to look, you’ll find a photograph of his headstone in one of my earlier posts. For causing his death, Soldier "B" got 6 months in a military prison and, despite the brutal regime in such places, he didn’t seem to learn a great deal from it, as witnessed by his subsequent continued appearances at Defaulters’ Parades. Not that much of a hero, to my mind.

I wonder if he ever got asked what he'd done in the war - and what reply he gave?

His labours done

All Commonwealth war graves in churchyards and cemeteries scattered throughout the U.K. bear the regimental or corps badge of the man or woman commemorated. Often though, in the case of First World War dead, they were actually serving in the Labour Corps when they died and the badge shown is that of their ‘parent’ unit, the one they had served in before being transferred to the Labour Corps. The reason for this (I believe) is that in many ways service in a Labour Corps company was regarded as having made a lesser effort compared to having served in one of the conventional units - in effect, 'badge snobbery.' This is a misconception because, as John Starling and Ivor Lee so admirably demonstrate in their book, No Labour, No Battle, the industries of the men of the Labour Corps were pivotal in supporting the activities of the rest of the Army, both at home and abroad.

Generally speaking, the men serving in the Labour Corps were of a low medical category, either by reason of age, infirmity, or having been previously wounded severely enough to preclude further front-line service. One such example of the latter category was Sergeant John Brewer, of Egton-cum-Newland, near Ulverston.

He’d enlisted in the 4th Battalion at Ulverston at the end of March, 1914, and, with a grammar school education under his belt, made rapid progression through the ranks, having already earned his sergeant's stripes by the time the Battalion moved to France on May 3rd, 1915.

The newspapers describe him as having been wounded by a sniper exactly one year later, on May 3rd, 1916, when serving in the trenches near Aveluy. However, the 4th Battalion War Diary does not corroborate this, stating that they were out of the line and in training on that day. More likely is that he was actually wounded while out on patrol on the 7th, co-incidentally at the same time as Lieutenant Bowman, the subject of the previous entry on this blog.

Whatever date he was wounded, it resulted in him losing an eye. That was the end of his front-line service and, after evacuation to the UK and recuperation, he was posted to Oswestry, initially to assist in the training of new recruits to the second-line battalion.

His Service Records do not appear to have survived the bombing of the Army Records Office at Arnside Street in London in 1941, so it isn’t possible to be precise about his subsequent transfer to the Labour Corps or to state what unit of the Labour Corps he was posted to, although it would have come under the Western Command Labour Centre, based at Oswestry. However, he was never allocated a new 6-figure Territorial Number in early 1917 and so could not have been still serving in the King’s Own at that time. What is clear from the few surviving records is that on transfer he was renumbered to 232551 and remained serving at Oswestry, still with the rank of sergeant. His entry in ‘Soldiers Died in the Great War’ also lists him as Labour Corps.

Tragically, his wound ultimately proved fatal and he died in hospital at Oswestry on July 31st, 1917, by a sad co-incidence the very same day when a lot of his former comrades in the 1st/4th Battalion would lose their lives near Wieltje on the opening day of what was to become known as the Third Battle of Ypres. He was 23 years old.

He was buried in Ulverston Cemetery, being accorded a military funeral, and in due course an official headstone was erected by the then Imperial War Graves Commission, one bearing the badge of his former regiment, the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) rather than the badge of the Labour Corps. The headstone to be seen to-day looks to be a reasonably modern replacement as the inscription is very crisp. However, a variety of limestone has been used that does not lend itself to providing a great deal of contrast on the lettering, making photography difficult.

Somewhat peculiarly the Commonwealth War Graves Commission does not record his 'secondary' service in the Labour Corps in the database entry for him, as is usually the case. Perhaps one day the pedant in me will attempt to get this oversight corrected.

Aces High

Young Leslie Spencer Bowman was a doctor’s son from Ulverston, but he probably never spent much of his short life there as he was, like so many of his class, packed off to preparatory school at Seascale at an early age before going on to receive his secondary education at Clifton College. However, on the outbreak of war he returned to Ulverston and joined the 4th Battalion, being gazetted as a Second-Lieutenant on December 23rd, 1914.

He went to France with the Battalion in May 1915 and, apart from receiving a minor wound a year later when out on patrol near Aveluy on May 7th, 1916, his service was fairly unremarkable.

Like a lot of young officers he was seduced by the glamour of becoming an aviator and in July he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He completed his training in the U.K. and was posted to back to France to join 53 Squadron as a newly-qualified pilot on December 23rd, 1916, a fortnight later being promoted to Lieutenant. He was wounded for a second time on June 7th but recovered quickly enough to be able to rejoin the squadron ten days later.

On June 25th, 1917, he set off in an RE8 on a reconnaissance flight with his observer, Second-Lieutenant James Power-Clutterbuck. Near Le Bizet, while returning from their mission, they were attacked by a predatory German fighter, for whom a lumbering RE8 presented a fairly easy target. The wings broke off under the machine gun fire and the aircraft fell burning to the ground in No Man’s Land between the opposing trenches. Subsequently the British troops in the vicinity managed to recover Power-Clutterbuck’s body but not that of Leslie Bowman, who is now commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial.

Four days after celebrating his 20th birthday he'd become the 56th victim of Manfred von Richtofen, the Red Baron.

In the grip of the grape

This stolid-looking character posing rather stiffly for his photograph is 2290, Private James Grenfell. When I found the photograph it was intriguingly labelled “drunk on duty.” I wondered about this comment and then found that his Service Papers had survived. Within the pages all is explained.

He’d enlisted in the 4th Battalion on August 8th, 1914, on the outbreak of war, and was from Askam-in-Furness. Then, along with his fellow Territorials he’d gone south with the battalion to guard the Great Western Railway. I assume this photograph was taken somewhere near Slough.

Shortly afterwards he blotted his copybook by being caught drunk whilst on guard duty. It may not have been the only occasion - and he was probably somewhat more than a bit 'tight' - because the action taken by the Commanding Officer was quite harsh; he was dismissed from the Battalion and his service with the Territorial Force was abruptly terminated - quite a disgrace to bear in those times.

Drunkenness is a difficult subject to gauge because, naturally enough, the Wadham & Crossley 4th Battalion History and (patriotic) local newspapers eschewed recording such embarrasing detail, but the temptations of being away from home were probably too much for some of the men and, dare I say it, the amateurism of the rank and file of the Territorial Force was still rather prevalent at that time. Excessive drinking may have been a genuine source of concern (it certainly had been in the Regular Army) and perhaps an example needed to be set. It certainly was in Private Grenfell's case.

I don't know whether he ever served in uniform again. From his photograph he looks to have been approaching an age where he would have been too old to be conscripted and, in my researches of local men who saw military service in the Great War, I have never come across his name in any other context.

Casting the net wider

When war broke out in 1914 the 4th Battalion had great difficulty in recruiting sufficient numbers to get it up to wartime strength. When the Battalion was mobilised and sent south to guard the Great Western Railway many of the local employers cried "foul!", and nearly 200 of the men had to be released to return to their civilian occupations.

To ameliorate this problem, in February, 1915, the County Territorial Association decided to form a second-line battalion at Blackpool (the 2nd/4th Battalion) and recruit from that district in addition to north Lancashire. One such recruit was 3361, Private John Cowell, from nearby Preston, who enlisted around the end of April, 1915.

The above photograph was taken while he was stationed at Weeton Camp, Blackpool. Another photograph, taken with two fellow recruits (who are, sadly, unidentified) was taken "somewhere in England."

John was eventually posted out to France with a reinforcement draft to join the 1st/4th Battalion some time in 1916. A few months later, on August 8th, he was killed at Guillemont in one of the abortive attacks on that German stronghold which was to claim so many lives before it was finally captured a month later on September 3rd by the Irish soldiers of the 16th Division. In total, 8 officers and 98 'other ranks' of the 1st/4th Battalion were killed that day; most of their bodies simply vanished on the moonscape battlefield and, like John Cowell, they are now nearly all commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Shells bursting around Guillemont on August 7th, the day before the assault by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division. By September the area had been totally obliterated by shelling. Hardly surprising, therefore, that there were few identifiable remains of the men of the King's Own who perished on August 8th (King's Own Museum).

My thanks to Mr. Chris Jordan of the U.S.A. for kindly allowing me to use the photographs of John Cowell.

When civilian drilling was more important than military drill

I have made mention in previous blog entries of the recall of around 200 men of the 4th Battalion after their mobilisation in August, 1914. Many had key skills that simply could not be replaced overnight and local employers were understandably alarmed about the loss of so many skilled men to what in effect was rather mundane sentry duty in the south of England.

An example was Private Edward Smith, of Great Urswick. He had enlisted on June 11th, 1911, as a peace-time Territorial and, upon mobilisation, moved with the rest of the 4th Battalion to duty guarding the Great Western Railway. In doing so, he left behind his work as a driller (machinist) at Vickers' Shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, a fairly specialised occupation.

On February 2nd, 1915, he was recalled and returned to his trade at Barrow, but still remained a mobilised member of the Territorial Force. He remained subject to Military Authority - and recall to the Colours at any time - although, to the best of my knowledge, he never again wore a uniform. Assuming that he had signed the Imperial Service Obligation agreeing to serve overseas then he may have worn an Imperial Service Badge to protect him from accusations of "slacking" or cowardice.

In February, 1917, he was renumbered - along with all Territorial Soldiers - and allocated the new number 200127. I don't know his original Service Number but would guess it was around 1745. Shortly after this, in March, 1917, his term of service with the Territorial Force expired and he was formally discharged, all the while continuing to work at the shipyard.

Then in May he became ill, being diagnosed with tuberculosis, from which he ultimately died on April 11th, 1919. His surviving records acknowledged that he contracted the illness while still officially a soldier and so he was awarded a pension, and when he died, he was accorded official commemoration by the Imperial War Graves Commission.

He is buried in Urswick (St. Mary) Churchyard and, following a 2005 campaign by a resident of the village, his name is now also inscribed on Urswick War Memorial, and quite rightly so.

A Jolly Boys' Outing

We now take paid leave and holidays for granted but, before the First World War, an annual charabanc  trip to Morecambe or Blackpool would probably have been the most that many working-class families from the South Cumberland and North Lancashire area could expect or afford.

In those days - and to a lesser extent in the post-war years too - membership of the Territorial Force provided men with an opportunity for both social comradeship and a (paid) release from work for a set period (usually a fortnight) to go to the annual training camp. An added bonus would be that the wives and girlfriends would not be around to hinder the enjoyment, although, undoubtedly, tales would 'get back' about the behaviour of the unwary!

This splendid photograph, provided by my friend Ian Lewis (cumbrianwarmemorials.blogspot.com), is of just such a group of Territorials on their annual camp at Denbigh, North Wales, in 1913, in this case men of the 4th Battalion from Ulverston. Sadly, none of the men are identified, although it is reasonable to assume that many of them would go on to serve in the battalion during the First World War and probably some did not survive the conflict.

Perhaps the shortest military service ever?

Corney Fell is a lonely, windswept place, nestling between the west Cumbrain coastal plain and the Cumbrian mountains. The community comprises a few houses and scattered farms and St. John's Church. In the churchyard there is a solitary war grave to a Territorial soldier of the King's Own who died in 1916, and he may well qualify as having the shortest military service on record, albeit in very tragic circumstances.

Joseph Pennington was called up under the Military Service Act of January, 1916, and, coming from such an insular and remote farming community where he had lived all his life (and had probably never ventured more than a few miles from before), the thought of military service was apparently just too much for him and he took his own life, less than a day after his attestation and formal enlistment. His case was reported in the local newspaper, the Millom Gazette:

Bootle Man’s Tragic End.

Before Coroner F. W. Poole and a jury, of whom Coun. James Mount was foreman, an inquest was held on Saturday evening at the Ulverston Police Court concerning the death of Joseph Peile Pennington. Mr. S. Hart Jackson, jun., watched the proceedings on behalf of the Furness Railway Company, and Mr. Woolgar, stationmaster, was also in attendance.

William Pennington, of Corney, Bootle, identified the body as that of his son. He was a farm labourer, 40 years of age, and unmarried. He was in lodgings. He was not an attested man, but had been called up under the Military Service Act.

The Coroner : Have you had any conversation with him about joining the Army? - No; he had spoken very little about it.

Do you know whether he objected to join?- I believe he did.

On any particular ground?- Not anything particular; but he did not seem as if he would like to join.
Private William Kendall, of The Green, Millom, gave evidence that he met deceased about nine o’clock on Friday morning at Millom Recruiting Office. They stayed there until 10:30, and at noon went to Lancaster for medical examination. They returned by the 8:12 p.m. train, and on arrival at Ulverston witness, deceased, James Burns, Edward Kendall, and another man walked in the direction of the Ulverston Drill Hall. On getting near the hall, he noticed deceased was hanging back a bit. Deceased did not come into the Drill Hall, and witness said to one of the men, “There’s someone short; where’s Pennington gone?” He replied, “He’s not come in yet?” Witness went to the door and shouted out, “This is the place.” He made some sort of answer, but did not come back.

The Coroner : Had you any talk to him during the day about soldiering?- No.

He said nothing against it in any way?- No : he seemed a little bit downhearted, but expressed no opinion.

John Townson, signalman, stated that at 11:50 on Friday night he was stationed in Ulverston east cabin at the Ulverston end of the station. On hearing some noise at the rod points, he looked out of the window, and saw the shadow of a man. He called out, but, getting no answer, he went down the yard about 50 yards, and saw deceased standing in the four-foot. He asked him what he wanted there, and he gave an answer he could not understand. He got hold of him, brought him up-to the cabin, and asked him if he had fallen out of the train, or had been knocked down by an engine. He replied “No.” On getting him to the light, he saw that he had a nasty cut in the neck. He took him to the porters’ room, and left him in charge of Tom Hope, porter, while he knocked up Mr. Woolgar, the stationmaster. The latter came promptly and rendered first-aid until the arrival of Dr. Bowman, about seven minutes later. The doctor conveyed deceased in his motor-car to the Cottage Hospital.
William Riley, porter at the passenger station, stated that he found the razor produced at 9:20 that morning outside the porter’s room.

Police-Sergt. Nutter gave evidence that deceased died about midnight. On examining the body he found a deep cut in the throat, severing the windpipe. He afterwards searched the clothing, and found a purse containing 3s 6d. and the Army Form produced. Subsequently he examined the line, and found patches of blood at three different points, about half a mile from where deceased was found.
The Coroner, in summing up, said that the facts were very simple, and the main question for the jury was as to the state of the man’s mind. There was no evidence that he had any strong feeling in regard to joining the Army, although he seemed somewhat downhearted. If the jury thought the calling up for military service had affected his mind, they might return a verdict of temporary insanity, or, in the alternative, they might say that there was not sufficient evidence to indicate the state of his mind.

A verdict of “Suicide whilst temporarily insane” was returned.

-: Millom Gazette, Friday, March 31, 1916; page 3.

Because he had been formally enlisted he was considered by officialdom to have been a serving soldier at the time of his death and so was entitled to be formally commemorated by the Imperial War Graves Commission (later to become the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) and his grave marked with a military-pattern headstone. It's strange to think that nearly a century later he is now remembered for being a soldier when he never actually served long enough to even put on the uniform.

"G" Company, 4th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment

The photograph below, provided by Mr. George Perry, shows members of "G" Company, 4th Battalion, The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) at Milly Bridge Farm, Twyford Down, soon after mobilisation following the declaration of war on September 4th, 1914. These men were all pre-war 'Terriers', drawn from Askam-in-Furness and neighbouring Dalton-in-Furness.

On mobilisation the battalion was sent south on home defence duties and spent the next few months in Berkshire guarding the Great Western Railway. It was while stationed there that it suffered its first casualties of the war, several unwary men being knocked down and killed by the express trains.

Front row, left to right: Private F. Thomas, Private C. Mailes, Private 'Pim' Taylor, Private C Raven, Private T. Thompson, Private W. Williamson, Private 'Tar' Preston

Second row, left to right: Private J. Tyson, Private C. Phillips, Corporal T. Dickinson, Corporal E. Laidman, Sergeant Gibson, Lieutenant Kennedy, Lieutenant Spearing, Sergeant J. P. Wells, Corporal T. Atkinson, Private G. Huck, Private W. Ely, unknown

Third row, left to right: Private E. Burns, Private T. Gott, Private T. Crossley, Private J. Jackson, Private W. Waters, Private H. Phillips, Private W. Kipling, Private R. Wallace, Private C. Nicholas, Private H. Shrimpton, Private W. Corbett, Private J. Edwards

Back row, left to right: Private C. Wells, Private J. Charnock, Private M. Benson, Private J. Riley, Private P. Roberts, Private H. Riley, Private J. Gill

Several of the men did not survive the war, including Lieutenant Edward Spearing, who was killed at Delville Wood in September 1916, and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.