THE SOLDIERS OF HORNTON

Transcription

1 THE SOLDIERS OF HORNTON In 1914, the outbreak of war was viewed in traditional terms it would be a short clash, a bloody nose for the Hun and everyone home by Christmas. When war ended, the British Empire had suffered nearly one million men killed and over two million wounded, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in history. All of the British Isles was affected; nearly every town and village had its casualties, on and off the field. Hornton was no exception. Men from the village joined up and some never returned, paying the ultimate sacrifice. Here we tell their stories to honour their lives, their service and their endurance.

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3 IN FLANDERS FIELDS... In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD ( ), Canadian Army

4 DOING THEIR BIT Why did young men rush to join up? The answer appears to lie in a mixture of boredom, poverty and patriotism. Many men lived on or under the breadline. They were frustrated, stuck in poorly paid jobs. The army offered a regular wage, better food and excitement. Poverty was a big factor, with many working class men trying to support their families on low wages. There was also an overwhelming surge of patriotism at the time; the propaganda spread about Hun frightfulness in Belgium incited real fear and anger. Men felt that it was their duty to fight, to do their bit and many signed up for the duration - that is, until the war ended.

5 THE EVE OF WAR What about Hornton at this critical time in history? How did the War affect the village? Who lived here? What were their jobs? What did the village look like? We can imagine that the village, at this time, would have looked unkempt, with animal detritus everywhere and no proper household rubbish disposal. The Green was very often waterlogged and children got muddy on their way to school. The population was about 362 and most families lived in rented cottages, some of which were badly neglected. There was no mains electricity, villagers relied on candles and oil lamps. Water was from wells and roadside pumps, and villagers fetched their daily water with buckets and a yoke. Although many villagers worked on the land, the number of farms had reduced from 34 to seven by this time. The Ironstone Company employed many stonemasons and labourers but there were also other occupations and skills among them carpenters, gardeners, grooms, blacksmiths, dressmakers, drivers and innkeepers. Due to its isolation, Hornton was relatively self-sufficient: there were five licensed pubs, several ale houses, and shops were often to be found in a family s living room.

6 JOINING UP Recruitment soared at the start of war; but the real recruiting boom began in August 1914, prompted by news of the British retreat following the Battle of Mons. At this stage, men knew the risks indeed, many joined to combat a perceived threat to home and nation. Recruitment centres in Territorial Army drill halls or town halls dished out a basic medical examination. If volunteers passed they swore an oath of allegiance, took the King s shilling and returned home to await call-up. Many did not join up because they did not believe the war would last long, because their jobs were seen as vital for the war effort, because they were older with dependent families or because they were pacifists. In 1916 however, conscription was introduced: all single men aged 19 to 41 were conscripted. This extended to all married men later in the year. Up until February 1916, 2,631,000 men had volunteered. Conscription increased the number by another 2,340,000. By the end of the war almost one in four of all British and Irish men had joined up.

7 TRAINING Most men were ordered to report to their local training depot. Here, it would have been in Banbury or Warwick. Recruits may have started out in local regiments the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire or Warwickshire regiments but then they were often sent to other regiments across the country. New recruits in all armies were first put through three months of basic training. The aim of this course was: to build up physical fitness and confidence; to instil discipline and obedience; and to teach the fundamental military skills which were necessary to function in the army. Training was designed not so much to teach men the art of war but to toughen them up. Drill, route marching, bayonet fighting, musketry and digging trenches were all taught. Above right: New recruits at basic army training Centre right: Early morning ablutions Right: The 1/16th West Yorkshire Regiment in the centre of Warwick, prior to their departure to France We went on route marches, cross-country runs, and were drilled like guardsmen. Sometimes we would have bayonet practice against a straw dummy and two or three times we went to (rifl e) ranges, but that was as close to fighting training as we got. We had to learn that at the front.

8 ACTIVE SERVICE Left: While on rest soldiers could buy souvenirs for loved ones; postcards were popular, especially those handworked in silk Ahead of the war, few had any realistic idea of life at the front. Once active, many soldiers regarded trench life as 90 per cent routine and 10 per cent terror. The hardest thing to endure was shellfire: there was no means of retaliation for the infantryman, who had no option but to seek the deepest shelter and endure it. Official rations for British soldiers would have raised a cheer had they always arrived, but front-line troops often went hungry as rations failed to reach them due to shelling or inadequate allocation. Despite the dangers, there was a familiarity about trench life that gave the ordinary soldier a degree of comforting routine. This vanished once it became common knowledge that a big show was imminent, with the prospect of going over the top.

9 THE G ALLIPOLI C AMPAIGN This was an ill-fated attempt by the Allies to control the sea route from Europe to Russia. The campaign began with a failed naval attack by British and French ships on the Dardanelles Straits in February-March 1915 and continued with a major land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Lack of intelligence and terrain knowledge, along with fierce Turkish resistance, hampered success. Conditions on Gallipoli defy description. The terrain and close fighting did not allow for the dead to be buried. Flies and other vermin flourished in the heat, which caused epidemic sickness. Severe winter storms also meant huge damage and extreme human hardship. By mid-october Allied forces had suffered heavy casualties, estimated at 265,000 men, and had made little headway. Evacuation began in December 1915 and was completed in early January Extract from The Royal Hampshire Regiment, by C T Atkinson, describing the battle in which John Robbins lost his life: the volume and vigour of the Turkish reply showed that they were unpleasantly ready for the attack and augured ill for its chances.then at 3.50pm the infantry went forward with the utmost dash and gallantry, the Hampshire attacking in four waves. A low crest fifty yards from our line was crossed almost without loss but then machine guns opened up on all sides and mowed the attackers down wholesale before many of them had got any way across No Man s Land, some guns across the Krithia Nullah on our right being particularly deadly....the Hampshire suffered terribly. It has been the worst day in the whole story of Cape Helles. Source: The Royal Hampshire Regiment Trust

10 JOHN R OBBINS Date and place of death: 6 August 1915, Helles Front, Gallipoli Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, then Hampshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion Medals: Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal Stonemason John was one of five children and the second son of William and Sarah Robbins of West End Cottages, Hornton. John lived with his wife, Amy, in Spring Cottage, West End and they also had five children. He was an early volunteer. At 36, he was killed in the trenches on the first day of a sustained attack on Turkish forces along the Gallipoli peninsula. Inadequate artillery support brought a huge sacrifice of lives to little purpose: the Hampshire lost 18 officers and 224 other ranks on that day. Above: Private John Robbins Right: A British soldier fi res a machine gun with periscope attachment in the trenches at Gallipoli The dreadful defeat prompted a young Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, to resign and resume his military career by commanding a battalion on the Western Front. A parliamentary committee of enquiry confirmed how misguided the Gallipoli Campaign had been.

11 W ILLIAM B ACCHUS Date and place of death: 13 September 1915, Passchendaele Rank: Captain Regiment/Service: York and Lancaster Regiment, 2nd Battalion Medals: Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal William was born at Hornton Grounds, Hornton in October 1885, the fifth child of William Ernest and Ethel Bacchus. He had two brothers and two sisters. The family lived there until the late 1890 s. Aged 29, after less than a month in France, he was severely wounded in the Ypres Salient battle of September 1915 and taken to Lijssenthoek village dressing station where he died of shrapnel wounds to the head. He probably joined the military straight from school, at 17, and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1909, becoming Captain in September Above: Captain William Herbert Ogden Bacchus ( ) Above left: Hornton Grounds c1901 Right: A medical offi cer attends a wounded man at an Advanced Dressing Station

12 H ORACE D ENTON Date and place of death: 14 April 1916, Passchendaele Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 6th Battalion attached to 60th Trench Mortar Battery Medals: Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal Born in Northamptonshire, Horace Richard Denton was son to James and Henrietta Denton of Banbury. Aged five, he was living in Hornton with his older sister, Hilda, and then-widowed father, a blacksmith. Later, we can track that he gained two more brothers and moved to Neithrop, Banbury. His trade was recorded as an assistant hawker a street salesman. He was called up at 18 and died at 19 at a battle of the Ypres Salient, three months before the opening battle of the Somme. Horace s named grave is at the Bard Cottage Cemetery, facing the former German lines. Above: Bard Cottage Cemetery near Ypres in Belgium Above: Loading a mortar in a trench on the Western Front. Horace was in an extremely dangerous trench mortar battery: trench mortars had various defensive and offensive roles, from suppression of enemy machine-gun or sniper fi re to the coordinated firing of barrages

13 T HE B ATTLE OF THE S OMME For many people, the Battle of the Somme most clearly symbolises the horrors of World War I; this one battle had a marked effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to epitomise the sheer futility of trench warfare. For many years, those who led the British campaign attracted a lot of criticism especially Field Marshall Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force. This criticism was based on the appalling British and French casualty figures. By the end of the battle, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties, including nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000. Going over the top at the Somme was the first and only taste of battle for many of these men. As part of Kitchener s Volunteer Army, they were persuaded to volunteer by posters showing Lord Kitchener himself summoning men to prove their patriotism. The next morning (July 2nd) we gunners surveyed the dreadful scene in front of us...it became clear that the Germans always had a commanding view of No Man s Land. (The British) attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high water-mark. Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fi sh caught in the net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as if they were praying; they had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall. Machine gun fi re had done its terrible work. George Coppard, machine gunner at the Battle of the Somme

14 T HOMAS R ICHARDS Date and place of death: 1 July 1916, The Somme Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 6th Battalion, then Hampshire Regiment, 1st Battalion Medals: Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal Thomas s father was from Warmington and his mother was from Suffolk. The 1911 Census lists him as a wagoner on a farm. Sadly, we know little else of his life in Hornton, nor of his family. He was killed on the opening day of the notorious Battle of the Somme and we can deduce that he was an early casualty as his body was recovered and buried in a small cemetery at Redan Ridge near Beaumont-Hamel. Extract from The Royal Hampshire Regiment, by C T Atkinson, describing the Somme s opening day, 1 July 1916: A few bombers are reported to have got into the enemy s line, but the majority of the Hampshire were brought down at or short of the wire, only a few reaching it, and the survivors could only seek the poor shelter of the shellholes which pitted No Man s Land. Here they had to lie for hours, pinned to the ground, unable to move and with little chance to hit back. Source: The Royal Hampshire Regiment Trust Right: Looking over No Man s Land to the German defences

15 W ILLIAM C AWLEY Date and place of death: 13 August 1916, The Somme Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 11th Battalion Medals: Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal Described in the 1911 Census as a coal merchant s carter, William was a bachelor who lived with his widower father Hugh, a shepherd, and younger brother, Oscar, on Millers Lane. He joined the 11th Battalion when it was formed. Mobilised in July 1915, his regiment engaged on the Western Front. He was killed near the Ancre River section of the battlefield, possibly while bringing up supplies, by horse and cart, to the front. He was 36. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy, France. His descendants, in at least two families the Hemmings and the Horsleys - still live in Hornton. Left: Thiepval Memorial, opened on 31 July 1932 by the Prince of Wales, was and remains the largest British war memorial in the world. It contains the names of over 73,000 men, with no known grave, who fell on the Somme between July 1916 and March 1918 Right: A pack horse loaded with trench boots is led through the mud on the Western Front

16 J OHN W ELLS Date and place of death: 23 October 1916, The Somme Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, then Hampshire Regiment, 1st Battalion Medals: Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal Born in Claydon to John and Jane Wells, his father being a shepherd, John Cornelius Wells was a wagoner on a farm and came to Hornton to marry Amelia Burden in 1912: the family lived on Millers Lane. The Thiepval Memorial in Picardy, France bears the names of British and South African troops who died on The Somme and have no known grave. John was one of the 90 per cent of these men to be killed between July and November He was 27. His descendants now live in Banbury. Extract from The Royal Hampshire Regiment, by C T Atkinson, describing the battle at on 23 October 1916: As long as bombs and ammunition lasted the defence held, though the enemy were pressing them from both fl anks, but after keeping the Germans at bay till well after dark the survivors, without reinforcements or supplies, had to fall back the attack had resulted in some improvement in our line, which, with the ground in so bad a state, was no small achievement. But it has cost the 1st Hampshire over 200 casualties Source: The Royal Hampshire Regiment Trust

17 J AMES T URNER Date and place of death: 5 Octobet 1917, Passchendaele Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion Medals: Victory Medal, British War Medal Born in Epwell, James was listed in the 1911 Census as a shepherd who was lodging with a widow in Hornton. Above: Private James Turner and his wife Kate, nee Gardner He was one of nearly 35,000 men who were killed in Passchendaele from 16 August 1917 onwards and who have no known grave but whose names are recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial. James was killed on the second day of the notoriously muddy quagmire of the battle of Broodseinde, which started on 4 October. He was survived by his widow Kate, who succeeded her mother in running Hornton Post Office in Bell Street. She died in 1972, aged 87. There were no children.

18 C LARENCE G ILKES Date and place of death: 16 October 1917, Passchendaele Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 5th Battalion Medals: Victory Medal, British War Medal The 5th Battalion was formed in Oxford in 1914 as part of Kitchener s First New Army. Clarence Bert Gilkes died during the third phase of the Battle of Ypres Salient and has no known grave but his name is recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial. His mother was Sarah Elizabth Ann Gilkes and Clarence lived with her and his step-father, as well as one sister. Our knowledge of his life is scant but indicates he was a farm labourer. He perhaps moved from Hornton to Banbury and, later, to Deddington. Left: Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. The cemetery and its surrounding memorial are located outside of Passchendaele, near Zonnebeke in Belgium. Above: The aftermath of the Battle of Ypres Salient at Passchendaele

19 E MANUEL F REEMAN Date and place of death: 21 March 1918, St Quentin Rank: Private. Service No Regiment/Service: Queen s Own Oxfordshire Hussars (QOOH) Medals: Victory Medal, British War Medal Coming from a family of eight children,wroxton-born thatcher Emanuel would have driven a horse and cart, which qualified him to join the Hussars, a cavalry regiment. Emanuel was 33 when he was one of 13 men killed, probably in the artillery attack, on the opening night of the Battle of Saint Quentin, Picardy, France part of an intense, four-day aggressive German offensive, characterised by confusion and thick fog. He married Hornton s Ellen Gilkes, of Prospect Terrace, in Emanuel is recorded in Hornton Methodist Chapel s Roll of Honour as singing in the choir. Ellen lived here for much of her life until her death in Emanuel s nephew, Rob, and his wife Janet, now own the family home on The Green. This was formerly occupied by stonemason and life-long Horntonian Bill Freeman, one of Emanuel s two sons and brother to Nelson. Above: Private Emmanuel Freeman Above right: The retreat of British troops from St Quentin in Picardy, 1918 Extract from the War Diary of Lieutenant E W H Allfrey, D (Banbury) Squadron of QOOH: 22nd March 1918: 2.15am Germans start to shell position heavily. Both Sergeant Drake and self fail to fi nd either Privates Payne or Freeman or the Lewis-gun team (all on right of line). Former never heard of again; the latter got away, and I heard next day that they are safe to 4am Lost in fog.

20 W ILLIAM P RICKETT Date and place of death: 14 October 1918, Western Front Rank: Corporal. Service No Regiment/Service: Duke of Wellington s (West Riding Regiment) Medals: Victory Medal, British War Medal Born in Grimsbury, Banbury, farm labourer William was son to Hornton s Mrs Ellen Hancox, originally from Coventry, who was the second wife of Harry Hancox who was a well-known stonemason with a large family in West End, Hornton. William was recruited originally into a Rifle Brigade in Warwick and then transferred to a Yorkshire regiment that took part in the 100-day Allied Advance to Victory offensive that forced the Germans out of France and ended the war. When he died, at just 21, possibly fighting to capture the French town of Lille, the Armistice was merely one month away. William is commemorated at Rue-David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, near Armentieres. Above: Rue-David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix. There are 898 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War in the cemetery Above: Machine gun in action during the final push to end the war