A Christmas Truce

25^th Dec 1914 – A Christmas Truce

For Corporal John Graffham (My Great Grand Uncle in Law) serving with the 2^nd Battalion The Queens, Royal West Surrey Regiment Christmas day 100 years ago must have been a very strange experience indeed.

Earlier in the week on the 18^th December his battalion had supported a heavy attack on the German trenches in which the Warwicks, South Staffords and Royal Welch Fusiliers had received heavy casualties. The following day a local armistice occurred to collect the dead, during which time a officer from the South Staffords was killed by a sniper and two officers and seven stretcher bearers who had been enticed into the German Trenches and were taken prisoner. The armistice on the 19^th came to a swift end when the British shelled the German Trenches.

So one can only image the feelings and thoughts of John Graffham as the events of Christmas day 1914 unfolded. He had been involved in some of the heaviest fighting of the war over the last 3 months, with comrades being killed or wounded on a daily basis and yet.

Diary Extract – 25^th December 2^nd battalion the Queens Royal West Surrey

Xmas Day – At 11.0 am an armistice began – It started opposite the left of the Wiltshire Regt – the Regt on our right. Many German officers and men came out of their trenches to midway between the two lines – parties were sent out to collect and bury the dead who had been killed on the 18^th – graves were dug in the centre between the lines. 71 bodies were collected chiefly Warwicks….

…The Germans were nearly all belonging to the 55^th Regt – Several Staff officers also came over – these were quite a different class to the infantry officers, who were of a very low class. All professed themselves as confident as to their being able to end the war in their favour. They had no opinion of the Russians who they considered already beaten. All gave the appearance however of being fed up with the war. Armistice concluded at 4.0 pm with agreement to resume it at 9.0 am following morning as dead were not all buried.

The armistice at Christmas 1914 is one of the best known stories of World War One and even today is featuring in TV adverts. For John Joseph Graffham, my Great grand Uncle in law, 100 years ago today he experienced it with his own eyes.

No mention of Football though! More clearing and burying the dead, perhaps not a merry Christmas as the legends of the 1914 Christmas truce would make out.

Merry Christmas

Tony

Home by Christmas

23^rd December 1914

Home by Christmas

Private Charles Henry Bush (my 1^st Cousin 3 times removed) 100 years ago was serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and had been out with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France since August 20^th.

Charles was serving at No 9 General Hospital, which had been initially established in Nantes at the outbreak of war and it had moved to Rouen in November 1914.

The common perception when war broke out in August 1914 was that the conflict would be all over by Christmas and everyone would be return home victorious.

How wrong that would prove to be! 

However, for Charles Bush, on the 23^rd December 1914, that situation was about to change. After 126 days in France, Charles, aged 36, was posted to New End Military Hospital, Hampsted and was home for Christmas Eve 1914.

New End Military Hospital

A huge change from the tented general hospitals based in Rouen. This new military hospital was established to cope with the ever increasing number of wounded servicemen from the front. Originally a Workhouse, which closed in January 1915 to become a military Hospital.

Tony

Life in the Trenches

9^th December 1914 

For Corporal John Graffham serving with the 2^nd Battalion The Queens, Royal West Surrey Regiment, the reality of life in the trenches was no doubt a vastly different experience than what anyone could have imagined the war would be like. The Battalion had just moved into the trenches West of La Boutillerie, Northern France and 100 years ago today the conditions for my Great Grand Uncle in law were far from ideal.

Battalion War Diary extract from 9^th December.

Trenches. The communication trenches very bad & in some places up to over knees. Three men had to be dug out of the mud last night (one man was rescued in the morning having been stuck in the mud all night. One man was killed by a sniper today whilst cutting branches of a tree). There are casualties reported daily the men prefer to walk in the open & be shot at than to walk along these terrible communication trenches. Strict orders have been issued about men exposing themselves. (A very dark night several messages came down that enemy were attacking our line eventually a report came in that the enemy were in our trenches. A star shell was fired & there was no sign of the enemy).

19 officers. 956 other ranks.

1 Killed 1 wounded 5 to hospital

How quickly the open warfare at the beginning of the War in 1914 had changed to the realities and conditions of trench warfare so associated with the conflict today. One can only imagine what my ancestors thoughts and daily experiences were. The constant daily danger and what he needs to do to survive, thoughts of home, Daisy his wife and his young son, Albert, only a few months old...

For reference - The man killed was Private John Holloran L/8459 he is commemorated on the Ploegsteert memorial (CWGC)

Tony

The attack was timed for 6.15am. There was a heavy mist...

7^th November 1914

Diary extract from the 2^nd Battalion, The Queens– Royal West Surrey Regiment

The attack was timed for 6.15am. There was a heavy mist and it was only just becoming day light… the Queens forming the first two lines. They advanced over the rise in the ground and a heavy machine gun fire was opened by the Germans. The second line came up with the first and together the charge was made. It was completely successful and the enemy got out of their trenches and ran away. The advance continued and the trench D was taken but could not be hold owing to enfilade fire. During the charge Capt. Roberts was hit when he had led his men almost up to the German position. Lt. Lang Browne & Lt Collis were also wounded & taken prisoner. Lt. Haigh was killed and Lt. Pascoe wounded, Sgt. Major Lucas was also killed.

Three machine guns were taken in the German trench… There was considerable rifle fire all day and the enemy also fired many high explosives, percussion & shrapnel, but did no damage…

The losses of the Regiment had been heavy but the enemy were driven from the footing they had secured and time was given for the French reinforcements to come up.

Casualties on 7^th Nov

Killed -14 - Officers 2, Other ranks 12

Wounded – 64 - Officers 5, Other ranks 59

Missing 19

Total Casualties - 97

Although the Battalion remained in the field for the following day, the 7^th November saw their last action in the Firstbattle of Ypres.

Serving with the 2^nd Battalion was Private John Joseph Graffham (my Great Grand Uncle in law). John was born in 1891 in Dorking, Surrey, the son of Peter and Sarah Graffham; he had 3 brothers and 3 sisters. He married Daisy Denman in 1911 in Reigate, Surrey and their first son Albert had been born earlier in 1914.

The 2^nd Battalion had been stationed in South Africa at the outbreak of war, recalled to England in September and finally arriving in Zeebrugge on the 4^th October. They had been in contact with the enemy almost immediately upon arrival, retiring, holding lines, supporting the Belgium and French armies and other units of the BEF. 

John Graffham’s Battalion had been involved in fierce fighting continually from 15^th October onwards, Casualties were high - 18 Killed, 123 wounded and 37 missing on the 21^st. 16 killed on the 24^th. 9 Casualties on the 26^th , 12 on the 27^th, 13 on the 28^th, 92 on the 29^th, 90 on the 30^th, 99 on the 31^st, 24 between the 1^st & 3^rd Nov and a further 30 casualties on the 5^th.

The Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment as a whole recorded 457 fatalities (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) from 4^th Oct to the 8^th November 1914 highlighting the heavy fighting and huge losses of Britain's professional army in 1914.  The 2nd Battalion itself had suffered 676 casualties since landing in Zeebrugge in October.

As the open war of movement stagnated into fixed trench warfare all along the Western front, new replacements appeared in the ranks and John Graffham had undergone a baptism of fire.

Tony

Gallipoli - Opening Shots

HMS Indomitable had remained in the Mediterranean after the unsuccessful pursuit of the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau at the outbreak of War. Serving on-board, deep in the engine room, was my Great grandfather in law, Stoker 2nd Class Robert Harris.

HMS Indomitable

On 3 November 1914, 100 years ago today, Churchill ordered the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the declaration hostilities between Turkey and Russia the previous day. The attack was carried out by HMS Indomitable and Indefatigable, as well as the French pre-dreadnought battleships Suffren and Verite. 

The intention of the attack was to test the fortifications and measure the Turkish response. The results were deceptively encouraging. In a twenty minute bombardment, a single shell struck the magazine of the fort at Sedd El Bahr at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, displacing (but not destroying) 10 guns and killing 86 Turkish soldiers, Total casualties during the attack were 150, of which forty were German.

The fort at Sedd El Bahr (photo actually taken in 1915 during the Gallipoli landings)

The most significant consequence however was that the attention of the Turks was drawn to strengthening their defences and they set about expanding the mine field in the straights.

The attack actually took place before the formal declaration of war had been made by Britain against the Ottoman Empire which didn't happen until the 5th November.

HMS Indomitable was ordered to return to England in December where she joined the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron. 

References

Wikipedia

Robert Harris Navy Service Record (Personal Collection)

Royal Army Medical Corps - 20th August 1914

On the 20th August 1914, Charles Henry Bush (my 1st Cousin 3 times removed) embarked for France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) having been mobilised from the Army reserve on the 5th August 1914 with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) No. 9 General Hospital as a private. He had re-enlisted in the reserve in May 1913 having previously joined the RAMC at the age of 21 on the 23rd May 1901, at that time he was working as a barman. He served in South Africa from December 1901 to September 1904 being awarded the Queens medal with 4 clasps including Cape Colony.

He married Edith Pearson on 12th June 1905 and had their first child, Charles Alfred exactly 1 year later. By 1911 Charles, Edith & Charles along with their 2nd son Herbert were living at 69 Pelham Road, Wimbledon, with Charles' occupation listed as a bill poster for a theatre. Herbert died a few months later just as their daughter Edith was born.

Royal Army Medical Corps Cap Badge

Charles was born in Wimbledon in 1878, the son of Charles Henry Bush and Caroline Wigman, he was one of 5 children, an elder sister and brother Louisa and Alfred and younger siblings Nellie and William. His father Charles had died young at only 34 and his mother had re-married to William Clack, a scavenger with Wimbledon Borough Council, having a further 7 children. All living at 11 Ashbourne Terrace, Wimbledon, which had been the Bush family home before his father's death.

Charles was 5 foot 7 inches tall, with a fresh complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair and was 36 when the Great War started.

His elder brother, by 3 years, Alfred Charles Morris Bush had also served in the RAMC in the Boer War and had remained in the services, by 1911 he was a staff sergeant with the London Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance. Alfred also served with the RAMC in WW1, he was married to Ellen and had two children Amy and George.

His cousin William Alfred Bush had already been mobilised and was already in France, serving with the Army Service Corps in Rouen. Charles Henry Bush was posted to No. 9 General Hospital, which was initially based in Nantes.

Tony

References
1911 census - Ancestry.com
WW1 British Army Service records - Ancestry.com
Queens South Africa medal info - Wikipedia

Pack up your troubles

On the 8th August 1914, William Alfred Bush (my Great Grand Uncle) set sail from Liverpool for France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Born in 1879 in Wimbledon, Surrey. The son of the late William and Jane Bush.

William had initially joined the Army, enlisting in the Army Service Corps in January 1905 as a boiler maker and riveter, having previously been an apprentice for six years at the L & SW Railway works in Wimbledon. he married Elizabeth Jane Pope at Wandsworth Register Office on the 24th July 1905.

Army Service Corps Cap Badge and shoulder title

He completed his three years service in 1908 being based in Aldershot and was put onto the reserve list. William and Elizabeth had four children Lillie, William, Ivy and Dorothy. Their first child also called William died in infancy, Dorothy was only four months old when William was mobilised on the 6th August 1914.

The family were living at 6, Leyton Road, Wimbledon at the outbreak of war, having previously lived at 5, Goodenough Street, Wimbledon where in 1911 William listed his occupation as a house painter. William was 35 when he set of for World War One, 5 feet 4 1/4 inches tall, fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He had a small tattoo mark on the back of his right forearm and a 1/2 inch long linear scar above his right eyebrow.

He set sail from Liverpool on the 8th August 1914 and disembarked at Rouen on the 18th August. In the Mechanical Transport Depot of the Army Service Corps.

Tony

The first days of War - In pursuit of the enemy

As the lights went out across Europe at the Outbreak of World War One, Robert Harris, my Great Grandfather in law was serving on board HMS Indomitable, part of the Mediterranean fleet based in Malta.

Robert Harris - HMS Indomitable

Robert, at 5 foot 3 3/4 inches and with a sallow complexion, joined the Royal Navy on the 1st September 1913 serving on HMS Pembroke as a Stoker (2nd Class) and had transferred to the Indomitable on the 10th February 1914. Born on 22nd June 1895 in Bethnal Green, he was one of eight children of Dock Labourer Samuel Harris. His mother Emily (Nee Emily Spence) had passed away in 1903 aged just 38.

In 1911 the family were living in Newling Street, Bethnal Green with widow Ann Baker and her family, 12 people in all, in just 4 rooms! By 1913, when Robert joined the Navy, he was living in Barnet Grove, Bethnal Green and listed his trade as cabinet maker. His father Samuel married Ann Baker in early 1914

At 09.30 on the morning of the 4th August, HMS Indomitable accompanied by HMS Indefatigable, under the command of Admiral Milne encountered the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau sailing in the opposite direction heading east after a bombardment of the French Algerian port of Philippeville. Unlike France, Britain and Germany were not yet at war (the declaration would not be made until later that day, following the start of the German invasion of neutral Belguim), so Milne turned to shadow the Germans as they headed back to Messina in Italy to re-coal. 

Initially ordered by Churchill to attack, However, a meeting of the British Cabinet decided that hostilities could not start before a declaration of war, and at 14:00 Churchill was obliged to cancel his order. Milne reported the contact and position, but neglected to inform the Admiralty that the German ships were heading east, rather than west and hence threatening French transport ships, which Britain had agreed to protect, Churchill therefore still expected them to threaten the French transports, and he authorised Milne to engage the German ships if they attacked. 

British ships following The Goeben and Breslau

All three battlecruisers had problems with their boilers, and the Goeben could only manage 24kn (her normal speed was 27kn) and this was only achieved by working men and machinery to the limit; four stokers on board the Goeben were killed by scalding steam, but the Goeben and Breslau were able to break contact and reached Messina by the morning of the 5th.

By this time war had been declared, after the German invasion of Belgium, but an Admiralty order to respect Italian neutrality and stay outside a six-mile limit from the Italian coast precluded entrance into the passage of the Strait of Messina, where they could observe the port directly. 

Therefore Milne stationed HMS Inflexible and HMS Indefatigable at the northern exit of the Strait of Messina, still expecting the Germans to break out to the west where they could attack French troop transports, the light cruiser HMS Gloucester at the southern exit and he sent HMS Indomitable to re-coal at Bizerte (in modern day Tunisia) where she was better positioned to react to a German sortie into the Western Mediterranean.

The German ships however, eventually evaded the British fleet and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople on the 16th August, where they were eventually handed over to the Ottoman Empire. 

In October, The Goeben, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, was ordered by its German captain to attack Russian positions, in doing so brought the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers.

Writing several years later, Winston Churchill - who at this time was First Lord of the Admiralty - expressed the opinion that by forcing Turkey into the war the Goeben had brought "more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship."

HMS Indomitable and Robert Harris remained in the Mediterranean to blockade the Dardanelles.

Tony

References
1911 Census of England and Wales (via Ancestry.com)
Robert Harris - Royal Navy Service Record (Personal collection)
Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau - (via Wikipedia.org)

100 Years on...The story of my family in the Great War 1914-18

In the halcyon summer of 1914 the world stumbled inevitably, it seems now, towards a global conflict that would effect a whole generation. My hope, in this blog, over the next four years is to chronicle some of the stories and details of that human catastrophe as they effected my ancestors exactly 100 years before.

I can only claim to be a keen amateur family historian, so there may be mistakes or omissions as I go along, these are all honestly made and I would welcome advice, suggestions and any additional information that I haven't uncovered as yet. I'm sure there is plenty of information easily available on family history websites and maybe once I've retired after winning the lottery I will have the money to add to the family archives!

I hope my family, friends and long lost relatives which I'm slowly uncovering around the world through my family history research like this blog and find it interesting to them and if they wish to contribute their own WWI ancestor stories that would be very welcome.

My Grandfather - Arthur Hollins

Having spent many enjoyable years researching my ancestors I amazed how many must have been involved in WWI, many I have no service details for, but for that generation, it was rare for someone of active service age not to have been called to the colours in some way. So my research will continue and occasionally new information will come to light after the centenary of that event has passed. This blog is not intended to be a finished, polished academic study, but rather an organic and forever growing testimony to my family ancestors, so I hope you will forgive any chronological errors.

Sadly much of information that is easily obtainable concerns those that did not return home and I suppose we are all lucky that our direct ancestors did and that we are able to relate their stories.

This blog, rather than featuring stories of daring exploits and boys own capers is more about how ordinary young men left their family homes in Rugeley, Staffordshire, Wimbledon and Hackney for far flung fields of conflict, the horrors of which I cannot even begin to understand. I hope only to honour their memory in some small way and this blog over the next four years is my tribute to my family ancestors in the 1914-18 First World War.

Tony