Deadly work under the cover of darkness

On the night of the 29^th July 1915, 100 years ago today, The 2^nd Battalion, The Queens, Royal West Surrey Regiment set to work improving the front communication trenches in their sector around Rue – des – Berceaux.

The War Diary for the 29^th / 30^th July reads as follows.

29^th July 1915

Officers 32. Other ranks 961

From Hospital 2 To hospital 4

2/lt. W. Battiscombe to the 1^st Bn. 

A working party consisting of 8 officers and 287 N.C.O’s and men improved front communication trenches during the night.

30^th July 1915

Officers 31. Other ranks 959

From Hospital 2

Killed 3

Wounded 5

To hospital 5

The three soliders killed were Cpl. Frank William Cousens , Pte. B. Mannerings and Corporal John Joseph Graffham, my Great Grand Uncle in law.

All three soldiers are buried in the Rue-Des-Berceaux Military Cemetery, Richbourg-L’Avoue, North of Bethune in the Pas De Calais.

Rue Des Berceaux Military Cemetery

Corporal John Joseph Graffham (9443) was 26 years old and left behind his wife Daisy and one year old son Albert who were living at 9, Felwick Place, Red Hill, Surrey. He is buried in grave Reference I.B.17.

He is buried next to his comrade Corporal Frank William Cousens (9195) aged 24 who was the son of John and Rose Cousens, of 28, St. Peter’s Grove, Canterbury, Kent. Grave reference I.B. 18

Private B Mannerings (3716) was buried in Grave reference I.C. 14

Corporal John Graffham had fought in some of the heaviest fighting of the War so far and his battalion had suffered a significant amount of casualties since it had landed in Zeebrugge in October. Including the First Battle of Ypres and the Christmas truce of 1914

I have been writing this blog for a year now and this is the first one which records the death of an family ancestor, even now 100 years on, the sense of loss can still be felt, 

One wonders the catastrophic effect of John’s death on his wife, Daisy and son, Albert, back home in Red Hill, as well as his parents, Peter and Sarah and his brothers and sisters including his older sister May Rosetta Cobbold (nee Graffham) who was pregnant with her seventh child.

Lest We Forget

Promoted to Corporal

On the 15^th July 1915 Charles Henry Bush (My first cousin 3 times removed) was promoted to corporal in the 35^th Company of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).

Born in Wimbledon in 1878, Charles had been mobilised from the Army reserve on the 5^th August 1914 and had arrived in France on the 20^th August. He had previously served with the RAMC in South Africa. During 1914 he had been stationed at No.9 General Hospital initially in Nantes and later in Rouen.

Charles was posted to New End Military Hospital, Hampsted at Christmas 1914, one of the new hospitals established to deal with the ever increasing number of casualties arriving back from France and Flanders.

New End Military Hospital

By May it was already treating 300 wounded soldiers, including those suffering from shell shock.

Charles' elder brother Alfred, a Regimental Sergeant Major with the Royal Army Medical Corps, was still stationed in Egypt attached to the the 1/4^th London Mounted Brigade. Both brothers had served together in South Africa and had been brought up in Wimbledon in the 1880's, their father Charles dying and their mother Caroline remarrying when they ere both young.

The Kitchener Connection

Lord Kitchener was the Secretary of state for war during the First World War (until his death in 1916). His recruitment poster, a masterpiece of marketing, encouraged millions of young men to join up and do their bit.

On the 9^th July 1915 Lord Kitchener inspected the 2^nd battalion The Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment. The regiment including my Great Grand Uncle in law John Joseph Graffham lined the road north of St. Hilare.

It was not the first time John Graffham’s battalion had been inspected by senior commanders. On the 21^st April Field Marshall Sir John French (Commander in Chief of the BEF) had inspected the regiment.

And on 27^th May the Allies supreme commander, General Joffre had inspected the regiment. The 2^nd Battalion war diary for that day stated:

Gen. Joffre, C-in-C of the allied forces honoured the 7^th Division this afternoon by inspecting it. The Division was formed up in a large field near Bas Rieux just east of Lillers. The 22^nd Bde was in the centre, each Bde being formed up in mass of battalions in quarter column. Gen. Joffre accompanied by F.M French and other distinguished officers passed down the lines after which three cheers were given and the troops marched past.

My Grandmother, Dorothy Renshaw, working as a domestic servant at Shugborough Hall for Lord Anson, the Earl of Lichfield, was once presented along with the rest of the staff to Lord Kitchener apparently for the excellent table setting. (Family Verbal History).

Dorothy Renshaw

I am still researching the exact date of when this event happened.

Dorothy was born in Brereton, Staffordshire on the 9th January 1902, The youngest of three daughters of George and Matilda Renshaw (Nee Thompson). In 1911, Dorothy and her parents were living at 8 Talbot Road, Brereton, with George being employed as a Coal Miner. Dorothy's sisters Alice was working as a domestic servant in Longdon (near Rugeley) and Elizabeth was married to Joseph Vernon, who also worked as a Coal Miner and were living at 6 Talbot Road.

Continuing the Kitchener connection, my Great Uncle Benjamin Hollins, originally from Rugeley, but living in Armitage in 1915 with his wife Hilda and two young children Benjamin and Henry, had been out in France serving with the 1/6^th North Staffordshire Regiment since March. His third son was born between April and June 1915. The boy’s name -  George Kitchener Hollins.