Rugeley - Early days

Through this blog I am endeavouring to bring to life what was happening to my ancestors 100 years ago to the day, there will inevitably be some events which research only reveals after that milestone has passed. So this would seem an ideal time to mention three other ancestors and their Great War experiences in 1914.

Frederick Williscroft was the husband of Mary Hollins my 2nd cousin twice removed. He had enlisted with the 6th North Staffordshire Regiment on the 30th July 1914. At 5ft 8 ½ inches and 35 years 10 months old, Frederick was employed as a tanner working in the same Tanyard, Stokes and Negus Phoenix Tannery, as his father in law William Hollins. William Hollins and his family lived at 64 Queen Street, Rugeley. 

Frederick Williscroft

Frederick was discharged from the army on September 28th 1914 due to being medically unfit.

Frederick’s wife’s first cousin, Horace Wilson was born in 1897 in Rugeley and was the son of Shem and Elizabeth Wilson. Shem was the adopted son of my great, great grand uncle William Hollins and step brother to Mary’s father William Hollins. Horace was the fourth eldest of eight children (4 brothers and 3 sisters)

Horace lived at 60 Queen Street, Rugeley and enlisted with the Grenadier Guards on the 1st December 1914. He was 19 years and 3 months old, 5ft 10 inches, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair.

Horace was discharged from the army on the 12th December 1914 on the grounds of being inefficient.

William Hollins other daughter Harriet Hollins married James Fisher, a coal miner from 40 Brereton Rd, Rugeley between Jan-March 1914. Harriet was 33 and James 26 was the oldest son of James and Mary Anne Fisher (nee Glaze). Their son James was born between September and December 1914.

James’ younger brother Albert Fisher, also a coal miner before the War, had been discharged from the 1/6th North Staffordshire Regiment on the 18th January 1915

Wimbledon Home Front

Between January and March 1915, Edwin Maurice Bush (my first cousin, 3 times removed) married Rosetta Turner in Wimbledon, Surrey.

Edwin, aged 21, was born in Wimbledon on the 22^nd November 1893 the son of Edwin Ernest and Ada Bush (nee Searle). His father, Edwin Snr. was a bricklayer by trade and Ada his mother had passed away in 1910. 

He was the oldest of six brothers Alfred, Frederick, Arthur, Albert and George. He also had two brothers who had died as infants (Horace and John). 

In 1911 the family were living at 41a Cowper Road, Wimbledon. Frederick was away at an Industrial School for Boys in Isleworth, Middlesex and Edwin who was working as an errand boy was lodging at No. 49 Cowper Road, Wimbledon with the Turner family, just a minute’s walk away.

His wife Rosetta Ada Phyllis Janet Turner, was aged 17, born on the 25^th November 1897 also in Wimbledon and was the daughter of William and Emily Turner. Rosetta had two brothers (Phillip and Martin) and three sisters (Frances, Edith and Alice). Her father had passed away in 1909 and her mother died in 1912 when she was aged just 14.

The Battle of Dogger Bank

24^th January 1915  – The Battle of Dogger Bank

The German raid on Scarborough on the 16th December 1914 had resulted in 86 dead and 424 wounded, the public outcry against this attack on civilians was huge and at the inquest the coroner remarked “Where were the Navy?” With young children among the casualties Real Admiral Franz Hipper had earned his new sobriquet “Baby Killer”. The Royal Navy waited for the German High Seas Fleet to reappear.

On the 24^th January 1915, the Navy got its chance!

Naval intelligence reported that the German Battlecrusier Squadron had left its Jade Island base late the previous day. Hipper’s flagship Seydlitz was accompanied by Moltke, Derfflinger and Blucher. The 2^nd Battlecruiser Squadron under the command of Admiral Sir David Beatty on his flagship The Lion, accompanied by Tiger, Princess Royal, New Zealand and HMS Indomitable sailed to intercept.

Serving on board HMS Indomitable was Stoker (2^nd Class) Robert Harris, my Great Grand Father in Law.

Stoker 2nd Class - Robert Harris

Contact was made with the enemy at 7.20am and a deadly pursuit began immediately. As the stern chase started the response of the engine room was magnificent, By 8.30am the British squadron were doing 26 knots, Admiral Beatty called for 27. Yet the Indomitable, commanded by Captain F.W. Kennedy, whose trail speed was just over 25 knots was keeping up. The flagship in admiration signalled “Well steamed, Indomitable” (The Great war at Sea).

At 8.52am The Lion fired at couple of ranging shots and whilst still at 20,000 yards Beatty ordered his other ships to “open fire and engage the enemy”

Like the older Blucher, Beatty’s rearmost ship, the Indomitable, was no longer able to hold the pace and was dropping astern. Moltke, Defflinger and Seydlitz all concentrated their fire on the Lion and between 10.30 and 10.50am the Lion received heavy damage and was hit 15 times. The Seydlitz and Blucher were also badly damaged, which caused the Blucher to slow to 17 knots.

At this point a submarine periscope was spotted and fearing they had been lured into a trap the British turned allowing the Germans to make a run for it, leaving the Blucher to her fate. Beatty wanted the pursuit to continue and Indomitable to finish off the Blucher by herself, but due to a signalling misunderstanding all four remaining ships concentrated their fire on the stricken Blucher.

Although the Blucher fought on valiantly to the end, her fate was sealed and she eventually sank with the loss of 792 men. 234 men were saved by the British ships but efforts to rescue more were ended when a German Seaplane attacked the scene, although no damage was done the British ships were sitting targets for further attacks and withdrew.

SMS Blucher Sinking

By this time, Hipper had escaped and his ships were now too far away for the British to catch them again.

The Indomitable had fired 134 shells, hitting the Blucher 8 times and had received one direct hit, but there were no casualties on board Robert Harris' ship.

But the danger for those on-board the Indomitable was far from over. The badly damaged Lion had to be towed back to port by the Indomitable, at a maximum speed of just 10 knots, the danger of submarine attacks was great and a screen of over fifty ships was assigned to guard the two battlecruisers on their long and dangerous voyage home.

"The War Illustrated" reported on "The Naval Victory in the North Sea - Triumph of British Gunnery and Seamanship" (6th Feb 1915), the truth analysed over the last 100 years perhaps paints a different picture, the accuracy of the German fire was better and their ships were able to withstand greater damage than ours but at that time there was no doubt in the press that the "Baby Killer" had been given a bloody nose and that British Naval honour had been restored

References

The Great War at Sea, Richard Hough

The War Illustrated.

Wikipedia - The Battle of Dogger Bank

Answering Canada's call

20^th January 1915

100 years ago today Albert Benjamin Uden (My Great Grand Uncle) enlisted at Ottawa with the Canadian Expeditionary force.

Canadian Red Ensign

Born in Dover, Kent on the 17^th October 1882, the son of Albert Uden and Eliza Sowman. His father was a Potato merchant and the family grew up on Seven Star Street in Dover. Albert married Maude Torr, also from Dover, in 1905 in Paddington. Along with their newly born son Albert they emigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1907 sailing on the Empress of Britain.

In 1915 Albert, Maude and their two sons Albert (born in Paddington in 1906) and George (born in Ontario, Canada in 1910) were living in Bellwoods Ave, Toronto.

A carpenter by trade Albert aged 32 years and 2 months enlisted in the 4^th Field Company of the Canadian Engineers. He was 5ft 5in tall with brown eyes, dark brown hair and a dark complexion. Albert also had two vaccination scars on his right arm and a scar on his left shin. 

Eight years after sailing 1,000's of miles to start a new life in Canada, Albert Uden volunteered to return.

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