Put that light out

On the 2nd December 1917 my Great Grand Aunt in law’s husband James Othen was severely reprimanded for not complying with an order from an NCO. He had failed to comply with was “turning the light low after being warned” for which he was confined to barracks for three days.

James had enlisted with the 5th Reserve Battalion “The Queens” Royal West Surrey on the 5thOctober 1914 aged 34 years and 6 months and was 5 feet 5 3/4 inches. He was living at 71 Orchard Rise, Dorking, Surrey and was considered physically fit. James was employed as a bricklayer's labourer at that time.

He had been stationed in England since enlisting but in October 1916 James embarked with the 1 / 4th Battalion Royal West Surreys from Devonport arriving in Bombay, India in 21st December 1916.

The Battalion were stationed at Mian Meer in 1916 when heavy garrison duties were compounded by the need to provide instructors for the training of India Defence Units raised at Lahore. In early 1917 a large force of Mahsuds began to raid convoys in South Waziristan and 1/4th Queen’s moved to Tank to join the Waziristan Field Force and take the field against them. Sadly, however, the battalion was so stricken by illness that soon after its arrival it was withdrawn and despatched to Dagshai and Jutogh in the Simla Hills to recover.

James was stationed at Dagshai

Dagshai Hill Barracks

Dagshai is one of the oldest cantonment towns in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is situated on top of a 5689 feet (1734 mtr) high hillock that stands sphinx-like astride the Kalka-Shimla Highway at a point about 11 km from Solan. And was well known for the harsh conditions of it’s military jail.

Counter Attack at the Battle of Cambrai

James Wilson (my second cousin twice removed) was born in 1894 in Rugeley, Staffordshire. He was the third son of Shem Edward and Elizabeth Wilson (nee Harding). James had two older brothers Shem Edward (born 1888) and Albert (born 1889). He also had two younger brothers Horace (born 1897) and Frank (born 1899) and three younger sisters Lizzie (born 1901), Lavinia (born 1903) and Irene (born 1907).

James’ father Shem was the adopted son of William and Harriet Hollins (nee Deakin). In 1911 the Wilson family was living at 60 Queen Street, Rugeley, with James aged 16 employed as a grocery sugar wrapper. His father was employed in the local Stokes and Negus Phoenix Tannery as was his father’s step brother William Hollins who was living at 64 Queen Street, Rugeley. William’s sons George was living at 24 Queen Street and Charles at 45 Queen Street.

William Hollins had two other sons, William who was working on muntions and Horace who had been killed in April 1916, his wife moved back to 73 Queen Street after his death. His son in law James Fisher in the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt at Loos in Oct 1915.

James Wilson had enlisted in Birmingham and was serving as a Lance Corporal in the 3^rd Battalion Coldstream Guards.

The Battle of Cambrai had launched on November 20^th and for the first time had used a coordinated approach of tactics, infantry and more importantly massed tanks. Compared with the recent slog at the Battle of Passchendaele, the initial phase was regarded as a huge success, with considerable territorial gains made for, in First World War terms, relatively small losses. However, the attack stalled attempting to capture Bourlon Wood and on November 30^th the Germans launched their counter attack.

Units hurriedly ordered to shore up the clearly splintering defence were shocked at what they saw. Not least of them was the Guards Division, still recuperating from a mauling in Fontaine Notre Dame and now heading into what would become a bitter fight to hold the enemy at Gouzeaucourt: 

“First we had to struggle through the flood of terrified men … nothing seemed to stem the torrent of frightened men with eyes of hunted deer, without rifles or equipment, among them half-dressed officers presumably surprised in their sleep, and gunners who had had the sense and calmness to remove the breech blocks from their guns and were carrying them in their hands. Many were shouting alarming rumours, others yelling “Which is the nearest way to the coast?” 

Ref - Norman D. Cliff, To hell and back with the Guards (Braunton, Devon: Merlin Books Limited, 1988) p.85

The War Diary for the 3^rd Battalion reads as follows

Nov 30^th The Battn, in conjunction with the 2^nd Bn Coldstream guards and the 1^st bat Irish guards counter attacked the enemy and retook GOUZEAUCOURT. A line was consolidated on the far side of the village.

Dec 1^st. Orders were received at 3am for the bttn. To attack the QUENTIN RIDGE in conjunction with the 2^nd Bat Grenadier guards on the right and the 3^rd Grenadier batt. On the left. The attack was successful, largely through the gallant behaviour of the tanks – 4 of which were attached to the battn. They put into position a few minutes before zero and little could be given them in the way of information as to the objective, Officers who took part in the attack say that it is doubtful if the battn. Would have reached its objective with enough men to consolidate had it not been for the tanks.

The Battn. Was relieved during the night of Dec 1^st and 2^nd by the 1^st Bat Grenadier guards.

Casualties 30^th Nov

Officers 9 wounded

Other ranks 6 killed 83 wounded 3 missing

Casualties Dec 1^st

Officers 3 killed 2 wounded

Other ranks 9 killed 100 wounded 8 missing

James Wilson aged 23 was killed on the 1^st December 1917. He is buried at Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Pas de Calais.

Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery

Originally buried as an unknown British solider, he was identified by Khaki, boots, badges, numerals

Among his effects which were forwarded to base was a Gold ring with initials J.W. inscribed on the outside and on the inside of ring the initials V.S.

James’ parents Shem & Elizabeth have the grave inscribed “Gone but not forgotten”

One can only imagine the sense of loss felt by his parents Shem and Elizabeth, it was not their first experience.

James’ younger brother Horace had been killed on the first day of the Somme on the 1^st July 1916. Horace had originally enlisted with the Grenadier Guards on the 7^th December 1914 in Hednesford stating he was 19 years 3 months. Horace was born in 1897 making him 17 in 1914. Previous to enlisting he was employed as a miner. Horace was 5ft 10 with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. He was discharged 6 days later on 12^th December due to likely to become an efficient solider on the grounds of amblyopia vision in both eyes.

Amblyopia is more commonly known as lazy eye. A “lazy eye” is not lazy at all.  Recent research has shown that amblyopia is a disorder of the brain’s ability to use both eyes together as a team. Amblyopia is an active process due to suppression, or the brain actively ignoring the information coming from one eye.  In addition to poor visual acuity, people with amblyopia are more prone to have difficulties with depth perception, eye movements related to reading, and visual decision making.

Despite his poor eyesight, at some point Horace re-enlisted with the North Staffordshire Regiment and was a member of D coy 1/6^th Battalion. And on the 1^st July Horace was in the trenches preparing for the attack on Gommecourt Wood.

1/6^th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment War Diary – 1^st July 1916

Battalion in trenches at Fonquevillers preparatory to an attack on Gommecourt Wood and Village. Battalion on right, 6^th South Staffs Regt, Battalion on left, 7^th Notts & Derby Regt. The attack was preceded by an intense bombardment lasting 65 minutes and the infantry assault took place at 7.30am under cover of a smoke barrage. The attack was carried out by means of four waves, each wave consisting of one platoon per company. The 1^st wave occupied the assault trench, the 2^nd & 3^rd waves the fire trench and the fourth wave the Retrenchment. These were followed by consolidating and carrying parties, found by the 5^th North Staffs. Immediately the smoke appeared the enemy opened heavy machine gun fire and barraged our front line. Whilst the assault was in progress this fire caused heavy casualties which occurred chiefly in the first four waves. The casualties so depleted the strength of the waves that very few men succeeded in reaching the enemy wire, which was found to be very strong in parts. Owing to the smoke many men lost direction and were unable to see the gaps in the wire. Previous heavy rain had made the trenches in a very bad condition, especially the assault trench, which was from 2 to 3 feet deep in mud. This caused delay in the waves leaving the trenches. The enemy front line trench was found to be very strongly held and with so few men left it was impossible to advance. After this, those who had not become casualties retired to the assault trench. Nothing of note occurred between this and 5pm when the battalion was relieved by the 5^th North Staffs and proceeded to Siamand and billeted.

Casualty Return

Officers – Killed 8, Missing 4, Wounded 6

Other ranks – Killed 34, Missing 122, Wounded 170

Horace Wilson was reported as missing in action in September 1916 but it wasn’t until the following year that the Lichfield Mercury reported his death.

Lichfield Mercury Friday 15^th June 1917 – Local Casualties

Mr & Mrs S Wilson of Queen Street, Rugeley, have now received official notification that their son Pte. Horace Wilson, who was reported missing July 1^st 1916, must now be presumed to have been killed in action on that date. Pte. Wilson was a member of the local territorials and joined the North Staffs Regiment at the outbreak of the war, went out to France in the early part of 1915 and took part in several engagements, his last being the battle of the Somme, since when he has not been heard of. Another brother Pte. Wilson, died in hospital in the early part of last year, a few months after joining the army.

Horace’s body was never recovered and he is commemorated on Thiepval memorial on pier and face 14B and 14C

The other brother was most likely to have been Pte. Harry Wilson who died on the 8^th February 1915 and was serving with the Army Service Corps. Harry is buried at Rugeley Cemetery.

All three Wilson brothers are commemorated on Rugeley War memorial.

Rugeley War Memorial Panel 

Horace Wilson is also commemorated on the Ancient Order of Foresters memorial in Rugeley

Ancient Order of Foresters Memorial - Rugeley

My Great Uncle Edward Hollins sounded the Last Post when this Memorial was first dedicated. Horace Hollins is also commemorated on both memorials

Sources

Commonwealth War Graves Commission website

Staffordshire Roll of Honour website

British Newspaper Archive website

Put on a Charge

On the 6th November 1917 Charles Henry Bush (my first cousin three times removed), serving as a corporal with the Royal Army Medical Corps at New End Military Hospital, Hampstead was severely reprimanded by Lt. Colonel Reid for not complying with an order given by a warrant officer and for referring to his commanding officer in disrespectful language. The incident was reported by acting sergeant Major Briggs and by acting sergeant Brown.

Charles was born in Wimbledon in 1878, the son of Charles Henry Bush and Caroline Wigman, he was one of 5 children, he had 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.

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.

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

After serving in France during 1914, initially at No. 9 General Hospital in Nantes and then at Rouen, he was posted to New End Military Hospital in December 1914. Charles’ older brother Alfred had also served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was attached to the 4th London Mounted Brigade but had been killed in Gallipoli in August 1915.

New End Military Hospital, Hampstead

Charles was Chief Clerk at the Hospital and he was regarded by his superior officers as a highly proficient. It was not however the first time he had been in trouble with his superior officers.

Charles Bush had served with the Royal Army Medical Corps alongside his older brother Alfred Charles Morris Bush during the Boer War in South Africa from 1901 – 1904 and during his service in South Africa was employed as the clerk to the office of the PMO Cape Colony,

Whilst stationed in Kimberley, Cape Colony in August 1902, he disobeyed company orders, leaving the camp improperly dressed. In February 1903, he again left the camp improperly dressed and also overstaying his pass – both time he was confined to barracks for seven days and on the second occasion he also lost one day’s pay.

However, his most serious offence occurred in December 1903, when he was charged with neglect of duty by leaving the door of the lunatic ward unlocked for which he was confined to barracks for ten days.

I would expect that ward would have been for soldiers suffering from what is now known as PTSD and in the First World War became known as shell shock.

One wonders if not complying with an order and disrespectful language went something like "well that's a stupid order and whoever gave it is a fool as well" which somehow sounds quite familiar.

Joining Philadelphia's Own

On the 6^th October 1917, 100 years ago my Great Uncle Solomon Charles Wraight enlisted in the United States Army.

Solomon had been born in Lambeth, Surrey on the 22^nd May 1895, the eldest child of Solomon and Alice Wraight (nee Uden). The family, originally from Kent moved to Wandsworth, Surrey in 1894/95 and by 1911 the Wraight family were living in Battersea, Middlesex with both Solomon and his father working as carpenters / joiners.

In August 1915, Solomon emigrated to the USA, and found employment as a carpenter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, eventually becoming a naturalised American citizen in May 1917. His younger brother William, also a carpenter by trade, had joined the Royal Navy Air Service in March 1917.

America had declared war on Germany on the 6^th April 1917 and had immediately set about the task of training it’s men to face the harsh realities of the battle fields on the Western Front.

Solomon Charles Wraight USA Army - Camp Meade 1917

Solomon enlisted in the 315^th Infantry regiment was based at Camp Meade, Maryland. He had been living at 150 North – 12^th Street, Philadelphia. The first recruits for the regiment had starting arriving on the 21^st September and by the 15^th October the regiment had a full strength of 2,731 men, all from the Philadelphia area. The Regiment adopting the name by which it has always been known “Philadelphia’s Own”. All new recruits were lined up and were integrated as to their history, each experienced a shot in the arm and the rigours of an army medical exam (Source: The Official History of the 315 Regiment USA).

Much of the early weeks involved building Camp Meade, clearing land, erecting barracks etc. as well as rifle practice and drilling.

Solomon was part of the machine gun company, which as the official history of the regiment explains was selected in the following way.

“The machine Gun Company, better known as the Suicide Club, was formed in the dark and stormy days of September 1917, just like any other company in the regiment i.e. by marching a bunch of cheerful young nuts holding the lucky (?) numbers in Uncle Sam’s lottery into a big, bare, pine barracks. After the usual inspections, the boys were given a hat and shirt. Then each one was asked which branch of the service he preferred. If he were a mechanic, that was just exactly what the machine gun company needed. The same thing applied to bartenders, hotel clerks, milk men and chauffeurs (on account of their knowledge of mules) etc.”

One can only assume the same suitability applied in Solomon’s case to carpenters!

The Official History continues – 

“The company trained for quite a while as a rifle company, but after some time they received Colt machine guns and wooden models of the Vickers, and the company had very strenuous drill in the art of quick mounting and dismounting of the gun, replacing casualties in the gun team, camouflaging gun positions and so forth. Finally, these make shift guns were all turned in and we received the Browning machine guns, which eventually the company would use in France.”

Solomon's journey during the Great War years had taken him from Battersea across the Atlantic Ocean to a new life in America and now as a naturalised US citizen he joined the Army which in all probability would likely take him back to Europe.

Sources : The Official History of the 315 Regiment USA.

Promoted to Sergeant

After being promoted to acting corporal in April 1917, My Great Uncle William Alfred Bush was promoted to acting sergeant on the 1^st September 1917. He had received the promotion the week before on the 26^th August 1917 and had been acting unpaid until 1^st September.

William had been at the front since August 1914 and was serving in the 363 Motorised Transport Company of the Army Service Corps.

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.

William was born in 1879 in Wimbledon, the 2^nd youngest child of the late William James and Jane Bush (nee Napp). In 1917 he was 38 years old. His older sisters Elizabeth Clara Bush (born 1863, Wimbledon) was married to William Giles (also a house painter). Of their nine children one of their five sons Victor Cyril Giles was also serving with the Army Service Corps, both Alfred and James (both born in 1902) were still too young to enlist. It is likely that Albert James and William Giles were serving but research has not yet identified with who.

His sister, Jane Bush had lost her first husband James Spice in 1903 and both her children Dorothy (in 1913) and Edith (in 1905) she had re-married to Edward Charles Gear on Christmas Day in 1911 and had moved from Wimbledon to Railton Road in Lambeth.

His older brother, my Great Grandad, Albert Henry Bush, was a plumber on Southern Railways and had married Emily Elizabeth Lemon in 1898 and had four children Albert (my Grandad), Emily (Elsie), Sidney and Olive. Emily’s younger brother Frederick Lemon was serving with the East Surrey Regiment in the Labour Corps.

William's younger brother James Charles Bush (born Wimbledon 1881) was working as a harness cleaner in 1911 and living at 48 St. James St. Leeds with Emma Wilson and their daughter May Wilson Bush (born in 1910). They also had two other children William H Bush (born 1911, Leeds) and James C Bush, who was born on Boxing Day 1915. James and Emma had married in 1912 in Leeds.

Research suggests that James was serving in the Corps of Hussars as a Private in the 10^th and later 20^th Battalion.

Keeping the pilots in the air

On the 1^st August 1917, Maurice Edwin Bush (my 1^st Cousin 3 times removed) aged 25, was promoted from 2^nd Air Mechanic to 1^st Air Mechanic in the Royal Navy Air Service. He was still serving with 85 Squadron, who he had been with since enlisting in 1915. The squadron was based in England and in 1917 was mainly concerned with training pilots. The training itself was perilous and life expectancy once reaching the front was very short. Maurice's job was to keep the aircraft flying.

Maurice was born on the 21^st March 1892 in Paddington, Middlesex. He was the son of Alfred and Caroline Bush (nee Searle) and had 3 older sisters Ethel (born in 1880), Mabel (born in 1883) and Daisy (born in 1885). 

In 1911 the family were living at 119a Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth. Maurice was employed as a clerk with the Bombay Gas Company, Mabel and Daisy were both working as shop assistants. Maurice’s father Alfred was a Jewellers assistant.

His oldest sister Ethel had married Alfred Fox in 1907 in Wandsworth, Surrey and in 1911 were living in Kingswood Road, Clapham Park. Ethel had recently given birth to her second daughter – Rosie Ethel Fox. Her eldest daughter Hilda had been born in 1912.

Maurice had four cousins Alfred Charles Morris Bush had been killed in Gallipoli in 1915 whilst serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, Frederick Charles Bush serving in the Royal Navy had just returned to training at Pembroke II after serving on a harbour defence trawler in the Humber. William Alfred Bush was still in France serving with the Royal Army Corps after recently being promoted to Corporal. Charles Henry Bush also a corporal was based at New End Military Hospital in Hampsted.

Home on leave getting married

Gertrude Mary Cunningham was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Cunningham (nee Mills) and in 1911 was living with her family at 74 Sheep Fair, Rugeley, working as a domestic servant.

Gertrude was born on the 29^th June 1894 in Rugeley and had an older sister, Edith (born 1886) and two younger brothers Thomas (born 1899, who would become my Auntie’s father in law) and Reginald (born 1909). Her older brother William had been killed in January 1917 whilst serving with the North Staffordshire regiment in France.

Gertrude was aged 22 when she married Thomas McElroy, the son of Bernard and Bridget McElroy between July & September 1917. Thomas was born in 1892 in Bilston, Wolverhampton.

Their first child Lucy was born in 1917 in Rugeley between October and December 1917.

Thomas McElroy was serving as a Private with the 5^th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment. He had been out in France since August 1915. In 1911 he was working as a sheet mills iron worker.

One can only assume that Gertrude and Thomas got married whilst Thomas was home on leave.