Lord Kitchener Inspects

Lord Kitchener (from Wikipedia)

Thursday 8th July: the adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, which is currently in northern France, not far from the Belgian border tells us that they will be going to a place called Saint-Hilaire-Cottes today, where they will line the road as Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener passes by. Then it will be back to finding parties for erecting barbed wire in the front line.

Source: X550/3/WD

Roll of Honour - Thursday 8th July 1915

Died of Wounds

1st Battalion

• 8723 Acting Sergeant Charles GOLDSWAIN, born Reading [Berkshire], resided Aylesbury [Buckinghamshire] (Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension)

2nd Battalion

• 8485 Private Harold HOWE, 27, son of Samuel and Mary Anne Howe of 34 Houghton Road, Bedford, born in Lidlington (Berguette Churchyard)

Died

3rd Battalion

• 20348 Private Harold PEGG, 19, son of Charles and Clara Pegg of 1 Addison Road, Bilton [Warwickshire], born Newbold-on-Avon [Warwickshire] (Felixstowe New Cemetery)

Two Bedfords Killed in Their Sleep

Wednesday 7th July: The village of Benington, Herts, has been saddened by the death at the front of two soldier lads who were close friends and who died together in their sleep from shell explosion. They were Private R J Warner and Private E W S Mayes, both of the Beds Regiment.

Jack and Willie, as they were affectionately known to everyone in the village, were inseparable chums. They had grown up together as lads, had played together, worked together at their trade as carpenters, enlisted together on the outbreak of war, visited home on leave together, gone out to France together, and it seems only a fitting conclusion to their young lives that they should together lay down their lives in the same great cause, killed by the explosion of the same shell as they rested together in the trenches. Side by side in the same grave they were reverently laid in their last long sleep and the same simple cross bears both their names(1).

Source: Biggleswade Chronicle 9th July 1915

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(1)They no longer lie side by side. Curiously Willie Mayes lies in Larch Wood (Railway Cutting Cemetery) near Ypres whereas Jack Warner has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres; it makes one wonder if Warner is also in Larch Wood but unrecorded or whether the shell so disarranged the bodies that they were put in one plot and, when moved at the end of the war, were assumed to be one man.

The East Anglian Royal Engineers and Their Monorail

Tuesday 6th July: The 1st/1st Field Company, East Anglian Royal Engineers are at Gorre in northern France, near the town of Béthune: They have taken over the work and supervision of the 2nd Line Defence known as The Village Line, with support points at Cambrin, Pont-Fixe and Windy Corner, Cuinchy (which already existed but had become into a bad state of repair). These were reconstructed and new works made.

Deep dugouts with ferro-concrete walls and roofs were constructed. Walls were loopholed and barricaded with sandbags and second roofs of ferro-concrete to the cellars were made and the cellars where the levels of floors permitted were defended by loopholes for rifles and machine-guns. The houses on the Cambrin-Pont-Fixe Road and the Pont Fixe-Windy Corner Road were also defended in a similar manner.

 A simple design of monorail has been erected in Hertford Street Trench for means of transport. The principle points in the design of the rail are that it can be erected in any good communication trench and will carry any load of reasonable dimensions not exceeding 250 lbs at a fast walking speed and little labour. The most usual loads are found to be dixies(1), rations, ammunition, bombs, sandbags and wounded men. A special stretcher was designed for the latter to overcome difficulties of suspension and taking wounded round trenches, which zig-zag in shape rather than linear. A special chair was also designed for the same purpose and can be adjusted to any angle according to the requirements of the wound, This chair can be handled by one man. The increase of speed and reduction of labour in using the rail have been most marked.

Source: WW1/WD3

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(1) Mess tins

Roll of Honour - Tuesday 6th July 1915

Died of Wounds

2nd Battalion

• 9039 Acting Lance-Sergeant Frederick BAKER, husband of H C Trueman (ex Baker) of 89 Ponting Street, Swindon [Wiltshire], born and resided Ipswich [Suffolk] (Swindon (Radnor Street) Cemetery)

An EARE's Grave on the Battlefield

Sapper Frost's Grave

Monday 5th July: Above is an illustration of the grave of an East Anglian Royal Engineer in France. The man who made the sketch is Sapper A. J. Moody. The grave is that of Sapper A. A. Frost of 1st Field Company, EARE. He was killed in action on June 25th. Born at Luton, he was a popular secretary of the Glendale Football Club, Luton and was well-known throughout the county. He enlisted in the Engineers last October and was drafted out to the Front about Easter.

In the last letter his father received he stated that he was having a good time away from the line, as the Company were then on rest, and he did not think he should be long before he was home again – about August or September. “We’ve been attached” he wrote “to the 6th Infantry Brigade and 4th Guards Brigade and they gave us a very good name. They consider us the equal to any Regular REs. I’ve been on both sides of the Bedfords but not with them. You can trust me to keep all right and keep out of danger as much as possible. I’m doing everything out here just as if I was at my own work – no worry whatever and always smiling”.

Shortly after the receipt of this letter two of the comrades of Sapper Frost wrote home to their relatives, informing that that he had been killed in action and enquiries made at the War Office confirmed this news, while later a letter from Captain G. C. Walker was received, intimating that the sad affair happened about three o’clock in the afternoon of Friday, June 25th, when the enemy artillery, which had been fairly active all day, suddenly lengthened out to the place where several of the EARE sappers were standing. One unlucky shell dropped right in the middle of them, killing Sapper Frost instantly and wounding a few others. He was got out and was buried next day by the Chaplain, who was attended by the remainder of his Section.

“May I, on behalf of the officers, NCO’s and men of this Company, express my deep sympathy with you in your bereavement” writes Captain Walker “Your son, although he had not been with us from the first, had earned for himself the praise of his Section Officer and of his NCOs whilst among his comrades he was a great favourite and he was referred to as “One of the Best”. Although his loss will naturally be a source of great trouble to you, there is consolation in knowing that he died quite painlessly, and that he gave his life while in the service of his country. A more noble end no man can wish”(1).

Sapper A Frost

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 20th August 1915

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(1) Sapper Arthur Alick Frost’s grave is still at Windy Corner, Cuinchy, in the Guards’ Cemetery. 

Roll of Honour - Monday 5th July 1915

Died of Wounds

2nd Battalion

• 18006 Private James CHILDERLEY, 23, C Company, son of Benjamin and Jane Childerley of Brampton [Huntingdonshire] (le Treport Military Cemetery)

Died

1st Battalion

• 10396 Private Sydney Thomas MOULDS, 19, son of Arthur Moulds of Dawson's Farm, Forty Foot Bridge, Ramsey [Huntingdonshire], born Wistow [Huntingdonshire], resided Warboys [Huntingdonshire] (Saint-Sever Cemetery, Rouen)