Cattistock and the Great War Cattistock Armistice Commemorations 1918 -2018

Edited by Charlie Bladon

Detail from the Thiepval Memorial showing Frank and Harry Brown, brothers from Cattistock 1 Contents

Introduction 3 The Men of Cattistock in the Great War 11 Harry Brown 11 William Brown 12 Edwin Herbert Cousins 14 Reginald John Davis 17 William Thomas Dove 18 Leonard Sydney Everett 20 Joseph Charles Lane 21 James Albert Powell 22 (Thomas) John Welch 23 William David Lane 24 Bernard Brown 25 Frank Ewart Savill 26 Frank Barter 27 George Hugh Digby 28 Allen Llewellen Palmer 29 Albert Ernest Dewdney 30 Reginald Joseph Dubbin 32 William George Ellis Lee 33 Acknowledgements 34 Appendix 36

2 Introduction n 1914, Cattistock as a Parish covers a large area amounting to approximately I2,986 acres, and extends almost to Evershot and Rampisham. Most of the area is farmland, and includes Sandhills, Higher and Lower Holway, Chantmarle, Inpark, Rotley Row and Merrifield. Many of these hamlets have decreased in size or vanished, with only a few derelict buildings remaining. In this booklet, where ‘Cattistock’ is used, it is implicit that this includes those places mentioned above. The Parish is an area of civil government and is unconnected, in this sense, to the church (whose local affairs are overseen by the Parochial Church Council, or PCC), and is governed by the Parish Council, the lowest level of local government. In building a picture of how Cattistock and the parish looked in 1914, there are several primary sources to draw upon. The census of 1911 gives us the names of the inhabitants, but sadly does not tell us where they lived. It is a snapshot of local population carried out every ten years, and so in this sense is useful as we can directly compare it to the 2011 census. The census also includes only those people who were actually in the village on the day of the survey; indeed, the 1911 census includes a Mr Dunford who was ‘sleeping rough open air’ in Chantmarle that night! It does not include those away for any reason, including those serving in the army or navy anywhere else in the Realm or overseas, even if they were clearly ‘Cattistock residents’. Perhaps more useful to the local historian is the Finance Act (1910) put forth by the Liberal Government when Lloyd George was Chancellor of the Exchequer. A measure within this budget intended to reflect the changing land values over time and so a nationwide survey of all property was carried out in the following years, listing not only population but also occupation, and who the property owner was (at this time home ownership was not prevalent and most of the population would have been paying rent). The value of the property was then assessed with the intention that it was taxed accordingly.

Cattistock Stores c 1900 Cattistock Post Office at Castle Cottage 3 In actual fact the Act was repealed before the tax could be levied, but we are left with a fascinating insight into the village as it was. It is the Enumerators’ survey books - a sort of 20th century Domesday Book - that have allowed us to pinpoint where our soldiers and tradesmen lived in the years immediately preceding the war. We have also looked at baptism and marriage records to ensure that we have correctly identified the men who served in what was called the ‘Great War for Civilisation 1914- 1919’ (1919 is given as the end of the war as the 1918 armistice was a ceasefire, whereas the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June in 1919, exactly 5 years after the Archduke was assassinated, formally ended the conflict). Finally, we examined the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which allowed us to identify three casualties of the war not formerly listed on the village war memorial. We are greatly indebted to Grassby’s of Dorchester for making and supplying (without charge) a tablet listing those men. Cattistock pre war Cattistock in 1914 was very different to the village as it is now. Physically it was a lot smaller, with many houses not yet having been built, yet the population was remarkably similar to today. The main difference in 1914 was that most people who lived here worked here in local trades and on local farms, and the houses had many more occupiers than today! The table below shows how population and the number of houses has changed over the past century. Whilst the population is broadly the same, the number of houses has doubled, meaning that a century ago houses had many more inhabitants than now. A look at the land survey maps will also show how much smaller some properties were, meaning much more cramped conditions! Population: 1911 vs 2011 (latest census data) Total Men Women Dwellings (inhabited) Dwellings (uninhabited) 1911 457 219 238 125 6 2011 509 243 266 241 11 To the north, Cattistock stopped after the cottages known as The Rocks (other than Prospect Farm which existed), and Meadow View did not exist. To the south, Kennel Lane had not yet been built upon from the corner up to the kennels, the barn conversions and houses on that corner were all working outbuildings for Manor Farm and what is now Ringers Plot was allotments owned by the church for the benefit of parishioners. In 1914 the motorcar was uncommon and only the rich could afford one; public transport was negligible (some things never change!) and thus most people had to convey themselves either on foot, or by horse and carriage. For the majority, the former was the only means

4 Cattistock Square with gas lamp – note the tailor’s swatches in the window of getting from A to B and as a result people who lived in the village also worked here in one of the local trades or as farm labourers. There were also a large number of grooms looking after horses – not only for the hunting fraternity, but also for farms and as means of conveyance in an age when the internal combustion engine was a rarity. The Great Western Railway line opened in 1857 having been diverted from the proposed route down the Cerne Valley due to Lord Digby not wishing it to cross his estate. The branch line from Maiden Newton to Bridport, which was finally closed in 1975, carried the products of Bridport’s famous rope works to the front in the form of hemp lanyards, hay nets (for army horses), rifle pull-throughs, tent, balloon and airship ropes, camouflage nets and twine for stitching canvas; steel ropes for anti-submarine defences were also transported from there by train. However, it is not certain how much the railway affected our small community as it would appear from records that most people who lived here worked here in the pre-war years. A man was employed to take care of the tracks in the parish. In the immediate pre war years the village supported at least two bakehouses, blacksmith, carpenter, two engine sheds, two mills, the Fox & Hounds public house in Cattistock and the Three Horseshoes in Sandhills, a tailor, post office, two bootmakers, and several dressmakers – although many of these did not have premises but were cottage industries in the truest sense of the term.

5 The village did not have piped water or electricity; those came in the 1920s. A large gas lamp which was erected to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria occupied the centre of the Square; nevertheless the village is still recognisable today with many of the old houses and institutions remaining unchanged.

Use Occupier Current name and position Metford Mill (corn mill) Frances George CURTIS Metford Mill House and premises Wyatt PAULL Shop / Grocer Arthur PAULL Demolished shops next to Bun House Engine shed Arthur PAULL Three Horseshoes pub John CHARD Sandhills Cattistock Mill George RIGGS / Lionel & Cattistock Mill Louise Williams, his nephew and niece Baker & Confectioner Ernest VARDY Bun House Engine shed Post Office Hedley Herberty HALLETT Castle Cottage Blacksmith Richard HATCHER The Old Forge - back section in Mill Lane Blacksmith’s shop Cecil UPSHALL Upshall’s Tailor William CARTER Tailors Cottage Fox & Hounds James DAWE Fox & Hounds Carpenter’s shop James DAWE Prospect Farm Methodist Chapel The Old Chapel Bootmaker Samuel Dunnett LEE Demolished shops next to Bun House Bootmaker and mender Herbert SAUNDERS Rose Cottage, The Rocks Baker Thomas John ROGERS

As well as the Established church of St Peter and St Paul, the Methodist chapel was in use, and the school had a resident headmaster called Mrs Browne and teacher called Miss Alice Paull. As a church school it was overseen by the rector, the Reverend Robert Stickland with the intention of providing a Christian education and catered for all children of the village - although during busy times many had to forsake learning for helping out on the farm or with other seasonal tasks. During the war it is probable that attendance rates fell, as in the example of Eric Cox’s family (see ‘The Cox family in the First World War’ - right)

6 The Cox family in the First World War

The following history was kindly supplied by Eric Cox, Cattistock resident. Whilst the people concerned did not live in the village at the time, Eric’s words illustrate amply how a typical family fared in the war:

Drummer Harold Willoughby Shorto, 2/4 Battalion the Dorsetshire Regiment. First cousin of Ivy Cox (nee Payne).

Harold served with the battalion in Egypt. In November 1917 he was on the road to Jerusalem and on 21st reached the village of Biddu. They came under heavy fire from a ridge and it was probably then that Harold was killed, aged 21. He is buried in the Jerusalem War Cemetery.

Harold’s brother Bertram Shorto served with 1 Battalion the Dorsetshire Regiment. He became a prisoner of war and died on 9 December 1918. He is buried in Berlin South Western Cemetery.

All the older brothers of Ivy’s husband, Frank Cox, joined up and served in the war. As the family lived in a tied house Frank had to leave school at 12 years old to work on the farm in order to keep a roof over their heads.

An uncle of Ivy’s arrived back in Dorchester unexpectedly. He had come from the trenches and was in a pitiful state - in tatters, filthy and lice-ridden, he could only speak in whispers as he had been gassed. He was taken to the depot barracks to be cared for.

The Cattistock Hunt had a large following in the village with many residents moving here for the sport and many others employed either directly by the hunt or by subscribers. The Master and Huntsman was Parson Milne, who hunted the hounds for many seasons from 1900 – 1931, and his hunt servants included William Medcalf and William Dews who lived at the kennels which were leased from the Digbys of Minterne Magna, as they are to this day. Medcalf, like many hunting men, had spent time in Ireland, and Dews was born in Yorkshire at Grafton where another pack of hounds was based suggesting his father was also in hunt service; another retired huntsman, Thomas Newman, lived at Prospect House. From 1911 to 1914 Parson Milne was joined in the Mastership by Allen Llewellen Palmer who died in France and is listed on the war memorial.

The Fox & Hounds was run by James Dawe and his wife Keturah; James had been born in the village and as well as running the pub had some farming interests. In those days there was also a pub at Sandhills called the Three Horseshoes run by a sprightly John Chard, aged 74 in 1914.

7 Outside the village, at Chalmington, Major George Digby was serving in the Dorset Yeomanry. He died on 20 October 1914 when his body was found on the railway line near Maiden Newton. Married to Lady Muriel, daughter of the 5th Earl of Ilchester, he had a large household including butler, footman, hall boy, two housemaids, cook, lady’s maid, kitchen maid and a scullery maid.

Cattistock, shops (now demolished) between Bun House and Millers Barton

Sandhills in those days was larger than today with approximately 20 dwellings as opposed to 10 today. Most of these were occupied by agricultural workers and a good number have since been demolished or recycled into garages or outhouses; farm mechanisation has meant that fewer labourers are required. Britain goes to war On 4 August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany as a result of a violation of Belgian neutrality; the German army had entered Belgium in order to attack France as part of the ‘Schlieffen plan’. From its origins in a local problem in the Balkans, life in Britain would change irrevocably as a result of what was to happen over the next four years; perhaps not so much immediately, where it seems life went on as normal (the minutes of the Parish Council mention the war only once during its duration!), but afterwards, with the changes in society, the enfranchisement of the wider population and the suffragette vote and all that that entailed for an albeit slow move towards equality for the sexes.

8 By default, every country in the British Empire also declared war on 4 August and thus a truly global conflict was inevitable as Britain, France and Germany all sought to protect their wider interests as well as fight on the Western Front. This is reflected in where Cattistock men served and died; not only on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, but in Palestine, India, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Turkey. In this sense, the stories of those men reflects the war as a whole and it can truthfully be said that Cattistock was represented worldwide! At the beginning of the war the British Army stood at about 247,000 men; most of these were stationed abroad in far-flung corners of the globe in roles that amounted to policing the Empire. Those immediately available to be sent to France numbered about 85,000 which were formed into the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.). This force, commanded by Sir John French, set sail for France in the following weeks and had their first engagements with the enemy at Mons on 23 August 1914. Whilst a professional army, and highly skilled in all aspects of soldiering, this was a puny force compared to the 1.4m that both France and Germany could call upon, and the 3m men of the Russian army. True, we had reservists and territorials to call upon, and men could be brought in from other parts of the Empire, but it was immediately clear that a large recruitment drive was required to fight the war and to cover the losses which would inevitably occur.* Filling the Gap – Recruitment and Kitchener’s New Army Following the outbreak of hostilities a tide of optimism gripped the country which was matched only by the enthusiasm with which men queued to join ‘the colours’. The call for 100,000 men to enlist was surpassed by the end of August (130,000 joined up of which 1,200 did so in Dorchester) whilst in the next month, September, over a third of a million men going to recruiting offices of their own free will. Eventually the army would reach some 3m men, with a total of 10m Empire troops serving over the course of the conflict. On signing up, each man filled in a brief form giving his name and address, height, details of any previous military experience etc and was allocated to a regiment and given a number. William Dart’s attestation papers are shown here as an example; thankfully he survived the war. Military records are a useful record but sadly a great proportion of them were destroyed during the Blitz. Those that did survive can tell us where a person was from, their occupation, where they enlisted, where they served and the dates that they moved from theatre to theatre as the war progressed; details of wounds, and good (or bad!) conduct records.

*By the end of November only 14,000 of the original B.E.F. remained. They became known as the ‘Old Contemptibles’ due to the Kaiser ordering his generals to concentrate on destroying King George V’s ‘contemptible little army’. They never did.

9 William Dart’s attestation papers 10 THE MEN OF CATTISTOCK IN THE GREAT WAR Arranged by Regiment

DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT

Harry Brown Private 12830, 6th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment Died 7 July 1916, Somme Commemorated Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, pier 7 face B Early Life Harry Brown was born in Cattistock in 1882 the son of Samuel Brown, a groom and domestic servant, and his wife Emma Brown. In the 1891 census 12 people are recorded as living in the cottage known as Thurlstone, including two of Harry’s brothers, Bernard and William, both of whom died in the war. Harry left Cattistock and is recorded in the 1911 census as living in Shingrig Road, Nelson, Glamorgan, Wales working as a coal miner. He married Annie Mary Rowlands in December 1911. They had two girls, Winifred and Dorothy Mary Evelien. After enlisting in Pontypridd in January 1915 and training he embarked for France with the 6th Battalion on the 12th July 1915. The Battle of the Somme 1916 – Day 7 For the first week of this infamous battle the 6th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment were fortunate to have been in reserve in the area of the Fricourt Salient. Harry Brown was serving in “B” Company. On the morning of 7 July 1916 the 6th Battalion, having moved up to the front line on the previous day, was holding a series of small pits, affording very little protection to shell-

11 fire, on the north east corner of Fricourt Wood. A very heavy barrage was maintained throughout the whole day just behind this line, but casualties were surprisingly few at this stage. At 7.45pm orders were received to attack Wood Trench at 8pm, (according to the Battalion diary but Strip Trench according to the Regimental History) in conjunction with the 38th Division who were to attack Strip Trench. “B” Company, supported by a squadron of Regimental bombers* advanced to the attack. They came under very heavy machine gun fire from three different directions, plus incendiary bombs from Strip Trench setting alight the clothing of the wounded, and were unable to gain their objective. The officer commanding the Battalion, seeing that there was no co-operation on their flanks decided not to involve a second company. The attack had failed and amongst the many killed was Private Harry Brown; his body was not recovered.

William Brown Private 17068, 6th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment Died 12 April 1917, Arras Commemorated: Arras Memorial, panel 6 Early Life William Brown was born in Cattistock on 18 July 1878 the son of Samuel and Emma. He was Bernard and Harry’s brother. Unfortunately there are no surviving records of William’s enlistment. He does not appear to be living in Cattistock according to the 1911 census but a William Brown is recorded in the list of Dorsetshire Regiment men at the Frimley Barracks in Surrey in the 1911 census. If it is the same William Brown it suggests he may have already enlisted as a regular soldier, probably at the Dorchester Depot, by 1911. No record exists as to when he actually joined the 6th Battalion on active service. The 6th Battalion and Arras From November 1916 through to March 1917 the Battalion was either in reserve or in the line of what were relatively speaking known as “quiet” sectors but all was to change as the 6th Battalion moved to the Arras sector as part of the 50th Infantry Brigade, which was to take part in the great Franco-British offensive of Spring 1917.

*Bomb was the term for a grenade, after “Mills” Bomb.

12 On 11 April 1917 the Battalion moved up to the front line to a position in a sunken road south of the river Scarpe. The advance was carried out in chaotic conditions: it was dark, it was snowing, there were no guides, and the roads were choked by double columns of troops and transport; added to which the German artillery was active. The Battalion finally reached its destination in the early hours of 12 April. As morning light broke the first clear knowledge of the ground in front was gained – an area of heavily shelled intersecting waterlogged trenches and marsh land. Beyond the river Scarpe was the heavily fortified village of Roeux. During the day the Battalion watched the British artillery barrage to their left as 9th Division carried out its assault. As the assault was not making progress the Company Commanders received verbal orders at 4.45pm for a move forward to act in support of 9th Division. Zero hour was 5.00pm! This was insufficient time for the assault to begin and the artillery barrage, which was to neutralise the German machine-guns, was erratic and ineffectual. At 6.20pm the three companies allotted to the attack, ‘A’ on the right, ‘D’ on the left and ‘C’ in the centre, left their trenches for the first objective. ‘B’ company was held in reserve. The Battalion diary records that from the start ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies were subjected to heavy machine-gun fire. The three companies reached their first objective – ‘A’ with light losses, but ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies suffering heavy casualties, all but one officer being killed, wounded or missing. The heavy casualties were attributed to a lack of artillery planning; the area from which the German machine-guns fired had been almost entirely missed by the preliminary bombardment. At 6.40pm a message was received that the 9th Division had failed to reach its objective and therefore the attack by the Battalion on the second objective was to be delayed. Now leading ‘D’ company, Lance Corporal Mozley sent the message “Can find only ten men of ‘D’ company; no officers, only one other Lance Corporal…”. Two platoons were sent up to support what remained of ‘D’ company and one to ‘C’ company. Because of the failure to the north of the 9th Division, the second objective attack was cancelled, and the ground gained consolidated. Patrols pushed forward towards the enemy whose advanced posts was encountered some 200 yards further east. At 11.00pm, with their left flank exposed, the companies were withdrawn to the original starting line now being occupied by the 7th East Yorkshire Regiment. Finally at 3.15am the withdrawal of the 6th Dorsetshire was completed. The casualties sustained were 3 Officers killed, 4 wounded and 1 missing. Other ranks’ casualties were 15 killed, 56 wounded and 18 missing. Included in these numbers was Private William Brown whose body was not recovered. A month later William Dove would die in almost the same spot.

13 Edwin Herbert Cousins Private 16055, 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment Died 1st July1916 Commemorated: Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, pier 7 face B Early Life Edwin Herbert Cousins was the son of Herbert and Helena Cousins. Herbert was a woodsman on the Mapperton Estate near Beaminster and his son worked with him at the time of the 1911 census. He was baptised at Hooke church on 5 August 1894. Curiously there is no obvious connection to Cattistock to explain why he appears on the war memorial here. Most likely is that he had left home and gained employment here just before the outbreak of war. The 1st Battalion and the Somme on 1 July 1916 After nearly a month of training for the coming battle the Battalion moved towards the front line in mid-June. The atmosphere ahead of the “Big Push” was one of innocent excitement for many of the newly joined men and officers. “The new young officers were all rather excited, I fancy” wrote a company commander “One chap thought machine-gun fire was a train! Then they saw their first star shells and heard their first heavy guns” adding later “The men are very fit, and I think dying to get at ‘em”. The operational orders for the 1st Battalion, (part of 14 Brigade along with the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers and 15th Highland Light Infantry) was to follow the first assault, on a frontage of just over a mile, from Mouquet Farm* to Goat Redoubt. The wire cutting by trench mortars and artillery started on 24 June and on the 25th the bombardment of the German trenches began. It was raining heavily so the date of the attack, which had been planned for 29 June, was postponed for 48hrs. The Battalion moved on the 30th to a position close to Authuille Wood. 10-57DSE4-2B-110616-Ovillers-S. Copyright © 2016 Great War Digit al Lim it ed www.m em ory-m ap. com

The Battalion finished breakfast at 6.30am and finally prepared for zero hour: 7.30am. The scene before them, as described in the Regimental History is unimaginable. “Artillery fire was *Mouquet Farm was not captured until 16 September.

14 intense. The air throbbed; an incredible volume of sound, in which meaning of the word became lost, arose as the trench mortars delivered a hurricane discharge…..” At 7.10am the Battalion began to move through Authuille Wood losing an officer and about 10 other ranks to machine-gun fire and paused as they waited for confirmation that the regiment in front, the 11th Border Regiment, had started their advance to their objective – but as it was later put in the Battalion diary, with a large dose of understatement, “..it was apparent that matters were not progressing quite as favourably as had been anticipated”. Believing the 11th Border Rgt had moved forward from the front line the Battalion’s leading platoon began to leave Authuille Wood on Dunbarton track. As the platoon emerged from the wood, very heavy and extremely accurate machine-gun fire from the left opened up. As the fire concentrated mainly at this exit point the platoon searched for another exit point but none could be found because of barbed wire and other obstructions. There was no choice but for the whole battalion to make a dash across open ground of about 100 yards to reach the British front line trenches in a storm of machine-gun fire and artillery bombardment. Before even half the Battalion had crossed the ground it was covered with the dead and wounded yet the men continued to advance over their fallen comrades as the officers’ whistles blew. During the dash four Lewis guns were lost, the men being wounded, and others who stopped to pick up the guns to take them forward were also killed or wounded. Half the casualties suffered on the day occurred during the crossing from the wood to the frontline trench. The trench was very congested with about 100 to 150 men from the 11th Border Regiment, carrying parties and machine gunners, but no officers. The dead and wounded added to the congestion. The next objective for the Battalion was to assault the German frontline. Six officers and about sixty men went forward through a storm of shell-fire over No Man’s Land to the German frontline trench. All six officers were wounded, one slightly who continued, and of the sixty men only about twenty-five actually reached the German frontline. Trench fighting with the enemy ensued both sides throwing bombs (hand grenades) to try and drive the other out. To secure lengths of the trench barricades were built. Meanwhile back in the British frontline trench survivors of the three Brigade Regiments were organised to undertake a second assault but it was delayed as it was far from clear which parts of the German frontline were still occupied by the enemy. But as patrols were sent out to reconnoitre the enemy frontline the German artillery bombardment intensified such that orders were given for the parties in the enemy trenches and the British frontline trench to withdraw. By 2am the next morning the Battalion, or what remained of it, had completed the withdrawal and was back in the Authuille Wood support trenches whence it had started. The action of 1 July by the 1st Dorsets cost the Battalion the following casualties: 21 Officers wounded, 18 other ranks killed, 94 other ranks missing and 368 other ranks wounded. We do not know how many of the wounded would have been permanently disabled or died later of their wounds. Edwin Cousins’ body was never identified.

15 The Dorset memorial on the Somme

Looking towards the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. This is the direction in which the attack was made on 1 July 1916 and Edwin Cousins died somewhere near here. His name is amongst the 72,185 inscribed on Thiepval.

16 Reginald John Davis Corporal 10760, 5th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment Died 30 April 1917 Commemorated: Arras Memorial, panel 6 Early Life Reginald John Davis was born in Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset in February 1896 one of four sons and two daughters of George Davis, an agricultural carter. Within a few years the family had moved to Cattistock and by 1911 George had taken a job as a kennelman at the hunt; George was a domestic groom. We know that the family – 8 of them – lived at Lankham Cottage in the village. Military Life Reginald signed up soon after the outbreak of war (from his regimental number probably on 5th September 1914 or shortly after) and was initially posted to the 1st Battalion Dorsets. As the numbers of men flocking to the colours grew, other battalions were raised, including the 5th, to which he was then allocated. After a spell training in England he was sent overseas, arriving in Gallipoli on 11 July 1915 when the Battalion landed at Suvla Bay. William Dove (below) was in the same Battalion at Gallipoli. After action here the Battalion withdrew in January 1916 and went to Egypt where they built defensive trenches against an expected Turkish attack which never came. They stayed here until being sent to France, landing in Marseille in early July 1916, just after the Somme Offensive had begun. They were in and out of the line for the remainder of that year. While in the lively Beaumont Hamel sector on the Somme on 11 January 1917 the Battalion suffered heavy losses during a so called ‘minor’ assault. One officer and twenty-one men were killed, two officers and fifty men wounded and two officers and ninety men missing of which one officer and fifty men were later reported as having been taken as prisoners. The Regimental History records that “…it was some consolation that [the Battalion] had distracted the enemy’s attention from the 91st Brigade’s attack..” This was the last time the Battalion saw action on the Somme sector. On being withdrawn from the frontline on 12 January 1917 and until 5 April 1917 the Battalion did not fire a shot or have a casualty in action. Not that the men were allowed to rest, as the Battalion spent most of the period road-making behind the frontline. The Battalion moved to a so called ‘quiet’ sector to the north-east of Bapaume in early April following the German withdrawal to the Siegfried-Stellung (Hindenburg) line. On the night of the 30 April the Battalion moved from its camp near the village of Velu to the frontline which was formed by a series of posts connected by communication trenches. There was little or no shelling by the German artillery as the platoons moved forward but one shell did land close to ‘C’ Company killing one man and wounding another. The man killed was Corporal Reginal John Davis.

17 William Thomas Dove Private 10696, 6th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment Died 16 May 1917 Commemorated: Arras Memorial, panel 6 Early Life William Thomas Dove was born in Cattistock in late 1896, being baptised here on 13 December 1896 - one of seven children of Harry and Jane Dove. William’s enlistment papers have survived, although burnt in the Blitz. William, who was working as a labourer when he enlisted, is described as 5ft 31/2” tall, weight 7st 10lb and brown hair with grey eyes. William enlisted at the Dorset Depot on 5 September 1914 ‘for three years or the duration of the war’. Military Life William Dove was one of nearly 480,000 men who responded in the first month of the war to Lord Kitchener’s appeal for volunteers to form the ‘New Armies’. The 5th Service Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, began recruiting on the 10th August 1914 at the Dorchester Depot; within four weeks 700 men had been recruited. Towards the end of August the Battalion began to move to their training camp in Grantham, Lincolnshire. This would be their home for the next seven months before completing their training at Witley Camp, Hindhead, Surrey. The Battalion was attached to the 34th Brigade in the newly formed 11th Division. On 30 June 1915, orders to mobilize for overseas service were received. On 2 July 1915 the Battalion joined five other battalions and embarked on the ‘Aquitania’ arriving on the 10th July at Lemnos eight days after setting sail from Liverpool. The Island of Lemnos was the British HQ and base for operations on the Gallipoli Peninsular.

The Battalion was to take part in the landings at Suvla Bay on the night of 6/7 August as part of the 34th Brigade, 11th Division. From the very start things did not go well, with the

18 34th Brigade landing on the wrong stretch of coast. As so often seemed to be the case in the Gallipoli campaign opportunities were missed as confusion reigned. After several days of heavy fighting the Suvla Bay landings could get no further against a strengthening Turkish resistance and settled into the deadly stalemate of trench warfare. Further attempts to break through the Turkish defences had little success. The final effort, involving the 5th Battalion, was on 21 August 1915 against a very strongly defended Turkish line. The preliminary bombardment by the British artillery is described in the Battalion’s history as “… most disappointing. It only lasted half-an-hour ….. its results were almost negligible”. Under intense Turkish shrapnel fire the 5th Battalion left their trenches and pushed on across 500 yards of No Man’s Land and took the Turkish front trench with the bayonet. Forty yards further on was a second Turkish trench which the Battalion promptly attempted to attack only to be forced back as they came under heavy fire from their left flank. By dawn the positions gained became untenable as the Turks counter attacked and the survivors of the 5th Battalion withdrew. The casualties suffered by the 5th Battalion since the night landing on Suvla Bay were heavy. Of the 750 officers and men who embarked 8 officers and 298 men were killed and missing; 11 officers and 246 men wounded. Amongst the casualties was William Dove who sustained a wound to his left forearm. He was to spend three months in hospital in Alexandria before returning to England on His Majesty’s Hospital Ship ‘Emeralda’. It was not until the following July that William Dove reported back for duty. He was posted to the 6th Battalion but did not join the Battalion, which was serving on the Western Front, until 14 December 1916. The 6th Battalion had for the first months of 1917 been either in reserve or posted to relatively quiet sectors of the line. In April the Battalion was posted to the Arras sector and was involved in costly attacks across the Scarpe river front. (See William Brown). On the morning of 16 May the Battalion was being relieved by the 4th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders from trenches to the east of Arras, in front of a feature known as the Chemical Works. In the middle of the relief, ‘C’ and ‘D’ Companies already having left the line, the Germans counter attacked and broke through the frontline. Reconnaissance the night before had shown the German trenches to be empty and it would not have been unlike the Germans to use this ruse to lull the British into a false sense of security. ‘A’ Company was caught mid relief and suffered heavily; ‘B’ Company, of which Dove was a part, was filing out of the line and turned back and manned a disused trench, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy by enfilading him with both machine-gun and rife fire. William Dove was missing after the action and was officially regarded in March 1918 as having died on or since the 16th May 1917.

19 Leonard Sydney Everett Lance Serjeant 15127, 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment

Died 2 September 1916 Commemorated Choques CWGC, I.J.101*

Early Life Leonard Sydney Everett was born in Cattistock on 4 April 1892 the son of Albion, an estate gamekeeper and woodsman, and Annie Everett. The family lived at No.3 The Rocks. Leonard had two younger brothers and a sister. He was later married to Francis Elizabeth and lived at ‘Bincleaves’ House, Rodwell, Weymouth.

Military Career There are few records to tell us about Leonard’s time with the 1st Battalion in September 1916. However, we can garner from the Battalion diary an idea of the conditions the Battalion faced as it withdrew from the Authuille/Leipzig Salient front on the Somme in early August 1916 and moved north to billets at Le Quesnoy.

On 1 September the Battalion left Le Quesnoy to relieve the 15th Highland Light Infantry in the Guinchy sector to the east of Bethune, the relief being completed by 4.45pm. There was little enemy activity and the situation was reported as unusually quiet probably because it was raining hard. The night was to be occupied in the evacuation of water and mud from the trenches and dug outs. Some trenches, the diary records, were waist deep in water and the saps in very bad condition. As the night went on trenches, both communication and frontline, continued to deteriorate and in some cases collapsed all together and had to be evacuated.

During this period the diary reports that one man was accidently killed and two wounded. As Leonard is stated as having died of wounds, we know that he was one of those two: he is buried in a cemetery which adjoined a large Field Hospital, so clearly was evacuated from the battlefield but did not survive. His parents paid for the epitaph on his headstone: ‘Faithful unto Death.’

*CWGC = Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery. The grave reference follows this.

20 Joseph Charles Lane Private (16262) 2nd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment Died 25 March 1917 Commemorated: Basra Memorial (Iraq), panel 22/63* Early Life Joseph Charles Lane, was born in a cottage in Duck Street, Cattistock in January 1896. His father William having died, his mother Mary Ann shared the cottage with her father John Sprake and her other four children: Bertram, William, Percy and Ethel. John Sprake worked as a carter on a farm and Joseph, before enlisting in 1914, was a farm labourer. Military Career Joseph Lane’s attestment papers have not survived so we have little information regarding his personal military service. What we do know is that at the time of his death he was serving with the 2nd Battalion Dorsets in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. The 2nd Battalion was part of General Maude’s relief force attempting to relieve the besieged garrison of Kut- al-Amara but failed in its task. General Townshend, commander of the garrison surrendered on 29th April 1916 to the Turkish forces in one of the most humiliating episodes in British military history. Conditions faced by the troops of the Mesopotamian campaign before and after the disaster at Kut were probably as trying, if not more so, than conditions on the Western Front. Extreme temperatures, often over 110oF in the day, difficult scrubby, dusty terrain, flies, minimal motorised transport leaving no option but for the troops to endure long marches, a shortage of water and stretched logistics. Diseases such as cholera diphtheria, typhus, dysentery, malaria were to cause nearly half the deaths, 12,807, suffered by the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force as were killed in action. Added to the physical depredations there was the constant harassment by marauding irregular Arab tribes. In February 1917 the British re-took Kut and the 2nd Battalion by March 1917 was pursuing the withdrawing Turkish forces towards the steeply rising hills of the Jebel Hamrin as part of the advance on Bagdad. On the night of the 25th March the Brigade began its attack against what transpired to be a well organised and effective opposition well dug-in amongst the gulleys and ravines of the rising ground. The attack failed and casualties were high. The 2nd Dorsets had begun the assault with a strength of 500 but suffered over 220 casualties with twenty-two known to have been killed that night and over 100 missing. Amongst those missing was Joseph Lane.

*The campaign in Mesopotamia is often overlooked. 40,605 men are listed on the Basra memorial making it the third largest of the memorials to the missing of the Great War, after Thiepval (72,185) and the Menin Gate in Ypres (54,383).

21 James Albert Powell Private (203945) 1/4th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment Died 18 July 1918 Commemorated: Kirkee New Cemetery (India), F.I.14 Early Life James Powell was the son of William and Harriet Sophia Powell, born in 1886. He married Alice and, at the time of his death, lived at “Woodland View”, Boulsdon, Gloucestershire. There is no documented connection to Cattistock but he possibly moved here just before the war. Military Life James Powell’s enlistment papers unfortunately did not survive so there is little to tell of his service during the war. What we do know is that he served with the 1st/4th Dorsetshire Regiment. The 4th Battalion was the Territorial battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment. Men serving with Territorial units were required only to serve in the UK and at the outbreak of war the 4th Battalion was sent to Devonport to relieve the regular troops based at the Plymouth garrison for service overseas. The Battalion’s next move was to Salisbury Plain where it joined the Wessex Division training camp. As noted volunteers in Territorial battalions were not required to go on overseas service but it soon became apparent that the war would need as many men as could be raised for overseas service. The War Office decided that if two thirds of the Officers and men in a Territorial battalion volunteered for overseas service the battalion could go as a complete unit. As it happened the entire Wessex Division volunteered in sufficient numbers for overseas service. On 9 October the 1st/4th Dorsetshire Regiment set sail from Southampton on HM Troopship “Assaye”, joining a convoy of ten troopships with two cruisers for escort, bound for India. The Battalion landed at Bombay four weeks later on 10 November 1914.

For the next fifteen months the Battalion took over duties from regular garrison troops who were required in France and Mesopotamia. Drafts from the 1st/4th were sent as reinforcements to the 2nd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment which was part of the calamitous expeditionary force led by General Townshend ending in the siege of Kut. Of those sent few survived. The 1st/4th was finally mobilised for active service in February 1916 as part of the attempted relief of Kut. A number of offices and men remained in India at the battalion base, the military cantonment at Poona, and it was here that James Powell fatally contracted one of the many diseases that afflicted the soldiers serving in India.

22 (Thomas) John Welch Private 346116 16th (Royal Devon and R. North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion Devonshire Regiment Died 3 December 1917 Commemorated Jerusalem War Cemetery, A.19 Early Life Born in Maiden Newton 1896 to George and Mary, by 1911 the family had moved to Chalmington with their 5 children, of whom John was the middle one. Even at the tender age of 15 he was a labourer on the farm. Curiously, the family do not appear in the Finance Act survey, but George is listed in the register of electors for Cattistock for 1913 and for 1919. It is interesting to note that by 1919 Mary is also listed, having now been enfranchised. Military Life John (as he was known) signed up in the early days of the war on 31 August 1914 in Dorchester but his military history is a bit of a mystery as not many records survive that identify him beyond reasonable doubt. Those that do, record that initially he was posted to the Dorsetshire Regiment and given the service number 10353. He listed his occupation as a ploughboy. However by 14 November he had been medically discharged after just 57 days’ service as having flat feet and therefore not capable of making a good soldier. We know that this is our man as the birthday, place of birth and place of residence are correct. As John is on the Cattistock war memorial, however, we know that this is not the end of the story, so an extensive trawl of CWGC records revealed the second piece of indisputable evidence. In the CWGC records, he is listed by his full name – Thomas John Welch – but there is no doubt it can only be the same as the ‘John Welch’ listed on the war memorial as it notes his father George lived in Chalmington, and that his age was 21, which ties in with our other records. The date of death is noted as 3 December 1917. By now his regiment is listed as 16th (Royal Devon and Royal North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. The medal index card of a Thomas Welch gives us a date of death matching the CWGC one and a date of entry into theatre in Egypt of 16 October 1915. At that time, however, the 16 Battalion Devonshires did not yet exist, so he must have been serving with another Devonshire Battalion. One of his other (Victory) medal cards gives 1G. Devons; the 1G Battalion were a Garrison Battalion for men who were unfit for active duty so it would appear he joined them having been discharged as unfit from the Dorsets. The Garrison Battalion also went overseas, to Egypt, at the time of his first foreign service, which we know to be in Egypt, so this would make sense. From there he must have transferred at some point into the 16 Battalion who were also in that part of the world. 3 December 1917 was a black day for the 16th Battalion as they lost 286 men in an unsuccessful attack on El Foka during the advance to Jerusalem. We can only assume that Thomas John Welch was one of them.

23 LEICESTERSHIRE REGIMENT

William David Lane Private (42966), 7th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment Died: 8th October 1918 Commemorated: Vis en Artois Memorial, panel 5 Early Life William Lane (senior) and Annie Sprake married in 1886 in Netherbury and had 5 children; William David, Bertram, Percy, Joseph and Ethel. The 1901 census lists the Lane family as living in Holywell but by this time Annie was a widow. By 1911 they had moved to Clare Cottage in Cattistock. The next year William married Minnie Maria White on 22 April 1912 in Bradpole, listing his father as William Lane, a tailor, and his own profession as a groom. Military Career As far as we understand William Lane originally enlisted with the Dorset (Queen’s Own) Yeomanry and would have undertaken his basic training with the cavalry reserve. It was not unusual once the basic training was completed for a soldier to be posted to an infantry regiment hence, in all probability, why he was serving with the 7th (Service) Battalion the Leicestershire Regiment. By October 1918 the Germans were retreating fast and William’s battalion was south of Cambrai near Gonnelieu. They were to attack the Beaurevoir line, a third defensive structure of the Hindenburg Line. Whilst the Hindenburg Line had ostensibly been constructed to strengthen German defences in spring 1917, they had used it for a springboard for their last ditch effort in March 1918 to end the war before the overwhelming superiority of the Allies’ manpower manifested itself with the arrival of American troops in numbers. They had almost succeeded, and pushed the Allies back to the gates of Amiens; on 8 August 1918, however, the Allies attacked and the period known as the ‘100 Days’ Offensive’ started: the end of the war was coming. By autumn 1918 they had once more been pushed back to the Hindenburg Line and were preparing to use its defensive structures once more. The 7 Leicesters assembled west of Bonne Enfance and Montecouvez Farms early on the morning on 8 October 1918, with their principle objective 200 yards east of them. With

24 the brigade attacking on a front of approximately a mile, the men set off at 5.15am and reached their objective by 7.30, taking over 150 prisoners in the process. Casualties were described as ‘fairly light’, and with no other reports of casualties later in the day we can assume that William was one of the unlucky ones. His wife Minnie was forwarded his outstanding pay of £4.19s.8d on 28 January 1919 and his War Gratuity of £14 on 12 December 1919.

ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY

Bernard Brown Gunner 72112, ‘D’ Battery, 123 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery Date of death 2 October 1918 Commemorated: Metz en Couture Communal Cemetery, grave III.D.1 Early Life Bernard Brown was born in Cattistock in 1890 to Samuel and Emma Brown. Bernard was one of three brothers from the village who died in the war. Military Career Bernard was a gunner with “D” Battery, 123rd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. In 1914 the Royal Artillery had three distinct arms; the Royal Garrison Artillery, whose job it was to man defences in towns and garrisons such as Ypres in Flanders, the Royal Horse Artillery, who were supremely mobile and of whom the King’s Troop are an example (often seen on the television today), and the Royal Field Artillery, who were attached to infantry divisions and travelled with them around the battlefield. A gun battery was made up of six Ordnance QF 18-Pounder Field Guns and each brigade had four batteries. With a crew of 6 the 18-Pounder, weighing over a ton and horse drawn, was the main British artillery piece used on the Western Front. The 123rd Brigade spent the entire war on the Western Front and by October 1918 was supporting the New Zealand Division as it attacked across the Canal de l’Escault as the war moved into the final stages. The Brigade diary for 2 October 1918, the day Bernard Brown was killed, has little to tell us apart from the fact that Brigade was advancing to a new position as the German Army

25 withdrew further east. Another man in ‘D’ Battery, Gunner Fletcher, also died that day and is buried next to Bernard. There is no specific mention of casualties around that period so we do not know what happened, but barring accidental death it is probable that a German artillery shell landed amongst the guns and killed the two men.

9TH LANCERS

Frank Ewart Savill 2nd Lieutenant, 9th (Queen’s Royal) Lancers Died 9th February 1916 Commemorated: Cattistock Churchyard Early Life Frances Ewart Savill was the second son of Walter and Matilda Savill and born in Wanstead, Essex in 1869. Educated at Uppingham School, after a career in stockbroking and as a director of the United Serdang (Sumatra) Rubber Plantation Ltd., he retired from business in 1909 and moved to Dorset in 1910 having purchased Chantmarle House. Military Career Although 45 years of age at the outbreak of war, Frank Savill nevertheless was gazetted a temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th (Queen’s Royal) Lancers. His medal roll index card* however is marked “Ineligible: HS (Home Service) only” so it is likely, as there is no record of any previous military experience, that he was attached to the 7th Reserve Cavalry Regiment at Tidworth Camp in order to help train cavalry recruits to ride. Sadly, after a brief illness, the result of an earlier operation, he died on 9 February 1916 at the Military Hospital, South Tidworth. He is buried in the church yard in Cattistock. His family had the village hall – the Savill Memorial Hall – built in his memory and also placed a commemorative window in the church’s Lady Chapel.

*A Medal Roll Index Card is a record that sets out the date on which medals were awarded, and eligibility for those medals. Those who did not serve overseas were not eligible, as in the case of Frank Savill.

26 The Frank Ewart Savill commemorative window in Cattistock chuch

DORSET (QUEEN’S OWN) YEOMANRY

Frank Barter Trooper (231612), C Squadron, Dorset (Queen’s Own) Yeomanry Died 9th June 1918, Palestine Commemorated Jerusalem CWGC, N.88 Early Life Frank Barter was born in 1899 in Kingsdon, Somerset, the son of the late William Henry Barter, a sometime groom at the stables of the Cattistock Hunt, and Edith. After William’s death Edith moved to Sandhills with her second husband Henry Allen whom she had married in 1910. Frank had two older brothers, Edwin and Leonard, who survived until 1961 and 1964 respectively. Military Life The Dorset Yeomanry (Queen’s Own) was a Territorial Cavalry Regiment. For the first nine months of the war the Regiment was part of the home defences as fears grew of a possible invasion along the south and east coasts of England. In April 1915 the Regiment left England for overseas service and as dismounted troops, took part in the Suvla landings on the Gallipoli Peninsular in August 1915. After the Regiment – which had suffered heavily in the campaign – withdrew from Gallipoli it was to spend the rest of its active service abroad in the Middle East. We do not know when Frank Barter enlisted or joined the 1st/1st Dorset Yeomanry which by June 1918 was then serving in Palestine in the region of Jericho. As a mounted regiment its task was to hold outpost lines and patrol forward areas this often leading to short, sharp skirmishes with the opposing Turkish forces. It was on one such occasion that Frank Barter lost his life.

27 The Records of the Dorset Yeomanry 1914 – 1919 recounts the incident: “On the 9th June “C” Squadron was suddenly fired at when taking up an outpost line and had to retire about 200 yards, when Captain B.P.T.Lees, with true cavalry spirit, rallied his squadron, and, with sword in hand, charged the astonished Turks, who gave way. It was here that Lieutenant Mason, Sergeant L. Burnell, Trumpeter T. Routledge, and Private F. Barter, four men and no more, charged the Turkish supports, consisting of two machine-guns and a number of men. Burnell and Barter were killed immediately.” Lieutenant Mason, who was wounded, finally made it back to the Squadron. Mason was awarded the Military Cross, and, Burnell, Routledge and Barter earned for themselves, in the words of the Records of the Dorset Yeomanry, “a niche in the temple of fame.”

George Hugh Digby Major, 2/1st Dorset (Queen’s Own) Yeomanry Died 20 October 1914 Commemorated on a plaque in the north transept of the church and buried behind the church next to his wife, mother and father. Early Life George Hugh Digby was born at Chalmington House on 21 September 1861, the son of Lt-Col John Almarus Digby and Diana Alicia Digby (née Hepburne-Scott) and attended Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He married Lady Muriel Augusta Fox-Strangeways, the only daughter of Henry Edward Fox-Strangeways, 5th Earl of Ilchester, in 1903. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (JP) for Dorset. Military Career George Hugh Digby was a member of the Dorset (Queen’s Own) Yeomanry, a Territorial cavalry regiment. With the 48th Company (North Somerset) 7th Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry he saw service in the second Boer War. He was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with five Clasps: Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902 and held the rank of Major. At the outbreak of the First World War the maximum age to join the army was 38 years of age unless one had previous military experience in which case it was 45. George Hugh Digby, being 47, was officially too old to return to the colours. However, needs must and men who had retired from the military over the age of 45 were encouraged to re-enlist as experienced men were desperately needed to train the men enlisting in their droves. Digby was selected by Lt-Col T.A. Colfox to join the 2/1st Dorset (Queen’s Own) Yeomanry and volunteered for Imperial Service overseas. However, on the 20th October 1914 he was found dead, struck by a train, on the railway line between Evershot and Maiden Newton. He is buried in the church yard at Cattistock, the circumstances surrounding his death remaining unclear.

28 ROYAL WILTSHIRE YEOMANRY

Allen Llewellen Palmer Major, 1/1st Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry Died 15 November 1915 Commemorated: St Pierre Cemetery, Amiens (France), VI.A.6 Early Life Allen Llewellen Palmer was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire on the 10 June 1882. His father was Brigadier-General Sir George Llewellen Palmer, of Lackham Manor near Lacock in Wiltshire, and his mother Louie Madeleine (neé Gouldsmith). The eldest of three brothers and a sister, he was educated at Harrow and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Remembered by those who knew him as a good all round sportsman and a fine cross-country runner, he was, as befitted a Yeomanry officer of the time, a keen hunting man. Between 1911 and 1914 he was Joint Master of the Cattistock Hunt with the famous Parson Milne. Military Career In 1901 he left Sandhurst and joined the 14th (Kings Own) Hussars as a 2nd Lieutenant, serving in the South African War. Palmer remained in the army on his return from South Africa until resigning his commission in December 1907, having risen to the rank of Captain. As was not uncommon on leaving a regular cavalry regiment, he joined the local (Royal Wiltshire) Yeomanry, a Territorial Force, with the rank of Lieutenant. In 1910-1911 he served in India as Aide de Camp to the Governor of Bombay and was promoted to the rank of Captain. On the outbreak of war in August 1914 the regiment was mobilised due to the shortage of regular troops and Palmer along with the majority of the officers and men volunteered for Imperial Service - which meant they would serve overseas. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (Prince of Wales’s Own Royal Regiment) landed in France in December 1915. The regiment’s duties for the next year were behind the front line mainly helping to control and police the movement of troops and supplies. There was scant opportunity for mounted troops to be involved in a traditional role on the Western Front in 1916 and come 1917 the regiment was ‘dismounted’, which meant that they served as an infantry unit. In the autumn of 1916 Palmer had a spell of home leave and was advised by his doctor not to return to France due to illness. Disregarding this he returned nevertheless and in November of that year developed peritonitis (a disease which attacks the intestines and is fatal if not treated promptly); he died on 15th of that month in No.1 New Zealand Hospital, Amiens.

29 ROYAL NAVY

Albert Ernest Dewdney Stoker 1st Class (K/20822), HMS Bulwark Died: 26 November 1914 Commemorated: Portsmouth Naval Memorial Early Life Albert Ernest Dewdney was born in Cattistock on 12 January 1894 and baptised here on 11 March that year. He was the son of Ernest Cecil and Jane Dewdney of Sandhills. By 1901 the family had moved to Woodsford, and by 1911, Andover. However, the connection with Cattistock remained as cousins kept the farmhouse at Sandhills. Naval Service Albert enlisted in the Royal Navy at Portsmouth on 15 October 1913 aged 18, for a 12 year engagement; his previous occupation was as a groom. The record of enlistment has survived so we can get a good idea of his appearance. Height: 5ft 2”, chest: 37½”, hair: brown and eyes: hazel, with a fresh complexion. From enlistment until the following April Albert attended a shore based naval training establishment, HMS Victory II. His report says his character and ability were very good. On completion of his training he was posted to HMS Bulwark. HMS Bulwark entered service with the Royal Navy in 1902 and was a Formidable, or London, Class battleship. A notable commander in 1908 was Captain Robert Falcon Scott in 1908, who two years later would set off for the Antarctic on the Terra Nova. On the outbreak of war she was part of 5th Battle Squadron assigned to the Channel Fleet, and based at Portland. On 14 November 1914 the squadron relocated to Sheerness to guard against a possible German invasion. At 7.55am on the morning of 26th November 1914 a powerful explosion ripped Bulwark apart, killing 738 sailors out of a compliment of 750. The Court of Enquiry decided the cause of the catastrophe was an internal explosion caused by overheated Lyddite charges stored in passages linking the forward magazines; as these passages adjoined the ship’s boilers the walls were very hot and it is thought this is what resulted in one of the charges going off, with a huge chain reaction ensuing. The ship had entirely disappeared when the smoke cleared away. In terms of loss of life, the incident remains the second most catastrophic accidental explosion in the history of the United Kingdom, exceeded only by the explosion of the dreadnought battleship HMS Vanguard in 1917 in which William Lee died (see p.33). Albert’s mother was informed of his death on 1 December 1914.

30 Stokers, HMS Bulwark 1913

HMS Vanguard 1910

31 Reginald Joseph Dubbin Stoker 1st Class (K/8609), HMS Niger

Died: 11th Nov 1914 Commemorated: Portsmouth Naval Memorial

Early Life Reginald Joseph Dubbin was born on 15 August 1892 in Sandhills, the eldest son of Joseph and Sarah Dubbin and had a brother and two sisters. After leaving school, Reginald worked as a mason’s labourer before enlisting in the Royal Navy for a period of twelve years in September 1910, just after his 18th birthday. His enlistment papers describe him as 5’-7” tall, brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

Naval Career Reginald’s naval training began at the shore based HMS Victory II in Portsmouth. Over the next four years he served on a number of training and active ships starting his training as a stoker on HMS Renown. In December 1911 he was promoted to Stoker 1st Class while serving on the light cruiser HMS Liverpool.

Reginald Dubbin’s service record states that he joined HMS Vernon, a support ship for HMS Excellent (a torpedo and mining training ship), in September 1913 for a period ending on 11 November 1914. It is not clear from the records whether or not he was transferred on that day to HMS Niger or had been on board already but on a temporary basis.

HMS Niger, when originally lunched 1892, was an Alarm-class torpedo gunboat with a displacement of around 845 tons. She was converted in 1909 to a minesweeper with a compliment of 91.

Late on the morning of 11 November 1914 on patrol in heavy seas off the coast of Deal, the Watch spotted a torpedo, at a distance of about 500yards, breaking surface and heading towards the ship. Efforts were made to avoid the torpedo but to no avail and the ship was struck by the fore bridge. There were many other ships in the vicinity and as HMS Niger HMS Niger did not sink immediately the majority of the crew on board were rescued. Fifteen sailors died including Reginald Joseph Dubbin, who was probably below decks in the furnace rooms at the time. The German submarine was later identified as U-boat U12.

32 The Land Survey documents from 1910 show the Dubbin family living in Sandhills near the railway bridge (numbered 207 on map). Note the allotments each house had on the other side of the railway line.

William George Ellis Lee Ships Stewart Assistant (M/23273), HMS Vanguard Died: 9 July 1917 Commemorated: Plymouth Naval Memorial Early Life William was born in Cattistock on 11 October 1894, the son of Samuel Dummett Lee and Jane Lee. Samuel was a bootmaker, one of two in Cattistock with his workshop in the now-demolished shops next to Bun House, but clearly had ambition and became a Certified Schoolmaster, as by the time of William’s death in July 1917 the family had moved to The School House at Willand near Cullompton in Devon. Military Career William enlisted in to the Royal Navy at Devonport on 3 January 1916 as a ship’s steward assistant. His service record describes him as being 5’-9½” tall, 38½” chest, dark brown hair, blue eyes and of a dark complexion.

33 William spent the first three months of his service on HMS Vivid 1, a shore based training establishment at Devonport, before joining the crew of HMS Vanguard on 2 March 1916. HMS Vanguard was a St Vincent-class dreadnought battleship launched in 1910. Under the command of Captain James Dick, in the 4th Battle Squadron (Grand Fleet), she took part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, sustaining neither damage nor casualties during the battle. Five weeks later, on 9 July 1916, HMS Vanguard was anchored in Scapa Flow, the North Sea anchorage for the Grand Fleet. Just before mid-night she suffered a devastating explosion which literally ripped the ship apart causing it to sink almost immediately. The Admiralty enquiry that followed concluded that the spontaneous ignition of cordite charges due to rising temperatures in an unventilated storage area was the direct cause of the catastrophic Plymouth Naval Memorial explosion. Of the 845 sailors aboard the vessel only two survived. As was usual, sailors were commemorated in their home port which explains why William is listed on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Acknowledgements Sean Lavan for his research into the histories of Cattistock men. John Willows for the images of Cattistock past. West Dorset District Council Chairman’s Fund Cattistock Parish Council Cattistock Shop for tickets sales and publicity Wallis Agency (Nick Morris) for design of this book and other promotional literature Peter Grassby of Grassby & Sons, Funeral Directors and Stonemasons. Armed Forces Covenant Trust Fund Organising group: Charlie Bladon, Stewart Kilby, Rachael Kilby, Nick Morris, Merrily Harpur, Nigel Jones, Dan Newman, Sean Lavan

34 35 The Cattistock men who died in WWI Frank Barter • Bernard Brown • Harry Brown • William Brown • Edwin Herbert Cousins Reginald John Davis • Albert Ernest Dewdney • George Hugh Digby • William Thomas Dove Reginald Joseph Dubbin • William George Ellis Lee • Leonard Sydney Everett Joseph Charles Lane • William David Lane • Allen Llewellen Palmer • James Albert Powell 36 Frank Ewart Savill • (Thomas) John Welch