A Tribute to the Men of Winsley Who Died in the First World War

A TRIBUTE TO THE MEN OF WINSLEY WHO DIED IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR CONTENTS Page 1 Foreword Page 2 The Parish of Winsley in 1914 Page 3 First World War Medals Page 4 Private Francis Stewart Angell Page 5 Gunner Albert Augustus Angell Page 5 Winsley Methodist Church Memorial Page 6 Lieutenant Denys Brinckman Page 7 Captain Charles Alfred Brooks Page 9 Private Thomas Balfour Gornall Page 10 Private Walter Hazell Page 11 Private Reginald Clifford Hobbs Page 12 Private Alexander Leslie Page 13 Private Edgar Wyndam Lintern Page 14 Gunner Albert Victor Mizen Page 15 Lieutenant Roger Poore Page 16 Private Edgar Charles Summers Page 18 Private Frank Oliver Summers Page 19 Private Leonard Percy Watson Page 20 Private Robert Wilcox Inside Back Cover: Winsley Social Club Honours Board FOREWORD As part of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1, it was agreed that we should try to bring back to life, so to speak, the men from Winsley who fought and died in that war. This booklet represents the combined efforts of John Baxter who lives in Bradford on Avon and attends St. Nicholas Church and Linda Brooks who lives in Winsley. Our first port of call was the Winsley Memorial where, every November, we gather to honour the memory of those who died in all wars. Having started to investigate these special men who specifically died in World War 1, it was discovered that there were other memorials in the village. There is one in the Methodist Church which added a new name to our quest, whilst in the Social Club there is an Honours Board that commemorates all those who went to war from the village but had the fortune to survive it. Thus our investigations were extended beyond the 13 whose names are etched in stone. Jonathan Falconer’s book Names in Stone: Forgotten Warriors of Bradford-on-Avon and District 1914-18, published in 2010, provided some additional facts to those that we had discovered and he was able to provide a couple of the few photographs that exist of these men for which we thank him. Even with his painstaking research he was stumped when it came to researching Private Robert Wilcox who is missing from his book, but we believe we have found the right details for him. In one specific case, Alexander Leslie, we have been unable to find the link with Winsley or even confirm his birth place, as this is a common name. We might have been helped had there been some attestation papers (the papers completed when an individual started his military service|) but sadly many of those for the Great War were burnt beyond what was thought to be any hope of recognition in an archive fire in the Second World War. However with the wonders of modern technology, gradually some of these burnt remains are being slowly deciphered but not yet for Alexander. We have the advantage that the 1911 census is now available to add to Jonathan’s research. Some war diaries are also available at Kew and these have proved a valuable piece of evidence in pinpointing the locations where these brave men lost their lives whilst the internet generally has filled in gaps where they previously existed. Some, it will be noted, died within days of the start of the war whilst some survived until a short time before the Armistice was signed. Two from the same Summers’ family died in separate locations whilst there were instances like the Angells where two brothers left and only one returned. Even in this case we understand that the surviving brother did not live for many years after the war and that he may have died from his wartime injuries. The effects of this war therefore touched so many lives even after its conclusion in 1918. John Baxter & Linda Brooks January to August 2014 THE PARISH OF WINSLEY IN 1914 At the start of the Great War the village of Winsley comprised little more than the small area around the Seven Stars and St. Nicholas Church. This area is little changed. To transport oneself back, one would necessarily have to start in the middle of the night when there is little traffic noise. Start next to the Village School (now the Social Club), by the (happily-surviving) fingerpost sign to Limpley Stoke, pass the brewhouse and the pub on one’s left and the forge on the right, then after the bend in the road the Methodist Chapel on your right. Turn right at the crossroads with Murhill and you enter what was the main and only street. Pass Wheatsheaf House (then a shop seen in the picture below to the right), the post office, the reading room (now alas a car-park used by the Social Club), then St. Nicholas on the left, across the main road, right at the top of the hill where the War Memorial now stands and down the lane with its delightful cottages towards the Manor. Turn right at the entrance to the Manor where the Village Hall now stands (said to have been a memorial to the Fallen of Winsley) and the Bowling Green (dating from the turn of the century) and you return to your starting place. Along the Bradford Road and down the lane opposite the Bowling Green were some new large houses. Turleigh seems to have been as populous as Winsley and is also little changed today. Others lived in Conkwell and the hamlets of Ashley and Haugh. Along the hillsides of Murhill and Conkwell were strawberry gardens. It would require a social historian to portray the feel of Winsley in those days. Was there a pervading smell of horse dung, or the bakery, or tannery? Was there a fug from the forges? Certainly it must have been a place humming with life, a community serving the rural economy. In the 1800s, quarrying in Murhill had been a thriving, noisy and sometimes unsafe enterprise but the 1911 census has as many farm workers and gardeners as masons. Some residents would have gone into Bath, more for shopping than for work, perhaps by train from Avoncliff Halt, opened in 1906 or by horse and carriage, or even (and who was the first to have one in our village?) by motor-car. The census records 718 people in around 150 households. Of these, 85 people were in the Sanatorium which had been founded 11 years before on the site of the old Murhill Quarries and which later became the Winsley Chest Hospital (dealing primarily with tuberculosis cases) and more recently still the Avon Park Care Centre. The Social Club’s roll of honour lists 112 current, or former, residents who answered their country’s call - what a number! Of these at least 13 died either during the Great War or shortly afterwards. We may not be a ‘thankful village’ in that all those who served returned, but we may be thankful at the example shown both by the Glorious Dead and by those who survived. Robin Davies July 2014 FIRST WORLD WAR MEDALS All those listed in this booklet would have been awarded the appropriate First World War medals, in recognition of their active service. The 1914 Star was awarded to those who served in France or Belgium between 5 August 1914 and 22 November 1914 inclusive. A narrow horizontal bronze clasp sewn onto the ribbon, bearing the dates '5th AUG. - 22nd NOV. 1914' shows that the recipient had actually served under enemy fire. Those who had served at sea or in other theatres of war between these dates were not awarded this medal. The 1914-15 Star was very similar in design to the 1914 Star; it was awarded to all who served in any theatre of war against Germany between 5 August 1914 and 31 December 1915, except those with the 1914 Star or certain other specified medals. The British War Medal was awarded to those who either entered a theatre of war or were on service overseas between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918 inclusive. This was later extended to services in Russia, Siberia and some other areas in 1919 and 1920. A number of clasps were awarded for particular campaigns or battles but these were only worn on miniatures, not on the medal The Allied Victory Medal. Each of the allies issued their own victory medal with a similar design, similar equivalent wording and identical ribbon. On the British medal the front depicts a winged classical figure representing victory. PRIVATE FRANCIS STEWART ANGELL Winsley War Memorial and Winsley Methodist Church Memorial 52252 Private Francis Stewart Angell 4th Bn, Worcestershire Regiment died on 29 September 1918, aged 19. His name is recorded on panel 75-77 at the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebecke, West Flanders in Belgium. On the day of his death the battalion was based a few hundred yards north west of the Belgian hamlet of Keolenberg. Francis was one of over 170 (from a battalion strength of 570) killed over three days of fierce battle in very wet conditions and with precious little food because of supply problems. He was posted as one of the 19 missing on 29 September; thus he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial as, like so many of his compatriots, he has no known grave. On that morning, the 4th Battalion, soaked to the skin and stiff with the cold, advanced through the front line and pushed onto the attack. The village of Rossignol Cabaret was taken and the leading platoons advanced up the ridge towards Keolenberg.

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