WORLD WAR ONE IN LONG CRENDON

Pat Mullan 2018 Lest we forget This piece of work all started when walking with my granddaughters between the park and the shop in search of ice cream. One of them noticed the war memorial. Reading a few of the names she said “who are all these people?” I explained they were men from the village who had died in a war nearly 100 years ago and their names were engraved in the stone so that they would always be remembered - but it started me thinking. Who were they really? Many of the names are familiar in the village but many are not. As a keen amateur genealogist, I started to research some of them and began to discover where these men died, what they did before the war, who their families were and their links to the village. I was hooked!

Some were lost at sea, some died in battle and have no known grave, some died in action or of wounds in field hospitals and one of them died of an illness while on leave. Three men died after the Armistice, two of pneumonia (probably as a result of flu) and one of the complications of spinal injuries sustained in the Navy. These men served in France, Flanders, at sea and in the Middle East. They came from a range of backgrounds and many worked on the local farms. Descendants of a number of them live in the village to this day

The War Memorial was unveiled on the 19th November 1920. The Ceremony was attended by Colonel F T Higgins-Bernard of the of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

What follows is a short chapter on each of the men named on the war memorial

1914 Frederick Organ 1917 Willis Janes George Newton John R. Ing John E. A. Hampton 1915 George Eadle William T. Hinton Bertram G. Ralph Edward E. C. Gomme William Towersey George Buckle George Hawkes Frederick Horton Reginald J. Culverwell William E. Gascoyne William Rush William Blows Walter Hawkes John Wyatt William Smith Arthur Peacock Frederick G. Warner Frank Shrimpton Ernest G. Lovell

1916 Ambrose Organ 1918 Frank Markham Victor Pearce George Mortemore John T. Warner Stephen A. Gomme John G. Ralph Charles Rutland Harry Smith Joseph Beckett Sidney A. Shrimpton Edward Nappin Edmund W.M. Burrows Fred J. Shurrock Frederick Shurrock Ralph W. Stone Ernest A. Hayward Walter Shrimpton William T. Cadle Walter J. Warner George Munday Maurice Dorsett Frederick Beckett Francis J. Cadle William J. Markham James B. Bass

1914 On the 4th August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany following the invasion of Belgium. Europe had been spiralling towards this point since the assassination in June, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who was killed in Sarajevo along with his wife. The first British forces arrived in France 3 days later, on the 7th August, and were immediately involved in fighting on the Western Front.

The first two men from the village to die in WW1, and commemorated on the war memorial, were serving in the Royal Navy.

George Harry Newton was the first to die, on 15th October 1914. He was born in July 1884 and was an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy. He was born in Long Crendon to Caleb Newton and his wife Sarah (nee Briscoe), the youngest of six children. The family lived at Drakes Farm and Caleb, who was born and died in the village, was an agricultural labourer. In the 1901 census George was a bricklayer’s labourer. His naval records (below) show that he joined the Navy in June 1905, on a five-year term, ending on 1st July 1910. He was promoted to Able Seaman and served on several ships. On discharge he was transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve at Chatham. In 1911 George was a Police Constable in London, living in the Police Station, Union Grove, Clapham. At the outbreak of war, he must have been recalled and was immediately posted, in August 1914. His ship, the Hawke was sunk by a submarine in the North Sea and his body was never recovered. For whatever reason, George seems to have left the village behind him when he joined the Navy. In his war grave record George is said to be a “native” of Mitcham, Surrey and his next of kin is a friend, Daisy Clothier, of Surrey. There is no mention of his family in Long Crendon. George Newton’s name appears on the Chatham Naval Memorial which commemorates 8,517 sailors of the First World War

The Hawke was a 12-gun twin-screw cruiser, built in 1891. In 1914 it was engaged in various operations in the North Sea, in connection with the war with Germany. On October 15th the “Hawke,” was successfully torpedoed by a German submarine. A torpedo hit the magazine and caused a huge explosion ripping the ship apart and killing the captain and over 500 men. 70 men survived.

Frederick Organ died on the 1st November 1914. He was a Chief Gunner in the Royal Navy. His baptised name was George Frederick and he was born in Gloucestershire in July 1874. Frederick’s father was George Frederick Organ, (left) originally from Stoke Damerel in Devon and his mother was Mary Jane (nee Oates) from Cornwall. George senior was the schoolmaster at Oakley School and retired to live in Bicester Road, Long Crendon. His wife was also a teacher. There was a strong naval tradition in the Organ family. The couple had ten children, seven sons and three daughters. One son died in childhood, but five others served in the Royal Navy. George was the second eldest and his younger brother Ambrose also died in the war in March 1916. (he is listed on the memorial as having died in 1914). Their younger brother Percy went on to become a Lieutenant Commander and ended his career as Commander of HMS Victory at Portsmouth.

In the 1991 census George Organ was already in the Navy as a boy sailor, listed as crew on HMS Impregnable which was a training establishment at Devonport. According to the Naval Lists, George Frederick became a Gunner in July 1899 so he had completed over 20 years’ service by the time he died. He married Alice Allen in Portsea in 1899, and he left at least three children, Alice born in 1900, George born in 1906 and Cyril in 1909

Frederick was killed in action at the Battle of Coronel while serving on the HMS Good Hope.

The Good Hope (right) was a Drake Class Armoured Cruiser, and at the time among the fastest ships in the world. She became the flagship of Rear Admiral Cradock of the South American station during August 1914 and was sunk by gunfire on 1st November 1914 by the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau off the Chilean, the entire crew was lost. The casualty cost at Coronel was high, nearly 1,600 men, including Admiral Cradock and two capital ships. (For more information on the battle see www.coronel.org.uk.)

George Organ’s name appears on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial which commemorates around 10,000 sailors of the First World War As 1914 came to an end the war was spreading out across the world from France and Flanders, across northern Europe, the Middles East, Japan and as far away as the Falkland Islands.

Christmas 1914 saw the famous Christmas Truce, one of the most mythologised events of the First World War. Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches. The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. However, this did not happen everywhere along the Western Front and elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit. After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again. Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas.

1915 This year was to bring the war closer to home for the people of Long Crendon when nine men joined the list of the dead, many of whom would have been well known to the villagers as they were born and lived in the village before enlisting.

George William Eadle was the first village casualty to die in France, on 24th February 1915. He was actually born in East Ham in 1895 and probably spent little or no time in Long Crendon. His story is made more interesting because of what happened to the rest of his family. The Eadle family were in Long Crendon for several generations. His father was another George Eadle born in 1854. When young George was five, his father was a publican of The Trafalgar Tavern in St Pancras. His mother was Mary Ann Mills from Cliffe, Kent. At some point in the next ten years the family moved to Long Crendon and their youngest child was born in the village in 1906.

In the 1911 census George was working as a house boy for a headmaster in Melton Mowbray but in 1913 he left Liverpool aboard the Adriatic, for Canada, one of a ship load of young men looking for a new life, many of whom later returned to fight in the war. In 1911 his mother Mary was living in Frog Lane (Frogmore) with her younger three sons and claiming parish relief. She is shown as married but also the head of the household and there is no sign of her husband. She died the following year early in 1912. George had three surviving brothers. (The census shows there were five other children who had died) The next eldest, Albert followed him to Canada in 1912, but when their mother died, the two younger ones were on their own.

Frederick and Harold, aged 14 and 9 then appear on a ship’s passenger list in May 1914, along with 24 other children, bound for Canada. Little Harold was the youngest by 5 years. Between 1870- 1957 The British Child Emigration Scheme to Canada shipped 100,000 British children (all alleged to be orphans), to Canada. The “Home Children” were between 4-15 years old and once in Canada, worked as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants until they were 18 years old. The organisations who exported these children claimed to be providing them with a better life than they would have had in Britain, but in some cases, there were different Boy ploughing. Dr.Barnardo's Industrial motivations. It was a way both of removing the problem of Farm, Russell, Manitoba, Canada 1900 orphan children and profiting from their sale to Canadian farmers. Children in care in Britain were separated from their families and each other. Siblings were separated from each other and most never saw each other again. Many spent their lives trying to find their families but were blocked by the unwillingness of the childcare organisations to release vital personal information. The three surviving Eadle brothers all died in Canada in Montreal, Saskatchewan and Ontario respectively and it is impossible to tell if they were reunited.

George joined the Canadian Infantry - 13th Battalion, Quebec Regiment. This was part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force raised by Canada for service abroad during the First World War. The first contingent of which, sailed for England in October 1914 and numbered over 31,000, many of them were British born. The 1st Canadian Division went to France early in 1915 so Private Eadle was not there very long. During operations in the vicinity of Armentieres he was struck in the head by a bullet from an enemy rifle and died in the field shortly afterwards on the 24th February 1915

He is buried at Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres alongside over 2000 other Commonwealth burials of the First World War.

Bertram Gray Ralph was born in 1889 near Bristol and died on 13th May 1915. He was killed in action in the Dardanelles. Commemorated on the Long Crendon War Memorial, Bertram’s links to Long Crendon are slim and he probably never lived in the village.

He was the son of an Irishman, Benjamin Ralph and his wife Mary Anne Gray, also Irish who was a writer. Benjamin was a Schoolmaster and Doctor of Law who was headmaster of two schools called Craigmore, first in Cornwall and then in Bristol. Bertram’s parents separated during the 1890s and in 1901 Mary Ann was living with her youngest son and two of her daughters in Dunsdon, near Reading, while Bertram was living with his father and brothers in London. In 1904 his father and one of his brothers, emigrated and settled in Canada. Mary Anne and her daughters remained in England and at some point, must have moved to the village. In the probate records Bertram’s address is given as that of his oldest sister Hilda, who lived in Rugby. In the War Graves register his mother is listed as living in Long Crendon at the time of his death. In the 1911 census she was visiting friends in Bristol so her address at that time is not known. She died in1937 in Cornwall. However, Bertram’s sister Isabel was a music teacher and in 1951 was living at Corner Cottage, Long Crendon. Her death is recorded in 1956 in the area. Bertram’s youngest brother John also died in the war in 1916 and is also commemorated on the village war memorial.

At the time of his death, Bertram was a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve - HMS Goliath. He made his career in the Merchant Navy, qualifying as a second mate in 1909. The original Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) was founded under the Naval Reserve Act in 1859 as a reserve of professional seamen from the British Merchant Navy and fishing fleets, who could be called upon during times of war to serve in the regular Royal Navy. On mobilisation in 1914, the RNR consisted of 30,000 officers and men. Officers of the permanent RNR on general service quickly took up seagoing appointments in the fleet. Bertram was promoted to Sub Lieutenant, assigned to HMS St George in 1914 and a year later to Acting Lieutenant and then Lieutenant on HMS Goliath

HMS Goliath was a pre-Dreadnought battleship. In November 1914 to part in the operation against the Konigsberg in the Rufiji River. and in April 1915 went to the Dardanelle's, providing gunfire support at Cape Helles. while there she was damaged by Turkish Gun fire on the 28th April and 2nd May 1915. On the night of the 13th May she was torpedoed by the Turkish motor torpedo boat Muavenet and sank quickly with the loss of 570 men.

Lieutenant Ralph is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial Kent

William Towersey was the fifth casualty to be named on the village war memorial. He was a Private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, Deal Battalion Royal Naval Division and died in Gallipoli on the 25th June 1915

William Ronald was born on 30th April 1895 and was a farm hand. One of twelve children, his father was George Towersey, an agricultural labourer who was one of 11 children of William Towersey and Emma Ing. His mother was Martha Mary Ayres - also from the village. The Towerseys were a traditional village family of farmhands and lace makers, going back many, many generations. The earliest record of a Towersey in the village is in 1369. To put this in context this was in the reign of Edward III when England was at war with France.

In 1798, a list of able-bodied men of the village (collected in response to a threat of invasion by the French), lists four men aged 15-60 with the name who were either labourers or servants. The family also crop up in the Court Rolls in Elizabethan Long Crendon. In 1588 Thomas Towersey’s cattle “did damage and broke the peace in Crendon” and in 1594 John Towersey, along with two others, was accused of being “players of cards contrary to statute”!

Several of William’s siblings left Long Crendon to marry or seek work elsewhere. Among them his brother Ralph who was a mechanic and driver in London. He served in the Army Service Corps but was discharged as unfit for service in 1916. Descendants of the family still live in the village today.

William’s battalion was involved in the eight-month campaign in Gallipoli, fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26th April 1915. The Deal Battalion followed on the 29th April, landing at Anzac Bay (Ari Burnu) and moving up through a valley called Shrapnel Gully by the forces, to the forward defences. There followed three failed attacks on the area around Krithia which finally came to a halt some kilometres short of the objective on the day William died. Copyright Aukland Libraries

The British had lost 4,500 from 20,000 men deployed. William was killed in action - aged 20. He is buried in the Redoubt Cemetery, Helles near the village of Krithia

George Hawkes died on 8th August 1915, aged 28. Although British by birth, he was a Lance Sergeant in the 15th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force 4th Infantry Brigade. During World War I nearly 422,000 Australians served in the military and over 60,000 lost their lives and 137,000 were wounded. As a percentage of forces committed, this equalled a casualty rate of almost 65 per cent, one of the highest casualty rates amongst the British Empire forces.

George was actually born in Twickenham, in 1886. He was the son of John Hawkes, who was born in Long Crendon 1854 and died in the village in 1910. The Hawkes are another family that had been in the village for many generations. John was an agricultural labourer but at some point, he left the village to work as a gardener in Twickenham, where he married Amelia Bates in Kew in 1886, and George was born. John returned to Long Crendon with his young family and went back to work as an agricultural labourer. In both 1901 and 1911 census George was living with, and latterly working for, his maternal grandfather as a basket maker. His grandfather was a basket maker and bird dealer. At some point between 1911 and 1914 he emigrated to Australia and became a butcher. George enlisted in Lismore, New South Wales on 21st September 1914.

The 15th Battalion AIF was raised from late September 1914, six weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. With the 13th, 14th and 16th Battalions it formed the 4th Brigade. They embarked for overseas just before Christmas. After a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, the battalion travelled to Egypt, arriving in early February 1915 to become part of the New Zealand and Australian Division.

The 4th Brigade landed in Gallipoli, on the beach that came to be known as Anzac Cove, late in the afternoon of 25 April 1915. From May to August, the battalion was heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the ANZAC beachhead.

Lone Pine is located on the south of Anzac Cove and it was a strategically important plateau, named because of the solitary pine that stood there. On 6th of August, 1915 Australians attacked the Turkish trenches before dawn and under artillery fire. At that time, it was dark so Australian soldiers had white calico crosses on their backs to see each other. This was one of the bloodiest battles of the Gallipoli campaign and was called 'Kanli Sirt' (Bloody Ridge) by the Turks. 15th Battalion AIF marching in Melbourne Dec.1914

Members of the 4th Brigade landing at Anzac Cove George has no known grave but is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial which stands on the site of the fiercest fighting at Lone Pine and overlooks the whole front line of May 1915. It commemorates more than 4,900 Australian and New Zealand servicemen who died in the area and whose graves are not known. A lone pine tree still stands in the cemetery

Walter Hawkes was George’s younger brother, born in September 1893 and was killed in action on the 8th October 1915, just 2 months after George died. He was a Sergeant in the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards. Walter was born in Long Crendon. He went into domestic service and in 1911 he was living with his widowed mother in Malthouse Yard and working as a houseboy. In July 1915 he married Ruby Draper in Ponders End, London. He was killed three months later. In his war grave records Ruby’s address is listed as "Glenrae", Kingsbridge, Devon

At the time of his marriage Walter was based at a training camp in Marlow. His Battalion was mobilised on 27th July and landed at Havre and were quickly deployed to the front to take part in the battle of Loos.

Extract from a War Diary: William Upfield- Heathcote, Lance Sergeant 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards. 4 October 1915 - “Took over first line Trenches from Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Very wet dark night. Took 10 hours to get into our places. Very complicated plan of half-finished Trenches: In some places within 30 yards of enemy and our left in a long finger actually resting on the Hohenzollern redoubt. Dug day and night – but difficult to make position even reasonably secure. 8 October 1915 - In the afternoon we were heavily attacked all along the line. The enemy bombers rushed our left flank and came bombing down the line. They surprised and surrounded our own bombers killing most of them. Three machine gun sergeants were killed.” Presumably Walter was one of these.

Walter is named on the Loos Memorial which commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave and who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay.

Reginald John Culverwell was born in 1883 in Long Crendon, the son of George William and Sarah Culverwell. George was born in Dalwood, Devon where his family had lived for generations but he lived and worked in Wiltshire, in London and in Kent before arriving in Long Crendon in about 1890. He was a domestic coachman and the family lived in Frogmore.

In 1911 Reginald was a student schoolmaster, living with his parents. He enlisted in Culham and joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry - 1/1st Bucks Battalion. He was a Private.

The following is based on soldiers’ accounts collected in Citizen Soldiers of Bucks by JC Swann and The First Buckinghamshire Battalion 1914-1919 by PL Wright (and summarised by the work of Steve Berridge, included with his kind permission http://www.lightbobs.com/6-service-bn-oxf-- bucks-li-1915-1916.html where there is more detail), which we can assume was Reginald’s story.

“The order to mobilise arrived on August 4, 1914. The 1/1st Bucks Battalion moved first to Swindon, for training and then by rail and foot via Dunstable, across Hertfordshire to Chelmsford, here they remained for seven months training and deployment digging defences on the east coast, before leaving for France on the 30th March, landing at Boulogne. The following day they marched to Pont de Briques, to join a French troop train, consisting of cattle trucks, each holding 40 - 50 men. After five hours crammed on this train and a three hour march they reached Terdeghem, which is between Dunkirk and Lille, where the soldiers heard the sound of the guns for the first time. After four days training in trench warfare they were considered ready to take up positions on the front line. On the 15th April they relieved the Somerset Regt. at Ploegsteert Wood (south of Ypres in Belgium) where they remained for two months, alternating four days in the trenches with four days in billets in a nearby village. These trenches were in woodland which remained fairly intact with duck boarded paths cut through for access. The trenches were described as made up of sandbagged walls, a duck-board bottom, a host of large flies and an enormous smell. The sector was relatively quiet at this time. Desultory rifle fire was kept up by both sides throughout the twenty-four hours with bursts of more intense firing but there was little or no shelling. There were a number of casualties from grenades and snipers including 14 killed and 59 injured

On June 24 the Battalion moved on and after three-night marches arrived at Allouagne, 5 miles west of Bethune where the troops spent a fortnight away from the fighting, training and resting in good billets. The Battalion were preparing to take over new trenches close to Noeux-les-Mines, but on July 16 they suddenly got orders to move, and marched the whole of that night, in torrential rain. The next day they travelled by train and a two-hour march to Marieux. Two days later they started to relieve the French in the line in front of the village of Euterpe, which lies midway between Arras and Amiens. The weather was very hot and everywhere was full of flies. The trenches, which the Battalion took over on July 24, lay some 100 to 300 yards east of Hebuterne unlike at Ploegsteert, where the trenches consisted of sandbagged barricades, these trenches were dug down about 6 feet deep all along. The dugouts had the outward appearance of luxury, owing to a large portion of the furniture of Hebuterne having been imported into them including four-poster beds in some cases but owing to the quantities of small vermin and mice which had made their homes in them, they were almost all scrapped before the battalion had been a week in the line.

When the battalion first arrived at Hebuterne the sector was fairly quiet, there being a tacit agreement, with the Germans that provided they kept Hebuterne quiet, the British would not entirely destroy Gommecourt, but actually there was a gradual warming up of artillery fire on the villages by both sides. He soldiers were on a regime of 8 days in the trenches and 8 days rest in billets in more pleasant surroundings in Couin”

The battalion remained in Hebuterne, holding K sector until January 1916 but during August, Reginald received his fatal injuries and died of wounds on the 17th August 1915

Reginald is buried at Louvencourt Military Cemetery. There are just 151 Commonwealth burials of the First World War here.

In the next row to Reginald’s is the grave of war poet Lieutenant Roland Aubrey Leighton, fiancé of Vera Brittain, (author of Testament of Youth and mother of ex MP Shirley Williams), also wounded at Hébuterne in December 1915. On his grave are these words:

"Goodnight though life and all take flight, never goodbye"

The lines are a reference to a W.E. Henley poem that Roland had shared with Vera in a letter in May of 1915, describing how as he crossed a field in the starlight, a little poem of W.E. Henley's came into his head:

William Rush has proved to be one of the hardest men to identify as in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records there are several men with this name and from this area, who died in September 1915. One was from Haddenham and he appears on their war memorial. There was also a William Rush born in Brill who lived In Chilton but it seems the William Rush named on the Long Crendon memorial was born in Paddington in 1884. His parentage is not completely clear. From the census returns - in 1891 he was living with a Jane Gale who was from Easington and her husband, as a boarder. However, in 1901 aged 17 he was living with the Rush family in Shabbington and James Rush is identified as his father. However, in the 1911 census William was living in Chilton Road, with George and Louisa Howlett as a lodger. Luisa was The Royal Fusiliers memorial apparently his mother as the inscription on his grave reads at Holborn “LOVING MEMORY MOTHER” requested by Mrs G Howlett of Burts Lane Long Crendon.

William was a farm worker. He was a Private in the 4th Battalion, London Regiment - Royal Fusiliers. He died in a field hospital and is buried along with 668 other soldiers in the Brandhoek Military Cemetery, not far from Ypres, in Belgium.

Two men of Long Crendon (William Smith and Frederick Warner), who served in the 1st Battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry died as a result of the war in the middle east. They are both commemorated on the Basra Memorial, (right) which was located on the main quay of the naval dockyard at Maqil, a few miles from Basra, until 1997, when it was moved by the authorities in Iraq, to the middle of what was a major battleground during the first Gulf War.

At the outbreak of the war the Battalion were in Ahmednagar, India. In November 1914 they moved to Mesopotamia - modern day Iraq. These battles are less talked about or well- known than the fields of France and Belgium. The main aim of the campaign in Mesopotamia was to defend the oil refinery at Abadan. The British army (largely units of the British Indian Army), fought off a series of small groups of Ottoman forces, before they were halted in two days of hard fighting at Ctesiphon. Ctesiphon lies on the Western bank of the Tigris River in the barren Iraqi desert, about 16 miles south-east of Baghdad. This battalion was made up of regular soldiers and not reservists. They suffered severe losses with over 460 soldiers killed or injured.

William Smith was a Lance Sergeant. He was killed in action on the first day of the battle of Ctesiphon in November 1915. He was born on 16th April 1887. His parents were farm labourer Robert Smith and Emily Cherry, pictured right on their wedding day, and he was one of eleven children. Robert died in 1926 but Emily remained in Long Crendon until her death in 1947

William was brought up in Nether Winchendon but sometime between 1901 and 1911 the family moved to Long Crendon, living in Burts Lane. There were nine boys in the family and several of them also served during the First World War. Of William’s brothers, Harry was also killed. Robert was a Royal Garrison Artillery Gunner. He injured his hand in an accident but came home. Edwin also joined the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry as a machine gunner. He was gassed but survived the war.

Frederick Warner was born in 1888 in Long Crendon, one of the 13 surviving children of farm labourer James Warner and his wife Elizabeth Markham. James was one of at least 8 children of Thomas Warner born in the village in 1804 so it is unsurprising that their descendants are still living here to the present day. In 1901 Frederick was living with his parents and various nephews in Braden’s Yard and like his father and brothers was an agricultural labourer. In the 1911 census Private Frederick Warner was a private in the army in India. He died of wounds at sea on the 10th December 1915, presumably on a hospital ship after being injured in battle. He was buried at sea and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial.

William’s name does not appear anywhere on the 1911 census but the military list that includes Frederick is incomplete so it seems likely these two young men went off to join the army together, leaving their work as farm labourers in leafy green Buckinghamshire for the heat of India and then to die or be mortally wounded in the deserts of Iraq.

The Warner Family, as many other village families were significantly affected by the war losing three men with the name Warner but also nephews and sons in law 1916 The village had a short respite from December 1915 - with no further deaths of village men until March 1916. This was the calm before the storm with 13 more casualties in the next 9 months, the majority on the Somme.

Ambrose Francis Organ was the second member of his family to die at sea and like his brother George, he is commemorated on the Naval Memorial at Portsmouth. As described above, the Organ family had five sons who served in the Navy, (one subsequently becoming Commander of HMS Victory at Portsmouth) Their father George was the schoolmaster at Oakley School and retired to live in Bicester Road, Long Crendon. Ambrose was the 8th child of the family and was born in Oakley in 1885. He married Catherine Pink in South Stoneham, Hampshire, in 1911. The couple had a son, also christened Ambrose, who was born after his father’s death. He lived a short life - dying in a Winchester isolation hospital aged 20 in 1936 Ambrose joined the Navy as a boy and in the 1901 census he appears, aged 15, aboard the training ship St Vincent. HMS St Vincent was a 120-gun ship of the Royal Navy, launched in 1815. From 1847 - 1849 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Napier, commanding the Channel Fleet and during the Crimean War, she was used to transport French troops to the Baltic . In 1862 she was commissioned as a training ship for boys, moored permanently at Haslar from 1870 until 1905.

Ambrose joined the crew of Torpedo Boat TB11 in September 1915 as a gunner. On the 7th March 1916, on patrol in the North Sea, off the coast of Essex, the ship came into the sights of a German U-boat and hit a mine. The ship sank with the loss of 23 men. Ambrose’s naval records describe him variously as a very good, temperate, above average, capable and zealous seaman with a good manner.

Victor Herbert Pearce was born in 1895, in Long Crendon, another familiar surname in the village. He was a Lance Corporal in the 6th Battalion Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry and was killed in action on 11th April 1916. Victor was a print compositor, the son of Herbert Pearce, a wheelwright and later a coal merchant, born in Long Crendon, and his wife Louisa Nappin also from the village. Herbert’s father and grandfather were also from Long Crendon. His brother Albert (1892 – 1961), a blacksmith, served in WWI in Royal Artillery as a Farrier

The following account is taken from the work of Steve Berridge (http://www.lightbobs.com/6-service-bn-oxf- -bucks-li-1915-1916.html) and compiled from extracts from the regimental chronicles

The 6th (Service) Battalion was formed at Oxford in September 1914 and placed under orders of 60th Brigade in 20th (Light) Division as part of Kitchener's Second New Army, K2. Early days were somewhat chaotic, the new volunteers having very few trained officers and NCOs to command them, no organised billets or equipment. The Division was inspected by King George V at Knighton Down on 24 June 1915, by which time all their equipment had arrived and the Division was judged ready for war.

They landed at Boulogne 22 July 1915 and for the next 10 months Heavy and often dangerous duties were performed by the Battalion during these eleven months at a cost of nearly 300 casualties, yet without the satisfaction of taking part in any important engagement. The principal work which fell to its lot was holding various parts of the line in France and in Flanders, besides spending a very disagreeable winter in the wet and muddy trenches.

The battalion’s introduction to the trenches was in August 1915 and they spent Christmas 1915 on the front line at Rue Pettilon. In and out of the trenches for the next two months there are many reports of causalities and men killed. From April 8th-l0th the men were in camp “Training, bathing, fitting new clothing, etc.”

Men of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry sheltering from shrapnel. From the Imperial War Museum collection,

On April 11th “Relieved the 7th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) in the trenches. While the relief was in progress the enemy opened a heavy bombardment on Dawson's City and E.28 and E.27 Posts, as well as on the communication trenches. He then made an attack on the two posts with some 70 men, who were, however, repulsed by rifle and machine-gun fire from the 7th D.C.L.I. The enemy left his dead and wounded on our wire and near our parapet. Our artillery shelled the German front-line trenches. The trenches taken over were in a very damaged condition, Skipton Post being practically levelled. The enemy machine-guns were active throughout the night. Casualties. Lieut. R. E. G. Hunt and 5 men wounded, and 2 men killed.”

Victor has no known grave but is commemorated on the famous, vast memorial of the Menin Gate at Ypres in Belgium John Thomas Warner was the second member of the Warner family to die on military service in WW1. He was a private in the 9th (Reserve/ Training) Battalion, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry and was only just 18 when he died although the war graves record says he was 19. John was born in Long Crendon in 1898 and died at home on 24th April 1916. He is buried in St Mary’ s Churchyard. John’s father was Amos Warner who was also born in Long Crendon, a journeyman bricklayer and his wife Agnes Lawrence from Brightwell Baldwin. In 1911 John was aged 13 and a domestic house boy. His sister Agnes was 15 and was a nurse maid with the Dodwell family in Moreton, Thame. it seems likely that John did not see active service. His death is recorded in Wareham where in April 1916 the 9th (Reserve/ Training) Battalion was based. Until September 1916, most of the infantry regiments contained reserve infantry battalions. Recruits would be posted to these battalions for basic training, before going on to an active service unit. The 9th Battalion Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry was formed in Portsmouth in 1914, as a service battalion of the Fourth New Army (K4). John Warner’s military records seem - like most casualties, to be among those destroyed by bombing in world war 2, so it is not clear whether he died of illness or injury sustained in training. As a serving soldier at the time of his death he has a military grave which can be found close to the wall on the east side of the church

Army recruits had to be taller than 5 feet 3 inches and aged 18 but could not be sent overseas until aged 19. 250,000 underage soldiers joined up in 1914 and many thousands more tried their luck and were refused. It didn’t help that recruitment officers were paid two shillings and sixpence (about £6 in today’s money) for each new recruit, and would often turn a blind eye to any concern they had about age. At the same time, some officers thought the fresh air and good food of the army would do some of the more under-nourished boys a bit of good.

John Gray Ralph enlisted in November 1914 in 32nd Canadian Regt., and was commissioned in January 1916 becoming a Second Lieutenant in the London Regiment 7th (City of London) Battalion. He was killed in action 18th June 1916.

John was born in 1896 in Bristol, the youngest son of Benjamin Ralph and his wife Mary Anne Gray, and the second of their sons to die in the war, his brother Bertram having died at sea in the Dardenelles in 1915. (see above) His parents separated during the 1890s and in 1901 John was living with his mother and two of his sisters in Dunsdon, near Reading. He then went to Christ Hospital School (1911 census), but must have followed his father and brother who had emigrated to Canada in 1904. On his Canadian enlistment record he gave his occupation as a farmer. Like his brother, John’s link to the village is via his mother and sisters who moved to Long Crendon, his sister Isabel remaining here at Corner Cottage until her death in 1956.

The 32nd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force embarked for Britain on 23 February 1915. The men were recruited in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and mobilised at Winnipeg. 35 officers and 962 men sailed from Halifax aboard the SS Vaderland arriving at Avonmouth near Bristol, on 7th March 1915. They went from there to Shorncliffe in Kent, where they became a reserve battalion and were subsequently absorbed to replace losses in other battalions. John apparently transferred to a British unit when he was commissioned.

In the Spring of 1916 the fighting in France was quite localised, seeking tactical advantages along the front. It was the period which saw the Germans first use of Phosgene gas, and the loss and recapture of high ground east of Ypres in the Battle of Mount Sorrel.

John is buried in the Bois-de-Noulette British Cemetery, Aix-Noulette, Pas de Calais, France. A small cemetery of 100 graves made by the field ambulance corps for men who died while being evacuated on the road between Bethune and Arras.

Harry Smith Like John Ralph, Harry was the second member of his family to die in the war after his brother William was killed in Iraq 6 months earlier. They were the sons of farm labourer Robert Smith and Emily Cherry who had eleven children, nine of them boys. He was born in Lower Winchenden in 1883 and was a cowman. He married Emily Higgins from London and had three children - Percy Smith, born 1896, Harry born 1897 and Winifred born 1910. In 1911 they were living in Lower Winchenden. From online family trees, Emily did not remarry and died in 1950. Harry was a private in the 2/1st Bucks Battalion of the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. This battalion was formed at Aylesbury in September 1914 as a second line unit and with the 2/4th Oxford Battalion were part of 184th Infantry Brigade. They arrived in France in May 1916 and Harry died on 19th July 1916. The summer of 1916 is famous for the battle of the Somme but Harry died in the Battle of Fromelles (19th - 20th July 1916) which was a combined action by British and Australian troops - intended not only to divert German attention away from the Battles of the Somme taking place 50 miles away to the south, but also an operation to retake the ground just north of Fromelles.

At the commencement of the Somme offensive the 2/1st Bucks Battalion was at Laventie, holding the trenches and front posts. Over the next two weeks they moved on every few days relieving other units until on the 16th they reached the Rue de Lys just short of Sailly, where they were billeted in a brickyard. The 2/lst Bucks and the 2/4th Berks were in the trenches and were to make the attack. An intense bombardment was kept up from 11 a.m. till 6p.m., when the assault was delivered, but owing to the machine-gun fire of the enemy the assaulting Battalion could not get across No Man's Land and suffered very heavy losses. It is thought that preparations for the attack were rushed, the troops involved lacked experience in trench warfare and the power of the German defence was significantly underestimated, the attackers being outnumbered 2:1.

Harry is named on the Loos Memorial which commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave. They fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay.

The Battle of the Somme

The summer months of 1916 were sad ones for the people of Long Crendon. As the 1st Battle of the Somme raged in France, a further six casualties were added to the list of Long Crendon men who died during July, August and September. By October five names were to be added to those that would later be inscribed on the Theipval memorial.

On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, 13 divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance. Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day. However, the German Army resisted tenaciously and repeated attacks and counter attacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained. At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The village had been an original objective of 1 July.

Attacks north and east continued throughout October and into November in increasingly difficult weather conditions. The Battle of the Somme finally ended on 18 November with the onset of winter.

On the high ground overlooking the Somme River in France, where some of the heaviest fighting of the First World War took place, stands the Thiepval Memorial. Towering over 45 metres in height, it dominates the landscape for miles around. It is the largest Commonwealth memorial to the missing in the world. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, built between 1928 and 1932 and unveiled by the Prince of Wales on 1 August 1932

The memorial commemorates more than 72,000 men of British and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave, the majority of whom died during the Somme offensive of 1916. Five of these men were from Long Crendon

22nd July Sidney A. Shrimpton Private 4700 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers 8th September Frederick Shurrock Lance Sgt. 21279 6th Battalion Ox. & Bucks LI 9th September Ernest A. Hayward Rifleman 4181 1/12th Battalion London Regiment 17th October William T. Cadle Corporal 19732 Wiltshire Regiment 1st November Frederick Beckett Private 42539. 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Rgt

Sidney Augustus Shrimpton was a private in the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. Sidney was born in south London in 1890 and grew up with his grandparents, Augustus and Sarah Shrimpton, in the High Street, Long Crendon. It is not clear who is parents were.

He followed his uncle, also Augustus into the post office and worked as a country postman. In 1911 he was living in High Street, Thame as a lodger with another postman. After his death his probate record shows his uncle as his next of kin. He was killed in action 22nd July 1916.

A country postman circa 1910 - 20

The Royal Fusiliers Regiment - also known as the City of London Regiment, raised 47 battalions for service in the Great War. The 9th (Service) Battalion was formed at Hounslow on 21 August 1914 and came under command of 36th Brigade, 12th (Eastern) Division, landing in France in May 1915. They went into the battle of the Somme as part of the 4th Army and were deployed in the Battle of Pozieres, 23 July – 3 September 1916

Frederick Shurrock was born in 1889 in Long Crendon and died on the 3rd September 1916 killed in action on the Somme. His father was John Shurrock, a brickmaker and Alma Cross of Ickford. Frederick worked as a carter on a farm before joining the army to fight. The family lived in Harroell – then known as Air Hill. He was a Lance Sergeant in the 6th Battalion Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, the same battalion as Victor Pearce of Long Crendon who died in the previous April.

THE ATTACK ON GUILLEMONT. (RECORD OF THE 6th (SERVICE) BATTALION. www.lightbobs.com Compiled by Steve Berridge). At the time of this attack the 6th Oxford and Bucks were the only battalion of the 60th Brigade of any strength, the others being very depleted due to the cold, wet, and continual German gassing and bombardment. The following is taken from Lieut.Colonel E. D. White's official account of the Operations of the 3rd-6th September in which the 6th Battalion took part: “The Battalion moved into the position of assembly in Arrow and Sherwood Trenches 11 p.m, 2nd September, and advanced from its trenches at noon on the3rd September to attack Guillemont. The three leading companies lost all their officers and all their Company-Sergeants-Major before reaching the second Sunken Road. Eight Company Officers, 72 N.C.O.'s, and about 200 men were casualties, mostly early in the attack, and I think that much credit is due to the men and to the few leaders left in getting on the right objective” His full account can be read on the Lightbobs website

Ernest Arthur Hayward was killed in action on the Somme on the 9th September 1916 in the British attacks at Ginchy. He was a Rifleman with the 1/12th Battalion London Regiment (The Rangers). Ernest was born in Wheatley in 1886, son of Daniel Hayward variously a plumber, painter and glazier born 1848 in Lower Heyford and his wife Elizabeth Edward who was from Long Crendon. The family lived in Long Crendon having four children who were born in the village, but moved to Oxford. In 1911 Ernest was working as a tailor’s marker and had moved to London, which is probably why he joined the London Regiment. In 1914 he married Mary Cox in Kensington.

1/12th (County of London) Battalion (The Rangers) were recruited in August 1914 in Kensington and landed at Le Havre on Christmas Day 1914. They became Line of Communication Troops on 8th February 1915 and from there 2nd Battle of Ypres (22 April – 25 May 1915). On the Somme they were part of the battle of Ginchy, at Leuze Wood on the 9th September when Ernest was killed

William Cadle was born in the village in 1892. He was killed in action on 17th October 1916 and has no known grave. In 1911 he was working as a shepherd. He was the second son of Mary Cadle who was the daughter of Henry and Jane Cadle, and who, from the census records had eight children and appears in the 1901 record as a single woman, head of her household and working as a charwoman. She eventually married Richard Gibson, who had been her lodger in 1909 and went on to have at least one more child before her death in 1919. William’s war grave record gives his next of kin as his eldest brother Richard who was then living in Bisham.

William was a Corporal in the Wiltshire Regiment 2nd Battalion, Duke of Edinburgh’s Regiment. There is no record of the date of Williams enlistment but the 2nd Wilts took part in most of the major engagements on the Western Front, including the battles of Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Loos, Albert, Arras and Third Battle of Ypres. They were in action during the Battle of the Somme, and in October took part in The Battle of the Transloy Ridges. This was the last offensive of the Fourth Army in the 1916 Battle of the Somme, starting on the 1st Men of the Wiltshire Regiment marching to the October. The 2nd Wilts were part of the 30th front in 1918. Photo by Ernest Brooks. Division and went into action on the 8th. There were attempts on both sides to take ground in wet and muddy conditions and both sides kept up relentless bombardments of artillery, during which William was killed. Frederick Beckett (Bates) was the son of Annie Bates, born in Long Crendon in 1896 and he died aged 21 on The Somme, on the 1st November 1916. Annie was born in Surrey and married George Beckett, a shepherd from Long Crendon when Frederick was a baby. Annie and George went on to have three daughters, one of whom died as a baby. The other two moved from the village and died in Kent. Frederick was a plough boy. He joined The Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, but for some reason ended up with the regulars in the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.

Abridged from the Regiments records: “The battalion went into the front line on the 30th October in pouring rain., through heavy mud to their position was called "Frost" Trench. As the dawn of November 1st lit up the battle-field it was seen that "Frost" Trench, was separated from the German position in "Hazy Trench" by a low crest-line, which effectively prevented any real knowledge of the dispositions of the enemy. All day long the front line of the Battalion was heavily shelled: so heavily shelled that it was necessary to withdraw most of the platoons from the trench to a line of shell-holes in rear. As the afternoon wore on, the fire of the British artillery grew heavier and the 2nd Worcestershires advanced through the mud to attack "Britzka" and "Hazy" Trenches. Never had the Battalion struggled through a worse morass. The laden soldiers sank up to their knees in the mud, hauling out each foot with the utmost difficulty and in many cases losing their boots and putties. Slowly the attacking line waded forward up the slight slope. As they reached the crest of the little rise which hid the enemy from view, they were met by a storm of bullets from "Hazy" Trench in front, from another German position on their left flank at the end of the spur and from the Cemetery on the crest of the ridge beyond, groups of German machine-guns opened rapid fire. Under that fire the attack could not gain ground, officers and men fell on every side, and the remainder were driven to such shelter as they could find amid the water-logged shell-holes. When darkness came, the survivors waded back to their original line. The failure had been due to the mud and to the weather conditions as much as to the enemy's fire. Casualties 2nd Worcestershire — 1 officer and 9 men killed, 67 wounded, 14 missing.”

Edmund William Montague Burrows also died on the Somme but unlike the five men above, Edmund does have a known grave. He was a regular soldier and a Lieutenant in the 2nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery (42nd Battery). This was a unit of Britain's pre-war regular army. In 1911 Edmund was a gentleman cadet at Woolwich. When the war started in August 1914 this unit was in Ireland and came under orders of 6th Division. It landed in France in early September 1914 and remained on the Western Front for duration of the war. Edmund was born in 1892 in Hillingdon the son of Colonel Edmund Augustine Burrows, C.M.G., C.B.E., and Mary Claudine Burrows (nee Coode born in Cornwall). He died on the 26th August 1916. He is buried in the Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, which in August 1916 was close to the front line on the Somme. His link to the village was his father, Colonel Burrows who had retired from the Army and purchased the Manor House in 1907. He was awarded the CBE in 1919 and died in Long Crendon in 1927. His wife remained in the village and died there in 1949

Away from the Western Front World War One continued to be fought on a number of other fronts:

George Munday. Three days after William Cadel’s death in France, George Munday was killed in Salonika. George was born in Ashenden in 1883, the son of William Munday, a farm labourer who came from Lower WInchenden and Mary Hannah Saw.

Mary’s occupation on the census records was lacemaker, as early as 1861, when she was 11 years old. She and William had 13 children, 11 of whom lived to adulthood. In the 1911 census the Mundays and 4 adult children, including George were living on the High Street

George was also an agricultural worker. He served as a Private in the 9th Battalion Gloucester Regiment, which was part of Kitchener’s Army. The battalion landed in France in 1915 and went on via Marseilles to Salonika to strengthen Serbian resistance against the Bulgarian forces. By February 1916 all units were at the Happy Valley Camp in Lembet. The battalion engaged in various actions including The Battle of Horseshoe Hill in August 1916.

George died of wounds on 22nd October 1916 and is buried in the Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery. There are 1,648 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery.

George’s effects and a war gratuity were returned to his father. A total of £7.14.7d

UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929

William Markham was born in Tottenham in 1893. He was the son of Francis Markham who was born in Long Crendon and was in the Police Force in London. His mother was Emma Woodbridge. In 1901 census William and his brother Francis, were living in Long Crendon with the Warner family (Their father, Francis’ sister Elizabeth Markham was married to James Warner. Their son Frederick was killed in December 1915). His brother Francis was also to die in 1917. In 1911 William was working in a bakery and along with his widowed father was still living with the Warner family in the High Street. He married Clara Horton, who

was born in Long Crendon, on 24th August 1916.

William was a Private in the 75th Company, The Machine Gun Corps (Infantry). The 75th Machine Gun Company was formed from the Machine Gun Sections of 75th Brigade, 25th Division on the 15th of March 1916. They were in action in defence of the German attack on Vim Ridge in May 1916. They then moved to The Somme and joined the Battle just after the main attack, with 75th Brigade making a costly attack near Thiepval on the 3rd of July. The Division was in action at The Battle of Bazentin in July, The Battle of Pozieres from July - September and The Battle of the Ancre Heights in October - November.

William survived these battles but was killed in action on 10th December 1916 and is buried in the Berks Cemetery Extension in Hainaut, Belgium.

1917 As the war dragged into another year the village continued to lose men at the front, to illness and at sea. In one terrible week in late November / December four men died

Willis Janes was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Kings Own Scottish Borderers. He was the son of William Janes, a policeman, born in Ivinghoe. His first wife died leaving him with four children. William died the year Willis was born aged only 47, and there was a story on the internet that he died as a result of being bitten by a burglar but this is not confirmed by any evidence. Amelia was his second wife. She stayed in the village, bringing up her own three children with her stepdaughter Sarah who was a Head Teacher. She received a police pension as William died as a serving officer. Willis was born in 1889, the youngest in the family by nine years. He became a teacher and in the 1911 census, he was working at the Home for Homeless Boys in Dartford Kent. This institution opened in late 19th century, a pioneering idea to take care of destitute boys away from the workhouses of the cities, and provide them with education and a trade to enable them to get work when they left. The boys lived in "families" of 30 in purpose-built houses, with a house mother and father. Willis’s battalion fought in, and suffered heavy casualties at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, and in late 1916 on the Somme. He died of wounds on 22nd January 1917, which was two months after the end of the battle of the Somme. Records do not show when or where he was wounded, but he is buried in Le Treport Military Cemetery, on the coast - 30 kilometres from Dieppe. This area had five military hospitals and nearly 10,000 beds to take the huge numbers of wounded evacuated from the front. A soldier who was injured in the field would be treated firstly at a Regimental Aid Post in the trenches by the Battalion MO and his orderlies and stretcher bearers, then moved to an Advanced Dressing Station close to the front line manned by members of a Field Ambulance, RAMC. If further treatment was needed he would be moved to a Casualty Clearing Station, a tented camp behind the lines and then if required moved to one of the base hospitals usually by train. In August 1914 the Allies rapidly set up infrastructure on the French coast to support the military action on the Western Front, centred on the ports of Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk, it remained until 1920. Many hospitals were set up near the ports to treat the severely wounded until they could be evacuated to England. Some of the largest medical centres were based at Wimereux, Boulogne and Etaples.

John Robert Ing was born in Long Crendon in 1883, one of a very large family with the same name living in the village. The name appears in records dating back to the 1600s. John was the son of Michael Ing, a farm labourer and his wife Fanny Feasey. One of at least seven children, John was also a farm labourer. In 1911 he was living with his recently widowed mother and his younger siblings. The youngest was only a year old, and Fanny was drawing Parish Relief. The family lived in Burts Lane. In 1916, just a few months before his death, John married another member of the Warner family – Dorothy, who was born in London, but who was brought up with her grandparents and aunt in Long Crendon. Like many of the local men who fought in WW1, John was in the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. He was in the 3rd Garrison (Reserve) Battalion. This unit were not deployed to France but following is mobilisation in Oxford in 1914 moved to Portsmouth. They remained in southern England until 1919. The role of the 3rd Battalion was to receive drafts of raw recruits and train them for service with other battalions overseas. As sick and wounded men returned from France and the other theatres of war they were posted to the 3rd Battalion after leaving hospital. They underwent a period of convalescence and refresher training, until passed medically fit to return to the front, when they were drafted abroad again. It is not clear whether John had seen military service overseas before joining the UK based battalion, or whether he was not passed as fit for frontline service, but he died of bronchitis on 14 Feb 1917 in Milton Military Hospital in Portsmouth and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard, to the NW of the church. Sadly, John and Dorothy’s son was born after John’s death. Also called John Robert, he followed his father into the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry in WW2 and was killed in France in 1944.

Joseph Edward Abbott Hampton was a Private in the 6th Army Service Corps. He was born in 1881, in Addlestone, Surrey, the son of a coachman, Joseph and his wife Louisa. He was one of 9 children. He had 6 brothers, two of which were also killed in the first world war. His father died in 1907 when the youngest child was 5. Joseph junior became a groom and in 1911 was living in Wealdstone, Middlesex with his wife and family. In 1901, in Fulham, he married Maude Ing who was born in Long Crendon. Maude was the daughter of Thomas and Dorcas Ing (a lacemaker - right) The couple had two sons and a daughter, all born in London. It seems likely the couple met when they were both in service in London. Joseph died on 1th February 1917, in a military hospital in Le Havre. Maude had moved back to the village and was living in The Square, possibly with her parents who were recorded as living in the Square in 1911. With her 3 children it must have been very crowded. Maude stayed on in the village and died in 1958

The Labour Corps records are very sketchy. The Corps was manned by officers and other ranks who had been medically rated below the "A1" condition and may were previously wounded. It is possible Joseph transferred following injury or illness in another regiment but, as with most casualties, his records are missing. Men in these Corps were often killed or injured in accidents or were victims of sniper fire close to the front line His army number is prefixed with SS meaning Supply Special, indicating he was engaged in the movement of supplies to troops on the frontline and as Joseph had worked with horses before the war, he was well qualified for this work, as horses were still being used to move supplies as shown in this photograph (actually dated a month after Joseph’s death) IWM image Q4831. Horse wagons of the Army Service Corps at a roadside dump for supplies. March 1917

Joseph is buried in Ste Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, along with over 1,680 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War William Thomas Hinton was an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy, born in Long Crendon in 1895 and lost at sea on 29th March 1917. He was the son of Sarah Ann Hinton of Long Crendon. His father, and that of his older sister Eva is unknown. Sarah then married John Edwards, a cattleman. She went on to have 5 more children and the family lived in Bicester road. William worked as a builder’s labourer before joining the Navy in 1911. Aged 16, William spent 9 months on the training ship HMS Ganges at Shotley, across the River Stour from Harwich. He served on 11 different ships over the next 5 years going from Boy to Ordinary Seaman to Able Seaman in 1914. William’s Royal Navy Register shows that he was posted to Victory II 2 days before his death but is appears this was a shore establishment which held the records of men posted to small ships. In fact, William was aboard the HMS Bayard (Q.20), which was a submarine decoy ship. The vessel was a motor lugger in service from 25/1/17 to 29/3/17 when it was sunk in a collision with SS Tainui in the English Channel with the loss of 15 men

Trainee sailors (not William) from HMS Ganges (abt 1910) © The Children's Society

He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. Standing on Southsea Common overlooking the promenade in Portsmouth, Hampshire, is the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. It commemorates nearly 10,000 naval personnel of the First World War

George Buckle was born on 21st Apr 1884 in Long Crendon. He was the son of Emmanuel Buckle and his wife Ellen Carter. The Buckle family had lived in the village for many years. According to the census he was a baker’s assistant when he was aged 16 but in 1911 he and his younger brother, Fred, were living in Hillingdon with their sister, Louisa, and her husband and working as carmen. A carman is the equivalent of a modern van driver, in George’s case a coal cart while his brother and brother in law worked for a nursery. Presumably working with horses lead him to join the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars (Oxfordshire Yeomanry) who were part of the 2nd Cavalry Division, also known as Gough's Command, after its commanding general. It was involved in most of the major actions where cavalry was used as a mounted mobile force, and also many where the troops were dismounted and effectively served as infantry. 1917 the division saw action in the Battle of Arras (First Battle of the Scarpe, 9–11 April).

The mounted troops were not in action again until November and between times the brigades formed dismounted units and served in the trenches. George was killed in action on 4th July 1917 and is buried at Temple-le-Guerard British Cemetery.

Edward Elfred Coote Gomme and Stephen Austin Gomme

Although these two brothers were not born in Long Crendon, their family made a significant impact on the village. Their father was Sir George Laurence Gomme, who moved here in 1902 and soon after, began the development of the Mound which was at that time a farmhouse with adjoining cottages. Stephen was the architect for the project which included the facade that is so distinctive when driving into the village from the Bicester end today. Laurence worked for London County Council. His interests included folklore and history, and in 1878, he and his wife were founder members of the Folklore Society. He wrote many books and articles on folklore. He had a passion for old buildings and used his council position to protect threatened buildings around London. He continued this work after moving to the village, persuading owners to save and restore old properties. Laurence Gomme was the person who persuaded the LCC to take on the blue plaque commemorative scheme in 1901. The 800th blue plaque to be awarded marks his own London residence in Dorset Square. Ill health caused him to retire early; and he died in 1916 at The Mound. He was married to Alice Bertha Merck, who also had a fascination with folklore, particularly the history of children’s games and wrote several books. The couple had seven sons, all born in London or Barnes and with their friends could put together a cricket team to play the Long Crendon village XI. As well as Edward and Stephen, the other sons were Lawrence Bernard Merck, Arthur Alan (who became a librarian and historian of technology), Arnold Wycombe (who was a notable classical scholar and Professor of Ancient History at Glasgow), Ralph Eliot and Geoffrey James Lyon (a book seller, bibliographer). Arnold took over ownership of the Mound after his father’s death until his own death in 1959,

Edward Elfred Coote Gomme was born in Barnes in 1885. He studied at Trinity Hall College, Cambridge and University of London. He was a civil servant and dramatist, according to the 1911 Census, when he was at the Mound with two of his brothers. He was a Captain in the 2nd Battalion Suffolk Regiment. The Regiment were a regular army unit. It is not recorded when Edward joined up but his Battalion was one of the first into France in August 1914 taking part in action throughout 1915 and 1916. During 1917 they took part in all three battles of the Scarpe which were part of the Arras Offensive during April and the subsequent actions which resulted in the Allies gaining a significant amount of ground (see map right – the shaded area shows the ground taken during the Arras Offensive)

Edward was killed in action at Infantry Hill, Monchy on the 18th June 1917 and is buried in the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, between the villages of Arras and Haucourt, Pas de Calais.

Stephen Austin Gomme was also born in Barnes in 1881 and, as mentioned above became an architect, working with his father on the development of the Mound. He was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, 517th Field Company. This company were attached to the 47th (2nd London) Division he was killed on the Somme, possibly during the Battle of St Quentin, 21 – 23 March on 23rd March 1918, nine months after his brother died.

The First Battles of the Somme, 1918. Began on 21st March. The Germans transferred huge numbers of troops into the area, following the collapse of the eastern front and launched a major attack on the Allies. The British Army was depleted and at a low point of morale after enduring the conditions of Passchendaele and the disappointment after early success at Cambrai. The Germans advanced 40 miles towards Amien. 15,000 men died. 90,000 were posted as missing. Of those a very large proportion were taken prisoner as the Germans advanced and for the same reason, an unusually high proportion of those who died, like Stephen, have no known grave.

Stephen is commemorated on the vast Arras memorial which has the names of almost 35,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, and have no known grave

Frederick Horton was probably typical of so many young men who were born and raised in the villages of England, worked on farms and then died in the fields of France. Fred was born in 1890, the son of James Horton, a carter / farm worker, and his wife Winifred, both of Long Crendon. The family lived in Burts Lane. He started to work as a bricklayer and aged 20, he married the girl next door, Lillie Cadle, who was the same age. The couple moved to Bicester Road and had a daughter, Winifred, born in 1910. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission record Lillie remarried, in 1919, to Harry Figg, also of Long Crendon. They moved to Barnsley in Yorkshire, where she had at least two more children, dying there in 1957.

Fred served in the Royal Horse Artillery and then as a Gunner Royal Field Artillery A Battery - 70th Brigade. This brigade was under command of the 15th (Scottish) Division and remained with it throughout the war. From 16- 18th August the Division was involved in the Battle of Langemarck which was the second Allied general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres. The battle took place near Ypres. He died on the 18th August 1917 and is buried in the Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, Leper (Ypres), Belgium, alongside 1,800 other Commonwealth soldiers of the First World War.

William Elhanan Gascoyne. In contrast to agricultural worker Frederick, William was born in London in 1895, the son of Gilbert Gascoyne from London, and Eliza Jane nee Shrimpton. The family moved to Long Crendon in about 1899 and lived at Prospect Villa, in Back Way (Chearsley Road). Gilbert was the son of a stock broker and in 1891 was working as a printer, but by the time the family moved to Long Crendon he was living on private means, aged only 32. His mother was born in Long Crendon, the daughter of Matthew Shrimpton. She trained as a teacher and married Gilbert in Surrey in 1889. They had a total of 14 children, 12 of whom survived. William joined 2/4th Battalion Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. He was a 2nd Lieutenant. On 21st August 1917 into front-line trenches in the St Julian area in preparation for an attack which began at 4.45 am. on the 22nd.

From G. K. Rose, The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

“The Battalion attacked on a front of 750 yards, the objective being about 900 yards distant. On our left were the l/5th R. Warwicks, and the 2/1st Bucks on the right, with five platoons of the R. Berks acting as moppers-up. The assembly, which was carried out unknown to the enemy, was on a tape line, laid down in advance of our line by 2nd Lieut. Robinson the previous night. The Battalion advanced under our artillery barrage, and, reached their objective. Owing to casualties among senior officers, the front-line command devolved on 2nd Lieut. Moberly, with whom were 2nd Lieut. Coombes and 2nd Lieut. Guest. The battalion on our left was unable to hold its objective, and consequently both flanks of the front line were unprotected; but 2nd Lieut. Moberly decided to hold on, and arranged to provide such protection as was possible. At 4 p.m., with the assistance of two platoons of the 2/5th Glosters, we assaulted and captured Pond Farm.”

CASUALTIES. Captain J. G. Stockton.Lieut. WT. D. Scott.2nd Lieut. W. E. Gascoyne & 26 other ranks. “Guest, another new officer, before he went into the line showed that he was made of the right stuff; he was commander of No. 16 Platoon. Dawson- Smith, Copinger, Gascoyne, and Hill were other new arrivals in my company. A party of the enemy found their way round our back and were soon firing into our men from behind. During the early stages of consolidation, when personal example and direction were required, John Stockton, Scott, and Gascoyne were all killed by snipers or machine-gun fire.” William was killed in action and is buried in the Tyne Cot Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. 'Tyne Cot' or 'Tyne Cottage' was the name given by the Northumberland Fusiliers to a barn which stood near the level crossing on the Passchendaele- Broodseinde road. It was at the centre of a group of German blockhouses, or pill-boxes, one of which was unusually large and was used as an advanced dressing station. It is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world. At the suggestion of King George V, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pill-box. There are now nearly 12,000 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery. The Tyne Cot Memorial on the boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery commemorates another nearly 35,000 servicemen who died in the Ypres Salient after 16 August 1917 and whose graves are not known.

UK, WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920 In November 1917 two Long Crendon men died within three days of each other, neither of them have a known grave but they are both commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, Nord, France which displays the names of more than 7,000 UK and South African servicemen who died in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917. The Battle of Cambrai was a British attack - a very large-scale raid, that employed new artillery techniques and massed tanks. Initially very successful with large gains of ground being made, but German reserves brought the advance to a halt ten days later, a counter- attack regained much of the ground. Ultimately a disappointing and costly outcome, but Cambrai is now seen by historians as the blueprint for the successful Hundred Days offensives of 1918.

Cambrai Memorial Louveral, France

John Wyatt. John was born in 1886, the son of agricultural worker, William Wyatt of Long Crendon and Julia Edwards, from Chilton. They lived in Bicester Road. In 1901 John was in service - aged 15, a domestic house boy in the home of James Reynolds of Notley Abbey. (The Reynolds family owned Notley from 1791 until 1927). Ten years later (1911) he was in the Army. A private serving with the 3rd Kings Own Hussars in South Africa. The 3rd (The King's Own) Hussars was a cavalry regiment, first raised in 1685. It saw service for three centuries, including both world wars. The regiment was deployed to South Africa in December 1901 for service in the Second Boer War and was involved in the last great drives, capturing the Boers, in the north-east of the Orange River Colony. They then spent several years in India before returning to South Africa in 1907 before returning to England in 1911. At the outbreak of war, the regiment went into action immediately landing in Rouen in August 1914. As part of the 2nd Cavalry division, Johns death coincides with the regiment’s involvement in the capture of Bourlon Wood, (24 – 28 November), part of the Battle of Cambrai. Corporal John Wyatt was killed in action, aged 31, on 27th November 1917 and is named on the Cambrai Memorial Arthur John Peacock was the husband of Lilian Annie Stone. They married in Long Crendon in 1915. Lilian was born in Long Crendon, the daughter of Arthur and Ellen Stone, her father was a domestic gardener and her brother a domestic stableman. They lived in Frog Lane (Frogmore), so they may have worked at the Manor. Arthur is something of a mystery. Military records state he was born in Peckham but there is no sign of him in census records. At the time he married Lilian, he was a Railwayman, living in Barnsbury, (Islington) London and on his marriage certificate he gives his father’s name as unknown Arthur and Lilian had two daughters. Lilian, born in Islington in 1916 and Irene in Thame or Long Crendon in 1917 but she sadly died soon after she was born. When Arthur was killed, Lilian was living in the Square and in 1939 was still living there. There is no record that she remarried and she died in 1963. Arthur was a Private in the East Surrey Regiment 7th (Service) Battalion who were part of the 12th Division. His Battalion were engaged in various actions on the Western Front. On the last day of November, the Germans launched a massive attack on the front line, part of which was being held by the 12th Division at the time. Arthur was killed in action on 30th November 1917 and again is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial.

Excerpts from Sir Douglas Haig’s fifth Despatch (Battle of Cambrai, 1917)

The Struggle for Bourlon Wood At 10.30 am on 23rd November. the 40th Division (Major-General I. Ponsonby) attacked Bourlon Wood, and after four and a half hours of hard fighting, in which tanks again rendered valuable assistance to our infantry, captured the whole of the wood and entered Bourlon Village. Here hostile counter-attacks prevented our further progress, and though the village was at one time reported to have been taken by us, this proved later to be erroneous. A heavy hostile attack upon our positions in the wood, in which all three battalions of the 9th Grenadier Regiment appear to have been employed, was completely repulsed. This struggle for Bourlon resulted in several days of fiercely contested fighting, in which English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish battalions, together with dismounted cavalry, performed most gallant service and inflicted heavy loss on the enemy. On the 24th November the enemy twice attacked, and at his second attempt pressed back our troops in the north-eastern corner of the wood. On this afternoon our infantry again attacked Bourlon Village, and captured the whole of it. Later in the evening a fourth attack upon our positions in the wood was beaten off after fierce fighting. Further progress was made on this day in the Hindenburg Line west of Moeuvres, but the enemy’s resistance in the whole of this area was very strong. On the evening of the 25th November a fresh attack by the enemy regained Bourlon Village, though our troops offered vigorous resistance, and parties of the 13th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (40th Division), held out in the south-east corner of the village until touch was re-established with them two days later. The continual fighting and the strength of the enemy’s attacks, however, had told heavily on the 40th Division, which had borne the brunt of the struggle. This division was accordingly withdrawn, and on the following day (26th), our troops were again pressed back slightly in the northern outskirts of Bourlon Wood. With the enemy in possession of the shoulder of the ridge above Fontaine-notre-Dame, as well as of part of the high ground west of Bourlon Wood, our position in the wood itself was a difficult one, and much of the ground to the south of it was still exposed to the enemy’s observation. It was decided, therefore, to make another effort on the 27th November to capture Fontaine-notre-Dame and Bourlon Village, and to gain possession of the whole of the Bourlon Ridge. In this attack, in which tanks co-operated, British Guards (Major- General G. P. T. Feilding) temporarily regained possession of Fontaine-notre-Dame, taking some hundreds of prisoners, and troops of the 62nd Division once more entered Bourlon Village. Later in the morning, however, heavy counter-attacks developed in both localities, and our troops were unable to maintain the ground they had gained. During the afternoon the enemy also attacked our positions at Tadpole Copse, but was repulsed. As the result of five days of constant fighting, therefore, we held a strong position on the Bourlon Hill and in the wood, but had not yet succeeded in gaining all the ground required for the security of this important feature. The two following days passed comparatively quietly, while the troops engaged were relieved and steps

The Battle Reopened Between the hours of 7.0 and 8.0 a.m. on the last day of November the enemy attacked, after a short but intense artillery preparation, on the greater part of a front of some ten miles from Vendhuille to Masnieres inclusive. From Masnieres to Banteux, both inclusive, four German divisions would seem to have been employed against the three British divisions holding this area (29th, 20th and 12th Divisions). The nature of the bombardment, which seems to have been heavy enough to keep our men under cover without at first seriously alarming them, contributed to the success of the enemy’s plans. No steadily advancing barrage gave warning of the approach of the German assault columns, whose secret assembly was assisted by the many deep folds and hollows typical of a chalk formation, and shielded from observation from the air by an early morning mist. Only when the attack was upon them great numbers of low-flying German aeroplanes rained machine gun fire upon our infantry, while an extensive use of smoke shell and bombs made it extremely difficult for our troops to see what was happening on other parts of the battlefield, or to follow the movements of the enemy. In short, there is little doubt that, although an attack was expected generally, yet in these areas of the battle at the moment of delivery the assault effected a local surprise.

William Blows was known as Willie. (The name Blows is also spelled in some records as Blowes) He was born in 1881 in Royston, Herts. He was the son of another William who was an agricultural labourer. In 1911 he was a general labourer living with his brother Arthur, an agricultural worker, and his wife Florence in Frog Lane (Frogmore). Also, in the house on the night of the census was Florence Maud Blows, born in Fulham in 1901, who was listed as Arthur’s niece. In fact, she was William’s daughter as confirmed by her marriage certificate. Several family trees on the internet indicate she was Williams daughter by a Maud Shorter. In the census he is listed as single and Maud had recently married someone else. Also, in 1901 brother Arthur was boarding with the Shorter family - in Fulham and in 1912 he married Maud’s sister Florence Shorter. Whatever the real story - William married Florence Warner from Long Crendon, in 1911. She was the daughter of James Warner and Elizabeth Markham, and they had a daughter Lucy Louise in 1911 followed by a son William in 1913. Sadly, little William died in 1918. Florence later married Richard Gibson and went on to have 5 more children. William joined the Royal Marines in 1900 aged 19, having worked as a stableman, and served for just over 5 years, based at Chatham. In January 1906 he was discharged with good character and transferred to the Naval Reserve. In June 1912 he was transferred again to the immediate reserve and in February 1917, now aged 38, was “demobilised” to the Royal Fleet Reserve. In 1914, the RNR consisted of 30,000 officers and men. Officers of the permanent RNR on general service quickly took up seagoing appointments in the fleet, many in command, in destroyers, submarines, auxiliary cruisers and Q-ships. Others served in larger units of the battle fleet including a large number with the West Indies Squadron who became casualties at the Battle of Coronel and later at Jutland. Fishermen of the RNR(T) section served with distinction onboard trawlers fitted out as minesweepers for mine clearance operations at home and abroad throughout the war where they suffered heavy casualties and losses. On the 7th September 1917, he was a aboard SS Hunsbridge, listed as a defensively armed collier supply ship, carrying coal and stores, which was torpedoed by a submarine, without warning, and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco with the loss of three of her crew. His body was not recovered and he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial (left), which commemorates more than 8,500 Royal Navy personnel of the First World War Francis Robert (Frank) Shrimpton was born in 1890 in Long Crendon, the son of a postman, Edward Shrimpton and his wife Maria Wilson. They lived on the High Street and were part of the large Shrimpton family who, like other families featured in these stories, had been part of the village for generations and were associated with the trade of needle making. Family researchers on line have traced the Shrimpton family back to Thomas Shrimpton born in Long Crendon in 1530. The Posse Comitatus of 1798 (a list of all able- bodied men of the village drawn up in response to threat of invasion of England by the French), lists 11 Shrimptons who were needle makers, as well as a victualler, a dealer, 2 cordwainers and a labourer. By 1911 there were still more than 8 Shrimpton households including the postmaster, bakers, piano tuners and a police pensioner. Frank followed the trade of baking but away from the village, as in 1911 he was a boarder with the family of a pastry cook in Finchley and working as a baker During the first world war Frank joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Gunner - the 342nd Siege Battery. The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 to work alongside the Royal Artillery, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA). The RGA were the 'technical' branch of the Royal Artillery who were responsible for much of the professionalisation of technical gunnery that was to occur during the First World War. Siege Batteries RGA were equipped with heavy howitzers, sending large calibre high explosive shells in high trajectory, plunging fire. The usual armaments were 6-inch, 8-inch or 9.2-inch howitzers, although some had huge railway- or road-mounted 12-inch howitzers. As British artillery tactics developed, the Siege Batteries were employed in destroying or neutralising the enemy artillery, as well as destroying dumps, stores, roads and railways behind enemy lines. There seem to be no specific records relating to the 342nd Siege battery but Frank was killed in action on 29th November 1917. He is buried in the Steenkerke Belgian Military Cemetery, Veurne in Belgium. Close to Ypres it contains a plot of 30 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, more than half of them of men of the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Ernest George Lovell was born in 1891 in Easington Terrace. He was the son of Benjamin Lovell of St Neots Cambridgeshire and his wife Sarah Ostler, born in Leverstock Green, Hertfordshire.

His parents moved to the area from London to run the Rising Sun (now the Mole and Chicken), and were also coal merchants. According to Kelly’s Trade Directory, Benjamin Lovell was the publican from about 1890. After Benjamin’s death in 1922, his wife became the licensee and by 1931 their son John had taken over.

In 1911 Ernest and his brother John were working as grooms. Ernest enlisted in the Cavalry. He was a Lance Corporal in the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, as was another man from Long Crendon, Private George Buckle who was killed a few months earlier in July 1917. Ernest died of wounds on the 2nd December 1917. He is buried in the Achiet-Le-Grand Communal Cemetery Extension. Achiet-le-Grand is a village 19kms south of Arras in France, and from April 1917 to March 1918, the village was occupied by the 45th and 49th Casualty Clearing Stations and Achiet station was an allied railhead. The cemetery is a good example of several large military cemeteries which were used to bury casualties from local battlefields and men who died in the clearing stations, but after the war were extended to relocate graves from a large number of small burial grounds and to bury dead soldiers found after the war ended. The Extension (of the village communal cemetery) contains 1,424 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 200 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of ten casualties buried in other cemeteries whose graves could not be found. There are also 42 German war graves in the extension which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

1918 As 1917 drew to a close the village had a brief reprieve until March 1918 before any more deaths, but the toll in that final 9 months of the war would again be 13 men In March 1918 two village men, both with links to the Warner family, were killed on the same day, thousands of miles apart.

George Mortemore was another of many Long Crendon men who served in the battalions of the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. He was born in the village in 1890, the son of George Mortemore, a hay binder and thatcher, and his wife Susan Warner, one of 11 children. In 1911 George was working in Breconshire as a domestic gardener. On his death his legatee was named as Miss Ethel Cannon who was perhaps his fiancée. Ethel was born in the village and in 1911 was working, aged just 16, as a servant in the home of Albert Stannah of the famous lift company. Ethel married William Bambrook of Towersey in 1925 but sadly she died in 1929. George was a Private in the 2nd Battalion, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. They were involved in the Battle of Cambrai which ended in December and later in the final battles of the Somme but it is not clear where they were for the rest of the winter, at the beginning of 1918 when George was killed on the 1st March 1918. He is buried in the small Metz-en- Couture Communal Cemetery British Extension, Pas de Calais, France

Francis (Frank) William John Markham was a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery. He was born in Tottenham in June 1890. His father was a Frances Markham, a policeman, and his mother was Emma Woodbridge from Aylesbury. His mother apparently died and while his father continued to serve in London, in 1901, Francis and his younger brother William were living with their uncle and aunt James and Elizabeth Warner (nee Markham) in Braden’s Yard, Long Crendon. Francis joined the Navy in October 1910 and signed on for 12 years. He served as a cook’s mate, mainly attached to HMS Pembroke which is the shore establishment at Chatham. He had an up and down career as his although his conduct was mainly good he managed to spend three separate periods in the cells for unspecified offences and was discharged in July 1914 after 4 years – Services No Longer Required. Army pension records show that Francis then joined the Hampshire Regiment in October 1914, but was inexplicably discharged again in March 1915, “his services no longer being required” Kings Regulations para xxv. The reason for his discharge and what happened next are not known and as with many of the war dead whose military records were destroyed during WW2, there are no records of what happened to Francis until his death in Egypt, while serving with the Royal Field Artillery. The Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) was formed on 10 March 1916 as an initially small force raised to guard the Suez Canal and Egypt. The force initially consisted mostly of British and Egyptian troops, but most of the former were sent to the Western Front in early 1918 to help repel Germany's Spring Offensive. The force's role evolved from a defence of Egypt to the invasion of Palestine, entering Jerusalem on December 11, 1917. The ongoing campaign of 1918, resulted in the defeat of the Turks and the creation of the British Mandate of Palestine Frank died in a military hospital in Alexandria, Egypt on 1st March 1818. Alexandria was, the base of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, from March 1915, when the city became a camp and hospital centre for Commonwealth and French troops, including 6 military hospitals. The port was much used by hospital ships and troop transports bringing reinforcements and carrying the sick and wounded out of the theatres of war. Frank and is buried in the Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery along with 1700 other WW1 casualties and a further 1300 from WW2

Charles Frederick Rutland was born in Stoke Mandeville in 1988 and was killed in action in France on 21st April 1918. His parents were William Rutland, a farm labourer and Eliza, both from Little Kimble. One of at least seven children the family settled in Stoke Mandeville. His father died in 1893 and his mother in 1900 when Charles was just 12. In the 1901 census Charles and his brother are shown as “visitors” and working as a farm labourer aged only 13 years. William moved to London and served in the Surrey regiment during WW1. By 1911 Charles had joined the Army and was a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery 121st Battery, stationed at the Louisberg Barracks, in Hampshire. The records do not show if he stayed in the service all the way through to his death, or if he left and then reenlisted at the outbreak of war. Charles married Lillian Gladys Newton, in 1914. Lillian was born in Long Crendon, the daughter of George and Elizabeth Newton. She was a dressmaker and in 1911 lived in Aylesbury. When Charles was killed she returned to Long Crendon to live with her and was living in Burts Lane. She does not appear to have had any children and died in Bullingdon in 1980, aged 90 having been a widow for 62 years

When he died, Charles was with the 121st Battery Royal Field Artillery and was a sergeant. He was killed in action. His death coincides with the Battles of the Lys. A German offensive with the objective of capturing key railway and supply roads and cutting off the British Second Army at Ypres. After initial successes the German attack is once again held after British and French reserves are somehow found and deployed. and is buried in the Morbecque British Cemetery, Nord, France, one of 105 burials of men of the who died of 5th Division during the German advance of April 1918 and by the 29th Division during June

On the same day that Charles was killed German fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen "The Red Baron", shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme - about 60 miles north

Joseph Beckett The day after Charles Rutland died in France, Able Seaman Joseph Beckett was injured during an attack on the German held port of Zeebrugge. Joseph was born in 1897 in Long Crendon. He was the son of George Beckett of Long Crendon who was a shepherd and farm worker, and his wife Annie Bates, who was born in Norwood Surrey. His older brother Fredrick Beckett (Bates) was killed on the Somme in 1914. The family lived on Church Green. He enlisted in the Navy in 1915, aged 18 and trained on HMS Ganges before seeing active service at sea on several ships, as well as the shore installation at Chatham, HMS Pembroke. On 22nd April 1918 he sailed on HMS Vindictive as part of an ambitious plan aiming to block the canal used by German submarines to and from their pens in Bruges. He was one of some 40 men who died during, or as a result of the action It was a famous, if only partially successful raid, which Churchill said “may well rank as the finest feat of arms in the Great War and certainly as an episode unsurpassed in the history of the Royal Navy”.

6 men were awarded the Victoria Cross as a result Royal Navy Officers at a briefing aboard of the raid and according to his records Joseph’s HMS Vindictive before the Raid name was entered in a ballot for VCs awarded to men taking part on the Zeebrugge raid.

The full account of the raid and HMS Vindictive’s part in the action, as reported by The Vice- Admiral, Dover Patrol can be read at http://www.naval-history.net/WW1Battle1804ZeebruggeOstend.htm#cas Joseph died of wounds the day after the raid, in the military hospital in Dover and was returned home for burial in St Marys Churchyard.

Edward Nappin was born in Long Crendon, in 1898, the only son of Edward Nappin from Boarstall, a coal merchant of Thame Road and his wife Frances Wyatt. Frances died when her two sons were very young A hundred years on – a Google search of Edward Nappin Coal Merchant identified this model of a coal wagon. Edwards father immortalised in 00 gauge Edward was a private in the 5th Machine Gun Corps. The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front. The MGC companies were attached to the Divisions supporting infantry regiments across the Western Front. A total of 170,500 officers and men served in the MGC, of which 62,049 were killed, wounded or missing. Edward was killed on the 24th July 1918. He was buried in a German cemetery at Laffaux the only British soldier interred there, but at the end of the war his body could not be located to be reburied. He is remembered on a special Kipling Memorial in the Vailly British Cemetery, Aisne.

The inscription reads:

WHO WAS BURIED AT THE TIME IN LAFFAUX GERMAN MILITARY CEMETERY BUT WHOSE GRAVE IS NOW LOST. AT REST "THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT"

Frederick John Shurrock was a Private in the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. He was born in 1897 in Long Crendon. He was the only child of farm labourer, John Shurrock and his wife Sarah. In the 1901 census they family lived in Burts Lane and in 1911 in Chilton Road. Both father and son were farm labourers. Frederick was just 14. Sarah also had three children by a first marriage, Jane, William and Arthur North Frederick John Shurrock was the second man of that name to be killed and listed on the Long Crendon War Memorial. The other Frederick Shurrock was killed in 1916 and was the son of another John Shurrock – a brick maker from Brill. It is not clear why Frederick chose to join the Northumberland Fusiliers. Men that volunteered could, in theory, choose which regiment they joined and the Army was obliged to respect those wishes if possible. While many men chose their local regiments, it has been reported that some, who had led sheltered lives and not travelled outside their own immediate area, chose a regiment as far away as possible “because it gave them the longest train ride” The 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers were on the Western Front throughout the conflict, seeing action in most of the major battles. In 1918 They were in action on The Somme, in the Battles of the Lys, the Battles of the Hindenburg Line and the Battle of the Selle. Frederick died on the 3rd August 1918 and is buried in the Railway Cutting Cemetery, Courcelles-Le-Comte along with 108 other men who died in the area in August 1918. Perhaps the long thin shape of the cemetery is reflected in the name.

As the war began to draw to a close, and just over a month from the Armistice, two men from Long Crendon lost their lives on the Western Front on the same day.

Ralph Wentworth Stone was born in Long Crendon in 1890. He was the son of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Warner Stone, also of Long Crendon, and his wife Lucie Alleyne Dawes. His father died when Ralph was three. The Stone family lived at the Church Manor House until 1907 when it was sold to the Burrows family. Lucie moved to Devon. Ralph attended the Royal Naval School in Crofton, Hampshire, before moving on to Lord Williams’s Grammar School in Thame. In 1907, aged 18, Ralph travelled to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) as a farmer / rubber planter returning to the UK in 1915 and immediately joining Royal Fusiliers London Regiment. He went first to Kenya returning to England in 1917. In 1917 Ralph was deployed to France. He spent his last months with the 4th Battalion who were involved in the German spring offensive, and then the big allied counter attack and breakout from the stalemate of trench warfare. Private Stone was killed in action on 8th October 1918, during the Second Battle of Cambrai. He was 28 years old and was initially buried in La Targette British Cemetery, before being re-interred in 1923 when the cemetery was closed down, into his final resting place in the Forenville Military Cemetery, Nord, France.

The East African Campaign in World War I was completely overshadowed by the war in Europe. It was a series of battles and guerrilla actions, which started in German East Africa (GEA) and spread to portions of Portuguese Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia, British East Africa, the Uganda Protectorate, and the Belgian Congo. The campaign all but ended in November 1917 when the Germans entered Portuguese Mozambique and continued the campaign living off Portuguese supplies. At the outbreak of World War, I in 1914 the Germans were keen to expand their African colonies to parallel a resurgent German Empire in Europe. The objective was to link the German colonies in eastern, south-western and western Africa, territory belonging to the Belgian Congo would have to be annexed. The new territories would occupy central Africa and make Germany the dominant colonial power on the continent. German military power in Africa was weak, its forces poorly equipped and dispersed. The Allied powers had similar problems of poor equipment and low numbers. Most colonial forces were paramilitary police for colonial repression, not armies to fight wars against other European powers. The East Africa campaigns were costly in terms of lives lost. Not only those killed in conflict but the numbers killed by disease in tropical Africa and a vast number of native African men, women and children who died while acting as carriers for the military forces. It has been estimated that British losses in the East African campaign were around 3,500 killed in action, 6,500 died of disease and around 90,000 African porters dead. By 1917, the conscription of c. 1,000,000 Africans as carriers, depopulated many districts and c. 95,000 had died, among them 20 percent of the Carrier Corps in East Africa. Of the porters who died, 45,000 were Kenyan and 13 percent of the male population

Walter Oswald Shrimpton was a private in the 1st Battalion East Kent Regiment (The Buffs). Like Ralph Stone, Walter was born in 1890 and was killed in action on the 8th October 1918. Walter was the son of Walter William Shrimpton, a carter, born in Long Crendon and Eleanor (Ellen) Leaver who was from Shabbington. In 1911 Walter was working as an under gardener at Hurst Place, Bexley Kent, living in the Lodge with a cousin, Horace Prince. Hurst Place was used as a convalescent home in the 1914- 1918 war Walter married Mabel Lummers in Tooting in 1915 before joining the Army. The couple initially lived in Coulsden but Mabel moved to Long Crendon and in 1939 was living in Chilton Road. They had a daughter, Dorothy, born in Surrey in 1916. Mabel did not remarry and died in Bullingdon aged 92. Walters mother Ellen also died in 1918

Private Shrimpton, like Private Stone died during the Second Battle of Cambrai during the Hundred Days Offensive of the First World War. The battle took place in and around the French city of Cambrai, between 8 and 10 October 1918. The battle incorporated many of the newer tactics of 1918, in particular tanks, meaning that the attack was an overwhelming success with light casualties in an extremely short amount of time.

Walter is commemorated on the Vis-en- Artois Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. This Memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave

Walter John Warner was the third member bearing the Warner name, to die in the first World War. As previously noted, another family who have lived in Long Crendon for many generations and who still live here today. Walter was born in 1898, the son of Walter Richard Warner and his wife Elizabeth Munday. Walter Richard was an agricultural labourer. He died when Walter junior was only 7, leaving Eliza with 4 children. It is not clear why Walter, who enlisted in Aylesbury, joined a Scottish regiment other than the suggestion made in a previous chapter that some men chose a regiment as far away from home as possible in order to travel. He was a Private in the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. Walter was killed in action on 5th November, just 6 days before the end of the war and was buried in Aulnoy Communal Cemetery, France. Aulnoy village was the scene of fighting at the end of October 1918. There are now over 150, WW1 war casualties commemorated on this site, a corner of the village civilian cemetery. They were all men who fell in late October and early November 1918, and were buried by their comrades. The inscription on his grave reads “Peace, perfect peace”

On 11th November 1918 hostilities finally came to an end with the signing of the Armistice. Unfortunately, the end of the war was not the end of the casualties and three more men would die as a result of their military service

Maurice Dorsett died of pneumonia, in hospital in France, on the 18th November 1918, a week after the guns fell silent. Maurice was born in 1886 in Long Crendon His parents were John Dorsett from Chilton - a sawyer, and yet another member of the Warner family, Ann. He was one of 10 children, of which at least three died as children. His parents died in 1908 and 1909 and some of the family moved to Southall, Middlesex. Maurice was a regular soldier and in 1911 was a Private in the 1st Ox. and Bucks Light Infantry, serving in India. In August 1914 he married Fanny Toms in Southall London and gives his occupation at that time as a labourer. He may have left the army and then either re- enlisted or was recalled to service after the outbreak of war. Maurice and Fanny had a daughter, Daisy, born in 1915. After the war Fanny remained in Southall with her brother William and in the same street as other members of the Dorsett family. She died in 1965 and did not remarry. Maurice’s medal records show he served in Labour Corps and at the time of his death he was a Sergeant with the Royal Fusiliers. In 1917 he was awarded the Military Medal. The Military Medal (MM) was awarded to other ranks for "acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire". Maurice was buried in the Les Baraques Military Cemetery near Calais. The town had several hospitals for injured and sick men moved back from front line actions before being transferred to the UK, and had 2,500 beds in all. The cemetery continued in use until 1921 and now contains 1,303 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, together with around 250 German war graves.

Francis John Cadle. Possibly because he was buried at home in Long Crendon, Frank Cadle’s military record actually survived. Most of the records of those who died were destroyed by bombing in WW2 and it is the only full record available for those on the village war memorial. He was a Pioneer in the Royal Engineers 314th Rail Construction Company. A pioneer is a soldier employed to perform engineering and construction tasks. The Royal Engineers Labour Battalion raised 11 Labour Battalions consisting of navvies, tradesmen and semi- skilled men who worked on construction of rear lines of defence and other works. From his service record Frank enlisted to the Berkshire Rgt and went to France in July 1916. He was transferred to the Labour Corps Road Construction Service in May 1917.and in August 1917 he was attached to the Royal Engineers and given the rank of Pioneer. His company was a road construction company and he worked as a road man before the war. Frank was born in Long Crendon on 21 Jan 1887, the son of George Cadle, also a road labourer, of Burts Lane and his wife Annie Woodford. He was one of seven children. Frank became ill during the last year of the war and in 1917 had 2-3 admissions to hospitals in France with influenza. He was home on leave when he was admitted to Aylesbury Central Military Hospital where he died of pneumonia, contracted in France, on the 30th November 1918. There is a record in his file which lists his treatment as including brandy and oxygen, way before antibiotics. He is buried in the Long Crendon Baptist Chapel Burial Ground.

Frank married Minnie Silver at the Independent Chapel in Tetsworth in January 1915 and they had a son Stanley born in November 1915. Stanley went to live in High Wycombe and worked as a chair assembler. Minnie was awarded a pension of about £1 per week. His personal effects including his pipes and cigarettes were returned to her but there is a rather poignant correspondence concerning a razor which had gone missing. Minnie was concerned that it was new and a present from his brother worth 7s 6d.

James Brooks Bass also died after the end of the war as a result of injuries sustained on military service. He was a Leading Seaman RN and at the time of his death was assigned to HMS Indomitable although his Naval record shows him serving on HMS Pembroke (shore establishment Chatham) at the time of his injury James was born in Long Crendon in 1889, the son of John Bass, a wood cutter / labourer from Brill and his wife Mary Ann Brown He was one of 9 children. His mother died when he was 10 and when he was 18, James joined the Navy in 1907, signing on for 12 years, and served in a number of ships, spending most of his time with HMS Pembroke which was a shore-based establishment at Chatham. in 1911 he was court marshalled for getting into a fight with a leading sea man and sentenced to 28 days detention. On 8th August 1817 he fractured his spine and was transferred to hospital in Chatham where he died in December 1918, 16 months after his injury.

from an online family tree - James is thought to be the seated sailor

James is buried in Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, Kent. There is a large naval section which was reserved by the Admiralty and served the Royal Naval Hospital. The inscription on his grave reads “sleep beloved no more pain”.

There is one name on the war memorial in St Marys Church that does not appear on the village war memorial

Arthur Preston Hohler was born in London in 1887. He was the son of Frederick Scott Hohler and Frances Amelia Preston. He married Laline Annette Astell in 1910 He was mentioned in despatches, and gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the 10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. He also served in the 4/5th Welsh Regiment and was awarded the Order of the Nile and the Distinguished Service Order and Bar He lived at Long Crendon Manor (Frogmore Lane) and also had a house in Cadogan Square London. The couple had three children, the last of which was born after Arthur’s death. Laline later remarried and died in 1968 Arthur died of influenza on 7th March 1919. In the terrible epidemic that followed the end of the war. He is buried in the church yard of St Marys Church Long Crendon and his name appears in the roles of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic of 1918 was one of the greatest medical disasters of the 20th century. This was a global pandemic, an airborne virus which affected every continent. It was nicknamed ‘Spanish flu’ as the first reported cases were in Spain. As this was during World War I, newspapers were censored (Germany, the United States, Britain and France all had media blackouts on news that might lower morale) so although there were influenza (flu) cases elsewhere, it was the Spanish cases that hit the headlines. One of the first casualties was the King of Spain.

Although not caused by World War I, it is thought that in the UK, the virus was spread by soldiers returning home from the trenches in northern France. Soldiers were becoming ill with what was known as ‘la grippe’, the symptoms of which were sore throats, headaches and a loss of appetite. Although highly infectious in the cramped, primitive conditions of the trenches, recovery was usually swift and doctors at first called it “three-day fever”.

The outbreak hit the UK in a series of waves, with its peak at the end of WW1. The first wave was mild and most people recovered but as the second wave hit at the end of 1918, it became very much more dangerous. Returning from Northern France at the end of the war, the troops travelled home by train. As they arrived at the railway stations, so the flu spread from the railway stations to the centre of the cities, then to the suburbs and out into the countryside.

Young adults between 20 and 30 years old were particularly affected and the disease struck and progressed quickly in these cases. Onset was devastatingly quick. Those fine and healthy at breakfast could be dead by tea-time. Within hours of feeling the first symptoms of fatigue, fever and headache, some victims would rapidly develop pneumonia and struggle for air until they suffocated and died.

During the pandemic of 1918/19, over 50 million people died worldwide and a quarter of the British population were affected. The death toll was 228,000 in Britain alone. Global mortality rate is not known, but is estimated to have been between 10% to 20% of those who were infected. Aftermath The impact of the war on families of Long Crendon must have been felt in almost every household from the largest houses to the smallest cottages. In a close-knit community, where people were less mobile than they are today families were linked by marriage and as already identified families lost husbands, fiancés, sons, sons in law, nephews, stepsons and grandsons. For all the men who died there were many more who saw active service but survived. Some with injuries that would affect them for the rest of their lives. For every man who died in World War 1 there were probably another three who were injured. Many with injuries that would affect them and their families for the rest of their lives. These included physical injuries to limbs, internal injuries, disfigurement, amputations, (some sources estimate over 40,000), head injuries, lung damage from gas or infection. Also, the mental impact which took time to be recognised firstly as shell shock and more recently as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Treatment was not available for these conditions as it is today. Veterans weakened by their injuries were more susceptible to other illness such as TB and mental illness

Statistics vary depending on the source, but approximately 11.5% of the men who served in the war died and 38% were injured. Probably less than we might expect. So, if 50 men associated with the village died there were likely to be 400 who served in some capacity during the conflict and 150 who were wounded. Of the men who were injured, many of them more than once, approximately 65% returned to active service, 20 % to lighter duties away from the front line, 10% invalided out and about 5% remained in hospitals and subsequently died.

Women also served – they manned factories, invested in war bonds, harvested crops, and cared for troops on leave. 80,000 enlisted, mainly in nursing, in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), founded in 1907, and the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). From 1917, the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), was founded, taking on roles as cooks, mechanics, clerks and other miscellaneous jobs. Most stayed on the Home Front, but around 9,000 served in overseas.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The role of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is to ensure that 1.7 million people who died in the two world wars will never be forgotten. They care for cemeteries and memorials at 23,000 locations, in 154 countries.

The Commission owes its existence to the vision and determination of Sir Fabian Ware. Rejected as too old to fight he became the commander in the British Red Cross. Horrified by the number of casualties, his unit began recording and caring for all the graves they could find. By 1915, their work was given official recognition by the War Office and became the Graves Registration Commission. In May 1917 the Imperial War Graves Commission was established by Royal Charter. The Commission's work began in earnest after the Armistice. Once land for cemeteries and memorials had been guaranteed, the enormous task of recording the details of the dead began. By 1918, some 587,000 graves had been identified and a further 559,000 casualties were registered as having no known grave.

Eminent architects Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Herbert Baker and Sir Reginald Blomfield - were chosen to begin the work of designing and constructing the cemeteries and memorials. Rudyard Kipling was tasked with advising on inscriptions. Sir Frederic Kenyon, Director of the British Museum, was asked to review the approaches of the principal architects. The report he presented to the Commission in November 1918 emphasised the ideology of equality which remains a core principal of the CWGC.

2400 cemeteries were built over the next decade, following similar designs of a walled cemetery with uniform headstones in a garden setting. Each has a Cross of Sacrifice and a Stone of Remembrance. Building progressed at an extraordinary pace in France and Belgium, in Italy and in the middle East. The energy brought by the individual architects gave character and often great beauty to the cemeteries they built.

Memorials to the Missing. These gave the individual architects scope to express the enormity of the human sacrifice. The first to be commissioned and completed was Blomfield's magnificent Menin Gate Memorial, in Ypres, with the names of more than 55,000 men on 1200 panels. Other memorials followed: Tyne Cot in Belgium, the Helles Memorial in Gallipoli, the Lutyens Thiepval Memorial on the Somme to name but a few. Later individual member states erected memorials to their own country's dead: the Canadians at Vimy Ridge, the Australians at Villers Bretonneux and the South Africans at Delville Wood.

Of the men from Long Crendon commemorated on our war memorials, twenty two have no known grave and are commemorated on memorials in the UK and overseas. Of the rest, five are buried in the church or graveyards in Long Crendon, one in a cemetery in Kent and twenty three in overseas war cemeteries that are protected and preserved to such a high standard by the CWGC. www.cwgc.org

References:

UK census, birth, marriage and death records Commonwealth War Graves Commission records,. www.cwgc.org Forces War Records. www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records Public Family Trees - www.ancestry .co.uk. National Archives Battle of Coronel www.coronel.org.uk WW1 History - http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk Labour Corps http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-army-service-corps- in-the-first-world-war/ National Archives Australia http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/service- records/army-wwi.aspx Stephen Berridge – History of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry www.lightbobs.com. Ox. and Bucks Light Infantry . http://oxandbuckslightinfantry.weebly.com/1st--2nd-battalions-in-the-great-war.html Citizen Soldiers of Bucks By JC Swann The First Buckinghamshire Battalion 1914-1919 by PL Wright. War diary of The Grenadier Guards https://3rdgrenadierguardsww1.wordpress.com/ Needle makers of Long Crendon https://hubpages.com/family/The-Needle-Makers-of-Long- Crendon Naval History http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1917-03Mar.htm Laurence Gomm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Gomme. Pub History (Rising Sun) https://pubshistory.com/Buckinghamshire/Easington/RisingSun.shtml The raid on Zeebrugge http://www.naval-history.net/WW1Battle1804ZeebruggeOstend.htm#cas Thame Remembers https://thameremembers.org/Crosses/private-ralph-wentworth-stone/

Research of Eric Sewell

Pat Mullan [email protected]