94 Wellington Remembers 1914–1918 122 Major Harry Leslie

Wellington Remembers 1914–1918 122 Major Harry Leslie Paddock Sherwood Foresters Born on 24 October 1890 in Edgmond, Shropshire Lived at The Villa, Edgmond, and The Hollies, Haygate Road, Wellington Killed in action on 23 March 1918 aged 27 in France Buried in Roisel Communal Cemetery Extension; Grave 1.G.3 His story Harry Leslie Paddock was born on 24 October 1890, to George and Ellen Paddock. George married Ellen Alberta Williams in Hereford in 1888. A daughter born in 1889 had died in infancy. By 1891 the family lived at the Villa, Edgmond and George was working as a flour mill manager. The family moved to Wellington sometime prior to the 1901 census, but on census day Harry was staying with his aunt and uncle, William and Evelyn Hyslop, at Woodcote, Church Stretton. They ran a ‘private asylum’ for professional people. Despite the slightly depressing environment, it is likely that Harry was inspired to follow a military career by his uncle, who was a retired Royal Field Artillery officer. Harry attended Adams’ Grammar School in Newport (now called Haberdashers’ Adams), when he was living in Caynton, Newport, then Bedford Grammar School from 1903 to 1908. He studied at Carlisle and Gregson (Jimmy’s) Military Tutors in London from March to October 1909, before becoming a professional soldier. On entry to the Royal Military College in February 1910 as a ‘gentleman cadet’, he was 5’ 9½” tall, 136 lbs with 6/6 eyesight. He passed out in December 1910, 112th in his intake. On commissioning he was posted to the Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment). A regimental history of the Sherwood Foresters says that Harry was the Transport Officer for thend 2 Battalion, which mobilised on the outbreak of war. After a period of training in August, with his battalion, he deployed to France. It is likely that he arrived in St Nazaire on 4 September, as a member of the advance party, preparing for the rest of the battalion who arrived 11 September. After an uncomfortable passage they travelled overland by train and on foot towards the River Aisne, meeting up with three other battalions on the road, and settled into trenches around Troyan. It was here that Harry was promoted to lieutenant on 21 September, only to sustain his first serious injury, a shrapnel wound to the thigh, on the next day. He was evacuated to 4th General Hospital at Versailles and transferred to St Nazaire on 15 October. 94 Wellington Remembers 1914–1918 Harry joined D Company of the 2nd Battalion on 7 January 1915, when they were at Hourlines, about 5 miles east of Armentières. By this time the battalion had endured four days of continuous rain and it was difficult to keep down the water level in the trenches. Indeed on 8 January they were ‘in a shocking state 2 feet of water in most of them It is surprising that the whole battalion has not got pneumonia.’ With much relief Harry and his colleagues marched into billets at Armentières on 13 January, where they were issued new clothing and enjoyed removing the grime of battle in a bath. However in Harry’s case drying his face with a ‘strange towel’ was to have life changing consequences. By 15 January his right eye was inflamed and he was in great pain. The war diary only reports ‘Lt Paddock to hospital sick’ on 16 January 1915, but his service record is clear about his movements. He was sent back to the Field Ambulance, then to the 1st General Hospital at Havre on 17 January. By 29 January he had lost the sight in his right eye and was travelling back to England on the Asturias . He was admitted to the 2nd London General Hospital at St Mark’s College in Chelsea with conjunctivitis. His parents were informed of his condition, but his uncle, Lieutenant Colonel Campbell Hyslop, Royal Artillery, who lived at Friars House, New Broad Street, London, took charge of the situation. Ironically both Campbell and his wife died before Harry. Throughout 1915 medical boards considered him unfit to return to the front, but his health was sufficiently good for a home posting to theth 4 Reserve Battalion in Sunderland. Nothing could be done to save the eye which was excised in December. The War Office initially said that the injury was not war related, but on reviewing his case awarded him a pension of £75 per year and reimbursed the purchase of both an artificial eye and a spare one. Harry’s military experience was used to good effect. On 2 February 1916 he was appointed adjutant, a job he could do with only one eye. It must have been a relief to his family that he had secured a home posting, but this was short lived, as a medical board judged him fit for general service on 10 May 1916; it was only a matter of time before he was serving abroad. In March 1917 his mother Ellen visited the War Office to try to persuade them to leave him in Sunderland. She was interviewed by ‘a strapping young man’ who she considered to be far better equipped for combat than her one-eyed son. Despite her protest and an appeal to Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Harry was posted back to a fighting unit in April 1917. Shortly before this posting Harry married Maud Sharrod in Portsmouth. Maud, whose family lived at Cherrington Manor, Newport, had been a pupil of Old Hall School, Wellington. Harry’s movements from 23 April are unclear. However, the war diary of 1/4th East Lancashire Regiment recorded that he joined the regiment on 13 September 1917 to work within the headquarters of the East Lancashire Regiment. This appointment as acting major was also reported in the London Gazette. He had ten days’ leave in England in October, and completed a musketry course in January 1918. 95 Wellington Remembers 1914–1918 In February 1/4th Battalion became part of the 4th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, within 198th Brigade, 66th Division. After a period of training which enabled the men to learn to work as a team, the battalion moved to Hésbecourt as support battalion. The first few days were spent as working parties, before ‘battle stations’ were declared. They relieved the 2/9th Manchester Regiment in the front line on 16 March, holding that line until 20 March. Heavy gas and high explosive shelling started at 4.30am on 21 March as part of the German Spring Offensive. The battalion was attacked under cover of fog at 10.30am: ‘The three companies in the line were outflanked and attacked from the rear. A splendid resistance was made but most officers and men became casualties or were taken prisoners . The Commanding Officer was wounded and taken prisoner.’ At 2pm ‘the reserve company fought a magnificent rearguard action’, continuing to fight while withdrawing to just west of Hargicourt where they were joined by Harry and 50 men. As battalion second-in-command, Harry took charge and they fought until the afternoon; with 90 men and two other officers he withdrew about 5pm to just east of Hésbecourt. It was here that Harry was killed, probably in the early hours of 22 March. The ferocity of the fighting meant that when Harry’s body was recovered for burial, no personal effects were found to identify him. Only later was he identified and his probate record confirmed that his parent unit was the nd2 Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. After the war when local burials were consolidated into larger cemeteries he was finally laid to rest in the Roisel Communal Cemetery Extension. For his service he was awarded the 1914 star, the British War Medal and Victory Medal and a war gratuity of £92. His widow Maud, who was living at 51 Clarendon Road, Southsea, applied for an army pension. His mother was very angry that he had suffered so much. On 21 April 1918 she wrote to the War Office, demanding to know who was responsible for sending him back to war and for the circumstances of his death. We don’t have a copy of the War Office reply, but can imagine that they received many similar letters which were answered in a bland but sympathetic matter. She died in 1936. His father George, a brewer, had died on 14 July 1916 at Gambier Terrace, Hope Street, Liverpool. Harry’s widow, Maud, married Cecil J Wolley in 1920, and in 1939 was living at Dunwood House, Longshaw, Leek, Staffordshire, with her widowed mother, Mary. Notes: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission post his date of death as 23 March 1918, but the war diary and concentration report suggest that he was killed on 22 March 1918. Acknowledgements: Photograph of Major Paddock courtesy of the Museum of the Mercian Regiment (WFR Collection) 4 May 2017. Steve Morse, author of 9th (Service) Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regiment) during The First World War (ISBN 978-0-9555698-1-4), for advice on the Sherwood Foresters. 96.

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