Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Hind M.C.

Edwalton Church In 2016 we commemorated a link between our Parish and that of the campaign on the Somme during World War 1. We continue the 2017 commemoration with the link to the family of Lawrence Hind by including additional information of his wedding in 1912.

Lawrence Arthur Hind, was the third son of Jesse Hind a Justice of the Peace, and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court and living in Edwalton Hall. Lawrence was also a Solicitor working in the family firm, Messrs Wells and Hind of Nottingham before joining the Army in 1901.

In the 1911 census Lawrence Hind, his wife Eliza with their two daughters, Eileen and Edith are recorded as living in Manor Park, Ruddington.

Edwalton and the 100th Anniversary of the Somme, 1 July 1916, and a Remarkable Connection

MELVYN DOUGAN

December 21, 2017

The battle at Gommecourt A Remarkable Connection In May 1916 the 1/7th Sherwood Foresters, part of the 139th Brigade, Lawrence Hind, married Eliza Montgomery Andrews in Comber, Northern 46th (North Midland) Division, moved to Fonquevillers on the Somme to Ireland in April 1906. This was Comber’s wedding of the year and took prepare for the upcoming offensive. In total 18 Divisions would be place at the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, Comber. committed to the attack. The Robin Hoods’ went into the line opposite The marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. Thomas Dunkerley, Gommecourt on the very northern limit of the planned battlefield and minister of the Church. was merely a diversionary attack associated with the battle of the Somme. It’s success would be nice, but the mere fact that it would keep some Germans occupied would keep the military planners happy as they awaited reports from more crucial sectors of the Somme battlefield. The 1st of July 1916 dawned beautifully. A bright, warm summer’s day, 72 degrees Fahrenheit, with a clear, blue sky. Visibility was excellent, a fact that no doubt was of great concern to the British soldiers and added to the tension in the trenches. At 7.27 a.m. the Sherwood Foresters began discharging smoke into no-man’s-land to give their advance an element of concealment.

According to Private Tomlinson the Lieutenant-Colonel miraculously made it across No Man’s Land as far as the German barbed wire: - Wedding group Photo. Eliza, fourth from right in the middle with “We got to the German wire (and) I was absolutely amazed to Lawrence Hind behind on her left, and Thomas Andrews behind on his see it intact; after what we had been told. The Colonel left. [Lawrence Hind] and I took cover behind a small bank but after His new brother-in-law was Thomas Andrews, a naval architect with a bit the Colonel raised himself on his hands and knees to see Harland and Wolff in , who took a leading part in the design and better. Immediately, he was hit in the forehead by a single building of the Titanic in 1910-11. Along with many other Harland and bullet.” [PteTomlinson]. Wolff men, Thomas Andrews sailed on the fateful maiden voyage of the His body was not recovered from the battlefield and his name is Titanic in April 1912 and was lost with over 1,500 other lives when the recorded on the Thiepval Memorial, in Picardy, France. liner sank four days into the Atlantic crossing overnight 14 – 15 April 1912. Extract from http://www.therobinhoods.org.uk the website of the 7th (Robin Hood) Battalion, This family loss has come to light just over a hundred years after the the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment). tragedy. Pte Tomlinson was the Colonel’s Batman and survived the War. (Extract from the work of John Hall, of Edwalton Local History Society)

The Rev. Thomas Dunkerley conducted a memorial service on Sunday 21st April 1912 at the Comber Church following the loss of Thomas Andrews at sea.

The military service of Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Hind M.C. A Permanent Memorial in Edwalton He was appointed Lieutenant in the Robin Hood Rifles on 16 1901, Lawrence’s brother, Oliver Watts Hind endowed the alms houses in Village promoted to the rank of Captain on 4 February 1903 and in 1914 he was Street, Edwalton; just up the road from our Church, in memory of his father th appointed Captain in the 7 (Robin Hood) Battalion of the Sherwood and mother, brother Lawrence, and his nephew Jesse FM Hind, as recorded Foresters. Promoted to the rank of Major in 1915 he obtained a field on the plaques on the gate posts. commission and became temporary Lieutenant Colonel on 25 July 1915, 1/7th Bn. Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derby Regiment). (Jesse FM Hind was also killed in the fighting on the Somme on 27th Promoted Lieutenant Colonel on 18/5/1916 and was killed in the fighting September 1916. His name is also recorded on the Thiepval Memorial) around Gommecourt 1st July 1916 and is commemorated on the Thiepval War Memorial. Lawrence Arthur Hind was mentioned in dispatches twice and he was also awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. His name is listed on the War memorial in the Church, on the Ruddington War Memorial and at Comber, Northern Ireland.

Alms Houses, Village Street, Edwalton

Acknowledgements; wedding photo and information from the book

‘A Chronicle of Comber. The Town of Thomas

Andrew SHIPBUILDER 1873–1912’

written by Desmond Rainey and Laura Spence

First published 2011 by Ulster Historical Foundation, 49 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 6RY Memorial in the Churchyard of the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, This is a well written account of one of County Down’s leading families with Comber, Bangor, Northern Ireland which Edwalton Church is connected.