Remembering the Men of Buckland St Mary Who Fought in WWI
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Buckland St Mary Mary Buckland St who fought in WWI Remembering the men of Vanished Lives Vanished VANISHED LIVES ROSANNA BARTON BUCKLAND ST MARY PARISH COUNCIL Futility In Memory Of The Brave Men Move him into the sun— Gently its touch awoke him once, Of Buckland St Mary At home, whispering of fields half-sown. Who Gave Their Lives Always it woke him, even in France, In The Great War Until this morning and this snow. 1914-1919 If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know. Think how it wakes the seeds— Woke once the clays of a cold star. Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir? Was it for this the clay grew tall? —O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth’s sleep at all? Wilfred Owen Base of the War Memorial in Buckland St Mary churchyard ‘From Buckland St Mary there went into HM’s forces about seventy men from a population of about 450. Of these sixteen joined voluntarily all the remainder, except those underage at the time attested under Lord Derby’s scheme …1 … On the outbreak of war several ladies of the village took a course of sick nursing and ambulance work and being thus qualified they did most useful work at the V.A.D.2 hospital at Ilminster. The women of the parish were organised by Mesdames Lance and Pott and met weekly for the purpose of making pillowcases and moss bags for splints, several hundred of which, were sent to a collection station.’ (The Western Gazette) 1 See page 7. 2 Voluntary Aid Detachment. Vanished Lives Buckland St Mary Parish Council 2021 © Rosanna Barton & Buckland St Mary Parish Council 2021 The moral rights of the author have been asserted. ISBN: 978-1-5272-8435-7 Printed by: Helloprint – United Kingdom B.V. Editing & Design— Jon Mayled The biographies that follow are distilled from an abundance of information we have discovered about the men who served. The background documents and details on which they are based will be found on the accompanying website https://www.vanishedlives.uk. Vanished Lives Remembering the men of Buckland St Mary who fought in WWI Rosanna Barton for Buckland St Mary Parish Council 1 2 Contents Introduction 7 Buckland St Mary 9 Those lost in WWI 1914-1918 11 Fred Billing 13 Frederick Buttle 16 William Buttle 19 William Henry Grabham 22 James Hardwill 25 William Hector 28 Frank Knight 31 Stanley North 32 Harry Painter 34 William Pook 36 Walter Charles Pring 38 William James Pring 40 Frank William Smith 43 Simon Collins 45 Those who survived WWI 1914-1918 47 William Devonport Berry 49 Thomas Arthur Bowditch 50 Samuel James Churchill 51 Wilfred Edgar Collins 52 Ernest Copham 54 William John Crandon 56 Horace Gilbert Wanklyn Debenham 57 Arthur William Denning 59 Cecil Robert John Denning 60 Albert Dicks 61 Frederick Edwin Durman 62 Joshua William Durman 63 Eli Every 64 George Edwin Every 65 Samuel John Every 66 Thomas Every 67 Ernest Goodland 68 Wilfred Goodland 69 Edward Abraham Jackman Grabham 70 3 Francis Charles Grabham 71 Frederick Robert Grabham 72 Cecil Greenslade 73 Richard Samuel Greenslade 74 Thomas Harris 76 George Hector 77 Gilbert Hoare 79 John Henry Hooper 80 Sidney Arthur Hooper 81 Walter Robert Hooper 82 Arthur Edward Knight 83 Fred Knight 84 Fred John Knight 84 Samuel Knight 85 Albert Charles Lang 86 William Henry Lang 87 J Lawton 88 Ernest Love 88 Cecil Richard Millman 89 Horace John Millman 90 George Mutter 91 W Parsons 92 Arthur Pointing 92 Samuel Pym 93 Albert Edward Shire 94 William Shire 95 Thomas John Spiller 96 Harry Thomas Strawbridge 97 Richard John Kenneth Walter 98 Percival Robert Watts 100 John Edward Wheeler 101 Charlie Wyatt 102 A Yarde 103 A H Yarde 103 Frederick Yarde 104 Those survivors not commemorated on the Church Memorial Board 105 Frank Board 107 Edwin George James Denning 108 Edward Richard Killinger Elliott 109 John Fayter 110 William Henry Fayter 111 James Hooper 112 Cecil Hugh Keitch 113 4 Edward Eli Keitch 113 Charles Maddock 115 William Maddock 116 James Henry Manning 117 William John Manning 119 Frederick Mattravers 121 Lawrence Henry Wyatt 122 Those lost in WWII 1939-1945 123 Louis Clifford Ashford 125 James Mudge 128 Appendices 131 Liberator Plane Crash—23 November 1945 133 Maps 135 Medals awarded to the men of Buckland St Mary for service in the Great War 1914-1918 137 The Regimental Cap Badges of the Buckland St Mary men 138 Acknowledgements & Bibliography 140 Index 148 Dulce et Decorum Est—Wilfred Owen 157 Peace—Rupert Brooke 158 Futility—Wilfred Owen Inside back cover 5 6 Introduction Standing at Buckland St Mary’s War Memorial on Remembrance Day, listening to the names of the dead read out, over the years I’ve wondered who those nameless names were, thinking that every year they were coming to mean less and less to a shrinking number of people. Even the survivors were receding into the past—now, in 2021, there is no one left who fought in WWI. So why not research their lives today? The background materials are there, now, ironically, more readily available than ever. It seems to me so important to give them whatever immortality lies in our power—unbearable to think of them dying so young and sinking totally into oblivion. So, we began by researching the lives and times of the 13 men connected with Buckland St Mary who died, adding the two men from WWII. That marked 2014, 100 years since the start of WWI. Then, with the important help of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), we decided to add to that by researching the lives of the 53 men connected with Buckland St Mary who survived; that began in 2018 as we looked back 100 years to the end of the War. We have now added the names of the 14 men from Buckland St Mary School’s Roll of Honour and from the Absent Voters Lists 1918 & 1919 who are not on the Church Memorial Board, and the name of another who died, Simon Collins. It seemed appropriate also to remember the 27 men killed in the Liberator air crash in 1945 (see Appendix). It is so hard now to think ourselves into the mindset of the times. ‘Your country needs you’ seems to have struck an immediate chord. Buckland St Mary was a village of farmers and farm workers, and small traders— the butcher, the baker, the village shop; there was the rectory, the school and a very few larger houses, but the ‘officer class’ was mostly absent. Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour, And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping …’1 Were Rupert Brooke’s words something that resonated with the men of Buckland St Mary? My impression is not, but nonetheless men did step forward and volunteer, spurred on by the national mood of excitement and patriotism. By December 1914 there were six Buckland St Mary men serving2 ; by the end of the war there were 70 men from a population of about 450. Of these, ‘16 joined voluntarily, all the remainder, except those underage at the time, attested under Lord Derby’s3 scheme’ (i.e. conscription)4—so just under a quarter volunteered. Many though were in fact providing a vital service by continuing to farm; their fathers or their employers pleaded for them before the local Rural Tribunals, rarely to good effect. Those presiding over the Boards were more of the White Feather school of thought: ‘… he ought to have gone into the Army before’ said Judge the Hon. W. B. Lindley at James Hardwill’s hearing. (see p.25) He did, and was killed. Buckland St Mary was fully supportive, in homely ways, of its men and of the war effort, as described in the The Western Gazette survey: ‘Several hundred pairs of socks as well as mufflers and mittens were sent by the women of the village and the schoolgirls to men on active service. A large quantity of wool used being kindly given by Mrs A. P. Pott of Buckland House. The school children also subscribed to a fund for which comforts were purchased and sent to men of the Somersetshire Light Infantry who were prisoners of war; and they also collected about 7,000 eggs in connection with the National Scheme … ‘… The amount of land put under the plough was increased by 100 acres. Labour was scarce at one time, but the provision of substitutes for the men taken for the army enabled the farmer to “carry on” without much inconvenience. 1 Peace—Rupert Brooke. 2 Parish Return C/EW/3. Somerset Archives. 3 Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby (1865–1948). 4 According to a survey carried out by The Western Gazette, C/EW/7/28. Somerset Archives. 7 ‘A Co-operative society for increasing the production of potatoes was formed among the villagers who took out 10/- shares, acquired a three acre field and planted it up with the tubers. The work was done most harmoniously and the men were rewarded with a bumper crop.’ Most touching and impressive was the speed with which the Parish put together a Service of Thanksgiving on the very evening of November 11th, 1918: ‘As soon as the welcome official news was received the church bells were chimed. In the evening the ringers met and rang some joyful peals till 8pm, when a thanksgiving service was held in the parish church, a very large congregation assembling.