Moving into a Post-war World: late 1918 and early 1919

I can’t imagine how that festive season would have felt, 1918-19. After all, Christmas 1918 fell only just over a month after the Armistice. Most servicemen were still far from home, shops were still experiencing shortages, and many families had lost one or more deeply cherished members. Unsurprisingly, Christmas that year was described as ‘quiet’ and ‘domestic’, with ‘sadness in many homes’.

Deeply aware of the physical legacy of war, people were keen to continue fund-raising. In Bisley:

A Carol League was formed the second week in November and six or seven practices of special music were held. A band of carollers, led by Mr Bloodworth [the school master], paraded Bisley and Eastcombe on Christmas Eve and the evening of Christmas Day and over £10 was collected. The four-part music, very tunefully rendered in the open air to the accompaniment of a portable harmonium, gave much pleasure.

More money was contributed at a variety concert held in the school on New Year’s Day, giving a total of £25 for St Dunstan’s Hostel for Blinded Soldiers and Sailors. Obviously ‘carolling for St Dunstan’s’ was a thing, because a similar  initiative took place in Stroud, where £70 12/4d was raised over ‘fourteen consecutive evenings’. A letter to the ‘Journal’, published on 17th January, compares 1918’s total favourably with that of 1917 (£54 3/5d) and 1916 (£25).

There was yet another ‘flu burial at France Lynch. Reginald E Barrett, a boy of only 17, had died on Christmas Eve. He had worked at Chalford Aerodrome, and also done war work in Birmingham, and the ‘Journal’ commented:

…his death adds to the already long list of boys who from the hamlet of France Lynch have laid down their lives either on active service, or in helping their comrades at the front.

Further mention was made of Douglas Webster’s Military Cross, the ‘Journal’ quoting his local Canadian newspaper (in Regina, Saskatchewan), ‘The Morning Leader’, which gave a summary of his enlistment in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in October 1914, his promotion to Sergeant in the Signallers, and later to Lieutenant. The paper went on to describe how he had won the medal for his actions near Amiens ‘clearing out a machine gun nest’. Mainly, the paper was interested in his pre-war civilian life, as a keen footballer:

Lieut Webster will be best remembered by the soccer fooball fraternity of the city, among whom he was known as the sterling right half of the old United Club. In France he maintained his football reputation as a good defence man in games between the Canadians and Imperials…

His father Frank, the probable source of the Canadian cutting, had been busily engaged writing a poem for the welcome home event held for returned POWs at the Primrose Hall on 17th January:

He compered the evening, congratulating the men ‘on being alive, on having survived a diet of black bread and dirty water, yclept [called] soup,the brutality of the big booted Hun, and that they had not been entirely eaten up by unmentionable creepy-crawlies’. There was sufficient money left over from fund-raising to provide every man with a sovereign and a packet of cigarettes.

Percy Abel, Sam Browning, Percy Creed, G. Davis, E. Gardiner, Bernie Gardiner, Frank Howell (who – the next edition of the paper said – ‘is not given to talking of his experience’) and Claude Mills were all present for the presentation of ‘a handsome travelling clock and umbrella’ to Miss Mabel Grist in gratitude for all her ‘splendid energy’ and hard work in organising the parcels sent to servicemen during the war. Private Smart (whom we have not identified) was still in hospital, and Alfred Harmer, from Toadsmoor, had died – ‘the gathering stood in silence when the chairman called his name’.

Percy Abel ‘spoke his deep appreciation…and believed that very few of them would have been alive now but for the food received from England’. There then followed a little concert.

The Bread Order was still in place, forbidding the sale of bread under 12 hours old, and coal was short.

The Hinton-Joneses were the instigators of another fund-raiser for St Dunstan’s – a  production by the school of  ‘Princess Chrysanthemum’, a popular operetta set in Japan, by C. King Proctor, performed at the Primrose Hall in late January. The ‘pretty oriental dresses’ and stage set with coloured lanterns and butterflies obviously made an attractive sight on a wet January evening, and the local performers were enthusiastically reviewed in the local paper:

…the Baby Butterflies was an improvisation and not actually a part of the operetta. It was a delightful addition to a composition brimming over with brightness and melody…

Bubbling along below the surface were urgent political discussions on the scarcity of housing, and public disquiet about the slow demobilisation of soldiers, sailors and airmen. The columnist ‘Jonathan’, writing on 10th January, refers to the resentment felt by many, going on to say:

At least the men who have broken the bounds of discipline have been handled with care, possibly because Bolshevism is too near to our shores to permit of bureaucratic sternness with Thomas Atkins…

He speculates that the disruption caused by the election, and the promises made during the campaign of ‘speedy demobilisation’ can’t have helped matters, but that ‘anybody with the capacity for thought must have known that a huge Army could not be disbanded by a stroke of the pen, and particularly having regard to the disturbed condition of Central Europe’ – where, after all, the trouble had all started.

A week later, the ‘Journal’ prints a digest of an article in ‘The Daily News’, which describes the ‘fears…in official circles’ that on the contrary, the demobilisation might be too rapid:

A high authority pointed out… that “the war is not yet over,” and that “Great Britain, in proportion to its military strength, must maintain an Army of Occupation on the Rhine for many months to come.

Apparently there is a new factor in the situation, which means that our object must no longer be rapid demobilisation, but the securing of the “fruits of victory”.

The intention seemed to be the creation of a dedicated ‘Army of Occupation’ – with strong discipline and decent pay, using ‘those categories of men who have done least during the war’ (this would not be likely to include those over 35). There was already a military presence in Russia, supporting the White Russians. The logistics of demobilising large numbers of troops was referred to:

Some misunderstanding may be caused by the statement which has been made that within a short time demobilisation may take place at a rate of 50,000 a day. While transport might be available to enable this to be done, it is understood that 40,000 a day is the highest number that can actually be dealt with.

Scraps from December 1918

In early December, both Trevor and Douglas Webster were back in the village on leave. Douglas was expecting to be summoned to the Palace to receive his Military Cross from the King. There was news of another local lad who had fought with the Canadians, Pte Albert Edward Watts, son of Mr Watts of the White Horse, Frampton Mansell:

Pte Watts experienced a glorious time on the Canadians’ entry into Mons last month. He and others were relieved of everything they were carrying by the delighted inhabitants, who could not do too much for the Canadians…

There was more consciousness-raising about V.D., which was obviously a major public health concern, as men returned from service overseas:

Those who ‘wait and see’ may well see terrible things…False shame is sheer folly. The doctor is not there to blame but to cure. Do not be frightened of going to the doctor, be frightened of the disease…

The General Election was held on Saturday December 14th, the first in which most men and many women could vote. The Stroud seat was contested by Sir Aston Lister, a Liberal, on behalf of the Lloyd George/Bonar Law Coalition, and Captain C.W. Kendall, for the Labour Party. Enthusiasm for the poll was not marked – the election was felt to have been called too soon after the end of the fighting, when much was still not settled; the influenza epidemic was still raging; most servicemen were still away. In Chalford, the electorate was listed as 1483, absent voters numbered 285. According to the Journal, reporting on the election in the whole district:

A heavy poll was not anticipated, and the first few hours were deadly dull, so dull that apathy seemed to have taken hold of the electorate. As the morning wore on, however, activity became more marked, and at noon, when the mills and factories closed, the presiding officers…were given a more busy time, the ladies making things hum to some tune, in more senses than one. In the agricultural districts, polling was leisurely but continuous throughout…The weather was disappointing…Many old ladies displayed a fine example of zeal for country by voting…

‘Jonathan’ commented: ‘It was interesting to watch married couples sallying forth together to record their Parliamentary vote…’

The results were not announced until 28th December, a whole fortnight later: a victory for the Coalition – Lister won by 4912 votes.

The Stroud News anticipated a ‘frugal Christmas’, ‘the scarcity and high prices of the usual Christmas fare’, and the ‘cost of children’s toys will also limit the range of selection in many homes’:

…Nevertheless, now that the dark cloud has lifted, Christmas should be a joyous and happy festival…

 

Joys and Sorrows from the Last Month of the War

Quite apart from the ‘flu outbreak, domestic life was not easy after four years of war. The coal shortage caused by the draft into the military of miners and the commandeering of fuel for military purposes was causing anxiety, as winter approached. The local press carried a variety of adverts on the subject, ranging from the patriotic angle (“Think of the men fighting in the trenches…”), to the more practical public service-type announcement (“The Coal you save to day will start your fire tomorrow”) and the rather opportunist commercial angle (courtesy of Rinso: “You don’t need the copper fire”).

 

There had been a heated argument about the proposed rise in milk prices from 7d to 9d per quart – in the end, after weeks of criticism from one side and justification on the other, the compromise of 8d was arrived at.

Australian airmen had put on one of their shows at the Primrose League Hall (in Halliday’s Mill): an evening in which ‘mirth and merriment was the presiding genius’ –  a welcome escape from everyday anxieties. The performance raised £9 10/- for the Wesleyan Church.

There was some good news about some local servicemen. George Humphries, from Bussage had been awarded the Military Medal ‘for gallantry on the battlefields of France’:

His mother received the news last week but George gives no particulars, only saying it was by hard fighting. A few weeks ago the gallant soldier was home on 14 days’ leave after 13 months in France, and two days after he returned to duties he won the distinction referred to. He is only 21 years old. Needless to say, his mother, sisters and friends are very proud of him, and hope that he will be spared to return safely to his home once more.

Douglas Webster, son of Frank Webster, fighting with the Canadian forces had gained the Military Cross ‘for operations in August this year’. According to the London Gazette in an article published on 29th November, it was awarded:

…for conspicuous gallantry and initiative during an attack. He was in support company, but, observing that the attack was being held up, he at once went and secured a Tank, guide it to the front affected, and then led his platoon forward to the support of the troops in front, breaking the enemy’s resistance and enabling the advance to continue. Later when his company took the offensive, he skillfully led his platoon round the flank of a large force of the enemy, and brought effective fire to bear; enabling his company to kill or capture the garrison.

Douglas Webster aged 16

Bert Smart of Chalford had been wounded in the knee, and was currently in Warrington hospital. He had ‘seen much hard fighting this last twelve months and was on the St Quentin’s front. He was wounded only a fortnight after his chum, Ray Scarsbrook, of Brimscombe, met his fatal blow’.

There was development of the VD story. “The spread of this disease has increased so greatly, and the effect on the whole country is so serious”, explained the Journal, that a series of lectures was being held at places of work – separate sessions for men and women. There was also a clinic held at Stroud hospital, 6pm on Tuesdays for men, 6pm on Thursdays for women (there was a female doctor, Mary Davie), ‘under conditions of strict secrecy’.

The Chalford Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Parcel Fund had presented its annual accounts (audited by Frank Webster). Between 31st March 1917 and 31st March 1918, receipts had totalled £180 3/7, while expenditure had been £171 8/8 – leaving a balance of £8 14/11 which was augmented by proceeds of whist drives and dances. The committee were already busy with the Christmas parcels for 1918 – ‘those for Mesopotamia, India and Egypt have already gone…’ Ten local men were POWs in Germany and Austria.

On 1st November, the Stroud News reported that new ration books were to be issued the following Sunday, and that jam would be included in the list of controlled foodstuffs. The paper also carried the following reflection on the late autumn landscape:

It is the season of changing tints and shades, when the wooded hills – which, alas, have already paid paid heavy tribute to the demands of war – are seen in all their glory from the sheltered valleys.

 

 

 

 

Subversion of conkers and other matters

In late autumn 1917, concerned about the shortage of certain raw ingredients of munitions, the Government hit upon the idea of involving the populace in the gathering of horse-chestnut seeds, aka conkers. These had been identified as a source of acetone, a component in  the manufacture of cordite. Apparently the Queen and other members of the royal family were setting an example, which children, especially, were being encouraged to follow. There was even a payment of 7/6 per hundredweight. Thus, an innocent seasonal plaything was to become an indirect instrument of death. The children of Bisley were recorded as sending half a ton of horse-chestnuts off for munitions, in early November.

In fact, the conkers did not prove that good a source of acetone, and a large quantity of those collected were simply left to rot.

Mr Charles Pearce, of Chalford Hill, had received news that his son, 2nd Lieut Harold E Pearce, of the Machine Gun Corps, was in hospital, suffering from ‘severe gunshot wounds to the face’. The lad had written a ‘cheery’ letter home, making light of the injury – he ‘had only stopped a lump with his jaw’. The metal having been removed, he was progressing well.

Home on pre-embarkation leave was Frank Webb, of the Glosters, who had been training for the previous four or five months. This was almost certainly the last time his family saw him – he would be killed the following April.

It had been a summer and autumn of constant loss, as the Battle of Passchendale ground on and on. There are few references to conditions at the Front, but a chilling line in the editorial column on 2nd November gives a hint: ‘only a week ago the official reports were emphasising “the dogged defence of the Glosters” in the blood-soaked Ypres area…’

The Baptists held a memorial service for their recently dead: Charles Pidgeon, Richard Morgan, Dick Goodfield, Fred Shillam (‘who had been reported missing for about two years and of whom the War Office now stated that he had been killed’). The Revd DJH Carter preached on the text ‘Some Fall by the Wayside’.

Poor Mrs Overbury, of the Homestead, Chalford Hill (the cottage next to where I used to live, which even across the years feels like a real link), received news that her husband Edwin had been killed on 19th October, aged 34. He had joined up the previous autumn as a stretcher-bearer. An old soldier who had seen service in South Africa, he had worked as a postman in the village for seven or eight years. He possessed an ‘extremely cheerful disposition’, and was a ‘great favourite with the children of the district, indeed it is questionable whether therewas a more popular man in the district…’ These qualities were also remarked upon by the officer who wrote to tell Mrs Overbury about her husband’s death:

[He was] always cheery, even in the most depressing circumstances. We shall all miss him and the example he gave us, and the pluck and good spirits he always showed. I could not help noticing when passing his letters to the censor  by what a strong spirit of religion he was animated, and I trust and hope that in religion you will find strength to bear the very great sacrifice which you have been called upon to make.

Another officer, Captain Kennedy, ‘wrote stating that he was killed instantaneously by a shell and that he was buried where he fell. a padre conducting the service…We are all awfully upset’. The grave became lost in the subsequent fighting, and Edwin Overbury’s body was never recovered. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot memorial.

Edwin’s army service record from his earlier stint with the Gloucestershire Regt survives. Born in Painswick, and previously employed as a farm labourer, he had joined up aged 18 years and two months on 11th December 1899. He is described as standing 5′ 4 (and three-quarter!)” tall, weighing 121lbs, with a ‘fresh’ complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. His time in South Africa included guarding Boer prisoners.

Douglas Webster was also home – ‘he has been through many exciting experiences on the Western Front without a scratch, and he has been very successful in the signalling department’, as was Albert King, of the Royal Engineers:

He says the Tommies are mighty quick in bestowing names on particular spots, and that these become known in no time. On one occasion a German shell landed at the corner of an important road. It did not explode, and was left untouched, but the place was promptly named ‘Dud Shell Corner’. Another spot, under the observation of the Germans, was entitled “Suicide Alley”, etc.

The Chalford parish magazine reported that the Calvary fund had reached £56 18/6 (including promises) – ‘of course it will be a memorial to them and their heroic deaths for all time, and will hand down their names and memories and what they did to succeeding generations…’ wrote the vicar, which seems touching and pertinent now, in a way which it might not have done several years ago, before our group got busy disinterring the stories. Had the memorial not been created, of course, there would have been no question of remembering them…

Summer 1917

This was the summer that marked three years of war. The conflict and privations seemed endless. There were huge anxieties concerning the coal supplies for the following winter- ‘there was practically a coal famine in Chalford’. Presumably initial production was lower, because fewer men were working in the pits (despite its being a reserved occupation), but locally the concerns were all about transport, the ‘enforced idleness of the barges’ because so many bargees had been conscripted (their profession was not protected). Chalford Parish Council discussed the matter at a meeting in late July. James Smart, as Chairman, ‘being a coal merchant was able to place the council in full possession of the facts’. Mrs Couldrey, it seemed, had had two boats, but now there was only one, and that laid up at Brimscombe ‘in consequence of the mate being drafted into the Army’. Mr Smart, the owner of six barges, was reduced to two working, and the mate of one of those had just been called up.

Smart’s Wharf just after the war, 1922

The only solution the Parish Council could suggest was somehow ‘reclaiming expert boatmen from the Army’ – how this was to be done is not vouchsafed! The Government was also proposing to ration coal, though the Stroud News was unclear how much this would affect areas outside London.

20-7-1917 coal rationing details

The rationing of sugar was also becoming inevitable. Plans were set out by the Food Controller, Lord Rhondda, to issue ‘sugar cards’ to all householders, with supplies calculated according to number, age, sex and occupation of the inhabitants. It was thought that controls could not be instituted before December 30th. Bread and meat rationing would follow. The official announcement also stated that ‘central kitchens are commended as a valuable means of economy in food and fuel’.

Various local men were home on leave at various points over July and August – Reginald Lee, son of the Hinton Jones’ gardener, is mentioned again, awaiting a commission in the Army Service Corps, having spent ten months in France. Jesse Webb, son of Richard Webb, a hero of Vimy Ridge, where he had seen battle with the Canadians, was back, as was Trevor Webster. Major Wallace J Sharpe, another emigre to Canada, where he had settled in Pincher Creek, Alberta (described by the paper as an ‘assembly place of many Chalfordians’) was noted as  the first Canadian officer to win the Croix de Guerre.

However, there were sad tidings of others.

Mr and Mrs Pearce, of Belle View terrace, Chalford, have heard that their son, Reginald, a member of the Worcestershire Yeomanry, stationed in Egypt, is in a dangerous condition. He received twelve months’ training with the Yeomanry and was then sent to the East, where he was put to follow his trade [he was a mechanic]. Apparently the climate had disagreed with him and he has undergone a series of operations.

There was also official notification of the death of Arthur Whitmore, who had been serving with the Canadian contingent. His parents lived in Chalford Hill. His attestation papers describe him as five foot seven and a half inches tall, dark complexioned, with grey eyes and dark brown hair. He had been working as a waiter. He died of wounds, having arrived at the casualty clearing station conscious, and able to send a message to his family and friends. However, ‘subsequently he sank rapidly and died at twelve mid-night the same day’.

The son of Mr WM Weare, of France Lynch, ‘who has been in the thick of it and wounded seriously, is now home to recuperate. He bears traces of his terrible experience,and his friends hope for his speedy recovery…’

Albert Goodfield, from Frampton Mansell was reported killed.

There was a special service at the Baptist Tabernacle at the end of July, which those home on leave, including several  natives of Chalford who now lived far away, were able to attend. Douglas Webster was there, as was the aforementioned Jesse Webb, both from Canada, and Ernest Smart, who had emigrated to Australia. From slightly nearer home (Charfield, in fact) there was Quartermaster Rowland Young, from whose letters I have quoted in the past:

Young, who has seen 13 years’ service, was in the great push in March, and is suffering from shell shock  and now on leave for a month. Asked if he had any desire to return to France, the gallant Quartermaster said he hoped to be there when the final victory was won; that as a soldier it was his duty to go. He had no desire to remain at home.

Ernest Kirby, whose mother had fostered Jim Hunt, dead at the very outset of war, was himself killed by a shell on the Western Front, on 24th July. A friend of Fred Couldrey and Charles Herbert, he too had joined the Grenadier Guards in 1916. In fact it was Fred who took the responsibility for writing the heart-breaking letter to Ernest’s wife ‘briefly giving particulars of Kirby’s death’. Ernest had worked at Hind’s nursery in Brimscombe before enlisting. He and his wife had one child.

Barely a week later, it was Fred’s turn to die. The Stroud News covered the story thus:

One of Chalford’s best, namely Pte Fred Couldrey, Grenadier Guards, son of the late Mr Jasper Couldrey, coal merchant, and of Mrs Couldrey, Chalford Hill, has made the supreme sacrifice for his country. The sad intelligence was officially communicated to the deceased’s widow on Tuesday afternoon [14th August] and this showed that he was killed in action on July 31st. Naturally the news came as a great shock to her, though it was perhaps not unexpected, for only that morning a letter, tactfully worded, arrived from Pte Charles Herbert (“Whack”), also of the Grenadier Guards, signifying that his chum Fred was missing. Herbert, it appears, had been in  hospital, and could glean no tidings of the deceased. It will be remembered that to the deceased fell the melancholy duty of communicating to Mr Samuel Kirby the death of his son Ernest. Mrs Couldrey, who is left with one child, had not heard from her husband for three weeks, and the period of waiting was an extremely anxious one.

The newspaper continued its tribute with some biographical information about his work running the family coal merchant business (which his wife had taken over, doing ‘nobly’), and his sporting prowess on the football and cricket fields- ‘played a rattling forward game, and was a good sport in every way, one of the best of chums and popular with everybody’. He had been Hon Sec of the Chalford Football Club. ‘What Herbert’s feelings are now may be left to the imagination’. Indeed, one’s heart aches for poor  Charles Herbert, newly released from hospital to find two of his dearest and most familiar friends wiped out. How people coped with so much loss is difficult to comprehend.

Fred Couldrey

Although July had been a pleasant month, the weather turned dramatically in August, and the rain poured down, right across northern Europe. This was the summer of Passchendale, of men and horses drowning in mud.

In mid-August, the local paper carried news that the Gloucesters had been once again in action in Flanders, after a period out of the main fighting, and there were fears of higher casualty rates.

In its edition of 24th August, the Stroud News reported:

a goodly number of Chalfordians who are serving their King and Country have been home on leave during the past week, and whilst their relatives and friends have shown delight at the re-union, others, alas, are experiencing great anxiety in view of the fact that many who belong to them have been in the thick of the furious fighting which has taken place on the Western Front during the last few days…

Among those at home was Augustus Browning, serving with the Canadians, another veteran of Vimy Ridge,  recovering from wounds – for the second time. He had been hit behind the ear on the Somme, and had now suffered shrapnel wounds to the head and shell shock. Frank Beard, ASC, ‘gave his wife a pleasant surprise recently when he arrived home from the Front off the mail at two o’clock in the morning’. He had walked from the station in Stroud. The 48 year old had ‘volunteered early’ and been sent initially to Avonmouth, but had been in France about two years, ‘a shining example to younger fry who keep their skins whole by skulking’. Before the war he had worked for James Smart, as had Pte Percy Creed, who was evidently at the opposite end of the age scale, the paper commenting that he was ‘hardly old enough to be in the army, yet he has done well…’ He was on leave after a year in France. Petty Officer George Pearce, son of Mr Walter Pearce of Chalford, had three weeks’ holiday from his ship in the North Sea. Apparently, he was on a ship ‘whose Commander is closely connected with Lord Derby, and the crew are in clover so to speak. Pearce is A1. He came home on Sunday. Had to wait at Hereford almost twelve hours for a train, and unsuccessfully tried to obtain a motor car’.

The rain had still not let up at the end of August, and there were anxieties about the potato crop, which had looked so promising. In contrast, the fruit crop looked likely to be heavy, plums were especially plentiful, despite the recent  gale force winds.

 

 

Home and Away

The Stroud ‘Patriotic Economy Exhibition’ took place in the Sub Rooms at the end of May. Opened by Countess Bathurst, it showcased gardening; cooking without meat, potatoes and wheaten bread – including ‘specimen meals’ (great excitement was caused by the pasties!); ‘thrift in laundry’; beekeeping; craft items made by soldiers recuperating in Stroud; and what we now call ‘recycling’ – reuse of waste paper, old metal and tinfoil, and ‘discarded’ kid gloves (which were apparently refashioned into windproof waistcoats).

‘Popular Science Monthly’, May 1918, showing glove waistcoat

There were competitions for children under 14 ‘making articles from waste materials’, and adults cooking (two ladies from Firwood, Skaiteshill, were mentioned among the prizewinners here). On the forecourt, the journalist met a farmer friend who waggishly enquired, “What’s this? The zoo?” – a collection of live rabbits, goats and poultry was displayed. Teas were being served.

The weather had at last perked up, and the Whit holiday treats for the children had been very enjoyable. TheTabernacle Sunday School children were joined by others from Frampton Mansell and Culkerton, for hymn singing and games on the recreation ground until 9pm. Because of the food shortages, they missed out on the customary slap-up tea, but despite this had a thoroughly good time.

There had been a whist drive, with dancing and humourous songs, in aid of the Chalford Parcel fund, at France Lynch Schools on Whit Monday.

The war was never far away, however. The editorial in the Stroud News for 1st June observed:

In devastated Flanders the memory of June in the dear homeland will be treasured in many a dear heart. The incongruity of war will be emphasised by this contemplation of the peaceful beauty of Mid- Gloucestershire…

In Bussage, ‘considerable excitement’ was felt at “the arrival in an aeroplane of Flight Lieut. Wilfred Selwyn, who landed in a field at Manor Farm…The field is situated to the north of the Frith Wood, and the gallant Lieutenant, who arrived on a visit to his parents at Toadsmoor, was quickly the central figure of a large and admiring crowd…” He was in the process of conveying the new aircraft  from the Midlands to Wiltshire, and took off again at 4.30pm, ‘making a graceful and perfect rise from the earth’. Later that month, Wilfred’s cousin Monty, son of Mr John Selwyn of Toadsmoor, also caused a stir when he landed his plane on the Common – ‘his flight over the town was watched by many residents who had a distinct view of the stage’.

The Woodchester Wayside Cross, a very early war memorial – very few were erected during the war – was consecrated in perfect weather. The Christ figure had unfortunately not arrived in time – it had got temporarily lost on the railways – so another figure was substituted, and  all was well.

 

The wife of Mr Percy Stratford, who was the conductor of the Chalford Brotherhood String Band) had received a letter from her husband in Egypt, bound for either Mesopotamia or India. He was now in the King’s royal Rifles, but apparently since enlisting some 18 months before, he had been in seven different regiments! Some time earlier, he had been on a ship which was torpedoed in the Mediterranean, and had lost everything except the clothes he was wearing.

Douglas Webster, in France with the Canadians, had been promoted to Sergeant. There was an interesting story about his brother Cyril (who, as we saw in the last post, was at home recovering):

On…one occasion Cyril and several other Canadians were in a crater exposed to heavy enemy fire. Cyril managed to escape to his own line, but the others were reported missing. Strange to relate Cyril met one of these men at Hastings recently, the man having escaped from the Germans after having been a prisoner for about ten months. 

These few sentences encapsulate, for me, the essence of that war – the chaos, brutality and stupidity of it, and the sheer chance of whether one lived or died. Imagine the terror of being in a muddy crater, bullets shooting in from every side, shells exploding all around. No wonder Cyril was suffering from shell shock. The amazing thing is, that there were soldiers who didn’t.

Pte Albert Stephens, of the ASC, was reported to have died on 7th June in No 13 Hospital, in Boulogne, of enteric fever (typhoid). He was 21. He had joined up in 1914, having worked for Mr James Smart, the coal merchant on the Wharf, Chalford. He was:

the first of Mr Smart’s employees to enlist, and was a capable young fellow who took a deep interest in the care of his horses, and he was looking forward with great zest to the time when he could be amongst the animals again.

He had gone out to France in July 1915, and was reported to have had only one leave since then. His brother Cecil was with the Balkan Expeditionary Force in Salonika at the time.

 

 

 

 

News of local men

In May, Mr Webster welcomed two of his sons home – neither in perfect state, Trevor had been shot in the ankle and Cyril was suffering from shell shock. Both were described as ‘convalescent’. Augustus Browning, son of Mr George Browning, who was serving with the Canadians, was also injured, and reported to be in hospital in Bristol. This was his second wounding, and it had happened like this:
“He relates that he and others were asleep in the trenches when the officer tapped him on the shoulder and intimated that in three minutes they were to go over the parapet. This order, he says, was speedily obeyed, and the whole of the first German trench system was smashed to smithereens. Subsequently a big German shell exploded and a piece of the metal took a piece clean out of the side of his hip. He scrambled back into the shell hole, in which there were three or four other men. All had an exciting time, as the Germans had the range. Browning had to go three miles before reaching a dressing station.”

Meanwhile, Mr George Cooke, who kept the Company’s Arms, ‘has had the pleasure of welcoming home his son Harry, of the Canadian RAMC’. Harry had emigrated several years before, but had joined up early on and ‘seen considerable service’, including at Ypres: ‘his experiences have been very exciting, and on one occasion he and four others were thrown by the concussion caused by the bursting of a German shell against a brick wall’ (he sustained bruises only). Later, in a separate incident, he had been hit in the thigh by a shell, and had received ‘treatment at various hospitals’.

Pte Bert Morse, Royal Fusiliers, had had the most Biblical of escapes from death. Hit in the head at Vimy Ridge on Good Friday, he had lain unconscious for three days. He was now in hospital in Exeter, having had pieces of bone removed from his skull, and ‘hopes to be able to avenge the smack he has received at no distant date’. Bert was the son of William Morse, the old soldier who had died in August. One of his brothers, Tom, was a driver with the Royal Field Artillery, another, William, was working in a munitions factory in London.

Fred Gardiner of the Gloucesters, son of Mr William Gardiner of the Ducks Nest, Hyde Hill, had been wounded at Salonika, that largely forgotten outpost of the war, and was now in hospital. His parents had received a letter dated the same day as the wounding, saying that ‘he was just about to go into the trenches’. Also lying wounded in hospital in Salonika, was Frank Ball, whose parents had kept the Valley Inn (though they were now the hosts of the King’s Head in Huntley). He had worked in James and Owen, then at Copeland Chatterson Company at Dudbridge, before joining up in Hampshire in March 1916. Six months later he arrived in Salonika, where it happened ‘in action at midnight on April 25th that he was bowled out, being wounded in both legs’. Apparently, he was coping well, described as ‘merry and bright’.

RAMC hospital, Salonika

(There are some fascinating photographs of service in Salonika here:

http://www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com/ko1853f.htm )

In a rare glimpse of the consequences of what was presumably a disabling wound, Rifleman Fred Creed of the King’s Royal Rifles (son of Mr William Creed of Chalford Hill) had gained a first class award at the Northumberland Handicrafts Guild classes for soldiers in the Royal Victorian Institute and the Armstrong College Hospital, ‘for a splendidly worked table centre’. Two of his brothers were also in the Army. One had gone to France at the beginning of the war, been wounded, then returned to the fighting, and was currently in Mesopotamia . The other, Percy, was in France.

Amongst these accounts of injury come the reports of death. Living or dying in the barrage was sheerly a matter of luck, or the lack of it. Mrs Wear of France Lynch had received notification of the death of her son, Pte Frank Wear, ‘who fell about the middle of April’ (in fact, the 16th). He left a widow and four children, the oldest eight years old. Before joining up, he had worked at Selwyn’s Flock and Shoddy Mills, in Toadsmoor.

By early summer 1917, casualty rates were rising so fast, men of over 41 were  being called up (there were jokes that the qualifying age would soon take in centenarians!). Tribunals were getting stricter. Women, as we have seen, were increasingly filling the gaps in the work force, as were clergymen – who, in addition to their normal duties, were stepping in to fill some of the vacancies caused by this conscription of greater and greater numbers of men.

‘Unrelieved winter’

That famous line of Shelley’s – “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” – can never have felt more teasing than in April 1917. Added to the increasing privations of the war, the failure of the freezing weather to loosen its grip was frustrating, to say the least. It was remarked in the ‘Stroud News’ that Palm Sunday had fallen on All Fools’ Day this year, a rare combination  marked by more deep snow (the irony was not lost on the journalist)! On Good Friday, 6th, the area woke up to ‘a scene of snow’, which, happily, soon melted, but still on 20th April, the editorial was complaining about the ‘longest winter in living memory…The gale of Monday night was more reminiscent of January than April…Last year it will be recalled, there was practically no autumn, the weather plunging from summer into winter.’ It talked of ‘seven months of unrelieved winter’.

Given the long-prevailing conditions of ice and snow, it  said ‘much for the pluck and endurance’ of the girls and women now delivering the post locally, that deliveries had been so ‘punctually maintained’. This comment is just dropped into the editorial on 4th May, with no previous mention that women were so involved by this stage. In fact, the paragraph goes on to state:

“We conclude the postwoman has come to stay, just as the female driver of the motor car or tradesman’s cart is undoubtedly a fixture for the future.”

During Easter week, the Empire had been showing a new propaganda film, ‘The Battle of Ancre and the Advance of the Amazing Tanks’ (every day except Good Friday, special matinee for children on Saturday morning), twinned with another entitled ‘America Prepares for War’.

Two deaths were noted in early April. At the Tabernacle, the Pastor ‘made sympathetic reference to the death of Lieutenant Richard Morgan’, at the age of 26. Youngest son of the previous pastor there, educated at Wycliffe College, he became a banker, but joined up immediately war broke out. He had actually been killed four months before, ‘whilst gallantly leading his men in an attack, but his body has only recently been recovered’. Letters from his commanding officer to his mother, quoted in a book about Wycliffe old boys’ role in the Great War (used by permission), give the impression of a very committed and brave young man:

“Apart from his hard work and undoubted ability, he was the life and soul of the company, and always kept our spirits up. When he was hit he was cheering us on, as he always did.”

Richard Morgan, by permission of Wycliffe College (this photograph was taken the day before he left for France).

Also killed was Pte Ernest Davis, of the Gloucesters, he who had tried so hard and so many times to enlist at the beginning of the war, although underage. When he died, at Salonika on April 4th, he was still only just 20. He had apparently been out in Salonika for about a year. In its tribute to him, the paper recalled how he had been an ‘enthusiastic member’ of the Chalford Brass Band (of which his late father had been Bandmaster). He had worked at Sheraton House, a furniture shop in Stroud, before the war.

News was also published about local soldiers who were – happily -still alive. Pte Norman Gardiner, son of Mr Thomas Gardiner, of the Arches, Chalford Hill, was back in England wounded in the arm, a shell having blown up close to him while he was fetching water. Before the war, he had been manager of the Stroud Co-op in Bussage.

Miss Beryl Smart, sister of James Smart of the Wharf, Chalford, had received a letter from Sapper G Dyer, son of Mr Samuel Dyer of France Lynch, a member of the Baptist temperance society, proud of the fact that he was still teetotal, and recounting his prowess at boxing, cross-country and shooting. In fact, he enclosed a photo of himself boxing – with a black eye, ‘which he characterised as a real beauty’. Douglas Webster had written to his father from France, where he was on HQ staff,’assuring him that he is safe and well’, after being involved in the  action at Vimy Ridge (he was with the Canadians), and telling how he had seen Harry Phipps of France Lynch, ‘among the Canadians who had captured the German big guns’, also Jesse Webb from the village, ‘who has come through the fighting unharmed’.

The local VTC had formed the honour guard at a service in Oakridge to honour four villagers who had fallen in the war: Samuel Gardiner, Percy Gardiner, Robert Blackwell and Frank Fern. The service was held to be very appropriate and affecting.

The Battle of Ancre film can be found online if you’re interested :

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060008185

January and February 1917

The winter of 1917 was notable for its black ice and freezing temperatures. The Arctic conditions set in before Christmas 1916 and endured through to the spring. On a positive note, there was skating on Toadsmoor lake and that in Stratford Park. Here, someone had spotted a good fund-raising activity:

“The skating at Stratford Park was made pleasant through the enterprise of Mrs Reginald Green, of Stratford Lawn. She saw money in it for the fund she has long nurtured as hon. secretary of the organisation for providing fresh fruit and vegetables for the men of the Royal Navy. Therefore with helpers galore she arranged for the ice to be kept clean on the surface so that the skaters were able to glide with ease and comfort in the pale moonlight, and also she took good care that the nimble pence were extracted from the pockets of those who availed themselves of the pleasure.”

Less enjoyably, by February the local paper was reporting persistent problems with frozen water pipes. On the 16th, it mentioned that ‘in several districts no fresh water has been available to houses for nearly a month, and water has to be carried in utensils for long distances in the less accessible areas’. ‘Those who have kept the old wells in working order,’ it continued, ‘are able to discount the inconvenience of frozen water pipes’.

In January, Revd Carter and his wife presented two large frames, each with room for thirty photographs, to display  portraits of members of the Baptist Tabernacle serving in the forces. If need arose, they would supply further frames. These items lasted until they were wantonly destroyed by a pastor in the 1960s – that great bonfire of the past.

Frank Aldridge was confirmed dead at the beginning of the year – ‘after sixteen months of anxious waiting and enquiry Mr Charles Aldridge, of Eastcombe, has received official notice of the death of his oldest son, Frank’. He had been missing since August 5th, 1915, when he was caught up in the attack on Chunuk Bair, during the Gallipoli campaign. The ‘Stroud News’ described him as a ‘smart and promising fellow’, who had joined the 7th Gloucesters in September 1914, one of the first from the village to enlist. He had been employed previously by Messrs G Walker and Co, at Phoenix Ironworks, in Thrupp. He left his family and a fiancee, Miss Celia Mayo, of Chalford.

Amidst the grim news from the various fronts, there were cheerful homecomings ( presumably these were rather complicated emotionally – being composed of relief and joy, but also dread for the future). ‘Chalford people have had the pleasure of welcoming home one of their Canadian boys’, reported the paper on 26th January. Harry Phipps, of the 27th Winnipeg Rifles, had emigrated to Canada several years before. He had seen Douglas Webster just before he came back, in the Somme. Trevor Webster was also home briefly, wounded. Also in Chalford after a long period in France was Pte Reggie Lee, son of the Hinton-Jones’ gardener, ‘looking extremely well’. In February, Charles Herbert (apparently nicknamed “Whack” – a cricket reference?) and Fred Couldrey were also back, on pre-embarkation leave – ‘they appeared remarkably fit, their training as footballers having stood them in good stead  during their period of training’.

Meanwhile, Bernie Gardiner, son of Mr Charles Gardiner of Chalford Hill, re-enlisted on 13th January, finally being of proper age. The paper comments that he ‘belonged to the plucky brigade and he enlisted in the Gloucesters a considerable time back. He had spent  a couple of months on the Somme and was then discharged’ – underage.

The VTC had been in action again, guarding a plane – it had come down over the ‘Downs’ (the large house belonging to the prominent Baptist Mr Clark in Frampton Mansell), suffering from engine trouble, at around midday on Sunday 28th January. PC Wellington  ‘witnessed the descent, hastened to the spot, and met an officer, who enquired whether there were any Volunteers in the area to act as guard’. Luckily, the policeman knew exactly where to find some – being a Sunday, he simply rushed straight to the Tabernacle where he found four, at a Brotherhood meeting, including Mr F Smart…The plane left on Monday morning, after repairs.

A Lieutenant Scull, of the 6th Gloucesters, who was ‘recuperating in the district’, had been to Chalford Hill School to give a talk entitled ‘Twenty-four Hours in the Trenches’. He was also presented with a box of cigarettes to thank him for his work with the VTC, before he left the area in February 1917.

 

The Death of Mary Webster

On the 2nd December 1916, Mary Webster, wife of Frank Webster, the headmaster of Chalford Hill School, died ‘with tragic suddenness’, at the age of 60 (her gravestone being more likely to be correct than the local paper, which gave her age as 58). The ‘Stroud News’, conveying its sympathy to her husband, related the circumstances of her demise, the little domestic details making it all the more poignant:

“She had been ailing for some years, and had never really recovered from the shock caused by the death in action some two or three months ago of her youngest son, who was in the Gloucesters. Her three other sons, namely, Trevor, Cyril and Douglas are in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces, and the fact that the two former have had to undergo hospital treatment, Trevor by reason of wounds and Cyril on account of shell shock, was also a source of worry to the deceased. The deceased lady was about as usual on Saturday in the performance of her household duties. Shortly after partaking of tea, at about 5 o’clock, she wrapped herself in a rug and rested on a sofa. There she fell asleep. Mr Webster quietly left the room to visit the Post Office a few yards away, and when he returned his wife was still asleep. He resumed reading, but shortly he heard a little noise in his wife’s throat and went to her. Unfortunately it was apparent that Mrs Webster had almost expired. He sent for a doctor, but death had already intervened, and the husband, who has not been in good health for some time, was practically stunned by the blow. The deceased lady, who came from Wales, was formerly a teacher in the old British School. Mr Webster at that time being master of the National School.”

Mary Webster’s death, in the run up to Christmas, echoes that of Harriet Taysum, a year earlier, also at Christmas time. Mary Webster was obviously frail, and Harriet Taysum no longer young, but there seems to be little doubt that the strain of bereavement and anxiety hastened their ends.

Poor Frank Webster had now to adjust to the loss of his wife of 33 years, as well as his youngest son.

I think about Mary Webster, and wonder what brought her so far from her native Llangollen. She maintained strong links with her family in North Wales, the Webster family house in Chalford being named after her childhood home, and Heber, who had been killed on 3rd July 1916, is also commemorated (as we noted in an earlier post) on the war memorial in Llangollen. It’s fatuous to speculate, but I still can’t help wondering whether she would have felt bereft on account of her three oldest sons’ emigration to Canada, and  worried  that Heber would follow them, or whether she would have encouraged their adventurous spirit? She had given up her profession when she had a family, but her husband was devoted to his job (more of a calling, really!) and also extremely active outside home and school, what with his duties at the Baptist Tabernacle, and – more recently – the VTC. I wonder what her life was composed of, once her sons had left home. I have never seen a photo of her – I don’t know whether one even exists.

Webster family gravestone, Baptist Tabernacle