Military Biography
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DISCHARGED FROM NZ FORCES
AS UNFIT, HAVING LOST
THE SIGHT OF AN EYE
RE-ENLISTED AT VANCOUVER
PRIVATE ARTHUR NORMAN HACKNEY
Born in London in 1882, Hackney's mother died in 1884 and his father, a surgeon, in 1886. Information about his life comes from his brother, Mr C Hackney of Westwood, Hythe, Kent who composed the inscription and told the War Graves Commission that his brother had served in the South African War.
Hackney's Canadian Attestation form was filled in on 6 July 1917. On it he revealed that he had served with the Aukland Battalion, New Zealand Expeditionary Force from 1914 to 1917 before being discharged. He confessed that the reason for his discharge was 'eyesight'. The accompanying medical form measured his eyesight on the Snellen Scale as 20/32 for his left eye and 20/80 for his right eye and pronounced him 'fit' for the Canadian Over Seas Expeditionary Force.
Hackney served with the 29th Battalion Canadian Infantry and was killed on the second day of the Battle of Amiens when their advance was met by German rifle and machine gun fire well concealed in gun pits among the bushes and brush.
"The men did good shooting at the retiring Hun, both with rifles and machine guns from the hip ... eventually the Bosche was dislodged ... leaving dead and prisoners."
AWARDED D.S.O.
FOR HIS COOLNESS
GOOD JUDGMENT
SKILL AND COURAGE
MAJOR WILLIAM JAMES GORDON BURNS DSO
William James Gordon Burns was a Chemistry Fellow at Victoria College, University of Toronto, Canada. He joined the Canadian Field Artillery in August 1915, was promoted Captain in June 1916 and went to France the following month. In December 1917 he was promoted Major. His obituary in the University of Toronto Roll of Service relates how:
'During more than two years of continuous service he served through the battles of the Somme, Vimy (where he was wounded on April 17th), Hill 70, Passchendaele, Amiens and Arras. In the battle of Cambrai he was instantly killed by splinters from an shell when he was on a reconnaissance for a forward battery position at Bourlon Wood. Buried at Ontario Military Cemetery near Bourlon Village. In November 1918 his name was Mentioned in Despatches, and in January 1919 it was announced that the D.S.O. had been awarded to him for his service through the year, and particularly for his skill and courage in directing the work of his battery through the battles of Amiens and Arras."
'Major Burns
8th Army Brigade
Canadian Field Artillery
Killed in Action
While on reconnaissance, East of Bourlon on the morning of September 28th, 1918, he was hit in the region of the heart and lungs by splinters from an enemy shell. He also received minor wounds in the left arm and leg. Death was instantaneous.'
The Canadian Circumstances of Death Register
There are two scholarships at the University of Toronto, both set up by Burns' parents: the Reverend Robert Newton and Mary Jane Burns. The first, the James Burns Scholarship, in memory of Major Burns, is awarded to a second-year student whose studies have included three science courses. The second, the Mary Gladys Burns Scholarship, established in memory of his sister who died in 1929, is awarded to a female student whose second year included two courses in English.
LOOS-1915, LYS-VIMY-1916
ARRAS-1917, CAMBRAI-1917
MONTDIDIER-1918
CAPTAIN AUSTIN KIRK SHENTON
Memorial Plaque
All Saints' Church Husband's Bosworth, Leicestershire
Quirquid notuit ferit quirquid habuit dedit is qui plus potest praeredit
To the Glory of God
And in memory of
John Shenton
Captain of Cavalry in the Royalist army
Who fought at Naseby (1645) & Worcester (1651)
And is buried at Barwell
1612-1699
His sword rests here
Also of
Austin Kirk Shenton MC
Of the IXth generation from the above
Captain his His Majesty's Corps of Engineers
Who fought at Loss (1915) The Somme (1916)
Arras (1917) Cambrai (1917) Montdidier (1918)
And is buried at Grovy near Amiens
1895-1918
His sword rests here
To all who knew him, most loving and beloved
As a soldier, his fellow-soldiers write from the field
"A most gallant"
"He lived a
Splendid life"
"He didn't know
What fear was"
"His company was
In splendid order"
The Newsman 17 August 1918
Capt Austin Kirk MC RE whose death as the result of a riding accident took place on the Amiens front, was the eldest surviving son of the Rev GD Shenton rector of St Anthony's, Stepney and for some time vicar of Elmstead. He gained his MC for exceptionally good work in command of a cable section during the battle of Arras, and was gazetted Captain after gallantly establishing and maintaining a forward telephone post across the Cambrai Canal during the attack on Nov 23-30 1917. His last post was on the Head-Quarters Staff. His fellow-soldiers describe him as "one of the coolest men under fire and one of those who don't know what fear is. He has done good work for us in many unpleasant places, and his services were invaluable, but we valued him most for his cherry good nature. One of the finest characters we have ever known. He has played the game all through."
I have not seen the memorial in All Saints' Husband Bosworth but it must be worth a visit - for a start it would be good to see the Latin inscription as there's a suspicion that it has been incorrectly copied for the Imperial War Museum's online record since it's virtually untranslatable. But it would also be very interesting to see the two swords and the two cannon balls which are also part of the memorial and which apparently came from the Battle of Naseby (1645). In addition, Shenton's Military Cross is reported to be part of the memorial.
GASSED AP. 21
AFTER 3 1/3 YRS FIGHTING
SON OF G.M.W.
DYSON'S WOOD, READING
MAJOR WALTER GUSTAVUS WORTHINGTON MC
Major Worthington was gassed at Villers Bretonneux on 21 April 1918 and died six days later in hospital in Rouen. I've written before about dying from the effects of gas:
"The effects of mustard gas take some time to develop. First, several hours after exposure, a mild skin irritation appears. Eventually the affected areas turn yellow and agonising blisters develop. The eyes become red, sore and runny and extreme pain and sometimes blindness can follow. These symptoms can be accompanied by nasal congestion, sinus pain, hoarseness, coughing and in extreme cases respiratory failure."
Worthington was obviously an extreme case.
Walter Worthington, educated at Charterhouse and Oriel College, Oxford, was a territorial soldier who joined The Rangers in 1911. Mobilized on the outbreak of war, he was deployed to France on Christmas Day 1914 - three months after his elder brother Reginald, a lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry had been killed in action on 16 September at the Battle of the Aisne.
His mother, Eveline, chose his inscription, choosing to highlight the manner of her son's death, the precise length of his military service, and his father's initials. George Montague Worthington, a barrister, had died in 1913 so Mrs Worthington managed to get in a reference to him too on her son's headstone. One of the things the War Graves Commission were very strict about was mentioning other family members on a soldier's headstone. You could say that the dead solider was the son of .... , you could mention by name the numerous brothers and sisters who mourned, you could mention the names of his brothers who'd also died in the war, but you couldn't include a civilian/family death on your headstone - something like "and his wife, Betty, who died in 1921" - unless you were buried in Britain. Not sure of the logic but that's how it was.
ENLISTED AUG. 1914
SECOND LIEUTENANT HUGH MERCER DAVIES
Hugh Davies's wife, Laura, chose to make a very bald statement on her husband's grave - but it speaks volumes. Her husband was a volunteer, and a very early volunteer at that. He had joined up in the first month of the war, August 1914, had survived for over four years and then been killed in its last month, October 1918. Fate is cruel.
Davies had enlisted as a private, served in Egypt from November 1914, and then in Gallipoli. He had risen through the ranks until in June 1916 he was a sergeant. That month the London Gazette recorded his award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal:
"For exceptional ability and good work. He turned out a large quantity of grenades to meet an urgent demand."
In September 1917 Davies was commissioned into the Royal Engineers. He served with the 430th Field Company and was killed on 12 October during the Second Battle of Le Cateau, the first battle having taken place in August 1914.
On the day of his death sappers had been at work around Le Cateau diverting a railway line, filling craters and trying to fix up a water supply. There's no evidence as to what Davies had been doing but as a plumber in civilian life it would seem logical that he was involved in the latter.
4TH SON OF EARL OF ALBEMARLE
KILLED IN ACTION AT WESTHOEK
MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES
"RESURGAM"
LIEUTENANT THE HON. ALBERT EDWARD KEPPEL
Lieutenant Keppel was killed on the opening day of what became known as the Third Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele. A friend, writing anonymously in The Times on 23 August, said that, "many a tear will be shed in his memory; many a pulse will quicken when it is known how and where this gay and debonaire spirit vanished from our midst". A wonderfully attractive character, both physically and by temperament, the writer describes how:
"During his short life, from his earliest childhood, his high spirits and joie de vivre, gave an impression of sunshine and joy wherever he went, and this is shown in the dark hour of his death by the spontaneous testimony of many of his companions, both boys and girls, not to mention older people, officers of standing in the Army, and the pastors and masters under whose guidance he so lightly trod the paths of this world here below".
On the morning of 31 July, Keppel was well out in front of his men with a sergeant "running forward with a Lewis gun which he was about to use on some Germans who were running away".
Keppel was so far out in front that the British never consolidated that part of the line and his body was initially unburied although it was discovered and buried later. Another friend told how he had taken communion with Keppel on the Sunday before the attack. Keppel had told the friend that he was "so looking forward to a real fight", which forced the friend to conclude, "I do not think he knew what fear was".
The final word of the inscription, "Resurgam" means I will rise again and implies a Christian belief in the resurrection of the body after death.
FELL IN THE ATTACK
ON ST JULIEN
LEADING HIS MEN
LIEUTENANT DONALD PERCEVAL LYNDEN-BELL
On 25 April 1915 the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, after a long forced march the previous day, launched an attack at St Julien in support of the Canadians. Three days earlier the Canadians had been the victims of the German's first gas attack, which had been used on them on the 24th too. The attack on the 25th was a desperate, scrambled affair where, according to the Official History, the Fusiliers "were now called on to do the impossible".
Nineteen-year-old Lieutenant Lynden-Bell, described by his captain as "a brave lad", died in the attack. Seventy-five members of the Royal Irish Fusiliers died that day, the bodies of all but ten of them never recovered; they are commemorated on the Menin Gate.
Tadley and District History Society have published some valuable research on Donald Lynden-Bell, including the facts that the Lynden-Bells were a distinguished military family, and that Donald's younger brother, Lachlan, who survived the war, called his son Donald after his dead brother.
A SOLDIER OF RABAUL
GALLIPOLI & FRANCE
HIS DUTY DONE
PRIVATE JAMES FREDERICK BUCKLAND
Private Buckland's inscription is a reminder of a forgotten episode from the earliest days of the war. In September 1914, at Britain's request, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force invaded the island of New Britain, part of German New Guinea, in order to take out a strategically important wireless station at Rabaul, which would otherwise have been of great value to the German East Asiatic Squadron. The successful struggle, known as the Battle of Bita Paka, was the Australian's first military engagement of the war. According to his inscription, Private Buckland was part of this Force.
As a member of the 19th Battalion Australian Infantry, many of whose members had also been part of this Force, Buckland served in Gallipoli from 21 August to 19 December 1915 and then in France until his death in November 1916 during the battle of Flers. Conditions by now on the Somme battlefields were truly appalling and it was the attackers who had the worst of it. Any gains the Australians made was into a devastated landscape whereas the defenders were withdrawing into relatively untouched territory. After this, 'Almost as bad as Flers' became the yardstick against which the Australians would measure conditions.
It was in these conditions that Private Buckland went missing on 14 November. An Australian Red Cross file records his family's attempt to find out what had happened to him - and the difficulties of doing so.
"He is in hospital in England. I am certain of this. Men in the Bn. have heard from him."
Private Cox 26.2.17
"Private Griggs ... told me in Nov. last that he had seen Buckland killed. He was blown up in a trench at Flers.".
Private Williamson 8.6.17
"I saw Buckland at Weymouth about six weeks ago, in the Westham camp. He had an arm off ..." Cooper E. 10.9.17
However, six months earlier, on 3 March 1917, the Australians had captured a frontline German trench and removed a wallet from the body of an otherwise unidentifiable Australian soldier. The wallet belonged to James Buckland and a week later was handed to his brother, Private CM Buckland. The body was buried as James Frederick Buckland but as late as October 1919 there's a letter in the Red Cross file showing that they were still checking: "No trace in Germany".
ALSO
CAVALRY MACHINE GUNNER
IN FRANCE IN 1915
AGED 15 YEARS
SECOND LIEUTENANT GEORGE BENJAMIN JOHNSTONE STODDART
George Benjamin Johnstone Stoddart was 18 and nine months when he died on 4 March 1918. Born on 21 July 1899 he was therefore just 15 when he enlisted on 1 September 1914, and still 15 when he went to France as a cavalry machine gunner with 6th Dragoon Guards on 23 May 1915, thus qualifying for a 1915 Star. His medal card indicates that he was discharged on 15 January 1915. However, it doesn't look as though he was discharged because he was discovered to be underage but because he received a commission in the Royal Field Artillery.
The 25 January 1918 edition of 'Flight' lists Stoddart's name as among those being confirmed in the rank of Flying Officer, and then three months later among those who have been killed. In the information his mother gave to the War Graves Commission, she says he was killed in action. The announcement of his death in The Times on 16 April says "accidentally killed whilst flying abroad".
Strangely, little has been written about George Stoddart who sounds to have been quite a character. Born George Benjamin Johnstone, the name Stoddart was added after his mother remarried in 1909. Johnstone's father died in 1903 in the London County Asylum. His widow, Rosa, went to work in the Bethlem Royal Hospital Lunatic Asylum. Here she met and married the psychiatrist Dr William Henry Butters Stoddart. In 1911, George, his mother and his two sisters were all living with their step-father at the asylum.
SERVED THROUGHOUT THE BOER WAR
3RD I.Y.
MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES
LIEUTENANT ALAN FLETCHER TURNER
AlanTurner was a 40-year-old farmer from Witham Common, Grantham in Lincolnshire who had served with the 3rd Imperial Yeomanry throughout the Boer War, in which he was twice mentioned in despatches. During that war he was with the 3rd Yorkshire Hussars, in 1914 he was with another territorial force, the Leicestershire Yeomanry. He volunteered again for foreign service, took part in the Second Battle of Ypres and was killed at Frezenberg Ridge when the Leicestershire Yeomanry held the line for 24 hours against a fierce German attack. They lost many men: of the 291 memembers of the regiment who went into action, 93 were killed, including Lieutenant Turner, and 91 wounded. A letter from Trooper WH Walker, published in the Midland Mail on 4 June 1915, gives his account of the battle.
KILLED AT LOOS AETAT 22
ST PAUL'S SCHOOL R.M. ACADEMY
FRANCE AUGUST 1914
PRO PATRIA
LIEUTENANT JOHN BATHO
These few words encompass twenty-two-year old John Batho's brief life. However, he has an extensive obituary in Volume 2 of the Marquis du Ruvigny's Roll of Honour. Whilst people tend only speak well of the dead, one of the letters quoted was written on 1 January 1915, whilst he was still alive. Lt Colonel Arthur Daly, in a letter to another senior officer wrote: "I have two wonderful sapper subalterns called ... and Batho. They have only got about 18 months' service each and are perfect heroes, both of them, and work night and day without sparing themselves, and no know fear: always cheery and always full of resource. I should like their people to know what splendid boys they have got, and how proud they ought to be of them."
Nine months later, on the night of the 26/27 September, he was shot by a sniper whilst supervising work just 100 yards from the German front line. He died in a Casualty Clearing Station three days later. In a letter to his parents on behalf of the section Sergeant McQuiston wrote, "We all loved him and would follow him anywhere, full of confidence when he was leading us. We shall never find one better, but we are living in hopes of getting one half as good."
SEVENTH BARONET
OF BREAMORE HOUSE, HANTS
KILLED AT NEUVE CHAPELLE
12TH MARCH 1915. AGE 25
CAPTAIN SIR EDWARD HAMILTON WESTROW HULSE
Sir Edward Hulse, his parents' only son, inherited the baronetcy in 1903 at the age of 13, after his father killed himself. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, he was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in 1912 and went with them to France in August 1914, transferring to the Scots Guards in November. He was killed during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.
In a letter of condolence to Sir Edward's mother, Lieutenant Archibald Jarvis, as the senior surviving officer in the company, described what happened.
'We were attacking a position held by the enemy and had to cross some open plough to get into some support trenches, and while doing so the Commanding Officer, Major Paynter, who was directing the operations, was badly wounded and lay in the open. Slightly before he was struck, your son had gained cover behind a shallow trench, and upon learning that the Commanding Officer was hit, without hesitation went to see if he could render him any assistance, and in so doing was killed. He died instantly and suffered no pain whatever.'
In 1916, Sir Edward's mother privately printed a collection of her son's letters, 'Letters written from the English front in France between September 1914 and March 1915' . These include one written on 28 December (28/11/14) describing in detail Sir Edward's experience of the Christmas truce.
CAMBRAI LE CATEAU
BELOVED SON OF THE LATE
COL. A.D.RICKMAN R.B.
& MRS EDWARD DUNN
MAJOR STUART HAMILTON RICKMAN
Major Rickman was a professional soldier who had seen extensive action in South Africa, the North West Frontier and West Africa. Home on leave from India when the war broke out, he was appointed Second-in-Command of the 1st Battalion the Rifle Brigade and went with them to France on 21 August. Four days later he was mortally wounded at Le Cateau. He died the following day.
According to a comtemporary, "None saw Major Rickman dead. He was dangerously wounded gallantly commanding the rearguard of our retirement on the afternoon of 26 Aug. and he was left, of course, where he fell." He died later in German hands and they buried him in the cemetery at Fontaine-au-Pire, marking his grave with a wooden cross that correctly gives his name but incorrectly describes him as 'engl. Kapitaine'. Major Rickman's grave marker now hangs on the wall in St Mary's Church, Childrey, where his mother lived.