Prayer
SIX ANGELS ROUND MY BED
TWO TO WATCH, TWO TO PRAY
AND TWO TO CARRY
MY SOUL AWAY
PRIVATE FRANK HULLEY
Mrs Isabella Hulley quotes from a children's night-time prayer for her nineteen-year-old son's inscription:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray
And two to bear my soul away.
Except that for Mrs Hulley there are six angels round her son's bed.
Frank Hulley's is one of the few service files to have survived to the present day. He was one of Alfred and Isabella Hulley's five children. The family lived in Gresford near Wrexham in Denbighshire where Alfred Hulley was a coal miner, a hewer. At the time of his enlistment, in April 1917, Frank too was working at the colliery, as an above ground worker.
Hulley served with the 7th Battalion Border Regiment in France from 28 October 1917. He was wounded on 8 June 1918. It would appear that he was one of the casualties of a German barrage that occurred just as the battalion were being relieved on the night of the 7th/8th.
On 16 June 1918, 'Attestone' Preston received the following telegram from Proelicus Ave:
"Gen Hos Rouen telegraphs 16 June died 16 6 18 35164 Pte F Hulley 7 Border Regt gsw comp fract rt femur"
GSW stands for gunshot wounds, the letters being applied to shrapnel wounds too. Hulley also had a compound fracture of his right femur. 'Attestone' would have passed on the news to Hullley's parents simply telling them that their son had died of wounds without giving them the details, which they might have already received when first informed that he's been wounded. Private Hulley had taken eight days to die.
THE FEVER OF LIFE OVER
AND HIS WORK DONE
COMPANY QUARTERMASTER SERJEANT JOHN EDWARD CATTRALL
John Edward Cattrall's inscription comes from a prayer written by John Henry Newman (1801-1890):
O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades lengthen and the evening comes, the fever of life is over and our work done; then Lord, in thy great mercy, grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Cattrall, an ordained Congregational Minister, served throughout the war with the 44th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Service Corps. Dedicated to being a soldier of Christ in civilian life, he saw it as his duty to be a soldier of his King during the war, albeit in a non-combative role.
In March 1918 the 44th were stationed just south of St Quentin on the Crozat Canal. At 5 am on the morning of 21 March the Germans launched their Spring Offensive, the force of the onslaught pushing the British back from their lines. 'With the Forty-Fourths Being a Record of the Doings of the 44th Field Ambulance (14th Division)', apart from providing a colourful account of the doings of the unit throughout the war, relates what happened to it in the face of the German advance:
"Back, back, back we went by degrees, doing what we could for the wounded at hastily extemporised dressing stations at Flavy-le-Martel ... , Villeselve, Beaumont-en-Beine and Guiscard. Shall we ever forget the packed state of the roads, the ebb southwards of the mauled units, and the coming through of the reliefs, especially the cavalry? It was grim satisfaction to know that the cavalry-men put up such a fight round our old quarters along the canal, that the channel was literally packed level with German dead. ... we had nearly reached Noyon. We were congratulating ourselves that we were almost outside the maelstrom, when a Fritz airman managed to plump a bomb right in the middle of us as we halted by the roadside. As bad luck would have it, the bomb fell on the hard road, with disastrous results. It killed eight of our lot ... "
QMS Cottrell was among those killed. Cottrell was the second of John and Mary Cottrell's seven children - six of them sons. His younger brother, Edgar, the fifth son, was killed in action serving with the 6th Battalion Shropshire Light Infantry on 26 August 1916.
CHRIST'S FAITHFUL SOLDIER
AND SERVANT
UNTO HIS LIFE'S END
CAPTAIN CHARLES FREMOULT PRESTON BATTERSBY
Captain Charles Battersby, son of Major General and Mrs Thomas Battersby, was his parents only child. The epitaph they chose for their son quotes the words of a baptismal prayer that was later modified into a soldiers' prayer:
Grant, O Lord, that I may not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto my life's end. Amen
Born in Ireland, educated at The King's School, Canterbury and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Charles Battersby crossed to France with the British Expeditionary Force on 18 August 1914. He took part in the retreat from Mons, the battles of the Marne and the Aisne and was killed on 4 November 1914 when a shell hit the farm in which he was billeted.
The King's School website contains more biographical details and extracts from his letters.
LIFE IS ETERNAL
AND LOVE IS IMMORTAL
AND DEATH IS ONLY A HORIZON
LIEUTENANT GUY JOHN HAMILTON ASHWIN
Lieutenant Ashwin was killed in the Durham Light Infantry's attempt to capture the Butte de Warlencourt, which they succeeded temporarily in doing only to be driven off again with huge casualties. The Butte is thought to have been a prehistoric burial mound, several hundred feet high, which gave the possessors a strategic advantage over the flat land around. It was not captured until February 1917.
Guy Ashwin's inscription is a line from a prayer written by William Penn (1644-1718), the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. The prayer was later modified by an American writer, Rossiter W Raymond (1840-1918), and it is to him that the Internet usually attributes the authorship.
We seem to give them back to Thee, O God, who gavest them to us. Yet, as thou didst not lose them in giving, so do we not lose them by their return. Not as the world giveth, givest Thou, O Lover of Souls. What Thou givest, Thou takest not away. For what is Thine is ours also if we are Thine. And life is eternal and love is immortal, and death is only an horizon, and an horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further; cleanse our eyes that we may know ourselves to be nearer to our loved ones who art with Thee. And while Thou dost prepare a place for us, prepare us also for that happy place, that where Thou art we may be also for evermore.