The West Kents at Mons

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In August 1914, 1st Battalion of the regiment was stationed at Richmond Barracks in Dublin, where it had been since the autumn of 1911. They had not seen active service since the early part of the century in South Africa and had otherwiseseen action in Aden or been on garrison duty in Ceylon and Malta. Despite their lack of recent action, it was a well-disciplined and well-trained unit and had no difficulty in recruiting from its own area in the south-east. Recruits were as likely to come from Greenwich and Lewisham as they were from Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, and the more picturesque heart of the Kent Weald, in places such as Sissinghurst and Cranbourn.

Those men on the Army Reserve were recalled and the Battalion received reinforcements of reservists before departing for Le Havre. On 6 August 320 reservists arrived from Maidstone, the Regimental headquarters, followed by another 270 the following day. Two hundred underage men had to be replaced along with a handful of “unfits”, some of whom were left to guard duty in Dublin; eight underage men, along with two junior officers were temporarily assigned as railway transport staff at Kingsbridge station.

Lieutenant Horatio Vicat who put the reservists through their paces at Richmond Barracks. He would be killed a few weeks later at the Battle of the Aisne

Thus, the battalion became a mix of serving soldiers and men who had not been subject to the rigours of army life for some time. The newly arrived reservists, out of the Army for up to nine years, were put through their paces in an attempt, as Major Molony noted in his history of the Battalion ”…to remove the rust occasioned by their more or less prolonged absence from the service.” Lieutenant Horace Vicat was charged with getting these men back into some sort of shape, writing home to his mother in Sevenoaks “It looks rather fine with a thousand men in the battalion, instead of about five hundred or less.” According to the War Diary “The men were exercised under company arrangements in platoon drill and musketry.”

Mobilisation was completed by August 11, but it was not until the early hours of 14th after some delay, that the battalion, at a strength of 26 officers and 1015 men, accompanied by 62 horses, left Dublin’s Alexandra Basin on the SS ‘Gloucestershire’. As it sailed, the battalion was a mix of regulars and the freshly returned, coping with new uniforms and unfamiliar equipment, and varying degrees of competence or recent regular practice in musketry. Perhaps they reflected Sir Arthur Wellesley’s comment on the West Kents of over a century earlier, “Not a good-looking regiment, but devilish steady.”

Although on arrival at Le Havre in the afternoon of 15th, they were greeted by torrential rain, the men would soon be marching during one of the hottest summers on record and would shortly be facing the might and numerical superiority of the German army.  

How the men fared, their background, what they thought of their experiences, is the subject of my ongoing research, and was documented in numerous letters home or interviews with local journalists. The exploits of the ‘Glorious West Kents’ were used as an inspiring example in the various recruiting meetings taking place across at home across the county.

By the time Le Havre was reached, at 2.30pm on the 15th, the rain was torrential. The next day the Battalion marched five and a half miles to a rest camp. They were swamped by the locals, with many seeking a shoulder or cap badge as a souvenir as well as proffering gifts. Off the West Kents went on the 17th August. The destination was Landrecies. The journey, with the entire battalion carried on one train, some forty men to a truck, took them through the north French countryside. All along the route the men were showered with gifts from a grateful local population. Lance Corporal Clarke of Yalding in Kent was one of those stationed in Dublin with the battalion before the war. Later wounded and sent to NetleyHospital, before returning to his parents at Maidstone to recuperate, he recalled that before entraining for the front the people of Havre gave the battalion a wonderful reception, and simply pressed group gifts of food, fruit, cigarettes and wine upon them. The French people could not do enough for “the brave English”. 

Landrecies was reached around midnight and the Battalion detrained and marched to billets a couple of miles away at La Basse Maroilles. A few days later on 21st and the battalion marched in hot weather to billets at Houdain. The heat of the summer had taken its toll on the Battalion, particularly the reservists, who were now more familiar with civilian life. Additionally, the equipment issued proved unsuitable for the time of the year. The 1908 pattern web equipment had been issued to the battalion in October 1909, so that any reservists who had left before that date had never carried it before.

Harry Beaumont, a native of Kent, from Blean and a recently recalled reservist remembered; “We were saddled with pack and equipment weighing nearly eighty pounds and our khaki uniforms, flannel shirts and thick woollen pants, fit for an Arctic climate, added to our discomfort in the sweltering heat. By midday the temperature had reached ninety degrees in the shade! We were soon soaked with perspiration, and all looked almost as if they had been dragged through water!”

By August 21 the battalion arrived in the Mons area and went into billets overnight. The following morning their march continued till they reached a position north of St Ghislainwhere they spent the afternoon entrenching close to the Mons Conde Canal. The previous afternoon the battalion had been addressed, alongside others, by Major General Fergusson, commanding 5th Division. The battalion’s War Diary noting soberly that his remarks could be distilled to the following observations: 1. Necessity for discipline; 2. We are now “up against it”; 3. Characteristics of the enemy, and 4.to fight to the last.

Arrival at Mons

The Battalion strength formed a quarter of the 13th Infantry Brigade in the 5th Division of the 2nd Corps of the British Expeditionary Force. Other regiments of the Brigade being the 2nd Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s and the 2nd Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The two Corps of the BEF were brought up to conform with the line of French resistance to the German advance on Paris. 

Owing to the French retreating, the original plan to form a line running from Charleroi through Binche to Mons was abandoned, Charleroi having fallen to the Germans. The British hand was therefore forced.

The First Corps was positioned along the Beaumont – Mons Road, whilst the Second Corps was to man the canal between Mons and Conde. The latter position seen as a temporary, delaying one. Smith Dorrien had readied a more defensible position to the rear through Framieres, Pasturage Wasmes and Bossu. 

The canal position was reasonably strong excepting for a salient jutting north on the right of the line at Nimy. (The line readied by Smith Dorrien was never taken up, as the Britishwere ordered to retire in accordance with the French). 

The Royal West Kents reached St Ghislain on 22 August. C and D Companies were posted on the bridges north and north east of the town. A and B Companies were in the village in reserve. The day was spent in taking the necessary defensive measures; loopholing, barricading and preparing trenches. 

Early on 23 August the job of supporting reconnaissance by19th Hussars and Cyclists of 5th Division on the north side of the canal, and covering their retirement if necessary, was detailed to Captain George Lister’s A Company. On reaching the crossroads just south Tertre, Captain Lister deployed his Company: No 1 Platoon under 2nd Lieutenant Gore at A (map below), No 2 Platoon under Lt Wilberforce Bell at B No 4 Platoon under Lt Anderson at C No 3 Platoon under 2nd Lieutenant Chitty was kept in reserve just behind No 2 Platoon at B.

Map of the canal showing positions of various companies, taken from the Battalion history

Captain Lister set his men the task of preparing the ground and bettering the existing cover plus making sure that the fields of fire were the best available. No sooner had this been done and a report sent to Battalion Headquarters in St Ghislain when in Lister’s words “These preparations were scarcely complete when I saw four cyclists with an officer coming at full speed down the road from Tertre. On arriving at our position they flung themselves down by me, and the officer in charge stated the remainder of his detachment had been blown to pieces by the enemy’s artillery fire.”

Lister sent another update to Battalion Headquarters and made the decision to hold the position for as long as possible. He reinforced Number 1 Platoon’s position at A with half of Lieutenant Chitty’s Platoon. 

Arthur Chitty was a fresh faced eighteen year old Sandhurst recruit. His boyishness and inexperience moved an old sweat, Private “Onion” Hill to comment, “Blimey, you mean to say a Gawd-forbid like that’s going to lead us into action? Reckon ‘e should have brought his bleedin’ nurse along wiv ‘im”.

The Germans emerged from Tertre and were greeted with a fierce fusillade from the West Kents. The cavalry whose retreat the troops were covering were still nowhere to be seen. The sheer size of the German invading force took its toll on A Company and the order to retire was given by Captain Lister, his detachment having lost over a hundred men.

Lister later recalled “I saw the enemy’s infantry emerging from Tertre in large numbers. I counted on the east side of the road some 400-500 men. Fire was at once opened upon them and it could be seen that the enemy was suffering considerable loss. After a short time, he returned the fire heavily. Since the action I have ascertained that in my immediate front the Germans had three Battalions of the Brandenburg Grenadiers, one Battery of Artillery and one Machine Gun Company. The Officers, N.C.O.’s and men of the Company behaved well under difficult circumstances.”

The connecting post at E (see map) reported that Number 1 platoon had got away, however around twenty men of Number 4 platoon were trapped along the western side of the main road. Lister moved across to issue instructions to them, but he received a wound to the right shoulder. Two of his men stopped to collect him, but he ordered them back to the main body of the Battalion in St Ghislain. He was later tended to by one of the advancing Brandenburg Grenadiers. Chitty received a wound to the chest and one to the arm. A keen cricketer, in his own words he, ‘Was out first ball”. 

Arthur Chitty was taken prisoner at Mons. He survived and would win the DSO at Dunkirk

The Hussars finally came across to the south side of the canal followed by the surviving remnants of A Company of the West Kents. About ninety of A Company came in from the original two hundred. Many of the German infantry also lay dead and wounded across to the north of the canal. 

The Germans now turned their attention towards the defensesin St Ghislain itself and the houses in the town began to be shelled. The Germans crept forwards and made a few tentative attacks, but when fired on quickly took cover from a ridge running parallel to the canal.

The West Kents were well prepared; D Company held the railway bridge over the canal, with trenches dug into the railway embankment. The trench was covered with cinders and the tracks camouflaged. A dummy trench was also dug which drew a lot of the fire. The German artillery, around thirty guns, was roughly 1800 yards away. C Company were manning the road bridges to the north still. B Company helped to man Battalion Headquarters and reinforce C Company. By nightfall on the 23rd the German attacks had got to within 200 yards of the West Kents, but the attacks were limited and unsuccessful in the face of rifle fire by the West Kents.

Harry Beaumont with B Company was in a position in a glass factory in the town. In his war memoir, Old Contemptible, he recalled “The country in front of our position and dotted with numerous circular fenced-in copses, a common feature of that part of Belgium. The Germans, moving forward between them, made easy targets and we opened fire. Their losses that afternoon must have been tremendous.” 

“By 10.00 pm they had advanced so close that we could hear them talking! Hearing no sound from us they had naturally came to the conclusion that we had withdrawn and small fires began to spring up all over the place, presumably for cooking their evening meals. This was asking for trouble on their part and just to show them that we were still here, and taking those fires as our targets, we opened out with fifteen minutes rapid fire, known in the Army as the ‘mad minute,’ that ‘mad minute’ which led the German High Command to think, during the early days of the war, that the British Infantry were heavily armed with machine guns!”

The canal was never meant to be held for long and the order to retire was given. (D Company’s position was also compromised as the enemy had started to cross the road bridge adjacent to the railway bridge). There were a total of six bridges and locks on the Battalion’s front that would need to be blown during the retirement. A detail was sent to ‘pick’ the road to give the impression of digging and entrenching. By 01.00am on 24 August all of the Battalion was back over to the south of the canal and at 01.30am the bridges were blown. By 04.00am on the 24th the Royal West Kents were in the main square at Wasmes and the retreat from Mons was underway.

The 12th Brandenburg Grenadiers had faced A Company. German officer, Captain Walter Bloem’s memoirs give credit to the men of the Royal West Kents 

“The enemy seems to have waited for the moment of a general assault. He had artfully enticed us to close range in order todeal with us more surely and thoroughly. A hellish fire broke loose and in thick swathes the deadly leaden fire was pumped on our heads, breasts, and knees. Whenever I looked, to the right and left, nothing but dead, and blood-streaming, sobbing, writhing wounded.”

Whatever the truth of the ‘mad minute’ clouded by myth and memories, there is no doubt that the West Kents fought well, and the efficacy of their gunfire is mentioned in a number of German sources. Bloem’s company saw heavy losses:

“Heavy defeat, why not admit it? Our first battle is a heavy, unheard of heavy defeat, and against the English, the English we laughed at.”

The memorial to the regiment at Tertre was dedicated to all West Kents who fell during the Great War. It isinscribed with the words of Captain George Lister describing the defence of the Mons Canal (c. Nigel Bristow)

The Royal West Kents were among the first British Infantry to confront the Germans in the war; their steadiness, coolness under fire and ability to inflict high casualties against the Brandenburg Grenadiers confounding German assumptions of the “contemptible little army”.

Many thanks to Neil Bright, Nigel Bristow, and Nick Britten for their advice on this piece.

The Royal West Kents at Mereworth

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Mereworth (pronounced Merryworth) is a small village in the Kent countryside, not far from Maidstone, our county town and home of regimental headquarters. It has a fine church, dating from the mid 1700s, the earlier building having been demolished by the then new owner of Mereworth Castle. Inside the church of St Lawrence are a number of memorial plaques and rolls of honour to local men who served and fell during the Great War.

The church of St Lawrence, Mereworth. June 2022

The churchyard contains two Commonwealth War Graves, one for a soldier of the London Irish Rifles and the other of a Royal West Kent regiment man. The other notable grave in the churchyard is that of Rear Admiral Charles Lucas VC, the first man ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross, which he received for bravery during the Crimean War.

It doesn’t look as if anyone has researched and published material on these men (apologies if I am wrong), and so I thought I would see what I could discover about the men of the village who served with the Royal West Kent Regiment.

The memorials and roll of honour inside the church of St Lawrence, Mereworth

In September 1914 the Kent Messenger reported on a recruitment meeting held in the meadow at Mereworth Rectory in response to Lord Kitchener’s appeal for men to join the New Army. Principal speakers including Major Wood Martyn and local aristocrat, Viscount Torrington.

Major Wood Martyn’s speech began by considering the historic defence of liberty, including in the Napoleonic wars. Addressing the younger men of the village, he acknowledged that they lived under a system of voluntary service with no obligation to enlist but “...if, just because it was more comfortable, they preferred to sit at home and let the other fellows face the German shrapnel – if they were holding back merely because there was better money to be made and better food to be enjoyed here in Kent than out there in the trenches – then they were not Englishman!”

According to the Messenger’s report “he told of the new Battalion that was being raised of the Royal West Kent’s, and, saying that he himself hoped to go out with it and serve under his younger brother, he invited the men to come and join.”

Accordingly several men, along with Viscount Torrington, travelled to the West Kent’s depot at Maidstone the following day, with seven more doing the same the day after that.

Those first new recruits were: Ernest Baker, Thomas Burton, Hubert Holdstock, Edmund Moore, Robert Saunders, Viscount Torrington, Richard Holding, William Coombes, Walter Weller, William Dulborough, and Arnold Brooker.

Three others, John and Frank Reynolds, and Ernest South were refused on health grounds.

Tom Burton was one of the earliest casualties from this group who joined up together. Aged twenty, he was serving with C Company of 6th Battalion when he died of his wounds on 6 July 1915. He was buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension.

The next Mereworth casualty was also serving with C Company in 6th Battalion. He died on 15 October 1915. Edgar Goose was an only son and his father had died just before he left for the front.

Hubert Holdstock also served with 6th Battalion, enlisting in August 1914. A former groom and then chauffeur to Viscountess Torrington, he continued in service with the family after her death. After Hubert’s death on 3 July 1916, the Kent Messenger noted that of the six Mereworth men who had served with the same company, only two now remained. He was also the third to lose his life, the fourth having lost a limb and been discharged.

Lance Corporal Baker, again with C Company, 6th Battalion appeared in the paper having been Mentioned in Despatches. Baker, who was now twenty and had received his first stripe when he was nineteen, had been singled out for his recent participation in bomb throwing for fourteen hours.

Albert Diprose was twenty-one when he enlisted at Tonbridge in Kent. He arrived in France with 1st Battalion on 1 May 1915 and served with A Company. His death was presumed as on or after 22 July 1916.

Henry Bassett, although not included among those who enlisted with Lord Torrington, was an early joiner who volunteered shortly after his eighteenth birthday. Bassett had been popular in the village, a good actor and singer, he also trained with the Red Cross and had helped instruct the local Boy Scouts, as well as being a member of the Volunteer Fencibles.

Private Cheeseman of Butcher’s Lane, Mereworth, was a reservist, recalled at the start of war. He had been wounded in April 1915 and was invalided home before returning to the front on his recovery. He returned in early May 1916. He was wounded on 15 September 1916 and subsequently died of his wounds, leaving a wife and young son.

Lewis Newman was not among the earliest of the Mereworth recruits to the regiment but he joined up only a few months later in early 1915. Slightly older than the other local recruits, he had served in France for just over a year, including being present at Trones Wood, before he was killed.

Alfred Pett had enlisted underage, in November 1914 when he was sixteen. He died on 12 July 1917 after serving in France for a year.

Frank Reynolds was one of the local men initially declined in August 1914 as unfit. Later accepted, he served with C Company of 10th Battalion. Frank died in July 1917 at Waltham Abbey Hospital and was buried in the churchyard at Mereworth.

The grave of Frank Harold Reynolds in the churchyard of St Lawrence, Mereworth
A report on the funeral of Private Reynolds, unfortunately the promised photo was not printed

By the time the war memorial to the fallen was unveiled in Mereworth, Captain Wood Martyn had been promoted to Colonel, and been invited to unveil the memorial. Wood Martyn had had a successful war, commanding 10th Battalion of the Royal West Kents, Mentioned in Despatches several times, he was appointed DSO in August 1917 according to the citation


For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in leading his battalion to the assault, which was completely successful. He superintended consolidation throughout the day, setting a very fine example of personal courage and good leadership.

The Messenger, which reported on the ceremony, noted that “Not only did he commence recruiting in Mereworth in August 1914, but a number of the village lads were actually under his command in the 10th Royal West Kent’s”

In his speech he observed that “It was not the people on whom honours were showered who had won the war, but the plain infantry soldier.”

Plain infantry soldiers such as the men from this small village in the heart of Kent, who are remembered with honour in their parish church.

George Gunner – in the Shadow of the Great War

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George Gunner was a Sevenoaks man who served with the Royal West Kent Regiment. and saw service abroad during the Boer War. Like many of those veterans of South Africa, he remained on the Reserve and later fought in the Great War until injury saw him sent home after only a few months at the Front. From that moment, George’s life changed. The once fit and experienced soldier in the prime of life was now plagued by poor mental and physical health until he could no longer bear it. The Great War cast a long shadow over the rest of his life. 

George was born on 24 June 1881 the eldest of three children ( he had two younger sisters) of Thomas Henry Gunner and Hannah Elizabeth (nee Higgs). The 1881 Census shows George’s parents living at 2 Hoopers Yard at the top of the High Street, with Hannah’s younger sister, Louisa, and a servant.

By the time of the 1891 Census, they had moved to Clarendon House in Granville Road and Thomas was noted as a gardener; he could have been employed at the nearby Royal Crown Hotel as he was a frequent winner at various flower and produce shows and at local carnivals. George was by then 9 years old and marked as a scholar.

By the time of the 1901 Census the family had moved to a new detached house, Woodbine Cottage, 2 Buckhurst Avenue. Father, Thomas, by that time had  ventured into plumbing, but George, now serving abroad, did not appear on that Census, although there were seven members of the extended family recorded there plus a postman lodger.

George had enlisted with the Royal West Kents in 1898. Although his service record from this time has not survived his obituary stated that he fought in the South Africa wars. The only surviving photo of him in uniform shows that he spent some time with the regiment in Malta.

A studio portrait of George taken in Malta

After his return to the UK and release from the Army, in 1906 George married Ada Mills at the newly built Methodist church in The Drive, Sevenoaks. The Marriage Certificate recorded George as an insurance agent. Ada had been recorded as a parlour maid with several other servants at the McNicol household  in St Botolph’s Road in the 1901 Census, but at the time of her marriage was living at 2 Knole Paddock. By the time of the 1911 Census, George had joined his father Thomas in the house painter business. By then George and Ada had three children, Eric, Gladys and Alice.

George’s papers in 1914 show his number as S/911 Army Reserve (Special Reservists) when he signed on at Maidstone on 19th September aged thirty-three. He re-joined as a private and was allocated to the 3rd Battalion but on the 30th he was transferred to the 6th Battalion for active service and promoted back to corporal. He arrived in France on 1st June 1915 and remained until he returned home on 23 November 1915. He was subsequently transferred back to the 3rd Battalion on home duties, then, on 13th October 1917 he was appointed as a lance sergeant unpaid and was eventually declared no longer fit for active service in February 1918, when he received the Silver War Badge on the grounds of sickness.

George had been wounded in November 1915. His obituary some twelve years later in the Sevenoaks Chronicle of 10 June 1927 recorded that

In that November he was injured by a heavy weight of falling earth near Loos. He remained in and out of hospital, having several operations, until his discharge in 1918. 

George’s obituary revealed that

He joined the RWK Regulars in 1898 and saw service in South Africa and the Great War. Went to France in June 1915 and in November 1915 was admitted to hospital with injuries to his head as a result of a fall of earth near Loos. He remained in hospital and underwent several operations until his discharge in 1918. Although very deaf he took an active part in several carnivals in Sevenoaks since the War.

Since his wartime injury George suffered from headaches and depression. His grandson Richard recalls being told that his grandfather had a metal plate in his head. Having returned to Buckhurst Avenue, he was employed as a cleaner at Sevenoaks Post Office. George struggled with his physical and mental health for the rest of his life until events came to a head in 1927, when he committed suicide in front of his friend Cllr Alec Nichol, who also happened to be chair of the Sevenoaks Branch of the British Legion. The Coroner described the case as ‘a tragedy of the war’ and the Inquest returned a verdict of ‘Suicide while of unsound mind‘.



The Inquest into George’s death was reported in detail

The Inquest into his suicide was reported fully in the Sevenoaks Chronicle, which noted that on the day of his death he was persuaded to go for a walk by his best friend Cllr Nichol, and despite being in an agitated state, Nichol told the Inquest that they had spoken for a long time and he had persuaded his friend to return home. However, while at Webb’s Alley (which led to Knole Park), George ran away, then initially pretended to overdose on carbolic acid before admitting this was false and insisting his friend fetch a policeman, Nichol left him, intending to fetch George’s wife from their nearby home. Tragically, George then hacked at his own throat and died on the scene very quickly.

Nichol told the Inquest, which was reported at length in the Chronicle that:

“He was a man of the Old West Kents. To my idea it is a tragedy of the war. He was broken through a fall of earth when he was at the Front, and I have no doubt the history of his illness is attributable to war service“.

The stories of men like George are sometimes tucked away in family memories or in their obituaries and it’s important to remember these men whose names may not be on any public memorial but who gave their all like their fallen comrades. 

A well liked man whose death and personal struggles were reported in detail, George was buried in Greatness Cemetery in Sevenoaks and I will find his grave and leave a wooden cross the next time I visit, as well as including him in future guided walks of the Great War graves there.

My thanks to George’s grandson, Richard, for his help in researching this post.

MM for Horse’s Friend, Bill

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Whilst searching past copies of a local paper for something else, I came across a much more interesting story, that of Sergeant 4683 (William) Bill Dewing,

William Fairfax Dewing was born in 1886 in Deptford, south London, later moving to Bromley and subsequently to Sevenoaks sometime after their home in Hayes was bombed in 1942.

He first appears in the Sevenoaks Chronicle in 1949. Clearly already a popular local figure, Bill was happy to talk about his many experiences and was an easy interviewee for any reporter.

Bill Dewing pictured in 1949 with schoolgirls from Walthamstow Hall, Sevenoaks

Bill, now a purveyor of dried logs and manure, is first profiled with his trusty mare, Stella, who pulled his cart through the streets of Sevenoaks. Stella was popular with pupils of Walthamstow Hall Girls’ School, who first met her heading to nearby Knole Park one Wednesday afternoon and then insisted that their weekly walk should always take the same route so that they could meet Bill and his trusty companion, who enjoyed all the attention.

According to the article, Bill had loved horses all his life. His father had been a carman and he followed him into that trade at the age of 14, later working as a stableman with a firm of stores. Bill was quoted as saying:

Horses have always been my work ever since them times. I saw the change over from horse drawn trams to electric, and did a lot of the carriage work from Greenwich to the ‘Bridges’ which followed.

London was all horses in my young days, and a better place for it too. It was nothing to work in stable with a hundred horses, and manure in those days was bought by one firm for 2/4d per horse per day.

Bill served in the Great War as a sergeant with the 10th Battalion of the Royal West Kents, where he was put to work playing to his strengths in training transport drivers at home and then in France:

I went to France in 1915, and took over a Brigade of Transport. I was a full sergeant. Medals? Oh yes, I did get the Military Medal. That was for saving men and horses in an ‘ammo’ dump explosion during a shelling. Got mentioned in dispatches too.

It has not been possible to find the citation for Bill’s medal and his brief account of it is likely to be the most detail available. He was named in the battalion war diary in May 1918 along with other medal recipients when the honours were gazetted. 10th Battalion was in Italy from November 1917, during which time Bill was admitted to 139th Field Ambulance on 30th of that month with what was described as a ‘knee joint injury’. It seems likely that the action where Bill gained his MM was in France before the Battalion moved, with the knee injury perhaps related occurring a few weeks after.

Bill’s award was noted in the War Diary for May 1918

As well as his Military Medal, Bill showed the Chronicle reporter another medal that he had been awarded, the RSPCA Medal ‘for courage and humanity’ which he won in 1935.

This prestigious medal was won when Bill saved a horse trapped in an iron manger at the Southern Railway Sports Ground. The horse had bolted when frightened, and had impaled itself on an iron fence, cleared itself with a badly gashed belly, and had finally come to rest with a foreleg twisted into an iron manger.

A policeman went to find Bill, who crawled under the animal, hacksawed the leg free, and then, taking the whole weight of the forequarters, got the horse out. He managed to nurse the animal to good health afterwards. For this act of compassion and heroism Bill was awarded the RSPCA’s Bronze Medal by Sir Kingsley Wood then Minister for Health.

The Animal World, November 1935 (extract courtesy of the RSPCA Archive)

A couple of years later in 1951, Bill featured in the Chronicle’s pages once again, this time with a new horse, Bess.

Bess had been used for home deliveries in the Sevenoaks district for many years and was popular with customers, with one even paying for a new coat for her, made at a local saddlers.

When Bess came to be put up for sale, several local residents, concerned at her likely fate, clubbed together to buy her and secure her future. In searching for a suitable home, Bill seemed an obvious choice and the horse was presented to him free of charge.

Bill appeared again in the Sevenoaks Chronicle in 1951

The paper reported that Miss J Brown of Vine Court, together with her mother, and a Miss Limbrick of Knockholt, and a Mrs MacMenemy of Mount Harry Roadhad clubbed together to buy her, ensuring that Bess had a comfortable and well-deserved retirement.

Bill lived on until 1962, when he died aged 76. It would be fascinating to hear from anyone that remembers Bill and if there are any family. Someone, somewhere, must have the medals this remarkable men received for his acts of bravery and compassion both during and after the Great War.

My thanks to the social media team and archivists at the RSPCA in researching this post.

‘A desperate and sanguinary encounter’ – the Royal West Kents at Hill 60

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April 17th, shall we forget?

I rather think we’ll not;

Our boys advanced with bayonets fixed

To face the shell and shot.

A position of great importance

Caused many British graves.

But the British Boys “Hill 60” held

Like the sailor holds the waves.

Private W.T. Manewell

During research for another Great War project (at sevenoaksww1.org), one comment from a witness statement regarding the death of Lieutenant Henry Arthur Poland, who was one of several officers killed at Hill 60 in April 1915, lodged in my memory. There were, wrote Lieutenant Colonel Robinson in a statement kept in Poland’s records, ‘about 3000 corpses on a space 150 yards square’. Two other Sevenoaks men, Privates Thomas Francis and John Tester also ended their lives in action at the Hill. The stark statistic in Robinson’s statement prompted me to reflect further about these events, a significant action for the Regiment in the early months of 1915. Who were these men; where were they from in Kent; how was the action at Hill 60 reported, and what did those who survive think of it? This article attempts to answer these questions.

Hill 60 had been an insignificant manmade mound of excavated earth South East of Zillebeke. War transformed it into an important observation point with commanding views of the Ypres Salient and gave the Germans ‘sight of many of our trenches’. It was for this vantage point that the Royal West Kents fought.

The initial assault on the Hill by 13th Brigade of 5th Division was successful. The West Kents had moved into position on the night of Friday 16th having waded through deep water in disused trenches, every man carrying as much ammunition as he could. After a long quiet day of waiting in position, following the explosion of the large mines that had been placed under and around the hill from 7pm, and with supporting artillery and covering fire, the hill was taken swiftly with minimal casualties, any suffered being more attributed to falling debris from the mine explosions rather than enemy fire.

Initially caught off guard, the enemy gave little defence and the dazed Saxon survivors surrendered to men of C Company who had rushed forward to deal with any survivors and secure the position. Sergeant Stroud DCM later stated: ‘The attack was, apparently, unexpected as the Germans had neither on their boots nor equipment’.

A captured German officer remarked ‘It was just like an earthquake and my whole platoon must have been wiped out‘.

Private Frank Piggott later observed that: ‘…the vibration was felt in the trenches 150 yards back, the earth swaying.’

The German response to the capture, however, was swift and merciless, carried out under the weight of a bombardment with the full capacity of their artillery. This hampered the Royal West Kents as they set about building a defensive position in the shattered earth and digging communication trenches under shellfire. Under this barrage the regiment, with C and B Companies at the summit and A and D in support, held its gain until B and C Companies were relieved before dawn on 18th by the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. The arrival of the relief battalions coincided with a reinvigorated assault by the Germans. Only one platoon of each company led by Lieutenant Walker (B Company) and Second Lieutenant Poland (C Company) had not yet departed the Hill and both platoons quickly headed back to support.

D and A Companies were later brought forward once again and suffered heavy losses until both companies and the King’s Own were withdrawn and replaced by 18th Duke of Wellington’s. A shell taking the lives of many in D Company just as they arrived at Ypres.

At home, the press reported on the heroic actions of the West Kents together with more detailed individual accounts of men wounded or worse.

In its 1st May edition, The Kent Messenger reported on ‘severe losses’, noting:

‘The attack and defence of Hill 60, near Ypres, has been very expensive to the West Kent Regiment, who led the attack…their losses during last week amounted to over 500. To replace these, and others, drafts of over 600 have been sent out from 3rd Reserve Battalion during the past fortnight.

What our troops withstood can to some degree be realized if it be remembered that the space fought over on the four and a half days between April 17th and 21st was only about 250 yards in length by about 200 in depth. On to that small area the enemy hurled tons of metal and high explosive, and at times the hillside was wreathed in clouds of poisonous fumes. Yet our gallant infantry did not give way. They stood firm under a fire which swept away whole sections at a time, filled the trenches with dead bodies, and so cumbered the approaches to the front lines that reinforcements could not reach it without having to climb over the prostrate forms of their fallen comrades’.

The report described how, despite these losses, the men, including wounded, were ‘extremely cheerful, for they know that the fight for Hill 60 has cost the Germans far more than it has us’.

The paper went on to note that the relative ease of the taking of the Hill was followed by the strength of the German counter-attack, which:

‘…soon increased to a terrific ferocity. Under the continuous light of star shells all Saturday night till Sunday morning high explosive shrapnel, bombs from trench mortars, hand grenades, and bullets from machine guns and rifles searched Hill 60, while the British hastily constructed improvised defences and Maxims, and more men were brought up to replace the dead and wounded. At one time only 30 men of the West Kents held the summit of the hill against a German attack.’

Private Piggott again, quoted in the Bromley and District Times, by whom he was interviewed back home after having been injured at the Hill stated: ‘I got my wound as I was going up the Hill with hand grenades. I was just about to throw one when a shell burst just over the top of the trench, and that is about all I can remember.’

The Kent Messenger noted the action again in its May 29 edition: West Kents at Hill 60 – Desperate Fighting – Several Hundred casualties. Over 50 Killed.

Reports from the Front show the severity of the German counter-attacks last Sunday, after the British had taken the important and commanding Hill 60 near Ypres. It is evident that the West Kents, who had just come from billets, were in the encounters. Among those who fell in the fight was Captain Tuff. The paper quoted a letter written home to Maidstone by an anonymous NCO:

‘…The weather was simply splendid. You will no doubt be reading in the papers of the doings of the old Dublin Brigade (the West Kents). They have distinguished themselves again…Our ‘friends’ got the shock of their lives and won’t forget what they got in a hurry. When the regiment was coming back to the rest camp (after the battle), the reception we got from the other regiments and brigades brought a lump to our throats big enough to choke you – cheers and yells of ‘Good old Kents’.

The action took a heavy toll among officers, illustrated by a sobering image taken the day before the assault. The majority of the men in this group were killed and or wounded within the next twenty-four hours.

Given the extraordinary fighting on such a small amount of ground, it is no surprise that the bodies of some of these officers were never recovered but are instead recorded on the Menin Gate. This was thought to include Captain Cecil Tuff, who had led D Company but recent research revealed that Captain Tuff’s body was lying anonymously in a Commonwealth War Grave in the Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery, Belgium. Tuff’s grave was rededicated in May 2019 with his great niece and nephew in attendance.

Officers of 1st Battalion remembered on the Menin Gate

Some confusion surrounded the circumstances of Second Lieutenant Henry Poland’s death. He was initially reported missing and then posted as killed in action. His parents, thinking that he may have been taken prisoner, or later attempting to find an anonymous stretcher bearer who they believed may have had information on where their son was buried, desperately attempted to build a picture of his last moments.

Lieutenant Colonel Robinson recorded in a note that “There is absolutely nothing known about him – I have written twice to his father – there were only two survivors of his platoon and I questioned both of them closely – the fighting was extremely confused and at close quarters for the best part of 3 days. We calculated at the end that there were about 3000 corpses on a space 150 yards square. It is not difficult to imagine how men disappeared from sight”.

Major Joslin, who was killed in the early hours of the 18th, had long been with the regiment and was a veteran of the South African wars. A brother office wrote of him: ‘And in action he was splendid, quite without fear, and able by his example to inspire and encourage those around him. But in your sorrow should mingle pride, for to the very end he did his duty right well, and did much to keep the regimental standard of self sacrifice as high as it is now. And such records never die.’  Both Lieutenant Walker (who according to some reports was killed with Joslin as he walked alongside him) and Second Lieutenant Job were sons of vicars. The latter’s father, Reverend Job, wrote to the Secretary of War from his vicarage in Dudley on 23rd April: ‘I am anxious to know some particulars of his death, and I should be glad if you will let me know to whom I ought to write for this. Will his personal effects be sent on in due course? There are some things especially that we should treasure’.

The Regiment had the dubious honour of being among the first to experience the use of gas by the Germans. Men who were washing in the early morning of 18 April first thought that something in the water was causing their eyes to sting. Belfast newspaper, the Northern Whig, reported:

The terrible effects of the asphyxiating gas employed by the Germans was testified by Private G White of the 1st Royal West Kent Regiment, who is suffering from the effects of the gas in his eyes. He said that after Hill 60 had been blown up by the sappers the West Kents attacked and captured one trench without any casualties.

After the capture of the Hill by the British the enemy opened a heavy artillery fire, and their shells emitted poisonous gas which rendered men senseless. The gas entered his mouth and eyes, temporarily blinding him, and rendering him unconscious.

Three soldiers fighting beside him died of the fumes, which left a burning sensation in the head. He declared that this was the most terrible weapon yet used by the Germans in the war. When informed of the pads which were being made for the mouth to counteract the effects of the gas, he said they would not be entirely effective because they did not protect the eyes. White added that he left Dublin with his regiment on 14th August last, and had been at the front ever since.

As the weeks progressed obituaries and personal accounts, either from letters home or interviews conducted by local papers with wounded men were published. Private Wickens wrote to his parents in Tunbridge Wells which was reported in The Courier. According to his account:

After exploding the mines, a bayonet charge was made in the midst of shells bursting all round and the attack was pressed home. The shelling was tremendous and…it was quite the experience of his life, but he put his trust in God, and has come through it all safe and well…it is maddening to see one’s comrades blown to pieces by German shells but hundreds of Germans went up with the hill that was blown up. One of their officers was buried alive, and when the British dug him out, he turned round and shot his rescuer, with the result that he was not spared.

Wickens also explained that he had not got any German helmets for the children as he was, unsurprisingly, ‘too busy to pick them up‘.

Richard Carman, another Tunbridge Wells member of the Regiment suffered more severely. A long-standing territorial who had subsequently entered the National Reserve, he was recalled at the outbreak of hostilities and arrived in France in February 1915. Forty-one year old Carman was struck by shrapnel and wounded in the right shoulder and ribs and was recovering in a Military Hospital in Southampton when The Courier reported his case.

He wrote from his hospital bed:

‘It was a lucky get-off for me. We did not lose many of our men going up the hill; it was when they attempted to retake the position that we suffered. I got hit at 3 a.m., and had to walk all the way to Ypres hospital, with shells dropping all around. Thank God, we are in old England now’.

Carman made a full recovery and returned to service. Wounded three times during the war, he was with 8th Battalion of the West Kents when he was reported missing on 20 March 1918. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.

George Barnes of Great Chart in Kent was another private serving with 1st Battalion. His letters home are preserved as part of the Great Chart Sailors and Soldiers War Fund archive. Barnes, like other serving men from the village, was the recipient of letters and parcels from home and his replies were carefully kept. His final letter was written on 10 May, eleven days before he died and shortly after his 36th birthday.

Barnes wrote:

To my dear friends of Great Chart, I am just sending you a few lines to thank you so very much for the parcel of cake and other numerous comforts which I received on my birthday on 8th May, we had just come back for a day of rest for we have been at it ever since I wrote to you, before we had just that one night and are still under shellfire, a beautiful big town bought to the ground by shell and fire but we are safe enough and I think we are …pretty hard on them now or at least I sincerely hope to see the dastardly work they are doing here. I am sure that any fellows in England could only realise the destruction that is being done out here and compare it that we had lacked out and let the enemy get into our country would not hesitate one moment to give his hand and help to the old land for they are all needed that are fit and available.

Yes, my dear friends, I must admit that we were in a very funny predicament a fortnight ago today as we got gassed as you have already seen in the papers and so we wandered away and that is how I lost my wallet, not only that I lost the whole of my pack, but I came back in daylight of the same day and very soon made up a fresh kit so that was alright.

A note in the scrapbook records that ‘This is Private G. Barnes last letter – Eleven days after writing this he died of fever, exhaustion, and gas, the effects of the severe fighting for Hill 60.

By now the battalion was a mix of old soldiers who had been based in Dublin in August 1914 and newer recruits, who had signed up on the outbreak of war. Local papers carried the obituaries of pre-war regulars and recent joiners alike.

With so many casualties, many Kent families were affected by the loss of loved ones. The loss of Private Walter Alfred Chapman of Maidstone was perhaps unique in that the young soldier’s father was serving with him and recalled his last conversation with his son on 17th April.

According to the Kent Messenger, Chapman, of 4, Canning Street, Maidstone, was with the regiment in Chatham in August 1914, (having enlisted in the May of that year). At the front, the young private had volunteered for bomb throwing. Having followed in the footsteps of his father, Lance Corporal Amos Chapman, who had served for twenty-one years and fought with the regiment in South Africa, Walter died shortly after their final farewell.

Amos wrote home:

Our poor Wally wrote his last letter to you on his birthday, which was the day we came out of the trenches for eight days rest. We have been at it since the 17th., the night we took Hill 60, and that is the place where our poor Wally was killed. We had just on 300 men killed and wounded, including eight officers, and since then we have lost another 200 killed and wounded. So, you see the old regiment is still keeping its name up.

Don’t worry too much about me. I only wish it had been me who had gone under instead of our poor boy, because he had got the whole of his young life in front of him., and he was as brave and good a lad, as anyone will tell you. He had volunteered for the bomb-throwing party and was with C Company instead of his own. I am very pleased to think I was out here with him. When I left him the night before he was killed, I kissed him and said ‘Goodnight, Wall, God bless you; don’t forget to look after yourself’. He replied, ‘All right dad, don’t worry about me; I shall be all right’. He was just as happy as could be. The man who was with him at the last described him as ‘a brave youngster and a good boy’. The last words he said were, ‘I hope my poor dad is all right, and not worrying too much about me. Then he was gone, almost immediately, and they tell me he did not suffer’.

Sir John French’s praise for the regiment in the taking of the Hill was widely reported and the action generated feelings of immense pride for the West Kents. Our anonymous NCO in the Kent Messenger again:

The way the boys came home you would never have dreamt they had been in one of the most desperate fights in the world’s history. You might have thought they were coming home from a circus to hear them singing ‘Tipperary’ and all the ragtimes going. You can’t help feeling proud of being in the old regiment. No doubt we shall be hearing more about the Kents never ‘losing a trench’ or anything else they get hold of’.

Perhaps the last word should go to Private Manewell, whose poem was published in the Kent Messenger of July 31st 1915.

It was a glorious victory,

Re-echo it with pride:

It shows how gallant soldiers

So nobly fought and died.

We never shall forget the day,

It clings right to us still,

And may God bless the boys who fought

At Number 60 Hill.

 

Sources

  • Atkinson, Captain C.T The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment
  • Cave, Nigel. Hill 60, Ypres, Pen and Sword Books Ltd
  • Molony, Major C.V INVICTA with the 1st Battalion The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment in the Great War
  • Great Chart Letters and Correspondence, Kent County Archives, Ch144/C3
  • Northern Whig, Monday 3 May 1915
  • The Kent Messenger, various editions, April to June 1915
  • The Bromley and District Times, Friday 7 May 1915
  • The Courier, April 30 1915

If any material on this site inadvertently infringes copyright, please contact me.

 

Maidstone Friends Killed at Zillebeke

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Privates Frederick Shepherd Filmer and Owen Gilbert James Williams of Maidstone, Kent were two of over 20 men of the Regiment who were killed in action on 22 February 1915.

The Kent Messenger reported the deaths of the men in its 13 March edition and profiled Filmer and Williams the following week.

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Both men were from Maidstone and had long been friends, having been pupils together at All Saints’ School. According to the paper in its article ‘Friends Fall in Action’:

Private Fredeick Filmer

They enlisted in the West Kent Yeomanry during the Boer War…Feeling it their duty to “do their bit” for their country, they joined the Royal West Kent Regiment last autumn (on 9 November according to Private Filmer’s service records) and left for the Front on 2 February. On the previous day they spent a few hours’ leave at home. Before departing they intimated that they would not have willingly gone to France without each other, and they made a mutual promise that, should either “go under” the other would regard it as a sacred duty to interest himself in the widow and children. Unfortunately, both have been killed.

The paper continued:

Private Filmer was born in St Philip’s parish, and had worked since he left school for Mr T Stannett, greengrocer. It was on Lord Mayor’s Day that he enlisted in 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment. He was married fourteen years ago (to Olive), a daughter of Mr Vinten, one of the Corporation workmen, who is left with eight children, the eldest being only eleven. She is now confined to her bed in very enfeebled health, having given birth to twins nine day’s after her husband’s death.  Naturally Mrs Filmer is very anxious to hear further particulars of the action in which her husband fell, and she will be very grateful if any of his comrades can supply her with some information.

Private Owen Williams

Before the war, Private Williams had worked as a painter, having previously been employed at a tannery. He had been married for 15 years and had five children. 

Williams’ wife had last received a letter from him dated ‘Rouen , February 14th’:

I have not had an answer from you yet, although I have sent four postcards and two letters. You might write so that I can get a letter once a week, just to hear some news. 

The Gurkhas and Sikhs here are fine fellows, with shining eyes and teeth. Many of them can talk English. You might send me out some fag papers. We get two ounces of smooth mixture a week, and they are allowing us five francs weekly – that is 4s 2d. We get plenty of food; jam and tea for breakfast. Today we are leaving for the trenches, so we shall soon know what’s what but I shall keep cool and do my best. We have had a lot of rain the last few days, and I have got a shocking cold. I suppose it is sleeping under canvas.

On 22 February both privates Filmer and Williams were based at Zillbeke about one and a half miles south-east of Ypres.

The War Diary for the 1st Battalion records:

During the morning a furious artillery and rifle fire began about 10 am and continued for about half an hour on our left.

At 4.20pm a message was received by runner from C company that part of B company’s trench had been bombed by the enemy with a trench mortar and had had to be evacuated. 

Soon after Pte WRIGHT who was the signaller in charge of the telephone in B company’s part of the trench came down and reported to the same effect the telephone wire having been broken.

2 platoon of the Duke of Wellington Regiment which were in close support were ordered to reinforce the firing line at dusk in case the enemy should try to rush the damaged trench at dusk.

The enemy however did not attack and the battalion was relieved in the trenches in accordance with previous instruction. Relief was completed by 11pm when A & B companies returned to billets in YPRES C company and 100 men with 2 officers of D company remaining in close support to the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, which Battalion had taken over the trenches.

During the afternoon B company had suffered severely from the enemy’s bombing which lasted from about 2.15pm till 4.30pm.

Lieut BROWN, B company, 2nd Lieut FROST, A company, were killed. Lieut Brown’s body was brought back to some brick works just north of ZILLEBEKE where the battalion first aid post was established. Here he was buried with 8 men whose bodies had been recovered. 2nd Lieut FROST’s body could not be found.2nd Lieut BURBURY, B company was severely wounded and died during the night in the 3rd London field ambulance. Captain MOLONY was slightly wounded. 18 men of A & B companies were killed and 19 wounded.

The Rev ROYCE chaplain to the 3rd London field ambulance conducted the burial service over Lieut BROWN and the 8 men whose bodies were recovered.

——————-

Owen Williams is buried in the Tuileries British Cemetery. Frederick Filmer’s body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Menin Gate.

Royal West Kent Territorials in India

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Journey and first impressions

In the early weeks of the war, the Foreign Service battalions of the Regiment, the 1/4th and 1/5th, found themselves deployed to India rather than the anticipated Western Front. On arrival they were to take over garrison duty, so that units of the regular army could be sent as reinforcements to France.

Stationed in Sandwich before they departed, the two battalions sailed from Southampton on 29 October 1914. Their voyage took over five weeks and included stops at Port Said, Suez and Aden. On reaching Bombay in early December, the 1/4th was deployed to Jubbulpore, the 1/5th to Jhansi. Many of the men wrote home to family and friends giving detailed accounts of their journey to India and descriptions of life their from the food to the local people.

Private Charles Reginald Hayles (born 1894) of 1/4th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment of Bromley had enlisted with the Territorials at the Tonbridge Depot on 2 September 1914. He wrote home from Sandwich Bay:

I am getting on very well now. It was very strange at first, but I soon got used to it. We are doing a lot of work here, and we do not get much time to ourselves. We are quartered in the large house on the seashore. We are treated very well, with plenty of food, but very plain. We are making the most of that. My bed is the hardest I ever had, being the bare floor with one blanket, with a kit bag as pillow, but I am happy with it all. It is doing me a lot of good. I don’t think it will be long before we go abroad.

Private William George Thake of 11, Belgrave Road, Tunbridge Wells, was employed by the Tunbridge Wells Gas Company. He enlisted in his home town on 25 September 1914 aged 22. Thake wrote home to his parents who lived at 11, Belgrave Road, to tell them about his journey to India:

At Port Said several Egyptian natives came on board with oranges, cigarettes, etc and did a good trade. It amuses us watching the traders try to do business in boats just off our ship. Whenever they came near the vessel they were drenched with water from one of the ship’s hosepipes. Leaving Port Said, we had a lovely sail in the Suez Canal for 96 miles. We passed several native villages, and also saw many troops – native and English.

For the greater part of the way there were high sand mountains on either side. Ships have to steam very slowly on account of the wash created, and it took us just a day to get through the canal. We then entered Suez Harbour, and remained there for a week, seeing much to interest us.

Before any of the Egyptian traders were allowed on board the boat their goods were inspected by one of the officers. Two-thirds of our men were allowed to have a stretch on shore at Suez, and went for a short march through the town. Great difficulty was experienced in re-embarking. The men boarded a destroyer, which made four unsuccessful attempts to get alongside the transport. Eventually some had to jump up on deck, and one chap fell in the sea. He was promptly rescued by a stoker from the destroyer. 

So grateful we’re our men for the work of the destroyer’s crew that a collection was made on board, and a sum of £30 raised. The money was sent to the lieutenant, who was told it was a mark of our appreciation. The naval officer, however, said his men accepted our thanks, but could not receive the money, as it was their duty to help the Army. He recommended that the amount should be sent to the fund for the relief of those engaged with the destroyer flotilla in the ships, which were being escorted by HMS Sydney, the one that destroyed the Mandan. The Sydney and HMS Falmouth will be our escorts on the last lap to India.

It is not like Christmas weather, but rather like mid-summer. The temperature is about 105 in the shade. We have to wash our own clothes in cold water. We have sports on board and they create plenty of fun. We also have concerts twice a week. 

After remarking upon the rough weather experiences at several points of the journey, Private Thake goes on to say that his Company did very well in the sports on board ship.

In a point-to-point race, D Company were second among the whole battalion, and in a boxing tournament they had hard luck, as several of the men picked for the team fell sick, and could not take part. The officers and sergeant had a tug-o’-war, the former winning.

(Kent & Sussex Courier, 1st January 1915).

Private Francis Pelham of Offham near Lewes wrote home describing how he and others in the regiment had spent Christmas in India. Extracts of his letter home were published in the Sussex Express:

I went on guard Christmas Eve till 7.00 a.m on Christmas morning. Some of our chaps were on all day. We had a fine breakfast to start with, ham and eggs. At dinner we had chicken, roast beef, etc, as much as we wanted, not to mention the plum pudding, which was a treat. £25 was sent from Sevenoaks to help pay for some of it, and, altogether, we had a fine spread. 

                                                                 Private Francis Pelling

According to the paper:

Private Pelling goes on to say that the Tommies are very comfortable in barracks, and the native barber goes round and shaves them while in bed. Private Pelling was always ambitious, and we are not surprised to hear that he is learning Hindustani. About a dozen of them are having daily lessons from an Indian.

Private Godley, son of Mr Godley of 4, South Grove, Tunbridge Wells, wrote back to his father and described his journal from Bombay and arrival at Jubbulpore:

We arrived at Bombay on 3 December, after a very monotonous journey. We stepped straight off the boat ship into the train, which was almost half a mile in length. The scenery was very fine as we ascended the mountain. At midnight we had risen 2000 feet, and it was very cold. I looked out of the window as we were passing a deep chasm, and it made me hold my breath for a minute. Among the many points of interest was a waterfall, and it looked magnificent by moonlight.

After a brief station stop at about 3 o’clock in the morning, he continued:

We then started to ascend some more mountains, and the summit was reached about 12 p.m. but here the top was mangled with snow, and by Jove, it was cold!

I cannot really describe the scenery, as it was really magnificent. We arrived at Jubbulpore about 10 p.m and marched to a field, where we were given a splendid reception. Cheer after cheer went up as we marched here. A good breakfast awaited us, and English girls waited on us. 

The Scouts’ band accompanied us to our barracks, a distance of two miles; but it was awful marching as the roads are about four inches in dust, which rises in clouds, and fills ones nostrils. About 1 o’clock we were settled in our new home. The barracks consist of bungalows, just sufficient to take a company, and they are all very high-pitched and fitted out with fans. We have an institute connected with the barracks, fitted out with billiard rooms, reading. and writing etc, and we also have a picture palace on the grounds. The days here are so hot and the nights very cold. In the summer it is 130 in the shade. The food is fairly good, the meat being mostly goat, which I don’t like at all.

 

Men of the 1/4 Royal West Kent Regiment, including Frederick Charles Francis of Riverhead      (seated third from left)

Drummer F Dawson wrote home in similar terms:

We reached Bombay on the morning of December 2nd, and started for Jubbulpore about 7.30 in the evening. After two nights and one day we arrived at our destination, and after having refreshments which some ladies had got ready for us we marched to the barracks headed by the Somerset’s Brass Band. It is a very nice place here, the food, beds and general arrangements being very good.

We don’t get much to do besides our parades; the natives seem to do it all. The drums have a room to themselves, and we pay three natives four Annas a week to clean our boots, buttons and bugles, and run anywhere for us. 

It’s not so very hot here yet; about like an English summer in the day, but cold at night. They tell us the thermometer goes up to 112 degrees in the shade in the summer. We have had two route marches of about five miles. The men on guard had some frights at first. The jackals and laughing hyenas come nearly up to them, and ‘then run away laughing’. We often go to the native village in the evening for a bit of sport. If you want to buy anything you have to haggle for about half-an-hour, then turn to walk away. They soon shout out, ‘Ere y’ar, sa’b’ and the bargain is struck. But things seem jolly dear except cigars, which we can buy for one rupee four Annas a box.

We have a church parade every Sunday, and when inside it is just like being in England to see all the white people there.

I have not had a very good Christmas, being in hospital with an abscess in the throat, but the companies all had a good time – plenty of chicken and turkey, plum pudding, smokes and drinks.

One of our officers told us we were here to undergo ‘Kitchener’s test’ which is a 16 mile march, three hours’ attack, three hours’ defence, and then 16 miles march back, before going to the Front in the course of a few months. 

(The Courier, 29 January 1915).

Mr Wheatley, Headmaster of St John’s School, Tunbridge Wells received two letters from old boys serving with the 1/4th Royal West Kent’s in Jubbulpore.

Corporal Court wrote:

We find a great difference in India in climate and people. The climate is a lot too hot for us, for we were not at all climatised before we came out. 

I hope to go out one night for some sport (shooting jackals and hyenas), having had the offer of a sporting rifle.  The day I received your letter I went out for a field day. We started at 8 o’clock, and marched three miles, and then we started our attack on a hill about three and a half miles away, and by the time we had finished and marched back it was nearly 3 o’clock, so you see we had a long day in the broiling sum.

Drummer Harding wrote:

You can imagine how strange everything is to us, seeing so many black people, and some of the ways of these individuals are very comical. I don’t know whether they believe in the Suffragette movement, but the women seem to do most of the work, whilst the men sit down in a ring and smoke their peculiar pipes. It is nothing to see a woman on top of a ladder whitewashing a wall.

We have been here two or three months, and have only had one lot of rain, which caused as much excitement as seeing an aeroplane for the first time. We came here in the middle of winter, but it was hotter than the English summer., but very cold in the early morning and in the evening.

A soldier’s life is very different out here to what it is in England. Everything is done for us in the way of cleaning our kit up by black boys, who do it for four annas a week, and a barber shaves is for two annas a month twice a day. A soldier in India generally has a very easy time where parades are concerned, but it is not so with us. They are putting us through it a bit stiff, but none of us mind the training so long as it results in going to France, where we are all eager to get.

 

Welcome

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Welcome!

Setting up a website to cover the history of The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment during The Great War might seem like a bit of a presumption. But, we want to try and create a space for people to share the stories of their family who served, as well as publishing our research. We’ll also let the men speak in their own words and try to help raise the profile of this historic regiment during the Great War.

We hope you find it interesting and will want to join in the conversation.