VCs of the First World War: 1914 E-Book

Gerald Gliddon

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

During the opening four months of the First World War no fewer than forty-six soldiers from the British and Commonwealth armies were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for gallantry. In a series of biographies, Gerald Gliddon examines the men and the dramatic events that led to the award of this most coveted of medals and explores the post-war experiences of those who survived. These men, ordinary soldiers from widely differing social backgrounds, acted with valour above and beyond the call of duty. Their stories and experiences offer a fresh perspective on the opening stages of the 'war to end wars'.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the staff at the following institutions for their help and patience during the research for this book: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Imperial War Museum, London, the National Army Museum, London, the National Archives, Kew, the Royal Artillery Institution, London, and the Royal Engineers Museum, Chatham, Kent.

Illustrations have been obtained from the following: D. Ascoli, The Mons Star, pp. 3, 47, 103, 177, 192; The Bugle , p. 61; the Cheyne family, picture section p. 10; A. Fullaway, picture section p. 15; The Illustrated London News, picture section pp. 5, 4 (top), 7 (top), 11 (top); Illustrated Michelin Guide, Ypres and the Battles of Ypres, p. 148; Charlie McDonald, picture section p. 15 (top right); David Rowlands, picture section p. 2 (top); Michelle Young, picture section p. 14 (top right).

I have also received considerable assistance from the following individuals who have all helped in various ways: Peter Batchelor, John Bolton, Tom Brophy, John Cameron, Jack Cavanagh, Colonel Terry Cave CBE, Peter Harris, Donald C. Jennings, Maurice Johnson, Dennis Pillinger, Joan Purcell, David Rowlands, Steve Snelling, the late Tony Spagnoly and Andrew Vollans. My wife Wynne has, as always, been a great support.

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

M.J. Dease

S.F. Godley

T. Wright

C.A. Jarvis

C.E. Garforth

F.O. Grenfell

E.W. Alexander

G.H. Wyatt

C.A.L. Yate

F.W. Holmes

D. Reynolds

J.H.C. Drain

F. Luke

E.K. Bradbury, G.T. Dorrell and D. Nelson

W. Fuller

W.H. Johnston

G. Wilson

R. Tollerton

E.G. Horlock

H.S. Ranken

F.W. Dobson

H. May

W. Kenny

J. Leach and J. Hogan

J.A.O. Brooke

A. Martin-Leake

Khudadad Khan

S.J. Bent

J.F. Vallentin

W.L. Brodie

J.H.S. Dimmer

J.F.P. Butler

T.E. Rendle

Darwan Sing Negi

F.A. de Pass

H.P. Ritchie

N.D. Holbrook

H.H. Robson

W.A. McCrae Bruce

P. Neame

J. Mackenzie

A. Acton and J. Smith

Sources

Bibliography

Plates

Copyright

PREFACE

After the publication of Vcs of the First World War: The Somme it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to produce other books on some of the 634 men who won the Victoria Cross in the First World War. 1914 is therefore the second volume in the series to be published.

I began my VCs of the First World War: 1914 research with the files of the late Canon Lummis (who was with the Cavalry in 1914 and who built up a filing system that dealt with all winners of the VC) that are cared for by the Military Historical Society and are housed at the National Army Museum in London. A similar set of files with supplementary material is kept at the Department of Printed Documents at the Imperial War Museum. Any would-be researcher should inspect both sets of files.

I wrote to all the Regimental archives kept by the various units, where they still existed, and to many local newspapers throughout the British Isles. Response to these requests was uneven but occasionally very fruitful indeed. I visited various museums including the Royal Artillery Institution who have individual files on the artillerymen who won the Victoria Cross in the First World War. I also visited the National Archives at Kew but the majority of the researching there was carried out most efficiently by Maurice Johnson.

As for the illustrations I have once again used the famous Gallahers Cigarette Card set and also many artists’ impressions, mostly from the book Deeds that Thrilled the Empire. These pictures are by no means always accurate but do give a feeling of the period and also depict attitudes that prevailed at the time. Most of the other photographs have been taken in recent years and I have been able to secure pictures of the graves of all the men where they exist. During this research I have once again been able to draw on the considerable kindness of Mr D.C. Jennings who lives in Florida, USA.

I have been unable to commission a brand new set of maps and have, therefore, reproduced some of the ones first used by David Ascoli in his book The Mons Star and also some of the maps used in the Michelin Guide to Ypres.

Lastly I have attempted to read as many published accounts of the ‘Deeds’ as possible. Some of these are listed in the Bibliography.

ABBREVIATIONS

ASH

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

BEF

British Expeditionary Force

BWM

British War Medal

BSM

Battery Sergeant Major

CB

Commander of the Bath

CG

Coldstream Guards

CRA

Commander Royal Artillery

CRE

Commander Royal Engineers

CCS

Casualty Clearing Station

DCLI

Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

DG

Dragoon Guards

DUKES

Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding)

GOC

General Officer Commanding

HLI

Highland Light Infantry

KOSB

King’s Own Scottish Borderers

KOYLI

King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

KRRC

King’s Royal Rifle Corps

LDV

Local Defence Volunteers

LG

London Gazette

MC

Military Cross

NA

The National Archives

NF

Northumberland Fusiliers

OTC

Officers Training Corps

OCA

Old Comrades Association

OP

Observation Post

Ox & Bucks

Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

PO

Petty Officer

RAMC

Royal Army Medical Corps

RA

Royal Artillery

RE

Royal Engineers

RFA

Royal Field Artillery

RFC

Royal Flying Corps

RHA

Royal Horse Artillery

RSF

Royal Scots Fusiliers

RWF

Royal Welch Fusiliers

SAA

Small Arms Ammunition

SWB

South Wales Borderers

TF

Territorial Force

VC

Victoria Cross

VM

Victory Medal

INTRODUCTION

The Victoria Cross is the most coveted decoration that can be awarded to any member of the British and Commonwealth armed services. It can also be awarded posthumously. The medal was instituted in 1856 by Queen Victoria and is made from gun metal in the design of a Maltese Cross. It measures 3.8 centimetres across. The ribbon used in 1914 was red for the army and blue for the Royal Navy and below the crown were the words For Valour. The date of the deed is inscribed on the reverse side. A small pension is paid to holders of the Cross.

The British Army was considerably altered in the period between the end of the Boer War in 1902 and the beginning of the First World War in 1914. There were lessons to be learnt and in South Africa the numerically inferior army of Boers had for much of the time out-thought and out-gunned the much larger British Army. There were also lessons to be learnt from the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–05. Instrumental in these changes was Lord Haldane, the War Minister, who brought in the Haldane reforms and instigated the Territorial Army in 1908. Its role was at first to be a supplementary one, in that it was to be a back-up to the regular army who in turn would call on its reservists in the event of hostilities.

The War Office had planned for the possibility of a European Campaign for some time and when it became clear that the German nation was set on invading and conquering France with the use of the Schlieffen Plan, the British Army was ready. Within less than two weeks the first troops of what were to be initially six infantry divisions and a cavalry division, together with a headquarters staff and back-up, were arriving in France and Belgium. Their role was one of support to their Belgian and French Allies.

At no time in 1914 and even after the arrival of the Indian Corps did the British Expeditionary Force number more than a quarter of a million men. It was this comparatively small size that led it to be known as ‘Contemptible’ and thus the men who took part in the early fighting in France and Belgium later became known as the ‘Old Contemptibles’. These servicemen were to be awarded the medal known as the Mons Star, which was struck in 1917 and was the first campaign medal of the First World War. It was awarded to those men of the army and Royal Flying Corps who served in France and Belgium between 5 August and 30 November 1914. In October 1919 a bar was awarded to those who were ‘under fire’ in France or Belgium between 5 August and 22 November 1914. By early December the British casualties came to nearly 90,000 and fewer than 230,000 bars were awarded.

There was a gap of nearly ten years when no VCs were awarded, between the action at Somaliland and the opening weeks of the First World War. The first two decorations to be awarded in the early part of the fighting in the war were for gallantry on 23 August 1914. A further forty-four were won by the end of the year and not all in France and Belgium but also in Africa and the Dardanelles. Thirteen VCs out of forty-six were awarded posthumously and eleven of these were to officers. It is difficult to say with hindsight whether this figure was on the high side. However, the circumstances of the campaign were so unusual and the British and Indian Armies so outnumbered by the German Army that it was hardly surprising that many deeds of heroism and gallantry were committed in the opening months of the fighting.

In many people’s minds mention of the First World War immediately summons up images of trench warfare, a muddy landscape and broken bodies. It is true that the latter battles to capture the siege town of Ypres did produce conditions of warfare which surely can never be repeated. However this did not apply to the early days of the fighting in August and September 1914. For then the war was one of continuous movement and change, beginning at Mons and continuing with the retreat to the Marne, only 20 miles from Paris. After the Allies ‘stood on the Marne’ the campaign changed dramatically when they pursued their German foe until they reached the valley of the River Aisne. Here the Germans made a stand, using the considerable advantage of the Aisne heights, on top of which stood the Chemin des Dames, or ‘Ladies Road’. This was no casual stand as the Germans had surveyed the area very thoroughly before the war with the help of students studying the area. They knew exactly where to place their guns and troops to the best advantage against any army that endeavoured to cross the River Aisne and attempt to push them back.

Much of the August fighting had been carried out in very warm weather, and this combined with a considerable amount of marching led to both armies becoming exhausted, with men and horses dropping by the roadside. In September, however, conditions on the Aisne were often very cold and were accompanied by an abnormal amount of rain for the region. Contrary to popular belief, trench warfare began on the Aisne and not later in the Ypres Salient. At the end of September the early fighting on the Aisne came to an inconclusive end and the British handed over their positions to the French Army and marched north through France to Flanders. Their new role was to help save the Channel ports and the town of Ypres from falling into enemy hands. They were also to become heavily involved in fighting to the south of Ypres especially at Festubert, Messines and Neuve Chapelle. By the end of the year the Western Front stretched for about 350 miles from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border and the period of static trench warfare had begun. Both sides were to face each other across a shattered landscape for nearly four years until the Germans were finally overcome with exhaustion and pursued an Armistice in November 1918.

The men who were awarded the VC in 1914 came from a varied social background; they were ‘taken up’ by the Press and became famous for a short period. The Press followed the lives of the thirty-three survivors with avid interest and this also included the reporting of any misdemeanours that they committed. Some of these men had tragic lives after the war as a result of the experience of the war itself and were often never to be fit again, along with the burden of unemployment. Britain did not look after its ‘heroes’ very well, yet the authorities had been keen to use the men in drumming up support for further recruits and volunteers for the war effort.

For one man, Francis Grenfell, the coming of war brought about the culmination of all of his soldierly ambitions. He came from a privileged background and after seeing many of his friends die, as well as his twin brother, he was to become disillusioned by the time he was shot through the heart in a gas-filled landscape in May 1915. The early ‘big adventure’ had turned into a nightmare. Lt. P. Neame, on the other hand, another career soldier, seemed to have been able to take the whole thing in his stride and within the pages of his autobiography, he does not ‘let his guard fall’ or show any form of weakness at all. Neame had considerable social advantages and was not short of money; he rose to a high rank in the army and played an active role in the Second World War as well, and when he retired from the army he was steeped in honours.

The holders of the VC must feel that they belong to the most exclusive club of all. It is one for which membership is not one of payment but of gallantry and heroism in battle.

In my book on the men who were awarded the VC on the Somme in 1916, I wrote it in such a way as to allow each man’s biography to stand up in its own right. This led to a small amount of repetition of introductory matter, but I assumed that readers might want to turn to individuals and not necessarily read the book in chronological order. However, I have decided to change this format for the present volume in order to cut down on repetition. Thus Mons, Le Cateau and Nery, for example, have a ‘block’ approach rather than an individual one. For the section on Le Cateau it looks as though Driver Luke has been rather ‘short changed’ but I would hope that he was read about in the context of the Le Cateau battle. Twenty-nine applications for VC awards were made by Sir John French in the early months of the war, of which twenty-four were successful (WO 32/4993, NA).

Finally my admiration for the men from both sides who took part in the First World War remains undimmed, and this book is dedicated to their memory.

INTRODUCTION TO THE 2011 EDITION

The History Press have decided to re-issue VCs of the First World War: 1914 and plan to re-publish the rest of the VC series in new editions and I have taken advantage of this decision by revising and updating the text.

Since the initial research for this book was carried out nearly twenty years ago, there has been an increasing interest in and awareness of the stories and lives of the men who were awarded the nation’s highest military honour. Evidence of this can be found in the amount of new books being published on the subject, the re-issuing of servicemen’s records by The National Archives and the accessibility of other records of family history, which are now readable via Ancestry, the family history magazine. The Internet has also played a major role, although such information should always be verified by cross-checking. Finally, the Victoria Cross Society, which has encouraged further research and publication of informative articles, was founded in 2002 by the Victoria Cross enthusiast Brian Best.

One of the heartening consequences of the renewed interest in the subject is in the erection of new or replacement headstones on some of the graves of these brave men, and it is hoped that in time every man who has a grave will have it properly marked.

Gerald Gliddon, Brooke, October 2010

M.J. DEASE

Mons, Belgium, 23 August

The first shots exchanged between the British and German Armies rang out at Soignies on 22 August 1914 on the northern outskirts of the Belgian city of Mons. Close by, the Condé Canal bends round in a wide loop, passing through the suburb of Nimy, thus making a salient. When the German and British Armies found themselves face to face across the canal on 23 August it was the British Expeditionary Force which was at the greater disadvantage. The drawbacks were simply that the British could be attacked from three sides.

Basically the Mons position followed the Condé Canal from Condé in the west to Binche in the east, where the 5th Cavalry Brigade was situated. The German threat came from almost all northerly directions and the BEF ran a considerable risk of becoming surrounded. The enemy intended to exploit the weakness of the Condé ‘loop position’ right from the start and if they captured it the British would have to evacuate the defence line along the straight road to Condé. At Nimy the way across the canal was by two bridges, one road and one rail bridge to its left.

Nimy turned out to be one of the earliest flashpoints of the First World War and no fewer than five Victoria Crosses were to be won in Mons and its environs on 23 August 1914.

The 4th Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment, 9th Brigade 3rd Division) had reached the outskirts of Mons on 22 August and were made very welcome by the inhabitants of the town who gave them eggs and fruit and other provisions. The battalion marched through the town and crossed the Condé Canal at Nimy and at first took up positions which were far from being ideal as there was a thick wood to the north-west. They were then ordered to retire to the canal itself and make that their line of defence along with the two bridges that crossed it. The 4th Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment, 8th Brigade) were to their right beyond the road bridge, and the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers (9th Brigade, 3rd Division) to their left, just north of Lock 6, about 800 yards to the left of the railway bridge.

In the early hours of 23 August, Gen. Sir H.L. Smith-Dorrien, the new commander of the British II Corps gave divisional orders that the bridges over the Mons-Condé canal should be prepared for demolition. The timing, however, would depend on knowledge at local level and the bridges were not to be destroyed without permission.

The 4th Royal Fusiliers had B, C and D Companies in the firing line with A Company in reserve at Nimy railway station, B and C Companies were in and around Nimy itself and were responsible for the two bridges and the embankment. The road bridge (which was a swing bridge) was to be defended by Capt. Forster with two platoons of C Company. The rail bridge was to be defended by two platoons and Company Headquarters under Capt. Ashburner with the machine-gun section of two guns under Lt. M.J. Dease. Railway sleepers were set up to act as emplacements for the gunners. The left-hand gun was atop the embankment and the right-hand gun was below the bridge. In addition the infantrymen had support from 107th Battery Royal Field Artillery (RFA) who were in trenches behind them and who were to capture the enemy range with great accuracy.

During the night one man in every three had kept awake and the rest roused themselves at first light on the 23rd. They had continued to improve the defences; the day before, Dease had ordered that flour sacks of shingle be filled to give some protection for his two machine guns. Dease had taken off his coat and helped to shovel the shingle into the sacks.

The enemy strength consisted of six German battalions from 18th Division III Corps and they first showed themselves at around 07.00 hours and the battle for the railway bridge began in earnest an hour or so later, on what turned out to be a very hot day. The Germans took cover in small plantations which helped to hide their positions, and at 09.00 hours attacked the narrow position at the head of Nimy bridge in close formation which resulted in considerable casualties from the British machine guns and rapid firing riflemen. The survivors retreated in some haste and took cover behind the plantations where they hid for half an hour, before renewing the attack, but this time in extended order. The attack was not stopped in its tracks and Capt. Ashburner’s company of Royal Fusiliers was under extremely heavy pressure. Very soon after the firing began Dease was hit for the first time. Lt. J.F. Mead was sent up with a platoon to help out but on arrival he was immediately wounded in the head. He had the wound dressed and on returning to the bridge was shot again in the head, this time fatally. Capt. Bowdon-Smith and Lt. Smith also went up to the bridge with another platoon but within a few minutes they too became casualties. Smith was killed and Bowden-Smith was wounded and died a few days later.

Mons, 23 August

Capt. Ashburner received a head wound and Capt. Forster, in a trench to his right, was injured in the stomach and arm, and died two hours later. Dease was hit in the neck and was told by Lt. F.W.A. Steele ‘to lie still and don’t move. We are getting it all our own way.’ Dease asked, ‘How’s the machine gun getting on?’ and stood up but was hit again. He struggled up to handle one of the guns himself and was hit once more, this time seriously. Dease had spent some time before serving one of the two guns with ammunition but he became impatient and crawled his way to the right-hand gun and dragged the wounded gunner away. He then began to fire the gun himself and rolled the wounded man down the embankment which must have saved his life. Dease was exposed to murderous rifle, machine gun, and artillery fire, and kept calling for gunners to take the place of the men who were dead or wounded in the fighting. Dease’s head was especially vulnerable, as were those of his colleagues, and it was only a matter of time before he was going to be killed and he must have known it. When he fell for the last time his body slumped across the railway lines and he probably died later at around 15.30 hours, after the infantry had withdrawn. During the action which lasted only a few hours this extremely brave officer ‘fussed over’ his guns and was only happy when both guns were firing in unison. He had rejected any attempts of sending him to hospital and on his death became an immediate hero to his battalion. Dease and his colleagues had fought as long as they were able and everyone involved was either killed or wounded. The position at Nimy bridge grew desperate and D Company to the left at Ghlin Bridge was going through a similar experience. Six burning barges on the canal added to the confusion.

When orders for the inevitable retirement came at 14.00 hours B and C Companies of the Royal Fusiliers were to leave first. They had to move from their dangerous position across 250 yards of exposed ground which was swept by shrapnel and machine-gun fire. Lt. Steele was said to have gathered up the mortally wounded Dease in his arms but this was not so, although Steele seems to have been the only man to have escaped without any injury. Pte. S.F. Godley who had been on the bridge since the start of the day had taken over one of the machine guns and kept it firing until long after his companions got away. He then proceeded to destroy the gun and fling the pieces into the canal. The retirement was carried out efficiently and the battalion was able to re-assemble in an open space in the centre of Mons. According to an eye-witness C Company looked in a bad state. The battalion, after forming up, marched through the town to an old château in front of which they bivouacked for the night.

For reasons that cannot easily be explained the casualties of 4th Royal Fusiliers on 23 August were not published for several weeks. This naturally caused considerable distress to their families. The blame must lie with the Royal Fusiliers themselves or with the War Office. The war being so young at this stage may have meant that systems had yet to be set up properly for the recording of casualties.

The War Office sent a telegram to his family on 5 September saying that Dease had been killed in action, but a week later this was followed up with a telegram stating that he was actually wounded but missing. Three days later the family received further details of what had actually happened when they learned of his injuries from a letter written to another officer by Capt. W. Hill, the Adjutant of the Royal Fusiliers. It said that Dease had been seriously wounded and might even be dead according to some witnesses. Eventually, Capt. Hill, now back at Aldershot, interviewed some of the survivors from the Nimy bridge fighting and listed the casualties which he admitted included Maurice Dease as killed. Still no names of casualties had been published concerning the Royal Fusiliers but on 16 September the Dease family finally received more firm evidence about Dease’s death from a sergeant who was on the bridge at Nimy during the fighting. He wrote, ‘Dease, as far as we know, was killed in this action.’ The next day the family heard from a Mrs Harter whose son James had been with the Battalion Staff that he had told her of Maurice’s death on 2 September. However, as this was not official information the family still clung on to the slim hope that Maurice might have been taken prisoner.

They contacted the War Office but this brought forth no hard facts about Maurice’s fate and they learned that ‘nothing had been reported about Lt. Dease.’ Finally, on 18 September the family had to accept the stark truth that they would never see Maurice alive again when they heard of his death in a letter written by Maj. Maltlock, second in command of the 4th Royal Fusiliers. However, the confusion did not end there as the War Office, changing its mind again, sent a third telegram on the 28th stating that Dease was missing and not dead. By this time the family had accepted the inevitable and wisely ignored this third communication.

On 25 September the Dease family received a letter from Lt. K. Tower which told them that Maurice had ‘died gallantly and certainly deserved the VC. I am trying to see that he is mentioned in Despatches. The whole regiment were really proud of him and the way he worked his machine gun on the bridge at Mons and everyone mourns the loss of one of the most popular and best officers in the Regiment.’

On the 27th Lt. Steele wrote to the family as well saying:

Poor Maurice got shot below the knee or thereabouts about 9am while he was attending to a machine gun on the left side of the bridge. Ashburner and I begged him to go off and get fixed up at the hospital, but he refused. He then crawled over to the right-hand side gun. Almost as soon as he got there he was again shot somewhere in the side. I made him lie down near me and with difficulty kept him quiet as he was worried about his guns. I promised to look after these for him and he settled down a bit quieter. I asked him if he was in any pain and he said, ‘No’ and smiled more or less cheerfully. As soon as I managed to get the guns going again he seemed much more happy. He seemed to have been hit again while I was busy on his left. For the next two hours there was a perfect hail of machine-gun fire as well as Artillery and Infantry fire. Maurice during this time became very quiet, and I fancy unconscious. When we retired Maurice had to be left behind …

A Pte. Marshall also wrote to Dease’s sister:

… All went well (on the bridge) until we saw some German cavalry galloping across our front and C Coy. opened fire upon them and when they ceased firing, a German cavalry officer came and gave himself up as prisoner. Shortly afterwards we saw some Germans dodging about between some houses and your brother told a Private to lay the gun on the space between the houses and when he saw the Germans again to open fire. We fired and in about half an hour the Private got wounded in the head, and your brother told him to go and get it bandaged up and then I took over the gun and then I saw the Germans advancing towards us …

Another letter from Lt. K. Tower read as follows:

You really ought to hear the men back from the 4th Battalion talk of Maurice, it would do your heart good. They simply adore him and it’s quite funny to see so many of them have brought photographs of him taken in the old groups of the Battalion and cut him out … Sir A. Conan Doyle is lecturing on the Great Battles of the war in several places, and he talks at some length about Maurice and his VC at Mons. I sent him my diary on the subject … You ought to have heard the cheers at the town hall at Folkestone – it would have made you feel proud …

A Patriotic Meeting took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London and a member of the audience wrote: ‘Young Maurice Dease, VC and Captain Ranken, VC were both shown on the screen and the thousands present rose to their feet and cheered enthusiastically. It was a wonderful tribute from Great Britain and if the mothers of those boys who gave their lives for their country could have seen it, it might comfort their sad lonely hearts.’

Dease’s VC was gazetted on 16 November 1914 and although others were approved on that day, his was the first act of gallantry to warrant such an award. Dease was recommended for the award by Lt. Col. McMahon, probably on the evidence of Lt. Steele who had witnessed the fight to hold Nimy railway bridge. Dease was buried at St Symphorien Military Cemetery 31 ⁄2 miles to the south-east of Mons. The cemetery, which is one of the most beautifully designed war cemeteries on the Western Front, was laid out by the Germans who must have picked up Dease’s body at Nimy bridge from the rail track. His grave is numbered V, B, 2, and the German and British graves are laid out in groups or clumps in a most attractive design.

Maurice James Dease was born in Gaulstown, Coole, County Westmeath, Ireland on 28 September 1889. He was the only son of Edmund Fitzlaurence Dease, JP, and Katherine Mary, eldest daughter of Maurice Murray of Beech Hill, Cork. He was also the grandson of James Arthur Dease, JP, DL, the vice-lieutenant of Cavan. At the age of eight he went to the Frognal Park preparatory school in Hampstead, London. In September 1903 he left and went to the Roman Catholic Stonyhurst College. The college, a Jesuit public school in Lancashire, is able to claim seven holders of the VC among its former students, and their portraits are on display there. Dease took his religion seriously and became a server in the college chapel. He was also interested in natural history and wrote articles on birds for the college magazine.

Having become a member of the College OTC, he left Stonyhurst in June 1907 for the Army College in Wimbledon about four years later before going on to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

He was commissioned into 4th Royal Fusiliers in May 1910 as a second lieutenant and was promoted to full lieutenant on 19 April 1912. He later became machine-gun officer and was for a time Acting Adjutant. When war broke out in early August 1914 the battalion was stationed at Parkhurst and had mobilized within three days; by the 13th it was in France at Le Havre. The battalion journeyed to Belgium in a circuitous route via Amiens and ended up on the Belgian-French border, arriving at Mons on 22 August from the direction of Brussels.

After Dease’s death at Nimy on 23 August his family received his VC by post on 11 January 1915. He was later commemorated in Westminster Cathedral, on the Catholic Officers’ Association Roll of Honour. There is also a plaque to his memory and that of Pte. Godley at Nimy. The plaque was unveiled in April 1939 on the original bridge and later hidden from the Germans. Other commemorations include his name on the College War Memorial at Stonyhurst; a painting of him and the other College VC holders in the Refectory, a wayside cross memorial in Woodchester, Stroud near the Catholic church. His name is also included on a headstone in Coole R.C. churchyard.

In 1964 a service of remembrance was held at the Nimy memorial. This was attended by Brig. P.R. Ashburner, the son of Capt. Ashburner who commanded the company defending the two Nimy bridges, fifty years before. Others who attended included Dease’s sister and his nephew, Maj. French.

There is a picture of Dease at the museum in Mons. Any visitor today will find the Nimy landscape very different from 1914, for a few years ago the canal was drained and turned into a motorway. The canal now exists as only little more than a drainage ditch. In the 1980s a painting of the action on the bridge at Nimy was commissioned for the Royal Fusiliers.

Although Dease’s medals had been displayed at the Regimental Museum which is in the grounds of the Tower of London; they belonged to his nephew Maj. French. In the mid-1980s the major wrote to the Regimental Association informing it that he wished to sell them in order to raise some money for his grandchildren’s education. However, he offered to give the regiment ‘first refusal’. The sale transaction was carried out with the minimum of fuss and the medals were valued by an expert at about £18,000. It was felt by both parties that they would fetch more at auction but selling them privately would keep the costs down. Maj. French was paid in instalments.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London was empowered to pay half of the cost providing that the regiment found the rest of the money. As the VC medal had the extra cachet of being the first awarded in the First World War there was no real means of estimating its value at auction. Dease’s other medals included the 1914 Star with Mons Clasp, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

S.F. GODLEY

Mons, Belgium, 23 August

After eight days of having travelled through a mixture of very hot and wet weather, the 4th Royal Fusiliers reached Mons on 22 August where they took up positions guarding Nimy Bridge on the north side of the Mons-Condé. Pte. Sidney Frank Godley was a member of the 4th Royal Fusiliers and was part of Lt. Dease’s machine-gun section at Nimy rail bridge on 23 August. Some accounts say that he was one of those men called upon to take over a gun and yet Godley himself said that he was on the bridge all the time, helping to provide ammunition. The main point of his story is that he was asked to man one of the machine guns by Lt. F.W.A. Steele when orders had been given to retire. Godley knew that this would result in him being captured by the Germans, dead or alive.

He took over a machine gun from Dease when the latter had been mortally wounded and although badly wounded himself, he managed to hold the bridge single-handed for two hours, while the Royal Fusiliers carried out their retirement. Eventually, after running out of ammunition, his final act was to destroy his gun and to toss the pieces into the Condé Canal. It is more likely that the gun was actually destroyed by enemy fire as the battalion war diary states, and they had inflicted tremendous damage on the German infantry. The enemy had allowed many lives to be squandered in the Nimy fighting.

Godley crawled back from the bridge to the main road where he was helped to a hospital by two Belgian civilians. When he was having his twenty-seven wounds dressed the hospital was taken over by the Germans and he was taken prisoner. He was asked many questions, such as which unit he belonged to and who was his Commanding Officer. He refused to answer. He was then sent to Berlin for surgery and skin grafts; his back alone needed 150 stitches. When he was fit enough he was transferred to a POW camp at Doberitz. The senior German officer at the camp was the first man to tell Godley of his award of the Victoria Cross and Godley was congratulated by his jailer and invited to dine with him on Christmas Day! This was after 25 November 1914 when his award was gazetted. Godley remained a prisoner of war for four years, and was able to walk out of the camp in 1918 when the camp guards deserted their posts during the revolution in Berlin. He then returned to England having made his escape via Denmark. He was presented with his VC by the King in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace on 15 February 1919.

He was welcomed home by the Mayor of Lewisham eleven days later on 26 February and presented with 50 guineas and a copy of the Lewisham Roll of Honour.

Sidney Frank Godley was the son of Frank Godley, a house painter, and his wife Avis, née Newton. The couple had two children: Kate, born in 1888, and Sidney, born in Imber Home Lane, North End, East Grinstead, Sussex, on 14 August 1889. After his mother died in 1895, Sidney was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Willesden, North London. He then attended Henry Street School in St John’s Wood. After his father re-married he decided to move to Sidcup where Sidney returned to live with him and his new step-mother, and he then continued his schooling at Sidcup National School in Birbeck Road. At the age of fourteen Sidney left this school and returned to Kentish Town where he got a job working in an ironmongers in Kilburn High Road, and it was at this time that he probably took up plumbing as a useful trade. Six years later, on 13 December 1909, Sidney enlisted in the 4th Royal Fusiliers and was allocated the service number of 13814. While he was in the army Sidney became a noted sportsman.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914 his battalion was one of the first to embark for France. They arrived in Le Havre on 14 August and reached the outskirts of Mons eight days later. In 1954 he recorded a programme for the BBC on the 40th anniversary of the Mons battle and said:

… a little boy and girl came up on the bridge, and brought me some rolls and coffee. I was thoroughly enjoying the rolls and coffee, and talking to the children the best I could, when the Germans started shelling. So I said to this little boy and girl; ‘You’d better sling your hooks now, otherwise you may get hurt.’ Well, they packed their basket and left.

In 1919 Godley became a plumber and married Ellen Eliza Norman, five years his senior, who was a friend of his sister. The marriage took place at St Mark’s church, Harlesden, on 2 August 1919 with the Rev E.N. Mellish, VC, MC, officiating. The couple were to have two children. In the following year the Sidcup National School presented Godley with a marble clock and £150 worth of War Bonds, and in June 1920 he also attended a garden party for VC holders at Buckingham Place. In 1921 he secured a job as a janitor at Cranbrook School in Tower Hamlets, a position he was to hold for thirty years.

Between the wars Godley worked very hard on behalf of service charities. On occasions he dressed up as ‘Old Bill’ the character created by the artist Bruce Bairnsfather. It is true that he did bear some likeness to ‘Old Bill’. This became his nickname and there are several photographs which bear this out. However the writer is one of those who considers that the character was not really based on one individual soldier but rather on an amalgam of characters and individuals. He was more of a symbol of the typical British Tommy of the First World War than a real person. Godley, however, used the likeness to good effect and wore a walrus moustache, and combined this with sporting a pipe and wearing his hat at a raffish angle. On occasions he wore a helmet with the design of a Union Jack covering it. He never ceased to attend ceremonies commemorating the war or special functions arranged for the ‘Old Contemptibles’ and in November 1931 he took part in the Armistice Service at the Cenotaph in London.

In April 1939, nearly twenty-five years after the Battle of Mons had taken place, a party of fifty men from the Royal Fusiliers attended the unveiling of a new bridge at Nimy. During the service a plaque commemorating the heroism of Lt. Dease and Pte. Godley was unveiled. Godley was also presented with a special medal in the previous year by the people of Mons. Altogether he made seven visits to Mons, his last being in 1939. The mayor of Mons gave a lunch at the Hotel de Ville and Godley was guest of honour. Another of the guests, who signed a menu of the luncheon, was one of the children who had fed Godley with rolls and coffee in 1914. In 1940 the plaque was taken down from Nimy bridge and hidden for the duration of the war. The plaque was returned in 1961.

In 1954 Godley gave an interview to the Daily Express on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Mons battle on 23 August and said, ‘It was Sunday. People in their best suits were going to church … They didn’t know the Germans were so near, of course. No one did … Then suddenly the Germans were everywhere.’

Godley was virtually a ‘local boy’ to the Regimental Museum at the Tower of London and was very fond of London’s East End. He had connections with Tower Hamlets and Bethnal Green. The school where he worked was the Cranbrook School, and his home address was Digby Street off Globe Road, E1. However late in his life he moved to No. 164 Torrington Drive, Loughton in Essex. He attended the centenary VC celebrations in London in 1956, but on 29 June the following year he died of pneumonia at St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping. He was buried on 5 July with full military honours in grave number 3051 at Loughton Cemetery, St John’s church. At his funeral the Revd B.W. Ottaway was assisted by the Revd Mellish, VC, who, although retired, travelled up from Somerset for the service. Mellish had also married the Godleys back in 1919. A firing party from the Royal Fusiliers fired a volley over the grave and provided a bearer party. An ‘Old Contemptibles’ badge was placed on the grave. Ellen, his widow, died in March 1963 when she was seventy-seven and was buried alongside her husband.

Such was Godley’s fame that his memory was to be commemorated in several ways. His name is remembered with a memorial in the Garrison church, Portsea, Hampshire, and in 1976 a new group of sheltered housing flats were named after him in Bexley, Greater London, but since then they have been threatened with closure. On 23 August 1985 further commemorations took place at Mons, organised by the Royal Fusiliers, and were attended by many members of Godley’s family. In the 1980s a decision was taken to build a housing block in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, which was to be named after a ‘local hero’. At first the name of Blair Peach was suggested by the left wing council. Peach, a teacher from New Zealand, was killed aged thirty-three during an anti-fascist demonstration against the National Front in Southall in 1979. In 2010 it was admitted by the Metropolitan Police that one of their officers was responsible for the blow that killed the young man. There was a lot of discussion in the council chamber on the merits of the two men and finally it was Godley’s name that was agreed upon. Eventually the plaque was unveiled on 8 May 1992 and the block was called the Sidney Godley VC House. Godley’s son, members of the Royal Fusiliers and members of the council attended the unveiling.

Other commemorations can be found in the Lewisham Civic Centre, unveiled in May 1995 by Cpt. Philip Gardner to the memory of Godley and Mellish as well as six other VC holders who had local connections. Three years later East Grinstead Town Council in West Sussex put up a plaque to Godley’s memory on the council office at East Court which was unveiled in August. In November 2000, in his home town, Loughton Town Council also put up a plaque on the last house he lived in, 164 Torrington Drive.

Godley’s VC and medals remain in private hands.

T. WRIGHT

Mons, Belgium, 23 August

Gen. Sir H.L. Smith-Dorrien in charge of II Corps gave orders early on 23 August that the various bridges over the Mons-Condé Canal should be prepared for demolition by the Royal Engineers. However the timing of the destruction of the bridges was to be a decision made by divisional commanders or at local level. Thus each bridge was prepared for blowing, even while some of them were being fought over. During this whole operation there were many examples of heroism. Unfortunately the end result did not do much to slow the advance of the German Army.

It was the 3rd Division that was mainly responsible for the Mons-Condé line and we already know that the 4th Royal Fusiliers (9th Brig.) were covering the two bridges at Nimy, with the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers to their left close to Lock 6, then came the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers.

Two companies of the Royal Engineers were part of the 3rd Division, the 56th and 57th Field Companies. Capt. Theodore Wright was the Adjutant divisional Royal Engineer under the command of the divisional CRE, Lt. Col. C.S. Wilson.

Wright was detailed to supervise 57th Field Company’s preparation of the destruction of eight of the bridges over the canal. 56 Field Company also had some bridges to supervise.

After Mariette Bridge had been prepared by Sgt. Smith and Sapper Dabell, Capt. Wright was seen, by some Engineers, to be coming from the direction of Lock 2 where he had been wounded by shrapnel. He had been hit when trying to cross a gap of 20 yards between the barricade, set up by the infantry, and Cpl. Jarvis’s (57th Field Coy.) boat from which Jarvis was attempting to lay charges under heavy fire going on overhead. Occasionally Jarvis and Sapper Neary had to dash back to the barricade to fetch more explosives and to run out their leads. In the afternoon it was discovered from a despatch rider, who was on his way to the RSF, that orders for the retirement had been given. Wright’s problem was then how to blow up five bridges, on a front of 3 miles with only one exploder. Sensibly he used a car to get him from bridge to bridge in the shortest period of time, taking the exploder with him. He first visited Dayos Bridge and Jemappes was blown at around 15.00 hours.

Lt. A.F. Day attempted to blow the bridges at Nimy but lacked an instantaneous fuse which slowed operations down. He worked on the rail bridge judging it to be the more important one but before he could finish fixing his charges, he was wounded and taken prisoner. The bridge at Lock 2 was omitted from the list owing to a lack of time to detonate it and the one next to it. The next bridge on Wright’s list was the important bridge at Mariette which carried the main road. Wright worked his way under the bridge and although wounded struggled to set the charges. He was assisted in this work by Sgt. Smith. Wright succeeded in joining up his leads with the local electricity supply in a nearby house, hoping that the current would set off the detonator. However at that very moment the current failed.

B Company of the 1st NF was still holding out at the barricade on the south side of the canal, but the towpath was separated from the barricade by a subsidiary canal, which here spanned the girder bridge 15 to 20 feet wide. Capt. Wright ‘bridge-laddered’ under this subsidiary canal bridge with extra leads tied on him, and time and time again tried to get at the end of the leads on the towpath. Each time his hands or head appeared above the level of the towpath he was fired at from about 30 yards, so eventually he gave up the attempt. In swinging himself back under the girder across the subsidiary canal, he lost his grip owing to exhaustion, and was pulled out of the water by Sgt. Smith.

The Engineers were almost the last British troops to leave Mons and did not get away until about 17.00 hours. It was a very great pity, despite the heroic efforts of 57th Field Company, that out of eight bridges only the one close to Jemappes station was successfully destroyed.

Two days later men of B Coy. 1st NF who had been particularly impressed by Wright’s gallantry, saw him riding past their billets at Bavai and gave him a very enthusiastic cheer. The retreat from Mons began on 23 August and was followed by the Battle of the Marne on 6 September when the Allies began to drive the enemy back towards the Aisne. At this stage 57th Field Company was at Chartres on its way to Lumigny. On the 8th the men crossed the Marne at Nanteuil and marched to Ventelet and later Damard. A few days later they had gone northwards as far as Braine close to the Aisne river.

During the night of the 13th/14th, 56 and 57 Field Companies built pontoon bridges at Vailly, a small town on the Aisne. The 5th Cavalry Brigade crossed the pontoon bridge into the town and then owing to heavy shellfire had to retreat in a hurry. They retired to a wood near Chasseny. Capt. Wright supervised the crossing of the cavalry brigade on their return journey.

An eyewitness, a member of the 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys), was later to write:

We got across the river at Vailly the day before yesterday (14th Sept.), a bit before our time, and had to get back over a pontoon bridge considerably quicker than was pleasant – under a very unpleasant fire, too. At the head of the bridge was a gallant Engineer officer, repairing bits blown off and putting down straw as cool as a cucumber – the finest thing I have ever seen. The poor fellow was killed just after my troop got across. No man earned a better VC.

The official account said that Wright was mortally wounded while helping an injured man into a shelter. During heavy shellfire, which was affecting both banks of the river, he had made himself responsible not only for the bridge but also for the safety of those who crossed it. Two sappers and a sergeant were also killed with Wright.

Wright was buried at Vailly British Cemetery II, B, 21 and his VC was awarded posthumously on 16 November. Mrs Wright received her son’s VC from the King at Buckingham Palace on 16 November 1916.

Theodore Wright, known as Dodo, was the son of William Walter and Arabella Wright; he was born in Brighton, Sussex on 15 May 1883. The family lived at Albury, a small village near Guildford in Surrey. Wright was educated at Clifton College and then went to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He played hockey and cricket and on one occasion he was in the army cricket team against Hampshire. He passed out of the Academy and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in October 1902.

After initial training at Chatham, he was stationed at Aldershot with the Balloon Section until December 1906. He later served with them in Gibraltar and Cairo. On 21 June 1905 he was made a full lieutenant. He was appointed to 2nd Fortress Company Cairo in January 1907 and returned to Aldershot in October 1912. He then went to Chatham where he took an advanced course and became Adjutant of 3rd Div RE deployed with the BEF at Bulford Camp, in Wiltshire, while serving with the 56th Field Company which he was with until the beginning of the war. He was made a captain on 1 October 1913.

At the start of the war, 57th Field Company was at Bulford Camp and received its mobilization orders on 4 August 1914. It left Amesbury twelve days later for its journey to the front. The men travelled from Southampton to Rouen and then to the Mons area via Aulnoye, Feignies and Cuesmes where they arrived on the 22nd with orders to strengthen the bridgeheads.

A chauffeur who must have been in charge of the car that Wright used to inspect the Mons bridge on 23 August wrote this of him: ‘He was the officer who got wounded in the head while I was driving him at Mons. When I was under fire there, I took a wounded soldier to the hospital and returned into the fire for the Captain. It was a bit risky, with eight cases of dynamite on the car. He was a brave man.’ After the Mons fighting on 23 August the company moved on to Harmignies south of Mons and entrenched a position at Nouvelles. The next day it was ordered to erect some barricades for the 9th Brigade, in Frameries and lost twelve bicycles when suddenly caught up in the retirement.

L. Cpl. Jarvis (see next chapter), who was also working on destroying the Jemappes bridge at Mons, wrote this of Wright: ‘The work on the bridge was done under fire from three sides. Near the bridge I found Captain Theodore Wright, wounded in the head. I wished to bandage him but he said, “Go back to the bridge.” It must be done – and so I went …’

After Wright’s death Lt. Col. Wilson wrote to his mother: ‘No one has earned a VC better, and I am truly glad they have given it to him. I have known him so long, and I have always been very fond of him. He was one of the finest officers I have ever had, and I feel his loss every day …’

His VC was one of the first to be awarded in the First World War. It is not held in a public collection, but his original wooden grave marker is held at Chatham.