Trench Lincs 11th May 2025

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Good Morning,

Welcome to the second edition of Trench Lincs for May which comes to you from Southwold in Suffolk where I am enjoying the seaside on my birthday, with family and friends.

Also, as a quick reminder, please note that I shall be on the Trench Lincs stand with Robin Sayer next Sunday 18th May at Woodhall Spa Country Show. If you are attending, please do come and say hello.

There are a number of additional events advertised below too, which I hope you will find of interest and a real smorgasbord of interesting articles and snippets.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS.

Next Meeting - Lincoln & North Lincolnshire Branch WFA - Monday, June 2nd - Doors open 7.00pm for prompt start at 7.30pm - Venue: Royal Naval Association Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG.

The Branch takes its traditional "holiday" from holding lectures this month.  Our next lecture will be on Monday, June 2nd, when Joanna Costin will be travelling from her home in Ely to present "Answering the Manpower Question." The story of how the shortage of manpower both in the factories at home, and on the frontline, was answered.  Jo was booked at the request of a Branch supporter, and comes highly recommended.  More details nearer the time.

In the meantime, the Branch will be making an appearance at Woodhall Spa Country Show on Sunday May 18th, where we have taken a stand in the Heritage Tent alongside our colleagues from other local WW1 history groups.  Our stand will be manned by Dave Burkitt and Peter Garland.  Do come along and say hello at this really pleasant family event. [Any further offers of help on the day would be welcomed – Ed]

Location:The New Showfield, Green Lane, Woodhall Spa, LN10 6QY. Note they run a one-way system on the day, and access to Green Lane will be signed via Stixwould Road.

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The East Midlands (Nottingham) WFA Branch meets again on Friday 13th June at 7.30pm at St. Peter’s Church Hall, Church Street, Ruddington, Nottingham, NG11 6HA. All welcome.

The speaker is Nigel Atter who will speak about ‘The 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment at the Battle of Loos, September 1915.’

This K3 Kitchener battalion was rushed to the front on the opening day, 25th September, and paid a heavy price for the poor planning by Sir John French and his staff. The disappointment of Loos would see French lose his command and be replaced by Haig in December.

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Next Meeting - Spalding & South Lincolnshire Branch, WFA – Thursday 22nd May, - Doors open 7.00pm for prompt start at 7.30pm - Venue: Spalding Baptist Church, Swan Street, Spalding, PE11 1BT.

Grant Cullen presents "1914-1918, the First Air War - People & Planes".

Grant is the Secretary of the Chesterfield Branch, WFA, and Editor of their monthly newsletter, "The Spire".  He is a retired chemicals industry executive with wide interests in model making, railways (he has written many magazine articles on railway history, plus the history of World War 1, and has travelled extensively around the world for both business and pleasure visiting many historical battlefields on the way. 

His talk this evening will look at WW1 aircraft and pilots (many lesser known) from all the combatant nations. The talk is based around a collection of photographs a friend of his - John Mircum - living in Hazlewood (near St Louis), Missouri, USA, picked up by accident at a yard sale (he thought the box contained carpet slippers!), and was greatly surprised when he got it home to find he had a collection of historic photographs!  Grant says that he has seen few (if any?) of these in print or elsewhere, and will bring out some interesting facts that he suspects very few attendees will know much about regarding the individuals pictured in the photos…Sir David Henderson, Tommy Sopwitw, Roland Garros, Antony Fokker, Eddie Rickenbacker (subject of a very interesting - and rather moving tale - of how a seagull saved his life)….Piotr Nestorov and others. He will also be showing a short, and very fascinating, animated film showing how the Lewis gun actually operates.

Grant and John met around 20 years ago when they were working together on a project at Granite City Steel across the river in Missouri and have kept in touch ever since.  John digitised and e-mailed the photographs to Grant, later mailing the originals. However, the package containing the originals was lost in transit and, despite their best attempts to track it down, remains missing to this day.  It is, therefore, very fortunate John digitised them first thus saving them for posterity.

The Branch looks forward to seeing you on the night at this pleasant venue.  Doors open 7.00pm for 7.30pm start, but please note you may have to ring the doorbell to gain entry (this because we cannot monitor the doors from our meeting room).  On-street car parking.  Free refreshments.

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The Leadenham Military History Group’s next meeting will be on Tuesday 27th May, at Leadenham Village Hall with a start time of 6.30/7.30pm.

From 6.30pm there will be a display of Military Vehicles in the village hall car park and surrounds.

At 7.30pm Ian Prince will present “WWII May to September 1945 Asia-Pacific Theatre.”

As we celebrate VE Day on 8th May, our very Anglo-Centric view of the Second World War often means that we forget that the war against Japan continued until mid-August 1945 as it was primarily an American theatre of war.

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The next presentation in the Friends of Lincoln Tank 2025 season of talks will be held on Thursday 12th June.  Please note that there is no branch meeting in May.

Andy Burn will present “Fray Bentos, the action, the crew and the forthcoming film.”

Trapped: The Story of Fray Bentos - The Tank Museum

The venue will be, as ever, The Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln.  The entrance fee for the event is £5.00 payable on the night on the door.  Doors will open at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start and I hope many of you will be able to join and support us on the evening.  Refreshments will be available at the bar and there is plenty of parking available on site.  Don’t forget you do not need to be a member of FoLT to attend.  All will be warmly welcomed – old and young.  See you all then.

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Another group who meet at the Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG are the Lincs Aviation Society.

I now have great pleasure in advertising their forthcoming events, which take place on the third Thursday of each month - entry is £2 for members and £3 for visitors.

However, for their May event, there will be an evening visit to Metheringham Airfield on Thursday 15th May, meet at 6.45pm. Ray Sellers will be our guide for the night and this event is open to everyone and will double up with the Lincoln WFA’s branch May outing.

THIS COMING THURSDAY EVENING. PLEASE DO TURN UP - Westmoor Farm, LN4 3WF.

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The Reeves family have owned and lived at Leadenham Estate for more than 200 years, I believe.

One of the Reeves’ family military ancestors commanded a Guards battalion at Waterloo and therefore it is fitting that as we approach the 210th anniversary of the battle, there will be a talk and a lunch at Leadenham on 18th June.

Waterloo Day Lunch, Tour & Lecture at Leadenham House on Wednesday 18th June

10:30 Arrival and Refreshments

11:00 Introduction & Lecture

12:30 Tour of Rooms and Waterloo Memorabilia

13:00 Lunch followed by tour of the church

15:00 Guests Depart

Speaker: Mark Wardle, Retired Naval Officer, active member of the Waterloo Association

Tickets £35pp

For information and booking, contact Jackie Persse: jpersse2000@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks to Felicity Sayers for notifying me of this local and very interesting event.

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Felicity also pointed me in the direction of the current VE Day poppy display that is available to view at the International Bomber Command Centre on the outskirts of Lincoln.

Felicity writes; ’Andrew and I took a run up to look at the latest installation at the IBCC and see their poppies for VE through to VJ display. It was lovely to see it and read the stories on the interpretative panels. I attach a couple of images. The main feature is the shape of a Lancaster in the middle of the poppy field (copyright acknowledged for that photo) 

IBCC open most days, £3 car park fee applies but otherwise free to wander the grounds and see the poppies. Great on site café.’

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Felicity has been very busy on our behalf this week, and she also spotted that the White Hart hotel, where the Lincoln WFA branch holds its annual Christmas lunch, [December 13th 2025 for your diaries – Ed] has been awarded a Blue Plaque from WorldOriginSite.org in recognition of the part the hotel played in the development of the first fighting tanks.

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On the weekend of 7th and 8th June, there will be a WWI themed exhibition at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, Burton Road, Lincoln, LN1 3NY.

Museum of Lincolnshire Life – About the museum - Lincolnshire County Council

Friends of the Lincoln Tank, Lincoln WFA branch and many others will have stands for you to visit in what will be a most informative weekend.

In the main museum, you can also view a genuine WWI Lincoln built tank and Charles Sharpe’s medals including his Victoria Cross.

Unfortunately, that weekend clashes with the first of two family weddings for me in June, so I send my apologies for absence, but hope that many of you will make the effort to attend.

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Bill Pinfold has kindly notified me of this forthcoming event on Thursday 22nd May at 12.30pm. It is an online talk about the first Zeppelin raids on London, and the event is organised by the London Archives.

The London Archives | London Archives

Please contact the London Archives to register for this online talk.

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I am delighted to advertise once again, the forthcoming events at the Peterborough Military History Group. I am also very pleased to be able to attend the meeting on July 9th and am arranging to meet up with Matt Colley prior to the talk.

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Last week I wrote about my trip to Manchester and that my wife and I had taken our 15 year- old granddaughter, Melody, out for lunch followed by a little retail therapy!

Whilst with her, we had a good chat about the current war in Ukraine and I also showed her the war memorials in Manchester city centre that I featured last week.

I was therefore, delighted to receive a text from her this week and a photograph of this splendid WWI memorial that can be viewed at Manchester’s Piccadilly station.

It is quite obviously inspired by John Singer Sergeant’s famous painting – ‘Gassed’, and hopefully, I have inspired Melody to look at war memorials in a new light in the future!

GASSED by John Singer Sergeant.

[My son gets in on the act too, see below - Ed]

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St. Martin’s church at Blyton near Gainsborough is a Grade I listed church of ancient historical importance. This last week, Don Jenkins visited to view the ‘Flags of the Allies’ that reside within the church and date back to the 1914-18 conflict.

Don kindly shared the following photos for our enjoyment. Once again, it goes to show that you do not need to visit France to find the Great War. It is literally on our doorsteps!

St. Martin's WWI Roll of Honour.

Thank you Don.

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John Pritchard and Ray Sellers recently visited the Rolls Royce aero engine museum at Hucknall in Notts. John takes up the story; ‘Sorry for the delay in sending you details and pictures of a recent visit with Ray Sellers to Hucknall in Nottinghamshire.

St. Mary Magdalene church is found in Hucknall town centre with two-hour free parking just outside the church building. There is a side chapel with a fine display of a "Roll of Honour", a stained glass window showing the Sherwood Foresters and Lincolnshire Regimental badges, along with a wooden screen that had the names of local soldiers lost in the Great War.

I picked out the rosette with the name of J. Edward Braseby from the 2nd Battalion Notts & Derbys Regiment KIA 20th November 1917 in France. 

This is also the place where Lord Byron is buried in the family crypt with his other family relatives, especially his daughter Ada Lovelace (Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace) being a learned mathematician who worked with Charles Babbage. 

We then travelled to the Hucknall "Flight Test Museum" which has only recently opened to visitors, where there is an excellent display of various artefacts to support the developmental history by Rolls-Royce, and a hall filled with piston / jet engines to see during the guided tour, along with the engine test laboratory.  A voluntary donation of £10 is recommended on entry. Both places are well worth a visit. ‘

Thank you for the tip off John.

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Declan Martin-Thompson has a truly superb collection of Lincolnshire soldier’s Great War medals, and this week, he sent me details of his latest purchase.

48582 Private D F Dales was a Boston lad from Tipsey who served with the 6th battalion of the King’s Liverpool Regiment. Private Dales died of his wounds at the Rouen base hospital on 7th August 1917 and is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen.

We Will Remember Them.

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On Wednesday 30th April, thirteen Trench Lincs Pals made the journey by train and by car to Imphal Barracks on Fulford Road, York. In glorious weather we had a private viewing of the Kohima Museum that is situated at the barracks.

The curator, Bob Cook, gave us all a very long, interesting and detailed talk of the British campaign against the Japanese from 1941 until the pivotal battle at Kohima in April 1944 which turned the ground war against the Japanese and in favour of General Slim’s 14th Army.

The museum is a treasure trove of information and many artefacts which have been donated by Kohima veterans and their families. I found the museum to be well worth a visit and Bob Cook was an extremely knowledgeable and amiable host who has visited the Kohima battlefield as a tour guide on several occasions.

The fighting at Kohima was bloody and brutal and as the British defensive perimeter shrank, so the fighting became hand to hand with no quarter given. If you would like to read more on a day by day basis, please click on this web link.

The Battle of Kohima - Day by Day - Kohima Museum - York

Here are a selection of my photos taken on the day.

Following a well deserved lunch in the sun, we all walked back into the city and visited the York Army Museum.

After the second museum visit, the group broke up to continue the day and I went with Steve Baldwin and Neil Strange back towards the Minster. Here I at last found the York City Boer War memorial that I had missed in February, and very splendid it is too.

Next stop was one of the Minster's gardens, where I had been told to look out for a memorial wall.

Eventually we found it.

This old wall has been made into a memorial for the entire life span of the British Army's 2nd Infantry Division which fought in every campaign from Wellington to Montgomery.

A couple of bints of best Black Sheep bitter in the Three Legged Mare [My type of horse when I am at the races!! - Ed] finished the day off before catching the train back to Newark.

If you haven't been on one of the monthly days out yet, why not try Metheringham Airfield, 6.45pm, this coming Thursday evening. You will be made very welcome.

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With May 11th being my birthday, Peter Garland kindly sent me a snippet of ‘What Happened on This Day’ for May 11th.

May 11th, 1915 - General Sir John Nixon, commander of British forces in Mesopotamia, plans a major offensive against Baghdad. His plan is to advance on and capture the city from the Turks.  Unfortunately for those involved in the eventual attack, he is unaware of the fact that the Turks are building up forces in the area.

Following Turkey’s decision to enter the war on Germany’s side, Britain sent troops to protect its oil supplies in the Ottoman province of Mesopotamia. In November 1914, an Indian division occupied the port of Basra.

When a second division arrived, the British commander, General Sir John Nixon, advanced deeper into Mesopotamia. Britain believed a successful campaign here would help rally the Arabs against the Turks.

One division moved up the River Euphrates to Nasiriya. The other - the 6th (Poona) Indian Division, under the command of Major-General Charles Townshend - advanced 160km (100 miles) along the River Tigris to Amara, capturing it on 4 June 1915.

Mesopotamia campaign | National Army Museum  click here to read more about the Mesopotamia campaign and the disaster at Kut al Amara.

Peter then very kindly took it one step further to uncover this little talked about fact that happened in 1915 during this week in May.

This week in 1915.

May 15th, 1915 - Admiral of the Fleet John "Jackie" Arbuthnot Fisher resigns as First Sea Lord in protest at the War Council supporting Churchill's Dardanelles venture over Fishers plan to direct naval resources against Germany in the North Sea and the Baltic. 

He saw the German High Seas Fleet as the greatest threat against Britain, and thought that, should it be defeated, a direct assault against Germany's Baltic Coast could be mounted. The argument came to a head on May 14th when the War Council demanded additional vessels from the fleet should be sent to the Dardanelles, which Fisher thought threatened the strength of the Home Fleet.  In the early morning hours, Fisher penned his letter of resignation to Churchill stating that "I find it increasingly difficult to adjust myself to the increasing daily requirements of the Dardanelles to meet your views - as you said yesterday I am continually vetoing your proposals.  this is not fair to you besides being extremely distasteful to me.  I am off to Scotland at once so as to avoid all questionings."   Lloyd George - then Chancellor of the Exchequer - tried to make him change his mind, "In the name of the King" , but Fisher decided to stick with his decision, saying nothing would turn him from it.  Fisher’s resignation added to Prime Minster Asquith's troubles following the revelation of the "Shell Scandal" which also hit the news earlier in this week, leaving Asquith no choice but to resign along with his Government. The UK has never had a purely Liberal Government since.

Admiral of the Fleet, John (Jackie) Fisher.

Thank you Peter, and I hope you may come up with some other ‘in this week’ interesting and little known facts for us in the future?

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Whilst driving through the Nottinghamshire countryside this last week, I spotted a new pair of farm gates that have been erected. The farmer has gone to the trouble of having gates made that remember his fields when they were designated as RAF Orston between 1943 and 1946.

From the web link below, I discovered this text; ‘RAF Orston Relief Landing Ground was a Polish run RLG for No. 16 (Polish) Flying Training School throughout the war. RAF Newton was the parent airfield and RAF Orston was used as its relief landing ground. Planes could be flown out in the morning for tuition and flown back at night. There may have been as many as 130 people stationed here in one job or another, to manage the site and refuel and quick repairs to air craft as and when they needed it. There may have been a few wooden huts but as far as sleeping, they would all probably drive to and fro from RAF Newton.’

As I lived at Newton as a boy and had many friends on the RAF Newton camp, this was quite a coincidence. I give thanks to the farmer who has had these gates made.

RAF Orston RLG   Click here to read more and see some photos.

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Mike Credland dropped me a line this week with regard to the colourisation of photos and last week’s snippet and picture by Colour by CJS. Mike writes; ‘Like you Jonathan I also find colourised photographs of the Great War superb and which add a new dimension to our interest. The photograph of Major George Bernard Ward MC & Bar of the Royal Flying Corps shown in last Sunday's edition of TL is a fine example.

I was very interested to learn he was buried at Chocques Military Cemetery near Bethune, France, a fascinating cemetery. Designed, post-war, by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it originally opened in late autumn 1914, No.1 Casualty Clearing Station was based there throughout the war. Amongst the burials are twenty-nine men from the 4th Battalion The King's (Liverpool Regiment) killed in a troop train accident in April 1918 and eight lads serving with No.3 Squadron RFC who were killed in a bomb explosion at nearby Merville aerodrome on 12 March 1915. Major James McCudden VC rendered assistance.

I have visited the cemetery on several occasions, particularly to pay homage to Private John Baumber from Martin who died of wounds on 23 November 1917 with 1st/4th Lincolnshire Regiment TF and Private George William Rudkin, who died of wounds on 16 October 1915.

The son of William and Sarah Rudkin, George was born at Ryhall near Stamford on 10 April 1896 and after leaving school became a footman. He enlisted at Stamford on 19 October 1914 and after training was posted out to France on 23 June 1915 with the 1st/4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment TF, attached to 138th Brigade of the 46th (North Midland) Division. During the Division's attack against the Hohenzollern Redoubt near Auchy les Mines on 13 October 1915 Private George William Rudkin was severely wounded in action and died at No.1 Casualty Clearing Station on 16 October 1915 and is buried in Chocques Military Cemetery aged 19 years. 

From my WW1 collection I've attached copies of his photograph, CWGC headstone, original Field Post Card, original letter and photograph of his grave from the Director of Graves Registration & Enquiries along with other correspondence.’

Thank you Mike. An excellent addition to last week's story.

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I am pleased to hear that people enjoy the weekly colourised photo and biography, and this week’s contribution by Colour by CJS is a superb example of CJS’ work and features John Victor Addy MC.

John was from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and enlisted at some point prior to 7th May 1915. He served with 2/7th Battalion King's (Liverpool Regiment) and was deployed to France with his unit on 15th February 1917.

He distinguished himself commanding “B” company during an attack on 1st September 1918 and his actions were acknowledged by the award of a Military Cross.

The citation published in the London Gazette read as follows;

“Lt. (A./Capt.) John Victor Addy, 2/7th Bn, Liverpool R., T.F. For conspicuous gallantry during an attack. This officer's tireless energy and sound orders were to a large extent responsible for the complete success of the operation, which resulted in his company alone capturing 275 prisoners, including a battalion commander and 46 machine guns”.

During the attack his company killed 50 of the enemy and sustained 30 casualties (1 killed and 29 wounded).

John Victor Addy survived the war.

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I was at school with Marcus Dunbar many moons ago and I subsequently played a lot of good cricket with him. Eventually, work took Marcus to Somerset and then to Hampshire and although we stayed in regular touch, we obviously didn’t see so much of each other.

Therefore, I was delighted to hear that on retirement, Marcus had bought a house in Horncastle, Lincs, and completed the purchase last month. I have now been up to his new home a couple of times as I am advising him on some repairs and renovations, and as he is a TL subscriber and been to the Western Front with me he is aware of the desire amongst TL readers to record our war memorials.

Therefore, here is Marcus’ photo taken recently in Thimbleby church just west of Horncastle.

And of course, my last visit to Horncastle, enabled me to take an up to date photograph of Horncastles’s WWI Memorial hospital.

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As we are all aware, May 8th was Victory in Europe Day, but it was also the day when Lt. Colonel Frank Bourne died. As a Company Sergeant Major, Frank Bourne had been at the defence of the Mission Station at Rorke's Drift on January 22/23 1879, the actions of which are so wonderfully depicted in the film Zulu. Frank Bourne was the last surviving member of the Rorke's Drift garrison and lived for 66 years after the famous action that saw the award of 11 Victoria Crosses. Bourne didn't receive a VC as his bravery and leadership of the men on that day was what was expected of a CSM!

CSM Bourne was played so well by the late actor Nigel Green, below.

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Finally, for this week, you will all be aware that I am a lifelong supporter of Nottingham Forest Football Club, but many of you may not be aware that my youngest son is the departmental Head of Fan Engagement at Nottingham Forest. A fascinating and very full time hands on role dealing with every facet of the supporter’s experience of attending matches, supporting the club and being the club’s representative on the Fan Advisory Board, a requirement of the Premier League.

Last Monday, Will was in London as Forest played at Crystal Palace and the following day, he had a series of meetings with his counterparts at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea), New White Hart Lane (Spurs) and Craven Cottage (Fulham) to compare the match day experience available at each ground as Forest prepare to re-develop their stadium.

I obviously did something right in his upbringing, because whilst at Craven Cottage, Will spotted and photographed the club’s war memorial, which I now produce below.

A good spot Will. Thank you. I then picked two names at random from the memorial to do some basic research.

RMA/2505 Gunner Frederick Wheatcroft died 3rd February 1916 whilst serving with the Royal Marines Artillery and he is buried in St. Olaf’s churchyard, Kirkwall, Orkney.

29593 Private Robert Suart died on 29th September 1918 aged 36 whilst serving with 14/Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He is remembered on the Vis en Artois Memorial, France.

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IN MEMORIAM - The Lincolnshire Regiment 11th May.

1917

9580 Sergeant Edward Lawrence Westcott, 8th Battalion, aged 22. Buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, France.

1918

43788 Private J H King, 4th Battalion, aged 18. Buried in Lille Southern Cemetery, France.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

We are staying at the Crown hotel in Southwold and have a birthday lunch booked for this afternoon at 3pm, washed down with a couple of pints of Adnams best bitter. What more could I want on my birthday?

Until next week

All best wishes

Jonathan

www.jonathandhooghe.co.uk

e: trenchlincs@gmail.com

© Jonathan D’Hooghe