Trench Lincs 24th August 2025
- trenchlincs
- 7 days ago
- 16 min read
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TRENCH LINCS
Good Morning,
Please excuse the shortened version of TL this week, but as I have my son and his family from Australia staying with me, I haven’t been able to devote as many hours as I usually do to producing this week’s edition. The same applies to the In Memoriam section!
However, you will find notice of all forthcoming events and a report and photos from Mike Credland’s annual memorial tour, with some very interesting musings from Jonty Wild. Do you agree or disagree with him? Please let me know.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS.
Next Lecture - Lincoln Branch Western Front Association - Monday, September 15th - 7.00pm for 7.30pm start - Royal Naval Association Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG
Tim Coltman will present "The Story of the Two Crosses: William Coltman VC, DCM & Bar, MM & Bar". The presentation traces the life and times of this highly decorated soldier who was Tim's Great Grandad. William went to war in World War 1 but, because of his strong Christian faith (he was a member of the Plymouth Brethren), refused to carry a weapon and fight, instead volunteering in January 1915 to serve as a stretcher bearer in the 1/6th Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's). The presentation follows his life from where he was brought up, through his service in the British Army and the events that earned him his decorations, to his funeral in 1974, and the subsequent events that have taken place in recognition of his achievements. William was born on 17th November, 1891, and died on 29th June, 1974. He is now described as the highest decorated non-commissioned soldier of the British Army in World War 1.
We are not going to spoil Tim's presentation by going into the details of how William earned his decorations save to say that he did, indeed, go far beyond what was expected of him in order to save the lives of his comrades in arms. We are sure that, when you hear his story from Tim, you will be left beyond any doubt that he deserved the recognition he was given.
Tim Coltman hails from Burton on Trent where he has lived all of his life. Married with 2 grown up children, he worked in agriculture for 30 years before leaving employment in 2024 to concentrate full time on giving this presentation all over the UK, together with a number of other activities. He has been delivering it for 11 years now to World War 1 groups, U3A, Probus, Rotary, and many more history and social groups.
His presentation comes highly recommended by other WFA branches, and, if you miss it at Lincoln, he will be giving it to the Spalding Branch on November 27th.
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The East Midlands (Nottingham) WFA Branch meets again on Friday 12th September at 7.30pm at St. Peter’s Church Hall, Church Street, Ruddington, Nottingham, NG11 6HA. All welcome.
The speaker on this night is Stephen Barker who will speak about “Nobody’s Heroes – The 8th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment in the Great War.”
Everyone is very welcome.
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Next Meeting – Spalding & South Lincs Branch WFA – Thursday, 25th September – Spalding Baptist Church, Swan Street, Spalding, PE11 1BT - Doors open 7.00pm for 7.30pm.
Talk Title – For King & Country at Loos
‘Deeply regret to inform you that 2/Lt C F B Hodgins 2/Wiltshire Regt is reported killed Sept 25/26. Lord Kitchener desires to express his sympathy. Secretary War Office.’ – Telegram from the War Office dated 29 September 1915.
This is the true and previously untold story of one man’s war on the Western Front during the First World War. As a young man, still in his teens, Charlie Hodgins answered the call to ‘do his bit’ for King and Country. Like so many others, he was never to return. He was killed on 25 September 1915, on the opening day of the Battle of Loos. According to an officer in his battalion, he died 'leading his men with great gallantry, and even when wounded, tried to rise and take them on'. Drawing on the many letters, photographs and telegrams Charlie sent home, along with newspaper articles, war archives and other personal accounts, historian Peter Jacobs has pieced together the final moments of Charlie’s short life. This is a compelling and poignant tale of personal courage and one family’s loss. But it also tells of the tragedy and suffering experienced by a generation of men during the First World War.
The Speaker – Peter Jacobs
PETER JACOBS served in the Royal Air Force for thirty-seven years as an air defence navigator on the F4 Phantom and Tornado F3, after which he completed staff tours at HQ 11 Group, HQ Strike Command, the Ministry of Defence, and the RAF College Cranwell. He has written twenty-three books on military and aviation subjects, and as well as being a keen military historian, he is an active speaker and cemetery tour guide with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
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The Leadenham Military History Group’s next meeting will be this coming Tuesday 26th August, at Leadenham Village Hall with a start time of 7.30pm.
The evening will start with a light hearted quiz on all subjects of military interest. Teams to be assembled on the night.
Followed by a talk – ‘HMS Hermes and her role in the Fleet Air Arm 1959-1984’ by Simon Hudson.
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The next presentation in the Friends of Lincoln Tank 2025 season of talks will be held on Thursday 4th September when Andrew Thornton will talk about ‘The Old Contemptibles Association.’
The OC’s were specifically those men of the original BEF who served in a war theatre from the outbreak of war in August 1914 to November 22nd 1914.
The venue as usual is the Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG. 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Everyone welcome.
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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.
The next speaker event will be held on Thursday 18th September when Bill Carrie will speak about ‘Civil Aircraft – Keep ‘em Flying’
Please arrive 7pm for a 7.30pm start.
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Please click here for Bev Davey’s interesting web link. Hidden Facts About World War I | Watch
And please click here for the latest edition of The Tiger newsletter.
And here for the summer newsletter for the Friends of St. George’s Chapel, Ypres.
Both courtesy of Michael Doyle.
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For the first time in many years, I was unable to attend Mike Credland’s annual War Memorial Tour in and around the Scunthorpe area, but I received numerous photos from Mike and Angela White and Ray Sellers.
There was a very good turnout and Melvin Dobbs writes for us; ‘Thankyou Mike Credland BEM.
Both Ray Sellers and myself had been "booked in" to attend a Classic Car Show out Boston way but had decided to support Mike on this Memorial Tour, and oh boy we were so pleased that we did!
What a superb memorial tour, taking us to Scunthorpe and surrounding villages with a variety of styles of memorials and some located in unusual places.
Not all were War related which for me, made this all the more interesting.
I shall leave it to others to post pics of these stunning Memorials but I include 3 photos taken in St. Andrew's Church, Burton upon Stather in relation to the Sheffield family - I felt so proud to be English (British) when I read the associated wording!
What history we do indeed have on our doorsteps.
Cannon ball from the Battle of Sole Bay 1672, fought off Southwold, where I was on holiday with my family last weekend. Lord Sheffield commanded 'The Bear'.
I also attach a photo I took a little while ago now when attending a meeting at the Grimsby Masonic Centre.
It is of a Founders Breast Jewel/Medal for the Astral Lodge No.3481 founded 1918, it is hallmarked silver and enamel, and was designed by Aircraftsman Warren (Royal Naval Air Service - Killingholme)
Who was not a Freemason but was a Poster Artist in civilian life.
It is of composite form, the Sun and the Moon with light and dark shading representing night and day.
The Church the Deity, Sea with a Submarine the Navy, Seaplanes the Royal Naval Air Station, Searchlight the Army, the Land and Ploughman represent Industry.’
A selection of Ray Sellers and Mike White’s photos taken during Mike Credland's tour can be found below.
Appleby.
War memorial and window at Ashby. One of a series of 27.
Broughton.
Burton upon Stather.
The Crosby Angel.
Flixborough Roll of Honour.
The 1974 Flixborough Disaster memorial. Flixborough chemical plant disaster 'not forgotten' 50 years on - BBC News
Roxby cum Risby.
Scunthorpe
Mike Credland at Winterton.
Here is Peter Garland's report of the day.
'Lincoln WFA Branch Memorials Tour, Sunday, August 10th, 2025
Seventeen tourists gathered together in a car park in Scunthorpe to join tour leader, and memorials expert, Mike Credland as he led us through the story of memorialisation in North Lincolnshire. Starting out at the Scunthorpe (Ashby Road) memorial on the frontage of St Paul's Church, this year's tour lasted around 3.50 hours, featuring a small number of quality memorials of interesting design, with some great stories attached to them. We learned from Mike that several of those we visited, including Ashby Road memorial itself, have been moved from their original location due to various reasons, mainly involving road realignments.
Scunthorpe's main memorial, originally located on Doncaster Road and now in front of the Scunthorpe Museum, was our second port of call. A spectacular 18 feet 6 inches high sculpture in Sicilian white marble of a soldier and sailor holding an unfurled flag, it was unveiled on Armistice Sunday, 14th November 1926 by General Sir Ian Hamilton. From there we headed to the beautiful Crosby Angel War Memorial located outside the Crosby Primary school playground which (according to signage) was built with funds raised by the school to commemorate former pupils. Onwards we went to All Saints Church in Flixborough. Flixborough is one of those "Thankful Villages" where all of the local men who had served in the Great War returned safely home on its ending, it therefore has a "Roll of Honour" to the men who served displayed inside the church. Outside the church is a memorial of a different kind to the 28 men killed on the morning of Saturday, 1st June 1974, when, as a result of a buildup of explosive gases from a leaking temporary repair on a pipeline, there was a tremendous explosion at the nearby Nypro Chemical Plant. Again, this memorial has been moved from its original site but is lacking one of its original features, a group of Mallard ducks taking flight. From there we called at the memorials in Burton upon Stather, Winterton and Roxby where the parishioners decided to honour their war dead by installing a beautiful large blue-faced circular clock in the western tower of St Mary's church. Not only does it tell them the time, but reminds them of those who fell on every chime. Driving a little further we visited Appleby and Broughton War Memorials before reaching our final destination back in Scunthorpe.
Mike had teased us about this one throughout the tour, saying it would be the icing on the cake, a unique memorial that would amaze us. It turned out to be so. The memorial at Ashby Wesley Methodist Church turned out to be a series of 27 stained glass windows, each one individually dedicated to a church member who lost his life in the Great War. A member of the church described the creation of the windows to us, and, having researched their lives and written a book about the memorial (sadly, no copies available) talked about the men themselves. No one on the tour, even Jonty Wild who has visited 100's of memorials, had ever seen anything like it, and we all agreed it was a fitting end to a superb tour. Thanks very much Mike, it was, as always, interesting and educational.'
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Jonty Wild found Mike’s tour very thought provoking and writes for us; ‘On the recent (and excellent) tour of some of the Lincolnshire memorials, I listened with interest to member’s views on the rights and wrongs of names appearing on memorials. At the risk of the wrath of some, I would like to express some opposing views for consideration.
In the interests of full disclosure, my views are based on my experience as the Roll of Honour Research Coordinator for the Herts At War Project (HAW) (*1) and when I lived in Hertfordshire and after writing a book, we added 12 names to our village memorial as and addenda(*2). All this experience is based around the geographical area of Hertfordshire, however I doubt if Lincolnshire would be greatly different.
After a lot of consideration and thought, the HAW decision for the inclusion of a ‘new’ name, i.e. not on a location’s memorial – remember at the moment I am referring to digital commemoration - was to include names:
• If’ they are listed on any memorial in the location,
• Were born there,
• Lived there at the time of enlistment, or
• Are buried there.
These we regard as ‘direct’ connections. Latterly, perhaps more controversially, we have added names if they are mentioned on a family grave in that location. For the latter we argue that if they had a strong enough family tie to the location to be remembered on a family grave there, we should link him to that location, and that will help future research.(*3)
Our main aim is to commemorate and remember all of these men and women and their sacrifice. Our secondary aim is to assist other researchers to add more information – hopefully to our records. However, online we do identify who are on a location’s memorial and who are not.
I would like to discuss the inclusion of names on a physical memorial in some detail, but in the interests of brevity I would first note some of the main points I have learnt:
Note: For ‘names’ mean ‘unique names’, and ‘men and women’. Any statistics are estimated based on viewing every biography we produce and every amendment.
1. Obviously, names often appear on multiple memorials within a location, but what is less known is that it is very common for names to appear in multiple locations. Two or three is very common, more is not that rare, and I believe I have examples of names in six locations. The locations are usually nearby (but not always). These are all explained by personal connections. Where nearby, it usually work, schools, family ties and which churches they attended. Where further apart it is usually where they were born and where they lived.
2. It is not unusual for names with no direct connection to the location to be listed. Usually the reasons for this are:
a. The parents moved there after the death / war.
b. The widow came from there, was living there while the man served or moved back there after his death.
c. A sibling or other relative lived in the location.
3. Using Soldiers/Sailors/Airmen Died In The Great War (SDITGW) for birth/residence/enlisting locations, as the basis for evidencing a name’s connection to a location is often highly dubious. I accept that in the absence of other evidence, it is the best available, and we do use it, but we do correct our records, when more accurate information is found.
a. Enlistment locations are highly dubious for evidencing a connection; firstly, men often travelled some distance to enlist and so no direct connection exists, and secondly I have seen many service records which have locations recorded that do not match the SDITGW.
b. Birth/residence are often the nearest main or postal town, rather than the actual village or hamlet, e.g. for Royston we must have moved dozens from there into the surrounding villages. I think what happened was something like: Q: “Where were you born?” A: “Barley.” Q: “Where that?” A: “Near Royston.” and so Royston was recorded.
In my experience the main reasons why men are not recorded on physical memorials are as follows and the notes are my humble opinion:
1. Their names were not put forward, usually because parents, siblings and friends had moved, so there was no one left to do so.
Note: Often these individuals had just as much of a connection as those listed – sometimes more. So much was chance, I see no good reason for arguing against these names being commemorated. In many cases, I believe if they had been put forward at the time they would have been included. Think of it from the man or woman’s point of view, how unfair would they have thought it to be, that they were ignored? To me, in many cases, it is an unfortunate omission which could be corrected, without controversially re-writing history. In my experience the names ‘forgotten’ add about another 30% to those listed and we have often found that many of these names do not appear on other Hertfordshire memorials and so have no known commemoration, and I fear in time they will be lost and forgotten.
2. They had a UK grave – usually locally, so they were buried and their parents had a grave they could visit. They then left the memorial for those who had no grave to visit (nearby).
Note: Their ‘new’ inclusion is debatable but perhaps read my views on how new names should be added below.
3. I have heard that some locations charged to add names were proposed.
Note: I have never seen any evidence to support this. Many (most) locations sought donations for the erection of the memorial, so I suppose that it is possible that such requests were interpreted by some people as a pre-requisite to adding a name. If this was ever true, I see no good reason for excluding their name now.
4. The man was a ‘shot at dawn’. These cases are rare and sometimes a name was added and sometimes not.
Note: To me personally this is controversial, and it depends on their service and the ‘crime’ they committed. However, we must remember that there is rarely any distinction for CWGC commemorations (*4), and I know of at least one cemetery where the soldier victim and his soldier murderer are buried just two or three graves apart. One wonders what the victim and his family would make of this.
5. The family, for whatever reason, refused to have the name included.
Note: I must have respect for this. I would just say that, after all this time, I think it sad if their name is not commemorated permanently somewhere, and, as above, I fear that, over time, their name too will be lost and forgotten.
How should names be added?
I have no problem with new names being commemorated after diligent research. However, it is not for us to question the contemporary work done to established names – if it was good enough for them then it should be good enough for us, and this is why I do not call omissions ‘mistakes’. So my preference is that names should be added as the CWGC do, by means of an addenda (*2)
May I just add that I would never, ever, remove a name from a memorial. I know of cases where, believing the names to be a mistake, this has happened – a decision which I regard as appalling.
I would like to also add some more personal views:
1. Although mistakes should be avoided wherever possible, I strongly believe it is better to make a mistake and commemorate a named somewhere, rather than nowhere, and for the name to be forgotten.
2. Part of how we should consider this is to imagine asking the man or women, how they feel about not being remembered in that location.
3. Perhaps this all depends on what you believe the purpose of the memorial to be, i.e. is it a list of names for the benefit of friends and relatives living there when it was erected or is it a record of names commemorating their men’s sacrifice and their connection to the location – my view is that it is the latter - you do not have to agree but perhaps we can beg to differ?
*1 I have held this post since 2013 and it means I oversee the work of our volunteers (plus undertaking some of my own). We are researching over 12,640 Great War men and women who died and the 1018+ memorials we have identified so far.
*2 The CWGC seem to use ‘addenda’ rather than ‘addendum’.
*3 For full details see www.hertsatwar.co.uk/research/who-we-research/.
*4 The USA separated the burials of such men.
What do you all think? Please let me know. I have my own family issue to contend with as far as names on memorials go! Many of you know the tale, but I will repeat it next week when I hopefully have received many comments from the readers of TL.
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John Pritchard was another tourist who thoroughly enjoyed Mike’s annual tour on the 10th and he too sent some photos, but he has also been to Louth, and writes; ‘I travelled to "Hubbard's Hills" to find open parkland, with lots of seats along the path to the cafe, (cash only for the cafe and £1 parking all day) then drove to Louth, where in St. James’ Church a cafe can be found which accepts both cash and card, and very reasonably priced too!
There was a Great War memorial wooden plaque with flags, also another wooden plaque with a list of the civilian casualties from the Second World War - both are sited on the left hand side of the smaller altar - right hand side of the main altar.’ – Thank you John for the tip off.
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Finally for this edition of TL, I can tie up a couple of loose ends from last week.
I mentioned the CWGC headstone at Long Bennington that had the rank and date of death of a Canadian airman in French. I had not seen French language inscriptions before on CWGC headstones and this prompted Tony Nutkins to write; 'Ref. French Canadian headstone inscriptions, I have seen some French Canadians in France and Belgium, with French named regiments and epitaphs in French but not a date of death, although at Brookwood cemetery in the UK in the Canadian cemetery there are headstones with the whole of the inscription on the stone in French in its entirety.
It depends I suppose on what the family may have wanted on their loved ones headstone, the Canadian authorities and the interpretation by the French Stonemasons.
According to my Canadian friends, the French Canadians are an odd lot...!'
And I also mentioned that Dry Doddington and Westborough churches were locked when I visited This prompted Chas Anderson to send a couple of photos and a document link, which you can find below.
Dry Doddington above and Westborough below.
Please click on the link.
Big thanks to Chas for filling in the gaps for us.
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IN MEMORIAM - The Lincolnshire Regiment 24th August.
1914
Twenty men of the 1st Battalion are all recorded as having died on this day during the beginning of the retreat from Mons.
1915
Eight men, seven of them from the 7th Battalion are recorded as having died on this day.
1917
41591 Private G Lifsey, 8th Battalion, aged 32. Buried in Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
Second Lieutenant Wilfrid Albert Thompson, 5th Battalion, aged 28. Buried in Bethune Town Cemetery, France.
1918
Seven men of the Lincolnshire Regiment are recorded as having died on this day.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Hope you enjoy the Bank Holiday. We are family picnic-ing and clay pigeon shooting later today, and on Monday all of my grandchildren will attend their great grandmother's 90th birthday party. Perfect timing for the two boys from Down Under.
Last Friday it was Wulfie's 3rd birthday, - I wonder when he might next have a birthday in the UK?
The Aussie D'Hooghe boys really are smashers! (but then again, I am bound to be biased!)
I do hope to hear from you with your thoughts and comments regarding Jonty Wild's article. Especially new contributors, and there's no such thing as a daft thought or question!
Until next week
All best wishes
Jonathan
© Jonathan D’Hooghe
Copyright © J C J D'Hooghe. All rights reserved.
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